PACC 2011

The Dutch PACC Contest is already 2 weeks over now.

This time i wasn't contesting from my own home,but was in a Holidayhouse we are taking care of.

This house is more in the open field,as my own place is surrounded with alot of houses..so also alot of QRN/QRM as well on my radio.My 3elm Tribander at my home is just 5 1/2 meters above the ground...so you can imagine that it will get alot of signals that i don't want to hear.

Friday morning at 11:00 local time,hte guests that where in the house for a week holiday,went out.

That was for me the time to go there with my gear and setup all the antenna's i wanted to use.

My antenne's where:

HF6V vertical

GPA30 vertical

3elm Tribander (Swan...32 years old :) )

2x 10 meters Dipole as Inverted V

FD3 wire dipole

This was what i wanted to put there and use....but.....

The most i did use the HF6V vertical from Butternut.I made myself radials from 2mm steelwire.

made 10 of them,then my spool of 100 meter wire was gone,hi.But also had still some copper wires who i first used at home for trying the antenna out.So also this ones where connected.

The best thing with the HF6V is that you don't have to switch antenna's when you want to use another band.This was for me also the first time i really did try the antenna and i can say...i am very pleased to have it and able to use it !!

My 3elm Swan Tribander also worked ok....but.....we couldn't get it higher then 4 meters above the ground.I used an old Militair tower what you have to pull up with your hands and then it should click when the whole section is out.Because the 3elm was too heavy,we only managed to get one section out.Also i didn't want the small tower to get broken....

Another problem was,that when you are not at home....and you don't see the sun shining...to find the North.I thought i knew it...but sunday after the PACC contest i found out it was totally wrong.Good to have from now one a compas in my radio gear,hi.

I was around 90 degrees wrong.....found it out after i saw the TV Dish at the neightbours house.That looks almost to the South...little East of it, 19,2 degrees to the ASTRA Satellite.

I did work some nice stations during the PACC on it....but after i changed it,it worked much better.Because after the PACC i went into the CQ WW WPX RTTY contest a

gain.

Worked some nice DX with it in RTTY...

Here you can see my radio and computer setup for the PACC and CQ WW WPC Contest.

I used just one radio,but had the other standby for when my first gave problems.

Here you see two photo's of my antenna's.One of them you see the foot of the HF6V with the radials attached.On the other you see on the forground the Swan Tribander and left from it the GPA30.At the right the HF6V and more right in the back of the garden the 2x 10 meters inverted V.

More photo's can be found at: http://www.pd7bz.nl/PACC2011

More info about my PACC Score via SH5 : http://www.pd7bz.nl/PACC

My QSO's results where like in 2010...but this year i got more Multies.

We have to wait till June to see the results.

PACC and CQ WPX RTTY

In the weekend from 13-14 Februar was the Dutch PACC contest and also the CQ WPX RTTY.

For us as Dutch HAMs,the PACC is the most important one.

The CQ WPX is a 48 hours contest.Started at 0:01 saturday till sunday 23:59.

I also started at the begin of the contest,because i wanted to have some qso's in this contest as well.And the time the PACC is on...that the contest i will be in.

Propagation was very good on 40M.I could work alot of NA stations.Last QSO made before i got a little sleep was at 3:42.This was number 119 in my log....

At 7:29 i was back at the radio and back in the CQ WPX.I started again on the 40M band,but only European stations here and not much new to work.After 20 minutes i went to the 20M band,that was already open.But here also mostly Europeans that i could work.After 1 1/2 hour i went back to the 40M band again.Here i looked around some and started to call CQ on 7051.

After one hour on the 40M band,i went back to 20M.My last station logged before the PACC started was ZL1BYZ.
At 17:00 UTC i went from the PACC back to CQ WPX and was able to work Phil,KL8DX..confirmation via eQSL and LoTW came fast after the contest was over.

As i didn't hear much stations for the PACC i decited to stay in the CQ WPX.Could work till 20:30 stations on 20M,but the band was already getting to close down.So i went again to the 40M band.propagation was again very well,was able to work Francisco,YV5LI.At 1:16 i went QRT for bed.

I started the CQ WPX again after the PACC contest was done.First qso made again was around 13:12 UTC.propagation on the 20M was better then it was on saturday.I was able to work YB,XU7,E21,VU2,A61...

At 19:00 i went qrt for a little break..and was back at 21:40 UTC.

I was listening on the 20M band..thinking it was closed,but..no way.i still could hear some stations fron NA and also very strong Francisco,TG9ANF.It was very strange to work him at this time of the day,but did make me very happy as well.

After this qso i went back to the 40M band...till 23:30 UTC.Total i made 464 QSO's in the CQ WPX contest..almost 300 qso's more then i had in 2009.

Total points where 532980 !!!You bet i could sleep very well after this.

