Many thanks for accepting me as a member with particular thanks to Cie G0TRT for nominating me and Ian GW0KRL, Will MI0WWB, Chris G5VZ & Eamo EI7LC for supporting that nomination.
I was originally licensed in 1984 as G1RCG before being told by a G2, when I dropped in for the first time at a local club, “you only have half a call” and so did not return there until I had passed the 12 wpm CW test and had been allocated G0FOZ.
I have had, regretfully, 30+ years away from radio whilst initially sofa surfing/renting with no space for equipment and then time-poor building a business and raising a family. A health scare in 2022 made me re-evaluate my life and I decided to revisit one of my teenage loves, radio. I used to listen on an old WW2 valve set covering 1-15 MHz and my first touch point with amateur radio was finding the local club’s top band AM net chaired by the very G2 mentioned earlier. It was this love of radio and electronics that set me on a path to chartered electronics engineer too.
On return to radio, I initially dabbled with VHF/UHF as I had great fun in the 80s chasing WAB and enjoying autumn tropospheric ducts with a 9 element Yagi but the bands are virtually dead. I played with DMR (too many competing digital standards), SSB and even FT8 (yuk) but finally ended up dusting off the old Kent straight key; the very same one that in the 80s I used to spend evenings pounding away keying a TS530SP.
Discovering that my CW was rusty (understatement)I blagged my way onto a CWops intermediate course, Jan/Feb 23, which got me back into daily CW QSOs. Once I had a logbook full of QSOs, I followed that with the advanced course recently. I am indebted to Bob WR7Q and Enzo M0KTZ respectively for putting up with me on those courses and their excellent guidance. Those courses also opened up new friendships with fellow students for which I am also grateful.
When I am not abusing the CW paddle you can find me in the dojo teaching Shotokan Karate. My QTH is now on the edge of the New Forest some miles north of the historic town of Christchurch (not NZ) where I live with my long suffering XYL, Yolanda and numerous cats and chickens; my two offspring having long left the nest. I still work but have been trying and failing to retire for the past 5 years.
I look forward to working many other members, particularly in QTX
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.