Thank you Jim, N7US for nominating me and to all my sponsors.
I was born in 1965 and I live in a little town approx. 30 km north of Lisbon.
I got my license in 1993, with the callsign CT1EKU, and I was active in VHF and HF. In 1995, I stopped my radio activity and only resumed it 21 years later.
In a rainy day of 2016, I opened a closet and I saw my old Yaesu FT-77. I connected it to a power supply and, after turning it on, I saw black smoke coming from the inside. I think that was this smoke that activated my ham radio virus, because I have not stopped since then.
In the following years, I built and improved my station and experimented lots of new things which did not exist or which weren’t as easy to do 21 years ago. So I tried RTTY, SSTV, SAT communications, digital modes, the QRZ, LoTW, lots of software applications for ham radio, SDR, Arduino and Raspberry pi in ham radio, SOTA, etc. I improved my license and changed my callsign to CT7AUP. I started to participate in contests, I chased entities, got the DXCC and other awards. I compressed the learning of the evolution of 21 years in 2 years. It was an amazing period.
In 2018, a close friend, Pedro, CT1DBS (SK), challenged me to learn CW. I attended a CW course where I learned the code, but the results were not very good. For the next 2 years, I tried by myself to learn CW without success. Therefore, I made the decision to attend the CWA and with the big help of my advisors Duncan, G3WZD and Hanz, YL3JD and the members of the class (OM5MI, PA2G, S55AC, SV1DAY), I concluded the CWA program, where I developed the needed skills to communicate in CW. It was a very fun time.
Now my main mode is CW and it is, by far, the most complete and enjoyable mode.
I am happy to be a part of CWops and I am looking forward to participating in its activities, giving back and helping to promote the CW.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.