Glen Hamilton, M0MHG

I was interested in radio when I was young and was fascinated by scanners and listening to the airwaves. I would sit and listen with my Dad in the evenings.

I joined the army when I was 21 and even though I was a tank driver and then a dog handler for two tours of Afghanistan, I was always interested in carrying the troops’ radio while out on patrol. They were very heavy bits of kit!

During lockdown I have been working as a welding inspector on pipe-laying vessels offshore or quarantining in hotels around the world. I studied for the Foundation and Intermediate licences mainly whilst quarantining and I took my Foundation exam in a hotel in Rotterdam whilst waiting to go offshore!

For my Full licence it was a totally different ball game as there is a lot of studying and you need to understand things in depth. I am a member of Houghton-le-Spring Amateur Radio Club and my club tutor, Greg, M0ODZ helped with my studying an awful lot via Zoom calls while I was in Senegal and Equatorial New Guinea last year.  You can see from the video clip how happy I was when I passed my Full licence!

I liked the remote invigilation exams as they took the ‘exam pressure’ away.

My favourite part of amateur radio has got to be propagation. I love the science behind it as I also do some aurora chasing in the winter. I have seen some beautiful auroras in my home town in Sunderland and I have travelled to Iceland to see it too. There is an obvious link with amateur radio propagation so I enjoy both.

Category: GOTA2C: Licensee stories