Hi,

I'm originally from Germany and was first licensed in 1982 as Y31IO. This changed later to Y58IO and finally DL7IO.

My main radio interests are DXing and contesting on HF with CW being my preferred mode. But I also do a lot of SSB and some digital modes.

We have a few more YL-operators in the family with my partner ZL2YL (ZL3IQ, DL7IQ) and our daughter ZL2GQ. You will hear them occasionally with best chances during contests.

Our family own contest call sign is ZM2Y.
We are working on the related contest site. It is located 20km South of our current QTH in the Waimarama Heights and about 320 m (1000 ft)asl with free views to the main radio populations. More news & results (!) soon, check www.kiwi-dx-lodge.com.

Sunrise at the Waimarama Heights during WPX 2013. Left: hexbeam (10-20m) @ 10m height, 6L for 10m facing USA & 40-15m hexbeam on 15m crank up tower.

I'm also an active member of the East Coast Contesters where we use ZM4T.

Another passion I share with my family is travelling and we often combine that with a bit of radioing. So whenever you hear an exotic IO-suffix there is a good chance it is me. If that is a Pacific country it is even more likely as this is obviously on our door steps. I was active here multiple times as 3D2IO, 3D2IO/R, A31IO, H44IO, T28IO, YJ0AIO or FW/.

The station consist of a K3 transceiver and a KPA500 amplifier. The antenna layout changes constantly and usually I have multiple mono- & multiband antennas available. Our home QTH in Haumoana is also elevated and on top of a small hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean towards North America / EU LP and the Hawke's Bay towards EU short path.

If you want to work me please use your full call sign. I don't reply to callers sending only partial calls no matter how strong your signal is!

QSLing:
We answer all QSL's preferrable via the bureau! We are happy to QSL direct if this is your chosen option. IRC's are accepted in New Zealand. But we live rural and our local dairy store also does our postal services. But the dairy store does not accept IRC's. Therefore we prefer 2 green stamps. Postage rates in NZ are based on envelope sizes (1st priority) and weight (2nd prioirity). So please use small return envelopes. Our cards are (9 x 14) cm sized. International postage rate for the smallest letter size is 2.40 NZ$ (1 NZ$ ~ 0.8 US$ or 0.6 EUR). Without sufficient return postage the QSL comes via the bureau.

Cu on the bands

Holger