I can’t do much else right now (limited data roaming & next to no signal), but I can write.

My journey to FN started months ago. I decided to book my flights with RyanAir in January from London Stansted directly to Friedrichshafen . I even through in priority boarding and 1 price of hold baggage.

I also contacted Friedrichshafen tourism to book a hotel. This was soon reserved, then sods law kicked into overdrive.

Ryanair started changing the times, then days of the flights. My boss was getting annoyed as I had to change my leave a few times. Being Ryanair, they still had one final card to play, and this was a dozy. They cancelled the route in March.

I was gob-smacked. So eventually I got a refund, but this wasn’t very fast. What to do now??

• Easyjet. But they don’t fly to Friedrichshafen.
• Lutfhansa. Via Frankfurt, Expensive.
• Eurostar. Expensive.
• Drive. No License yet.

Easyjet seemed best. But would be via Zurich. Also when I checked flight times was out on Thursday at 6:35am & return at 20:05 in evening.

So I booked it. And was less than Ryanair.

Next was the trains & boat to Friedrichshafen. Simple. I went to www.bahn.de times checked, tickets booked and posted to arrive 2 days later.

My journey actually started on Wednesday 23rd June. After packing (& later realising I left my large 16gb memory card at home) I headed from the Warehouse Theatre bar in Croydon. I had arranged for them to open between 3-5pm (as are normally closed then) for the England World Cup game. I am glad I did.

It was also at this point I found out that realise we might play Germany, later confirmed.

A beer or to later an when the game had ended I headed to East Croydon station, and boarded a train to Horley.

I has arranged to stay with my grandparents until late then head to airport, rather than wake them at 2am.

My granddad agree to pay for a taxi, and after a Chinese meal, I started to watch the record breaking Mahut vs Isner tennis match, but isn’t my thing, and I was starting to fall asleep.

I went and had a few hours sleep and awoke about 10pm. After a freshen up, I phoned for a taxi for 11pm. I said goodbye to my grandparents and was at Gatwick by 11:20pm.

Upon arrival I made my way to the pre-check-in area and had a coffee. I checked emails, twitter and realised my iPhone needed a charge, but I wasn’t like others who plugged in the wall sockets, oh no, I had a plan.

Being a geek at heart I powered up my laptop which was fully charged and used it to charge my iPhone and 3G wifi device. Once I had checked emails, etc, I put the laptop in standby so they would still get a charge. It worked beautifully.

After sitting a while. I needed to have a wander to stretch my legs, an decided to see if I could check in. When I got there the Easyjet desks were empty. But someone who worked at airport said girl would be back shortly. Thankfully even though was hour before proper check-in time & was able to get my suitcase checked in.

I wondered around to security and was closed, but girl in the security area held 3 figures up to incase would open then. It was 1:40. More time to kill.

I went to the M&S store and bought a orange drink. By this time most of the seats had been taken, so I went out to the front of the building to try to get some fresh air and cool down.

I found somewhere. The designated smokers area. Although I was sat there for nearly an hour only 2 people came and smoked there.

After 3am I headed to the security area. I has planned ahead better this time. All pockets emptied into my bag already & toiletries were the correct size bottles. Also I wasn’t wearing my steel toed boots.

The toiletries were in an airport supplied plastic bag, and I has to remove my belt. He asked about laptop and this had to be scanned separately due to the hard drive obscuring images.

I went through the metal detector without incident, but was slightly amused a lady pensioner was being “frisked” (for want of a better word) more than I was.

I spent the hours in departure lounge waiting for my flight to start boarding by recharging my iPhone (again with laptop), and did some shopping. Needed some more toiletries and 2x 2gb memory cards.

Later I found my book reader after buying the cards had an 8gb card. As I am writing this I am not sure I can move the stuff from it to one of the 2gb cards.

At around 5:50am the Easyjet flight to Zurich was called to the boarding gate. Just before 7am we were in the air. So how did I spend the flight?? Yep, Asleep.

Zurich Airport. Wow. The model of efficiency, but was a massive site. We had to get a shuttle train to the baggage reclaim, and with the circular tunnel I did wonder if we were part of the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

At baggage reclaim I overhead some people mention “QRZ” & he then did Dah-dit-dah sound. He had to be a ham.

For the next few hours I travelled with Elaine (RadCom editor), Chris (does RadCom advertising) & Graham from BHI.

First was the on time double-decker train to Romanshorn, then the ferry to Friedrichshafen. On the ferry (unlike the IoW SeaCat) you could sit outside. Then a waitress came to ask us if we wanted drinks.

This was one of my many disastrous attempts at German. I tried to get a diet coke. Even coke cola lite failed, so went with coffee.

At Friedrichshafen ferry terminal my temp travel companions departed and I tried to find the train station to Kluftern. I wandered to the bus station and eventually decided to try Google maps. I used 1.6mb of my 7mb allowance to realise it was behind me.

Not my only mistake. At the station I forgot I had adjusted my watch and though I had a 4 hour wait for next train instead of 50mins. I spent the time doing some US amateur extra questions and soon the train arrived, an left on time to.

I nodded off on the train a few times, and thought I had missed my stop. Thankfully my terrible German helped as someone asked a fellow passenge and I found out was next stop.

At Kluftern was my next Wow moment. As soon as I stepped off the train the hotel was right in front of me, closer than I had thought looking on Google. The hotel was immaculate as well. The Brielmayer family obviously take pride in their hotel. Even as I arrived the lawns were being mowed.

I was asked if I was Gibson. I confirmed and lead into the hotel and the restaurant area. Here my terrible German hit again. They didn’t speak English. The son was eventually called, but his English was limited, but we made headway.

I was asked what time I wanted breakfast, and shown to my room. After travelling since yesterday was nice to finally rest in my room.

The first thing was I had a quick wash. It was more to cool me down than anything. After plugging in everything to charge I read some more of my Amateur Extra book.

After a few hours of peace in the room, I was on need of something to eat & drink. I went down to the restaurant area from where I had been earlier. The young chap from earlier with limited English wasn’t about and I tried to ask for something to eat. The lady gave up an made a call and the chap with limited English appeared again.

Using a totally German menu, with images, and even him bringing some items from kitchen to tell me what they are I managed to order Ham & Cheese on toast. It was nice especially as last thing eaten was the Chinese meal last night.

Oh and a beer to go with it. I am still here in the restaurant area typing this now and hopefully I can keep this detail up all week. If not at least I hope you enjoyed my journey to Friedrichshafen.

* I can’t be 100% sure, but I think the family running the hotel are referring to me as “Englisch”. Every time someone they know has come in, including a few hours some bowlers were in the Nebenzimmer (ante room), Englisch was mentioned every time. Don’t get me wrong about whether I like it or not, but I am not sure whether they are talking about mr.

* Oh and the iPhone battery is shite as used 30% or more typing this.

* Observation time: I am certain I keep hearing French. They are all Germans here, buy I am hearing the odd French word or 2.

* I need to learn German. I get the Odd word, but it’s not enough to have a

* I don’t like being away from the internet. It’s probably good to be without from time to time, but I am an Internet whore. Even at work I have to at least keep an eye on current affairs at BBC News site or Google News. Even when I spent time in hospital I had more access than I currently have. Rant Over!

Friday

For those that know me take warning:- Thursday night I was in bed by around 9pm. I did warn you. I was tired from the little sleep since I left home. After a few beers in the hotel bar & a bit of CNN International I went to bed.

I had set my alarm for 7am, but was awake by then anyway. After a shower I went down for breakfast.

I was asked a question by the lady who works here in German. Luckily the other man at my table translated. “Do you want an egg?”. My answer was “nein”.

