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I have read on a few blogs from the Netherlands about a contest called PACC it has been around since 1955 and is a mixed contest of CW and SSB. So there is a mode available that most hams would feel comfortable with.

 It is always on the 2nd weekend of February and lasts for 24 hours. On Saturday afternoon I was able to get some radio time in and I found several Dutch PACC contest stations on the bands. I set up my contesting software N1MM+ for the contest and in I went. The exchange for the Non-Dutch (me) is a signal report and QSO number. For the Dutch station, I was to receive a signal report and a 2 letter province code, of which there were 12.

I did breeze over the rules but missed the part about a 10-minute band change rule. If you made a contact on a certain band you had to stay on that band for 10 minutes. Well for me that was not the case and the penalty was me going from the category of Single Op CW low power all band to Multi op two transmitters mixed category. Oh well, live and learn! I have attached my score and the contacts I made. 

 January is now in the rearview mirror and weather wise there was a mix of very warm weather (for January) of plus 12C, days with freezing rain and the occasional snowstorm of 37cm. I had a good month for radio, I was involved in some contests, WRTC competition more on that in another post. Then just some good all-around DX AP5A Barbados, S01SW Western Sahara, 5B4AMX Cyprus and CO8NMN Cuba. 

The space weather has been fantastic of late with some very surprising openings on 10m. Now into February by 2 days we have had cold weather. Last evening it was -25C and on Friday evening -30C with a wind chill of -47! I am staying indoors so bring on the DX!!

Most any Ham you talk to have heard or taken part in Field day that takes place each year in the summer. Over the years I have read blog posts regarding Winter Field Day but had not paid too much attention to it. I am not one to spend time outdoors in the winter on the radio. Winter is nice but not that nice, but this year I did some reading and there is a category for working this event from home! Now my wife did give me some advice telling me to at least open the window and rough it a bit with some cold air. Sorry, not for me I am a summer/warm-weather guy!
I entered CW only as my category and I found the event well attended and very relaxed compared to major CW contests. It is an event that I will add to my contest calendar for next year.

Here at VE9KK's household, my XYL has returned to part-time work from home and involves a computer and the internet to communicate regarding work. Last week while she was working and I was on the radio she told me her LAN connection kept dropping out. I did some experimenting and sure enough, it was my CW signal on 15m that was doing it. I quickly grabbed my last FT240-43 toroid and wrapped the CAT6 cable around it which did the trick! 

I then did some reading and learned that the CAT cable should be loose around the toroid and not tight as this affects the small wire inside the CAT6. I also read that 7 turns were the magic number of turns. Finally and this is the question to my readers I read two thoughts on wrapping CAT cable around a toroid. One school of thought was it is perfectly fine and the other was it slowed down the internet speed? I never did a speed check on my wife's connection with and without the toroid. The reason for this is she never complained the speed dropped so why poke the bear! Has anyone out there had an issue with your HF signal dropping internet connections at home and what did you do about it? 

New 1:1 choke with RG316 coax

 I have the Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna and have a 1:1 choke at the base of the antenna made by Balun designs. Some time ago I made a second choke that was placed at the radio end and posted the build here on the blog. I had a few comments regarding the coax that I used (RG8X) and that there could be an issue with the bending radius of the coax around the core. I was informed that over time the centre conductor could migrate toward the braid.

 On one end of the coax, there was a mini-UHF to PL-259 adapter which meant I only had to add one PL-259 connector. I will be using again an FT240-31 core with 10 turns. I decided on 10 turns as this will afford me decent characteristics on the HF bands. Using the RG316 coax the bending radius is no longer an issue. 

With SPLIT on and not just DUAL

This afternoon I spent some time on the radio and I noticed on the DX Heat Cluster the DXpedition TK8N was being spotted in the CW portion of 15m. So over I went and there was a large pileup I thought it would be interesting to polish my skill in finding out how they were working the pileup.

In time I figured out what TN8K was up to and I found myself on a segment of the band to which I was sure he was listening so I threw my call out and on the second time a very loud "VE9KK UP UP!!. I thought WHAT and I realized I was still in dual receive which is fine BUT I did not put my radio in SPLIT!!! 

I was transmitting my call right over the top of TN8K on his transmit frequency!! What a bonehead move.

 Well, it's day one of 2023 and I am relaxing with my mid-morning coffee. I say mid-morning as for us retired folks who usually hit the sack around 10 pm venturing into midnight is a once-a-year endeavour. So a bit of sleeping in was in order. No hangover here as we just enjoyed a bottle of champagne to help welcome in the New Year. As for overindulging never did it.  I never wanted to waste the next day with the booze flu.

In 2023 I would like to master....or let's be more realistic and say get a grip on CW head coping for QSOs as I have always wanted to do this.
One thing in 2022 that lacked was my reading. 

I want to put more time toward reading both technical, fiction and the magazines I subscribe to. All related to ham radio and to mix it up with some not!

 One dream of mine has been vinyl records, a turn table and Jazz music all mixed together! 

Finally just to continue with my CW contesting and learn more about technique, how to effectively handle a pileup and continue to have fun. 

Happy New Year to my readers and all the best to your health and ham radio adventures.