Yes, Saturday was grim, especially in DM83.  Wickedly hot and windy.  I heard a total of 3 NM stations:  K5AM (sometimes strong); WB2FKO (a couple weak decodes); and AI5I, God bless him, who somehow manages to hear me wherever I have been.  And I was trying both 6 and 2; FT8, SSB, and CW.  A total of 11 QSOs for the entire contest day, plus a couple of pre-contest meteor scatter contacts with W9RM.

Things definitely turned around on Sunday.  There was a good opening in the morning from DM73 to EN and EM grids, from around 1500 until at least 1800Z, when I felt I was getting a bit too much screen time and decided to move on.  DM74 was pretty much a repeat of DM73, with the welcome addition of some local contacts, including a few on 2 and 432.  I made a number of SSB contacts, but the large majority were FT8 because that's what worked for me.

Perhaps my biggest motivation to go roving is to escape the shadow of the Sandias, which severely obstruct my horizon at home for azimuths from 0 to 180 degrees. So this contest, with openings to grids I can rarely work, was a real treat.   

I believe I have so far added at least one digit to my score in each VHF contest, but this seems unlikely to continue.  My computer tells me 157 total QSO points, 74 total multipliers, total score 11,618.

John, AA5PR