The Amateur Radio Club OH3NE in Tampere, Finland (KP11UL)
The first radio amateur club in Tampere was established 1924, so in 2024 we will celebrate 100 years of amateur radio in town. The first club station with the callsign of OH3NE was Tampereen Radiokerho in 1930. Tampere is also the birthplace of radio broadcasting in Finland, and played a major part in the early days of television as well. Tampereen Radioamatöörit was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1955, so we are sort of not-so-recent in our current form either.
Our club has about 200 members and we operate the repeater and APRS infrastructure around the region.
QSL info for OH3NE and OH3TAM (OF3NE and OF3TAM)
We accept QSL cards via the bureau or direct to TRA, Näkötornintie 20, FI-33230 TAMPERE, Finland. We have limited resources to process paper cards, so we’d prefer electronic confirmation with LoTW or eQSL.
Meetings at our Clubhouse
We have meetings at the clubhouse ~bi-weekly. Check the meeting schedule from our main page acalendar. Coffee and donuts can sourced from our friendly neighbours. The meetings usually start at 1800 local time (6 pm), but usually first visitors start to arrive a bit earlier. There are mostly no exceptions for summer months, nor for national holidays. Active members use the clubhouse facilities on other evenings and during weekends as well.
Visitors are welcome at any time. Please see our contact page for more information.
The clubhouse is located a nice walking distance of about a mile from downtown Tampere, at the Pyynikki observation tower. The room was built for the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation in 1929 to house their local MW transmitter. We were given the opportunity to rent the premises in 1977 after the 1485 kHz BC station closed down. You can find the exact location of our clubhouse on APRS as well.
You can get to the clubhouse also by bus. Local bus line 27 runs to the top of the ridge (MON-SAT), please get off at Pyynikinharju (2026). Then just walk to the direction of the rear of the vehicle and the the club is just behind the tall telecom tower. With other lines you’ll have some 100 or 200 steps to ascend. Please see the Tampere Bus Route Planner for details of the diminishing bus transport in Tampere.
If you wish to visit the clubhouse, it’s a good idea to call on the local FM repeater system or the digital DMR network on the Tampere region talkgroup 24431 (see below for details). The clubhouse monitors both systems during club activities.
- There is adequate parking space, and a splendid cafeteria in the building.
- Enough space for meetings, a comprehensive station and an electronics/RF laboratory.
- A small separate warehouse for cables, surplus radios and other hardware.
- Nice view over two big lakes.
- Trees for antenna wires.
- Few residents within 500 metres.
- No rodents in a house built of granite.
- In total one of the best places in the world for a radio amateur club (if you don’t count in the almost intolerable interference level on the lower HF bands).
We also have access to another tower Näsinneula near our location where we have some equipment for our repeaters.
OH3NE/OH3TAM Station
Our club station is active on the bands from 1,8 MHz to 1,3 GHz and on the QO-100 satellite. OH3TAM is our secondary call for special occasions. In 2017 we remembered the Independence of Finland in 1917 with special calls OF3NE and OF3TAM.
The tower and the directional antennas on the on the roof were taken down in April 2017 for quarterly repairs. We are now back on the air with some more oomph using the following configuration:
Equipment for HF, 6 and 4 metres
- IC-7300 for traditional modes and digimodes (HF/6/4)
- FT-897D for the WRC remote control station (mainly phone, HF/6/2/70)
- TS-2000X for mostly digimodes (HF/6/2/70)
- OCF dipole 20 m up for 80-6 metres
- A sloping half wave dipole for 60 metres (temporarily disassembled)
- 25 m long T2FD sloper from the tower to south
- TH-4 4 ele yagi for 10/15/20 metres 15 m up
- 6/5 ele EA5070-OWA11 yagi for 6/4 metres 17 m up
The stations can be remote controlled by members. We are mostly active on the JT modes. The station is sometimes left to receive WSPR with band scan when it is not used for other activities.
