V31UZ (VE3DZ) and HC8A (N6KT) Lead ARRL DX 08 Claimed Scores

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted April 7, 2008

With tough conditions for both the ARRL DX CW and ARRL DX SSB contests, final claimed scores for 2008 are down in most categories as those results now head to the log checkers.

"Seemed like the very worst overall conditions in nearly 40 years," said John Crovelli W2GD.

With Crovelli back home instead of at P40W, the single op leader in ARRL CW is Yuri Onipko VE3DZ, who ran V31UZ to 4.4 million points.

"I realize I am lucky this time - I did not have competitors like P40W, 8P1A or ZD8Z," said Onipko, who said he thought of his trip mostly as a "getaway."

"All in all it was very modest operation with only one radio and mostly on "CQ". I doubt that I made more than a dozen S&P contacts throughout whole weekend," Onipko added.

In the W/VE competition, the single op CW leader is Tom Frenaye K1KI, who switched over to SOAB when some of his usual ops couldn't make it for a multi effort.

"I was hoping to make it in the top ten," Frenaye said.

"This was the first time I've done a full SOAB effort using two radios - still a lot to learn," added Frenaye, who claimed 3.7 million points, just 82,000 points ahead of Alex Avramov LZ4AX who operated K3CR.

The Assisted leader is Chas Fulp K3WW at 3.69 million.

In low power, David Farnsworth WJ2O took VP5DF to 3.03 million points, 100k ahead of Al Velez WP3C, with Eric Hall H7/K9GY close behind in third.

In the US and Canada, the low power leader is a very familiar call, as Ed Sawyer N1UR leads in his bid for a third straight US ARRL CW title. N1UR is up by 100k on K1BX.

2008 ARRL DX SSB

The ARRL SSB test suffered from the same frustrating conditions that have kept down scores in major contests of late. But one score stood out from the rest as Rich Smith N6KT ran up 8.2 million points from HC8A for the #1 SOAB claimed score.

"RIght on the Equator seems to have been the place to be in this contest," Smith wrote in his 3830. It was N6KT's first ARRL DX effort since 1993.

Back in second place was defending champ Tom Georgens W2SC, who made over 7 million points from 8P1A.

"It is great to see Rich N6KT competing again," Georgens said on 3830. "The sport is better for it."

As for the US and Canada, the ARRL SSB leader is Jeff Briggs VY2ZM/K1ZM, who chalked up 2.9 million points.

The battle for second place is between the top two US scores as Rich DiDonna NN3W has a small claimed score edge over Ken Claerbout K4ZW, 1.88 to 1.85 million.

The low power DX leader is John Bayne P40A/KK9A, who has a such a large claimed score that he beat all but the top three high power finishers.

Bayne more than doubled the second place claimed score of WQ7R at HQ9R in Honduras, 5.4 to 2.6 million.

The W/VE low power #1 is Arthur Hambleton K1BX, who took advantage of the absence of Ed Sawyer N1UR to easily grab first place with over 800 thousand points.

ARRL DX Multi scores

The ARRL CW Multi-Multi battle is a close one, as W3LPL leads KC1XX by only 65,000 points, 7.50 to 7.44 million. K3LR is at 7.13 million.

"An exciting finish in the always hyper-competitive multi-multi race, to say the least," said Frank Donovan W3LPL.

The DX CW Multi-Multi lead is in the hands of PJ2T, which posted a 7.24 million score.

Team PJ4O meanwhile is the World CW Multi-Two leader with 7.02 million.

On the W/VE side, Team K1AR is the CW M/2 leader while W3BGN is tops in Multi-Single, with John Crovelli W2GD operating there instead of from Aruba as P40W.

While the US multis had the edge in scores in ARRL CW, the opposite was true in ARRL SSB, as the SSB M/2 effort of 6Y1V leads all scores with 9.51 million points. Team TI50DX is second with 9.27.

In SSB Multi-Single, the leader is PJ4G with 6.44 million.

You might have noticed that PJ2T wasn't mentioned in the multi battle of ARRL SSB, that's because the station was in rare SOAB mode, as Chad WE9V operated the station to the third best claimed score at 6.37 million.

SSB scores were way down from the US and Canada in the multi-op ranks. K3LR claimed 4.11 million to W3LPL's 3.83 million.

In 2007, K3LR beat W3LPL 7.7 to 6.8 million - and that was after log checking.

"Conditions were very poor," said Tim Duffy K3LR. "All of the bands were in bad shape."

"Other than 20 meters, all of the bands were much poorer than any DX contest in recent memory," said Frank Donovan W3LPL.