Kansas QSO Party
Call: W0L
Operator(s): K5YAA
Station: K5YAA/M
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: 31 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80: 0 0 0
40: 309 0 0
20: 970 414 0
15: 4 0 0
10: 0 0 0
6: 0 0 0
----------------------------
Total: 1283 414 0 Mults = 56 Total Score = 261,912
Club: Oklahoma DX Association
Comments:
I was supposed to go pick up my guest op "Murphy" at the airport but
he was waiting for me in the driveway around 11AM on Friday just before my
departure toward Guymon Oklahoma for the evening. Colin KU5B could not make it.
Seems he has completed his PHD and somebody offered him some kind of work. Seems
he decided to report to duty instead of having some radio fun. Colin, you were
missed by this OT.
On Thursday I had seen a scrape on the coax feeding my Tarheel so I decided I
should use my spare coax run to replace the worn one. Out came the toolbox,
pliers. I started the loosening the PL259. Hand cranking was getting nowhere so
pliers at it again. Something ain't quite right here. Oh, I have loosened the
adapter and was unscrewing the entire feed point from the base of the Tarheel.
Tightened it back up and said to myself I hope I haven't made matters worse
because even with the scrape the coax and Tarheel were showing 1.2:1 or less on
every band last night. Took the seat and lit off the K3. Dang now 4.5:1 - motor
engaged upward. No resonance anywhere. Well obviously I made matters worse.
Murph kind of grinned. I planned on using the Tarheel on 80 and 10 only so I
reasoned no major loss except for a possible 1/2 hour or so on 80 Saturday
night. Certainly not enough to stop the show so, onward. I could, if up to it,
replace the entire Tarheel assembly with a spare but that thirty minutes might
be better spent on the road right now. Maybe at the motel - if up to it. Turns
out 40 was so hot I never needed 80 and of course 10 is in hiding somewhere so
a good decision procrastination.
As I pulled out heading for Guymon, OK I whacked our brick protected mailbox
with the trailer fender putting even another dent in the trailers wheel cover.
The left one this time. Murph grinned again. Some guest op you are I thought.
Onward to Guymon for Friday evening which is within close range of Liberal,
Kansas (45 minutes) for the Saturday morning start of the KQP. On the way to
Guymon I decided to check out the rig. Fired it up and the K3 said "ERROR
PTT". Hmmm, was OK last night. Perhaps it's the keyer cable once again as
I had trouble with it one other time. Maybe the Enid, OK R Shack has something
already made up. $15 bucks later I had me a nice purple with gold braid cable
and 1/8 inch plugs on both ends. Sort of a color coded cable deal, nice. Hmmm,
still says "ERROR PTT". Let me remove the small bungy cord holding
the Bengali Sculpture in place. Ahhh, no more "ERROR PTT". Upon
inspection the metal hooks on both ends of the bungy were shorting the keyer
to, I guess the dash side. Problem fixed as I found Velcro strap and used it to
hold the keyer in place. Another grin from my guest op. *#*@%% Onward toward
Guymon with 'ol Murph laying back, satisfied for the moment in the passenger
seat.
Stayed at the Super 8 in Guymon. As I pulled in probably the best thing that
happened all weekend was to have Alan, N5NA with his wife pull up to say howdy.
We chatted a bit, checked out phone numbers because we would be traversing
similar terrain in Western Kansas during the party. I could call Alan but he
couldn't get my phone to ring. Must be in the ionosphere. Wasn't Murphy as he
had fallen asleep in the passenger seat.
Super 8 was a good bargain except the TV in room 106 didn't work. They offered
me room 112 but I already had my shoes off and probably better get some rest
anyway so I watched Trump's Massachusetts shindig on the iPhone and dozed on
off after that. Murph just chuckled about the TV not working. About 11PM a
train whistle blasted in the room. I had not looked but it seemed the tracks
ran right through the parking lot. Until 2AM each 20 or so minutes another
train rumbled through the parking lot. Either I finally fell asleep or the
train schedule changed because I didn't hear anymore whistles or rumbling after
2AM. I hadn't realized Murphy used to be a train engineer.
