Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

  Well guys I have had a busy few months playing radio and staying safe at the same time! I am back at work now and decided to post a few of the videos that I recently created! I hope everyone is safe and healthy and if you haven't seen these yet enjoy! Operating a Yaesu FT-847 on the Satellite bands using VHF and SSB. A quick DX catch up with Kurt in Trinidad. Beautiful signal as always! Upgrade made to the Diamond F-23 high gain 2M band mono band vertical antenna On my way back from Burnley in Lancashire over the hill tops!                                                              IOTA 2020 Warm Up                                                 A quick pass from a couple of FM Satellites M0YKS mobile ham radio FT-857 DX Machine Out and about in the DX Machine with the family. We visited some great local countryside and played radio in between. Total distance travelled was 80 miles round trip.                                             Ham Radio Communication  - RS0ISS - M0YK

This morning I was pleased to receive an email form Kwon -HL2-0112B from South Korea. Kwon had received my signal whilst I worked OZ/DB4ST  up on the 20m band. I will be writing out a QSL card for Kwon shortly, thanks for the report Kwon! 73 to South Korea hope to make it to your SWL station again soon Thank You!

Messing around in the shack late night DXing paid off again,  I caught a couple of nice QSO just now into Montserrat and the USA. First I worked Micheal W3MLJ operating on a remote station he was 5/9. After that I worked Frankie VP2MNI who as usual was booming in with a solid S9 from Plymouth Montserrat. Both stations were worked on the 20m band. Thanks for the QSO guys!

I had tried my best to avoid any changes to this well established old blog of mine, but due to constant changes such as templates and securer viewing and privacy settings I have been over ridden by blogger and the whole blog has had a makeover. This happened of course without my blessings or consent but I suppose It was inevitable as more and more people bin their PCs and browse the web on phones, tablets and I-pads. I myself do use all of the above apart from I pad due to costs lol But! I also still do most things on my desktop Windows 10 PC and have no plans to get rid of it! So, here it is.....Bloggers supposedly better template which is pretty basic without the cluster and ISS tracking and of course very well visited flag/site meter no longer with us "Doh" Thanks To Everyone that has passed through since 2006 and hopefully will still continue to do so! Check back soon I should have got over the shock by then and be posting HAM Radio Epic Content lol. Best 73 S

You may have missed me on the Satellite bands as my antenna required a bit of maintenance which I managed to get sorted yesterday! It was not my favourite pass time but all went well and I was back on the satellite bands later that same day. I made a little mini Satellite series on video which starts with PT1 - a antenna test and demo - Moves on to PT2 - How to make an SSB Satellite QSO - Ending with Part 3 which was an actual QSO Via an SSB satellite with Peter 2M0SQL. You may find this useful if your new or thinking of getting into the amateur satellite bands: PT1 - Satellite Antenna Maintenance PT2 - How to work Amateur Radio SSB Satellites PT3 - XW - 2A Space BIRD Amateur Satellite QSO with 2M0SQL - M0YKS

Ham Radio Poems by M3TLL Louise There's a voice inside the static And it's calling out CQ CQ DX is anyone there? He wants to speak to you You've set up your antenna You're receiving loud and clear You're going to call out to the voice That you can loudly hear You shout out your callsign He says he can hear you fine Receiving you above the noise Your signal's 5 and 9 You exchange all of your info Find out what you want to know Say 73s and 88s QSL via the bureau A new one for 2020 QRZ? Keep calling I hear you in the noise Conditions might be changing As I can hear your voice I know it is frustrating Keep trying you'll get through I can hear your voice in there  As I call CQ It doesn't matter where you are I just like the conversation  So keep calling, hopefully We'll have good propagation  I want to get you in my log And to hear what you've got to say So please keep trying to get through Point your antenna this way

Last week I had a slight misfortune with my GI7B valve amplifier. As I was coming to the end of a session in the shack I had made the mistake of operating without the cooling fan on full speed which resulted in a resistor overheating whilst tuning up during a change of band. I ran a bit too much anode current during a tune up which combined with the lack of cooling was too much to get away with. The followin day, I took a careful approach and inspected the amp thoroughly for any other damage. The resistor, a 2watt 1ohm resistor was easy enough to replace and once I completed the repair and replaced the fuse I was back up and running. Whilst I had the amplifier apart I took the time to clean out the accumulated dust and also got to know exactly how it all functioned. Simple enough and very well constructed.

