[NCC] 7J1AAI (W1NN) 2013 CQWW CW

[Hal Offutt]

Nice to work lots of the usual MRRC/NCC suspects but sorry to miss hearing the new 20 element antenna at K8AZ and the tiny QRP signal at HI/K8MR.  I could have really used the HI mult too!  


                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
 
Call: 7J1AAI
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: JH1GTV
 
Class: 10M SB HP
QTH: Tokyo 
Operating Time (hrs): 23 or so

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:                    
   15:                    
   10:  1326      36         88                  
------------------------------
Total:  1326     36         88  Total Score = 438,464
 
Club: North Coast Contesters

      Comments:    
     
      Thanks to Shige, JH1GTV, for allowing me to operate at his great station in the
      western suburbs of Tokyo. I have been operating there on and off for nearly 25
      years now! 

      Shige's place is a 45 minute train ride from my place downtown. Given that
      10 SB is a daytime event, I commuted out to his QTH so I could sleep in my own
      bed at night. Since the contest ends at 9 AM Monday morning, I made three
      trips to his place. On Sunday I took a 5:30 AM train to get there when the
      band opened. About the only time I am on the train at that hour is when I am
      heading out to do a contest. It's always interesting to see the people who
      are on the train at that hour - mostly it's either healthy hiker-types with
      backpacks headed out to the mountains or young people who are returning home
      after a night of partying, some of them acting pretty strange. On the final
      day I was hoping that the band would open early so I got up at 4:30 AM and
      arrived right around 6 AM (2100Z). Unfortunately, the effort was wasted as the
      band was nearly dead at that time and my first QSO did not go in the log until
      2140Z. 

      With the great conditions we have been having recently, I was hoping that I
      might come close to the Japan 10 Meter HP non-assisted record of 704,737 set by
      JH1DTC back in 1989. In the end, though, I was nearly 350 contacts and many
      mults short of the record. Either conditions or the operator were not up to
      that 1989 level. Interestingly, my Q total was almost exactly what I achieved
      the last time I did this contest from Shige's station in 2002. 

      Conditions were pretty good but the openings to key areas did not seem to last
      very long. Day two was worse than day one. Stations that were pounding in for
      a while would suddenly just fade out and disappear. Zone 5 was runnable for
      only around 1:15 both days, with the first day much better. I put 84 Zone 5
      stations in the log on the first day versus only 34 on day two. Zone 14 was
      even worse. 

      I never seem to do as well as my other JA competitors in catching country
      multipliers so this year I tried harder. I did more tuning and tried to take
      advantage of the K3's sub-receiver. Unfortunately, the Zone 8 multipliers
      are available during one of the best run times so you have to choose between
      mult hunting and running. On day two when the run rates were slower, I combed
      the band for multipliers with the K3's sub-receiver but I only found one or
      two new ones. 

      In some ways, JA is well-placed for single-band contesting in CQWW. We spend
      several hours working North America and after a break we then have a nice shot
      at Europe. This pattern is pretty much true for all bands, although 10 meters
      seems to have the shortest openings. 

      Unfortunately, the zones where we make the most contacts are also the zones
      which have the least country multipliers. My highest QSO totals were Zone 16
      (264 contacts), Zone 3 (228) and Zone 4 (236), all of which have very few
      countries. 

      The most important zones are Zone 8 (29 countries), Zone 15 (29 countries) and
      Zone 14 (28 countries). While we have a fair shot at Zone 15 on 10 Meters (I
      had 94 Qs there), Zone 8 and Zone 14 are another story. Our openings are short
      and, in the case of Zone 8, we have to fight through the W wall, which can be
      very tough, especially on the first day. This year, I made only 3 Zone 8
      contacts. 

      Japan shares almost no daylight with the western part of Zone 14, making it
      really hard to pick up these important multipliers. The opening is only around
      45 minutes long and then quite marginal. I managed to work five countries in
      Zone 14 during the Saturday and Sunday openings, but most of my 17 contacts
      were with Germany, most likely just the high power stations with large
      antennas. JA ops would really love to have the kind of propagation to Zone 14
      and Zone 8 that much of the US has. On the other hand, I made 7 Zone 22
      contacts! (But they're only worth a single point each.) 


      Equipment: 
      K3 with sub-receiver 
      Amp: JRL2000F 
      Ant: 5 el X 3 stack 
      Win-Test on laptop computer with Win-Key 

      Thanks to everyone for the contacts! 

      73, Hal W1NN & 7J1AAI