8P1A Keeps 2008 CQ WPX SSB Lead At Deadline; Would Be Third Straight WPX Victory For US Op

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted May 5, 2008

While conditions in the 2008 CQ WPX SSB contest again frustrated many operators, Tom Georgens W2SC didn't let it stop him from easily outdistancing the field from 8P1A in Barbados, as he has by far the highest single operator score at the WPX log deadline.

Georgens finished with 21.2 million points, giving him an outside chance of breaking his North American record set back in 2006 - during much better conditions.

"After an abominable start, this turned out to be a fun contest," said Georgens. "This contest is starting to grow on me," he added in his home page writeup, in what might be an understatement.

"The first 8 hours of the contest were brutal and I was over 400 Q's behind last year," Georgens told radio-sport.net.

But Georgens stuck to his game plan of milking 20 and 15 meters for all they were worth during the day and then worked 40 and 80 meters hard for those double point low band QSO's as well.

"On Saturday, the high bands were pretty good and Saturday night 40 was awesome," Georgens said.

The race for second place is right now in the hands of Ivan Dobrocky OM3LA, who logged just over 17 million points from Guadeloupe as FG/OM3LA.

Not far back in third is Helmut Mueller DF7ZS, who piloted CT9L to 16.7 million points.

Andy Faber P49Y has the top South American claimed score with 14.3 million; the top score in Asia belongs to Gia 4L4WW, who pushed 4L0A to 10.7 million and 9th place overall.

Andy Cook M6T (G4PIQ) has a very narrow lead from Europe with 10.46 million, with OK5R just 15k points behind, as the WPX EU title goes to the log checkers.

The top US score came from Jeff Briggs K1ZM, who operated from his station on Cape Cod, with 8.8 million points. Briggs is far ahead of Ken Claerbout K4ZW, who brought KN1DX home at 7.3 million.

"WPX conditions favored me and I did well in that one," Briggs told radio-sport.net.

Briggs made the lion's share of his contacts on 20 meters, with only 100 contacts on 15.

In the World Assisted category, the lead is in the hands of Wanderley Gomes PY2MNL, who pushed ZX2B in Brazil to 9.8 million points. In second place is Constantino Carlo HI3CCP, who operated HI3C to 8.6 million.

In the world low power category, it looks like there will be a new winner in 2008, as John Bayne KK9A was back at his P40A outpost in Aruba and claimed just over 16 million points, which would put him in fourth place overall for all single ops.

Defending world low power champ Yasar Gocet TA3D is in third place with 8 million points, behind FY5FY.

AO8A Leads WPX Multi-Op Ranks

While the Mult-Multi ranks had few competitors in 2008, it didn't matter, as Team AO8A put up the best score of any station in this year's contest with 45.9 million points.

The top US M/M was NQ4I with 12.7 million.

In the Multi-Two category, the lead is in the hands of the 6Y1V team, as they ran up 7,104 contacts for 30.3 million points, easily beating the North American Multi-Two record of 15.9 million set by V47KP in 2003.

"I was initially skeptical," wrote team member Scott Robbins W4PA on his blog at w4pa.journalspace.com, "not because I didn't think we or the station could do it, but the band conditions (were) the absolute pits the last few weeks."

The M/2 leader in the US is Team WE3C, which rang up 13.8 million points from 4,189 contacts.

As for the Multi-Single competition, it could be a repeat of last year's winners, as Matteo Carrisi IK2SGC and Stefano Brioschi IK2QEI took 5D5A in Morocco to over 35 million points.

Carrisi told radio-sport.net the goal was to win again and break the WPX M/S WW Record set by D44TD in 2002 of 33.4 million. Log checks will determine whether they can set that record or not.

"We had a great fun and probably this was one of the most difficult contest ever," said Carrisi, "we were very tired during and after this effort."

Carrisi said they made a series of antenna and strategy changes and improvements to maximize their on air time.

"We spent the entire first night in 80 and 40 with very good run rate results," said Carrisi.

But like many ops, Carrisi can't wait for the solar cycle to change for the better.

"We are still waiting for the great 10 meter band new cycle opening to avoid this year 13 qso’s we made…"