09/18/2008 | W9SZ I had a full day of other commitments on Saturday and wasn't able to participate in the contest then. I was considering either setting something up at home for part of Sunday or getting out for a Single-Op (QRP) Portable operation. I was watching Hurricane Ike approach on the radar.

The hurricane gave us a drenching for most of Sunday but it finally started to lighten up at about 4 pm local time. I decided I was going to head for the hills for the last few hours of the contest as a QRP Portable. I decided to take only 144 MHz instead of the 10 bands I usually take along because by the time I got everything set up I'd only have an hour or so to operate. It rained off and on for the first two hours of my operation, then the sky cleared up.

The weekend weather-wise was almost a carbon copy of the weather during the experiment Bob N5RP and I did in a VHF contest from Bald Knob a few years ago when a hurricane drenched us.

It was also reminiscent of my very first ever VHF contest, when I set up a little 2m beam on a hill and operated QRP-Portable. However, I did much better in this weekend's contest in 3 hours than I did back then, probably due to experience and improved equipment. There were a couple brief openings to the northwest and southwest but otherwise conditions were pretty flat.

Hopefully the weather is better for the next one! -- W9SZ