About me

I saw the light of day in 1946, a year after the end of the war. My father worked in the quarry, and my mother took care of the home and worked part time as a day laborer with the farmers. Already during my preschool age, I was interested in building with wood and metal construction kits. When I was five years old, I made my first circuit without outside help. A ceramic rotary switch, a small bulb and a battery let me could control the lamp. This must have been the trigger to my interest in electronics.

However, first of all I had to learn about agricultural machinery. During my training, I had completed a correspondence course in electronics in order to discover the secrets behind wireless communication. During my military service, I participated in a successful amateur radio course at the Salesian monastery, Benediktbeuern and got the callsign DC8XL. After my military service, I began intensive training in electronics. After that I spent most of my professional time with computers and pneumatic mail systems.Amateur Radio was suffering. This was a difficult time for me, but I could participate in a DXpedition in 1978 as C31PS Andorra and in 1979 to Gibraltar as ZB2EY.

Manfred DD0M, Walter DC8XL, and Gerhard DL5NF preparing for the C31PS operation in Andorra in 1978

Later, I was able to get back to Amateur Radio in a small village in Steigerwald, but I lived in a house in a valley and unfortunately, I could do nothing on VHF, UHF and the higher bands and in those days, we were not allowed to transmit on shortwave with a C-license. So it remained to build equipment, which is also a very interesting area. Later when the short-wave bands were opened for us, my old friend DF3NB, Gottfried gave me his TS820 and I could get on with my neglected activities.

This photo shows a pneumatic tube system at the Museum of Post and Communication in Nuremberg. I have built this system and it is used to show children a tiny part of the world of technology.

After my retirement, I have cared more about my hobby, Amateur Radio, again. Most of the time with my homemade antennas in a quarry in Germany, which I supervised until my departure to Africa.

Since June 2008, I live in Ghana, more exactly in Sunyani, a small town with 60,000 inhabitants, most of them young.. Sunyani is the capital of the Brong Ahafo Region and is located about 400 km northwest of the capital Accra. The climate is very pleasant with eternal summer. People here are very hospitable and helpful. There are a few small aid projects going on such as the Don Bosco Boys Home, which I will tell you about here. My website http://machines2000.de/ with its advertising links will help to carry out these miniature projects.

The Don Bosco Boys Home is a facility of the Salesian Order, which is led by Father Pablo. I have now been in Ghana for three years, two of those in Sunyani. You do not have to open your eyes very much to notice the poverty and misery. Children are always the hardest hit victims. They are sometimes driven away from society and they are completely ignored. Children, who have no parents anymore or just a destitute mother who is barely able to care for herself, have no chance to go to school and thereby they have no future.

Add to all that misery a superstition which is incredible to us. If a child, whether a boy or a girl is believed by someone in the village to be a witch or have a pact with the Devil; that child is immediately removed from the family. It may then never enter the house again and it can even be killed.

Such children often end up begging on the street and only those who are lucky enough to be found by a priest or a sister will be taken to the Don Bosco Boys Home, where they will find a home, food and sent to school. This home literally becomes their family. The children and young people take over the response-bility in the house like they would in a family; they care for their laundry, they plan their everyday life and their celebrations. They learn to care for each other as siblings. Preparatory courses to vocational training will be held. The training

	Is mostly lead by volunteers. Without their dedication all these tasks could not be realized. If we want to prevent these children from becoming beggars, we must help them now.
As an "obronie" (white man) you get a lot of attention

The start help we give them now will help the children to become able to care for themselves. Father Pablo has several examples that need our help urgently. To assure you that every donation gets where it is needed, everyone is invited to contact the Boys´ Home or to personally visit Father Pablo.

Preparing dinner in Ghana