Biography

I was born in 1964. In our family, I was the only one with an interest for radio technology, one of the hobbies I was inspired to by an uncle (my father's youngest brother).

My parents were a bit suspicious about this hobby. They only remembered too well that, aged 12, I had blown a fuse in our house. And while my bedroom was still full of smoke, I persisted in assuring them that I knew nothing about it, obviously.

After an antenna 500 meters further down our street had been struck by lightning, reducing the entire community antenna installation to pieces, they found it was time for me to say good bye to my aerial.

It was only after I left the parental home that I could take up my radio activities again.



In my call sign, I have a T and a K. These characters are a tribute to my late uncle, who passed away unexpectedly in 1996, when he was 42 years old. They were his call sign in the CB band.

It was my uncle who first taught me the basics of transmission and reception. In my uncle Tonnie’s CB shack, I was his little assistant, a.k.a. Little Johnny.

He helped me to set up my first own CB station. After that, we spoke nearly every day.



For me as a young boy, Tango Kilo was a big example, the hero of my youth. He taught me everything my dad wasn’t allowed to.

As a kind of substitute for my grandfather and his father, that I have hardly known. Many people thought we were brothers. After all, he was only 9 years older than me.

Without a doubt, he would have sat next to me when I started the course for my Novice-license.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Kenwood TS690s
Yaesu FT897
Yaesu FT7900