Biography

Hi all first of all thank you for visiting my profile,my name is Paul and I’m located on the South Coast of the United kingdom although I'm originally from West London but I have been living on Hayling Island in Hampshire Locator: IO90MT for the best part of 14 years now. I work full time in the Loss prevention field and I was also a Special Police Constable for 8 years working out of the Portsmouth area and also working further afield in Southampton and on special events & operations in London.

I am a UK foundation amateur radio licence holder and I am working towards my intermediate licence. I do occasionally monitor the DMR bands via my MD-380G handheld and my DMR I.D. is 2343505 I access the DMR+ chatroom's via a DV4Mini http://www.g0hwc.com/dv4mini.html plumbed into my PC or Laptop using the DV4Mini control panel software and when portable via my local DMR repeater GB3PK direct located in Portsmouth in Hampshire, Locator: IO90LT Band: 70CM (DVU42) Output frequency: 439.5250 MHz RX Frequency: 430.5250 MHz cc:1 Connectivity: BRANDMEISTER maintained by Peter Kendall G7RPG. I mainly frequent the UK Calling room 4400 or the very popular CQ-UK Wires-X chatroom 4409. Although I find DMR pretty quiet at the best of times I am aware that it is growing nationally and internationally in popularity. And finally while on the topic of DMR, once my finances allow I intend to upgrade my DMR radio to the new TYT MD-2017 Dual bander.

I have a further collection of handheld radios these being 2 Baofeng GT-3TP's, 2 Baofeng UV-5RE's & a Yaesu VX-6R. I tend only to use the VX-6R for dual banding VHF/UHF /P and also listening to the maritime bands, as for the Baofeng collection I would normally use them as spare radios should the need arise. In my car I have plumbed in a Yaesu FT-7800R running through a Midland NW2000-dualband mobile whip antenna I tend to monitor more my local repeaters, GB3IW located on the Isle Of Wight in Hampshire or GB3CC located in Chichester in West Sussex however I do have various out of area repeater’s programed in should I venture out of town. My main set is a Yaesu FT897D with a LDG AT897PLUS ATU bolted onto the side of the radio which I use either at home running through a Sigma EuroComm HF-360 Fibreglass HF Vertical Antenna or /M transmitting through a Sirio Performer 5000 and when mobile I'm usually located on the seafront @ Hayling Island in my car taking advantage of any propagation that may be floating about. I enjoy monitoring the 20 metre bands and any other HF Frequencies with activity. I also like to do a bit of Shortwave listening through the 897 too you never know what you may find on the airwaves.

CB radio still plays a small part in my radio hobby, CB being one of the reasons why I decided to obtain my amateur radio licence along with some encouragement from my brother Russell 2E0RUS and my good friend John M3XHB. Going back to CB radio I have a Alinco DR-135-DX with a ZETAGI TM999 ATU.

I must admit that over the years I have had quite a number of CB radios starting with a Pearce-Simson Tiger 40A analogue channel readout back in 1979 which I obtained from a CB radio shop called Lucky Numbers located in Hayes in Middlesex in the UK. And further radios "Pre-Legalisation" where a Ham International Jumbo (Multimode), A Tristar 777 (Multimode) and a Cobra 148 GTL DX (Multimode) to name but a few. And on legalisation back in 1981 I purchased a Cobra 21X FM 40 channel rig running at 4W out, also purchased from the Lucky Numbers store. A vast majority of my radios at the time would run through a Silver Rod 1/2 Wave Vertical Antenna and in later years through a 4 element Yagi beam located 45FT up and rotated on a Radio Shack beam rotator. It's funny back in the day with the legalisation of the 27Mhz bands along with the addition of the 943Mhz band with its 20 channels, 934 never really took my interest I suppose at the time my kit was more geared around the 27Mhz band and not 934, but all said and done I will say those where the good old days 1979 to 1981 smileydevilyes

I have recently started playing around with SD Radio via a NooElec NESDR Mini 2 USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver and use freely available on the net software HDSDR http://www.hdsdr.de/ SDR radio can be interesting but the software does take a little getting used to but once mastered can be a fun hobby to follow.

And finally I still have my trusted AOR 8200 MK2 handheld scanner which I have had for over ten years now and still work’s really well.

73’S Paul M6IYK

Equipment

My HF Rig is a Yaesu FT-897D with a AT-897 Plus ATU on-board and my Antenna is a Sigma EuroComm HF-360 Fibreglass HF Vertical Antenna which is located approximately 30ft in elevation.

I also have a collection handheld radios also these being 2 Baofeng GT-3TP's, 2 Baofeng UV-5RE's & a Yaesu VX-6R

And in my vehicle I have plumbed in a Yaesu FT-7800R running through a Midland NW2000-dualband mobile whip antenna