[TenTec] Dayton, European Style

Mon Jul 4 04:01:34 EDT 2005

Thank you very much for the time and effort in reporting back to us .  I for
one enjoyed reading you update.   thanks again John  kb2huk
----- Original Message -----
From: "NJ0IP" <Rick at DJ0IP.de>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 5:02 PM
Subject: [TenTec] Dayton, European Style


> Hello Ten-Tec friends,
>
>
>
> The following is a very long report on Europe's biggest ham fest.  Thought
> some of you might be interested in a summary of how the European version
of
> Dayton went this year.  (if you're not interested, please delete this now)
>
>
>
> Once again I had the privilege of helping out on the Ten-Tec / Appello
booth
> at Europe's biggest ham fest this year.  (Appello is the German
distributor
> for Ten-Tec amateur radio transceivers and it co-sponsors the booth with
> Ten-Tec).
>
>
>
> This year we celebrated the 30th anniversary of this European Ham Fest.
>
>
>
> First, the ham fest is called "HAM RADIO" and is held in Friedrichshafen,
> one of Germany's southern-most cities, which is near the boarders of
> Austria, Switzerland, and France.  This (previously) central location made
> it ideal (in the past) for holding a European ham fest.  Italy was also
just
> a stone's throw away, but Scandinavia and the lower countries (Holland,
> Belgium, Luxemburg) and especially England, are a bit farther away.
Still,
> all of these were always well represented.
>
>
>
> That was before the wall fell and the Cold War ended.
>
>
>
> Now, (well, since 15 years), Europe also includes many new countries
> spanning thousands of miles towards the east, all the way to Russia.  And
of
> course the HAM RADIO really expanded with the falling of "The Wall" here
in
> Germany and the coming of all of our so called "Eastern European" ham
> friends (most of whom actually live in what is now central Europe).  Let
me
> assure you that from the first day these easterners came, they were
welcomed
> and embraced with open arms.  They were happy to be here and we were happy
> to have them.  The biggest problem was language.  That's changed now.
> English has established itself as the default language, though the most
> common is still German.
>
>
>
> Like in Dayton, this year's HAM RADIO had less attendance than last year.
> However the reasons may be different.  Perhaps there was some lack of
> interest, but the single biggest factor here was political.  It seems
> Germany has suffered a recent major political scandal in which its liberal
> visa laws were used by a few to exploit trafficking of prostitution and
> illegal workers to the extent that the political backlash has closed its
> borders this year to eastern visitors, especially Russian.  As a result, I
> did not personally see a single Russian (or anyone from former UDSSR) at
the
> event.  In former years they attended by the hundreds, or perhaps
thousands.
> The biggest impact was the flea market where the lack of Russian Army
> hardware was apparent and dearly missed.
>
>
>
> Three years ago, the HAM RADIO moved from its original location (the old
> Friedrichshafen Congress Center) to the new Congress Center.  This brought
> lots of advantages, but of course some disadvantages.  First, the facility
> is very modern and air conditioned.  This was great during the show, but
the
> day we built the booths, all of the garage doors were open allowing access
> for trucks directly to the booth location, but the air was OFF and we were
> suffering, big time.  It was HOT.  Once the show was under way, the
> advantages of air conditioning, especially this year, were well
appreciated.
>
>
>
>
> Unfortunately they raised the price for the cost of the square meter (ca.
10
> sq. ft.) of booth floor space substantially and many small vendors simply
> stayed away.  A few switched their strategy and displayed in the flea
market
> space, but most simply stayed away.
>
>
>
> We had many American visitors on our booth and the consensus was that
> Friedrichshafen (abbreviated "FN") compared to Dayton, was better
organized,
> had a much lower average age level of attendees, had MUCH better food and
> 1000x better beer.
>
>
>
> One of the biggest advantages of FN over Dayton is the size of the [new]
> facility.  All of the ham fest events, like lectures or meetings (i.e.,
the
> contest forum) took place on-site in modern, air conditioned rooms.  There
> was no need to relocate to some hotel or other off-site facility.
>
>
>
> The Ham Fest Party, held Saturday night, was more like a rock festival
than
> a ham fest.  Several live bands performed music out of the 60's/70's/80's
> and all of them consisted of hams.  It's American/British music.  Just as
we
> knew it back then.  This is now a tradition at the FN HAM RADIO and
indeed,
> one of the highlights.  Perhaps the most surprising thing is the presence
of
> real American square dancing, which is demonstrated by a group of hams,
led
> by Volkmar Junge (DF2SS), the owner of one of Germany's largest and best
