Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Hope you are all enjoying the beginning of 2020. It's been a very enjoyable festive break spent with my family and I have also heard quite a few interesting stations coming through on the 20m and 80m band over the last 2-weeks. At around about midnight I managed to work across the Atlantic into the States down on 80m a couple of times using my vertical and dipole antenna systems, as for 20m I've heard decent signals from stations out of Indonesia, Australia and also Afghanistan, which is a very good indication that radio conditions are beginning to improve. Let's all hope that the Bands will continue to get better as lighter nights start to creep back in and we will have some great openings throughout 2020 as we all make DX on the ham radio bands. Best 73 from my family and myself and happy new year to everybody passing through hamradiooperator.blogspot.com

 A couple of weeks ago I had a go at cleaning the dust off of the dual fans located at the rear of my Yaesu FT-100. The fans had become very loud and the clean up worked out and I ended up with a quieter sound from the fans. Today I went the whole hog and opened up the case to properly dust out the cobwebs. I was shocked to see just how much fluff had been sucked inside the radio, almost had myself a new pillow there was so much. I used a small brush and hand pump to blow away the dust and fluff making sure I kept my fingers well away from anything. The result is satisfying and the FT-100 is back in service.

I recieved notification on a new award from QRZ.com. "Master of Communications" Sounds awsome! LoL. Anyway I am happy to receive this cool sounding award. Best 73 catch you again soon.

Great to finally meet up with M0OGY Dave. After 10 years..... Looking good in my shack Dave!

The Raw scores are in, I ended up with a reasonable score of 105,536. My rank has moved up a few places compared to last year's result. Who knows what next time will bring. Im happy with the score, it was very enjoyable, 73 catch you again soon.

The home made wire dipole that I recently installed was showing an SWR reading of 1:1 at 3.600 MHz. Higher up the band at around 3.795 MHz I was getting a reading of 2:5 which meant I needed my ATU. After the third time of lowering each end and cutting off 6inch lengths from both sides I got a much more useful range of SWR readings. The last Adjustments now read 1:1 at 3.700 MHz and 1:3 SWR on 3.799 MHz which is pretty much spot on. The original dipole legs were cut on the generous side in the first place which meant cutting/shortening each side equally. I did it this way to gain optimal performance on the frequencies I most want to operate on without the requirement of an ATU. It can be tricky measuring the exact length of wire needed as lots of factors can alter the SWR such as antenna height, angle, length of feedline. Location and objects near by etc. By making your dipole oversize it's easy to adjust each end to get the perfect SWR and also a good excuse to mess about

Beaming 135 degrees across Africa I worked into Comoros Island - D68CCC up on 15m mid morning from my shack. It is a new country for me and also a rare one taking it to up to 139 DXCC. The location looks wonderful, I am sure the MDXC Dxpedition have enjoyed there time operating from such a beautiful place. Its half term at college and I am on holiday all week, so you can expect to hear more from me throughout the week as I catch the tail end of the world wide DXpeditioners that are still operating here and there. Best 73 happy Ham ing!

After browsing through my contest log I realised that some pretty cool DXCC popped up during the contest. My station was pretty awsome and I worked the same number of Zones as last year but gained on the Countries by three this time around.

Despite conditions not being amazing I had a great weekend with lots of fun throughout the contest. My equipment worked well for me and I managed to work many DX during the CQWW contest. In total I made 319 QSO with 68 DXCC and 18 world zones entered in my log. I operated on 80 through to 10 meters using all three antenna setups. I was lucky enough to get plenty of time in and some great DX was caught over the weekend pushing my total DXCC count up to 138. I also caught lots of video footage of my participation,  I hope you enjoy it. Best 73

I was able to catch two passes earlier of the ISS making contact with a school in Italy. The signal was 5/9+60db to my Yaesu FT-847 Earth Station and satellite antenna array. I caught the first pass on video which is in Italian, I understood some of it but dont speak much Italian lol chow! 73.

I recently injured my back which is slowly getting less painful and to avoid aggravating it I have been resting up and monitoring the HF bands. I have heard plenty of DX stations from 80m through to 15m throughout the day and late into the evening. Propagation is definitely up and good reliable openings have made it possible to fully test out my equipment in preparation for the up and coming CQWW contest next weekend. My DXCC count has risen to 135 as I have worked lots of stations over the past 10 days. I listed a few of my recent favourite DX using my Yaesu FT-1000 and amp Running 400w into the 3 element Cushcraft MA5B were: XE1CQ - MEXICO on 15M V55JOTA - NAMIBIA on 15M V31JW - BELIZE on 20M ZD7FT - ST HELENA ISLAND on 17M JH1MDJ - JAPAN on 17M A41NN - OMAN on 15M OD5VB - LEBANON on 20M The beam is excellent on the higher portion of HF and the recently constructed homebrew 80m dipole is everything I hoped it would be, im hearing N.America most evenings. The performance

I awoke this morning to a great start as I got straight into Japan working 5x5 signals both ways with japanese station JH1MDJ up on 17 m just now.  The exact frequency was 18.156 and my Cushcraft beam heading was at 30 degrees. I was running 400 watts from my Russian amplifier. Let's hope this is a sign of improving conditions. It's been a long time since I heard Japan at least 2 years. This week radio conditions have been interesting, I worked Liberia and Belize taking my DXCC total up to 133 DXCC as M0YKS (last 5 years).

I took a picture this morning before leaving for work of my latest homebrew 80 meter dipole. It's working out very well so far, I worked GB4BIT last night who was portable on Bardsley Island, Wales. I will be operating from my shack again this evening. Hopefully conditions will be good. Best 73 have a good day.

My Carolina Windom snapped yesterday as the wind came in and the wire took a hit from a branch close by to a insulated support. This will have rubbed over time and inevitably ended up weakening and shearing the wire flex. My Windom antenna has been in use since 2004 and has served me well, I will repair it sometime. Today I fancied a change so I gathered some wire, insulators, a ferrite ring and a dipole centre which I used to construct a single band 80m dipole. I started with two equal lengths of wire about 66 foot long which I soldered a couple of lugs to each end. I then found a short length of 50 ohm lightweight coax cable and wrapped it around the ferrite ring with 4 turns, following with a coaxial wound in a choke just below the ferrite. Once complete I placed one leg of the dipole approximately 25 feet up and hooked it to the top of my F23 H antenna mast. I attached one insulated end to a telegraph pole and the other insulated end attached to a lower pole at the b