Hello.   Welcome. 

Thanks for looking me up.

My name is David and my QTH is in the south-east of Australia in the city of Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria (VK3).

My Story: 

The radio journey began in my teen years in the late 70’s. I caught the SWL bug and tuned into shortwave services from around the world. Being in VK and so far from everywhere else, SWL seemed so exotic and opened an amazing world of news, music and stories. I progressed to getting a Novice Operator's licence but then important things in life came along - marriage, house, kids etc - and amateur radio went into standby mode.

Along the way I spent 34 years in Signals in the Army but having retired from that life, I couldn’t just stop using radios! The thought of never ever keying up a radio again, checking F-layer propagation predictions or throwing a wire antenna into a tree caused me to rekindle an interest in ham radio and I upgraded to a full call. So here I am in 2018 finally on the bands making a contact or two, collecting a few QSL cards and chasing DXCC.

Clubs:

I'm a member of the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) and Amateur Radio Victoria.

I'm also an international member of the RSGB and ARRL for the purposes of receiving their excellent magazines and other resources.

Equipment: 

My R/T is an Icom IC-7610.

As for antennas, I live in an inner-city suburb with a small garden, which means I'm limited in antenna options. I use a 5-band (80/40/20/15/10) end-fed antenna from HyEndFed Antennas. I can also deploy delta loops for various bands.  

My rx is an Icom IC-R8600 and my logging app of choice is MacLoggerDX.

Operating Style:

I predominantly use FT8 as I've found with an end-fed antenna and plenty of 24/7 suburban noise, FT8 provides DX that is not achievable with voice or other modes. 

QSL Information:

It may be old "technology" but I'm more than happy to send and receive "paper" QSLs. You can request QSLs either directly by mail, through the WIA Bureau or via Clublog's OQRS - whatever is your preference.

I'm also on LoTW and eQSL for "electronic" QSLs/confirmations. 

      Anyway, thanks for taking the time to check out my bio, and maybe we'll meet on the bands one day?  73.