Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Earlier Today I built myself a Yagi beam and a lattice tower. What I forgot to mention was that its a model Yagi & tower that I made from 3mm wire, MIG welded together. I would like to build the real thing one day! It looks good in the shack and it would make a nice ornament or gift, I am considering mass production with different antenna themes.

The past week has been a busy one both at work and at home but I still managed to play quite a lot of radio. I also got a bargain buy on Friday which was a Yamaha XT600E. I am already considering the XT600E for portable off road radio operation and I will be fabricating some brackets to be used to mount the FT-100 and a mobile whip. I can also ride the Enduro machine up to the trig point located on the summit of Baildon Moor. Set up the Arrow beam and see what happens during the monthly VHFCC contests (WX permitting of course). The new Bike should prove to be an interesting way to play some Ham radio on two wheels rather than four, as well as getting to the slightly more difficult locations. Picture shows the XT being guarded by DX Sniffer Dudley Besides riding the Yamaha XT600E with Louise- M3TLL (riding pillion), I did work 6 Stations on 20M, 4 Stations on 40M, 13 Stations on 2M FM and 3 Stations Via VO-52 Satellite. Check the log for Call Signs and information. click to enlarge ...

This afternoon I heard Caine - M6MOF working from his mobile in Lincolnshire whilst I was monitoring S20 on the 2 meter band. Caine - M6MOF is a member of the Brigg and District Amateur Radio Club - BDARC and is also a fellow YouTuber. We made a qso on 145.525 FM and Caine was coming with a 5/2 signal to my FT-847 and 7/8 wave vertical antenna. Thanks to Caine's video cam you can hear how well he received me at his end.

The last week has been spent touring around the South West Coast of Scotland and taking in the many spectacular sights as well as making some good radio contacts on the way! We arrived at Ayr where we were to be based for the stay at the beginning of the week and once we checked in at the accommodation, we were straight out checking out the scenic views and lovely beaches. Listening around the bands from the mobile set up proved to be very interesting as the noise levels were none existent allowing weak signals to be heard with ease especially on the 20 meter band. I found a nice beach side location to park up the Toyota to try work back to some of the big signals we were hearing. Louise - M3TLL (MM3TLL/M whilst in Scotland) kept the log and I began putting out a few shouts operating under the Scottish prefix 2M0HTS instead of my home call 2E0. It wasn’t long before the calls were answered back to other operators on the 20 meter band, the first contact I made was at 19.13 utc on Tuesd...

This week has been excellent so far regarding radio and up here on the blustery Moor top, I am in to my 3rd day of holidaying away from work loving every second! I started off on Monday running in and out of the garden making lots of QSO’s via the “birds”. I worked into AO-51, SO-50 and AO-27 very easily using the two hand held rigs coupled to the tripod mounted Arrow antenna. The little Station performed very well with 4W, making 12 good contacts and a couple of others that were caught up in the QRM. The Satellite worked Stations I managed to exchange locaters and reports successfully with were, LY3L , RA3OEV, UA9FFF, DG7MHR, OH7FES, F1UGK, ON4CAP, MM3YEQ, F1UGK (again but this time on a different Satellite), EB1GKS, EI2HW and regular contact/fellow Yorkshire Man, DL1YAL - Steve . I am still getting very excited when the signals are booming through as I point the antenna into the Sky and call “CQ Satellite”. Hope to play some more when the wind drops. In between running in and out and...

It's that time of the year where we find ourselves spending as much time as possible in our gardens or out walking enjoying and making the most of the much welcomed lighter nights. As well as walking over the surrounding Moorland with our Dog Dudley this evening, I decided to root out my QRP Satellite set up. The portable set up comprises of my arrow antenna, FT-470, TH-F7, Ipaq and my old Compass. I gave the Yaesu FT-470's batteries a quick charge and headed back out side just as it was getting dark (18.45 utc). I assembled both hand held transceivers to the home made ally rig mounts that are fitted to the boom extension. Next, was to run the TrackSat software on the Ipaq palm held P.C which showed AO-51 approaching. I checked the satellites position data and used it to set the arrow to 205 degrees azimuth and 10 degree elevation. It wasnt long before a hive of activity began to flow through the arrow into the FT-470. I called through AO-51 a couple of times using th...

Tonights Craven Radio Amateur Group meeting took place and the group voted and annouced that Louise - M3TLL and myself Simon - 2E0HTS are now officially members of the group. It is fantastic news that we are now both "Craggies" and We are excited about getting involved with the CRAG monthly activations.