Also this year I participated in the infamous PACC contest. Very relaxed and good fun. My score was better than previous years I think. I made 401 QSO’s (I think one duplicate so 400) and a total of 88 multipliers resulting in a pre-evaluated score of 35288 points. Thanks to everybody who participated and hope to work you next year!
73 Pleun (PA3HHO)
I’m so happy with the results of the Fritzel MFB-13 that I decided to put it on a rotator so I can swing it around from the shack. I had an old Daiwa DR-7600 lying around with DC7011 controller so I spend the afternoon installing that. I also put up my MasPro WN59N 2m/70cm combi yagi (not connected yet) in case I want to do some USB on VHF/UHF in future.
I tried to model the MFB-13 in MMANA and calculated the loss. On 10m it’s about 0.1 dB (it’s a full size dipole with the ends folded back about 40cm, on 15m it’s about 0.3 dB (not sure if that’s correct), on 20m it’s about 3 dB (half of an S-point). I’m probably going to use it on 10m/15m mostly because I didn’t have an antenna yet for those bands. 20m works fine on my EFHW as well so I have a choice now.
Pretty cool set up right now don’t you think?
73 Pleun
I just put up a Fritzel MFB-13, it was generously donated to me by PD9RD. The MFB-13 is a folded back rotary dipole for 10m/15m/20m. The width is only around 2 x 2.1 meters (so total length around 4.2 meters). It’s got a “double” (10m/15m) trap in both elements, while the element length is not even a quarter wave for 10m it’s a compromise on all bands but I’m hoping the directional effect and the height will compensate for that.
The SWR is very acceptable on all bands. Lowest SWR is a bit low on 10m and 15m but way below better than 1:1.5 on the entire band. I’ve tuned the end rods for 20m to have the lowest SWR in the middle of the band and despite of the two traps acting as loading coild on 20m the SWR is better than 1:2 on the entire band and seems to work fine on 14 MHz as well.
I haven’t put it on a rotator yet, it’s now pointing in NE / SW direction and I’ve let WSPR with 1W band hopping 20/15/10 since yesterday afternoon and, results are not bad at all:
Maybe this afternoon I will turn it in N/S direction to see if the picture looks very different.
73 Pleun
As the conditions on 10m are getting better I decided to put a small groundplane on my roof. Some time ago, I converted a Sirio New Tornado 5/8 wave CB antenna to a 20m groundplane. That was quite a big antenna and with heavy weather, I sweated bullets. I decided that Sirio would be a good starting point for a 10m 1/4 wave groundplane.
For the 20m conversion, I removed the compensation coil and replaced it with a aluminium shunt. As I didn’t want to use it as a 5/8 wave for 10m with a length well over 6 meters, I did not reinstall the coil but left the shunt in place.
I started with using only 3 sections tube sections giving me a radiator length of around 2.86 meters. The radials all had a length of 1.8 meters and I decided to leave it like that and first do some modelling in MMANA. The results were hopefull, with this lengths, the resonance would be around 29.595 MHz.
At 9 meters above ground level, MMANA promised me nice radiation pattern with two lobes, one at 11 degrees with 1.8 dBi (or -0.35 dBd) gain, and one at 34 degrees at 2.6 dBi (0.45 dBd) gain. I’m not familiar with the optimal angles for DX and continental work but those angles are quite usefull. Worst gain in between those angles is 0.2 dBi (or -1.95 dBd) which is not too bad as well.
Below a 3D plot of the radiation pattern.
Even though resonance was a bit high in frequency, I decided to put it up like that and see what it would do in practice:
As always, the actual performance did not match the virtual world, my RigExpert AA-54 found lowest SWR around 27.2 MHz, seems like the New Tornado wants to make a point being a CB antenna. Nevertheless, the SWR is way below 1:2 all over the 10m band.
Really happy with the results. I did try shortening the radials a bit, but for some reason this did not raise the optimal frequency, it seems that the radiator length is a dominant factor here, not sure. Nevertheless it’s fine as it as, not too big and it seems to work well with WSJTX in WSPR mode. Below is a picture of the results from less than one hour; about 4 transmissions @ 1 Watt ERP), rest of the time RX.
