PACC 2020

Antenna's ready    Steppir   and new linear load rotary 40m dipole  14m  wide very light using glasfiber fishing rod's and foldback wire linear load design thanks Thomas PA1M

Using the  Hidaka Denki  driving element holder.
  replaced the trapped  multi band 40 20 15 10m elements with 2x 7m fishing poles that fits upon the 30mm center stubs filling the gap with tape also protecting the thin fiber rods against the stiff aluminium tubes.
This radiator is part of the 4ele VS2440  former produced by  Hidaka Denky
I can switch back to the original multi band the weight is very low about 1kg for an almost full size 40m rotating dipole not bad i think, it could even survive CIARA but i did not want to risk that.
The shunt wire is 2x 12.5 m foldeded back in one loop and about 1m wire  hanging down a the top, that this wire is moving in the wind does only slightly affect the tuning , the stray capacity does not change much.The whole 40m 7.000 to 7.200 can be  covered   SWR  below 1.5 
Tuning the antenna with this loop is not so easy. First test showed resonance at 6.8MHz
Then i cut 50cm each side of the vertical hanging wire and then the resonance jumped to 7.35 already. So it seems a precision job to tune it precise with the length of the topload wire
And it is.. i could not tune it after the storms 
First time it worked was a lucky shot ..
I changed the lineair loading loop using wire spreaders and the free hanging wire at the top is used to trim the resonance 1 m # 200kHz roughly , so cutting smal pieces 5 a 10cm and test again. 

PACC2 2020
I choose to run in the high power CW single section this time.
With moral support and company of Willem PD0OHW (photos) to experience the contest live..

But Tropical storm CIARA was expected to land about halfway the 24 hours in the early Sunday morning
So we had to decide to take the high 25m pole down at 05 hour before the high winds and rain would reach us.
That meaned  40m dipole 80 and 160m out...
And the Steppir at lowest position.

Saturday before contest start 15m was open     FT8 :   YB EU VK
I started  CW at 15m  but long CQ with no reply and no CW signals heard  i had to go down to 20m.
Not to speak of 10m  always start at the at the highest bandthat what the the hams  said before the age of FT8 and RBN  clusters internet. When one only could find out by listening the bands..

the week before there where some ES openings  but now CIARA depression seems blow away all
propagation...
Tuesday and  Monday propagation was recovered at 15  with many EU and PY at 10m...
That is how it goes.
Everyone had to deal with the poor propagation during this PACC
But i had high expectation for the Steppir  3 ele  for 15 and 10m ..
Only 20m was left  now but this 3 ele was working well and it seems lower in noise at least i can turn it with the back to the Solar Edge QRM of my neighbors home.

the low bands 160 80 where good to USA
even JA worked at 160
And remarkable good signals from USA at top-band  and 80
of those hams that joined our PACC contest thanks!
and not the WWRTTY ..
The good old CW nice to work
  my results

        Band     QSOs     Pts  Cty  Pt/Q
         1.8     165     165   40   1.0
         3.5     353     352   51   1.0
           7     238     238   45   1.0
          14     347     347   48   1.0
          21       3       3    3   1.0
       Total    1106    1105  187   1.0


            Score : 206,635