Biography

I live in Kent (South East UK).
I have been married since 1984 although that may change if I buy any more radio's ;o) (Wifey is not over keen on HAM radio, even though I first met her on CB).

MY HOBBIES.
I love everything to do with the outdoors & HAM Radio, which is great as all of my hobbies go together well, HAM Radio, Camping, Hiking, Canoeing, Kayaking, Rock Climbing, Abseiling, Photography, Astro-Photography, Wildlife & Nature Sound Recording, Fishing & Bush-craft to name just a few.

I am mainly a Solar Powered QRP only station & I usually operate in conjunction with my other outdoors hobbies, my favourite is kayaking down a river and camping out at random locations, unfortunately because of serious spinal conditions I don't get out as much as I used too, I still try to get out and about when as possible but I cannot venture too far from my Crampervan anymore, but as this serves as a brilliant mobile shack & micro RV I don't mind too much & we have had a number of road-trips together.

September 2019 -
I decided to re-enter the spirit of HAM radio and build some home-brew equipment, at the same time get back into CW. I decided to start small & purchased one of those little Pixie CW kits, not the best radio in the world but for the miserly £3.97 the kit cost me, I can't grumble, add that to the fun factor of building it yourself & using it on the air....GREAT STUFF !!.
I was overjoyed at the fact that it actually worked first time, although you do have to pay extra attention to the antenna & SWR, I used a 40m wire dipole supported by the usual 10m fishing pole mast, coupled with an Elecraft T1 tuner.
I was so pleased with the outcome & the satisfaction of building my own equipment THAT ACTUALLY WORKED !!, that I decided to go further & have a go at the QRP Lab's QCX CW kit, a dummy load kit & GPS unit kit that all complimented each other.

October 2019 -
The QCX is built & working and now fitted into the BaMatech enclosure, I made an extra hole in the enclosure & ordered an extra button for the built in micro keyer switch, after some alterations to the button casing threads & filing the button down to a suitable length.
After an initial OH Crap !! moment when the unit would not power on, all is now working well, the fault was traced to a faulty power jack socket, luckily I had a few in the toy box & soon had it swapped out (see my QRZ page for button & hole dimensions).
I can know use the QCX with an external key, the built in electronic memory keyer or the built in micro key.
The QCX kit is a lot more complicated to build than the Pixie kit, not to mention a lot more expensive, & time consuming, but for the price you get a feature packed high quality transceiver running at up to 5 watts on 13.8 volts, the radio can run on voltages between 7 volts & 16 volts & the power output varies accordingly.

October - September 2020
The first wave of Covid 19 Lockdown restrictions lifted just in time to go on a 4 week road-trip around the south of England, starting at the north Kent coast, Isle of Sheppey, all around the south east coast via Whitsable, Margate, Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, Hastings, Southampton, Poole, Swanage, Kimmeridge Bay, Weymouth & Portland, Lyme Regis, Dawlish, down to Penzance & back up to Wales via Exmoor, finally stopping at the Snowdonia National Park, operating QRP from the top of Snowdon, then back home to more lockdowns & restrictions.
which brings me to :-

June 2021 - We are still under lockdown restrictions even though slightly more relaxed now.
Time flies very quickly, I have done a lot of things since my last post, too many to list here, but my time has been spent wisely between each of my hobbies where possible.
Following on from the original QCX CW project, I have also ordered the new QRP Labs 20m QCX Mini kit to compliment my original 40m QCX kit, I am still waiting for that to arrive. these fantastic little kits bring a whole new dimension to portable QRP operating.
Another new addition to my shack is a 3D printer, this was a huge learning curve but I eventually got the hang of it, after a few mistakes & mess ups, WARNING !!... 3D PRINTING IS ADDICTIVE, especially creating things on Fusion 360. I have already completed a good number of projects with it, including enclosures for my QCX dummy load kits, battery monitor circuit, radio stands, shack nameplates & many others. At the last count I had designed 96 projects for printing, 26 of which have been successfully printed.

