First of all, thanks for my sponsor Bud, AA3B for nominating me for membership in CWops, and for those who forwarded support for my nomination. It is great to be a member of this very active community now and at the moment I become more and more aware of CWops presence on the bands.
My name is Stephan (Steve on the bands, saving some dots and dashes). I was born in 1961 in Trier, the oldest city of Germany which is known for some impressive remnants of the ancient Roman Empire. I took the first steps into the wonderful world of our hobby in 1975 as a schoolboy, in the club station of my highschool in Trier, DL0TR. My Elmers were my teachers Helmut, DJ4VV and Kurt, DK9WF, both SK, who emphasized the high benefit of learning the Morse code. So I did. In 1977 I got my callsign DF1PY.
Now I live in a very tiny village called LEIMERSDORF in the municipality GRAFSCHAFT, nearby the little twin-town BAD NEUENAHR-AHRWEILER (5 km), nearby the city of BONN (20 km, saving even more dots and dashes), nearby the metropolis of COLOGNE (50km) in a nice rural area, close to the wine-growing districts of Rhine and Ahr River. Outside the world of amateur radio I am a legal adviser to the armed forces.
DF1PY can only be heard in CW (abt. 99.8% of all my QSOs are in CW) and only with a certain readiness to concentrate not only on the big signals. My rigs produce no more than 100 watts, sometimes “only” QRP, into wire antennas like my wonderful Hyendfed enabeling my first VK QSO on 80m this winter. Always good fun.
My special amateur radio interests are IOTA (collecting more than activating), DXCC, WAS (only WY is missing for more than 15 years), SOTA (activating every now and then, mostly low mountains in DL, because I have no real head for heights), a little contesting, collecting and sending (the old-fashioned paper) QSLs for awards/diplomas and – always a source of pleasure – collecting morse keys. I have round about 70 keys now and every new acquisition has to pass a few QSOs on the bands. Some of them were revitalized after many decades and are doing a good job on a modern high-tech transceiver. Two or three years ago I took part in a Straight Key Party of the AGCW-DL with a “Reichstelegraphentaste” of 1887.
I am also member of the DARC (local section Ahrweiler with DOK K01), AGCW-DL #3380, HSC #1887 and now CWops #2502!
Many thanks again for membership in CWops. Next I am going to discover all the activities of CWops, the brilliant website, Solid Copy, CWT (met already some of you last few weeks) and the CW Academy. And – most important – see you on the bands.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.