As usual, my plan to operate the full 24 hours was upset by family and house commitments. That's OK - they're more important than playing radio. Had to run HP/LP on my SO2R operation - my Alpha 9500 gave up the ghost again, and the Expert PA isn't truly SO2R. That was not a major issue, because conditions were pretty good on the bands that were open. I ran 80 W and a dipole at 60' on 80 M Saturday night, and was able to work pretty much everyone I heard. As well as the dipole works up that high, I still marvel at how well the SteppIR DB36 works on 40 M. Stations I can't copy on the dipole are S4 or S5 on the beam. Like most others, I couldn't find VI, or hear NNY and PR for more than a few minutes in the midst of massive pileups. I didn't waste my time trying to bust the pileups, since the few times I heard them, my run rate was high enough to beat the eventual multiplier (I think). Also, there were so many East Coast stations calling that us Left Coasters didn't have much chance, even full QRO. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! As always, I had a ton of fun during runs, but cursed the radio spirits every time someone else gave me a serial number that was 100 or more higher than mine! Great contest, and very challenging when you can only work each station once. See you all on SSB.