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After a record-setting event last year in which seventy percent of the worldwide records were broken, organizers of the CQ WPX RTTY Contest are hoping for another strong turnout in 2010, with the defending champ hoping that Aruba will again be a lucky charm.
WPX RTTY is just another example of the explosive growth in RTTY contesting, as the number of submitted logs went up another 11 percent last year, while the number of logged calls went up even more by 17 percent.
As for the favorite in the Single Op High Power category, that's no mystery, as Ed Muns W0YK will again be down in Aruba as P49X, gunning for another major RTTY contest title.
"Is there any way to stop P49X? I doubt it," said Dennis Egan W1UE.
"You've got a great op at a decent station with a unique prefix, one hop away from the major ham population," Egan told radio-sport.net.
"His pileups are endless, and he works them quickly," Egan added of Muns, who has set the world record in this contest two straight years.
"I'm always looking to do better than I have previously, but of course we need propagation," Muns said.
"I'm not too worried about activity, as RTTY contest participation continues to escalate," he added before leaving for Aruba.
Muns won the 2009 WPX RTTY by almost 5 million points over Vadim Ovsyannikov UA9CLB, with Serge Rebrov UT5UDX in third from G6PZ.
"Serge visits when he can, sometimes making a special trip just for the contest," says his host Paul Beecham G6PZ.
"I've known him since he was playing professional football in the UK but he has since moved back to his home team Dyamo Kiev now in a coaching role," Beecham told radio-sport.net.
"He is uber competitive and like a machine," Beecham said of Rebrov.
In the low power competition, P49X will again have some company on Aruba, as defending champ Roger Hoffman N4RR is back for another shot at the LP category win.
Hoffman used his advantageous location in 2009 to edge Girts BUdis YL2KL, who operated from the D4C station in the Cape Verde Islands.
Meanwhile back in Europe, Ranko Boca 4O3A says his 2009 Multi-Single winning team will switch categories to Multi-Two this year, with the goal of setting a new European record.
"I will again have a team from S5, Z3, YU and 4O," Boca told radio-sport.net.
"Unfortunately, some very important antennas are broken this winter, but there is still enough hardware left to give us a chance to take another EU record at 4O3A."
P49X (W0YK) - World High Power
P40R (N4RR) - World Low Power
4O3A - World Multi-Single
NP3U - World Multi-Two
EF8M - World Multi-Multi
The results of the 2009 CQ WPX RTTY are available at the WPX RTTY.
Standing Left to right, 4O4A, Z30A; Sitting Left to Right, YU1JW, 4O3A, S51D.
For example, the category definitions for Multi-ops have been re-written and clarified.
Multi-Two and Multi-Multi operations are to use a "separate serial number sequence" on each band.
Another change that will make participants happy is that the minimum operating time to qualify for a certificate has been reduced from 12 to six hours.
Finally, the log deadline has been moved up substantially, as instead of having a month to get your logs in, that date has been changed to a two week submission deadline.
