Kansas QSO Party - 2020
Call: W0B/M
Operator(s): W0BH
Station: W0B/M
Class: Mobile SO Mixed LP
QTH: 31 KS counties
Operating Time (hrs): 16.3
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80:
40: 912 386
20: 825 751
15:
10:
6:
----------------------------
Total: 1737 1137 0 Mults = 54 Total Score = 404,190
Club:
Comments:
The 2020 Kansas QSO Party by W0BH as W0B/m
To say the Kansas QSO Party was different this year is an understatement.
COVID-19 indirectly kept some mobiles home, required a rule change to allow
distributed Club operations, brought non-Kansas ops out in amazing numbers, and
had "Kansas" stations, including out-of-state mobiles, pulling
together like never before.
I'll cover the actual mobile run shortly, but I can't help but comment on what
it took for all of us to pull this off in this crazy year. When COVID-19 caused
earlier QSO parties to drop mobile categories and change how multi-op was done,
I wondered what it meant for the KSQP in 2020. Since then, we've all learned to
adapt. When other QSO parties started allowing mobile and multi-op categories
again, we decided to as well, but changed some rules a bit to accommodate.
Right off the bat, two new out-of-state mobiles signed up, one from
Idaho/K7TQ+WA0WWW and one from Wyoming/WY7AA. This year Colorado/AD0DX,
Missouri/KI0I, Iowa/N0AC and Oklahoma/K5CM+N5NK "Kansas" mobiles
joined three "local" Kansas mobiles (K0HNC, WY0A, W0BH) to cover all
105 counties. Then on Saturday, N4CD from Texas put in a surprise visit, his
first KSQP operation, as he put out parks and counties while braving the early
Saturday morning thunderstorms in southeast Kansas. A record 11 portable
stations planned operations, and our "regular" fixed and club stations
and our intrepid distributed bonus station KS0KS operators were out in full
force as well.
I mention some callsigns because during the QSO party, we seem to
"hide" behind 57 1x1 calls spelling KANSAS, QSOPARTY, SUNFLOWER and
YELLOWBRICKROAD plus our three new "M for Medical Challenge" calls.
The spelling challenge and associated certificates and antique radio stamps are
extremely popular, so special thanks to those who feel the loss of identity and
still operate 1x1 calls for us. Perhaps the increased number of contacts makes
up for it a bit as 1x1 calls often generate pileups just like "rare"
counties or rare countries. Thanks, too, to Kansas ops who get on with their own
call to make even more contacts and counties available. It takes all of us!
My county goals for the KSQP are to 1)have all 105 counties active 2) on CW, 3)
on SSB, 4) on Saturday and 5)by two or more operators. Over the years, the
mobile ops have really stepped up and helped me out by last-minute route
changes. I also wait until the last few days to put out my route to pick up as
many "holes" as possible. We had the goals accomplished in record
time this year until some mobiles were forced by circumstances to drop out. This
year we lost 3 in the last week.
On the night before start, we still had all 105 counties on but were now missing
three CW counties, one SSB county, plus a number of counties only covered by one
mobile operator. Thanks to reroutes (KI0I/K0I and AD0DX/N0E to name two), 40 SSB
counties from WY0A/W0O, plus a "found" mic by K0WRY/W0E who was
planning CW-only in Rice county, we completed the CW and SSB "sweeps"
which turned the Mode map back to green!
We also had to cover the last-minute 1x1 call changes to keep our spelling
challenge intact. I have to balance CW and SSB ops between letters on the 1x1
calls because otherwise we would end up with a letter that was only available to
SSB ops or to CW ops causing obvious frustration. I needed a CW op! The Kansas
City Contest Club made some calls, twisted an arm, and we ended up with
N9GB/N0T, who had so much fun he's already in for next year! The ARRL knows
about our event and made the last 1x1 database change for us late Friday
afternoon. That's cutting it close, so thanks ARRL!
Saturday
Once again wearing our KSQP T-shirts, XYL Lorna/k0why and I headed out toward
the furthest northeast county in Kansas (Doniphan) on a cool and cloudy morning.
We had thunderstorms move through several hours before start, but the cold front
temps really felt good, and the clouds made the computer screen easier to see.
Unfortunately, the QRN and the storms really affected operation in eastern and
southeastern Kansas for the rest of the morning. But LOTS of ops, so rates were
good for me almost from the start.
