Hello and welcome to my new website for my amateur radio station M0INI. This is the story of how and why I got into amateur radio.
My father was a radio operator with the Royal Corps of Signals, and had a background in electro-mechanical engineering all his life. Obviously, with my fathers influence, as a young child, I had an interest in radio.
After leaving the army, my father was invited to teach with the Marconi School, but decided to go into engineering instead. He was never licensed.
I have shown a keen interest in radio since before CB was legalised in the UK, however, as a teen, I had a choice, CB or computers, and I chose computers. This was my first computer, an Acorn Electron, seen here still working today and operated by my son.
Like my father, we both didn’t go into a radio background, so it wasn’t until 2005 that I started to show an interest in radio again, and got on the air using CB, resurrecting my old handle from the 80’s of “Spark Transmitter”, a reference to the early days of radio and Marconi.
However, I wanted more, and looked for a radio club to study for my foundation license.
With the help of the West Manchester Radio Club, I quickly became licensed as M6INI, then later as M0INI with the help of Bolton Wireless Club.