4O3A(ES5TV) Breaks 10 Million Points, Grabs Early Lead In 2009 CQ WW SSB; Conditions Varied

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted October 27, 2009

After months of lackluster solar conditions, the 2009 CQ WW SSB Contest featured better than expected conditions on 15 meters, some sunspots, and another year where at least one European single operator score should be near the top of the single op standings.

Of the top contenders in the Single Op All Band High Power category, Tonno Vahk ES5TV was the first to lay out his results, a claimed score of 10.59 million points.

"Optimistic target was 8 million, but 10 and 15 meters were better than expected," Vahk said on 3830.

Vahk took full advantage of the openings on 15 meters, running up 2,341 QSO's on that band, with an average of 2.03 points per QSO.

ES5TV operated from the QTH of Ranko Boca 4O3A in Montenegro, which helped him total 7,680 contacts, 165 zones and 575 DXCC for 10,590,140 points.

Vahk was going toe-to-toe for the top European score with Toni Linden OH2UA, who was churning out contacts from CR2X in the Azores in Zone 14.

"I am sure Toni beat me with comfortable margin and probably made new record given the propagation," said Vahk.

Other top scores that were expected from the weekend included Rich Smith N6KT, who was at HC8A and Tom Georgens W2SC, who also was running big pileups from 8P5A.

The difference in the 2008 CQ WW SSB for HC8A was better openings on 10 meters than his competitors, and judging from the spots in 2009, Smith had the advantage again.

HC8A had three times the number of 10 meter spots as 8P5A, almost 10 times as many as CR2X, and 15 times the spot numbers of 4O3A.

Vahk had 468-26-79 on 10 meters from 4O3A.

Those four heavyweights all did about the same in terms of spots on other bands, except on 160 meters, where HC8A had no spots at all show up on the DX Summit search for this past weekend.

In the Assisted category, the early leader is past champ Sergey Rebrov UT5UDX, who ran ER4DX in Zone 16 to 8.4 million points.

As for the Single Op Low Power battle, that seems likely to run through Aruba this year, as past champ John Bayne was on in Aruba as P40A, a call that he's used for LP victories in recent years from there.

For many including the big shots, 15 meters gave a lot of contesters a lot to smile about this weekend - after several years of depressed conditions.

"we will be seeing some pretty big scores on this band," said Brian 5B4AIZ in his 3830 posting.

"The band seemed to be open to just about everywhere, I never had such strong sigs from the Pacific boys before with long openings too," he added.

"Who would have thought 15 would have been my money band," wrote ND9E on 3830.

"Superb condx on 15," said VE1OP, "sounded like the good old days."

While 15 meters left many smiling, 20 and 40 meters were big time battlegrounds, and the new landscape on 40 meters was not enjoyable for some.

"I think 40 was better when the broadcasters were around," said Rich DiDonna NN3W. "The QRM level was worse than 20 on its worst day."

"As nice as it is to transceive on 40 virtually the entire contest, it comes at a price," said Ken Claerbout K4ZW, who claimed 5 million points from the US.

"All that activity jammed into 75 kHz of bandwidth is a battle."

Claerbout also echoed others in being unimpressed by the low bands in general this year.

"80 was dead Friday night. I had less than 100 Q's on 80 by Saturday morning," said K4ZW.

"Conditions were BRUTAL!" wrote WA6WPG, who made 45 contacts on 80 meters. "Had to struggle for every contact. At times I wondered if the antenna was still connected."

"I got quite discouraged," said Dennis Egan W1UE, who operated the K5ZD station to 4.5 million points. "Didn't work LY, YL, ES, UA, UR on 80 or 40 until Saturday afternoon- heard a few, but they couldn't hear me."

And when Europeans on 40 can't hear someone with big antennas in New England, that is saying something about propagation.

Check back for score updates on the 2009 CQ WW SSB Contest all week here at radio-sport.net!