August 2022 - Over 200 3D printing projects successfully completed, a number of kits from Phoenix Kits Online (Now Kanga Kits). These include : The Morse Tutor (with screen), CW Eye Tuner, 2 x Transmatch kits, An EFHW QRP Tuner, A Dummy Load SWR Bridge Power Tester & a few others. These are great kits to build, relatively simple with a touch of difficulty, but all very useful for my QRP Op's.
I now own 3 QCX's, one QCX Classic with the extra button added to the BahMaTech case for the internal key & 2 QCX Mini's, one of which has a CAT port fault but still works as a normal CW transceiver, which is why I have 2 of them, the second one was a replacement with a working CAT port, so now I can use it with my Sidekar Extreme Logger.

I also indulged myself with a new Ziegu X6100 which is a great little QRP radio, having the built in tuner & battery makes this a perfect camping companion. The built in battery lasts between 2.5 to 3 hours depending upon transmit\receive duty cycle, I generally use a 40%\60% cycle & regularly get 2.5 hours out of it, I complimented it with an external 6Ah Lithium Ion battery which lasts another 5 to 6 hours.
So the X6100 didn't feel lonely, I also purchased a Yaesu FT891 & an MP1-DXG2 Plus portable antenna, this works brilliantly on 20m & 40m, although, I did buy a 17ft telescopic whip to use instead of the supplied whip, This allows me to tune up on 80m, 40m, 20m, 17m, 15m & just about 10m.
I have also made a few homebrew EFHW wire antennas, one resonant on 20m, another resonant on 40m both with a homebrew 49:1 UnUn & the other a Random Wire which tunes up on multiple bands using a homebrew 9:1 UnUn. The UnUn cases I 3D printed with Glow-in-the-Dark PLA, which makes them easy to see at night.
All of these fit into my portable kit bag.

November 2022 -
I have now gone Full circle, I started my HAM journey with the FT817nd, but now after owning a number of radio's I have returned to the beginning with the FT818nd, just in time for Yaesu to discontinue production of this fantastic little QRP radio.
I had saved up enough to buy the Icom IC705, but when it came to the crunch, I throttled back & bought the FT818nd instead, I just could not bring myself to part with £1400 for a 10w radio, instead I also managed to pay off for a new fridge/freezer for the wife & get a number of accessories for my new radio. As for the Icom IC705.... well, maybe later on.

That brings me up to date again for now...


I look forward to talking to some of you on the air and hopefully one day maybe even get to meet a few of you....73 for now...

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

MAIN RADIO'S

Yaesu FT-817ND (Part Ex for FT897D).

Yaesu FT-897D (SOLD 2016 to buy FT-857D)

Icom ID5100e & ID51e (both sold Feb 2020).

Yaesu FT-857D (Now SOLD Mar 2020, I needed the cash for my astrophotography equipment).

QRP Labs QCX Classic CW 40m Main Portable Radio, with BahMaTech Enclosure & extra button for the built in key (installed myself).

QRP Labs QCX Mini CW 20m (Unfortunately the CAT port was faulty, it still works for normal CW keying).

QRP Labs QCX Mini CW 20m (Replacement for the first faulty unit, the CAT port works on this one).

SideKar Extreme Electronic Logger/Key'er. The multi-line display makes logging & qso checking very easy.

Xiegu X6100 (Great little QRP rig).

Yaesu FT891.

Yaesu FT818nd. Full circle, great little radio. It's a shame it was discontinued a month after I bought it, but I am glad I got one in time.

I designed & 3D printed my own remote control box for the FT891, I bought a bulk pack of momentary push button switches & all the relevant value resistors (most of which I had in my toy box). My prototype version only has 5 buttons, this allows up to 5 voice messages & 5 CW messages to be pre-programmed & replayed at the press of a button. It works extremely well.

