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"We finally got good conditions for a contest weekend!" said WPX Contest Director Randy Thompson K5ZD in his 3830 report.
"There was more activity than the bands could hold," Thompson added.
There was a lot of activity on all the bands throughout the weekend, with wide open conditions drawing in all kinds of people for this prefix-focused contest, as good propagation was evident all around the world.
"15M was in such great shape on the West coast that I decided to stay on one band," wrote Ed K6CTA on 3830. "It was nice to see it open to pretty much all parts of the globe."
"Propagation was excellent," said Timo Klimoff OH1NOA, who operated OH1F from Finland this past weekend.
While Klimoff made most of his contacts on 20 meters, 10 meters was also showing signs of life from Europe - in all directions.
"Good fun, 10m has finally woken up," said Darrell G0HVQ on 3830, as he noted "great DX" including "FY8DK, 4K8M, RF9C, VK6FDX, VK9CF, but best of all was NH7O Long Path down over S.Africa just after dawn on Sunday."
Robert S57AW also reported a QSO long path with NH7O, as well as QSO's into New Zealand and Japan in the evening on 10 meters from Europe.
"Good to see 10 meters alive again," wrote Bernhard Buettner DL6RAI in Germany.
"Really enjoyed the good openings on the 10 meter band," said Eger PP2EG from Brazil.
If you need any confirmation on why things have turned around for ham radio contesters on the high bands, all you need to do is look at the sun - and sunspot numbers for the past few years.
The solar image on the left was from this past weekend when the sunspot number was again over 100 - the solar photo on the right from spaceweather.com was from last year's WPX, when the sunspot number was in the 20s.
Back in 2009, the story was how many days the sun went spotless - 260 days - a gigantic number.
In 2010, that dropped to just 51 days, and so far in the first three months of 2011, there has only been one day without a sunspot.
And it's being noticed by everyone.
"First time I ever worked two BYs and two JTs in the same contest," said Karl Oyster K1KO, who found "unbelievably good signals from northern Asia. The JT was S9+30 in southeastern Virginia. Go Sunspots!!!"
"I could actually run US on 40m which has been impossible for many years," said Tonno Vahk ES5TV, who broke the European single operator record with 17.8 million points, but admitted he doesn't expect to have the highest score, as conditions were so good this past weekend.
"20 and 15 ignored all the propagation rules staying open to US till local midnight. Incredible! What a contest. QSOs and multipliers never seemed to end," he added.
And Vahk was right, as Braco Memic E77DX came through with a claimed score of 21.3 million points, after getting 5,004 QSO's and 1338 prefixes, highlighted by 2002 contacts on 15 meters.
But the weekend wasn't about the big shootout in Europe, or the battle for the worldwide title. Instead, it was about how the bands took off again, and drew in all kinds of hams from the sidelines to offer up even more prefixes and more contacts for everyone.
"This is most contacts I have made in any contest," said Allen Lewey K7ABL on 3830, as he operated 7 hours and made 238 contacts, almost all on 15 meters as he chased DXCC on that band.
"My first SSB contest in 31 years," wrote Scott Long K8SM on 3830, as he knocked out 267 QSO's on 40 meters.
"This is one of my most memorable contesting experiences of the past 50 years," wrote Larry Shima W0PAN on 3830, as he labeled band conditions "phenomenal," which helped him make over 400 contacts from a G5RV at 18 feet.
"Thoroughly enjoyed the contest and can't wait for the next sun spot cycle to be with us for a period of time," Shima added.
"I listened to 15 meters on Sat. nite and I never in my Ham radio career heard Asia as loud as they were that nite," said John Colyard W4IX.
"WPX was for us a family event," Michael Hoding DL6MHW told radio-sport.net.
"Lena (12 years old) operated her first SSB Contest as DN2TL with 60 Qs and 7k. My wife ends up with 300 Qs and 200k and my score was 100k with 200Q."
As the scores roll in from this year's WPX SSB contest, be sure to send us your pictures and stories about this year's test - have we turned the corner with propagation finally? Email us at radio-sport.net
After radio-sport.net last week listed the various operating penalties handed out by WPX Contest organizers, it prompted the organizers of one European contest station to bar two operators from using the station in the near future.
At issue were penalties given to club station HG5A in the 2009 CQ WW DX SSB and CW contests, and logs for last year's WPX Contests, which were withdrawn after questions were raised about the entries.
Simon Lazlo HA5IW contacted radio-sport.net before the WPX SSB test and said that HG5A would not be welcoming HA1CW and HA8LLK for contest operations in the near future:
"As we read this published article, the management of HG5A has made the following decision: we will not allow HA1CW and HA8LLK operators to participate in CQ-WW and CQ-WPX contests, until the expiry of the received red and yellow card sentences.
HG5A is a well known and very old call sign, therefore we wouldn't really like to be in the penalties articles in the future. Regardless of, whether the management is meaningless in relation to the unfortunate occurrences, we are accepting the decision of the contest committee."
Also, HA1CW, operating as HG5A, withdrew his log after being asked about possible rule violations.
In the 2010 WPX CW Contest, the following stations were given Yellow cards for "unclaimed assistance":
There was also one Withdrawn log:
