Again we are in Büren at DF0AT for participating in the Worked All Germany (WAG) Contest. It’s rainy, cold and a bit stormy — or in other words: typical Chaoswelle weather. But we have a warm shack and another warm room for chatting with the persons who are not operating in the contest. Also I’m camping outdoors and my tent is standing the rain.
Let’s see how many points we can collect. As long as we don’t forget to send in the logs like after the IARU-contest…
After a short trip from Hamburg I arrived at our D23 Fieldday location at Strandbad Flotwedel near Celle. My tent is set up and so is most of the other equipment like antennas, PAs and transceivers. We are already around 25 persons and expecting some more. Some local ham radio operators gave also a visit.
Let’s see how this event will evolve.
After a long day of work and 1000km in a new car, I finally arrived at our contest location in Büren. Seven other operators were already at the site and gave me a warm welcome.
First I needed to get rid off my suit and set up my tent in a short period without rain. After the delivered pizza food I gave out the QSL-cards. The situation looked like Christmas or a family gathering: everbody looked through his cards and showed the best to the others 
I felt like at home and at a place where I belong to.
The shack is not that large, but cozy and well equipped for the contest.
Yesterday evening I received a message from DO3BOX who asked me, if I can receive the Echolink entry point in Leverkusen DMØZAL-L on 423.850 MHz. Unfortunately I was in a basement at that time and so I had to wait until I get home.
The primary function of Echolink is known to me. But I never used it with a real transceiver, only with software from a PC. I read some websites about how I can reach the station with my transceiver and found out, that most of the Echolink entry points are working on simplex-mode at the HF-side (which makes sense…). I tried to reach the station, but got no reply. How should I provoke a signal from the station?
After some time the station sent out its callsign in CW. But I wanted to hear some “real” voice! I searched at the net for an Echolink-software for my Laptop, a MacBook Pro with Mac OS X 10.5 on it. And I was really suprised that I found EchoMac! You can find tons of Windows software when you want to use your PC for some ham radio activities. And there are also some Linux applications which are quite usable. But finding a Mac application is really seldom and finding one with a nice interface is even deluxe!
I quickly filled out the preferences (good that I am already registered) but stuck at the point where I had to enter my password for using the Echolink-service from the internet. It’s more than a year ago when I used it for the last time. And at that time I had a different PC which is already out of order. I tried some passwords and had luck with the third entry . Using EchoMac is really easy and so I quickly found DMØZAL-L on the list. I joined the station, but nothing happened. Well, I forgot to forward the UDP-ports 5198 and 5199 to my Mac… After fixing this on the router, I could connect to the station and no second later my transceiver said, that I connected via Echolink. I was impressed!
EchoMac in conversation with DM7FS and DC4LW on DM0ZAL-L
Tonight I did another try with DO3BOX and we even managed to get Falk DM7FS into the conversation. DO3BOX connected via HF which I tried first as well, but Leverkusen is too far away for a good 70cm transmission with my 5W handheld transceiver – although I could receive the signal quite good. So I switched to the PC, had to adjust the microphone signal and use some headphones for better listening. But it was still too noisy. I am wondering about the fact, that the signal is better on the right earplug, although it should be a mono-transmission. But testing equipment is one of the major parts doing ham radio and so I am not disappointed that our conversation was not that well
I need to buy a headphone with a microphone attached. Good that the MacBook Pro has separated plugs for AF-in and -out.
I just fetched around 200 QSL-cards from our DOK QSL-card-manager Mareike DO4HSI. These are cards for our D23-crew members at the IARU-contest-location in Büren this weekend.
Contests, Fielddays and other meetings are a good chance for handing out QSL-cards to the D23-members which has been sent to our QSL-card-manager by the DARC QSL-bureau. As I live nearby to DO4HSI it is no problem to fetch the – every time carefully sorted and packed (thanks for the service! ) – cards and take them with me to the events I visit. With the help of our preparation-pages in our Wiki (like this for the contest) we know who will attend an event or we ask at our mailing-list who wants to have her/his card proxy-routed by somebody else. This works for a couple of years already and the number of cards increase with the number of members and our activities.
