Kansas QSO Party
Call: K0S
Operator(s): W0BH
Station: K0S
Class: Mobile SO Mixed LP
QTH: 34 KS counties
Operating Time (hrs): 17.6
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80: 1 0
40: 474 46
20: 770 619
15: 7 1
10:
6:
2:
----------------------------
Total: 1252 666 0 Mults = 51 Total Score = 259,480
Club:
Comments:
Sorry about the long writeup, but it was a special year! A pdf of this writeup
will shortly be available from the W0BH QRZ.com listing or at this link:
http://www.cs.hesston.edu/w0bh/ksqp/11ksqp_writeup.pdf
------------------------------------------
2011 is the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood which made this the Kansas
Sesquicentennial QSO Party. This year, we celebrated by spelling KANSAS and
SUNFLOWER with the last letter of 33 1x1 calls. Several years ago, Jerry, K5YAA
came up with the idea for the Oklahoma Centennial QSO Party. The Georgia QSO
Party very successfully did it again this year for their 50th anniversary. I
started out by hoping I could find 12 operators to spell KANSAS. When I saw how
enthusiastic everyone was, we added SUNFLOWER! Besides 19 plaques to try for,
operators who spell either KANSAS or SUNFLOWER get a certificate if they apply
for one and send in a log. If they spell both, the certificate includes the
1964 Amateur Radio stamp issued by the postal service. Kansas stations
activated all 105 counties, and preliminary reports indicate that John/N6MU
worked them all!
On to the run. XYL Lorna (K0WHY - also a 1x1 call if you think about it!) and I
were closely watching the weather forecast for storms and excessive heat
advisories. When the weather service raised the forecast to 105 degrees in
southwest Kansas, I decided on Friday afternoon, to switch vans to one that had
air conditioning. I already had antenna mounts in place, but I had never
installed a complete QSO party setup in the '91 Mazda MPV. After a hurried
two-hour installation with wires running everywhere, the setup actually worked
except for 15m SSB. With dark coming on and a morning departure, I called it
good for the evening and crossed my fingers.
Saturday
Since the 14 Kansas mobiles had almost all the counties covered multiple times,
I could actually start from home this year. With the sun up and the air still
cool (well, cooler anyway), I rechecked tuning, spent a little time trying to
get 15m SSB to work with no success, and got ready to head out for the 9 am
start. The equipment included an Icom 7000 with remote mounted head, Logikey
K-4 keyer, MFJ travel paddle, three Hustler vertical sets on triple mag-mounts
(20SSB/40SSB/10, 20CW/40CW/15 and 80CW), two Dell laptops, Lind DC-DC
converters for both laptops to eliminate inverter noise, NA software for
logging, keying and rig control, and DeLorme GPS and Street Atlas software for
navigation.
The Icom radio, GPS computer and FM car radio interface (so Lorna could listen
in) are powered by the van battery. Everything else is powered by a big
deep-cycle marine battery which runs the logging computer, keyers, and level
converter the full 12 hours. A second identical battery is along for Sunday or
for a jump start in case we stay too long at a county line. An external 12v fan
blows air continuously on the radio. All antennas are tuned for my operating
frequencies, so no tuner was installed, and I didn't have time to move over the
voice keyer. I previously had major computer keying / RF feedback issues in this
van, so I built a parallel port keying interface using a 4N25 opto-coupler. I
used it in the Astro for the Oklahoma QSO Party but had never tested it in the
Mazda. It worked. My CW no longer locked on whenever I went to 20m CW.
8:55 am found me ready to go at the McPherson / Marion / Harvey county line,
three miles from my farm. Lorna stayed at home and finished packing. I got on
7038 as published, and there was John/N6MU waiting for me. We chatted for a few
minutes, then logged 3 quick Qs, the first of 76 contacts John and I would make
throughout the weekend. My friend Alan/K07X from Wyoming was next and it went
from there. Great starting conditions on both 40 and 20. After ten or so
minutes of CW operating with the van running to keep the battery voltage up, I
realized I was smelling exhaust. I'd parked with the rear of the van facing a
very light wind, so I turned the van around before carbon monoxide poisoning
became part of my writeup!
At 1426, I started SSB on schedule and had a nice run going for ten minutes.
