THE Ex D Association

 

A club for Allied service personnel who served in Germany post WW2, and who were associated with Amateur Radio Stations, was proposed by John Hawkins in February 2000. John held the callsign DL2XH whilst with HQ 2nd Tactical Air Force, Bad Eilsen between 1953 and 1954. His British callsign was G3LXD. He now lives in Western Australia and operates Amateur Radio Station VK6AU (formerly VK6HQ).

 

Since its inception, the Ex D Association has issued 235 memberships in 14 countries and has 2,200 D callsigns recorded. The first issue of the Association's twice-yearly newsletter called "As You Were!!" went out on 1st September 2000 .

 

In addition to the production of the newsletter, members receive the list of D callsigns, a membership list, an email address list and may view or download recent newsletters from our web site. The website is managed and updated by VA6RQ/VE7DGM (Bill Hicks) who held the calls DA1MH (75-81) and DA2HK (88-93), Bill is another of our charter members. For inquiries about the web site you can contact Bill at: va6rq at rac.ca.

 

Member #001 was Rowley Shears, G8KW, whom many in the Amateur Radio fraternity will remember as the partner in the very successful "KW Electronics" company, later "KW Communications." It was a great pleasure to have Rowley's support at the time when number of new Ex D Association Members was growing rapidly. Major Rowley Shears, as he was in 1945, was Secretary to the British Signal Communications Board, Hamburg and was instrumental in the licencing of Amateur Radio transmissions in Germany when the war ended. Allied service personnel were first, then German nationals. DARC, the German national Amateur Radio organization, recognised the significance of that event and, for some considerable time, invited Rowley and his wife Ruth to their Annual Convention. Rowley died on 18 November 2009 at the age of 90.

 

If you served in Germany , enjoyed the benefits associated with Amateur Radio, and you would like to renew friendships and acquaintances, especially if you have reminiscences, photographs or memorabilia to share with us, please join.

 

So far, there has been remarkable input from the UK and around the world. With adequate volunteer effort available, there is still no need at this point in time for a Committee. As a result, and with the proviso that members who prefer not to use email provide country representatives with self-addressed, pre-paid envelopes for correspondence, membership is free.

 

If you would like to add your name to the email or postal mailing list please send your details to:- John Hawkins, VK6AU/G3LXD/DL2XH, 17 Shasta Road, Lesmurdie WA 6076, Australia, telephone number (08) 9291 7908, email bushcarp at westnet.com.au or contact your country representative whose QTH should appear on www.qrz.com .