I finally went to the Ham Radio Exam. It’s a shame that I did not make this step earlier. Way earlier. Like in 2001 or so, when I just started with university and still was studying electronics engineering. It probably would have helped my courses to understand AC circuits from a very practical perspective. But what the hell, finally I did it and I am happy.
I directly went for the Class “A” Licence, the bigger one in Germany. I am now entitled to use all bands (135kHz – 250GHz) and maximum power. Some people at the exam were going for first class E then class A. Maybe that would have been the wiser choice since I was rather able to pass the exam by luck than by knowledge; I was solving example exams on a webpage and the first time I got an adequate mark for the technical part was the very morning of the exam. But at least I did look up the questions again when I was home.
Passing the exam and getting the HAREC directly after the exam, it was a rather tedious wait of 19 days for the callsign assignment to arrive. But it is finally here. I am now proudly DL7BUR. BUR stands for the first three letters of my name; Burak. 
I also used the time to visit my first HAM radio event. The “19th Berlin Antenna Fieldday” (aka. “BAF”). I expected to see at least a couple of OM that do stuff like GHz technology or ATV. I was slightly disappointed to see mostly Inverted-Vee’s and and almost exclusively shortwave stuff. There were only two OM using and showing 2m/70cm antennae. Also two OM had set up “talk-via-light” equipment. Since on the descripton to the event Amateur-TV and SHF was anounced I was eager to see how that works. Nonetheless I could engage some nice conversations about antennae, tuners and CW. OM are crazy about CW. Somehow I don’t get the craze, but what the hell, I guess I will learn CW sometime soon. There were even some OM that I saw before at the exam or at the local HAM radio clubs I visited in the weeks between the exam and the event.
Below are some Impressions from the event. Can you find me on the group photo ?
