[SADXA] Now is a good time to work China

[Jim Wysocki]

Not "now" in the sense of "immediately".  But sometime over the next few 
weeks should work out well.  Here's the experience that's guided this 
comment.

I got up around 0200 MST to work VP8PJ on 80 meters.  They were on FT8 
with a sizeable JA pileup.  But the operator pulled my signal out of the 
crowd within a few minutes, so the effort turned into a mission 
accomplished situation.

Then I moved over to the regular FT8 subband and called a CQ.  In 
addition to the usual Japanese stations there were a goodly number of 
Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese stations calling as well.  The next 
three hours were spent working dozens of them, along with a few 
Americans who were up early.  It was the biggest concentration of Far 
Eastern stations (except for JA's in a DX contest) that I've ever 
encountered at one time on one band.  All of this was done with a poor 
antenna (a low 160m dipole through an antenna tuner) and a nearby 
mountain range (the Catalinas) between my station and the Orient.

So it looks like the Corona virus scare has created a bit of free time, 
especially for the Chinese operators.  If they're not going to work it 
looks like they're going to be on the air more than usual over the next 
several weeks.  Assuming there is propagation to the Far East, the 
opportunities for good QSOs should be there.

GL, Jim  W9FI