Building another YU7EF duoband antenna (4)

  Finally I had some time today to finish this project. Actually I though it would only take a few hours. But after all I was busy most of the day. I made some photos from the progress. I can't tell much since the whole build went well and SWR/Resonance was as expected.

Of course this connection will be covered by rubber seal after the final installation.

After examinating the above photos I saw the second 4m director was not really in line for the SWR test. I really don't know if things would change much if it was. I'm satisfied with the result. SWR/Resonance will change after all when it is mounted at height in the tower of PB7Z. The last photo is the whole antenna disassembled. Longest part is about 1,8m so I can transport it in the car.

This is the second YU7EF duoband I made. I can recommend this build as it is quite easy to make and this antenna works really very well on both 50 and 70 Mhz, 

https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2023/04/building-another-yu7ef-duoband-antenna-1.html

https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2023/05/building-another-yu7ef-duoband-antenna-2.html

https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2023/05/building-another-yu7ef-duoband-antenna-3.html

#6m Argentina & Uruquay worked

Both +11000km distance on VHF. Suddenly incredible propagation. It was over 10 minutes later. Both are new ones on 6m for me. This is the fun of the magic band!

ES season here I am

  I continued building the YU7EF duoband antenna this morning but things didn't work out like I thought. So, I decided to exchange my experimental multiband halo for my own YU7EF VHF duoband 6m/4m antenna.

The multiband halo is a succesful project which has to be finetuned a little. I had a comparisation with the inverted-V in mind but time didn't allow it and I probabely do that another time. I actually want to rebuild the complete antenna using another kind of wire. Probabely 300 Ohm ladderline. 

On the photo it's me with the halo. 

 

  Assembling the duoband beam took some time. Mounting in the tower was no problem. Everything went very smooth. So I quickly brought all the tools, ladders and other things into the garage. It was almost dinner time and I wanted to test the antenna quickly. Next time I should check the antenna with an analyzer because the SWR was 1:4 on both 50MHz as 70MHz. Stupid me. After dinner I did the usual checks with the analyzer to see if there was a faulty coax or connector. Of course everything was alright. So I had to bring the tower down for the second time. In the end I found a PL259 connector which had a bit of corrosion on the pin, bad enough. I cleaned it and SWR was back to normal.

I quickly made some QSOs on 4m/6m to test the antenna. It seems to work well. But propagation was not that good this evening.

Building another YU7EF duoband antenna (3)

  

   Slow progress is made. I wish I had this antenna ready before the ES season. But unfortunately it takes time to build and time is a precious thing. I can't help experimenting with this design as well. I had no angle aluminium to mount on the boom to fit the (6m) dipole elements on. So I thought of angled weather resistant plastic. Side effect is that it probabely prevents disturbance from the boom. I really don't know how much and of course I don't know how this plastic behaves over time. I decided to take the risk. The material is also used for cladding on buildings.

Of course this gave me a mechanical challenge. The plastic looks solid but it isn't. The outside is solid 1mm thick plastic but the inside is a kind of foam. When you mount it on the boom with the bolts and nuts, like I did, the long end will move downward along with the pressure of the nuts. I needed to invent something to push it back to a straight position. I used tiny pieces of angled aluminium for that and bend it up a little. It worked out very well so far. I could nicely tune the plastic parts till they were flat with the boom.

When writing this post I just thought about the plastic foam. I think I need to protect the sides with a rubber like coating. I have some liquid gasket material in stock. I think that would be perfect.

Update 18-5-2023

I abandon this experimental plastic dipole mount. I tried it today but it did not work out like I had thought. Searching for angled aluminium thick enough to use now.

Building another YU7EF duoband antenna (2)

 Of course another antenne build by me always goes slow. I have to do this in between all my other chores. Unfortunatelty there is always something that happens like a water tap leakage, a faulty switch, a light that suddenly breaks and this weekend we had a leaking kitchen sink. You see, it always happens just when I want to build something. Anyway, some progress has been made. This time with the boom of the antenna. On request I made it extra strong. And because of that I had the possebilty to cut the boom at the center because it needs to be transported of course.