At 7AM I arose and had the familiar Super 8 breakfast of either waffles,
biscuits and gravy or eggs and sausage. I chose the eggs and sausage because I
don't have as much experience with the waffle making device as N4CD does. He is
a master waffle maker and eater. CD stops at every Super 8 for waffles whether
he has a reservation or not. Just gets in line and loads the machine up when it
is his turn.
Off toward Liberal, Kansas now for the start of the party. I see in the rear
view window a truck with N5NA on the front plate and a lady driving. The second
highlight of this particular run. I was gratified to see there are other people
just as determined or perhaps just as much of a nut as me. Alan and his XYL
stayed on Hwy 54 North to start in Seward I suppose. I was headed for the
Seward Stephens county line where I reasoned I would begin by using the laptop
and N1MM+ to get my feet wet and to confirm I can still copy CW. My plan was to
only use the laptop when I was stopped as it is very hard to type and watch the
road at the same time. In Kansas you could likely get away with that but better
judgement overruled such operations. The new SamSung I had to press into
service, my old trusty Dell finally bit the dust, has a dim screen and at times
forgets it has a USB cable attached to the radio. If anyone heard those familiar
4 long dashes it was that SamSung firing back up after I forced it to not update
Windows 8.1. Hey SamSung, all I want to do is restart N1MM+ after you cratered
it.
I finished a rather terrific start at that county line on CW both 20 and 40.
Time now for some 20 meter SSB as I motored on toward Morton county. Being all
by myself on this run I was to rely on my little Olympus recording device on
both SSB and CW as I moved forward in an attempt to cover all 24 counties I had
promised on Saturday. About 20 QSOs into my initial SSB run in Stevens county I
looked down and noticed the recorder wasn't on. Hey Murph did you turn that
thing off or did I just fail to turn it on when I left that county line? OK,
regardless I turned it on. A note in my log says, Hey Bob there are some 20 Qs
missing here buddy. Bob will take care of it I'm sure. Anyone that can find
hundreds of used stamps and get a legion of mobiles to come join him covering
every Kansas county can surely fix 20 little old missing Qs. I recalled only
one call sign out of that missing bunch. WN4AT you are the lucky guy! BTW, what
was your state? I forgot that part.
Say, this SSB stuff rocks. Listen to all those unique call signs many said
phonetically without prefixes, I guess that's a secret method of SSB operating.
Just drop in the suffix to get attention in the pile. I mean what do I know
about SSB operation? Maybe I will try that in the future in the CQWW SSB test.
Let 'em guess which country I'm in and surprise them with just another Zone 4
Q.
At 1534Z on 40 meters in Stanton county a disgruntled non contesting type ham
radio operator fired up a carrier on 7.040 which would last the entire day when
I showed up on 40 meters. I hope he burned his finals out and after about three
visits to 40 CW I decided to slip on up to 7.040.5 - which worked well for
awhile. After a few minutes the carrier showed up there. I worked through all
the harassment with good success but I still hope he burned up his finals.
On through Stanton. Next Hamilton with the abbreviation of HAM. I told one
fellow in Idaho that asked me to repeat my county, HAM Hotel Alpha Mike, it's
where all the hams in Kansas live. We both had a chuckle. Greeley county then
Wallace and on into Sherman. For some reason I didn't look at my abbreviation
sheet and started sending SHE instead of, what I later found out should have
been SMN. N9JF kindly told me there was no way I could be in SHE after just
leaving WAL. He suggested I start sending SMN. I said my goof. Jim said carry
on. Thanks Jim you saved Bob at least 75 or so corrections. That reliable guest
op Murph really got a laugh out of that one especially since I made a strong
effort to mark down all the abbreviations knowing I would be hand sending most
of my CW. BTW, speaking of hand sending, I am a bug "expert" sender
having used one for over 55 years since I was in diapers it seems. Using a
Bengali Sculpture for just about the first time because it doesn't rattle with
bumps in the road, most of you heard W0RE instead of W0L and had your call sign
destroyed with my effort to figure out how long to hold the lever left or right
to get the proper number of dashes or dots for virtually every letter in the
alphabet. Later in the day I got much better, a relative term, sending with
that keyer but by that time my fist was getting tired so SSB became my favorite
mode for the later part of Saturday. My Mother would be ashamed. The worse call
I destroyed was N4CD it was N4YD N4LD AND N4NND. I had the N4 and the D down
pretty good. A / sign was almost comical at times and of course there was a
bunch of those sent.
