Since I work on Saturday’s it’s difficult for me to participate in contests these days. And because the upcoming trip to Japan is taking a lot of time in preparation, it is even more problematic to find time for some contesting, or really any radio activities.

One contest I can not skip is the PACC. It’s the contest where the world is chasing Dutch stations, so it’s fun to be the reason for pile-ups! Last year I participated with the clubcall of my club, PI4VLB, but this year I used my own call again. I was a bit late with reapplying for my contest-call, so I didn’t want to run the risk my entry would be disqualified because my contest-call was not registered anymore.

My original plan was to start when coming back from work in the evening and be active on 40-160m, but that plan faultered because I had a very exhausting day at work and badly needed some good rest. So I went to bed early and got up early again. This would be around greyzone and a good time to grab some VK/JA/ZL I thought. To waken my CW-ears and check out conditions, I always scan the bands and do a bit of S&P and then start RUNnning.

As the map shows nothing towards our anti-podes or Japan. The winter doldrums in conditions. However a lot of EU and they kept coming in loud and fast. The PACC is popular among Russian stations.

The bands just started to open a bit west-wards, but then the contest finished already at 12:00UTC. A few stats.

Pretty happy with the rates with my small station.

Frequencywise I swapped a bit below the xx.050 and above xx.050 because of country and licensing preferences and rules. I worked 41 DXCC zones in 375 QSO’s (plus 10 dupes). Gear used: Elecraft K3s at 80W, Chameleon Ampas with extended whip (7m), N1MM+ and a Begali HST2 for manual overrides.