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Retirement has been pretty good to Scott Redd K0DQ, as the former United States Government Intelligence official showed again in the 2009 ARRL DX CW contest that he still can slug it out with anyone on the contest bands.
Operating from the well appointed contest station of Jeff Briggs K1Z/VY2ZM on Prince Edward Island in Canada, K0DQ not only ran up just over five million points and the top Single Operator score so far, but he also won the praise of his host.
"Scott was a real trooper in the latter half of this contest because he was really sick as a "dog" yet managed to finish the contest - literally in survival mode by means of club soda, dry toast and pepto bismol," Briggs told radio-sport.net.
"What an incredible experience from one of the world’s premier stations," said Redd in his 3830.
"I almost quit the contest. The proximate cause was a WMD attack by a very nasty biological warfare agent that took over my stomach in a very unwanted coup d'etat," said Redd.
It was the retired Navy Admiral's second top score in recent months, following up on his top claimed low power score in the 2008 CQ WW CW test from P40Q.
"It was quite something to see (Redd) go at it," said Briggs. "He is a great talent and it was a pleasure to give him a chance to operate my station."
Number two on the Single Operator claimed score front is John Barcroft K6AM, whose 4.2 million points from ZF2AM give him the top DX score.
In second on the DX front is John Thompson K3MD, who tallied 3.88 million points from KP2/K3MD.
Over in the low power category, the effort of David Farnsworth WJ2O to defend his 2008 ARRL CW title is in jeopardy, as Andrew Bodony K2LE has the top claimed score as P40LE.
P40LE rattled off 3.1 million points to 2.99 million for Farnsworth at VP5DF. While Farnsworth made more contacts (3635 to 3552) the edge in multipliers was to Bodony at 291 to 275.
In the DX Multi-op categories, Team PJ2T has a big lead for now in the M/2 category, as they had 7400-plus contacts for 7.1 million points, the highest DX score.
In Multi-Single, the leader is not from the Carribean, but Africa, as Team EF8M has 4.5 million points. V31TP from Belize is next at 4.06 million.
In the US single operator competition, Rich DiDonna NN3W is the leader with 4.18 million points, as he operated from the N3HBX superstation outside of Washington, D.C.
"My goal was to beat the 2008 SOHP score," DiDonna said in his 3830. I did that, but I don't think I am alone."
In second right now is Alex Avramov LZ4AX, who operated K3CR at Penn State University to 3.9 million points. Dennis Egan W1UE, who operated from K5ZD's QTH is in third.
"Congratulations to NN3W for the fantastic score and as it looks - US win," said Avramov in his 3830 post.
"Even if everything worked perfectly I would have been extremely pressed to get close to his score."
The highest overall score from the US single operator ranks is in the Assisted category where Charles Fulp K3WW is in at 4.4 million points.
N1UR - W/VE SO Low Power
K3WW - W/VE SO Assisted
K2DM - W/VE SO QRP
W3BGN - W/VE Multi-Single
K1AR - W/VE Multi-Two
W3LPL - W/VE Multi-Multi
V31UZ (VE3DZ) - DX SO High Power
VP5DF (WJ2O) - DX SO Low Power
V26G (N2ED) - DX SO Assisted
TI5N (W8QZA) - DX SO QRP
V31TP - DX Multi-Single
PJ4O - DX Multi-Two
PJ2T - DX Multi-Multi
The ARRL reports that despite less than stellar solar conditions which continue to plague contesters on the HF bands, that has not been holding down the number of logs submitted.
For example, the November Sweepstakes contests saw 3,298 logs for the CW and SSB contests combined, which ARRL Contest Manager Sean Kutzko KX9X says is a five year high.
"The 2009 RTTY Roundup in January saw 1564 entries, also a 5 year high," Kutzko said in the most recent ARRL Letter.
