DJ3WE Rudolf 'Rudy' Schwenger Hohenthann, Germany QCWA # 32432 Chapter 19#S06

DOK C01

Born in 1940 I have been licensed since 1957. From 1970 to 1975 I signed as 9V1QO during my stay in Singapore, where I was the first Managing Director of Siemens Components in Singapore.

One of the highlights of my amateur career was the management and participation in the 2004-DXpedition to Nepal, where we signed as 9N7BCC and made some 26,000 QSOs. This activity has been covered in various magazines, among them in an article written be me, which also includes pictures, in the March-2005-issue of QST on pages 82 and 83.

Another important event, of course, was my election to the board of directors of DARC in November of 2007. DARC is by far the most prominent radio amateur society in Germany comprising some 45,000 members of altogether some 80,000 licenses issued to radio amateurs in Germany. I did not run for reelection after the 2-year term.

I am an active frequent contester, however, as of this moment I am restricted in setting up antennas which means that I am only using a single dipole for all bands from 160m to 10m. The dipole is about 65.6m long and is bent several times in all three plains. The height is between 12 yards and 3 yards. It works surprisingly well on 160 to 40m, but of course, for the higher bands I don't stand a chance against the competitors who use eleborate antenna systems and beams. Yet, in the major contests I can always manage more than 1,000 QSOs and normally manage to rank among the top 10 participants in my class - SO-AB-HP - in Germany. Sometimes I use my contest call, DR4T, especially in cw-contests.

Leave alone regular contesting from the comfort of one's own shack, I enjoy to "roughen it out". I've been and I still am the chief OP of our Club station in Field Days both CW and SSB, where we sign as DK0V/p (CW), resp. DB0HY/p (SSB). I've been a guest operator to Ben's, DL6RAI, super Contest Station DQ4W to the North East of Munich as well as to Toffy's, DJ6ZM, top contest station DL1A in Germering, a Munich suburb to the North West of Munich.

The highlights of my shack are the IC-7800 TRX and the ALPHA 87A PA. The jewel outside the shack, i.e. in the garden, is the SAMS matchbox designed and manufactured by Heinz Bolli, HB9KOF. It is this neat box which provides me with an SWR of no more than 1.5 on any ham radio frequency between 1.8 MHz and 29.7 MHz in conjunction with my 65.6m long dipole mentioned above fed by a 20m long ladder type feed line. The box can take the full legal power in Germany (750W) for indefinite periods of time and it can also take the full 1.5 KW generated by the ALPHA 87A on any frequency from 160m to 10m. The box reads the frequency from the TRX and adjusts the capacitors and inductors automatically according to the frequency. This way I basically operate a fully automatic station, which only requires manual tuning of the tuning knob of my IC-7800 and occasionally adjusting RIT- and filter settings on the front panel of the IC-7800. My contest proven IC-781 serves as a stand by unit.

During the winter season I occasionally set up a V160 vertical of some 90 feet height about 300 ft away from my house. This GP works on 160m, 80m and 40m, using some 50 radials of between 60 ft to 120 ft length resting on the ground.

For logging I use SWISSLOG and for Contest-Logging I use WIN-TEST.

I am a member of the German Amateur Radio Club (DARC), the ARRL, the Bavarian Contest Club (BCC), the German DX Foundation (GDXF), the German CW-group (AGCW), the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) and the Old Old Timers Club (OOTC).

By profession I am a communications engineer, however, the longer you work the more you get away from your profession and into management. I retired in 2003. The last 10 years of my professional life I held the position of the world wide sales manager of EPCOS, head quartered in Munich, Southern Germany and one of the most prominent manufacturers of passive electronic components world wide.

My wife Richardis and I live some 25 miles to the south east of Munich in Southern Germany. There are 3 kids between 35 and 44 years of age. Steffi, the oldest is a lawyer, Nina, the second, is a medical doctor and Maxi, the youngest, is an art director.

See you in one of the contests on any or all of the HF bands!

March 22, 2015