Ham radio is one of many hobbies - I am a licenced private pilot (hence Vne), a day skipper (in-shore sailing & crewman for off-shore racing) also enjoy clay shooting and Motorcycles. With a young family however, many of these hobbies are currently taking a back seat.

As a UK Foundation licence holder I operate QRP (<10w) on all bands.

 

For home / base operations I use a Yaesu-857D into a Diamond WD-330 mutliband terminated dipole HF (160m to 6m). This Antenna is only 15ft (4m) high at its peak and 30% of it is masked by a building, meaning it is not installed in an optimum position. Telephone and Electricity cables prevent other placement. For VHF/UHF I have a Royal Discone mounted on the chimney.

 

Mobile VHF/UHF is also with a Yaesu 857D or a Yaesu VX-8DE into a Watson W770 Dual-bander. For HF portable I use the 857D with a Buddipole-mini.

I have an experiemental Multiband Cobweb antenna in the loft (attic) that is tuned very nicely for 40m, 20m, 10m and 6m. The antenna receives fairly well although is impacted by noice from the electrics in the house (Clicks when the boiler swtiches), however it seems mute. I have only managed a partial PSK31 QSO with Latvia and a tough contact to Hungary, but no other successful QSOs. Planning on building Mark iii now to see if I can shield it a bit from the noise, and to increase propagation.