N2IC Wins 2007 November Sweepstakes CW For 1st SS Title

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted April 14, 2008

The headline from the 2007 ARRL November Sweepstakes CW Contest is most certainly the victory of Steve London N2IC. Even without the disappearing log of WP3R (KE3Q), London would have broken WP3R's eight year winning streak in the CW test.

Inside the numbers, it's obvious why London was able to stay on top in the high power category. After log checks, N2IC was docked only 23 contacts, for a score reduction of 1.53%, just under four thousand points.

With no log from WP3R, that put Kevin Stockton N5DX in with the second highest HP claimed score, but his log had the highest score reduction in the top ten, losing 4.42%.

66 QSO's were chopped out of the N5DX log, which allowed both K5TR (N5RZ) and N0NI (AG9A) to jump up in the standings, as N5DX fell to fourth place overall.

AG9A had the lowest score reduction of the top ten "B" stations with 0.97%. He lost only 14 contacts. The average top ten high power score reduction was 1.85%.

A radio-sport.net review comparing claimed to final scores produced an average score reduction for each SS CW category, followed by the average for the top ten in that same category:

High Power - 13.94%, 1.85%

Low Power - 12.6%, 2.4%

QRP - 11.99%, 2.42%

Unlimited - 8.63%, 3.04%

School - 12.45%, 12.45%

Multi - 13.8%, 4.18%

(To see how you fared in terms of score reductions, you can see your claimed and final results and compare them to all other entrants.)

(One other note - the ARRL UBN/NIL reports focus on error rate. The radio-sport.net numbers presented here are on total score reduction, how much of a difference there was between your claimed score and the final results after log checking, which can be a higher percentage than the ARRL "error rate.")

In the low power top ten, the cleanest log was that of Matthew Trott K7BG, who lost only 1.01% of his claimed score. That enabled him to jump over Dan Craig N6MJ into fourth place overall, denying Craig a few WRTC qualifying points in the process.

K7BG lost only 11 contacts in log checks.

First place LP finisher Randall Martin K0EU lost 2% overall, bettering the top ten average.

The winner of the QRP category, Tor Clay N4OGW, lost only 0.44% of his claimed score, as log checks knocked out only four of his 902 raw contacts! That was by far the best performance of any of the individual SS CW winners.

The QRP final scores varied greatly, as three of the QRP top ten had more than a 5% reduction, while four of the top ten were under 1%.

Busted contacts jumbled the top five in the Unlimited category, as Ty Stewart K3MM jumped into second place overall, losing just 1.63% of his score. He was originally in third.

K5YA had been #2 in claimed scores, but fell to 4th place after losing 5.9% in log checks. W8MJ went from 4th to 5th with a 5.62% score reduction.

Assisted winner Dave Hachadorian K6LL did much better than average, as he clocked his (third) straight win in the Unlimited category, losing just 1.36% of his claimed score, just 18 of 1328 raw contacts.

The average score reductions for top ten finishers went higher in the Multi category, averaging 4.18%. Champion K9NS was at 3.77%. The best of the top ten was Team K5TA at just a 1.63% loss of score.