#6m #4m propagation last 24h @PE4BAS

 

 

It seems not every contact has been picked up by PSK reporter. But it is a nice overview of the propagation on 6m and 4m. the 4m band briefly opened, dark red spots are on 4m.

The Jesse H. Bunnell Triumph steel lever key

    First post of a series describing the morsekeys I got from the estate of PA3BCB Gerard. I bought a box full of keys as I wrote before in one of my posts. The plan is to restore and clean them one by one and then make at least one contact with each of them. 

At the left the J.H. Bunnell Triumph steel lever key. Date of manufacturing unknown but I guess it is somewhere between 1920-1950. The circuit close switch for telegraph use is missing or was never there? The wooden board is grey and stamped CAKU 26032, the same number is engraved in a aluminium plate around the cord. The cord was old and insulation gone and connector was a 6,3mm jackplug. I decided to replace the cord and jackplug for a smaller 3,5mm one which I use here in my station. It was time to clean everything...

A fun procedure and a lot of work to clean and polish everything using an old toothbrush and some brass polish. The result is a nice and shiny key.

At the time I was ready with the key I was on a short vacation. So I had no transmitter brought with me and if I did I wouldn't have the time to test it. It took some weeks before I was able to finally make a short video from the key in use making a contact. It is not the best ever video but it gives an impression. Personally I think the key is working very well, it feels good and is very light in use. However if you don't like the "clicking" sound it makes this is not the key for you ;-).

Watch me working SX20RCK on 17m.

I've been searching for information about this key on the internet. I found that J.H. Bunnell & Co does still exist and even has a own website:

http://jhbunnell.com/bunnellcohistory.shtml

Jesse Bunnell is the inventor of the steel lever key. An interesting article about the history of the Triumph key can be found here:

https://www.telegraph-history.org/bunnell/

I got another J.H. Bunnell key which doesn't have a steel lever. It might be older. It is slightly different apart from the lever which is brass on this model. It also has another knob and is not mounted on a wooden base. This will be the next project. So if you have any other information about this "older" key, please let me know.

Hamradio future radio equipment?

   Sometimes I've the feeling I'm doing my hobby with outdated equipment. Yes the Icom IC-7300 is a SDR radio. But the options and configurations you can have and do on such a radio are limited. I've been writing before about Hamradio in the future in 2011, at that time a radio controlled by a tablet and with touch screen was a novelty.  I predicted that in the future radios would be much more configurable. PD2TW Tjip, a neighbourstation, did direct me to something I've not really seen before. Actually software SDRs are around for a time but it didn't interest me a lot. They were expensive, you needed a fast computer and a lot of time to configure everything. May be I have been sleeping but hamradio equipment has evolved! A very popular transceiver these days is a BRICK 2 SDR which is doing a great job together with software called Thetis and a Chinese made RS-928 150W solid state amplifier. If you have patience you can order some of these at the cheap AliExpress, Bangood or whatever sites and have a real bargain. You end up with an excellent 150W HF radio for under 1000 euro which is still much more capable and a lot cheaper as a IC-7300. With such a SDR you have a transceiver that has pure signal capabilities and two independent receivers. Obviously you need to connect it to a good fast computer with enough memory because the radio needs the computer to work. But then you have endless configuration possibilities with the Thetis software or similar. You can also remote control everything via internet with any phone, tablet or other computer. Since everything is configurable the software is updated regularly with new features for the SDR radio. If you like to tinker with these kind of radios it is really worth to figure things out.  Personally I don't like to tinker with endless configurations and tune ups till a radio works like you want. Am I getting old? Or bored? I don't know but I get the feeling this technology is too fast and complicated for me. But for others this is a way of enjoying the hobby with new things, features, possebilities.

Personally I prefer to get back to the basics of transmitting with a morsekey and CW without the use of any computer. I don't feel any magic watching and clicking on a waterfall and/or a computerscreen. Although I enjoy digital modes a lot and still use them to make contacts. But I also like to listen and wandering over the band just by turning a dial. I wonder how radio will evolve in the future? I've predicted this kind of radio 15 years ago. But don't clearly see what is coming in next 15 years. Will there still be "analog (SDR) equipment" or is it just a (cheap) black configurable box SDR you buy. What about you? What would you like in 15 years? What would you prefer? Is the SDR black box something that attracts you?

