Welcome to my web site, my name is Ray Goff.
I was brought up in Farnborough, Hampshire and first became interested
in radio at the tender age of eight while staying with my older cousin for a
weekend and we built a crystal set together. This interest developed throughout my teenage years, to the
extent that in my late teens I was running a lucrative business mending all the
neighbourhood TV's and Radios.
At the same time I became interested in short wave listening after my
father produced an old German Torn Eb TRF receiver, which he soon augmented
with an R1155 set. This was the end of the 1960's and I had already joined the
local Farnborough and District Amateur Radio Society.
In 1969 I started evening classes to pass my RAE exam. The course was
held in a local school under the tutelage of John Hardy, G3KND. I passed the
exam at the first attempt in May 1970, but was determined to hold out the for
the 12 WPM Morse test and a full license.
By 1973, while at university, it became clear that despite my best
efforts, including help from another student, G3VMO, I was not going to pass
the test in the foreseeable future, so I applied for a Class B, VHF only
privileges license and received the callsign G8HMH.
Briefly back in Farnborough again, I joined another evening class led
by Colin, G3XUU, to learn Morse code and in November 1976, finally passed the
Morse test at a coastal radio station in Southampton and upgraded to my Class A
license, G4FON.
From 1981 to 1984 I was G4FON/W9 while living in Chicago and then G4FON/W1 until 1989 while living in the Boston area.
In 1989 I returned to the UK and now live in the centre of Oxford which presents problems for HF operation. After a number of years of inactivity, I can now be found on 20, 30 and 40 metres CW, usually in the QRP section of the band.
This website reflects my main interests; QRP CW operating, homebrew
construction and the contesting. You are encouraged to look around and make use
of anything you find. I would love to hear about anything you find useful, so
drop me an email
On this website you will find a CW trainer which I wrote to build my CW
speed back up, construction notes for homebrew
equipment and aerials and a logging
programme for the Palm OS. You will also find my latest programme, a
Windows based CW Contest trainer.
More recently, I visited the Farnborough and District Amateur Radio Society for a meeting and renewed some old friendships and I am an active member of both the Oxford
and District Amateur Radio Society and the Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society.