This year I had spent considerable time searching for a new mountaintop location, found it and secured permission from the USFS to use the site but then the 75,000 acre Butte Fire came along!

I couldn't really leave my wife at home alone with the fire approaching so I abandoned the mountaintopping plan and settled down to work the contest from home.  Word came that our neighborhood was under 'Advisory Evacuation' notice so I staged the important stuff (ham gear/ test equipment) by the front door and pointed my truck down the driveway for a quick getaway if required.

As I operated, I had 3 VHF receivers tuned to the local fire channels so that I had up to date infomation on the fire status. My wife, who normally complains about the radio noises seemed quite interested in listening to the fire channels!

No band openning observed, but did make a few 200 mile contacts on 2 meters.