What Happened in 2017?

I have to say that the past year has been nothing to shout about, at least as far as signals from KL2R have been concerned. Re-cabling in the shack and building a solid SO2R with new hardware from Microham basically came to a screeching halt. Contest opportunities and team members dried up, life basically getting in the way of a hobby.

The results are clear from log statistics from 2017 thanks to Clublog.

It is the lowest QSO count in a decade. The only year lower was 2006. We only formed the Two Rivers Contest Club in the fall of that year! So we go down in 2017 as not a failure but rather a station in transition. The to-do list is substantial, but so is the commitment to get it done in 2018.

Where We Are Today

KL2R is well into our seventh year of operations.  A look back at a few numbers shows how much we have grown.  The QSO breakdown is rather telling if you know a bit about our history:

Year DXCC QSOs % CW % Phone % Data
2006 54 1324 62.24 37.76   0.00
2007 88 4314 59.41 30.81 9.78
2008 97 4360 40.83 25.14   34.04
2009 90 5472 50.16 32.42   17.42
2010 146 9654 61.34 19.83 18.83
2011 152 8616 43.80 34.81   21.39
2012 154 12739 49.50 21.40   29.10
2013 62 2263 72.91 0.09   27.00
Total 210 48742 52.45 25.32 22.24  

The station wasn't even on the air until fall of 2006, and of course 2013 is just getting started.  So we can ignore those outliers and see steady growth in terms of QSO counts and DXCC countries worked over 2007-2012.  We didn't even have an amp in full-time service until late 2011!  The numbers correlate strongly with propagation, technical improvements in the shack, and increasing operator skill/experience.

As we go over the hump toward the next solar minimum, I believe the numbers will still be quite respectable.