An absolutely fantastic contest!

Highlights:

• Operating the first weekend with N2MG, who is new to 10 GHz and he had a great experience--he went out on the second weekend also and made a lot of great QSOs.
• Operating with K2DH for the third year in a row on the second weekend. Always a blast!
• Added two new bands: 24 and 47 GHz
• Absolutely perfect weather in New England for the second weekend
• Rain scatter produced many excellent QSOs!
• New personal best distance of 544 km on 10 GHz
• New personal best distance of 255 km on 24 GHz
• Great activity
• Great coordination of activity thanks to K1RZ's database
• Many new and returning stations on 10 GHz--seven in WNY alone!

The first day of the contest is move-in day for my son at Ohio State, so I was only able to be on the Sunday of the first weekend. Went to a single site for the entire day, which is a new thing for me, and had great results. The rain scatter was superb late in the day and led to many long QSOs, including my first ones over 500 km on 10 GHz. Made my first-ever 24-GHz QSOs the first weekend--that was a real thrill.

The second weekend, Dave, K2DH, and I did our annual New England loop. Each year, we've tweaked the itinerary a bit. This year we added one more site and did things in a different order. We're now up to six sites, which is quite a push as the distance between the farthest sites is more than 250 driving miles.

Conditions were mostly flat the second weekend, but some outstanding enhancement from Mt Greylock to the tip of Cape Cod, at 255 km, yielded a bunch of great QSOs! K2DH and I worked K1OR on 24 GHz at 255 km, a personal best for both of us. From the other side of Mt Greylock I worked VE3KH at 544 km on 10 GHz, a personal best for that band, just a couple of hours later.

Dave and I went to a new site in FN23nc, and it worked well in all directions. We operated with N2MG from that site and from our final stop in FN23ea.

Wrapped up with 119 QSOs--50 more than my previous best. Also doubled my
previous best score. Every year this contest gets better and better! Activity is growing nicely and more and more people are getting on the higher bands as well. I added 47 GHz capability between the first and second weekends and look forward to better results with that next time.

Thanks for the great event! The only change this contest needs is more points for the higher bands. It's strongly justified by the effort and time that is required to add new bands--and we clearly want to encourage more people to do that!