Born in the end of the 1950’s, I grew up with old tube radios. My grandparents as well as my parents owned such a radio, which I started to explore. They were looking like a piece of furniture instead of a technical apparatus. As a student aged 13 I used to listen to international radio stations broadcasting in English and German on the shortwave bands. Stations such as Radio Polonia, Radio HCJB, Radio Sweden, Radio Beijing and many more.
My first radio used to be a Grundig 2043W, a radio with the ‘magic eye’. The S meter had not yet been invented at that time.
A Grundig Satellit 2000 became my next radio in 1974. A radio that came along with a 1.44 meter built-in telescope antenna. As a plus, the radio offered the option of decoding single-sideband (SSB) transmissions with the beat frequency oscillator (BFO). SSB had just become one of the most popular modes of emission among radio amateurs and with this radio, I was given a great tool to start listening to amateur radio operators on their specifically allocated shortwave bands. Listening to special DX programs on the above radio stations (btw, the DX Party Line, hosted by Clayton Howard on the English service of Radio HCJB – The Voice of the Andes in Quito, Ecuador). Hence, I worked as a shortwave listener (SWL) for more than 20 years.
After participating in a wonderful intensive amateur radio course at Damp under the direction of Ralf, DF3LW, in 1996, I finally managed to take the license examination just after the course had come to its end. Never before and never after this point I had experienced a more intensive period of learning in my life! The first callsign that was assigned to me by then RegTP was DB1OMA.
I had applied for a vanity callsign then in April 2010 and since then work as DJØJB. I added some ham radio related biografical remarks to the QRZCQ.COM amateur radio portal.
To make a long story short: after retiring in the end of 2016, I started exploring the ham radio world anew. EchoLink came into my sight and some other digital stuff, like WebSDR receivers. Although some new things have been invented during the years that I was not active on the bands, I finally decided to buy a small duoband HT for conventional FM operation on VHF and UHF bands, a Baofeng UV-5R. Only slightly larger than a credit card, it produces good audio.
Finally, I plan to reinstall my HF rig – an Alinco DX-70 and an appropriate antenna – again. That should keep me busy for the coming months.
A new invention has been made, a combined Android based smartphone and UHF handheld transceiver. Watch the following YouTube video for more.
You will find that Company under this URL: http://outfone.com/
A second one can be watched on the following YouTube video. A combination of a smartphone and a DMR radio in a solid state version. That rig is also capable of receiving and transmitting conventional FM signals.
The above license plate image is courtesy of IK2UVR.