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Welcome to my first amateur radio site. I have been involved in this hobby since my teens, how long ago that is I’m not going to say but both my children are now older than I was when I started.
What is amateur radio about, well first and foremost it is a technical hobby, but to every amateur it is different, with over 6 million licenced amateur radio operators in the world , how could it be otherwise.
I was fortunate enough to have a father who was a professional radio operator and instructor in the services for many years, although he didn’t become an amateur until quite a few years after I did, he holds the callsign G4ZPV. I remember him trying to teach me morse code at the dining table, much to my mothers annoyance ( he never succeeded).
What really got me interested in amateur radio was building my first transistor radio. It was a super-regenerative type, built into a cigarette packet. There were two things wrong with it, the first was it didn’t cover the am broadcast band, and the second was it was also a very effective transmitter. Instead of the desired band it worked on the amateur radio top-band (1.8MHz), or thereabouts. Immediately I wanted to know who these people were talking to each other.
When I was first licenced, in 1969, I needed a rig. At the time I held a ‘B’ licence which meant 2-metres and above. In common with most new amateurs of the time I got hold of an ex PMR transceiver, a Pye Ranger and converted it for 2-metres. Actually I only ever used the receiver, which I made tuneable, there was a fault on the transmit side which I never managed to sort out. Instead I built a valve ( tube) transmitter from a kit obtained from Garex (they are still trading). This was, I believe using the parts & circuit of the transmit part of a Pye Ranger, with the following valve line-up: 6BH6, 6BH6, QQV03-10, QQV03-10 on the rf side, I don’t remember the af side of the ranger, and anyway I used series modulation, thus avoiding a heavy, expensive modulation transformer.. The AM modulator was solid-state.
At about this time I went to teacher training college, and didn’t take my gear with me! Finding some spare time between the bar and lectures, I got hold of another PMR rig, still AM and full of nice things that glowed in the dark! I re-tuned it for 2-metres, put a halo antenna on the roof of the hall of residence and I was away again. The rig was a Pye F27 base station 40watts and six channels, and look at the size of it, yes those are 19” rack mounts! I soon modified the rig for
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Pye F27 Base Station
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NBFM (ok only the transmit side, I used slope detection for receive). I got closed down by the college because the site engineer thought I might be taking too much power from the mains supply! I convinced them otherwise by putting an ammeter into the power lead. The only other problem was the guy further down the corridor who was getting me at 5&9+++ on his stereo!
I now live in a place called Ham (no joke, its a small village in the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames), its most famous building is Ham House. Ham House is an outstanding Stuart house, built in 1610 and then enlarged in the 1670s when it was at the heart of Restoration court life and intrigue. The building is famous for its lavish interiors and spectacular collections of fine furniture, textiles and paintings, as well as for the 17th century formal gardens, currently being restored. The house faces the River Thames.
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Ham House
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My main interests are to do with construction, over the years I have built everything from power supplies to a couple of TV cameras. This means that I am not very active on air, this will hopefully change as I approach retirement. I am currently working on about 5 projects.
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From n3kl.org
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