The Hungarian World Bus & DX-Pedition or Globexpedition (in Hungarian: Globexpedíció), also known by the radio call sign HA5BUS and its variations, was a DX-pedition with the aim of traveling around the globe with a bus. The expedition lasted 614 days from 23 October 1991 to 27 June 1993, and its team traveled through or visited places in Hungary, the Soviet Union (which was in the process of dissolution at the time), Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Singapore, Australia, the United States, Canada, Germany and Austria. The participants were three Hungarian men, all licensed amateur radio (or "ham") operators; bus driver Gábor Kovács (nicknamed "Gabi", call sign: HG5BKG), Volánbusz mechanical engineer István Himberger ("Pista", HG5CHI) and Rádiózás magazine's then chief editor Imre Páskuly ("Imi", HA5HO).
The team used a long, custom-built Ikarus 350 coach manufactured by the Hungarian company Ikarus, which was outfitted with various radio equipment and comfort-enhancing amenities. Among others, the expedition was supported by the Budapest-based Globex Foundation and MOGÜRT, Hungary's automotive foreign trade company.
Idea and preparations
Bus driver Gábor Kovács was driving on a long-distance private charter route between Budapest, capital of Hungary and Istanbul, Turkey in the spring of 1988, and during this trip he was reminded of the successful circumnavigation of the Earth achieved in the previous year by his fellow countrymen Nándor Fa and József Gál, and their sailboat St. Jupat. This gave him the inspiration to embark on a similar journey across the globe, but done by using a bus. By the time he arrived back in Budapest, he already had a notebook filled up with sketches, calculations and itineraries. In the following months, Kovács spent his time organizing a journey, soliciting sponsors and developing a detailed itinerary. He was joined in his endeavor by his childhood friend István Himberger, who was a mechanical engineer at Volánbusz, and Imre Páskuly, who was then chief editor of the Rádiózás amateur radio magazine. In a publicity stunt to gather sponsors, Kovács set the Guinness world record for endurance bus driving when he drove an Ikarus 256 coach on the Hungaroring race track non-stop for 30 and half hours on 5–6 November 1988.
By the end of 1988, all of the planning work was done and the team already gathered some sponsors, but they still lacked a vehicle. As they were determined to use a Hungarian Ikarus bus, they contacted the company's trade representative at the beginning of 1989, receiving positive feedback, and for a while, it seemed like the Ikarus Székesfehérvár factory would provide the expedition with an Ikarus 250. However, at the time, the People's Republic of Hungary was in the process of transitioning from being a communist state to being a democratic state, and this caused established deals that the team have made to fall through, making the expedition's future uncertain.
Later, the team was in talks with the Ikarus Mátyásföld factory, but it turned out the company was no longer able to provide a complete vehicle for the expedition. They decided to contact individual members in the automotive supply chain to gather the required parts for a bus, and after each of the companies they asked offered parts for the endeavor, Ikarus pledged to produce the vehicle body and assemble a vehicle using these parts if the team paid for the associated labor costs. As this was still a significant sum of money for them, with the help of Ikarus, the team secured a subsidy from the Hungarian Ministry of Industry (IpM), and thus the manufacturing of the bus could have started.
The vehicle, having a white factory paint job and still being unfurnished, was completed by early March 1990, receiving the 350.02 model designation (type 350, variant 02) and chassis number 004. The team took the bus on its first serious test drive when they drove it to the 1990 Ham Radio convention in Friedrichshafen, Germany, to gather more sponsors and to buy radio equipment. During this trip, the stock, 250 hp Rába D2156 MT6U engine was deemed to be underpowered for such an expedition, so after returning, they started to seek out a stronger replacement. Rába itself couldn't offer them any alternatives, as their D10 product family was still under development at the time. The team contacted multiple larger engine manufacturers in Europe, but none of them could offer an engine for the bus. In the meantime, the team members continued to work on the vehicle's interior at the Ikarus workshop, often working on weekends and holidays, sometimes even sleeping in the bus after they were locked in the workshop.
The issue of engine replacement was later solved with the help of József, an older Ikarus mechanic from the company's experimental and prototyping "EAG" department (Egyedi Autóbusz Gyáregység, "Custom-made Bus Division"), who have shown the team two mothballed Cummins LTA10-B 290H engines. These were intended to be used as part of articulated Ikarus 280.60 buses destined for export to Ecuador in 1988, but they were damaged after cargo mishandling, and thus weren't put to use. Ikarus offered one of the engines to the team, but couldn't guarantee providing the required engineering documentation to mount it in the vehicle in a timely manner. At the suggestion of the mechanic, they petitioned Ikarus leadership to allow EAG to mount the engine on an ad-hoc basis, which was greenlighted, although with Ikarus not providing any warranty for the work. Thus the engine was mounted in March 1991, and later in May it was tested at the European center of Cummins in Frankfurt, where it was granted a worldwide warranty by the company. The work required the team to buy replacement parts abroad to fix the external damage to the engine, as well as using additional parts produced by the Csepel Automobile Factory so that the unit, originally designed to be mounted upright as a vertical engine, could have been mounted underfloor as a horizontal engine, a practice which was standard at Ikarus.
