Maj-Lis and I live in a large house in the village of Lunda, 55Km north of Stockholm, in JO99AP. We met in 1992 and married October 1993 in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates. Christianity is illegal in Saudi so we had to travel to find a church. We found St. Christophers cathedral, Manama, Bahrain.
These photos were taken in the grounds of the hotel, during the wedding reception. We are absolutely 100% devoted to each other and take great pride in pleasing each other whenever possible. This includes breakfast in bed for Maj-Lis, every weekend. Every Friday we celebrate with a nice bottle of wine and a fine meal fit for a king.
We have three cats, the eldest is Beethoven, so named because he was so calm and composed when we got him!
Since then we have adopted two more cats; Smulan (Swedish for "the morsel"), and Ginger. We got Ginger in 2003.
Maj-Lis is a Swedish nurse, now retired. Her hobby is cooking, and she was educated inthe 60s at Hasselbacken restaurant and hotelier school. Today it is just a posh restaurant, but if you ask any 1/2-decent restaurant for "Hasselback Potatoes" they should know this Swedish delight. Please, NO comments about Maj-Lis and the "Swedish chef".
Maj-Lis is quite traditional when it comes to both food and celebrations; pre-Christmas and Easter are times for lengthy preparations in the kitchen. Maj.Lis is fluent in English and she often corrects my spelling and grammar.
One has to experience ill health in order to appreciate good health. Maj-Lis suffers from an array of illnesses, from SLE and Sjögrens, to a series of broken limbs and even two heart attacks. At one point she had a cyst trapping the spinal nerve, which put her in a wheelchair for a while, then a walking frame. But Maj-Lis is always positive and refuses to give in to sickness.
In principle, Maj-Lis's major illness means that her immune system can attack bits of the body it should leave alone. It can attack any part at any time. We just hope it is kind enough to leave the brain and heart alone.
I worked for Ericsson as a method engineer, project manager, then multimedia producer. My English voice and 25-years of radio installation experience are ideal for training videos. I am trying to learn Swedish but I only know enough to communicate (and get into trouble).
I now work for Semcon, Kista, Stockholm, where I work indirectly for Ericsson, but for less money!
My health? Well, I can say that I have survived cancer, thanks to Maj-Lis's womans's intuition. She convinced me to ask the doc for a PSA test and in December 2007 I had four small tumours removed. The tests all show "all clear".
I met wireless in 1964 when I was caught sticking pins in cable Redifusion wireless cables. Soon after this I built my first radio transmitter which operated in the middle of the MW band. I wasn't actually caught with the MW transmitter, but a detector van did come to the house they searched for a transmitter. They didn't find one though. Perhaps they expected a box with "ILLEGAL TRANSMITTER" written on the side instead of a lonely 807 laying on it's side with its cathode grinding red-hot to the musical strains of Cilla Black (remember, this was a few years ago!!).
I then graduated to HF and assumed the callsign "EL84" on the "Echo Charlie" pirate radio band (6.5 - 6.7 MHz). I chose EL84 for my first callsign during my first ever contact. When the guy at the other end asked me for a callsign I desperately looked round the room for inspiration, then my eyes fell on my TX output valve (yes, the EL84 does work very well on the short wave bands). I became legal in the 70's as G8TGL, later to become G4VVJ and now SM0VPO. Well, that's about all I will admit to.
I hope that you have fun with my radio circuits. If you decide to build some of the transmitters, then please spare a thought for your neighbours; use open-wire feeders, and fix your antenna as close to their TV antenna possible! (only kidding).
73s de HARRY.