AmateurRadio.com

Thanks to Peter, G3OJV, for featuring this blog in his latest blog post. That’s Peter Waters of Waters and Stanton, one of the biggest ham radio dealers here in the UK. You might think that Peter would have a shack crammed with the latest equipment and a huge HF yagi out the back. But in fact Peter’s major interest is in QRP operating and antenna design. Many of his blog posts relate to those aspects of the hobby, so it’s worth a look.

Waters and Stanton’s Hockley shop

Back in the 1970s when I was newly-licensed G8ILO and lived in Essex I was a regular visitor to Peter’s Hockley shop. In those days I used to swap rigs quite frequently as it was always necessary to sell one rig to finance the next. I can’t remember all the things I’ve had from there but it would be quite a long list.

I haven’t visited since 1994 when I moved up to Cumbria but that hasn’t stopped me from being a customer. In fact my attic antennas – the MFJ magnetic loop and the 80plus2 antenna which forms the nucleus of my multiband attic dipole, both came from there. I’m pretty sure that the 80plus2 is one of Peter’s antenna designs. It works very well as an attic antenna (with the addition of elements for 10 and 6 metres it covers all bands 80m to 6m except 30m and 17m.) I think my results on the air testify to that.