VE3OE 1961 ZL2AL 2006 ZL9CI 1999 Flying 2004 Up The Pole at 71 ZL2AL Station January 2009

I live in Napier in Hawkes Bay on the East coast of the North Island. Napier has around 55,000 population and is by the sea on the Pacific Ocean. The area is one of the best fruit and wine growing regionsin the world and the climate is temperate with no snow, ever! Mild winters are over in a few months with temperatures rarely freezing. You can see where I live at http://www.hawkesbaynz.com/ I am 75 years old and retired.

The equipment at ZL2AL currently consists of aYaesu FT1000MP MK5, 2 - IC756Pro3s, Yaesu VL-1000 Quadra, THP 1.2FX and Kenwood TL-922 amplifiers. Antennas include a5 Band HexBeam for HF and Slopers, Verticals and Dipoles for LF. DXCC Honor Roll Mixed(342), DXCC CW (321), DXCC Phone (332),DXCC Challenge, 5BDXCC, 5BWAZ, 5BWAS,WAE-TOP, IOTA, WAVE, WAA, WAJA, DUF-4, FOC and A-1 Op certificates hang on the wall. I work both SSB and CW (CW about 80%)

I have been a ham since 1953 and was the leader of DXpeditions to ZL7AA - ZM7A, 1993, 1997 and ZL7T in 2009, a team member of ZL8RI DXpedition in May 1996 and co-leader of the ZL9CI Campbell Island DXpedition in January 1999. I enjoy being the VK/ZL Pilot for DXpeditions such as ZL7C, BQ9P, TO4E, 5V7C, YV0D, 3Y0X and CU6X.

Being the local NZART Amateur Radio Licence Examiner , ARRL DXCC Card Checker and the team leader for the East Coast Contesters ZM4T - http://www.zm4t.com I am kept quite busy.

I am happy to sked any time, any band, any mode and I do QSL 100% either Direct or via the Buro. 44,000 QSOs have been uploaded to LoTW and Clublog from 1974 until present day and you can always check my online log at http://dx.qsl.net/logs/

My website is at http://www.zl2al.com/ Ham radio has to be the best hobby in the world!

73, Lee ZL2AL

                       "The worst day of Dxing is infinitely better than the best day working!"