@phil-3
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Registered: 3 years, 5 months ago
The bio below was updated November 30, 2025 Pre-ham life I was born in Masterton, a country town 50 miles northeast of Wellington, New Zealand and raised on sheep farms in the Wairarapa and Manawatu provinces. After getting my PhD in mathematics in 1983 from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, I lived in southern Ontario, Canada, for nine years before moving to Auckland very late 1992. I still live there. I retired July 1, 2022 from a senior lectureship (professorship) in Mathematics at the University of Auckland. My specialty was computational mathematics. January to September 2022 I gained my ham licence early March 2021 but spent little time on the air until January 2022. From then to September 2022, my main on-the-air activity was SOTA. Mid-September 2022, the grandchildren became a higher priority than SOTA. Most of my SOTA QSOs were made using SSB on HF with an FT817 or FM on 2m and 70cm using a HT. I also had some CW QSOs, usually as a chaser and not as an activator. October 2022 onwards In October, 2022, I started setting up my home QTH by erecting a G5RV antenna. The height of the centre connector was about nine metres. The angle between the two legs was 135 degrees. I bought a second-hand external tuner and used it to tune the G5RV. I was able to tune the antenna (SWR less than 1.5) on 80m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 10m but not on 12m. My transceiver was and still is an IC-7300 During December, 2022 and January 2023, I had QSOs with about 50 SKCC members. I found I could not hear most European and North American SKCC stations and I took time off to improve my antenna. I replaced my G5RV with a DX Commander Classic. The antenna works well for FT8. My reception for CW was better than with the G5V but I found there was a lot of noise with the vertical, especially on 40m. During November, 2025, I re-installed the G5RV and raised its centre to 12m. I also increased the angle between the two legs to about 170 degrees. I found the ATU on my IC-7300 would tune 12m without help from my external tuner. This antenna seems to be an improvement over the classic DX-Commander but I believe improvement is still to be had. I have started experimenting with 1/4 wave verticals with elevated radials. In September 2024, I introduced the Volcanoes on the Air awards program (VOTA). This program is for activating the 53 volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field. VOTA has now been extended to the 286 volcanoes in New Zealand. The rules outside of Auckland differ slightly from those for Auckland. I am a member of FISTS and SKCC. I am the ZL liaison and awards manager for FISTS Down Under. Other Hobbies parkrun. I participate in and volunteer for parkruns. Hiking. My YL and I regularly do day hikes. We also do longer hikes. Mid 2024 we did a northbound thru-hike of the Pennine Way in England and Scotland. 73 Philip ZL1PSH (or Phil on the air if you like)
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