We live in a digital age and, one-by-one, over the years, my interests have all gone digital. Ever since I bought my first computer many years ago I’ve been absorbed in discovering new ways in which they further and promote my interests in Photography/graphics, Amateur Radio and Music. My computer has every-increasingly become my “nerve center” for all my hobbies and interests.
I’ve been a licensed UK Amateur Radio operator since 1988. I am very limited on antennas in my QTH and use a N9TAX 2/70cm dual band slim jim/j-pole indoor antenna fed from an Icom CS-2730 2M/70cm dual band transceiver. I also occasionally operate handheld mobile on 2M, 6M or 70cm using my Yaesu VX-3 or VX-7 handheld radios and I sometimes frequent the M0HOLY-L HUBnet Echolink node.
I have a DMR Tytera MD-380 rig and DVMega+Bluestack hotspot plus BlueDV software. I operate an Inrico TM-7 network radio on Teamspeak, Zello and Echolink and have it connected to the PC via USB and I’m using an app named Vysor which allows me to remote control the TM-7 and provides a much larger and easier to read screen display.
I’m also involved with the admin team at the World Hub Teamspeak server. If this is of interest to you please see our Facebook group page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1735844266724626 for the latest information.
Last but by no means least, another of my long term passions is playing the drums. Music has played a huge part of my life. I got my first drum kit in my teens and played with several local bands.
A while back I got a very basic digital kit and an Alesis PERCPAD which I use with a Midiman MIDI interface triggering EZ-Drummer 2 software and for recording Reaper digital audio workstation software, Virtual Audio Cable, Voice Meeter Banana Virtual Audio Mixer, ASIO4ALL low latency codec, LoopBe1 virtual midi port plus eDrum midi mapper (pad re-mapping) and VUMeter software.
Nowadays I just play for relaxation, to escape life’s stresses, to “keep my hand in” and occasionally I’m asked to record a drum track for some of my musician friends.
Not much of a surprise this one, I love to travel or, to put it more accurately, I love to explore different countries and cities. I’ve long-since lost the thrill of air travel, hours cramped up in economy class with one’s knees around one’s neck, all the hassle of checking in two hours before flying and flight delays etc. and my preferred method of travelling is now by train whenever practical. I have an ambition to travel on the Orient Express as I just love the Art Deco period and the romance of travelling on such a beautiful, historical train. I never had a holiday until I was 17, ever since then I guess that I’ve been making up for lost time. 🙂
The magic begins on arrival, there’s always so much to explore. I’ve been lucky and visited many beautiful and interesting locations and my memories are, quite literally, priceless. I’ve always found people to be fundamentally the same wherever I’ve gone, yes, there are of course cultural differences, that’s a big part of the enjoyment, but everyone has, broadly-speaking the same hopes, fears, joys and worries the World-over and I’ve found that a smile and a friendly gesture is pretty much a universal language.
Although born, raised and educated in the U.K I don’t consider myself as particularly “British”, instead I prefer to think of myself as a citizen of the World. I detest all forms of nationalism, jingoism, racism and sexual or religious intolerance which I find totally repugnant and arrogant in the extreme,as the French idiom goes “Vive la difference”!.
A small selection of my travel works:
Pontikonisi Corfu, Greece
Piazza del Popolo, Rome, Italy
Little Town, Prague, Czech Republic
Grande Place, Brussels, Belgium
Marsaxlokk, Malta
Closer to home: Richmond Bridge on the River Thames
