I have been a radio Amateur since May 1990 but I had my first taste of radio just before Christmas 1981, when I was at my cousins house. He had an AM CB radio and a dipole antenna fixed to the post that held up one end of the washing line . He passed me the microphone so that I could have a go. After stumbling through my first contact, I didn't want to let him have the microphone back..... we argued for the rest of the evening.

After 3 months of continually nagging my Father at every opportunity. I managed to wear him down and he agreed to pay half for a CB radio if I could raise the rest of the money ( I was 9 years old). I bought an Amstrad 901 (27/81) and a DV27 at a local electrical store along with Big Hal's CB Guide. Thanks to my Fathers efforts and some help from a neighbour (who told me I had to SWR the antenna!!!!) I was on the air later that evening with the DV27 mounted on a biscuit tin in the living room.

Ever since that day I have been interested in Radio. Always trying to make contacts further and further away. I was introduced to amateur radio, by one of my friends when I was in comprehensive school. A few years later I bought a receiver and tried to find out as much as I could about Amateur radio. I discovered that Cliff, one of my friends that I spoke to regularly on the CB was an avid Shortwave listener. Cliff (now MW0COD) and I would spend hours listening on 80m every evening comparing what we could hear or what one of us couldn't. I passed the Radio Amateurs Exam (RAE) in May 1990 and was issued with the call sign GW7KLY. With the help of GW3SSK and my computer, in less than a year later I passed the 12 words per minute Morse code test and was issued my current call sign, GW0RTP.