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After enduring several years of downright rough conditions on the high bands, the 2010 ARRL DX CW Contest brought back memories of good times for many contesters, as 15 and 20 meters were very active, and and even 10 meters showed signs of life between Europe and North America.
"Very strong signals on 15m from all of the US and Canada, including the West Coast," said Bob Barden MD0CCE from the Isle of Man.
"Band conditions were much improved over that past couple of years," said Rick Crockett W0PC in his 3830 writeup. "Times are looking up."
"Can't wait for "real" sunspot activity hopefully starting in earnest for the 2010 Fall season," wrote Ed Sawyer N1UR, who easily bested the USA low power claimed scores with 3.14 million, running up over 1800 contacts on 15 and 20 meters.
The conditions were good in Vermont where Sawyer was, and good up in Alaska, where Rich Strand KL7RA joined with Wigi Tozzi AL7IF for a Multi-Single that tapped out 3,547 QSO's, with over 40 mults on all bands, a nice change from recent years of difficult propagation.
"We enjoyed all bands end to end for mults this year," said Strand on 3830.
In fact, only two days in 2010 have not had a sunspot - and while sunspot numbers haven't been huge - their presence has been followed by a noticeable bump in propagation on the high bands.
A check of the DX cluster spots showed some Europeans popping up on 10 meters in the USA and Canada, something that used to happen on a regular basis, until the solar cycle went into a downturn a few years back.
"Nice to see some conditions on 10m," said Dave Kucelin 9A1UN, who found a two hour opening to the US.
"Loudest were WE3C and K3CR up to 599. K3LR was weaker but continuous the whole opening while others were up & down to nil."
"It's been a long time since we were happy with both 80m and 10m in the same contest," wrote Ken McCormack ZL1AIH on 3830.
The top score in the world is owned for now by John Barcroft K6AM, who claimed 5.98 million from his contest perch at ZF2AM in the Cayman Islands.
The low power leader is Ed Sawyer N1UR as mentioned above, with the top DX score coming from Dave Cree J88DR (G3TBK), who has 2.67 million from St. Vincent.
The Assisted category is in the hands of a familiar callsign, as Chas Fulp K3WW leads with 6.36 million over Rich DiDonna NN3W, who claimed 5.94 million.
On the QRP side, the early leader is Lee Fontaine F5MUX, with 1.19 million points. In the US and Canada, Bob Schreibmaier K3PH has the top QRP score with 687,750.
In the Multi-op categories, the top score in W/VE is from Team K3LR, with 15.9 million points, which seems to have ended the win streak of Team W3LPL.
The Multi-Two battle right now on the DX side is in the hands of Team PJ2T, which cranked out 9.8 million to 9.3 million for 6Y1LZ in Jamaica.
On the W/VE side, Team N3RS battled bad noise levels at their QTH in Pennsylvania, but still broke the 10 million point barrier for the M/2 clubhouse lead.
Finally in Multi-Single, it is a battle between FRC and PVRC neighbors as K9RS has a lead of less than 100k over KT3Y.
On the DX side, there is real news in the M/S category, as Team P40L, consisting of John Fore W6LD and Ed Muns W0YK have the lead with 6.42 million points.
If they can keep that over 6 million, they will set a new M/S DX record in ARRL CW and break the old M/S mark set by ZF2KE of 5.98 million set back in 1990.
"I have been monitoring the improvement in 15 meter conditions over the past few weeks, but I never expected it to be that good, and have the low bands continue to play as well as they did at the bottom of the sunspot cycle," said Steve London N2IC, who hit 4.8 million points from his station in New Mexico.
The hope is - of course - that this is a "fine start to Solar Cycle 24" as London put it in his 3830.
So far, sunspot conditions haven't been anything like we saw at the peak of Solar Cycle 23 not long ago - like back in 2003.
That year, Bill Akins NT1N operated KT1V to a SOAB HP victory over Bob Shohet KQ2M, as both men logged over 4,000 QSO's from New England, doing equal damage on 10, 15 and 20 meters, something we did not see in 2010 by any means.
Back then, NT1N had 1075-103 on 20 meters, 671-99 on 15m and 971-91 on 10 meters - a lot of competitors this past weekend would certainly love to have those kind of conditions sometime soon.
So far in 2010, only two days have been without a sunspot, but the actual measured sunspot numbers have not been very high at all.
Still, it has clearly given a boost to propagation, as shown by the enhanced conditions on 15 meters this past weekend.
"It looked like everyone in the world was excited to see the new sunspot cycle bring good conditions to 15M and at times the European pileup was huge," wrote Stan Stockton K5GO in his 3830.
"Looking forward to both 15 and 10M in about 2 years," he added.
It may well take that long to really ramp up Solar Cycle 24, and a lot of contesters will be anxiously awaiting the ride.
