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After an eight year hiatus from the CQ WW SSB , Rich Smith N6KT seems to be well on his way to his record eighth CQ WW SSB single operator title, as the veteran champ has claimed over 14 million points from his effort at HC8A in the Galapagos Islands.
"Great contest despite difficult conditions on 10 and 15 meters!" Smith said in his 3830 report. "Best 160 meter conditions I ever heard in HC8."
Smith leads Toni Linden OH2UA, who came in at well over 11 million points from his new station CU2X in the Azores.
"Without my QSO point advantage, he would have a higher score than me," Smith acknowledged.
For Linden, this year's score was an over three million point improvement on his top European score of one year ago.
"Everything worked OK," Linden told radio-sport.net, as he made over 8,000 QSO's by staying in the chair for the full 48 hours. Smith made over 7500 at HC8A.
"10 meters remained closed during the whole weekend and because of quite nice rates I had some difficulties to use my 2nd radio," Linden said.
"So there's still a lot of room for improvement. I'm really happy with the new station, all the work done seems to be paying off."
The effort assures Linden of his third straight European single op win in CQ WW SSB, and could move him up even higher in the World standings. Last year he finished fourth behind winner 8P5A, VY2ZM and P40W.
Only one station ended up with more than 11 million points last year, that was the winner Tom Georgens W2SC/8P5A. This year Georgens struggled to claim over 10.7 million.
"Worst high band conditions I have ever seen from 8P," Georgens said on 3830. "I made more European Q's on 40 than on 15."
"Congratulations to Rich (Hc8A) and welcome back to CQWW," Georgens wrote. "Also hats off to Toni (CU2X) on a truly remarkable score."
"CU2X sounded especially good...from the new station, with conditions that seemed to favor his location," said John Crovelli W2GD.
As of now, there don't seem to be that many other scores that could jump high into the Top Ten other than VY2ZM (K1ZM) and 5B4AII (RW3QC.)
""HC8A (N6KT) is still the probable winner," said Crovelli, "but even Rich's signal seemed below norm on several bands."
HC8A's advantage in part boiled down to 10 meters, where he brought in 544 QSO's, 10 zones and 47 countries. That's 57 multipliers CU2X had no chance at.
For those who might not be familiar with Smith, he has won CQ WW SSB a record seven times, the last in 2000. He returned to contesting after a self imposed absence earlier this year and promptly won ARRL DX SSB as HC8A.
It was the first time he had ever used computer logging in a 48 hour contest.
With 7.6 million points, Philippe Lutty LX2A drove LX7I to the lead in the World Assisted category this year, making over 5,000 QSO's from Luxembourg.
"My goal at the beginning was to increase my score from last year, but everything worked even better than expected," said Lutty, who at this point has no close pursuers in Europe.
The second best Assisted score comes from the US leader Rich DiDonna NN3W, who claimed 5.4 million points from N3HBX outside of Washington, D.C.
DiDonna's operating time was curtailed because of major problems with his 80 meter antennas.
"In 36 hours, I did 5.4 million which should be good enough to win the category," he told radio-sport.net.
Back in second in the US is last year's second place finisher Charles Fulp K3WW at 3.4 million.
"Conditions all in all were poor," Fulp said. "15 was not runnable from here (PA) Saturday."
"I did relatively better than I expected to do, but think some higher 15 meter antennas would have been worthwhile," Fulp added.
Check back for updates all week on this year's CQ WW SSB Contest!
P40A (KK9A) - SOAB LP
IK5RUN - SOAB QRP
RU9WX - SO Assisted
CN3A - Multi-Single
AO8A - Multi-Two
TS6A - Multi-Multi
In the US unassisted battle, the early returns seem to favor a repeat win for K5ZD, as he claimed 6.3 million points.
Thompson called it a "challenging contest" due to the conditions, which kept his score just under his 2007 claimed, but still tops in the USA for single ops.
"We can all hope that some sunspots return, because not sure 20 meters can handle this level of crowding." said Thompson.
In second in the US is Krassy Petkov K1LZ, who claimed 5.4 million points.
After that it's Doug Grant K1DG, who made 4.9 million points at N1LI in Maine, Ken Claerbout K4ZW who hit 4.85 million from NR4M in Virginia, and Andy Blank N2NT who totaled 4.78 million from K1EA in Massachusetts.
"Congratulations to K5ZD on another big win," K1DG wrote on 3830. "I did a lot of antenna work and indoor station improvements over the summer, but he still clobbered me by about the same margin as last year."
Claerbout's score was also the same as 2007.
"I guess I should feel good about that given the poorer conditions," K4ZW told radio-sport.net after a few hours of sleep.
Claerbout says 20 meters was the big difference where K5ZD made 1905 contacts, with 36 zones and 127 multipliers, while K4ZW was at 1301 QSO's, 37 zones and 133 mults.
"I can't stand that wall to wall crap on 20," Claerbout said.
Last year Hambleton got the best of Sawyer, but this year N1UR has a short lead of 1.78 to 175 million points.
"Low band conditions were great," said Hambleton on 3830. "I guess the log checking will be pivotal this year."
"For once, the geomagnetic conditions weren't killing me up here at 44.5deg latitude," said Sawyer, who also was thrilled with 40-160.
"This year was the best results I have ever had on 160 - 20," Sawyer added.
Unlike last year, Sawyer will be at home for CQ WW CW, which may set up another N1UR-K1XM battle as well.
You can find it in 30 minute segments at k5zd.com.
"With so much of the contest on a very crowded 20 meter band, this may not be the easiest contest to listen to," Thompson said as he posted the audio.
"But, there are some high rate periods that may be of interest. And of course, if you worked me (or were on a band I was tuning) you can always listen for your own signal!"