Then the computer crashed. I occasionally lock up the computer and can easily
reset it, but this was a real crash. When I reloaded, the log file with 123
contacts wouldn't load. I tried to fix it for five minutes with no luck, so I
left the pileup and headed for home to pick up Lorna. While Lorna finished
packing, I sat in the driveway, switched to my backup computer, and started a
clean, empty log file. Twenty minutes after the "crash" and fifteen minutes
behind schedule, we headed out once again.
Band conditions stayed great on 40 and 20 throughout the morning, but the
computer kept crashing. After awhile, I figured out that it only crashed when I
was on SSB, and only on 20m .. exactly where I had RF issues before on CW. Every
time the computer would crash, I had to restart, copy a new, clean log file, and
start over logging from scratch. Losing the call history hurt the most. I wasn't
worried about recovering the log file, but it certainly slowed down the rate.
Finally I figured out that if I didn't press any keys while actually
transmitting, no crash. That took a bit of extra concentration to do and I
forgot a few more times, but it worked. Never a dull moment on 20m!
The Mazda goes faster than the Astro, so Lorna got us back on schedule after a
few counties. The calls kept rolling in, and I started finding other 1x1 Kansas
stations to work. Several hours in, I got my first Ohio QSO Party station and
started keeping a count for them since their exchange requires a serial number.
The Hawaii QSO Party made getting the Hawaii multiplier simple as well.
Hurricane Irene also made her presence known by limiting calls from the
northeast. I got updates from New York and other eastern seaboard states as I
worked them, and I really missed hearing QSO party regular NT2A from NY
(Gennady finally called in on Sunday). As the day warmed up, I finished my
coffee and started looking around for the water jug. Nowhere to be found ..
we'd forgotten to bring water .. not smart with a 105 degree forecast! A quick
stop at a convenience store remedied that situation.
The day went smoothly and fast, but another intermittent problem popped up.
Sometimes my audio would just stop. I'd wiggle headphone wires and the audio
randomly came back on for extended periods before cutting out again. Finally, I
realized I was accidentally stepping on the footswitch, a new addition this
trip. I'd previously used finger push-to-talk, but that switch broke, so the
footswitch was a late addition. The footswitch is a keeper for future trips ..
it worked great. VOX doesn't work reliably in my mobile environment. Another
time during a fast food stop, Lorna had just refilled her drink cup and noticed
a wire crossing through the drink holder. I was operating CW. She moved the wire
and everything went dead. Oops! After some frantic searching and nothing
lighting up, I opened the hood and found the tripped circuit breaker in the
radio / battery circuit. It reset it and all was well. No idea what happened,
but as I said, a mess of wires!
The three-county lines are the most fun, but we weren't looking forward to the
last one for the day because it was near a hog farm. Last year, the hogs won!
This year, the wind was in our favor, but temperature wasn't. It was well over
100 degrees, so we parked and kept the engine and A/C on for 30 minutes. Besides
the heat, the biting flies were out in full force. Lorna wasn't dressed for
biting flies, so we were really glad we switched vans. After a nice run, Lorna
put the van in gear and headed out. Suddenly, the check engine light came on,
the first time it's ever done that in the Mazda. I suspected something with the
cooling system. The engine temperature was fine. The oil was full, but the cap
to the overflow container for the radiator had come completely loose. I added
water, put the cap back on, and the check engine light stayed off for the rest
of the trip.
Heading north for the final hour, we were treated to a beautiful sunset as I
started thinking 80 meters. The antenna worked when I tested it at home, but
when I switched to the 80m antenna and keyed up, there was a bang. At that
exact moment, we'd hit a bird. Don't do that to me! We ended the day at Lorna's
cousin's house a few miles across the Colorado border in Burlington with no idea
how many Qs we had in the log. I stayed up late to recover and combine the 7
crashed logs. When I did, the total was 1290 combined contacts for the day, and
I think I got them all back. I also added a string of ferrites to the level
converter cable to try to solve the RF / computer crash issue. That worked,
too. You can never have enough ferrites along in a mobile!
Sunday
Sunday found us heading back east on I-70 towards Goodland in Kansas. We
crossed the border into Sherman county a few minutes before start time. The
first 30 or so minutes were really slow with a few loud signals but not much
activity on either 40 or 20. Lorna pulled into a fast food place in Goodland,
picked up her morning coffee, and got breakfast for us both while I CQd on CW.
