Finally
I got my VHF/UHF license at the age of 14 in May 1992 and started operation
2m SSB right away using the clubcall DB0FAW (was permitted at that time
for OPs less than 16 years old!). I got fascinated by this band quickly.
Just after 3 days of holding the license I worked IW1BCV at a QRB of 615km
with only 10 watts, a 17ele Tonna yagi, and no experience. The next year
I started contesting on 2m. First contest was from the home location. This
was followed by the first reports of neighbours having interference on
their television set (only 70W at that time). It continues till today...
With the local club we were doing contest from a little hill in JO40OK
from now on. In fall 1993 I upgraded my license to a full shortwave license
and got the call DL2FDX. From 1995 on we started the contest group DF0TAU
and developed our equipment to get to a first place in 2001 in Germany.
Beside the contest I was focusing on weak signal modes. In 1994 my father
and I put up our first homebrew antennas. Those were 2 times 18 
element
yagis DJ9BV design. Just great for EME, but no power amplifier was availiable.
When the homebrew 4CX250 amplifier was ready in mid of 1995 the antennas
were already destroyed by a major storm. Never had a EME-contact with those.
You can see the setup on my first QSL-card. My first EME-QSO took place
with VE3ONT (46m dish on 144MHz with 1.5KW) in 1996. On my side there were
200W and a single new constructed 18 element DJ9BV. We decided to focus
more on EME and installed a 17m tower at the back side of our house in
1997. The antenna setup was a 2 times 18element cross yagi F/G8MBI design
(6.6wl) and a 18 element DJ9BV (5wl) for comparison on 2m and a 41 element
DJ9BV (13wl) on 70cm. The whole system was with full elevation. Before
we could get up a four yagi array for 144MHz we got involved with trouble
of the loacal authoirties caused by our neighbours. After 3.5 years fighting
for our tower we had to put it down in fall 2001. Beside a lot of antenna
test and construction, I gained a lot of experience in electronics and
radio frequency design during many minor and major projects. From 1998
on I joined the radio club at the University of Karlsruhe DF0UK and developed
the station there. In 2000 I got the chance to change my callsign to a
two by two: DK1CM. From that point on my ham radio activity stedyly decreased.
During my four month stay in Dallas/Texas I got the chance to operate the
clubstation at the University of Texas at Dallas K5UTD. I used this extensivly
and helped develop the station.
After all I can tell you for sure: Life is too short for QRP! I really like to generate pileups by myself and triing to control them. Either you have to be a rare one or you have to have a excellent equipment with a lot of power. I had my first experiences on that duing contests and operations from Usedom Island (EU129) and the the Ilses of Scilly (EU011). But also from the clubstations DF0UK and K5UTD I ran nice pileups especially on 10m.