You see, it is still quite cold in the Netherlands. That's why I have my wood stove burning in the garage. The wind comes from the cold north for weeks now and since I'm living at the northern coast you can imagine that we get that coldest air first...

The boom of this antenna is aluminium 30x30mm over 4,15m long. Bernard wants it as strong as possible so I mounted another piece of 30x30mm with a length of 1,85m below the center. I bolted 2 pieces of thick angled aluminium at the center with clamps to mount the antenna in the tower. I probabely need to add weight at the front to get the whole antenna in balance when it is finished. I did that with my own antenna as well.

I have a antenna loving visitor for quite a while every evening. It is a blackbird that sings a beautiful song...probabely not because it is loving the antennas but to impress the blackbird ladies. Enjoy...

Building another YU7EF duoband antenna (1)

 As mentioned in the last post I'm building another duoband 6m/4m antenna for PB7Z Bernard. I have no scrap parts for this build and have to design everything from start. I learned from my own similair antenna build and want to make the antenna as good as possible.

Just to get the idea...

First challenge today was the aluminium tubing which did not fit the way I want it to be. Since I have to transport the whole antenna by car I need to cut the tubes for the 6m elements in half. To connect them together again I thought of sliding a tube of 10mm inside. This also gives the tube more strength in the center. However, instead of the expected inside diameter of 10mm it was 9,5mm. Drilling this to 10mm proved to be difficult since the drilling gives a lot of turning force on the tube. I didn't want to fix it in a vise, have tried it with a scrap tube but it gives a lot of damage even if I protect the tube, The risk of pressing the tube to an oval shape is also high. Holding the tube with my bare hands didn't work at first. But I found the solution after some experiments with ducktape which gave a lot of mess on the tube. The trick is to wear special high grip gloves. I used "Showa 380" gloves which are specially designed to hold small smooth or oily objects. They proved to be very good and drilling the tubes was no problem at all this way.

The gloves used

The 6m dipole so far. Insulated with a piece of teflon staff

Blogging in April and how about the radio hobby

 Only my third post in April. Yes, I lost my inspiration I think. And also traditionally we have a very busy month at the job causing chaos in my mind. However, I worked some very nice DX this month, something I don't want to mention every time. You can see some nice ATNO DXCC on the right site of the blog if you're viewing it with a desktop or tablet. I'm still active on the HF bands and still DXing. I also have lots of projects waiting. Too many actually. Besides that we also started to rebuild another part of the house. So, you see I'm quite busy.

Well, a sneak preview at one of the first projects. I want to finish this as soon as possible. It is the duoband 4m/6m beam build for PB7Z Bernard. I have most of the parts but unfortunately encounter some problems with the measurements. I really don't know if others have this problem as well. This is what the problem actually is:

Not my picture, but it worried me. I have some stanley tape measures and did compare them as well, and indeed you see differences. If you take the wrong tape measure you will have an antenna that is out of specs. You can imagine the troubles you will get.

I already cut the elements for the length they need to be, but is it right? Besides that I need to drill out the tubes inside from 9,6mm -> 10mm in the center to connect them back together in the center and that counts for the 6m dipole center as well. I have no lathe. So there is no option to reduce the 10mm connecting rods. Have you ever tried to drill alluminium? Just a hole is not a problem, but to drill a inside of a tube is hard without damaging something.

But anyway, I see this as a challenge. In the end I will manage to finish the project for shure.

Why I will not participate in the PACCdigi contest

  The PACCdigi contest is tomorrow. It is organized by the VERON which is also organizing the famous yearly dutch PACC contest. Of course it is nice to have another digital mode contest and the mixed mode FT4/FT8/RTTY section has some interesting challenges to setup. I've participated the first time this was organized in 2021. I faced the challenges to get WSJT-X and MMTTY working together with the N1MM+ contest software. It worked, I did make contacts. But it was not really my thing and I didn't even bother to make a report of it on my blog.

