With the publication of the January/February 2018 NCJ, it became official:  NO3M has won the Sprint for the first time.  Congratulations, Eric! 

I looked over the records going back to 2000 and there has never been a Sprint winner from east of the Mississippi River, not to mention Pennsylvania, during this time.  For most of this century, the winners of the Sprints have been from the southwest and the west:  calls like N9RV, N2IC, N6TR, N5KO, N5TJ, etc. have dominated the top ten, with an occasional East Coast big gun like N2NT or K5ZD sneaking into the standings.  Back when W4AN was active, Georgia was at the top several times, but with this exception, the best East-of-the-Mississippi score I can find is during this time is the second-place finish by W9RE in September, 2011.  This shows just how enormous Eric’s accomplishment is. 

Those of us who have been operating the Thursday night NCCC Sprints (NS) are not surprised at Eric’s win in this event.  For the past several years, we have been watching him perfect his SO2R technique and operating skill to the point where he dominated the NS for several years running with scores way ahead of his nearest rival.  The only reason he has not been at the top of the Thursday night scores recently is that he seems to have taken a break from this activity to focus on his 160 goals and his 1930’s replica station equipment.   

As far as I can tell, Eric first made the top ten list in the September 2013 Sprint.  Since then, he has landed in the top ten numerous times and has often ranked higher on the total QSO list.    

By the way, NCC members are no strangers to the CW Sprint top ten box.  Over the 40 years of the Sprints, K3LR has been at the top of the list three times (possibly from Oklahoma?) and K3UA has placed first one time.  Both of these members have been in the top ten on several other occasions.  And a recent frequent winner – N9RV – is a former NCC member and still a good friend of the club. 

Getting back to the September Sprint results, in the team competition, NCC, along with our MRRC friends, fielded three teams, which placed fifth, sixth and ninth out of a total of 17 teams. 

In the low power category, two NCC members and one MRRC member made the top ten:  W1NN tied with K7SV for fourth place, N8EA was just behind him in sixth place, and K3UA came in ninth. 

In case you don’t subscribe to the NCJ, you can see the full results article on the NCJ website.

The next CW Sprint is scheduled for Saturday night local time on February 3, 2018.  As usual, Tim will be putting together teams so be sure to put this event on your schedule.