Biography

I was born in 1954 in Palermo, Sicily, and because of my father's work, my family moved several times to various parts of Italy. In the early 1970s, when I lived in Ragusa (Sicily), my family became interested in radio communications. It was the time of the Citizen Band pioneers in Italy.

Thanks to our friend Giovanni IT9OSF, my whole family's interest soon turned to amateur radio. So my father and I obtained in 1972 our amateur radio operator's licences, followed in the next years by my mother and my sister. My father received the full radio station installation and operation licence with call sign IT9MPS. I used his station as a second operator.

As I was enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Pisa, in 1975 my family moved to Lucca (Tuscany), where in 1976 I received my first amateur radio station installation and operation licence with the callsign I5DJN. The station was therefore unique with three call signs, I5MPS, I5ATU and I5DJN.

In 1978, family reasons forced my family to move back to Ragusa (Sicily), and although I continued studying in Pisa, my call sign changed to IT9DJN for reasons of residency. My father and mother took over their respective call signs IT9MPS and IT9ATU. In 1982 I graduated in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Pisa and I worked for five years as a freelancer in the nuclear industry.

In 1987, after getting married with Filomena, and after the referendum that led Italy to abandon nuclear energy, I settled in Pisa (the city of the Leaning Tower), Tuscany, and I was assigned a new callsign, which is also the current one: IK5JCF.

From 1987 I worked as a teacher of Electrotechnics in technical high schools. Unfortunately, living on the second floor of an apartment building, I was unable to install a suitable antenna and during these years I had little opportunity to operate my radio station, except for a few sporadic QSOs on VHF and UHF. My parents in Ragusa continued to work as radio amateurs by actively participating in the activities of the local ARI section (see photos below).

My father IT9MPS died on march 3rd, 1997, and my mother IT9ATU, who had stopped working as a radio amateur after my father's death, died on april 12th, 2022. In 2008 I obtained my Ph.D. in Nuclear and Industrial Safety. I retired in 2022.

In April 2024 I applied for membership of ARI (Italian Amateur Radio Association) at the Pisa section.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Rig: Icom IC-736
Icom IC-7300
FDK MULTI 2000
INTEK KP-980 HP
Antenna: Modified HF-P1 (on balcony)