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The top Single Operator claimed scores all seem to be out in the 2009 CQ WW CW Contest, with Valery Komarov RD3AF on top for the second straight year after an 11.8 million point effort from EF8M in the Canary Islands.
Komarov was watched over by an official CQ WW Contest Committee observer, Roger Western G3SXW, in the wake of the Russian contester's disqualification in the 2008 CW test.
"There were no any problems with Roger G3SXW," said Komarov. "During the test he was a very strict inspector."
Komarov's big band was 40 meters, where he made almost 2500 of his 7,374 overall contacts. He also had an advantage on 80 meters over his closest competitors, where he ended up with 1,011 QSO's.
Here are the top claimed scores so far in the Single Operator High Power category:
Trailing EF8M is Andy Blank N2NT, who ran up 11.2 million points from St. Kitts at his V47NT station.
On the 3830 reflector, Blank reported that his score was up "slightly" from 2008.
"It amazed me how the QSO's and mults were almost exactly the same with a completely different set of conditions," he said.
"Congratulations to EF8M and CR3E with great scores," Blank added.
Behind V47NT in third place is Jose Nunes CT1BOH, who claimed 10.8 million from CR3E and his new contest QTH on the Madeira Islands, knocking out 6,473 contacts.
"I'm a bit disappointed though," Nunes said after returning home from his trip, saying he "Was expecting better QSO numbers overall.
"But with so depressed conditions and at 32º north, I guess I only have to pray for better MUF in the years to come."
After Nunes comes Tom Georgens W2SC, who hit 9.3 million points from Barbados as 8P5A. Then it's back to Bernie van der Walt ZS4TX, who ran up just over 8.5 million points from ZS9X in South Africa.
"ZS is well situated to make top CQWW scores on 10 and 15m at this time in the cycle so I tried to use that as an advantage," van der Walt told radio-sport.net.
15 meters was the money band for ZS4TX, as he made 2,018 of his 4,819 contacts on that band, and added almost 500 QSO's on 10 meters as well, the most of anyone in the top five.
"I knew 10m was going to open for a short time so I kept a close eye on it to maximise the score on that band," van der Walt said.
After ZS4TX is Andy Faber AE6Y, who pushed P49Y to an estimated 8.5 million points, as he went SOAB HP for only the second time in his many trips to Aruba and Zone 9.
"This time, I went for Qs and ended up with 5955, but the mults were down across the board," said Faber, who like many felt like the bands weren't cooperating.
Just behind Faber is Toni Linden OH2UA, who tapped out 8.2 million points in the Azores as CR2X.
"Conditions seemd quite poor, high bands the worst I've ever had here," said Linden as he was leaving for his home in Finland.
"Conditions were not nearly as good as CQWW PH weekend, particularly on 15M and the low bands," said John Crovelli W2GD, who struggled to 5.3 million points after a tiring week of antenna work at his P40W station.
"On 20M, the SE Asia and Oc signals were often peaking to the South and Southeast, not direct path as you would expect," Crovelli said. "I don't remember that happening very often in the past," he said of the skew paths on 20.
"I got the feeling USA participation was down.... the runs on 40 and 15 to the NA were never as deep as previous years. Or maybe it was just the oddball conditions."
"The lack of mainland Africa DXpeditions and participation in general was noted. Probably a function of the WW recession."
Also noting the somewhat slower times was World low power claimed leader Bud Trench V26K/AA3B, who leads with 6.5 million points.
"Rates were very slow on Sunday afternoon," Trench reported on 3830, adding like P40W that "it felt like activity from NA was down as compared to the past."
Also noting odd conditions was Linden OH2UA at CR2X in the Azores.
"I did not work ANY single EU station on 10 (except another CU2)," Linden told radio-sport.net. "On the other hand, I had very short and strange opening to NA on Sunday with huge stateside signals," as Linden said he found the bands to be "overall quite noisy."
Check back for updates all week with radio-sport.net!
P40Q (K0DQ) - SOAB LP
TI5N - SOAB QRP
5B4AII (RW3QC) - SO Assisted
PJ4A - Multi-Single
D4C - Multi-Two
HC8N - Multi-Multi
World Scores
And who exactly is ahead in that race depends on what source you look at.
On 3830, K5ZD has the edge with 6,963,336 to 6,960,096 for K1DG.
But on the Logs Received page of the CQ WW Contest, it's obvious that K5ZD must have had a multiplier that didn't register correctly, because his score went down to 6,950,125.
That gives K1DG the edge by just under 10,000 points.
Grant has been steadily posting better and better numbers from his N1LI contest station in Maine over the past two years, quickly becoming one of the top single ops from the US in major contests like CQ WW.
At first, Boca thought he would be limited to a single band entry, but a flurry of late antenna work got him on all bands as the contest started.
He wasted no time on the first day, hitting 4,000 contacts after 24 hours.
"Unfortunately in the 25th hour, I had a problem with the EZ Master SO2R box, which stopped keying," Boca told radio-sport.net.
"Tried to solve it on the fly, but without success. Then lost the next ten hours trying to find a transistor in the middle of nowhere and make an LPT interface."
"I feel very bad, but that's part of our sport," said Boca.
Boca spent the rest of the contest just having a little fun, running some pileups on 15 and 20 meters to hand out the D4 multiplier.
Boca's fast start and subsequent troubles were reminiscent of the problems encountered by Jose Nunes CT1BOH two years ago, when a power outage at his old QTH in the Madeira Islands scrapped any chances of winning the CQ WW CW title.
