G4TRN
UK Amateur Radio Station
Amateur radio is a world wide hobby which crosses all boundaries and embraces people from every walk of life, even royalty. It is regulated by governments and international agreements but very few administrations do not permit its activities.
Radio amateurs are not permitted to use any security coding. Everything we transmit, be it voice, international Morse code, images or data is accessible to anyone with the necessary receiving equipment. It is very public and in the early, experimental, days generally only concerned technical matters. Nowadays it is often much more personal, but it is always public. Unfortunately, bad behaviour and bad language has become a feature of a few operators and some areas of a hobby, which is open to all, even children, who have proved a knowledge of the rules and some technical understanding by passing an examination.
I became interested in radio at about the age of 11 in the early 1950's when I made a crystal set with parts bought from a Manchester market stall following a circuit from my father's wartime Royal Signals Regiment wartime training exercise book. Among his text books were volumes from the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB).
For young readers... A 'crystal set' works without batteries and the energy radiated by the broadcast station drives headphones directly. They were very common in the first days of radio and are extremely simple. However, they cannot separate stations very well and you can only hear strong signals.
One of my friends, who also playing with crystal sets, told me that he had heard a message, not a broadcast, on his. This was the stuff of 'Boy's Own Paper' and we set about finding out more.
The station we heard was an amateur radio enthusiast, callsign G3AO putting out a general call, 'CQ 80', and listening for a reply. By reducing the number of turns on our coil (originally 65 wound on a standard toilet roll) we heard him better, but, unsurprisingly, we never heard any reply.
I was hooked and progessed, making my own radio receivers (and... very naughty, transmitters) throughout my school days. At some stage I became more interested in 'Young Ladies'. Shortwave radio was relegated and flute playing, often combined with 'YLs' came to dominate my life.
So much for the early days. Much of what follows is only of any interest to fellow radio operators (hams). After many years away from the hobby I took the exam and became a licenced operator as G6BIZ in March 1981. I later took the then obligatory test in Morse Code and upgraded my licence from 'Class B' to 'Class A' and the current call sign, G4TRN at the end of May 1983.
I have a modest station and have worked all HF and VHF bands up to 70cm. Much of the original 'home brew' units have been pensioned off since I bought an Icom IC706 MkII but I still rely on a linear psu based on the PW 'Marchwood' design. The qth is in a Victorian residential area in the middle of Bristol and I do not have much space. My wire antennas are bent into very strange shapes. The local noise level has grown steadily over the years and it now severely limits operation on the lower HF bands. With high ground to the north and south of me low angle HF reception is rare and VHF propagation is not great despite the height of the antennas above a three and a half storey building.
At the moment I am not very active. However, on most Sundays I perform several news readings for the RSGB under the special callsign GB2RS. There have been changes since I was first roped in to help spread the newsreading load and I am now one of only two in the Bristol area. The other is Cyril, G2HDR, who helped me when I was new to the hobby and is the best part of 20 years older than I am.
I feel the need to make a public statement regarding newsreading issues that may be regarded as 'political' (within the hobby) and therefore beyond the scope of legal radio transmission. (I am very 'old school' in this respect.) I can direct radio callers who want to know my views via a dedicated amateur radio site. You can find them here.
John Everingham. G4TRN, FTCL
Proprietor and Webmaster, Saunders Recorders.
email:- g4trn(at)saundrecs.co.uk
This page is dated 24th. January 2013.
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