73 Pleun
I had some problems with my computer not being able to connect to my RigExpert AA-54 (and IC-7300) anymore and found a way to get it working again. The trick is something I keep forgetting so I thought I publish it here, maybe I can help myself and other users.
In the device manager, I deleted all the old COM port drivers. Make sure you also delete “hidden devices” (under menu view). Install the drivers from the RigExpert website. When you connect the AA-54, go to device manager >> USB Serial Bus-Controllers. There should be a new item in the list called “USB Serial Converter”. Click that and click on tab “Advanced”. Make sure to check the option “VCP Laden” (probably “Load VCP” in English environment).
Now restart your PC, then go to device manager >> Ports (COM & LPT). You should see a new COM port, in my case it’s “USB Serial Port (COM5)”. This port is automatically recognised by the AntScope software.
73 Pleun
I finally got my PC’s WSJT-X software to “see” the IC-7300 again (old HRD still not working unfortunately) so I could test the new wire on higher bands. This afternoon I worked WA2BOT with the 41m wire tuned to 10m (SWR was just under 1:3). I let WSJT-X listed for a while on 10m. While the WSPR frequency is very low in the 10m band, the IC-7300 couldn’t tune it so I could only listen. Nevertheless it was interesting to see what I could hear on 10 meters. Also tried to transmit some 20m WSPR signals and I’m not unhappy about the results. Look for yourself.
As the 10m band seem to be open quite often the last few weeks, I’m planning on spanning away another 5m of wire going almost straight down from my roof to make a very steep sloping half wave vertical for 10m connecting that to my FT240-52 3:21 ratio based transformer, see if I can work some DX on 10. To be continued!
73 Pleun
The end wire of my trap (40m) loaded HWEF snapped and also the feedwire snapped because of high winds. Time to redo things. I decided to take down the existing wire and replace it by a single 41m long wire. While I can’t span away a full half wave for 80 meters, the wire now has a triangle at the end. Seems to work pretty well on 80m and extremely well on 40m. While SWR is below 1:2 on the entire 20m band, I can tune the antenna to work on 14 MHz as well. Transformer is still the single FT290-43 based transformer with 3:21 ratio and no capacitor on the input. Considering a 100 pF or so cap to get the SWR down on 20m and higher frequencies.
It’s been a while, I’m not very radio active this year, I did participate in the PACC contest beginning of 2022 and made 367 QSO’s with 56 multipliers. Good for 20552 points and 14th place in the National competion. Last year I was 12th with less points. Hoping to get in the top 10 in 2023. I really need something for 160 meters to get those multipliers so will be continued HI.
Conditions weren’t too good but also not terrible. 10m and 15m were closed but while I didn’t have any decent antennas for those bands, I guess that was in my advantage. Yesterday I hooked up a big 200 uH coil with three 22 pF silver mica caps in series (so 7+ pF) as an improvised trap for 80m and added some wire to get resonance on 1.85 MHz. I actually made 7 QSO’s on 160m which gave me 3 extra multipliers. 98 QSO’s on 80m, 142 QSO’s on 40m and 51 QSO’s op 20m were good for 53 multipliers. I had one duplicate QSO so total the total was 298 QSO’s x 56 multipliers = 16688 punten. Considering the fact that the conditions weren’t too good, I’m happy with the results. Hope to hear you next year!
73 Pleun (PA3HHO)
I will be participating today in the Dutch PACC contest 2021. Start is Sat 13 February 12:00 UTC, end is Sun 14 February 12:00 UTC. The contest is organised by Veron (click link below for rules and more information). I will be active on 80/40/20, maybe on 160m at night if I can get the 80m L/C trap working (will hook it up to the 80/40 HWEF).
The PACC contest mostly is a very relaxed contest so ideal for beginners. Dutch PA stations are sending report and province code, all other stations are sending report and sequence number starting from 001.
The Dutch province abbreviations (multipliers) are:
DR= Drenthe NB = Noord-Brabant
FL= Flevoland NH = Noord-Holland
FR= Friesland OV = Overijssel
GD= Gelderland UT = Utrecht
GR= Groningen ZH = Zuid-Holland
LB= Limburg ZL = Zeeland
See if you can catch ‘m all from the air waves HI.
Have fun, goodluck es 73 de PA3HHO
PA3HHO's 