Oklahoma QSO Party
Call: W0BH
Operator(s): W0BH
Station: W0BH
Class: Mobile Assisted LP
QTH: 34 OK counties
Operating Time (hrs): 17.6
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 57 0
40: 307 13
20: 447 677
15: 46 34
10:
6:
----------------------------
Total: 857 724 0 Mults = 73 Total Score = 307,887
Club:
Comments:
Score includes 14500 bonus points.
2016 Oklahoma QSO Party by Bob Harder, W0BH
Saturday
The weather was cool and foggy as we headed out from Kansas for the hour and a
half trip down I-35 to Oklahoma. This year, we planned a combination OKQP/NPOTA
activation, so the route was a big circle through 34 central and western
Oklahoma counties with a few counties missing in the middle. Our planning had
changed several times over the past few days, and I was up until midnight
rerouting us away from back dirt/sand roads because of the heavy rain which had
fallen and was forecast to fall over our route on Saturday.
Our "new" '05 Astro van with IC7000 and Hustler verticals was running
great as we crossed the border just as the OKQP starting gun went off. 40m was
open and we quickly put contacts in the log, with N6MU, NW0M, and W0GXQ finding
us first. I've said many times that my favorite ham radio operation is mobile
from a three or four county line. I looked longingly at the road to the first
three county line as we went by, but there was water standing on the road, and
we knew how bad it got further down, so it was a good decision to stay on the
paved roads.
We quickly settled into a routine, working both 40m and 20m with both bands in
great shape. Since we were heading further south than usual, we kept on I-35 as
much as possible and the miles flew by. Even Oklahoma City was kind to us this
year. South of Oklahoma City, we saw brake lights and flashing blue and red
lights ahead of us with traffic at a standstill. For once we saw the problem
BEFORE we went by the exit, so we got off and took a GPS reroute with little
time lost.
The first National Park on the Air (NPOTA) activation was the Chickasaw
National Recreation Area in Murray county (RC05). I'd promised Lorna some
bird-watching while I operated so she took the scenic route trying to find a
spot. Since this site had already been activated for a solid week, I assumed it
wouldn't be "rare", so I scheduled only 30 minutes in the park and
added two additional counties instead. As we drove around, we saw water roaring
over a road, and we had to turn around after driving in a ways. Since we were a
bit behind schedule anyway, we just headed on out and left the birds for next
time. I wasn't able to get a run going and only made about 20 contacts in the
park. I learned later that Ron/ad0dx had an excellent run there, so perhaps I
should have tried a little harder.
Two minor glitches kept things interesting. I noticed that my usually reliable
20m resonator was showing a higher than normal SWR. I decided to stop and
retune it by shortening it about a quarter inch. That took care of it, but I'm
puzzled why I had to do it since it's been working so well for so long. It
worked fine the rest of the trip. I also had a laptop issue. The screen hinge
had been loose for awhile and I tried fixing it with some Hurricane tape. The
tape kept coming loose, so I had a "floppy" computer which I
sometimes had to hold up while typing. We stopped twice to try different types
of tape, but it continued to be a problem the entire party for some reason,
again after working fine for the past year. I was too lazy to swap in the spare
computer.
I finally did get a nice three county line right at the end of the day. I put
on the 80m resonator and made a number of 80m CW contacts as well as some on
40m. We ran out the pile and headed to our overnight stop in Elk City, arriving
at the hotel just as time ran out. We ended the day with 1065 contacts in the
log, about 150 less than last year.
Sunday
We had only sprinkles on Saturday, and the rain headed a bit north for Sunday,
so we started out dry although we could see dark clouds ahead. Our first stop
was the Washita Battleground National Historic Site (NS75) about a half hour
away. We pulled in with two hours scheduled if needed. It was. It took about
five minutes on 20m SSB to get the pile going and the pileup lasted the full
two hours. Great fun! We've been trying to operate all the NPOTA sites in
Kansas, and I really enjoy exploring the sites. This time Lorna went through
the displays and collected the passport stamp. It would have been fun to stay
longer, but we still had 7 counties to go, so back to work.
Time went really fast after that. There were storms east but we only saw the
results in the ditches and on the sand roads. Heading north to Woodward county,
we started out on a paved road, but at the line it turned into sand. With about
5 sand miles to go, Lorna decided not to try it, so we sat at the line instead
with a good run. That cost us, though, because now we were about 20 minutes
behind schedule, and everyone, including John/N6MU was waiting for us to get to
Alfalfa and Woods. John reported that he had all the other counties and needed
those two for the Sweep.
Lorna put her foot down (so I hear :-) and made up a little time, but we also
knew the final line was a bad road. While operating, I figured out an alternate
route and I had to figure out a plan to get as many operators as possible those
two counties in about 15 minutes. We left some hanging, but managed a good
many, including John. Congrats on the Sweep, sir! To my loyal 40m followers,
sorry I didn't get down there at the end. We just ran out of time. I did stay
and make a few contacts after the party for the county hunters who needed the
counties.
