Final Days of May Bring Shift to Prefixes, as CQ WPX CW Draws World Contest Focus

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted May 25, 2011

After tough conditions on the bands in 2010, organizers are hopeful that this weekend's CQ WPX CW contest will draw a big field, though sunspot numbers may not be as high as back in March for the SSB leg of this popular contest.

And if you want to figure out how best to navigate your way through this contest, there's no better place to start than by looking at last year's logs, as WPX has joined CQ WW in releasing log entries on the internet.

"The CQ WW Contest has been making submitted logs public for many years," said WPX Director Randy Thompson K5ZD on his WPX blog. "The last two WPX surveys indicated that WPX participants wanted the same."

Thompson says the last survey showed that over 85% of those surveyed did want to see open logs.

You can find them for the 2010 WPX CW at the WPX web site.

Conditions last year were routinely described as "poor," but that didn't stop a new world record from being set for Single Operators, as Alexander Gimanov RZ3AZ took the EF8M station on the Canary Islands and finished with 18.39 million points for a new all-band record.

Other major records set in 2010 included Single Operator Low Power by Yrui Kuriny RG9A (UA9AM) at 4.38 million points; single band 40 meters by YT3W at 3V8CB, 80 meter QRP by LY5G, 160 meters Assisted by LY2IJ,

While the sun has been more active so far this year, sunspot totals have dipped a bit in recent weeks, which have made conditions a bit less active on the high bands.

"Band conditions today sound pretty 'dull,' said John Crovelli W2GD, "but there is always hope some additonal sunspots will appear before the weekend."

Crovelli will be down in Aruba at his familiar P40W post in the SOAB High Power category.

"Last year John K4BAI @ PJ4A broke my longstanding South American SOAB HP record set way back in the mid-90s," Crovelli told radio-sport.net.

"So with P49Y also in the mix this should certainly be a spirited SA competition and hopefully we'll be competitive with our fellow Northern African competitiors."

Others to keep an eye on include UU0JM from the 4L0A station in Georgia, UT5UDX operating ER4A in Moldova, N2NL from Guam as NH2T, E73A at T70A and R5GA at TO8A in the Carribean.

The 2011 CQ WPX CW Contest begins at 0000z on Saturday May 28 and ends at 2400z May 29.

While the contest is 48 hours in length, single operators are limited to 36 hours of contest operation.