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The attempt at four straight single operator wins in the CQ WPX SSB contest by Tom Georgens W2SC was in doubt during WPX weekend, as outside forces knocked Georgens off the air at his Barbados contest QTH.
"Bad power outage last night," Georgens told radio-sport.net in between contest QSO's on Saturday morning, as he ran US stations on 15 meters.
That and a number of other odd happenings caused some headaches for Georgens, but in the end, he still has managed to claim the top score so far, at 18.5 million points, as he tries to win a fourth straight WPX SSB Single Operator title.
"With 12 hours of off time, it (the power outage) was not fatal, but they were not the two hours I would have chosen," Georgens wrote in his 3830.
Georgens also said he struggled some on the high bands, as propagation was again iffy for many contesters for yet another major contest.
"There was virtually no 15 meter propagation into EU and I worked 900 fewer EU stations than last year," Georgens reported.
As of now, Georgens has a decent edge over Bill Kollenbaum K4XS, who ran his KH7XS call to almost 18 million points.
"Since it was my first all band WPX from KH6 the choice of off times was rather tricky and I really wasn't sure exactly what times to pick," Kollenbaum wrote in his 3830.
"I had a rough idea but let the flow of the contest and my gut feeling dictate the off times."
The top score in the US comes from Kamal Sirageldin N3KS, who again trotted out his WY3P call for WPX, and knocked out 9.5 million points.
On the low power side, Ed Sawyer N1UR has the top US score as NV1N with 2.5 million points.
Once again, much of the postgame chatter centered on the bad propagation that many had to deal with.
"We made only 7 Q's on 160 and we are operating from W8JI with all the fancy 160 meter antennas," said Charlie Wooten NF4A, whose call was used for a Multi-Single effort that still netted 11.8 million points.
"The noise was basically 30 over all the time on 160," added Wooten, who was joined by N4PN, NA4BW and WW4LL at Tom Rauch's W8JI superstation.
The bad storms that hit a good chunk of the US also made life tough for another multi in the state of Georgia, as NQ4I was knocked completely off the air on Saturday by a power outage.
"We took a one hour and thirty four minute off time due to power loss," said Rick Daugherty NQ4I, whose team still managed 18.6 million points in the Multi-Multi category.
Daugherty said their score was limited not only by low band static, but also by nasty rain static on the high bands.
"Right now I hear the sound of golf ball sized hail falling," he told radio-sport.net in a mid-contest email. "It's getting louder and louder."
The money bands - as expected - were 20 and 40 meters, as once more the 20 meter SSB battle was never ending.
"20 meters was a meat grinder," observed Ed Richardson VE4EAR in his 3830.
"Please Lord, bring on Cycle 24 Fast," wrote Roland Spoon AH6RR.
P40A (KK9A) - World Low Power
OK7CM - World QRP
ZX2B (PY2MNL) - World Assisted
AO8A - World Multi-Multi
6Y1V - World Multi Two
5D5A - World Multi-Single
"40 meters without broadcast QRM. Never thought I would hear that in my life time," wrote WPX Contest Director Randy Thompson K5ZD on the CQ-Contest reflector.
"Completely changes the nature of 40 meter SSB contesting."
While the world is not clear of those BC stations in the 40 meter ham bands, the change was noticeable in North America, where it is expected to keep making it easier for US and European stations to expand their 40m totals.
Stations in both the US and Europe set records in the 2008 WPX SSB for single band 40 meter operations.
Whether that is repeated in 2009 may depend on the band conditions, as high levels of static and bad weather hit a number of US competitors.
Please send in your pictures, stories and tips about contesting news to us at radio-sport.net