The team took the bus on a second, extended test drive in the form of a trip to Albania in the summer of 1991, using the call sign ZA1HA. The country was chosen because of the similarities between its environments and those of Eastern countries and the trip was considered a success. After this, the interior was furnished with the help of the Lenti Wood and Metal Industry Cooperative of Lenti. Later that year, the design of the interior won an award at the 1991 Fall Budapest International Fair (BNV).
In the days preceding their departure for the expedition, they received pots and other kitchen items from Vasedény, cameras from Ofotért, and film rolls from Forte Photochemistry Industrial as part of sponsorship.
The goal (as stated on their QSL cards) was set to "travel kilometres round the Globe by a Hungarian bus in two years" and to "make QSOs [radio contacts] during the journey across more than 30 countries of five continents". The expedition's motto became "Around the World in a Bus".
Crew
The expedition's members were three licensed amateur radio operators from Hungary:
Gábor Kovács (nicknamed "Gabi", call sign: HG5BKG):Kovács was the organizer, spokesman, team leader, navigator and first driver of the expedition. He was a bus driver, driving instructor, rally driver and Guinness world record holder for endurance bus driving, which was set on the Hungaroring race track in November 1988. Kovács was 36–37 years old at the time of the expedition's start, and as of the beginning of 1990, he had two daughters. István Himberger ("Pista", HG5CHI):Himberger was the engineer, technician and second driver of the expedition. He was a childhood friend of Kovács, and a Volánbusz mechanical engineer. Himberger was 36–37 years old at the time of the expedition's start, and as of the beginning of 1990, he was a father of three girls. Imre Páskuly ("Imi", HA5HO):Páskuly was the main radio operator, license and QSL manager, cook, chronicler and cameraman of the expedition. He was the chief editor of the amateur radio and CB magazine Rádiózás and the editor of the Rádióamatőr QTC program at the time. Páskuly was aged 45–46 at the time of the expedition's start, and as of the beginning of 1990, he had one daughter.
Among the three men, Páskuly was the only HF operator, as Kovács and Himberger had a VHF license.
Vehicle and equipment Globex Ikarus 350 and its amenities
The team acquired a long, custom-built Ikarus coach, which was largely identical to the stock Ikarus 350.02 model variant. The vehicle was produced by the Mátyásföld factory of Ikarus, using parts that were offered by various companies in the automotive industry which wanted to sponsor the expedition.
These automotive companies included:
Rába (Rába D2156 MT6U 10.3 L turbocharged I6 diesel engine with 250 hp, a MAN license; Rába MVG 832 front and Rába MVG 007 rear beam axles) Ikarus (Cummins LTA10-B 290H 10.0 L turbocharged I6 diesel engine, custom-made grille guard) Gear Csepel Automobile Transmission Factory (Csepel S6-120U 6-speed manual transmission, a ZF license) Voith (retarder) Elbe (drive shaft) Fichtel & Sachs (shock absorbers)
Knorr-Bremse (brake and pneumatic systems) WABCO (electric leveling system) Taurus Rubber Industry Company (tires)
Transportation Measuring Instruments Factory (KMGY; electric instruments and sensors)
Salgoglas (window panes)
Sütrak (HVAC systems)
The fuel capacity was with multiple tanks. Initially the team planned to use regular pneumatic tires from Taurus with Trilex modular rims to facilitate easy field repairs, but they ended up using more modern tubeless tires from the company. During a test drive before the expedition, the vehicle was able to reach a speed of .
The interior included a "navigator seat", a fully equipped kitchen (including a two-burner stove fed by gas cylinders, a Lehel refrigerator, a combination microwave oven and "bread-making facilities"), a couch with a dining table, a bathroom with shower, a toilet, a radio booth, a storage closet at the back of the vehicle, and three sleeping berths for the crew. The bus also had comfort-enhancing amenities such as an air conditioning system designed for tropical weather, a Hajdu Minimat washing machine, a 3.6 kW Honda engine-generator, a hot water and a cold water tank. Overall the living space was roughly . The team has paid special attention to balancing the equipment, and later measurements confirmed that the weight imbalance between the left and right side of the vehicle was less than .
The exterior included extra auxiliary lights, a custom-made grille guard provided by Ikarus, a roof carrier, and various antennas. The bus was assigned the vehicle registration code BRZ-685.
Radio equipment
The vehicle was equipped with various high frequency (HF), very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) radio and antenna systems. The equipment included Icom and Yaesu devices (such as a Yaesu FT-990 high frequency transceiver), a Drake L-4B linear amplifier, as well as two personal computers. For antennas, the Ikarus had a high, extendable antenna mast, a Hy-Gain 18AVT/WB omnidirectional vertical antenna, a three-element, 4-band Cushcraft Yagi–Uda array, as well as various dipoles. Among the transmitters, the strongest was a 1.2 kW shortwave unit.
The bus itself as a mobile station was assigned the call sign HA5BUS. Radio operation modes included CW (Morse code), SSB, FM, RTTY (radioteletype), AMTOR and packet radio, and used the 3.5, 7, 14, 21, 28, 144, 432 and 1296 MHz frequency bands. The frequencies used were up 25 kHz from band edge (except on 7 MHz, where it was 7025 kHz) for CW; 3775 (outside of Australia), 3795 (in Australia only), 7075, , and kHz for SSB; 7075, and kHz for RTTY.
Journey Overview