About Me.

Early life and SWLing

I was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. I grew up in a small town known as Fyzabad, where I spent most of my life (thus far.) We lived in a rural area, close to the oilfield, with no telephones until 1989, no cable TV and one part of our road being gravel and dirt. I first learned of shortwave radio from my dad when I was four years old. He and his friend, Mr. Dennison, were involved in the SWL hobby. They would listen to the BBC and VOA as well as other shortwave radio stations. We had an Aiwa shortwave/AM/FM boom box style radio, which I would listen to. I would hear all sorts of stuff, including various digital noises on the SW bands. My dad took a correspondence course from National Technical Schools, and I had read some of the training books. It was fascinating stuff, even though it was a couple of decades out of date. He had parts of the kits left over, and it is through that did I begin to experiment with electronics, building a crystal and one transistor AM radio. We had a book called "adventures with Electronics" which was an English (British) book and a fantastic book for introducing young people to electronics. I enjoyed it immensely.

My introduction to radios and computers

When my mom got a job as a nurse at the San Fernando General Hospital in the mid 80's, we got two pyramid CB radios to communicate, since Trinidad and Tobago did not yet have cell phones, nor did we have landline phones. CB radio was illegal in Trinidad but nevertheless pretty popular. We had our "handles" as Medic 1, 2 and 3, due to the fact that my mom was a nurse. We had CB radios for a couple of years, until we got bored of it. We never got into CB DXing or 11 meters because frankly I found CB to be boring. However, my late uncle Hanuman was a big time CBer in the 80s. He had a Cobra 148GTL in his car, a Cobra base station and used CB in his hardware store to dispatch the trucks. But he would also shoot skip and work SSB. He used the "handle" "Sheep Man."

My dad also introduced me to computers at an early age. We had a Commodore 64, which I enjoyed tinkering with immensely. We also had a 1541 disk drive, light pen and MPS 803 printers. I wrote a lot of programs in BASIC and played a lot of games, but had more fun programming than anything else.

My introduction to ham radio

In 1990 I entered secondary school. The school was a "first choice" school by the name of Presentation College. Competition was tough to enter, but it was well worth it. In school we were introduced to extra curricular activities. One of which I joined was the scout troop (1st Presentation Sea Scouts) the other was the Ham Radio club. The coordinator of the Ham Radio Club was Mr. Anthony Lee-Mack, 9Y4AL, who was my English teacher. The school had a club station with the callsign 9Y4PCS. The first day he showed us the radio room, it was a pretty exciting moment. He switched on the Yaesu FT-101E and I heard a crackle and static from the loudspeaker. I began hearing voices from far away places such as Florida, USA on the speaker. Then he switched on 2 meters, and he gave us a chance to have a QSO with some folks in Tobago. Pretty exciting stuff, even if it was "just" 2 meters.

Anyway, I asked how to get a license and get on the air. He explained that I had to write the City and Guilds' R.A.E. and for that I had to study the R.A.E. manual, which was TT$50 at the time. When I went home, I begged my dad to get it, and he did. However, like any other student in Presentation College, I was busy with schoolwork, so I hardly had time to study the R.A.E.

My first license

In 1997 I finally signed up for the exam, after saving up TT$500 to pay the exam fee. I wrote the R.A.E. in May 1997. A few months later when we got the results back from England, it was revealed that I passed. I was excited. I was about to become a licensed ham!

I had been practicing Morse Code with my Commodore 64 and a program I typed in from a book. I had been drilling for two hours each day. I was good up to about 15 WPM, even though the morse test only required 13. I had also bought a 2 meter handheld Kenwood TH-215A I had purchased from 9Y4NG to use to listen in the meantime. On October 30, 1997 I had my first appointment at the Telecommunications Division (Trinidad) for the morse code test. When I went there, the examiner had made a rain check, so I couldn't take the test. I was furious! So I had to end up taking a no-code license instead. My first callsign was 9Z4DS. I went back to the Telecomms office on December 11, and took the 13WPM test. I passed! My new callsign was 9Y4RAJ, which I hold to this day.

Ham radio in Trinidad

I made quite a few ham friends in Trinidad, and I was given an IARU 20m CW transceiver kit to build and use. I built it and made quite a few contacts. I later on got a Kenwood TS-820S hybrid rig and made a lot of contacts, mostly on 20m. I also spent a lot of time on 2m talking locally on the repeater. I became a familiar presence on the 9Y4TT repeater, as well as the NEMA net on the 9YK repeater (147.800).

My move to the big apple

In December 2000, I moved to New York City. I bought an Icom 746 and a Yaesu VX-5 handheld, as well as some antenna wire. I also got a cheap mag mount from Radio shack. I operated W2/9Y4RAJ for a few weeks. In early June I went to the Kings County Repeater Association's VE session with the intention of taking Elements 1, 2 and 3 for a General class license. To my surprise I walked out of there with an Extra class license, with perfect copy on the 5WPM code exam. On air activities were limited. I lived in a high rise apartment building, so I put the mag mount on the air conditioner and used that to work 2m. I then found New York City ARES and worked a lot of public service events. I was made assistant EC for Manhattan, a title I held until I moved to Queens a couple of years later. I had limited success with HF, as all I had were whip antennas and an occasional wire I'd hang down the side of the building. On good days I could work 10m repeaters, and lots of DX.

The semi-silent years and the 2006 revival, the rest is history!

My interest in amateur radio waned for a couple of years as I dealt with events in my personal life. I then moved to New Jersey, where, after attending Dayton Hamvention 2006, I got myself a mobile set up with an Icom 7000 and screwdriver antenna. I installed it and made quite a few contacts and worked a lot of DX and contests. I was back in the game again and hooked for life. I purchased a home in February 2007 on 6 acres, 800ft above sea level, in Wantage, NJ. My latest project is putting up a 70ft AN Wireless tower so that I can have a "big signal" on the bands. I also changed my call to a 1x2 so I can be more competitive in the pileups and contests. I like my callsign choice, because it also has two of my initials.

Callsigns I currently hold:
9Y4RAJ - Trinidad and Tobago Class 1 (1997)
N2RJ - United States of America Extra Class Vanity (2007)
M0RAJ - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Class A(2007)

Past callsigns:
9Z4DS - Trinidad and Tobago Class 2 (October-December 1997)
AB2MH - United States of America Extra Class (2001-2007)

It isn't just ham radio!

Apart from ham radio, I also enjoy photography. I used to be an avid chess player, but I haven't played in a while.

So as Paul Harvey would say... now you know... The rest of the story! CU on the bands!

73, Ryan N2RJ