My name is David Cubinek (born in 1970) and I got my first license in 1983 during HAM summer camp for young fox hunters (ARDF) which was organised by so-called Svazarm which was communist state-driven organisation in charge of numerous other kinds of hobbies where Ham Radio was simply one of them.
I made successful exam on 18.8.1985 and got my first own call sign OL1BPN. Valid since April 1, 1986 till October 1, 1989. More about that period you can read here.
In 1989 I started attending Czech Technical University – Computers – operating systems and databases. This quite significantly changed my interests in this direction and I loose focus. Yes it was also just less than 2 months before Velvet revolution (November 17, 1989)
And it happened to be that I finished university, started my ICT career, got married, have two children and suddenly 25 years have passed without single ham activity, without QSO. Only occasional short talks and “beering” meetings with some of, still active, close ham friends.
In 2015 I restarted my HAM hobby. Since May 2015 I have HAREC license and assigned call sign OK1BPN. More about this initial period here.
As I worked in period 2015-2018 in Russia I was initially QRV there as RA/OK1BPN, later with kind help of my russian HAM friends I got in Russia licence Class 2 February 2018, call sign R2DRT. More about this period here.
So now I’m active mainly as OK1BPN mainly on HF (80-10m), monitoring FM and DMR repeaters on 2m/70cm bands. A few times a year active on 2m/70cm bands with my Diamond omnidirectional antenna – so not even small gun… 🙂
Since March 2023 new contest station was assigned – OL2F
73!