I considered to take part this year. I was especially interested in the FT4 part of the contest since the QSO rate with FT4 could be twice as high compared to FT8. But then I read in the rules that for FT4 the standard frequencies will be used, while for FT8 there are special frequencies.

I get the impression that the organisation did not really do any research. The FT4 frequencies are full of activity lately and much too crowded to have contest stations doing their thing. 

Above a map from a few hours FT4 last week. Including a contact with T30UN (Western Kiribati) who is very active on FT4 all bands since last week. Certainly I see FT4 is gaining popularity at the moment.

I hope the PACCdigi rules will be changed next year so they use FT4 on separate contest frequencies. If so I will consider to participate again. For those that will participate, good luck!

Happy fool's day 2023

 

Of course the new digimode CW8 was a joke. But certainly well done, an article in a national hamradio magazine including a well looking website. I'm shure some people did take it seriously.

What about the new Icom IC-7300 update with WSJT-X running. Funny picture  and easy to make.

Others did some jokes as well...

https://www.kb6nu.com/next-edition-of-arrl-handbook-to-be-written-by-chatgpt/

https://ae5x.blogspot.com/2023/04/three-florida-parks-install-permanent.html

And the new Kenwood...by DX-commander Callum

I hope you all had a very good fool's day!

#CQWW WPX SSB Contest 2023 review

 

Click to enlarge.

 

   This is one of the biggest world wide contests for HF amateurradio. The aim is to work as many different stations preferable DX. Multipliers are the different prefixes (WPX=World PrefiX) and DX (stations from a different continent as yours) count for a different amount extra points. Since I had limited operating time this weekend I had no goal, however this changed sunday evening. Propagation didn't look good because of a coronal mass ejection from the sun which wiped out most of the radiosignals on 14MHz and above at friday. It seems the propagation was still not recovered at Saturday. I had to work that day so I was unable to participate at that time, I don't know if I missed something though. 

  I started late Saturday evening and things didn't look allright as far as I could experience. I could barely hear some stations on 10m so I started on 15m. The band was full of DX and the experimental squalo antenna did a good job. I worked my share of DX for shure not knowing what propagation would be next day. I even managed working 2 contacts on 10m with EA8 stations. Quite early I went down to 40m which was also open into Europe and a few DX stations after midnight. At 00:30 I decided to run on 80m. Normally to get a good run it takes about 10 minutes of calling till you get some spots on the cluster. This time it took me only 3 calls to get a good run for about 1 hour, I worked about 100 stations. After a few contacts with DX on 40m I decided to take some sleep to be fresh Sundaymorning. This also because it is always the weekend the clock changes to summertime. 

Setup WPX. Icom-7300 100W, Doublet 2x20m
inverted-V, 10m LFA 4 elem.,
experimental square halo

I checked my last years efforts in this contest and noticed that I heard a lot of DX but couldn't work some of it. This year on Sunday it was different, I could work DX without much problems or calling. Actually I worked some DX I could barely hear, but they could still hear me. Worked CY0S from Sable Isl. on 10m late in the evening. I heard him in a huge pile-up and thought I would never have a chance. But I thought I just try it once....surprisingly I was heard at the first call, it was an easy contact. On 10m with the big 4 element LFA I had this most of the time actually, with the right conditions it probabely is radiating a huge signal. 10m opened early with excellent DX on the band to most of Asia, I never ever worked so much stations from China, Japan, Thailand and some countries in between. Last year I had no luck working 9N7AA from Nepal, it was easy to work him this time. The experimental squalo antenna also did a great job on 20m and 15m. The fun is that it is omni directional so if there are skewed paths, long path or short path propagations I wouldn't know. This way I worked unexpected DX, like PJ2T and J68HZ early in the morning on 20m, normally these are only heard in the evening. Propagation on Sunday was crazy anyway. I had the idea the whole world was upside down. What about Australia on 10m with 5/9 signals late in the evening, normally only heard in the morning. I also worked a Japanese station very late in the evening on 20m, again with excellent signals. It was all really crazy. Anyway, not really that important but to get a good score I think you need to divide your time/contacts equally over the bands if they are open. So, I think I divided it well this time. It was also my goal to go Sunday when I reached 111 contacts on 10m. I decided to try and work 111 contacts on all different bands except 160m. But for fun my last contact of the contest was with YT8A on 160m while tuning my 10m beam on that band. Actually compared to last year I worked almost the same amount of stations but in less time.

