Messe was busy but not overcrowded. The 3 halls did take a good, tiring day to get round and occasionally it was a squeeze to see things but nothing like the UK rallies. Everything was well spaced and easy to find. The main hall which housed the traders also housed many of the national radio bodies, so as well as our own RSGB stand we chatted with the Italian national society (free Prosecco), the Dutch VERON (free liquorice), the Council of Europe radio society (chocolates and a very interesting chat), the Italian equivalent of RAYNET (excellent ideas for emergency and portable stations) as well as browsing many of the others.
Catering was amazing given the number of people. Food was typical German - Wurst, Pork Knuckles, Chicken etc. and of couse the mandatory beer to wash it down. Queues weren't too bad and even at peak times we were able to get food within 5 mins or so and find a table. Even more surprising the prices didn't rip us off - even the beer was little more than UK pub price although the concept of a deposit on the glass was unusual.
There wasn't even a queue for the loos!
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Hamfest 2011
The whole point of this trip was to visit Friedfrichshafen Hamfest, albeit via the circuitous route involving Switzerland. To non radio amateurs a hamfest is a combination of trade stands, electronics car boot sale and in the case of the larger ones, technical lectures. Of course, the problem with going to foreign events is the lectures are in foreign too, and our everyday german is non-existent so not a hope of understanding a technical lecture.
As for trade stands, the big 3 manufacturers were there: Kenwood, Icom and Yaesu (all Japanese), two very large retailers - the German Wimo and our own Waters & Stanton (who years ago permanently lost our patronage after an off-air remark by one of their senior repair team suggested a less than positive approach to my customer call) and lots of smaller vendors. One big difference between the UK and Europe is that there is much more space in Europe, so more hams have towers for their aerials, so european hamfests have many more manufacturers/retailers of towers, associated hardware, guy ropes, and of course the huge antennas that sit atop of the towers.
The fleamarket was a bit different too - very little 2nd hand modern commercial equipment but LOTS of military gear and valves. Apart from a brand new still in its original sealed wax wrapping paper, 20 year old Czech army morse key we bought almost nothing from the flea market. The trade stands tempted us into a CG3000 automatic antenna tuner - perfect for using a simple 10m vertical wire from a fishing pole attached to the campervan, a drill press for my little hobby drill - ideal for PCBs and several bits'n'bobs'n'connectors.
The euro/sterling rate didn't lend to many bargains - for example a brand new TS-590s is €1699 on Wimo's website = £1543 using my credit card's exchange rate. Compare that with Nevada's current price of £1329! I had planned to buy the voice card for the TS-590 but it is cheaper in the UK. On the other hand Wimo had a show special of €40 off the already less than euro-for-sterling price of €275 on the CG3000 that I bought. That gave me a price of £213.50 which does compare well with Nevada's £296.12 and I feel I got a good deal. The deal on the ATU was a rarity though and we only bought bits that we felt would be hard to source in the UK.
The flea market led to the new morse key, a bargain at €5. I really wanted some nixie tubes but they were on boards and a few had been cracked so to guarantee I had enough to make a clock I would have had to pay just a little more than I wanted. A pity, in better condition I would have had confidence to buy fewer and hence they would have been affordable.
However rallies and hamfests are not all about buying, as well as the social side (see separate blog entry) there is the opportunity to a) increase your knowledge (index of possibilities, as I like to call it) and b) ogle those objects of lust that are either beyond the price range or not currently available.
Several antenna bits certainly did give us some more thoughts and ideas and I'm not sure if the novel variable capacitor in the photo would really work but it's an interesting idea as is using a syringe and tubing to provide a pneumatically driven variable capacitor.
As for objects of lust: there were only two but both are on my lottery-win list (of couse, I'd have to overcome my principles and actually buy a lottery ticket first!).
The Hilberling PT-8000 gets such rave reviews and looks so spectacular that even its price tag of €13290 (£12,081) seems justifiable. As Liz kept reminding me - I've only just bought a new radio :-(
The KX3 is expected to be more moderately priced at around $799 (just under £500) and Eric Schwartz told me they we hoping for an end-of-year release. I did ask if he could have it ready for my birthday at the end of Oct and he said they'd try! Imagine ultra-portablity, even better than an FT-817 and features and performance on par with or even better than a K2. Also a brick sized 100W PA as an add-on option. I WANT!
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| Did I say BIG towers were available for sale? |
The fleamarket was a bit different too - very little 2nd hand modern commercial equipment but LOTS of military gear and valves. Apart from a brand new still in its original sealed wax wrapping paper, 20 year old Czech army morse key we bought almost nothing from the flea market. The trade stands tempted us into a CG3000 automatic antenna tuner - perfect for using a simple 10m vertical wire from a fishing pole attached to the campervan, a drill press for my little hobby drill - ideal for PCBs and several bits'n'bobs'n'connectors.
