QTH

My QTH is Pennyghael, near the head of Loch Scridain on the western side of the Isle of Mull. It's effectively at sea-level. While this gives good results on HF, surrounding terrain severely limits my options on VHF and above. The Isle of Mull is one of the Inner Hebrides, off the West Coast of Scotland.

QRA: IO66xj91 IOTA: EU-008 IOSA: NH-15 WAB: NM52

QSL info

I'm happy to QSL, either direct or via the buro. I'm QTHR.
You'll find my details on QRZ.com or here.

I always send a direct QSL for a EME initial contact.
For EME QSLs, there's no need to send me an SASE or 'Green Stamps'.

Just to be clear, the pair of white-tailed sea eagles on my current QSL card really did have the wing-tags '7' and '3' on them - the photo has not been altered in any way.

EME

I'm QRV on 23cm and 9cm, normally running digimodes, CW if pressed!

I use a 3.2m polar mount dish, limited in GHA to between 345° and 40° and positive declinations greater than 3°.

23cm: OK1DFC septum + choke feed. a G4DDK VLNA on receive, on transmit an MRF9045 driver in the shack.
The PA uses a pair of MRF9060 G4BAO amplifiers, and is located at bottom of the dish giving about 100W at the feed.

9cm: RFHD septum feed. SG labs transverter, G4DDK VLNA and a PA of two combined Ionica PA blocks, giving
about 20W at the feed.

When the dish is not being used for EME, a 1420MHz Hydrogen line receiver can be used for amateur Radio Astronomy.

VHF

I'm often active on 6m and 4m during Es and Ar events. No longer QRV on 2m.
I use an Innovantenna 3+3 el dual band beam, running 100W on 6m and a bit less on 4m, from a IC7300.

HF

I have a 12m vertical on 80-10m, which has a nearly ideal ground-plane - a wet boggy field at the edge of a sea-loch. It's shown in the photo on the left with Ben More, rising to over 3000 ft, behind.

There's an SGC auto tuner at the base in a weatherproof box.

Rig is a IC7300 or occasionally an IC706IIg.

Terrestrial: 6m squares worked: 411 4m squares worked: 106 2m squares worked: 10 23cm squares worked: 3

23cm EME: Digi Initials: 218, CW Initials: 16, Squares: 153, DXCC: 49, Fields: 35

9cm EME: Digi Initials: 9, Squares: 8, DXCC: 5, Fields: 6

last updated 20 January 2024

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