DF7CB Logbook
My logbook is online (old version here)DF7C
In contests, I use the call sign DF7CB (since March 2024)QSL Collection
Some time ago I scanned some of the more funny QSLs and made a web page of them.More Items
- IARU/NCXDF Beacon Wheel
- Per Funk um die Welt -- Saarbrücker Zeitung, 9.6.1998
- QRP14 manual and schematics
About Me
Licensed since 1994 (entry license, DG8VD), 1995 (full license, DF7CB). Mostly dormant between 2000 and 2018, active again since December 2018.
Memberships:
- DARC DOK R10 Mönchengladbach (since July 2019; old DOK before: Q02 St. Ingbert)
- RRDXA #114
- CWops #3484
- AGCW #4320
- Feld Hell Club #6988
- FT8DMC #23414
- FT4DMC #3500
- QO-100 Dx Club #332
We had been playing with CB radios as kids for some time when I learned that a classmate's dad was a radio amateur. Over several visits, Gerhard DL5VT became my elmer showing me around in several areas of the hobby. I got a copy of the official questionnaire and went off to learn by myself. In December 1994 I passed the "C" license exam (technician) at the age of 17 and got issued the callsign DG8VD.
Keen to also explore the shortwave bands, I had to get back to learning for the CW exam. This time jointly with other hams from the local radio club, led by elmer Herbert DL8DL (sk). I upgraded to the full "B" license in October 1995 and got my current call DF7CB. Back at that time, 12 wpm seemed like a lot. Later that year I took over the class from Herbert and taught a bit of the CW that I had learned.
I was mostly operating 40m CW QSOs and contests at that time using a doublet antenna in my parents' garden. Sunspots were low, but it worked. The other passion was packet radio on 70cm, I joined a group of sysops for a local mailbox.
I then finished high school and went to university, where antennas were difficult to set up and interests shifted even more to computers, so I was more and more off air except for running in the DARC XMAS contest each year until that stopped as well in 2006. I graduated in computer science, became deeply involved in Open Source in general and Debian Linux in particular, and didn't think about ham radio anymore.
Fast-forward to December 2018. Now with a family, a house, and a job with a few hams among the colleagues, I decided to get back into the old hobby. I put a windom antenna across the house and the garden, hooked up the old IC-706, and went on 80m. My CW was still working after all that time, and I did quite a few QSOs on that day. Sunspots were again low, but I got active again.
Of course I also tried the new digital modes that had appeared while I was away. But the thing I really enjoy is CW contesting, that's where I spend most of the time. In the meantime, I've upgraded my station to a IC-7610 and a Spiderbeam on the roof. Now is actually the first time in my 30-year ham career that the sunspots are high while I'm actually active, and I do enjoy the highbands a lot.
For the Rhein Ruhr DX Association (RRDXA) I'm operating the club logbook with some competitions for the members, and since the club is turning 60 in 2024, there's an RRDXA60 award people can apply for when working club members.
