Biography

Licensed in 1978 as a teen I was not active since the start of my medical studies. Now, near my 60th birthday, I started with WSPR very excited to see, how far you can get with 10 mW - I use an ESP-Board or an Arduino with a Si5351 - and a homemade lowpass filter with makeshift antennas on my small balconies.

I used a Drake R4c/T4Xc when I was young - but I gave them away. I am trying to learn, what happend to amateur radio in the last 30-40 years and slowly immersing into this hobby of my teen-age during the last years of my professional activity.

I am a medical doctor specialized in pulmology, working in a local clinic. I am living in Dresden/Germany - 200 km south of Berlin since 2008, spent 10 years working near Weimar, lived near Karlsruhe and in Erlangen during my study and was born in the north of Bavaria, where I grew up.

Update June 2020: Bought an old TS-570D on ebay. Disappointed to hear the huge electronic noise in the house where I live - level is S9 plus on every band - no chance to receive anything with the exception of some commercial shortwave broadcasters. How can I manage this? I have no clue yet. I tried day and night - the noise does not dissappear.

Tried a new antenna on my balcony for WSPR transmissions, a V-folded halfe-wavelength dipole - was received in Spain, 1100 km distance with my SI5351. My impressive record with this tiny devices: EA8BFK on Fuerteventura Island on 20 m Band - thats geographical africa. 3300 km distance! Thanks Peter!

Update July 2020: Tried WSPR on 10 m for the first time - so far only two spots in Scotland and in Sweden although I tried for days. This is the only band where I can put up a full half-wave dipole on my balcony - had expected more. Wanted to expand my transmissions to the 6 m band - but could not adjust my arduino software to this frequency. Too bad, I am not able to better understand the C++ program I am using for adjusting the SI5351. I am looking for a sketch to use my arduino with gps synchronization - at the moment I synchronize via WLAN which is weak on my second balcony. Any suggestions? Write to me via QRZQ.COM.

Update End of July 2020: installed WSPR Software on my PC and connected it to my TS-570D. So disappointing - with the exception of my own transmissions I could only spot a single transmission on 20 m from Ukraine - the noise floor is dramatic, where I live. Later I changed the antennas position a little bit - and could magically receive some WSPRers. They are few, but this shows, my equipment is working.

Update August 2020: new antenna on my balcony - halfe wavelength for 10 m now with symmetrical feed into my shack, to a balun. TS-570 ant tuner is able to adjust this on 10, 12, 15 and 20 m! Noise bit better: spotted a lot from all over Europe on 30 m even with this antenna. End of August: two new magnetic loop antennas for 20 m and 40 m make receiving lot easier! Noise is suppressed - could hear even USA.

Equipment

TS-570D
Transmitting with homemade Arduino/SI5351 or AD9850 - no Amplifier yet, all in a breadbord, homemade low pass, makeshift antennas (on balcony).