Biography

I was born in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), but have lived and worked in many countries since leaving in 1970. Live now at Tewantin, near the Noosa River, about 2 hours N of Brisbane, Queensland, and have been in Australia for 27 years.

I spent 42 years working on oil & gas drilling rigs in many countries around the world, though mainly the North Sea, offshore Western Australia, and offshore Cabinda, Angola.

My interest in AR developed as a kid, from SWL activities in the bush in Western Zambia (Zambezi River), mainly to pick up the BBC World Service news & sport. A brief period on the CB bands in Scotland followed.

I was first licenced in mid 1988. Callsigns held include VK4LOW, ZL2TJS, ZL2LOW, VK6BIK, VK4DFE, and now VK4CL.

Interests in AR include HF DX, 6m, satellite, & 2m SSB. Also active on various nets.

Hobbies also include astronomy, fishing & Boating.

Member of the Wireless Institute of Australia and RAOTC, member Sunshine Coast Amateur Radio Club. Member of ARRL.

Equipment

Equipment is an Icom IC-7700, plus Icom IC-9100 for vhf. PWR used is 100 - 400 watts into either a TET-Emtron 2 el tribander (its all I could fit in here!), or a Diamond W735 80/40m shortened dualband trap dipole bent partly around the house. Also using a small 2.6m boom, 6m Des-Op yagi (Innovantennas) at 12m, and a GP98 vhf/uhf/23cm vertical; there is still an LEO sat setup planned: antennas are problematical on a small 500 sq m block!!

- Additional power from an ACCOM 600S (600w solid state amp)

- ATU is a Palstar HF-Auto


Currently using an Italian Ultrabeam 20 - 6m antenna for HF (similar to Stepp IR) not shown.