More US, Europe Records Fall In CQ 160 SSB; N4PN Leads US

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted March 2, 2009

While 160 meter conditions may not have been as good as what greeted contesters during the 2009 CQ 160 CW contest, early scores show even more records will fall in the SSB leg in both Europe and the US.

Prime among the big scores, Paul Newberry N4PN, who easily broke his own Single Op record.

"I figured the weekend was shot due to the storms all over the South," said Paul Newberry N4PN, "but, 1415 Q's - 62 countries - 58 S/P = 541,040 pts," a score that's 100k higher than Newberry's existing single op US SSB record.

Right behind Newberry is Jerry Rosalius WB9Z.

"I had a bunch of guys ask me 'didn't you get enough radio from KP5?'" wrote Jerry Rosalius WB9Z on his 3830.

"I guess not," he wrote, as he claimed 539,350 points, which would be a new US Single Op record in CQ 160 SSB.

For now, those two seem to be in the driver's seat in the US competition, with log checks determining who comes out on top.

Newberry's effort was the second big CQ 160 score this year from the very well-equipped station of Tom Rauch W8JI. In CQ 160 CW, Jim Robert VE7ZO had 1.31 million points, just off the 1.33m of US leader K1DG.

N4PN set the current US SSB Single Op record from W8JI two years ago, when he ended up with 421k.

Also doing better than that mark at 442k was Peter Briggs K3ZM, who has the third best US claimed score in CQ 160 CW, within striking distance of K1DG.

"I thought there was no comparison between conditions in the SSB version vs. CW," Briggs told radio-sport.net. "It was quiet both nights on CW, with good signal strength, especially on Saturday night. In SSB, there was scattered QRN both nights."

Despite the QRN, another record that may have fallen is the top CQ 160 SSB score for W6 in the US, as Jim Stevenson W6YI topped his mark that he set last year, scoring 164,616 points.

In 2008, he managed 141k after log checks.

In low power, as of now at least, no one is near the US record set by N0FW of 196k.

The early leader is Richard Zwirko K1HTV, who recently set up shop at a new QTH in Virginia, as he drummed out 127,680 points.

"Now I'm warmed up for the ARRL Phone Contest next weekend at the W3LPL 160M position," he said in his 3830.

Not far behind at 120k is Ed Parish K1EP.

Over in Europe, the first record to fall this year is on the multi-op front, as Team E7DX rapped out over 746 thousand points, much more than the existing mark of 590k by Team UU0J in 2005.

Not celebrating just yet was team member Braco Memic E77DX/OE1EMS.

"Anyway we are happy to claim new EU record, but let us first see how good are our other EU competitors!" Memic wrote on 3830.

Down in the Carribean, the big score was turned in there as expected by John Barcroft K6AM, who ran ZF2AM in the Cayman Islands to 539,222 points.

"Conditions were only fair compared to the CW test," Barcroft wrote on 3830. "This was my first effort in this contest. In fact, I have never done an SSB contest of any kind from ZF."

The SSB leg had good participation, just like the CW leg earlier this year, as stations were heard from 1800 to 2000.