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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 May 2025 | 2040 | 17 | EA1JVG | FT8 | -18 | -09 | José Vaca González |
| Spain | 806 | |
| 17 May 2025 | 2029 | 17 | PY2JF | FT8 | -01 | -21 | João Roberto S. G. Ferreira | SP |
| Brazil | 5,840 |
| 17 May 2025 | 1933 | 17 | EA1KR | FT8 | -12 | -10 | Angel Rojo Gonzalez |
| Spain | 651 | |
| 17 May 2025 | 1343 | 17 | LZ2AKR | FT8 | +11 | -19 | Arthur K Roberts |
| Bulgaria | 1,558 | |
| 17 May 2025 | 1235 | 6 | EI2GLB | FT8 | -07 | -16 | Trevor Dunne |
| Ireland | 156 | |
| 17 May 2025 | 1200 | 6 | MW0PJE/P | FT8 | +11 | -03 | |||||
| 17 May 2025 | 1026 | 17 | PI4TX | FT8 | +11 | -03 | Roald (Radio Club Alkmaar) | NH |
| Netherlands | 340 |
| 17 May 2025 | 0200 | 30 | RQ3P | FT8 | -04 | -15 | Antonov Peter |
| Russia | 1,668 | |
| 17 May 2025 | 0145 | 30 | PY7ZZ | FT8 | +09 | -20 | FRED SOUTO MAIOR | PE |
| Brazil | 4,585 |
| 16 May 2025 | 2326 | 30 | CQ35MD | FT8 | +22 | -11 | José M B Vasconcelos |
| Portugal | 1,501 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 2322 | 30 | CT7AQH | FT8 | -05 | -09 | Miguel Fialho |
| Portugal | 983 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 2309 | 30 | 9A2WA | FT8 | -04 | -16 | Zoran Mikulka |
| Croatia | 1,105 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 2233 | 30 | OE3OOG | FT8 | +18 | -22 | Josef Olischer | AT |
| Austria | 922 |
| 16 May 2025 | 2205 | 30 | 9A4UZ | FT8 | -13 | -23 | Zlatko Uršulin | HR |
| Croatia | 975 |
| 16 May 2025 | 2156 | 30 | SP7SQP | FT8 | -07 | -21 | Grzegorz Binkowski |
| Poland | 1,040 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 2133 | 30 | RW4F | FT8 | +07 | -19 | Alexander Karev | PE |
| Russia | 1,972 |
| 16 May 2025 | 2041 | 17 | R7KKO | FT8 | -02 | -23 | Aleksandr Simonov | RK |
| Russia | 1,762 |
| 16 May 2025 | 2030 | 17 | KY4SGM | FT8 | -10 | -15 | Stephen G Moore | KY |
| United States | 3,866 |
| 16 May 2025 | 2010 | 17 | US0QV | FT8 | -11 | -18 | Vladimir M. Goroshko |
| Ukraine | 1,522 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 1936 | 17 | UT1EF | FT8 | -07 | -14 | Stanislav Anatolevich Dragaev |
| Ukraine | 1,522 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 1927 | 17 | KK4QA | FT8 | -19 | -03 | Christopher C Kinzel | FL |
| United States | 4,301 |
| 16 May 2025 | 1842 | 17 | SV2KHF | FT8 | -09 | -23 | AGGELOS VOYDRIAS |
| Greece | 2,581 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 1838 | 17 | R3PMI | FT8 | -22 | -19 | Valerij T. |
| Russia | 1,603 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 1732 | 17 | ZB2CM | FT8 | +15 | -16 | Charlie Mascari |
| Gibraltar | 1,146 | |
| 16 May 2025 | 1726 | 17 | RA3FY | FT8 | +17 | -17 | Mike (Mikhail) Evdokimov |
| Russia | 1,655 |