The Astro van is set up for multi-multi operation, but I just ran single-op this
year to participate in the State QSO Party Challenge. The ICOM 7000 ran 100w to
dual Hustler vertical triples (40/20/15/10/CW/SSB) on guyed roof-mounted
mag-mounts. External deep-cycle batteries plus filtered power-boosters provided
independent power to keep the noise down and the power consistent. I had 80m CW
along and it would have been good on Saturday evening, but rates were so good on
40m that I never went there. A Logikey keyer and an MFJ voice keyer provided CW
and SSB support.
Usually I have more "travel" stories, but this year I kept my head
down because the rates were really impressive. I ran lots of 20 and 40 CW, then
20 SSB when the band came up. Conditions weren't great, but there were so many
ops that I could usually hear someone to work. The KSQP Spotting Network worked
great (thanks Funspots!) and I see almost all our 1x1 ops used it this year.
Check it out on the KSQP home page to see what you missed if you didn't use it
or know about it!
Lots of the "regulars" kept me company, but one notable exception was
John/N6MU who was really weak and could barely hear me most of the time. I knew
John was there and going for his tenth Kansas county Sweep in a row (you read
that right) running low power with no beam. I was worried that conditions would
be a real problem for him this year with bigger pileups to break in poor
conditions. He missed me completely in the rare northeast counties. Even some of
the normally loud stations weren't loud on Saturday. Nonetheless, N8II and K1RO
were able to work me in all 31 counties, NS2N missed me in 2, and N6MU only
missed me in 3.
My one 3-county line in the far northeastern counties was lots of fun. Lorna had
lunch while I operated, then I had lunch as we drove back out to our next
county. Sudden hunger! So no equipment problems, no antenna bird-strikes, no car
problems, no real weather problems, no missed turns, detours or muddy roads (we
kept off those), no hog farm line stops, no friendly law-enforcement
interaction, no unfriendly locals, diminishing QRN problems .. nothing to report
but contacts!
Our Saturday route was a loop, so we arrived home with about a half hour to go.
I dropped Lorna off, then drove 3/4 mile to the Harvey/McPherson county line and
ran a final 88 contacts in 14 minutes to finish the day with 1596 contacts in
the log over 22 counties and 478 miles. The big surprise was 40m which was in
the entire day, almost like being on the east coast. Definitely a good day!
Sunday
It was a bit foggy Sunday morning, but that lifted and the weather folks
promised cooler sunshine for the day. I actually had two routes planned
depending on county coverage, but as already mentioned, other ops came through,
so I went with a "county-line" route which I haven't been able to do
for the past number of years. I'm well aware that county lines really add to QSO
totals, so decided to really go for it this year and planned three 3-county line
stops on Sunday.
I made some last minute KSQP web site updates including the 105th SSB county, so
we headed out about 15 minutes later than planned which means we arrived at our
first line about 15 minutes late. A quick CQ and ops were there waiting for me
on 7037. The conditions were lots better and they stayed better all day. Not
great with some deep (I'd even call it unusually deep) QSB from time to time,
but lots better than Saturday. We were off!
Lorna is an avid birdwatcher, so one stop turned out to be a beautiful birding
area and she disappeared for awhile. I had a big pileup going so she had lots of
time. I finally honked to let her know we could go. Later she was busy entering
her "log" into eBird, so she had fun, too (which is really important
if you want to keep an XYL/driver around for future mobile runs!). As many of
you noticed, she didn't operate this year.
We got to the last 3-county line with about an hour to go. It was truly a Kansas
out-of-the-way place on sand/dirt roads, fortunately not muddy. We saw no
vehicles and no people for the entire 80 minutes we were there. I had planned to
continue on to Reno county, but the pileup never let up and Reno county was well
covered. Starting with K4BAI on CW and ending with KC2SJN on SSB, I made 534
contacts at a rate of 400.5 Qs/hour. A number of those were dupes, as I just
logged one contact and expanded the log later, but what fun! And then we were
done, with 1392 more raw Sunday Qs in the log for a personal KSQP best of 2988
raw Qs.
On the way back, I texted John/n6mu, "Did you get Greeley?" because
he'd been worried about that one though he later realized a fixed station
(K0WPM/K0Q) was there. He texted back, "Yep, and miracles happen. I got
the Sweep!!" Ten in a row if log-checking holds. He has all of you to thank
for that and I know he will, especially N0AC/N0W/m who gave him Doniphan for
#105. I have all of you to thank as well!
Stats
We operated 16.3 hours, 793 miles, 2988 Qs, 613 unique calls, 114 dupes, one
radio.
