Biography

I was born in London in 1950s. My late father was an avid Short Wave Listener and built his own valve receivers to start with, so I got an interest in radio and electronics from that. I moved to the Isle of Wight in 1960s with my parents.
My QTH is Cowes, and have been here since first licensed. I am 1km from the sea in a residential area about 50m ASL. WAB : SZ49 I do not have a clear take-off from NE to SE as my antennas are below nearby house roofs. I used CB in 1980s and got my Amateur Radio license in 1990 as G7GXK (UK Class-B VHF and up only). I started on 2m FM, then in 1991 got a Kenwood TS680s and a few months later a 6m 6 element yagi that I still use today.
I was very active on 6m and joined UKSMG #2131. In 1993 I started using Packet a lot on 2m, this continued until 1995 when the "Internet" started!
In 2002 I obtained the call M3ERI which allowed 10W on HF. I used M3ERI on HF until 2003 then after that the regulations changed and I was allowed to use HF with G7GXK.
I have not been very active in recent years but in 2020 I started to try WSPR and then in June 2021 after obtaining a PC to Radio interface I started using FT8.
I find Pskreporter useful for seeing where I am being heard.
I upload logs to LoTW, Clublog, eQSL fairly often after I have been active. I recently spent some time converting my old logs from 1991 onwards so they are now uploaded too (although I had a mix up with date format - month and day got swapped in some cases). I was involved with a local Amateur Radio Club G3IW but it is now inactive. For several years I also helped with Marconi related commemorative stations and used the call GB4JAM.
Paper QSL cards.
I have not sent any to the RSGB bureau for many years as I have not been active until 2021. Recently I have received quite a few cards via bureau so I am in the process of getting QSL cards sorted. I will update here when sent. I prefer LoTW and eQSL.

SWL QSLs.
I welcome SWL reports but please tell me my signal as received by you and who I was in QSO with. Your antenna information would also be useful.

FT8 - I prefer if you do not call on my TX frequency. Many times I find I cannot complete a QSO even though your signal is strong.

GR7GXK used for King Charles III coronation until 30 June 2023.

GQ7GXK used for national mourning for Queen Elizabeth II until 19 September 2022

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Antennas
1. 50MHz 6ele double driven log yagi by Elite 4.2m boom, 10 dBd gain 6m AGL (main photo)
2. 28MHz 4 ele yagi (cut down Lemm D4) 4m boom 6m AGL
The yagi is on top of a home made fold down pole mast with Kenpro K250 rotator. Initially it was 8m high and I could fit a second yagi on same pole.
This was too much load for the rotator and tilt system so now I only fit one yagi and swap between 1. 2. or 9. The main rotator pole broke in a storm a few years ago so now Yagi is only 6m AGL.
3. 2m/6m/70cm vertical 2.4m tall 3/6.2/8.6 dBi gain Comet GP-15 at 6m AGL
4. 144MHz 2m 4 element cubical quad Jaybeam Q4_2m 1.5m boom 9.5dBd gain 3.8m AGL manual rotation. Not in use at the moment.
5. 14-29MHz 90cm dia mag loop Cap Co AMA 3 at 1.5m AGL. Not in use at the moment.
6. 14MHz 1/4 wave vertical. Made from old CB vertical with base loading coil removed. On a 4m pole with 3 sloping radials. 4.5m AGL. Taken down as SWR went high and I cannot get base apart to check connections. Not in use. Replaced by 16.
7. 21 MHz 1/2 wave wire dipole sloper, top 6.8m AGL. Replaced by 8 on 20/8/2021.
8. 18MHz and 21MHz 1/2 wave wire dipole sloper, top 6.8m, bottom 2.5m AGL put up 20/8/2021 in place of 21Mhz version. Unfortunately when on 21MHz the RF gets back to my Radio and PC so I don't use it much. Not in use.
9. 2m 10 element yagi 6m AGL put up 26/8/2021, taken down 8/9/2021.
10. 1.8 to 10MHz. 30m end fed long wire 7m AGL at highest. The wire (16/0.2 PVC covered) broke at mid support so is no longer available.
11. 1/4 wave 24.9MHz vertical with 3 radials 3m AGL. Put up 7/10/2021 taken down 12/11/22.
12. Inverted V fan dipole. Fibreglass fishing pole on top of pole from 11 as centre support about 8m high. 24/0.2 PVC covered wires for 30, 40, 60m. Poor match on 30m and 40m. In use.
13. 70cm HS-GP714 14 step coax co-linear. 10 dBi Base 2m AGL. Mainly used for APRS Rx.
14. 70cm 18 ele yagi. Jaybeam PBM18/70 14dBd gain. For APRS experiments.
15. 6m half wave horizontal dipole mounted on pole holding up 12 3m AGL. Used for WSPR 1/3 to 9/5/24. Not in use.
16. 21MHz 1/4 wave vertical with sloping ground plane wires. Made from old CB antenna with base coil bypassed. On pole that had 6 from 1st Feb 2025. It has useable SWR on 18Mhz and 24Mhz as well. In use.

Transmitters
FDK Multi-FX 25W FM only 2m not used now
Kenwood TS680s 100W HF, 10W 6m (from 1991) backup only
Icom IC706 100W HF + 6m,10W 2m (from 1996) used all the time
Zachtek WSPR desktop transmitter 1.8-14MHz and 18-50MHz 200mW (2 units).
Receivers
SDRPlay RSP2
Interface
Microham DXP
APRS : OLED LoRa32 ESP32 V2.1 0.96" 433MHZ Wifi Bluetooth Development Board