Well, the 2013 ARRL EME contest has come and gone. K4EME and KR4V used 432 from Cowle's location, and I operated 2 meters from my home; we used the neighborhood rule, as we are only 12 miles or so apart. Strange conditions in both legs: stations would be called with no response at all, others would disappear. On 2 meters in the 2nd leg, using JT65, there was one station that was called for 20 minutes with not even a QRZ from him, using either polarity, even though he was -14 at times!!! For this year's contest, on 2 meters, I used MAP65 with a FCD ProPlus, and a seperate RX line for the TS-2000X. I used WSJT also, as I and many others have noticed that it decodes about 3 dB weaker signals than MAP65 does. It is so nice to see the active stations and not have to use the logger, which would disqualify me from being eligible for awards. On 2 meters I only worked one VK and 2 JA stations. I had many getaways; I would go to a spot from MAP65 only to find the station was not there any longer. Apparently, a good number of stations are also using MAP65, and seeing some new station or juicy DX, would stop their CQ and vacate their frequency to work them. On 432 Cowles and Rick 2 JA's and no VK's or ZL's. Cowles also noted one-way propagation at times. He is hoping to have MAP65 running for next year's contest. With that addition, and more practice on my part, we should do better.

2 meters: 86 Q's,  48 M's         2 CW, 84 JT65

432:    32 Q's,   22 M's              2 CW, 30 JT65

Claimed Score:  826,000 points

2 meter equip: 4x15 K1FO horz, 4x11 K1FO vert, Kenwood TS-2000X,

800+ watts JT65, KW+ CW;   24 dB/.4 nf preamp

WSJT, MAP65, FCDPP, Trakbox

432:  8x33 K1FO for TX/RX,  4x22 K1FO RX only, ultra-low-noise preamps

800 watts JT65,  KW+ CW

    73,  David AD4TJ