Kansas QSO Party
Call: N0A
Operator(s): AD0DX
Station: AD0DX
Class: Mobile SO Mixed LP
QTH: Mobile
Operating Time (hrs): 17
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
6:
----------------------------
Total: 600 350 0 Mults = 50 Total Score = 137,000
Club:
Comments:
2017 KSQP N0A/m AD0DX
Each KSQP is different, and this one was no exception.
In June we moved from Kansas City to Colorado Springs, so I chose a KSQP route
in Western Kansas. My wife is my driver and I operate from my Ford Ranger with
a K3 and Hustler mag mount with resonators.
I looked at the map and decided to leave from Syracuse KS on Saturday morning
so we could start at the 4 county line HAM / KEA / STN / GRT.
Driving to Syracuse KS from Colorado Springs, it looks like an easy drive from
Colorado Springs; south to Pueblo, then east on CO 50 and we would
arrive in Syracuse about 10:30.
We were driving through Lamar, CO about 10pm on a dark street. The road was
two lanes each way with a median,and I was in the 'fast' lane
going 35 mph. This car comes up behind me and stays there. I'm thinking the
person wants to pass me, so I change lanes to the slow lane,
and the car follows me, also changing lanes. I said to my wife well that's not
good, it might be a police car. Sure enough, the blue
lights for the police car come on and I pull over.
It turns out that the light bulbs on my rear license plate were burnt out and
he has to be able to see the rear plate from 100 ft away.
I asked the officer ifhe could give me a warning, and he smiled and left
without saying anything. After running my license etc to make
sure I'm not wanted anywhere, he came back to the truck and gave me a warning.
Thanks! (I'm guessing those light bulbs have been
burnt out for years but I'm usually in the city at night).
I bought new rear license plate bulbs in Dodge City, KS on Saturday and
installed them myself.
Before the KSQP I took my truck in to the local Firestone for an inspection; I
thought my brakes were squeaking. $1400 later I had a bunch of
maintenance items completed, including a leaking oil pan. But it's money well
spent so I don't have a problem between 2 corn fields in
Kansas :-).
Unfortunately, the story doesn't end here... I'm not sure what happened, but
somehow we took a wrong turn in Lamar and we ended up heading
south... for 45 minutes. I didn't have my phone gps on because the route was
so 'simple'. Uggh. So we ended up getting to Syracuse KS
at 12:30 am, Mountain Time. We also kinda forgot about the time change, so it
was 1:30am KS time.
Ok so back to the KSQP. We woke up a little late on Sat morning and made our
way to HAM / KEA / STN / GRT. If you have ever looked for a
county line in rural KS (or MO or OK) one thing you learn the hard way is that
the more rural you get, what maps show as roads are often
tractor paths or deer paths or something that might have been a road 50 years
ago. So I studied the map closely, and used Google Maps to
pick a good route to the 4 county line. We took county road 35 east from Hwy
27 south of Syracuse KS for about 10 miles to road B, and
then south to the 4 county line. We had to stop for a farmers wife driving a
combine through an intersection. We gave her a nice wave
and she waved back at us. If you haven't driven through rural KS corn fields, a
lot of intersections don't have stop signs so you have to watch carefully.
I don't know how he does it but my first qso at the 4 county line was John
N6MU. Very impressive especially considering we were 30 minutes
late. I only called CQ once, did not spot myself and John was right there.
Great work John.
We had a good run at the 4 county line, mostly CW. I use the Hustler mag mount
antenna with the triple attachment. I had 20m cw and 20m phone
resonators attached so that I could change quickly. I decided to leave 40m to
the evening and that is what I did.
After the 4 county line I drove the truck back to the highway because my wife
wasn't too comfortable driving on the dirt roads. We
were both a little tired from our late arrival the night before, so I decided
to drive and let my wife sleep in the passenger seat. I drove
to the Morton / Stevens county line and operated from there.
Due to our late start I had to drop some counties. My wife is an avid bird
watcher and so I had planned to stop at Quivera National Wildlife
Refuge and also Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands in Barton county. I made a decision
to drop Quivera and just head to Cheyenne Bottoms. Birds that migrate
between Mexico and Alaska stop at Cheyenne Bottoms in central Kansas so it's a
great place to see migrating birds a few times a year.
Cheyenne Bottoms is also a great spot to operate because it is very quiet; no
electrical noise. During the NPOTA last year one of my
favorite spots was MP07 Pea Ridge Military Park in NW Arkansas; very quiet, and
a lot of interesting history. Cheyenne Bottoms is also
a great place to operate.
I stayed on 20m all day except for the last 30 minutes in Russell.
During the contest I was able to work Bob W0B/m and Lorna K0WHY on 20mtrs which
was surprising.
I ended up operating at 14.035.5 because there was a HI station on 14.035.
14.035.5 was quiet for me, and there didn't seem to be anyone
else on the freq so I stayed there most of Saturday.
The hightlight on Sunday was getting to meet Charles K0HNC / N0K. I've worked
Charles many times in different qso parties and it was great
to meet him durin the KSQP at the Norton / Graham county line. Charles has a
great setup with a large tarheel screwdriver. Thanks for the
eyeball qso Charles!
I was hoping to get to Cheyenne / Rawlins / Sherman 3 county line to end the
contest on Sunday but ran out of time. We had a 3 hour
drive home after the contest and so we just headed to Goodland KS and finished
out the contest in Sherman. I wanted to stop in Colby KS
to get Starbucks but just didn't have time for that. Need to plan better next
year :-)
I didn't work much DX this year, only OM2VL and DL3DXX and also one station in
France. There were some loud signals from HI on Saturday so it
was nice to get the HI mult.
My rig is a K3/100 and it really does a nice job. The 500hz crystal filter
really helps.
I use the cw memory bank to send CQ during the contest. Memory 1 is set to
'KSQP de N0A/M N0A/' and then memory 2 holds the county abbreviation. This
allows me to chain the memory locations for sending cq
throughout the contest. In memory 3 I have a short cq 'KSQP de N0A/' so I chain
memory 3 + 2 for a short cq that gives the county. Then
in memory 4 I put 'CQ DE N0A/m' for the reverse beacon network.
There were a few times when I switched from phone to CW and I did a 'CQ DE
N0A/m' to get started and DL3DXX was the first station to call me,
so it's great to see the RBN being used so well.
I made around 975 qso's this year; if I was a little more organized and made
fewer wrong turns I could have broken 1000. Next year.
Hats off to Bob W0BH for organizing another great KSQP. See you again next
year.
Hope to work you in the COQP this weekend. My wife and I will be driving along
the southern border of CO to Durango.
Thanks for all the q's!
Ron, N0A/m (AD0DX) and Cathy XYL driving
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