States not worked ------ : AK HI RI
VE worked -------------- : NS QC ON SK AB BC NB
KS worked (5 counties) - : MSH THO MCP HVY BRT
DX worked (2 countries)- : OM DL
Overall rate : 183/hr
Six-hour Rates
------- Sat --- Sat --- Sun Q/hr
----- 14Z-20Z 20Z-02Z 14Z-20Z
2020 -- 148 --- 145 --- 251
2019 -- 104 ---- 90 --- 145
2018 -- too many stops to deliver T-shirts!
2017 -- 120 --- 102 --- 192
2016 -- 104 --- 137 --- 192
2015 -- 114 --- 108 --- 101
2014 -- 109 --- 111 --- 127
2013 -- 124 --- 109 --- 172
2012 -- 114 --- 124 --- 134
2011 -- 120 ---- 86 --- 106
2010 --- 86 ---- 67 --- 103
2009 -- 145 --- 114 --- 164
W0B/m County Breakdown (in visited order, dupes not included)
Saturday (478 miles)
01 MCP 115 McPherson
02 SAL 102 Saline
03 OTT 42 Ottawa
04 CLO 44 Cloud
05 REP 70 Republic
06 WAS 68 Washington
07 MSH 63 Marshall
08 NEM 56 Nemaha
09 BRO 144 Brown
10 ATC 114 Atchison
11 DON 94 Doniphan
12 JEF 64 Jefferson
13 JAC 53 Jackson
14 SHA 51 Shawnee
15 POT 68 Pottawatomie
16 WAB 86 Wabaunsee
17 RIL 64 Riley
18 GEA 48 Geary
19 MOR 79 Morris
20 DIC 66 Dickinson
21 MRN 106 Marion
22 HVY 44 Harvey
Sunday (315 miles)
23 LCN 85 Lincoln
24 ELS 106 Ellsworth
25 RSL 167 Russell
26 BRT 93 Barton
27 ELL 92 Ellis
28 RUS 104 Rush
29 PAW 222 Pawnee
30 EDW 189 Edward
31 STA 175 Stanton
Special thanks to the following ops for 10 or more contacts:
72: N8II
61: NS2N
58: K1RO
52: KI6RRN
41: N6MU
38: W6OAT
35: K4BAI
32: K4XU
30: VE7CV
28: K3WJV KV8Q W5XX
27: K7SV
26: VE5KS
25: W0PI
23: NO2C WB8WKQ
22: WA1SAY
21: KA6BIM W0ZQ WN4AFP
20: W9QL
19: N4OX WB9HFK
17: K8TE N0HJZ N6HC WB9CIF
16: N9NM
15: AC9BJ KA9VVQ N6GP N9SE WA2JQK
14: AC5O AE0TT N3RJ VA7RN VE3YT W6BRY W6OUL WC7Q
13: K4VBM K9CW NU1O VE3AQ W5LXS W7OM WA6URY
12: AA1SU K3TW K5KG K7GS KD2KW N6RO W4UT WA1PMA
11: K5KDG KE0YI N6WM OM2VL W5VS WA5LXS
10: K1IB K3MSB KE3ZT KK7AC W1PR WB2FUE
1x1 stations worked (3) : N0N W0S W0P
Other Kansas worked (2) : NY0T KD0LWX
W0BH Award Winners - First Place -- Very Honorable Mention
----------------------------------------------------------
Most overall Qs ---- N8II/72 ------ NS2N/61 ---- K1RO/58
Most CW Qs --------- N8II/43 ------ NS2N/40 ---- K1RO/31
Most PH Qs --------- N8II/29 ------ K1RO/27 ---- KI6RRN/22
Most counties ------ N8II/K1RO/31-- NS2N/29 ---- N6MU/28
AFTERWARDS
Logs are piling in with our 2018 log record already shattered in the first week!
The World Wide Digi DX Contest on the same weekend explains the increased FT8
participation. Remember to send in a separate FT8 log since we score FT8 logs by
themselves.
A request and donation came in to find a way to honor our medical heroes during
the pandemic, so the "M for Medical Challenge" was born (details on
the KSQP home page). Thanks to our three operators who put K0M/KE0SYO, N0M/N0CS
and W0M/AD0IM on the air at the last minute. We truly do appreciate the hard
work and service performed by the medical and emergency medical professionals in
these difficult times.
THANKS to all the sponsors, ops, clubs, KS0KS bonus station crew, and support
teams (log-checking/AD0DX, web/KB0RWI and stamps/KI5TE) who made this twelfth
Kansas QSO Party so much fun. You are all much appreciated and we couldn't do it
without you! Hope to see you all again next year ..
73, Bob/w0bh/w0b/m
2020 KSQP Coordinator
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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