In Thomas county the line on my printed Streets and Trips sheet showed me
turning due South at Brewster. The Kansas map didn't even have a number for the
particular road and it wasn't on the Kansas map. I knew it must be the one I
needed so since it was asphalt I went merrily down it to the South heading for
Logan County. About 8 miles down that road the Kansas State DOT must have run
out of asphalt because in front of me was a finely manicured dirt road. Heck,
do I want to take the kind of road that W0BH uses to get to those 4 county line
places? Too far to turn around. Hopefully only a mile or two of this stuff. On I
went dust and all. No washboard so I just slowed down a tad to keep from
destroying the trailer I tote behind me. 4 miles into that piece of Kansas
property and I hear what sounds like a small bomb go off. Oh know another
trailer tire blowout and I didn't have anyone prepare me a spare. But wait, why
all the hot air in here. Geeze, the entire back window of the van is blown to
smithereens. Never done that before. A rock perhaps but no rocks on the road
just dust. Maybe a hunter but I don't think so as I was between two huge fields
of maize and sunflowers in the middle of nowhere Kansas. Oh well, no turning
back now so onward, dust flying in covering everything. Later in the day it was
as if I was riding in a convertible. Murphy could hardly contain himself. Great
guest op you are buddy.
Having no rear window did give me the opportunity to sample the air around the
dozens of cattle pens that seemed to be on every acre of Western Kansas. Made
my pity for the poor animals even greater. A truly sad scene looking at those
critters just waiting their turn on the skinning machines. I thought West Texas
had a lot of cattle pens but I think Kansas has Texas beat. One particular spot
in Wichita county had an ominous white cloud that seemed to go for miles. For
sure the smell lasted for miles. Even Murphy was choking.
Continued terrific runs in Kearney, Grant, Haskell and Finney. I found myself
almost an hour ahead of schedule so it must be time for a navigational error. I
took the wrong highway in Garden City and found my way back to Kearney county.
30 minutes off my lead time and I was back on track toward the Scott and Lane
county line. A rest there as I fired up the laptop again and took my time since
I still had 30 extra minutes to burn. The navigational error gave my guest op
another chuckle as if he didn't already have enough to gloat about. Not to be
confused with G0AT which is the name my Georgia buddy and I call each other.
Gove county produced large numbers and I found 40 to be getting much more
productive so I stayed with 40 on into the real Sherman (SHE) OK now because I
really am in Sheridan no longer Sherman (SMN). On into Hoxie and then East
toward Studley, a fitting name I thought for a Big Iron mobile operator. Once
in Graham county I pulled over for another go at laptop operations. 30 minutes
later the Saturday run time ended. I made a reservation at the Super 8 in
Wakeeney, KS. Where do they get these names? This one had a working TV and
of course the same breakfast fare so I retired figuring Sunday would be a piece
of cake since it was only 6 hours versus the 12 of Saturday. I planned a start
on the Trego Ness county line and did indeed get there on time. What a start to
the day. The bands seemed much more alive. DX was already rolling in and I made
a point to peek at 15 fairly often in hopes of a strong opening into Europe.
After the county line run I went on into Ness using the microphone powered VOX
and the trusty recorder. In Ness City, the county seat, the speed limit was 20
MPH through town. I diligently followed that warning crawling through town
right past the county seat building. On the edge of town was a bridge and all
structures ceased so I punched the cruise control at 40 MPH letting the van
pick back up to the 75 MPH I had been moving all morning. I guess somewhere
around 50 MPH the local county sheriff decided to clock me. On down the road
during a huge 20 meter SSB pileup I look up to see blue lights that appeared to
be following me. I began to pull over all the while working 'em. KK4s KJ4s and
KG6s etc. cool prefixes by the boatload. The friendly sheriff told me he had
clocked me going 50 in a 40 just near that bridge and he also added that he
clocked me going 75 in a 65. He accepted my Oklahoma license and asked for my
insurance papers which were at home not in the glove compartment where they
usually are. He asked what all the stuff was. I told him a bit about ham radio
since he had no idea what it was. He looked to be 35 or so and had the Sunday
duty so I figured he was a greenhorn. I told him my usual line of "I talk
all over the world with this thing." Ham Radio is the original Facebook
you see. My description didn't work as 15 minutes later he presented me with
the normal stiff piece of paper. He did however give me a number of payment
options for the $162 tab he handed me. I thought that was nice. Multiple ways
to pay in support of Ness County. Murphy busted a gut on that one.
