G3SZU

THE EARLY DAYS:

Well, here I am in all my terrifying glory….and the first things you notice are that 1. I still have hair and 2. I haven’t changed.

Moving swiftly on…... I am a keen CW operator and spend 99.9% of my time using that mode. After nearly 60 years of doing it, I feel there has been some improvement in my skill…..not a lot but some.

I was licenced in 1964 while at school and have always been a keen constructor and interested in all things technical - my career has been a computing and technical one.

The early days were happy ones: I had a modified Wireless Set No. 19 MKIII and an old, deaf Eddystone 640 -  a bit like me….I then progressed to a homebrew topband TX with the Eddystone (still deaf)…by doubling the PA (remember that?) I could get onto 80m.

Jack Tweedie, G3ZY (SK) in Chesterfield found me a Geloso VFO with bezel and I made a 80m - 10m TX in a KW Vanguard case, but the PSU was only good enough for about 30W to an 807 PA. Jack was a really nice chap.

Along the way I acquired TWO, brand new T1154 Lancaster bomber transmitters. They were beauties and I used one of them as an external PA unit with its fantastic in-built ATU. Wish I still had them…..

MY EQUIPMENT:

Ftdx5000 transceiver

 K3 transceiver

 IC7000 transceiver and

 Yaesu Quadra Linear

Various home brew items and test equipment. I do have a QRM Eliminator which is interesting.

MY ANTENNAS:

They all hang from three Silver Birch trees:

10 to 30m…………….vertical, sleeveless dipoles

40m…………………….40ft vertical against small ground mat

80 & 160m……………40ft centre-loaded verticals against small ground mat.

 I operate from: 160m to 10m - Usually CW on HF (I have let my computer do FT8 QSOs too)

My antennas are all fed into a homebrew, external switching unit controlled from the shack, allowing any antenna to be selected. The output back to the shack is via an isolation transformer to stop the house earth being exported.

Many counterweights  (house bricks!) Are used on the antenna pulleys and wires so that they can move freely with the tree movements.

All the sleeveless dipoles have high performance chokes at their feedpoints and the 40 to 160m antennas feed into their own homebrew matching units placed at the bases of the antennas.

The system is 50 ohms throughout.

CLUBS:

I am a member of Cwops and the Straight Key Century Club.

QSL:

I love actual QSL cards. I suppose it’s a throw-back from the early days when it was the only way of confirming a contact, but it’s always stuck with me - the feeling of a card in your hand and the (sometimes inventive) pictures on it. I’m still excited when a bundle come through the letter-box every so often from my QSL manager Charles, M0OXO.

My QSL policy is now a simple one: If I receive a card, I’ll reply in kind and if I’m asked for one, I’ll gladly send one. All my logs go into Logbook of the World. All my cards are held by Charles - and all QSL requests should go to him.

I hope you enjoy my site, 73 Keith, G3SZU et al

PLEASE LOOK AT MY OTHER PAGES BY CLICKING THE LINKS AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE

Email: <my UK G call-sign> at <my UK G call-sign>.co.uk

QSL POLICY:   If I receive a card or a request for a card, I will QSL. All my cards are held by my QSL manager, Charles M0OXO and all requests should go to him at his QRZ.COM address. Charles also has an OQRS system on his web-site at M0OXO.COM.

Want to know what you’re missing - or not missing - while you’re reading this rubbish page?

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Site last modified: 9 October 2024

I moved home from Lancashire to Cambridgeshire on 30 June 2021.

THE SHACK TODAY

1967 - 20yrs old

2024 - not 20yrs old