G4ATA.CO.UK - Home Page of G4ATA, G8DYT & M4D

As of 23/03/2023 this site is hopelessly out of date and is currently being updated. Although out of date the majority of information is still relevant to me and my interests.

Hi, my name is John Hotchin and this web site is to tell you a little about me and my interests. Hopefully you will find at least some of it interesting and some of it informative. G4ATA probably means nothing to a lot of people - it is my Amateur Radio callsign, hence G4ATA.CO.UK. I also hold the callsign G8DYT but this call was usually reserved for contest operations until I was issued with the short contest call M4D in October 2012.

In mid July 2015 I moved to Ayrshire, Scotland. Although I am now "officially" GM4ATA I will keep the same web domain name, at least, for the time being.

Ham radio has played a big part in my life. I first became interested at the age of 12/13 (around 1969/70) and was an avid short wave listener for many years. My father was first licensed as G8DYT in 1970 and then upgraded to a "class A" in 1971 and was issued G4ATA. I was first licensed in 1986 as G1UDF. After my father passed away in January 1989 I thought it would be a nice way of remembering him by passing the 12wpm CW test to upgrade to a "class A" and have his callsign re-issued to me. I was successful in passing the test and have been licensed as G4ATA since August 1989. I also had his first class B call re-issued for use in contests. I have since been successful in applying for a SCC (short contest call), M4D for my contesting activities.
My son, Martin, has also been licensed since he was 13 years of age in 1997. Martin upgraded his licence to the UK Advanced category (the equivalent of the old "class A") and now holds the callsign M0HOM.
We are both keen DX'ers, contesters and also enjoy building our own antennas.

My usual station setup consists of a Yaesu FT2000, Dentron MLA-2500b (running a pair of 3CX400A7's), Tokyo Hy-Power 2kw ATU, InnovAntennas 4-ele LFA yagi for 28MHz and a homebrew Moxon for 15m. The antennas are mounted on a Tennamast telescopic mast, height min 7m & max 11m.

The buttons at the bottom of the page will take you to relevant sections of the site and it's all pretty self-explanatory.

Please note - all of my QSO's are uploaded to ClubLog.org and LoTW at the end of each day's operations. QSO's are uploaded to eQSL every 2 weeks.

CQ WW WPX 2015 Update - M4D ...... poor WX conditions (OK some poor planning too!) meant that we had to take down the 10m antenna before there was any possibility of the band opening resulting in just a 4-band entry. Also, at the last minute, we "chickened out" and decided to run in the high power category! Still we still managed #75 World, #40 Europe and #3 England in the multi single, high power category. Not too shabby considering that the whole station and antennas were only setup the day before the contest started and all taken down the day after.
Many thanks to Martin, M0HOM.

February 2015
I have decided that my next serious contest effort will be a father/son entry in the CQ WW WPX SSB contest the last weekend in March 2015. We will be in the Multi Single Low Power category and antennas will probably be....
80m - low inverted "V"
40m - 4-square
20m - simple ground plane at 6m agl
15m - homebrew Moxon at 11m agl
10m - 4-ele LFA yagi at 10m
Please listen out for M4D during the contest and G4ATA/P and M0HOM/P a couple of days before and after.

October 2014
My 40m 4-square had another outing in the CQ WW SSB contest, this time chasing another 'G' record in the SOA HP category. It seems I was within touching distance of the record with 1040 QSO's, 96 countries, 23 zones and 180,642 claimed points.

March 2014
The 40m 4-square performed well during the WPX contest setting a new 'G' record for the SOA high power category.

February 2014
Construction of a homebrew 40m 4-square array for the 2014 CQ WW WPX SSB contest was completed ready for on air testing that took place 14th to 17th March 2014 and during the RUDX contest that weekend.....very pleasing performance for G4ATA/P and 2E1FVS/P before and after the contest and M4D during the contest.

January 2014
My NoV for my contest call, M4D has just been renewed.

November 2013
CQ WW SSB 2013 raw results (prior to checking) have been published. Very happy with my 4th in the World, 3rd in Europe and 1st G station result in the Single Op, Low Power, Assisted 40m category. TX/RX Yaesu FT-450D, antenna a phased pair of elevated verticals and an inverted V.
Final results published and received 3rd in the World, 3rd in Europe and 1st in England and established a new record for England in the category.

November 2012
Antenna is now mounted on a Tennamast 9.2m Lightweight Mast. Including the head unit and stub mast the antenna is now at 11m above ground. Click here for more information and pics.

Just in time for CQWW SSB 2012 I had M4D special contest call sign issued.
2012 CQWW SSB, 10m SOSB Assisted....770 QSOs, 101 DXCC, 34 zones.

3rd April 2012
My contest log is now available online here. My contest callsign is G8DYT.

February 2012
I have now installed a 4 element LFA yagi from InnovAntennas on a temporary mast at just 5m above ground. DX worked during the first two days of testing includes VK6NB, OD5PY, ZS2DL, ZS6XT, 5B4AIX, FR5DZ and 3B8CF. Whilst listening to FR5DZ I made some direct comparisons to my old quarter wave vertical with elevated radials ...... on the vertical FR5DZ peaked S3, on the 4 element yagi he was peaking S9+10dB. An amazing difference.

December 2011
After having spent over 12 months battling with PLA, plasma TV and general urban QRM on the low bands (80m & 40m) it has finally worn me down and I have decided to try my luck on 10m! Due to the limitations of size and layout of my garden I decided to install a 4-ele LFA yagi. A homebrew Moxon for 15m was added to the mast in June 2013.