When I was taking off the antennas for the drive home, I noticed that I had
accidentally reversed two resonators on my CW triple. That would certainly
explain why 20m CW wasn't tuning like it should. Six resonators on two triples
all interact with each other and are a real challenge to tune.
Stats
We operated 17.6 hours, 1667 combined Qs (Lorna made 80 contacts), 591 unique
calls, 6 dupes, 1010 total miles.
States not worked : AR SD VT
Canadian mults worked : AB BC ON SK
OK worked : 15 counties : ATO CAN CHO CLE COM HUG LEF MCU MUS OKL OKM OTT PUS
ROG WAG
DX worked : 8 countries : KP4 DL HA I ON SM SP UA
Six-hour Rates (includes dupes)
block QSOs/hr - 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
----------------------------------------------
1400-2000 476 = 79--95---104--51---119--66 (Sat)
2000-0200 521 = 87--108--126--97---104--78 (Sat)
1400-2000 590 = 98--97---101--71----82--79 (Sun)
County Breakdown (in visited order)
Saturday (545 miles)
01 KAY 30 Kay
02 GNT 24 Grant
03 GAR 37 Garfield
04 NOB 33 Noble
05 PAY 30 Payne
06 LOG 37 Logan
07 OKL 36 Oklahoma
08 CAN 34 Canadian
09 GRA 34 Grady
10 MCL 53 McClain
11 CLE 32 Cleveland
12 GRV 44 Garvin
13 MUR 61 Murray (includes NPOTA RC05)
14 CAR 65 Carter
15 JOH 36 Johnston
16 MAR 49 Marshall
17 LOV 26 Love
18 JEF 41 Jefferson
19 COT 43 Cotton
20 TIL 33 Tillman
21 COM 34 Comanche
22 KIO 43 Kiowa
23 JAC 43 Jackson
24 GRE 27 Greer
25 WAT 32 Washita
26 BEC 35 Beckham
Sunday (193 miles)
26 BEC 17 Beckham (again)
27 RGM 284 Roger Mills (includes NPOTA NS75)
28 ELL 65 Ellis
29 DEW 68 Dewey
30 WDW 26 Woodward
31 BLA 28 Blaine
32 MAJ 33 Major
33 ALF 36 Alfalfa
34 WOO 32 Woods
Special thanks to the following ops for 5 or (way) more contacts!
96: N6MU (you showed 97 which is probably right!)
45: KS5A
42: N8II
34: W0GXQ
33: KN4Y
30: KK7AC
25: WN4AFP
23: K0HNC NW0M
22: W1DWA
21: W1END
20: AA8GP K8MR
18: DL3DXX DL3GA KI0I
17: N4JT VA3ATT
16: K0JPL KQ3F
15: N4RS N5PJ
14: W0ZQ
13: KC0ZVN KM4FO
12: KE0TT
11: N4CD W2CVW
10: AC0CU K5WE K8NYG K9NW
09: K4BAI K4XI W7GF
08: DK2OY K0FG K3TN KB6UNC N0LY
07: K3SWZ N2CQ WA1ZIC
06: N9LF NO5W VA3GKO
05: AA8R AH6AX DL8USA K4MIJ K7ZYV N3RJ VE5KS W1ATV W9DTO WA8HSB
OK Mobiles Worked
W3DYA/m (3), K5DB/m (2), K5CM/m (1), AD0DX/m (1)
Bonus Counties
29 counties had 5 QSOs or more on 40/80 meters
W0BH Award Winners
----------------- First Place - Very Honorable Mention ------
Most overall Qs - N6MU/96 ----- KS5A/45 ------ N8II/41
Most CW Qs ------ N6MU/51 ----- KN4Y/33 ------ W0GXQ/KS5A/30
Most PH Qs ------ N6MU/45 ----- KK7AC/30------ AA8GP/20
Most counties --- N6MU/34 ----- KK7AC/30 ----- W0GXQ/KN4Y/25
-------------------------------------------------------------
Afterwards
Thanks to Connie/K5CM for his usual excellent job of putting this all together.
I liked this weekend choice better than having to fight the DX contest. The
Idaho gang was friendly, and we only overlapped Wisconsin for a few hours on
Sunday (they were friendly, too :-). Some Wisconsin stations even followed me
along, so it worked. Thanks to the mobiles and fixed stations who put all 77
counties out there, and congrats to John/N6MU for once again working them all
(including all 34 of my counties).
I'm currently working on a multi/multi setup which I'll test out in the
Missouri QSO Party with Ron/AD0DX. Then I'm off to Georgia with Lorna/K0WHY and
John/N6MU to run the Georgia QSO Party with Paul/N4PN the second weekend in
April.
The 2016 Kansas QSO Party is scheduled for August 27-28. With 105 counties, we
need all the help we can get, so mobiles, head this way! Everyone else, thanks
for the Qs in Oklahoma, and see you in the log in Missouri, Georgia, and
Kansas!
73, Bob/w0bh and Lorna/k0why
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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