I sure was not ready for this contest! It has been a hectic Spring and I just did not get the station put together in any fashion at all! I did have 50 and 144 hooked up when the contest began. Art, K1BX came over to operate six meters, and the first station he heard when he turned the rig on was a G station before the contest began. Six was hopping from the beginning of the contest, and although Art got a late start on six, he was working them at a fast clip. I think I saw 180 Qs in the first full hour he was on. The second hour was well over 100 as well. It was mostly single hop with a small amount of double hop every once in awhile.  Around ( PM local, things got so crazy he went to 144 MHz and immediately snagged  a Louisiana station on 144 Es. That was the only station heard on 144 Es.  Possibly if we had a guy operating 144 all the time, we may have heard a few more! I was spending the day hooking things up. When Art quit at 10 PM for the night, he had around 700 Qs.  We got a late start on Sunday. Art arrived at 10 AM with his son KB1STB, and Eric got on 144 MHz. I had hooked up 222 and 432 by then, so we acftually made noise on the bottom four bands on Sunday. By the end of the contest, we had over 1000 Qs and 192 grids on 50,  almost 300 Qs in 41 grids on 144. The higher bands had small totals mostly due to lack of use. At about 4 PM, the 432 setup died, so that curtailed our totals on that band. I started work hooking up the microwaves but we did not make any contacts there.  There was a visitor or two to the shack. K1XM arrived on Sunday and operated 222 and 50 MHz for awhile. He is an accomplished HF contester and dxpeditioner, but grid squares were new to Paul. He did fantasically well even if he had no clue where grid was located!  WW1M was there and spent much of the weekend cleaning up after mice and sealing any mouse hole he could find. They are a big problem in a remote shack.  

By the end of the weekend, I had 5 and 10 GHz gear all assembled on the tower. Not much broke during the weekend. I have only 432 to repair along with some antenna work with some damaged microwave antennas that had trouble during the hard winter months.  Maybe by September, I can have all the bands running the way I like! In summary, it was a six meter contest and I am sure we will see a bunch of huge scores from the blessed areas of the country. I know that 192 grids on six from Maine is quite good, especially for a part time effort! What a weekend!