DOK R04

Hello,

I've been a Ham since 1978. I'm active on the HF bands only, from 160m up to 10m.

 

Other callsigns activated:

LX/DL1EAL 19-May until 21-May 1989 144 MHz DXpedition to Luxemburg
W9/DL1EAL 06-Jun-1989 until 30-Mar-1990, Burns Harbor, IN, USA
F/DL1EAL 11-Jul-1993, 144 MHz DXpedition to Grand Ballon Mountain, Loc. JN37NW, 1360 m asl (nr. Mulhouse, France)
CT/DL1EAL 29-May until 05-Jun-2005 Tavira, Portugal
PA/DL1EAL, Texel Island (EU-038), The Netherlands:
28-May until 06-Jun-2007, 13-Apr until 22-Apr-2008, 12-Sep until 23-Sep-2010, 24-Sep until 29-Sep-2011, 04-May until 16-May-2013

Photo: Sunset behind the Windmill near the village Oost at the east coast of Texel

 

Another PA/DL1EAL DXpedition to Texel Island (IOTA EU-038) is planned for springtime 2018. More details soon.

 

QSL Policy for PA/DL1EAL:
QSLs go via my home call, either via bureau (which may last a year or two until you receive mine) or direct to my home address as stored here in QRZ.com. Return QSLs (photo cards as displayed above) will be sent direct, if you provide a SAE (self-addressed envelope) and one IRC or sufficient funds to finance postage. For Europe and DX that is 1 US-Dollar or 1 Euro. If insufficient postage or no SAE is provided, the return card goes via bureau.

You may also simply request a QSL card, you don't need to send me yours (I'm not collecting cards for PA/DL1EAL). Just drop me an email with the QSO data, and I'll send a card for you via bureau.

There are also accounts for PA/DL1EAL set up on eQSL.cc and on the LoTW, so if you want to confirm electronically, feel free to do so.

 

Current home station equipment:

TRX 1: ICOM IC-7300 / 100 W
TRX 2: Apache Labs ANAN-100B 100 W SDR transceiver
TRX 3: Elecraft KX3 QRP transceiver
Ant: End fed Random Wire 18 meters with MFJ-993BRT remote controlled ATU at the feed point outdoor

Preferred modes of operation: CW and all digital modes (PSK, RTTY, JT65 etc.), and occasionally SSB and SSTV.

Special interest: Working on the DXCC Challenge and 5 Band-WAZ. Current standing of confirmed active DXCC entities (mixed mode), as of 07-May-2017:

Band	Points		Band	Points
160m	52		80m	109
40m	215		30m	211
20m	232		17m	138
15m	229		12m	110
10m	165		OSCAR	24

DXCC mixed modes total: 293 points (still far away from the Honor Roll).
DXCC CW mode total: 289 points / Phone: 189 / Digital: 168

Latest new DXCC point #293 is VP6EU (Pitcairn Island), activated by four gentlemen from Germany and The Netherlands Feb. 16 until March 05, 2017. With a lot of luck I made it into their log on 30m CW on a Tuesday morning around 08:00 UTC. The signals from VP6EU were relatively strong (S5 .. S7) that time. Operating split, I set set my transmit frequency just a bit above the pile-up, and got my 599 report after the fifth attempt. A few hours later I checked into Club Log and I could verify the presence of my callsign in the VP6EU logbook. Hooray! I had never thought I could be heard with my 100 Watts and my humble antenna at a place as remote as Pitcairn Island, especially during the current low phase of the sunspot cycle.

Nowadays, working a DXpedition has become a lot more difficult. It feels like you are in combat with thousands of big guns who are trying to work the DX on every mode and band, just to be on top of the Club Log leaderboards and / or collect points for the DXCC Challenge. Pile-ups sometimes are 20 kHz wide in CW or 50 kHz in SSB, hundreds of stations calling at the same time, and chances to be heard by the DXpedition are lower than winning the lottery jackpot.

OK, I shall think positive and remember successes in the past:

As of August 23, 2011, I am a proud owner of 5-Band-DXCC certificate #7080! Took me more than 30 years of more or less active radio operations to achieve this award, and I emphasize, I never used more than 100 Watts output power! Look at it:

This certificate was a really expensive piece of paper. Not only a good 250 dollars in return postage for direct QSLs, but also the 120 dollars in fees which the ARRL charged for certificate print, application processing, LoTW credits and shipping. Well, who cares? You do this only once in your lifetime, and after all, it's a nice-to-have for hanging on the wall of the radio shack!

The 80m band turned out to be a real challenge for me, due to the limited antenna. Real DX QSOs seem to be possible only if the DX station has an exceptionally good antenna for 80m. I even do not have confirmation for all European countries on 80m. Out of Europe, I still need the following:
JX (Jan Mayen), Z6 (Kosova), and of course SV/A (Mount Athos)

A word about the QRZ.com Logbook: as I have active accounts at eQSL and Logbook of the World, which I update regularly, I find this is sufficient in terms of electronic QSO recording. Therefore I will not make use of the QRZ.com Logbook. That means, I will not check nor will I confirm any records placed into the logbook. So save your time...

Other hobbies: Digital photography, computer hardware and software, and walking, or better: running the dog. On my QSL card, that's our boy Jack Russell Terrier "Hennes", passed away 15-May-2009. May he keep on digging in dogs' heaven! He will live on in my memory forever.

 

Visitors since Dec. 12, 2009:

 

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