CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: 7J1AAI
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: JH1GTV
Class: SOSB/10 HP
QTH: Tokyo
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
------------------------------
Total: 1326 36 88 Total Score = 438,464
Club: North Coast Contesters
Comments:
Thanks to Shige, JH1GTV, for allowing me to operate at his great station in the
western suburbs of Tokyo. I have been operating there on and off for nearly 25
years now!
Shige’s place is a 45 minute train ride from my place downtown. Given that
10 SB is a daytime event, I commuted out to his QTH so I could sleep in my own
bed at night. Since the contest ends at 9 AM Monday morning, I made three
trips to his place. On Sunday I took a 5:30 AM train to get there when the
band opened. About the only time I am on the train at that hour is when I am
heading out to do a contest. It’s always interesting to see the people who
are on the train at that hour - mostly it’s either healthy hiker-types with
backpacks headed out to the mountains or young people who are returning home
after a night of partying, some of them acting pretty strange. On the final
day I was hoping that the band would open early so I got up at 4:30 AM and
arrived right around 6 AM (2100Z). Unfortunately, the effort was wasted as the
band was nearly dead at that time and my first QSO did not go in the log until
2140Z.
With the great conditions we have been having recently, I was hoping that I
might come close to the Japan 10 Meter HP non-assisted record of 704,737 set by
JH1DTC back in 1989. In the end, though, I was nearly 350 contacts and many
mults short of the record. Either conditions or the operator were not up to
that 1989 level. Interestingly, my Q total was almost exactly what I achieved
the last time I did this contest from Shige’s station in 2002.
Conditions were pretty good but the openings to key areas did not seem to last
very long. Day two was worse than day one. Stations that were pounding in for
a while would suddenly just fade out and disappear. Zone 5 was runnable for
only around 1:15 both days, with the first day much better. I put 84 Zone 5
stations in the log on the first day versus only 34 on day two. Zone 14 was
even worse.
I never seem to do as well as my other JA competitors in catching country
multipliers so this year I tried harder. I did more tuning and tried to take
advantage of the K3’s sub-receiver. Unfortunately, the Zone 8 multipliers
are available during one of the best run times so you have to choose between
mult hunting and running. On day two when the run rates were slower, I combed
the band for multipliers with the K3’s sub-receiver but I only found one or
two new ones.
In some ways, JA is well-placed for single-band contesting in CQWW. We spend
several hours working North America and after a break we then have a nice shot
at Europe. This pattern is pretty much true for all bands, although 10 meters
seems to have the shortest openings.
Unfortunately, the zones where we make the most contacts are also the zones
which have the least country multipliers. My highest QSO totals were Zone 16
(264 contacts), Zone 3 (228) and Zone 4 (236), all of which have very few
countries.
The most important zones are Zone 8 (29 countries), Zone 15 (29 countries) and
Zone 14 (28 countries). While we have a fair shot at Zone 15 on 10 Meters (I
had 94 Qs there), Zone 8 and Zone 14 are another story. Our openings are short
and, in the case of Zone 8, we have to fight through the W wall, which can be
very tough, especially on the first day. This year, I made only 3 Zone 8
contacts.
Japan shares almost no daylight with the western part of Zone 14, making it
really hard to pick up these important multipliers. The opening is only around
45 minutes long and then quite marginal. I managed to work five countries in
Zone 14 during the Saturday and Sunday openings, but most of my 17 contacts
were with Germany, most likely just the high power stations with large
antennas. JA ops would really love to have the kind of propagation to Zone 14
and Zone 8 that much of the US has. On the other hand, I made 7 Zone 22
contacts! (But they’re only worth a single point each.)
Equipment:
K3 with sub-receiver
Amp: JRL2000F
Ant: 5 el X 3 stack
Win-Test on laptop computer with Win-Key
Thanks to everyone for the contacts!
73, Hal W1NN & 7J1AAI
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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