- Age?

42

- Location?

Delft – The Netherlands

- Occupation?

warehouse-clerk

 
- How and when did you start on radio?

Since 1981 I am active on 11 metres band, first only on FM (local CB Band) and a few months later Willempie Delft (19IR147 aka De Willem) teached me how to DX and involved me in the DX 11 meter band World.

- What radio and antenna do you use now?

Radio: Icom 706MK2
Antenna: 3 element home made full size yagi on tower.

- For me and some others OM, you were one of the most active expeditioneer a few years back. Your activities were concentrated in the caribean area mainly. Why your attraction for that zone of the world???...

This was happened accidently as I had made plans to go to Africa (The Gambia) in 1998 with my friends Wim ex19AT471 and XYL Jeanne but unfortunately this holiday needed to be cancelled because of health problems Wim had. We planned to make 118AT-0 so it was cancelled.
I didn't want to celebrate my holidays those weeks allone at home in Holland so I decided to take a holiday abroad, I made an appointment with Max 2IR123 in Miami – Florida U.S.A because I wanted to meet the IR Headquarter.
I took 3 weeks holidays, the first and last week I stayed in Miami.
The second week I wanted to travel into the Bahamas as this division was rare at that time and there were almost no active radio-operators. I took Max's radio ( a Kenwood TS450S) and his light weight powersupply with me and from Holland I brought a wire dipole already, at home in Holland I already found a place to stay in Nassau – Bahamas.
I got permission to put up the wire-dipole and this way I made the activation 121AT-0, as surprise I got a call from 121 Radio Bahamas 391 James and this way we met eachother in person and a big friendship was born.
In the next year 1999 I had the luck and possibility to return twice in this year in Nassau Bahamas and I could stay in James house , the next years 2000,2001,2002 I also returned and helped the Bahamian friends with building, putting up Dutch Yagi's as they called them. Before I arrived the needed Dutch aluminium arrived already by ship and was received by James.
We also made several activations from The Bahamas these years and I had the opportunity to visit some of the Family Islands like for example Eleuthera, Acklins.
The more I returned, the more I got interest in the country and people, this is the reason I concentrated mainly my activations in the Caribean.

- In how many countries have you been and wich of them have impressed you more?

I have visited many countries in Europe, outside Europe I visited Canary Islands, U.S.A, The Bahamas, Australia and Western Samoa.
In Europe The former DDR (ex 46 division ) impressed me most….because my father was forced to work in Germany during the 2 nd worldwar we travelled years ago for holidays in the former 46 division. I thought it should be 1973. My father wanted to meet some friends again he had there during the war, after all those years he wanted to see them again, and hoped they were fine.
I was 12 years young and we passed the border, I thought it was scary as the Russian army officers with there weapons ready to use, were controlling everything, for example we were not allowed to bring a portable cassete recorder including tapes in the country, they looked with mirrors under our car, for hours we waited for check in and get visa at that border.
It was a kind of war atmosphere there at that border.

For outside Europe I think Western Samoa impressed me most, just because it's the biggest distance from my home city, most impressive for me was the temperature outside, Paul 43IR259 brought a thermometer to see how hot it was there…we have made a photograph of it, the thermometer prooved 38.6 degrees Celcius.
Funny and impressive at the same time were the native houses in Western Samoa, Pacific style….just a roof , no walls, no windows, just open all sides. We visited dome families and it was also great to see and understand how the people live their live.

- Have you had any special moment or history on those radio expeditions that can be share with us???

Yes, sure, in 1993 me and Peter ex 19AT324 made an activation on Noord Beveland Island as 19AT-NB, we were caught by radio-police.
Peter saw the police car arriving including the gentleman of the radiocontrol, Peter told me they arrived but I was on the microphone and had only ears for the radio.
Finally Peter had to open the door for them and he screamed stop,stop transmitting Jan.
The radiocontrol is knocking on the door and I must open it…..I simply continued talking with the French station and finished the QSO, when it was finished the radio-control was angry, but Peter and myself just smiled.
We will never forget that, and in the same activation we used a 500 watts amplifier, I was asking Peter not to play with the control of the haeter each time, it went very warm in the house and Peter said the same to me all the time.
We both didn't change the control of the heater, finally we noticed it was the amplifier which caused interference into the control system of the heater, this was also a funny experience.

Another unforgetable experience was following: We were doing the LOTA Activation in the Bahamas, in the same period was another IR activation on air and we could hear a big pile-up. The concerned activation was 266IR-0, we were located at one of the lighthouses in the Bahamas and using a small 2 element yagi with an Icom 706.
Suddenly we heard 266IR-0 and yesss they heard us as well with our boogie woogie equipment…..we were with 3 operators (Jermaine, Cash and myself) and we all could make the QSO with Steve,Stefano and Paul in Kiribati, we talked about 15 minutes without QRM…..unless we heard all Europe calling to them….

- What would have been the most succesful expedition made by you?

If the value is most contacts I think I must answer: The year 1999
In the year 1999 during 121IR-DX (21-05-1999 – 09-06-1999) in 20 days of activation 2561 contacts were made.
This activation was done by James 121IR391 and myself.
Also in the same year 1999 during 121IR-NA01 (14-11-1999 – 27-11-1999) in 14 days of activation 3051 contacts were made, I had to do this activation all by myself as James had no holidays that period.
This was a good experience and great to “ live” in the house of my friend James, this way I had the great opportunity to participate the Bahamian life style including participating the native life, I enjoyed the native food in The Bahamas because its fantastic, I did not miss my own home/country at all, it felt I was home there…….thanks to James & Alma.

