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 ABOUT ME  I'm 33 years old and I live in a small market town called Newton-le-Willows in the North West of England with my wife Amanda and our three children James,12, Stephanie, 11, and Luke, 7. I first became interested in radio at the ripe old age of fifteen when, like many modern day amateurs, I discovered cb radio through a friend. Not long after I discovered ssb and learned what 'dx' was all about. From that moment I was hooked and started the journey into radio - an addiction that has never subsided!!! I first became licensed with my 2E callsign in 1994 when I sat the Novice Licence training course at the beacons in Frodsham. In those days the licensing structure was very different from what we know today and the novice licence entitled you to a 'massive' 3 watts of rf output on 70cms. only!! Around 2000 I had a break from radio then in 2003 a friend and fellow amateur Stuart M0NUN, now sadly silent key, told me about a new licence class the M3 which allowed almost full access to the hf bands. I obtained the callsign M3YZX in January 2003 and continued to use this callsign until the rules changed again later that year and 2E licence holders where allowed full access to hf. My main interest in radio is dx'ing on the hf bands and I spend most of my spare time in the shack on hf looking for more new countries to work. A present I have worked 192 dxcc countries on this callsign and am always on the look out for more!! So what does the future hold? I intend to sit for the RAE later this year and upgrade to a full callsign and am going to have a play around with digital modes on hf something which will be completely new to me. I have recently joined RAYNET - The Radio Amateurs Emergency Network - and I will be taking every oppurtunity to operate at various different events with them. I feel that volunteering for RAYNET presents amateurs with the oppurtunity to use the privelages our licences bring to do some good for the community and promote our great hobby to a wider audience - never a bad thing!!! Whatever the future holds for amateur radio we can all be certain that there will always be new things to try and new skills to learn which is what makes our hobby so great. What is RAYNET?  |
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