One of the fixtures on the PI4COM contest calendar is the PACC contest.
As a Dutch contestgroup, we think it is important to make ourselves heard during the national contest and the duration of (only) 24 hours also makes it a contest with a low threshold for our members. We continue to find it difficult that the PACC coincides with another favorite contest of many of our members; the CQ WPX RTTY Contest. Every year there is a brief discussion about which contest it will be and then the PACC always wins. If someone manages to pull the dates apart so that we can participate in both, I’m sure he will make a lot of Dutch contesters happy…
It was decided to participate as Multi2 with an small team again due to some part-time participants. In short, a challenge awaited the team consisting of Dervin PD9DX, Richard PD4RD, Ton PA1CC, Ronald PA3EWP and Alex PA1AW. The last two of them only parttime.
Construction:
The build-up on Saturday morning went well, especially the antenna work. As we had a “Woodpecker” assault prior to the contest taking our main 10m antenne out of action we had to mange 10m with our multibander ie. multiplier antenna. The weekend before the contest the 10m was taken from the tower and a lot of,preparation was sone by the ground-crew in preparation for the contest. The only antenna work left were the receiving BOG’s which were prepared during daytime ready to be rolled out in the public area next to our location when darkness was coming.
The construction of the two stations is a slightly different story. Those who are familiar with our station know that each shack is built in a separate “container”. A number of patch cables are buried between the shacks for coax, rotor and network. Really a thing to use the correct patch cable for the right application. It’s easy to make a mistake and no one is waiting for a signal to be transmitted directly into the receiver in the other shack. Due to the absence of part of the normal team, some of the normally deployed equipment was also missing. This means that setting up a working N1MM computer network, ensuring that the right antenna is available in the right shack (preferably including rotor clock) etc. provides a challenge. But in the end, half an hour before the start of the contest, everything seemed to work, and that without any significant stress.
The station:
Shack 1:
Band: 10 20 160
Radio: Elecraft K4
Antennas: OB5-11 @ 12m for 10m, 4 el LFA @26m for 20m, Dipole for 160m
BOG’s for receiving towarts Asia and NA
Shack 2:
Band 15 40 80
Radio Icom IC7610
Antenne 6 el Optibeam @26m for 15m, 2 el. Optibeam @ 27m for 40m, 2x Dipole for 80m
Contest:
So we had half an hour for the strategy discussion and that was also more than enough. The basics are simple: In both shacks, start on the highest possible band that really delivers. We started with Dervin PD9DX as pure SSB operator everything in SSB and Alex PA1AW in the other shack as much as possible in CW. As soon as the runs dropped down, immediately switch modes to work in CW as well as the multipliers and stations. In a 24 hour contest you generally only get the right opening to a certain part of the world once and you have to take it. In our case, changing modes meant changing shacks. So with regularity it was collecting your stuff like a headset and a little walk to the other shack. Press OPON and search for a run frequency on the band where the other mode was just done.
Right from the start, the audience was good. We were happy that we were able to resist the temptation of starting at 20 and 40 and had put the focus on the higher bands so that we could rake in those one-off multipliers. A good choice and with the bonus of incredible runs, especially on 10m, we were doubly happy. Changing shack quickly became a habit and with a simple OPON all your settings back to the way you want them remains a perfect option in N1MM.
Switching stations to have a good mode balance and to take full advantage of the (one-off) openings worked great. I’ve been surprised a few times after a band change by the HUGE pile up in the first 10-15 minutes; not doable bytimes. Usually it did drop, but then to QSO rates with several QSOs per minute for a longer period of time, and that for a PACC contest.
All fun comes to an end and so do the huge runs, but by then it was deep into the night. Although the plan was like in 2024 to do the “dog watch” with a single operator switching 40-80 and 160m running for fifteen minutes or even shorter each time to work maximum rates in both modes and then on to the next band it turned out that we could maintain a nice run on 40m SSB until deep into the night. Our signal worked to both North and South Amaerica and Dervin managed to work a lot of number “001” during this night on 40m. So at theend Alex PA1AW had 2 hours of dogwatch before Ton PA1CC and Richard PD4RD took over just before the greyline.
The last hours of the contest were as usual. Enjoying 40m and 20m with a huge rate in both modes. Every year I am amazed at how such a relatively small contest can have such an impact on the bands….
Our claimed score:
We are quite proud of this achievement. Although we could not beet our 2024 score of the best PI4COM score ever in Multi2 we came pretty close, something we had not dared to dream of when especially 20m went “dead” early on the Saturdaynight.
Of course we would like to thank everyone for the QSOs and making this beautiful experience possible. Of course, we are always available for questions. Are you a contester and are interested in a drive like PI4COM; We also have a place for new members. Of course, there are rights and obligations associated with this, but we are happy to share them with you.
Until the PACC2026 or of course earlier in another contest.
Team PI4COM PACC 2025 (LtoR); Ronald PA3EWP, Richard PD4RD, Dervin PD9DX, Ton PA1CC and Alex PA1AW.
