Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Earlier Today I built myself a Yagi beam and a lattice tower. What I forgot to mention was that its a model Yagi & tower that I made from 3mm wire, MIG welded together. I would like to build the real thing one day! It looks good in the shack and it would make a nice ornament or gift, I am considering mass production with different antenna themes.

The past week has been a busy one both at work and at home but I still managed to play quite a lot of radio. I also got a bargain buy on Friday which was a Yamaha XT600E. I am already considering the XT600E for portable off road radio operation and I will be fabricating some brackets to be used to mount the FT-100 and a mobile whip. I can also ride the Enduro machine up to the trig point located on the summit of Baildon Moor. Set up the Arrow beam and see what happens during the monthly VHFCC contests (WX permitting of course). The new Bike should prove to be an interesting way to play some Ham radio on two wheels rather than four, as well as getting to the slightly more difficult locations. Picture shows the XT being guarded by DX Sniffer Dudley Besides riding the Yamaha XT600E with Louise- M3TLL (riding pillion), I did work 6 Stations on 20M, 4 Stations on 40M, 13 Stations on 2M FM and 3 Stations Via VO-52 Satellite. Check the log for Call Signs and information. click to enlarge

This afternoon I heard Caine - M6MOF working from his mobile in Lincolnshire whilst I was monitoring S20 on the 2 meter band. Caine - M6MOF is a member of the Brigg and District Amateur Radio Club - BDARC and is also a fellow YouTuber. We made a qso on 145.525 FM and Caine was coming with a 5/2 signal to my FT-847 and 7/8 wave vertical antenna. Thanks to Caine's video cam you can hear how well he received me at his end.

The last week has been spent touring around the South West Coast of Scotland and taking in the many spectacular sights as well as making some good radio contacts on the way! We arrived at Ayr where we were to be based for the stay at the beginning of the week and once we checked in at the accommodation, we were straight out checking out the scenic views and lovely beaches. Listening around the bands from the mobile set up proved to be very interesting as the noise levels were none existent allowing weak signals to be heard with ease especially on the 20 meter band. I found a nice beach side location to park up the Toyota to try work back to some of the big signals we were hearing. Louise - M3TLL (MM3TLL/M whilst in Scotland) kept the log and I began putting out a few shouts operating under the Scottish prefix 2M0HTS instead of my home call 2E0. It wasn’t long before the calls were answered back to other operators on the 20 meter band, the first contact I made was at 19.13 utc on Tuesd

This week has been excellent so far regarding radio and up here on the blustery Moor top, I am in to my 3rd day of holidaying away from work loving every second! I started off on Monday running in and out of the garden making lots of QSO’s via the “birds”. I worked into AO-51, SO-50 and AO-27 very easily using the two hand held rigs coupled to the tripod mounted Arrow antenna. The little Station performed very well with 4W, making 12 good contacts and a couple of others that were caught up in the QRM. The Satellite worked Stations I managed to exchange locaters and reports successfully with were, LY3L , RA3OEV, UA9FFF, DG7MHR, OH7FES, F1UGK, ON4CAP, MM3YEQ, F1UGK (again but this time on a different Satellite), EB1GKS, EI2HW and regular contact/fellow Yorkshire Man, DL1YAL - Steve . I am still getting very excited when the signals are booming through as I point the antenna into the Sky and call “CQ Satellite”. Hope to play some more when the wind drops. In between running in and out and

It's that time of the year where we find ourselves spending as much time as possible in our gardens or out walking enjoying and making the most of the much welcomed lighter nights. As well as walking over the surrounding Moorland with our Dog Dudley this evening, I decided to root out my QRP Satellite set up. The portable set up comprises of my arrow antenna, FT-470, TH-F7, Ipaq and my old Compass. I gave the Yaesu FT-470's batteries a quick charge and headed back out side just as it was getting dark (18.45 utc). I assembled both hand held transceivers to the home made ally rig mounts that are fitted to the boom extension. Next, was to run the TrackSat software on the Ipaq palm held P.C which showed AO-51 approaching. I checked the satellites position data and used it to set the arrow to 205 degrees azimuth and 10 degree elevation. It wasnt long before a hive of activity began to flow through the arrow into the FT-470. I called through AO-51 a couple of times using th

Tonights Craven Radio Amateur Group meeting took place and the group voted and annouced that Louise - M3TLL and myself Simon - 2E0HTS are now officially members of the group. It is fantastic news that we are now both "Craggies" and We are excited about getting involved with the CRAG monthly activations.

I was alarmed to hear this news on the weekly RSGB news broadcast. For those that can’t be bothered clicking the link I’ll summarise: they are introducing a new licensing system in Portugal whereby Foundation licensees have 5 years to upgrade to an intermediate license or they lose it. I think this is incredibly short sighted of the Portuguese licensing people. As an M3 who’s had her license for 3 years if they introduced this ruling here in the UK (which some G stations have recently been arguing for in the letters section of Radcom, much to my annoyance) this would mark the end of my hobby. In fact you’d probably hear me on CB frequencies instead - I’d be the only operator not swearing their head off. I’ll say it loud and clear for all to read: I have absolutely no intention of getting an intermediate licence. Why you may ask? Well my Foundation licence gives me everything I need, I can operate 10 watts. I have the shop bought Yaesu FT-847 plugged into the shop bought length of co-a

