The South Hams and G5BY on 6m

A slight aside from ham radio, I just want to give a plug for the most beautiful part of England where I lived until leaving for university - the beautiful part of southernmost Devon known as the South Hams. Our family has lived here from at least 1428, the earliest date in our family history records when one of my ancestors owned one fee of land in the time of King Henry VI. You can understand why I still regard this as my spiritual home even though we enjoy living in East Anglia. We still make regular pilgrimages back to "the promised land" as my dear old dad called it. Indeed it is.

There is a new book of walks in this area called The South Hams Coast by Gerry Miles (see www.devonpaint.nl/ and also available from www.amazon.co.uk). The book is beautifully illustrated with coastal walks covering many of the high spots from where some great VHF DX has been worked. These include Bolberry Down from where G5BY worked the USA on 6m back in the 1940s when the band was briefly available. Today his QTH (see old picture) is "The Port Light Hotel" a delightful place to drink a pint or have a crab sandwich on a long sunny cliff top walk.