My name is Chris, I’m 43 years old and I’m proud to be a new member of the club with the callsign 14DA007.
I discovered the radio communications hobby and the 11 meters band 22 years ago when a friend of mine gave me an old Superstar 360 FM transceiver and a ground wave 5/8 vertical antenna.
It‘s very funny to remember how afraid I was when I heard some voices coming out from this small box for the very first time. After some hours spent on AM modulation, I quickly switched to USB mode and spent more hours just listening and listening. My first contacts in long distance were in 1987 with an operator in Lebanon (112 Division) and the second contact was with an AT member in Papua New Guinea (101 Division).
My small station was located in Department 41 (Loir-et-Cher), 20km south of the biggest city “BLOIS”. This area is famous for the high number of castles settled in each city, the biggest and the most famous one being CHAMBORD.
On the subject of my station, my first Ham radios were a second hand Yaesu 901 DM and a second hand Kenwood TS820S. These 2 radios are still at home.
Quickly, I spent all of my free student time DXing with my personal callsign.
In 1991, I became an Alfa Tango member. At this time, I changed my vertical antenna to a 2 element quad. This started my passion for working with quads and other antennas with double polarization. I have tried a number of antennas over the years. Some of these include:
- 3 element quad
- Maco-Shooting star 3+3
- 3 element yagi; and a
- Moonraker IV (which is still up in Department 41).
From 1991 to 1997 my call-sign was 14AT089.
From 1997 to 2004, I was a Sugar Delta member with the unit number 041 (14SD041). During this time, I had less time to DX though due to my first job and also my marriage to Marie. But I tried to be active as much as I could and work a lot of countries all over the world!
In this time, I bought a second hand Kenwood TS870 and a brand new Kenwood TS570DG which I still use today.
From 2004 to 2007, I became 14GT007 and with 14DA062 Eric (also ex-GT) and some friends we tried to build the Golf Tango group. Unfortunately, due to high troubles inside the group and because of my job as CEO in a large French company which took much of my time, I resigned to spend more time with my wife and 3 children.
After a short stay in the DXRC group, I have decided to join DA-RC because I have many good friends here like my brother 13DA007 Simon, 14DA115 Muriel and her husband 14DA911 Doudou, 14DA062 Eric, 028 Phil, Hervé and some others that I know only by the radio. All are professional and serious DXers.
In addition to chasing DX, in my hobby life I’ve had the opportunity to activate some countries like Monaco (107 division), Guadeloupe Island (196 div) (3 times), Saint Lucia island (143 div) and Martinique Island (136 div), as well as some SES and castle activations (COTA). All of these activations were made with a Kenwood TS50S and a one element quad antenna.
My house is now 3km from Paris and I’m living here with my family in the middle of a city. Of course, it’s impossible for me to put up a big antenna like the Moonraker or the Jo-Gunn, so I’m DXing with a Skypper 3 element antenna and with some other radios like the Kenwood TS-480HX and an ICOM IC-7000.
My wife Marie is native from the Department 89 (YONNE) and I had the opportunity to build a tower with a “small” antenna: a Jo-Gunn Star 5+5… It’s an incredible antenna! This allows me to be active from this area from time to time.
I think that I can write a 300 pages book about my DXer’s life but I’m going to stop there.
Just one last thing…… When I began DXing, I said to myself, “When I could confirm Japan, Hawaii and Alaska… I’ll stop the radio”. These 3 countries are among my 293 DXCC confirmed, more than 600 islands, from a long time ago and I haven’t stopped the radio.
These days, I’m still on the air with the same passion, the same pleasure and I’m addicted! And when I have the time and the opportunity I like to race with the Formula 3 or with some others cars like Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini…
Sure will be great to be able to have a contact with you all soon. It’s just a question of time and…conditions.
73s to all,
Chris 14DA007
Salut Chris,
Quand nous dévoile-tu le secret de 501DA/DX?
Que je n’ai pas réussi a faire vu le pile-up et le manque de discipline.
Activation trop courte! Dommage.
Mais bon!!! Toujours la même question: cette 501 est-elle dans collection ou non ???
Un exemple! 702RC/0 qui est en fait 180RC/0. Si j’avais su cela je n’aurais pas allumé mon ampli pour la faire ce qui aurait permis a un qui n’avait pas cette division de la faire a ma place.
A mon sens toutes les divisions sont numérotées de 1 a 351 c’est pas la peine de mettre des numéros en plus.
Il a suffit que les AT’s montre l’exemple pour que tout le monde ce mette au diapason.
Merci pour le sympathique QSO !
Amitiés du Sud de France ! 73’s !
14ET128 – Laurent.
Ciao Chris grazie del qso 73 da Rosario da palermo.
Ciao chris un caro saluto da Rosario da Palermo-SCILY Is.-ITALY
All words from the statesman that you are brother. We welcome you and are proud to have you here with us, the team is now back in order. I remember the GT Wizard Team’s birth and also the Wizards and the work you do keeping the DX News all current and correct.
Sincere and honest goodluck and wishes with the qrz
Simon