About me

UPDATE: 12th December 2017: So, whats been happening in my world of amateur radio….?

Basically you can get a good idea from my blog timeline of what I’ve been up to… I have been building up my shack slowly…. By selling a motorbike I can unfortunately no longer ride it has released some much needed funds which i have thrown in to radio.

The IC-735 I have passed on to a friend which should have been taking his Foundation and Intermediate on the 7th December – however I’m told that due to an administrative mess-up back at the RSGB it means it’s now delayed until the 11th January 2018 – I’m fairly confident he will pass both, so I have passed the IC-735 (that Colin, MU0FAL gave me) on to him – it helped me work many many stations and cut my teeth in to the world of radio – It’s a great rig and the TX audio out of it is lovely… I hope when he moves on radio wise that he will find a new ham that he can pass it on to too and so the cycle continues… 

The Icom IC-7300 replaced the IC-735 and I am very happy with it – it has allowed me to start to explore the world of digital too, mostly FT8 at the moment – iId still like to get the SSTV working though – struggling with that for some reason.

I have also bought pretty much everything to get my portable satellite station on the air too… an FT-857D (to pair up with the FT-817ND) and an Alaskan Arrow along with some SLA batteries, all I need to do is put it all together and get out there and start twiddling… no mojo for sats at the moment though… when I do I fancy the low passes…

My Morse code is coming on slowly – only 8 characters and the 10 numbers left to learn but I’ve hit a wall – waiting on the Begali key I’ve bought to come and then hopefully it will bring me along with some sending to better firm up the characters in my head…

Blog: Looks like I’m averaging about one post per month – I’ll try and pick that up a bit – some more posts about Morse code and the construction of my /P sat station is likely to be my next and also about the guys I have been ‘teaching’ too – assuming they are OK with being part of my site 🙂  might even venture down doing a video for something, not 100% sure what but it wont just be of me twiddling… I  am aware there is a lot of stuff like that on YouTube, it doesn’t need adding to 🙂 I’d hope to make something a little different, we will see eh – suggestions always welcome! 🙂 

I still haven’t made my endfed nor the balun to go with it – another little project there too.

I’ve also bought a Chinese soldering / heat station, some crimpers, power pole plugs, some Sota Beams traps, wire for antennas… I’ve little projects coming out of my ears… lots to do but no energy at the moment…

Oooh… just had an email from FedEx… my Bengali key will start its journey today 🙂

UPDATE: 11th December 2017: still out of date but additions to the shack such as the Icom IC-7300, a Yaesu FT857D, an Alaskan Arrow and a new my Begali “Simplex” key (which will be on the way soon) will be added this year 😉

UPDATE: 2nd November 2017: this page is really out of date – in 19 months so much has changed… update coming soon 🙂

UPDATE: 5th September 2016: I am now a Full licence holder – chuffed isnt enough to describe how i feel – really pleased with myself… if i’m honest the Intermediate is more than enough, I’ve been having such great fun with it and the limitations are minimal – SATS being a large interest at the moment and a Full licence isnt needed for that… really, getting the full licence was to prove something to myself for myself and I’ve done that… happy days!! 🙂

UPDATE: 25th August 2016: So, I took the UK FULL licence exam yesterday, now to wait approximately 10 days for the results 🙁 its a shame that the marking cant be done on the same day, the format of the exam itself is no different to the Foundation or Intermediate (ie multiple choice) and having to wait is already so painful. I honestly have no idea how well i did – there were some easy questions and some hard ones and because of that i am unsure of how well i did – i may have passed but i may have failed – nothing but the results will tell me which way though.. so hence the wait is excruciating just a day in to it and the RSGB wont even have received the envelop yet with my papers in… 6 days from date of receipt @ RSGB before they are posted and that’s working days and we have a bank holiday coming up so its going to be week commencing Monday 5th September at the earliest… ahh well patience is a virtue eh!

UPDATE: 29th June 2016: “Full Licence” exam will be 24th August 2016

UPDATE: 5th September 2016: +30 years ago my Dad and I started the process of obtaining the ‘knowledge’ – at the time I was 15 /16 years old and about to take / taking my CSE’s and ‘O’ Levels so I dropped out of the amateur stuff but my Dad (GU0BDI) carried on to obtain his full licence shortly after….

At the end of last year (2015) I pulled out an old 1981 CB (a cybernet 1000) from a box junk along with an old DV27 and thought I would see what activity was around on CB here in Guernsey, there was absolutely nothing – so my challenge was to re instigate interest… phrases like ‘pulling teeth’ or ‘herding cats’ comes to mind, I’m still chipping away though as CB was good fun for everyone…

Finding this CB re instigated my interest in amateur radio so at the end of last year I approached our local radio club (the Guernsey Amateur Radio Society http://www.gars.org.gg/ – GU3HFN) and on the 5th April 2016 two of us sat both the Foundation and Intermediate exams (we both passed both thanks to the help and guidance from 2U0TKB – GU4JHH – GU1IIW) – on the 14th April I received what was needed from the RSGB to get my call sign and thus 2U0DWD was born – my first licensed QSO….? had to be with GU0BDI 😉 I think this has re-sparked his interest again too…

I currently have the following equipment in my ‘shack’ or ‘kennel’ as my children like to call it…

  • FRG7700 plugged in to a random bit of wire, reception only really any good on 40m
  • FT817ND plugged in to a 2m/70cm collinear vertical & 20m homebrew dipole 30′ up (horizontal)
  • FT102 not plugged in to anything (needs the relays changing as no receive)
  • UV-5R+ plugged… in to me
  • and now added to the list an IC-735 – Thank you Colin (MU0FAL)!!

+ lots of other bits and bobs (I am yet to work out what they all are or their uses) have also been passed on to me by my Dad as he inherited from his brother G4TVZ (sk)

My first HF QSO was 1st May 2016 with 9A9RR