G4HUN
AWARDS BACKPACKERS MOBILE LOCATION SOTA VIRTUALMUSEUM PICTURE ARCHIVE SHACK
Hi, I'm Neil Whiteside - thank you for visiting my website. I started out as a Short Wave Listener in 1974, and was first licenced in February 1977 as G8MXF. I got my class A call - G4HUN - on January 5th 1979. You can see some pictures from my early days in radio here. In the early days I was mainly active on 2m - in the days when other people were active too (!). I then went off air from 1984 to 2002, when my interest was rekindled. Although I'm often listening on HF and VHF from home, a lot of my activity is on VHF and UHF from the car, as the day job involves a lot of travelling. I run an Icom IC2725 with a Maldol colinear on 2m and 70cm FM. To see the mobile setup click here.
The home QTH is in Highfields Caldecote, a small village in Cambridgeshire. Click here for a map showing where we are. I use a Yaesu FT-950: about 100w into either a Hustler 6BTV vertical or an 88ft longwire. I also run a Yaesu FT817, mainly for local 6m/2m/70cm work, although I do have a 7ele ZL Special in the loft beaming SE for 2m SSB work. To take a wander round the shack - click here.
I really enjoy taking part in the 2m Backpackers contests. 2003 was the first season for me, and I took part in three of the five sessions. Best result was 2nd place in the third session (The certificate now hangs on the shack wall), and 7th overall in the championship. 2004 yielded first place in the third and fifth session (More certificates!!); and 7th place again in the championship. I've tried a few combinations of rig and antenna - I've settled on the FT817 with a 9 element F9FT (Tonna). Click here for some Backpacking pix, and click here for some stats.
In 2003 I also finally got round to claiming my RSGB 144MHz Squares Award, No. 375, for 40 squares and 10 countries. This award was for contacts that took place in the late seventies and early eighties.
In September 2005 I got my Worked All Continents Award (WAC), and in October I got my DXCC application approved. Certificate #40,472 is hanging on the shack wall!
I'm afraid I was a bit late in discovering 6m, but I love it when the band is open. It's like 2m used to be long ago. In 2006 I claimed my entry-level RSGB 50MHz Countries Award.
Another area of the hobby that I enjoy is Summits On The Air (SOTA). Living in Cambridgeshire makes this particularly challenging! So whenever possible I like to go on SOTA trips to the hillier parts of the UK. So far I have activated summits in the Yorkshire Dales, South Pennines, Central & Southern England and Devon & Cornwall; plus one in Belgium. For some pictures of my SOTA trips to the Dales click here.
SOTA: G4HUN/P Wendover Woods. G/CE-005
2007 was the first time I visited Ham Radio Friedrichshafen.
A group of six from the Camb-Hams took a four day trip to southern Germany. We took our handhelds and operated as DL/ and HB9/. For a full set of pictures visit the Camb-Hams Photo Gallery using this link:
http://www.camb-hams.com/wordpress/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=450
Later on in the year I went to France and Monaco where I operated as F/G4HUN/P and 3A/G4HUN/P.
F/G4HUN/P
2008 saw the Camb-Hams DXpedition to Mull (IOTA: EU-008). This was huge fun, which you can read all about at: http://www.camb-hams.com/camb-hams-mull-dx-pedition. This was followed in 2009 by a DXpedition to Harris in the Outer Hebrides (IOTA: EU-010). Learn more about that here: http://www.camb-hams.com/coming-events/2009-dxpedition/harris-2009-diary
2009 also saw more SOTA and backpacking, plus a family holiday to Tenerife where I operated as EA8/G4HUN.
EA8/G4HUN
This is the current portable setup: an FT817 with an LDG Z817 ATU.
