Licensed in 1962 as G3RHP, I have enjoyed amateur radio for the variety of activities it offers, including design, construction, operating and, once upon a time, contests. Nowadays my activity is confined to VHF/UHF FM mobile and HF QRP (low power) CW (Morse) operation with occasional use of data modes, especially PSK31 .
The latest addition to the HF equipment is a kit by Elecraft. It's their K2 and is a synthesised rig with built-in keyer, auto ATU and variable crystal filter. A joy to build because of the ack of inter-board wiring and excellent support from Elecraft themselves and the mailing list of enthusiasts, the K2 has been busy on all bands from 160 to 10m. It survived the recent CQ WW CW contest with its huge signals and even managed to get me some good contacts into the USA on 80m, running 5 Watts to a low inverted vee dipole at 25 feet! Here's a picture from the Elecraft web site...
In addition to the K2, the station comprises various home-brew and Ten-Tec HF transceivers, with an 80m dipole and a 3 element tri-band HF beam, the old TA33jr on a 60 foot tower. When mobile (well parked, actually) I use the K2 and an 8 foot whip by Pro-Am on the roof of the car. For RTTY and AMTOR I run a home-brew terminal unit similar to the BARTG Multyterm and G4BMK's software on an old Compaq SLT286 lunch-box PC.
Recently become active with PSK31, a new narrow-band radio-teletype mode, ideal for today's crowded bands and a good antidote to the ghastly "chain-saw noises" of PACTOR that spread right down into the QRP CW segment of the bands! The place to find out all about it is the Official PSK31 Home page.
I am a member of the Radio Society of Great Britain, the American Radio Relay League and a number of special interest groups:
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Promotes amateur radio satellite activity | |
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British Amateur Radio Teledata Group | |
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Eddystone User Group - enthusiasts of these great receivers | |
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Encourage the use of Morse code - a most useful mode, especially for home brew, QRP etc. My FISTS membership number is 1879. Work me and I'll give you the Century Club number! | |
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Why use 100 W when 50 mW would do? | |