Not to be deterred and especially since the bands seemed so much better I went
on down the road and shucked off that episode in about a mile or two. I did
look back though to be sure I wasn't being followed to the Hodgeman county
line.
In Hodgeman DX started rolling in. SP9LJD, LY7Z, SE5L, DL3GA, DK2OY, ON4AAC,
OH2BN, OM3DX, M8LRD, IK2OEW, DJ9AO and SM6BZV and others many right after the
other. Good day I reasoned. However, the K3 started reporting "BATTERY
LOW" or something like that. It didn't shut down, yet, but was beginning
to gripe. I had set the Honda generator on ECO mode which let's the thing run
for over 12 hours on a tank of gas and it seemed to be charging my battery bank
via the charger just fine. As I found out later in the day ECO wasn't cutting it
because charging rate wasn't keeping up with using rate. Only the fact it was a
new set of marine batteries had I been able to run for over 15 hours with
satisfactory battery juice for the 75 amps required by the amplifier plus the
other good number of amps for the K3 at keydown. Later in Comanche county and
after I had double checked my connections from the charger to the battery bank
did I step up the generator rate. Too late to catch up now though because in
the last three counties of Comanche, Barton and Harper I had to do battle with
turning the K3 back on and just eeking out a few Qs before the K3 shut off
again. I did manage
to log 36 Qs in those three counties which is the same number I logged in just
a few minutes in every other county. An estimate would have been 2000 Qs versus
the 1697 I logged. I recall at least four or five Qs that got broken up with a
shutdown and miraculously I came back online to find the station waiting for my
exchange. Thanks to VE5KS, my very last Q of the party for waiting on me. W6RKC
and a couple of others were also patient waiting while I rebooted the K3.
Now with 18 hours under my belt and Murphy taking a nap I decided a nice Sunday
drive along the Kansas Southern border in perfect weather would be just fine so
I took my time going toward Coffeyville and South to home. There is some
beautiful countryside in the Southern part of Kansas. I like to think the fact
that it is sitting right next to Oklahoma makes it more beautiful and of course
friendly.
Thanks to all the callers. This was a good one regardless of the mishaps and in
spite of my attending keyer 101 classes. I would list some of the stations but
so much has been written already I will forego the accolades except for this
one. I worked many Georgia stations. I asked a handful of them, "Do you
know that ol boy N4 Papa Novembah?" To my surprise not one knew who I was
talking about. I thought everybody in Georgia knew that character. I told most
of them, be glad you ain't never met him, you're better off.
Oh, and this last comment or maybe it is a complaint. There were a handful of
fixed station operators sitting in the comfort of their shacks using KWs and
yagis who apparently did not receive or chose to ignore the emails sent by W0BH
asking for cooperation concerning the "Mobile Window". One in
particular showed up on my 20 meter frequency and also on the 40 meter
frequency of another out of state gas buying mobile. I was able to fend him off
a couple of times by creating havoc with my big iron KW mobile but the other
poor guy had to put up with, "Go away QRL here." sent by callers
waiting to work the station camped in the window. Talk about disregard for
visitors that came some distance to join in. I also had some old boy calling
said station say QRL QRL to me on 20 meters. Hey buddy, it's about to be QRL.
QRZ KQP de W0L and the flood gates opened. For some reason the camper seemed to
disappear probably just down one or two KCs on top of another 100 watt mobile. I
am suggesting to W0BH that he disqualify that particular station.
Many thanks to Bob Harder W0BH for his untiring efforts to make the Kansas
party one of the best in the country. It gets more out of hand each year Bob!
73, Jerry K5YAA
Rig: K3, Skymaster solid state amplifier, Tarheel and three Hustler resonators
roosting on the top of a Dodge 2006 van which keeps on hauling sometimes a
little too swiftly but always going forward in search of Qs. Now without it's
rear window to slow it down. By the skin of my teeth I didn't require a spare
trailer tire and the little yellow gas tank gas warning light plus bong only
came on three times each time within the guaranteed 30 mile limit after said
warning occurs. Only one close call but with 5 miles to spare.
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