I got involved in radio at a young age playing around with walkie talkies in the 70s and CB when it came to the UK in the 80s. I loved it! Being able to chat to someone else using just a little box was a breakthrough experience for me and inspired me for life.
I was sent off to boarding school in Suffolk for ten years (not the best experience of my life!) and joined the army cadets at 13 as it looked like an exciting way to spend my Friday afternoons and the odd weekend. Little did I know what would happen next.
We had a small signals section with some very, very old radios that the army had superseded decades before and I thoroughly enjoyed messing around with them as well as learning about field telephones (you know the ones, wind the handle to ring). Luckily for me there were a couple of guys in the year above who were really into radios and one was a radio amateur (yes at that young age) and between us we started getting involved in all sorts of cadet competitions, contacting other cadet groups across the UK. Before long we were spending all our lunch breaks, evenings and weekends messing about on the radio.
My friend Andy (I still remember his callsign G4PIQ) taught me about half wave dipoles, SSB, tuning the archaic radios we had and amazed me with his knowledge. I look back and realise how advanced he was for such a young guy.
The army cadets sent me off on all sorts of (free in those days) courses at the School of Signals in Blandford where I was taught about “modern” military radios (Clansman) that didn’t require a crane to lift and a lorry to carry and this further excited me.
My older brother left school and joined the Royal Signals so my connection and visits to Blandford continued for many years. Although I planned to follow his footsteps into the army, it didn’t work out and I pursued other interests.
Then last year I discovered Meshcore and off I went again!