Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I took a picture this morning before leaving for work of my latest homebrew 80 meter dipole. It's working out very well so far, I worked GB4BIT last night who was portable on Bardsley Island, Wales. I will be operating from my shack again this evening. Hopefully conditions will be good. Best 73 have a good day.

My Carolina Windom snapped yesterday as the wind came in and the wire took a hit from a branch close by to a insulated support. This will have rubbed over time and inevitably ended up weakening and shearing the wire flex. My Windom antenna has been in use since 2004 and has served me well, I will repair it sometime. Today I fancied a change so I gathered some wire, insulators, a ferrite ring and a dipole centre which I used to construct a single band 80m dipole. I started with two equal lengths of wire about 66 foot long which I soldered a couple of lugs to each end. I then found a short length of 50 ohm lightweight coax cable and wrapped it around the ferrite ring with 4 turns, following with a coaxial wound in a choke just below the ferrite. Once complete I placed one leg of the dipole approximately 25 feet up and hooked it to the top of my F23 H antenna mast. I attached one insulated end to a telegraph pole and the other insulated end attached to a lower pole at the b

Conditions are reasonable again this evening upon 20 meters, I'm hearing plenty of Europe as well as some North and Central America. I just worked Carlos TI8II nice and loud and now I am hearing some some big stateside signals 5/9 ++. Time to hit the ptt and make some qso......well that was good, straight through to David KA2HTV in Maine who nearly blew my S meter away. Check his antenna system and 1500 watts. Awsome! Well I better get back to my FT-1000 mp and 400 watts legal limit and see if I can get somewhere distant before I hit the sack. Fingers crossed the 20m band will be open again tomorrow. 73 GN.

It's over a week since I installed the Diamond F23 mono band vertical antenna and so far I am very impressed. The 15 foot 3 section antennas awesome gain has made a huge difference in both TX & RX. I have been working with the Yaesu FT-100 field commander and 50 watts which has been really successful as I have worked across some long distances down South and also to the East of around 100 miles. My YL M3TLL Louise has noticed the FT-100 has been squawking away as she said she keeps hearing plenty of hams interrupting her TV watching h.i The 2 meter band is much more interesting than before with the new 5/8 over 5/8 over 5/8 of vertically polarised signals bouncing into the F 23 mono bander. I will be playing around with the FT-100 and F 23 over the coming weeks, business as usual on HF from the shack, cabin and mobile. 73  for now.

We are all still enjoying the holidays and today timing worked out well and I borrowed a 3 section ladder and managed to swap over my old tri band vertical for a big high gain mono band for 145 Mhz. I was very lucky back in March on my birthday to receive the new mono band vertical from a very good friend. This of course was my old buddy Phil M1PAC whom I have known since the beginning of my ham radio activity when I was M3HTS. THANKS Phil!  The new Diamond F23 H looks good at it's new QTH. The specs. I worked my first station using the new antenna and YAESU FT-100 just now. Yes of course it had to be my good friend M1PAC Phil who was 5/7. I will be playing around with the new F23 H to see how well it performs and also some HF. See you soon.  73

I usually check the VHF side of the bands most Sunday mornings as it is usually quite active up on 2 meters. This morning I had a couple of local qso on 2m using my Yaesu FT-100 and triband vertical antenna. Afterwards I checked the SATELLITE tracking software and decided I would try my luck at working a couple. So with my Satellite array pointed towards the sky I tuned my Yaesu FT-847 to the correct up link and down link frequencies and waited for AO-91 to come into range. Once AO-91 was receivable I could hear lots of Stations on top of each other so I waited until the frequency cleared and worked a handful of radio amateurs from across EU. I caught the full pass on video. 73

Back in Yorkshire England after a week of van camping up at Port William on the Galloway coast. The WX was awesome and our holiday was excellent throughout the full tour. I got to make some good qso on my FT-857 /mobile from some superb locations next to the beaches. We visited lots of interesting historical sites from Kirk's to lighthouse as well as beach cliffs caves at low tide. Yep we had so much fun up in Scotland, the people are so friendly and welcoming, we will be heading back up at the next opportunity. A great place to enjoy peace and quiet, spectacular views and nature not forgetting excellent radio conditions with no noise. I still have a couple more weeks to play radio and enjoy myself with the family, I will be posting something radio related. In the meantime enjoy the weather and thanks to Jannis, Gordan and Martin for working MM0YKS/M in the video. 73