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5T0JL Mauritania Login is required for additional detail. [+] Mailing label [-]
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Biography
Detail
Logbook 600

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL

Simplex CW is not a disease, nor a mental defect, it's the lifestyle of the real telegrapher who does not need subtleties

to exercise his art !

Honi soit qui mal y pense (Edward III 14th century)

5t0jl

is currently active on

all HF bands CW only except

3,5 Mhz as of today Feb 20, 2013

The actual antenna is the GP7 (Vertical Dipole by SP7GXP) used by the 5T0SP DxPed given to me in recognition for my help and friendship by the whole team !

The GAP Titan Dx is now under repair

(http://www.sp7gxp.pl/infopage.php?id=32)

5T0JL QSLing policy please note:

A special word of thanks to those amateur radio who have exchanged cards with me. All in all the normal SASE procedure was used throughout with some exceptions where many IRCs were invalidated because they were missing the stamp of ORIGIN. some other envelopes had nothing except a Qsl card. All will get their cards later anyway.

QSL'S ! ! ! Some new Premium Card Service are taken care of since today 17 december 2012. Please be patient, Thanks

BESIDE THIS ALL CATEGORY CARDS HAVE BEEN CLEARED BY MID NOVEMBER !

I'm takingthis opportunity to address my deep hearted thanks to all friends recorded in my manual log. and the nice compliments or superlatives addressed for my fairness about my operating practices while handling huge and incredible pile-up on simplex.

Why simplex you may ask? To me it is natural, It's the rule, it's the law, and I could not find any recommendations by IARU or the ITU to wildly use substitutes such as Qsx, UpUp or Split which are nothing else than deviances and fallacies.

At 85, I am simply trying to keep 5T alive despite the many odds, still I am dependent on others for station cleaning and other tasks, set up or antennas checks, checking electrical installations as frequent outages are occuring in the city, cleaning the radio shack etc. in fact I really need a full solar battery back up to keep the radio alive in any circumstances.

Here below the T42EU mixed team of 11 SSB/CW operators in Cuba

Other callsigns: ex-F3JL (1960-1983), 9Q5LJ (1965-1967), ON8RA (since 1965),

9X5AB (1980-1983), W3/ON8RA (1969-1975), W6/ON8RA (1996-1998).

Team opr with: OR5EU, T42EU, 5T0EU and 5T0CW.

Actually I am the only licensed ham radio opr in 5T/Mauritania since july 2008 when 5T5SN Qsy'd to TN9SN.

Are you interested to run a Dx-Ped in 5T ? I sure can

help in licensing, lodging, discovering the Sahara rocks

and sand beauties. Just drop me an email.

5T0EUHosted in 2004 - http://www.qrz.com/db/5T0EU

5T0CWHosted in 2005 - http://www.qrz.com/db/5T0CW

5T0ID Hosted in 2007 - http://www.qrz.com/db/5T0ID

5T0SPHosted in 2012 a friendly DX Polish team with big success see it here: http://5t0sp.dxing.pl

5T0ZA Hosted february 2013 with Jon/TF3ZA. Track Jon's trip right here:www.dxacrossafrica.com

5T1FOC Active 1st to 31st may 2013 for FOC 75th anniversary

Full biography below this pics gallery

9Q5LJ 1965/1967 and ON8RA since 1965 still going strong as 5T0JL today.

Shown below is one of our DC3's with it's usual crew of 5 ! Pilot, co-Pilot, Nav, Wireless op and Flight mechanic.

Below is my 9X5 QSL card used during my sporadic stay in Rwanda which ended with a three full years until 1983.

Below is my Qsl card used during myUS tour 1970-1975. The antenna was a home brew Quad not a beam as shown.

THE MAN & HIS RADIO, DESTINY or PASSION?

ON8RA/5T0JL/Jean, Belgian born 1928, grew up in the middle of the new era of radio broadcasting with the growing importance of shortwave radio.

