I was born in 1970 and have been listening to Short Wave radio since the early eighties. At that time, there was still a minimum age requirement of 14 to take a ham radio exam, so I started playing with CB radio a little until I met Ed, K1TWJ, of Burnham ME who really started my interest in amateur radio. After taking a crash course organized by DARC, Germany’s national amateur radio society, I eventually got my ham ticket. My Morse code teacher at that time was Eberhard, DJ8OT.
Right from the beginning, my favorite mode has always been CW. I like to play with almost everything this great hobby has to offer and enjoy trying new modes, but operating CW still is what I enjoy most, from rag chewing to DX chasing.
My current HF station consists of an old but reliable Kenwood TS-850S with an Alpha 99CS amplifier, a 3-element SteppIR Yagi antenna plus some wires for the low bands. I usually share the shack with two friendly cats that were affectionately named “Schneeball” (snowball) and “Streifchen” (small stripes) by my kids. The QTH is a small village right on the banks of the river Weser, near the city of Bremen and the North Sea.
For the last 15 years, I have worked as an engineer for a German shipping company. Our office specializes in polar research, so I get to travel to Antarctica quite regularly. Altogether, I have spent more than four years on the icy continent around the South Pole. Whenever I can and conditions permit, I get on the air as DP1POL from that rather remote location.
I have also joined a few DXpeditions, with the trip to Kermadec Island in 2010 where we brought ZL8X on the air being the most memorable one. Currently, I serve as president of Radio Telegraphy High Speed Club (HSC). We have quite a few fellow CWops members in our ranks. If you’d like to find out more about HSC activities, please check www.highspeedclub.org or visit our booth (A1-499) at the upcoming “ham radio” exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Apart from ham radio, I also enjoy traveling, hiking and geocaching which can all be combined very well on a holiday – and you can even take a little radio along!
Thank you very much for inviting me to CWops! It is great to be a part of such an active community, and I am looking forward to participating in the club’s events such as CWT.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.