YT1AD Leads CQ WW CW At Log Deadline; Rumors Persist Of Even Higher Score By EF8M (RD3AF)

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted January 19, 2008

As the log submission deadline passed for the 2008 CQ WW CW Contest, the highest publicly claimed score remains with Hrane Milosevic YT1AD, who powered 3V8BB in Tunisia to 12.8 million points.

As of now, that is good for an over one million point lead on Jose Nunes CT1BOH, who claimed 11.5 million as CT3NT in the Madeira Islands. Andy Blank N2NT is third with 11.1 from V47NT.

Here is a list of the highest known scores from CQ WW CW:

SOAB HP - 3V8BB (YT1AD)

SOAB LP - P40Q (K0DQ)

SOAB QRP- TI5N (N0KE)

SO Assisted - NP4Z

Multi-Single - 4L0A

Multi-Two - D4C

Multi-Multi - HC8N

While YT1AD is the single op leader, there is word within contesting circles that there may be an even bigger score which might deny Milosevic a repeat SOAB HP victory.

Several sources have told radio-sport.net that Russian contester Valery Komarov RD3AF may have scored over 13 million points from EF8M in the Canary Islands.

Contacted by email, Komarov refused to say whether or not he had a better score than 3V8BB, but he didn't deny it either.

"In CQ WW CW 2008 I am not intending to declare the result yet," wrote the high profile Russian contester.

Komarov operated from the mountaintop QTH of OH1RY in the Canary Islands, where he has run multi-ops.

The presence of Komarov and Milosevic in the top two spots has already raised some questions within the contest community, as both ops have been disqualified from major events in recent years.

It prompted one senior member of the CQ WW DX Contest Committee to tell radio-sport.net that both entries will get extra scrutiny from contest log checkers.

"The Committee is aware of a major wave of (cheating) problems in the European scene," said this contester, who added that "measures will be taken this year" in terms of CQ WW log checks, thanks to improvements made by K1EA.

"I really hope that at least top ten box scores would be carefully checked," said Toni Linden OH2UA, who publicly leveled cheating charges last year against Emil Balen 9A9A over his 2007 CQ WW DX CW log.

"I know that checking the logs is a lot of work, so publishing the logs right after the deadline would allow the contesting community to give feedback on logs as well," Linden added.

Currently, CQ WW DX is the only major contest that releases logs of those who submit entries. They have been posted on the internet usually a few weeks before the final results are printed in CQ Magazine.

Another person watching this with interest is Tonno Vahk ES5TV, who publicly questioned RD3AF's log in the 2006 CQ WW DX CW test, alleging illegal packet cluster use.

"I hope the log checking will be revolutionary this year and I have been given some hopes from the Contest Committee members," Vahk said last week.

Both Linden and Vahk say the CQ WW Contest Committee needs to be more public and more proactive, to send a tougher message on ethics.

"So far there's been mostly only category changes and some quiet DQ's," said Linden, noting the unpublicized DQ of Milosevic YT1AD from the 2006 CQ WW CW test, when YT1AD had the highest 3830 claimed score from 3V8BB.

CQ Magazine never announced that 2006 DQ, though it has been confirmed by members of the CQ WW DX Contest Committee.

"If there's no penalties in cheating, there's always guys trying the limits," said Linden.