About me

My ham radio career started in November 2010, when Czech Radio Club registered me as a SWL under callsign OK1-36349. I was listening to everything in air: amateur radio, commercial radio, air traffic control, you name it. During the SWL period I got really interested in HF bands, especially when I could hear some DX stations from around the world. The QSL cards I received from the DX stations really motivated me to proceed with my new hobby.

In May 2011 I passed the HAREC exam and since then I have been licensed as OK1BIL.

In 2016 I was asked to work in company HQ in Austria. I organized myself a temporary visitor license and was assigned callsign OE2ZPM for one year. Since October 2017 I was holder of Austrian permanent amateur radio license with callsign OE2BLT.

My temporary assignment in Austria ended in December 2019 and from January 2020 I am back in Czech Republic. I am again using my previous callsign OK1BIL.

Travels and DXpeditions

I never miss an opportunity to travel. Be it for work or for leisure I am always taking some ham radio gear with me. It is definitelly more fun to visit a DXCC then just work it!

Jersey 2019 - MJ0ILB

From 21st to 28th July 2019 we activated the island of Jersey. We were up in the air with our personal callsigns and with the team callsign MJ0ICD. We enjoyed the activity greatly and won the IOTA Contest in the DXpedition High Power Multi category.

Mauritius 2018 - 3B8/OK1BIL

From 27th October 2018 to 9th November 2018 I will be spending holiday on the Mauritius Island. I am planning to use Kenwood TS-480 with various wire antennas. Expected modes of operation are SSB and FT8.

Romania 2017 - YO/OK1BIL

From 14th to 19th August 2017 I was taking part in YO SOTA Marathon 2017, activating several summits in Romanian Apuseni mountains.

Australia 2016 - OK1BIL/VK2

From February to April 2016 I was working on company project in Sydney. I was using KX3 with Yaesu FL-110 amplifier, antenna was tuned wire hanging from the balcony of my apartment in seventh floor.

California 2015 - W6/OK1BIL

In July 2015, I spent a month in California, visiting my relatives. I was operating QRP with my KX3 with a vertical mounted over beach. I had an interesting QRPP contact with NH6I with only 100mW SSB.

Jersey 2014 - MJ0ILB

From 21st July to 27th July 2014 I was activating the island of Jersey GJ/EU-013 with team of OK hams. Check out our Jersey 2014 DXpedition website.

Interests

What I really like about ham radio is the variety of sub-fields one can explore. When you exhaust one field you can move to some other. I do personally enjoy:

• Homebrewing antennas, accessories and tools for ham radio
• Collecting and refurbishing old handheld FM transceivers bought for the lowest possible price
• Traveling and DXpeditions
• Summits on the Air
• Portable operations
• Digital modes (FT8, JT65, PSK31, RTTY, Feld Hell, WSPR, APRS ...)
• Computer networks (which I do for living)

Link Roll

Here I would like to share few links to various ham radio related and other technically related media I read:

• Hackaday [blog about HW and SW hacks, security]
• RTL-SDR.com [blog about SDRs]
• SWLing Post [blog about SWL]
• Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society Magazine [magazine partly in English]
• QRZ Now [news website]
• ICQ Podcast [news podcast]
• Funkboerse.de [used gear]
• Hamradio.de Flohmarkt [used gear]
• FA Kleinanzeigen [used gear]
• Funknews.at [austrian news portal]