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MØMTJ
WELCOME
TO
THE
AMATEUR
RADIO
PAGES
OF
MIKE
SMITH
-
My
call
is
MØMTJ
M0MTJ
is Not Currently Active: Due to a number of factors - including
local
sources of PLT interference and trying to move house - I am not
currently active on air in 2010. I am still keeping up to date with
things and tinkering with small projects as time allows together with
updating these pages as necessary. I hope to return when circumstances
allow.
In the mean time I have made my donation to the RSGB Spectrum Defence
Fund. 73 Mike, M0MTJ |
 Hi,
my name is Mike, welcome
along and thanks for
visiting my amateur radio pages.
I also have a page on QRZ.com here: http://www.qrz.com/callsign/M0MTJ
I have been
interested in radio since I was about eight or nine years of age. I
was keen on listening to our local BBC radio station, Radio Birmingham
at the
time. I also took great interest in the subsequent launch of the first
commercial radio stations in my area; BRMB Radio and Mercia Sound which were
superb examples of local radio with a real community spirit.
I think my fascination
with radio resulted, in part, from my Grandad 's
interest in the subject, he was a keen listener and had many different
radio
receivers. Additionally an aunt gave me the Ladybird book "Making A
transistor Radio" written by George Dobbs. This introduced me to
building
radios and electronic circuits and as a youngster I built many crystal
sets and TRF radios including one based on
the ZN414 I.C. that was published in the magazine 'Everyday
Electronics'.
As youngster one of my
favourite LP records was an episode of the radio play Hancock's Half
Hour called The Radio Ham.
I
remember listening to
this vinyl record repeatedly. The Radio Ham was brilliantly performed
by
Tony Hancock and expertly written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. This
fuelled
my interest in radio and very likely sowed the seed of interest to
become a
licensed radio amateur - one day!
I went on to become
a
keen Short Wave Listener, at first using my home built
short wave regenerative receiver and later various other commercially
bought short wave receivers and a scanner. I was also interested in
citizens band radio (CB)and for some years would regularly burn
the midnight oil - falling asleep over the microphone in the early
hours! All of this has given me a good grounding in
radio, - if you'll excuse the pun.
In all
honesty I should have
become
involved in amateur radio long ago, but I will admit that I was put off
by the complex
maths and the requirement to take the Morse Code (CW) test. Even when
the "Novice" licence was introduced in the 1990's I should have taken
the test then but did not!
Some years later the
amateur licence requirements were changed again to the form that they
exist in today, that is Foundation (M3 & M6); Intermediate
(2EØ)
and Advanced
(MØ).
In 2007,
after a lapse of a few years, I became interested in short wave
listening and CB again. I
soon realized that I wanted more - I needed to become a properly
licenced amateur
radio operator, so I joined a local amateur radio club to learn more!
|
**JOIN**
The
RSGB
-
The Radio Society of Great
Britain :
Representing
the
best
interests
of radio amateurs against PLT
|
|
Charlie
Delta A.R.C. and The Path To My Full Amateur Radio Licence
I decided
to join my local amateur radio club, perhaps with a little trepidation
at first. In January 2008 I settled on joining the Charlie Delta ARC in
Bilston, Wolverhampton.
As it turned out, I could not have wished to
meet a more friendly and helpful group of people to help me along the
passage to my amateur radio licence. The
Club
meets every Monday evening between 8pm and 10pm at the Woodcross Club,
Woodcross Lane, Bilston.
After my
initial studies I
took the
first exam for the Foundation Licence in March 2008 and was really
pleased to obtain my
M3 licence and callsign M3WNQ.
I
was so keen that even while studying for the Foundation licence, I
was also working towards the Intermediate Licence by intesively reading
the the
RSGB book "Intermediate Licence - Building On The Foundation" AND
attending the Advanced Licence evening course on Tuesday
nights! |
|
Immediately
after I passed the
Foundation Exam I applied to do the Intermediate Exam. Naturally
there was more
detail involved in the Intermediate course and a number of practical
excercises to complete, but as I enjoy the practical side of
electronics, construction and building projects I enjoyed the work and
the challenge.
Onwards to 6th April 2008 when the time came to sit the Intermediate
exam. I
was overjoyed that all my hard work had paid off when I passed the exam
and received my new Intermediate Licence and call sign 2EØMDS.
I completed the advanced course
being held at the club in May 2008. In fact this was
extremely hard work, since I had joined this evening course about a
month late. Because of this I had a great deal of catching up to do.
