| |
THE AUTHORS:
ON4UN
John ON4UN was introduced to the wonderful world of amateur radio by his uncle Gaston
ON4GV. John was merely 10 years old. Ten years later he obtained the call ON4UN. John’s
interest in technology and science led him to become an engineer and his entire professional
career was spent in the telecom world. All along he remained active on the bands which has
resulted in nearly half a million contacts in his logs. In 1962, 1 year after he received his
callsign, he took part in his first contest, the UBA CW contest, which he won. This was the
beginning of a near 50 year long amateur radio career in which contesting and DXing
especially on the lower HF bands have played a major role. On 80 meters John has the
highest number of DXCC countries confirmed worldwide (he is holder of the DXCC 80m award
#1 with over 355 countries confirmed) and on 160m he has the highest country total outside
the US with over 300 countries confirmed. John also was the first station world wide to obtain
the prestigious 5B-WAZ award.
In 1996, ON4UN represented Belgium at WRTC (World Radio Team Championship) in San
Francisco together with his friend Harry ON9CIB. WRTC is commonly called the Olympic
Games of Radio Contesting.
A highlight in John’s amateur radio career was undoubtedly his induction into the CQ Contest
Hall of Fame in 1997 and into the CQ DX Hall of Fame in 2008, honours which until then had
been bestowed upon only a handful of non-American hams. John wrote a number of technical
books concerning our hobby, most of which are published by the ARRL (the American IARU
Society). These covered mainly antennas, propagation and operational aspects concerning
the lower HF bands. He also wrote technical software on the subject of antennae, including
mechanical design of antennas and towers. Together with Rik ON7YD, he is the co-author of
the UBA handbook for the HAREC-license. Already in 1963, as a very young ham, he got
involved in Amateur Radio society affairs and became HF Manager for the UBA for a short
period. More recently John served as President of the UBA between 1998 and 2007.
John combined his experience and expertise with that of his friend Mark ON4WW, to write
this unique handbook Ethics and Operational Procedures for the Radio Amateur. A trigger to
write this book was the enormous success of ON4WW’s article Operating Practice, which was
incorporated in the UBA HAREC handbook. Operating Practice is available in more than 15
languages on Mark’s website, and has been published worldwide in a large number of ham
radio magazines.
ON4WW
Mark ON4WW too, was barely 10 years
young when he was bitten by the radio bug.
His initial call in 1988 was ON4AMT, which
he traded for ON4WW a few years later.
Right from the start Mark was particularly
interested in contesting, which may be the
reason for his special interest in correct
operating procedures on the bands. In 1991
he met ON4UN and after some visits to
John’s place he quickly became a CW buff
and in addition a supporter of the more
difficult HF bands, 80 and 160m. In the midnineties,
Mark was one of the key operators
at the OTxT contest station of the local UBA
club TLS, a contest station which was located
at ON4UN’s place. In that period this station won world wide first place (multi-single) three
times as well as first places for Europe in several other CQWW contests.
In 1995 Mark joined the United Nations and went on a mission to Rwanda. In the following
years he was sent on UN missions to several other African countries and each time he was
active on the bands and especially on 160m and 80m (9X4WW, S07WW, EL2WW etc.). Later
he showed up from Pakistan (AP2ARS) and Afghanistan (YA5T) as well as from Iraq
(YI/ON4WW). Other calls Mark used in that period were JY8WW, J28WW and 9K2/ON4WW.
Mark’s last mission for the UN was in Gambia (C5WW) in 2003.
In 2000 Mark realized one of his dreams, going on a major DXpedition. He was part of the
record setting FO0AAA expedition to Clipperton Island in the Pacific, where the crew made
75,000 QSOs in just 6 days. In that same year he was also part of the A52A DXpedition to
Bhutan. Still in that same year he represented Belgium, together with Peter ON6TT, at the
WRTC in Slovenia where they scored first world wide in the SSB category. Two years later, in
2002, the same team represented our country again at WRTC in Finland.
Over the years Mark has gained a tremendous amount of operating experience. Specifically
he has operated for long periods at both ends of the pileups. He has witnessed a lot of
operating practice that was and still is today capable of vast improvement. Hence the
publication of his article Operating Practice, and now this contribution to this more elaborate
publication.
При перепечатке ссылки на авторство и на сайт http://uarl.com.ua/ обязательны.
|
