Listen to the pile-up I had on 20m. It actually was like this all the time on any band. Imagine that for a beginner CW operator this is all a bit overwhelming. I could not do CW for longer as about 30-45 minutes, it was just too much. When I listen to it I wish it could be more smooth, I try to listen carefully but it is hard to pull a call out of the pile. Please comment if you feel I could do better. I want to learn from my mistakes.
This is also for archive purposes. I want to compare with the next PACC. Will there be a lot of progress in one year of training?
I did some CW practise as well last weekend. Partaking in the ARRL CW international contest working USA/Canada. It went very well although I only did S&P. Worked 50 in one hour on Saturday afternoon and worked another 50 early Sunday morning also in one hour. Wish I had some more time but since it was my XYL her birthday we had visitors till late in the evening. And although radio is my passion my family will always be on first place.
This was my first PACC in which I didn't use any computer decoder for CW. I just tried headcopy. And it went well I think. I hope the final result will tell if I made less errors compared to last years. My goal was to beat last years score. And it certainly did happen. With 106 QSOs more and 16 multipliers more. I think there is still room for improvement, CW should be my first priority in this contest. It costs time to make SSB contacts, CW is so much faster if you are QRP.
Red dots = CW, green dots = SSB
Note that the green dot near Nigeria is wrong because of a wrong locator for a German station. I cannot change that. I was surprised my operating time was less compared to last year. ODX was with a Chinese station but I doubt he was in the contest? For QRP operation it is most time an European contest and less DX as you can see in the picture. Although I worked some Canada on 10m both CW as SSB I didn't hear VE9KK this time unfortunately. However again K1ZZ worked me on 5 bands CW again, something that's almost unbelievable. I think he has the best ears of the world.
I worked 37 DXCC in last years contest. This year I worked 42, a 5 DXCC improvement. And now....why improvement for next year is possible:
You see that a lot of QSOs were made in the last 3 hours. That was the point were I got more self confidence and more experience in making it in CW pile-ups. I'm shure if I'm able to improve my CW skills I will make even more contacts in this contest.
It was certainly fun this year. And I felt less stressful about CW. Propagation was actually great on 40m both CW and SSB. I don't have good antennas for 20m and 15m but with CW it seems that it doesn't matter that much. I got a good antenna for 10m but propagation has been better lately.
Previous blogger PA0K Paul made a video when he heard me on 40m SSB. I was surprised by my own signal especially at the second part of the video. Thanks very much Paul.
It looks like Paul was using a webSDR. Don't know which one? But it is nice to hear my QRP signal came trough with punchy audio.
I also made myself a recording from my CW efforts. I do not yet publish it before I listened to it. I might use it for another post.
If you participated in the PACC, I hope you had some fun! If you contacted me, thanks very much. Hopefully till next year. 73 . .
Tnx PB7Z for the pic. CQWW RTTY? Let it go.... RTTY is so old fashion. Join us for the PACC... ;-)
Personally I will be QRV in the QRP section which is always a mixed section. I will do SSB and CW. Please QRS for me on CW as I'm a CW beginner. If your call is not too long I will probably get it the first time. Otherwise I will try the second time.
