CQWW Europe: Favorites CU2A, CT6A Hold High and Low Power Leads

By Jamie Dupree NS3T, radio-sport.net 

Bidding for a third straight European CQWW CW title, Toni Linden CU2A/OH2UA again has the top claimed score on the continent, leading SV9CVY (DL6FBL) by a little less than a half million points.

"This time it was the worst conditions I've ever had from the Azores," said Linden. "Both on SSB and the CW leg, 10 meters remained closed and I couldn't take advantage of long North American runs of 15 or 20 meters."

Linden though still worked over 6,000 contacts, making more than half on 40 and 15 meters.

He also came close to a four-band DXCC in a weekend, working over 100 on 15, 20 and 40 and hitting 92 countries on 80 meters.

For now, the European SOAB HP top ten looks like this:

CU2A (OH2UA) - 7,824,050

SV9CVY (DL6FBL) - 7,333,956

4O3A - 7,201,320

S50A - 5,370,880

HA8JV - 4,903,440

M6T (G4PIQ) - 4,719,445

YQ9W (YO9GZU) - 4,212,624

TM6X (F5VHY) - 4,137,786

DJ1YFK - 3,877,800

DL3YM - 3,644,925

"I'm more than happy to claim just a little bigger score than my competitors under difficult conditions," Linden said.

"But guys are getting so close that maybe we have to upgrade our setup for next season."

The closest on Linden's heels is German Ben Och DL6FBL, who made a strong run operating from Greece as SV9CVY.

Just over 100,000 points behind Och is Ranko Boca 4O3A, who ran up big numbers on 40 meters.

"Thanks to good propagation and my new 3L40 by Finnish Antenna, I did more than 2,000 QSO's on 40 meters," said Boca, who tallied 33 zones and 115 mults on that band.

"This is my first contest season with complete SO2R setup and improvements on 40 and 160 meters," said Boca, who exceeded his pre-contest goals of 6,000 Q's and over 6.5 million points.

"I know that 7,000 Q's were possible to be made," said Boca. "I will make upgrades on the station in 2008 and have the best platform ready for highest scores possible."

Those will include another tower and extra antennas for 10-40 meters.

"I really have to have a station without compromise," said the former YT6A.

Sitting in fourth place in Europe currently is Tinje Brajnik S50A, who improved his score by almost a half million points from 2006.

"My feeling is that I did what could be done given the time and circumstances," said Brajnik, who said he expects to stay in the top five in Europe.

Brajnik told radio-sport.net that the down solar "conditions were expected," adding that 10 meters was in bad shape. Brajnik could only make 48 contacts there this year.

Meanwhile in the European Low Power CW category, pre-contest favorite Filipe Lopes CT1ILT seems to have emerged with the top claimed score so far, as he claimed 5,314,680 points from over 4200 contacts.

"US runs were very good on all bands except 160m and 10m," said Lopes, who added that "40 meters was the 'the band'" as he made 1,293 contacts. "My antenna is doing it's job and I love it."

"Note that it is a new European record," said Lopes, who holds the existing SOAB LP European record at 5.17 million.

"I focused on working as many mults as I could on the low bands," though Lopes says maybe he tried too hard on 10 meters, where he made 149 Q's.

"I think I should have spent less time listening to 10m on the second rig, but no one knows what can happen with propagation like we had," said Lopes.

"I heard WE3C (on 10 meters) but he couldn't hear me at all. I spent at least 15 minutes calling PZ5X but he couldnt hear me either."

For now the European SOAB LP top ten looks like this:

CT6A (CT1ILT) - 5,314,680

YT2RX - 1,576,448

S51F - 1,572,264

S57U - 1,433,588

LZ9R (LZ3YY) - 1,417,056

OK6Y (OK2PTZ)- 1,172,775

S59N - 1,050,118

I2WIJ - 1,001,364

EI/W5GN - 957,864

LA3S (LA3BO)- 673,309

In other single operator categories, Sergei Rebrov UT5UDX leads the European Assisted competition. He is currently second in the world with 6.8 million points.

In the QRP category, OL4W (OK1IF) has the top EU score at 534k.