Biography

Active on 70cm since 1983, 4m since 1987, occasionally 6m, 23cm, 24cm ATV


I first became aware of Amateur Radio when as a young boy in the mid 1960's I happened upon a Heathkit catalogue.

My interest was nurtured by my school science teacher, Arthur Vest, in the late 1960's. I think he had been a Petty Officer in the navy and would often bring old valve radios and ex-military radios into school for some of us to tinker with. To this day, I do not know how I survived this period as there were no health and safety rules then, just raw mains and common sense (or lack of it).

Interest in Amateur Radio was further enhanced by my good friend and ex TV engineer colleague Colin, G4CAY, who introduced me to the VHF side of the hobby in the mid 1970's.

I finally got around to obtaining a license in 1981 after a short period of self tuition.

I prefer to build my own equipment but find it has become quite difficult to find once very common components. For example, I had to sell one of my kidneys on the black market to enable me to purchase two very expensive German made 65pf air spaced trimmers (Tronser) which can handle rf power. Running out of body parts.

Current photograph above: My first 100% scratch-built 1255MHz ATV exciter, 1983. I used insulating tape, a steel ruler and scalpel to measure/cut the tape for the copper masking/etching. The slots for the through-board capacitors and through-board plates were made with a miniature drill and needle files. My eyesight was considerably better then. When tested on the spectrum analyser of G4KKF (Jim) the output was found to be exceptionally clean.

When I was younger, I used finger nail varnish as a PCB etching resist for earlier projects, but later decided against this after my mother one day asked loudly "what colour nail varnish do you want?" in the chemists. My face was as red as the nail varnish.

Other interests:

Steam railways (was a regular steam locomotive Fireman ont North Yorkshire Moors Railway, unpaid voluntry work but the most rewarding job I ever had. (examined and passed out by Roy, G3TMC who by coincidence was an NYMR inspector at the time).

Ambisonic B Format/UHJ surround sound (properly engineered, future-proof, with height, 3D surround sound)

Traditional film photography (http://www.apug.org/forum/home)

Cats, Daisy and (Bramble RIP)

Feeding my local birds



This station fondly remembers the following 'local' silent keys:

G2BCY, G3AWL, G3TDV, G3VRP, G4FOP, G4FOQ, G4HBR, G4LEI, G3TMC.