About

I gained my amateur licence in 1971. As a young electronics and communications engineer, I found amateur radio ideal for playing with things that interested me rather than what interested my employer. At the time, I joined the hobby of amateur radio for the technical aspects but, after 35 years plus playing amateur radio, I have since found that there is a much wider aspect to amateur radio than just the technical side. Probably the first time I experienced this wider aspect was during a work posting to the UK in 1979 where amateur radio became more a means of meeting people; during that year I also held the callsign G8RUU and I have maintained several friendships over the years from contacts made during that visit.

VK2ZOI and VK2DB

We are also, partly, a family of radio amateurs. My treasured, life-partner Dot was first licensed as VK2NVQ in 1978 and now holds the callsign VK2DB. Two of our ‘boys’ also hold callsigns: Peter VK2ZCU and Roger VK2FOTO. My hope is that they will experience as much fun as I have from playing the hobby.

I built my first transmitter and built much of my first station. My favourite band then was 6m and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to build and experiment with various equipment, techniques and antennae. However, as I have become older, I probably build less equipment – other than specialised test equipment- but have maintained an intense interest in antennae. Experimenting with antennae has now become my main interest.

This website describes several of my antenna projects which I believe others might be interested in reading about. In October 2005, an entry level amateur radio licence (the Foundation Licence) was introduced in Australia. So I have especially focussed the projects described here at antennae which a Foundation licensee can build and have work first time. This hopefully will provide a positive experience as Foundation licensees develop those skills necessary to move them toward upgrading to the higher licence levels.

Future Additions: I intend to describe several versions of HF antennae based on the Windom style of antenna which I have developed for both home and portable use. Why Windom? Simply because the Windom is a simple but most efficient and effective multi-band antenna. There will also be several articles on various antennae related test equipment but this material requires much refinement before it can be published on this site.

Before I sign-off on this page, I would like to thank my son Ben for his much appreciated effort in designing and compiling this website. No, he is not an amateur yet but his mother and I are working on it.

I hope you enjoy browsing my website,

73 de John VK2ZOI