About Me

My QTH is in a small town called Westbury in the County of Wiltshire, about 19 km to the east of the City of Bath.

Locator: IO81VG

WAB: ST85

ASL: 383 Feet

Member of: RSGB (The Radio Society of Great Britain)

Member of: The Trowbridge and District Radio Amateur Club (TDARC)

Member: 8415 of the G-QRP

Member: 21190 of the SKCC

Member: 19525 of the FISTS

My Station

I currently operate using the following equipment:
Radios: IC-9700, IC-7300, FT-818, FT-897, FT-2980, Baofeng GT-3, Baofeng DMR DM-1701, TYT MD-380, AnyTone D878UVII
Homebrew & Kit Builds: Sparkford 80m CW TRX, Chinese Super Rockmite 40m CW TRX, QCX 20m

Preferred Mode of Operation

My main passion is CW (Morse Code). I also enjoy designing and building my own Morse keys, including straight, single-lever, and dual-lever designs. Many of my custom keys, along with other projects I’ve undertaken, can be found on the Projects Page.

How It All Began

My interest in amateur radio began at the age of 10, sparked by a Philips Radio Engineer Kit I received for Christmas. It was a simple direct conversion receiver, assembled using small nuts and bolts rather than soldering. After experimenting with the medium wave band, I followed the kit’s instructions to modify it for the 160m trawler band—and that’s when I stumbled upon my first radio ham.

The operator, Conway G3VBH, was speaking in a strange jargon, yet his location in Bath immediately intrigued me. Unbeknownst to me, this was my first encounter with the world of amateur radio.

For more information about the history of these kit's, please follow this link: https://www.philips.nl/en/a-w/philips-museum/stories/philiform.html

School Years & Early Experiments

At Nelson Hayden Boys’ School in Trowbridge, I was fortunate to have a teacher, Bob Cropper (G3XCA), who ran a radio club. His classroom featured a valve AM transceiver built into a school desk, and our Wednesday afternoon school club used an old No. 19 set for HF radio listening.

My father, a former radar technician after WWII, built me my first valve superheterodyne receiver with plug-in Denco coils. He also taught me to read circuit diagrams and to solder. Together we built various small projects from the Practical Electronics Magazine—including a rather awful yodeling doorbell that ended up sounding more like a police siren!

In December 1970, Practical Wireless featured a multi-part radio project that my father and I decided to build together. The result was a high-quality receiver that served me well for years.

Here is one of my first QSL cards from that time:

Taking the Next Step

Like many teenagers, my interests briefly shifted, but by 1980, I had settled down and gotten married. My wife, recognizing my passion for radio, encouraged me to enroll in an RAE course at Trowbridge Technical College.

After passing the exam with distinction and credit, I was issued my first license, G8ZFG, in 1981, allowing me to operate on VHF/UHF bands. However, life’s commitments—renovating a home, starting a family—put amateur radio on hold once again.

Becoming Fully Licensed

In 1994, I decided to take the 12 WPM Morse test in Swindon. Passing this allowed me to upgrade to a Class A license with the call sign G0VFS, granting full access to all HF bands and modes. This marked the beginning of my adventures in DXing.

Once again, life got in the way—between moving house, raising two boys, and earning an HNC in Business IT at Bath University, radio had to take a back seat. However, I spent time with my elderly father by taking up slope-soaring model planes and, later, astronomy, leading to the construction of an observatory (detailed in my Other Interests section).

Returning to the Hobby

Now retired, I finally have the time to re-engage with amateur radio fully. To catch up with the latest developments, I:
✔ Joined my local radio club (TDARC)
✔ Purchased a new up to date Radio
✔ Participated in my first 2m SSB contest

Though I’ve never been a big fan of contests, I found them enjoyable and challenging.

Rediscovering Morse Code

Another goal was to rebuild my CW skills, which had become rusty over the years. CW was once a huge source of satisfaction, and I wanted to regain that feeling.

To improve, I:
✔ Joined the TDARC CW net
✔ Used smartphone apps to train
✔ Became a member of FISTS & SKCC

The Beauty of Amateur Radio

What I love most about this hobby is its endless variety—whether you’re into contesting, homebrewing, DXing, or digital modes, there’s always something new to explore. It’s a lifelong passion that you can leave and return to with fresh enthusiasm.

📖 Please sign the Guest Book and introduce yourself—I’d love to hear from fellow hams!

My Antenna Setup

The image below shows the view from my station, looking southeast toward the Salisbury Plain. You can spot the vertical support for my EFHW antenna and my astronomical observatory to the right of the picture. The End Fed Half Wave uses a 49:1 UNUN and 100uH coil toward the end for 80 meters. Other antennas include a vertical 10-meter sleeve dipole and a 2-meter/70cm colinear.

Despite having a small rear garden, I enjoy the challenge of setting up HF antennas—yet another fascinating aspect of the hobby! Therfore, my antennas are constantly changing.

My Current Setup (Updated January 2025)

My station now includes a large TV-screen display, used as a secondary monitor for dynamic logbook maps. I use RUMlogNG for Mac—a fantastic logging program that I highly recommend! (Download it Here)

Making my copy of a Vibroplex Key

I called it the Virusperplexed bug as I made it during the COVID-19 lockdown. Read its story here

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