I passed the Armature Radio Foundation
Licence Exam on 18th April 04
and my call sign was allocated on 27th April 04.
The Foundation Licence is the first rung
on the three tier ladder to a Full Licence
My next target is to take the
Intermediate Licence exam towards the end of the year
this will give me a 2E0 call sign and allow me to use more power. It
also allows
access to the 10m band which the Foundation Licence prohibits.
I have now passed the Intermediate
Examination and my new call sign is
2E0GMX
on QRZ.com
Following our recent trip to Florida I
have a new radio
A Yaesu FT857D
which covers
all of the HF bands and 6m, 2m & 70cm.
My Radio is a
Yaesu
FT530 HT covering 2m & 70cm bands.
I mainly use the 70cm band through the
GB3PZ Internet
Linked Repeater.
There are a great bunch of people that use GB3PZ which is owned and
operated
by Ian G4ZPZ.
For a UHF Repeater GB3PZ has a surprisingly vast coverage area. The
repeater site is
in Dukinfield Tameside but is heard as far away as Liverpool in fact
Roy G6NFR
the PZ Quiz Master is based in Liverpool. Mobile stations often call
in from
Southport.
The repeater is linked to the internet via 2 systems, IRLP and
Echolink.
IRLP operates from around 6:30am until 00:02am when it automatically
closes.
Echolink is manually enabled by Ian G4ZPZ and is online less often.
A wide variety of stations call into
GB3PZ from all over the globe via
IRLP on a regular basis. Some are ex-pats living overseas who call in
to keep
up with events in the Manchester area, but many are now firm friends
through
radio.
A number of international users have
come to Manchester for vacation with the
explicit aim to meet the users of PZ.
GB3PZ users meet on the last Saturday of
every month at the Hunters Tavern, Staylybridge
for the "GB3PZ Big Breakfast", an informal breakfast meeting where
users can
meet face to face to chat and enjoy good food. |