Biography

I have been a licenced since 1993 when I passed my first class Amateur Radio Operator's exam. My first call sign was restricted to VHF/UHF (ZR1SD -daughters initials) My first unrestricted call sign after passing the 13/wpm morse test was ZSIKD. (son's initials). I moved to the UK in 1994 and became G0VJD. I additionally currently hold the call sign ZS1CD. (my XYL's initials :) )

My love of radio and electronics comes from my dad, who was a Chemist, whose hobby (after mountaineering and deep sea fishing) was electronics, as in experimenting with accoustics for HI-FI loudspeakers boxes, crossover units (winding his own coils) and building valve amps. I remember my Dad and I, a young child, glued to a Collins receiver, listing on shortwave to the moon landings. His friend owned a radio shop and we frequently ended up with dumped valve radios after clients upgraded to transistor, to repair and mess around with. I nearly fell out of a very tall pine tree on several occassions while climbing up to get various wire aerials up about 100 feet and managed to electrocute myself a few times on the valve radios and quickly learnt where not to touch.

I enjoy many aspects of the hobby including DMR, however my favourite is ragchewing on HF ssb. When I have more time I intend to get my morse code back up to a decent speed.

My garden is is not large and I've squashed in a 100 foot endfed wire, up about 32 feet (supported each end by two SotaBeam poles), fed via a 9:1 unun.

Equipment

Icom IC-7000
Icom IC-7300
Elecraft KX2
Radioditty 2m/70cm DMR/Analog Handheld
Sigmalink