My interest in radio started when I was flying model aeroplanes with my father from the age of about 8. In those days it was all done with single channel super regen 27MHz transmitters, mostly home made. Only the rich could afford ready made stuff. From there I progressed on to illegal 27Mhz walkie talkies and the like.
At about 1978 I started working for an American company who used to send us to Boston in the USA for training, and low and behold, I discovered CB. When we brought the first radios back from the states, the CB airwaves were pretty empty in the UK. I was lucky to get one or two contacts a day whilst travelling around the country in my job as a computer engineer. But the bug had bitten and I was soon upgrading my gear to 120 channel SSB rigs, big linears and even bigger aerials. The picture below shows my CB station ( SF-27 )which was a Ham International Multimode 2 with a Bremi BRL200 linear amplifier and Turner expander Mic. This was first was used to drive a home made quaterwave in the loft. But after destroying a few TV pictures, this was replaced by a GP27 a top a 20 foot pole at the end of the garden, a much more TV friendly option!
The CB thing grew to the point where it became almost impossible to have a sensible conversation on a free channel, and at this point I decided to take my RAE and progress to Amateur radio along with a few of my CB friends who were to become G6HTL, G6ILQ, G6HNJ, G6TNJ, G1IHZ, to name but a few. I guess they are still out there somewhere!
My first call sign was G6IZR, but having come from 11 Metres were you could talk to the world on SSB I decided to go for the Morse test. After about three or four months of brain damage morse from and electronic tutor, I took a trip to North Forelands radio station and sat the morse test, and to my surprise passed first time. Of course this lead to even bigger and better radios and even bigger and better aerials, much to my long suffering wife and our neighbours disgust. But I must admit, I think I got more of a kick out of working DX on 70cms SSB when there was a lift on. It always seemed to me that with 70cms, if you have a good lift on 2m, it's outstanding on 70cms.
In the picture below you can see my HF station which consisted of a Yeasu FT902DM with External VFO ( gave you repeater shift ability for 10m and VHF/UHF ) ATU, speaker, and transverter for 6m,2m and 70cms.
As for aerials, I don't think a weekend went by when myself and Dave the G6TNJ weren't either putting them up or taking them down. Mainly I used a Butternut HF6 vertical for 80-10m and a quaterwave long wire for top band. Although I did go through a succession of other various combinations eventually ending up with a G5RV and the quaterwave long wire. This final combination seemed to work just as well as any and was not so hard on the eye. 2m and 70cms were worked through a 9 ele and 19 ele cross tonna on the same rotator. One of my neighbours used to say it looked like an ack-ack gun on the side of the house!
This line up changed many times over the years as I became more interested in things like RTTY with the addition of a modem and a commodore 64 etc. Packet was just starting to appear, and I remember there were questions being asked about the legality of its use on amateur radio.
Unfortunately I went though a divorce in 1988, and in order to buy a house I had to sell just about everything I owned. The radio stuff had to go. So with the help of Dave G3RCQ, who lent me the use of one of his tables at the Vange rally. I carted off all my stuff and practically sold all off in one day! Any bits and pieces I had left over Dave sold for me on a commission basis.
This picture shows the last radio line up that I used. The HF radio is a Yaesu FT902DM with ATU and speaker. A Trio dual bander for 2 and 70, and a converted DNT CB for 10 FM with a 100 Watt linear. You can also see the Commodore 64 which I used to use for RTTY etc. Just look at that wall paper, I never did get round to redecorating that room!
So that's the story of radio station G4SYR. Unfortunately, at the moment, I don't even own a radio, although my licence has always been current, mainly due to the fact that I didn't want to have to go through the pain of the morse test again, but with the current changes in the B class licence, that makes no odds anymore.
I have been browsing Ebay lately with a view to buying a radio and have come close on many an occasion. An FT-100 appeals, being so small with all modes up to 70cms. But the big problem is aerials. I live in a terrific location for VHF/UHF. but I am restricted in space only having a tiny garden.
I don't know if I can work up enough enthusiasm to go /P or /M to DX VHF/UHF. There's nothing like sitting in the spare room with it all to hand and a cup of tea ( and the partner ) only down the hall!
Just as Postscript to the page, I have just purchased a "new" second hand radio form Ebay. A Kenwood TM241E. So there's every possibility that I will be back "on the air" shortly. It's not everything I want in a radio, but it's a start.
