I was born on 14 Th. October 1977 in Montecchio Emilia, near Reggio Emilia in north Italy. My activity started on May 1994 operating on citizen band in AM with a 34 channels transceiver and a bazooka-loaded antenna. On January 1995 I started to study to become OM and I had my exams on 26 Th. of June. I started operating on HF bands after May 1996 when I received my license with the call IZ4AFD. A Yaesu FT 900, Bencher BY2, composed my first shack and a vertical 5-band antenna manufactured in Italy.
After six month of activity in both phone and cw I dedicated all my transmissions to telegraphy. So on June 1997 with other three friends I took part to my first contest in CW: the region one field day HF with the call IZ4AFD/P. We arrived 16 Th. in Italy and it was a very satisfying score for our first contest. After this fantastic experience I participated to several Italian contest included the ARI DX international contest where in 1998 edition I obtained the best score in the "under 21" category so I won the IN3ANE plaque; with the IZ4AFD/P Team we obtained the 5 Th place (in Italian stations) in the region one field day, this time the happiness was very very high....
Since 1998 I'm the CW teacher of the local ARI section and I continue to add as country as possible to my log. I have now over 120 countries confirmed in mixed mode (200 worked) but I'm waiting for confirmations to obtain the DXCC for only CW, I 'm 96....
Since March 1999 my activity slows down very much because I start working so my free time reduced a lot... but I'm happy anyway! I work as CAD designer in the technical dept. of a small factory that produces cable harness for the automotive sector (i.e. CD changer, Navigation systems, ABS, Car HI-FI).
Actually this is my station:
HF:
VHF-UHF:
Other:
Hardware not used at the moment: