Sunday, February 12, 2023

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...

8 comments:

Alexander PE0ALX said...

Great post, Bas! Makes me envious... ;-) I think I should take past in next years contest also. 73, Alexander PE0ALX

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo ALex, gewoon meedoen hoor. Het gaat niet om het winnen maar om het meedoen. 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Good morning Bas, very nice job using QRP and getting into North America was great! For sure learning CW would help the score and get more CW contacts in the log. Next weekend is the ARRL international DX CW contest. If you have time that would a great practice for you in the art of CW.
73,
Mike
VE9KK

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Mike,

I probabely search for you to contact in the contest :-). Yes, I should practise CW, especially decoding it. In a contest like te CQWW it is not that important, but for progressing numbers it is. 73, Bas

PA4J Jan said...

Goed gedaan QRP ! Hoe maak je dat kaartje met QSO's ?

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Jan, kaartjes maak ik met QSOmap.org website. DXCC en log analyse met http://tools.adventureradio.de/analyzer/. 73, Bas

Anonymous said...

Mooi kaartje Bas..zag mijn call ook staan

Anonymous said...

De Pa3j