This time I also received two cards! One from Klaus DM2DTH with whom I had a PSK31 conversation on 80m in August 2008 and the other one is from my conversation with DO3BOX last Saturday
Yes, the date is fixed now. We will have our D23-Fieldday at the weekend August 28–30!
I found some old pictures of the location. Let’s hope it will be dry and sunny and still warm…
Yesterday evening I had the chance to test the transmit with the new battery. The relais in Cologne (DBØVK 2m and DBØSK 70cm) are not used very often, what is a pity for such a large city. But luckily we have a couple of other relais in the smaller cities around. And I was quite surprised that I received the 70cm of DBØXO in Bergheim with S9, although it is about 20km away.
There I had a QSO with Manfred DJ4EW, who confirmed that the modulation of my transmits is clear and without any disturbing noise. He said that he uses a portable device from Standard which is older than I am (what I don’t believe 
)… We also talked about my DOK D23, as he wondered that I’m registered in Berlin, but live in Cologne. The most important question was, how we route the QSL-cards, when you can’t fetch them at your local club-meeting.
This noon I switched on the transceiver and instantly I received a call from Michael DO3BOX via DBØVK. Great to hear somebody else from D23 on the Cologne relais! I guess, we will have some more QSOs in the future and I hope that more D23-members in this area will join us.
As mentioned before, the battery pack of my DJ-V5 died. After that blog-post I searched again for a new battery pack – and now I got one!
The THIECOM shop has quite every usable battery-pack available. I ordered a NoName EBP-46H N (9.6V with 1000mAh). One week later I received the order and found an original Alinco EBP-46H (9.6V with 600mAh). Well, it’s not that version I ordered, but aside from having 400mAh more, I got an original product. It’s even a bit more expensive in the store. And as I don’t want to take the risk that the other version is not available, I stay with what I got.
After 12 hours of charging the transceiver works instantly and even says, that it detects more than 9.6V. I have to test how long the battery will last. And I have to test if there is still noise during transmit. But currently there is nobody on air, so I have to wait.
The device is even a bit heavier and thicker now, but I can live with it. Having a working transceiver and at least one radio device is a good feeling!
My DOK D23 plans a fieldday again. It’s not a day, but a complete weekend with as many as D23-members as possible. As we are not located in one area but scattered across Europe, we first have to find a location and after that the date.
The location is fixed now: It’s the “Strandbad Flotwedel” near Celle in Lower Saxony. Most of us know the location from some nice chill-out weekends a couple of years back. I for myself like the location: You have a lake for bathing, a small beach and a large meadow for camping. Furthermore there are facilities for your personal hygiene (better than at our contest location).
I’m a bit suspicious if we are allowed to set up some larger antennas. A beam should not be a problem, but a groundplane might disturb the other guests.
Currently we are in the poll for the date. Therefore we use our Wiki and everybody can add their preferred weekend. As always, guests are welcome! But we ask for sign-up as well, so that we can calculate the food and needed space.
I’m very excited about the fieldday and probably this will become my (even short) summer holidays.
One year ago I bought an Alinco DJ-V5 handheld transceiver from my friend DK2AB. It’s about 10 years old, but still a quite handy device with all the features I need for mobile operation.
Unfortunately the battery lifetime ran worse from one day to the next. I tried to revive it, but without luck. Now I can use it with a power supply only. So I can receive some relais in the area around, but when I try to transmit, you only hear noise and squeaks.
In the end I found an online-shop in Germany which still sells the proper battery. I transfered the money and did not hear anything from the shop within a month. Asking for the progress of the order, they told me that their warehouse burnt down and every battery of that type is lost. Luckily they transfered the money back.
But that does not help. A new battery would be better for mobile communication. I doubt I can buy one in Germany. Probably I have to buy a complete new device.
These are the batteries which are usable with the DJ-V5:
- EBP-45N (6.0V/700mAh)
- EBP-46N (9.6V/600mAh)
- EBP-45H or EBP-45NM (6.0V/1800mAh)
- EBP-46H or EBP-46NM (9.6V/1100mAh)
Any suggestions for a Germany-based reseller are welcome.
