Swiss HAM / Crypto / Électronique: two days of radio at the Enter in Derendingen

📡 An amateur radio fair open to all things radio

The Enter describes it as a “two-day fair devoted to radio technology”. Its name sums up the mix nicely: Swiss HAM for radio amateurs, Crypto for encryption and its machines, Électronique (electronics) for everything that can be soldered, measured and repaired. The fair fills the whole of Enter Technikwelt and brings together international exhibitors, associations with links all over the world and a built-in amateur radio flea market.

So it is not just a flea market. You can spend the morning rummaging through the tables, attend a talk after lunch, then head up to the second floor to see how a QSO is made from the museum's station. Meanwhile, the children go off foxhunting.

Antennas on the ceiling and stands as far as the eye can see, the typical atmosphere of an amateur radio fair (here at Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen, 2010). Photo: iz1ksw, Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 2.0.

🏛️ The Enter, Switzerland's great technology museum

The venue alone is worth the trip. The Enter foundation was set up in 2010 by two electrical engineers and collectors, Felix Kunz and Peter Regenass. Their collection, which had grown too big for their homes, was first shown in Solothurn, near the station, before moving to a new building in Derendingen. Today the museum describes itself as the largest interactive museum in Switzerland devoted to analogue and digital technology.

You will find radio and television sets, studio equipment, computers (including one of the few complete Apple collections in the world), calculating machines and a technical library of around 50,000 circuit diagrams and more than 3,000 books. Enough to track down the schematic of that old receiver gathering dust in the attic.

A nod to Lausanne: the Enter museum devotes a display case to Champ-de-l'Air, the Lausanne transmitter that in 1922 became Switzerland's first radio station. Photo taken at the museum in 2021: Kerstin Sonnekalb (Wikimedia CH), Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 4.0.

📻 HB9E, the museum's amateur radio station

The museum houses its own amateur radio station, HB9E, run by the USKA and maintained by its HB9E operating group. It went on the air in 2025, on the second floor of the building, with its antennas on the roof of the museum, some twenty metres high. Radio amateurs operate there live on Saturdays and Sundays, depending on availability.

During the fair, it is the ideal opportunity to see a fine station in action, to ask the operators your questions and, for visitors who are not yet licensed, to find out what a real QSO looks like. Full details at hb9e.ch.

🔐 Radio and cryptography, a long story

Why talk about encryption at a radio fair? Because the two grew up together. As soon as a message goes out over the air, anyone can listen to it. So the military, diplomats and banks very early on sought to make their messages unreadable to prying ears. Switzerland has its place in this story too. During the Second World War, the Swiss Army had its own rotor machine developed, the NEMA (for “Neue Maschine”), built by Zellweger in Uster and brought into service in the late 1940s. The Enter museum holds one, as well as encryption devices from Gretag, the Zurich company based in Regensdorf.

Left, the Swiss Army NEMA rotor encryption machine, on display at the Enter museum (photo taken in 2012 in the former museum in Solothurn: Bobo11, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0). Right, the mechanism of Gretag encryption devices (Regensdorf ZH) at the Enter museum (photo: BBCLCD, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).

🦊 Foxhunting, radio in trainers

Foxhunting (ARDF, for Amateur Radio Direction Finding) is the most athletic of amateur radio activities. Small transmitters, the “foxes”, are hidden across an area. Participants look for them with a receiver and a directional antenna, turning on the spot to work out where the signal is coming from, then running in that direction. There are even regional, national and world championships, and Swiss clubs organise events regularly.

At the Enter, foxhunting is part of the programme for children, young people and families. It is an excellent way to learn, through play, how a signal propagates and how a directional antenna works. Parents are allowed to join in too: nobody will check your age.

Final sprint by a member of the Bulgarian national team during a foxhunting (ARDF) competition. Photo: Lz1adf, Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 3.0.

🛒 Buying or selling at the flea market

The amateur radio flea market is part of the fair, so the admission ticket is all you need to get in. As at any flea market, a few good habits will spare you disappointment.

1. Make a list. Write down what you are really looking for (connectors, coax, power supply, antenna, transceiver) and the maximum price you are prepared to pay.
2. Come early. The best items often go in the first hour. Doors open at 10:00.
3. Test before you buy. Ask to see the equipment powered up, check the display, the buttons, the RF output if possible and that the power cable is included.
4. Bring a way to pay. Not all sellers necessarily accept electronic payments. A little cash is a sensible precaution.
5. Come back at the end of the day. Sellers often prefer to lower the price rather than load the car up again.

Want to sell? According to the Enter's French page, a table costs CHF 40.- per day, a side extension without table CHF 15.- per day, a chair CHF 5.- and a power connection CHF 20.- per day. Delivery and set-up take place from 07:00 to 09:30, and seller registration is open until 27 January 2027 via info@enter.ch. FME members get a 25% discount on rental. And to sell your gear the rest of the year, try hbtroc.ch, the online marketplace for Swiss radio amateurs.

📍 Practical information

From French-speaking Switzerland, Derendingen is right next to Solothurn. The easiest option is to check the SBB timetable to the “Derendingen, Freiheit” stop, or to car-share with other radio amateurs from your area. The museum's usual discounts (Swiss Museum Pass, Raiffeisen, etc.) do not apply to this event.

🇨🇭 A word from HB9V

At HB9V, the Club Radioamateur Suisse, we love events where radio is shown to the general public. An amateur radio fair in a technology museum, with a real station on the air, workshops for young people and a foxhunt, is exactly the kind of place where vocations are born. If you know someone who is hesitating about getting their HB3 or HB9 licence, take them along. And if you go, tell us about your finds and send us your photos via the contact page. The best ones may well end up on this blog.

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