[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): 42

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40: 1552    35      108
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total: 1552    35      108  Total Score = 597,025

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Thanks to JH1GTV for allowing me to operate his great station in Tokyo’s
western suburbs again.  

In the weeks before the contest, Shige worked very hard to prepare the station
for a SO2R all band effort.  Unfortunately, during the first hours of the
contest I ran into two problems:  Win-Test via Winkeyer was sending strange,
uneven CW that had too much space between the characters; and Win-Test suddenly
stopped switching the CW to the second radio.  Most of the problems seemed to be
related to Win-Test and Winkeyer, while N1MM, which was installed on the same
computer, seemed to be acting normal.  However, I had never used N1MM in SO2R
and I didn’t feel like having to learn during the contest.  With no prospect
of being able to fix things in time to be competitive in SOAB, I decided go
with 40M SB since 40 had not yet opened and I would not be handicapped.  I have
operated SB40 three times before from this location, so I had a good idea what I
was in for.  It can be pretty exhausting and boring at times, but at least you
can get a little sleep during the daytime on Sunday.  Japan is a pretty good
place to do SB40, since we have a pretty good shot at NA followed by many hours
of working EU.  

Well, normally we have a good shot at NA.  This year was unusual, at least for
me.  I only had 479 NA contacts this year compared with 627, 661 and 589 for
2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively.  Normally stations like K3LR and W3LPL are
loud for at least several hours but this year I only heard ‘LR twice and
‘LPL was in the mud the three or four times I heard him.  Strangely, though,
the main difference this year seems to have been in the number of Zone 3
stations, which were way down this year from previous years.

7J1AAI  NA QSOs 

            2015            2010        2009        2008
Zone 3      186             294         282         319
Zone 4      157             179         223         185
Zone 5      117              95         138         101
Other        19              21          18          22 
Total       479             589         661         627

Most of the Z3 stations I worked were loud, so propagation does not seem to be
the cause.  

On the other hand, conditions to Europe were excellent.  I worked 829 EU
stations this year, compared with 812, 667 and 558 in 2008, 2009 and 2010,
respectively.    

The good conditions to Europe also probably helped my country mult total, which
was 8 more than ever before.  Spending more time tuning the band than in past
years certainly helped too.  I worked every mult I heard except for a V85 who
was S&P.

As usual I had a lot of dupes �" 67 this year, similar to past years. 
Once or twice I had 10-15 stations I had already worked call me in the space of
a couple of minutes.  In past years, I believe I was sometimes spotted as
ZJ1AAI.  This may be somewhat understandable, but shouldn’t my zone alert
these ops that something is amiss?    

Strangest call worked this year:  OM2015TITANIC.  Surprisingly it actually fit
in the log.  Is this a real call?

Best QSO:  my very last contact was with a very loud ZD8W for a double
multiplier.  This was an hour after my sunrise.  He was so loud that I was
afraid that he might be a pirate but he seemed to be working lots of EU as well
as Asian stations, so I hope he is legit.

The funniest QSO happened toward the end of the second night when I was having
trouble staying awake and hallucinating a little.  In response to one of my
CQs, a station sent what I understood to be “you are 5 KED.”  I couldn’t
understand what he meant and I think I sent something like “what do you
mean?”  Did he want a sked?  Was he trying to tell me that something was
wrong with my signal?  After he sent his call a couple more times I realized
that his call was UR5KED and because I was extremely tired somehow I understood
the first two letters of his call as “you are.” When I realized my mistake,
I completed the QSO and had a good laugh at myself.

My final claimed score is less than 6,000 points below my best score in 2008
when I made 140 more contacts.  More multipliers can make a big difference.

73, Hal 7J1AAI & W1NN


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