I've done a pretty complete look at the claimed scores for Sweepstakes. A few comments:

It appears that MLDXCC will win the gavel again, assuming log checking doesn't find any serious issues.

After a 4th place finish in CW, we came through with 26 hard-earned logs in Phone and some seriously high scores.

While I did verify scores and logs received, I did not verify distance. I did notice some scores from stations clearly outside of the 175 mile circles. I may do this for the Florida Contest Group, which had an unusually high score this year. I also did not verify membership but will take a look at Florida.

Two other clubs deserve to be on this list and they may indeed have scores topping some of the clubs on this list. Those clubs are the Tennessee Contest Group and the Alabama Contest Group. I may include them in the tally next year. Their scores will not top ours.

The Mad River Radio Club does something right. Well over 50 percent of their membership participates in SS and they are, by far, the smallest club in this tally. If 50 percent of NCCC participated in SS, CW and Phone, NCCC could have a chance at the Unlimited gavel based on the huge scores of some of our members.

There is no reason why any of these clubs could not win. They just need to be motivated to get on the air on the phone contest. When the Arizona Outlaws, or Contest Club Ontario, or the Southern California Contest Club figure this out, look out MLDXCC!!

When NCCC used to focus on Sweepstakes, for years and years, the problem was always finding phone operators, as is the case with some of the clubs listed. MLDXCC has really cranked out the phone operators and the time may come when NCCC again goes for the gavel, but probably not until a better slot in the sunspot cycle. MLDXCC is a club with both new and experienced operators and we encourage the new operators to participate in our contests. Most of our new operators come out of the "dreaded" ranks of the no-code licensees, the license change so many fought against a few years ago (I didn't!). Mother Lode has done an excellent job recruiting new contesters over the past several years and this is where a good chunk of our phone scores are coming from. Most of these new members eventually join NCCC, which should help NCCC in the same way in upcoming years.

I did check the total logs for YCCC, FRC and SMC. All were well over 50.

If you're wondering about the Local Club category, it appears that the second place club last year, New Mexico Big River Contesters, may have beaten PL259. I say this without verifying membership and distance of the stations submitting scores. PL259 had ten logs submitted. NM had 9. Like MLDXCC, NM made up for a lower CW score with three phone scores well over 200K. To PL259's credit, all but one of their scores were over 100K. NM had two scores under 100K. Last year, PL259 won with a score of 1,809,218 over NM's 1,038,512. This year, it appears, BEFORE LOG CHECKING, that NM is at 1,473,382 and PL259 is at 1,390,016. Log checking can make a difference, so PL259 could still pull it off. While there are a log of clubs submitting in the Local Category, no one else is even close to these two clubs.

Again, I'm not proclaiming a win for MLDXCC. Just stating the current facts.

Way to go Mother Lode!!

With all that said, I do want to make one other point. In our category, all of the clubs were down in scores this year except for Florida, which was way up. Last year, MLDXCC won the gavel with a score of 4,296,446. Our claimed total for this year sits at 3,876,128. We should have been at 4,037,176, but I don't think we're going to make that number. Why? Well, your log flogger checked all of your scores and your ARRL submissions. I privately contacted a couple of you advising of changes that needed to be made (correct club, correct spelling, etc.). What I didn't do, and I am embarrassed to admit it, is check my own log submission. Imagine my horror when I was checking for any last minute MLDXCC changes on the ARRL Logs Received page when I saw my own log (and K6TLR made most of the points) submitted to NCCC. How did that happen? I'll blame it on being a first time user of N1MM, but the real blame goes to me. I should have checked a few hours earlier. I did change it, but it was a few hours after the deadline, so I'm going to assume the W1RH score did not go to MLDXCC, thus giving us a total of 3,876,128.

- Bob, W1RH

		CW Logs	CW	SSB Logs	SSB	Total
CLUB	SCORE	Received	Score	Received	Score	Logs
MLDXCC	3,876,128	22	1,843,980	26	2,032,148	48
FCC	3,375,072	23	1,750,312	21	1,624,760	44
SCCC	3,167,713	23	2,029,651	14	1,138,062	37
MRRC	3,125,632	25	1,649,944	22	1,475,688	47
CCCO	2,986,236	28	1,975,362	14	1,010,874	42
AO	2,856,554	26	1,949,562	14	906,992	40
DFW	2,485,688	21	1,309,152	19	1,176,536	40
NCCC	2,422,896	28	1,554,704	17	868,192	45