In the beginning
I was born in Loughborough in Leicestershire, England, in the autumn of 1965 in the house where my grandparents lived. I remember very little of those early years in England but I do remember quite vividly our emigrating (my mother, father, brother, sister and I) to South Africa in 1973. That was quite an adventure back then although I'm sure I understood little of the implications of moving 6000 miles away from everything and everyone I knew (apart from my parents and siblings) in an age when frequent air travel wasn't the everyday activity it is today.
The flight to South Africa on a Boeing 747 aircraft was my first time in the air and I remember it as a very long flight. In those days it was quite common to stop and refuel on flights that are now, in modern aircraft, flown non-stop. So it was that I spent 7 wonderful years growing up in a small town on the Transvaal/Orange Free State border. I made some great friends and had some memorable times. Those days are now long gone but the memories remain and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!
An interest aroused
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by shortwave radio and living abroad in South Africa and tuning into the BBC World Service as a child is a memory that will live with me always. Those voices coming in over the airwaves from my distant homeland as my father, brother and I tuned in to hear the football results on Saturday afternoons seemed magical at the time and over the years it was that fascination with shortwave radio and its global reach that eventually led me to amateur radio.
More recently
Since that time I have developed keen interests in particular aspects of the hobby and this blog will probably lean heavily on those areas of amateur radio, namely RTTY, DXing using SSB and CW (and increasing my DXCC country count), FT8 (previously PSK31), simple wire antennas, and portable operating.
I have owned and operated many radios over the years and managed to assemble three modest but effective stations, but I have also been inactive for lengthy periods when I sold all my gear and pursued other activities and interests. This time around I intend to enjoy amateur radio for a protracted period and really start to invest my time and energy into building a really effective antenna farm, equipped as I now am, with over 30 years of accumulated knowledge and experience.
Contact me via email: <my callsign>@QSL.net
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