At the end of
June I had the privilege of attending my 3rd
"Ham Radio," Europe's largest
international exhibition/convention for
Amateur Radio located in Friedrichshafen,
Germany. I really like the format and
the layout of this event and the convention
center or "Messe" as it is called is a
first-rate facility. In addition to the
Messe, the town of Friedrichshafen with its
location on beautiful Lake Constance
provides a beautiful scenic backdrop to any
event held there. Check out my
2007 HAM RADIO link if you are
interested in more info.
As for this
year's
Ham Radio, I spent the bulk of my time
at the
ARRL booth assisting with the
League's DXCC Card Checking duties.
In the above photo, dear friends and members
of the Israel Amateur Radio Club- Ilya 4Z1UF
and Mark 4Z4KX stopped by the
ARRL booth for a photo. Ilya has
been most helpful to a few of the West
Virginia DX Association DXers helping us
make QSOs with him on the 160meter band.
Mark is the Manager of the Holyland Contest
and has operated with me from a few of my
CQWW contest operation from 4X. It was great
seeing them at Friedrichshafen this year!
I have now
completed and uploaded a 5-minute music
video from my photos at Friedrichshafen...
enjoy-
http://www.w8hc.com/2009hamradio.wmv
This year
after the Ham Radio gig, I did something
really off-the-wall... I booked a solo bike
tour around Lake Constance. That is
"bike" as in bicycle not motorcycle.
After a few emails and searching the
internet (Lawdy ain't it great?) I found the
Bodensee-Radweg tour. A Mr.
Christoph Becker of this company was GREAT
to work with and even though I initially had
some concerns about doing this, EVERYTHING
worked out perfectly. Without a doubt
this was the most awesome vacation I have
ever taken.
For 6 days of
riding over 328 kilometers, the weather was
perfect, the hotels selected for me were
awesome and the local food was great.
In addition to that, the scenery around the
Bodensee as Lake Constance is called, was
picturesque and the people I met along my
way will always provide a special lasting
memory. I biked on my "Big Red
Machine" in Germany, Switzerland and Austria
plus an additional leg to ride out to the
Rhein Waterfalls beyond Schaffhausen....
spectacular! I highly recommend the
Bodensee Bike Tour and give it two great big
Thumbs UP!
I have now
uploaded a 3-minute music video from photos
I took on my bike trip. The music was
from a CD I purchased from a street musician
playing in the harbor at Konstanz.
Enjoy...
http://www.w8hc.com/bodenseememories.wmv
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who is W8HC?
Hal W8HC and Dave WA8WV at
2008 Dayton Hamvention®
I received my initial ham
license at the age of 15 on October 6, 1967.
I was granted the callsign WN8ZAT, one of the first
two-year Novice tickets issued by the FCC
for the Amateur service. Up to
that time, I had been an avid short-wave
radio listener (SWL) for 3 or 4 years using
a borrowed Hallicrafters S-119K Sky Buddy
until my parents
gave me a Heathkit GR-64
general coverage receiver kit for Christmas
in 1965. A longwire antenna rounded
out my "station" there in St. Albans,
West Virginia where I
spent countless hours logging foreign
broadcast stations and mailing them signal
reports so I could get their much-treasured QSL cards in return.
QSL cards are post card confirmations that
the actual reception took place as claimed.
In amateur radio, it is an acknowledgement
or receipt confirming a 2-way contact.
Back in the '60s, "Popular
Electronics" magazine offered SWL callsigns
for submitting confirmations with either 5
or 7 stations, I can't recall the exact
number. I do remember checking my mailbox
every day to see if I had received any QSLs.
Ultimately, I collected the required number
of cards and attained the SWL callsign
WPE8JEC
from the magazine. I
thought it
had a nice ring to it and I wrote it on
everything I owned.
I
still have all of these QSL cards: Radio Sofia, Radio
Moscow, Radio Kiev, Radio Havana, Radio
Budapest, Voice of America, Radio Vatican,
Radio South Africa, to name a few. I
was getting so much mail from Cuba and
especially around the holidays I would get
postcards with caricatures of Castro on
them. My parents were actually beginning
to worry that the Feds would be knocking on
the door someday. The cold war was
still in the deep-freeze and I doubt there
were that many 14-year olds getting regular
mail from Havana and Moscow.
I think it was in my 8th
grade English class that I had to write my
first "research" paper. My topic---
Guglielmo Marconi, the "father" of radio and
my hero. He has been my hero ever
since.
For Christmas 1966, I got
a Knight T-60 transmitter and I was ready to put it on
the air when my ticket finally arrived in
the following fall. My ham-buddy
Eugene Hereford had received his
Novice call WN8YMF just a few months before me. Gene
had just missed
out on the two year ticket so, his
license was only good for one year. We
helped each other out a lot in terms of
learning more about our hobby. Gene
was a whiz on CW. Nobody
could make a straight key "sing" like Gene!
I lost
track of him until March of 2006 at the
Charleston, WV hamfest, when I met his widow
who was selling off Gene's equipment.
I did not know he had been living in
Charleston for the year up until his death
when he lost his life to cancer. I thought he was still living
somewhere in Florida. Looking back, he was my
Elmer.... I am just sorry we didn't
"connect" after he returned home to WV.
I held the General Class
call WB8ZFW until passing my Advanced Class
test and received the call- KC8FS. I kept
it for 14 or 15 years after getting my
Extra Class ticket. I received the
current 'vanity' callsign in August 2004.
DXing has been my passion
from the get-go but the bug bit hard in about
'88. From then, I was on a mission to the
top of the ARRL's DXCC Honor Roll which I
finally attained in 2005 with the VU4RBI
operation.
Although I don't contest
as much as I used to, I still like
participating in a couple every year,
primarily DX Phone contests. I just
don't have the stamina for a CW effort. My most
memorable contesting? CQWW with Dave WA8WV over
at Bob Morris' W4MYA multi/multi station in
VA. It's hard to beat operating legal limit
into stacks! But anytime operating
with Dave is fun. He's a machine!
I hope you enjoy the
website. I just wish I had more time to work
on it...
73 es DX,
Hal W8HC
