My interest in Amateur Radio first started when I was at school. After building a low power two-valve medium-wave A.M. transmitter, I started to listen to the Short Wave bands at home. At first I only heard the very high power stations that came mainly from the Communist countries. Especially loud were Radio Moscow , Radio Havana and Radio Prague . Even though they were very strong, the "woodpecker" , a Russian over-the-horizon radar system, always powered its way over the top of everything, shifting in frequency as atmospheric conditions varied.

As the propagation conditions changed, so the woodpecker walked it way up and down the shortwave bands. With help from reference books in the local library I improved the aerial system I had by using a longer wire and then taking the time to match it to the receiver being used at the time. I now started to hear Amateur Radio stations as well. The strongest signals heard were from the G3VLX station in Petts Wood, operated by Deryck Buckley [sadly deceased April 2007]. I turned up on his doorstep on Saturday morning and was welcomed into his shack. It was through his enthusiasm that I ended up joining the Cray Valley Radio Society [CVRS] through the 1970's and 80's.

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It was a CVRS club member who improved my station by donating a BC-348 receiver [a W.W. II radio from a B-17 bomber] as well as a homebrew power supply.

BC-348 receiver

I also joined the national society, the Radio Society of Great Britain [RSGB], where I got my short wave listening [SWL] 'callsign' of RS44984. Once I got my Class B Amateur Radio license in 1981 by passing my City & Guild examinations I quickly got on the air on VHF and UHF.

Over the years my shack has made use of the following kit:

During 1988 I was lucky enough to move into a new house, where I was able to obtain planning permission for a tilt-over tower and aerials. The tower is by Allweld Engineering, and consists of three 20-foot triangular lattice sections, with a 4 foot high rotator cage containing a Yaesu rotator, and the short fibreglass stub mast.

Mast, circa 2003, in its dropped position

Just for fun I looked up the home QTH on Google Earth to see what the aerials looked like from space. I was very surprised to see that the 6m beam is very noticeable!

G6CSY viewed from space !

Although only on the V.H.F. bands with my Class B license at the time, (I had not done the morse test and so was prohibited from operating on the short wave bands), I actively listened on the H.F. bands. I could have taken a 5 w.p.m. morse test and changed to an M0 callsign (a Class 'A/B' license), but I never seemed to have the time. 
Everything changed in the middle of 2003 though, when a Radio Authority announcement was published:

So, as from September 2003, I started to be active on the H.F. bands. Over the following months, I expanded my stations abilities by upgrading my H.F. transceiver, and by replacing the vertical antenna used for H.F. listening, with something more suitable for transmitting. I continued this work by replacing the V.H.F./U.H.F. transceivers and transverters with a dedicated HF/6m/2m transceiver. I no longer transmit on 4m or 23cms. I will be replacing the 23cms and 4m antennas with a 6m Yagi and a 10m HB9CV antenna, and also adding a wire antenna suitable for 80m.

Current station as of December 2007

HyGain AV-14AVQ ground-mounted vertical

Application screen grabs as used here - click to see the larger image!

DXKeeper used as the basis of the station logging:

 
DXLab DXKeeper

CI-V Commander  works via the MicroHAM router to control the transceiver and provide frequency information to the other DXLab applications:

DXKeeper CI-V Commander

Pathfinder provides the logbook with online callbook lookup:

DXKeeper Pathfinder

DXCC countries worked and confirmed so far.

I've worked DXCC on 20m, with mixed mode, and on SSB and RTTY

G6CSY website search