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How I got into Radio
I got my first 'CB' radio in 1980 as a young lad, the antenna was a DX 27 that
was mounted on a metal veranda on the rear side of the hotel we owned. The
location was Exmoor North Devon and we were 600 feet directly above sea level
over looking the Bristol channel with a clear view of Wales. Then came 1981 and
Legalisation of FM 27/81 so of course that was in order, got a licence as
required and a first legal
rig which was a commtron CB40F. I have to say at that point I made a lot of 'copies' to
Wales as local ones were few and fair between due to the lay of the land. As
time moved on the radios changed as did the antennas and the interest. By mid 1982 I
had a strong interest in SSB this came from a local station who ran a Avanti
Sigma 4 antenna and a Tristar 777. Along came my first SSB radio which was a Ham
International Multi Mode 2 with a 9' up 9' down Dipole, believe me back then it
worked well in my location for what it was. Achieving regular contacts in
Europe, all the UK and The USA, I even managed an early morning ground wave
contact of 115 miles on the 27/81 which was classed as a mega copy on that band.
The DX on radio seed was well and truly sewn.
The time line now becomes a blur during the early and mid 80's as I was growing
up, we moved around a lot from Devon to Dorset to end up in Somerset, by this
point I had a Ham International Jumbo, a Bremi Linear and mounted on the back of
the house a Mighty magnum 3 Antenna. Having been through numerous Rigs and
Twigs. Now its time for another little fast forward, as all I remember was
during these years it was 'cool' to have a rig and to have ones like I used, was
really cool, all I know was FM was wearing super thin for me and SSB DX was
where I was at.
The latter part of the 80's saw a lot of changes in my little world with the advent of
children and my own places, Staying in Somerset moving around a bit, eventually
ending up living in a town, on one of the highest spots with a clear view to the
South, larger gardens and a spacious house. As I was more settled the radios
started to improve, by now using my favourite radio the Cobra 148GTL-DX (I have
owned to many of these). I was also starting to play with the likes of the Yaesu
FT101E and some real antennas ranging from Yagi beams to 2 element Quad.
Somewhere in amongst this I did some other radio stuff, and the radios kept
improving as did the Antenna array (yet that's another story).
This is a high speed brief version of events and if you are still reading it
takes me more or less to where I joined the Alfa Tango Group, there is a link
for that on my site
here. In my gallery, I have and will continue to add pictures of Radios I have
owned (some maybe just images I have got from the net, others of mine) also
various Antenna set ups, most of these will be scanned, so forgive the quality
and as I find more I will add more. If you have managed to stay reading, thank you and I hope it was not to
boring for you.
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