Sue Jacob, GW7YLS

In the space of less than 18 months, Sue Jacob, GW7YLS, has passed all three amateur radio exams to become a fully licensed radio amateur. However, it was over 50 years ago that Sue first began her interest in the hobby.

In the early 1970s Sue began listening to Radio Luxembourg, along with other European stations, on Medium Wave on a small green transistor radio. Soon after, her grandfather gave her younger brother, Graham, an old valve radio, which had Shortwave. Following this, she soon became a Shortwave Listener sending off reception reports to broadcasting stations around the world and she loved getting back QSL cards. It was whilst tuning around the bands Sue came across SSB signals and soon became interested in amateur radio.

However, life then took over and her interest in the hobby was put on hold until April 2022 when Sue had retired and she came across her old equipment whilst having a clearout of the attic. This included a Medium Wave loop antenna, Trio R-2000, Sony ICF7600D and a small ATU. Along with the equipment Sue found two photo albums full of amateur radio QSL cards. These included those of her friend Alan, G3YNI (now Silent Key), who Sue used to sit with whilst listening to QSOs with Alan’s friend Bob, GW3VXP in Penarth on 80m and 160m.

At the time Sue had wanted to take her exam but had difficulties with Morse code and chose not to pursue becoming licensed. However, in September 2022, having rediscovered her interest in the hobby, she learnt that the new licence structure no longer required Morse, and could be taken in stages. Following this development, Sue soon set about preparing for her Foundation exam.

Sue chose to use the Essex Ham online course and a month later passed with a score of 25/26, and soon got on the air waves. With her interest growing, in early 2023 she chose to do the fast-track intermediate course with the Online Amateur Radio Community and passed in April 2023.

Having looked into taking the next step and taking the Full Licence exam, Sue initially had reservations and considered it quite a jump in learning. However, having talked it through with Graham, who had taken his intermediate course with Bath-Based Distance Learning (BBDL), they decided to take the plunge together and take the BBDL Full Licence Course. Sue found from the pre-course that it was exactly her style of tutoring/learning programme and was thrilled to discover in January 2024 that she had passed.

As for what’s next for Sue, she’s considering trying her hand at Morse!

Category: Student stories