Biography

I was first licensed in 1977 and for the last 20 years have only used CW at 5 watts or less on the HF + 6m bands.

At home I use an IC706 Mark 1 (now 25 years old), a KX3 and a selection of kits and homebrew QRP trasnceivers.

Aerials are single band end fed half waves that have been carefully matched. Height is usually low only 5 - 6m.

My latest project is a 40m transceiver that I call the Rugly. It uses an R2 board (designed by Rick Campbell, KK7B) so is a single signal direct conversion receiver. The quality of the audio has to be heard to be believed. It took me a long time to build a stable VFO with enough output power to drive the high level mixers (+7dbm) after being split for the transmitter and then for the quadrature receiver drives. The tranmistter is a very simple design from the Ugly Weekender and this one delivers 1W output. So if you listen carefully on 40m around 7.030MHz you may just hear me! The name "Rugly" comes from the "R2" combined with "Ugly Weekender".

Please give me a call if you hear me - I have a lot of fun and satisfaction using this transceiver!

I like to operate portable using my KX1 or KX3. My preferred aerial is a linked dipole. When possible I will find a SOTA summit to activate.

I also spend some time on Gozo (Malta) and operate as 9H4RH. My local summit there is Ta'Dbiegi (it is much hotter there!!!!).

Other than being a radio amateur I am a scuba diving instructor and I particitate in triathlon and enjoy ultra-distance running.

Equipment

Elecraft KX3 Home and portable
Elecraft KX1 Portable
Icom IC-706 Home
Several kit and homebrew transceivers