Welcome to the QRZ.com listing for Tony/G4LFU

QTH Loc IO84oq - - WAB NY43 Book 19326 - - GQRP 13432 - - Radio Officers' Association 645

The picture above is of myself operating GB2SAS as part of a Special Event Station for Eden Valley Radio Society in 2011.

Licensed in 1981, my interests in the hobby include cw/ssb operating, homebrew, DXing and QRPing.

If your visit to this page results from a QSO on air, then the chances are that I have been using some of my home made equipment in the contact.

The two pictures below show my home-built Picastar HF transceivers. The design credit for this rig goes to Peter/G3XJP, but these versions also include PCB's and subsystems designed by other Hams (too many to mention!). Since this design is not available as a Kit, every builder sources all of the parts, and every Picastar looks different. These pictures show how my builds turned out!

I generally use the Picastar synchronised with a Flexradio 1500 so that I can 'view' the part of the band that I'm interested in, and I have the two rigs connected via CAT through Ham Radio Deluxe. That set-up is shown in the picture below. It's also great for working Split-DX because I can 'see where the pack is running'!

My shack also includes a Yaesu FT2000D and a Kenwood TS2000X. The TS2000 usually comes with me when I am out in my campervan as G4LFU/P, and serves as a 2m/70cm/23cm rig in the shack.

More Homebrew - I have a couple of home-built 'Softrock' TX/RX software defined radios which give an output of 1 Watt, with which I have had no end of fun QRPing, and when conditions dictate, I have two homemade PA's to boost my output a bit, one at 45W and the other at 140W. My current home brew project is a 600W solid state amplifier based on the Motorola EB104 design.

I have also built a homebrew N2PK Vector Network Analyzer. (Thanks to Paul/N2PK for this design, and to Dave/G8KBB for the myVNA software).

My aerial systems are relatively simple and usually subject to some ongoing development or experimentation. I have several homemade wire aerials - a 160m horizontal loop, a homemade off-centre fed dipole cut for 80m, and a single band 20m dipole. I also have a Cushcraft MA6V multiband HF/6m vertical. I have had good DX QSO's using all of these aerials. The 160m loop exhibits low noise and performs amazingly well, all things considered, on all bands from 160m to 10m.

My QTH (pictured below) is in Cumbria in the North of England. This house is another one of my self-build projects!

My wire aerials are at the back of the house - nature provided me with some mature trees to hang them on!

(The dog in the picture is my best friend, and is suspected of operating the radio when I am out of the house. So, if you consider my operating to be a bit 'RUFF', Beware of the Dog! Hi Hi).

73 de Tony G4LFU