Just two days before the sprint there was a Tornado Watch posted for my area. Thankfully, all the severe weather and even the rain were erased by contest time, and I was setting up the antenna system in calm winds and warm temperatures at 1970 feet ASL.
With the best tropo predicted to be off to my west, I started the sprint by calling CQ with the beam in that direction. In 3 minutes I worked 3 stations in 3 grids and wished I could keep that pattern going for the whole sprint (I ended up working 10 consecutive QSOs before working my first repeat grid). VA3ELE FN03 was 5x7 from 213 miles away, although it doesn't hurt that he was using 18 wavelengths of combined boom length. Conditions remained good out that way, and I picked up VE3WY FN04 which is usually a tough grid for me to find. I ended the first hour with 14 QSOs--that's more than I usually make in the entire sprint.
KC2SFU showed up in the second hour to observe the goings on for a while. The second hour brought 6 more QSOs and some new grids, including VA3ZV EN82, my best DX at 327 miles (527 km). I did a lot of calling on CW starting in the 3rd and continuing into the 4th hour. The 3rd and 4th hours brought 4 QSOs each. I finished the sprint with 28 QSOs/16 grids, a sound beating of last year's result. This is now my best 432 sprint so far, and a great way to end the thrilling 2013 VHF contesting season. Official results are here.
BAND QSOs QSO UNIQUE PTS. GRIDS --------------------------- 432 28 56 16 --- Claimed score = 896 ---
MD TIME CALLSIGN GRID OTHER -------------------------------- PH 2304 VA3ELE FN03 5x7 PH 2306 K8ZES FN02 PH 2306 W2UAD FN13 PH 2313 K1WHS FN43 PH 2326 KA3QWO FN20 PH 2330 W1XM FN42 PH 2335 VE3WY FN04 PH 2335 VE3ZV EN92 PH 2342 W9KXI FN12 5x9 PH 2346 KC2SFU FN22 PH 2351 W2KV FN20 new grid for him PH 2351 WA3DRC FN20 PH 2353 W2BVH FN20 new grid for him PH 2357 WA2FGK FN21 PH 0015 KJ1K FN32 PH 0011 K1TR FN42 PH 0026 K1BXC FN31 new grid for him PH 0034 K1TEO FN31 PH 0042 VA3ZV EN82 PH 0053 WC2K FM29 new grid for him PH 0131 K8GP FM19 PH 0133 N3RG FM29 PH 0136 WA2ONK FN20 CW 0156 K1KG FN42 CW 0220 K4MSG FM19 CW 0226 N2DCH FN22 PH 0239 WZ1V FN31 PH 0241 K1PXE FN31