3V2A GRABS CQWW CW LEAD OVER P40W WITH 13.7M; V26K KEEPS NARROW LP #1

By Jamie Dupree NS3T, radio-sport.net 

With the defending champ out of the way due to a contest weekend power outage, Hrane Milosevic YT1AD did what any second place finisher from a year ago should do, as he now claims the top score as 3V2A in the 2007 CQWW CW contest.

Milosevic's 13.7 million points puts him 2 million ahead of John Crovelli P40W/W2GD, who ran up 11.7 million from zone 9 on Aruba.

"CQWW CW was very nice," Milosevic told radio-sport.net. "Very good propagation on the low bands" helped give the Serbian ham 7,480 contacts with a combined 617 multipliers.

"All antennas worked very well after CQWW SSB repairs," said Milosevic.

Even before YT1AD checked in with his score, Crovelli figured Milosevic's operation from zone 33 might be difficult to beat.

"Competitive stations like 3V2A and CN3A in Northern Africa have the advantage on the lower bands, and 10 meters too, being so much closer to multiplier rich EU," wrote Crovelli.

Crovelli had over 6,000 contacts in all, with the most, 1,709 on 15 meters.

"My score is sightly more than 500K lower than last year...but this seems in line with the poorer conditions experienced this year compared to 2006, particularly on 10 meters."

Crovelli's numbers prove that, as he made only 106 contacts on 10 meters, compared to 537 in 2006. He told radio-sport.net that "virtually every 10m QSO was a struggle."

"On the other hand, 160 and 80 conditions were far above normal," said Crovelli, "producing record multiplier totals on these bands at P40W."

Also short of last year's totals was Andy Blank N2NT, who piloted V47NT to over ten and a half million points. Blank laid some of the blame on major QRN problems at his St. Kitts station.

"We were hoping the bad line noise problem at the station would be fixed before I arrived," said Blank V47NT. "Unfortunately, it was worse. I lost a little drive knowing I could not do anything big, but did my best."

Blank's over 7,000 contacts featured 2,410 QSO's on 40 meters, but only 71 on 10 meters.

"40 was so good all the time I never left," Blank said. "10 meters was almost unusable. I apologize, there was a big pileup but I could not hear anything through the noise."

For now, the World High Power Top Ten looks like this:

3V2A (YT1AD) - 13,700,000

P40W (W2GD) - 11,793,118

V47NT (N2NT) - 10,560,680

8P5A (w2SC) - 9,883,885

CN3A (IK2QEI) - 9,400,000

A45EXR (SP5EXA) - 9,019,153

9K2HN (KL2A) - 8,839,530

4L0A (UU4JMG) - 8,051,472

6W1RW (F6BEE) - 7,870,776

CU2A (OH2UA) - 7,824,050

In fourth place with another strong showing is Tom Georgens 8P5A (W2SC) with over 9.8 million points. Georgens is already #1 in claimed scores for this year's CQWW SSB contest, giving him two very strong finishes in CQWW this year.

In fifth is another zone 33 operator that 8P5A and others had warned might challenge for #1 CW this year, Stefano Brioschi CN3A (IK2QEI.) He ran up 9.4 million points for the fifth highest claimed score.

"It was a very nice experience for my CN3A shack, first time in a CQWW CW as single op," said Brioschi. "As you know, CN3A is a new contest QTH in Morocco, just born September 2006."

Brioschi had his share of equipment troubles, mainly due to some severe weather in his area.

"After three hours of the contest, the power went away until 8pm," Broschi told radio-sport.net. "I was lucky to have a spare generator to continue to run with almost 700 watts."

A spare genator is most likely going to be on the Christmas list of defending CW champ Jose Nunes CT1BOH, who found himself off the air when a storm cut electricity to his CT3NT contest site on Madeira Island, costing him a chance at a third consecutive high power win.

"The contest was over for me Saturday at exactly 18:45," said Nunes.

Because of high wind gusts, electrical crews wouldn't work on nearby power poles, as the lights didn't come on for Nunes until Sunday afternoon.

"By then I didn't even have the motivation to listen to the bands," said Nunes, who still claimed 4.2 million points and almost 3,000 contacts.

"As my lovely wife Lara says the (bad) thing about contests, in there is always a next one."

In 6th and 7th place currentlly were two contesters operating from the Persian Gulf, as Chris Dabrowski A45XR (SP5EXA) ran up 9 million points from Oman, and Jon Kimball KL2A steered in Kuwait to 8.8 million points.

Over in the World Low Power category, it remains a fairly close battle between two-time defending champ Joseph "Bud" Trench V26K (AA3B) and Dimitri Kryukov HK1AR (RA3CO.) Trench leads by 110,000 points.

"I significantly underachieved," Trench told radio-sport.net. "I started to feel in trouble around 1300z on Saturday when the rates were less than expected."

"It felt like Europe dried up on 15 and I couldn’t get anything going on 20M," said Trench. "I realized that I would need to change my strategy so I decided to allocate more time to hunting than I had planned."

In a quick post-contest review, Trench said his problem was simply not enough QSO's with Europe.

"My productivity during 3 point runs was down significantly from last year (203 points / hour) primarily as a result of lower than anticipated rates on 15."

While Trench claimed 7.54 million, Kryukov pushed HK1AR to 7.43 million points, thanks to almost 1700 contacts on 40 meters and 4,505 QSO's overall.

"I am pleased with it," Kruykov told radio-sport.net. "I think I could have done better but I'm still pleased."

For now, the World Top Ten in Low Power is:

V26K (AA3B) - 7,545,824

HK1AR (RA3CO) - 7,432,002

H7/K9NW - 6,420,348

CT6A (CT1ILT) - 5,314,680

UA9BA - 3,400,046

C6AQQ (ND3F) - 3,330,800

ZS6AA - 2,642,010

K1BX - 2,124,577

YS/K9GY - 1,863,565

K1PT - 1,744,234

In third place is Mike Tessmer K9NW, who ventured this year to Nicaragua, where he posted 6.4 million points. Back in fourth place overall is the top finisher so far in Europe, Filipe Lopes CT1ILT, who might have broken his own Low Power European record with 5.3 million points.

"Conditions were a bit strange," Lopes told radio-sport.net. "I focused on working as many mults as I could on the low bands."

"Of course from Portugal it is impossible to win the World, but Europe it is very easy to win because of my proximity to the USA," said Lopes.

In the Assisted category, defending champ KI1G was unable to put in an all-out defense of his 2006 world title, so there will be a new CW winner there as well.

With the inside track is Felipe Hernandez NP4Z, who has aclaimed score of 7.1 million points from Puerto Rico.

"I wasn't expecting to do this well," Hernandez told radio-sport.net, adding that he had his contest weekend interrupted at times by work and other outside issues.

"It's a shame I had to do other things that took away from operating," said Hernandez. "I prefer contesting on the low sunspot cycle, since I would much rather have no 10 meters and great low bands."

Hernandez also tried out something new, that being short naps during the contest weekend.

"(I) never slept during the contest more than 30 minutes and took four breaks, they kept me awake and alert for 95% of the time," said Hernandez.

In second place in the Assisted category is Sergei Rebrov UT5UDX, who ran up 6.8 million points operating as ER0WW. Rebrov also owns the number two claimed Assisted score in CQWW SSB this year. Defending World champ KI1G was far back at 3.2 million.

Single operator QRP will also have a new winner this year, as defending champ John Bayne P40A/KK9A did not operate from Aruba during the contest.

That left the door open for Paul Young K1XM, who used his five watts from Senegal as 6V7D to grab World QRP #1 with 2.7 million points. FY5FY is second with 2.1 million.

Before the contest, radio-sport.net asked Young if he had any chance to win the QRP title this year. His response was eerily prescient.

"Can I beat P40A? Only if he doesn't show up," said Young.

That seems to be what happened.

Young also seems to have set some records from both Senegal and Zone 35.

"The CQWW site shows no QRP operations from zone 35 ever - not on phone or CW, not on any band," Young said.

One interesting note about 6V7D coming out on top over FY5FY, with P40A on the sidelines. The latter two stations had won the QRP title in CQWW CW the last five years. Three in a row for P40A, preceded by two straight from FY5FY.