Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

  As we move into the last couple of months of 2020 which has been defiantly a year to remember for obvious reasons, we can look forward to getting back down to the lower HF bands such as 80m. I really enjoyed the winter DX last year and made plenty of good qso across to USA, Canada, Caribbean and South America whilst operating on the 80m band. This year I have the 40m/80m home brew Fan Dipole which has already proven to be an awesome asset to my HF station. For those of you that have been coming back to my call on the regular YouTube live streams you have already sampled its performance h.i. Thanks for the super qso's guys, I look forward to catching you all again over the weekend this coming Saturday evening about 10.30pm local (21.30 utc). So, the homebrew Fan Dipole worked out well for me. I must admit I am quite impressed with it, I have some brand new SOTA beam wire reels in my possession which at some point will be used to build a brand new replacement which will be cut to t

 Hi everyone I hope all is well? It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted so thought I'd drop by and update you of some of the activities I have been getting on with. First I will start with the card I received this morning confirming a great qso with ON3ONX who was worked via SSB Satellite XW-2A.  Over the past fortnight I spent a number of evenings trying my hardest to get into the new ISS repeater, I have probably tried around about 50 passes which I would say out that I made a qso 5 times giving me a 10% success rate. At first I thought I had an issue at my end but soon realised that the majority of stations in the UK and N.W Europe that were getting in each time (the same stations) are in fact running higher power than myself. This of course is quite unnecessary as well as out of order lol. I guess some people are so desperate to make it their own personal repeater hi hi that 300w is acceptable. I cranked it up to 50w and still struggled and at one point went the wh

 Its been just over a month since I purchased the COM 232B antenna rotator interface.  The neat little box sits nicely on my G-5500 control unit and is hooked up to my Windows 10 PC running Orbitron and WiSP DDE tracking software. The auto tracking of the antenna has made making a contact into the satellites much easier allowing me to focus on the reception and uplink signal out from my FT-847. I am looking at the next step which is configuration of the cat control for auto frequency doppler correction but at first glance its a bit of a faff and is not something I have the time to commit to setting it up properly at the moment. However, I spent a couple of hours last night trying to get it functioning on Orbitron but had no success so far. I more than likely will have to try something else if I want the auto frequency control, possibly GPredict.  I made a new video of my satellite operation which features CW, SSB and FM communication. Best 73 from the family and myself and we will catc

 The FlightAware setup that I received from my good friend Pat W1DUK recently has been performing really well with the "Cantenna" 1/4 wave vertical antenna for 1090MHz. The set up comprises of a raspberry Pi with a FlightAware SD card and a FlightAware SDR USB Dongle, into a 1090 Mhz Antenna. Today I was up early and with a freshly fabricated bracket I managed to clip the Cantenna up high in the sky on the top of the mast. The reception footprint has now become up to 200 miles and possibly further with a greatly improved omni-directional pattern. I am in the first couple of hours of testing and have seen the number of aircraft increasing from an average of 10 to 20 + aircraft at once being tracked. A great success so far! A screen capture taken with my first go using the "Cantenna" 1/4 wave vertical mounted in the top window inside the house A screen capture of much improved activity and reception range taken with the "Cantenna" 1/4 wave vertical mounted o

  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.