Biography

I’ve been involved with radio since I was 12. It started with low-power CB sets in Germany, AM only, back in the good old days. A friend later introduced me to SSB CB with a mighty 12 watts, and suddenly the whole world opened up. The fascination never really left me, even as a 24-year career in the British Army took over most of my time.

In 1995 I sat and passed the ARRL General licence exam, including the 15 WPM Morse requirement, and once again my horizons shifted. Wherever possible, I carried HF radios with me around the world.

I qualified as a Bomb Disposal Officer in 1996, a trade that has allowed me to continue this work in both the military and commercial sectors. My career has taken me through 26 countries, many of them active conflict zones where assistance was urgently needed.

Conflict zones today span across regions such as Yemen, Syria, Ukraine, Somalia, the Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger), and parts of Iraq and Afghanistan. These environments are shaped by irregular warfare, shifting front lines, and non-state actors with access to increasingly sophisticated weapons. Urban fighting leaves homes, schools, farms, and roads contaminated with hidden threats. Entire communities often remain displaced long after the headlines move on, because the land itself becomes hostile. In many of these places, conflict isn’t defined just by gunfire, but by what is left buried beneath the dust.

The unexploded hazards are as dangerous as the conflict itself. Mines, cluster munitions, IEDs, abandoned ammunition depots, and booby-trapped infrastructure settle into the landscape, waiting for a farmer, child, or aid worker to make a fatal misstep. Some devices degrade and become more volatile over time. Others are deliberately designed to be difficult or impossible to detect. Clearance teams operate in extreme conditions, under threat of ambush, political instability, and environmental hardship. For the local population, the danger is constant and invisible; for those responding, it is technical, methodical, deeply human work—restoring the ability to walk, build, and live again.

Today I continue to work globally as a consultant, mentor, trainer, and advisor to governments and defence departments, and radio remains a constant companion throughout it all. Below are some of my experiences from those conflict zones. Names and locations have been changed for obvious reasons. Fortunately, I have not had to call a mayday yet, but the possibility is always there. With an HF radio close by, one call on the 20m band, say 14.260 MHz, and there could be thousands of amateur radio operators ready to assist.

My QTH is a small farm in the heart of Lincolnshire, virtually no neighbours. My current rigs are a Yaesu FTDX101D and a Yaesu FT-710, running two wire antennas (an EFLW and an OCF Windom), along with a 45-year-old Heathkit SB-220 linear amplifier and half a dozen handhelds. I am newly active on FT8 and enjoy it very much. My callsign, until recently, was M0SWF. G0WRZ was my original callsign, to which I have now reverted. On the horizon is the construction of a 45-foot Versa Tower and a heavy-duty Hex Beam antenna.

Yours ever,
Sean
73

Equipment

Yaesu FTDX101D & FT710, FT7800, FT3D