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Fascinating shortwave bands
Listening to the radio in the early seventies was as fascinating to me
as it is today! While Klaus (DJ6RX), Gun (DL6EN) and the others from the
Bad Kreuznach DX-Gang had their daily DX-contacts around the globe, I
was eager to get my own transmitting permission.
To young to be a radio amateur?
During the early
seventies it was still required by law to be at least 18 years old to be
accepted for an amateur radio examination. Too bad for me as I was only
16 years but ready to start!
Than, with the great support of Harry (DK4PR), Günter (DJ8CY) and the
DARC I was accepted for the examination even though I was only 16! This
was an unusual exception at this time! On December 3rd
1973 I finally got my license with the call DK7PE. I was one of the
youngest radio amateurs in Germany.
DXpeditions
Working DX -
which means having radio contact with other amateur radio stations more
than 3000 km away - was one thing. But after I had worked 265 DXCC
countries, I was eager to visit some of this exotic spots myself.
Egypt was the
first rare DX-country. With the
invitation of Paul, VO1LX/SU, I was allowed to operate out of the UN-Camp in Ismailia
on the Suez Canal. This was in 1978.
In 37 years of Amateur Radio I have visited 150 and operated out of 121
different DXCC-countries (see page Call Signs). I was told that a total
of 121 activated countries would be a world record under the living radio amateurs. Somewhere
I found a note that the Colvins activated out of 127 DXCC Countries - who knows better?
However, getting a license in some of these countries wasn't always
easy, so to mention Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola,
Burkina Faso and Bangladesh.
During all my DXpeditions I focused on countries most wanted in CW (Morse code) and especially on the
low bands i.e. 40, 80 and 160m. For this purpose I designed several
antenna systems that fit into my suitcase and worked extremely well on
the HF-bands.
On my page Photo Gallery you may find some pictures I took during some
recent DXpeditions. The last one
was Rwanda 9X0CW in in February 2010, after a very successfull operation
out of the United Arab Emirates in November 2009.
CU on 160!
Rudi - DK7PE
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