Ham Radio
Experiments & Fun With Simon M0YKS
Yorkshire UK
Thursday, October 21, 2021
CQ WW DX 2021
Just 10 days to go before my favourite radio contest takes place! I will be checking out that my station is working properly in advance and plan to be active from tomorrow on and off all week. I wonder what the results will be like this time now that we are experiencing some decent regular openings on all of the HF bands. Looking forward to catching up with some of you on the air! Good DX and best 73 enjoy your weekend because next weekend will be radio chaos lol.
Its been an awful long time since I posted here on my old blog! Well I am still in good health and of course still playing lots of Ham radio when I have spare time.
The past month or so has been crazy at work so my live streams on YouTube has suffered and I have not been as active on camera as usual. I have of course still been here in the shack just slightly with more of a lower profile whilst hunting for the precious DX.
The station at M0YKS is still working exceptionally well, all antennas are holding up well so far and I have a nice new three section ladder to help maintain and keep them that way.
I also have a second valve amplifier which runs the same Russian military tank GI7BT Ceramic valves. This one is currently in use and is in a nice shiny Ameritron casing. My original GI7BT amplifier is now rebuilt with new valves and a few other bits and pieces. I had converted the Valve mounting setup after advise from a local amp guy but found it not suitable to operate that way so I ended up recently rebuilding the amp back to the original specs. Its now safely stored away as a back up secondary amplifier.
Right now I am about to call into the 40m RSGB post News net read by Geoff GM8OFQ and send a signal report of 5/9 +40 to the Island of Hoy, part of Orkney Islands above Scotland! I always try my best to listen in on a Sunday morning to find out what we have to look out for over the coming week. From the sounds of it, we can expect more openings on the higher HF bands, some Aurora and possibly meteor scatter on VHF as well as EME.
Catch up again with all of you soon, stay healthy and thanks for passing by one of the U.K longest and oldest running original Ham radio blog. 73 de M0YKS Simon and Hamily!
Well its been a great couple of weeks and to cap things off we recently had a fantastic Van camping expedition up in Galloway Scotland. M7ELC and myself M0YKS got the chance to use the MM prefix whilst out and about in the DX Machine.
The band conditions were fair and I worked Puerto Rico and USA as well as into Russia and across Europe. I heard Indonesia and my FT-857 performed well using both Hustler mobile and Maldol mobile antennas.
On our return Elsie M7ELC was straight back in the shack and this time she worked her first Space contact using the ISS repeater which was awesome!
So after a busy week which included getting my FT-817 repaired by a very nice guy called Karl - M0KRL from South Yorkshire. The FT-817 has a new PA output for both HF and VHF after it was blown many moons ago. I will be playing /p out and about and also trying it on the satellites in the coming week. I am pleased to have got it repaired as well as opened up across the full 40m band.
So like I said a very busy week of holiday family ''Hamily'' fun its back to work in the morning for the final college term leading up to summer. This one is a six week term so I will be off on my travels again in the not so distant future. In the meantime I will be playing Radio which will be along side my new shack partner M7ELC at times lol. Not so much live streams as the return to normal life at the moment is pretty much complete thankfully. I will be making the odd flash stream here and there but mainly having fun on the air with a few video uploads here and there when something interesting is happening that is worth sharing. Enjoy the sunshine, Band openings and plenty of fresh air! Catch up soon folks!
I would like to thank all of you guys that entered the competition, it was a bit of fun to mark the end of lockdown and my regular weekly live streaming check ins. I'm sure you have all seen enough of me keeping you up late at night lol. So finally the time is here for at least a bit less of the live streams. lol. I'm amazed how many of you guys have kept up. Thanks for the company throughout the past year and half of a very unusual time and we made it! Yeah!!! From now on as we move into the next solar cycle and summer freedom I will be doing the live stuff as and when I am in the mood lol, the same goes for the regular video recordings.
Anyway the answers to the competition for the microphone stand are:
1. My 1st Call - M3HTS
2, How many Valves in my amp - 2
3,What is my most popular YouTube video of all time - Hustler base station antenna used on my mobile
So a few got some correct and three of you got all of the right answers. Well done! I did a live draw on the YouTube Ham Radio Sunday Night Live Check in and Sparky Clark - Jordan M0PIR was the lucky winner 🏆😀. Well done Jordan the tower is on its way already posted out.
So that was fun.... now I am back playing some Satellite and Late night DX on 20m. Great signals on both Satellite and HF this evening 👌 73 Good DX de M0YKS Simon.
Ham Radio Activity - New Licensee in the Household M7ELC - M0YKS Mini Tower Competition
Well its been far too long since i posted here so I thought I best sort that out. What have I been doing lol. Lots of radio including livestreams, a few repairs and plenty of work. You might have seen on my YouTube channel that my eldest daughter Elsie has now become one of us and now holds her own Call sign at the sweet age of 10 years (only just as well). Her Mum M3TLL, Sister and I are all very proud of her amazing achievement. We have been working together throughout lockdown teaching Elsie and she has been an awesome student that's for sure! Well done M7ELC - Elsie.
As well as playing plenty of radio I recently achieved the QRZ DX100 using only a microphone and antenna no digital modes or internet!
I have also had a bit of time to take down the satellite antennas and rotator for a 5 year service. This went well, I since refit the installation in a different more accessible location to the side of my QTH as well as replace a broken reflector and change the polarisation from horizontal to vertical which has made a massive improvement on all of the satellites. I am now booming into both FM and SSB Satellites and receiving excellent NOAA weather images. I am looking forward to ISS switching back across to the repeater which is due to happen in the next couple of weeks.
Satellite Rotator YAESU G-5500, 5 Element Yagi 145 MHz , 15 Element X Yagi 435-437MHz - The Latest Position a few feet lower but working much better than before.
Radio propagation on HF has been much better and I am spending more and more time on the higher portion of HF such as 20m again and really making the most of the late night DX openings into North and South America and the Caribbean. I have had some great reports from Argentina and beyond and currently I am chasing Master Of Radio Communication - South America award. I have a way to go as I am at 54% so far.
Finally over lock down I have done lots of hours live on YouTube operating Ham Radio and amazingly the subscription numbers have doubled I am currently at around about 2.42K and climbing. So as a thank you to each and everyone for watching, following and keeping me sane through a couple of long a difficult lockdown periods I have decided to make a second mic stand. This one has been improved and will be given to a lucky competition winner which will be happening on my Sunday night Live check in (tomorrow). I will also post the competition here with an entry link. Keep an eye out from tomorrow eve late.... The comp will be open for a week or so and is free to enter. Good luck.
This is the finished off Prize - One Mini Lattice Tower with a Mic Clip and Separate PTT switch which needs wiring to your radio mic PTT input. The Heil GM-5 is NOT included lol Its just to give you an idea of what to expect. the Mic stand will hold most studio microphones. Good Luck!
Nice QSL on 40m Using the Hustler 6BTV and Radials Cut For 40m
Another successful improvement to the station this winter was putting some 12 ft radials at the base of the Hustler 6BTV antenna. Since I did the performance has greatly improved with regular DX contacts into Monserrat in the Caribbean, Canada and USA. Chris GM4ZJI was the one who told me to try the 1/8th wave radials which work amazingly well. Thanks Chris!!! As you can see the signal on the QSL card from Adam KA1KA is not 5/9, the band was quite poor so that is why I am over the moon to make the QSO and QSL with the 6BTV. My fan dipole on 40m is very similar in performance, almost as good but slightly down on outgoing signal with about 5-10 db less signal reports back in. (just for info).
