Friedrichshafen! Part 1

The ferry left us in Ancona (Italy) at 12:00 local time on Wednesday 20th of June. It took us 21 hours sailing from Patras. And after a 9 hours driving we arrived to St Genis (France) near Geneva. We met there my friend Nick (F5VIH alias SV3SJ) who lives there. The most impressive thing was the difference in temperature. We left Greece with 36 degrees and we found France only in 12 degrees and raining. This weather kept along all the 8 days we stayed in the area. According to the plan on Friday morning Nick and me we drive an other 480Km to Friedrichshafen. It was the first time I was visiting such a huge event. Friedrichshafen Messe is a well organized place for any kind of manifestations or fairs. Once a year it accommodates the Ham Radio festival every last weekend of June. It is located in the center of Europe in south Germany near the beautiful city of Konstanz. Actually you have to take a small ferry to get across the lake to rich Friedrichshafen.
The exhibition is separated in two big sections. One with the surplus stuff and the other with the kiosks of well known firms and shops as well the radio amateur organizations from all over the world. The first day we decided to visit the surplus section as the stock disappears very quickly. This exhibition is very popular. Pileups of hams go there every year to meet each other and collect useful things for their hobby.
Walking around the corridors we met with Patrick (F6IRF) and Philippe (F6IFY) both members, as Nick, of CN2WW contest group. You can get info about their activities in the following link: http://cn2ww.blogspot.com/. We have a lot of fun together. By the end of the day we went to Weingarten, a nearby village to spend the night.

Greek Hamfest

Last Sunday the Greek hamfest took place in Athens. Organized by RAAG in a new place this year, it left us generally good impressions. We met there lot of hams all around the country. Eyeball qso with SV1GH, SV1BLD,SV2JT, SV3XO, SV3HK, SV3KH, SV3ALA, SV2DCD, SV9ANK, SV9GPV, SV9GPJ and many others. Nice place, nice people, nice time. Four hams from Zante Island travel to Athens to join this event: SV8RX, SV8KOM, SV8AXZ and SV8RV. We came back with cheerful memories and some goods we found there. Next hamfest I visit it will be a very big one: the European Hamfest in Friedrichshafen. Keep tuned.

Traveling blogs

Traveling blogs belong to another thematic topic. I always liked those who were traveling around the world, knowing new places as well people and their cultures. Recently, bloging gave to them a great means to write and let us know their experiences. Probably there are many blogs of this type. I have already given you the link of godimitris. Recently I spotted another similar one (www.theworldoffroad.com). In both of them the heroes are Greeks, but the stories are written in several languages. Except the texts with their adventures there are also plenty of photos and videos from many exotic places they are visiting. All of them live, freezing the facts and publishing them in the same time as they are living them. I spend a lot of time reading all this stuff, imaging that I am a member of their crew. I wish also they had a radio with them, so we could have some contacts in our way.

50MHz Marathon

Recently I started participating in the 50MHz marathon. It is a great idea of contesting in 6m. All info is located in the page http://6m.dy.fi (The Six Meter Marathon 2007 5th of May to 5th of August, as described exactly). I have worked 18 different countries till now. Not a so good score but the whole fun is the competition! So if you find the idea interesting just join us.
Here they are my contacts:

date:__	time:__	dxcc:__	call:__	mode:__
10/05	1653	UT	UR0MC	ssb
13/05	1430	DL	DQ5R	SSB
13/05	1434	HB	HB9ZCV	SSB
13/05	1434	F	F5RBB	SSB
20/05	1640	SU	SU1SK	SSB
21/05	1520	SV	SV8AXZ	SSB
21/05	1523	I	IZ7FLS	SSB
21/05	1525	CT	CQ0ODX	SSB
22/05	1556	A7	A71EM	SSB
13/05	1628	EA	EA3IE	SSB
23/05	1001	TA	TA7A	SSB
23/05	1714	YO	YO8MI	SSB
23/05	1843	EA6	EA6CC	SSB
24/05	0748	SP	SP9LCV	SSB
24/05	0800	OK	OK2KR	SSB
24/05	0801	OM	OM3ZAS	SSB
24/05	0805	HA	HA6NF	SSB
24/05	0812	YU	YU7AZ	SSB

EU PSK DX contest

Poor propagation comparing with the previous years. In spite of this, a lot of guys participated and the party had a lot of fun. It was very nice to meet around old men members of the EPC club. I made only 181 contacts in all bands and I got 45708 points. No USA stations heard this time and very few from far east and South America. We hope next year things will go better.

Sporadic E! Great openings

The most exciting ham events of this period they are the great openings mostly in 6m band due sporadic E . Almost every afternoon lot of European stations are being heard and the band is full of life. Last Sunday, 13-05-2007 I made 41 QSO using a long wire and the good old one IC-7000. I was in my second QTH and no beam was available but that turned out to be no obstacle. Later in the evening, Spiros (SV8CS) and me we went to our special location up to the hill chasing ST2A but we aren' t so lucky. Never mind, next time will be! Instead we worked a bunch of IT9's in 2m.

BS7H challenge

The most crowded DXpedition of the year. Very difficult to work it in Europe and USA I think. Only Japan was happy I am afraid. Making alive a so rare entity it is really a mess. Lot of QRM makers all the time in the frequency and huge split rage made things worse. On the other hand I realize how difficult the situation was for the team upon these tiny rocks. Somebody said that Scarborough reef will disappear soon due to the warming effect of the planet. So it was the last chance to work it. I did it only on 17m SSB and 20m SSB so far, spending several hours of shouting. Now only two days (I will try 15m tomorrow) of operation have left. I wish them good luck and safe journey back.

PS. The contact in 15m finally done!
The snap is from the 1995 expedition.