I was then asked ” do you want Tea, Caffe, or Cola?”. I went for coffee. It was then kindly pointed out the breakfast was self-service. I had already been given a couple of rolls and I got some ham & cheese from the choices on offer.

Once I finished I went back to my room to sort my ruck sack for the day. I had to take anything of value to be on the safe side. This included my laptop, book reader, Icom handheld, camcorder & camera. I decided to leave my US Amateur Extra book in the hotel room.

Until near the time of my train I watched a bit of CNN news. During the news they mentioned the Tennis match which was 59-59 when I left UK ended with Isner winning with 70-68 in 11.5 hours.

With half hour until my train I headed to the station. I got my ticket then checked the times. The train was due in 20mins. About 10min later one of the other guests from the hotel was beckoning me. I wandered over and he offered me a lift to the Messe. Cool.

Although I had brought a ticket I only got a single as couldn’t see return ticket on the machine, and 3 zone ticket was way more than 2x a single ticket.

Once in the car I learnt they 4 were from 80km south of Paris & attended every 2 years. As I was in the front I chatted to the driver (who I think knew more English than other 3) about what we liked about Ham Radio.

A short while later we arrived at the Messe. Finally my meticulous planning had come undone. I hadn’t brought the 3 day pass in advance. I had to queue for about 20-25mins in what felt like a rugby scrum. Eventually the ticket was purchased and I went through the gates.

I took some photos of the queue (which by the time I post this should be on Flickr).

I had lost the French guys by this points so decided to start by heading to the Flea Market. I had long got in there when one of the people I met at Zurich asked if I knew where the RSGB stand was. As I knew they would be in hall A1 I offered to show him. Once in there he was happy enough to wander to find it, so I thought I would just carry on in there.

I was looking for the Slovenian Radio Club stand and took a while, but found it right at the back of the hall. Typical.

Bostjan S55O was there when I arrived talking with Oliver DJ9AO. We chatted a bit but Bostjan was on the stand until later in the day, so I went of to see more of event with Oli.

Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, DARC, RSGB, ARRL, Bavarian Contest Club and many more manufacturers & Clubs had stand we visited or passed in the A1 hall. We even got a QSL card from the Qatar Society. Note: must work then to thank them some time.

After a while of wandering we headed to the food stand in centre. I had already decided I wanted Curry Wurst which I had with Chips. Not exactly healthy, but I missed out last time as didn’t know they did it.

After the food we followed it with a beer.

We parted at this point as a friend from local club had arrived and I tries to find him or him me. A few texts later and a missed phone call j was about to phone him when j saw him waving.

We chatted about the event and what we brought, journey, etc until he ha finished his meal. I had eaten earlier to just drank some Cola Lite (Diet Coke).

Just after 2 when he finshed, I went to meet the WWYC’ers. Fabian DJ1YFK, Oliver DJ9AO & Bostjan S55O were there and another chap who I didn’t get his name. Christian a friend of Bostjan’s joined a bit later.

We chatted mostly in English, but understandably at times they used their own languages.

A few beers later they decided to try the Bavarian Contest Club pileup contest. While they did that I went to the ARRL stand to renew my membership for another year. €32 option which I get the CD (which last time was in March). I also got the latest QST paper version.

Once I had renewed I went back to Bavarian Contest Club stand. When the all finished I decided to head off to see some more of show.

After a Wurst roll I had a look around the Flea Market which I hadn’t really done earlier. Wasn’t anything that took my interest although I only went round 1 of 2 Flea Market halls.

It was about 5:30 by this point so thought was best to start the journey back to the hotel. The French guys from earlier ha said they would be going elsewhere after so couldn’t offer me lift.

I just missed the 5:35 free bus to Hafen & Stadt so waited foe the 5:55. By that time the queue had built up and as the queue had gone to pot and although I was first, it was standing room only when I got on board.