PD5L has a detailed page about the equipment described above:

https://pd5l.home.blog/brick-2-14-bit-sdr-transceiver/ 

ON7OFF has everything about the Thetis software on his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@ON7OFF

I very nice implementation of a Hermes Lite 2 and Thetis in the video below...

#6m worked Burkina Faso

 

First 6m band new one of 2026. The season started...

Blogroll/bloglist maintenance

     Once in a while I do some maintenance on my blog. This time I have removed inactive blogs from my blogroll. Some well known blogs from operators like VK4DX, PH0NO, NY4G, PA0K, PA3HHO, PA1T. Some are still active on the air I guess but not posting anything in their blogs for a long time so I removed them. With some of them I had some nice interaction but time goes on I guess and interests move, fade away or life goes on another path. Blogging is not as populair as some years ago although my blog still attracts a lot of readers. If you know a good amateurradio blog well worth reading, which is not yet in my blogroll, let me know.

Online morserunner

 

I came across this one: https://fritzsche.github.io/WebMorseRunner/. Works well. It is not the only one on the internet. And I'm certainly not the only one wrting about it. But it was a lot of fun using this. I will add it to my dedicated CW page.

VERON request for temporary use of 40MHz in the Netherlands

     It has been a few years ago I wrote about 40MHz in the Netherlands. So far no one here has made a request to the local authorities to have a permit for 40MHz use, as far as I know. But now the VERON is researching to make a request for a temporary 8m band use. They will request 3KHz of space and a power of 5W ERP. I guess the 3KHz will be around the FT8 frequency used on 40MHz (40680KHz?). I'm not shure if and when the request will be made. I hope it will be this year. I'm really interested. It will give some new experimental opportunities.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-meter_band

My quest to learn CW (29)

 

Ik keep on going with training on LCWO. Plain text training with 25/22 wpm is still hard but goes better, have done 305 attempts now. Word training (abbreviations used in CW QSOs) at 30/30 wpm almost every time 100% correct.

Hardest is still the lessons 5 mixed characters in rows for 1 minute at 25/20 wpm. I did well till this week.

Due to a short vacation I had a different laptop with different earbuds and had no other choice but be in a noisy room with other people talking and watching TV. Very distracting and a challenge. You need to be able to decode CW in QRM situations as well...

I made some QSOs this month but have a different strategy. I'm still not able to decode a CW QSO faster as 10-12 wpm,. But most operators are calling and make contacts on a much higher speed. I don't want to wait for an operator that keys on a suitable speed for me and hate to ask everyone to QRS for me. I want to make QSOs on CW as well but not being familiar enough with the "lingo" it is almost impossible if I want to do it only with hearing and decoding it in my head. I just miss too much of the code and panic. So I have CW skimmer to back me up. It helps a lot. I try to decode most of it with my ears and head but if I loose it I can read it at the skimmer screen. Keying of course always by hand. This way I don't miss it when someone is asking me something and I can answer like it should be. It also builds confidence this way. I'm shure at a certain point in the future I can do it all with my head. But for normal QSOs I will do it like this for now. By the way CW skimmer is not always reliable, especially not when a straightkey  is used. Luckily straightkey keying is most times below 20 wpm so I can still decode by myself at least most of it.

Talking about straightkeys, I bought a box full of those keys from the estate of PA3BCB Gerard (SK) a while ago. It also includes a homemade single lever key a keyer and some militairy keys. The keyer has been used at the CWops CWA course. I want to check and clean the keys one by one. Of course the results are published on this blog once and a while.

#60m Guinea worked

 

This was a tough one. I got a lot of atmospheric and other interference on 60m during the longer daylight days we have now. The QSO almost happened yesterday evening but I didn't get a RR73 and was not in the log. Luckily it happened today. Receiving FT8 with such low signals is only possible with JTDX, I don't think WSJT-X is able to do that. I had SWL mode on with 3 decoding cycles. This helps a lot during such bad conditions.

