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I was always surprised and filled with wonder by the speed at which I could reach stations located over 10,000 km away. In a few minutes and with a little luck and the help of a good propagation, I could hear or work amateurs from Africa, Brazil, Australia and Asia ! Facing these performances, as a teenager I considered radio waves as the ideal medium to be instantaneously in contact with people that I could never see de visu. I liked to travel in far countries and this activity offered me, DXing through the air, such an opportunity.
Some years later, at 18, I remember how excited I was when I received my SWL callsign ONL5183 from UBA, the belgian IARU society; in my mind that meant that I was officially recognized as being member of the huge community of hams, at least as a listener. Then thanks to the Brussels-East Radio Club that I warmly thanks for his help, I prepared my radio examinations, the theory of radioelectricity and exercising my speed in code to reach 12 wpm. Some years later I passed successfully my amateur radio examination. Immediately I decided to buy a second-hand HF transceiver that I rapidely switched on to discover the exciting world of hams. I tight on the roof a simple longwire antenna 20m long. I remember well that I woke up very soon on mornings, sometimes before going to school, to listen to north and south american stations, those of Australia and New Zealand, the shack being flooded with a red light. Probably that some of you received my small card as I sent about 10,000 QSLs worldwide. Meanwhile I received back hundreds of QSLs from all over the world but some of them have never been returned for some obscure reason. Now, after more than 25 years of hamradio experience I own two callsigns, ON4SKY that I use with my base station in Belgium, and LX4SKY that I use from Luxembourg to have the pleasure to work DX stations on behalve of LUXORION group station. Of course the "SKY" custom suffix refers to my interest for astronomy. Since my first hamradio readings and my first visit to an amateur radio shack in 1979, the one of Jean-Marie Polard, aka "John", ON4EU, I quickly had the feeling that ham radio should be my first hobby. With ups and down like in any life this is what indeed it became. By chance I was the witness of a humanitarian action, when French hams helped a person in distress in sending her medications. At other occasions I followed a survival adventure at sea as well as an exploration mission in Arctic conducted by a Belgian team. Today I continue working Antarctic stations, hunting mainly DX stations and from time to time castles, IOTA, maritime mobile, and other shore stations, not to mention DX-peditions and special events. As most amateurs, over all these years I got several tens of awards and thousands of QSLs for all over the world as you will discover in dedicated pages of this site. Since my beginnings, the ham communtity became twice more numerous with over 3 millions licensed in 2004.
Parallel to this activity I am very involved in several others hobbies like astronomy and photography as you may see browsing the French pages of this relatively extensive website or the bilingual images gallery published in the Art section. Recently some of my images were even used by NASA and my articles published in QST for my greatest satisfaction. Several astronomical subjects for which I have a passion for are also linked to ham radio activities : aurora, the sun activity, meteor scatter and other satellite activities. So, practicing one activity I also improve my knowledges in the other fields. At last, a website like this one, devoted to astronomy and amateur radio should not be complete if I didn't inserted some pages dealing with... radioastronomy and "hams in the sky". A perfect union for a perfect transition, HI ! Even with more than 25 years of practice in my back, and in spite of the fact that I am always happy when I work on the air, remembering of my SWL days, and probably like many licensed as well, sometimes I take pleasure to simply listen to QSOs without taking the mic. But at some occasions, listen to a rare prefix, I cannot resist answering to this station, and often just someone calling CQ gets me going ! But of course to work on shortwaves, on HF, as introduced earlier, you need to succeed some examinations and invest in equipment and an antenna. Before discussing amateur radio activities, developing their history, propagation, special modes, DXing, QSLing, equipment reviews, and awards, I would like to explain to novices what conditions are required to access to this activity and become a full privileged amateur radio. In addition, you will find all information on Internet, in specialized magazines like the famous and very appreciated QST published by ARRL or CQ as well as in your national publication, often relayed on Internet as well. To read: How to become an amateur radio ?
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