I’ve had an interest in radio since the early 1980’s starting with CB radio with my dad. I then bought an AOR1000 scanner in the 90’s and was hooked. Back then there was a lot more to listen to on VHF and UHF but I also had an interest in shortwave radio and bought a Sangeon ATS-803 radio but continued to have an interest in Amateur Radio and decided to go for my license in the mid 90’s.

Due to life changes I unfortunately put Amateur radio to one side for about 20 years but decided to start up the hobby again with my friend Trevor 2E1AKK a couple of years ago and we both had to re-apply for our license.

This is where the fun started because we hadn’t realised how much Amateur radio had changed especially with all the digital modes FT8, DMR, Yaesu Fusion etc. I bought an SDR to help listen and decode and had a lot of fun doing so. I have an interest in listening to miltary and civil aircraft which I used the SDR and a Yupiteru MVT7200ex.

The equipment I currently use are :-

SDRplay - sdruno software

Yupiteru MVT7200ex

Alinco DJ-MD5XEG - For DMR

Yaesu FT1XD - Fusion

Xiegu X6100 - HF

The Xiegu X6100 is an amazing QRP radio which is currently connected to a Wonder Wand antenna running to a long wire and doing an amazing job. Having an internal antenna tuner is extremely handy and cuts out having extra equipment when out and about. The SDR screen is a really nice feature when wanting to find both weak and powerful stations so the radio really is a good all-rounder. It doesn’t really compete with the Yaesu’s but does a really good job trying to keep up.