My Amateur Radio Hobby.

Hello & thanks for visiting my site.

As you can see this is an insight into my hobby, amateur radio. My name is Keith & my station name is G1YIJ. I live in a small town called Denton approximately 10k south east of the city of Manchester, UK. I was first licensed in 1987, passing the City & Guilds Radio Amateurs Exam first time. I was previously a citizens band operator, using a 20 channel AM radio in the first 6 months of me discovering this secretive mode of communication. I then progressed to a side band radio that I used to communicate with likeminded people around the world. A few years down the line I met with people that were amateur radio operators. When I saw some of the equipment they were using I decided I would become a legal licensed radio operator.

As a G1 I was only allowed to transmit on vhf/uhf bands. I had a Yaesu FT290 with a linear amplifier, this was connected to a 9 element cross tonna on top of a 20 foot scaffold pole in a 20 foot section of lattice tower bolted to the back of my house. I also had a Yaesu FT707 line up for listening & cross banding. For the 707 I had a 2 element 10m cubicle quad (mounted below the tonna) & a wire dipole cut for 80m that I could tune for 40m, 20m & 15m.

When my wife Linda & I started our family I gave up on radio, not enough hours in a day for work, family life & a hobby.

I later went back to my first hobby motorbikes as the kids grew up & became more independent. This lasted for about 7 years before I saw the light & realised I was getting a little bit old for getting the knee down & wouldn’t heal as quickly as I used to when the inevitable happened.

Back in 2010 I swapped my Suzuki Bandit for some ham radio gear. The bug was back, especially when I was informed I was now able to operate all bands as OFCOM had upgraded the old licence system. My first station was an Icom IC756 pro line up & I raided the attic for my Standard C5900. I put an inverted L for hf & an old colinear for vhf/uhf & off I went as though I had never been off air.

In 2012 I swapped the Icom for a Kenwood TS2000. This transceiver did give me 100w out on vhf/uhf but I was never happy with the tx or rx audio quality. I put a 38-foot tenna mast on the back of the house with a 5-band cobwebb antenna. In December 2012, I swapped the Kenwood for my present transceiver, a Yaesu FT950. I was happier with this radio straight out of the box but once I had the settings to my liking...wow. I also swapped the cobwebb for the cushcraft MA5B. This swap certainly helped with the qrm using a directional antenna, with an average of 15dB front to back & 25dB sidelobe attenuation.

See some settings I use for audio out & data modes on my station page. I find I am using data modes more frequently these days, no shouting required or qrm from EU.

Well as of 20/10/2015, I now own an Icom IC-7000. The Yaesu FT-950 was not getting used as much as it should so I was tempted by this little 7000. As this is a full HF, 6m, 2m & 70cms all mode mobile shack in a box I can down size the shack. I am now down to about 50% of the desk space & it looks lass cluttered. The 7000 is being run by two computer programmes, Icom7000BKT (to porgramme the memories) & HRD + DM780. I also run the 7000 remotely using BKTRemote server through my Dell laptop.

If we have not already spoken, I hope to speak to you soon or see you on my waterfall.

73 de G1YIJ