Where'd-ja GO? (Why do You Disappear?)

If you could be a "fly on the wall" and watch me run a frequency for an hour, you would hear me
say "Where'd-ja GO?!" a dozen times in that hour.  Sometimes I over emphasize that phrase to get people's attention.  This Blog entry is about the various flavors of disappearance I encounter on a regular basis during radiosport contests and some thoughts on what (if anything) to do about them.  Here are some typical scenarios - has this happened to you?

1. You hear a rare mult-station calling CQ.  You and a dozen other stations from all over call in.  After a pause the station calls CQ again as if none of the calling stations can be heard.  This goes on for awhile and then the station disappears, only to come back back 5 minutes later
2. You call CQ contest and 5 stations call in at once.  You pick out one of the stations and spend 10-seconds exchanging information.  Afterwards, calling "QRZ?" the other 4 stations have disappeared - where'd they go?
3. You call CQ contest and a LOUD station (often calling out of turn) obliterates the other
   callers so you send him an exchange first.  After the exchange the station has disappeared. 
   Just in case, I repeat the exchange a 2nd and 3rd time - NOTHING.  HuH?  Where'd they go?  If I don't repeat the exchange and go to the next station, then he comes back (LOUD again) obliterating the 2nd station.

As a side note, when a run station calls CQ and comes back to no one 3x in a row, I then call him using his callsign followed by mine (twice).  If no reply, I send "QRL?".  If still no reply, I immediately take the frequency and call CQ.  If he starts blindly calling CQ, then it is clear he is not listening before transmitting.

Nevertheless, I am still left curious as to what is happening in his/her radiosport whirrrl'd.

When a station disappears into the background noise, we can assume one of the following
things happened.   All of these are potentially plausible.

1. THEY DieD
2. They are CONFUSED.
3. They are PASSED OUT Drunk.
4. They fell asleep at the key - I've done that during a 4:30am shift.
5. Their Amplifier BLEW UP - that happened to me once at 3am on 160-meters.
6. Their antenna mast blew down. 
   (This one actually happened to me - [CLICK HERE] to see that.)
7. Their signal path encountered some sort of geomagnetic disturbance along the way.
8. The operator left the logging software in Repeat-CQ mode while he is upstairs having
   dinner with his family.  I know this because he sent me an e-mail apologizing for his
   carelessness in response to my "WTF?" e-mail query.  This station seemed to be the
   ONLY WV section station in the entire contest, so of course there were 100's calling
   him, after the RBN receivers kept reposting his CQ call.

Have you ever encountered some of these above Turkies?

What is YOUR Take on all this?