About DL1HCM

In the late seventies I was trained in high speed CW during my military service time.
My trainers (I consumated 4 of them) had no relationship to amateur radio.
But in 1981 I had first contact to hams. Later I made my first CW QSOs during the nights
in the "under earth shack" of DK2SZ.

Since 1982 I am on the air with the call sign DL1HCM.

My grandmother made me a great present when I received my license:
the first rig which was a used Yaesu FT 101Z.
This was her congratulation to my new license. 
I was a student that time so I was very happy to be able to operate from home with my own radio.
In 1989 I upgraded this rig with the COUNTER 101. 

Operating
Until today I do not lost my love to CW. When I am on the bands I operate in CW
but also made some ten SSB QSOs during the last years.
My main activity is in the traditional bands 160m - 10m.
I do not operate above 10m.
My personal favorites are the fast bands 20m and 15m.

I do not collect awards. I just prefer operating.
My logbook software tell me that today I have worked 297 DXCC countries from home.
280 of these countries are confirmed. 
You will find some QSLs with QSO details here.
And until today I have worked 1852 US counties (that is what DX4WIN tells me).
I do not follow the US counties any longer. I intend do that when I am going to retire ...

But there are two exceptions:
In 2003 the BCC celebrated their 20th anniversary.
I have worked and received the WABCC award #92, the first award I have applied for. 




And there is another funny thing: the BLANC DXCC
The idea was born in 1988 or so during our LX activities with the BCC.
This is not a real existing award but another fun within Amateur Radio.
The BLANC DXCC covers the collection of blanc QSL cards.
Whenever I receive a new QSL card during eyeball QSOs I add it to the collection.
I have put some of them into the web sites here.

Another main interest around amateur radio is DXing and contesting throughout our globe. 
Today I look back to these activities abroad from all continents.
My station equipment for traveling is optimized for this interest.

The antenna on the left was my 80/160m antenna, which is broken during the storm in January 2005.

Now I use a SteppIR BigIR III.

I am a member of these clubs:

CU on the bands.

www.dl1hcm.de / 23.11.2008 / Contact