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When Ben & I started to plan our visit to Berlin, we were determined to be more than just tourists. The primary purpose for our trip was to practice our German, and we thought that it would be nice to visit some of Berlin’s ham clubs and to meet some of the locals.
The Internet was a great resource for planning, although we did use guidebooks as well. Online advertisements showed vacation apartments all over town. We narrowed our search with the aid of online maps and Google Earth’s aerial photographs, and picked one near the city center and close to stations. Renting the apartment by email was very simple.
Online information about Berlin’s public transport system was extensive, and it was clear that we would not need a car. Even before we left Thousand Oaks we knew how frequently the trains ran at nearby stations, what type of ticket to buy, and how to work the ticket machines. We could figure out when to use the above-ground train (S-Bahn), underground train (U-Bahn), the tram, or the bus, for a particular destination.
The German equivalent of the ARRL, the DARC, has a lot of information online. There are 27 affiliated clubs in Berlin, and we were able to easily find out when each one met and where. Our visit was to be in the first week of January (the post-Christmas lull) so we tried to confirm meeting times and places by email. We figured out which meetings could be reached relatively easily, and the best means of transport to each.
When we arrived in Berlin Tegel Airport we were surprised to find a baggage carousel and passport control officer right at each individual gate. So, we were through customs and waiting at the taxi stand in what seemed like seconds. We phoned the apartment manager to let him know that we had arrived and set off for the apartment to meet him. Berlin’s airports are quite close to the city center – about $14 by taxi.
We had arrived mid-afternoon on Monday, so after being handed our keys we were able to stock up on provisions at the supermarket across the street. Then we set out to our first club meeting. At the U-Bahn station we used the ticket machine to buy 7-day tickets which covered all types of public transport for the week. These were a bargain at about $30. The public transport is exceptionally easy to use, and is made even easier by a complete absence of turnstiles or barriers. Ticket enforcement is solely by the use of plain-clothes ticket inspectors wielding a hefty $720 fine for non-compliance.
We set of across town by S-Bahn and Tram. The trains and trams run every few minutes, so the timetable that we had downloaded was not strictly necessary. However it did allow us to figure out where to change and, most importantly, the directions to take. In Berlin trains, trams, and busses do not indicate “Northbound” or “Southbound” but rather the endpoint of their journey. This means that you have to be a bit familiar with the routes, especially as some services terminate at stations other than the “end of the line”. We arrived at our first club destination, only to be told by the proprietor of the café (more of a pub really) that the ham club was not meeting that week. Oh well, that was one that we had not been able to confirm by email! So, back on the tram to our apartment for a bite to eat. We had now tested our skills at getting around by public transport, so it seemed more adventure than disappointment.
The next day, the first part of our mission was to go to the gym. We have a membership at the Thousand Oaks Gold’s Gym and a nice feature is that it is valid for visits to any Gold’s. Having figured out that the Gold’s in Berlin was in the same neighborhood as one of the ham club meetings, the day of our gym visit was decided! So after a good workout and a sauna, a visit to a Thai restaurant, and our first experience of an Internet café, we arrived at a small pub-restaurant for the meeting of Club D17: Central Berlin. We joined them at a long table in the basement and ordered from the menu. They made us very welcome and told us a bit about the history of the club. This meeting was relatively early – 5pm – so we had decided to try to make it to a second club for their 7pm meeting. The second club was on the far southern outskirts of the city, but having previously made contact by email we thought we would try to make it there. Although we had to make a couple of changes and use both U-Bahn and bus, it turned out to be very easy. The folks at club D03: Neukölln made us very welcome at their meeting, which was held in a school. After exchanging QSLs and chatting for a while we went by car to a restaurant where we talked some more while some members ate, and we all had a beer. Thomas, DL7NJ, very kindly insisted on driving us home even though it was out of his way. He took us though Central Berlin, so we were able to see a lot of the important sites and hear about them from the perspective of a local.
Wednesday, we did some sightseeing and shopping, and we were able to check out one the Turkish kebab restaurants. A friend had told us that these were not to be missed, and we heartily agree. Wednesday’s meeting was a combined meeting of D18 & D26 at Ostkreutz. It was held in a Technical Community College, in an old but imposing building in the eastern part of the city. The security guard at the gate gave us directions to the meeting room. When we went up the stairs we seemed to have arrived in the roof space, where there was evidence of a lot of renovation going on. We wondered if we had misunderstood the directions. We could hear voices so we looked around and found a room full of radio equipment and another one full of guys drinking beer. Aha… the right place! The roof-top location was a great place for club rooms… providing rent-free accommodation for a permanent shack as well as a small room to meet. And being a college…a high-speed Internet connection. We spent a very pleasant evening talking and we learned that there was to be a big DXers meeting in town later that week. We were also invited to visit the home of one of the members at the weekend.
Thursday’s club meeting was in an unusual location. The listing on the DARC web site gave an address and said “shop” in parenthesis. We expected perhaps a meeting room over a shop… but it turned out that Club D11: Wilmersdorf rents a small shop as their clubhouse. The shop window held a display somewhat like the CVARC display in Agoura Library, and behind this was a club room in what would have originally been the shop itself. Behind the shop was another room that served as the shack, and there was also a small workshop and a bathroom. Again, the club provisions featured a generous supply of beer, so we passed another pleasant evening chatting.
On Friday the DXers meeting was held at our local restaurant. The S-Bahn mostly runs above street level, and at many stations there are small shops and restaurants under the arches beneath the railway. Our nearest station housed a Croatian restaurant, and that was where the meeting was held. It turned out that the planned speaker was unable to attend, so we spent the evening eating enormous plates of barbecued meat, talking to the DXers, and listening to the rumble of trains above us.
On Saturday we did some more sightseeing and then went out to the eastern suburbs to visit Sigi, DL7DF, and his XYL Sabina. They fed us handsomely (twice) and we talked and watched some of Sigi’s movies of his DXpeditions to various exotic places. Sigi was on the eastern side of Berlin and had made good use of his retirement since Reunification and the Wall coming down.
So… what did we find out about the Berlin clubs, other than that the German hams drink beer? Well, the clubs worry about an inability to interest youngsters in the hobby, just as we do. Most of them meet every week, or at least twice a month. They have a mixture of formal meetings with speakers and informal get-togethers for a few beers and maybe a meal. Some of the clubs are lucky enough to have a permanent shack so that operating evenings are possible. Rooftop HF beams were evident, but we were told that the city noise, especially trains, made serious DXing from these locations difficult. All of the clubs were very welcoming to us and wanted to know about our interests and club activities.
I don’t consider myself to be particularly adventurous, so backpacking across Nepal or the like has never been on the cards… but this kind of low-risk urban adventure was a lot of fun. I see that I have more than filled my space this month, so if you want to know more details about our trip we will have to chat about it one-on-one. Perhaps, over a beer!
73 de AE6NX
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Pete, N6ZE's, M-Square Co. 33 ft long yagi for two meters shows its cross wind capability on January 23, 2006 when winds gusted to over 60 miles per hour. The antenna was aimed perpendicularly to the Santa Ana winds. He has used the M-Square Co. "2M5WL" yagi to work over 100 grids on 2 meters from his Ventura Co., CA home QTH. Tropo, EME, and Meteor Scatter modes have been used.