I was born in Leeds U.K. on May 25th 1932. Moved to Belgium in 1961. I have a daughter born in in 1963 living/working in EA7 in holiday rentals (see www.casaskaren.com), & a son born in 1965. I retired in 1992 but stayed in Belgium. Whilst my studies and QRL had nothing to do with radio/electronics, I had an interest in radio from my childhood, building Crystal sets, "Wireless" sets, listening to Short-Wave etc. I got into Ham Radio via my son's playing with CB. I was first licensed in 1988, with full call in 1989 of G0MEU with Belgian Reciprocal call ON9CGB. I have also operated as G7BZO,ON9BBZ,OO9CGB, OS9CGB,OT9CGB,4X/G0MEU,4X/ON9CGB,4X50JQ/SilentKey in memory of 4X6JQ, EA7/G0MEU, EA7/ON9CGB,W#/G0MEU,JY5EC/ON9CGB,VK3TFB,and mobile and portable from many CEPT countries. I have also operated from the Belgian Contest Station at Lier. Whilst I do very occasionally use CW and have used RTTY,Amtor, Pactor etc. my real pleasure is in telephony, mostly rag-chewing, but also DX. I took part in the 1997 IOTA DXpedition to the Minkies Reef EU-099 with calls GB0ON & GJ0MEU. Also the 1998 activity by the same UBA Minkieboys team to Guernsey Island EU-114 as GB0ON and GU0MEU, & in 1999 to Ouessant EU-065 as TM5K & TM5ON. I was also part of the team F/G0MEU/p, F/ON4ON/p & F/ON7PQ/p on IOTA EU-068 Sein Island off Brittany in July 2000. I operated with the Minkieboys again at the end of July 2001 on the same Island of Sein IOTA EU-068 operating as F/G0MEU/p & TM1ON, I was part of the Minkieboys team who activated the island Sein EU-068 at the end of July 2002, and of the team that went back to Sein EU-068 in July 2003 where we used the callsign TM3ON. I have enjoyed mobile HF operation but have stopped this as I do so little driving now and realise that a driver should concentrate 100% on driving. I sometimes use Echolink, and I do use Skype.

My current HF station (some people say "working conditions") is a Kenwood TS-590S, with a MC60 desk mic. and a Heil Proset with HC5 insert, which I usually used in VOX mode. There is an Ameritron AL811XCE, rarely using more than 300 watts on voice peaks. I have a backup rig = Kenwood TS-50 which has been used /M, /P in many European countires, also 4X & W. I also still have a Kenwood TS-130S which feels like a real radio and is a pleaure to use.The antennas are a Mosley PRO67C at almost 20 meters up and a G5RV inverted "vee" fed at about 14 meters up. Other hobbies and interests include drawing and painting, photography, listening to classical music & attending live concerts, swimming, cycling, & travel.

I NO LONGER QSL SO PLEASE DONOT SEND OR EXPECT ONE, unless we specifically agree to do so.

One of my annoyances on the air:

Apart from ON4WW Mark's excellent article on Operating Practices, I have another point - When an operator leaves a frequency, even if they have not had a response to their CQ, it would be good practice to announce that they are either QRT or QSY. Then anyone listening will know that they have gone. It is most annoying to listen to a caller who then dissapears without saying that they are leaving the frequency.

This is a fairly recent pohoto of me: