[Fourlanders] FM/SSB contest analysis

[Bob Lear]

I have sent this message with a spreadsheet ATTACHED to the band 
captains and key operators for their perusal.  An ATTACHMENT cannot be 
sent over the reflector.  If anyone else wants to see this comparison, 
let me know and I'll forward the spreadsheet to you.  Bob


Way too hot to work outside!  I've been working in the shack with 
various things.

One thing is analyzing/comparing our June contest results here with 
those of Ryan KK4OSG who was only about 15 miles away from us on Blood 
Mountain operating FM only.  He had pretty good results with 179 total 
Q's.  He sent me his log and I thought it would be interesting to see 
how we compared and I was very surprised.  Most of you know I haven't 
been very supportive of us doing FM as I really didn't think we'd make 
enough Q's to even make it worth setting up a station.  Well, I stand 
corrected, at least for this contest from here in EM84.  I still don't 
know how much difference it might make to us up on the mountain in EM85 
where we are even further from 'population' centers, if there are any 
even in Western NC, but maybe there is potential. Needless to say now, 
if we had been looking for FM Q's on 2, 222 and 432 when they were 
"dead" for us on CW/SSB, it could have made for some more decent numbers 
on those bands.  We will certainly have to remember that in any future 
contest when 6m is wide open and the higher band activity is suffering.  
Very surprised that there are so many folks getting on for the contest 
on FM only.  Of course, Ryan did spend time stirring them up and 
advertising.  We'll have to get some pointers from him on what he did to 
shake 'em out"!

We only did 6 FM Q's and 4 of those were with Ryan!  Interesting that in 
3 local grids, we didn't work them at all and he had 5 Q's in the three 
grids.  Hard to believe that we missed 3 multipliers in 3 local grids 
(grids no more than two away from 84).

There are some interesting numbers to look at and I'll attach them in a 
spreadsheet as that will be an easier way to put them than here in 
text.  A chart of Q's and a grid map of Q's.

As you can easily see, there were quite a few FM only operators that we 
could have made contact with and increased our Q count on the higher 
bands.  Not so much on 6 though.  I really don't think it would make 
much difference to where we place in the contest, but you never know.  
Sometime we might actually be in a 'close' score situation.  Usually we 
are all by ourselves!

Comments?

Thanks to Ryan KK4OSG for letting us look at his log for this.

73, Bob