At teenage back in 1939/1940 WWII is striking Belgium, despite the odds I joined the local Boy Scouts where I will be learning the Morse code by using a «whistle» and built my first crystal radio with the help of my father. I completed my ability to copy the code by listening to the many CW networks during the war. and I finally joined the Royal Air Force to be a pilot but I could not fulfill the eyesight requirement so I ended up as Wireless Operator end of 1946/early 1947 flying DC3, 4 and 6, I retired in 1968 and kept on going over HF since.

An interesting part of my radio life occured between 1978 and 1980 when working in the Silicon Valley, California, on an HF oblique ionospheric sounding program to observe the ionosphere behaviour in real time which ultimately led to the production of the AN-TRQ 35V. At 85 in october 2013, I'm still currently involved in HF, CW being my favourite mode, while being professionally involved with Data over HF.

Up to now I visited or lived-in a total of 58 countries. I speak fluent french, english and brasilian. My current call signs are ON8RA, Class A CEPT licence and 5T0JL, delivered in Mauritania by the Regulation Authority. as well as a few expired international licenses. What a page of history ! HF radio, passion or destiny ?

THE RADIO SET UP AS FROM FEBRUARY 2011

Simple and very modest, Located N180603 / W155904.57, Elev. 3m ASL

Transceiver Kenwood 570D conservatively set @ 90 watts output

Old TenTec KR5A keyer, works much better now with new 9V battery thanks to 0N4TC for helping. A very good keyer allowing ratio adjustments for a more personal Morse signature.

A Ten Tec KR20A keyer, by special donation from Ron/K4SSMhas been added for high speed CW traffic. In recent trafic 35 to 40 Wpm was easily reached but with a very impersonal keying and Morse signature.

A home brew G5RVhas been put down for good.

A brand new CAROLINA WINDOM Model 80 from a special donation byEd/KG4W is ready to go up but the next door building manager changed his mind and has not authorized a nylon cord attachment for higher height yet.

A GAP Titan Dx Vertical Dipole from which I am learning a lot on antenna theory because in the past I was more focused to cubical quads or yagis construction and never paid attention to the natural vertical dipole characteristics giving us the key to ease our hobby. as you do not have to bother on direction nor propagation, nor LP or SP, nor height above ground, nor radials, nor gray line, amazingly the antenna will feel all that for you and will bring the DX on your log easy. It is as simple as this. Unsollicited dope on my signal's quality are here to prove it and confirm, simply blowing out all my past experience regarding antennas.

NEW - Home brew Folded Dipole

As of 12th August 2012, construction of a homebrew Folded Dipole for 30 meters built from tits and bits available on the local market completed this 13th august with an antenna analyzer testing and adjusting. That's approximately 28 meters of wire in a bulky construction. I had a 4/1 new Balun four years in a drawer. Total cost so far equivalent to 5 USD. Works like a dream antenna with fantastic results.

NEW - GP7 Vertical Dipole now operational

As of 20 february 2013the GP7 has been erected in place of the GAP Titan Dx taken by heavy corrosion, The Titan DX has been a great performer from 7 to 28 Mhz, with the exception of 10 Mhz where I never succeeded to match it correctly. It worked on 3,5Mhz on some occasions with surrounding countries only like 6W and CN.

More on the GP7 (Made in Poland) very soon !

THE OPERATOR'S DESK

Clock, paper Log Book and pencils. My shack is 9 square meters, inside temperature constantly between 28°C and 33°C depending the outside temp. No air conditioning.

HELPFUL TOOLS ARE:

A portable computer w/internet connection but not really mandatory. hopefully we can still grab the world with our HF radio can't we?

Propagation software such as: PropMan 2000 by Rockwell-Collins, VOAProp by G4ILO, and the VE3NEA suite complete with Ionoprobe, HamCap, Dx Atlas and Band Master.

CW learning tool: The G4FON software, a fantastic program where I can simulate the worst to the harshest receive conditions. A perfect tool to keep my rusty receive CW capability still going at 35wpm on paper/pencil, 45wpm mentally, I used to type 50wpm on dedicated typewriter long years ago and it feeled really slow., we do not have those typewriter anymore. Just a bit faster than TTY@45 bauds to give you an idea.

