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

1st experiences fiddling around with my 1.8kHz filter

I have no audio clips yet, but i have been playing around with the different settings.
Some things did not  work the way i assumed they would be.

1. A filter screws up your audio quality...
   No, the DSP in the 480 has enough power to keep the signal sounding normal.
   The people do not sound nasal at all.
   just add/remove some high/low and the signal sounds like your used to.
2. You wont hear the nearby signals anymore....
   No, you will still hear then , just a lot, i mean A LOT less.....
   Especially with a strong signal, when you punch in the ATT you will really hear the difference.

These are for me 2 huge huge HUGE advantages.....

Also the overall feeling of the receiver becomes more calm, not really sure how to explain...

I'll try to make it more clear when i have the time to make some audio clips.

Especially when listening to the 40m band it's an awesome thing to have in your set. Stations become more distinct and clear.

Yes its expensive, but after 3 days i already forgot the price ;)

73's

Alex

BITX20 - 21. PA part 1... the start....

So i said that this weekend i would finish my PA for the Bitx.
That was some nice wishful thinking. I build the first part , and i stopped when i needed to wind a coil.

Two other reasons that i could not finish the PA were a) my work and b) 1 of the coils which were in the kit arrived broken :(

well , its build untill here.....

More soon to follow......

73's

Alex

A new toy for the TS-480...... a 1.8kHz filter..YF-107SN

Today i drove a long way down south to collect something i wanna use during the upcoming PACC contest.
I can tell you , its worth its weight in gold.it's small and its tiny :)

Yes, i finally got my 1.8kHz filter. The YF-107SN. It was a 80 minute drive getting to the store, and the same 80 minute drive back to where i live.

So how tint is this thing actually then.....Let's open the box...

Big box, small content....

Ok , i dont think the ppl who never have seen a filter, know exactly how small current filters are...
So i took a picture with a standard sized lighter and a standard 1/4 watt , 5% resistor.....'

Seriously, the lighter is not a big one , its a standard size :)

I forgot to take a few pics when I installed the filter sorry :(
So I will take them next time i put in an other option.

I listned to the audio with the small filter , and it does what i wanted it to do so that's a good thing.
Nearby stations (frequency wise, not distance) do get a lot softer to the point that they do not disrupt the station anymore which i am listening to. so hurray for that :)

I will see if I can get a few audio samples and upload them somehow, so you all can hear the difference.

73's

Alex
PA1SBM

Dutch PACC contest

I was wondering if i should put it up on my blog as i am not fond of contests at all.
Many amateurs become very ignorant, rude, and non ham like when they start to contest.
There for I never enter any contests. except for one.  (no offense intended to proper ham's who follow normal etticets)

The Dutch PACC contest is the only one i want to enter. the contest is to work as many dutch stations as possible. So that means that for dutch amateurs, there will be a good chance that they will make a lot of QSO's with stations they would otherwise not be able to work due to pile up.

Why is this you might ask?.... Well... Holland (or better and correct: The Netherlands) is a bit densely populated. therefor we have not that much room for huge antenna towers as some other countries.
Also the legal limit of 400wats pep is lower then a lot of other countries. So a lot of dutch ham's stick to the 100 or 200 watts that come out of their rigs.

So when a dutch station is calling out for a distant station, it becomes hard to get through the pileups when you have to compete with a lot of "big gun" stations.

Off course there are exceptions. In the Netherlands we have a lot of these "big gun" stations as well.
But we have a lot of simple stations as well. with onluy 1 vertical or a few wire antenna's. (like myself)

Anyway, last year i wanted to enter as well, but some thing came up and i could not join the fun.
This year i took the friday and Monday around the PACC weekend off as well, so i can properly try my best to make some nice QSO's.

Contest time/date: 12:00 UTC 09 Feb 2013 - 12:00 UTC 10 Feb 2013
Contest info: http://pacc.veron.nl/      


I'll see if i can post on my twitter account (@PA1SBM)  and here on what frequency i am operating.
But please bare with me if i get a pile up.... i am not a contest operator :) 

BITX20 - 20. VFO still not at the right frequency ....

This week, while i had the week off,  i have been busy mostly with rebuilding the attic. i bought my house 3 years ago, and the attic was one big room. It's now divided into a separate storage and a guest bedroom. but this is more for a different blog, back to tech stuff :)

I also had some time for fiddling around with the VFO again and i do not get the bloody thing on the frequency it should be at which is about 14.175 - 9.9953 = approx 4.180 MHz. My VFO is running at twice the frequency.

So somewhere there must be a weird thing i did wrong. I am very sure about that, but WHAT!?!?!?!
I started to check the components if i did not stick a wrong capacitor or resistor somewhere, but no luck so far. I also started to fiddle around with the windings on the coil, but the difference i get is too little for making up for the double frequency.

At this point i am staring blindly at this, so i have decided to give it a rest for a bit and start to build the amplifier section first. This again needs lots of coil winding, and oh my i love that so much.... not.... :)

So keep watching the blog. as that  section will be done be for the end of the upcoming week.... i hope :)

73's
Alex, PA1SBM

Happy holidays !!!

Hello all !!!

Even at christmas i have no time for myself.... (not complaining though... this is an awesome time)
We travelled down to my parents and we are spending the holidays at their place.
So inbetween the starter and the main course i am blogging to all you out there.

We ( Alex, PA1SBM, en GF) wish all people reading my blog the best Xmas ever, and for the new year all the best DX and lots of succesfull homebrew projects!!

Merry christmas and a happy new year !!!

p.s. i hope to get some time soon for the Bitx20 so keep an eye on my blog or twitter !!

73's 

Alex

PA1SBM