Peter G3PLX - AMTOR Pioneer
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I was originally inspired by a talk given by Peter Martinez G3PLX
In the 1970’s, when I was in my early 20s and first licenced (as a “Class B”), 1 I attended a radio club that met in an upstairs room at the “Cricketers Arms” pub in Wyndham Road in Bournemouth 2,3
I was then an immature & damaged young man 4 and upon reflection, I realise now how I irritated the chairman at that time, Phil G3XBZ. That radio club and its culture was a revelation and an education 5
The Holy Grail of Amateur Radio
At that time the “Holy Grail” of amateur radio was to find some kind of “automatic mode” of narrow-bandwidth operation that was as good as or better even than morse code telegraphy
Peter G3PLX, was a pioneer of AMTOR
Peter G3PLX was invited to talk about his radically new AMTOR mode at the Cricketers Arms Radio Clubhouse
One sentence he uttered struck me like a “bolt of lightning” !! I have never forgotten the effect it had on me…
Talking about his pioneering AMTOR work, he said:
“I knocked up some 6800 microprocessor hardware and wrote some assembler software to run it…“
I remember thinking at the time “how can a person have acquired the power of this knowledge and ability?”
He set me on a path and it inspired me to do this…
And never in a million years did I ever think I would be in a position to say this… But I am ! Believe it !!
I passed my RAE when I was 16 and attending a grammar (boarding) school in Oxford (even though I had failed my 11+ - but that is another story). I was doing some other City & Guilds exams at Oxford College of Further Education. I had no contact with any radio amateurs… ↩
I was brought up “in care”, with my maternal grandmother being my Legal Guardian. It was a very toxic environment. I felt I was totally worthless… I did not have “zero self-esteem”; my self-esteem was on the negative scale !! I left home at 18 and lived with a local family in Pokesdown, a Bournemouth suburb. I was a supermarket worker, stacking shelves, etc. ↩
I applied for a “Class B” 6 amateur licence in 1973, still not having had any contact with any other radio amateurs, and purchased a Yaesu FT2FB. This was in the days when channelised FM operation was just coming in and 144.48 MHz was the “de facto” FM channel in the area. Given my negative self-esteem and my incorrect perception of myself, I found amateur radio VERY OVERWHELMING & INTIMIDATING because virtually all of the older radio amateurs were professional engineers… ↩
Now perhaps I am a mature and a little less damaged old man (“OM”) ↩
Most of the members had “Class A” licenses and were active on HF. The radio “clubhouse” had a 4m (70 Mhz) AM radio setup under club callsign G3FVE. Many of the “Class A” amateurs had no intention at that time of ever being on 144 MHz “2 Metres” (and that served to reinforce my own incorrect perception of myself as being “worthless”). Many others were on 144.48 FM and over time took me “under their wings”, mentored me, and to me they were the “older brothers” and “father” I never had… Sad !! ↩
At that time, to get “full” “Class A” radio amateur licence, you had to pass a 12 words-per-minute morse test AND pass a tough City & Guilds written exam called “The Radio Amateurs Examination” aka “RAE”. No morse test but an RAE and you could apply for a “Class B” licence (with a “G8” callsign) but you could not operate below 144 MHz “2 Metres” ↩