Brief Biography - Marcel H. De Canck, ON5AU

t the tender age of 10 (born 1943), I became fascinated with radio when my father finally bought a radio set. What a miracle in the house now, from out of nothing and everywhere came wireless music and voices! But already at this young age, I was puzzled at a phenomenon noticed on the MF band at the higher frequency scale. During the evening hours something strange happened: the signal would exhibit a fading and a reduction of the sound volume. My mother called it "blowing away" like a wind can do. No one I asked had an answer for me at this time. Later this all became clear, it had something to do with propagation properties.

At the age of 13 I built my very first radio "crystal" set. Fascinated by this wonder of no power consumption I wanted to know more about radio in general. I enrolled to a technical course by postal correspondence about radio techniques. By age 14, I started doing repairs at every opportunity on defective radio sets of neighbors and relatives. All the more I wondered about "how do those radio signals get into the air"?

After a long search I was able to locate some literature and a book about the exciting radio amateur hobby. Shortly after, I became a member of the UBA Union Belgium Amateurs and helped by the members, I started studying transmitting theory and CW. In 1961 I obtained a license and was granted the call ON5AU.

After finishing high school radio electronics, I worked as a radio and TV repair technician in a local company. In 1974 I became interested in microprocessors, microcomputers and computer programming. During that same year I started working at the Bell Company Belgium, as a maintenance technician for their CNC machines. Fifteen years later, I become a field repair technician in a company that specialized in the manufacture of microprocessor-controlled presence terminals and access controls.

After early retirement in the summer of 2000, I had more time to pursue my interests in the hobby of amateur radio and increase my knowledge of propagation. Additionally, I became an editor for the radio amateur club's quarterly club magazine. Since April 2002, have been a regular monthly columnist on the subject of propagation for antenneX.

Other hobbies are photography, reading, writing, traveling, gardening and home brewing ham equipment and antennas. I may be contacted at on5au@qsl.net  or at my web site at http://www.qsl.net/on5au/ , and of course, frequently on the HF bands in SSB. -30-