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General information
Biography
Hobbies
Comments and Suggestions

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General info

I have tried to include some links along the way, which may be useful to provide further detailed information on a given subject. If you have suggestions, or corrections to any of the links, please to tell me so that the pages can be updated accordingly.

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Biography

About myself

Who I am? Well, as most may already know, I am a Norwegian, in the late 50's, and an Officer in the Royal Norwegian Navy. My ancestors came from Lofthus, or Ullensvang, in Hardanger, a place I often visited as a child. But, I grew up in Bergen, a city on the west coast of Norway.

I joined the Royal Navy in spring of 1968, for my national military service. As things turned out, I signed a 3 year contract, obtained a Royal Navy Communications education, and a Merchant Navy Radio Officer's certificate. The plan was to end my Navy career following the contract-period, and head out to the seven seas, but that never happened. Instead, I stayed on, and worked my way through required courses and ranks, ending up as an Officer. Besides sea-duty, most of my career has been ashore, of which more than 12 years were spent in the Stavanger region.

Summer of 1996 I was assigned a three year NATO tour to Keflavik, Iceland, giving us an opportunity to get abroad and explore this beautiful country. Following these three years, in August 99, we returned to Norway, settling down just outside the capital Oslo. This time working for the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organization (NDLO/CIS), previously known as NODECA.

Summer of 2002 we were extremenly pleased to return to Iceland for our second tour, something we were really looking forward to! The plan was for another three years, but in 2004 we got an extendion of one extra year. However, that adventure came to an end in August 2006, when we again headed back to Norway.

We finally had to settle down somewhere where we would stay for the rest of our lives. As a result, we ended up in an area 35km south of Stavanger city, in a local community called Naerbo, on the south-west coast of Norway. After 7 months surviving in minimal temporary quarters, our newly built house was ready in February 2007, and we could finally move in.

Family

I got married back in 1976, when living in Bergen, to my wife Eli. We have two children, our daughter Eirin, and our son Ørjan, both living within 20 minutes drive from us.

Between 1980 and 1986 we moved a couple of times between Bergen and Stavanger, before settling down in Stavanger. Leaving for Iceland in 1996, Ørjan stayed behind to complete his education as a Cook, and to do his national military service, also him in the Navy. But, in November 2002 he joined us in Iceland, staying with us for a while, before returning to Norway spring of 2003, due to lack of suitable job oportunities.

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Hobbies

Amateur-Radio

Amateur-Radio has been my main hobby since the beginning of the sixties, and I obtained my A-license (LA6IM) in May 69, same year I finished my Radio Officers exam. This hobby and my profession goes more or less hand in hand, radio-communication being the key-word. Since I first started there has off course been periods when my interest in Amateur Radio has been close to zero, but it has never gone away completely. During my years in Bergen, I was a member of the Bergen group of NRRL, and even became Chairman for a year. For some years I also taught novices in Morse-code, novices who wanted to obtain their Radio Amateurs license. The last ten years or so Packet Radio was the main mode of operation, as a member of LAPRG (LA Packet Radio Group) and I was also one of the FBB Beta-testers (see the Amateur Radio page). Was also a beta-tester and data-collector for HAMMAP (a map-program by DJ6FM for Amateur Radio use). Moving to Iceland first time in 1996, obtaining my Guest-license (LA6IM/TF), the possibility of putting up antennas proved to be impossible, so the little activity I enjoyed was mostly through mobile operations on 2m and 70cm, and occasionally on HF with my Icom IC-706MkII. In 2002, with my TF8BK license, I hoped to be able to use the Morse-key again, i.e. after removing years of accumulated dust and practicing wrist-movements, but same antenna issues occured. As a Radio Amateur I feel it is natural to devote most of my homepage to this hobby (also called HAM-Radio in some countries). On the "Amateur Radio" page you will find links to the different Nordic Radio Amateur organizations.

Sailing

My real big passion as a young boy, and also later in my adult life, was sailing and sailing-boats/yachts. I have had the pleasure of being skipper of my own 28ft sailing-yacht (Maxi 84) back in the 80's, but because of my work-situation, and where we lived at that time, it was impossible to continue, so the yacht was sold, and it was back to reading magazines about it. I did however, go through a "Day Skipper" course a couple of years back (in the old days nobody needed a certificate to sail), but I must admit it was well worth the effort and the money. In this respect, regardless of nationality, I highly recommend the Royal Yachting Association's (RYA) books, publications and training courses, both for the novice, the "one who thinks he knows it all", and the experienced sailor. We all have something to learn, so if you are interested in sailing and come across RYA, go for it. My former memberships include "Bergens Seilforening", "Stavanger Seilforening" and the "Joint Services Sailing Club, Stavanger".

Rifle-shooting

This was a more recent activity. I signed up as a member of the "Stavanger Skytterlag", initially to support my son (and later also my daughter), who had the interest. It resulted in me signing up for an instructors course in rifle shooting. This to better help out with the youngsters joining the club, who wanted to take on rifle shooting (ages between 10 and 16). This was really great fun, but came to an end when we moved to Iceland in 2002.

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Comments and suggestions

If you have suggestions or comments to these pages, please send an e-mail to either of the addresses below:

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