Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Despite the constant downpours of rain that we have been experiencing, as arranged from the previous weekend Barry - 2E0OOC fellow Ham and good friend was waiting for me as I returned home Sunday evening. He had recently changed his vehicle to a Toyota Estima which was the same as mine so I had offered to install his radio equipment for him as I had already established the best way to do the job. 2E0OOC 's rig and antenna's are also the same as what I use in the mobile which are: Yaesu FT-857 Rig & Maldol HFC Antenna's. After around 90 minutes the Rig was mounted in the dash fed direct to the vehicle battery and I had fitted two antenna mounts (HF & VHF) to the rear of the vehicle. Barry was mobile once again and I was slightly weathered and rained on but satisfied with the result. All in all a good evenings work! I also have had the pleasure of working BARD member and fellow YouTuber M0OGY - Dave from North Lincs. This time we have worked each other mobile to mobil...

This Sunday the 17th of May we will be active alongside the rest of the CRAG Members at Bancroft Mill , Barnoldswick, Lancashire. The Craven Radio Amateur Group will be operating from the Steam powered mill which will be running with the steam engine fully powered up. Listen out for the CRAG call sign – MX0BCQ/A operating on most of the HF bands as well as VHF. The WAB square at the steam powered mill is SD84 which will be up for grabs during the activation. We will be on air from around 10.00 utc and the event will be all available to the general public. Louise – M3TLL and I, will be taking some pictures in between playing radio as well as learning about steam powered mills and weaving. It should be a great day out as I used to be the Maintenance Engineer during the 80s working in a still existent local Baildon Steam Powered Mill. I will tell you more about Sundays event when it happens and hope to work some of you on the day.

Solar activity was favourable last night and I was fortunate with my timing as I tuned across 20m to find VK3MO putting out a CQ call. I was straight back to Melbourne, Australia with a 5/9 report from Ian – VK3MO. Earlier around 22.30 utc also on 20m I made another QSO with CO6LC located in Cuba exchanging 5/7 reports. The band did seem to be quite stable with plenty of good DX openings, I heard The British Virgin Islands as well as lots of Stateside some of which were loud 5/9 signals. The only problem I encountered was the clock ticking away and at Midnight (local time) I had to pull the plug to catch some shut eye ready for work in the morning. I was running the Yaesu FT-767GX, Heil Gold line Mic and 50Watts into the Vertical Delta Loop cut for 20M. This homebrew antenna is still outperforming the Doublet and Hustler 99% of the time, I recommend trying one found in my earlier post on the. 20M home brew Delta Loop I also got the chance to set up the Arrow Satellite antenna and use t...

During last nights 144MHz UKAC I worked 27 Stations the furthest being G4RRA, at a distance of 371 miles. Claimed points: 4013 Multiplier: 11 DXCC: 2 Overall score: 44143 G4WFR/P IO91DA G8BUN IO93EQ G3YJR IO93FJ G1HLT IO93JD G0TAL IO93DR M6AXL/P IO93BV M0XLT IO83WX G4DEZ JO03AE MX0SRA/P IO93AF GM4PPT IO75SK MM0GPZ/P IO85SK G3SDC/A IO92FM G8CUL IO91JO G0KPW JO02RF M0NUT IO91IN M0COP/P IO82NN 2E0DOD IO93AF G4CPA IO93AV M1PAC IO93AU G0XDI IO91RQ M1DDD IO93AE G3ZVW IO80MS M0YJT/P IO92EN G4RRA IO80BS G3UUV IO81WK G4GSB IO82XM 2E0XLG/p IO83WV Equipment used: Yaesu FT-847, 50 watts. Antenna – IOIo home made 1 element/loop. The Contest started off quiet at first but livened up after ½ an hour or so. Lots of QSB was present throughout the full 2 ½ hours but I still managed to do quite well calling CQ as well as a lot of hunting up and down the band. Somewhere around the ½ way mark Louise – M3TLL presented me with...

Tonight at 16.52 utc I worked my first Aeronautical Mobile Ham Station. I was listening around on 20m when I heard NQ4I/AM - Rick 5/9+20 on 14.192 usb. I gave Rick a call just before the pile up kicked in and Rick- NQ4I/AM returned back giving me a 5/9+10 signal report. During the QSO Ricks Aircraft was at 40,000 feet somewhere between England and Ireland, flying over the sea. NQ4I/ Aeronautical Mobile told me they had a 9 hour flight ahead and were heading for California via Greenland and Canada. May be some of you guys will catch him on 20M?

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 ...