I am born in 1944, at the end of WW II in a place, called HEERLEN, a miners-town in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands. Here I lived for 23 years. When I became a teenager, I got involved in our nice hobby, HAMRADIO. That time I was learning to become an electronic engineer. One of the teachers noticed my big interest in all what was called radio. He introduced me to another student on the technical high-school. That student became one of my best friends. His call PA0INA I got involved in an affair with the sister of PA0INA. That affair is still going one. His sister became my XYL Annie We are married in August 1965. We got 2 kids, a girl born in 1967, and a son, born in 1969. We lost our daughter, very suddenly, in 1994. A big picture of her is hanging in my shack. She was more like me, while our son is more like his mother. Annie's full Christian names are: (ABM) Anna-Barbara-Maria. So now you know why I am signing PA0ABM. Our son got married in may 1996, they have 3 kids, a boy and two girls. To be closer to our family we changed provinces, and moved to Huijbergen, after living for almost 40 years in the province of Zeeland. Besides HAM-radio, I love the beauty of this world, from the top of the highest mountain, to the deep of the ocean, including the deserts.. I love science fiction, and I am crazy about the Mid West of the USA. I was lucky to visit most of the W7 states, back in 1982. Visiting Hams was only a small part of this trip. Al and Cheryl Fransisco, K7NHV, from Pocatello, Idaho were our hosts during the second week of our trip. They showed us the beauty of Yellowstone-Park, Al did know some spots were you could be very lonely, away from the crowds. On June 26, we spent the night at the Lewis and Clark Motel in Bozeman, Montana. The morning of June 27, Al had a surprise for us. A local ham, who was married to a dutch girl, wanted to have breakfast with us. And see, there he was, Bob Leo, W7LR, and his lovely wife Cobi Kapteyn. The conversation resulted in visiting us in the Netherlands in 1983. Years and years later this Eye ball QSO resulted in writing down ton Internet the adventures of Bob W7LR and Bill, W0LHS during the First DXpedition to The Mountains of the Moon back in 1948. In august 1998 my brother Martin and I did visit the western states of the USA again. Our 1998- Adventure did take 25 days. We did visit some hams also. Among them was W6OV, Dick, and our best friends Dolores and Walt, W7SE from Wyoming. I am also hiking on a regular base, mostly in the area where we live. Most hike are day-hikes, I love to hike alone, together with my thoughts. During this hikes, I have always my photo-gear with me. I make a lot of pictures, some of them you can find on my home page. I got my license back in 1964. I started with a mixture of CW and SSB QSOs. As I got more experienced in CW, the SSB part became smaller and smaller. Nowadays, you can find me very seldom on SSB. I am now devoted to CW. Until 2004, I never used more than 100 Watts. You could call me "a little pistol" on radio. Lately I am using a very small amplifier, 400 watts, which helps me in pile ups. Because my property was too small, I was not DX-ing on the lower HF bands 80 and 160 m. This changed after our move to the province of Noord Brabant, end 2004. With 400 watts and a 3-band sloper, I was working for the 9 bands DXCC only CW award. I 'finished' that job in 2009. What do I do for living? Well, I was working as system engineer on a chemical plant, located on the shoreline of the river Scheldt. I started the job back in 1967, controlling the electronic security-equipment of the chemical plant. I did develop all kinds of security equipment. Later, the job changed to computer- control, and I did build all kind of computer-programs. End 2002 the company i worked for was reorganizing, and it happened that they did not need me anymore. I got fired, and was without employment until the moment i got retired. And that happened in 2009 when I reached the age of 65 years. I was teaching (voluntarily) computer-use to retired people in the area. It did give a lot of satisfaction. To keep busy, I am still developing all kinds of computer programs became also involved in First Aid Help. On a regular base you could find me busy as a First Aid helper on local events. Further I was one of the members of the Walk For Sophia Foundation. We did hike every year (in April) from Paris-France to Rotterdam-Netherlands. In 2017 I started to write down the History of the DXCC award. A man should keep his friendship in constant repair (Samuel Johnson (1755).

PA0ABM, Wino