// About
Licensed since 2018. I went from Foundation to Full, started out listening, and these days I'm usually on HF with a mix of modern and vintage rigs.
Where all the expense began! As a foundation licence holder I spent most of my time exploring the bands and playing with antennas
After 2 months on a foundation licence I upgraded to intermediate to remove some of the restrictions
After 6 years I felt it was time to take the final step and move to a full licence.. In the absence of any callsigns that made sense I thought I'd go for something memorable :)
An original from M0NKA, not a clone. After some matching with an MFJ-971 it was hearing most of the world, and it made an FT8 contact with DP0GVN in Antarctica.
At only 10W this radio was one of the most sensitive and cleanest to listen to.
The everyday workhorse that does most of my heavy lifting. Great for digital work with a simple layout and easy to connect up.
Bought on eBay from G4NAQ in Bristol on 5 October 2019. It's in perfect condition and was clearly well looked after by him, and by G6HN before him. I'm slowly getting the hang of tuning the valve PA, which is still a bit scary.
A handy shack in a box that covers everything from HF up to 70 cm. It's being set up mainly for VHF and UHF nets, with HF there whenever I want it.
Small and self-contained, so it comes along when I go backpacking or hiking.
My main HF antenna is an LWHF-160 end-fed long wire, which covers 160 m to 6 m. Alongside it is a Sigma Eurocom SE-HF-X80, a radial-free vertical for 80 m to 6 m, so I can switch between the two.
For 2 m and 70 cm I use a Diamond X-30N dual-band vertical, plus a few home-made J-poles that work surprisingly well.