Equipment for upper VHF/UHF bands
- IC-9700 for traditional modes and digimodes (2/70/23)
- FT-897D for the WRC remote control station (mainly phone, HF/6/2/70)
- TS-2000X for mostly digimodes (HF/6/2/70)
- 2 m/70 cm power amplifiers and masthead preamplifiers
- 15 ele CueDee yagi for 2 metres 19 m up
- 23 ele CueDee yagi up for 70 cm 20 m up
- Transverters for the 23 cm and 13 cm bands
- Loop yagis for the 23 cm and 13 cm bands 21 m up
- FM radios with vertical antennas for 6 m/4 m/2 m/70 cm/23 cm
- D-STAR radio with vertical antenna for 2 m
- P25/FM radio with a vertical antenna for 70 cm
- DMR/FM radio with a vertical antenna for 70 cm
- Various receivers (LF/MF/HF/VHF/UHF/SHF, both SDR and traditional)
QO-100 station
- Cheap 10 GHz LNB and G0MRF downconverter built by UT5JCW
- DXPatrol MK2 2,4 GHz upconverter
- DXPatrol 12 W amplifier
- 67×60 cm Canal Digital offset dish
- POTY feed
OH3RNE FM Repeaters in Tampere
OH3RNE is our multi-site, multi-band FM repeater system with receiver voting. The 2 m and 70 cm repeaters are linked full-time. Below you can find a table of all TX and RX sites, frequencies and CTCSS tones, along with a rough estimate of coverage areas. Click the links for specific information on each site. The repeaters are also linked to the OH3RTR 6 m repeater (51,950 MHz -0,6 MHz, CTCSS 123,0 Hz).
NB. The main receivers at the Hervanta site have been refurbished and returned in use.
| QTH | Frequency | Offset | CTCSS | Status | Coverage | m asl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Näsinneula TX | 145,750 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | CTCSS also on transmit | 247 | |
| Hervanta RX | -0,6 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | 2 m main RX, North, East, South, Hervanta | 212 | |
| Pyynikki RX | -0,6 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | Downtown, Härmälä, Pirkkala | 180 | |
| Tesoma RX | -0,6 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | North, West, South | 183 | |
| Elovainio RX | -0,6 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | West, Northwest, North, Ylöjärvi | 193 | |
| Näsinneula TX | 434,850 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | CTCSS also on transmit | 247 | |
| Hervanta RX | -2,0 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | 70 cm main RX, North, East, South, Hervanta | 225 | |
| Pyynikki RX | -2,0 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | Downtown (especially indoor coverage) | 180 | |
| Tesoma RX | -2,0 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | North, West, South | 183 | |
| Elovainio RX | -2,0 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | West, Northwest, North, Ylöjärvi | 198 | |
| Tesoma TX | 51,950 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | CTCSS also on transmit | 183 | |
| Pyynikki RX | -0,6 MHz | 123,0 Hz | Operational | 6 m receiver at the clubhouse | 162 |
The coverage information is provisional. The system will vote for the receiver that gives the best signal to noise ratio. Just set your transmitter with a 123,0 Hz subtone. We are using SvxLink PC software by SM0SVX for voting and repeater control and a dedicated private microwave IP network for the VOIP links.
More info is available on our repeater pages in Finnish.
You can search for all repeaters in Finland on the SRAL pages.
OH3RNE Digital DMR Repeaters in Tampere
We operate two digital DMR repeaters in Tampere, both of which are connected to the Finnish FinDMR network (which in turn is connected to the worldwide BrandMeister network).
| QTH | Frequency | Offset | Color Code | Status | Remarks | m asl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hallila | 145.575 MHz | -0.6 MHz | 1 | Operational | 218 | |
| Hervanta | 434.525 MHz | -2.0 MHz | 1 | Operational | Co-sited with the OH3RTR repeaters | 225 |
| Tesoma | 434.550 MHz | -2.0 MHz | 1 | Operational | 183 |
You can access the Tampere area DMR repeaters from anywhere in the BrandMeister network with talkgroup 24431 (on timeslot 2 on the local repeaters). The nation-wide Finnish talkgroup is 244 on timeslot 1. Most DMR users here speak English, so don’t hesitate to call CQ!
See the FinDMR pages for more information.
Clubhouse Webcam
Live online camera at the clubhouse