About Me
Hello, My name is Ben Shephard. I’m a radio amatuer from Nottinghamshire in the UK. I first got into Ham radio about two years ago after playing around with some cheap USB Realtek TV tuner dongles from Ebay I’d heard were interesting. I picked up and few and used them to listen to the approach frequency at my local airport amongst other things and a few friends got into it around the same time and we decided to sit our ham exams and get licenced. I passed my foundation exam in March of 2015 and in 2016 sat both my intermediate and advanced.
Radio has always been something I’ve been interested in since I was a kid. I remeber building my first crystal set from a kit I got for Christmas once and a few years later my grandfather gave me a couple of HF communications recievers which I still have to this day. I never took my exam as a child because I was put off by the need to learn morse and when I realised that was no longer the case I wanted to find out what I needed to do to get licenced. I have a few other hobbies aside from radio which have a tendency to become rather expensive hobbies. Photography is another vice of mine and having spent a small fortune on photography equipment and traveling all over the place taking pictures I decided Ham radio was going to be my cheap hobby… oh dear I failed there. My hobbies do tend to cross over at times so it’s worth mentioning my third hobby. I’m also a part of the Furry Fandom which is a sort of an internet subculture type thing with lots of amazing art and conventions which is where I take most of my photos and occasinally dress up as a big blue fluffy bunny. A few weeks ago I sat my FCC technician and general class exams at a furry convention in Chicago. I failed the general class by one mark but I still got myself a US callsign having passed the technician class.
Other hobbies aside I’m a member of RAF Waddington amatuer radio club GØRAF and I’m a regular contester. I started this site as a place to put notes on my musing and ramblings and to document the various projects I tinker with. I’m pretty new to electronics but I’ve been a Linux sysadmin for a number of years now so I’m used to writing the odd script here and there. I don’t class myself as a developer by any strech of the imagination and my code is generally quick and dirty but I can knock something together when I have an idea. I’m slowly learning the electronics side having learned a lot in preparation for my ham exams. I picked up a few oscilloscopes and other bits of test gear to build myself a little work bench where I can tinker and build things.
Radio wise I have a Yaesu FT-991 at home and an FTM-1000DE mobile rig in my Ford Ranger pickup. I also have an Elecraft KX3 QRP rig I sometimes take out to operate HF from the tops of hills and such.
Welcome to my world. perhaps someone will find my rambling useful one day. Feel free to take a look around
Ben