Morse included on the Dutch amateurradio license?

    I got the message that fellow CWops CW intermediate course participant PA8E Jim has passed his CW exam last weekend. You can read his adventure here: https://pa8e.nl/morse-certificate/

   I never fully understood how to get "CW included" on your license here in my country. Since you can't do any CW exams here in my country. I knew there was a way going to Belgium for the exam. When passed the exam ask for a "CW included" on your license showing your CW certificate to the Dutch authorities. But how? My assumption was always that you needed at least do the CW exam for 12 wpm. But it seems that it is not needed. If you passed the exam with 5 wpm it is enough. However 5 wpm is not really 5 wpm but 5/12 wpm, so it is a little faster. Not expected but I learned that besides the 26 letters/10 numbers you need to know the questionmark, the slash and 6 prosigns. The prosigns are BT, AR, AS, BT, HH (error correction) and SK.I've listened a example soundfile and dicovered that they used a lot of QSO elements in the text. Like QRG, TEMP, CQ, PSE, 73 etc. This makes it easier of course, though you don't know when those words will appear... You also need to write while decoding, I've tried this and found it difficult. I'm used to typing in LCWO and writing while decoding needs another mind setting. Something I should train more often.

With this info in my mind and now written here in my blog I might do the exam some year in the future. The CW exam in Belgium is only held once a year.

160m WSPR last night

 It has been a long time ago that I did some WSPR tests. Since I still got the 160m inverted-L up I wanted to do some range test with 1W WSPR. 

Below the stations that reported me. No DX but not that bad.

Not really satisfied about my reception. Below the stations I reported. The Inverted-L is not really a good receive antenna for 160m. You really need some kind of beverage system or a loop on ground.

I have to dismantle the inverted-L today since the radials are all over the place in the garden. I really need to make a more permanent system. But I don't know yet what. Have been experimenting with a shunt fed tower in 2019. It was a really nice system which did well. I might set it up again.

#CQWW WPX SSB 2026 Review

Station callsign: PA6G

Rig: IC-7300 @100W

Antennas: Inverted-L (160-40m), Inverted-V (80-40m), 10m LFA beam, 3-band experimental Halo V2.0 (20-15m), Gainmaster 1/2 wave (10m). 
 

    I have been looking at my last years effort in this contest. Last year was on top of the solar maximum and way better compared to this year. Not that there was no DX, but the signals were weak at times and it was a struggle to get a contact. I didn't even manage to make a decent pile-up on 80m, something I never experienced before. Sometimes I wondered if my antenna was still up? I did build my inverted-L for 160m again before the contest and made some 160m QSOs again this year. I used my contest call PA6G which might be not a good choice in a WPX contest as most contest stations here use PA6 as prefix. PE4 is more unusual and will show up as a new multiplier for many. I wonder if this choice has an effect on the total score. There was almost no propagation to the USA/Canada on 10m this year, I did make some contacts but it was only 2 or 3. 

Well, I can complain about the propagation but there was a lot of DX that could be worked all over the world. Especially the 10m and 15m were interesting and some of the really interesting DX stations have been worked on 2 or 3 bands. Some examples are: HD8R Galapagos Isl. 40,15,10m - 9J2RO Zambia 15, 10m - S21WD Bangladesh 20,15,10m - 3W9A Vietnam 20, 15, 10m - ZM4T New Zealand 20, 15m - VL4A/VK4A 20, 10m. Not very often I manage that.

I started Saturday morning on 160m and 80m, propagation on 80m was very reasonable and a lot of USA could be worked on 80m. With every contact counting for 6 points the score was quickly building. After 80m closed I gave 40m a try and worked some nice DX, then up to 20m which opened to Australia, I moved to 15m to hear some DX on the band. KL5DX from Alaska had a good signal with the usual polar flutter. But it was hard to get through. After a long time calling I catched his attention in a quiet moment. It took several tries and a lot of patience, certainly the most difficult DX I made this contest. His comment was priceless: "Can't believe I pulled it out, thanks for hanging in there". But at least we made it. Up on 10m it was only opening just before the afternoon, signals building but weak. Although some stations were very strong like S09S from Western Sahara, but the pile up was huge and I didn't make it. Sometimes you really need to go on and work others instead of hunting the same station for too long. In between I saw ZD9BV spotted on 10m CW, so I quickly changed mode and plugged my Begali keyer in. A few moments later I made the contact. I've worked ZD9BV before but not on CW. 10m opened late in the evening to the real DX. Worked HQ9, J62, TO7 and HK1 all in a row.

