Antenna adjustments - Day 37 In Lock-down

Its been a while since my last post which is quite strange as I have had plenty of time to blog but not really been in the blogging mood, probably because of the world pandemic which we are all suffering. As it is for most the way of life has changed considerably at the moment but thankfully we are all holding out well and keeping healthy.
The radio however has been in use and I have been busy making DX on 80, 40, 20, 15 and even 10 meters. My new fan dipole pictured below is performing spot on with great reports into the US on 40 and 80 meters.

I thought a close up of the centre might help you see how easy it is to construct this amazing performing 80/40m antenna. My Fan Dipole is 1:1 to 1:3 across both 80 and 40m without any ATU required I definitely should have built one years ago!

With such a good result regarding the 40/80M Fan Dipole I was back playing around with the Hustler 6BTV. This excellent 6 band trap vertical has been subjected to many storms over the last 15 years and one particular storm bent the lower section many years ago. I was able to use my metal working skills and workshop to repair the bent tube to a fashion and have been using it with a slight banana type configuration ever since. With the wx been as it has been which is good I have been outside in the garden a lot and noticed the 6BTV had become much more banana like.
After checking I could only find a replacement section in the USA the price of a replacement was 50 dollars plus the same again and some more for shipping bringing it to $140 US dollars.
I measured up the tube size and sourced some similar suitable tube locally in the UK 1.25 inch diameter ally tube with a decent wall thickness, which worked out at £19 delivered. The section I wanted to replace was the bottom section for 10m and I required a length of 1800 mm aluminium tube, which is just short of 6 feet. The length I purchased was 2000mm which was ample, I got to work in the garden and swapped the bent section over and now the 6BTV looks great as it soars up in the air nice and straight! Whilst I was working on the Hustler I went to town on cleaning up the radial and coaxial connection points as well as the actual antenna. Its working great and I am happy to be able to use both vertical and horizontal polarisation on all HF with good results all round.

Hope you are all healthy and well, Catch up soon, Stay Safe! 73 Simon M0YKS and Family

40/80 FAN Dipole Test

I have been wanting to try something new for 40m and today I decided to add two elements cut for 40 meters to my 80 meter mono band dipole making it a FAN Dipole.
The end result for today was, the 40/80m Fan dipole is resonant without an ATU on both bands and works very well on my first test. I put a video together operating on 80m using 50 watts during a RSGB 80m contest. I wanted to be sure that the extra elements would not have any detrimental effects on the performance on 80m. I found that the low power did not matter the dipole is still working really well on 80m. I checked it on 40m and I heard signals slightly stronger with the new Fan dipole over the vertical. Japan was coming in very well and later I made a nice QSO using the Fan dipole on 40m with VE9FI - Russ over in Canada. A good result so far!

Sizes of each leg is 80m - 2 x 67 ft lengths and 40m - 2 X 33 ft lengths.

Here is the video which will help you to pass 20 minutes, Stay Safe! Stay In! Save Lives!

Working from home

Its been quite a busy week so far as I am able to work from home using my chromebook and currently have been in communications online with a lot of our welding students. Every morning I have been on video conferences with my work colleagues. Its been very interesting and quite surprisingly good fun at times as we all keep up to date with a little humour to help keep a bit of sanity at the same time. One of the biggest positives I have noticed during this pandemic, is that we all have improved our use of apps and general IT skills, especially video calling on platforms like Whats App and Hangouts. These trendy apps and latest technology are actually quite useful at times of need and so far our infrastructures in the UK seem to be holding up well.

As for personnel well being, my family are all doing well and keeping me busy and fully engaged in fatherhood, which I am happy to say is also extremely nice to get in all the special family time which would not normally be possible. I have also had some great fun operating from my Ham Radio Shack.
I was active over the weekend during CQ WPX and made some great DX contacts during the contest. The previous week I was also making lots of DX on 20M, 40M and 80M. The bands have been quite good and plenty of Hams are on the Air. I worked North and South America this evening as I caught a late opening on the 20 meter band. I have been catching some of my radio activity on video to help some of you pass the time and if you haven't already caught them, you can catch up right here.
Best 73 stay safe! Simon.

