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

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2020

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

Class: SOSB/40 HP
QTH: Tokyo
Operating Time (hrs): 19

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:           
   40:  698    53
   20:           
   15:           
   10:           
-------------------
Total:  698    53  Total Score = 110,982

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Thanks very much to Shige, JH1GTV for allowing me to operate his excellent
station.  I've been operating contests from his QTH for many years and he is
always the most excellent host. 

Shige's QTH is located in the western suburbs of Tokyo.  It is about an hour
using the trains and a taxi from my apartment in central Tokyo.  On Saturday
night, Shige was able to drive me home, allowing me to operate until the band
died, but for Sunday night I had to take the last train home so Shige could get
some sleep before work on Monday, so I had to QRT early.    

Most of Shige's antennas are down due to the many storms that have ravaged Japan
over the last couple of years so SOSB 40 was my only option this time.  Shige
has a three element yagi on top of the large Luso tower, and an ICOM 7851 with a
Yaesu VL-1000 amp so no complaints about the equipment! His location is
semi-urban, though, so there is some man-made noise to contend with. 

40 SB in the ARRL DX is pretty easy from Japan since you don't need to stay up
all night as you do for the CQWWDX contest.  The band is open to some part of
the US from around 2PM until 1AM local time. This equates to midnight to 11AM
EST and 9PM to 8AM PST.  The West Coast is workable throughout this period,
although many ops are either asleep or busy on other bands during much of this
time. East Coast stations can occasionally be worked quite early, but in general
the best hours are from 0900Z-1300Z.

On day one, I was able to put in nearly 11 hours in the chair, ending up with 
434 contacts.  My best hour was the 1100 hour with 70 stations.  Most stations
east of the Mississippi (except for FL and LA) were very weak and very rapid QSB
made copy very challenging. A lot of stations I just couldn't pull through due
to the local noise.  But somehow I managed to catch 50 mults on the first day. I
was still missing VT, WV, ND, SD, SK among the "relatively easy" mults
as well as all of the Eastern Canada mults and the ones way up north.  I was
hopeful of picking up at least these five on day two.  I don't know if I have
ever worked a VE1 from Japan on 40, so I didn't hold out much hope of adding any
of those mults. 

Day two was naturally much slower but conditions to the Midwest seemed better
and I managed to add another 264 contacts to the log.  My best hour was 63 Q's
in the 1200Z hour.  I was able to catch another three mults - VT, WV and SD.  A
loud KT0A called in three minutes before I had to QRT, so that was quite a nice
moment.  But ND and SK eluded me.  Sunday morning in the Midwest and West is
prime time for working them and there was a chance that I could have worked them
before the band went dead, but I had to QRT at 1140PM local to catch the last
train home.  The early QRT probably cost me about 40-50 contacts. 

Overall it was a good weekend with no big problems and a lot of fun.  I have
previously made over 800 contacts in this contest but that would have been
pretty hard to do this year.  

Thanks for all the contacts!

73, Hal W1NN/7J1AAI


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