My interest in radio started in 1962 in my school-boy years in Northern-Germany when I got hold of a portable radio with SW. I was listening in on ship-to-shore radio and hams and the radio-bug bit me.

After receiving my license in 1966 ham-radio dominated my social life for the next 8 years of school and university.

I started working 20m and 80m with a homebrew SSB transmitter, a modified AR88D receiver and dipoles. Working my 1st ZL on 80m SSB sold me to 80m DXing. In 1967 I won the CQWW Phone Contest for DL on 80m (did not take much in those days) and that was the bite of the contesting bug.

In 1969 I joined the ranks of the Rhein-Ruhr DX Association (RRDXA). In 1969 I did my 1st multi-op contest with my friend John, ON4UN. With just 3 OPs we established a new Multi-Single World Record in the CQWW DX Phone Contest. For the following years I was the 20m Phone OP at the RRDXA DL0PG Multi-Multi station.

Also in 1969 I could afford a 2nd-hand Galay V Mk2 and added an MP-33 tri-bander at 35ft a year later. In 1971 a homebrew amp was added and I managed to get 5BDXCC #253 all on SSB in 1973.

At the end of my university time in 1974 with an MS in Electrical Engineering my friend Dieter, DL8OH and myself added up all our money and went to the States for almost two months, meeting many of the friends from DXing and Contesting all over the country. I will never forget this experience and the wonderful hospitality.

1975 was the transition from ham-radio life to job-life. I moved to Hamburg for my 1st real job and ham-radio had to take the back-seat for some years although I did run some Contests from the station of my friend DL3XO, even setting a new EU record in the 1976 WAE DX SSB Contest.

In 1980 (meanwhile married to my wife Sigrid) I had an attractive offer from my present employer as a program manager for international projects and we moved to South Germany with our two kids. Since then I have been spending more time in-the-air than on-the-air.

In 1983 I was finally in ham-radio again with a tower and yagi at our new house. Being located in a densely built-up area on the southern slope of a hill and being plagued by heavy local noise my QTH is not really for contesting, and to put a good signal into the pacific and the westcoast needs long-path openings.

Being too far away from my RRDXA friends, I changed camps when the BavarianContest Club (BCC) was founded in 1983.

Due to my poor contest location at the home QTH I have been taking part in Multi-Single and Multi-Multi efforts like C30AAN, LX7A, HB0CZS, OT3T, OT4T,DF3CB, DL0CS and DR1A or just handed out a few qsos from home as a little pistol.

In the mid-90s I had finally managed to get 5BWAZ confirmed with all 200 Zones in SSB (just with my 80/40 Inv Vee). So chasing DX since then is focused on RTTY, IOTA, the WARC bands and recently on un-dusting my old CW skills.

I retired in June 2009, so there is now sufficient time for my wife, our 3 grand-children, leisure-traveling and ham-radio.

My present station comprises an FT1000D driving a TenTec Titan and an FT2000 with an HL-1.5. For antennas I am using a 3el SteppIR at 60ft and staggered Inverted Vees at 55ft for 80m, 40m, and 30m (which can somehow also be matched for 160m).

I still need to work 10 countries for 160m DXCC. Definitely not an easy task without an antenna for that band. Since May 2009 I am also active on 6m and have worked over 50 countries on that band so far. So there is a good chance for completing DXCC on 10 bands before I go SK.