[VHFcontesting] Where Have All the Multi's Gone?

[Ed Kucharski]

I'm doing some research and digging for data about the recent thread associated with the effect FTx has had on traditional weak signal modes (ssb/cw). 

In the process I noticed a dramatic decrease in both Limited Multi and Unlimited Multi activity and scores (September VHF Contests) in the mid-late 2000's and again in 2015. The authors of the results write-ups noted this as well but didn't offer an explanation (unless I missed it). 

Why??? What am I missing? FT8 didn't begin till 2017 (according to that write-up). Remember, I only looked at the September results! 2015 was the first year allowing use of spotting in all categories (spots, chat rooms, email, text, phone, etc.).

See my chart below. I had a little difficulty getting all the #'s if it wasn't mentioned in the write-up - scanning and manually counting results - I may have missed a few either way, scores were rounded.

Thoughts?

73,
Ed K3DNE

LM = Limited Multi
UM = Unlimited Multi



Year

#LM

Average Score LM Top 10

#UM

# Total Multi (LM+UM)

Average Score UM Top 10

Cumulative Avg. Score Top 10 (LM+UM)

2000

53

246K

23

76

468K

714K

2005

33

296K

29

62

695K

991K

2010

23

78K

26

49

277K

355K

2014

41

97K

40

81

152K

249K

2015

17

75K

14

31

97K

172K

2017

21

54K

15

36

83K

137K

2018

22

45K

15

37

62K

107K

2019

22

54K

17

39

60K

114K

2020*

21

48K

12

33

57K

105K

*2020 results possibly affected by COVID-19