PACC 2013 "evaluation"

Today, the Monday after the PACC, I am still on something like a sugar rush.....
This PACC had e few memorable events for me....

First of all, i worked 2 of the most loyal followers of my blog.....

• PE4BAS, Bas. I worked him and i don't think he noticed i was that guy from the blog..... So Bas, your prediction came true, you did work me :)
• PA3GNZ, Tjeerd, Now i did not know it was him as he worked under a contest group call, but he was friendly enough to tell me his real call as well.

I am very happy i have worked them both :) I hope you guys did well in the contest....

So the other thing that happend......

On Saturday afternoon, i heard a small pile up on 20m and they were all yelling to HV5PUL.

This is a call from the vatican (a university). He was not working the PACC so i stopped PACC for a minute and called for a normal QSO to him, and i worked this station.(after he got annoyed from a few other dutch stations asking him for their number :) )

A nice adition to my own log, rare call, and a new dxcc for me. 

Then after diner on Saturday , i got this huge headache..... So i did not participate the whole Saturday evening night....

But !!!!

On Sunday morning i was back in action! And what action it turned out to be!

My first QSO on Sunday was............ VK2GWK !!!! 16.500KM !!!
This of course was a superb way to start the Sunday morning....

Now why am i so happy you might ask if you have like this huge beam etc.
I work with no amps (so 100w max) and i worked this on my Falcon OUT-250b, an antenna that a lot of people revere to as a dummy-load. (and so it shows it's far from that)
I of course put this in my personal log as well.... the QSO did not go easy, but it happend and i worked eastern Australia. I am well pleased with this.....

So looking back on the PACC... I did not make a huge number of QSO's... just 120....
But i had a great time, made contact with Bas and Tjeerd, worked the Vatican, and worked Aussie country!

For me it was all worth it.... i will be there next year... then with coffee, as i ran out of it saturday just befor the contest.....

I hope you all had a great PACC as well!
73's
Alex
PA1SBM

Falcon OUT-250B sort of test results.

Hello all,

I did not realy test the antenna yet, but i can not keep you from the few experiences i had so far with this antenna.
As last friday evening I had some time ti sit behind the set, i scanned most of the bands.
20m was open , and i could hear stations from Brazil, Chille, Peru. This is all between 10.000 and 12.000 km from where i live. They all were very clear.
I did not get the chance to make a QSO with them due to huge pile ups caused by our Italian/Russian/Polisch/etc friends. As they all work with huge beams and at least 1Kw......

But, back from naging to the essence....
As i can swap quickly between antennas due to 2 antenna inputs on my TS-480 i could see and hear the difference very well.....
To be honest, with the falcon i could hear those stations perfectly, and i heard nothing on my wire....

The same story goes for 10m... i heard stations on the falcon where on the wire i just heard QRM.


I hope that upcomming weekend i'll be able to do some real test. If you read my blog and want to help me with tests, please drop me a msg or mail.

73's

Falcon OUT-250B the ultimate 20m vertical ?

I promised i would post some test results about the the Falcon OUT-250B i got recently.
And finally i got some spare time to use the set again last night and today.
Now befor you read on, i only have a wire in my backyard to compare it to. it's a Wimo balun (i think a 1:9) with about 15m wire attached. This is the one: Wimo MTFT antenna

As i really like the 20 meter band, I will start my test there.....
And the first thing i noticed.... no signal ? is the antenna broken? No its not!
On 20 meters this antenna is QUIET!....
The signals might be a bit lower then compared to my wire antenna (about .5 to 1 S point) but it does not have a S3 to S5 noise level with it.... I have no idea what you would want, but i prefer to listen to a S5 clean signal then to a S7 with noise in it.

Now, the 20 meter band is also where this antenna switches from good to bad... well bad....
If you expect to work 40M, 80M well on this antenna i  have to dissapoint you.
Experience teaches us that all above 20 meters, you are better off with a wire...
So also with this antenna, it works, but do not expect miracles.
This was confirmed as well when i was listening on the 40m and 80m bands. As soon as i switched to my wire, the signal level went up as well the clarity of the signal.

On the other hand, 17m,15m,12m,10m and 6m all work above my expatiation i had of this antenna.
I do have to say i did not work on those bands  yet, but i did listen to other amateurs there.

Anyway, that's my point of view on this antenna.
If you do not have a lot of space to put multiple antennas up like wire's and beams and verticals etc, and you are stuck with just being able to put op a vertical, then this antenna is really not a bad choice.
Is it the best? i dont know. Is it the worst? for sure not.
Also the 'lack" of radials is awesome when you have lack of space.

Anyway, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to send me a mail or something....