[CQ-Contest] No more JAs

[George Fremin III]

On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 02:14:01PM -0700, Martin Monsalvo, LU5DX wrote:

>   Can anyone in this reflector explain to me why JA no longer has a
>   vast representation in international contests? Are they loosing
>   interest in contesting? What is wrong with JA radio amateurs? Less
>   and less JA contesters are active after each contest!  Do they
>   want more plaques or trophies? If that is the case, I would be
>   more than happy to sponsor a couple plaques in major contests,
>   just for the JAs.  Can anybody contact JARL, so they can promote
>   contest activities????  JAs WE NEED YOU BACK into
>   CONTESTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I would really love to hear 20 and 40 in
>   the morning crowded by JAs like they were 15 years ago! Not just a
>   couple of booming signals like nowadays.


I suspect it could be several things.  On is a decline of Japanese
amateur stations.

On this web page you will find a lot of information about Japanese
callsigns.  One of the charts down the page show the numbers - very
interesting.

http://www.motobayashi.net/callsign/enigma.html

I also find it interesting that there were a few very popular movies
that featured amateur radio that the author of the web page feels
spurred on the rise in Japanese activity.

When the conditions are good I still work a very good number of
Japanese stations on 15 meters.  20 meters has always been very hard
because of the fact that only the higher class Japanese amateurs can
use that band.

I think one of the best things that can be done to increase contest
activity in almost any contest is promotion and some awards that are
achievable with not too much effort.

You only have to look at the success of the California QSO party to
see what constant active promotion can do for a contest.  But you have
to keep it up - you can not do it once and then never do it again -
you can not just create a contest and expect folks to come operate
it. You need to talk it up.  I works for the companies that sell soap
on TV and it works for radio contests or amateur radio in general.

The peak in ARRL Sweepstakes contact levels happened in the several
years following the start of the ARRL clean sweep mugs and Sweepstakes
pins.  When these awards were introduced - there was an article or two
in QST and the awards were promoted.


-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr