Well Bob you have described the problem to perfection. 10 years ago if you
only worked 375 JA's in 10 hrs with a yagi & a kw you would have gone out
and chopped down your tower. 10 years ago, from out here in the west, you
should have had a JA rate of 50 an hour. I did many many times with only a
dipole and a vertical. 15 years, or so, ago I was at an MM in CQWW where the
40 meter op worked more than 1200 JA's in 10 hours. Compared to years ago
the JA's almost no longer exist in contests. There are plenty of JA's around
when there is some 'juicy' DX because you can easily hear the 'wall' of
JA's, but they just don't seem interested in contesting.
My original thought was they were out-growing contests because I only
noticed ages over 60. However, I ran the contest through a spreadsheet and
found the average age to be 45.2.
I would really be interested to hear from some JA's why the contest activity
is so low.
73
MAL N7MAL
BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
www.citlink.net/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
www.geocities.com/n7mal
----- Original Message -----
From: <BobK8IA@aol.com>
To: <kn5h@yahoo.com>; <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Re: Where are the JAs
> In a message dated 6/26/04 5:30:04 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
> kn5h@yahoo.com writes:
> All:
>
> I have not read every email pertaining to this thread so I may have
already
> missed this answer. During the WPX SSB contest in March we had ~400 JA
QSOs.
> Several were multi-band qsos w/ the same station. We had a total QSO
number of
> ~2000. So, ~20% of our total QSOs were from Japanese stations.
>
> So, my question is, what are the numbers that you seem to be expecting
from
> JA contesters? My opinion is that 400 JA QSOs using a KW and a tribander
at 30
> feet is pretty good. Sure, back when 10 meters was hot, we would have 400
QSOs
> on 10 meters alone, but that is propogation related, not lack-of-interest
> related. Clue me in.
>
> 73 de KN5H
>
> Steve (KN5H) has hit the ten ring on this one. Typically the thread
responses
> have shown the geographical/propagation differences in being able to work
> JA's when things get marginal. From my own experience, when I first got to
AZ
> two yrs ago, the contesting/Dxing situation that stuck out most was the
ease at
> working JA's from here (compared to 45 yrs as a ham in MI) and the lengthy
> openings. Those of you folks from the east coast who have never operated
out here
> (W6, W7 land) really cant relate. For example, on 40m (my fave band) we
have
> 6 to 9 solid hours of openings every morning, depending on time of yr.
Several
> levels of JA's consistently easy to work that I couldnt even hear in MI,
even
> with the big antennas of the multis I operated thru the yrs. Thats life
and
> propagation.
>
> My own operation in All Asian cw last weekend yielded 403 Asian stations
(375
> JA's) in 10 hours operation with kw and a M2 40M3L shortie 3el at only
71'.
> Far from a real contesters setup and I am certainly no more than an
average op.
> That certainly doesnt point to a lack of JA's in my book.
>
> Even the low activity JIDX contest cw yielded over 200 JA q's with 100w
out.
>
> In ARRL CW this past Spring, in SOAB LP, 506 of my 1166 q's were JA.
>
> In ARRL SSB, also SOAB LP, 344 of 866 q's were JA.
>
> There are JA's there to work, although hard to really statistically
compare
> with another era unless copious records were kept.
>
> We poor lids out here in the west just keep plugging away, trying to take
> whatever crums the propagation gods give us. Fortunately, there are still
are a
> good amount of JA conetsters and we have some decent openings to try and
take
> advantage of that.
>
> Have a nice summer of antenna work. Ours is pretty much done here until it
> cools off in October. ;-)
>
>
> 73, Bob K8IA
> in the shadow of the Superstition Mtns
> Arizona USA
> http://www.members.aol.com/bobk8ia/index.htm
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