My brother Andrew (K2FR) and I hiked up Mt. Beacon (FN31) on Sunday morning of the VHF contest to see what kind of activity was on the bands.  We brought up portable beams for 50, 144, and 432 Mhz.  We used my brother's FT-857D for these bands, all SSB.  We also brought up a VX-8R for 222 FM.  We worked stations up into Maine/Vermont and down into Pennsylvania.  Conditions to the South and West weren't great due to a storm coming in, so most of the time we had the beams pointed to the North and East. 

We enjoyed the contest for a couple hours from the mountaintop and then packed everything up and got down the mountain before the rain came.

Looking forward to the next contest!