Keeping The Mind Stimulated with Ham Radio

I am sure we are all feeling anxious and maybe even a little scared as we all take to hiding out in our safe havens. The World is suffering and people are becoming cut off and lonely as they try their hardest to keep away from harm. The bands are in pretty good shape at the moment and have been for the past couple of months. Now is the time to get on the amateur bands and make contact with others and help to keep high spirits and well being by just making a few radio contacts and engaging in conversation with another Ham in the same situation either located down the road or even around the world. Pull out your old radio equipment and get back on the air, it will help take your mind off of the current situation and fill in some time. If your already set up get yourself out in the garden or in your roof space or maybe a balcony and make either: a long wire for HF, delta loop or a 10m dipole just for fun and then make a QSO on it.

Maybe its not for you but perhaps a QSO or even a regular Ham Radio Net is your thing, get in touch and I will be happy to get on board. I was contacted earlier today and asked to try make QSO up on 10 meters with a station not too far away. This contact didn't work out but I had fun trying and worked into Italy instead. Keep safe and stay at home as much as you can. Best 73 Simon M0YKS

YAESU FT-2980 80w Robust Transceiver

This week I have been enjoying getting to grips with my latest edition to the shack. A brand new YAESU FT-2980, 2m fm mono band radio which I am now using with my mono band Diamond F23 high gain vertical antenna. I purchased the FT-2980 from Ham radio UK after my YL Louise M3TLL suggested I treated myself to a new radio which came without fan noise. I am really impressed with the new Transceiver it's very well constructed with a substantial heatsink and great all round feel when using the vfo, volume, squelch and menu features. I have made a couple of nice qso so far and like the sound I am receiving. A great bit of kit for a very nice price.

Surviving Storm Ciara and Dennis

Pictured above, I received Storm Dennis as it approached early saturday morning via NOAA-19 weather sat using my Satellite array, FT-847 and WXtoIMG decoding software.
Below is the kind of image we are getting used to seeing around this part of the World.

Its been hard going over the past couple of weeks here in Stormy Yorkshire UK. Just about two weeks ago the storms started to batter our neighbourhood and they have been relentless ever since. We suffered some roof damage to our house during the first big storm - Ciara which resulted in urgent work needing to be carried out in the form of some replacement ridge tiles. This was sorted out quickly and the roof is sound again, my next repair was to my Diamond F23 VHF vertical up on the gable end of the house. The antenna had worked loose due to it whipping around in the gale force winds, I decided it would make sense to take it down and tighten up the u bolts and other fixings before storm Dennis arrived. I carried out the antenna maintenance and all is well after the peak of the storm.

Band Conditions

With one eye constantly on the house and antennas I have not had as many opportunities to actually make some QSOs but I have made a few! Most activity has been across the Atlantic into the States and Canada with a few other good QSOs into Russia.  Its been reasonably good on both 80m and 20m with one or two nice DX openings along the way. Hopefully the WX will calm down and I wil be back to full operation. 73 catch you soon!

80m DX W2RE - M0YKS Busting Through The QRM

80 Meters was in great shape early this evening as I heard Ray - W2RE booming in and working a huge pile up. Ray W2RE operates his Ham radio station remotely and often has a live stream on facebook. I worked W2RE during the QRM that some joker was making which I am happy to see the QRM was not strong enough to block my home brew 80m dipole and 400 watts of RF from my humble hill top. Best 73 catch you again soon!

DX BY DAY AND DX BY NIGHT

Another weekend flies by with plenty of fun with the family. I visited the science and media museum, hiked over the Moor and also got some DX in and there is still a bit more time this evening to check the bands.

Learning about solar flares at the Science and media museum

Out on our local Moor earlier, can you spot the heron flying off.

