Manfred May, DJ1KF - a life devoted to amateur radio ---------------------------------------------------- Manfred was born 1940 in Koblenz (Rhein) and grew up in the Eifel region. Already at school he founded an amateur radio interest group. After finishing school he learned radio and tv engineering and attended an amateur radio course of DARC e.V. (the german national amateur radio club). After studying he reached a master degree in radio and tv engineering, and with age 27 he acquired high school graduation and married in the same year. Since 1962 Manfred worked as a video technician at the west german radio and television studios in Cologne (WDR), and there he heard about amateur-tv activities in USA. His application for a special licence on ATV was turned down by the telecom authorities which pointed him to the planned new C licence (VHF/SHF only without CW). Meanwhile he set up an amateur radio club station, DL0AK, at a high school in Cologne together with some colleagues and Ernst, DJ0RR, as licence holder. In 1967 Manfred finally got one of the first C licence calls (DC6EU). The late father of OSCAR, Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, constructed a 5 watt AM-ATV tx for 70 cm (vestigial sideband, sound subcarrier after CCIR) on behalf of DL0AK. At the same time Uwe, DJ8DW, near Dusseldorf got a first special licence on ATV, and his test transmissions were received with joy in Cologne. In 1968 DL0AK was allowed to transmit ATV too, and more than 100 receiving amateurs were supplied with ATV downconverters. At his working place WDR Manfred was co-founder of the amateur radio clubstation DK0WR, which is used also as dx broadcast receiving station for the news staff. In 1969 Manfred advised OM Hoffmann, DC9DR, with the foundation of AGAF (german ATV group) and attended together with his wife and with DJ8DW the "1. international ATV meeting" in Armantieres (France) being the only germans there. DL0AK in Cologne transmitted amateur radio lectures live in ATV for two hours a week, the maximum range was 80 km. Also a first try of an ATV bulletin for DARC members was performed, but all this was prohibited by the telecom authorities after complainings from south german radio amateurs... In 1970 Manfred went to the TV training center Jakarta (Indonesia) as technical teacher, and he got a full licence as YB0AAO. Within 18 months he worked 205 countries in SSB voice or RTTY. 1971 he attended the 3. international ATV meeting in Geneva (Switzerland) besides visitors from G, PA0, ON, F and HB9. In 1973 Manfred prepared the 4. ATV meeting (CAT73) together with the DL0AK team at the high school in Cologne. 100 visitors watched the transmission of correct PAL colour test patterns using a homemade 70cm atv tx by Hajo, DL2AD. DJ4ZZ demonstrated SSTV reception on a big P7 CRT monitor, and DL3NO from DAFG showed SSTV kits constructed by DJ6HP. In 1974 Manfred started the first amateur fax activities in Germany by distributing 14 Siemens KF-108 machines to interested OM and became fax expert in DARC and DAFG. At the "UKW-Tagung" Weinheim he coordinated lectures about special modes and was one of the lecturers (i.e. DJ2HN, DJ6HP, DL2RZ, DJ4ZZ). In 1975 Manfred was elected as chairman of a local DARC group and became expert for special modes in the Cologne-Aachen district. Additionally he represented DAFG (german RTTY group) at the 2. worldwide exhibition TELECOM 75 in Geneva with amateur fax demonstrations, after IARU had introduced this new mode officially. In 1976 Manfred got the full licence call DJ1KF after a CW test. Under a development programme he went to the TV training studio at the academy of Eskisehir (Turkey) as technical teacher. Beside it he tried to help legalizing amateur radio in TA by active public relations work, founded the clubstation TA2ETV and worked as TA2MM more than 100 countries in SSB, RTTY, SSTV and FAX. The turkish radio club TRAC appointed him as honor member because of his merits. In 1978 Manfred helped to create the DARC section for special modes including AGAF members and promoted a better relationship between AGAF and DAFG, who elected him as chairman. In a self edited 40 page model magazine "CQ-HAM RADIO" he proved how to combine different amateur radio modes, and he predicted their final display on a video screen after some technical progress (computer monitor today...). That year Manfred also erected his revolving 16 m antenna tower. In 1980 the WDR clubstation DK0WR was expanded at a new QTH under Manfreds direction, and it was used for radio and television programmes (i.e. "Computerclub") later on performing some public relations effects in favor of amateur radio. The same year Manfred erected his dream project together with Rolf, DF9KH, and other friends: the ATV multimedia repeater DB0KO, at first at the QTH of FM repeater DB0XO near Cologne. In addition to AM-ATV 70/23 it contained a control input, RTTY and SSTV input on 2 m and a "Meteosat" weather satellite fax receiver, all with conversions to video. At Easter 1981 the QTH changed to the multi-storey building of "Deutsche Welle" radio in Cologne gaining a range of about 60 km, and additional FM-ATV inputs on 23, 13 and 3cm followed later on. In 1982 Manfred acquired a new "home computer" APPLE II for DK0WR in order to perform the modes RTTY, HELL, FAX and SSTV with this unique programmable device. The video output was still used in 1994 for call generator purposes with fast PR link tests on 10 GHz connecting the PR-Digipeater DB0GSO at a school nearby. Manfred constructed the frontends out of used Sat-TV-LNB gear together with home made feed-horns. The first PR digipeater and mailbox in Cologne, DB0WDR, had been erected with Manfreds help at the QTH of DK0WR in order to make his voluntarily work as a bulletin editor for DARC district Cologne-Aachen a little easier. Simultaneously he used his good relationships to the WDR "Computerclub" team for building up an independent amateur radio homepage on their internet site. Later on it was expanded to the DARC district G homepage at another server preceding the present DARC internet service and the popular AGAF homepage. In 1991 Manfred arranged the 23. ATV meeting of AGAF at a high school in Cologne-Weiler with live transmissions via DB0KO, some lectures were given using prerecorded VHS video cassettes. There were 93 visitors including 6 BATC delegates from Great Britain serving their own booth. The autumn meeting of DARC district Cologne-Aachen was transmitted live for the first time via two hops over a 40 km distance (without direct line of sight) to DB0KO using several amateur video cameras directed by Manfred. Later on this became a routine job... The first weekly ATV bulletin for the Cologne and Dusseldorf region was produced live by DF9JD (DF0EN) via a 10 GHz video link to DB0KO over 30 km (made by DJ1KF). From March 1993 on Manfred edited the weekly bulletin for DARC district G and organised small video production teams for its ATV distribution comprising of about 30 YL and OM in total and changing every week. At the end of 1993 Manfred was elected as vice chairman of AGAF e.V. taking up the difficult task of contact to DARC e.V. and related authorities. In 1994 he presented amateur television from the home studio to the antenna and measuring devices at a two day seminary of a teacher interest group "Ham radio at school" in Konigswinter. This is only one of many examples for his various lectures and publications. In 1995 Manfred initiated the future project "Digital-ATV" with his old friend Uwe, DJ8DW, now professor at the "Berg. University Wuppertal", in order to secure some HAM-TV activity in a sociable way (2 MHz around 434 MHz) and to catch up with the state of engineering (digital TV - HDTV receivers at the national testing facilities in USA (ATSC) came from Wuppertal). In 1997 Manfred was elected as chairman of DARC district Cologne-Aachen and simultaneously cared for the long time missing ATV/SSTV page in the DARC magazine "CQ DL" named "Monitor". For the DATV project he earned more and more support by some DARC colleagues, but in 1999 a big misfortune ended his life while he was busy working at another future project: linking the "Eutelsat W2" TV broadcast satellite uplink at the PI6ALK ATV repeater (beyond the border to the netherlands) to the Cologne-Aachen region... Klaus, DL4KCK (AGAF e.V.)