A Brief Bio…..

Alan Jeffery has been a licensed Radio Amateur and Electronics/Electrical Engineer for over 25 years.

After passing my RAE in 1981, then having to wait till I was 14 ( you had to be 14 to have a licence in those far off days) and numerous cock ups with the Home Office (remember them?) , I finally got my licence in October 1982.

This was probably the result of years of taking things to bits and not being able to put them back together, which drove my mother mad. I had first shown an interest in radio when I made a crystal set with my uncle when I was about 9, which was facinating…. but to be honest was a bit limited.

Around the age of 11, I discovered CB Radio. A family friend had a mysterious grey antenna on his car, and when I asked him what it was, he furtively showed me a Sharp SSB set under the dashboard. After turning it on and tuning round, we came across a guy in New York talking to a guy in Alabama…. I was hooked!! Sat in a car in my little village I was listening to 2 guys more than 5000 miles away talking to each other!!! Wow…..

From then on I have always had an interest in radio. In the nineties I worked as a professional radio engineer, involved with PMR and paging systems, and this nearly killed my enthusiasm for the hobby. I discovered that the “busmans holiday” wasnt for me, and I moved on.

I have since moved into Industrial Automation and Control, which has enabled me to revive my hobby. Due to work committments, I don’t get chance to operate on the bands from home very often, but I do try to get on whilst mobile.