This was my first ever contest -- had a great time. Really looking forward to the August/September UHF/VHF contests. At the home shack here, I'm limited to exactly zero antennas so I decided to go backpack portable to Cleveland National Forest's Garnet Peak (DM12) with my FT-897, 12AH SLA battery, and tape measurer 2-meter beam.

It was a beautiful day up there -- mid-high 70s. There happened to be an organized trail running marathon that I understood to be around 100 miles. A very nice hike along the Pacific Crest trail -- about 2.5mi each way with a little scramble at the peak.

I got off to an inauspicious start, anticipating neither the wind nor the extent to which a tape measurer element would buckle in it. Little did I know, Mt. Garnet is the windiest place in all of vast San Diego County.

This being my first time out, it took much longer than I anticipated to hike to the site and longer than I anticipated to find a windfree site (the place we ended up was our third). Next time out will be with the Arrow 144/437, so wind will not be as much of an issue.

Anyway, in the space of the hour and a half spent on Garnet, I booked 14 contacts with 10watts into that beam -- with the award for the farthest being a really nice signal to/from the W6AB Vandenberg club station in CM94.