Biography

First licensed in December 2019 as a Foundation, before upgrading to Standard in 2021. As I am located on the Queensland Gold Coast and my callsign suffix is GCR, hence the moniker:
Gold Coast Radio.

For the benefit of overseas operators, the Australian Standard Licence is a mid-tier level that offers the following privileges: - 100W max power limit (less on some bands/modes). Bands permitted: 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm, 23cm, 13cm & 6cm, as well as all digital modes via hotspots & nodes, etc., and through repeaters.

I'm active from my home station/shack, which is located on the Gold Coast at my hilltop QTH that is 138 meters (452 ft) above sea level and only 9km from the coastline (Pacific Ocean). This gives me an excellent take-off opportunity on the HF bands via my home-brew ZS6BKW dipole doublet antenna, which is on average about 14 meters (45 ft) above the terrain. My grid square reference is QG61px95.

Originally from Victoria (Morwell and later Sale), I carried out my apprenticeship in electrical mechanics, in the Oil & Gas Industry. On completion of my apprenticeship, I had a brief stay back in the Latrobe Valley at a Pulp and Paper Mill (1 yr) before heading overseas to work in the international Oil & Gas Industry. I basically spent the next 35 years working outside of Australia, with a gap working back in Australia for a few years.

Whilst overseas, I spent most of my time working in Malaysia (3 yrs), Thailand (13 yrs), the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, East Timor, Dubia, Abu Dhabi, Russia, & Iraq before  returning to Australia in 2019 thanks to Covid and retiring on the Gold Coast.

My main interests in Amateur Radio are HF SSB DXing on 10m, 20m, 40m, 80m, followed by contesting. I also enjoy working on the 2m SSB portion of the band. After HF, and when there is a lack of propagation, I move onto the digital modes with DMR, YSF, and AllStar via my hotspots and nodes (thanks to Glenn VK4NGA, who set me up in that department), which enables me to continue communicating around the world no matter what. I'm learning as much as I can about the digital modes now, which will help me in the future when I eventually downsize my living arrangements and can no longer put up those wonderful HF antennas that my neighbours love so much.

By the way, do you know that a stranger is simply a friend that you haven't met yet
~   73 , Ralf Finke  VK4GCR