Visit to a German Ham Radio Club

By James Smith-KK6YAM

I visited the city of Mainz, Germany last summer and wanted to share my wonderful experience with everyone in the club. While in Mainz, I met a local ham, Rudolf “Rudi” Klos-DK7PE. Rudi is a professional communications engineer with Lufthansa Airlines. He is an avid traveler and DX-er and uses his company sponsored travel to visit many countries. Rudi has been with the local radio club for over 50 years. Like so many CVARC hams, he started with an interest at a young age and was fascinated with being able to communicate with others all over the world.

Rudi Klos-DK7PE

The local ham club, which is very similar to the CVARC, had a ham booth at the “Rheinland Pflaz-Tag.” This is a yearly festival in the region complete with satellite links and digital mode demonstrations! The local ham club also invited me to their weekend restaurant event. It was great to talk to the other local hams about their interests and activities.

At the brewhaus/restaurant, I met the club president, Chris Ludwig. He introduced me to the other club members. I had a great conversation with one of the hams, Bert Faisst-DF5WA , who also is an avid DX-er and traveler. The club members described their field day in Europe which is the week before the US event. Their local field day is run as a single station, which the members take turns operating. They build very elaborate antennas (including a phased 20m square), and also have a big BBQ on Saturday night to boot. Rudi was on a DX trip out on the German island of Ruegen when I met the other club members. He told me that he made an 80m kite supported J-Pole and ran it at 5W on the island.

This YouTube video shows their 3-element 80m balloon-supported beam antenna.

You can see more of Rudi’s adventures on his website.

Chris, Bert, Rudi, and all the club members really made a positive impression on me of the friendliness and “ham spirit” we share many others!

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