Most interesting DX:

10m: BD7MM (China), JT1CO (Mongolia), E27EK (Thailand), JH4UYB (Japan), VJ4T (Australia), 9N7AA (Nepal), 9G4X (Ghana), VU3NPI (India), FR4QT (Reunion Isl.), ZS1OPB (RSA), 8P5A (Barbados), VP5V (Turks&Caicos Isl.), 5Z4VJ (Kenya), V26K (Antigua&Barbuda), CY0S (Sable Isl.), KP2M (US virgin Isl.), TI0RC (Costa Rica), PJ4R (Bonaire), TO3Z (Guadeloupe)

15m: PJ2T (Caracao), V26K (Antigua&Barbuda), P43A (Aruba), CY0S (Sable Isl.), FK8GM (New Caledonia), KP2M (US Virgin Isl.), ZF1A (Cayman Isl.), PJ4R (Bonaire), FY5KE (French Guiana), FR4QT (Reunion Isl.), BD7MM (China), VJ4K (Australia)

20m: 8P5A (Barbados), V26K (Antigua&Barbuda), NH7T (Hawaii), KL7RA (Alaska), ZF1A (Cayman Isl.), PJ2T (Curacao), J68HZ (St.Lucia), JH4UYB (Japan)

40m: UP2L (Kazakhstan), R9GM (As.Russia), A44A (Oman), V26K (Antigua&Barbuda), PJ2T (Curacao), KQ2M (USA), PX2A (Brazil), D4Z (Cape Verde), A71WW (Qatar).

List of DXCC worked during the WPX 2023

Some interesting things I like to mention for the personal archives this contest:

- An increase of Chinese operators. Their modulation is always overmodulated and their english is difficult to understand. But at least they are there!

- Russian stations are back!

- Some stations from continents I didn't expect did show up on unexpected times, Like Australia late in the afternoon on 10m and west-indies early in the morning on 20m.

- Worked my QSL printer from the Ukraine UX5UO Gennady on 15m. Worked OY1R Regin from Faroer Isl, on 80m. 

- For the first time since long in a contest I worked a new DXCC (ATNO) FK8GM from New Caledonia. I applied for a QSL and Eric was so kind to send me one!

New digimode CW8

  A publication in the VERON monthly magazine Electron last month is about the new digimode CW8. So far not much is known about this mode since beta testers have to keep this a secret. Test are currently made on the 60m band. It is not known how successful they are. It seems that this digimode is a mix between CW and automation like the multi streams in MSHV. CW8 is mainly being developed for contesting. Decoding is probabely done with a kind of new AI decoder. I've written about this in this blog a few years ago. However 2014 was just to early for the development of software like this. 

Part of the Electron publication

  Some details: 8 streams of CW in 400Hz bandwidth. 7,5 second timeslots. In computer assisted mode (automatic) it is possible to make 2x8=16 QSOs per minute (QSO rate could be 960 QSO/h). Software will be available for Windows and Linux and macOS. Software is already tested with N1MM+ and Write-Log in Windows. Development for Android has been started.

As readers of the Electron magazine we had the opportunity to apply as beta tester. Unfortunately only 120 testers were allowed. Personally I just forgot to apply due to other obligations (job). But so far I heard signals on 60m.