The PACC contest

At 13:00 UTC on saturday i did start the PACC contest.First looking for a free space,but the freq. was already very busy.So i went searching for stations in the contest.

I was able to work a few stations on all of the bands i am allowed to transmit on.PE4BAS,Bas and PD5JFK,Jelle are two of them.Also both did send eQSL's straight after the contest was over.Thanks guys for the QSO's and the points.

On the first day the contest didn't go well for me.Couldn't get a free freq. to call on and didn't find much stations who where calling in the contest.Around 17:00 UTC i did stop the PACC and went to the CQ WPX.So now and then i listened over the band and did pick some stations out for the PACC.Last station logged before bedtime was around 0:27.

Sunday mornig at 8:30 i was back at the radio and in the PACC.I first went to the 40m band,worked a couple stations.Nice was to work PA0AA with Peter that time as operator,PD1RP.Little later i went to the 20M and did hear Henk,VK2GWK giving point in the PACC.I could work Henk as well via Long Path.

After 30 minutes on 20M i decited to go on 40M and find a free freq.I did find one and did start calling CQ......wow..i never had such a pile up :) This made the bad start from the day before good again.I did work alot of Dutch stations as well.I think this year more PD stations where active then the years before.Good sign.

At the end i got 329 qso's logged and 57 Multies.Total points given from N1MM is 18.753.

I did join this contest for the 4th time and this time was the most succesfull.We have to wait a few months to see what place i am from the Dutch Novice stations.

This weekend was for me very good.Made in 2 contest almost 800 qso's !!

PACC 2009

This past weekend was the weekend of the PACC Contest.
For us in Holland the biggest contest,but for outside not very interrested.
I am not active during the contest since 2007 and see that every year less OM's outside Holland are interrested to work us.Maybe it the setup of the contest that does this.
OM's outside Holland can only work us for points...
Maybe if the setup changes,that everyone can work everyone,with the Dutch Provinces as extra Multi's,makes it more interresting.
Just a little thought....

I did work in the Novice style,this means only 10,20 and 40 meters,with maxima of 25 Watts.
The 10 meter wasn't open,only did work a few Dutch provinces on that.
The 20 meter was open,but also closed early in the evening.....but th strange thing is,that still RTTY qso's could be made with NA/SA.So i think this is also because the PACC isn't that interresting.
The 40 meter was also not very good propagation.And a big problem with all the RTTY stations as well.How later in the evening,how higher in the band the RTTY came.

But most of all,i did enjoy it again to be a part of the PACC.
This is the most important thing,in my opinion.
And we learn as well from it.I did want to change some things,after the PACC from 2008.
But i did move in with my girlfriend and the antenna setup wasn't ready as i wanted it to be.
Something to fix before the PACC 2010 !!!

The Score of this year came to 8448 in N1MM logger.This can be changed after all logs are send in ofcourse.Here are some of my statistics:

The setup used was:

TRX : Yaesu FT847 25 watt

Antenne's: Fritzel FB33 (10-20m) , Fritzel GPA50 (10-20m) , Fritzel FD3 (10-40m) and home made 2x 10m dipole (40m)

The FB33 is at 6 meters above the ground.Soon it will be higher.The GPA50 is at the roof of the house,also the FD3 is there connected,and as Inverted V hanging down.The home made 2x 10m dipole,was hanging as Inverted V at my tower.The top at 5 meters at the gound.

I hope that the propagation will improve,until the PACC in 2010.Also that more OM's find it interresting to work all of us during this 24 hours contest.When the weather permits,and also my health,we will be changing the antenne setup here in the spring.The FB33 will be removed and in that place my old Swan TB-3HA will be put in his place.The Swan tribander has in my opinion a better f/b and is also bigger.The radials are all 1 meter longer then from the FB33.This means also a better performing.I used the Swan at my old place and am very happy with it.It's now over 30 years old and old American made.

For the 40m i will change my PKW MHF1e40 Rotary dipole,that is also still not up here,to a 2elm beam.This will for sure improve my skills on 40m.The antenne's will be up then around 10 meters above the ground.I am trying to get them higher,but need another tower for this,of must see if this tower can be changed.Our garden is only around 9m long....

So this is my story of the Dutch PACC 2009.Thanks all that did work us and hope to see/hear you again next year or in other contest.

Propagation

Today the propagation is very poor.
The coming weekend we have the big PACC coming up,so hopefully it will improve before then.

But also with this bad propagation,we have sometimes nice openings.
So did i work in the past weekend some nice DXCC's in the XE RTTY Contest.
For example in my log are:
Australia,Thailand,Japan,Venezuela,Mexico,Argentinia,Brasil and many more.
The propagation wasn't very good,and the openings where just short in that directions.

I hope that many HAMs will be trying to work all us Dutch HAMs and the Dutch PACC contest will be a big succes.