Memoir of Conventioneer

SEANET 2007 - A DXER'S VIEW

My main interests in amateur radio are HF DX and contest operating.

During the last 25 years I have been lucky enough to travel all over the world and have found that, without exception, if you seek out fellow DXers or contesters during your travels you will always be made extremely welcome and will have a great time with a good bunch of new friends. The 2007 SEANET Convention was like that too.

I must admit that I have never checked in to SEANET and, never having been to a SEANET Convention before, I did not really know what to expect. However, Eva, 9M6EVA, and I moved to South-East Asia over two years ago, so it was high time to attend our first Convention when it was being held in Lampang, a part of Thailand we had not previously visited. But would I feel out of place? Would I know anyone there?

Would they share my own perhaps rather limited interests with me?

I need not have worried. Almost as soon as we arrived at the Convention hotel we were called over to a table by Martin, HS0ZED, and introduced to 'the gang' sitting around the table. As it transpired, this was the DXers and contesters group and as usual we were welcomed with open arms. Immediately I met two fellows who I had spoken to on the air from numerous locations and on many occasions, but had never met before: Stig, LA7JO (aka 9N7JO, EP3UN etc), and Karl Renz, K4YT.

Sam, SM3DYU / HS0ZDY, was also at the table and was delighted to speak to Eva in their common mother-tongue. After a few beers I was also able to join in their conversation (I always find a couple of beers makes my Swedish more fluent).

Later we also met Don, HS0ZEE, a fellow Brit who retired to Chiang Mai with his charming wife Carol about nine years ago. For many years Don was active from Bahrein as A92BE and became very well known on the bands. It was good too to renew a friendship with Fred Laun, K3ZO, who I met in the early 1990s when he and Somporn were visiting England, but who I first worked when he was HS1ABD way back in 1978.

There was a good showing of Japanese amateurs including two who I had the pleasure of operating with on DXpeditions in the past: Kazu-san, JA1RJU, who was on the 1998 9M0C Layang-Layang Spratly Island DXpedition and the 2001 D68C Comoros DXpedition, and Taizo-san, JA3AER, who was also a member of the D68C team.

Many of Thailand's growing number of young DXers and contesters were there too, including Champ, E21EIC. In total there were around 150 delegates, including many wives. It was good to see so many partners there also enjoying the socialising.

On the Sunday morning I gave a presentation on the 3B7C St Brandon DXpedition. I had been allocated 30 minutes, so I deleted many of the slides in the 1-hour PowerPoint presentation put together by Don, G3BJ, for the RSGB HF Convention in order to fit the time available.

The presentation went extremely well. No fewer than 33 Thai amateurs worked 3B7C (a very high proportion of those active on HF from Thailand) and most of those 33 were there for the presentation. One JA DXer present (who I had not met before so I cannot remember his callsign) said he worked 3B7C on 22 band-mode slots (the maximum possible was 24 and the top JA made 23 of the slots), while Kazu, JA1RJU, worked 3B7C on 21. Around 60% of the audience had worked 3B7C at least once - and the room had many XYLs watching the presentation, so in reality the percentage of licensed amateurs there who worked 3B7C was probably a lot higher than 60%.

After the presentation Martin, HS0ZED, revealed some statistics that he had researched on the number of bands that Thai hams - both Thai nationals and the HS0Z ex-pats - had worked the DXpedition - thanks Martin! John, HS1CKC, was so interested in the presentation he asked me for the CD afterwards while Paul, 9V1PH, the only representative from Singapore at SEANET this year, who had been tasked to give a presentation on the SEANET Convention when he gets back to Singapore, also wanted a copy.

The Sunday morning 'plenary session' this year was almost entirely about DXing and contesting. In addition to 3B7C, Champ, E21EIC, gave two presentations, firstly on his participation at the World Radio Team Championship (WRTC 2006) in Brazil, where his multi-national multi-single team won first place. Champ had recently been in the USA and visited the K3LR mega-station and he also talked about that, then showed a 15-minute Icom video which features both the K3LR station and the RSGB IOTA programme. Despite being a commercial for Icom, the video is well worth seeing and it is available for downloading on the Icom USA website.

The cost, by the way, of the entire SEANET Convention was just US $175 per person. This included three nights accommodation in a good hotel, including all food and most drinks (Chang Beer, a Thai brewer, was one of the sponsors but wine or spirits were extra), two full-day excursions by coach, all entrance fees to attractions in the area, all entertainment (lots of pretty Thai lady dancers), and numerous 'SEANET freebies' including a very nice quality polo shirt, Chinese-style jacket, book on 40th anniversary of RAST in English and Thai (fascinating reading), a package of raw Thai silk, coffee mug with individual callsign, SEANET 2007 baseball cap, A3-size group photo, keyring and much more. Almost unbelievable value - I kept on wondering if I would have to pay the hotel bill in addition to the registration fee, but apparently it was all included!

Next year the SEANET Convention will be held here in Kota Kinabalu and in Kudat, at the northernmost tip of Borneo, from 21 to 23 November. I hope we will be able to put on as good a show as the Thais did! The weekend is the one before the CQWW CW contest and already there are plans for several of the contesters who were at SEANET this year to stay on after the convention to do the contest. These include Stig, 9N7JO; John, W2YR / HS0ZDJ; Sam, SM3DYU / HS0ZDY; Champ, E21EIC, and possibly Martin, HS0ZED, and one or two others. This is the group that has been behind the many contest operations from the HS0AC club station over the years.

I know that several members of the 3B7C team are also keen to attend the SEANET convention next year, including Gordon, G3USR, while Falk, DK7YY; Bob, MD0CCE, and Chris, G3SVL, have said they would also like to take part in the CW contest from Sabah. Also, Pete, SM5GMZ / HS0ZFI, is likely to be in this part of the world again at that time so we hope to see him too.

In writing this short report, I have concentrated almost entirely on the social side of meeting fellow DXers and contesters. However, almost all of amateur radio's various interest groups were represented (for example I had a fascinating discussion with a ham whose main interest is in installing 2m and 70cm FM repeaters) and it was great to see so many people from so many countries all with a shared interest in amateur radio getting together and enjoying each other's company. I have not even mentioned the tours of the local region (the elephants were great) or the gala dinners. One of the delegates described the SEANET Convention as being like a United Nations convention, while another talked about "the SEANET spirit". Both very apt.

All in all both Eva and I really enjoyed our first SEANET Convention.

Since SEANET 2008 will be in Sabah, it certainly won't be our last, but we also hope to get to Seoul in 2009, another place we have never visited before. See you next year!