JA6WFM from Western Japan: 2022 CQ World Wide DX CONTEST SSB JA6WFM

I participated in the World Wide DX CONTEST SSB, 15m LP Non assisted over the weekend.

I thought about participating on 10m since the conditions on 10m had been getting better since October, but since my antenna is only HB9CV, I decided to participate on 15m until this year. My goal was 1000 QSOs, 30Z, 80C.

00UTC/09JST, I waited with great anticipation for the start of the contest. 10m and 15m were both open with no gaps on the radio waterfall. At the start of the contest, many stations were Running. And if you are Running low power, you won't get called much. Right after the start it is better to go around calling as S/P.

Maybe it was just my place, but from Kyushu I could hardly hear the East Coast of the US, up to Zone 4 at best. This condition lasts until about 02UTC/11JST in the morning. After that, I communicate with YB (scoring 3 points) until the evening and earn points.

Around 06UTC/15JST, I started to hear Europe. However, Running was hardly called, and we continued to go around S/P.

I kept alternating between Running and S/P. Then, around 10UTC/19JST, I suddenly started getting calls, but within an hour, they stopped, and the only stations I could hear were those I had already QSO with. At this point, I had 400 QSOs.

On Sunday mornings, North America begins to be heard around 6:00 a.m., so I hoped that I could increase the number of stations here. However, even after Running, I still did not get called. Then it is time to deal with neighboring Oceania. In the evening, I was able to increase the number of stations in Europe because I was able to Running for two hours starting around 07UTC/16JST.

Then, just before 12UTC/21JST, the Europe signal was no longer visible and it was quiet in the band, so I turned the antenna to the southwest and VK and YB were still audible. Then I heard 5R and ZS CQing. There were few stations calling and I was able to QSO with them right away and was able to add 4 more Zone and DXCC multis.

I remembered that I could hear Africa in Kyushu late at night when conditions were good. For the next few years, I will not be able to miss this time of day. Just how is the activity on Africa? At this point it was 700 QSOs.

Monday morning we started hearing North America again around 21UTC/6JST, this time looking for multis. At this point TI, V3, XE, PJ9, PJ4, KP4 and zones 7, 8 and 9 were not QSO. In the last stage of the contest, on Monday morning, many people go out for work, so there is less competition and it is easier to get a new multi. This time the competition was fierce, but I managed to get these multis.

I repeated the Running whenever I found an open frequency at this time of the day. After 3 minutes of not being called, I went around to calling as S/P and repeated the Running again. Usually, we are called from the East Coast early in the day in Kyushu, but we were hardly called at all, and I thought this year was not going to be good.

Then, about 30 minutes before the end, I started to be called one after another from the East Coast. I was piled up at the end of the day and finished the day feeling good.

829QSOs 35Z 94C.

Next up was WW/CW.

IC-7600 NagaraT25DX Heil iC Mic element.

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