I got off at Stadt as knew was as busier station from the timetable. A quick check in the Infomation office and I knew my train was the next one in, although the timetable doesn’t sat Kluftern, but a note is indicated which I can only assume means “& the all stops to”. The train sitting there left and was sure a short time later was same one back.

The destination changed to Radolfzell which is the route Kluftern is on. It was warm on board. I had been hot & sweaty all day, but this was a new level of hot.

German efficiency went out of the window when for a reason I wasn’t able to understand nor fathom the train was 10mins late leaving.

Someone on the packed train then tried to open the locked window above me. Next a young lad tried without success. Eventually they tried the one on the opposite side of the carriage and a slight breeze was felt in the train.

Once I was at Kluftern I took the key from my bag and hid it away and went to my room. After a quick freshen up, a quick check was done on my finances.

It was then time for a few beers and to write this my journal for today.

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The address is wx.m0tzo.co.uk and is more or less as it was before. Twitter account is twitter.com/SuttonWX.

Something new for it is the iPhone/iPod Touch accessible pages. Visit wx.m0tzo.co.uk/iphone if not using an iPhone. iPhone users can visit the wx.m0tzo.co.uk address and will be redirected.

As before this Will only update when my main PC is on, Somedays this will be from morning until night, other days will only be evenings.

The Twitter account for the weather station has been working for a while now, but same rules apply regarding it’s updates.

Now one last thing. Make sure you have descent backups. Mine were poor. It’s taking me this long to recreate the site. I now have the Important files backed up on DropBox. Please don’t take backing up for granted.

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Keep a look out for new posts soon.

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A few weeks ago I ordered the Icom GPS mic from an eBay seller in Canada.

Took a little longer to be delivered than the 6-10 days I was quoted, but I blame the postal services, not the seller.

I wanted to use with the DPRS (digital APRS) & it took a bit of research and even emailing a site owner that his site was down to fine tune the settings.

Using a Combination of the links below I was able to fine tune my settings and have posted some images from the RS-92 software.

As I am usually listening to a repeater the GPS Auto TX is off.

D-PRS Calculator
This page calculates the necessary GPS message (C1 message on most Icom radios) to use your Icom radio in GPS mode (not GPS-A mode) with D-PRS. Your browser must have JavaScript enabled to use this page.

D-PRS Calculator Same as above I found when site above was down.

Cambridgeshire Repeater Group DPRS Setup

Accessing GB7GL

GB7WC.org.uk APRS

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It was well overdue, but I have decided to stop (or limit) using my old online Nickname and will use my Ham Radio callsign instead.

www.gadget17.co.uk now re-directs to www.m0tzo.co.uk

I have also stopped using elsewhere, or at least made dormant for now.

I’ve had my M0TZO callsign for 3 years+ now. I may even end up selling the domain name gadget17.co.uk, but haven’t made up my mind yet.

All the old post from gadget17.co.uk were imported into this blog, and while I will need to go through them and weed out some, they are here for now.

Finally, I hope with only one blog, I might actually get some updates on here.

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-

MØTZO MØTZO de 2EØHTS 2EØHTS

Thanks for the callback Paul nice to see you on here and Twitter. Your RST is 599 599. My name is Simon Simon, QTH is BAILDON BAILDON in IO93CU [339.3° 293.8km] IO93CU. How copy? nice to get you in the log h.i BTU MØTZO de 2EØHTS k

2EØHTS de MØTZO

Simon, my station
Radio    : IC-756 ProIII, 5Øw, G4ZLP Interface
Software : HRD + DM78Ø v5.Ø Beta
Antenna  : 6-BTV

My QSL is OK via the bureau, LoTW (or eQSL.cc).

EPC #9222

Cool, about seeing me on Twitter, wasn’t sure I would get anything from it

BTU 2EØHTS de MØTZO kn

MØTZO MØTZO de 2EØHTS 2EØHTS

all ok Paul, isnt twitter great!!!

