No World Record, But CN2R Tops All In 2010 CQ 160 CW; K1LZ Fights Elements For Top US Multi

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted Feburary 8, 2010

Two years after winning the CQ 160 CW Contest from his Moroccan QTH, Jim Sullivan W7EJ seems headed for another Single Operator High Power victory, as he owns an over half million point lead over defending champ Valery Komarov RD3AF.

Both Sullivan and Komarov ran up over two million points from Zone 33, as they easily outpaced John Sluymer VE3EJ, who owns the top publicly claimed score from North America at this point, with 1.7 million.

Sullivan made 1,883 contacts from CN2R in Morocco for the top claimed score overall, knocking out 56 US and Canadian mults plus 89 DXCC.

"Great contest," Sullivan said in his 3830 posting.

"The bands were super quiet and open 1.25 hour after sunrise," he added. "Worked many West Coast and KH6 stations."

Sullivan's numbers were too much for Komarov, who operated again this year from the station of EA8AH. The Russian tapped out 1,549 contacts, with 56 W/VE mults and 84 DXCC.

In the US, Doug Grant K1DG again trooped to his contest station in Maine, and could be on his way to a repeat Single Op victory.

Grant has 1.29 million points over another Maine station, as Paul Obert K8PO claimed 1.18 million.

Grant's score is just over his record of 1.26 million from last year, giving him an outside chance to beat that after log checks.

For the most part though, while scores were once again very high this year, a quick review of the top finishers so far does not indicate another run on the CQ 160 CW record book as occurred in 2010.

T70A Tops World Multi-Op; K1LZ Leads NA

The high claimed score so far in the Multi-Op category goes to Team T70A, which hit the bands from San Marino, a small country located inside of Italy.

Four members of the UA2 Contest Club, RV2FW, UA2FB, UA2FF, UA2FZ joined with T77C to make 2,250 contacts for 1.89 million points overall, short of the World Multi-Op record set three years ago by this same group of Russians at CN2A.

77% of T70A's QSO's were with Europe; 15% came from North America.

Whether T70A takes the title will be up to the log checkers, as Team PJ2T is less than 50k points behind in second place with 1.84 million, with UA2FW in third at 1.8 million.

While T70A made 2,250 contacts, PJ2T was all about long haul, high point contacts, putting 1,297 QSO's in the log, to go with 57 W/VE mults and 87 DXCC.

In North America, the story of this contest may well be the effort by Team K1LZ, as Krassy Petkov led a small group operating portable from the Cape Cod National Seashore.

It almost didn't even happen, as strong winds the night before the contest trashed the group's portable antennas that had been set up for the contest.

"I was ready to quit when the Atlantic wind made the top of the vertical like spaghetti," wrote Petkov in his 3830 report, "but Jeff (Briggs K1ZM) said Krassy! You never give up."

"On Friday we worked all day," Briggs told radio-sport.net. "The wind chills had to be well below zero F."

"Thus for the first night, we managed to make about only 950 QSO's with basically the remains of the 4 square - e.g.: almost no good antennas," Briggs added.

"We worked all day on Saturday from first light to repair the 4square mast extensions," said Briggs, who described the effort as a "true field day under truly awful weather conditions, as the wind was blowing off the cold ocean almost all the time."

Once the antennas were repaired on Saturday, then it was off to the races.

"The second night the station performed absolutely unbelievable," said Petkov.

And for now, he is right, as the Team K1LZ claimed score of 1.49 million points is over 200k points more than the Multi record set in 2009 by W2GD of 1.22 million.

"I keep asking myself: What would be our score if we had the antennas as planned on the first night!" Petkov said.