
I got involved in an affair with the sister of PA0INA. That affair is still going one. His sister became my XYL Annie We are married now for more than 45 years. We got 2 kids, a girl born in 1967, and a son, born in 1969. We lost our daughter, very suddenly, in 1994. A big photo of her is hanging in my shack. She was more like me, while our son is more like his mother. Annie's full christian names are: (ABM) Anna-Barbara-Maria. So now you know why I am signing PA0ABM.
Our son got married in may 1996, they have 3 kids, a boy and two girls. To be closer to our family we changed provinces, and moved to Huijbergen, after living for almost 40 years in the province of Zeeland.
Besides HAM-radio, I love the beauty of this world, from the top of the highest mountain, to the deep of the ocean, including the deserts.. I love science fiction, and I am crazy about the Mid West of the USA. I was lucky to visit most of the W7 states, back in 1982. In august 1998 my brother Martin and I did visit the western states of the USA again. Our 1998-Adventure did take 25 days.
I am also hiking on a regular base, mostly in the area where we live. Most hike are day-hikes, I love to hike alone, together with my thoughts. During this hikes, I have allways my photo-gear with me. I do make a lot of pictures, some of them you can find on my home page.
I got my licence back in 1964. I started with a mixture of CW and SSB QSOs. As I got more experienced in CW, the SSB part became smaller and smaller. Nowaday, you can find me very seldom on SSB. I am now devoted to CW. Until 2004, I never used more than 100 Watts. You can call me "a little pistol" on radio. Lately I am using a very smal ampilifier, 400 watts, which helps me in pile ups.
Because my property was too small, I was not DX-ing on the lower HF bands 80 and 160 m. This changed after our move to the province of Noord Brabant, end 2004. With 400 watts and a 3-band sloper, I was working for the 9 bands DXCC only CW award. I 'finished' that job in 2009.
What do I do for living? Well, I was working as system engeneer on a chemical plant,
located on the shoreline of the river Scheldt. I started the job back in 1967, controlling the electronic security-equipment of the chemical plant. I did develop all kinds of security equipment. Later, the job changed to computer-control, and I did build all kind of computer-programms. End 2002 then company i worked for was reoorganising, and it happened that they did not need me anymore. I got fired, and was without employment until the moment i got retired. And that happened in 2009 when I reached the age of 5 years.
On this moment I am teaching (voluntarely) computer-use to retired people in the area. It gives a lot of satisfaction. And to keep busy, I am still developing all kinds of computer programms.
Zone ITU=27, Zone CQ=14, Province = Noord Brabant (NB), Locator =
JO21ek
Member of FOC (1415), DIG (752), HSC (987)
eMail = my email-address