About....

  UPDATE:- Jan '13 - I am no longer in Katherine!!  After all this time, we have tossed in the tropical towel and moved south for the winter.  We picked on a nice little spot in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, called Kurri Kurri.  It seems strange to actually have four seasons in the year instead of the "wet and dry".  Now all I have to do is get a real job before the coin runs out!

  I came to Katherine with my wife and young son in 1980 and at first couldn't wait to return to Adelaide, but after a couple of months... it's not toooo bad... oh well... Now both our sons have moved on and got their own families but we are still here!

  I have been interested in Amateur Radio since I was about this high and decided to complete my licence in 1984, being fed up with the rabble on the 'chicken band'.  The theory and regulations were easy, but that dah-dit stuff... Couldn't get my head around it so I decided to go with the limited ticket and do the morse later.  Now morse has been given the old heave-ho, I hold an advanced licence, but I still want to master the code as I hate being beaten by my own head....

  Apart from administering this mess, I run IRLP Node 6732 and all the 'stuff' that goes along with it, and still enjoy floating around the bands especially 6 & 20M.  I like to rebuild old tube gear including the odd modification or two...

  I had 25Yrs service with Telecom Australia (now Telstra) and after leaving them I joined Northern Business Communications, I was offered a temporary 'filler' position for 6 weeks, and then got 11Yrs up with them, working on phone systems, PCs, data cabling, poker machines, CCTV systems and radio equipment of all different types...  That was a looong 6 weeks...  I resigned from them in 2012 as the climate in Katherine started to 'wear thin' and I needed a cool change, so that began then adventure to New South Wales...