ham
> radio dealerships (Wimo - www.wimo.com <http://www.wimo.com/>  ).
>
>
>
> Now the GOOD part:  Ten-Tec:
>
>
>
> Perhaps most Americans do not realized that Ten-Tec had a healthy presence
> in Western Europe for a good 20 years, but pulled out entirely 8 years ago
> when the brand new European Community passed new European laws requiring
all
> companies selling goods into Europe to certify its goods as being
compliant
> with the European standards (i.e., for electrical goods, it's called "CE"
> certification or compliance.)  It seems the cost of obtaining this
> certification scared many non-European vendors away, including Ten-Tec.
>
>
>
> In 2003, Ten-Tec returned to Europe, beginning with the U.K., through its
> partner AOR.  Later that year it entered the German market through its
> partner Appello.  2004 was the year the return became apparent to most
hams
> and also the first year Ten-Tec returned to FN (HAM RADIO).  I was
> privileged to work the Ten-Tec / Appello booth in FN in 2004 and for most
> visitors the Orion was the only known Ten-Tec product.  Of course the
> old-timers hugged us and kissed us in the European style and thanked us
for
> returning.
>
>
>
> 2005 changed.  This year there was also great interest in other Ten-Tec
> products.  The Argonaut V had high visibility and the Jupiter was also
well
> known.  This can be attributed to good reviews both radios received in
local
> publications in recent months.  Even the 6n2 was known and requested,
though
> it is currently not sold in Europe.
>
> By far and away the most popular product was Ten-Tec's new Acro-Bat. We
sold
> about 40 of them but I guess we could have sold a hundred of them, or more
> if we had had them.  It seemed people came to gather information and buy
an
> Acro-Bat.
>
>
>
> Since our booth was not a pure Ten-Tec booth, we also showed other
products
> which Appello resells in Germany, including great antennas from the
Swedish
> company, Lannado and the Italian "Big Boy" rotators from ProSysTel.  In
> light of this heterogeneous representation, I took it upon myself to show
> Carl's N4PY radio control software.  We were not selling it on the booth,
> but just showing it.  After all, it does help sell Ten-Tecs!  Few came
> looking specifically for the software and only about 1/3 of those looking
> for the Orion were also interested in the software.  I assume the first
> interest is still the radio and after the fact, after one owns such a SDR
> device, one begins to think "What else can I do with this?" and the
interest
> in radio control S.W. evolves.
>
>
>
> As a result of having this multitude of products represented on the booth,
> our official team consisted of 2 Germans, 2 Swedes, 3 Italians, and 2
> Americans (Scott, W4PA, and myself).  In addition, we had another two
> Americans and one German who helped out a bit (especially after hours
> cleaning up while drinking 807s).
>
>
>
> The theme of our presentation this year was "Contesting".  Indeed, Scott
is
> one of contesting's all-time grearts, but Carsten, DL6LAU, the German
> reseller (Appello) also has a very impressive contesting record.  Indeed,
> this year, Europe's top DX contest, "Worked All Europe" (WAE) celebrated
its
> 50th anniversary with a "Super Bowl" drawing (lottery) with the Grand
Prize
> being a Ten-Tec Jupiter.  The Jupiter was co-sponsored by Ten-Tec U.S. and
> Appello (Germany).  During the contest forum, we were on stage to present
> the Jupiter to the winner but alas, the winner resides in America ::: K5SF
> (Richard Detweiler - one of this Ten-Tec reflector members).  Just minutes
> before we were on stage to present the award, Carsten (DL6LAU) had also
been
> on stage to receive his plaque for first place South America (his contest
> DX-pedition) in the WAE contest, re-enforcing the message that Ten-Tec is
a
> contesting company!!!
>
>
>
> Throughout the weekend's events, in each and every session, Ten-Tec got
> mention.  Hey, often they made jokes about Ten-Tec.  In the serious
moments,
> they mentioned Ten-Tec.  In the past 8 years, nobody ever said "peep"
about
> Ten-Tec.  The bottom line is, Ten-Tec has successfully returned to Europe
in
> just 18 months.  As if they had never been gone for 8 years.  Welcome
back!
>
>
>
> Finally, a word about Scott:  I guess "Murphy" is his middle name.  He
> missed every connecting flight he had, arriving 7 hours late.  I was
asking
> people on each flight ("did you see a guy with a long pony tail?").  Well
> Scott cut the pony tail (without telling me) and arrived looking "almost"
> normal (hi).  I didn't even recognize him when he came through the gate
> without any luggage.  Of course his luggage flew to Timbuktu (or
somewhere).
> It finally arrived the next day.
>
>
>
> As the saying goes, "A good time was had by all".
>
>
>
> That was HAM RADIO 2005, Dayton European Style!
>
>
>
> 73
>
> Rick
>
> DJ0IP (NJ0IP)
>
> Munich, Germany
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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