Kansas QSO Party
Call: N0N
Operator(s): N0NB
Station: N0N
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Marysville, KS
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80: 8 15 0
40: 91 20 0
20: 149 122 10
15: 16 1 0
10:
6:
2:
----------------------------
Total: 264 158 10 Mults = 51 Total Score = 58,138
Club:
Comments:
In the weeks leading up to the QSO party the QRN in town was fierce due to the
exceptionally dry conditions we have had this summer. There were times when
the power line QRN caused the K3's auto tuner's overload relay to cutout the
receiver some evenings! About the only way I would be able to hear anything
would be for a good rain. My prayers were answered on Thursday night/Friday
morning with 1.95" and the power lines around town were quiet for the weekend.
More rain fell on Saturday making it a perfect day to operate the radio in late
summer.
The remaining question to be answered would be band conditions. SFIs for
Saturday and Sunday of 104 and 106 (as I recall) with fairly low A and K
indices promised decent, if not good, band conditions. Unfortunately, my
station was probably unable to take advantage of much of any propagation to EU
as may have existed as I had only a few DL stations in the log after Saturday
and did catch an opening to EU late Sunday morning on 15m CW and then it was
gone even though the RBN showed I was being heard in Germany and Wales for some
time afterward.
Speaking of RBN, this year I chose not to self-spot myself. I did receive a
few spots at random and really did not notice much of an increase in rate as a
result. Perhaps the spots were too late in the event to matter. It only
occurred to me to use the RBN for seeing where and how strongly I was heard
late Sunday morning. It was my first use of the network for that reason and
the results were interesting as it showed me being heard in areas from I never
received answers to my CQs.
Whatever, this station location has proven itself to be poor, at best, and CW
is the money mode. PSK31 proved to be a disappointment this year for me and my
only try RTTY got me QRM'ed off the mode for my trouble! For a weak signal, SSB
is just not a productive proposition for a run although there were a couple of
times late Saturday when I did get a decent run going on 20m SSB. No question
that CW has the best operators! Want to be a serious contester? Learn Morse
and operate CW. Ha!
My thanks to all the ops that dug me out and gave me a QSO. To those I was not
able to hear, my apologies as this QTH has a minimum noise level of S2 to S3 and
at times higher. I know there were several stations I just could not copy
through the noise which was frustrating.
Our mults consist of all 50 states, Canadian provinces, and DX. I don't expect
to sweep the provinces. Sweeping the lower 48 seems doable, but Maine, Vermont,
North Dakota, and Kentucky eluded my grasp. Kentucky??? Now, the other three
sort of make sense to me but while I worked all manner of Tennessee stations,
as well as every other state bordering Kentucky, not one KY found their way
into my log. Was Kentucky on strike?
The 1x1 calls in the KSQP seemed to be well received again this year. I was
originally of the opinion that doing this every five or ten years would keep it
fresh. Perhaps making this an annual feature of the KSQP will maintain interest
in our party.
73, de Nate, N0NB >>
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