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| Looks boring, but useful for portable radio from the Romahome |
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| Got to be worth €5 |
The flea market led to the new morse key, a bargain at €5. I really wanted some nixie tubes but they were on boards and a few had been cracked so to guarantee I had enough to make a clock I would have had to pay just a little more than I wanted. A pity, in better condition I would have had confidence to buy fewer and hence they would have been affordable.
However rallies and hamfests are not all about buying, as well as the social side (see separate blog entry) there is the opportunity to a) increase your knowledge (index of possibilities, as I like to call it) and b) ogle those objects of lust that are either beyond the price range or not currently available.
As for objects of lust: there were only two but both are on my lottery-win list (of couse, I'd have to overcome my principles and actually buy a lottery ticket first!).
 |
| The PT-8000 comes in several colours |
The Hilberling PT-8000 gets such rave reviews and looks so spectacular that even its price tag of €13290 (£12,081) seems justifiable. As Liz kept reminding me - I've only just bought a new radio :-(
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| Object of lust! It's so tiny! |
The KX3 is expected to be more moderately priced at around $799 (just under £500) and Eric Schwartz told me they we hoping for an end-of-year release. I did ask if he could have it ready for my birthday at the end of Oct and he said they'd try! Imagine ultra-portablity, even better than an FT-817 and features and performance on par with or even better than a K2. Also a brick sized 100W PA as an add-on option. I WANT!
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Zeppelins and Fronleichnam
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| I day say - close! |
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| Disembarking - 1920's style |
So another day where, in part, we are confined to the van. Still a good chance to try the Troyes boardgame out; goodness, it is a real heavy thinking game.
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| Did I mention - BIG antennas |
Later in the afternoon the rain eases and we get the opportunity to go walkabout. What a fascinating raggle-taggle piece of geekdom this campsite it. Antenna everywhere, in all shapes and sizes, some more ingeniously constructed and others making use of local trees and streetlights - how did they tie them 20' up a street light? There's not a ladder to be spotted. And then again some of them were just HUGE!
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| Fully extended you probably can't spot your correspondent |
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Oh I do like to be beside the Bodensee-side
So we bid Switzerland a fond "au revior", "auf wiedersehen", "arrivederci", "a revair" just to make sure we include all of its languages and head off towards Germany. The plan is to follow the Bodensee's south coastline around, through Austria and up into Germany. Hmm - explaining that to Tomtom is harder than we thought, setting a destination for anything more than a few miles away and she insists on taking us on a faster inland route. Must check if there is a 'take scenic route' option.
Still Liz coaxes her into eventually submission be adding increasingly distant destinations one at a time until she meanders us around the coastline with its beautiful views of the lake. And yes, we do know it is much quicker to cross the border at Konstanz and around the north side to Friedrichshafen but the journey is as important as the destination on this holiday. Mind you when we hit the austrian traffic after crossing the border at St Margrethen we did wonder whether the simpler, one country less route might have been a better option.
Once in Germany we benefited from joining the best road system in Europe and were whisked round to Friedrichshafen in no time. We'd set Tomtom to aim for the city centre and hoped the Messe (where the radio Hamfest was being held) wouldn't be too far away. As it turns out, it is a way out of town at the airport but excellent signage (both normal road signs and Hamfest specific signs) made it simple to find.
Now the rally doesn't start for another couple of days but already the campsite is filling and spaces on the main site are few and far between (we found out over the next couple of days that adjacent sites were also pressed into action). A very friendly and helpful official took our money and pointed a parking spot directly opposite a corral of vans and tents what appeared to be containing the entire radio amateur population of Macedonia.
Now, would you believe it but almost immediately after we are settled in we get a visit from a familiar face - Norman (GI4SZP) the vice-chairman of the Romahome owners club. His R20 hylo was just across the other side of the car park. What a coincidence. He was accompanied by a German white-stick (blind) radio ham Albert who's callsign we forgot to note. It's good to know that many radio manufacturers rate accessibility high on their list of requirements, the current Kenwood TS-590s is purported to be very straightforward for blind operators.
Having left table and crates to reserve our spaces (the campers equivalent of the towel on the deckchair) we hit the nearest supermarket for supplies. To our surprise Marktkauf had exactly the camping pan set Liz has been looking for, but in their kitchenware. Individual 12, 14, and 16cm stainless steel with handles on two sides which means the pans can stack inside each other allowing steaming; much cheaper than camping sets too.
We did notice the beer seller on the campsite but it's too wet, so a quiet night in the van methinks.
Still Liz coaxes her into eventually submission be adding increasingly distant destinations one at a time until she meanders us around the coastline with its beautiful views of the lake. And yes, we do know it is much quicker to cross the border at Konstanz and around the north side to Friedrichshafen but the journey is as important as the destination on this holiday. Mind you when we hit the austrian traffic after crossing the border at St Margrethen we did wonder whether the simpler, one country less route might have been a better option.