This entailed
constant studying of the RSGB book "Advance! The Full Licence Manual"
and following the excellent advanced licence course on the BRATS
website.
Between January and May I was attending the weekly course at the club
and spending an hour or so every day plus many hours every
weekend reading the book and following the BRATS course. I am
extremely grateful to Jules for being so patient with me while my head
was firmly placed between the pages while regularly tapping away on the
calculator!
I eventually sat the Advanced exam on 22nd May 2008. On 26th
June 2008 I was extremely pleased and very relieved to learn that I had
passed the exam and received my Full Licence and shiny new
call sign from
Ofcom - MØMTJ
I
achieved my advanced licence in around six months, which is unusually
quick time. This was with great
help and encouragement from all the members of the Charlie Delta ARC
and, of
course, with vast amounts of intense personal study. I
am very grateful to the Charlie Delta Amateur Radio Club for all the
support and encouragement offered during my intense training and
particularly the advanced course trainer Dave Gourley, G0MJY. Thanks
Dave!
All that hard work, 'blood sweat and tears' paid off in the
end,
but now I have got to catch up with all the houshold chores that I had
to completely neglect during my non-stop study period. But it was all
worth it and I hope my story will encourage you to send off
the the RSGB
book "Foundation Licence Now" from the RSGB or Practical Wireless
magazine and get on the amateur bands too!
So,
if you are
not already a
licenced radio amateur I hope that these pages may encourage you to
take the
test and initially gain your Foundation Licence and get your M6 call
sign. If you
have an interest in radio, short wave listening or Citizens Band radio,
you will
probably know much of what you need to pass the Foundation exam already
and a
small amount of further reading may be all that's required!
I have written these pages in the hope that they may be of inspiration,
even of help, to newcomers and beginners.
Now that I have my
amateur radio licence and done a little Morse in the
Foundation exam, I am also tempted get to grips with CW and learn Morse
Code
properly some day. But that's for another day.
Maybe we'll talk on the bands - PLT QRM permitting.
73
Mike
MØMTJ
|
IMPORTANT -
H.F. Radio Threatened with obliteration from HomePlug PLT Networking
Adapters:
Help Save the H.F. Short Wave Radio Band
PLT: PowerLine Networking
is a technology that can be used for computer networking. It is also
proven by EMC experts to
be extremely
harmful to the radio
spectrum by causing very severe radio interference. PowerLine
Networking is being widely
promoted by telecoms and computer companies - despite NOT complying
with accepted technical standards
known as Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC).
This
technology is also known variously as PLT, PLA and HomePlug networking.
HomePlug adapters, PLA's, are the electronic devices used to create a
network. The most common and most disruptive adapters are the Comtrend
type, supplied by British Telecom with their BT Vision service.
If you
are
thinking
of
buying
Powerline Networking
Devices
then
DON'T !
PLEASE
RECONSIDER
Similar PowerLine Networking adapters are also being pushed by computer
suppliers such as PC World and Maplin etc under many brand names
including Belkin, Netgear, Devolo,
Linksys etc. PowerLine Network Adapters cause terrible
radio interference and are also completely unnecessary and do not meet
basic EMC legislation - although our incometent governement and Ofcom
deny these facts:
A better and
more
reliable can easily be established at a fraction of the cost of PLT by
using a very simple and very cheap and reliable network cable.
Using
a
passive
network
cable
is
also
FAR
GREENER
since
it
consumes
no
additional
energy
- unlike a PLT adapter which will invariably be
left powered up continually therefore wasting expensive electricity 24
hours a day, adding to the carbon footprint.
HELP
save
world
band
radio
from
"PLT"
-
If
you
are
thinking
of
buying
Powerline
Ethernet
Devices
then
DON'T
-
Please
Reconsider.
PLEASE.
|
|
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights 1948-1998
Article
19 says:
Everyone
has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.
In this respect the deliberate or otherwise jamming
of world band radio (shortwave) and amateur transmissions is in direct
conflict with this act!
|
**JOIN**
The
Radio
Society
of
Great
Britain
-
Representing the best interests of radio amateurs against PLT
DONATE
on-line
to the RSGB Spectrum Defence Fund at
www.rsgb.org/defencefund/
MØMTJ
**JOIN** The Radio Society of Great
Britain - Representing the best interests of radio amateurs against PLT
|
