Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

   Some of you will remember me getting the Arrow Mk2 antenna back in 2007 and as you can see it still does me a very fine job. I still enjoy the QRP satellite work which is always a surprise on how well it actually works. Tonight's efforts paid off as I cracked the pile up and worked two stations through the International Space Station. The ISS has its FM repeator active for radio amateurs to work each other on 145.990 FM up (Transmit with a CTSS tone 67hz) and 437.800 FM down (Receive frequency) Good luck if your going to have a go yourself. 73 thanks for following my madness. For more on ISS, FM and SSB Satellites as well as weather satellites check out all my Satellite adventures in one place. This image was received this morning at my shack in Baildon Yorkshire from the NOAA-18 Weather Satellite using WXtoIMG to decode. *Thanks to WRAASE Electronic for the stable free download version and Kepler update info and program. All working great for me!

Today has been a good day for ham radio here at the shack. The DX has been coming in really nicely throughout the 20, 17 and 15m bands. I made some great DX into China, Indonesia, South America and as seen in the video Japan. The QSO with Kazuhito JH3NGD was a really good example of having a decent QSO with fantastic stable band conditions, I really enjoyed the oppertunity and from the sounds of it Kazuhito san enjoyed looking at my old classic japanese motorcycles seen on my QRZ page. Kazuhito had some intresting pictures of his amazing set up which I also enjoyed looking through whist we made QSO. I hope to hear Kazuhito JH3NGD again soon a great operator from Japan, Thank You for the QSO!. My next great QSO tonight was into Mildura, Victoria, Australia with a nice chat with Moz VK3CWB exchanging a 5/5 report. Moz is located spot on for the hobhby with plenty of space and has a very nice antenna. Thanks Moz! It has also been a typical Yorkshire day regarding the WX but we

My satellite activity has proven to be popular so I decided to hit the record button whilst trying my luck on the SSB satellites JO-97 and RS-44. I got into JO-97 easy enough but it was a quiet pass regarding working anyone. It was a bit noisy on the downlink but a good signal for sure. I used the BHI DSP filter on my external speaker to kill the noise, it works well on the SSB birds. RS-44 was awsome, I had a decent run and worked some great operators during the pass. SSB Satellites provide great DX oppertunities with a reasonable portion of bandwith to allow multiple stations to make a qso at the same time unlike the FM sats. A bit trickier but worth the effort. Good luck and thanks for the visit.

I still have a go at recieving NOAA weather Satellite signals on 137 MHz. There are just three currently operational which still provide a decent image of the Earth. The decoding is done with the same software as before which is WXtoImg. I use a program to update the satellite position called Kepler update which WXtoImg reads and keeps up to date for accurate decoding. The WXtoImg program used to update within the program but that stopped being supported so a add on method as mentioned must be used. Anyway hope you enjoyed the decode and image.

Well I was surprised to see how long ago I last posted on my blog. It has been a busy few months with time passing quickly.  As for the bands they have been on and off but overall I would have to go for more of the on with some pretty cool DX  I have as usual been making the most of the great outdoors with the odd attempt of operating both mobile and whilst walking. My next plan is to take my FT-817 and have a go at some long wire QRP. I might get an opportunity over the next few weeks as it's the end of the college year and I am off for a month.  Space communication has still been keeping me occupied as has ADSB aircraft tracking and of course I am active daily on the HF bands. This coming weekend on Saturday 22 July at 20:00 UTC a few YouTube hams are getting together including myself and plan to break the 40m band by simultaneously live streaming on 40 meters. This has been organised by James M0GCQ and is a great opportunity to try

Today's ISS activity from OR4ISS on board making contact with a secondary school located in France via ground station  ON4ISS. Reasonable reception at my end with my FT-847 and Innovantenna - loop fed 6 element X YAGI on G-5500 Rotator. Saint Anatoile secondary school is a French private catholic school located in a rural area in the department of Jura (258,000 population), Burgundy, France Comté region. In conjunction with hosting this ARISS contact, the school has developed a 2-year "ARISS contact" project to provide students a real opportunity to discover and understand an environment that is unknown to most of them. The objectives of the project are to deepen the scientific and linguistic knowledge of the students through workshops, and various STEM projects incorporated in their curriculum. All students participated in the project (about 100 pupils aged 11 to 14)..The workshops covered topics that included: an introduction to amateur radio, Mo

Greetings from the shack of M0YKS, I hope the New year has started well for you. I have been active on most bands from 80m through to 70cms. DX on 10m has been awesome so has 12, 15 and the other HF bands, my confirmed DXCC is now at 155 on QRZ using SSB phone mode. Hopefully this year I will improve the logged DXCC but either way I am enjoying the chase.  I have also been active on the Satellite bands working mostly into Europe on both SSB and the FM birds.  Today I thought I would have a go at working a reasonably new Satellite CAS 5A also known as FO-118. I haven't quite setup my radio steering software SATpc32 correctly with the Doppler correction known as a Doppler sqf file yet, so I had to manually change the downlink frequency but still managed a few nice QSOs. The new Satellite was built by CAMSAT and has a FM V/u repeater as well as V/u and interestingly a H/u linear transponder on board for amateur radio use.  If you don't quite understand what it all mean

  Almost that time of year again and it sure feels like it too. Very cold here in Yorkshire England at the moment and I am looking forward to the holidays which are approaching fast. This year I get to enjoy two weeks away from the workplace which means there will be plenty of time to fire up the FTDX101MP and make some merry DX.  Talking of DX..... This evening was decent on HF as I worked some nice DX up on 10m - KP4PR and LU5FC and then down on 20m I was able to work TO9W, K9NEM and ZF2OO with some lovely signal reports exchanged. All SSB voice, using 200w barefoot from the 101MP  hooked up to my trusty  Cushcraft MA5B multi band yagi antenna. I will catch up with you again soon and hopefully catch you on the Air over the holiday period. I may try a couple of live streams in and among the festive fun. In the meantime SEASONS GREETINGS and Have fun!  

