[VHFcontesting] CQWW VHF W3DHJ/R Rover results

[Jonesy W3DHJ]

A pretty sad contest from S.E. Colorado.  Lack of propagation, and
lack of regional participation resulted in a total of 29 QSOs.
Nearly the same nubber of QSOs and 32 more point than my 2015
CQ WW VHF and last year I had to QRT after 5 hours on Saturday.
Thanks mostly to George, AB0YM/R, a couple of casual, non-contesters
along the front range, and strange, "pop-up" skip to individual
"DX" stations, all but 5 of my 29 QSOs were unique --
i.e., I had 24 out of 29 QSOs as multipliers.

The "pop-up" skip was weird and occurred mostly on Sunday.
E.g.,
 * one 59+ QSO to DN28 --- and nothing else.
 * one 59+ QSO to CN87 --- and nothing else.
 * one 59+ QSO t0 EM71 --- and nothing else.
 * one 59+ QSO to CM87 --- and nothing else.
 * one 59+ QSO to DL92 --- and nothing else.
These were NOT meteor burns.
Most of those staions were in for less than a minute.
But, I heard 2 or 3 of'em calling CQ for several minutes --
with NO TAKERS.

There was a weak, ratty opening down into Old Mexico late Saturday
afternoon.  They seemed to be working folks all South and S.E. of me --
as I heard their QSL'ing of the other op's grid square.
I only snagged one of'em.

Maybe all the forest fire smoke blanketing eastern Colorado had the
effect of knocking signal levels down by 3-6-9 dB.  Ya think?  HI!HI!

 RoverLog QSOs by Activated Grid:
 Grid   QSOs
 DM77   8           ( I spent approx 4-5 hours
 DM78   4           ( in each grid, which yields
 DM87   7           ( a Q-Rate I would not wish
 DM88   10          ( on anybody.  HI!HI!  )

 RoverLog Score Summary:
    Band    QSOs     Value   QSOPts  Mults
    50       15        1      15     14
   144       14        2      28     10

 Totals:     29               43     24

                    Claimed Score: 1032