Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ONLINE! Just a quickie to say how grateful I am of the online company and friendships especially in lock-down when we are not able to socialise. Thanks for watching the YouTube Videos and also joining me on the live stream on Facebook. I cant believe how many of you out there are coming on board! Its truly fantastic, best 73 have a great day! See you all on the next video or stream. Simon M0YKS.

Hope you're all well and safe during our World changing pandemic. On a positive I have been keeping my students from college engaged in online studies and experimenting with online streaming as well as using video to assist my learners. I haven't done much if any live streaming previously so as you can imagine it's been quite good fun trying it out. Before I was a licensed ham I played music on a local broadcast station for 20 years and I have all my music as well as some new stuff. So I hit the decks and tried some live streaming on Facebook to a few friends. I must admit I have enjoyed it a bit too much lol. For information I play reggae. I used the DJ setup to familiarise myself with Facebook live and see how I could get a clear and quality sounding audio with a view to trying it all in the shack. This turned out fairly cool and I have since live streamed my station on air working DX. The next thing that I thought I would have a look at was a group page to put th

The past few evenings have been awesome up on 20 meters and also 17 meters has been good with reliable openings into the USA, Caribbean and South America. I also heard VK3MO two nights running and tonight I squeezed a quick QSO in with Ian before he had to do some work over there down under. My log shows some great DX over the past week all of which have taken place late in the evening. VK3MO 2020-05-04 20m SSB QF22fr Australia FG4SO 2020-05-04 20m SSB FK96GH68 Guadeloupe VE3CRG 2020-05-03 20m SSB FN15wc Canada K1JB 2020-05-03 20m SSB FN43up United States K1TIG/M 2020-05-03 20m SSB United States FG4SO 2020-05-03 20m SSB FK96GH68 Guadeloupe AK1W 2020-05-03 20m SSB FN42eb United States NP4ET 2020-05-03 20m SSB FK68ol Puerto Rico 8P5AA 2020-05-03 20m SSB GK03fd Barbados 8P6NW 2020-05-03 20m SSB GK03ed Barbados 8P6NW 2020-05-01 17m SSB GK03ed Barbados 8P5AA 2020-05-01 17m SSB GK03fd Barbados PJ4DX 2020-05-01 17m SSB FK52ud Bonaire CO8LY 2020-05-01 17m SSB FL20ca Cuba

Its been a while since my last post which is quite strange as I have had plenty of time to blog but not really been in the blogging mood, probably because of the world pandemic which we are all suffering. As it is for most the way of life has changed considerably at the moment but thankfully we are all holding out well and keeping healthy. The radio however has been in use and I have been busy making DX on 80, 40, 20, 15 and even 10 meters. My new fan dipole pictured below is performing spot on with great reports into the US on 40 and 80 meters. I thought a close up of the centre might help you see how easy it is to construct this amazing performing 80/40m antenna. My Fan Dipole is 1:1 to 1:3 across both 80 and 40m without any ATU required I definitely should have built one years ago! With such a good result regarding the 40/80M Fan Dipole I was back playing around with the Hustler 6BTV. This excellent 6 band trap vertical has been subjected to many storms over the last 15

I have been wanting to try something new for 40m and today I decided to add two elements cut for 40 meters to my 80 meter mono band dipole making it a FAN Dipole. The end result for today was, the 40/80m Fan dipole is resonant without an ATU on both bands and works very well on my first test. I put a video together operating on 80m using 50 watts during a RSGB 80m contest. I wanted to be sure that the extra elements would not have any detrimental effects on the performance on 80m. I found that the low power did not matter the dipole is still working really well on 80m. I checked it on 40m and I heard signals slightly stronger with the new Fan dipole over the vertical. Japan was coming in very well and later I made a nice QSO using the Fan dipole on 40m with VE9FI - Russ over in Canada. A good result so far! Sizes of each leg is 80m - 2 x 67 ft lengths and 40m - 2 X 33 ft lengths. Here is the video which will help you to pass 20 minutes, Stay Safe! Stay In! Save Lives!

Its been quite a busy week so far as I am able to work from home using my chromebook and currently have been in communications online with a lot of our welding students. Every morning I have been on video conferences with my work colleagues. Its been very interesting and quite surprisingly good fun at times as we all keep up to date with a little humour to help keep a bit of sanity at the same time. One of the biggest positives I have noticed during this pandemic, is that we all have improved our use of apps and general IT skills, especially video calling on platforms like Whats App and Hangouts. These trendy apps and latest technology are actually quite useful at times of need and so far our infrastructures in the UK seem to be holding up well. As for personnel well being, my family are all doing well and keeping me busy and fully engaged in fatherhood, which I am happy to say is also extremely nice to get in all the special family time which would not normally be possible. I hav

I am sure we are all feeling anxious and maybe even a little scared as we all take to hiding out in our safe havens. The World is suffering and people are becoming cut off and lonely as they try their hardest to keep away from harm. The bands are in pretty good shape at the moment and have been for the past couple of months. Now is the time to get on the amateur bands and make contact with others and help to keep high spirits and well being by just making a few radio contacts and engaging in conversation with another Ham in the same situation either located down the road or even around the world. Pull out your old radio equipment and get back on the air, it will help take your mind off of the current situation and fill in some time. If your already set up get yourself out in the garden or in your roof space or maybe a balcony and make either: a long wire for HF, delta loop or a 10m dipole just for fun and then make a QSO on it. Maybe its not for you but perhaps a QSO or even a regul