Unfortunately UCIC refuses to give more info on this and wants to be shure the software works well before they will release in to the world amateurradio community. Expect they will have more information at the end of this week.

More info: https://ucictech.weebly.com/

#60m CY0S Sable Isl. worked

 

I saw CY0S spotted on the DX cluster and since I have a day off the job I was able to be on the radio. I didn't have much hope since the new solar panels from our neighbours give me a lot of high QRM (S9+10dB) on 60m as you can probabely see on the waterfall. However the signal lifted a bit and I was able to receive their streams for a new one on 60m.

Blackbox mystery revealed

 A few posts ago I wrote about this mysterious blackbox. I found the shop were they sold these items probabely 30 years ago. An e-mail to them was friendly answered by Mark from HB Electronica. The box was used to drive a discolight. Of course I wanted at least try this out. I found some old LEDs and connected them to the box. It works well as you will see in the video.

Now I know the purpose I really don't know what to do with this gadget. Any ideas?

Citizens Band QSL card

First set of cards

 This post is in response to the post on PA2RF Ron's blog. Oh, yes I'm one of those amateurradio operators that started the hobby at end of the seventies on CB.  I started the hobby with just a pair of walky talkies on CB. The thing was that CB was still illigal in the Netherlands in 1979. First legalisation was in 1980 when it quickly became a hype here. I remember that there was a lot of QSL card swapping at school. With 12 years of age was too young for a CB license unfortunately, you had to be at least 14. But in the mean time I already collected QSL cards and listened on my walky talky. I even designed my own QSL which was copied and multiplied with an old stencil machine at that time. I had a lot of fun and almost couldn't wait till I was 14 and buy a license and real CB radio (in the Netherlands we called it "27MC bakkie"). By the time I was 14 I had no money of course, CB radios were far too expensive. So I had to wait till I saved money and bought a second hand one from a classmate. I was already 15 at that time. But wow, what a joy I had. Unfortunately I was mike shy, I wasn't a talker anyway. So this was an issue, I only listened for a year. When 16 another friend had no problems to talk, he took the mike and talked to a complete stranger in the neighbourhood. He didn't know what to say when the stranger asked questions like "what is your QTH" and "What are my S-points". So I grabbed the mike and told the stranger what he wanted to know as I knew the CB language from listening. Away was my fear and the real fun begun...

My first 1979 CB walky talky, still have it.

Second set of cards

I soon "specialized" in DX. First on FM, later on SSB....but that is another story.

VarAC today

 I'm quite enthousiastic about VarAc the last few days. I actually had a few very nice QSOs. Real QSOs, not only 599. However, even on VarAC some only make contact to exchange the most necessary data and disconnect again. 

If someone is not on their keyboard I leave at least a personal message. That works most of the time since I get a lot of messages in return. That way I know it is appreciated very much. Interesting also is that most of the days long path propagation opens to Australia and New Zealand. 

The map shows 10m (pink) and 20m (yellow) bands. This is from after my diner time. About 20-24 UTC. This is typical, actually this time no New Zealand were other days showed about the same propagation including New Zealand. Would be very curious what the map would look like if monitoring over the whole day...

Mystery blackbox?

 

Bought at an auction. Well actually given to me by the previous owner since there was no bid on it. A mystery blackbox. It features a red LED, a switch with 3 positions, an earphone socket and has room for a 9V battery.

Inside is a printboard with some ICs, transistors, resistors, caps. I see diodes and an electret microphone.

Didn't try to connect a 9V battery yet. I really don't know what to expect. Should I connect an earphone, or is the socket for an antenna of some sort? 

Anyone has any idea about this?

Update 7-March-2023

There was a question in the comments about the text on the solder side. It shows HB WEERT by RJ.

