Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Once again conditions are favorable with some great DX to be made on 20m as I just smashed through a pile up with a 5/9+ signal into the station of The Qatar Amateur Radio Society A71A

A great start to the working week as I pulled into the college car park in QSO /m with VK3TJK 

I had another look around the 20m band before bed and noticed that conditions were up for short skip and DX communication. I could hear MC0SHL quite well so I decided to give a call and worked into EU-124 Ramsey Island, located off the coast of Wales. Great Conditions at the moment, short and long skip signals are coming in very well!  Unfortunately time has run out and now it's bedtime. Good Night & 73.

I had a fantastic father's day today with my two lovely daughters and YL louise. I also got to enjoy my oldest daughter Elsie make her first radio contact using my call during Amateur Radio Kids Day The video shows my daughter getting on Ham Radio for the first time during Kids Day. Just after the video she worked into Kaliningradsk her first ever qso with ham operator Valentin - R2FAF 5/9 +. Well done Elsie!

I have been slightly preoccupied over the last few weeks with the dangerous duo pictured above, I am guilty of having too much fun as my girls run circles around me and as a result of light summer nights haven't managed to do any blogging. As you can see both of my lovely girls are coming on well and I cannot wait to get home from work to be with my family and have fun playing in the garden. As for radio I have been enjoying operating both my mobile and home station under my recently upgraded call M0YKS. Both setups have been performing well and I have had some very nice DX contacts from my FT-857 mobile & FT1000mp base station. Back in march 6 weeks after my licence upgrade (my birthday) my YL Louise M3TLL bought me a rather cool present which was a large A3 World map where you scratch off the map's surface to reveal the Country beneath. This was just what I needed as I have restarted working all of the Countries (DXCC) all over again as M0YKS. The idea of scratch

As a radio amateur I was delighted to find some interesting radio equipment down at my local museum in Bradford. The Industrial Museum is packed out with fully working steam powered machines as well as some early motorcycles, cars, trams and steam engines. Everything you see has been made locally and are all in pristine condition, it sure is a sight to be seen. Another interesting exhibition is the one which I am sharing with you today as it is one of my favorite interests which is radio and DXing. I managed to find out that my neighbourhood is where a local radio pioneer first discovered how to DX. I am sure some of you will have previously heard of a radio expert called Appleton. Edward Victor Appleton helped establish the UK as a leading force in ionospheric research and was a local radio pioneer. Edward Victor Appleton discovered that the ionosphere had a much more complex structure and he was able to work out how radio waves were reflected by of a number of different layers k

I just got lucky as I tuned around the HF bands before bed I heard a faint signal calling CQ DX. I was listening carefully on 14.160MHz SSB and realised it was VA1AXC operating from Sable Island under the call CY0/VA1AXC .  At first CY0/VA1AXC was coming in with a 5/1 signal at my end and I did not think I would be heard, I gave my call sign an airing and woe and behold I was heard first call 5/5 in Sable Island. As we exchanged information  CY0/VA1AXC came up to a nice 5/5 signal, I was running my FT1000MP, 100W into the Cobweb. As I am posting this I am still listening to CY0/VA1AXC who has a nice pile up going on and has decided to now work split frequency. I was very lucky to have been the first station he worked whilst it was nice and quiet, some good timing and not been afraid to try my PTT paid off well as there is only 6 people on Sable Island and I just worked one of them!. 73 GN!