Biography

Hi All

And welcome to my QRZ Page.....

My name is Ken Goodacre, My QTH is the Wirral Peninsula which is located the Northwest of the UK,

After studying in night classes to gain my Amateur Radio Licence in 1996 courtesy of my local radio club Wirral Amateur Radio Society Society (WARS) and then sitting and passing the City & Guilds written examination I obtained my Class 'B' callsign M1AVZ, I then joined a CW evening class on the 2 meter band Monday to Friday 7-8pm for 10 months, I was ready to sit and take the CW 12 Words Per Minute Morse Test for which I passed and obtained my Class 'A' full British Amateur Radio callsign M0BQH which I have now held since 1997,

My preferred modes of communication are SSB and CW upto 20WPM, I operate on all the allocated Amateur HF bands but can be found mainly on the HF 40 Meter band (7MHz), HF 30 Meter band (10MHz), HF 20 Meter band (14MHz) as well as the HF 15 Meter band (21MHz)

My QTH antenna for HF Bands is a G5RV half 52ft wire inverted V Antenna (garden only permits) I am also currently experimenting with Off Centre UNUN Verticals attached to a 10 Metre long fibreglass pole using EFHW UNUNS with successful results.

The selection of transceivers I use are an ICOM IC706mk1 which i have owned since getting my M0BQH callsign, it's still as loyal as the day i bought it and mostly used for CW contacts but i also have an ESSB audio system connected to it for broadcast quality voice transmissions too,

I am also using an ICOM IC718 which in my opinion are built like tanks, Very robust and is a great transceiver, I have this connected up to an SP20 speaker and the receiving audio is fantastic, it does have limited controls but it still gets the job done even when working DX, I actually liked it that much I purchased another one, I'm also using an Xiegu G90 Transceiver for portable use and for holiday use alongside an EFHW and OCF Antennas, A Yaesu FT450d for general use, A Yaesu FTDX3000 Transceiver which is used for mainly monitoring with the waterfall display but does get used on transmit occasionally and my latest but not last edition to my collection is a Yaesu FT710 AESS transceiver, One cannot have enough transceivers lol

I operate on power upto 100 watts but mainly use lower power levels from 5 to 50 Watts when DX conditions permitting.

I have a keen interest in building antennas,
Upto date I have built a j-pole from 15mm Copper pipe, a Slim Jim from 450mm Ladderline, a Slot Cube from 15mm Copper Pipe, a 1/4 Wave Ground Plane using an SO239, a Moxon using 20mm PVC Conduit for the frame and 1.5mm electricsl wire, a Tape Measure 3 Element Yagi and finally a T2LT (Tuned Transmission Line Trap) aka a flowerpot antenna which I made from a length of RG58 Coax, All of the above antennas have had successful results on either the 2metre VHF or 70cm's UHF band.

I use a dedicated 4 meter band transceiver for which I have made three separate antennas to experiment with which are a Delta loop, a 450ohm Ladderline Slim Jim and a wire dipole,

I also operate on the 6 meter, 2 meter and 70cm bands and can be found on these frequencies when I am building and testing my homebrew antennas,

I would highly recommend anyone to have a go at making at least one of the above homebrew antennas for any band of your choice,

Working DX around the world is a pleasure and an achievement with the basic antenna setups i try to use in my shack.

My Grid Square Locator is IO83MI

My IOTA Reference is EU120

My CQ Zone is Number 14

My ITU Zone is Number 27


I am a registered member with Wirral Amateur Radio Society (WARS) https://g3nwr.co.uk/

I am a registered member of the International Morse Preservation Society 'FISTS', They can be found at www.fists.co.uk

My membership number is 22484

I am a subscribed member of the G-QRP Club which is devoted to low power communications and receive a quarterly SPRAT Magazine, They can be found at https://gqrp.com

My Membership Number is 15648

I am a lifetime member of the Straight Key Century Club AKA SKCC, for further information about the activities, Awards and Membership they can be found at https://www.skccgroup.com//

My Membership Number is 28746

I am a registered member on Echolink. www.echolink.org

I have access to Hubnet, Peanut, D-Star and Free DMR via my Android Phone and PC

My DMR ID is 2350223

I am a registered member on Zello.(NR044) https://zello.com

I am a registered member of the RSGB. https://rsgb.org

I preferably accept confirmation via my logbook on qrz.com or via RSGB for a qsl card or alternatively electronic qsl cards via https://eqsl.cc

My Email contact : ken.goodacre.68@gmail.com

Live Wirral Cam : https://wirralcam.org

Thanks for looking at my page, I look forward to having contact with you in the future.

73 til next time.

M0BQH.