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 contesting and DXing on HF with CW being my preferred mode. But I do SSB and some digital modes as well. I'm also an active member of the East Coast Contesters. Our contest call is ZM4T and the station is hosted at our place. I also hold the call ZL2IO which I use most of the time as we now live in what was the ZL2 area earlier.

We have a few more YL-operators in the family with my partner ZL2YL (DL7IQ) and our daughters ZL2GQ and ZL4YL. You will hear them occasionally with best chances during contests.

We live up in the Waimarama Heights about 320 m (1000 ft) asl with great views and sloping terrain to the main radio populations. and work on improving the contest station. Please check the Kiwi-DX-Lodge page for stations updates, contest results and more.

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

Sunset at the Waimarama Heights November 2015. from the top: 5L 15m, 4L 10m, 5L 6m

February 2017, 80m 4 square and tower with stack of 12 element 4 band yagis

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 two K3 transceivers with KPA500 amplifiers. The antenna layout changes constantly and usually we have multiple mono- & multiband antennas available.

cu on the bands

Holger