N6NF NAQP SSB Lead Could Fall Victim to Off Time Errors; W5WMU Stays in M/2 Lead; CW Leaders Still N6MJ, K5GO

By Jamie Dupree NS3T, radio-sport.net 

With by far the top publicly claimed score in the January NAQP SSB Contest, Tom Gehman N6NF would seem to be in the perfect situation as the contest heads to the log checkers.

Gehman is the only single op to have over 1300 contacts, as he holds a lead of just under 13,000 points on Paul Newberry N4PN, who is at 242,408.

But a look at the N6NF log may raise some issues.

"A close examination of my January NAQP SSB log shows a total operating time of 9.5 hours," said Gehman N6NF. "However, some of my off times are less than the 30 minute minimums required by the rules."

That could make his entry a checklog, or it could cost Gehman some contacts, and thus maybe his number one claimed position.

In an email to radio-sport.net, Gehman wasn't complaining about his situation, saying "activity and propagation kept me busy and made for an enjoyable day at the radio."

One interesting note about N6NF's post-contest review, was that Gehman did not move any mults in the contest. That might be one explanation as to why he had 101 more contacts than N4PN, but five fewer multipliers.

While some ops stumbled on a ten meter opening, Gehman did not.

"I heard no contest activity on ten meters, but checked only a couple of times," he said.

But there was some excitement on ten for Lu Romero W4LT in Tampa, Florida, who caught a Gulf Coast opening in the first hour of the contest

"Station after station called me," said Romero. Lots of short skip, amazingly from MS, AL, GA, LA, TX then the band moved wider and wider to AR, TN, IL, IN, MO, WI."

Romero said the opening "abruptly collapsed at around 1900" when a line of storms moved into his area.

Romero said his friend Julio W4HY also experienced some enhanced propagation at about the same time on 6 meters in the January ARRL VHF contest.

"We were both on the east edge of a squall line that was in the Gulf of Mexico headed for us," Romero said.

"I find it interesting (more like incredible) that I had the second highest 10 meter QSO count for *all* currently reporting stations, including the Multis! I also have the highest multiplier count of ALL reporting stations as well."

For now, the lead in the Multi-Two category is in the hands of the Team W5WMU in Louisiana, as Pat Sonnier's squad totaled 606,621 points.

Team NX5M, the claimed leader in the 2007 ARRL 10 Meter contest is second at 552k.

W5WMU did most of the contest damage on 40 meters, where they cranked out 1,127 contacts and 59 mults. 20 meters was next best at 860 QSO's.

The SSB QRP leader remains Brian Wilcox NA4BW, who managed to thread his five watt signal through a lot of QRM and bad conditions, ending up with over 33 thousand points.

As for the previous weekend's NAQP CW contest, the lead remains in the hands of WRTC veteran Dan Craig N6MJ, who ran up over 1200 contacts at W6YI's super station.

Craig totaled 355,320 points, with 1269 contacts and 280 multipliers. That gave him a 48,000 point lead over Ken Keeler N6RO, who had a personal best 1,239 contacts.

Unlike January of 2007, when the top ten stations made only 30 contacts in all on 10 meters, this year featured a short opening from the West Coast to back East. Craig N6MJ took advantage of that with 86/24. N6RO had 49/20 on 10.

A week later, the SSB leader N6NF had zero contacts on 10 meters. The top multis didn't even register double digits in mults in SSB.

In other CW categories, the QRP event was a shootout between some of the top five-watt calls in the US and Canada, as Dale Martin KG5U holds a 3600 point lead over Al Sinopoli KC5R, with defending NAQP QRP champ Julius Fazekas N2WN not far back in third.

"My hat is off to KG5U and KC5R for the excellent scores," said Fazekas.

"It's interesting to look at the band/QSO variations between the QRP stations. Looks like Texas/Louisiana/Mississippi may be the place to be for domestic contests this year," Fazekas added.

"I'm betting they had better coverage of the northeast than I did, even the VE3s were tough!"

In the multi-op battle, it's a very tight race, right now in favor of Team K5GO. Stan Stockton's group in Arkansas netted 521,591 points, giving them a lead of 1800 points on the team of Ken Adams K5KA in Oklahoma.

The difference was just seven QSO's, as both groups reported getting 269 multipliers.

Not far back in third place was Steve London's group at N2IC.

For more on the rules of the NAQP, please visit the NCJ website.