[CQ-Contest] No more JAs

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

Japan has to be one of the toughest places in the world to contest from.  
(OK, at least one of the toughest mid latitude locations).  It is  about 7 time 
zones from Europe, 10 from the USA, with most of the space in  between being 
either water or uncivilized. Nothing much to the south. There are  long periods 
when neither NA nor EU are available on any band.  Most  contests end at a 
time when you're supposed to be at work on Monday morning.  Nobody out there 
speaks your language. For those nearby countries, it's a  very long way for 
anybody from somewhere other than Japan to travel for a  DXpedition, and in the big 
contests those who do get screwed in the scoring for  working you. And unless 
you are very wealthy, you don't have space for  contest grade antennas.
 
At the peak of the sunspot cycle back in the 70's there were lots of  
newcomers in Japan who would operate contests to chase DX or otherwise see what  they 
could do.  But over time it became very tedious repeatedly beating  one's 
head against the wall, so they moved onto other things, whether just  chasing 
interesting DX on their own schedule, or doing other things outside ham  radio.
 
At least this is how I might think if I were in Japan. Do those who live  
there think the same way?
 
 
73  -  Jim  K8MR 
 
 



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.