About Me – Ham Radio, DIY Projects & a Bit of Chaos
Hey, I’m Sinan, licensed ham radio operator (DK7FM), antenna tinkerer, part-time maker and full-time enthusiast when it comes to weird tech, wires, and waves.
I started my ham journey at the age of 16 with a very random 2 m handheld and what you could generously call a dipole antenna (spoiler: it kind of worked). That was back in 2000 with my first license (DO4DB). I upgraded to the full Class-A license in 2014 – and never really stopped fiddling with antennas since.
A lot has changed since those early days – except for my love of building things, testing stuff, breaking it, fixing it again… and maybe learning something along the way.
My Focus These Days
I’m currently based in Siegen, Germany (JO40AV), where I finally set up a small attic station after years of antenna prohibition.
In 2022, I installed a DIY multiband dipole for 20 m and 15 m up in the attic. I later extended it to 40 m in a very let’s-just-try-this kind of way – not ideal, but hey… it works. 😄
I enjoy simple, hands-on solutions: wires, clamps, heat-shrink tubing – and lately, 3D printing has become a fun extension of my radio projects. It’s great for building brackets, antenna parts, or small enclosures that don’t fall apart in the wind.
Into Meshtastic & LoRa
One of my current projects is Meshtastic, a low-power, LoRa-based mesh network. I’m running a node in my hometown and actively experimenting with setups and range. There’s something incredibly cool about building your own infrastructure with just a few lines of code, some antennas, and a couple of ESP32 boards.
What You’ll Find Here
On this blog, I write about:
DIY ham radio projects (e.g. antenna builds, portable setups, creative fixes)
Meshtastic & LoRa (range tests, node builds, real-world use cases)
General ham radio topics, always a bit personal and never too serious
I’m not trying to write textbook tutorials. This blog is about showing that ham radio is still exciting, creative, and full of potential – whether you’re into shortwave DXing or messing around on 2.4 GHz with QO-100.
If that sounds like your kind of thing, stick around. Follow along if you like radio waves, solder fumes, and nerdy stories.
73 & see you soon – Sinan / DK7FM
