i feel like this solution is pretty good, so of course i'll be humbled by the results stream.  38 is probably possible with input suppression on the short input—there's plenty of EQ hexes to put it on—but seems pretty difficult.  i'm pretty sure there's 32 hexes of area that are forced by the output + wide input combo (i don't think a smaller version exists) and another 6 by the berlo (i don't think it can be overlapped any better, but maybe with track magic?).