High winds Saturday morning prevented me from raising the 80m dipole, which I typically use to contact most of the far west states and BC. I judged that the 40m dipole would suffice since sunspots were high and I had been able to log all of W7 on 40 during the previous SSCW.  Consequently, I left the 80m wire attached to the push-up mast (it supports a two-element beam) at the deck edge.  I draped the wire legs over the metal-topped deck railing and left the last 20’ of each leg piled on the deck. I figured I could raise the wire later when the wind subsided. Wrong decision.

I logged 50 sections by Saturday evening but only two from W7 – AK and NV. The wind had increased so I left the 80m wire on the deck and started on 40m. Forty, however, was long to the Midwest and east and as the evening wore on I began to fret that I was going to miss many of W7s and lose a sweep.

At 10 pm I went out into the wind, and threw the 80m dipole ends off the deck and into the sagebrush. The wire tuned up on the TS-850 and I made a contact with MO. This may work yet, I figured. I was able to log MT, WY, OR and some of CA. At 1:30am I stopped for some rest and peeked outside to see if the wind had subsided. It had not. In fact the mast guy ropes were screeching in the gusts. So, wearing my, headlight, wool cap, and heavy coat, I lowered the beam and lashed it to the deck. At 4:30am I was back on 80 and even with 20’ of each dipole end in the brush, I logged EWA, WWA, BC, ID, and the rest of CA. Still missing was UT. The beam went back up with XYL help at 8:00am. At 4:00pm, I caught UT on 20.With five minutes left on my 24 hour clock I logged the final section, SK (VE5RI).

Needless to say, it was an interesting weekend.