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            Welcome to my webpage!

Hello, I´m Achim (Jim) Wortmann and I´m a radio amateur since 8th April 1982.
I´m living in the northwest part of Germany near the city of Dortmund in a little town:   Bergkamen
- the city of coalmining!
I was born in Unna (Westfalia) on the 20th March 1958.
My great-uncle Friedrich, DJ8ZN infected me with the Radio Frequency bacillus when I was a child. His 2 element spider quad fascinated me from these days on. My grandparents and my parents supported my dream to become a radio amateur and they gave me several electronic kits at my birthdays and at christmas. So I made my first experiences with receivers, audio amplifiers, antennas, etc. when I was 13 years old. I have fond memories of my mother´s frighten face after I fixed several long wires across the loft and between all the trees in our garden! During my study at the end of 1980 I started the amateur radio licence seminar. I built a audion receiver with 2 ECC81 tubes and I became a short wave listener! Unfortunately the training of Morse´s alphabet took me more time than expected and I struggled very hard with this mode! All the theory was like a child´s play and I got my first license DB2DT for VHF/UHF (former class C) at 8th April 1982. During the summer months I practised with an old Kenwood TR 2300 at the local 2m FM repeaters.  Finally I passed the CW test at 3rd November 1982 and I got my license for DL1DAW (former class B). Soon my grandfather Walter, my father Friedhelm, my friend Udo and me put up a 9m high antenna pole in the garden. We fixed the 40m/80m double dipole and I started the operation with my first brandnew transceiver from Kenwood TS 530-S on the 19th December 1982. Of course my first qso in the logbook was DJ8ZN (my great-uncle) in SSB with 59 plus reports on the 80 m band at 15:15 UTC. At these time I was a member of the local club in Dortmund (O05). My first CW qso happened more than 2 years later with DK1QX (Norbert in Warendorf)!

1983 I married the young lady Monika and after my study we moved to Alfeld in Lower Saxony in 1985. I became a member of the local club H01. I spent a great time with a lot of activities there. Especial I remember the annual summer holidays fox huntings, the fielddays at the Himmelberg, the "Braunkohl"-walking tours in autumn, our box at the local trade fair and last but not least the visit in Wakefield (UK) the twin town of Alfeld. International friendship with Rae G4JMT, Bob G3WWF (silent key), John G4VRY (silent key), Allen G0CQD, Rick G4BLT with Tina G8DVS and a lot of more Ham´s was founded and it´s still keeping on. Special thanks to Willi DJ5ND, Jonny DJ8MR, Kurt DF9AE, Gerhard DF6AD, Gerhard DB4OF, Franz DF9AZ, Axel DL6GX, Erhard DF6OW, Rolf DJ7GN, Werner DF6OY, Wilfried DF6OL, Werner DJ3VC, Dieter DD3FS and a lot of more great Hams with their families for the warm time in Alfeld!

We (meanwhile Linda and Julia were born) moved to Bergkamen in 1988. I joined the local club O47 which I still belong to. Thanks for the friendly welcome to Herbert DF7DJ, Heinz DK4CJ, Dietmar DL2DR, Hartmut DK9DN, Wolfgang DG9DM, Hans DK9DP and all the others with families! Also at this local club we have some annual activities and a lot of fun each club evening. Hopefully we can continue that for the future!

I´m a passionated shortwave DX'er and I´m looking for my final 40 DXCC on the bands but I´m also participating in some contests (DARC 10m, XMAS, WAG, WAEDC, etc.). So please give me a call if you copy my callsign on the bands. Skeds are welcome!

Besides Amateur Radio my passion belong to the family with my loving wife Monika and our 3 charming daughters Linda, Julia and Diana (born in Bergkamen 1991).
Further I keep my fingers crossed for my favorite football team Borussia Dortmund which won the German championship in 2002 again!
All these passions require some money and that´s the reason why I´m employed as an technical manager with Vodafone D2 GmbH - the world´s largest mobile community!

   © 2002 by DL1DAW •  [email protected]