Background
==========

I got interested in radio when I was a teenager, back in the early
1980s. I joined the local amateur radio club "Derwentside Amateur
Radio Club", based in Consett in the north-east of England when I
was about 15 years old. I learned a lot - a teenage geeky mind can
absorb a lot of stuff - and sat the Radio Amateur's Exam (RAE) in
December 1982. I was 16 then. Next came the Post Office Morse Test
at Cullercoats Radio in Feb 1983 and my A-Class licence arrived in
March 1983. I had just turned 17

My Callsign : G4SLV

I've been in and out of the hobby ever since. It's 42 years now!
That's frightening!

I moved to Scotland (Wick) in 1995 and became GM4SLV but never
really felt comfortable with being a "GM"

I moved to Shetland in 1999 and continued to be GM4SLV.

Recent changes in the UK rules mean I can drop the "M" and return
to my original call : G4SLV

I've started to use it again, and I' surprised at how odd it now
feels. But I'll perservere until it becomes more natural again.

My Main Interests
=================

HF is (to me) /real radio/. The ionosphere, the long-distance, the
noises, the ever-changing patterns of propagation.

I love CW and have spent most of my time using this over any other
mode. I also have spent a significant amount of time using
"digimodes" since the development of PSK31 and the advent of other
more resilient modes. I particularly like Olivia, but I've used
Hell, MFSK, Thor, Contesia, DominoX... I've dabbled in JS8.

CW is where it's at, though.

I rarely use SSB. I find it awkward, noisy and largely
un-interesting.

On V/UHF I'm more interested in setting up things for the fun of
learning, and then find I don't use them much.

I've played with DMR, YSF etc. on Pi-Star hotspots.

I've used APRS, running an i-Gate for quite a long time, until
recently. 

I've played with AllstarLink - currently (2025) - the main focus of
my tinkering.

I have and Allstar Node : 481480 with a 2m VHF Gateway (with the
callsign MB7IZE) and a portable ShariPi node 481483. There's also a
radioless hub node on a VPS in the cloud 481482 which is more for
tinkering that anything useful.