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DX'ing
rom
Joseph D. Burn ett , Jr. , DL4BR
26 AEMS. CMR Box 408 6
APO New York 0 9009
DL
Land
This is an American's view of what it 's like
to o pe rate an Am ateur Rad io sta tion in Eu r­
ope. This is by no means a unique achievement-many
hams who are in the Armed
Forces are transferred to Europe each ye ar,
but I have never seen an accou nt o f their experiences
in print. For those who are coming
to Euro pe in the near future, this may serve
as a guide of what to ex pect. For others who
will never have the opportunity t o sign a
" OX" call, I hope this will be interesting.
I received notification of my assignment
to Germany in January 1967, with instructions
to report during the month of April.
Along with finding o ut all I could about the
base to which I would be assigned, I set abo ut
trying to determine what wo uld have to be
done to set up a ham statio n. Since all I had
read co ncerning reciprocal licensing stressed
contacting the agency responsible fo r the issuing
of licenses in the cou ntry to be visit ed
prior to arrival, I wrote to the Bundesrninisteriu
m in Bonn, requesting information and
instructions. I received a reply very quickly
(via Air Mail), and the gist o f the letter was
t hat I would have to go through the Military
Affiliate Radio System, since they serve as a
liaison with the German licensing officials
(the Deutsche Bundespost). After I arrived
in Germany, things were a bit h ectic, as in
any move, but I managed to get to t he MARS
station o n the base and fill out the necessary
forms, and then a helpful clerk made the necessary
photocopy o f my Stateside license
(for proof of license class), and the paperwork
was set in motion. Red tape being what it is,
it was about a month befo re I got my license.
This cost $9.75 for o ne year- we get o ff cheap
in the States!
Now to get o n the air . I had been busy
with moving into an apartment and ge tting
settled, and so far had not erec te d an y antennas,
so I strung a t wenty meter dipole
across the apartment. My fir st con tact was
with UWI AC, 5-7-9. both ways. Not too bad
for my ha ywire set-up, but I definite ly needed
somet hing a bit better. After examin ing
the situation I decided that to keep on good
terms wit h the landlo rd (who lived immediat ­
ely below us) and still rad iate a sign al. I'd have
to hang something up in the attic. There arc
quite a few people in Germany who ha ve
large yards with lo ts of nice trees, but the
majority of the people build their houses
close to the street and turn the back yard into
a garden. The housewives spend a lot of
tim e kee ping their houses and yards spotless
and beautiful, and the gardens arc right o ut
o f a picture. Our lan d lord and his wi fe we re
of t he majo ri ty, and I wasn't sure ho w t hey'd
react to an ugly pole sticking up out of that
picture-bo ok garden, with wires and cables
hanging all over the place. So, what wit h t he
language ba rrier and a shorta ge o f apartments
I to o k the easy way out. Lo ok ing at it in
retrospect , I think that if I'd brough t a beam
and tower here with me the landlord would
have been more than happy to let me pu t it
up, and perha ps eve n helped me with the installation.
I have yet to find anyone who has
h ad problems with a landlord here in Germa
ny, except those who have made a nu isance
of themselves wit h loud parties, etc.
Now, I had antennas fo r ten, fifteen and
twenty meters (or indoor, air-cooled dummy
loads. if you prefer), and I starte d opera ting.
I was a little worried about the language ba r­
rier on th e ham bands, but I needn't have
been. English seems to be an almost universal
language among hams. Naturally there
are some mistakes in pronunciation or wo rd
usage, but thc though t gets across, and t hat's
what counts. I stayed in the 0 X bands at
first , since that's where I expected to find
hams who spoke English, but after taking a
German conversation co urse I braved 1.5
MHz CW, using a matchbox an d a hu nk of
wire : 10 and behold , the sa me old abbreviations
were in use there, and I fe lt at hc.rne almost
at o nce. Unfort un ately . too ma ny of
the QSO's I've had were o f the "Hello. goodbye"
type, but there were a number o f ragchews
both on CW and phone - so me thing
you don't have a chance to do very o ft en
when you work a DX statio n from the St ates.
The regulations governing amateur o pe ratio
n here in Germany are much the sa me as in
the States, except fo r a reduced max imu m
power input and so me of the fre q uency allocations.
We are allowed only 500 watts d e
input to the final: but that's no t too bad.
because there isn't the QR ~1 lev el here that
there is in the States. However. o n eiu ht y
and forty the popular Hea th single ha nd tran s­
ceivers are useless without modificat ion ( as
96 73 M AG A Z IN E