I am a fully licensed radio amateur amateur since 1983 and have written features for the former Short Wave Magazine, and wrote the regular "Maritime Matters" and "NDB DXing" columns for RadioUser magazine since its inception until its closure in December 2022. I also wrote a regular Maritime Beacons column for the former "Monitoring Monthly" magazine. I currently operate on HF, 2 metres (FM), and 70cms (FM). I also work UK CB and 446 MHZ license free pmr frequencies. I have a keen interest in aircraft and marine scanning and hold a marine VHF Certificate of Compentence.
I am a very keen swl of shortwave broadcast and utility stations and decode RTTY weather signals, navtex, DGPS and marine AIS data transmission via shipplotter. I write a monthly maritime radio column for the UK RadioUser magazine and a quarterly marine beacon column for Monitoring Monthly Magazine.
My shortwave equipment consists of a SDRplay RSPdx, SDRplay RSP1A and JRC NRD 525 receivers with a PA0RDT and Bonito miniwhip active antennas vertically polarised and located about 5 metres above ground, along with a SEM QRM Eliminator and a Timewave DSP 9+ audio filter. I also have several scanners. SDR receivers are used with SDR Console and SDRuno software with PskovNDB sorftware for NDB reception.
I edited and produced an excellent publication for those involved in NDB dxing, Non Directional Beacons of Europe, now in its 29th year. When I first produced it finding information on received NDBs was a very time consuming business searching through official documents that were detailed by location rather than callsign or frequency. MNow there are other suitable resources available on the internet therefore due to amount of time involved in researching, editing and checking my various NDB databases I took the decision that the 2022 issue would be the last that I would produce. This edition is still available (See publications page for ordering details).
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