50 years qrv - 50 years in CW

active in amateur-radio since 1964 - licensed since 1967 - CW preferred on all bands from 160m to 23cm
Member of: HSC #680 - AGCW #74 - UCWC #1407 - TFC #79 - BTC #258 - SP-CW-C #62 - Marconista #548

Operator of DF0ASS (Albert-Schweitzer-Highschool, Schweinfurt) - Station closed in July 2014 after 20 years of operation.

Confirming all QSOs via bureau (DARC), contest qsos on demand. Also  using eQSL, LoTW and DCL.

Actual equipment (updated July 2016):

Kenwood TS-990S - TS-590S - TS-950SDX - AL80BXCE - Yaesu FT-736R (6m/2m/70cm/23cm) +
homebrew PA's for 2m/70cm/23cm - 4m/5 W with homebrew transverter - Drake MN2000 - Dentron Super Tuner Plus

Ants (updated May 2014):

MA5B (20 -10m) - W3DZZ (40+80m) - inverted V for 30m/60m - AV-620 vertical (backup for 20-10m) - 160m Vertical Tee (March 2017: actually broken by storm...)
4ele yagi for 6m - 4ele yagi for 4m - X-Yagis for 2m/70cm -Helicals for 23cm (20 over 20) - 5ele vertical yagi for 2m - Discone for receiving up to 2GHz

2011: My "First-Operator" Bubi ... the radio-tomcat with DX-ears - unfortunately it died in 2011
... now it's my job again to listen to weak signals from Pacific and elsewhere...

Living down there in the valley ... not the ideal radio-location ...
but still good for DX on most bands ... although it's often a hard job ...

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The shack after a complete renovation in March 2012

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2012: SM-230 - TS-950SDX - TS-590S - TS-480SAT - FT-736 - NRD 525 -IC R 7100 - MN2000 - Dentron Tuner

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2012: PAs for HF-2m-70cm-23cm - and Matchboxes for my DJ4VM-Quad

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2012: Equipment for repairs

May 2014: After removing the DJ4VM-Quad a MA5B Mini-Beam and on top a 4-element Yagi for 6m took place

May 2014: My "backup - GPA30"  changed into the AV-620 and a 4-element yagi for 4m got the place
of the old homebrew Cubical Quad for 6m. On the same mast: Above a Discone (up to 2GHz) and below
a 5-element yagi for 2m. Mast on the right side: Satellite Antennas for 2m-70cm-23cm and preamplifiers

long time before the swallows start their annual travel to Africa, they meet for a chat on my x-yagis
(my antennas until May 2014)

 

ham radio is a really animalic thing...

Animal Ham-Radio DK3AX at its beginning: Our cw-interested HAMster "Gucky" in 1975
(and the  Geloso G222TR- Star SR700E - homebrew electronic keyer)
 

1980: A nice and warm place for our siamese cat "Leo" on top ot the KW2000 she liked to sleep for hours ...

1989: Still a warm place for "Leo" now on top of the TS-830 but already with a digital (KAM) interface!
Leo was 17 years old when she died in 1994: It seems to me, high frequency promotes a long life!

The 2013-cat-operators still on cw: Anna (left) and son Eddy (right)

2015 new in the shack: "Poldi" - trying to help me repairing my TS-950SDX -
unfortunately she could not read the service-manual and had no idea about MOS-FETs ...

Our youngster "Kurtl" (born in June 2016) - yawning and bored of the bad dx conds in April 2017...

 

Stormy times in Germany in January 1989

left:

2-element Cubical Quad bent by heavy winds
right:

The day after:
a new mast was
set up and I was qrv again...

When I was working on top of the roof,
my xyl cried:
"be careful, don't fall
down because your
pension is
still very low..."

 

 

 

and so it all began:

After being a swl for 3 years
I got my license in 1967 and started with an all homebrew equipment:
my 1-V-2 Receiver (left) and the CO-PA TX (right)
with two fixed frequencies ( 3010/7020 kHz ), the 807 as PA ,
30 Watts input and 10m "long" wire as antenna
(of course: cw only ...)

QSL-Cards

            

Highlight at School (Albert-Schweitzer Highschool, Schweinfurt) in 1996:

Our 15-minutes contact to Thomas Reiter on board of  the russian space-station MIR