[NLRS] 2m activity in contest

[Wyatt Dirks]

A few notes about 2m activity in this contests and perhaps contests in
general lately.

This is the fifth year I've operated this contest as rover plus a signal op
effort from K2drh station in 2017. 4 of the years as rover I've done pretty
much the same route starting at the Homer IL grid corner(em59/69, en50/60)
and ending at the newhall IA grid corner(en31/32/41/42.) The 5th oddball
year was 2016 when I started at the St Charles grid corner(en33/34/43/44)
and ended at the newhall corner.

2m activity on ssb has never been great in this contest since I've been
doing it.  The worst year ever was 2016 but every other year I get much
better results at the Homer IL corner.  Alot more people to work in IL MI
IN OH then in MN WI IA. The last three years I've had almost the same exact
setup with only 2 major changes.  The 1 being Ft8 actually working with
/r.  In 2018 Ft8 was mostly unusable as rover some of you might recall.  In
2019 my 2m activity was limited on Saturday because of a truck breakdown.
But I think activity was still better this year from same locations.

This year I saw best 2m scores I've possibly ever seen.  One reason is the
extended range of Ft8 and the number of Ft8 ops on 2m. Also lack of 6m prop
this year people tend to spend a little more time on 2m.  I don't cq alot
on 2m ssb cause it's a waste when I can just go to Ft8 and find people to
work.  I do always watch the scope for activity on both bands.  More times
then Id like to count on 2m I see ssb go there and call but the other
station can't hear me.  Why is this Idk cause most of the time it's 200w
stations. Maybe on Ft8 they would hear me. Note almost all activity on ssb
this contest was on 144.200.  I saw some activity off 144.200 but very
limited.

Another interesting note about Ft8.  90% of the calls I work on Ft8 on 2m
it's the only mode I've ever worked them in a contest.  So it's not old
activity changing mode it's completely new activity.  Maybe I'm the only
one to have noticed this but maybe not.

In summary activity on 2m for me this contest was great on Saturday from
the Homer IL grid corner and pretty decent Sunday from newhall Iowa but Ft8
was the main mode used.  Ft8 for me has really increased 2m activity and I
hope more join in on the Ft8 activity above 6m.

73 Wyatt
Ac0ra

Ps I have 3830 posts for all these contests if you wanna look back and
compare years.