Welcome to the blog of G7OFC.  I started to develop an interest in electronics when I was 11 or 12 years old. This interest was really ignited when my father acquired a Trio 9R-51D and from there I discovered Amateur Radio.

Despite the interest I spent many years as a Short Wave Listener (SWL) with a variety of receivers (Yaesu FRG-7700, Icom IC-R71E and Lowe HF-225) experimenting with antennas and data modes. I didn’t sit my RAE until 1993 whereupon I was issued the callsign G7OFC. Following the granting of my licence I acquired a Yaesu FT-221 and spent a year or two experimenting with Packet Radio.

Shortly after this I became a professional RF engineer and my Amateur Radio activities went on hold as I developed my career and eventually sold all my gear. Fast forward nearly 20 years with a change in career direction I now find myself re-discovering Amateur Radio and I find that things have changed…a lot.

My formerly Class B licence that limited me to VHF/UHF is now a full licence with the morse requirement dropped and un-restricted access to the HF bands. RTTY and AMTOR seem to have been replaced by PSK31 and other bandwidth efficient modulation schemes.

As part of this re-discovery I purchased an Icom IC-7000 and now as then my primary interests are data modes and antennas.  I plan to explore these with the IC-7000, homebrew HF multi-band trap dipole and tri-band VHF/UHF collinear from my QTH in IO82VB. Or portable with my HF link dipole.