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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
17 May 2025204017EA1JVGFT8-18-09José Vaca González Spain806
17 May 2025202917PY2JFFT8-01-21João Roberto S. G. FerreiraSP Brazil5,840
17 May 2025193317EA1KRFT8-12-10Angel Rojo Gonzalez Spain651
17 May 2025134317LZ2AKRFT8+11-19Arthur K Roberts Bulgaria1,558
17 May 202512356EI2GLBFT8-07-16Trevor Dunne Ireland156
17 May 202512006MW0PJE/PFT8+11-03
17 May 2025102617PI4TXFT8+11-03Roald (Radio Club Alkmaar)NH Netherlands340
17 May 2025020030RQ3PFT8-04-15Antonov Peter Russia1,668
17 May 2025014530PY7ZZFT8+09-20FRED SOUTO MAIORPE Brazil4,585
16 May 2025232630CQ35MDFT8+22-11José M B Vasconcelos Portugal1,501
16 May 2025232230CT7AQHFT8-05-09Miguel Fialho Portugal983
16 May 20252309309A2WAFT8-04-16Zoran Mikulka Croatia1,105
16 May 2025223330OE3OOGFT8+18-22Josef OlischerAT Austria922
16 May 20252205309A4UZFT8-13-23Zlatko UršulinHR Croatia975
16 May 2025215630SP7SQPFT8-07-21Grzegorz Binkowski Poland1,040
16 May 2025213330RW4FFT8+07-19Alexander KarevPE Russia1,972
16 May 2025204117R7KKOFT8-02-23Aleksandr SimonovRK Russia1,762
16 May 2025203017KY4SGMFT8-10-15Stephen G MooreKY United States3,866
16 May 2025201017US0QVFT8-11-18Vladimir M. Goroshko Ukraine1,522
16 May 2025193617UT1EFFT8-07-14Stanislav Anatolevich Dragaev Ukraine1,522
16 May 2025192717KK4QAFT8-19-03Christopher C KinzelFL United States4,301
16 May 2025184217SV2KHFFT8-09-23AGGELOS VOYDRIAS Greece2,581
16 May 2025183817R3PMIFT8-22-19Valerij T. Russia1,603
16 May 2025173217ZB2CMFT8+15-16Charlie Mascari Gibraltar1,146
16 May 2025172617RA3FYFT8+17-17Mike (Mikhail) Evdokimov Russia1,655