HAM RADIO 2023 is over. Here is a short review and the story how the SOTA booth came to be.
Back in 2022 in Friedrichshafen - while sitting over beer and chips - Marcel and I thought, “many clubs and associations have their own booth. Wouldn’t it be great to have a SOTA stand, too?” Carefully, we initiated a first discussion while still on the rally and developed a plan during the following weeks. Step one was to find supporters since this would be a huge task. To our delight, several people could be found in our local SOTA-BW community.
Then we got in touch with Sylvia, SOTA association manager OE, and Jens, president of HB9SOTA as well as the SOTA MT. (The meeting with Jens actually happened during a joint activation of DM/BW-768.)
Finally we wanted to know whether it would be possible to man the stand for three days. This was the first time, we announced the idea on the SOTA-Reflector. The response was overwhelming. Within a few days, lots of people offered their help, some for more than one day and for several hours per day! Thanks for your great support!
With all indicators on “go”, we put together the core-team, consisting of Sylvia OE5YYN, Armin DL6GCA, Jens HB9EKO, Joe OE5JFE, Michael DB7MM, Marcel DM3FAM und Roman DL3TU. This team took care of all the decisions that had to be taken during the following weeks. And it worked just great, using a mixture of phone- and video conference calls, chats, emails etc. Martin, DF3MC, supported the team with the offer to design and print the six posters that were shown in the centre of our stand. Joe, OE5JFE, worked together with Martin on the poster design and donated the red SOTA pencils which should - by now - be in every SOTA backpack.
A big ‘thank you’ to Armin, DL6GCA, who agreed to take over when Marcel and me were not available and e.g. closed down the stand in the evening and opened it in the morning. It was a huge relief to know that you were always there! Thanks mate!
A big ‘thank you’ goes to Barry, GM4TOE for the SOTA merchandise which we could obtain at a discount and to Andy, MM0FMF, who brought all the stuff over. This way we could save the shipping charges. Thanks for your support!
Two more people I’d like to mention are Markus, DL6YYM, from Bamatech.net who donated a BaMaKey TP-III for our raffle and Hannes, DL9SCO, from Palm-Radio who donated a Pico Paddle and a Mini Paddle. Thanks guys, you’re just incredible!
I’d also like to thank the following people for their financial support. Without your money it would have been much more difficult or even impossible to make the project happen.
Stephan, DC8LZ; Markus, HB9DIZ; Phil, G4OBK; Martin, OE5REO; Armin, DL6GCA; Martin, HB9GVW; Peter, DM7KN; Tony, M5OTA; Marcin, SQ9OZM; Karlo, 9A3BKF; Victor, GI4ONL; Sylvia, OE5YYN; John, M0WIV; Michael, SWL; Ed, DD5LP; Jean-Pierre, HB9HBV; Anita, HB9HBU; Petr, OK1CZ; Coen, PA5KM; Stephan, HB9EAJ; Sabina, S53YL; Milos, S57D; Christian, DK5CH; Luc, ON7DQ; Ignacio, EA2BD and 2 anonymous donors.
A few financial details:
The expenses for the stand came to 465 €
All give-aways (merchandise, sticker, etc.) and decoration (poster, flags, etc.) came to 530 €
Donations made upfront: 850 €
Donations during the rally: 570 €
Thanks to your generous donations we could cover all our expenses. This is incredible! Thank you so much!!
After deducting all expenses, we have a plus of 417,81 €. We have donated 217,81 € to the SOTA program. 200 € will be donated to “Ambulanter Kinderhospizdienst Amalie” (https://kinderhospizdienst-amalie.org) in Friedrichshafen.
We would like to thank all participants, the ‘Stand-Team’, the ‘Orga Team’ and all donors! SOTA is much more than an awards scheme – it’s a family. This could be seen on many occasions during the rally. Good to have such a program. Let’s work together to keep it going!
Personally speaking, it was fantastic to meet so many great people. We were able to put faces and voices to people we knew from the airwaves. Good luck with your future activations, take good care and hope to see you soon in a QSO!
73, Marcel, DM3FAM & Roman, DL3TU
