Biography

Hi, I'm Ray. I was first licenced in the 1960s with the call, G8CUH. It wasn't many years before I took the morse exam at HM Coastguard North Foreland, call sign GNF. That was a happy day!

My HF radio is a Kenwood TS570D. I have a KW107 Supermatch but I'm now using a Cap. Co. Electronics SPC300 ATU which is rather nice as it covers top band. This feeds a 135 foot doublet up at 30 feet fed with 300 ohm balanced line. I'm active on 40 and 80 metres and the 5Mc/s frequencies. As my doublet is 135 feet overall, 80 metres is highest band it should work on. However, with a decent balanced ATU, it does quite well on 160 metres. I also use a CB aerial for 10 metres so I’m hoping for an opening soon.

I’m also on GB3WO from time to time, the 70cms repeater located in Worthing. I monitor 2 metres when I can, using a Yaesu FT1500M and a home-brew dipole in the attic. Not much of an aerial but it’s fine for local chatting. Now that GB3BR is back on the air, I’ll be listening there from time to time.

I’ve just put up a Watson W50 2 metres - 70cms aerial so I hope to have a few more contacts on 70cms. The base of the aerial is 40 feet above the ground, up on the chimney. Should be good for contacts over a good few miles, I hope. I’ve also just purchased an AnyTone AT-778VU 2/70 dual band transceiver. For the price, it’s a great little radio.

As I hadn’t had a CW contact for around 35 years, I decided to brush up on my Morse Code. I’ve started bashing the key on the HF bands, mainly on 80 metres and QRS at the moment. I recently bought a Marconi CR100/2 which I've installed in the radio room. I haven't owned one of these since I was in my teens, so I'm having fun with it. My other old receiver is an Eddystone 910/1 which is great for the HF broadcast bands. I’m also a member of FISTS CW Club.

When I'm not on the HF bands, I repair and restore 1940s vintage domestic valve radios. Sorry, I don’t repair amateur radio gear. You can check out my web site here...

http://www.radio-workshop.co.uk/g4nsj-amateur-radio