Yaesu FTM-100DE : Stop the presses!! Alex, PA1SBM is going digital !!!

Stop the presses and go to def-con 1 !!!!

For those who know me this will be a huge shock.... for which i want to apologize in advance.
Today was one of the biggest ham-fests in the Netherlands (or Holland for people who do not realize we're not a province of Germany)
And on this ham-fest i bought a new dual-band transceiver which is capable of C4FM/FDMA, also better known as system fusion. It's the YAESU FTM-100DE .

I never cared at all for any digital modes what so ever.... But system fusion is different.....
It's different in that it does not rule out analogue. It detects it by itself.
And somehow it gives me a totally different gut feeling then d-Star or DMR. Also not having to register at any "authority" is a great plus in my humble opinion too....

So i will make an in debt post about this radio as well..... but for now just the first impressions....

I have 2 MAJOR points......

1. I always said that having to buy software to program your radio from the manufacturer is complete bullshit.... add it to the price and make it free. That the cable costs money i can understand, but IMHO the software should be free.
   ALL HAIL YAESU !!! with the set, a free piece of software, AND A "FREE" CABLE!!!
   Yaesu, you guys rock !! spot on! A+++ service. (ofc the cable is included in the price, but it's now an option... AWESOME!)
   
2. Yaesu... WTF... no i have to spell it out WHAT THE F*CK were you thinking ???
   A SO-239 connector on the back for 70cm in EUROPE?!?!?!
   HELLO!!!!!! we use N-connectors over here!!!!.. you bunch of..... AAARRRGGGHHH
   All the HAM's over here now have to buy a pl-239 to N adapter....
   Well , not me, i'm ordering a N-chassis connector and i am swapping it out.

I fiddled around about 15 minutes with the set, and 15 minutes with the software. looks ok so far, and i really like the display, i'm 100% sure the readability of this display in a car is awesome.
Ohh and did i mention build in APRS?? This set is quite loaded with goodies for a great price...

I will play around with it a few weeks and write something more in depth after.

until then!
73
Alex
PA1SBM

Looking back at PACC 2016.....

After being locked up in my shack for 24hrs, and feeling like total crap afterwards, it's now time, after a good night sleep , to look back at a weekend which usually makes me avoid my shack for the upcoming 3 to 4 weeks.....

I already wrote a post about the preparations not going completely as planned... but ohh well what else could happen.... Well..... I volunteered for being on call for work last week.... cause nothing ever happens....  So 20 minutes be for 12:00 UTC..... yeah you guessed it right... phone call from work....
One of the big systems was down.... So I had to log in remote, and fix it...
As I was still preparing lunch to eat just be for the start of the contest, I had to do that as well...
Total "time-damage" was somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes....

So how about the contest....
Well last years "learning point" was to start off at 10m....
And the conditions looked like this....
I forgot to grab the Saturday and Sunday conditions, but they were fairly the same. 10 meter conditions were not great at all.....
I struggled a lot to get any QSO on 10 meters. Which is a shame as this cost me a lot of multipliers.

Another learning point of last year was to get active at 80 meters.
The conditions were as stated in the chart fair , and even sunday morning I made several QSO's on 80 which I thought was a lot of fun, I even started to call CQ for a bit.
Last year due to my cheap headset, i got a lot of HF feedback in my set causing my ALC to go haywire, but this year i treated myself to a Heil Pro6 Elite....  So this worked absolutly fine! I had loads of fun on 80m

I worked (for me) quite a lot of stations as well on 15meters. This is also a band I enjoy a lot since I started to do the PACC contest. 20meters always has been on of my favorite bands, probably because my antenna (the OUT-250b) works quite well there as well. But!!! I mostly worked everything on my ZS6BKW again. This antenna works so much better , and is so HUGE... it does not fit in my back yard.... (I use part of a field behind my garden as well)

Even though I started out almost an hour later, I was semi pleased with my final score.
235 QSO's , and 60 Multipliers. leading up to 14100 points

This is again a yearly improvement. The results keep getting better.
I can't say I am looking forward to PACC 2017 yet.... This will need a few weeks, but i am sure that next month or so, I will be looking forward to it.
It is great fun, and it is nice to see so much activity in such a small country as the Netherlands.