HAMMING PRACTICES

Adhere and effectively apply the DX Code of Conduct,but ignore all about SPLIT OPERATION as you can become JAMMERS by ordering your fellow hams to sit on a busy Qrg,to gather efforts and try to improve our DX Etiquette by visiting G3SWH/Phil's page on Qrz.com and implement his best recommendations.
Dedicated to simplex operation, please do not ask me for Split or QSX or UpUp as our CW Bandwidth is ample enough to accomodate an eventual pile-up. By doing so I am staying within the ITU/IARU regulations and I do not induce my fellow hams to put themselves at risk.
Victims of those deviances and fallacies such as UpUp, Split or Qsxare invited to report their case to my email address.

MY CW HAMMING PRACTICE

Do not use and encourage the UpUP, Qsx and Split are fatal abnormalities which destroy our HF bands slowly but surely. Seen the growing number of DX-Pedition the jamming " on order " by the DX-station goes growing too. There are many chances that you will become victims as I am practically every day!

Do not order or participate in deliberate jammings and refuse to downright these abnormalities propagated by unscrupulous operators!

Deliberate because Dx-Ped considers they are invested with the authority "to order" reprehensible operations on Qrg which could in fact put you in breach of regulations by qualifying you as a "jammer".

N'utilisez pas et n'encouragez pas les UpUP, Qsx et Split qui sont des déviances néfastes détruisant nos bandes HF. Vu le nombre grandissant d'expéditions le spectre du brouillage "sur ordre" de la station DX va grandissant lui aussi. Il y a beaucoup de chance que vous en soyez victimes comme je le suis pratiquement tous les jours !

Ne vous rendez pas complice de ces brouillages intentionnels et refusez carrément ces déviances propagées par des opérateurs peu scrupuleux !

Intentionnels parce que les Dx-Ped se croyent investies de l'autorité tout court pour vous "ordonner" des manoeuvres de Qrg répréhensibles qui pourraient à la limite vous mettre en infraction du réglement en vous qualifiant de "brouilleur".

PROJECTS PENDING

160m with an end loaded vertical dipole or,
to set a Top loadedfor 160m
to experiment a MOXON vertical either wired fullsize or with coaxial elements
to get on the air with PSK31 and possibly other modes.
to launch another challenging Dx Ped where, on the move right now with 5T0SP, please look up at http://5t0sp.dxing.pl/; where amplifiers would be prohibited, only wire antennas would be accepted, the use of renewable energy would be imposed. A reachable goal to anyone's goodwill

SPECIAL NOTE ON QSLing

Due to my irregular stay in both Mauritania and Belgium on one hand, and knowing the mailing of all QSL's is donein Belgium exclusively it is easy to realize that receiving the exclusive 5T0JL qsl card may take a long time. So I am asking all my fellow hams to exercise their patience as, I repeat, all Qsl's received Direct will be answered. Owing the many questions received recently I felt having the obligation to explain.

Answering QSLs has taken place this 8th december 2011, a nice gift for the Holiday Season's still I do apologize for the long waiting time. Sorry my friends I could not do any better

New Qsl rules downhere, but nothing is perfect, please remember.

1. Premium Qsl service @ 5 greens:This service has been slow lately. With all my apologies. Do not shoot at the pianist please.(coïncidence, my son acting Qsl Mgr is a classical pianist.)

2. Custom service @ 3 greens:Very sorry this service already backlogged needs some adjustments too.

3. No Rush service @ 2 greens: Qsl received at on8ra will be responded when back to ON land

NOTE. IRCs accepted but not recommended as they are accumulatinga lot of burden plus a small surcharge added by the BelgianPost office counter due to the last raise worldwide Postal rates.

One must understand this Premium and Custom services implies third party dedication and work with internet communications alike for Data exchange.Indeed a lot of emails going back and forth as many cards have confusing data at times.

So all in all I will not get rich with this new plan, to the contrary, it will give an opportunity to anyone to choose the Qsl service they want for those in need of quick confirmation.At least we are trying..