Biography

I have been involved in Radio since I was about 12 years old and have always had a interest in Radio, was not licenced until I was 23 years old in Oct 1993, and yes I was a CBer in the 80's - had a ball.

I have always held the Callsign VK8NSB (Don't think I will ever change it) & even held the call sign VK4NSB for 1 year in 1994 when I was studying in Queensland. As you can tell by all the Radio's / Antenna's the XYL allows me to have up over the house I am a very active Amateur & am active on 80m,40m,20m,15m,10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm & 23cm (No 160m or WARC bands) on all modes these days, I do favour CW / Digital modes more these days & for the Digital modes I use MixW software & MMSTV for SSTV.

I use Orbitron for Satellite Dxing, enjoy listening to the beacons on the Satellites and sometimes work them. On HF I am a DX addict chasing DXCC / IOTA (Main Interest) on the HF bands and lately started playing more and more finding and working DX on the LP probagation on the HF bands, its fun working someone on the LP.

I understand VK8, Zone 29 is required for DX Awards and seems to be rare as everytime I get on air I seem to attract a pileup (people say Zoo into EU). I have never really got into contest's, but now and then I appear on air and give out a few numbers, but to be honest I just can't dedicate the time over a weekend with 2 kids and my big back yard to look after. if you hear me on please say G'day and let me know what your up to in your part of world.

Equipment

Radio Station:

HF : Yaesu's FT-2000,(Audio Equipment - W2IHY 8 band Equalizer & EQ Plus with Heil Pro IC5) - Main Dx Rig, FT897D ( Digital) & FT890 SSTV Repeater.

VHF/UHF : Icom IC910H (with 23cm UX-910), Icom ID-800H (Dstar Dualbander) & Icom IC-T90A 6m,2m,70cm HH - Use with Hand Held Arrow Antenna.

Mobile : Equipment is set up in my Proton Saavy, pictured below.

Yaesu FT857D with Seperation kit (Radio under Pax seat), 2m/70cm glass antenna (on Windscreen) & HVT 400B HF/VHF/UHF Mobile whip at rear of vehicle, work all bands 80m-70cm

Towers & Antennas:

Tower 1 : (12m high) : 80m/40m 1/2 wave Dipole system - 2 x 80m & 2 x 40m Switchable - SW/NE (Africa / North America) & NW/SE (Europe / VK/ZL) 6 element long spaced Werner Wulf Dualband Yagi for 15m / 10m , Rotor is Kenpro KR-400. 2m Mobile whip for the APRS system on 145:175Mhz & 6db, UHF CB vertical.

Tower 2 : (10m high) : 3 element Coman Monobander for 20m, Rotor is Kenpro KR-400, GP-50 2m/70cm base vertical & discone (Rx Ant for Netset scanner) & the 10m Vertical for SSTV Repeater.

Tower 3 : (8m high) : Cushcraft A503 3 Element Yagi for 6m & 2m above this beam is a 1/4 wave vertical for 6m.

Satelite Antenna's : 6m telescopic mast on the roof of the house (8.5m total height) with a Yaesu G-5500 AZ/EL rotor with (All Yagis are Horizontal) 1 x 10 element high gain yagi for 2m & 1 x 17 element high gain yagi for 70cm & 18 element yagi for 23cm, mainly used for Satts (RX mostly) but interested in VHF/UHF DX/EME also using WSJT Modes.

1 x Gap Titan DX Multiband Vertical 80-10m, located on the carport roof (Antenna jack 2 on FT-2000)