The author belongs to the second generation of radio astronomers. He started observing in 1954 with a German Riese-Würzburg radar transformed into a radio telescope, then in 1959-1963 with a two- Würzburg variable-spacing interferometer. He participated in the construction of the Nançay Large Radio Telescope, and used the Owens Valley Observatory interferometer during a stay in Caltech (1968-1969). He was deeply involved in the genesis of the French-German-Spanish Institute of Radio Astronomy at Millimeter waves (IRAM). His contacts with radio astronomers worldwide are described. In recent years, he participated in a series of seven papers devoted to the history of radio astronomy in France, published in this journal.