[3830] CQWW CW 7J1AAI(W1NN) SOSB/40 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: 7J1AAI
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: JH1GTV

Class: SOSB/40 HP
QTH: Tokyo
Operating Time (hrs): 39

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40: 1384    31       96
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 1384    31       96  Total Score = 465,709

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Thanks again to Shige, JH1JTV for hosting me again at his excellent station in
the western suburbs of Tokyo.  

This was my third consecutive 40 Meter single band entry in this event.  But
rather than improving, I seem to be going backwards.  This year’s Q total is
down 184 contacts from 2009, which was itself down 123 (all on a claimed score
basis).  With pretty much the same effort put in.  The big question in my mind
is how much was me and how much was band conditions.

The contest starts at 9 AM local in Japan, which is about 2.5 hours after local
sunrise.  A few loud Europeans are usually workable during the first hour
despite the fact that they are beaming to North America, and then just an
occasional B or HL station until after local noon when the US West Coast
becomes workable (7 PM local their time).  This year I could only manage to
work one zone 15 and one zone 16 station in the first hour, while there was
very little US activity until after 3 PM local (0600Z).  Six hours into the
contest I only had 63 contacts, down 110 contacts from 2009.   I’m sure that
many West Coast station were busy working or trying to work EU on the low
bands, but I can’t explain why rates were so much poorer during these early
hours for me this year.       

Things did pick up after 0600 and I was reasonably busy for the next 15 hours. 
Signals from the US seemed pretty good and Europe also seemed okay.  While my
top hours were not as good as in 2009, I managed to keep a steady pace of
between 50 and 75 contacts per hour throughout the first night and managed to
pull even with 2009’s Q total at the end of the 20Z hour.  But the last three
hours sort of fell apart and I ended the day with 991 vs 1077 in 2009.  

Day two was the real problem.  After taking a five hour nap at 9 AM local, I
was back on at 0500Z (2 PM local) hoping to have some good hours running the US
followed by 9 or 10 hours of running Europe.  The few signals I could hear,
though, were watery and mushy and very tough to copy.  Normally, the first US
stations to be heard are pretty strong Sixes and Sevens and it is several hours
later that the East Coast can be worked, but the first station I heard and
worked after a few calls was K1TO in Florida.  As happy as I was to work Dan,
this was not sign of normal conditions, and the next three hours only produced
30 more contacts, putting me even further behind my 2009 pace.   The US opening
basically fizzled and even the normally good 1100 and 1200 hours were much worse
than last year.  I also found conditions to Europe quite poor and Sunday night
(Japan time) was a real struggle, with the best rates in the mid 40’s.  All
told, I was only able to add 460 contacts to the log on day two.  

There was a very nice long path opening to the US a couple of hours before the
end of the contest, but aside from KC1XX, who was also strong last year on long
path, the only new station I managed to work was K1RX.  Turning the antenna to
the southwest did bring in a couple of new Southeast Asian Mults, so it was not
completely a lost cause.

I believe that one key to doing well in this contest is having good enough
receive capability to pull in the large numbers of weak EU stations on day two.
 It seemed like there were always quite a few stations calling but as the
contest wore on, I found it extremely tough to copy many of them through the
noise and QRM.   I never could get the K3 to the point where I really felt
comfortable with the way it sounded to me.  It seemed like it was always noisy,
not exactly ringing, but a kind of wooshing background noise that I just
couldn’t eliminate, and it was real work to fish each signal out of the mud. 
I have always preferred to use a wide filter and I can’t stand the ringing
that most narrow filters do.  Almost everyone has been praising the K3
receiver, so it may be that I simply do not know how to use it or set it up,
but it was tiring me out and clearly hurting my performance.  

At the beginning of the contest Shige had offered to let me use his ICOM 7600
and two hours before the end of the contest I took him up on his offer just to
see how it would compare with the K3.  I noticed a huge difference immediately.
 It seemed like the noise was completely gone and just the signals were left.  I
found it much easier to copy the weaker stations and the 2200Z hour was one of
my better hours of the day.  I am very much regretting not using the 7600 for
the entire day two.  I sure would like to know whether it would have made a
significant difference.

Clearly I have some homework to do to figure out what I may be doing wrong with
my K3.

Thanks to everyone for the contacts and see you all down the log in the next
contest.

73, Hal 7J1AAI  (W1NN)

Note:  The above total includes about 40 zero-point contacts with JA stations.


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