[CQ-Contest] Where are the JA's

[KH6DV at cs.com]

Where are the JA's has been a topic of interest to me for some time. I have 
heard theories from every corner and most have been based on wild guesses.  One 
theory is that there are few decent HF stations in Japan, that most younger 
JA hams prefer small vhf handheld rigs. Another theory is that the crowded 
conditions in Japan and the fact that much of the population lives in mass housing 
such as apartments and condos.  The theories are endless and seem to be 
mostly based on faulty perceptions.

I am always surprised at the number of JA Qsl cards I still receive from 
contest contacts. The vast majority of these cards list rather nice stations with 
good equipment and efficient antennas.  Whenever there is a DXpedition the 
Japanese DX chasers come out of the woodwork in mass. The JA pileups for even the 
non-rare expedition operators are sometimes massive.  The JA pileups that 
some expeditions create are spread out over a wide portion of the band and 
contain hundreds of loud signals, these signals aren't created by substandard 
stations running flea power to inefficient antennas.  

There are times all year long when I hear large numbers of JA's working 
Europe on all the bands, times when they have little or no propagation to North 
America. 

I believe that there are still large numbers of well equipped JA stations, 
but that they are interested in DX chasing and to a much lesser degree 
contesting.  I am not sure why this is but I believe this to be the reason we hear so 
few during contests. I know that a lot of JA's complain that the contest period 
for most world wide contests puts them at a disadvantage. We are still 
contesting on Sunday when they have returned to their work routine, its Monday 
there. How many of us would get discouraged if we could only operate the first day 
of every major world wide contest. 

I'M surprised that there are as many active contesters in Japan as there are, 
all of Asia for that matter.  

Ron KH6DV (KH6VV)