Green=160m, Purple=80m, Blue=40m, Yellow=20m, Brown=15m, Pink=10m, White=Multiple bands

Side note that NH8S is not on Swains Isl. in the Pacific, he was active from the K9CT contest station in the USA. 

Detail map Australasia. Interesting DX you do not hear every day.

Detail map Amerika/Afrika. 

Sunday morning started early. Propagation on 80m was worse compared to Saturday morning. Only a few USA stations could be worked, and it was not easy. 40m was not that good either although a few DX stations have been worked. So, up to 20 and 15, working from low to high frequency S&P. Running was no options, signals were not strong enough. But 10m opened quite early with strong signals from Japan. I even did some running for a while and gathered some more Japanese stations. And the searching for DX went on. Changing bands from 10 to 15 to 20 and back to 10 again. Not the best strategy but at least I constantly worked stations. And finally S09S was worked.

In between I had some breaks of course for coffee, lunch, dinner and even a 45 minute walk with my XYL. Being in front of the radio for such a long time makes your brain a little dizzy at times ;-).

The amount of DXCC that could be worked in this contest was great. I worked 107 DXCC this weekend. Some DXCCs like CY0S and a few others I missed because pileups were just too big. But most of the DXCC I heard could be worked sometimes with a lot of effort.

Like always I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to the next big contest. And although I concentrate on CW the last few years, SSB is still my favorite for contesting right now. However this could be slowly changing in the next years...

My quest to learn CW (28)

 And the CW quest goes on...

I take another approach now on LCWO. I deleted all previous training data to view only the data in the stats that I need to see for a specific speed I train on. Above shows the stats for 28/20 wpm code groups I do now. After 62 attemps in the last month I see a very tiny improvement.

I concentrate on the groups, the plain text training, word training (CW abbreviations on 25/25 wpm) and callsign training (speed about 40-42 wpm).

I don't see much improvement in plain text training at 28/22 wpm, it keeps going up and down around the same line. I score a average of 84,2%. I do english sentences since that is the language most used on the HAM bands.

I wish I had some more time to make more CW QSO's. If I have the time, most likely in the early evening, I'm still intimidated by the speed of most stations. I can do a short QSO with a DX station or a POTA/WWFF station. It goes like R GE UR 559 559 TU. But if I do hear some stations calling I'm always afraid they want to exchange more, like name QTH and whatever. I'm afraid of not decoding the important things the opposite station keys. I'm still not ready to do that at a higher speed as 16 wpm or so. I think the only way to improve that is to make skeds with known stations and just have a chat without worrying to make errors. In reality I see that most of my DX contacts are with FT8, the lazy mode. Although I try to break the CW pile-ups which is not easy with the bad propagation lately. I managed at least a 20m CW contact with CY0S.

I also managed to make some VBand QSOs which are easier to do, although keying on the computer feels different to keying on the radio. I have the idea sometimes there is kind of a delay (lag) which makes it more difficult. However, the ops on VBand are always very patient and kind which makes it encouraging to do your best.

How I transfered CW into a mike

 

During the CWOps CWA Intermediate course I had trouble getting CW into the mike with the keyer of my IC-7300. During the video meetings my CW had some echo sound and it was difficult for the others to read. I still had an old K1EL keyer from the estate of PA3BCB. Had to find out how it should work. In the end I found some documentation and a power supply. I got the thing working but the sound was not too loud. I didn't want to dismantle to whole thing to solder the sounder off the printboard to extend or amplify it. So I drilled a hole just above the sounder and took a stiff hose which I put into the hole. At the other end of the hose I mounted a half part of an fuel filter to amplify the sound a bit. Then I put that on the mike as you can see. Everyone was happy now and this is how I transfered my CW sound into the mike for the video meetings.

