I got an invitation from Frans, PA0INA, my brother in law, to join him and his girlfriend, to Bad Kreuznach for the CONDIN-2023, organised by Armin, DK9PY. The list of possible attendees showed many old FOC-friends, so it was clear that I accepted his invitation. I made a hotel reservation to make sure that we stayed at the same hotel where CONDIN-2023 would take place. Friday-afternoon, we arrived in Bad Kreuznach, and found already some attendees talking, discussing and drinking beer, wine or water on the hotel-terrasse. Me and my girlfriend did not feel like guests, it felt just as it should be, being together at a big family-meting. Because the hotel was in the middle of the town, parking the car was a bit difficult, but this problem could be solved easily. Weather conditions were perfect. sunny and temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius. More and more attendees arrived and the terrasse was full of ham radio talk. Looking at the car-plates it was obvious that their owners had some connection with CW. Armin, DK9PY and his wife Petra, took us on a short walk, to the Brauhaus, located on the edge of the city park of Bad Kreuznach, for an evening dinner. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was “Gemütlich”. We were not the only guests at the restaurant. So it happened that some of our group had to wait long before their food arrived. Late evening the group returned to the hotel. Some of us did choose to take a taxi instead of walking back. Reason wat simple, the distance between the hotel and the restaurant was more than twice the distance Armin told us. Saturday was filled with a drive and a hike along the cliff of the Rotenfels, the “höchste Steilwand”, the steepest wall in Germany, north of the Alps. Armin was a perfect guide and told a lot of interesting details during the hike along the wall. The view from the top of the Rotenfels, decorated with a lot of wildflowers was magnificent. Some of the group returned to the restaurant near the car parking. The rest took the long hike (some 3 Km) in the Rotenfels Naturpark, before they joined the others at the restaurant for the late-noon lunch, a snack or just a big piece of “Kuchen”. Back at the hotel the get together continued at the terrasse, while the last attendees arrived at the hotel. The dinner was perfect, some of the attendees showed proud their FOC-ties, while others just dressed casual. I counted 28 people who did take part at the dinner. Nigel, OE5TXF (G3TXF) made a short talk, thanking our hosts, and mentioning those members who became a silent key shortly. Sunday morning, some of the group had to travel back home, the rest took the drive to a place on the top of a hill, a building without a postal address, assessable only through a meandering dirt road. It was a drive to the operating site of DK9PY. There are not enough words to describe this place for you. You have to visit the place yourself to believe what I write here about the place. The spot of Armin has a surface of some 22.000 (twenty-two thousand) square meters , completely fenced. The area has just one building, completely renovated by Armin and Petra. They are not allowed to live at the house, but there is electricity and water available. There is a 20.000 Volt cable connection (I am not kidding) available on the property. Water is delivered by a well on the “DK9PY-Estate”. The electricity of today however comes from a lot of solar panels, and a wind turbine, placed at the top of the “cell phone” or “handy” tower on the property. Yes Armin has permission from the owner of that tower to place the turbine. He also mounted some wire antennas in the same tower. Guess who is the owner of that tower! The property is full of towers, in one of them is a 40 meter quad constructed. After walking along the towers and the solar panels, I saw some tower parts lying on the ground, ready for some construction work. It made clear that Armin has to do some more work before he can say “I have finished the work now”. I think he will be busy his whole life on that big piece of land. Armin showed us his garage, full of equipment to take care of the property. One construction took my attention. It was a big star, full of bulbs, which is used to decorate one of the towers at Christmas-time. The guide tour ended with drinking some beers, discussing what we had seen. There was a lot to discuss. But the guided tour was by far not at its end. The next target of the guided tour was the house without a postal address. I will just mention two rooms of many more in the building. One of them was a kind of concert-room, equipped with a piano. Antonia, the girlfriend of Frans, PA0INA took the invitation to take the seat behind the piano, and played for the group. The second room of course was the holy place, the shack of Armin, DK9PY. So we could see how it looks like if you can say that you are QRV at different bands on the same time. Then we enjoyed the results of the BBQ, Armin and Petra had prepared for us. Enough food and drinks to satisfy our hungry needs. After enjoying the “Bratwurst” a Scottish sound was heard. It was Frans, PA0INA, who played for us some well-known tunes on his bagpipe. It is custom that Frans will take the bagpipe with him if he visits a CONDIN. Normally CONDIN is ending after the performance of Frans, but not this time. Armin had a little (read big) surprise for us. He took us underground. It became clear now, what the purpose was of this big uphill property. An underground nuclear traffic control station. Above the ground only the house, and some small constructions like the entrance to the underworld belonged to the nuclear station. The station had no antennas, connection with the outside world from down under was secured by telephone lines. The station was in full action until end of the nineties. With every shift some twenty people worked in the bunker.. The 20.000 Volt connection inside the bunker, mentioned before, was transformed down to 220 Volt. The lead shields, the concrete walls, the coal filters etc. should protect the people inside the bunker from an atomic attack. All had to be enough safety to be a shelter for up to 200 people for at least one week when an atomic bomb would come down and would make the air radioactive with a temperature of 800 degrees centigrade. There is still hope that Armin and Petra will get permission to make the building their home and that the property will have its own zip-code.   Thanks very much Armin and Petra for this CONDIN full of surprises. It was wonderful to be in Bad Kreuznach with old friend and of course with new friends. List of attendees at CONDIN-2023 DF4BV,Heinz DJ6SI, Baldur DJ6ZM, Tof DJ7PR, Leo Birgit, XYL of DJ8FW (SK) DK1WI, Ed DK4LX, Holger DK7PE, Rudi and Petra DK8EI, Klaus and Angelika DK8IT, Gerry and Gail DK9PY, Armin and Petra DL1BUG, Red DL1CW, Arno DL3AZ, Andreas DL5XL, Felix DL6LBI, Ingo and Inge OE3TXF, Nigel and Annelies PA0INA, Frans and Antonia PA0ABM, Wino and Lies Links Brauhaus Bad-Kreuznach : www.braunundroethgastronomie.com/braun-roeth/brauwerk/ Rotenfels : de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotenfels (German language)

(May 10-21, 2023, told by Wino, PA0ABM)