that year, located in the Galápagos Islands, made over 9,000 contacts. Other HF contests are not as large, and some specialty events, such as those for QRP enthusiasts, can attract no more than a few dozen competitors. Station locations The geographic location of a station can impact its potential performance in radio contests. In almost all contests it helps to be in a rare location close to a major population center. Because the scoring formula in most contests uses the number of different locations contacted (such as countries, states or grid locators) as a multiplier, contacts with stations in rare locations are in high demand. In contests on the VHF and higher frequency bands, having a location at a high altitude with unobstructed line of sight in all directions is also a major advantage. With range limited to around 1000 kilometers in normal radio propagation conditions, a location on high ground close to a major metropolitan area is an often unbeatable advantage in VHF contests. In the large international HF DX contests, stations in the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, close to Europe and eastern North America with their high densities of active contest stations, are frequently the winners. Aruba, Curaçao, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, Madeira Island, coastal Morocco and the islands of Trinidad and Tobago have been the sites of some of the most famous radio contesting victories in the large worldwide contests. Competition between stations in large countries, such as Canada, Russia, or the United States can be greatly affected by the geographic locations of each station. Because of these variations, some stations may specialize in only those contests where they are not at a disadvantage, or may measure their own success against only nearby rivals. Many radio amateurs are happy to contest from home, often with relatively low output power and simple antennas. Some of these operators at modest home stations operate competitively and others are simply on the air to give away some points to serious stations or to chase some unusual propagation. More serious radio contesters will spend significant sums of money and invest a lot of time building a potentially winning station, whether at home, a local mountain top, or in a distant country. Operators without the financial resources to build their own station establish relationships with those that do and "guest operate" at other stations during contests. Contesting