My first steps into the hobby.
My journey into radio began when I was about 12 years old. My father often talked about DXing on the 11-meter band (CB). Naturally, my first experiences were as a “pirate.” At 13 I bought my very first transceiver: a President Washington.
After graduating from bakery school, I joined the Belgian Army and served as a soldier. At 19 I moved away from my childhood home in De Panne and settled in Peer, close to the military base.
In 2004 two important things happened in my life: the birth of my wonderful daughter Annaïs, and my first real steps into amateur radio. I met a licensed operator who introduced me to his local club — and that’s where it all started.
The club had just begun a new course, so I signed up. After several months of study, I passed the exams for the foundation licence. At that time we were only allowed to operate on the 2 m and 70 cm bands with 50 watts. My first call sign was ON2MV.
Not long after, the club offered classes for the highest licence in Belgium, the Harec licence.
The lessons were given by ON6TM. After a year of hard work I passed the exams. Meanwhile, my father also earned his foundation licence with the call ON2OPA — sadly, he is now a silent key. My mother, who had been active years earlier on 11 m, also passed her foundation licence and, after much study, even the Harec exams. Her call sign is ON8TC.
In 2017 I met my wife, who has a wonderful son named Aydin. Early in our relationship I told her: “I have a strange hobby and I spend quite a lot of time on it.” To my surprise she replied: “How can I get my licence too?” After some study she passed her exams as well, with the call sign ON3MA. She isn’t as active as I am, but she understands what I do and fully supports me — and that means a lot.
After moving around Belgium for years, I finally bought my own house in Vladslo in 2017.
As you can see from this small biography, I have no technical background and I’m not an expert in any specific field. When I started in the hobby everything was very modest: old and often broken equipment. At that time there wasn’t much money, but looking back, it was a great way to learn and be creative with limited resources. Today the situation is different — I have more means at my disposal — yet I still love building things from scratch.
Thank you for reading.
73 from Mike (ON7MV)
88 from Mieke (ON3MA)
My email is my call (at) telenet.be
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