My name is James Balls
and my main hobby is Amateur Radio, along with racing radio controlled 1/10th scale electric cars.
To get a license to transmit on the amateur band I had to pass a 2 paper City
and Guilds exam, I than applied for my "class b" license which allowed
me to use the VHF/UHF and above bands. I then learnt the Morse code at 12wpm
and went on to pass in May of 1999. I now hold the call signs M0CKE & for
the Wisbech AR&EC
I hold M5ARC. I also run a Packet BBS called Hollie - GB7HOL and I am the repeater keeper for the Fens Video Repeater GB3FV.
My QTH is in South Lincolnshire England, the local terrain here is flat as this
is the middle of the Fenlands which is reclaimed land from the sea, My home
is actually at 0M ASL.
I'm active on all HF bands using a Icom IC-756PROII, Yaesu Fl2100Z,
Home Made Reflected W Beam for 10/12/15/17/20M, Home brew 40m / 80m
Trapped dipole, GAP Titan Vertical and a Antron A99 vertical for 10M.
I'm also active on 6M, 4M, 2M, 70CMS with my FT847 All Mode Transceiver. For local
chat I have a Diamond 6/2/70 vertical CO-linear on top of my 15M Versatower.
I'm also active on 23 & 13cms ATV using Comtech RX and TX Modules with 1w PA's ,
all are mast head mounted and feed loop yagis.
In my shack |
In my car |
Just one of my radios, the Icom IC756PROII |
Take a look at my Latest mobile installation, Previously I have built my own antenna's, I have now purchased a "Side Kick" from High Sierra and installed the kit into my estate car.DK3 Pictures and my FT100 installations Old and New |
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More FT100 - DK3 Pictures |
I also run a Packet
Radio BBS (GB7HOL - HOLLIE) with user ports on 144.850 & 432.650. The node
is called FLEET (GB7HOL-8)
I use a Celeron 333 based machine with 128MB Ram 850 MB & 420 MB Hard Disk,a
Baycom USCC card and a Tiny 2 TNC. The BBS software is WINFBB, The node software
is XROUTER.
My own PC is a AMD Sempron 2.4Ghz with 1Gb ram various hard drives,
Also it has a Soundblaster LIVE 128 PCI which is good for PSK31 &
RTTY modes on HF, both of which I'm very active. Most peripherals are
USB including my mouse, graphics tablet, printer, scanner, digital
camera, PC - laptop link and keyboard. I also have a P3 500mhz Laptop
with 512MB ram 10GB hard drive, DVD-R, Intel sound and 14" TFT display,
It's great fun used static mobile on PSK & RTTY!
I print my own QSL cards using WINLOG32 to log the QSO's, export them to ADIF
and then import the QSO's into WB8RCR's
QSL Maker. This is a very good piece of software especially if you design
a background with something like Paint Shop Pro as I have here.
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Here
is my QSL card created in a Photo Editing package, I use this with WB8RCR's
QSL Maker and my Epson PHOTO R300 printer on 210gsm coated card, the results
are stunning. The software inserts the QSO info between my info and the bottom of the page, If you want one you had better Work me and Send your QSL. Click on picture to see a larger version. |
Well that's about all from me just enjoy your stay and please take a look at the old About M0CKE page and the WAREC club page.
Cheers and Beers from Jim M0CKE.
