THE AMATEUR RADIO HISTORY OF G0FAJ
A personal account by Les Barnes, G0FAJ
My first memory of Amateur Radio is listening to G3PU and G3HFQ in QSO on "Top Band"(1.8MHz). I had gone to see my friends John and Peter Goodson at their house in Bincleaves road, Weymouth. They were listening on a 'Trawler Band' AM receiver. It was 1968 and I was just 14 years old. They explained Amateur Radio to me and they soon had me hooked into the hobby. They let me listen on their HF receiver (a Trio 9R59DE) to all the DX stations coming in on AM. I had to get myself a receiver. I told my parents about the hobby and they were very supportive. I purchased a Codar CR70A receiver, ran a long wire down the garden and spent many hours listening on all the HF bands. I used to listen to local stations on 70cm by tuning the frequency on the UHF TV as low as possible! That got me interested in the VHF/UHF bands. My first constructional project was a transistorised 2Mtr converter with a 10Mtr IF. We all attended a Radio Amateurs Examination course at Weymouth Technical College. Both John and Peter passed but I didn’t. I passed the RAE at my 3rd attempt. I just had to pass the RAE as my friends had passed and I wanted to join them 'on the air'. John became G8FEL, Peter, G8FGG and another good friend of mine was Chris, G8FEE. Eventually I received the callsign G8GHU.
After I received my callsign John, Peter and I went to Wales on a Radio/Camping holiday. We operated from many hilltops as GW8GHU/P with 5 watts of AM to a homebrew 5 element yagis using a modified Pye Ranger transmit strip. It took about 8 Amps from the 12V car battery as it was driven by a 12 volt to 300 volt DC inverter. The receive side was a homebrew 144MHz to 146MHz converter which had an IF of 1.5MHz to 3.5MHz. The 'tunable IF' was an Eddystone EC10. We worked stations all over the UK from the hilltops in Wales by listening on the frequency we were transmitting on then tuning 'Low to High' through the 2M band "listening for any calls'! We were called by a mixture of modes, AM, FM and SSB. In those days there were no repeaters around and FM and SSB were modes that were still being experimented with!
I passed my CW exam about 15 years ago and was issued with the callsign G0FAJ. I have used SSB, FM, AM, CW, SSTV, RTTY and Fast-Scan TV Modes on VHF, UHF, HF and Satelittes each of which has it’s own fascination.
I have had many home QTH’s, the best of which was at the top of Lanehouse Hill in Weymouth where I had a clear 'take-off ' in all directions and was great for VHF/UHF working. I had a 30ft tower with beams for VHF and UHF and worked all over the UK and Europe on 2M. I also helped provide the first GB2RS news broadcast in the Weymouth area at 11am on Sunday mornings in conjunction with Geoff, G0EVW. For an experimental period I was able to supplement the 145.525Mhz FM voice transmission with a live, 'fast scan' TV broadcast.
I was a member of the South Dorset Radio Society for many years and was on the committee for a spell. I also participated in many portable contests with the SDRS, mainly VHF/UHF which were great fun to organise and operate in.
In recent years I have not been operational as much as I used to be which I think is in common with most. I have moved to Poole where I don’t have such a good location for VHF/UHF but am still active when time permits and just as keen as I ever was. I have operated mobile and portable on HF from France and Holland and have also taken receive only equipment to Menorca and Canada which was great fun.
Amateur Radio is my hobby for life and I am grateful to my friends who introduced me to this ever changing pastime.
Here are some photo’s of various SDRS events and my Shack and Tower at the top of Lanehouse