GM0AXY

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GM0AXY Brag-file (here)

Scottish Islands:
- The Lamb
- Inchmickery

Summits on the Air:
- Introduction
- Glenkiln
- Three days in May 2004
- Strathyre (being created)

I am now retired, and apart from taking on the occasional consultancy and technical translation tasks, I spend most of my time on things like house, garden, grandchildren etc. as well as amateur radio, of course.

How did it all start?

Well, I became interested in radio while I was still at primary school back in Norway at the end of WWII. It came about when I discovered a book in the school library. The book was full of strange drawings which intrigued me; I later learned they were circuit diagrams of simple receivers, transmitters and amplifiers. But I had one more hurdle to conquer; the book which had been left behind by the German occupation forces ("Wehrmacht" was stamped on just about every second page), was written in ESPERANTO! The title of the book was: "And now I understand Radio". With the help of a dictionary and some rudimentary guidance and encouragement from an enlightened teacher Mr Trygve Føllesdal, I set about learning about valves, coils and condensers and many other things electronic. That must have been in about 1949 or 1950. I have never stopped learning about electronics (and computing) since!

LA6EF station about 1960

As soon as I was old enough, in mid 50's, I managed to get my first radio amateur licence as LA6EF. Various WWII surplus gear was used to get on the air; Hallicrafters, HRO's, AR88's, 1155's etc. etc. all went through my hands at one stage or another, as I strived to get the best results in what became my main interest; namely long distance HF DX'ing.
The picture shows my station ca. 1960. The main receiver here was an HRO with a KW-Geloso frontend converter covering 80-40-20-15-10 metrer bands.
The transmitter was a Geloso VFO unit driving a Heathkit SB10 single sideband phasing adapter which in turn drove a homebrew linear using a couple of 807's followed by an 813.

After a number of years with the Royal Norwegian Air Force including a some of spells overseas, I came to Edinburgh, Scotland to study electronics at Heriot Watt College, now a university. While at Heriot Watt I developed my first computer program: Calculating the radiation pattern from a microwave horn aerial. I used Autocode on a Ferranti Sirius computer. It had, if I remember right, about 30,000 valves, 4 Kbyte of magnetic core store memory (it could have been a delay version to start with) and input/output was through the use of 5-channel papertape on teleprinters.
I graduated with a First Class Honours degree and then joined a local Edinburgh company (Ferranti Ltd.) as an engineer. I later undertook various sales and marketing roles with Ferranti and later with GEC Marconi, working both in the UK and overseas, in applications such as Computer Aided Design, Automated Mapping Systems, Phototooling, PGM's and Training Simulators.

GM5AXY station about 1975 with FT101

The interest in DX'ing survived a period of waiting for reciprocal licencing to come into being between Norway and the U.K. where I eventually received the callsign GM5AXY and then subsequently GM0AXY.
The picture shows the station ca. 1975 with a Yaesu FT101 as the main rig and a few 'bit-and-bobs' such as a KW Z-match ATU, a homemade audio filter etc..

DXCC Number 1 Position badge

In 2003 I achieved any DX'ers ultimate aim of working all current DXCC entities, and I received from the ARRL the confirmation of my No 1 Honour Roll position.

Together with my XYL, Christine, who is GM4YMM and has also achieved No 1 position the DXCC Honor Roll in 2007. Together we now run a Yaesu FT1000MP Mk 5 with a Yaesu FTV1000 transverter for 6 metres feeding an Expert 1K-FA linear amplifier. This lot is feeding a 3 element SteppIR YAGI, which is a full sized beam for each of the bands from 20 to 6 metres, 80/40/30 metres dipoles and a "look-alike" Butternut HF-9V vertical (homemade by GM4UTP) in a small suburban garden here in Edinburgh. I have operated mainly SSB and CW until recently when I started to use soundcard based systems for digital modes like RTTY, PSK31 and MFSK. Christine works mainly SSB with the occasional venture on CW or RTTY when there is a new 'country' in the offering.

Christine at our home station

Both Christine and I have operated from a number Scottish islands; activating these for the Islands of Scotland Award (IOSA). Have a look at our expedition in November 2001 to Inchmickery in the Firth of Forth : Inchmickery and The Lamb. We have also taken up the challenge of Summits on the Air - SOTA as you can see from other pages on this website.
We have a small motorcaravan which, apart from providing us with most creature comforts while we are out and about throughout the UK and Europe, is capable of putting out radio signals on all bands from 80 metres to 70 cms.

P.S. If you really wish to see what I look like, go this link to GM0AXY Photo