10 Meters Comes To Life; Propagation May Have Favored Florida; Except In Mixed HP Where W0AIH (NE9U) Leads In Bid for Repeat Win

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted December 15, 2008

Just two weeks after many hams were ready to write a full obituary for 10 meters in the CQ WW CW contest, the ARRL 10 meter test brought some life back to what may be the favorite band of many hams, with a lot of noise coming from the state of Florida.

"Nothing like a contest to wake up a "dead" band, eh?" wrote Rick Carrier WB8JUI on his 3830.

"The band was alive, proving that pessimism is contributing to create bad conditions," added Gilles Renucci VE2TZT, who made 355 Q's for 93k from Quebec.

Staking one of the first claims to a top score was Dan Street K1TO, who lead the charge from Florida, knocking out 390,784 points in a CW only High Power effort.

"I think this was the type of propagation that we wanted. Loads of fun, right up to the last second," Street told radio-sport.net.

Florida had a pipeline for much of the weekend right up the East Coast of the United States, as Florida Contest Group members lit up the bands, maybe turning the tables on the state of Texas, which had the advantage in 2007.

"Our club motto is "Be the Band," Street said of his FCG, "so I guess it worked. Texas clobbered us the past two years, but I convinced the club to try again."

Early scores showed another Florida op in charge of the Mixed Low Power category, as Gary Powell N4DL leads with 225,600. Jim Laughter W4EE was next at 153,750, yet another high scoring Florida op.

In the Mixed High Power category, the leader last year's defending champ Scott Jasper NE9U, who again bucked the trend of high scores from the South by grinding out 384,770 from the W0AIH superstation in Wisconsin.

"I beat my brains in for 34 hours with all of Paul's hardware," Jasper wrote on 3830 after the contest.

"In 2002 from my home QTH and a little A4 tribander and low power, I had 1.1 million points," he noted. "Let's hope for some sunspots."

Jasper leads Neal Sulmeyer K4EA, who ran up 337,920 points off of 869 contacts and 120 mults in Georgia.

"I am always amazed at how this band can surprise you," said Sulmeyer on 3830, who said he was "pleasantly surprised by a call from CT3FQ," his only QSO outside the Western Hemisphere.

In third for now in Mixed HP is as Jerry Rosalius WB9Z, who turned in 273,756 points from Illinois. Paul Newberry N4PN is in fourth at 260,590.

"Not much DX," said Rosalius. "Only 9 countries each on each mode."

"Lots of fun with no sunspots and Solar Flux at 69," Newberry told radio-sport.net after the contest. "(I) had the rate meter on SSB today at 334 - don't think I've ever seen it that high with this old operator before."

As for the Multi-Single battle, that may still remain a Texas trophy this year, as defending champ NX5M ran up over 450,000 points, which for now gives Team NX5M a strong lead in that category, despite conditions that definitely didn't seem to favor the Lone Star State.

"This HAS to be the end of the worst," said Bob Pack NX5M. "The only way it could have been any worse would have been if the band were the same on Sunday as it was on Saturday."

"This was indeed hard work."

"Conditions were terrible for me," said Richard King K5NA, who struggled like many other Texas ops.

"I made about 60% (175k to 313k) of last year's score," King told radio-sport.net.

"I tried hard and put in long hours but did poorly. No Europe, no Africa, no Asia and almost no Caribbean here," King added.

Also down by about the same amount as last year was Mixed LP defending champ Tom Johnson WD5K. Last year he had almost 350k, this year just 134,460.

While the Texas (and many others) didn't see much DX, it was there for some ops.

"Caught a brief European opening Saturday morning for 32 QSO's and 10 multipliers," said ARRL chieftain Dave Sumner K1ZZ.

That's a result that many can only dream about right now - a dream that hopefully will include some sunspots as well.