It must have been in the late seventies or early eighties when I started listening to shortwave radio. At that time I used an old Philips tube radio build in the fifties. That radio limited me to broadcasting stations but I still remember the SSB signals I couldn’t copy, the radar jammers and the number stations. A little later I got infected with the ham-virus when our local scouting started with the JOTA. After that I have been inactive for many years untill the beginning of 2007. I wanted to tune the bands again and bought a Kenwood R-5000 receiver.
In april 2008 I passed the exam for my Novice license. So now I’m active on 10m, 20m and 40m with the allowed output power of 25 Watts from home or with 3 – 5 Watts when working QRP mobile from the fields in my neighbourhood.