2025 ARRL DX CONTEST Phone Nonassisted (Limited) 28MHz at 100W

This is my first post in six months.

Participating in the 28MHz Low power limited category on Phone following ARRL DX CW.

Started at 9:00 AM Japan time.

However, A index was over 30.

I was able to make only 7 QSOs and 3 multis after about 3 hours of operation with a few stations on the Pacific Ocean side.

I thought that the season of 28MHz was finally over.

But I was hoping that as long as the A index goes down, there will be a chance to open it up.

On Sunday morning (22:00 UTC), the A index started to drop slightly, and the East Coast and the Central region started to open.

I was able to recover about 120 QSOs here.

At this rate, I expected that conditions would improve further on Monday morning (around 22 UTC).

As expected, the A index dropped to around 10, and the conditions recovered.

The East Coast stations continued to call me continuously.

However, the Pacific side stations were not as good as expected.

By the end of the day, I had slightly surpassed my top score in Asia last year.

The contest started out as a struggle, but I was able to enjoy it.

I think I will still be able to enjoy 28MHz for the rest of this year.

IC-7610 internal voice memorry control by N1MM

6elements monoband Yagi

And since self-spotting was allowed in this contest, I took advantage of it actively.

I think it was effective, because when I spotted it, I started getting called in, albeit only slightly.

QSOs by Zone

2024 ARRL DX CW/PH Certificate

After a series of problems, the ARRL web has been restored and

ARRL contest certificates are now available for download.

In ARRL CW, I was able to contact with many stations, but I could not make JA top.

On the other hand, the PH score was not so good, but

I was able to get the top position in Asia.

Serious Noise to shortwave band

About a month ago, I began to notice noise in the shortwave band every day at irregular intervals. This time, I received the signal in AM mode and recorded the waveform using the IC-7610's audio scope.

Noise peaks can be observed almost every 100ms.

This noise is characterized by alternating occurrences and stops at intervals of several to 10 seconds, lasting several minutes in the shortest case and several tens of minutes in the longest case.

Antennas for fixed and field operation

Current antenna for fixed operations 

and Tri-band 2elements beam for field operations in adjustment.

Materials are converted from TA-33jr.

2024 CQ WPX Contest SSB final results

The final results of the CQ WPX SSB held at the end of March are already available.

The tabulation process is getting faster.

I was able to top JA again this year in the 10m band 100W and under category.

The top Asian competitor was VR2T operated by VR2ZQZ and I was 2nd, not an easy win!

https://cqwpx.com/scoresph.htm

2023 CQ World Wide RTTY contest certificate

Just received 2023 WW RTTY Log check report,

lost three multipliers.

However, I was lucky enough to achieve an Asian record on 10m QRP.

Be able to check my original Log on the Web.

JA6WFM log

2024 WPX contest SSB raw score and posted a videos on Youtube

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

Please visit Youtube

Please turn on subtitles and enjoy!

LOL!

WPX SSB S/P for NA

WPX SSB running for EU

2024 WPX Contest SSB on 10m band

 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

2024 ARRL DX CONTEST CW Review

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

Inside the band just after the start of the contest

Turn on the 7610's dual-watch function,

Monitor only the band scope without the sub's audio

Set the upper part of the band scope width to 10 kHz,

By always displaying the operational frequency of 10 kHz with auto-scrolling when the left and right frequency edges are exceeded,

This makes it easy to keep in tune and to find open gaps.

It was as crowded as 40m CW in a domestic contest in Japan.

The lower band scope can be set from 28.000 to 28.150, which is very convenient because you can look around the entire CW band and monitor the band openings at the same time.

In a World Wide contest, the bandwidth would be closer to 150, but for this ARRL CW contest, it seemed to only need to be expanded to the lower end of FT8, around 28.070.

2023 CQ World Wide DX Contest CW

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

S/P(False) and Run(True)

2023 CQ World Wide DX contest SSB on 10m band

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.

JA area map

2023 OC DX Contest Phone and JA domestic contest

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.

Final results of 2023 CQ WPX contest SSB

 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.

2023 WAE contest SSB on 10m

Over the weekend, I participated in the WAE contest sponsored by The German Amateur Radio Club (DARC e.V.) on 10 meters single band at 100W. This contest only has a multi-band category and no single band. Therefore, I participated in this contest in order to check the band conditions and to contribute points to the European stations.

