Björn Pasteuning

Papa · Alfa · Five · Delta · Juliett

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Transmission 01 — About

Hi, I'm Björn

Radio amateur from Avenhorn, a village of about 3,000 people in West-Friesland, Noord-Holland — on the air as PA5DJ, formerly PD5DJ.

The spark came when I was seven: a neighbour who was a dedicated FM radio pirate taught me electronics — how to build oscillators, exciters and everything that comes with it. In the early '90s I worked lots of DX as an 11 m pirate, and in 2005 I got my licence for one reason: I wanted to work amateur radio satellites.

These days you'll mainly find me on the higher HF bands — 20 m and up, most of all 17 m — and on QO-100, and very often at the club and contest station PI4RCK / PA6Y. Besides operating I like homebrew — mostly microcontroller hardware for the shack — and I build software, all collected on Ham4Life.

Station details

  • CallsignPA5DJ
  • OperatorBjörn Pasteuning
  • QTHAvenhorn, NL 🇳🇱
  • RegionWest-Friesland, Noord-Holland
  • LicensedSince 2005
  • ITU / CQ zone27 / 14
  • QSLBureau · Direct · LoTW · Clublog
  • LogbookQRZ.com

Satellites

The reason I got licensed. Back in 2006 I ran a fully automated satellite station with a home-built tracking system; today it's QO-100 around the clock.

Low bands

Below 500 kHz. Some nights I browse 2200 m and 630 m for other active hams and send them an SWL report.

Contesting

Even if it's only to keep the club score up: PACC, EU HF Championship, All Asian, UBA, IARU HF, CQ WW DX, sprints and more.

Homebrew

Microcontroller hardware for ham radio, satellite antennas, an automatic magnetic loop — and 3 cm ATV reception of PI6HLM and PI6ZDM.

Transmission 02 — Station

Bands & modes

Mainly on the higher HF bands — 20 m and up, most of all 17 m — and a lot on QO-100.

HF
20m17m15m12m10m
Satellite
QO-100
VHF / UHF
2m70cm
Modes
SSBCWFT8FT4RTTYFM
17m  where you'll find me most UTC --:-- · local --:--

HF

The higher bands, 20 m and up — with 17 m as my favourite. From home on a multiband dipole, portable on my own V-dipole design.

QO-100

Very active on the narrowband transponder: up at 2.4 GHz, down at 10.489 GHz. Always in view, no tracking needed.

VHF / UHF

Now and then on 2 m and 70 cm, plus 2 m DX with a home-built 6-element LFA.

Transmission 03 — Equipment

The shack

What's on the desk and on the roof at home, and what goes along when I head out portable.

Home station

  • HFIcom IC-7610
  • VHF / UHFIcom IC-9700
  • QO-100Icom IC-705with DX Patrol Groundstation v2
  • AmplifierSPE Expert 1.3K-FA
  • HF antennaMultiband dipoleinterchangeable
  • VHF / UHFDiamond X-300base antenna
  • 2 mBig Wheelomnidirectional, horizontally polarised — plus a home-built 6-element LFA for 2 m DX
  • QO-100 dish1.2 m offset dishwith home-built Ice-cone feed

Portable

  • HFYaesu FTdx10
  • HFIcom IC-7300
  • AntennaPA5DJ V-dipolemy own design, usable on every band from 20 m and up

QO-100 signal path

IC-705transceiver
DX Patrol Groundstation v22.4 GHz up · 10 GHz down
1.2 m offset dishDIY Ice-cone feed
QO-10025.9° E · 36,000 km

Transmission 04 — Club & contest station

PI4RCK & PA6Y

Besides my own station I'm very active at PI4RCK, and above all at PA6Y. A contest station is a lot of hardware that has to work together — so I build the software that ties it together.

N1MM Rotor Server

Controls up to 16 rotors straight from N1MM Logger+, with a wind correction system and storm protection that parks the antennas when the wind gets too strong. Live antenna map, weather and history — all in the browser.

N1MM Rotor Client

For Windows and Android: finds every rotor on the network by itself and points the beam with a live compass, a map or a Maidenhead locator.

Station Manager

One of the other tools that keep the contest station running — together with the rest of my software on Ham4Life.

See the software on Ham4Life ↗

Transmission 05 — Log search

Did we work?

Enter your callsign to see if we've made a QSO — portable and prefixed variants of your call are included.

Checking logbooks…

Ham4Life

Transmission 06 — Software

Ham4Life

My software hub: a collection of the projects I'm currently working on and the ones I've built — tools for the shack and beyond.

Browse the software ↗

Transmission 07 — Contact

CQ CQ, give me a call

Question about a QSO, QSL card, sked or collaboration? Send a message — I'll reply as soon as I can. 73!

QSL info

  • Bureau
  • Direct *
  • QRZ.com
  • LoTW
  • Clublog
  • QO-100 DX Club
  • eQSL
  • HRDLog

Phone and CW only: I don't reply to QSL requests for FT2 / FT4 / FT8 contacts.

* Direct: send a SASE — no $, € or IRC needed. Ask for the address via the form.