I'll have to say, this one was hard.  I heard absolutely no hint of any
opening on 6 m.  Despite my cell carrier claiming service in the area,
they had none, so I had no way of coordinating contacts.  That left a
lot band/mode/heading combinations for what should have been some
relatively easy contacts, so they didn't happen.

Over half my contacts were on 6 m meteor scatter, which is difficult
with 100 W and a Moxon.  I amused (?) myself with the observation that
in a typical QSO I probably had 10-20 decodes of my partner for each he
had of me.

My intended operating and camping spot in DM76 turned out to be
accessible only by a stretch of 2-track mud through grass, so I had to
settle for a site with an unfavorable southern horizon.

On the bright side:

I had a higher than usual proportion of contacts above 6 m. Jonesy,
W3DHJ/R, helped a lot, contributing more than a quarter of my score.  I
was able to give new FFMA grids to several people. No major equipment
failures.  The weather was great.  The night sky was dark.  And there
were little owls all over.

30 QSO points, 25 mults, 750 points

The picture shows the best available accommodations in the area.

John, AA5PR

On Wed, 16 Sep 2020, John Klem wrote:

> Hi Jim,
>
> Did you connect with Jon, W0AMT/R, in DM76?
>
> John
>
> On 9/15/2020 7:51 PM, KC7QY wrote:
>> John,
>>
>> Yes, this was a tough Sept Test. I ended up with just 16Qs in 16
>> grids (256 pts). All the Qs were in DM except for one in EM00 and
>> Rafa in XE. Only managed one 2M Q with a portable on Mag Ridge! Lot
>> of the regulars were MIA this time around. Sorry DM76 turned out to
>> be a bust.
>>
>> Jim KC7QY

I was given a Heads Up by someone on the Colorado Front Slope about
W0AMT/R (... maybe not until Sunday.)  I was 'alert' for his sig, but
I never caught even a suspect sig from DM76.  It's a shame, because
Rovers need little successes like that to remain encouraged about
going out The Next Time.  :-)

73
Jonesy
--
  Marvin L Jones     | W3DHJ      | W3DHJ  | https://W3DHJ.net/
   Pueblo, Colorado  |  @         | Jonesy |     __ linux FreeBSD
    38.238N 104.547W |   jonz.net | DM78rf | 73  SK

I'll have to say, this one was hard.  I heard absolutely no hint of any
opening on 6 m.  Despite my cell carrier claiming service in the area,
they had none, so I had no way of coordinating contacts.  That left a
lot band/mode/heading combinations for what should have been some
relatively easy contacts, so they didn't happen.

Over half my contacts were on 6 m meteor scatter, which is difficult
with 100 W and a Moxon.  I amused (?) myself with the observation that
in a typical QSO I probably had 10-20 decodes of my partner for each he
had of me.

My intended operating and camping spot in DM76 turned out to be
accessible only by a stretch of 2-track mud through grass, so I had to
settle for a site with an unfavorable southern horizon.

On the bright side:

I had a higher than usual proportion of contacts above 6 m. Jonesy,
W3DHJ/R, helped a lot, contributing more than a quarter of my score.  I
was able to give new FFMA grids to several people. No major equipment
failures.  The weather was great.  The night sky was dark.  And there
were little owls all over.

30 QSO points, 25 mults, 750 points

The picture shows the best available accommodations in the area.

John, AA5PR