Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Today's NOAA 19 weather satellite image recieved at my ham radio station in Yorkshire UK at 13.55 UTC. Equipment Used: Yaesu FT-847, Radiocom 5.2 Decoder, 5 element Yagi, G-5500 Elevation/Azimuth Rotator. The UK can be seen with lots of cloud cover at the middle right hand side of the decoded image.

As I entered the Car park at work this morning I gave a shout out to Chris VK1GG/P2, who for the second time this week was booming into my mobile "FT-100 Maldol Combo" on 20M. VK1GG/P2 - Chris was working a pile of Europeans and fellow VKs (Australians) when he heard me calling him from my mobile at around 8.25 UTC this morning. We had a quick couple of overs and It was time for me to begin my working day. (With a smile on my face, you know the one. Only DXers have it hi hi) Later in the evening at around 18.25 UTC, I was once again out and about in the mobile with the rig turned on listening in on 14.222 MHz. Whilst driving, I heard JM1WBB - Isao coming in great as he worked lots of stations from various continents located around the world. Isao - JM1WBB was hitting my little Yaesu FT-100 with a 5/9 signal all the way from Setagaya, Tokyo Japan .  Once again I engaged the PTT calling "HTS/Mobile" where again I was in look as I was received  by

My Monday morning work journey looked rather bleak for riding my motorcycle. It had been snowing over the night leaving icy patches and slippery surfaces which I prefer to avoid whilst travelling on two wheels. So taking the easy option I proceeded to fire up the little Toyota 4 X 4 and at the same time I gave myself an opportunity to switch on my good old Yaesu FT-100 mobile radio. Within a mile of  leaving my QTH I heard VK1GG/P2 calling CQ DX on 20 meters with a loud 5/8 signal.  I gave Chris - VK1GG a couple of calls back and Chris heard me via the long path with a 5/4 signal. I was very pleased to make the QSO into VK2 land from my mobile at a distance of over 15000 miles. I have worked many DX with the same FT-100 and Maldol HFC-20 mono band antenna throughout the years with excellent service and reliability not forgetting their superb performance. I first obtained this particular mobile set up back in 2004 and after today's DX performance into Canberra, Australia wit

Radio Amateurs are needed to help The Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TSNIIMASH) in Russia with some space plasma experiments taking place onboard the International Space Station (ISS) Nov 25nd - 28th and Dec 2nd -5th. The experiment will use the ISS Amateur Radio 145.825 MHz FM AX.25 1200 bps packet radio downlink. For more information visit  Amsat  or find the website about the experiment  here

After work this evening I fired up my ham radio shack and started tuning up and down the bands. I had heard recent reports that the 10m repeater KQ2H was coming in strong on a regular basis with lots of interesting stations working through it. I tuned my FT1000 to 29.620MHz FM and sure enough I could hear the KQ2H repeater. KQ2H is located across the Atlantic near New York in the Catskill Mountains. I heard lots of stations calling through to begin with, it was slightly chaotic at times but then I suddenly heard Jose - XE2YHR coming in well with a big signal. After calling him three times Jose pulled me out of the crowd and we had a short QSO exchanging reports and location information. It was very nice indeed getting into Mexico via a repeater in New York on 10 meters FM. I'll be listening up on Ten FM over the weekend to see what activity might be found as well as enjoying time with the family. 73 all have a great weekend & happy DXing

Over the weekend I enjoyed some of the fantastic openings up on the 10 meter band during this years WWCQ Contest. I managed to work some excellent DX for the first time in a long time up on 28MHz. The last time I heard conditions as good as they were, was back in the 80s when I was an avid 11 Meter DXer as well as a spotty faced teenager. My old President Adams at the time brought exotic signals to my early radio days. I still have some old chicken box kit from way back which includes a couple of 40 channel AM rigs, an original colt as well as a little president AR7. I also have a Ham International Multimode II. This years WWCQ contest was worked mainly on 10 Meters for me using my FT1000mp MKV field and Carolina Windom antenna (CW80). I exceeded my previous total of 15 Zones by spending my time up on 10m more or less throughout the contest and working a total of 21 World wide zones. This is the best I have done since getting on the air during WWCQ and I am pleasantly surpr