Born: June 21, 1958

Education: Technical college, chemical engineering

Profession: Environmental sound specialist City of Veendam (Netherlands)

 

Hobbies/passions:

-          Music. Singing in classical choirs (tenor)

-          Bats, mainly because of their amazing ultrasound

-          Amateur radio

 

I got my amateur radio licence in 1978 and since that time I have been rather active on a lot of the amateur radio bands. Mainly VHF and UHF. I always dreamed about doing Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) radio contacts but it took until 2006 before it finally came within my grasp. Techniques which were to difficult or to expensive (or both) in the old days have now evolved and are within amateur reach. Also the possibilities of the computer are a welcome addition to the ability of receiving the very very faint radio reflections of the moon. In 2004 I ran into someone who told me about the Dwingeloo radio telescope and the ideas for giving it a second life. At that day my life changed. Within months I was up to my neck into the Dwingeloo project…. It is so great to be able to rescue this first ever 25 m dish which means so much for radio astronomy. And it is so fantastic to do EME with it. The amazing strong signals it produces and receives from the moon!

This project attracts all kinds of people with all kinds of interests and it is an absolute joy to work with them and to enjoy the capabilities of this magnificent dish… Bats draw my attention in 1994. I have always been very interested in nature, but bats eventually stole my hart. Bats produce ultrasonic sounds which can not be heard by the human ear. But with a device called a batdetector you can hear them. When I experienced this for the first time, a whole new world of sound opened up for me.

Since then I do a lot of lectures and excursions about bats. Very rewarding, especially when some kids are in the audience. As a young boy at the age of 8 I sang a lot at school. I loved to sing and my teachers liked my singing so it probably was not too bad….

But as it goes, I grew up and as my family is not particulary musical I did not develop my singing abilities. But at the age of 35 I met a choir director and before I knew it I found myself singing in his choir. A lot of choirs have difficulties finding men who love/like/dare to sing so since that day I sing in several choirs. The one thing that all those hobbies/passions (and my work) have in common is WAVES.  Sound waves at my work, sound waves when I sing, ultrasound waves when I listen for bats and radio waves when I do amateur radio !

Picture(s): Me working at my homebuilt 3m dish for EME in my backyard.