I got to the hilltop (1943 feet A.S.L.) twenty minutes before the start of the contest, got the stacked pair assembled, and saw how far the mast was bending over from the wind. I considered tearing it down and assembling the omnidirectional antenna system instead, but it would have been on a separate mast that was even smaller than the 2-inch OD mast for the beams. So instead, I decided to lower the antenna stack, remove the bottom antenna, take the phasing harness out of the picture, remove one mast section, and tilt the remaining yagi up into position by itself. By the time I accomplished this goal, 45 minutes of contest time had been eaten, so I decided not to waste time taking any pictures of the modified setup.

peak wind gusts recorded at Binghamton, NY (1600+ feet A.S.L.)

TIME (UTC)	WIND GUST (mph)
2330	41.4
0053	46.0
0105	41.4
0207	29.9

As a result of the wasted time, I made only one QSO in the first hour, then 57 percent of my QSOs were in the second hour. At 0107 I heard VE2JCW calling "CQ TEST" on 50.110 CW. The third hour brought two QSOs, and the final hour brought a visit from a ranger, interrupting my CW QSO. With two minutes to go in the contest, I happened to have my beam pointed west and stumbled upon K2DRH EN41 on 50.130, but he was in QSO with someone already, plus he faded out within seconds. But that would have been my best DX at 789 miles if band conditions had held long enough for me to complete a QSO. I ended up operating 79 percent of the available contest time.

I spent two separate blocks of time swinging the beam through the "brick wall" to the north, but it didn't net any QSOs. In fact, none of my QSOs in this contest were the result of calling CQ. It appears that my longest actual contact was with K1TR in New Hampshire:

longest distances worked:

DIRECTION	STATION	GRID	DISTANCE
west	N2LID	FN12md	70 miles
southwest	W3SO	FN00sn	198 miles
south	K2PLF	FM19tp	204 miles
southeast	N2GHR	FN30ku	178 miles
east	K1TR	FN42iu	226 miles

Here is a list of stations I heard but was unable to work, most often because the station was in QSO for a long time or else just didn't hear me replying: KB3RHR, N2MH, KA2OON, W3RGA, W2RJO, W3ZZ, WA2VNV FN30kv, K1TOL FN44, WA1RKS, K3TUF FN10we. Notably missing were KA1ZE/3 FN01, K1WHS FN43, K1RZ FM19, and WZ1V FN31. I did not work my own grid, nor did I hear anything out of FN01, 02, 03, FN24, FN32, 33, FN41, 43. The biggest surprise was not working anyone in FN20. Here is a chart showing how that the planetary-K index was never higher than 2 during the sprint. The solar flux was 72, up from 67 in last year's event. A cycle 24 plage had rotated into view for this event, but did not produce any visible sunspots, and there was no real sporadic-E. Results are here.