Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I fancied a last cup of of coffee before I went bed and as the kettle boiled I powered up my dining room mini station to see if anything was happening on the HF bands. My Yaesu FT-890 pictured below is one of my original spare transceivers that I have had since the beginning of my Ham intrests  and works great especially on receive hooked up to a full wave 20m delta loop. This evening/morning at around midnight the coffee was smelling good when I tuned my FT-890 onto 14.209.5 MHz where I heard CP6XE coming in loud and clear from Bolivia. Normally I would have rushed to the main shack station which is my FT-1000MK V but the signal was so clear peaking at 5/9 I decided to call Miguel - CP6XE on the dining room listening station my little FT-890. To my pleasure the home brew delta loop and 100 watts of old school FT-890 did the trick and I made the contact into Bolivia with a 5/3 signal! A great way to end the evening, the only snag is I am feeling thirsty again and fancy ano

Apologies for my absence....... It has been too long since I posted on my blog so I thought I would put you in the picture as to what has been keeping me from my beloved radio antics. You may remember I started installing a new central heating system which ended up taking me quite a few weekends of crawling about under the floorboards with my pipe and blow torch. After that I proceeded to rip out the original lead pipe work and then I successfully switched over to my new copper pipework system.  I was assisted by a very beautiful pipe bender and screw passer who helped me on numerous occasions which was especially helpful when I was running out of enthusiasm!  No holding back as I let loose on the old bathroom. Phew! I can get a shower again and a bath. But better still I have finished! Work has been busy, last month I sat lots of exams and carried out some welding practical examinations and became a coded welder and welding inspector. This will a

The kids are asleep, the dog is asleep, Louise my YL is asleep. It's M0YKS Ham Radio Shack Time! It's been full speed ahead since the new year where I have been off to a fine start when it comes to getting my finger out and cracking on.....Especially when it comes to keeping the family sweet with a bit of home improvement. There is something about bending pipe that gives a you a special kind of happy feeling when you do it. Before I got into teaching I worked in the industrial sector where I maintained lots of plant, industrial and technical equipment as well as the buildings and workshops. Needless to say I am multi skilled which always comes in handy for keeping the costs down. As for getting on the bands it will be business as usual which means most evenings after 9pm local and /Mobile, as for any other opportunities I will take them when they appear. I still have got quite a bit of pipework to run and a few radiators to change before I am done and not forgetti

I was very pleased to find the 20m band wide open this morning as I drove to work  /Mobile, I was straight into Sydney Australia as I worked VK2DX giving him a juicy 5/6 signal.  Nick VK2DX was booming with a genuine 5/9 signal. Well that's all for now time for some work. If you can get on 20m right now its wide open.

I built myself a full wave 40m loop, ordered a 22m fibreglass flagpole and went outside into my back garden. I erected the loop in a delta formation with one end supported by a convenient tree, the other my new flagpole and used a 4:1 balun and coaxial choke to feed the antenna with 50 ohm heavy coax. I am amazed that the the 40m delta loop works on 80 without any need for an atu with 1.5 swr. Also swr readings of 1.5 and less on 17m, 15m, 12m and 10m. Thats is awsome! I just need the atu to tune 40m and 20m as they are reading swr at around 2.5:3 which I may have a go at improving on when I get chance. So far the 40m Delta Loop is receiving superbly and seems great on transmit with my single calls getting over the pileup on 100 watts quite easily. Its looking promising and I will enjoy testing it out over the winter months. Homebrew 40m Delta Loop - There will be much more info including build instructions/dimensions and band results on the new 80m - 10m (40m full wave Loop)

This afternoon I introduced my engineering/electronics students to the world of amateur radio. The students are in their second year with me studying part time on a three year schools provision we are delivering at the college. The students have all built FM receivers so as promised I brought in some of my standby ham radio gear to show them how things work. I set up my YAESU FT -767 in the back of the van which I parked inside the college grounds. I showed the students my collection of mono band antennas explaining their purpose regarding wavelength size and resonance without trying to overcomplicate  things too much. I decided to make the most of the opportunity and got out the large Hustler mono band mobile antenna which has separate resonators (interchangeable top loaded whip sections)  for most of the HF bands. I powered up the trusty old Transceiver and began to check out the 40m band with the students listening by. We were fortunate as the band conditions were favorable an