Born in 1968, I got licenced in 1986 as DB9RT. In 1987 I upgraded to class 1 and got my present call DJ5RE.
After a short time of testing the new possibilities, I found out that I'm not happy with just be "on the air". I always had fun in searching for improvements by homebrewed equipment. As I'm a building engineer, I am not too familiar with electronics, but I found a nice mixture between mechanic and electric by making my own linear amplifiers or antenna constructions. Up to now I made a good dozen of tube-amplifiers, from small 4CX250 linears for 2m, up to 2x GS35b for HF.

A compact GS35 amp I run at home:

The homemade amps soon resulted in EME, and I managed to work my 2m WAC using only 2x12 El Yagis (2,8WL) and CW mode (no digital. I run my QSO's myself, and my ears get angry when they are no more a part of the game, hi). As the use of CW is no more the rule on EME and MS, I lost the interest in VHF and found a new playground on the lower HF bands. Further I have always been interested in improving our clubstation DL0AO/DR5Z, where I am the responsible person. We are QRV from 160m up to 2m. Pictures about DL0AO, amps-building and other crazy hobbies can be found on my homepage.

My homepage: www.hoeppe.name

I built up a small system for HF at home. I use a 2 El. SteppIr from 14-50 MHz. For the lower bands I use dipoles in summer, and a 20m fibreglass-pole in winter.

I like to work 160m from my home QTH during winter. I am mainly QRV in the morning hours (there are no TVI troubles on sunrise). I hope to get Idaho one day to complete my 160m WAS.

160m GPL inverted-L with 20m fiberglass-pole (VDL Germany)

Works on 7 MHz with parallel circuit as 1 lamda ant and during 160m RX (detuning! Very important! See RX-loop only 7m away!)

My small 160m RX-loop, DL9KR design (85cm square, 5 turns). Works fine since I detune my TX-ant during RX

Futher, I like more and more QRP. During summer holidays 2011 I made more then 900 QSO's from my backpack station from various OEFF territories, using 5W out. I also like SOTA in a relaxed style together with DC6RN.

QRP is a very nice playground of Amateur Radio, very relaxing with a lot of heart in every QSO you make. I would not have believed it before, but I tried it out - and got infected! I still seek for DX. But getting it with 5W out or less is making me very happy each time I have the luck! QRPers fight for every QSO by being ready to detect the weakest sigs. This is why I also like CW-EME or 160m DX. So QRP fits perfect to my favourite way to run QSOs! Since I built myself a small mW-Meter, expect very weak signals from me, hi. Are you ready for the ultimative ear-challenge?

I still like paper QSLs, and write out a card for every station I work for the 1st time. The picture on my QSL shows me with one of my homemade traditional bows. Sometimes I get wood-fever and have to make some knives or bows. Nothing to worry about!

73s and also 72s de Tom, DJ5RE