I gained my first Amateur Radio licence - G1HRW - after passing the Radio Amateur Examination (RAE) in 1984 followed by the Morse test in 1989, thus achieving my full Class A licence and becoming G0IRW. I was very active on 70cm, 10m and 80m until the late 1990’s when I changed jobs, moved house and rather fell out of the radio habit. I became active as GW0IRW in 2008 after a break of ten years… I’m a keen VHF/UHF contester and can often be heard operating /Portable from one of the local hill-tops and am currently building a selection of really quite large HF & LF wire antennas here at home.
I’m a bit of an ‘old skool’ Radio Ham and a strong believer in focusing much of my efforts into building effective, well constructed antennas and using properly balance Antenna Matching Units (AMU’s) before spending money on expensive high power HF amplifiers.
I’m an active member of The Pembrokeshire Contest Group… we operate as GC2OP or GW2OP/p
I don’t claim to know everything about Antennas and I am sure a good RF Engineer could bury me in jargon. However, I have been fascinated with the wireless since the age of about 10 when I was first given a crystal set to build and have now spent many years happily experimenting with all sorts of Aerials. I’m quite happy to help others to get on the air more effectively and without having to spend a fortune on costly commercial kit. You can often hear GW0IRW on 80m and Top Band ‘Rag Chewing’ about pretty much anything (except politics and religion) just listen for the guy that talks a lot!! GW0IRW = Golf Whiskey Zero “I Really Waffle” (HI)
by Nigel Hearne - Visit my QRZ page