After seeing the pictures sent by Cyril F4FUL of his homemade dual band Arrow style Satellite Yagi, I finished off the prototype model I had been building during the week. The newly finished off home brew Yagi antenna comprises of 4 X 144-146 MHz Elements & 8 X 432-435 MHz Elements. The Elements are made from 3.0 mm Welding Rod and the boom is a wooden broom handle. The Elements are gently tapped into 2.5mm (tight fitting) drilled holes in the boom. I used two lengths of 50 ohms Coax soldered straight on to each of the two bands driven folded dipole element. Finished and all tuned up and ready to assemble to the mast. I used a PVC mount which connected to the boom acting as a bush and allowed simple elevation adjustment locked off with a 6mm bolt. Set at 30 Degrees Elevation looking southerly into this evenings sky. Now it will be a case of testing as I have got some nice lengths of 6mm ally bar which is waiting to become either extra elements for the IOIo or a Cross Axis dual ban

For all of you living in the Northern Hemisphere today is a great day. Today the Spring Equinox (or Vernal Equinox) is upon us, this is great as it hails goodbye to winter and officially means the start of Spring. At 11:44 UTC the sun crossed over the Earth’s equator which means longer hours of sunlight for all of us up North! Thanks to the Earth’s tilt 23.4 degree tilt we will now be getting more of the Sun’s rays increasing the temperature (hopefully) and signalling the start of Summer. The Spring equinox also has a marked effect on propagation. We will now be having longer hours of sunlight. These longer hours mean the sun will be increasing the energy in the ionosphere more than during the winter. You may have noticed propagation improving over the last few weeks, this is due to the Spring equinox. The Vernal equinox is a particularly good time for HF propagation as on the first day of spring the length of the day and night in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres will be 12

I have recently been in qso via the Internet with Cyril F4FUL Who Is located in the French Alps, locator square JN36EH. Cyril had recently built an IOIo Satellite antenna and was interested in building a antenna similar to the ARROW antenna He saw me using in one of last years videos. The tests showed that the Arrow does out perform the IOIo. I agreed signal reports and comparisons with Cyril, Who then said he was on his way in building one and would keep in touch. I was interested to see what Cyril - F4FUL would come up with? Here is the result: The F4FUL, Home Brew, Dual Band Arrow like Yagi. 4 elements VHF and 10 elements UHF. Thanks Cyril F4FUL, for your images. 73 Good DX! Thanks to Cyril's inspiration, I also came across some specs for a simple antenna build similar to the Arrow. I have almost completed one and have yet to add the feeder to complete the first attempt. I have built this "prototype" antenna from 2.5mm wire and a broom handlel I will post detailed i

Two Great Contacts worked from my Mobile HF Station - JO7CVU from N.JAPAN and 6Y/WE9V Portable from JAMAICA. My Location was close by to my Home QTH up at 1000ft on Baildon Moor, W.Yorkshire, N.ENGLAND The first QSO was JO7CVU worked on my way to work at 08.20 utc. The second QSO was 6Y/WE9V portable worked on my return journey at 17.00 utc. 73, Thanks for all radio contacts & thanks for watching!

This morning I was fortunate to hear some big signals coming through on my mobile work bound journey. I heard VK3MO from Austrailia with a 5/9 just as he was closing down. I then tuned up the band (20M) and came across Kentaro - JO7CVU from Sendai City, North Japan. Ken was coming through 5/8 and peaked at 5/9, I gave Ken a quick call from the mobile FT-857 and Maldol 20M antenna and too my great surprise Ken - JO7CVU came straight back to me and gave me a 5/6 report. I managed to sweet talk Louise M3TLL to video the contact with Ken, I should be uploading it this evening. This definately was a great copy from my mobile running 50watts in to North Japan, I will be listening out for early morning DX tomorrow.

 Last week and this week I decided to try and work some stations during Tuesday nights RSGB VHF Contest. The Contests are held weekly on Tuesday evenings and Cover five VHF Bands. I have operated on two of the five Contest bands 144MHZ and 433MHZ. Below is the table found at the RSGB Contest Committee Site explaining what band is used and the operating times of each Tuesday's evening Contest. Also the previous month - January's results can be seen via the Results links. Every 1st Tuesday 2000-2230 (Local) 144MHz UK Activity Contest and Club Championship AO   AR QTH Locators ( M2 ) , Activity contest ( S8 ) , Club Championship ( S9 ) Every 2nd Tuesday 2000-2230 (Local) 432MHz UKAC AO   AR QTH Locators ( M2 ) , Activity contest ( S8 ) , Club Championship ( S9 ) Every 3rd Tuesday 2000-2230 (Local) UHF UKAC AO   AR QTH Locators ( M2 ) , Activity contest ( S8 ) , Club Championship ( S9 ) Every 4th Tuesday 2000-2230 (Local) 50MHz UKAC AO   AR QTH Locators ( M2 ) , Activity contest

Since I sold my Toyota Rav 4 I haven't had the means of setting up the spare Hustler 6 BTV - Base Station Multi Banded HF Vertical. I used the tow bar fixing which I had made and had some excellent results with that one, not to mention the 14,411 YouTube Views on the Video I made using it. With the first Mast Mount Creating so much attention the pressure was on to come up with another Mast Mount strong enough to bear the Hustler's 6 Band Load in windy but typical Yorkshire conditions. I had seen some wheel bearing Mast Mounts on eBay , so I decided to make up my own version which worked out well. Materials used: 3mm Mild Steel Plate, Cut at 260mm wide X 550mm long. 25mm X 25mm X 3mm Angle Iron (L), Two pieces cut to a length of 550mm. 70mm X 70mm X 3mm plate square, Two pieces cut in half into a triangle to become gusset supports. 200mm diameter 3mm plate, cut plate into a half circle then drill 12, 6mm holes to be used as radial mounts. 38mm diameter mild steel bar, 600mm l