November Sweepstakes Returns For 2009 As N2IC Bids For Three Straight SS CW Single Op Titles

By Jamie Dupree NS3T radio-sport.net
Posted November 2, 2009

After watching KE3Q (at WP3R) dominate for eight straight years, now it's the turn of Steven London N2IC to see if he can extend his own two year winning streak in the 2009 running of the ARRL's November Sweepstakes CW contest.
"If you have any clues for squeezing out QSO's to pull ahead of N2IC, please let me know," said Ralph "Gator" Bowen N5RZ, "I've been trying to figure it out for years!"
Along with getting a sweep and making a lot of contacts, the winner of this contest must also be focused on minimizing mistakes in the contest log.
While London has been effective at that, he almost lost out in log checks in 2008, when he lost 31 contacts out of the 1560 he claimed, up a few from the 24 knocked out by log checkers after the 2007 CW test.
Hot on his heels in 2008 was Alex Avramov LZ4AX - who was at WP3R - who lost only 11 of his 1534 claimed contacts, ending up just six QSO's short of London's score.
Ending up in third was Gator N5RZ, who will be back at K5TR's QTH for another shot at winning this popular US and Canadian contest.
"After doing CQWW SSB last weekend from George's and taking note of conditions, I think it will again be a 40M/20M contest for me, with 80M & 15M as second radio bands - and that is fine with me," said Bowen.
Also back for another run at the title will be Mark Obermann AG9A, who again will head from his home in Illinois to the Iowa QTH of N0NI.
"I do plan on heading out to Iowa barring any other things getting in the way," Obermann told radio-sport.net.
In 2008, Bowen edged out Oberman by one contact for third place, with N2IC only 20 contacts ahead of the fourth place finisher.

K0EU Holds Three Year Win Streak In Low Power

While N2IC tries to make it three straight in the High Power category, four in a row is the magic number for Randy Martin K0EU, as he took the top spot last year over Tor Clay N4OGW with a simple strategy.
"I pretty much always stay on the highest band I can that supports good rate and work the heck out of the second radio," Martin said.
In 2007, Martin edged Mike Hance K5NZ by just over 5,000 points. Last year, his advantage over N4OGW was only 2700 points, and if Clay had just been able to find the 80th mult for a sweep, it would have been a victory for the Mississippi-based contester.

W6YI Looks For Repeat Win In SS CW Multi Battle

While the single operator races were close, so too was the battle last year for supremacy in the Multi-op category, as the team of Jim Stevenson W6YI edged out Team NR5M by seven contacts for the title.
"Our team will be participating again," Stevenson told radio-sport.net, who said he has upgraded his 3 element 80 meter inverted vee for Sweepstakes.
"It is definitely working better."
"We also have a new emergency generator system for this year after a 7 hour power failure during the recent CQP," Stevenson added.
"Being on the left coast, we just hope for propagation, not much QRN and no wild fires as this is the season for them."
The 2009 ARRL November Sweepstakes begins at 2100 UTC on November and runs until 0300z on November 9.

New 15 Day Log Deadline For SS

Changes are coming for the 2009 ARRL Sweepstakes which will mean quick action by contesters in terms of submitting logs, as the log deadlines are being cut down to only 15 days after the contest ends.
"The contesting community has long asked for a faster turnaround with the contest results," said ARRL Contest Manager Sean Kutzko on the ARRL web site.
"To make this faster turnaround possible, logs must be received at ARRL HQ within 15 days of the end of the contest, not 30 days, as it has been for years," Kutzko added.
The makes the log submission deadlines for ARRL Sweepstakes at 0300 UTC Tuesday, November 24 for CW and 0300 UTC Tuesday, December 7 for the SSB Contest.
Kutzko also took time out this past week to publicly urge comity between contesters and non-contesters in the upcoming Sweepstakes contests.
"As we all know, the combination of poor conditions on the higher HF bands and increasing participation in contests, ARRL-sponsored and others, is creating some very crowded bands on the weekends - especially in the 20, 40, and 75 meter phone allocations," Kutzko wrote.
"Because contesters know to expect this situation in advance, it's a good reason to make an extra effort to avoid non-contest users of the bands, particularly emergency communications and service-type activities," said Kutzko.
Kutzko said both contesters and net managers must realize they don't own any frequencies.
"Everyone must have a Plan B - an alternate frequency or band or time or even mode," Kutzko added. "It's unwise at best to expect that our chosen frequencies will always be noise- and interference-free in an emergency."