Well, I made what in retrospect was a poor decision. I had a lot of things
going on this past weekend and knew I could only operate one day in the
contest. I thought I would have about 8 hours on Sunday instead of four on
Saturday to play in the contest from my favorite hill in EN50rl.
So I decided to operate on Sunday. Saturday was a beautiful day
weather-wise. The forecast for Sunday had been for rain and then kept
getting worse. I had the car packed with equipment and antennas for 10
bands on Saturday and got up at 5:30 am on Sunday. I got to the hill well
ahead of my schedule. But it was pouring rain. I took some of the antennas
out of the car and got ready to set up in the rain. But the little road to
the top of the hill, the fields and everything else were mud. I put the
antennas back into the car and sat and waited for an hour. The rain never
let up. I was a bit concerned about a repeat of the Fall 432 Sprint a
couple years ago when I got stuck in the mud and had to walk 6 miles into
town. So I went home.
The rain let up briefly around noon on Sunday and then the temperature
dropped and it changed to ice and snow. I could've put up with that if it
had been doing it in the morning. I've set up in ice storms before. It just
bounces off my coat. :-)
So I should've operated on Saturday, even if it meant less time. Four hours
would've been better than none. Hopefully better next time.
73, Zack W9SZ
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