40m CW transceiver
80m CW transmitter
2m CW transmitter and converter
... all QRP
IC-718
IC-706 MkIIG
FT-817
FT-897 - A new
acquisition with a story
behind it!
TH7FE
AMATEUR EXTRA
WG5VZ
Chris Pearson
G5VZ, now also WG5VZ and previously AE7FU
The call sign G5VZ has a long provenance. It was allocated to Bill Birchall in the thirties and re-issued after hostilities in 1946. I've held G5VZ since the summer of 2007.
The station today is located just south of Pontefract in Yorkshire, UK - quite close to the junction of the A1, The Great North Road as was, and the M62. WAB square SE41; Maidenhead Locator IO93ip.
Long before I moved here to Yorkshire I lived in Northfleet in Kent. We moved to Northfleet in 1968 from London at a time when various family members and friends were moving out of London into Kent. Not so far from us lived Bill 5, in Park Avenue, Northfleet and he had moved to Northfleet from the same area of London. Just at the other end of the road - and on the other side - lived Keith, G3OXH. Keith moved away to the Isle of Sheppey and, quite unexpectedly, I worked him on 2m during the summer of 2009 as I was driving up the M2 from the coast one Sunday morning. But I shall 
remember him mostly for his Top Band mobile station in his Ford Anglia, 919 PKP if my memory serves me: Codar transmitter and receiver separates and a G3FIF whip antenna; base loaded.
Bill, G5VZ was a regular - a mainstay - of the morning Top Band net back then: 08h55 every weekday on 1980. On Sundays the net migrated to 10m but the weekday net had a keen following of SWLs including many listeners with Trawler Band receivers. Bill introduced me not only to RAIBC and the listeners in Cheshire Homes but also to the wonderful opportuniti
es in amateur radio. He had an entourage of keen SWLs who spent time in his living room shack, listening to the National HRO receiver. He had a KW Vanguard in those days and what appeared to be a very effective - though I now suspect, rather inefficient - wire antenna that ran down the small garden and incorporated the washing line pole in its implementation if not its original design. He certainly put out a good signal on Top Band!
Last year for Dayton it was W8/G5VZ but in 2010 it's Amateur Extra, WG5VZ!
Early in 2010 Dave, G0SDO and I decided we'd like to operate in the States without the encumberance of US prefix-slash-UK call signs and decided to do the Technician exam. It wasn't easy finding a VE Team here in the UK but Darley Amateur Radio Club - once we'd found them - was exactly what we needed. Thanks to Nigel, N1GEL and his fellow members, Dave and I were able to take the exams on 16. March 2010 at the Ripon & District ARS club bunker.
As it was, we were (easily) talked into swatting for both Technician and General license exams. Then, on the evening, we were persuaded to also sit the Extra.
And, just over a week later, I discovered I was the recipient of the call AE7FU! Dave, now KC2WYT, and I are both ready to get on the air as soon as we unpack our rigs in the US in May 2010. Could be about the best $15 either of us has spent in a long while!
At the end of March I decided that the FU really does make the call sign tricky - so far, no-one I've told has kept a straight face. So I have taken the Vanity Call route and now have WG5VZ to my name. I hope to be able to try out this new call some time in the evening of 9. May 2010. Ever the optimist, I have a box of WG5VZ QSL cards to take with me! (If we do make a QSO I'll be QSLing 100% either direct while in USA or via the bureau. SWL reports most welcome!)