The QRP Labs QCX CW transceivers are my current 'go to' HF radio's. These small form factor, feature rich CW transceivers, have taken first place over all my other radio's, it is ideal for road-trips & kayak camping etc... the whole setup including the QCX's, a lightweight wire dipole, a Phoenix Kit QRP Transmatch, an Elecraft T1 tuner, spare Paddle & battery pack all fits neatly into an old Polar heart monitor case (5" W x 8" L x 2.5" H), the complete setup (except fishing pole mast) takes up less space than a rolled up T-Shirt in your backpack, absolutely recommended for any serious CW portable operator.

The Icom 705 remains on my wish list, where it will probably remain for all time due to cost, I have purchased a Xiegu X6100 & a Yaesu FT891, I just couldn't help it, every time I read my Radcom Magazine they kept winking at me.

MOBILE & HANDHELD RADIO'S

Wouxun KG-UV950P Quad band 70cm, 2m, 6m & 10m (An excellent radio for the money).

Yaesu VX-8GE Dual Band with APRS (May 2013 - Present Day) & Still using this very robust radio.

YAESU FT2de APRS/C4FM/WiresX Dual Band handheld with camera mic (2016 - Present Day) & Still using this brilliant handheld radio, especially after the latest firmware upgrade, allowing it to be used as a node, without requiring an HRI200 unit.

2 x Anytone AT-D868UV DMR handhelds (2018 - Present Day) absolutely brilliant radio's, nice to hold, so many features & a pleasure to use, still my favourite Handhelds.

Baofeng UV-5R backup handheld, This often very underrated Chinese cheapie was bought as a starter radio back in 2007 when I was first licensed, unbelievably, 2021 & it is still going strong after many camping & kayaking trips, it has really taken a beating & has really surprised me for it's long life & durability.

Midland 42 Multi 11 metre handheld, I mostly use this for keeping in touch with local friends & family who are not licensed. An excellent radio for a CB, with the car kit it is very versatile.

CRT Superstar 9900, A very nice 10m, 11m & 12m HF set, 2021 & still using this great radio.

Inrico T320 Network Radio (POC), I love this radio/phone, it enables me to talk privately to unlicensed friends & family, make group or private calls to my photographer's on & off photo-shoots, & members of my Bush-craft group wherever they may be, out in the field, local or worldwide or talk to HAM friends via the number of interfaces like Echolink, Teamspeak3, IRN, Zello/Zello Work or PTT4U etc...

2 x Zastone Mini's, for listening to the neighbours & my daughter when she is dog walking or for holidays, very very short range, a bit disappointing really, although useful for around the campsite.

2 x Baofeng UV8?? Handhelds very good radio's considering the £18 for two price tag on Banggood. These are very similar to the UV5r handhelds but more modern & more robust build.

Antennas
Various forms of homebrew & commercial models, too many to list, but including :-

Half G5RV (in storage).
Home brew Vertical Moxon (wire with aluminium booms) for 20m & 40m.
Lightweight 40m wire dipole for portable QCX CW ops.
Sirio Vector 4000 for 10m & 11m
ATX walkabout x 2 (I got two to use as a portable dipole.
PB100 multiband. ground mount, portable.
A complete range of HAMsticks, 10m x 2, 11m x 2, 20m x 2, 40m x 2, 80m x 2. (each set can be used individually on the car or as a pair in various dipole configurations).
& many, many more...

Tuners
MFJ 901 Manual Tuner (old faithful, also tunes long wire end fed antennae).
Elecraft T1 auto-tuner, maximum 20w but I am a QRP operator anyway, I love this tuner, great for portable use with the QCX CW 40m transceiver, originally bought for the Yaesu FT817nd.
Two Phoenix Kits Transmatch Tuners, An EFHW Wire Tuner with SWR Bridge.

Antenna Analysers
FG-01 (very good) I love this little beastie (apart from the odd battery configuration).
NanoVNA (OK but too much messing about with calibrating to be of regular use).


Miscellaneous Items :-
Toy box full of spares for repairs etc...
Electronic Components & parts.
Bag of mixed nuts n bolts
Pot of mixed screws
Packet of Cheese & onion Crisp's (keeps the XYL away from the shack).
Fridge full of beer, home-brew cider & microwave pizza. (for those long nights in the shack ;-) ).