I am a born and bred Yorkshire man, hailing from Conisbrough, a mining village close to the town of Doncaster. I left school at 16 and started my working life as a stone mason, working on places like York Minster, Beverly Minster and Selby Abbey to name just a few, all historic buildings my work helped restore. I then went into the car trade selling cars and finance for cars, delivering parcels for UPS and TNT, along with customer service roles within the truck rental industry. I am now the transport manager for a friends company and driver for a local logistics company here in Nuneaton.
My interest in radio started when my parents bought me a “Ghetto Blaster” radio cassette with the shortwave broadcast bands on it. I would spend evenings in
my room listening to the worldwide broadcast stations, dreaming of where the signals came from. Then in 1977 when the film Convoy hit the screens, and one of his friends had a CB in his car, I got on the air. There then followed years of 11 meter DXing and DXing on the UK FM CB band. At school I became friends with the son of Hans Hindle, G3WBG, who introduced me to Amateur radio and this gave me the bug of listening to the ham bands, even buying a Trio JR310 receiver. And with a piece of wire down my parent’s garden my adventures in amateur radio began. At this time I also had a 4 element beam for 11M and was a member of various 11M DX and QSL clubs, even being the England rep for the Sandcastle DX and QSL club of Washington state USA. An avid collector of QSL cards and I still likes to receive them and will QSL every request as I know that it could be the first one for a new operator, and their first steps to gaining the coveted DXCC honour roll place.
In 1986 I took what was then the City & Guilds Radio Amateur Exam (RAE) and gained my amateur radio class B licence (Only VHF and UHF above 144 MHz). My interest has always been on HF but I struggled with Morse code so never took the required 12wpm test. Following me getting married my radio activities took a back burner and I occasionally went on 2M FM chatting locally with friends which led to me losing the passion for the hobby. 1991 saw me divorced and I looked at restarting in the hobby and bought a Alinco hand held chatting with local friends, but still not happy so the interest waned. I also moved around a bit and in 1998 I moved to Nuneaton.
Then in 2003 I picked up a copy of Practical Wireless where it was announcing the abolition of the CW requirement and all Class B licensees would be allowed HF privileges I got back on the radio. Now with more than 310 countries worked and confirmed I have found my home in the hobby. Enjoying using digital modes and CW, sending using his computer and he receives his own call at up to 30 words per minute. In 2004 I had first place England in the CQWW contests on 10M band, and had similar results in other contests with band winning scores finishing number 1 England. Joining the GB0SH team for the first time in 2006, activating Strumblehead Lighthouse, and then the team entered the 2007 CQWW Contest from a members farm in Wales in the
multi-multi category coming 1st for the country. Since then we have all become great friends and spending time at the farm HQ in Wales. We started the Strumble Head Amateur Radio Klub, MC0SHL, which we activate from the farm owned by Rob (MW0RLJ) at various times throughout the year.
In March 2020 I was approached by the RSGB to be the coordinator for the RSGB Beyond Exams scheme. This scheme has been designed to encourage clubs and individuals to try something new within the radio hobby outside their comfort zone, and to give clubs ideas for activities they could use throughout their calendar to keep an interest from their membership. Full details on this scheme are available on the RSGB website under Brickworks. I stood down from this position in 2022 passing the baton on to Mark 2E0SBM.
Along with amateur radio I am also an avid photographer with interests in all types of photography, wanting to try more aspects to get out of my comfort zone, especially as I only seem to shoot aircraft and air shows. Being a volunteer at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) gives me the opportunity to take upwards of 1500 to 2000 images of which I will a short list 150 or so to share on my Facebook page and in the gallery on here. 