My station: rig YAESU FT-767GX,

Power 3ØR-

Software = PSK31 Deluxe v4.Ø,

P.C – 35ØØ Dual Core, 2Gig Ram, 96ØØGT Graphics – Nomic RIG Blaster.

Antenna 13ØFT Dipole & 2ØM Delta Loop,

Locator = IO93CU

My Site web http://www.hamradiooperator.blogspot.com/

My QSL is OK via eQSL.cc QRZ.COM or via the bureau.

BTU Paul, will tweet you some tweets soon mate,  MØTZO de 2EØHTS K

2EØHTS de MØTZO

Keep Tweeting on Twitter (@mØtzo for those SWL’ing) and this will certainly get a mention on there.

73 Simon Davison & thanks for PSK31 QSO 21 on 8Øm.

2EØHTS de MØTZO sk

MØTZO de 2EØHTS

Ha Ha yeah Tweeting is for Hams h.i

Hello SWLs!!!

73 to You Paul catch you soon on Twitter and thanks for the QSO hope to See U AGN Ioon. GOOD DX GL & GOOD NIGHT..

MØTZO de 2EØHTS Sk Sk

2EØHTS de MØTZO

Maybe I should Blog this as well! LOL

2EØHTS de MØTZO sk sk

MØTZO MØTZO de 2EØHTS EEØHTS

Good idea, will do it too Good night mate

MØTZO MØTZO de 2EØHTS 2EØHTS sK SK

2EØHTS de MØTZO

Night Night!

2EØHTS de MØTZO sk sk

I suggested on air I would blog this, and kept true to my word! Was a good QSO, especially when he mentioned Twitter.

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How did I do? Well I decided to try to beat a previous score from home, and I did more than I planned.

Although the IARU contest was only 24 hours long, was only other contest this year I had done from home.

I had to beat 73 QSOs and 7,535 Points. I exceeded that even notching a few last minute contacts on 40m before my own 11pm deadline.

OK, it’s not the greatest result, but with each new contest I do from the MØTZO shack, I improve the setup and way I operate. Even for this one, I figured out how to activate Radio 2 in Win-Test after you open the window. Made logging so much easier.

All my logs have been uploaded to Logbook of the World (LoTW) and imported into my main log.

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So this weekend I decided to get back on HF using PSK31. Which usually most evenings I spend in front of the PC & radio anyway, so using that mode shouldn’t be that difficult.

Sunday evening I tried, but was drowned out by RTTY stations as I hadn’t planned on the JARTS RTTY contest.

Monday evening, was much better.

After a few hours, I have 6 new QSO’s in my logbook, which while it’s not a great amount, considering how much I normally do in a month, is quite a few for me.

I will continue this week, and see how I do, and who knows might actually get nice QSO’s for a change.

a

Online version http://www.rsgb.org/rsgbconvention/events_programme.php

• Operating & DXing
  • XML – iCAL - HTML
• Technical
  • XML – iCAL – HTML
• VHF & up
  • XML – iCAL – HTML
• Contest University A
  • XML – iCAL – HTML
• Contest University B
  • XML – iCAL – HTML
• Stream C
  • XML – iCAL – HTML

21/09/2009 Update Number 1 – Most Calendars Changed

28/09/2009 Update Number 2 – Operating & Tech Changed on Saturday – VHF Changed on Sunday

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I guess I had actually sown the seeds of this idea when I got my provisional licence renewed in September 08, but only recently did I have the final part really in place. The money.

I had brought the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) DVD/CD triple pack recently and got in contact with local driving school.

This week will be my first lesson in 8 years. A colleague and myself were being taught by a guy who left our office about 8/9 years ago, and I didn’t continue lessons at that time.

I have also booked my Theory Test for next week and have been studying whenever I can. I even brought some Mock test cartridges for my Nintendo DS. I might do a write about them soon.

Anyway, off to do tonights mock test.

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