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GW0NGA - my introduction to amateur radio


Radio is one of the great loves of my life - both community radio and amateur radio. These pages are about my amateur radio exploits.

I spent my teenage years as a shortwave listener, tuning in to English language services all over the world. My radio was able to pick up local radio amateurs talking on AM on 160m ("top band") and this opened up another new world for me.

I obtained my class B on 23 February 1989 when aged 20, and my class A on Good Friday in 1990. Other interests took over and after filling up a mere 47 pages of my (recently discovered) logbook, I disappeared from the airwaves on 6 September 1992.

I didn't leave radio completely; in 1995 I worked on a community radio station in Billericay, Mayflower FM, and in 1996 I formed a new group, Phoenix FM, with the aim of getting a full time community radio station on the FM band for Brentwood and Billericay in Essex. We finally got a full-time FM licence in 2007 and the station is still going strong.

I dipped my toe back in the amateur radio waters in 2006, using a Icom IC-7000 and a Diamond CP-6. Sadly my vertical antenna interfered with a persistent neighbour, and despite me trying to help him, he found a new hobby - complaining about me 24 hours a day! So after a couple of months, everything went back in the box.

I had been thinking about restarting the hobby for some time after this, and on 14 January 2023 I plugged in a new Icom IC-7300 and slung a EFHW down my garden. A few days later, I set up FT-8 on a laptop, and much to my suprise I suddenly found myself making a crazy number of contacts on this too. That laptop has been on day and night ever since.

In January 2024 I left Essex behind and moved to beautiful rural Mongtomeryshire in Wales. I'm now using the callsign GW0NGA instead of G0NGA. My garden doesn't have enough room for the EFHW, so with the help of Nigel MW0OMZ we built a doublet and I'm back on air (and when I say "we", I mean 95% Nigel. I think I held the ladder).

The doublet is working okay on 20/15/12 but it's been very good on 17m and I've had countless contacts into JA, VK and ZL on it.

Date Time Band Call Mode Sent Rcvd Name State Country Miles
26 Apr 2025211717OH4LBXFT8+10-09Juha Perkkiö Finland1,288
26 Apr 2025171317R4FJFT8-01-21School Club Station1,952
26 Apr 2025171117RZ6HTPFT8-04-24Igor Saulich Igor G.RU Russia2,066
26 Apr 2025170217R6OPFT8+08-24Roman Solop Russia1,818
26 Apr 2025165517OH1HWCFT8+01-12Seppo Vilen1,201
26 Apr 2025145217R6OIFT8+03-20Анатолий Иващенко Russia1,813
26 Apr 2025113217OE3RQFFT8-08-17Roman Friedrich Austria909
26 Apr 2025104217R7OVFT8-11-24
25 Apr 2025212117WV4EFT8+04-21Ryan J PerillatAL United States4,131
25 Apr 2025210317N1BDUFT8+03-12LEE M SMITHVA United States3,572
25 Apr 2025205017OH8EVGFT8+11-03Petteri Tiitto Finland1,277
25 Apr 2025202717CT2FFCFT8+15+07Jose Manuel Simoes de AlmeidaLR Portugal958
25 Apr 2025195917YO2MTGFT8-06-16Gigi , Popa Gheorghe Romania1,198
25 Apr 2025194417OH1DPCFT8+11-11Timo Pusa Finland1,121
25 Apr 2025193717HA5STTFT8-03-10Imre Gyenes Hungary1,056
25 Apr 2025193117JA6VQAFT8+13-09AKIO TAGAMI Japan5,863
25 Apr 2025192917JE3GNNFT8-03-20Yukihiro Matsumoto Japan5,896
25 Apr 2025182417SQ4INWFT8-10-12BEN BERNARD KALINOWSKI LOK:JO93VS, SPPA :JOQ , PGA : OQ07 Poland954
25 Apr 2025181817JH0INPFT8+17-15HIROSHI MIYASHITA Japan5,831
25 Apr 2025181117OH6IHFT8+09-05Alf Blomqvist Finland1,203
25 Apr 2025174317WO2XFT8-02-15David W de CoonsNJ United States3,310
25 Apr 2025174017KN7KFT8-15-15SERGEY ABRIKOSOVOR United States4,769
25 Apr 2025163517RA3XFRFT8-17-21
25 Apr 2025155817R8CCIFT8-03-13Konstantine Butorov Russia4,309
25 Apr 2025072217IW0DGQFT8-24-16ROBERTO POMPAMEO Italy1,002