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Operating from EF8M in the Canary Islands, Komarov put together 7.725 QSO's for just over 16 million points, giving him the early clubhouse lead in this year's contest.
The EF8M band breakdown showed how the high bands gave out more than expected this year, as Komarov had 1400 contacts on 10 meters, 1561 on 15 meters - both more than his 1375 QSO's on 20 meters.
In fact, 20 meters had the fourth highest totals, as EF8M's best band was 40 meters, which provided almost 2500 QSO's. It allowed Komarov to all but ignore 80 and 160, where he had 900 contacts total.
In second place for now is Jose Nunes CT1BOH, who operated CR3E to 14.9 million points, but again fell short of catching EF8M.
"To sum up the contest, it was a good one but just not good enough," Nunes wrote on 3830.
After Nunes, it's a familiar roster of names and callsigns, all of whom couldn't squeeze out as many points and QSO's as EF8M.
Yuri Onipko VE3DZ pulled in 13.9 million points from PZ5T in Suriname, "My personal best in the CQ WW CW so far," he told radio-sport.net.
Just behind PZ5T was John Crovelli W2GD, who reported in with 12,9 million points from P40W in Aruba.
"This is very near a personal best," Crovelli told radio-sport.net, who said 10 meters "was the nice surprise" with an opening to Europe on Sunday, as the WRTC veteran netted 923-20-68 on 10 meters.
"Not great but better than past many years," Crovelli said, referring to the lackluster numbers on 10 meters in major contests over the past five years.
While South America had openings to both Europe and the United States, 10 meters was again spotty for American operators, who reported only minor openings to Europe, though some of the Multi-Multi teams did squeeze out sizeable DXCC numbers.
Conditions on the low bands were reported to be very good, with 40 meters producing big numbers around the world, and near 24 hour propagation in some areas.
Europeans were heard and worked well past their sunrise in the United States, with contacts between the continents possible by even 100 watt stations with simple antennas just after 12 noon on both days of CQ WW CW.
It wasn't just the High Power crowd who had a good weekend, as the improved propagation resulted in a big boost all around.
In Low Power, Joseph "Bud" Trench AA3B reported in with 8.3 million points from V26K, two million more than his effort a year ago, which won him first place in the world.
The US Low Power leader, Ed Sawyer N1UR, checked in with 4.3 million points, just above the current US LP record held by K1TO, and much more than N1UR's winning score in 2009 of 2.6 million.
There may also be a new Multi-Multi record in the US, as KC1XX churned out 29.1 million points, which included 108 countries on 10 meters - as that team almost nailed DXCC on all six bands - only missing on 160 meters, with 98.
Team KC1XX already owns the USA M/M mark at 24.6 million, which was set way back in 1999.
Also surpassing that old record was Team K3LR, which clocked in with 26.6 million points (and 98 mults on 10 meters), but they were about a thousand QSO's behind 'XX.
Another record that was smashed was the US Multi-Single mark, held by K1AR from back in 1998, as team K1LZ claimed 16.4 million points, over 4 million more than the K1AR mark.
John Dorr K1AR though won't be erased from the record books, as it looks like he will be the new owner of the USA record in Assisted, as he claimed 9.8 million points, much more than the 8.4 million set by K3WW.
Chas Fulp K3WW did his best to keep that mark, as he also bested his record, ending up at 9.1 million.
Overall, the world leader in Assisted is Stefano Brioschi IK2QEI, who hit 12.8 million points from CN3A.
The top Assisted finisher from Europe so far is Serge Rebrov UT5UDX, who ran ER4A to 8.5 million points.
The USA Single Op record held by Randy Thompson K5ZD might not stand either, as Thompson - who said he originally planned a "casual effort" - instead ended stand - barely - as he claimed 9.1 million points, more than his mark of 8.75 million set back in 2000.
Also above that 2000 record was Alex Avramov LZ4AX, who was on from the Penn State University station K3CR, as he finished with 8.86 million.
"This is as close as I can get to K5ZD," Avramov said with a smile on 3830.
Also finishing near that SOAB HP record was Thompson's WRTC organizing colleague Doug Grant K1DG, who claimed 8.73 million.
While the US might see some changes in the record books, there aren't as many on the world scene.
Leading the charge worldwide was Team P33W in the Multi-Single category, where their score of 24.2 million points should surpass the mark of PJ4A from 2006, which ended up at 19.7 million after log checks.
No other worldwide single operator records were in any danger of being broken. For example, EF8M's final tally was still 2 million points short of the record set by N5TJ in SOAB HP back in 2000.
The days before the CQ WW CW Contest brought a mini-storm over the use of Skimmer spots, as CQ WW Contest Director Bob Cox K3EST issued two notes that caused some confusion and consternation in contest circles.
"Technology is advancing very rapidly," Cox wrote. "The CQ WW Contest Committee wants to make it clear about the use of Skimmer technology," as COx tried to make sure that contesters understood when Skimmer was 'not' approved.
"Skimmer and skimmer-like technology is permitted for all Multi-Operator classes as well as for all the Single Operator-*Assisted categories," Cox wrote, clarifying that the "use of a personal skimmer located *within the distance rule limitations* of your QTH (500m rule) is OK."
What the contest committee tried to clear up is that the only way you are allowed to remote skimmer is through a public aggregator like the Reverse Beacon Network.
Those who used and watched the output of the Reverse Beacon Network were impressed with the spotting abilities, but also surprised by the amount of data, as some reported that their logging programs slowed down because of the torrent of information.
"The reverse beacon was pretty amazing," Eric Rosenberg W3DQ reported to radio-sport.net.
"Before I could configure it correctly, it was like an oil gusher. Otherwise, it was relatively accurate with calls, and I could hear much of what was posted."
"We experimented with skimmer via the N5IN cluster this weekend," wrote John K0TG about the W0AIH Multi-Multi. "There were so many spots coming in that it overwhelmed the PC's at times."
The RBN (as the Reverse Beacon Network) is known had some growing pains during the CW Sweepstakes contest when it went off-line repeatedly, but some last minute work staved off such troubles during CQ WW CW.
For RBN organizers like Pete Smith N4ZR, the public aggregator possibilities that would be allowed by CQ WW are a big win-win for contesters looking to move past the current DX cluster.
" I think the one thing you can say for using the RBN as a buffer between users and Skimmers is that it's an equal-opportunity provider, and nobody receiving spots from the RBN has control of the Skimmer that is generating the spots," Smith told radio-sport.net.
"There's no reason not to allow *any* public Skimmer or Skimmer aggregator, so long as it genuinely is public," he argued, giving the example of the new PJ2T Skimmer, which was deployed for this year's contest.
"It gets the same propagation they do, so it is very useful for them, but so long as they send their spots to the RBN, everyone can see that they are not manipulating it for their private benefit," he argued.
Smith said RBN performed "decently" during CQ WW CW.
It may well start getting a lot more traffic in the future as more and more reports come in about how well it performs on a CW contest weekend.
