My name is Rifet, but on our bands I introduce myself as "RIF". I was born in Bosanski Petrovac, in the former Yugoslavia, in 1953. I am an electrical engineer by profession and now, after finishing my professional career, I am enjoying retirement, but I still deal with electronics for my own needs and the needs of my friends, helping with hardware, Win OS and Android operating systems and our HAM programs in general.
I have been involved in amateur radio since 1968 and I started with amateur radio in the Radio Club YU4EBP in my hometown. My first personal call sign was YU4VCW, then YU4CW. I used YU4CW until 1990 when I left amateur radio, out of necessity.
I now live with my family in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia. After retiring in 2017 and ending my professional career and 27 years out of amateur radio, I renewed my license with a new callsign - 9A9CW in the Republic of Croatia. I restarted our hobby, again with the Kenwood TS-850S station and became active again on the 80-10m band as a radio amateur. After working on the Kenwood TS-850S and testing other equipment, the TS870S, TS-590SG, and for portable work from the island of Vir during my vacation with the TS-480SAT, but after testing the FT-2000 with two receivers, in 2024, for my 72nd birthday, I brought home a new Yaesu FTDX-101d with the fair in Friedrichshafen. You can see the story of the tested devices and antennas in the pictures on these pages. Now my setup is as follows:
- 1.8-10MHz L-antenna with modified MFJ differential T tuner on the roof under the antenna,
- Dipoles for 3.5 and 7MHz,
- HexBeam for 14-28MHz + WARC and
-5-el. antenna for 50MHz.
All antennas are connected with one coaxial cable via GB-SW5 (HA7RY), and after installing the RS232 interface I control the antennas for frequency range selection using Yaesu-FTDX101D via BAND-DATA, and as well as the new Bluetooth interface for remote control of the Yaesu G-450c rotator with HRD Delux - visual software for rotation for the desired azimuth.
I replaced the old Kenwood TL922 with SPE Expert 1.3K-FA and now enjoy controlling all bands and equipment using Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) software, ofcourse I works with RRC-1258MkII with remote control from Vir island and other remote destinations.
As another hobby, we love to travel. We love visiting foreign countries, getting to know cultural and historical landmarks and, of course, taking photos. You can see some of these visits in our small photo album about the cities we traveled to, stayed in and enjoyed.