Aurora Contest Team LA8W - LN8W

A short presentation of the LA8W LN8W operators.

LB8IB Øyvind Olaf Ekhall

Born October 31 1967

Founder-member LACC/LA8W.

Caught the hamradio bug from his father LA4MK when he was around 12 years old.

He could sit for hours listening to stations on his old Galaxy 5 transceiver. At 14 he got his novice licence with the call LB8IB, running 15 watts CW, but still managed to work 100+ countries with their Hygain 18AVT vertical. At the age of 16 he received his "A" licence with the call LA8SDA. Switched back to LB8IB October 18 2005.

Operated from: LA2AB, LG5LG, SJ9WL, OJ0LA and LA8W.
Ex.LA8SDA

LB1GB Bjørn Henning Bergheim

Born February 19 1966

Founder-member LACC/LA8W.

Introduced to CW via a colleague of his father, and got hooked, still his favorite mode. First licenced in August 1980, 14 years old. Spent the first 1.5 years as a novice with the call LB1GB, and worked a lot of QSO's. Was active every single day the first 1.5 years :-)

First rig was a FT7-B by Yaesu and the antenna was a 14AVQ vertical on the roof of an apartment building. When turning 16 in 1982 he received his "A" licence LA4DCA. Switched back to LB1GB August 15 2005. 25 years anniversary!

Operated from: LA4O, LA2AB, LA5X, LA1DXG, LG5LG, LX8A, LX9BV, DF0BV, HB0/, DL/, LX/, VP5/LA4DCA, VP5L, SO5DCA, SO2DCA.
Ex.LA4DCA
LB1GB QRP

LA6MP John Schjetne

Born December 16 1955

Senior Member

Licensed on my 16th birthday in 1971, I had to wait nearly a year after I had passed the examination. There was no interest at all for radio in my family, so at the age of 15 I decided to become a fulltime ham. This lead to many interesting conflicts with my family. At the university I spent almost all my time and money at the club-station LA1K, I left after 5 years with a lot of contest experience and a grade, the latter to my parent's great surprise. Unfortunately my professional life came in conflict with my main interest in life, so I was QRT till about 1985. The price for this is that I still need VU7 .. After my "rebirth" in 1985 I concentrated on DXing and contesting, one period I was President of LA DX Group. Have been more or less QRT the last 3 years, but should I be found in front of a station, the mode would most likely be CW.

LA7SL Nils Petter Pedersen

Born 1950

Grew up in his fathers radio-workshop, where he developed his keen interest in electronics and technology. He is also very interested in science.

Got his license in 1968, which makes him the oldest ham in the group. Loves lowband DX'ing.

Peter is the houseowner where our station is. Knowns a lot about everything, a real resource to the group.

LA9VDA Trond Johannessen

Born July 7 1954

Active DX'er and DXpeditioner, and a great QSL manager!

Operated from: TO0DX 1999, OJ0LA, OH0LA, JW9VDA, VP2MLA and various LA6Q IOTA.

LA7MFA Lech Tomczak

Born September 4 1964, Ostrołęka, Poland

Licensed as SP5LGT in 1979 at the age of 15. Active contester already as a member of SP5KVW. High Speed Club member (number 966) since 1981. Emigrated to Norway in 1984. Licensed as LA7MFA since 1986. He was very active on the radio during his studies at the University of Oslo. Also holder of an advanced class US license with callsign KK6HC between 1990 and 2000. Nowadays operates CW only. Member of NRRL and LA-DX-GROUP. Used to be WEB-master for LA-DX-GROUP, "Double Trouble DX-pedition" and VP6BR. Likes QRQ rag chew QSOs on 40m and used to like DXing before it all went internet. Loves RUFZ and HSC contests.

DXpeditions:

1999 - Operator on T31T and ZK3CW. Operated as KH8/KK6HC for a couple of days.

2001 - 3B8/LA7MFA for 3 weeks.

Operated also as SV5/LA7MFA and SO5MFA.

LA8AJA Andreas Kristiansen

Born October 2 1979

Active DX'er on HF, 6M and 2M. Licenced since May 1995 as LB4WE and LA8AJA in October 1995. A CW man! Been working contests from LA8W since 2003.

Operated from: OJ0LA, LA6Q (IOTA), JW8AJA(JW4X 6M)
Ex. LB4WE

LA9SEA Erik Elgesem

Born May 11 1968

LB1GB's Old Man has partly the honor of the recrutation to the world of Ham Radio! Licensed in 1985, 17 years old. Got straight into DX'ing and contesting with LB1GB, LA8SDA and LA9EEA. CW is not a favorite mode, 100% SSB. Operated as LA9SEA/OY in 1987 and mostly through LA2AB and LA8W. Currently "sleeping", but I'll be back...

LB3HC Marius Hauki

Born - Yes

Marius discovered radio by listening to his Grand Fathers solvsuper tube receiver in the late seventies for hour after hour. This receiver were one of that eras most advanced models. The receiver had bands from 160 meters up to 10 meters and a special s-meter indicator that is called a "ko-eye". The aerial were a wire attached to the buildings water pipe. At that time most radio amateurs were running SSB, but several interesting DX AM stations could be heard on the bands. Also a AM DX stations could be heard on the CB bands. When conditions were especially good Marius used to listen on the higher broadcast bands at 20 meters and up and noticed that the propagation conditions varied by time of day and by time of year. Later he wanted to start transmitting and got his amateur license at the age of 14. He was licenced LB3HC and worked many countries with that call-sign. At 16 he received the call-sign LA9EEA. He discovered contesting early when Jan - LA9HW, and Bjørn Henning - LB1GB exLA4DCA thaught him how to operate contests at the club station in Oslo - LA4O. Since then he has been involved mostly in contesting and technical construction projects.
Ex.LA9EEA