On Friday February 10th. 2017 probably the first QSO took place from the King Willem Alexander tunnel in Maastricht. While driving into the tunnel I’ve had a QSO with Pascal PB1SAM who was also driving home from QRL. At the time I was entering the tunnel he took the old northbound A2 route at the surface while I was driving in the upper tube in the same direction. Because the initial QSO was done via ON0LB, we unrespectfully switched to the output frequency of this repeater.
By doing so we could continue our talk, having the first QSO between the upper tube of the double layer tunnel in Maastricht and the surface. The quality of the signal was really good. Although the distance is not really an issue, the tunnel construction is one big bunch of concrete and steel. Driving through the tube while transmitting is like driving in a king size coax cable! This is how an electron feels after the amplifier has sent it to our antenna…
Nevertheless this has proved that the tunnel is a big advantage for the traffic and the environment, but the shielding has some holes. Soon I should give it a try from the lower tube!
