For over 30 years (!) this Hellschreiber Net has been taking place every Sunday:

	Frequency: around 3579 kHz
	Mode: Feld-Hell (of course!)
	Time: depending on seasonal propagation conditions: Currently: 17:00 local time in Western Europe (UTC+2 in summer, UTC+1 in winter. The net may be skipped some weekends in July/August, due to vacation of the primary operators (PAØAOB, PAØKDF, PA3FFZ)
	Stations primarily from The Netherlands, some with original Feldfernschreibers; everyone is welcome!
	On 6 December 2009, I finally managed to participate in the Net, from my QTH in the south of France. My brief QSO with Bastiaan, PA3FFZ was my "first" Hell QSO on 80 mtrs and covered a respectable distance of 1084 km. I used 80 watt and my ZS6BKW-dipole (reduced to 2x 13 m and installed as "inverted-L").

   
Screen captures of my QSO as seen by Bastiaan, PA3FFZ, Koos, PA0KDF, and myself (left to right)
(click on any of these to get the full size image)
 

	If you're beyond range on 80 meters, you can listen live via this great web-sdr located at the Technische Universiteit Twente, in The Netherlands. This is what I do myself, and when I'm SWL-ing, you can follow the QSO on my Hell-WebCam.
	In the early years, when there were still plenty of sunspots and 80 meters was pretty much "dead" for shorter distances, the net took place on 40 meters. At the current (extended) bottom of the sunspot cycle, it is the reverse.

There is also a weekly net in Hell-80 mode (start-stop):

	40 meter band: 7050 kHz
	monday
	11:00 - 12:15local time in Western Europe (UTC+2 in summer, UTC+1 in winter); start time does not appear to be punctual,
	primary operators: Alie (PD2ALW), Hans Otto (OE5SMU), Remmelt-Jan (PA0RJW)

Common operating/calling (carrier) frequencies:

	160 meter band: 1804 kHz
	80 meter band: 3574-3584 kHz (Region 1), 3559 kHz (Region 3)
	40 meter band: 7030-7040 kHz, 7077-7084 kHz
	30 meter band: 10135 - 10145 kHz; 10144 (Region 1)
	20 meter band: 14063 - 14080 kHz; calling frequency 14074 kHz
	17 meter band: 18101 - 18107 kHz; calling frequency 18104 kHz
	15 meter band: 21063 - 21070 kHz; calling frequency 21074 kHz
	12 meter band: calling frequency 24924 kHz
	10 meter band: 28063 - 28070 and 28100 - 28110 kHz; calling frequency 28074 kHz

"Spot" pages on the internet for Hellschreiber and digi-modes  traffic:

	Hellschreiber spots by Laurie, VK3AMA
	Data (digi) Mode spot page (including "Hell") by Risto, W6RK
	Ham2Ham by Peter, DF7DQ/EA5GVH)
	Feldhell Sked Page by K3UK

Weekly nets by the Feld Hell Club Yahoo! Group

	160 meter band: Mondays (even weeks of the month), 1806 kHz, 03:00 UTC (2nd and 4th Monday of the month)
	80 meter band: Saturdays, 3574 kHz, 05:00 UTC
	40 meter band: Thursdays, 7073 kHz, 01:00 UTC
	30 meter band: Mondays (odd weeks of the month), 10137 kHz, 00:00 UTC (1st & 3rd Monday of the month)
	20 meter band: Sundays, 14063 kHz (carrier), 1500 Hz (AF), 12:00 UTC
	10 meter band: Mondays, 28074 kHz, 18:00 UTC

CONTESTS AND EVENTS
 

Hellschreiber Activity Day (HAD):

	Last Saturday of the month January, April, July, October
	0000 to 2400 UTC
	All bands

	Feld-Hell Club contests see here.
	Annual DARC Hellschreiber Contest (since 1980); click here for the official rules (in German).

	HF: Saturday and Sunday of first full weekend of October
	Saturday: 80 mtrs, 14:00-16:00 UTC
	Sunday: 40 mtrs, 09:00-11:00 UTC
	VHF/UHF: Thursday following the HF weekend

On 30+31 December 2006 I participated in a contest for the first time. Did OK: 79 participants, 12^th place overall. Worked 68 stations in 26 countries on 3 continents.