#60m Maldives worked

 

Quite a strong signal on the band. Have seen 8Q7 before on 60m but never been able to contact this DXCC. Second new one on 60m this year.

Bouvet Isl. in the log

   For those that don't know. Bouvet is a Norwegian island in the south arctic region. It is the worlds most remote island and there are no people living there. It is also one of the most wanted DXCC that radio amateurs want to contact with their radio. Getting there is a challenge, getting on the island is an even bigger challenge. Right now there is a group af radio amateurs on a DXpedition on the island to give radio amateurs worldwide a chance to work this DXCC.

This exceptional DXpedition did cost 2 million dollars. A huge amount of money for just a hobby I think. Some people really take this radio hobby serious in their lives.

One of the team members OY1R Regin has been visiting me years ago. I really hope to work him on CW or SSB on this DXpedition. But the chance to do that will not be very high I think.

I heard 3Y0K on 20m SSB yesterday, they had a good signal. But the pile-up was huge, so I kept listening. Most times working a DXpedition like this is just waiting for the last days of it, when most big stations have worked them and the smaller ones like me get a chance. I hope for a CW or SSB contact but for insurance a FT8 contact will do. So I heard them on 15m FT8 this evening, quite strong but unable to get in the log. I switched over to 20m FT8 and found them with a real strong signal and 5 or 6 streams. My S-meter was on about S7 in peaks, which is really strong. I decided to call them but had to leave the computer since other chores were calling. Suddenly my phone went crazy as others saw 3Y0K calling me and warned me with messages. I switched over to remote on my phone and saw that 3Y0K gave me a report but no RR73. So I went upstairs in my shack and changed my calling frequency slightly. I called again and...

Second ATNO (All Time New One) of 2026.

The two FT2 modes battle

 

Pic from VU3DXR's blogsite.

Not that I'm interested in FT2 at all. I think it is way to broadbanded and way too insensitive. It could be used for contesting, if you like such a thing.

I really didn't know but there seems be be kind of a battle going on between two FT2 developers. Read the article on the blog from VU3DXR:

https://vu3dxr.in/the-ft2-schism-when-a-new-digital-mode-split-in-two/

Really, this reminds me of something that happened years ago when Julian G4ILO (SK) had some issues with the ROS/VARA developer. He was forbidden to use the software anymore. For a while I was even "persona non grata" because I agreed with Julian his statement which was about the bandwidth of the ROS mode. Luckily things settled down and I believe the ROS mode still exists, although not sure if it still is in use by anyone. 

Funny that these days you don't need programming skills really. If you know the right AI model and tell it what you wish for it will write your program or website for you. If I open my social media I see a lot of posts about FT2 all made with AI. It tells you how great and fast this mode is and that you need to try it.

Well, my dear blogreaders. Everyone makes their own decisions. My decision is not to use it and keep it as much as possible at CW and SSB. I want to have fun, I don't need 240 QSOs in an hour...

My quest to learn CW (27) CWA Intermediate finished

 

Finally the CW Academy Intermediate course has finished. It was tough at times. If you do this course you need at least exercise for 1 hour a day 8 weeks long. That is a lot of commitment. Besides that you actually need to make some CW QSOs and of course there is a video meeting twice a week. It was not easy to do the hour training every day, especially in the weekends. Other chores are waiting, I'm rebuilding the second floor of the house, have to go to the job through the week. The family does not always understand you need to do homework. The other participants had the same issues of course and it was nice to talk about the progress but also about the things you encounter. We had a nice group of people that followed the course and we decided to stay in contact after the course sharing our CW learning progress. 

Click on the picture to get a readable one.

What I found most difficult is the LCWO random letters/figures. I already did train that for over 2 years but it is still difficult to get it at a good speed. 25/25 wpm is far too fast. I'm now at 25/20 wpm and struggle with about 60-80% score. But I keep on doing that almost every day. Also short stories at 25/18 wpm and higher are too fast for me. I recognize some words but don't know what the story is about. It might be easier if it was in my native language. But some things went very well. Training words with 25/25 wpm is no problem at all, english sentences with 25/22 wpm about 80-100% score and Morserunner at 25 wpm is a lot of fun! Overall I think I made nice progress in the last 2 months and I'm confident that a QSO at about 18 wpm should be no problem. 

