Born in Italy in 1958, Max was first licensed in 1974 at age of 16 as IW8XAC (VHF and higher), indeed he didn’t pass the CW exam! Few months later he was ready, passed the test, and got the extra class callsign I8NHJ. Since the very early days, Max liked to be exposed to everything about ham radio, even though CW and DXing became his passion. He enjoys working low bands CW and, lately, has experimented 432MHz-EME.
He is very proud of a special QSL, a letter of thanks his grandfather received from Mr. Marconi for helping him with some experiments.
Max is a Professional IT Engineer, in 2012 he moved to US working as Director of R&D for a multinational Corporate. Since then, he held the call N5NHJ (sounds bad in CW, but it is what it is).
His operating awards include DXCC Honor Roll (I8NHJ), DXCC Mixed/CW/Phone (both callsigns), 5BDXCC, 5BWAZ, and WAZ CW QRP. He is missing P5, the only NIL of his long carrier.
Max has been on many major activations and DXPeditions. Among others it is worth to remember EL2PP (2ND place in the 1993 CQWW CW SOLP), 1A0KM S.M.O.M., JT1Y Mongolia, E30GA Eritrea, T32R Kiribati, K5K Kingman Reef, XR0X San Felix, SO5X West Sahara, 4O3T Montenegro, BS7H Scarborough Reef, PJ7E Saint Martin, and K4M Midway.
While in the US, he has operated from several Caribbean countries like PJ, 6Y, C6, VP5, ZF, KP4, HQ9.
Max is a member of ARI, ARRL, NCDXF, MDXC, and CWOPS.