On 20 December 2008 I participated 1 hour in the 2-hour September Sprint contest (midnight - 02:00 local time); my QSOs with N8BA and WB2HTO and ongoing poor propagation conditions made me the DX Winner.

Annual Hell Meeting:

The first time that a group of radio amateurs got together to rag-chew about Hellschreibers was in 1977 in the Netherlands. This has turned into an annual event with regular attendance from Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, and Sweden. The Annual Hell Meeting typically takes place during the second half of September. It is a great way to get together in a social setting, with people who foster radio history and in particular Hellschreiber history (and future)!

2008 Hell Meeting. I finally (!) decided to start attending these meetings and went to the 2008 Hell Meeting. It took place on 27 September at the Jan Corver Amateur Radio Museum of Cor (PAØVYL) in Budel (near Eindhoven, The Netherlands). The museum had a special exhibit on "Secret messages", with spy radios and many crypto machines (including several original Enigma machines and a "Geheimschreiber"), and a WWII German jamming transmitter. The get-together was generously hosted by Cor and his XYL Corry, and it was really great to finally meet a large part of the hard-core of 30-35 years of world-wide amateur radio Hell activity. Arie, PE1AQB, presented his experimentations with start-stop Hell 80. Followed with a very pleasant group dinner at a local restaurant.

2009 Hell Meeting. The 32^nd annual Hell meeting took place on 14 November, at the wonderful exhibit of  the Foundation for German communication and related technologies near Amsterdam, kindly hosted by Arthur (PAØAOB) and XYL Karin. With just under 30 Hellers and XYLs from France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, this may have been the best-attended Hell Meeting ever!

The 2009 attendees (not all in the photo): Arthur (PA0AOB) & Karin (our hosts), Alie (PD2ALW), Arnold (PE1ARD), Arie (PE1AQB), Remmelt-Jan (PA0RJW), Bastiaan  (PA3FFZ) & Marijke, Louis (F5LG) & XYL, Frank  (F/N4SPP), Henk  (PA3BQS) & XYL, Cor (PA0VYL) & Corry, Marien (PA0MVW), Klaas (PA0KLS), Philippe  (F2TV), Heinz  (DC4GL), Marc (PE1RRT), Paul (PE1BXL), Gerard (PA3BCB), Koos (PA3FFZ) & Stella, Paul  (PA0OCD), Winfried (ON7BW) & XYL, Don ? (PA?).

The "Hell Gang" gathered around a Hellschreiber at the 1980 Annual Hell Meeting, at the home of Arthur, PAØAOB.
(from left to right: Helmut (DL1OY, SK 2009), Arthur (PAØAOB), Cas (PAØCSC), Hans (PAØCX/DJØSA),
Klaas (PAØKLS), Cor (PAØVYL), Dick (PAØSE), Brian (F5VQ, now NI6Q), and Hans (DL1GP ( Luftwaffe radio technician in WWII, SK 1998), credited with the 1^st amateur Hell contact on HF in 1958, with DM3KG)
Photo courtesy Dick (PAØSE), published in Electron, March 1981

The "Hell Gang" at the 10th Annual Hell Meeting in December of 1987, at the home of Wim, PE1FIB (SK).
(from left to right, standing: Koos (PAØKDF), Jan (ON4ASZ), Dick (PAØSE), Hans (PAØCX/DJØSA), Cas (PAØCSC), Aard (PE1MBP, now PA3FNC) and Helmut (DL1OY); front, left to right:  Cor (PAØVYL), Klaas (PAØKLS), Wim, (PE1FIB), Arthur (PAØAOB) and Gerard (PA3BCB). Frans (PA3CDN) took the photo. Louis (PA3DSA) also attended the Meeting.
Photo courtesy Gerard (PA3BCB), published in Electron, February 1988


Best wishes to Dr. Hell for his 80th birthday (1981), from the international amateur radio Hell gang.
Most of the signatories are in the above photos of the Annual Hell Meeting.
(source: Association of Friends and Sponsors of the “ Dr. Rudolf Hell Technical Collection” in Kiel, Germany)

©2005-2008 F. Dörenberg N4SPP

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