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.

Ben Shephard

Welcome to my world. perhaps someone will find my rambling useful one day. Feel free to take a look around

Ben

Ben Shephard avatar
About Ben Shephard
A radio amatuer based in Nottinghamshire, UK. IO93ic