First licensed in 1986 as G1CRH, a call inherited from my brother G4ZFE.

After being licensed for a few months I attempted the 12wpm CW test and failed by a few characters. Since 2m SSB, using an FT-290R, was so enjoyable I never did get back to retry the test.

I now live in Cupertino, CA and took the US exams in 2008 to get back on the air again.  To get motivated to learn and operate CW I built a KX-1 (#2748) which was a really fun build experience.  Working on the never ending task of improving my cw with RufzXP and the Begali CW Trainer. If you hear me out there please be patient :) In the mean time the KX-1 is fun to set up and listen to outside and recently found it useful to conduct station checks: ssb audio, RTTY FSK configuration.

Working on WAS(Lotw), for me, is a fun paper chase and reminds me of chasing counties in the UK and the Worked All Britian program. Slowly working towards 5BWAS which is forcing me to think more about antennas and how to use the two large pine trees on this city lot.

Current set up is a K3/100 (#7828), P3, and a 90ft inverted-L with 20m coax trap.  Although sometimes I also set up a 68ft doublet. 

Backup/Portable rig is a base Elecraft K2 (#7558) with ATU.

When I'm not tuning around or doing family things I can be found in the garage trying to refresh my old landcruiser

sometimes working with simple 1970s mechanical issues can be a refreshing change.

Field day 2015, managed to combine camping and radio for a fun weekend: 1B SF.

Field day 2016 was a return to the same site although used an AERIAL-51 404-UL on a 12m Spiderbeam fiberglass pole

73,

Phil