MY PROFILE

My name is Johannes 'John' Titaley, call YB4GA, and I was born in March 1944.

I was SWLing since 1958 when I was 14 years old. Amateur radio not allowed in Indonesia at that time. Using some homebrew receivers, I was able to listen to radio station on short wave bands from all over the world.

I have been licenced in amateur radio since 1969 and the callsign was YB4GA.

On behalf of the Club Station of ORARI (The Organization of Amateur Radio of the Republic of Indonesia or Organisasi Amatir Radio Indonesia) Call Area 4, I was also hold the callsign YB4AA until 1981.   

I love homebrewing, so the necessaries knowledge mostly have been got from several edition of ARRL's the Radio Amateurs' Handbook - All of us learned about tubes from the books and practical info on electronic fundamentals and tube circuits, and a lots of ham projects, RX, TX, antenna- ,and of course, also from a lot of another resources.

Shortly after the licences, I made a 3 bander (80, 40 , 20 m band) ssb transmitter running 100 watts from a pair of 6146's and combining it with Hallicrafter S-86 receiver and a multiband fan dipole and a 20 m vertical, I was hooked on hamming and have been doing it ever since. This working condition I've been enjoing for a couple of years and even more when some hf rigs like FT-401S, FT-101E, FT-901DM added into my hamshack. Due to the lack of space I could only use simple antenna system; fan dipole, and verticals. I was actively rag chewing on 80 and 40 with local ham friends, and dx-ing particularly on 20 and 15 m and other band also when the band condition was open, all were in ssb mode. Those were the days all of my happy ham life until 1986, when raising four lovely children and my job in the oil industry took up all my time. Keep the rigs closed up into cabinet, and putting down the antenna, but still keep close to the ham world by reading and recently browsing in the 'net'. Though I hadn't active in transmitting for quite a long time, but the licence and the callsign keep current and on 2004 they became a lifetime validity, thanks to the club -ORARI Palembang Barat- and the authority of South Sumatra Province Administration.

My lifelong job was in telecommunication system for the national oil company. Joining in 1971 and retired in the year of 2000 mostly involved in marine communication and navigational system, microwave radio relay link, fixed/mobile land radio system. After retirement still hadn't much time for hamming since I had some teaching job in the university, EIA consulting, and other civic activities.


Plan for the future is to get the more elaborate equipment and proper antennas to work on the band, and of course keep the old rigs still working.  If you hear me please give me a call.

I enjoy spending time with my family and my hobbies include amateur radio, electronics, computing, reading, music, travelling, and golfing.

73, de John Titaley, YB4GA.