Late in the60ties I usually spent time in the summer house of my grandparents in Polomoshnoe village, Altai.One day my friend's fatherput up in the air a huge kite (looks like a 10m qaud!)after thatmy friend and I started to dream to control its flight by radio. The hamradio seeds were planted into my brain. In 1970 I built my first TX (only one transistor!) for the MW band, which was heard up to 300m distance away!! My dear school-mates Alexey Zagulyaev and Yuri Goncharov also had a great fun having built this simplest TX themselves and the soldering iron became part of my life forever. My father had some experiece in auto electric staff and he helped me to take the first step: I built the 10m 7-tubes RX at home myself!

Imade my first QSO on the 23rd ofMay, 1972, àt the club station UK9YAM in Barnaul, South-Western Siberia. I`m very grateful to my first HAMRADIO teacher Nikolaj Pin`kin, thehead of the club station, for hisdeep interest in helping me to get on the air CW. For hundreds young boys and girls in Barnaul Nikolajis the man who stired up theirinterest in the great world of the amateur radio. At theage of18 I built my first transceiver by theUW3DI design. Alexander Demin, a very skilled radioexpert, helped me very much to build this radio, he shared with me very many mechanical and electrical parts for the radio, and his deep knowledge of the radio design became myreal standard for many years. In 1975, I got licensed as UA9YCN and I won the 3rd place in the world /14Mhz in CQ-M Contest. Icaught the contesting virus 1978, the first 3/4/5 el QUAD on 20/15/10m appeared on the roof. In 1984 I built the 3el phased-in-line antenna for 80/40m and changed the callsign to RA9YD. 1985, the 8 el circle array for 10m-20m was built due toUA1DZ support. 1986, 5BDXCC plaque, first in Siberia, arrived in my shack. In 1989 and 1990 I was invited by the USA hams (NN7D, W7YS, NN7A, N4CC, K9FD) and had very exciting journeysthrough 14 states together with my dear friend Yuri Retin, UA9YE. That was a great time in-deed! Early in 1990 I started to operate thenew mode - PACKET. The old PK-232 is still alive and works (though lightning strike almost completely destroyed it , I managed to repair this one). Because of moving with my family to Moscow I gotthecallsign RA3AJ in 1997. R5AJ callsign was issuedto me in July 2010.

The following are my achivements in DXing and Contesting:

5BDXCC (RA9YD)

5BWAZ (200,RA9YD)

5BWAS (RA3AJ)

5BWAZ (200, RA3AJ)

IOTA EXCELLENCE (750,RA3AJ)

CHALLENGE (2500, RA3AJ)

HONOR ROLL CW (RA3AJ)

HONOR ROLL PHONE (RA3AJ)

9 Band DXCC (10m-160m, RA3AJ)

Russian DX Contest 1st place EU/RUS Single op all bands SSB 2003 (RA3AJ)

Russian DX Contest 1st place EU/RUS Single op all bands SSB 2005 (RA3AJ)

ARRL International CW Contest 1st place EU/RUS SOAB - 1800 QSOs, 2002 (RA3AJ)

ARRL International Phone Contest 1st place SOAB, EU/RUS - 2565 QSOs, 2002 (RA3AJ) This contest is being the most remarkable for me - I had never dreamed for 30 years of contesting I would ever do the score of 1,631,340 points in this contest!

WAE DX Phone Contest 1st place EU/RUS SOAB 1999,2001 (RA3AJ)

Some of my all time records in big contests are still unbroken as yet:

CQ World Wide CW Contest Eu/RUS 10m SOSB(2000)

Russian DX Contest Eu/RUS 10m SOSB (2001)

10m and 80/160m dxing, contesting and antenna designing are preferable activities for me nowadays. I am happy to have the friends, who share with me this great hobby: Dima, UA3AGW,hasbeen a devoted hamfor many years; Serge, RJ3AR, ex UA6JR, a digital modes GURU and my dear neighbor (SK)  ; Vladimir, RW2A, ex UA3BS, has both huge scientific knowledge and very high achievements in the amateur radio field, a very kind man indeed; Vladimir, RZ3AM, is 24 hours a day on the air, nobody of DX has any chance to escape from him:); Victor, a R6AF, ex UA6AF,great operator, real BIG GUN!; Valery, R2DA,ex RZ6AU, UA0KK isstrong as steel and abardic poetry lover, antenna GURU; Oleg, RA1AR, isalways ready to help, a very good mate; Serge, RU4W, ex RU4WA, combines the white water rivers rafting experience and the amateur radio skills , has beenmy friend for many years; Gene, RZ3CC, the keeper of the true hamradio spirit and akeen radioengineer, who broadenedmy horizon in theamateur radio hobby in theearly 70ties; Igor, RD3BW, the leader of RM5A contest team, and many many other hams! Thanks to ALL of you for sharing the hobby and ham spirit outside hamradio!

73! Valery, R5AJ

DXCC Card Checker

RM5A contest team