I had planned to take part to Apulia VHF QRP contest from the top of Kamenjak mountain. All I could carry was the 4 element Yagi. The day before the contest I had forgotten headlight on and the car battery went flat dead. Fortunately I could get it started for 100 HRK from the local service station.
The contest day I went up to the top, prepared the setup and called for two hours beaming Italy (organizing country) without receiving a single reply.
So I decided VHF was not the way to go and I switched to HF 20m. I moved the 9m fishing pole away from the car so it could support the 20m EFHW antenna radiator, tuner laying on the rocky ground and one counterpoise.
I did get odd looks from hikers/bikers/tourists passing by, but nobody asked a thing.
The band was crowded, signals were good, so I tried some QRP SSB contacts. I could work one station, others were having pile up (it was too hot up there for fighting). Finally I fired up the netPC and called CQ on PSK31. This mode was more productive.
The game was soon over since we were expected for lunch. PSK31 operations continued from home with 100% battery power (RTX and computer) and 20m EFHW antenna out of the balcony.
Overall I managed fewer QSOs than last year, but I did not take part in any contest. There was no pile-up on my calls even if I was from a IOTA/IOCA reference.
I missed the warmth of CW contacts but I enjoyed these operations nevertheless.
