XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, rec.radio.amateur.dx

PE4BAS Amateur Radio Weblog

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PACC 2022 contest review

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 10:35 AM PST https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2022/02/pacc-2022-contest-review.html






Event: PACC 2022
Section: QRP mixed
Logger: N1MM+
Station: Icom IC-7300 at 5% (5W)
Antenna 1: 160m sloper
Antenna 2: 10m LFA @14m
Antenna 3: Multiband vertical @16m
Antenna 4: 2x20m inverted-V doublet




Not the best PACC contest ever. I still have less inspiration and didn't
spend hours at the radio. Went to bed at a reasonable time and started
again Sunday after breakfast. Took my breaks for lunch, diner tea etc.
Had some visitors as well. They needed an antenna analyzer for their CB antennas. I helped them out with their antennas and off they go for the
garbage run winter edition in Sweden.

Actually I listened more as calling. Heard some interesting DX.
Unfortunately my QRP signal was not heard by many. Since I do not use /QRP
in the callsign many don't understand that it was a struggle to be heard.
Your signal is fading out, much QSB, signal is extremely weak is what most stations told me. Sometimes I was even told that my signal was too weak and those stations just continued calling.....how rude! What also strikes me is that some well known conteststations in the Netherlands have very bad receivers, too much signal but they hardly hear the weaker stations.
However, I worked VU2DSI from India on 10m and half an hour later I worked ZD7FT from St. Helena both on SSB. In between I catched K3ZO on 15m SSB.
Worked VE9ML on CW 20m and 40m later on. So, yes DX can be worked while
QRP. That was all Saturday. HC5DX which is a dutchman from Ecuador was
heard on 15m with good signals but I couldn't get my signal through. I
heard this station on 20m at Sunday, he was real 59. But how many times I tried, I was unable to get my signal through. Well, I know it is not easy
to be QRP, you need to have patience and if the contact is not happening
you need to deal with the disappointment.I discovered with 5W you really
need to do CW. Actually I dared to do some running this time. But the concentration took much. Since I do all the decoding with the computer it
is not really easy work. I really have to learn CW and decode with my own
ears. But so far I think I will never learn it really.
Hopefully I will have more inspiration for the hobby and the PACC contest
next year. Not that I didn't like it but I didn't have the fun I
experienced in the previous years.

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