At first, I would like to thank Marc (DO4DXA) for nominating as well as Ivo (9A1AA), Lada (OK2PAY) and Fabian (DJ1YFK) for the sponsorship.
I was born in October 1997 in Erding, 30 km south-west of Munich, in the southern part of Germany. I started the hobby back in early 2008 at age 10. At this time, we had a youth group in the local radio club in Erding, which focused a lot on soldering and getting on the air. Many of the more experienced club members would always work the more interesting DX on CW. I didn’t understand a word. My goal was to understand the strange noise they used to communicate as soon as possible. While working the DX with our educational call DN5KID I learned a lot about the behavior of the bands which seemed to be useful for my upcoming CW days.
Our club started a local CW course in early 2010 where I made my first CW QSO’s. I am thankful to Elmer Karl (DL1MEB) for helping me to progress and continues to be an inspiration for me to this day.
When I just turned 14 at the end of 2011, I sat my exam to get my novice license DO6PS. Two years later in 2013 I updated to a full HAREC license and call sign DK6SP, which I have kept ever since. Afterwards we held already two CW courses to teach this great mode to the next generation of CW enthusiasts. Another two years later in 2015 I sat the CW exam at the German telecommunications agency, which is not mandatory anymore. But I found it an awesome chance and possibility to have this unique way of operating documented in my official license paper.
Back in 2016 I applied for my contest call DQ5M which my fellow youngsters and I are QRV with mostly in contests. I am also a member of the Bavarian Contest Club where my love of contesting was found out. The crew of former DL1A invited me to join the team. During my time there I learned to run pileups and now I can’t get enough of them to be honest. In the past I have been active from various DXCCs like 9A, 9J, A4, EI, ES, GW, P4, PJ2, PJ4, W8, Z6 and others to participate in worldwide contests, doing holiday style or serious DXpeditions. I have also participated in the WRTC 2018 in Germany as team Y82D.
Nowadays I am a dual Bachelor student of Business Administration with main emphasis on logistics management in my last semester awaiting my final degrees. In the hobby I am active within in the DARC (German radio society) youth department and responsible for the coordination of YOTA Team Germany. YOTA is an initiative by the IARU R1 Youth Working Group. We try to show the community that there is still youth in ham radio. There I am in charge of public relations taking care of the YOTA social media channels, homepage, press releases and other items in that area. This initiative brings different cultures and types of young hams at events like Summer Camps or Youth Contest Programs together. Personally, I like the opportunity of networking within these events and the hobby itself.
Therefore, I am really thankful to be able to do this awesome hobby together with friends around the world. Even better when we meet on the bands and do a long ragchew or an even shorter contest QSO!
I hope to QSO with all of you soon!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.