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All sorts of interesting stuff about Ham Radio and old gear from Steve G3ZPS, near London in the UK

 Welcome to G3ZPS Ham Radio.

First licensed in 1970 at age 16, I am one of the youngest 'active' UK hams to hold an original 'G3' call sign. In 2024 I have held my callsign for 54 years. These pages include information on my lifetime in the hobby and my retirement passion for restoring valve ham radio equipment (or tubes if you prefer). I have built up a collection of Drake (USA) and the lesser known (outside of the UK) KW Electronics equipment.. My KW pages open out to cover my extensive collection, click on the 'WELCOME'  page to get back here. As of September 2023, I can muster around 40 HF stations. I'm always willing to help anyone working on old gear..I never know when I might need their help !

Site Summary

I started collecting and restoring vintage ham radio equipment in 2002, when it became obvious that the equipment may become scarce in the future. My tube equipment collection started with a Drake R4B quickly followed by a Drake T4XB. The Drake collection slowly grew as my enthusiasm to buy waxed and waned. My next target was a UK company close to my heart 'KW Electronics' - and I have been very lucky to pick up some very good examples. Heathkit, Swan and Yaesu gear has also been through the workshop . I am a qualified electronics / communications engineer (Fellow of the IET) and just love taking stuff apart !. Click on 'Lighthouse Larry' for loads more valve / tube stuff .

Look through these pages to see more of the collection and some of the trials and tribulations of keeping this old kit on the air in the 21st century.  I also build QRP tube and solid state radios, audio amplifiers, music synthesisers, run my own music studio and play the guitar (a lot!)'. This is a scientific hobby; build something, modify something, restore something..above all else experiment and learn something.

Find me on Facebook as ' Steve Shorey' or 'G3ZPS', I have 2 separate pages . Pictures of some of my 160m ham radio chums from the 70's here

Also contact me if you would like me to talk at your Amateur Radio Club - I have 4 prepared talks ; '999 Emergency - Public Safety Communications Past, Present and Future' talk draws from my 35 years of experience as a professional engineer in the communications business and has been constantly updated.  The second is a presentation on why some of us restore and use older Ham Radio gear, titled 'Old Ham Radio Kit - Why do we bother ?'. The third is a potted history of the UK Company KW Electronics.  The 4th is called 'Valves Why Bother' - how they work and why I love them so much !. Over the last few years I have spoken both in person and online to over 40 clubs including in the US.  Send me an email if you would like an online or in person talk for your club. My QRZ listing has my talk diary and is kept up to date.

FISTS CW CLUB MEMBER 18875, SKCC MEMBER N0 19356, VMARS and CVRS.  Cray Valley Radio Society  is one of the biggest clubs in SE UK with over 150 paid up members in 2023

Email me at steve.shorey@ntlworld.com , Facebook G3ZPS  or Facebook Steves Homepage

Please reference me if you use any material from this site - some material is clearly in the public domain but some is my own copywrite (so ideally ask permission first)

 

2024 latest.

Donated FT101. The earliest one I have worked on - from around 1971. This is period when the Japanese companies began their domination of the global ham radio market. The FT101 set a standard that other manufacturers could not match,  The early ones like this were not perfect and Yaesu listened to cuustomers.through the FOXTANGO club to address its shortcomings.

This one has been brought back to good working order and I actually prefer the sound of it to my others. The Audio OP is very smooth - using a proper transistor AF amplifier. Yaesu switxched to single IC audio OP modules within a few months. They were clearly cheaper than a complex discrete circuit...but do not sound as good to me.

Although it has been modded, no major components appear to have been changed in the last 53 years. Performance on 15m in particularly good with a very sensitive RX and well over 100W PEP out. I have worked the world on it

 

 

 

Plesae Checkout The Ham Radio Citizen Science web pages

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This is best site I have found for assessing HF propagation over the UK. 'Propquest' by Jim G3YLA