Rick,

Sometimes it's not the "where" as much as the "when".  You may not be 
big on contests, but the big international contests bring the DX out of 
the woodwork.  You can go up on 20  any day and work all the Germans and 
Italians you want, but  when that DX contest is running, that is when 
you can grab that guy from Upper Slobovia  that only fires up the rig a 
few times a year.


Also a few days before any big contest, lots of folks are giving the 
station a final shake down.   Very common for a  team to go to a DX 
location to run the contest and   in the days just before it starts they 
will work   a multitude of stations while making sure the station and 
logging software are working well.

Anyway, you have done well considering the limitations of antenna, 
experience, and propagation.

73, Steve KW3A