VarAC session today

 Some fun with VarAC digimode today. When beaconing this morning first station that connected me was KH6ML from Hawaii. He relayed a message for OH8XAT via my station. That message was delivered later on. I had to go for the day at that moment and closed my station. When returning and switching on the station I immidiatly got an relay notice from OH8XAT. So I decided to record it and let you see how VarAC works at my side.

This is really a great digimode with a lot of possebilities. And it does well with very weak signals. A simple antenna and low power can do very well. For instance I worked A65IN (Abu Dhabi, UAE) this afternoon when I got info he used 100W in a balcony mounted magloop. 

ChatGPT again

  I asked chatGPT about me. After several answers with all kind of mistakes I got an reasonable reply.

Bas, also known as PE4BAS, is a licensed amateur radio operator from the Netherlands. He has been involved in amateur radio for many years and is a member of several amateur radio organizations in the Netherlands.

Bas is an active operator on a variety of amateur radio bands and modes, including voice, digital, and Morse code. He is also interested in satellite communications and has made numerous contacts with amateur radio satellites.

Bas is an experienced and knowledgeable amateur radio operator, and he shares his knowledge and experience with others through his blog and contributions to amateur radio magazines and websites. He writes about a variety of topics related to amateur radio, including equipment reviews, operating techniques, and antenna design.

In addition to his activities as a radio operator, Bas is also involved in community outreach efforts, working with local schools and youth groups to promote interest in amateur radio and STEM fields. He gives presentations and demonstrations on amateur radio to a wide range of audiences, from children to adults.

Overall, Bas Levering is a respected and active member of the amateur radio community, known for his technical expertise, enthusiasm for the hobby, and willingness to share his knowledge with others.

This is one of many answers chatGPT gave. It let me believe I wrote the book "Antennas for all locations", I was having a website "HamRadioSecrets.com" and was the software developer of "SDR-radio.com". Now the above answer still had errors. But it is not bad and....you have to learn chatGPT by chatting with the system. I learned about the faults on several topics through the blog from K0NR, actually it was a real eye opener. Then I came across an article in the March-April edition of the SARC Communicator from Kevin VE7ZD/KN7Q. From this article I learned that you have to correct the answers from chatGPT to learn the system the correct answer. Kevin also warns that it is quite dangerous to use chatGPT for any kind of publication since the system makes a lot of errors. But in time it will learn and get better.

Link to the SARC communicator here: https://bit.ly/SARC23Mar-Apr

Picture in the blogpost is AI created with DALL-E 2

#60m Asiatic Russia worked

 

Legal or not? I've seen this station before. Of course it could be he has a experimental license. Anything is possible...

The mysterious MZV72 station?

 Worked this station tuesday evening after I was intrigued by the callsign. 

The question is: is it a pirate or a military cadet station?

Worked royal airforce cadets before on 60m digital and phone. But they always had a MRE call. Searching on the internet didn't reveal much. After posting it on the 60m FB page DB6LL Hartmut came with something he found at DXmaps.com. He discovered the stations locator (if real?). I discovered more:

There seems to be a MZV11 and 40 as well, all from the same locator. When searching for other stations on this locator I found the call M72ZV and M40ZV as well, looking the same but more in amateurradio call format. So I found G3TXL Angus from this area with exact the same locator. I decided to write him an e-mail for clarification since his locator is exactly the same as the MZV stations he would probabely know. Angus was very fast responding to my e-mails and didn't know about the stations. However he happened to know another HAM who's also in the military and at least knows about cadet stations. He assured the MZV stations are legal and cadet station. The locator they use is probabely not their real locator and they change calls regulary. It is a secret from which part of the military this is. As far as I know in the Netherlands we are allowed to contact any user on the HAM bands that is legally transmitting there. It might not be allowed in other countries.

