(Dr Reinhard Bollmann, DL3ML, YT6ML)

It’s been ten years since I’ve first met Reinhard. A quiet man, with typical German precision, completely dedicated to his profession of pathology. Together with his beautiful wife Magda he spent decades building his institute in Bonn. It eventually became one of the most prestigious in Germany. Besides his dedication to work, that left him without a speck of free time, Doc always dreamed of a time when he would be able to relax and turn to his other big love, amateur radio. Whenever the subject of his hobby took place, his eyes would shine with a boyish glow, full of joy and excitement.

Reinhard owned a house just 3km below Obosnik, where the 4O3A station is. We hung out many times a year during the last decade. He enjoyed every moment spent in his village Zabrdje, sitting in front of his radio station, or in his garden, looking at the beautiful landscape nature has blessed us with.

Before retiring, he was very exciting and joyful, because the time to dedicate to the hobby he loved immeasurably was finaly coming.

Along with his retirement, new ideas sparked up. While drinking some home made red wine on his terrace, discussing various topics, we came to an arrangement – we would install a remote station on Obosnik. It would be the best one on the planet, and Doc would be able to use the big antennas from his home at any time. And so we took on this project.

During the first year, his call sign 4O7ML was in the ether every day. Reinhard was in Bonn, sipping Magdas coffee and controlling Obosnik over the internet. There wasn’t a day when you couldn’t hear him on 20M in early morning hours, enjoying calls with his friends that he made around the time.

And as it usually is with people who are creators, at some point he sad – Ranko, why don’t we make make the Obosnik remote station available to everyone, in full capacity, and use the income to continue develop the project? Why not, I said, and we took a step forward into this exciting project. We will build a remote station that is technologically mind blowing and available for control and logging by anyone using a WEB console. We would expand his house in the village of Zabrdje and make a HAM tourist complex for all radio amateurs who wish to enjoy Montenegro in its full capacity – enjoying its wild beauty along with a radio amateur paradise. Tragically, in 2014, Reiner suddenly left us. An illness quickly took him away from us, leaving his friends and family in disbelief.

Today, he is with me every time I look at Obosnik. I can feel him in my heart, somehow being with us. That is why me, and his dear family have decided to finish what we already started together. We decided to make his dreams come true, because, he is with us, after all. Reiner is a man that easily enters ones heart, and never leaves.

Dear Doc, we love you so much despite the sorrow in our hearts. You inspire joy and light in all of us. You give our lives meaning. Thank you for every moment you shared with us.

Your HAM radio friend and brother,
Ranko