Chris G8APB, first licensed way back in the 60's, is now retired from engineering consultancy, and spends a fair time in front of his computer screens and working RTTY, both in general operating and in any RTTY contest that he can find.

Back 30+ years ago he had clanky old Creed machines in his loft shack in the Medway towns. These machines were set on VHF autostart and took many a comic file and paper tape pictures (you can't do this on computers as they won't overprint) the best being a Saturn 5 rocket 7' in length when printed and a whole roll of tape, but it took 4.5 hours to receive... Of course children then interupted some of his activities, and moves to Basingstoke and four Marks in Hampshire meant rebuilding the shack. It was at that time he got involved with BARTG as a committee member with responsibility for VHF contests, and was a colleague of Ted Double G8CDW as HF Contests and Bill Pechey G4CUE as Chairman of BARTG. Work and family matters again intervened and in 1989 a move to the present QTH meant another shack rebuild.

In the 20+ years in Staffordshire , DATA took a back seat for a while, but 8 years ago the shack Mk2 was built and computers installed so interest was again rekindled. But it was only in the last 5 years whilst working in Canada and operating the Calgary DX club monster station VE6AO with the Advanced licence VA6APB that Data has become the over-riding mode of operation. Chris has obtained DXCC and WAS on RTTY with both his callsigns G8APB and VA6APB and was awarded the first BARTG Golden Jubilee award.

Operations on Data have now become the norm at G8APB station and the set-up has grown with the gear brought back from the VE6 QTH. He can operate on all modes from 160m to 23cm, and is a regular in RTTY contests, both BARTG and Worldwide. For his efforts he has been 'rewarded' with expert status in BARTG events.