Donations are accepted. We appreciate the help!
Click here for RSS feeds or use the email signup form below to be notified about new radio-sport.net news updates
London took advantage of his New Mexico QTH out West to make 588 QSO's on 20 meters, and 711 on 40 meters to run up 1,597 net contacts for 255,520 points, giving him an over 10,000 point edge on Mark Oberman AG9A, who again operated from the N0NI station in Iowa.
It was a much easier win for London in 2009 than in 2008, when N2IC won over WP3R (LZ4AX op) by just six contacts - 1,040 points total.
"SW New Mexico was definitely a hot spot," London wrote after the contest on 3830.
"Everywhere I went, the rate stayed high," said London, adding, "it almost felt like there were sunspots, again.
While London won the high power title again, there was a new champ in 2009 on the Low Power side in the "A" category, as Marvin Bloomquist N5AW won that battle.
Bloomquist made 1228 QSO's last year for the victory, focusing most of his energy on 20 and 40 meters, making 579 and 500 contacts respectively on those bands.
"Got off to good start but bogged down a bit on the low bands," said Bloomquist after last year's outing, as he used his central location in Texas to his advantage, as he made an extra effort with SO2R to squeeze out more contacts.
The defending champ in the Unlimited category is Ty Stewart K3MM of the Potomac Valley Radio Club, who put technology to use last year to make 1364 contacts.
Stewart used a local Skimmer with the antenna for his second radio, and merged those spots with the DX clusters for a full band map.
One note about Stewart's effort last year - which makes for an interesting review of strategy from different parts of the country - is that K3MM made almost half of his contacts on 80 meters, where he put 647 stations in the log.
Compare K3MM's big showing on 80 meters to N5AW in Texas and N2IC in New Mexico - who both focused their energy on 20 and 40 meters - and it's a reminder that what works in the East is not the same band strategy as out West.
The real story of K3MM's win came in log checks, as he defeated Dave Hachadorian K6LL by just one QSO - you read that right - one contact.
K3MM's raw score was 1364 QSO's, while K6LL was at 1354. The final tally after log checks gave K3MM 1,331 contacts - to 1,330 for K6LL.
It's another reminder how important it is to copy the difficult SS exchange properly.
"We don't ever set out with a goal of breaking the record. We just try and put in the best score possible," said station owner Jim Stevenson W6YI.
"Our aim is to push the strategy and equipment envelope as far as we can to catch up to the other great teams throughout North America."
The W6YI team includes Dan Craig N6MJ, Doug Brandon N6RT, John Barcroft K6AM and Dennis Vernacchia N6KI.
"We try to be well prepared," Stevenson noted.
"We were able to set the records...after years of working together and fine-tuning our game plans, as everything came together for us."
Maybe with enough work, it can come together for you this year as well.
N2IC - High Power
N5AW - Low Power
N0AT (N0KK) - QRP
K3MM - Unlimited
W6YI - Multi
K0HC (W0BH) - School
The full results of the 2009 SS CW are available at the ARRL website.
