ABOUT

My name is Jan and I’m a radio amateur since 1975. My interest started in participating VHF contests on 144MHz. Particular using portable locations gave a lot of fun and experience in solving all kind of problems related to being portable. Since the techniques improved, higher frequencies were added during the years, up to 24Ghz. Unique locations were used such as a 150m chimneytower of a powerplant (JO22MH), near Amsterdam. Beautiful SSB/CW QSO’s all over Europe were made from this location. At home, activities initial concentrated on DX and weak signal operation like tropo, aurora and sporadic-E conditions on 144MHz. The 70cm band became more and more interesting particular because it was home for many SHF amateurs. Operating at even higher frequencies.

After 20 years of active Contesting, in 1992 our group decided to stop and myself. I started to become active using EME!! A really big challenge with many difficulties even for an experienced weak signal operator. With the help of my friend Sjaak, PA0JCA, first contacts were made on November 7th 1993, on 1296MHz with VE3ONT. The start-off for current activities was set!

After this joint activity I started to set-up my own EME station in Hoofddorp (JO22IH). Starting with 432MHz in 2000 using Yagi antennas. In the meanwhile I was able to get an ex-ESA dish, which was the start of my 1296Mhz activity in 2009. The dish came with a feed support. For 10Ghz and also on this frequency I started to collect the failing parts for an EME station. In 2012 I made my first QSO’s on this band. All this was initially in CW, while digital modes was introduced in 2010. With another feed I made my first contact on 2320Mhz in 2019.