- Do you use any special tactic to control the pile-ups or you just ¨let the water flow¨???

I always try to control the pile up, the best solution according my experience is the split mode, but it doesn't work always…..in Pacific during the activation 223IR-0 we tried split, one evening we heard Europe very,very strong but we also received a big QRM from Indonesian or Asian AM radiostations, we had many problems to receive clear signals although the propagation was great…and same time there was another activation using the same frequency so it was very confusing, this way we complained about (European) stations calling to us for the 2e or 3e time but they were calling the other activation…..we were sorry we didn't know…..so this caused the biggest confusion…..…

- Split operation or simplex???

Split

-Jan, you have been managing IR DX Group for many years. Nothing like you to tell us what are your impressions about radio groups on 11 actually. What do you think about the function of the radio groups on our band and what things could be done better?

I think there are many good groups on 11 meters band, since I joined several groups in the past (in the 80ties) I noticed the groups are more professional nowadays, a good example is to compare the quality of the qsl's used in the past and nowadays. They are beautifull and very professional, in the past the QSL cards were simple and some were ugly too.
Thanks to all DX Groups many dxcc's were activated this last cycle by its members, it seems the DX Groups do motivate his members to do an activation.
Speaking about about the function of the radio groups on our band:
One of the advantages are:
If people are member of a group it seems people do behave better on the band as they don't want to be warned by their officials and they don't want to loose their identity. For some a call sign is holy.

One of the functions is as I said: better behaviour of people on the band in common, a group brings people more often together think about meetings.
But every DX Group has his own identity, his own purpose, his own view, I have big respect for everybody who runs a group, I know as no other that it is very hard to satisfy all your members at the same time, it is impossible…..this is also one of the reasons I decided to stop as H.Q. Member / President.
I can't answer your question about “what could be done better” as I think about our own group IR-DX I wanted to organize the group better, I must admit I failed in this because I had not the quality to do so, Stefano 1IR001 took over as President and at the end he also had no opportunity anymore to “complete” this vision. This President had to stop for about the same reason.
As I understand this question as follow in common, what do you think about the function of the radio groups on our band and what things could be done better?
If you want to have a better situation between the DX Groups in common together I think we still have a long way to go, first each and every H.Q. should be more open towards another H.Q from another group.
Mostly this is impossible because of the different identities and rules of the several groups.
I personally think as long as DX Groups are struggling with their own identity, as long as the vision of the DX Groups are too much different from eachother you can't expect a good communication, you can't expect a good co-operation between all groups.

- IR Group is possibly among the three or four major DX Groups now-a-days. How many members and in how many countries are you represented?

I really don't know, since we tried to start a renewal system which we could not complete I lost control. People left the group and ofcaurse new members joined. We have a new President in IR-DX Group which is Jimmy 13IR011 maybe a good idea to ask him for one of the next interviews so he could answer this question.

- All the people that have been working IR DX peditions during the last years have received a note with their QSL regarding the use of IR contribution coupons to confirm IR activations. I´ve been looking at your web to make this interview and that looks like to be a great idea. After most Europe adopted euro currency, 1U$ banknotes are really hard to find in some places and that coupons could be a good solution to cover the expenses of QSL management instead of using 1 euro coins easily lost into our mail networks.Can you tell us how that coupon sytem works and what have been the level of success of the idea???

The idea was found in Germany, I support the idea, as qsl manager I also received envelopes with included Euro coins, a letter has to go a long way to reach its destination…..if a person noticed money in envelopes the risk is big its taken out before it reach its destination. On the IRDX Group website there is a clear clarification about the IRCC, better have a look yourself at: http://www.irdx.org

Each IR QSL  manager must accept the IRCC. In the meantime also other QSL Managers from other DX Groups do accept the IRCC, we as IR-DX member are thankfull for their trust in us.

- Are you HAM or have you ever operated on HAM bands???

No I am not a HAM. I have operated on the HAM bands as registered official guest operator during 5W0PV

-What thing or things do you actually miss on 11 or what aspect of the radio on 11 you would supress?

No I don't miss anything on 11, I still enjoy the band.  

- Honestly, Do you think that level of activity or even the level of the operators is decreasing on our band??

At the moment yes but mainly caused of the bad period in this cycle,but if we reach the top of next cycle I am sure lots of people are back, also a big part has been succeeded to get the more easy to get licence for HAM bands.  

- Would you say that radio is on crisis?

No, ofcaurse we have internet to be in touch with eachother but there is nothing better than a QSO and this is not to compare with any chat programm on the computer.  

- This is your time, Jan. Is there any other thing not mentioned that you would like to tell us?

At the moment I making my 1e personal website, can't wait till is ready to publish it, it will contain many old materials from my personal past activations AT – IR and before including fotos, the logs, my station, my qsl mangement which means from who am I QSL Manager including fotos of my friends including special page for RIP Reggie 73IR315, and many more interesting items but I won't tell now, soon I will be also temporarely QRT on 11 as I am moving soon to another house, but for sure I am coming back asap.
I would like to thank the team of dxhunters.com for the invitation for this interview with me, it's a pleasure for me and I am happy to be part of the 11 meter band community. I also would like to pass my congratulations to this team for the creation of www.dxhunters.com and good luck maintaining this great part of 11 meter pages.