Born in March 1976, Col had an early interest in amateur radio through his father, GM1RIG. As the years passed, being a keen SWL, he obtained MM0NDX in December 2003.

Not one to chase DXCC awards or join the LoTW fraternity, Col is more interested in gathering DX news - as such started a small blog hamspirit.wordpress.com in April 2007. This was really his first experience in blogging DX snippets and it soon became a smash hit. In early 2009, dx-hamspirit.com was born. It went from strength to strength, often breaking DX news or providing exclusive videos/images of expeditions. In January 2010, DX World.net was created, and as owner/publisher, Col is very proud of this website and thanks its global readership for continued support.

A very keen IOTA chaser and activator, Col has visited and operated from the following islands:

EU-008 (Mull, Kerrera), EU-010 (Benbecula, Lewis, Harris, N.Uist, Berneray, S.Uist, Grimsay, Baleshare), EU-059 (St Kilda Archipelago), EU-111 (Monach Isles), EU-118 (Flannan Isles), EU-123 (Arran, Inchmickery), NA-094 (St Paul Island).

Previous DXpeditions include CY9M and MS0INT (2010 and 2011). Also operated as VE3/MM0NDX (Toronto) and F/MM0NDX (Central France).

As well as keeping DX World website updated daily, Col has been Pilot station for a few high profile DXpeditions & stations, namely: 3Y0E (Bouvet Isl), ZS8T, YI9PSE, 4W6A, JX5O, K4M (Midway Isl), XR0Y, ST0R, NH8S, HK0NA, ZL9HR, TX5K and K9W (Wake Isl). Also blogged for T2GM and HR-IOTA 2013.

On two separate occasions he has been an integral part of Dxpeditions awarded DXpedition of the Year (HK0NA, NH8S).

Col is a member of Northern California DX Foundation, INDEXA, Island Radio Expedition Foundation, GMDX Group, German DX Foundation, Radio Society of Great Britain and Chiltern DX Club.

He does not collect QSL cards.

In 2012, he received the GMDX Group DX Award of Excellence and was made Honorary Life Member of DXARC Club. In early January 2013, he was interviewed by KA3DRR RadioSport blog.

Col, MM0NDX is part of an international team going on DXpedition in September 2013 to XW Laos. Look for XW0DX.

[skype: col_mcgowan_mm0ndx]