About me

Hi, I'm Frank. I was born in 1968. I'm currently living on a beautiful spot just west of Almere, together with Marielle and our two Irish Setters Raya and Luca. I'm a free-lance IT specialist since 1999. Besides playing radio, I like to play the piano. Also, I enjoy brewing beer, listening to jazz music, and going on long-distance hikes. Finally, I enjoy running half marathons and the occasional game of squash.

Jump to: Radio history - Contesting - DXpeditions - DX-ing - CW Clubs - Rig - Antennas - Keys - Mobile operation - QSL

YL Marielle	Raya and Luca	Brewing beer	In the Pyrenees

Radio history

I've been known to regularly tune the living room radio as a toddler, but it wasn't until I was in my teens that my interest for radio really developed. First with listening to shortwave broadcast and utility stations. Later, my interest moved towards ham radio and I became an SWL (NL-10191). The receiver was a Kenwood R600.

I received my ham radio ticket (with CW included) in 1990, and the callsign PA3FLV. At that time, I was using homebrew QRP CW transmitters and the Kenwood R600 receiver. Later, I purchased a TenTec Argonaut II QRP transceiver.

In 1999, when setting up my own business, my interest in ham radio faded. But in 2005, the bug bit again, and I changed my callsign to PA4N. I acquired a second-hand Yaesu FL-110 PA for a 10dB power increase.

In October 2008, I bought an Elecraft K3, to be followed by the subreceiver in early 2009, the panadapter in 2010, the 500W PA in 2011 and the KAT500 antenna tuner in 2012. (Makes you think what 2013 will bring. :-)

I'm intrigued by the magic of the shortwave bands, and am nearly exclusively active on CW (ZUT - CW forever! :-). My interests are contesting, DX-ing and DXpeditioning. Over the last year or so, I've started to enjoy rag-chewing.

PA3FLV, 1993	PA4N, 2005	PA4N, 2008	PA4N, 2012

Contesting

In 2009, I started to participate in contests. Although I try to operate in as many contests as I can, it's not often that I can participate the full time period. Below are the results of the contests in which I was able to engage in an 'all out' effort.

(*) = claimed

Also, each year I try to participate in the domestic PA Beker contests. The PA Beker contest is a short contest on 80 and 40 meters, phone one day and CW the other day. It's probably the only contest in which you can hear me on phone :-)

Finally, the last couple of years I've been quite active in multi-multi contests, mostly as part of the now defunct PA6Z contest group.

PACC 2012 @PA6Z	CW men @PA6Z :-)	ARRL 10m 2012 @PA6K

DXpeditions

In 2010, I promised myself to go on a DXpedition at least once a year. Up till now, I've kept that promise:

• MU/PA4N: from 13 to 19 July 2010, 4214 QSOs
• MU/PA9M: from 22 to 29 October 2011, 34281 QSOs (with 6 other PA6Z members)
• HB0/PA4N: from 9 to 13 October 2012, 3456 QSOs
• CT8/PA4N: from 26 March to 3 April 2013, 3315 QSOs

MU/PA4N, 2010	HB0/PA4N, 2012	CT8/PA4N, 2013

DX-ing

Currenly (7 April 2013), I have 266 entries confirmed for DXCC (CW only, 160-10 meters, including deleted). Here are some historical standings:

CW Clubs

I'm proud to be CWops member #1161. And I'm currently working towards HSC membership.

I'm often lurking around 3525-28 or 7025-28 kHz, looking for rag-chew contacts at around 25-28 WPM.

To find CW clubs members, I've made a small web application that filters reverse beacon network (RBN) spots. The application currently supports these clubs: CWops, FISTS, FOC, HSC, VHS, SHSC, EHSC and SKCC.

You can find the web application here: http://pa4n.xs4all.nl:1161/bandmap.html

Rig

I am using the Elecraft K-line - and loving it! Elecraft K3 rig with subreceiver, Elecraft P3 pan-adapter, Elecraft KPA500 500W amplifier and KAT500 automatic antenna tuner.

Antennas

• A 5-band Spiderbeam (20-10m) up about 12 meters. (The antenna has 3, 2, 3, 2, and 4 elements, for each of the bands, respectively.)
• A 2x25m inverted vee doublet for 160-30m, fed with open wire. The apex is about 11 meters up. The ends are about 6 meters up.
• A Clifton Labs Z1501 active antenna, used for diversity reception.

Keys

My current favorite is the Begali HST. Man, this thing feels solid! Further, I have an Elecraft/Bencher hex key, a Kent straight key, and an old ETM-8C. Last but not least, the good old ex-army Junker straight key on which I learned the code many moons ago. The keyer I'm using is a K1EL Winkeyer.

Mobile operation

During my daily one-hour commutes, I'm sometimes QRV from my car, signing PA4N/M. I have a Yaesu FT100 installed which can deliver 100W to the Diamond mobile whip that I have on the car roof. I have whips available for 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. The paddle is a Palm mini paddle. I also use the tiny keyer from Palm.

QSL

QSL is okay via the bureau or LOTW. I dislike the hassle of direct QSL cards, so please no direct cards.

As direct QSLs require manual actions like the fuss of label printing (which I dislike) while on the other hand bureau cards are handled mostly automatic (by globalqsl.com), I request you to use the bureau or LoTW if you can. If you have strong arguments why you should send me a direct QSL (e.g. if your country does not have a QSL bureau), please contact me by e-mail and we'll sort things out.

Exception: following my DXpeditions, you can send me direct QSL until 3 months after the end of the DXpedition and I will dutifully process these without grumbling.

Note: if we agreed that you send me a direct QSL, please notice that direct cards should include an SAE and 1 (Europe) or 2 (outside Europe) green stamps, and that I can no longer accept IRCs.