Hello, I'm Bernard (Ben), and I was born and bred in Kraainem, a village close to Brussels, in 1937. ( age: 87 y.) My early youth took place during World War II, and after High School, I studied Electronics and graduated as an Engineer. At that time, I was already interested in Amateur Radio. After my military service in Germany as an officer of the Belgian army, I married in 1963 and finally got my Ham license in 1964 with the call-sign: "ON5GQ" Lut and Inez are my two daughters, both married and after all those years, I'm already four times grandfather and two times great-grandfather. By the way, Guy, the husband of Inez, is also a ham, ON5GF, and his passion for contests has brought us together many times. My professional career has been continuously in Television Broadcast, and for years, I have been running the company "REA Video Belgium." Finally, since 2002, I'm retired! I started my Radio Amateur activities with modified military equipment, American and German, from World War II. All communications were done in AM and CW on the HF bands. In the late sixties, SSB came up as transmission mode and FM on 2 meters, 144 Mhz, with a crystal-controlled transmitter and a VFO-controlled receiver. That looks a bit prehistoric, but we haven't had anything else. I started contesting as a way to build up my country/band totals and ended up getting hooked on this competitive fun. Still, these days, after more than 60 years, you can hear me regularly in significant contests and chasing DXpetions. In 1990, I left the village where I was born, and I'm now living in Boortmeerbeek, a rural village between Leuven and Mechelen. Cofounder of "BRUSSELS DX TEAM" Member of INTEREST GROUP RTTY