ARRL DX CW Contest

 Just participating in this contest for a short time. Working USA/Canada only is a bit.....well....boring. But anyway, I had a goal: working fellow blogger VE9KK. I did work him on both 10m and 15m. I also worked blogger VE3VN again on 15m. I found that the fun would be concentrating on the far away west-coast of both USA/Canada, so I did. I only worked 10m, 15 and 20m. Most contacts were made on 10m. 75 QSO in total.

Yellow=10m Lightblue=15m darkblue=20m

#60m Equatorial Guinea worked

 

No luck working Bouvet Isl. I got a message from Bernard PB7Z that he worked them around 18:30 UTC when they were loud. When I went to my radio and had everything switched on they were gone. I doubt if I had any chance to work them at all. Bernard has high power and a 2 element SteppIR. I only have 100W and my experimental halo. Till hours after 3Y0J left 17m FT8 I saw still people trying desperatly. Well, I'm shure there will be another chance in the future. 

Just when I wanted to finish the day and before I switched off I saw 3C3CA spotted on 60m. I did not see them before and it would be a new one. 15 minutes later I was lucky, another new one on the 60m band. A good day after all.

PACC 2023 contest review

Event: PACC 2023
Section: QRP mixed
Logger: N1MM+ 
Station: Icom IC-7300 at 5% (5W)
Antenna 1: Experimental multiband halo
Antenna 2: 10m LFA @14m
Antenna 3: 2x20m inverted-V doublet

Had fun in this yearly contest. My goal was to beat my 2021 score and QSOs. And that's what I did. Propagation was excellent for QRP. Strong signals on the bands. Unfortunately I didn't have a 160m band antenna ready this time. I used the 10m beam which I loaded through my Palstar tuner. It works because I made 4 contacts, but of course that was very difficult since I think only a few percent of the power was radiated. With 5W that's not much. Best bands were 80m and 40m with excellent strong signals from Europe and even outside Europe. I found myself in a few nice pile-ups which were incredible difficult on CW but easy on SSB. The fact is that I should learn CW and not rely on CW skimmer. In that case my score and QSO count would be at least doubled. Anyway, although I had to stop early due to circumstances I'm satisfied with the result for now.

Red=SSB Green=CW (Click on map to enlarge)

Dutch contacts in PACC

Of course the majority of contacts with QRP are made within the Netherlands. Most participants are from The Netherlands of course. A lot of stations knew my name (is not that difficult hi). It is nice to know some names from radioamateurs, who also read my blog or have a blog themselves, as well. Over the years you meet the same radio enthousiasts in this contest over and over again. I have to write that propagation within the Netherlands on 40m was very strong this time. Of course that is a good thing when QRP. But I worked some DX as well. One of the highlights was K1ZZ which I worked on 10m, 20m, 40m and 80m. I think he has incredible RX on his side to hear my tiny QRP signal across the ocean. 

Time to take part was limited. I tried to be at the radio as much as I could. But I also have a family. Of course all kind of things happened on which I could not turn my back on. Due to circumstances I had to stop already on 10:15 UTC Sundaymorning. Well, 16 hours of contesting time was good enough I think.

Well, the PACC isn't really a DX contest. Although DX can be worked, I did in the past. But with 5W it was limited this time. If you are QRO in this contest it is no problem of course. However, 34 DXCC in a weekend with just QRP is not that bad I think. Most important, I had fun, the bands were interesting and I had some really nice contacts that were sometimes not (only) 5 by 9.

What I learned from this past contest is that receive is the most important thing of your station. It was interesting to experience that some stations that were real 59 or 599 on my side could not be worked while others with lower signals had no problem to hear me. I also learned (actually I knew this of course) that a better score in the QRP mixed section can only be achieved by learning the CW skills. And last of all, I learned that my experimental multiband halo is a solid performer. I could work most stations on 20m and 15m without any problems, when calling on CW on those bands I had immidiate pile-ups which gave me a lot of problems of course...Unfortunately I think my log will be the one with the most penalties for not logging the exchange right. Really, it is my fault, I apologize, I should really learn the art of CW...