[Elecraft] A Yank in HB9 land (long)

[lhlousek]

I had been looking forward to trying some QRP operating on two previous business trips to Europe but as each of those
trips approached, it became apparent that the itinerary and schedule would leave no time for operating.  I didn't even
bother bringing a rig because on short trips like these it is difficult to get any time to operate as you're either
traveling, conducting business, or meeting socially with coworkers or the people you are visiting.

So, it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to a business trip to Switzerland planned for the end of May,
one that promised a weeklong stay in one location during most of which I'd be unaccompanied by coworkers.  As the
departure day approached I went over my gear and checked out the operation of my K1-4 in preparation for the trip.  I
would bring my usual hotel/P setup: a 10/20/40 meter ribbon cable doublet, a 14' fishing pole that collapses to 14",
Palm paddles, and a 120/220V charger for the K1's internal AA batteries.  I gathered my gear and packed it in the bag
that I intended to check through on the airlines.

I've traveled via the airlines domestically many times since September 11 and never had any problem carrying my gear
through security.  Although they poked through my bags on a number of occasions the ham gear was never an issue.  On
this trip, my first international ham trip, I decided to put most of my gear in a checked bag since I didn't want to be
lugging it around in the airports.  I figured the worst that could happen was my bag would get lost and I'd have to
build another K1.  Laying out the cash would hurt but building another K1 would be fun.

As you are probably aware, no special permission is needed to operate in most European countries.  The US has reciprocal
agreements with the so-called CEPT countries and all that is required is that you preface your call with the appropriate
prefix for your location and class of license.  All this is fully explained on the ARRL website.  In Switzerland, I
would be HB9/W7DZN.

Everything was looking good right up to the night before I was supposed to leave.  Then I received the email. The
situation had changed and the trip was shortened to 4 days.  I gloomily went to unpack my gear but as I was about to
open my bags I thought, "This would be the third trip to Europe that I didn't bring a rig. What the heck, I'll take my
gear anyway."

Glad I did.

Unlike the previous two trips where I arrived on a Sunday morning, I left Friday to arrive on Saturday morning giving me
an extra weekend day.  Three coworkers who had already been traveling in Europe the past week met me at the Zurich
airport.  We drove to the hotel and checked in early, around 10:00 AM.  It took some doing but I was able to talk the
clerk into giving me a room on the top floor of the two-story hotel. Having already acclimated to the time change my
cohorts were chipper and ready for action but I was pretty jet lagged and begged out of any activity so I could go to my
room and get some rest.  Ha! That's what I told them anyway.

As soon as I got back to my room I whipped out my fishing pole and strung up my doublet with one end run through the
room to serve as a counterpoise and the other end run along and hanging from the end of the fishing pole.  With the pole
stuck out the window, I taped its butt to the back of a chair to hold it in position.  There was a rise in the ground on
the same side of the hotel as my room so I had to angle the pole upward a good bit to prevent the 32' long 40 meter leg
from dragging in the grass.

I hooked up the antenna and paddles to the K1 and switched it on.

I was blown away.  There were wall-to-wall signals at least three deep everywhere I tuned.  It didn't take long to
recognize it for what it was.... a contest.  Dah dit dididit dah.

I'm not a contester.  Some might even accuse me of being anti-contest but that's not true.  If half the ham population
wants to occasionally engage in frenetic, time consuming, tedious, mind numbing, butt numbing, pointless.
self-flagellation, more power to them.  There're always the WARC bands... and I did hear a good amount of activity on 30
meters.

The problem was that the KAT2 doesn't tune my hotel/p antenna on 30.  Usually this isn't a problem as all I need to do
is tightly coil up a meter or two of the ends of the 40 meter legs to get it to tune. But it was raining and I wasn't
feeling so hot after not having slept for 24 hrs so I figured out the contest exchange, RST and QSO number, and joined
the fray.  UA, HA, OK, 4N...lots of unusual prefixes but all these stations were the equivalent of being a state or two
away in the US.  Making Qs was easy but not a lot of fun. I wanted to rag chew and talk about my little adventure.  It
didn't take long, 20 minutes and seven exchanges, before I buckled under and reconfigured for 30 meters.

I did get one other opportunity to operate and in all made 21 Qs on 40, 30, 20 and 15 meters spanning most of the
continent with 4 Watts and a wire hanging out the window.  My last QSO was late Monday evening on 40 meters.  The
cacophony of band noise and broadcast stations was absolutely amazing.  Switching in the attenuator and using the
narrower filters helped considerably.  The Q was with Chris, PA3FUN.  After we exchanged info and he heard what rig I
was using he mentioned he had been wavering on the cusp of deciding whether or not to get a K1.  Having this Q made up
his mind.  He was going to order one on the Elecraft website as soon as we were done.  I wonder if he did.

Lou W7DZN (sometimes HB9/W7DZN)