History

 I became a ham radio operator through shortwave listening and my love of electronics. I registered a SWL number as JA3-2839 for shortwave listening activity in the early 1960's.
I listened ham radio with a homemade shortwave receiver, and also, I listened long distanse broadcasting stations, like as VOA, BBC, Radio Moscow, etc. I send a reception report to VOA with memo mentioned as "My hobby is ham radio". Then, a verification card came back to me with a First Day Cover of 50th Anniversary of ARRL.

I was a student of St. Viator Rakusei High School established by the Clerics of St. Viator (Roman Catholic religious institute) in Kyoto. There was not a club station of amateur radio at the school, but there were many great ham radio operators such as JA3AJ, JA3ART and so on, and moreover  I listened to  VOA, BBC and of course amateur radio with their Hallicrafters (famous receiver sets) and was surprised at superior performance. 

                                             Mr. H. Ogawa, teacher of science (silent key)                                                                      Mr. K. Ebihara, famous DXer

I was licensed for ham radio, at age of 15, in 1964. As all my ham radio equipments, a receiver, a transmitter, and an antenna were homebrewed (so-called a real amateur radio station), almost 2 years were needed for my first-ever QSO. A final tube of my transmitter was 6AR5 running about 10W, and antenna posts were made by bamboos.

            My fiest-ever QSO of JA3LKE with JA3LHV

 I was a member of the strongest hand-ball team in Kyoto in the high school days.

 I moved to Kanagawa (JA1 area) from Kyoto (JA3 area) for studying radio engineering (electronics). I set up a new station JR1ATA in 1969. In the early 1970's, I mostly made ham radio operations in my car, and in mountainous lands.
At UEC Tokyo, I studied and reserched "Detection Methods for Weak Signal from Space", and so I used to stay at Sugadaira Space Radio Observatory in Nagano.

 Also, I like sailing. In the university days, I joined UEC sailing club, and after graduation, me and some friends made a weekend sailing club near Enoshima (famous for a yacht harbor), Shonan beach. At that time ham radio (FM mode on 2m band) was very important communication tools for timely gathering at the beach.

 In the early 1980's, I was involved in radio control technology. I made a radio controlled yacht (of course, reduced size), and competed in the radio controlled yacht races.
Pictures of me and my yacht were shown on "Radio Control Technique", Jan 1982.

 I worked at a Yokohama Plant of a big electronics company in Japan. At that plant there were many famous hams, such as JA1BU, JA8AJ and so on. On Nov. 1981, Yokohama Ham Group (YHG, NEC Yokohama Amateur Radio Club) was established by hams worked at that Yokohama Plant.

In the late 1980's and 1990's, I was very active in ham radio, especially DXing.

 I have no interest in DXing now, and I do not collect QSL cards anymore, but direct special QSL will be answered.
I was engaged in Europian communication satellites in the late 1990's. F5VAE of Eutelsat came to YHG operation room and we made friendship in both business and ham radio.

 From Apr. 2000 to Mar. 2005 I lived in Fukushima (JA7 area) for my new business without my family. I made ham radio operation at our company club station JH7ZFU and a mobile station JA3LKE/7 set at my apartment house.

As for JA3LKE/7, homebrewed equipment were functioning well. I made radio equipment and small antennas in the days of Fukushima.

On Apr. 2005 I moved to Sagamihara, Kanagawa (JA1 area) again.  A consultant engineer for power electronics.

On Apr. 2009 I retired from the electronics company, and now I am a retired consultant engineer for space venture.

On July and Aug. 2021 I participated in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as a radio engineer.

I have been interested more than 50 years in ham radio, and I will eagerly continue to go back to the basics of ham radio.