Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I often enjoy listening to other Hams working some DX stations on 3.795 MHz just before bedtime and also in the morning at first light.  I've been doing this for years and have worked a few nice DX myself occasionally when I've picked up the microphone. This evening I heard a cracking signal coming in from across the Atlantic which belonged to W2RE. He was a real 5/9 + at my end to my FT-1000 and I received the same report back as I made the contact with 400 watts out of my G17B amplifier into the 6btv Hustler antenna. Now that is what I call a good way to end the day! Best 73 I'm off to bed.

It's been a busy start for me so far this year with little time to blog. I hope you are all enjoying life to the full and getting on. As for Ham Radio it's been a bit slow with not so many opportunities to make DX or any kind of decent qso. My evening operating has been mainly swl style on 40m and 80m as the higher end of HF has more often than not closed down at sunset. About six months back I put up a balanced doublet for 80m but now I have come to the end of the experiments and have concluded that the configuration is not best suited to my setup. The dipole was very noisy compared to my vertical Hustler 6btv and at times was unusable due to extreme noise levels on 80m. Earlier I remade the configuration of the dipole into an OCF dipole which basically means one leg is 81 feet long and the other leg is 50 feet. The total length is 131 feet and it's fed with 50 ohm coax into a 4:1 balun at 25 feet above the ground. I have used 3 support points with nylon insulators allow

Happy New year to you all. Can't wait to get started with some Ham Radio fun and games. Happy New Year DX ing 2019!

I decided to remember an old friend and re use this picture of our never forgotten buddy Dudley. Have a very Merry Christmas 2018!

I sometimes try the odd radio app that I come across on playstore but find most to be not that exciting or beneficial to my needs or requirements. I recently tried QRZ assistant and I quite like it so far. The best bit is the built in compass that moves to the coordinates of any station that you look up. I think it could be fun and useful for anyone using rotatable antennas and their smartphones, perhaps from a portable location away from a pc. It's also free!

I was lucky to catch WW1USA earlier this month at the top end of the 20 meter band. Today I received the certificate which is very nice and also a great way to remember the fallen heroes of present and past. Best 73

The Raw Scores are available in case you were wondering. I didn't do as well as I have done on low power but still came a respectful 8th place (Country) 126 place (Continent) and 351 place (World) in the Single Op High power All Band CQ WW SSB Contest. I will find out more once the scores have been finalised and checked over and also I will be downloading my participation certificate/award for my collection. In the meantime I will be playing ham radio in between the chaos of life. Best 73 all!

This year was just as awesome as ever even though band conditions were limited I still worked lots of World Wide DX during the 2018 CQ WW SSB Contest. I managed to get in quite a few hours here and there throughout the entire contest and spent a lot of time on 15m and 20m during the daylight hours where I worked some big signals from Asia, North and South America as well as a few slightly weaker signals such as China and Japan. I was pleased to catch three stations in a row from India with armchair copies up on 15m and all in all I did quite well with the help of my latest addition the G17B amplifier. The Cushcraft MA5B Beam worked well on 15 and 20 meters and my Hustler 6BTV vertical with radials did it for me on 40 meters but the biggest surprise was the dipole which I cut for 80 meters which was previously the windom. As a designated 80m dipole I was able to get some good signals out with the extra power (400 Watts) I worked some good DX multipliers on 80 meters into North Africa

It's half term at College so I get to catch my self up a little and spend time away from the busyness of teaching, relaxing and spending quality time with my lovely family. So far I have been doing some D.I.Y jobs around the house and in between the fun I have been on my ham radio station making the final checks before the up coming weekend. This weekend if you did not know or perhaps had forge,t is the one weekend where I give my full attention to the HF bands. It's when I try my luck at making contact with as many stations as possible from as many zones as possible out of a total of 40 worldwide. It's that time again for CQ World Wide DX Contest fun!! More info at CQ WW DX SSB site . Last year was amazingly good despite average to poor band conditions I ended up in 3rd place as Low Power, England which was probably a one off lol. Last year my oldest daughter was keeping track of the zones that I worked which ended up at 21 zones out of 40. I can imagine I will need

I was checking propagation when I heard The ARRL Head Quarters coming in on 20m. The best bit was when he herd me calling on 20 watts. Check out the video and see for yourself. 73!

The last two weeks have been interesting on the bands especially with the new Russian GI7B x2 amplifier in line and working well. I have made the most of the propagation which has been up and down but worth the effort, as I put out some nice signals into North and South America as well as the Caribbean. I am really pleased with the GI7B amp and have mastered the tuning and loading with no issues or difficulties. I feel much more comfortable with the reliability and duty cycle of the Russian made Ceramic tubes compared to a transistor amp which seem less forgiving of any minor operator errors.  I have backed the mic settings off slightly for my Heil GM5 studio microphone and have been putting out 20 -30 watts from the FT-1000MP Mark-V Field transceiver into the amplifier and getting 350 - 400 watts out. The reports have been very encouraging, all that is left to say is CQ World Wide SSB Contest 2018 , here I come!!! In the meantime have a look at the guys and girls I have had t

The new amplifier is set up to operate via a separate PTT  which was a foot pedal. I found this easy enough but had a better idea to try out with a couple of TIG welding torch rubber insulated switches that I had lying around. I began by making a stainless steel cradle to house two switches which would be one for the radio and one for the amp. I then tacked the whole assembly to my previously home made microphone tower.  I used a piece of stainless steel as a gate type switch system which makes contact with both switches to activate transmit on my transceiver and amplifier simultaneously. whilst testing out the new double PTT set up I worked Bruce WD4NGB just as the 20m band was grey lining and fading.  Feeling very pleased with myself after a bit of ham radio making! Best 73!

It looks like Finn the lurcher is loving my ham radio activity. Earlier I had my new amp ticking over as I worked Bob VP8LP down on the Falklands. Catch you soon with a closer look at the Russian made power amplifier that seems to be working superb.  73

I finally decided to try my luck with a proper amplifier and managed to get hold of a second hand Russian GI7B amplifier which covers 80m through to 10m. I picked the amplifier up earlier this evening off of a radio amateur that was in the same county - Yorkshire, to the south about 35 miles away. On returning home, I installed the new Russian kit and with 20 watts in I had 400 watts out. I am feeling very pleased with my new investment and this year's CQWW DX Contest should be even better than last year with a bit more coal on the fire. 73  I'll be back soon with more on the new amp.

If you missed my recent YouTube Ham Radio videos you can catch up right here on my Blog. 73 Catch you on the bands or right here. 😎