Continuing a family tradition in medical health care (his father ran a successful dental practise in Observatory in Cape Town for years), David trained as an anaesthetist, and later worked as a GP in Ireland. He obtained his first radio ham license (callsign GI8MIV) at a young age. His studies required him to take a break from the hobby but he returned to amateur radio as GI4FUM, whch callsign he currently holds.
David showed us a slide show of his activities and a video of the March 2007 Swaziland DXpedition he took part in. He has been on a number of DXeditions in Africa, as C91DJ in Mozambique, V55B in Oranjemund and 3DA0DJ in Swaziland. Being active in the Scouting movement, David also set up and ran the first ever Swaziland JOTA station, 3DA0SS, a project which he hopes to re-activate in the future.
He also was involved in the G100MGY special event station to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic (which was built in Belfast). MGY was the Titanic's callsign on that fateful night it sent out it's emergency SOS messages after hitting an iceberg in the north Atlantic Ocean.
Ham radio runs in David's family - his XYL Gillian holds the callsign GI8MIV (which was David's original callsign) and his son is GI7EXM.
David is here in Cape Town until 4th November. We thank him for his interesting talk, hope to hear him often on the bands and wish him and his family a pleasant holiday.
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| David addresses the CTARC |
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| The Swaziland DXpedition team |
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| Shaun / ZS1RA ran ZS1CT station in the CQ WW DX competition for the Saturday. Welcome also to Fred / ZS1FZ, who is back in Cape Town again. |
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| After the talk there was the usual chat over coffee and biscuits. We're also glad to report Dennis / ZS1AU (foreground left) is out of the white house and was able to attend the meeting. |