Well, I keep on training in this quest to learn morsecode. I wish to thank again PE2V Vincent and PA3GPX Rene for their time and efforts to cheer us up and do exercises at the video meetings. And of course I thank the fellow participants in the intermediate course. Vincent suggested I should take the advanced course, I will think about that. 

Future goals now are:

- Making more CW QSOs. For now that will be "standard" QSOs probabely with a cheat sheet.

- Take a look at the https://morsedx.com/ site to see if this is something for me to improve my speed.

- Continue with my daily LCWO training.

Related link in Dutch:

https://pe2v.nl/cwops-cw-academy-intermediate-klas-week-8-jan-feb2026/

https://pa8e.nl/finished-cw-academy-intermediate/

Meshcore experiments

 While I am not on meshcore all days it is interesting to see some ideas that are developed. One of them is the MC-Radar. A nice website were you can visually see your propagation paths if you send a message on the #mc-radar channel and if it is received by a station that sends the info to their server.

Above all the paths last 24h over the Netherlands. Below my own paths after the first "test" message.

Site can be found here: https://mc-radar.woodwar.com/. You will also find interesting graphs about the network on this site.

A mesh network is nice. But real big reliable distances cannot be made. There is still too much collision of all the packets. It is interesting though and nice to experiment with. If you had it with all these stupid test and other messages you can also take your car and measure meshcore signals while driving. This maps the meshcore network in real time. I did some experiments and have been mapping signals while driving. This is done by this website: https://mapme.sh/

If you want to take part you need a bluetooth enabled browser on your GSM. For my Iphone I use a browser called "BLE link". The website to connect with your meshcore device and upload data can be found here: https://mapme.sh/connect.html

Do you know any more interesting experiments? Or do you know what to do with the meshcore network next. Let me know, I'm always interested. In the mean time I will be on meshcore at times, to read and see how things evolve.

PACC 2026 review

 

27MHz how???

    I decided to participate in the QRP mixed section again but only do CW. I was not able to participate till the end and begun late on Saturday. Stopped early at 9:30 UTC. I did meet my goal of working all the CWA students and advisors in the CWops CWA Intermediate 2026 course here in the Netherlands.

In total I did about 10 hours of contesting. I'm satisfied with the results. However my most important goal was to make less errors. Not shure if that happened. Especially during the late evening and later Sundaymorning I went tired and not as sharp anymore. I remember I had a big problem to copy a S58 station, luckily he kept repeating his call and after at least 6 times I got it. There were also stations that kept keying at high speed. Probabely not realizing this costs time after all because I kept asking for repeats. But overall decoding CW went well I think. I see an big improvement in numbers copy which I do now nearly automatic.

White=several bands Purple=80m Blue=40m Yellow=20m Brown=15m Pink=10m

Some highlights J38TT on 10m and JR6CSY on 15m. I also contacted FR/UR9IDX on 10m but he was probably not in the contest, I worked him anyway. The station in Africa can't be right, SM5XU/5OO repeated his call several times so I put it in the log, strange. I realize I have it wrong. Could it be SM5/UX5OO? Most likely yes, UX5OO is an existing call. I will correct this. It is easy to mix up the X with a slash. Another error is something in the log I can't explain yet. It seems I have made CW QSOs on 27MHz???. Not possible at all....have to check out what this error is. Never had this before...

A total of 47 DXCC were worked. The PACC is not really a DX contest. Most participants are from Europe and Russia. There are a few from USA/Canada but most of them are in the WW RTTY contest which is also running this weekend.

I had a lot of fun again. And doing CW is still a big challenge for me. With morserunner I train to get the call in 1 time. But in reality I have to ask for at least one repeat before I have the whole call. I also am not really fast in typing in the calls. Some stations already made a 3 time repeat before I typed the call and hit enter. For the first time in this (and any other) contest I did 99% running. I did some S&P but this was only to find an empty spot to run. I have to write that I didn't have to call long to get a pile-up. And when someone was spotting me the frequency went crazy. But overall I kept cool and quiet, with some patience I did work everyone who was calling. 

