3A/DL3OCH

Principality

of Monaco

My car!

Not the Farrari but the VW in background.

Year

Date

1998

Feb 3rd - Feb 5th

2000

Oct 20th - Oct 21st

2003

April 16th - April 18th

October

2005

Jan 5th -Jan 9th

Mar 26th - Mar 29th

I operate from the harbour of Monte-Carlo. I am closer than 1000m to both lighthouses of Monaco. There is a clear visibility to them. Therefore my operations count as activation of the lighthouses MON-001 and MON-002.

Make sure to check out the ARLHS website for awards and more information.

Monaco is not really ham-radio friendly. There were some activities from hotels but some OMs didn't leave the hotel how they should. Therefore, the hotel managers do not like to give a permission to set up antennas anymore. There is no camping site and it is not even allowed to enter 3A with a camping trailer. Additionally there is no space for antennas. The streets are very narrow, crowded and surrounded by high buildings. I always used my mobile antenne which works on all hf bands. I also used a fishing rod as a vertical and  fastened it at a road sign or a parking meter. But the local police is attentively and arrested me cause ham radio. They were told that my german licence is not valid in Monaco. I had to answer many questions from several officers (everybody asked the same) and I had to show my equipment. However, they have let me go and I am now using my mobile antenna only. It works on all bands but the efficiency on the lowbands is low. But I still could get 250 QSOs on 160m and 250 QSOs on 80m in the log during my last activity in January 2005.  

The propagation conditions in direction East and South are good but extremely bad to West and North. There are only a few NA stations in the log. The high mountains make it almost impossible to do contacts with North-West. Look at the picture above to see how it looks in direction West. The picture to the left shows a narrow street with view to the North.

Many stations from the US requested a sched but the conditions are really bad toward W. Look at the pictures and try to understand how difficult it is to operate from 3A.

I recommend to get a written permission if you consider to operate from 3A. It should to be something from the telecommunication authority in Monaco. I know that it is supposed to be enough to call there and mention the location and the duration of activity. But nobody ever cared for that. The local police was never intrested to see my german licence that is valid there as well. I wrote a letter to the telecommunication authority and received an e-mail from Mister Raoul Viora (Le Directeur du Controle des Concessions et des Telecommunications). I just printed it out and everybody was satisfied.

band statistic, 3471 QSOs total

First contact 3A - DL on 23cm ever!!!!

3A/DL3OCH (JN33RR)  <->  DJ9YW (JO42QA)

There were very bad conditions for taking pictures. EME from the racing course Monte-Carlo.

Screenshot

Software: WSJT v2.2.2

click on the picture for details