Contest Focus Shifts To Topband With CQ 160 CW; Organizers Say Contest Is "Strong and Growing"

By Jamie Dupree NS3T radio-sport.net
Posted January 24, 2011

As contesters gather on Topband for the 2011 edition of the CQ 160 CW Contest, organizers are pleased with the status of the test and prospects for even more growth in the years ahead.
"Yes, the contest is strong and growing," said director Andy Blank N2NT, who took over CQ 160 just a few years ago.
"We added three trophies in just the past two weeks," Blank told radio-sport.net, as UA2FB is now sponsoring a Single Op trophy for Russian contesters and the Top Band DX Club will sponsor a combined CW/SSB trophy for World Multi-ops.
"There is growth in all the categories, and I expect a big turnout for 2011," said Blank.
While the DX0DX expedition won't be on 160 meters, other interesting ones like VP8O should be in there, giving contesters the chance to work a few new countries this coming weekend as well.
The defending champ in CQ 160 CW is Jim Sullivan W7EJ, who won the 2010 crown from his contest perch in Morocco as CN2R.
Not far behind was another familiar callsign as Pertti OH2PM operated the Radio Arcala station in the Azores to the top European score as CR2X.
Doug Grant K1DG had the leading US score in 2010, which enabled him to finish third in the Single Operator High Power ranks.
It's been two years since the CQ 160 CW contest that may be remembered for ages, when propagation made the band sound like 20 meters, as records fell left and right.
While scores were still high last year, there were no new records set.
"I doubt we will break any records any time soon but interest is high," said Blank.
Even with the good conditions of recent years, no one broke the overall Single Op records in the CQ 160 CW or SSB tests, as those still remain in the hands of Al 4L5A, who set both back in 2005.
As for this year's contest, CN2R is not scheduled to be activated, which could make 2009 winner Valery Komarov RD3AF the favorite, as he will be at EF8M.
As you get ready for this year's contest, don't forget that CQ 160 adopted an Assisted category two years ago, a move that has proved very popular, making up over 25% of all single operator entries last year.
Overall, the number of logs were up again last year to 2,390 (+170) for the CW test, while the number of entries stayed the same for the SSB leg.
The CQ WW 160 CW Contest begins at 2200z on Friday 28 January and ends at 2200z on Sunday 30 January.

Sunspots? Who Needs Sunspots?

Topband contesters have been enjoying the lean years on the sun, as while the lack of sunspots has hampered contesting on 10 and 15 meters over the last five years, the solar conditions have helped propagation on the low bands.
And that's just fine with some in the amateur radio world.
"Sunspots Bad. Extended Solar Minimum Good," wrote Jeff Maass K8ND, a leading member of Team PJ2T, who will be activating Curacao for this year's contest.
And for those like Maass who enjoy the lower sunspot numbers of the past six years, they don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
This past week, the US space agency NASA again lowered its prediction for sunspot activity in solar cycle 24, dropping the predicted sunspot peak to 59 by the middle of 2013.
Compare that to Solar Cycle 23, which had a peak in April of 2000 of just over 120 sunspots.
"We are currently two years into Cycle 24 and the predicted size continues to fall," said a NASA posting.
In fact, US government solar experts have been ratcheting down their predictions for several years now about Cycle 24, which keeps getting smaller and smaller.