About the time breakfast arrived, John/N6MU asked me to QSY to SSB. I told him
we were eating and he immediately understood. A full mouth and CW work a lot
better than a full mouth and SSB! While I was eating and CQing in the parking
lot, several Harley motorcyclists were eyeing both our van full of antennas and
the clear blue sky. One asked, "Do we need to be worried?" Mistaken for a
storm-spotter once again! "Not until later," I replied. That turned out to be
prophetic. Later in the day, severe thunderstorms were forecast and made their
appearance in a number of northwestern counties including ours. Fortunately,
the KSQP was over by then. Shortly after we got on the freeway, the bands
suddenly opened and the pileups were back.
I-70 was fast and Lorna actually pulled ahead of schedule which gave me more
time for our first three county line. Not to be. The GPS road didn't exist, and
we used up our spare time trying to find an alternative location. That ended up
being a wagon-train set of ruts between two fields which fortunatly ended at a
fence just past the Logan / Gove county line. We were dragging across a bunch
of sagebrush, so when we stopped, a strong burning rope smell wafted into the
van. Worried about a fire, Lorna stopped the engine and checked. No fire, and
the smell went away after things cooled down. After a really nice run, we
headed out on what my GPS said was Highway 40. Highway 40 turned out to be a
gravel road, but at least it went through. Later when we stopped at another
fast food place, the burning rope smell was back. Lorna (the resident prairie
ecologist) said that sage is oily and she was right, it eventually burned off
and no more smell.
Heading to our last stop, John/N6MU called in to report needing only one more
county, and N0U/m was heading that way. A little later, success. All 105
counties in his log! I felt like celebrating for all of us right then and
there, but we had some time left on the clock. Lorna delivered me to our last
stop right on schedule. Like the previous stop, this line was a new one for me.
The three county line was in the center of a paved road, so we decided to find a
high point on the Ottawa / Dickinson county line instead, since both were new
counties. The last half hour was a great pileup .. the reason I keep doing this
over and over again. Thank you thank you all for being there and making this so
much fun! It was also really fun to work a number of Kansas 1x1 stations as I
drove along. All seemed to really be enjoying themselves. I didn't spell KANSAS
or SUNFLOWER, but perhaps I can make up my own word from KSAULOWER! I'm glad ops
like VE3KZ were more successful. Bob reports working 32/33 of the 1x1 calls.
Once again, a tribute to us all!
Stats
We operated 17.6 hours, 2024 combined Qs, 426 unique calls, 3 dupes. Lorna
ended up with 106 contacts in her log.
States not worked : ME RI VT ND
Canadian mults not worked : QC SK AB NT NB YU YT PE NL (worked NS ON MB BC)
KS worked (16 counties) : REN SMI MCP WYA JAC HVY LAB BUT JOH GEA SHA THO DEC
LEA LIN ELS
DX worked (15 countries) : 9A DL F G HA I LU OE OK OM SM SP TI UA1 XE
Six-hour Rates (W0BH only)
------------------- 2011--2010--2009
Saturday 1400-1959 - 129 -- 86 - 145 Qs/hr
Saturday 2000-0159 -- 86 -- 67 - 114 Qs/hr
Sunday - 1400-1959 - 106 - 123 - 164 Qs/hr
Total W0BH : 1918 Qs 51 mults = 259,480 points
County Breakdown (in visited order)
Saturday (474 miles during the QSO party)
01 MCP 49 McPherson
02 MRN 41 Marion
03 HVY 63 Harvey
04 REN 68 Reno
05 RIC 66 Rice
06 STA 46 Stafford
07 BRT 73 Barton
08 RUS 66 Rush
09 PAW 99 Pawnee
10 EDW 38 Edwards
11 FOR 50 Ford
12 HOG 53 Hodgeman
13 NES 48 Ness
14 LAN 25 Lane
15 SCO 83 Scott
16 FIN 70 Finney
17 KEA 70 Kearney
18 WIC 85 Wichita
19 HAM 68 Hamilton
20 GLY 73 Greeley
21 WAL 26 Wallace
22 SMN 27 Sherman
Sunday (383 miles during the QSO party)
22 SMN 26 Sherman (again)
23 THO 51 Thomas
24 LOG 48 Logan
25 GOV 76 Gove
26 SHE 16 Sheridan
27 TRE 61 Trego
28 ELL 42 Ellis
29 RSL 43 Russel
30 ELS 39 Ellsworth
31 LCN 48 Lincoln
32 SAL 57 Saline
33 DIC 62 Dickinson
34 OTT 62 Ottawa
Special thanks to the following ops for 10 or (way) more contacts:
76: N6MU - likely the first station ever to sweep Kansas in one weekend!
