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Yaesu FT 817 Qrp transciever

In my last post I had the picture of my Amateur Radio Yaesu FT 817 transceiver gadget.

Amateur Radio was a hobby I picked up in the 80's when I was in Nigeria, and back then it was an elite hobby, as with no internet, and telecommunications very expensive, it was kind of cool to be able to talk with people all over the world from the comfort of my room without incurring any expensive call charges.

As a student, it also meant I learnt more about physics and Electronics, this was good for me, as I was ahead of my classmates in School. My knowledge of geography was also very good, as each time I made contact with someone, I would check the map to see where they were located.

Back in the 80's being a student, I could not afford to buy Amateur radio equipment or any other gadgets off the shelf (not that any was available in Nigeria anyway), so most of the equipment I used was homebrew from electronic parts easily found locally and using circuit diagrams found in magazines I was sent from overseas. I was also fortunate to also benefit from a United Nations program that donated electronic kits to the developing countries, and got a 20m transceiver kit. This transceiver kit operated on 14Mhz short-wave, and gave me the opportunity to contact people worldwide.

Being located in Nigeria meant that a lot of people wanted to make contact and get sent a card confirming the contact so they could get various awards, many friendships were made, one of the best benefits I had from the hobby was I was able to get a very good job in Lagos when I completed my NYSC having studied Electronic Engineering.

Coming to the UK, meant that while I could continue to pursue the hobby and play with more electronic gadgets, I didn't really enjoy the hobby that much anymore, as there is a larger population of Radio Amateurs in the UK, and thus people wanting to contact you are less. This is one of the reasons why I haven't used this gadget that much recently.

As someone mentioned in the comments, I might use the radio to keep in contact during my upcoming hang glider adventure, though I will not be able to use it when actually flying as the UK license does not permit this.

For the record, my nigerian call signs were 5N9GOM and 5N2KRC, I also had the UK callsign M1DMG, my current UK call sign is M0DMG

For more details about this Yaesu FT 817 gadget and amateur radio, see the links below.

Radio Society of Great Britain
American Radio Relay League