This year was not my best score. But I don't really care. I don't want to have a trophy, I just want  to have fun and relax. Winning this section is not within reach for now. I keep training with CW and hope next year it will get better.

The hunt for KP5 Desecheo Island

   

  In between my busy schedule, learning morsecode with the CWOps CWA intermediate course and many other things in life, I also chased the KP5 DXpedition. After several weeks they would be going QRT at 12 February. I remembered my efforts in 2009 trying to reach the K5D DXpedition. It went the same way. I had no problems to work KP4 stations but KP5 looked like a black hole for my radio signals. Since they are only working with 25W from a solar powered remote controlled "box" and simple verticals it is not easy to receive their signal anyway. But I managed to hear them on 40m CW yesterday and this is what unfortunately happened....

Somehow I got through the pile-up, but they had my call not right PE4DAL went into the log. I tried again and few moments later he heard me again. But still the call not right PE4DAI this time. I went mad of course. But wait, 3 times should be a winner isn't it? Well, I'm shure they had my call correct this time. But what happened third time? I see PE4BAL in the log. Their signal faded and I didn't hear them again...

This was a big disappointment. I had the idea this would end the same as in 2009. But after the PACC contest I had some spare time to try again. Today they organized a special ATNO day. And after about half an hour trying on 20m FT8 I finally managed to make a QSO.

Well, this certainly was a hard one! Personally I really hope I can get the busted call on 40m be corrected. Will report about that later hopefully!

Update 4 March 2026: The QSL manager corrected my call in the log for 40m. That also means the first ATNO of this year has been made with CW.

Dutch PACC contest 2026 this weekend

 The famous Dutch (PACC) contest is on this weekend. Of course this is the contest to do as Dutch hamradio operator, since everyone is calling for the Netherlands. The exchange is the province abbreviation. For me that will be GR. Last year I became third in the SO QRP section which is always a mixed mode section. I earned a trophy for that as you can see in the picture.

First of all I cannot take part the whole contest since I have family obligations. Not shure when I will be having time to be on the radio. But at least I will take part for as much as I possible can. I don't need a high place in the QRP section again. So I'm not shure if I will take part in the QRP section at all. I might take part in the SO LOW CW. 

My goals are different from other years. Because of my ongoing CW training I will do only CW this time. My biggest goal is to make less errors, that will not be an easy task. Another goal is to work all the participants in the (dutch) CWA intermediate course. PE2V Vincent, PA3GPX Rene, PA3KL Kees, PA8E Jim and PA1DI Dick. I see them every week at the video meeting and hope to finally work them on air. 

Below the map of the Netherlands with the province abbreviations. I'm located at the right upper corner of the country right at the coast. My call will not be PE4BAS but I will use my contestcall PA6G.

If you as reader likes to take part, you're welcome. Info here

https://pacc.veron.nl

A strange special notice about the 60m band

 

??? Why? Because US stations can only use 15W EIRP (9,15W ERP)? So they think you cannot DX with 9,15W only? We hear/see New Zealand stations on 60m every day. And they are on the other side of the world from here. They use only 15W like most stations are allowed to use in most countries were 60m is allowed. The difference between 15W and 100W is not that much. I think something like 1,5 S-unit.

Really, 5371,5 KHz is outside international regulation frequencies in most countries. Why would a DXpedition bother to work split just for the US? 15W is enough to still make DX, although you need some good propagation. Well, I wish my American 60m DX friends good luck!

I've made many DX contacts on 60m with just 15W FT8 like I'm allowed to. I have also used far less power and still make contacts on 60m CW and FT8. So I encourage my US amateurradio friends to just try with the allowed power output.

Fun with AI

 A lot of pictures on social media made with AI lately. I really have my doubts about AI. But sometimes it is really funny. My XYL made these with chatGPT on her Iphone.

I don't look like this really. But as a cartoon it is very nice. And since my call is on the t-shirt it has to be me!

How about our house. We had a lot of snow lately, most of it gone now. This was a few weeks ago. It looks very cozy. However I hope spring will arrive soon.