Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Sadly My Beloved Companion and Loyal Friend Passed Away On Wednesday The 28th Of December 2016 Dudley was the best dog I could have ever hoped to have had the pleasure of sharing 13 years of pure happiness with. He will be in our hearts forever, My family and I are feeling very sad and hope the New Year brings some good times for everyone.

Up early and checking the bands on Christmas eve, I found two nice stations to work. The first was Bob VP8LP located on the Falklands Islands and the second was Santa Claus operating as OF9X from the Arctic circle. My two young daughters were in the shack and heard me talking with Santa just before he gets ready to set off on his reindeer powered sledge delivering lots of presents.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas and a great holiday!

5T5TI     Mauritania Ahmad 5T2AI and Vlad 5T9VB Tidra Island Mauritania It's always worth that last flick through the bands before bed. I just got lucky with a new DXCC in the log on 40m with my Hustler 6btv and 100 watts out of the FT-1000mp. Now it's time for bed 73

Last weekend I carried out the planned work on my Cushcraft MA5B which was the swapping over of antenna masts. In the end I decided not to go with the telescopic mast as it seemed slightly flimsy compared to my 50 mm diameter tube so I ended up just carrying out some maintenance checks on the fixings and rotator. The higher end of the HF bands have been unreliable on an evening for the past couple of weeks so I have been having a listen down on 40 meters as well as 80 meters where some activity has been found but nothing to write home about. I have been pleased with the performance on 40 meters from the vertical Hustler 6BTV since I re-sited it away from the trees. The Carolina Windom has also had some of my time as I decided to get the feed point higher up in the air from around 20 feet to 30 feet, which seems to be working out reasonably well on 80 meters. Hopefully the conditions will be improved on the higher end of HF and I will be able to use the beam but for now its

Just finished making a new clamp system to use with a telescopic mast. I am planning to swap it over this coming weekend and it will be used for the Cushcraft MA5B.

As usual I caught some of the Contest on video.