26th February 2010 All QSL's for my contacts made during my Svalbard trip have been sent to the bureau today. If you would like one direct please send 1 IRC or 2$ US.

G4ATA, LA3XIA & LA7WCA made a trip to Svalbard (JW) 8th - 13th October 2009. Callsigns used were JW/G4ATA, JW3XIA & JW7WCA. Modes of operation were SSB and RTTY.

Equipment : TS-870S, Alpha linear (1kw), 5 ele yagi 20 - 15 - 10, quarter wave vertical on 40m, inverted 'L' on 80m, 2-ele phased vertical dipoles on 80m and a dipole for 160m.

QTH: Longyearbyen, Svalbard - JQ78tf IOTA EU-026
The online log for JW/G4ATA can be checked at http://www.clublog.org

	JW/G4ATA			JW3XIA			JW7WCA			Totals
Band	DXCC	QSO's	Band	DXCC	QSO's	Band	DXCC	QSO's	Band	DXCC	QSO's
160m	8	12	160m	11	27	160m	0	0	160m	12	39
80m	37	130	80m	21	55	80m	0	0	80m	39	185
40m	35	168	40m	17	48	40m	6	9	40m	36	225
30m	0	0	30m	0	0	30m	1	1	30m	1	1
20m	35	363	20m	31	199	20m	38	308	20m	54	870
Total	51	673	Total	43	329	Total	38	318	Total	62	1320

QSL for JW/G4ATA direct to G4ATA including 2 x green stamps or 1 x IRC (all other QSL's will go via bureau). QSL's for JW3XIA to LA3XIA, JW7WCA to LA7WCA.

Contest Results ...... I usually use G8DYT in contests and M4D from 28th October 2012.

Received certificate for 1st place in the 2008 CQ WW WPX SSB, England Division, single operator, single band 80m. #8 in Europe and #13 in the world.

Received certificate for #6 G station in the multi op, single station, all band category in the 2009 CQ WW WPX SSB contest in spite of only working 80m during the contest ..... multi op with my son Martin, 2E1FVS.

Received certificate for 1st place England, #8 in Europe in the 2009 CQ WW SSB contest, single operator, single band 80m, high power category.

Received certificate for 1st place England, 2nd place Europe and 2nd place in the world in the 2010 CQ WW WPX SSB contest, single operator, single band 80m, high power assisted category.

Received certificate for 1st place England in the 2010 CQ WW SSB contest, single operator, single band 40m, high power category (I used G4ATA in this contest).

Received certificate for 1st place England, #5 EU, #10 non W/VE in the 2010 ARRL International DX Phone contest, single operator, single band 80m, high power category.

Received certificate for 1st place England, #8 EU, #8 in the world in the 2011 CQ WW WPX SSB contest, single operator, single band 80m, high power assisted category.

Confirmed for 2012 CQ WW WPX SSB, single op, single band 10m, high power assisted #31 world, #18 EU, #1 G station ..... not bad with a 4 ele yagi just 5m above ground!

Confirmed 1st place England, #3 EU, #3 in the world in the 2013 CQ WW SSB contest, single operator, single band 40m, low power assisted category. Rig Yaesu FT-450D, antennas a homebrew pair of phased quarter wave verticals (elevated feed point 2m above ground) and an inverted 'V' at 8m.

Confirmed 1st place England in the Russian DX Contest 2014, multi single category...ops G4ATA & M0HOM, not bad considering that we only worked 40m & 20m!

Confirmed 1st place England, #9 EU, #11 in the world in the 2014 CQ WW WPX SSB contest, single operator, single band 40m, high power assisted category. Rig Yaesu FT-2000, antennas a homebrew 4-square (elevated) and an inverted 'V' at 8m.

CQ WW SSB 2014 - currently looking good for 1st place England, single op 40m, assisted, high power. Also close to a new record but not close enough!!

I am proud to say that I am the holder of several 'G' station contest records listed below. That said, my usual prime objective in a contest is to beat my own previous best score for that particular contest and category.

Holder of the England record for the 80m, High Power Assisted category in the CQ WW SSB contest
Call G8DYT Points 121,392, QSOs 754, Zones 21, DXCC 87, Year 2009

Holder of the England record for the 80m, High Power Assisted category in the CQ WW WPX SSB contest
Call G8DYT Points 1,176,240, WPX 507, Year 2010

Holder of the England record for the 10m, High Power Assisted category in the CQ WW WPX SSB contest
Call G8DYT Points 150,234, WPX 219, Year 2012

Holder of the England record for the 40m, Low Power Assisted category in the CQ WW SSB contest
Call M4D Points 90,825, QSOs 688, Zones 22, DXCC 83, Year 2013

Holder of the England record for the 40m, High Power Assisted category in the CQ WW WPX SSB contest
Call M4D Points 1,171,300, WPX 530, Year 2014

Back in the "good old days" I had the honour of being the first "DX" station featured on Comtek's web site after I sent them details of the construction of my full size 4-square for 80m using their excellent phasing system. Since then DX-Engineering bought out Comtek but their products are still available ...... follow the link.

Current DXCC totals as of February 26th 2015 (since September 2007.....all my logs prior to this date have been lost in several changes of QTH and a change of XYL!!)
80m - 202, 40m - 188, 20m - 98, 17m - 10, 15m - 218, 12m - 8, 10m - 245, 6m - 5 TOTAL all bands - 279 (246 confirmed)