It is Sunday evening, the motorhomes are back on their home pitches, and I am sitting with a coffee in front of the logbook. Three days at HB9TG in Schweizerholz, Friday to Sunday, and I simply have to say it: this was one of the best hamfests we have had as HB9AF so far.
Before I tell you everything we got up to, the most important thing first. Thank you to all the honorary members and committee members who came. For a small club like ours, it is not something to take for granted that you cleared your weekend for this. Without you it would have been a campsite with a radio. With you it was a get-together among friends.
Those present were Daniel HB9HWG, Tobias HB9HTZ, Mark HB9DRN, Marco HB3YJY with his wife Michaela, and me, HB9HJI.
Friday: the motorhome park grows
Anyone who knows us knows that we do not sleep in tents. On Friday afternoon one motorhome after another rolled onto the meadow, and at some point there was a little park of Hymers, Fiats and a coach that looked more like a band on tour than a radio club. Cable reels out, mains hook-up shared around, and then the thing that always comes first with us: antennas.
Putting up a mast is a ritual for us, with two people, three guy lines and at least one discussion about whether the angle is right now. In the end there was an end-fed, a Buddipole and two dipoles on the meadow, plus something completely different later on, but more on that further down.
Which antenna is better? We checked
In August I wrote in the WSPR post that I would rather measure antennas than guess. On Saturday I got to do exactly that in front of an audience. The WSPR module in HAM-Tools runs with the IC-705 via CAT: set the band, start a session, and the app collects who hears me and whom I hear.
On 20 m, in just under half an hour, we collected 51 spots from 31 stations, right across Europe, an outlier to WA3ITR across the Atlantic, and at some point VK5ARG in South Australia appeared on the «Who hears me» map. The moment when everyone at the table went quiet for a second.
Then the part I actually built the module for: comparing. One session with the Buddipole, one session with the end-fed, both on 20 m, and HAM-Tools works out how the stations that listened both times saw the two antennas. Six stations had heard both, and the end-fed was ahead by 4.8 dB on average. LZ2RKG and GM4HYG each reported 8.5 dB more, YL1VA on the other hand 12 dB less. That is WSPR: an average made up of lots of individual cases.
To be honest: that was a demonstration, not a measurement I would build anything on. The two sessions were half an hour apart, the reports had not all been fetched yet, and the ionosphere does not care whether we happen to be comparing. But that was exactly the point at that table. Showing how to get from «I think» to a number in twenty minutes. The proper comparison measurement under clean conditions is still to come; I promised that in the WSPR post and I stand by it.
Mail over radio, this time from HAM-Tools
And then the part I had been looking forward to most. In August I introduced Skywave, my Winlink client for the Mac. On Saturday the first mail over ARDOP went out not from Skywave, but directly from HAM-Tools. Radio on the USB cable, ARDOP modem in the background, write the mail, send it, and then wait until HB9AK as the gateway accepts the connection and picks up the mail. No internet, no mobile phone, just shortwave.
I promised that the next Winlink post would no longer be a release note, but the story from everyday use. It is coming, and it starts with this weekend.
A contest on the side, with 5 watts and with 100
On Saturday the IARU Field Day SSB was running, and we made use of it without entering the scoring ourselves. Field day stations are grateful contacts: they call loudly, they listen well, and they are pleased with every call. We put them in the log and showed HAM-Tools in action at the same time, at the camping table under the awning.
Along the way we ran both: QRP with 5 watts from the IC-705, and then 100 watts with the MLA-100 running behind it. Both went into the log. Everyone knows that 100 watts makes it easier, but it is something else to hear the difference one after the other at the same table.
Mark’s Lab599 hooked up to the Mac
Mark HB9DRN had brought his Lab599, and I had wanted to see it with HAM-Tools for a while. CAT cable in, select the rig, frequency and mode flow cleanly into the log. The test was short and unspectacular, and that is exactly how a CAT test should be. One more radio I can add to the list of supported transceivers with a clear conscience.
In between, the FreeDV module, which has been in the app since this week, was running on the MacBook. On 20 m on Saturday there were more than thirty stations active in the Reporter, most of them from the USA, two from Greece, one from Japan. We did not make any contacts with it, but we certainly had a look.
Tobi’s GainMaster and the little Albrecht
On Saturday Tobias HB9HTZ put up a GainMaster, a vertical for 11 m. CB radio at an amateur radio meeting, and I stood there grinning, because only two weeks ago I had introduced my Albrecht AE 5900. So the little one went onto the big antenna, and lo and behold: it does its job. If you have only known the Albrecht on a magnetic-mount antenna so far, you will hear a different band on a proper vertical.
The evening
From late afternoon onwards, the action moved from the radio table to the barbecue. We sat under the awning, the radio kept running quietly, every now and then someone picked up the microphone, and the conversations went where they always go with us: old stories, new projects, who is buying which radio next and whether the family knows about it.
What went through my head on Sunday morning while packing up: we did not set a record this weekend, did not win a contest and did not get a new DXCC entity into the log. We slept in motorhomes, compared antennas, sent mail over shortwave and laughed a lot. That is the reason this club exists.
What remains
There are a few things I am taking away for myself. The WSPR module needs the proper comparison measurement, with the same time, the same band and several runs. I will write the Winlink story from the motorhome as soon as I have a few more sessions in the log. And I am adding the Lab599 to the list of tested radios.
And the next meeting? We are already talking about it. If you are one of our members and could not make it this time: next time we will put a chair under the awning for you.
73 de Chris, HB9HJI
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