This is the first year I've been free all weekend to operate this one. I was glad to have Nick K1MAZ, new YCCC member, and it's a good thing; we ran into software trouble, the remedy for which on the reflector ended with "if you don't know how to do this, find someone who does." Luckily, Nick is a computer guru and got things back to normal.

We had some pleasant surprises (like the stoopid 80m vertical working much better than it should have) and some unpleasant surprises (like 80m literally turning the keyboard OFF). I also suspect a remote matching network on some of the lowband wires is in order before the multi-mode contests coming up -- wide frequency changes usually required a quick re-tuning in the shack.

It would have been nice to have lower antenna options on the high bands, as we had trouble hearing 3's and 2's calling us on 10 and 15, even late. I thought this would be the case prior to the weekend; it's a station flexibility issue that will eventually be addressed. We were working the west coast on 15 long after nightfall, and that was another pleasant surprise.

The last two sections for the sweep were MS and WV. I snagged MS thanks to K2FF, but figured WV was a lost cause. The only stations we heard from WV were very quiet and absolutely buried beneath late Sunday pileups. Somehow, we managed to find one on his initial CQ while we were tuning the band (with the radio knob -- that means with no mouse!) and it was quick work. Everything after that was just for fun.