[InHam] Poor showing from K9ZF/P in the INQP

[Dan Evans]

Well,
Reading a few of the reports, I don't feel quite so bad now, but I had a pretty rough time.
I finished setting up in Harrison county around 11:30, as the rain was ending.  I picked up a few 7 landers on 20m, but the rig seemed deaf as a post, and I was having trouble working even the big gun stations out west.  The main antenna is a OCF dipole, up about 30' in the trees.  I also have a 102" whip mounted to the ladder racks of my truck.  Switching between the two, I sometimes found the whip to have better copy than the wire antenna!
I was also having intermittent issues with RF in the mic, and the tuner not wanting to hold tune.
Arrggg!  Everything worked so well back home in the driveway!!
Looking back, I believe most of my problems were a combination of poor propagation and wet tree leaves.
To top things off, I had to quit early due to family obligations, so I only ended up with a handful of contacts.  Blah!

Hoping to make some big improvements for next year.  The biggest change will be my "comms trailer".  I picked up an old camper trailer I am restoring and plan to dedicate to my radio expeditions.  This will make everything a lot easier.  Just hook up and go, instead of the weeks of preparations ahead of each contest.  I'm also hoping to replace my beat up old FT897D with a newer/better rig sometime in the near future.  And sometimes I even dream about amps  :-)
73 all and thanks for sharing all of the After Action Reports!
Dan -- K9ZF  Vice President, Clark County Amateur Radio Club,Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Clark County Indiana. EM78el The once and future K9ZF /R no budget Rover  ***QRP-l #1269 Check out the Rover Resource Page at:  List Administrator for: InHam+grid-loc+ham-books  Ask me how to join the Indiana Ham Mailing list!