WPX contest SSB raw scores are now available.
So far, I am leading among JA in the 10m band Lo power category, but in Asia, I am completely defeated by Hong Kong stations. It is hard to win when they are active participants.
I have posted a video on Youtube showing a scene of contest that I participated from Japan.
They are audio only, but I would be happy if you could take a look at them.
See you again at the contest!
JA6WFM Hiro
I participated in the WPX contest SSB 10m band with 100W.
Last year I made 800 QSOs, so this year I aimed for 1000 QSOs and 2 million points.
As a result, I achieved 1003 QSOs just before the end of the competition except for duplicates, but my score was a little short of 2 million points.
I did not expect the conditions to be as good as for North America in the morning, but I still made almost 200 QSOs, so that is good.
As for Europe, I was able to accumulate stations efficiently because of their smart calling.
It was also interesting to note that the area where the most QSOs were made was zone 14, which is not in the near vicinity of Europe.
As for OC, Oceania, recently, many stations have been able to be found in YB, but there seem to be few stations on 28MHz, so there may be many stations on 21MHz.
As for VK,ZL, I feel that there are not many stations from the northern hemisphere that consciously point their antennas toward the south and Oceania, as I experienced in Tonga as A31MM.
So, I am taking the time to point the antenna and run it even toward Oceania, so that there are stations that will call me.
The South American direction has been heard consistently and the response rate has been good except for the times they do it with North America.
I was not concerned about communicating with the Caribbean or Africa since the prefix is multi, not DXCC, for this contest.
Instead, I put stations with new prefixes on the N1MM available list and called them in a timely manner.
As a result, I had 692 multis, about 150 more than last year.
In this contest, multis are scored only once for all bands, not per band.
Therefore, it is also interesting to note that my score in the single band contest exceeded the scores of other multi-band stations.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
IC-7700(100W) 6ele yagi, Heil iC mic element
N1MM
ARRL DX CONTEST CW Review
Aiming to beat last year's score, I participated in the limited SO28MHz Low Power category.
I had the impression that recent conditions were the same or better than last year, so I was hoping to break the record.
At the start, 100Q/H at 100W was an excellent start considering that I participated from the western end of Japan.
In the first leg of the 3-hour duration, which started at 9:00 a.m. Japan Standard Time (JST), 161 QSOs were made, an increase of 60 QSOs from last year.
The second leg, which lasted five hours from around 7:00 a.m. to noon on Sunday, also got off to a good start, recording 100 QSOs per hour. However, after an hour, I was no longer called, and although I alternated between S/P and RUN, I was unable to increase my score as much as I would have liked, finishing with 395 QSOs.
I tried to make a hope in the last two hours from 7:00 a.m. JST, but there were many duplicate QSOs, and I could not make up the score well.
The final score was 477 QSOs and 52 multis.
IC-7610 6ele Yagi N1MM
I participated in the CQ World Wide DX contest CW, the biggest event of the DX contest, with non-assisted, 10m band and low power.
Conditions had improved before the contest, and I stood at the starting line at 00:00UTC 09:00JST, hoping for a big 10m open.
I started running at as much as possible, free space at the higher end of the band, thinking that since I was on 100W, I would not stand out in the QRM, busy signal, and I spend a moment in the pile, but soon stopped, so I started picking up running stations as S/P from the lower frequencies one by one. This, too, soon ran its course and was sluggish. I achieved 150 QSOs in 3 hours in the morning, which was less than expected.
I am looking forward to the opening of Europe in the evening. As expected, the European area gradually began to open from noon, and the peak continued from around 16:00 to 19:00 Japan time in the evening, recording 100Q/H. 460 QSOs achieved here!
The next morning, I expected the opening of North America, but the conditions were not as expected due to a magnetic storm, so I could not increase the number of stations. However, Europe was good in the evening, and I were able to increase the number of stations. 840 QSOs achieved here!
On the last day of the contest, from around 7:00 am to 9:00 am on Monday morning in Japan, I wanted to increase the number of multis, so I finished the contest repeating Run and S/P. As a result 941QSOs.
The result was a satisfactory number of stations for me, but the number of multis was low.
Zone
Over the weekend I participated in the CQ world wide DX contest SSB on 10 meters low power, non-assisted category.
Conditions on 10mband had been down for a while, but I had high hopes for the US East Coast and Caribbean stations as they were sounding good at the beginning of the contest week.
However, only certain stations could be heard at the start of the contest, 9:00 AM Japan time on Saturday morning, and even, RUN, running at 100W, few were called. Moreover, the stations that could be heard were soon exhausted. Since the contest started under such conditions, I hoped for QSOs with European stations in the evening. Europe started to open around 3:00 p.m., and although I was calling , S/P, around at first, by nightfall I was running and getting called. 400 QSOs achieved here.
I expected to be in North America the next morning. However, conditions did not rise and were similar to the first day. I expected Europe in the evening on this day as well. It opened as expected and the time to RUN and be called seemed to be longer than the first day. I achieved 800 QSOs here.
The last time zone, Monday morning Japan time. Normally, I would have more multis for North American and Caribbean stations, but conditions did not increase and only 4 multis were recorded. Still, I were able to enjoy a strong 10-meter band from the past few years. Next up is WW/CW.
IC-7610, 6ele Yagi, N1MM
By the way, if you have ever looked at a map of the Japanese archipelago, you know that the archipelago is an island from northeast to southwest. From the continental United States, this means that the archipelago stretches almost straight from Area 8, which is located in the northeast, to Area 6, which is located in the southwest. In other words, Area 6, where my station is located, is 2,000 km further away than Area 8 when viewed from the continental United States, and is 1,000 km away from Tokyo, the capital of Area 1, which is located in the middle of the Japanese archipelago. So, QSO with North America is more difficult than 8 Area and 1 Area.
During the weekend I was scheduled to participate in the OC DX contest Phone on 15m band during the day and a Japanese national contest on 80m band at night.
I drove up the mountain about 600m and set up the HB9CV for 15m and the inverted V antenna for 80m at a height of 8m in a square with the sea in front of it. I started OC DX CW at 3 p.m. Japan time and was able to exceed 100 QSOs in about 3 hours.
150 QSOs was close to breaking the record, but the sun was setting and it was getting cold on the mountain and rain was forecast for the next day, so I had to retire from OC DX CW at this point. I will try again this weekend to break the record for OC DX CW.
By the way, I still hold the phone records for 15m and 10m.
Unfortunately, the direction looking down the sea was northeast and opposite to Oceania, as I was aware of the domestic contest in Japan.
The official results of the 2023 CQ WPX SSB held in March are now available on the web and awards can be downloaded. This final result confirms my first place on the Asia continent, following ARRL DX CW/PH.
I participated on 15m band until last year and achieved 1st place in Asia for both SSB and CW in this contest, and since the conditions on 10m band started to improve, I moved to 10m band this year and aimed for 1st place in JA with low power 100W.
I am really happy to have won the first place in Asia.
