A very busy day ... The Ham Radio fair, a summit activation and The SOTA Dinner !
Ham Radio 2023
Normally I could walk from my apartment to the fair in only 5 minutes, but the footbridge I wanted to use was closed. So with a detour, it took me some 10 minutes.
Of course, first thing to do was to say hello to Hans Summers of QRP Labs, but he was sooo busy ... I decided to return later, when his "pile up" had dried up ...
Hans always shares a stand with Hannnes DL9SCO of Palm Radio keys.
I bought a Palm Pico paddle for a friend, and got myself a "GREEN Edition" Palm Mini paddle.
Then I first went to the flea market, which was filled a little more than last year, but still not what it used to be. Lots of old stuff I didn't need, so in the end I only bought a couple of cheap camera bags.
I saw a few old Grundig receivers (I used to own a Satellit 2000) ...
After that it was time to visit the main hall A1.
A lot of the big or small but famous companies still had not returned (no sign of Yaesu, Wimo, Begali, DX-Wire, ... to name a few). Kenwood was back, but with a very small stand. Difona was also back, doing good sales it seemed ... as did several others. Here the stand of Anjo Antennen.
At 12:00 noon, it was time to say hello to a few SOTA friends at the SOTA Booth. It is the first year we had a booth at the Ham Radio , and it was an instant success! Thanks to the work of Marcel DM3FAM and Roman DL3TU, and many other helpers. Here a few impressions ...
I can't put more pictures or mention all the people I have seen, I'm sure I would forget a lot ... but it was great to see so many old friends.
I also had a special "date" with one of the board members of the NTC, the Netherlands Telegraphy Club, of which I'm a member, and the Newsletter editor. I had asked Theo PA3HEN to look me up at the SOTA stand, since I knew that would be the only place where he could find me at a certain time. And it worked out fine. Only too bad we had only a brief conversation, we should do that again on a less busy event some day ...
Now, at the SOTA booth, I had another appointment with two SOTA friends: Karlo 9A3BKF and Stefan HB9HCS.
I had promised to take them in my car for a short SOTA activation, then to the SOTA dinner and back.
So at 16:30 I picked them up at the bus stop in front of the Ham Radio and off we went to this nice summit:
DM/BW-854, Höchsten - 838m, 8 Points
Parking position: 47.819749, 9.402346 , this is a drive up summit, you can operate at the parking if you wish.
Walking time: 3 minutes to the banstand at the summit, with nice views over the area and the Bodensee.
Avoid operating at the bandstand, it can get very busy there, there are several other nice spots once you walk around the bandstand.
Karlo used only his 2m handheld and made 4 QSO's, good for a valid activation.
Stefan used my setup, and had 5 QSO's.
My own result: 12 QSO's with 1 S2S with DM4EK/P on neighbouring Gehrenberg DM/BW-348
After the activation, we went to the Gasthof Adler , in the village of Hefigkofen (Oberteuringen). The dinner was organized by Joe, OE5JFE and had the biggest attendance ever, more than 50 people !
The people of the restaurant did a great job feeding all these hungry .. and above all THIRSTY mouths, hi.
Many more pictures from the dinner can be found in this thread on the SOTA reflector.
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