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After a record breaking CQ 160 CW, the battle for the top slot is wide open in the 2009 CQ 160 SSB contest, with hopes of a scoring bonanza for operators like back in January.
"Propagation is fickle on 160, but wouldn't it be something if we had the conditions we had for the CW test?" said John Barcroft K6AM, who will be in the Cayman Islands as ZF2AM.
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed," Barcroft added.
There are a lot of candidates for this year's title, mainly because there won't be a repeat winner from the 2008 CQ 160 SSB, as last year Milt Jensen N5IA used the VP6DX expedition from Ducie Island in the South Pacific to win the Single Operator crown.
"The idea was to make VP6DX not only a contest mult but also be a DX appetizer for even the non-contest crowd. All to get them in the contest log," Jensen told radio-sport.net.
Many like K6AM say they should have a shot to win in 2009.
"This is my first try at 160 or SSB for that matter from ZF," says John Barcroft K6AM, who will be active as ZF2AM.
The SSB leg arrives after a very successful CQ 160 CW this year, partly because of great conditions, and partly because of some rules changes initiated by new CQ 160 Contest Director Andy Blank N2NT.
One thing that caused some controversy in January was that CQ 160 moved away from a distinct calling window for DX between 1830 and 1835 kHz.
"The window is not recognized for any reserved use," Blank told radio-sport.net last week. "That seemed to be a big success in CW."
Blank said he was "very pleased" with the level of entries from the CW leg, saying that "1,000 logs were received within seven days of the contest."
"It helps us get a head start on the log checking."
If you missed the CW contest, then don't forget one of the most important rules changes, which is the that the start and end of the contest has been moved up two hours, in part to reduce an edge for the East Coast of the US and Canada.
Oddly enough, last year's SSB winner has been one of the biggest voices in favor of that change, as N5IA still would like to see the start moved back another hour.
"If the start time were to be backed off to 2100Z, then the only NA stations that would still get a piece of 3rd evening possibilities would be the very eastern Canadians and perhaps Maine," said Jensen.
Another rules change that will also be in effect for the SSB test is the ban on internet chat rooms where contacts were solicited and confirmed.
"The use of chat rooms is explicitly forbidden in the rules," said Blank, who made that one of his priority changes.
"We cannot stop its use by casual operators, but anyone using it as a contest aid will be disqualified."
A review of the ON4KST chat site - the most popular among low band enthusiasts - showed that the message had been received after last year's controversy.
Only a handful of those who "chatted" at ON4KST submitted CW logs, and several of them, including N2NL, W4EF and YT2AAA sent theirs as checklogs.
The crackdown was demanded by many operators after the 2008 contests, who argued the chat rooms gave some an unfair advantage.
VP6DX (N5IA) - Single Op High Power
KP4KE - Single Op Low Power
VA3YT - Single Op QRP
CN3A - Multi Op
The contest begins at 2200z instead of 0000z.
"The start and end times of the contests have been shifted two hours earlier in response to requests from the 160 contesting community," says the note on the CQ 160 web site.
The exchange for stations outside of the US and Canada is different.
Stations in W/VE still send their US state or Canadian province. All other stations will send RS(T) and CQ Zone, just like in CQ WW DX.
"Remember, zones are not multipliers," said CQ 160 Director Andy Blank N2NT. "Just a more uniform exchange than arbitrary country abbreviations."
There is a new Single Operator Assisted Class now in CQ 160
It used to be that the use of the DX Cluster would lump single ops into the Multi-op category, but now they will battle in Assisted. That category will also allow the use of the controversial CW decoding program known as CW Skimmer.
There is now a 40 hour Multi Op time limit
While single ops still have a 30 hour limit, now multis must observe a 40 hour maximum operating period. "Off times must be a minimum of 30 minutes in length for all categories," read the rules.
New rules that permit some types of remote operation
The new remote operating rules are a first for the CQ 160 contest.
Check out the details on those and all of the rule changes for 2009 at the CQ 160 web site.
2009 CQ 160 CW Contest
2200z January 23 - 2200z January 25;
more on the rules at the
CQ 160 web site.
