The United Kingdom continues to churn out high quality Freeband DXers and 68DA021 John, who joins with the Dx Adventure Radio Club (DA-RC) in December 2016, is certainly one of those guys.
Despite a hiatus on 27 MHz frequencies of some years, John, who resides in Northern Ireland, qualifies for DA-RC membership via the DX Hunter category with more than 200 DXCC entities worked and confirmed to his name.
This has been achieved through past work with the Delta Tango (DT) and Oriental Pirate (OP) DX Clubs respectively.
John is intent to knock that up towards the 300 mark with his Delta-Alfa callsign too as the current cycle plateaus and then begins an incline in the coming years.
68DA021 John’s home in Europe is 68 Division’s capital city, Belfast, one of the most visited cities in the UK.
The name ‘Belfast’ is derived from the Irish Béal Feirsde. Historically, the word béal means “mouth” or “rivermouth” while feirsde/feirste is the genitive singular of fearsaid and refers to a sandbar or tidal ford across a river’s mouth.
The name would thus translate literally as “(river) mouth of the sandbar” or “(river) mouth of the ford”.
68DA021 John’s QTH is at the western end of Belfast Lough and at the mouth of the River Lagan giving it the ideal location for the shipbuilding industry that once made it famous.
Apparently, when the infamous Titanic was built in Belfast in 1911–1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world.
Other tourist attractions in John’s famous city include Belfast City Hall, Titanic quarter, Waterfront hall, Ulster Museum (See pictured above), Victoria Square Shopping Centre, Stormont Parliament Buildings, Odyssey Arena, St. Georges Market, Belfast Castle and the Grand Opera House.
Like many of his countrymen, 68DA021 John is passionate about his football. He supports the English club Newcastle United (See below) and enjoys watching games with his 3 young sons and cheering on the black and whites.
A Yaesu man, 68DA021 John’s DX weapon of choice is the brand’s famous FT857 100 watt transceiver. This high end rig, which is regarded as the world’s smallest HF/VHF/UHF radio, is ideal for dx adventure and John will no doubt be out and about in the field for DXpedition work in the future.
His base antenna of choice at this time in Belfast suburbia is the Sirio 827 tuneable vertical which is made of Silicium Magnesium Aluminium tubes.
He also uses the reportedly highest gain fibreglass antenna on the market……an Imax 2000 vertical made by Solarcon to punch out a commanding signal.
Keep a listen out for 68DA021 John on the International Call Frequency 27.555 MHz USB when the propagation is open with his section of Europe. He’ll no doubt be monitoring the frequency if the footy’s not on, or his young fellas aren’t kicking up a storm for their dad!
Keep a look out too for an announcement on John’s quest for a ham license also – a challenge he’s worked so doggedly on for some time now.
QSL Information
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John, 36 Glenbank Place, Belfast BT14 8AN, Northern Ireland
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