My friend - James Jakubin, KE7TI - and I operated W7RIN during the ARRL's 2007 Field Day from a small mountain range a few miles north of the Mexican border in Cochise County, in Southeast Arizona. We were in the 1B Battery category, (QRP).

We headed up Saturday morning on the badly maintained dirt road and proceeded to our camp spot, at a little over 7,000 feet elevation.

Once at camp we set up the tent and an overhead tarp for shade and then each set off to get the antennas put together. James assembled the 4-element, 6-meter beam, while I strung up a wire antenna for 80 through 10 meters. James finished the beam first and he helped with the wire antenna. While stringing up the wire antenna I noticed a small cloud forming over the peak to the south of us which was just getting bigger and bigger by the minute.

We started our operation taking advantage of a sporadic-E opening on 6 meters to the Midwest. It was a limited opening so we switched to 20 meter CW and about that time were welcomed by thunder rumbles as we made the first QSOs on that band. Then Thor broke loose with some lightning and the wind began blowing hard. That was immediately followed by a fast downpour. The wind whipped the tarp we were operating beneath and down it came on top of us. We scrambled to keep the gear from getting soaked. James had a couple of big spring clamps and we clamped the tarp over the equipment and table. We then ran for my truck and waited for the rain to slow, however, we were pretty well soaked by that time.

After the rain dropped back to a drizzle we retied the tarp in place and got back on the air. We continued on 20 meter CW and even made some PSK31 contacts. That continued until about dinner time. After dinner we moved the gear into our tent and continued with more 20 CW and PSK31, and closed on 40 using the same modes. The wind had come up in the evening and was gusting to at least 40 MPH, so it was good that we were inside the tent. The tarp didn't fare as well and down it came again flapping loudly through the night. Sleep was hard to come by that night.

Early Sunday morning we arose to calm weather and the tarp was once again set up. The wind had snapped one of the guy ropes used to secure one of the four corner tarp poles - an indication how strong the wind had been that night. More importantly the 6-meter beam and wire antenna managed to ride out all the blustery weather without coming down.

Forty meter CW netted some QSOs all the way to the east coast on Sunday morning and 15-meters was decent shape. It allowed us to call CQ FD with our QRP signal and snag a number of contacts. We finished off the last 25 minutes on 20 meter CW where I was pleased to work W6AB, the Satellite Amateur Radio Club - a club I had belonged to as a teenager in California. After pulling the plug we worked hard at getting everything packed up and then made our way home. The clouds were beginning to build back up and we didn't want to be playing with antennas in the lightning.

Well, another Field Day is in the log and it was about as good as amateur radio gets for simple folks. We are casual operators and netted around 263 QSOs, mostly on CW. For the last couple of days I have been thinking about Field Day and our small operation. Even though it was a lot of work, tiring, and a bit difficult at times, I'd be willing to head out for another one tomorrow.

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Thomas Kuehl, AC7A, is an avid QRPer and outdoorsman living in Tuscon, AZ.