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It didn't matter that conditions in the 2010 ARRL DX SSB Contest weren't as good as two weeks earlier in the CW leg. It didn't matter that one of the operators hadn't contested in years. But it still added up to a winning formula for K0DQ and N4OC at "Papa Forty Navy".
(Retired U.S. Navy colleagues K0DQ and N4OC)
For Scott Redd K0DQ and Ed Giambastiani N4OC, the story of the 2010 ARRL DX SSB Contest is a combination of contesting and military service, two colleagues who are more than enjoying their retirement with a dose of ham radio.
The plan was for an "easy, laid back M/S" at the QTH of Carl Cook P49V in Aruba, said Redd before ARRL SSB.
"I think we're the top seed in the "Old Admirals" class, but not much more," he joked.
In fact, Redd and Giambastiani were both Admirals in the U.S. Navy, both rising very high in the ranks.
Redd retired in 2007 as the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, capping a career that included 36 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy.
Giambastiani retired in 2007 as well, his last post as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the highest ranking U.S. military jobs.
Both had a love for the Navy and both had a love for ham radio contesting as well.
Redd said Giambastiani came to him about a year ago to talk about getting back into the game.
"He had operated from W1ZM 30+ years ago," Redd said. "We decided a Caribbean vacation combined with a low key phone operation would be just trick."
It also worked out well that the Admirals could take their wives along too for a warm, wintertime vacation.
"Ed had made maybe a few dozen contacts in the last decade and none from a DX location," Redd said. "He'd never used a computer in a contest."
The contest started on Friday night local time with K0DQ at the mic for the first four hours. Then it was time for a change of command on the bridge.
"Ed took the chair about 04Z and I went to bed," Redd recounted. "He went from zero to 60 in short order."
At first, "typing and talking simultaneously were a challenge" for Giambastiani, known as "Admiral G" by many in the Navy during his later years.
"Within a few hours he was hitting 150/hour rates," said Redd, who said his fellow operator ended up operating "probably over 60 percent of the time."
How well did the pair of Retired Admirals do? Right now, P40N is in first place on the DX side for Multi-Single claimed scores, with 7.52 million, almost a million points up on Team PJ4G.
"Did a lot better than I thought we would," Redd told radio-sport.net after returning to the U.S.
"Lots of fun running the big piles while Ed kept the steady rate going."
"As for Ed, he's hooked," said Redd.
"What's the next contest?" was the response from Admiral G.
So if you hear "Papa Forty Navy" again in the future, you might just be chatting with a pair of pretty happy Navy buddies.
On the DX side, Georgens finished with just under 8 million points, after making 8,032 contacts in a 47 hour effort.
Georgens has a 1.3 million point lead over Jerry Rosalius WB9Z, who left the cold of Illinois for the warmth of the PJ2T contest station.
On the US and Canadian side of the ledger, Widelitz went to his contest post in PEI and ended up with 4.24 million points from 3,627 contacts.
The top US score is in the hands of Alexander Avramov LZ4AX, who operated the Penn State University station K3CR to 3.36 million.
On the Low Power side, Ed Sawyer N1UR seems headed for a double ARRL DX victory in both the CW and SSB contests, as he owns a comfortable lead thanks to a 1.7 million point SSB effort.
The DX LP leader is Alan Donziger N3AD, who made the most of a trip to V26M. His claimed score of 3.17 million gives him the advantage over Kurt Pauer VP9/W6PH at 2.88 million.
The DX Unlimited (Assisted) leader is John Bednar K3TEJ, who traveled this year to J7N on Dominica for a 4.12 million point claimed score.
The W/VE Unlimited leader is Raymond Higgins W2RE, who checked in with 4.25 million points, giving him a one million point edge over Chas Fulp K3WW.
Over on the Multi-Op side, Team K3LR posted a 12.4 million point claimed score - and if that holds up - they will have won both ends of ARRL DX in 2010.
In the Multi-Two competition in the US and Canada, Team W4RM has the lead over KB1H, 4.7 to 4.2 million.
Meanwhile, K1LZ posted another strong score in the Multi-Single competition at 5.4 million points. Team K9RS is in second at 4.03 million.
On the DX side, as we detailed in our main story, the Multi-Single team of P40N owns the M/S DX lead with 7.5 million points.
Team D4C is tops in the DX Multi-Two competition with 8.5 million, leading second place TI5N at 7.88 million.
The Multi-Multi leader is Team ZW5B from Brazil, which checked in at 5.3 million points, giving them an edge of over 800k on TI8M.
2010 ARRL DX CW Claimed Score Leaders