The conditions for Europe start to improve around 3:00 p.m. Japan time,06:00UTC, so I operated from that time until nighttime.

After the start of the operation, I was able to confirm a European signal there in the waterfall, so after calling a few stations, I started running. It did not become a pileup, but it was called bobbing. 

After a certain number of contacts, I can send QTCs, so I send QTCs in response to requests from European stations. Then, the European stations would spot me in the clusters. This situation continued for a while and I was able to contacts without intermission and accumulate points.

Since I was only operating on the 10-meter band, I did not have many stations to QSO with, but I was able to contribute points and monitor the band conditions. I am looking forward to WW RTTY at the end of this month and WW/PH/CW and ARRL 10m from October.

2023 All asian DX contest Phone 10m band

Last weekend I participated in the All asian DX contest Phone organized by JARL on 10m band at 100w. On 10m band, I could hardly hear any North American stations, but I was hoping for some European stations to open up in the evening as they were becoming more frequent.

The contest started at 9:00 AM Japan time. This is exactly the time for the North and South American areas open. However, I had some things to do, so I started the contest at 3:00 PM. This is exactly the time when Europe opens. However, I could hardly hear anything. 

I found out later that there was a magnetic storm and the conditions were very bad, and this continued until the end of the contest. 

The highlight for me was that I was able to contact with many YB stations. Even if the conditions are a little bit bad, I can still make a QSO with them, which is one of the things I'm looking forward to these days. Besides, YB is counted in Oceania, so the scoring rate is high.

Results

IC-7610, 6ele Yagi, N1MM

False (S/P) True (Run)

QSO Zone by time

Looking back at last year's contest

Looking back at last year's contest, my results on WPX PH/CW, WW PH/CW, 15m band Low Power clearly improved after upgrading my antennas to a 20/15m dual band 5-ele yagi. 

And since upgrading to a 6-ele yagi antenna system dedicated to the 10-meter band earlier this year to accommodate the rising conditions on the 10-meter band, I have had satisfactory results on ARRL DX PH/CW, WPX PH/CW 10m band low power.

There are only CQ WW PH/CW left this year. I really want to win. Of course, my main purpose is to have fun at the contests.

See you at the 10m band in CQ WW PH/CW.

2022 antenna for 20/15m band

2023 for 10m band

Final results of 2023 ARRL International DX Contest Phone

The final results of the ARRL International DX Contest Phone are now available. I was able to win a 10-meter band award following the CW contest.

In addition, I also achieved the Continental Record for both CW and Phone.

The final results of the WPX contest SSB/CW may have been published in the US-CQ Magazine, but not on the web yet, so I can't wait to see them.

https://contests.arrl.org/scores.php

IC-7610 20mH 6ele Yagi N1MM

61617 443Q/47M

Raw score 63309 - Final score 61617 (error of 3%)

2023 WAE Contest CW

Participated in WAE Contest CW with single op low power. Since a typhoon was approaching just prior to my participation, I reviewed the 40/20/15/10 meter V rotary dipole system as a precautionary measure before taking down the antenna elevator.

The antenna review went well, and the horizontal placement of the V-shaped dipole resulted in an improvement in directivity, which was a bit broad. There was no SWR deterioration as a result of this.

The plan was to keep the 10m 6ele yagi and participate on 10m single band, but with limited time and number of stations open, I decided to participate on multiband since the conditions on 15/20m were good and the combination of 100W output and a dipole antenna was still viable for the run. I decided to participate in the multi-band event.

Since I was not planning to win any awards, I enjoyed the contest and the pileups despite the limited time.

As for the QTC, the logging software N1MM made it possible to send out the data smoothly and comfortably.

As a result, I ended up with 266 QTCs in 267 QSOs and only 1 QTC left.

IC-7610 40/20/15/10m RDP 10m6ele yagi and N1MM

See you next contest

2023 ARRL International DX Contest CW Award

The awards of this year's ARRL International DX Contest CW have arrived. This is probably the first time I have won an award in this contest.

2022 CQ World Wide DX CONTEST CW Final results

2022 WW DX Contest Final Results Announced

I was 2nd in Japan in the RAW score, about 10,000 points behind the 1st place station, but after the log check, I was awarded the 1st place by a point deduction.

This gave me JA 1st place in JA for both SSB/CW.