One thing be for I wrap this post up....
The madness at 40 meters...... Sunday morning 40 meters becomes a too small band. All stations are literally stacked up on each other.... it's total chaos... and total fun...  narrow filters on max, rf gain lower then 60% otherwise you can not hear anything!!!   And exactly at 12:00 UTC..... POOF!!!  Everyone is gone.... and the band is totally cleared ....

So what is there to learn for next year....
The 0 points at 160m is bugging me.... but I have no antenna for 160 meters. Also I have no idea if I can use it in my area. I am in the middle of a big city with a lot of noise on lower bands.
Also I don't know if there is any activity on 160m I would be able to work. Maybe something to look into.

So I had a lot of fun, and I was exhausted! The scores improved again so looking back at this PACC, I can only say that I am happy with how all went.... On to next year and again try to get an improvement!


73's
Alex
PA1SBM

P.s. Would love to see some comments on how your PACC went....

PACC 2016 preperations.... They never go as planned....

From last minute bought headset's to setting up antenna's... planning PACC never seems to be easy....

This week started wit me wanted to buy a new headset as my old computer headset which worked fine, was not comfortable at all....
So I went to several computer stores, and I just could not find something that suit me. Even online, it was never what I wanted. the lightweight stuff was flimsy and the more expensive better stuff made me look like a character in halo or some other Call of Duty kinda game.
So I ended up going to a somewhat local HAM store and got myself a Heil Pro6 Elite. Which is not even more expensive then the "high-end" gaming headsets anymore.....

When setting up the bigger ZS6BKW antenna I my backyard (and kids paying area behind my back-yard) somehow the towing line got stuck in the top, which obviously did not come loose easy again....

Again this year I had a major coffee incident.... no, not again a faulty machine... I was simply out of coffee.... as the Illy cups are not available in supermarkets, I usually order them online.....
next business day is Monday, not Saturday. So I had to drive to a supplier yesterday...

Then one of my close coworkers decided to leave the company, and his "goodbye-party" was last night... so I went to bed WAY too late, and could not sleep till like 03:00.....
This morning my body decided it would be a good idea to make sure I was wide awake at 08:00 in the morning... good for a work day, but not when you wanna start PACC at 13:00 and want to go on till late...

So here I am wide awake, still tired, but also very anxious for the PACC. This year is hopefully going to be as good of a year as last year (with a slight increase in points and ranking :) ).

Did you have stupid set-backs in your preparations? let us/me know in the comment section.

Good luck to all in the contest, if you hear me, do call me and give me that extra point.
If you want me to pay extra close attention to your callsign, drop me a msg via twitter or mail.
NO I WON'T DO A SKET.... i don't wanna be disqualified. :)

73's
Alex
PA1SBM

It's almost time.... Time for PACC 2016 !!

The only contest I do is the PACC. As the whole world then at least takes the time and effort to listen for me, I am able to make nice contacts all around the world.
This year might be different though, i might also do the CQ WW SSB contest as well...

Butt back to the PACC....
Every year i try to do better then the year be for. And I succeeded so far.
It's not mandatory for me to do better, but it is always nice to see progress...

Again this year it's again on valentine's day.... now i might have gotten away with that if i would be dating a dutch women, but i am not. I'm in a long term relationship with my girlfriend (15+ years) who happens to be an American.... America... the land who invented valentine's day in the current form... (Giving presents, be romantic, go out for diner, spend loads of $$ on your S.O.)
Now i really like doing this contest.. So i have to bribe her..... we celebrate valentine's day on friday in stead of Saturday.... She knows i really wanna do this so she is okay with this.... she's awesome in that way!

Well....  About the PACC...
More info at: http://pacc.veron.nl/
And for the dutch people, if you are like me only doing the pacc, check out the software from Evert Beitler, PA3AYQ
You can download it at the Veron website (Link)

Hope to hear you on air and make a contact. I'll try to  make sure i follow my twitter and my email if you want to contact me.

EDIT: email and twitter contacts are not ment for sket or selfspotting. This is against the rules. It's only ment for non pacc relatief msg's 😀

73's
Alex

Happy new year !!!

Hello all,

Just a quick post to wish all you who follow my blog, and all your loved ones a very happy new year
Lets hope all our HAM dreams come true and we all expand our awesome hobby.

Until the next time!

73's
Alex
PA1SBM