M0TCX

I got my full license on the 1st April 2009 and a little over a month later, on the 8th May, I got my M0TCX callsign. That was the final step in the three tier ham radio licensing process in the UK.

​My other UK callsigns include: M6CTU (Foundation License) obtained in May 2008 and 2E0CTX (Intermediate License) received in October 2008. 

My station was based in London, UK – locator: IO91un

SQ8TCX

This is my Polish call sign. Thankfully, I did not have to sit another exam – thanks to the CEPT agreement, acquiring the PL call sign was straightforward and cheap.

Current station location – Rzeszów, PL – locator: KO10AB

Radio Clubs

In the UK I was a member of LEFARS Loughton and Epping Forest Amateur Radio Society, RAYNET The Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network and The Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society London Group (HMS Belfast).

Klub Krótkofalowców SP8PRZ in Rzeszów is my local Polish radio club. Club meetings are held twice a week in our own radio shack courtesy of the 21 Brygada Strzelców Podhalanskich of the Polish Army.

Rigs and stuff

Nowadays I mainly use Yaesu FT-857D, Icom IC-703 Plus, Icom ID-52 and Anytone AT-D868UV. For digital access I have two hotspots – one in simplex and the other in duplex configuration. 

On the bands

Bands – 40, 30 and 20m are the bands I frequent the most (or used to…). I have also made a number of contacts on 17, 15, 12 and 10m. I will be looking more into VHF, UHF and satellite in the future.

Modes – most of my contacts so far, have been made using digital modes; with PSK31 and RTTY being my modes of choice. Recently I have reluctantly switched to FT8 as anything else is hard to find on the bands. 

Currently I am unable to erect any permanent antennas at my QTH and had to resort to digital hotspots. I use D-Star and DMR but thanks to Pi-Star cross modes I can, at least in theory 🙂 also use YSF, NXDN and P25. I also go portable from time to time and broadcast across the world with 5W…