Once in Germany we benefited from joining the best road system in Europe and were whisked round to Friedrichshafen in no time. We'd set Tomtom to aim for the city centre and hoped the Messe (where the radio Hamfest was being held) wouldn't be too far away. As it turns out, it is a way out of town at the airport but excellent signage (both normal road signs and Hamfest specific signs) made it simple to find.
Now the rally doesn't start for another couple of days but already the campsite is filling and spaces on the main site are few and far between (we found out over the next couple of days that adjacent sites were also pressed into action). A very friendly and helpful official took our money and pointed a parking spot directly opposite a corral of vans and tents what appeared to be containing the entire radio amateur population of Macedonia.
 |
| A busy campsite - and a lot of antennas |
Now, would you believe it but almost immediately after we are settled in we get a visit from a familiar face - Norman (GI4SZP) the vice-chairman of the Romahome owners club. His R20 hylo was just across the other side of the car park. What a coincidence. He was accompanied by a German white-stick (blind) radio ham Albert who's callsign we forgot to note. It's good to know that many radio manufacturers rate accessibility high on their list of requirements, the current Kenwood TS-590s is purported to be very straightforward for blind operators.
Having left table and crates to reserve our spaces (the campers equivalent of the towel on the deckchair) we hit the nearest supermarket for supplies. To our surprise Marktkauf had exactly the camping pan set Liz has been looking for, but in their kitchenware. Individual 12, 14, and 16cm stainless steel with handles on two sides which means the pans can stack inside each other allowing steaming; much cheaper than camping sets too.
We did notice the beer seller on the campsite but it's too wet, so a quiet night in the van methinks.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
As Neuhausen am Rheinfall falls, so falls Neuhausen am Rheinfall Falls
A bonus point for identifying the film that lends provides today's title (hint replace "Neuhausen am Rheinfall" with "Witchita")
The Rhine waterfall just outside Schaffhausen is the largest in Europe - at only 23m they are not particularly high but the width of 150m gives an impressive water flow.
A quick photo stop here before heading off out of Switzerland, no time to take one of the little boats that shudder into the heart of the falls allowing visitors to disembark on the central island and clamber up a steep path to what must be a phenomenal viewpoint.
Just a 20 minute stop, apparently this wasn't long enough for one extended Japanese family to finish the group photo session - they were click away taking group portraits (and blocking the path) when we arrived and the exact same blockage had to be negotiated on our departure.
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| Impressive, but not on a Niagara scale |
A quick photo stop here before heading off out of Switzerland, no time to take one of the little boats that shudder into the heart of the falls allowing visitors to disembark on the central island and clamber up a steep path to what must be a phenomenal viewpoint.
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| Emulating the Japanese with our own portrait shoot |
Here be dragons ...
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| Gargoyle-cum-guttering |
We decideed to take a train down to Stein am Rhein, a beuatiful fresco painted medieval town at the point where the Rhine becomes Lake Constance (or vice versa). The train was easy enough with the ticket machine having an English option. Being Switzerland the trains ran exactly on time as orchestrated by those wonderful Swiss Railway clocks and the ride initally following bthe river, then veering countrywards before picking it up again was delightful. Until about 4 stops from Stein when a school outing boarded, 2 teachers (although one loooked young enough to be a student) and about 20 hyper-active barely-teenage kids.
The kids also got off at Stein (we were hoping the school trip was onwards to St Gallen) and thronged into the tiny town centre where they joined what must have been the swiss national cycle outing to Stein am Rhein; loads of cyclists throng the streets, cluttering cycles everywhere. So much for the romantic walk amongst 16th century frescos.
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| Even more frescos than Schaffhause |
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| Add caption |
Also most of the town's manhole covers bear a motif of George slaying the dragon. Pity, he could have picked up a few schoolkids and a couple of cyclists too! Still a pleasant stroll and an interesting frescos, worth the visit although a quieter day might have been preferable.
Being fed up of ruddy tourists we eschewed the altstadt's busy bars and restaurants and dropped into a locals' local on the way back to the train station. Run by what appeared to be a couple of Hells Angels and being a smoking pub (so many are in Switzerland) it was not the obvious choice but we were made most welcome and the landlord and landlady were most amusing mock-dancing to the golden-oldies on the radio.
On back to Schaffhausen (actually Fueurthalen station just outside Schaffhausen is nearer to the campsite and directly opposite the Co-op), restock essential supplies (i.e. alcohol and biscuits) and then unwind onn the banks of the Rhine with a cold glass of Swiss cider. The campsite also has public access to some paddling pools and a small 'beach' on the river so was quite busy with Mums and toddlers, either splashing around or soaking up the sun on this, yet again, beautiful day.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Romahome owners can't be shy ...
... 'cos everyone wants to see the cute little van. This site, particularly we have had stares from almost everyone that passes. This morning the English couple next to us knocked on the door to say "Goodbye" and were keen to see the interior. Suddenly we had a queue, two separate Germans, neither of whom spoke English wanted a look and I tried to explain to one about the seats making "ein große bed" - pity I don't know the German for "bed"!
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