06/28/2006 | KC2AEI I usually get out in the fields with my favorite club every year, but due to the thunderstorms in the MDC area and a recent illness, I had a unique opportunity to work entirely 1D operation and pass out some points all weekend. I had Friday off to carefully solder up my microphone and check out all my antenna connections and tuning. I dove right in on Saturday and after an hour of search and pounce, managed to hold down an open frequency in the top of 20 meters for about 75 mintues with my poorly radiated puny little 100 watt signal. I give a lot of credit to the other big-gun operators on the band for being gentlemen and not trying to ignore the squeaky little signal out of Maryland and take it for themselves. After netting a few dozen contacts, the clouds started to roll in and the thunder started to rumble, so my wife encouraged me to take a break and clean the living room (she's so considerate). Got on again briefly that evening and again the next day to finish up with a total of 94 contacts in the log, 82 usable for credit, a 2x multiplier for my power and 50 points for submitting online. Tried some CW on the straight key, but nobody was listening in the novice portions of 40 meters when I called. My most amazing contact was working my old "home" club K2VOA in Piscataway, NJ on 20 meter SSB from northeast Baltimore. It's about 150 miles as the crow files and a pretty neat contact to be able to make. -- KC2AEI