69: VE3KZ - loudest signal (3-way tie!)
62: N8II - loudest signal (3-way tie!)
61: K4ZGB - always there and often first
54: N4PN - loudest signal (3-way tie!)
33: W4UT
30: W4UCZ
29: K5WAF NU0Q
27: N2WN WB0TEV
26: N4CD
24: WA6KHK
21: K4BAI OM2VL
20: AC0BH WA0MHJ
19: NT5O
18: KS4X
17: K4AMC K4YT
16: LY5A
15: N4ARO N4PJ NN9K
14: KS5A W7ON
13: K0PC K7TM
12: K0MPH KO1U W5QP
11: KO7X N7EIE W0OXJ W4YWX
10: K4MIA W4SIG W5CW W6KC W6OAT
1x1 stations worked (12): W0K W0S N0A W0U N0U K0U W0L W0O KOW WOE W0R K0R
Kansas mobiles worked (5): N0U/m K0U/m W0L/m W0O/m WY0I/m
W0BH Award Winners - First Place ----- Very Honorable Mention
--------------------------------------------------------------
Most overall Qs ---- N6MU/76 -------- VE3KZ/69 ------ N8II/62
Most CW Qs --------- N6MU/42 -------- K4ZGB/41 ------ VE3KZ/37
Most PH Qs --------- N6MU/34 -------- VE3KZ/32 ------ N8II/29
Most counties ------ N6MU/34 -------- VE3KZ/33 ------ N8II/31
Afterwards
Lorna and I drove a total of 857 miles round trip. Leaving from home was really
nice, and we finished only an hour away. On the way home, Lorna struck out cross
country instead of taking the freeway as plotted on the GPS. A great idea except
for the road closing! An hour and a half later, we pulled into the driveway.
I've learned .. I didn't say a word, and I was glad no roads were closed during
the party (just missing!).
This year more than ever, many Thank Yous are in order. First, thanks to
Randy/N0LD for encouraging me to run with the 1x1 idea. Thanks to Lee/K0WA for
filling in most of SUNFLOWER while Lorna and I were in Paraguay this summer.
Thanks to Bruce/KI5TE for helping with the stamps. Thanks to China at ARRL HQ
for processing the 1x1 calls so quickly. Special thanks to Chris/KC0YBM who
gave up N0R for us so we got all 33 KANSAS and SUNFLOWER calls. Chris had N0R
reserved for the Stiftungsfest Sesquicentennial event in Norwood Young America,
Minnesota, the same weekend as the KSQP. He graciously exchanged it for N0Y once
he learned what we were trying to do. Thanks to Kent/KB0RWI for keeping the web
site in order.
Thanks to all 33 1x1 operators (and many multi-operators) who enthusiastically
joined in to celebrate, including three out-of-state mobiles (K5CM/n0u/Connie
from OK, W0ZQ/w0O/John from MN, KK6MC/n0r/Duffey from NM). Thanks to the rest
of the Kansas stations who joined in from home or mobile, for few or many
contacts. Thanks to our sponsors for providing the funding. Thanks to the BEARS
(KC0AHN/k0a) and the Santa Fe Trail ARC (KS0KS) for operating the bonus
stations. Thanks to the personal plaque sponsors, a new addition this year.
Thanks to Lorna for her support before and continuing (this all takes time!).
Many thanks from all of us to the out-of-state ops who kept us so busy and
often spotted us as well. And finally, very special condolences (and thanks)
from us all to Jim/W0EB, who lost his 99 year-old father a week before the
KSQP. Jim was very much looking forward to operating 1x1 call W0R. He took the
time to send emails to the ARRL to relinquish the call and allow Dan/K0FNI to
take his place.
For me, the best part of this was getting to meet or exchange emails with many
of you as we all tried to make this work. The mobile run is over, the Kansas
Sesquicentennial QSO Party is over forever, but friends and memories remain.
Keep in touch. The 2012 Kansas QSO Party is coming ... !
73, Bob/w0bh/k0s with Lorna/k0why
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