Web Updated;
11/05/2024
Mail me!
About me.
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Graham
M0KTY (Left) with Martin Lynch G4HKS (Right) |
I first became interested in radio and
"wireless" at an early age. Born in November 1969 I grew into
the dawn of computerisation and saw many household items disappearing into
new multi-tech devices half the original size of their predecessors!
Radio has always captivated me, the magic of suspending a simple length of wire and receiving voices and music through a simple receiver amazes me to this day. At the age of 17 I commenced a RAE course but unfortunately due to my Fathers sudden death never completed it. I was unfortunate to be hospitalised in November 2008 with a severe chest infection and was placed in a ward with a chap I had never met before who lent me some radio magazines to relieve the boredom of hospital life! |
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Photo of a homebrew off set dipole with
vertical radiating tuned length of coax. The rf choke is shown at the
lowest point of the radiating vertical, the balun is a voltage type not current. |
I owe a great deal to Ron (G3KTZ) who through
those magazines and chatting, rekindled the fire and enthusiasm to seek a
Foundation course.
By the 23rd of December 2008 I had completed the Foundation course at Brede Steam Amateur Radio Society under the watchful eye of Steve M0SSR and was a licensed Amateur Radio Operator. (M6GLF) I spent the next few months learning about various types
of aerial's and general radio information and had completed my practical
assignment Straight after passing the intermediate I was hungry for
the Advanced examination so looked for any available courses within a
reasonable distance. I took the advanced exam on 21st April and became
licensed on the 10th May 2010. The whole process
completed in 17 months. As M0GLF was already allocated, I decided to dedicate my
call to my Daughter Kate, who is just asking about her foundation license!
Great eh! Many people have helped me over the last 18 months, so many that it would be too long a list. I am very thankful and appreciate all your help! You all know who you are! Now in 2024 I am enjoying my 16th year in Amateur Radio and I am as enthusiastic as ever!
73 De Graham M0KTY
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Latest update - MAY 2024
Since the last update, the last 8 years have been quite extraordinary and emotional for a number of reasons. In Dec 2019 my dear friend, surrogate (Ham Radio) Father Mr. Ron Lindsay G3KTZ suddenly became a Silent Key. This was devastating enough but my own Mother by a strange coincidence died the next day.
Ron had been instrumental in getting me into Amateur Radio and
also teaching me Morse Code (CW). Ron was ex. Navy Signals and during the 11
years of knowing him we shared many good days talking about radio, walking our
dogs together and discussing the world and generally all things scientific,
electrical and universal!
I miss him every day, but I am grateful for the times we shared and the memories. I have developed a page specifically in Ron's Memory.
Due to this loss, I couldn't provoke any enthusiasm for using the
Radio at any level. During the next 5 years the equipment just sat, their covers gathering dust.
I sold the FT897d and took down the 2m/70cm antenna mounted high up the gable
end of the house and sold the Yaesu FT7800, (this was not completely due to losing
Ron but there had been a lot of unprofessional operating locally on the
repeaters and I had thought many times of relinquishing the VHF/UHF bands, the
loss of Ron and the local poor operating made my decision. The FT7900 I had
installed in the car remained but was switched off.
I sold the Icom 7410 HF rig to a close friend (who got a very good deal) which just left the one remaining HF radio - Kenwood TS590SG under its cover, switched off and un-loved. The 590SG was purchased brand new and I will never part with it.
At several times in the last 5 years my good friend and Amateur Radio buddy Paul (M3OVC) had tried to peek my interest by getting me involved with his own QTH setup, I had visited his place several times to help with aerial alterations, designs and general radio business. Nothing of which had interested me enough to return to the hobby that I was so passionate about.
I cant pinpoint exactly the day but at some time this year
(2014) my attention was drawn to watching some Ham Radio youtube videos and
having previously constructed a 1:49 Unun for use with an End Fed Half Wave
(EFHW) wire aerial, decided to dig it out the junk box and test it. My construction interest in Amateur
Radio (AR) has always been with aerials and their design / use so this did get
the creative juices flowing again.
Unfortunately, when using my mRS Mini-VNA
(Mk1 with the clear blue case) it was under reading the 50 ohms calibration plug
by around 18 ohms, showing a result of 32 ohms? After spending hours of time
changing leads, messing around with cable chokes and testing three known and
accurate calibration loads for HF freq, I decided to lay it to rest. I purchased
a brand new RIG EXPERT AA55 Zoom from Martin Lynch & Sons and couldn't be
happier, the readings are accurate and its a clever little device. The EFHW wire
aerial was cut to size and checked RL, Phase and Rs on the 55 Zoom. Currently
testing the new wire against the trusty 4BTV Vertical.
Then I had a moment of madness and snapped up a very good condition Kenwood TS570d from my good friend Mr. Martin Lynch. I was looking at the Yaesu FTDX 1200 (great value for the price) but went for the older TS570 as it works very sim to the 590SG and thought that the familiarisation between the two rigs would be an advantage.
So, that's the update.... 5 years on and getting back into it
again. Oh, the CW is SOOO rusty, I haven't forgotten the characters but def very
rusty in receiving speed.
I am currently spending some time on the various Morse Code learning sites to
brush up to speed. Prior to a five year gap I was comfortable RX/TX at 20 - 25
WPM, now I could barely manage reliable RX copy at 12-13. Take care and thank you for reading these
pages, lets keep the hobby interesting.
Website programming notes:- This website was originally constructed in 2008 using a software from Microsoft called FrontPage. The latest version I had was 2000. Unfortunately this software relies on server extensions that are required to facilitate the coding. It is well know in the industry that Frontpage creates some pretty messy and bulky HTML code, but when I first started and wrote this site there weren't many other options available that I had at my disposal without paying lots of money and the original copy I had of FP came free with MS Office. I recently tried to migrate the whole site using Mobirise but there are a few links and items that the present site uses that just wouldn't migrate or work in mobirise. So, for now the site is being maintained using FP2k but I have no idea how long this will be supported until it eventually becomes un-operable.
If any readers have successfully migrated a FP2k web site to another software without a complete re build, please get in touch I would love to discuss with you, Kind regards Graham.
Latest update - June 2016
I've just acquired a Yaesu FT897D as I really missed and regretted trading my previous one in, its not the best HF rig but there isn't much on the market to compete with an all in one shack for the money! Also treated myself to a Rigol Oscilloscope and a 24 Mhz signal generator.
Previous update - July 2015
I traded in the Used Icom IC718 and decided after much research to invest in a (Nearly new) Icom IC7200. This Rig is quite amazing and having read all the EHAM reviews, I have to say that performance is every bit as good as described. I'll keep you posted with some Photos of its use "Portable"