Tonight's lesson could very well be to keep your batteries charged.  I had at least 4 QSO's going.  I copied them but then they were not copying me.  They would say sorry but no copy.  One station said sorry and they would log me.  It was a SKCC station so I have no idea if that meant he got his RST but not much else but I won't count it even though it was a new state.  If I don't get confirmation on the air I can't add it to the QSO count either for the daily QSO or WAS.  After feeling so unlucky I decided to check my battery voltage.  11.something on the battery.  The radio output showed .5 watts.  That is a big drop in power for me.  I swapped out batteries and my power output jumped back up to normal 1.5 watts.
I still wasn't doing so well but I really wanted to get something in the log.  After about 2 hours of trying and trying the crazy thing is the first station in the log today was XE2HOE, "Mode" in La Paz, BCS Mexico.  Mode was very nice and confirmed he had me after I sent my info to him.  He reported a RST of 559 to me.  I'm looking for states, but it is always fun to log a DX station and Mexico is usually difficult for me to get.  I took a break, and decided to see once more who I might find.  I just can't stand wondering what the band might be doing and if things are changing in my favor just as I walk away.  Well I am glad I returned because I heard WC7C calling and we made a QSO.  It is Doug in Euphrates, WA.  A new state and WA is getting out there.  I was very weak at 349 but once again I found a station that was willing to take the time to pull my signal out of the noise.