The past few weeks have flown by, I have continued working online with my college students and staff which has been very busy and productive. On an evening I have made the most of the DX opportunities and managed some great DX most nights. Check out the past couple of weeks log entries...... Lots of Great DX....Plenty of decent into G conditions also..... I have been catching my DX action on video and live stream on both my Ham Radio YouTube Channel and Facebook Group Ham Radio Operator Live Streams . You can catch a couple of the videos here: The bands are certainly picking up late on in the evening at the time I like to be active and I keep getting some great Stations in the log. I have also enjoyed meeting a lot of you guys on Facebook and getting to know you all a bit better. Thanks! Have a great weekend Catch you soon 73! M0YKS Simon

Hi everyone hope your enjoying the sunshine and if your reading from across the globe heading into the winter months I hope you are also having a good day. Its the hottest day of the year here in Baildon W.Yorkshire UK. I awoke this morning in my garden camping which was fun with my family, shortly after I was active on the Satellite bands trying to make a QSO. I did not make QSO this time but did get my signal into XW-2B quite nicely. If you want to see the way I use CW to help locate my own signal on the down-link satellite band watch the video. I find this is the easiest way of getting a good up-link to the satellites that operate linear SSB transponders which in simple terms means: TX-UP On 435.100 LSB &  RX-Down 145.740 USB. Most SSB Satellites operate with both USB and LSB. The frequency is for XW-2B not all SSB Sats.

What an exciting weekend Hope you're all well, as you can see I have been having fun with the family watching the launch followed by camping in the garden.

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ONLINE! Just a quickie to say how grateful I am of the online company and friendships especially in lock-down when we are not able to socialise. Thanks for watching the YouTube Videos and also joining me on the live stream on Facebook. I cant believe how many of you out there are coming on board! Its truly fantastic, best 73 have a great day! See you all on the next video or stream. Simon M0YKS.

Hope you're all well and safe during our World changing pandemic. On a positive I have been keeping my students from college engaged in online studies and experimenting with online streaming as well as using video to assist my learners. I haven't done much if any live streaming previously so as you can imagine it's been quite good fun trying it out. Before I was a licensed ham I played music on a local broadcast station for 20 years and I have all my music as well as some new stuff. So I hit the decks and tried some live streaming on Facebook to a few friends. I must admit I have enjoyed it a bit too much lol. For information I play reggae. I used the DJ setup to familiarise myself with Facebook live and see how I could get a clear and quality sounding audio with a view to trying it all in the shack. This turned out fairly cool and I have since live streamed my station on air working DX. The next thing that I thought I would have a look at was a group page to put th

The past few evenings have been awesome up on 20 meters and also 17 meters has been good with reliable openings into the USA, Caribbean and South America. I also heard VK3MO two nights running and tonight I squeezed a quick QSO in with Ian before he had to do some work over there down under. My log shows some great DX over the past week all of which have taken place late in the evening. VK3MO 2020-05-04 20m SSB QF22fr Australia FG4SO 2020-05-04 20m SSB FK96GH68 Guadeloupe VE3CRG 2020-05-03 20m SSB FN15wc Canada K1JB 2020-05-03 20m SSB FN43up United States K1TIG/M 2020-05-03 20m SSB United States FG4SO 2020-05-03 20m SSB FK96GH68 Guadeloupe AK1W 2020-05-03 20m SSB FN42eb United States NP4ET 2020-05-03 20m SSB FK68ol Puerto Rico 8P5AA 2020-05-03 20m SSB GK03fd Barbados 8P6NW 2020-05-03 20m SSB GK03ed Barbados 8P6NW 2020-05-01 17m SSB GK03ed Barbados 8P5AA 2020-05-01 17m SSB GK03fd Barbados PJ4DX 2020-05-01 17m SSB FK52ud Bonaire CO8LY 2020-05-01 17m SSB FL20ca Cuba

Its been a while since my last post which is quite strange as I have had plenty of time to blog but not really been in the blogging mood, probably because of the world pandemic which we are all suffering. As it is for most the way of life has changed considerably at the moment but thankfully we are all holding out well and keeping healthy. The radio however has been in use and I have been busy making DX on 80, 40, 20, 15 and even 10 meters. My new fan dipole pictured below is performing spot on with great reports into the US on 40 and 80 meters. I thought a close up of the centre might help you see how easy it is to construct this amazing performing 80/40m antenna. My Fan Dipole is 1:1 to 1:3 across both 80 and 40m without any ATU required I definitely should have built one years ago! With such a good result regarding the 40/80M Fan Dipole I was back playing around with the Hustler 6BTV. This excellent 6 band trap vertical has been subjected to many storms over the last 15

I have been wanting to try something new for 40m and today I decided to add two elements cut for 40 meters to my 80 meter mono band dipole making it a FAN Dipole. The end result for today was, the 40/80m Fan dipole is resonant without an ATU on both bands and works very well on my first test. I put a video together operating on 80m using 50 watts during a RSGB 80m contest. I wanted to be sure that the extra elements would not have any detrimental effects on the performance on 80m. I found that the low power did not matter the dipole is still working really well on 80m. I checked it on 40m and I heard signals slightly stronger with the new Fan dipole over the vertical. Japan was coming in very well and later I made a nice QSO using the Fan dipole on 40m with VE9FI - Russ over in Canada. A good result so far! Sizes of each leg is 80m - 2 x 67 ft lengths and 40m - 2 X 33 ft lengths. Here is the video which will help you to pass 20 minutes, Stay Safe! Stay In! Save Lives!