I want to say thank you to Ken (G4RWD), James (WW3S), Axel (DL6KVA) and Dirk (DJ7UC) who nominated and sponsored my membership to CWops. I’m honored to be a new member of CWops Club and I look forward to many nice CW ragchew QSOs.
Amateur Radio has been my hobby for over 50 years now. I started as a shortwave listener with a used DRAKE 2-B receiver when I was fifteen. Learning Morse code was easy and, at the age of 16, I passed my ham radio examination. From the first day of my license in in 1973 I have been active on CW. Eventually, a Morse key became like a music instrument to me.
Working DX was exciting, but I was eager to see those exotic places and different cultures myself. As a student I could only afford low budget trips. By train, hitchhiking and boat I made it to Egypt back in 1978. I visited VO1LX/SU at the UN-Camp in Ismailia and for a few hours I was allowed to use this famous station. The pile-up was huge!
In 1981 I completed my studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden as an Engineer in Communications. After a job at German Television (SWF and ZDF) and Deutsche Telekom I moved into the Airline Communications field for the remaining 37 years. During my spare time, I traveled the world with my radio and activated many of the DXCC entities I have worked from my home station. My last operation was from Bolivia in March 2020, where I left just before they closed the border… This was DXpedition entity #159. Besides amateur radio, I am interested in astronomy, photography, producing videos, hiking and riding my bicycle together with the family. With all these hobbies and our little grandson, the second one is already on the way, a 24-hour day is not long enough…
We live in a suburb of Mainz (the Gutenberg town) and the QRN noise here is heavy. The high bands are quite ok, but the low bands are a bit difficult sometimes. I retired last year and now would have more time to travel, but I guess it will take a while to activate a new one…
So I wait for my next DX-pedition to come. See you on the bands!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.