06/15/2009 | WB2AMU This was an excellent contest for my QRP portable effort from a hill in a park in FN30 in Long Island, despite a problem with my car battery that had to be resolved on Saturday. The band was open from the start of the contest and I was able to work into the EM grid field on Saturday. The band died out after an hour and I concentrated on the ground wave stuff. I decided to wrap things up early when I noticed a did not get a good response from turning the key to my car. Luckily, I got one good crank and decided to go directly to Sears to get a new car battery. Of course the band opened while I was doing this and I missed much of this. However, on Sunday, despite a little rain in the morning, I worked the ground wave stuff beginning at 6:30 AM local time until the band opened solidly at 9 AM into much of the EL grid field with some EM thrown in. Of course, I had the yearly visit from the local police to show them my permission letter and try to explain what ham radio is all about. One highlight was being able to pull NP4A out, on the same frequency as a loud W4 station by resorting to CW. By the way, CW was a significant mode as I made almost 40 CW contacts on Six Meters alone! Also worked HI3/LY3UM on CW as well. By 1:30 PM local time, the band faded and I took a break after seven hours of portable operating! I came back a few hours latter and worked a few ground wave stations that I needed on Two and Six Meters. 432 MHz was not too effective at all during the contest. There was some tropo working on Six Meters during Sunday morning with stations from Maryland and Delaware coming in. I had a lot of fun this year!! -- WB2AMU