Andrew Atkinson
www.g4cwx.com
Email: andrew_atkinson @ hotmail.com
Email: andrew_atkinson @ hotmail.com
HF Activity
General
About 35 years ago I migrated from a VHF licence to a full HF licence and, since that time, have not looked back. The vast majority of my amateur radio career has been devoted to designing and building receivers and low power transmitters. There have been a lot of failures, but equally there have been a lot of successes - which has made it all worthwhile. My first success came with a direct conversion receiver for 80 metres which pulled in signals from around the world. The aerial at that time was a metal chain-link fence connected to a homebrew tuning unit. A few weeks later came the next success; a matching transmitter. The lonely little BFY51 pumped out a strong enough signal for me to have a 5 and 9 report on CW with a group of guys manning the Moscow State Power Station Amateur Radio Club rig. Confirmation came some weeks later in the form a QSL card which I have kept to this day.
Commercial Rigs
I have never been a lover of commercially produced equipment for the Radio Amateur. I think that this attitude stems from my father’s influence. They have never seemed to offer me exactly what I want. Having said this, they have proved useful, so I now have two of the things. One is an ancient Icom IC-746 and the other is a fairly new Yeasu FT-950. They both perform reasonably well, although the Icom is not nearly as stable as I would wish. I wonder if this means that I have become a bit too picky?
I have never been a lover of commercially produced equipment for the Radio Amateur. I think that this attitude stems from my father’s influence. They have never seemed to offer me exactly what I want. Having said this, they have proved useful, so I now have two of the things. One is an ancient Icom IC-746 and the other is a fairly new Yeasu FT-950. They both perform reasonably well, although the Icom is not nearly as stable as I would wish. I wonder if this means that I have become a bit too picky?
In addition to the two beasts you will see above, I also have a myriad of homebrew receivers, transmitters and transceivers which cover the majority of the HF bands. Some of these were built from kits, others from published designs, but the majority were designed and built entirely by me for a specific purpose.
I also have to admit that I have a few other bits of commercial gear, such as the LDG AT-100 Pro auto antenna tuner. This came my way about a year ago and works just fine with the Icom and Yaesu rigs, but for everything else I rely on a homebrew tuner which has far greater flexibility in terms of matching. A photograph of the new tuner is shown below.
I also have to admit that I have a few other bits of commercial gear, such as the LDG AT-100 Pro auto antenna tuner. This came my way about a year ago and works just fine with the Icom and Yaesu rigs, but for everything else I rely on a homebrew tuner which has far greater flexibility in terms of matching. A photograph of the new tuner is shown below.
HF Operations
I think that I have mentioned elsewhere that most of my operations these days on the HF bands are in digital modes, including QRSS, WSPR, PSK31, RTTY and so forth. For these I hook up to a Soundblaster Live! External sound card, an EZE interface and a desktop PC running Vista. My chosen software includes HRD, Argo, Spectran and a few more besides.
You will also hear me occasionally on CW and very rarely on SSB.
If you want to set up a sked, please feel free to get in touch via the Contact page of this web site.
I think that I have mentioned elsewhere that most of my operations these days on the HF bands are in digital modes, including QRSS, WSPR, PSK31, RTTY and so forth. For these I hook up to a Soundblaster Live! External sound card, an EZE interface and a desktop PC running Vista. My chosen software includes HRD, Argo, Spectran and a few more besides.
You will also hear me occasionally on CW and very rarely on SSB.
If you want to set up a sked, please feel free to get in touch via the Contact page of this web site.
