Low Band Slugfest In CQ WW CW; CT3NT Grabs Early World Lead; CU2X Tops SOAB HP In Europe; K1LZ Leads K5ZD In US SOAB

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Updated December 2, 2008

A year after a power outage blocked his quest for another CW title, Jose Nunes CT1BOH is in the lead in claimed scores from this year's CQ WW CW title with 11.5 million points.

"No 10 meters but excellent 80 and 160," said Nunes is his 3830 report.

Nunes totaled 6,392 QSO's, with 142 zones and 462 countries from CT3NT in the Madeira Islands.

His score gives him a comfortable lead for now over Yuri Onipko VE3DZ, who posted 9.9 million from PZ5TT in Suriname.

"Though I missed my goal of 10 M and 6000 Q's by a tiny bit, all in all I am very satisfied with my effort," Onipko told radio-sport.net during a stopover in Trinidad and Tobago on his way back to Canada.

"Still, I think the battle for the top is between those "close to EU" guys 3V8BB and CT3NT. With focus on the low bands, they definitely have the advantage," Onipko added.

So far, no score has been publicly claimed by defending champ Hrane Milosevic YT1AD, who was back in Tunisia as 3V8BB this year. Other top scores still out there include V47NT, 8P5A and more.

One top finisher from this year's CQ WW SSB was not able to repeat his big time score in the CW leg, as Toni Linden OH2UA came in with 7.9 million points, which will still be good enough to win in Europe, but not enough to challenge for the overall title.

"Conditions sucked," said Linden from the Ponta Delgada airport in the Azores. "15M & 20M closed about 3 hours earlier than on SSB."

"Should have done better also on lowbands, but just couldn't get runs going there as I was hoping for," Linden added.

Behind Linden is Jeff Briggs VY2ZM, who checked in with 7.55 million, a bit better than his CW score in 2007.

"I think I did well for a Zone 5 station at 46 degrees North latitude," Briggs told radio-sport.net.

"15 meters was an effort to land a decent multiplier - only 174 qso's there and 10M at least was open enough to secure 11/7/10 which from up here is better than the 1/1/1 made on SSB."

Not far behind Briggs was another VY2, as Ken Widelitz K6LA to VY2TT to 7.25 million points.

"If you had told me before the contest I would do 5300+ QSOs and beat last year’s score with 7.25M, with ONE QSO on 10 meters, I would have taken it," said Widelitz.

"The first 24 hours the rate never went below 100, except for two 97 hours," he added.

Also at 7.25 million is John Barcroft K6AM, who piloted the hurricane damaged ZF2AM in the Cayman Islands.

"If everyone lost big on 10 and 15, I could break the top 10," Barcroft told radio-sport.net.

"Conditions were very good on the low bands but the opening on 15 was very light and 10 was mostly dead,"said the California ham.

It's obvious from the early scores that if you did not have major success on 80 and 160, then it was not a route to victory most likely.

"Low bands were excellent with amazing stuff being worked," said Andy Cook G4PIQ, who joined the M6T Multi-Single group in England, which scored 9.3 million.

"10 was just like the SSB leg (as bad as it gets) and 15 was worse than SSB with no real runable time to the US," he told radio-sport.net.

"It was definitely a low band contest," said Matt Strelow KC1XX on 80 meters after the contest ended.

The raw numbers from the US Multi-Multi battle show that, as KC1XX, K3LR and W3LPL - combined - couldn't make 250 total contacts on 10 meters.

Five years ago in the 2003 CW test, KC1XX, K3LR and W3LPL combined for almost 4500 QSOs, as the three averaged 35 zones and 129 multipliers.

Team KC1XX made the best of the low band battle this year, making almost 4,000 contacts on 40, 80 and 160 meters for a 15.3 million claimed score. K3LR was just over 15 million, with W3LPL in third at over 14 million points.

The worldwide M/M lead goes to Team HC8N, which is at 34.3 million points.

In the Multi-Two ranks, Team D4C grabbed the early advantage, with a claimed score of 33.7 million points from 13,231 contacts, 179 zones and 678 countries.

Back in the single operator ranks, the defending Assisted champ has the lead in that category again, as Sergei Rebrov UT5UDX posted 6,584,256 points from ER0WW in Moldova.

Tops for now in Assisted in the US is Charles Fulp K3WW, who claimed 5.3 million.

""Better than last year with worse numbers on 10 and 15," wrote Fulp on his 3830 report.

While Fulp leads the Assisted ranks in the US, there evidently is a close battle in the SOAB HP arena, as Krassy Petkov K1LZ has put out word that he had 7.05 million points, ahead of defending US champ Randy Thompson, who hit the finish line with 6.8 million.

Petkov made all but 550 of his 3,969 contacts on 20, 40 and 80 meters, as he ran up 133 zones and 487 countries.

"Any contest other than CQ WW CW this weekend, and I would have quit," Thompson said on 3830, adding that "tough conditions" kept him from running stations on 15 and 160 meters.

"It was a great weekend to be in New England. Conditions weren't the best, but that gives us even more of an advantage than we already enjoy," Thompson told radio-sport.net.

Behind K1LZ and K5ZD is Doug Grant K1DG, who fought antenna troubles on 40 meters, but still managed to crack the 6 million point mark as well.

"Despite the 40M beam failure that probably cost me this contest, I still love this game!" Grant wrote on the 3830 reflector.

Another New England operator loving this game is Ed Sawyer N1UR, who hit his stride in the CQ WW CW low power battle in the US, as he dropped a 2.5 million point claimed score on his competitors.

"I equalled my best Q total and had the best zone and countries mult total ever for me," Sawyer reported, as he knocked out 1,844 Q's, 112 zones and 380 countries from Vermont.

As he did in the SSB leg, Sawyer narrowly edged out Art Hambleton K1BX, as those two continue their budding big contest rivalry in low power. K1BX claimed 2.41 million, leaving this one to the log checkers again.

In Europe, the leader as mentioned above is CU2X, who has about a million point advantage on his closest pursuer, Ranko Boca 4O3A.

For Boca, the CW test was a repeat of CQ WW SSB, where the power failed at his station. This time when the power went out, Boca's backup generator came on, but then that failed as well.

"Total damage is 2 hours without any electricity and 14 hours with lot of disturbance and operating 80% of this time," said Boca, who claimed 6.6 million points.

That gave him the edge over Bernd Och DL6FBL at SV9CVY in Crete, as he managed 6.3 million.

"Bottom line first: propagation sucked," said Och, summing up the feelings of many from last weekend. "About 700 QSOs, 50 multipliers and over 1 million points LESS than last year."

Check back all week as radio-sport.net updates the aftermath of the 2008 CQ WW CW Contest!