Oklahoma QSO Party
Call: W0K
Operator(s): W0BH
Station: W0K
Class: Rover-Assisted LP
QTH: 19 OK counties
Operating Time (hrs): 17:10
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80: 46 2
40: 452 14
20: 413 282
15:
10:
------------------------
Total: 911 298 Mults = 54 Total Score = 179,766
Club:
Comments:
The 2007 Oklahoma Centennial QSO Party is history and it was great fun to be
part of it as W0K! The XYL, Lorna (K0WHY) and I planned a route which combined
her favorite hobby (bird-watching) with my favorite hobby (need you ask?) to
get us from Hesston KS to McCurtain County OK and the Little Smokies for some
tent camping and hiking. Our black lab, Sasha, also came along for the ride.
Rural county lines happily turn out to be good birding opportunities, so stops
were planned on lines as often as possible and getting to the next stop quickly
(for more bird watching, of course) was a priority for my outstanding driver who
only got "lost" twice during the whole trip. The pilot in me had some fun, too.
I "flight-planned" the trip on Saturday to put a new county on at the top of
each hour which meant no worries about missing me in a county if you knew my
system. Lorna hit each "checkpoint" within minutes of my scheduled times which
I posted on QRZ.COM under W0K along with frequency information. I worked 40CW
at the top of each hour, 20CW at +15, etc. Word must have gotten out because I
got almost 400 hits on the site during the contest. Both ideas weren't winning
strategies for maximizing points, but I hope they made me easier to find and I
think they did.
On Sunday it was just go go go. I knew it would be close making the McCurtain
county if there were any delays in the schedule. The delay came on the
HAS/PIT/LAT county line. Lorna extended her bird-watching past the departure
time and I had an excellent run going (as did Sasha) and didn't want to leave
anyway. We finally left almost a half hour late which required a route change
since I knew we wouldn't make MCU before the closing bell (unless I had used
Central Jerry Time :). Instead we finished on the LEF/PUS county line with a
nice run even through some powerline noise. Overall we activated a total of 19
counties.
Band conditions on Saturday were good on 40m and poor on 20m except for one
nice opening when I just happened to be sitting on a three-county line. That
was fun and I got a good number of my SSB Qs there with the rate meter hitting
over 300 for awhile. On Sunday, 20m was better than 40m. I worked a few 80m Qs
including contact #1 with Nelson, N0LRA in Hesston KS .. a nice memory of our
WAS:Single Rover effort which will be coming out as a QST article later this
year. Did check 15m from time to time with nothing heard.
The equipment worked fine except for what I think was a grounding problem in my
voice keyer. Turns out I didn't need it anyway. I used an MFJ portable CW
paddle, so apologies for the occasional surprises which came off the key ..
they were a surprise to me, too. Things kept falling on the buttons on top of
my Logikey keyer (they were programmed for the two and three county line
exchanges) which also made for some interesting exchanges. It took me awhile to
learn how to quickly check for dupes when on multi-county lines. I finally
figured it out after logging a good number of dupes in earlier counties. I'm
learning!
Some additional stats :
I logged 1252 Qs including 43 dupes and 365 unique calls in 450 miles.
Non-OK mults not worked included AK HI LA MT ND SC AB MB QC SK NL NT.
DX worked included DL F G JA LY OK UA SP VP2E, with VP2E by far the loudest.
OK counties worked included CRA LEF MCL OKL OSA PIT POT (hard to find from a
mobile).
A big THANK YOU to all who made this effort so much fun! After looking at the
stats below, it's no wonder your calls are becoming so familiar. I'll post the
final results on QRZ.COM under W0K.
Preliminary results :
-------------------
Most QSOs (overall) : WB8JUI (25) N8II (24)
Most QSOs (CW) : WB8JUI (23) N2CU (21)
Most QSOs (PH) : N8II, KD1EJ (7) W7KAM (6)
Most counties : WB8JUI (18/19) WA3HAE, N2CU, N8II, N4IG (16/19)
Overall QSOs >= 10
------------------
25 WB8JUI
24 N8II
22 N4IG
21 N2CU, WA3HAE
19 K4YT
18 VP2E, K3TW
17 WS6X, W7OM
16 KO1U
15 VE3CRU
14 VE3NBJ, N2WN
13 K4LTA, W1END
12 N4JF, N4PN
11 AB7RW, WB2ABD
10 N4VA, W3BBO, W7GVE, K6XV
Special thanks to Jerry, K5YAA, and the OKDXA for organizing this event and
putting together such a fun format. The OKLAHOMA mugs and 1x1 calls were a
wonderful addition.
The best news of all. Lorna has already suggested planning for the OKQP again
next year. Since our current 2007 Centennial Oklahoma map is so tattered, we
acquired several new ones to assist in the process. See you all down the log!
73, Bob, w0bh (ex-wOK)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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