In my radio shack in Baildon near Bradford City, Yorkshire UK IO93CU.

I also got to try my new feedline on my 80 meter dipole over the weekend and made some stateside qso on 80m with a couple of nice DX openings in the evening with K3ZM, WU2X and also into the Azores with CU2CE. 80 Meters hasn't been very busy but one or two DX stations are being recieved at my end on an evening. The Dipole is working pretty good as is the HUSTLER 6btv (vertical antenna). I also made a video of a qso on 40 meters with R3XE and caught a strong US station working a pile up which I tried to no avail. The video shows a high noise level at my end which started some interesting discussion on video comments with Gary who follows me on my YouTube channel. Thanks to all you guys that follow my video antics and I know some of you have been there for years. Its appreciated and keeps me motivated. Here are a couple of ham radio contacts on video for you to check out at your leisure. Best 73 I will catch up again with you shortly.

40m Dx Night Shift

Beaming State Side - K2TRD - M0YKS

DX Mobile Working Into Russia and USA

Another lunch time operation from the MK7 transit mobile Ham station.

I decided to head a couple of miles up the hill during my lunch break to a place called Rombalds Moor which is 1200 ft asl and great for DXing. It was very windy so I didn't bother to change over antenna as planned, the Maldol works well and the time available was short. 20 meters was very active with plenty of big signals coming in. I heard Indonesia again and tried to get the qso but decided to try some easier contacts. I got into Russia and the USA and ended up working RA6AA and KE5EE before heading back to work. More mobiling and base Ham radio to come, thanks for the visit  73.

DX Mobile - lunch break - Indonesia YB0AR

My Ham mobile - YAESU FT-857, 80 - 100 watts into a Maldol HFC 20 mono band base loaded antenna fixed on the rear of the van roof. 

Location Keighley College car park Keighley West Yorkshire UK.  Loc: IO93CD

My lunch time at work was spent wisely in my Ford Transit MK7 DX Machine, as I ate my home made sandwiches I heard Indonesia 5/9 in the clear. I didn't have much time to try get in through the pileup as well as much power from the van, but the signal was good to hear from YB0AR and it was plenty fun enough trying. I will see what conditions are like tomorrow and maybe I will get out my full size Hustler mono band antennas for a bit more punch. Best 73, see you again soon.

New feedline for 80m dipole

I have decided to stick with my home brewed dipole for 80m but fancied an upgrade for the feedline.

With weight being an issue I went for light weight military spec RG58. The coax I purchased has a stainless flex core inner and the outer braid ia also stainless steel. The PVC insulation is also top grade.

I re installed the dipole back in position and managed to gain an extra meter in height at the lowest end. The SWR remained the same all that is left to do is to get on the band and play. 73  have a good week.

80m Open For DX

Conditions are continuing to offer decent DX opportunities on the 80meter band. I caught some activity last night just as the band opens up in the evening.

W2RE shack feed in Qso with M0YKS

Live feed via Facebook at W2RE Ray's shack. I managed to break through the pile up and heard my signal coming back over the net. Pretty cool, I mixed a video of my Ham radio station to go with the audio recording.

Best 73.

2020 from the Shack

Hope you are all enjoying the beginning of 2020. It's been a very enjoyable festive break spent with my family and I have also heard quite a few interesting stations coming through on the 20m and 80m band over the last 2-weeks. At around about midnight I managed to work across the Atlantic into the States down on 80m a couple of times using my vertical and dipole antenna systems, as for 20m I've heard decent signals from stations out of Indonesia, Australia and also Afghanistan, which is a very good indication that radio conditions are beginning to improve.

Let's all hope that the Bands will continue to get better as lighter nights start to creep back in and we will have some great openings throughout 2020 as we all make DX on the ham radio bands. Best 73 from my family and myself and happy new year to everybody passing through hamradiooperator.blogspot.com

Have a Merry Christmas from M0YKS