Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I had a good bit of fun this afternoon messing with my humble YAESU FT-2980. It was the 145 Alive event that fellow YouTuber Tim G5TM has been organising. Its a great idea and certainly does exactly as intended and indeed 145 Megahertz is definitely alive today with lots of signals coming through on the 2 meter FM part of the band.  I was on for just over an hour and enjoyed making QSOs with both portable and fixed stations that were coming in quite nicely with my mono band Diamond F23 vertical antenna.  The WX is wet, so I was quite happy to be in doors today enjoying playing radio. Thanks to all that went out and set up portable, it was good to hear plenty of operators making waves on a usually quiet band. Despite my long absences I do enjoy 2 meters FM simplex and it's good to get on my FT-2980 for a change. It is my most simple but effective radio in the shack and is definitely still going strong. It was spot on for the job with a very good output power

Last night was another fun filled event as the MegaStream crew once again hit the live stream button on YouTube. We all managed plenty of QSOs and the pileups were fantastic fun, in the end I logged 89 stations. The best DX was Prince Edward Island, Brazil and Lithuania. I managed quite a few EU stations and lots of Inter G. The results will be available more than likely by next weekend, I wonder who was the first to work all of the MegaStream Stations which were - LB0FI, MM0OPX, 2E0UKH, M0GQC, G5STU and M0XXT  I just wanted to thank everyone that called in and helped to make the event another successful one. I also want to thank everyone that watched live on YouTube and kept me company on my live chat. Sorry I did not get much live chat talk time as you could see I was nonstop working stations through the pileup. It was great to see and hear so many fellow Hams, I was very happy to have my YouTube friends supporting my station from around the World Thanks All! We even had No 1 YL Ra

The ISS is back passing by at a time where I am more likely to catch it. Tonight the signal was good both from ISS and from my Ground station.  The Video above was the earlier pass, followed by a next late night pass around about 2310 local time you can see it below. Thanks for visiting check out my YouTube channel for more satellite and ISS videos .

Its just over a year since I parted with my savings 😁 and treated myself to the YAESU FTDX101MP.  Since owning this fabulous transceiver I have had hours of pleasure getting used to it which was quick enough and reasonably painless. The radio has been fantastic to operate and the reception quality is the best I have ever experienced. I have been using the YAESU M-70 desk mic which if you remember I got free as part of the deal along with £85 cash back from YAESU. The microphone is nice to use with a good ergonomic design and with the radios onboard equaliser set for my preference the audio reports have been coming in with compliments especially from the more weaker DX contacts.  So my friends, you can guess I will be holding on to the FTDX101MP and my FT-1000mp will be there as a portable or back up transceiver. I am really happy I got this radio and since installing it at my QTH I have been using it barefoot with the standard 200 watts rather than running my a

Early morning DX was in great shape today as I beamed west I could hear plenty of US stations coming in well working stations active in the worked all Europe contest. I haven't been in the contest so I qsy'd to 17M (18 megahertz) and was hearing some big signals coming in loud and clear from down under. Australia and in particular Tasmania where I worked the Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association VI7ALARA. I got through the pile up easy only one call and was using my Cushcraft MA5B Yagi antenna and Yaesu FTDX101mp transceiver, running the full 200w. Good DX and thanks for passing by Ham Radio Operator .Blogspot .Com. 73 good DX. de Simon M0YKS  

This pass was directly overhead which meant my antenna array had to turn a full revolution as it hit the stop point N 0 degrees. This happens sometimes but still good to see the antenna on video live as i tracks. The image is a bit dark but that is because it is actually my bedtime and its late here in Yorkshire England.  73 thank you as ever for following this old blog.Good DX!

Well it's been up for 8 years and is still working really well for me. Yes I am talking about the HF mini beam which has a small footprint and a big signal. The largest element is aprox 17.10 ft wide and the boom is only 7.30 ft long. Despite its relatively compact size it works absolutely Fabulously and I would not change it as it's a perfect fit for my garden. As you can see in the picture my MA5B is not a sight for sore eyes but is instead very difficult to find. It's mounted via a heavy home brew tripod base which houses a mast taking the antenna to just 20ft above the ground. The trees are old and well established towering above the beam.  After years of operation with previous poor conditions and now with much better band conditions I can honestly say what a great antenna the Cushcraft MA5B really is. I can usually work who I can hear unless they are running extra high power QRO and have a high noise level at their end.  The recieve is something special ab