Biography

From as far back as I can remember, I have always been interested in electronics. At about the age of 11 my parent bought me my first electronics lab kit which enable me to make flashing lights, buzzers and a 'cat's whisker' (diode) radio receiver.

At the age of 12 I joined the Air Training Corp (ATC) where I was introduced to the joys of 'radio' by civilian instructors Allan Barraclough, G3UDO and Alan Hobbs, G8GOJ. Allan later went on to become an ATC Pilot Office. Whilst at the ATC I was taught to operate on HF using a Racal RA17 receiver, a home-brew AM/CW, valve transmitter, designed and built by Allan (G3UDO) called a Cadet 60. We also had a fully operational T1154 and R1155 setup, which we also used occassionally (I often wonder what happened to it). On VHF we used to operate PYE Bantams, PYE Westminsters and a PYE Cambridge. I still remember our callsigns, RR33 on VHF and SK4B96 on HF.

Whilst in the ATC I built my first single transistor, crystal, QRP, HF, CW transmitter, which operated on one of the ATC frequencies and produced about 1 Watt.

I left school at 15 and went to work for Allan (G3UDO) as an apprentice engineer, working at Allweld Engineering (Altron Towers) building tiltover lattice towers and masts and trapped HF beam antennas. When I was 16 I joined the RAF as a Telecommunications Operator and learnt all sorts forms of communcations from voice, to telex, RTTY and CW up to 24 WPM (unfortunately after many years of not using it, I'm now very rusty!). I spent 7 year in the RAF on some very intresting posting around the World, including 6 months on Ascension Island and my final posting being Tactical Communications Wing (TCW) at RAF Brize Norton.

Upon leaving the RAF, I got a City & Guilds in electronics and went in to the IT sector and started learning new skills. I spent several years working as a field service engineer, repairing IT equipment to component level, before beginning to specialise on networks. My job took me to Libya for 4 years where I setup a new network in Benghazi for the Great Man-Made River project.

Returning to the UK in 1999 I started working for a new start-up company called Virgin Mobile, where I was initially the IT Manager, but then change my role to the Data Network Manager, specialising in the design and deployment of data network based around Cisco equipment. Virgin Mobile led to me taking a position in Virgin Media when the companies merged and I'm now a Network Consultant with Virgin Media.

Back in 1997 while on leave from Libya I went over to the USA to do an intesive 21-day flying course and obtained my Private Pilot's Licence to fulfill one of my other hobbies, which is flying. I now regularly fly my own aircraft, which is a Yakovlev YAK 52, which is a fully aerobatic, ex-Russian military training aircraft.

All this time, I have maintained an active interest in Amateur Radio and anything to do with radio. In early 2016 I started playing around with Raspberry Pi and SDR receivers, primarily to pickup aircraft ADS-B transmissions. This re-sparked my closer interest in radio and I started looking at finally getting my Amateur Radio licence and after a few weeks of study, I sat my Foundation Exam, scored 100% and here I am, finally licenced. I'm now studying for my Intermediate Exam, which I hope to take in the next monh or so (February 2017).

***UPDATE***

Well a couple of months later than anticipated, but this was due to other commitments, but I passed my Intermediate Exam on the 8th April. I'm extremely pleased and looking forward to getting my 2E0*** callsign and starting my study for my Advanced Exam and hopefully getting my Full Licence by the mid-2018.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

TX
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Kenwood TS590S
Icom 720A
Yaesu FT817ND
Yaesu FT8800R
Yaesu FT736R
Yaesu FT290R
QYT 8900
Baofeng UV5R
Baofeng UV82

RX
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Yaesu VR5000
Yaesu FRG7700
Yupiteru MVT7100