What a great contest it was! The bands opened up and the DX came through a treat. I worked plenty of stations and although I have done better in the past I did manage to work 18 Zones and 74 Countries over the weekend. My young apprentice M7ELC did an absolute fantastic job and bagged herself 14 Zones and got into China as well as many other exciting DX Countries World wide. The new radio in the shack performed flawlessly and the reception was second to none. My only problem was getting Elsie M7ELC to shift over and let me have a go lol. This years highlights if you have not seen it already. CQ WW SSB 2022 Thanks to all involved, our logs have been uploaded and we both had a blast. See everyone in the next DX Contest and also next years CQ WW. 73 Good DX M0YKS and M7ELC

We all enjoy Ham radio for many reasons, after all there is so much to try out with our great hobby. One of my interests is working DX and I have always enjoyed the hunt for new places that I have never made contact with. When I say made contact I am referring to operating with a microphone, radio and antenna. I not particularly interested in digital modes which made me decide to class my successful DXCC entries as voice QSO only. I started off shouting on a President Grant back in the 80s and now manage to shout a little less on my Ham radio equipment. So why change 🤣, anyhow my DXCC total using my Yorkshire sounding phonetics has got me 150 confirmed DXCC since I started the log back in 2004. I'm almost half way there 🤣 and only 22 years so far, hopefully I'll be there sometime, but hey I like to talk. To celebrate the halfway mark I treated the shack to an official QRZ DX World Award. I don't usually bother but thought I might as well have a little reminder to help to

The past few weeks of superb band conditions has meant that I could see just how good this radio is. I have spent most evenings up on 10 and 15m working DX and it's been absolutely buzzing with activity. The FTDX101MP is totally awsome on all of the HF bands with an exceptional quality receive capability. I still love my FT-1000mp but the noise does not disappear the same as it does on the 101mp. Infact the 101mp is incredibly good at pretty much everything including putting out a very nice sounding audio. I still haven't tried the Heil GM5 microphone on it as the M70 YAESU desk mic seems to be very good  the reports coming in are pleasing. The M70 came free with the radio as an incentive to buy. It is a nice microphone and I'll be continuing with it for now. I set the eq up with it and thanks to Jay W4ZXT I seem to have configured it to suit my voice. I followed Jay's YouTube video audio/eq settings (thanks bro). So with a few weeks of playing I have soon g

  A little after midnight just before I headed off to bed, I thought to myself "just one more go". Wow what perfect timing as I had a lengthy chat with NA1SS International Space Station Commander Kjell.   I was using my Yaesu FT-847 Earth station with the 30 element 435-437 Oscar Sat antenna and 10 Element LFA Cross Yagi for 145 MHz, driven by my Yaesu G-5500 Control/rotator. The amazing part for me is that I called out CQ once and was answered by ISS Commander Kjell using the call NA1SS. Nobody else in Europe was about so after an initial QSO and signal exchange of a real 5/9+ we had a decent rag chew lasting 5-8 mins as the ISS soared by overhead. Commander Kjell told me he has never been as active and is really enjoying working stations back on Earth from the ISS Columbus Module. I went to bed like an excited child awaiting Christmas and I am still buzzing about it now the next morning. Keep a listen out during the late passes as you may get a pleasant surprise!

After serous consideration and a few sleepless nights I decided to part with some hard earned cash and upgrade my HF Transceiver. I am totally satisfied with the new purchase and have been playing all week on an evening after work. The YAESU FTDX101MP is a fabulous bit of kit words can not describe the buzz I have felt and experienced so far. I already worked plenty of DX - Brazil, Falkland Islands, and Indonesia as well plenty of short skip contacts. All made barefoot without the amplifier, the radio puts out 200w so I will be getting rid of both GI7BT amplifiers. The reception is absolutely incredible, I reallly can see the technology improvements which have superseeded my trusty FT-1000mp field. Its like chalk and cheese or day and night.  Hope to catch you on the air soon using my new setup.  As you can see I have a much tidier setup with a few old school components now taking a well deserved rest. My FT-1000 is now on standby. 

As we all now are getting used to being spoiled with regular band openings I have been making the most of my daily commute to work. Most mornings I make at least one QSO whilst mobile on the 20m band. Today was very good as I managed three QSO along the way. The band was very busy with DX and short skip signals coming up and down to the trusty YAESU FT-857. The past months morning mobiling has brought me some good surprises as I keep hearing the west coast of The USA. I managed to bust a pileup into Oregon which I was very pleased with as I ran about 80 watts into the mono band MALDOL HFC 20 antenna which is still effective after over 15 years of daily mobile use.  Solar cycle 25 is definitely interesting so far, especially early morning mobile, by lunch I have noticed a lull with just a couple of signals and then its back wide open again at my finish time.  My home-based shack is slightly down on action as the pleasant WX on an evening has caught my attention just lately b