PACC contest 2023
PACC contest 2023
This year I cleared my schedule entirely for the second weekend of Februari so that I could partake in the Dutch PACC contest. 24 hours where all antennas of the world are pointed in my direction! This was my chance to make some QSOs.
I’m not a hard-core contester. My goal wasn’t to make as many contacts as possible. I just wanted to take advantage of being a wanted station and get the opportunity to finally contact some other stations. I have partaken in the contest a few times before. The first time by accident, a few years ago because I had some free time that weekend. This year I held off all other activities and appointments.
Indoor setup
CAT interface
My radio during the contest was my Yaesu FT-897D, running 100W, going into the MFJ-993B antenna tuner. I use RUMlogNG for logging the contacts.
I’m mainly a Search and Pounce operator. I scroll the bands to find a station, answer the CQ, and then continue on to the next frequency. This means I change frequency after each QSO.
At first I entered the frequency manually and then the other QSO details. I made a few mistakes this way where I forgot to update the frequency before saving the contact. After a few contacts I decided to dig up the old CAT cable for the radio. After plugging in the cable and rebooting the radio RUMlogNG was able to get the frequency from the radio automatically. Now I didn’t have to enter in manually each time I changed frequency. I never thought I could make it so easy for myself: listen for the callsign, enter it in the program, answer the CQ, enter serial number, hit Enter, on to the next.
I think this has to become my default method of logging QSOs. And from there I can export to ADIF, and import that on QRZ.com.
Outdoor setup
The antenna I used throughout the contest is a Komunica HF-Pro2 multiband vertical. I think it is actually a mobile antenna. I placed it on a small plateau between the roofs of our house and that of the neighbours. You could call the placement really compromised. There is only obstructed view of the sky, and a lot of interference from the inner city.
The antenna is adjustable by the variable length base. You can pull it out to lengthen the antenna, and thus lowering the resonant frequency. Or you can retract it to raise the resonant frequency.
It’s a nice antenna. It doesn’t take up a lot of space, and I can deploy it in a few minutes. The only draw-back is that I had to climb up the roof to adjust the resonance.
Results
I made 63 QSOs during the weekend. Two stations were not partaking in the contest. Too bad, because one was in Kuwait, which would have been a nice multiplier in the contest.
I also tried my Xiegu X6100. As a receiver I like it better than the Yaesu FT-897. I could hear stations way better. But with only 10 Watts they could not hear me, so I switched back to the FT-897.
What surprised me was that I could easily work within the Netherlands on 40m and 80m. Even on 10m I was able to talk locally. This could be interesting for schedules with friends on the other side of the country.
With a total of 61 contacts I’m quite happy! Assuming all are correct I would get 1830 points!