After "Dead-Heat" Last Year, Will There Be One Winner in ARRL Novmeber Sweepstakes CW?

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted October 31, 2011

With some of the best contest conditions in years and new low power category offerings this year, contesters kick off the ARRL Sweepstakes for 2011 with one thing certain - it will be difficult to repeat the "dead heat" that resulted in a tie last year between Pat Barkey N9RV and Mark Obermann AG9A.

At first, it looked like Barkey had prevailed in what he labeled his "first real test" for his antennas at his QTH near Missoula in the western part of Montana, as he finished with 1498 raw QSO's.

Obermann was back at 1465 contacts and seemed more likely to hold down second place overall.

But when the logs were checked, both N9RV and AG9A (operating as N0NI in Iowa) ended up at 1453 QSO's, as AG9A lost only 12 contacts, while N9RV lost 44.

One single operator actually ended with more QSO's than either N9RV and AG9A, as WRTC veteran Dan Street K1TO came out of log checks with 1466 contacts - but Street was never able to find Puerto Rico, and so he ended up in third place because his log only had 79 multipliers, instead of the full 80.

The different ways - and locations - in the top 5 of the Single Operator High Power category showed what makes Sweepstakes such a different and interesting contest:

N9RV made over 40% of his QSO's on 40 meters, but also had decent numbers on 80, 20 and 15

From Iowa, AG9A made the most contacts on 80 meters, with good numbers on 40 and 20

Down in Florida, K1TO made 1,028 QSO's on 40 meters - most of the rest on 20

In South Dakota, WD0T had the most contacts on 20 meters, followed by 40 and 80

And then in 5th place from KL7RA's station in Alaska was Tree N6TR, who made the most contacts on 15 meters, followed by 40 and 20.

In other words, when thinking about your strategy for ARRL Sweeptsakes, what works for someone in one part of the country might not work for you in another part of the country.

With better conditions this year on 10 meters, a repeat of last year's total on 10 seems unlikely, when only a handful of contacts were made - N9RV had two, the only station in the top 5 to make a QSO on that band.

The story was the same in the multi-op ranks, where repeat winner Team W6YI had a half dozen QSO's on 10 meters.

How could it be different? Well, go back to one of the most active years on 10 meters in the last decade, in 2003 - that year, WP3R (KE3Q op) won with 670 contacts on 10 meters, his top band overall.

That year featured a top five of Puerto Rico, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Hawaii in the Single Operator ranks.

Back in 2003, there were 1,240 logs submitted - in 2010, that had grown to 1,465, despite a number of years of less than optimal conditions for contesters.

We'll see if either N9RV or AG9A can win a second time; their dead-heat in 2010 ended a three year win streak for Steve London N2IC, who himself had a few years earlier ended the long win streak of WP3R.

The November Sweepstakes contests begin with the CW test, which starts at 2100 UTC November 5 and runs until 0300z on November 7.

The SSB Sweepstakes test occurs two weeks after that, beginning at 2100z on Novmeber 19 and ends at 0300z on November 21.