Hello everybody,

I am a radio amateur since 1980. My first callsign was DG4KAB, but only for about one year. Then I upgraded my license to the highest license class available in Germany and received the callsign DL2KBD.

I am married to my wife Gabriele since 1997 and in 2002 our son Oliver was born. We all live at the western border of Cologne in our own house.

Station equipment in 2013 is a K2 (primary for short wave CW), a FT-847 (for all band purposes), a TM-742 E (for 2/70/23cm FM) and a FT-817 ND (which I mainly use on vacancies when I like to qrp; due to its size in vacancies it is much better usable than a K2 and - it has VHF/UHF included). Antennas at home: 2 el yagi for 20/15/10, a FD4 mainly for 80/40/17/12 and a dipole for 30m. On VHF/UHF there are some middle size yagis sitting together with the 2 el short wave yagi on a Westtower Ultimast 10m above ground. Due to a school right next to our ground - and therefore a lot of very nervous parents concerned about lethal consequences caused by HF to their unlucky children - more/bigger antennas/masts or pas are not suitable. For normal qso it's sufficient, for breaking up dx pile up I must be lucky.

On short wave mainly I work in CW (HSC 1157), besides that in PSK31 and RTTY, nearly never in SSB (causes me headaches).

Cologne is a city in the western part of Germany with about 1 million inhabitants. The city is famous for it's cathedral in gothic style, the so called "4711 Eau de Cologne" and it's beer, the "Kölsch". Also many railway lines meet here which give you good direct connections to many German and European cities (Bruxelles/London, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich).

Hope to qso you soon!

vy73 de bernd dl2kbd

added by DK8NC