I like to listen to and transmit Ham Radio very much.

It all started when I was 12 years old. At that time I didn't know about Ham Radio, but found it very interresting to listen to VHF and Shortwave Radio.

I could hear some two-way communication radios on our ordinary transistor radio in the kitchen, just above 102 MHz, and that was a thrill!

Later on my friend and I bought a couple of hand held CB-radios and started to talk to each other over a distance of approximately 1,5 km, as it was between our homes. I really got excited when one day I could hear other stations, mainly Italian, talking in my device! That's when I wanted to get better things to receive and transmit. I bought a 24 channel set and a Ground Plane antenna, and all of a sudden I was able to talk over much longer distances. The only mode used was AM.

When I was 16 years, and started the school to become a radio repair man, my teacher turned out to be a Ham Radio operator. That was my very first contact with real Ham-radio.

After my military service I went a course to learn Morse Code, and studied all I needed to get a Ham Radio Certificate of my own. In early February 1981 I finally got my licence and the callsign SM7LZQ. Now the real fun started!

I mostly work CW, as we call Morse Code. As you can see at the top picture, I use different types of keys or bugs to send telegraphy.

But I also use Single Side Band as we call it when we talk via the microphone. Sometimes I also enjoy listening to (or watching) SSTV, Slow Scan Tele Vision, and PSK31, a low power digital mode and other digital modes with help of a computer.

As you can see, there are many different ways to operate Ham Radio, and it is open for everyone who would like to experiment with technical things, or just want to talk to people somewhere on the earth, or even in space actually! Many astronauts are Ham Radio operators and when the Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang was in space, he had a chat with pupils in an Italian School via Ham Radio.

My name is Thorbjörn Hultman, I call myself "Thor" on The Air when I'm talking to stations outside of Scandinavia.

I was born in 1957 in the town Huskvarna. Now I live with my wife, Britt-Marie, in Jönköping right at the southern part of the Lake Wettern.