[NLRS] N9DG January 2015 results

[Duane - N9DG via NLRS]

South by Southwest, plus LOTS of rovers summarizes this contest. I don't think I've ever before worked so many Q's in the EN31/41/32/42 grids as I did this time. And thanks to some long haul roving down in the EM59/69 and EN50/60/30/40 grids, I got very good Q/grid coverage in that area as well. Some of those grids I would not have worked at all otherwise this time. The big reasons that may not have worked those grids otherwise was the not particularly good conditions, and a definitely lower level of participation in this contest. I haven't checked, but I get the feeling that the number of unique callsigns in my log may be at an all time low for a serious January contest effort.

The activity levels from the Milwaukee and Chicago areas were definitely down. And I'm sure that was compounded further by conditions not being very good. And there was also a group of grids that I usually work several Qs and multipliers in out the EN/EM 80's column that I barely heard or reached at all this time. And I also have some pretty big, and fairly close-in holes in MI/IN as well. Conditions were undoubtedly a big part of that.

Locally there was an up-tick in activity with a number of more casual ops getting on from the Madison area. Too bad there weren't better conditions and more stations for them to work out to the 150+ mile range.

Didn't work a single 6M Es Q this contest, and only heard bits and pieces of some really big gun DX stations who just can't hear my 150-ish watts under those fleeting conditions.

The numbers:

The per band TX count numbers for all CQs and Q TX exchanges provided by my trusty band by band PTT counters:
50 MHz  ~730
144 MHz  ~1580
222 MHz  ~250
432 MHz  ~370

The total number of transmissions I made for this January weren't dramatically different than last September. 144 was down slightly, and 50 and 432 were both up a little, and 222 was pretty much a wash.

Q x Grids:
50 MHz  88 x 24
144 MHz 102 x 33
222 MHz 56 x 22
432 MHz 68 x 23

Claimed score around 44K SOLP – Unassisted.

Duane
N9DG