Any radio hams out there? Say hello.

[RON]

I’ll start this one,

Callsign is G0MBV. Class A licence obtained in 1989 I think
It was a while ago

Licence is still current though not used much. This may change shortly as I’m thinking of getting back into the hobby.
Prefer the CW mode rather than microphone.
Favourite bands are 80 & 40 meters.
VHF bands ok for local work and listening to the RSGB news on a Sunday morning but fairly dead around this area.

Ron.

[Tobe]

SM6YXK -Swedish unrestricted / W4TDK - American General

Have a license since I was a teen. Love it as I legally can build Transceivers which I still do! Running most on 80 & 20 meters and not seldom QRP. In the beginning it was mainly CW but with time I have side stepped to SSB and digital modes like PSK. One of the good things being a ham in the old days was that I was allowed to fly on 6 meters and rarely had to fight for a frequency when flying models.

73 de Tobe/SM6YXK

[Martin]

G0WDU
I paid a one-off fee to get it reactivated a couple of years ago. I still have all the gear but I'm not active. I used to mostly work on a home-built 40 metre CW only QRP rig. I also played with slow scan TV, packet radio, and other computer-assisted modes. I took down my antennas (half size G5RV and a colinear 2-metre / 70cm) maybe fifteen years ago - I don't really feel motivated for the hassle of putting them back up.

[PaulJ]

M0PWJ
I got the licence in 200? in order to use SSB as a Maritime Mobile for planned long distance sailing. There are numerous "cruiser nets" and weather gurus operating on Ham bands, not to mention HF email for which it proved invaluable. We returned from our travels in 2013 and haven't used the SSB since.......

Paul

[RON]

Thanks for the replies,

Out of interest, is anyone still a member of the RSGB?

Ron

[RON]

Loving my new radio

Wow they are so clever nowadays.

Ron

[Martin]

Very nice. I see it has a built-in Morse decoder, but that seems like cheating to me. I like the fact that it has a 500 Hz filter for CW use. For my Icom HF rig, you had to buy an expensive add-on crystal filter to get really good CW filtering.

[PaulJ]

'Very nice Ron, what kind of antenna are you using with it? Where have you managed to reach?

Paul

[RON]

H Paul,
Ive not got an antenna up yet, apart from a long wire so just listening at the moment, Thinking of a G5RV.
It seems to be pulling in plenty though. Not got a key yet either!

Ron

[PaulJ]

I had a homemade dipole similar to that rigged up in my garden to try the radio out before installing it in the boat but on the boat I used an ATU and an insulated part of the rigging (Backstay) which was effectively just a long wire. The radio is just a basic Icom 718 with max 100W but it is a steel boat which I'm told makes a very good earth and ground plane...... It certainly worked well enough anyway!

Paul