Amateur Radio

Radio amateurs send satellites into space
Radio amateurs rebuild the Internet
Radio amateurs are the ones with the big antennas

These are three very different facets (out of thousands of possibilities) of a world-spanning hobby which usually contributes more to international understanding than any politician and all peace initiatives together.

... is fascinating technology

• Emergency communication technologies
• Building portable communication equipment
• Building portable antennas
• Software-Defined Radio (SDR)

... is communication

• Portable operations on different places
• VHF/UHF-Contest with battery-powered device from different places
• Mobile operations on hf, vhf, uhf
• Short wave listening

... was a lot of equipment i used in the past

	Kenwood TR-2200 (aka 22-Oh-Oh) This was my very first own ham radio transciver: 1 Watts on 145 MHz, equipped with chrystal-driven channels. Of yourse this device was quite old in 1987, when i bought it. But it was cheap. Unfortunately it was not equipped with a 1750-Hz Tone call (to activate a reapeater). But no problem: Whistling with 1750 Hz was not an issue.
	Yaesu FT-209 R My very first handheld radio: 5 Watts on 144-146 Mhz. And the first self-modified device. Because by removing a soldering bridge it was able to operate up to 148 MHz (not allowed in Germany). By using the built-in-VOX and a handheld programmable mini-PC (Sharp PC-1260) i had my own call-sign-beacon. And - of course - it was soma advanced technology for me: Not only some single chrystal-channels anymore.
	Yaesu FT-73 My very first UHF-transceiver for 430 to 440 MHz: Tiny and small, so that i took it with me on all my ways in my pocket. We had quite a good UHF-repeater around, with less acitivity on it, so that 70cm became my favorite FM band.
	Yaesu FT-470 It came clear very soon that carrying always two handhelds with me was not so nice. So i bought my very first "dual-band-transceiver". Because i was strongly fan of YAESU devices it became the FT-470 as soon as my wallet carried enough money. I still use the rubber-antenna nowadays.
	Yaesu FT-5200 As soon as i stepped into the professional world of work i was quite often on the highway around the country. This was the reason to by a mobile dual-band-machine. The FT-5200 escorted me a lot of years on thousands of Kiloemeters. Because of the high power and the very good sensivity i spent hours on hours on VHF/UHF-repeaters in the southern part of Germany.
	Yaesu FT-101e Still another Yasesu-device - but for lower frequencies: This very stable and old-fashioned FT-101e became my first short-wave transceiver. It was a left-over from an old cb-operator and so it was equipped with the CB-radio band as well. The tubed-amplifier could give me 100 Watts also on 27 MHz. But i did'nt used it there. In those years the 10 Meter band was quite open and allowed me perfect contacts. Non need for pirate activities ;-)
	Yaesu FT-301 My next shortwave trabsceiver was still equipped with a tubed amplifier. But i had the chance to buy it as a complete line: Transceiver, manual tuner and powersupply in one design and nearly identical houses. Transmitting with a tuber-amplifier was not an issue to me. And the line looked beautiful on my home table.
	Yaesu FT-757 GXII My first shortwave transceiver with a discrete amplifier. So no tuning and matching anymore. The 757 GXII was so small and nice, that it travelled with my again through the countries.