Kansas QSO Party - 2022
Call: K0S
Operator(s): W0BH
Station: K0S
Class: Mobile SO Mixed LP
QTH: 31 KS counties
Operating Time (hrs): 14.8
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80:
40: 240 9
20: 780 505
15: 1 0
10:
6:
----------------------------
Total: 1021 514 0 Mults = 54 Total Score = 220,914
Club:
Comments:
Log has been submitted to the QSO party sponsor.
The 2022 Kansas QSO Party by W0BH as K0S/m
This was an unusual year for the Kansas QSO Party as years go, marked especially
by high gas prices, COVID still around and more medical issues than usual. A
number of out-of-state mobiles stayed home this year and I certainly understand.
I've limited my mobile participation in other out-of-state parties as well. It
also makes me want to thank even more the mobiles, rovers and portables who did
participate. I know everyone appreciates having all the counties up for grabs
every year, and we couldn't do it without operators getting into the counties
with no active hams!
Planning went smoothly as operations and routes came in, most earlier than
usual. The early entries helped me realize sooner that this year would be a
challenge. I enjoy creating maps of our CW/SSB coverage, Sat/Sun coverage and
rare counties to aid in planning for both Kansas and out-of-Kansas participants.
My usual goal is to have all the counties covered on Saturday, double or
triple-covered during the weekend, and covered by both CW and SSB. That turned
out to be difficult this year with lots fewer "relocatable" stations.
With just a few days to go, I planned a route to northeast Kansas to add CW to
those counties. A flurry of emails later, a number of mobiles and rovers
adjusted their routes slightly to fill "holes." We finally had CW
coverage of all the counties! We missed Saturday coverage by six northwest
counties, SSB coverage by eight mostly southern counties, and double-coverage by
ten southern and central counties.
Our KSQP spelling challenge is really popular. I try to make sure all the calls
are available so you can find KANSAS, QSOPARTY, SUNFLOWER and YELLOWBRICKROAD to
earn antique radio stamps for your certificates. As an example, KANSAS has two A
letters and two S letters. So everyone can spell KANSAS, I have to make sure
there are at least two SSB ops and two CW ops running those calls. Since there
are only three calls for each letter, one station has to be a mixed mode station
and at a minimum, one of the others has to be CW and one has to SSB. Other
letters like that are O, L and R in YELLOWBRICKROAD which is why that word can
be more difficult to spell.
This year we had 61 1x1 calls including four Medical Challenge calls, down from
69 last year. With several last-minute cancellations, I had no operators to take
two of the spelling calls, so Lorna and I also put W0I/m on the air to make sure
it was available. County hunters sometimes asked for Lorna personally in order
to log a "YL" for one of their awards! Pam/N5KW agreed to take K0O/m
with Connie/K5CM/K0A/m, so both calls were available from multiple counties.
Perhaps that was confusing at first, but ops quickly figured it out.
Saturday
I usually start out on the three-county line just a few miles from our farm, but
the reroute all the way to the northeastern counties required us to drive awhile
even before starting. We headed out about about 7:45am and drove 69 miles to a
rest area in Saline county, just a few miles from the next county line. It was
nice to arrive early for once, but that time went quickly as I solved some phone
issues for Lorna. I also tried posting to the KSQP Hub Spotting page and it
seemed to crash as soon as I hit "Post." That was a theme throughout
the day. I emailed the site webmaster who was aware of the problem and worked
throughout the day to try to understand and resolve the issue. It was apparently
a network slowdown affecting the hosting company. It never resolved for me on
either Saturday or Sunday, although others were able to post at times. The
spotting page failure was my biggest disappointment of the party this year since
I had heavily promoted the use of the site and wanted to use it myself. Not to
be.
Our Saturday route this year took us all the way to Wyandotte and Doniphan
counties, the furthest northeast counties in the state. The weather started out
sunny, then clouds crept in due to an approaching cold front which we stayed
ahead of on the outbound leg. I always appreciate cloudy weather during the KSQP
because it keeps the heat down and lets me see the computer screen better. Band
conditions and rates were OK but not terrific, which pretty much describes all
of Saturday.
Heading east to the Atchison, Doniphan and Brown county line, the rear view
mirror showed dark clouds we knew we'd have to go through on the run back across
the northern counties. And we surely did. Starting the return trip, it
absolutely dumped on us as we left the line. Radar showed it as spotty, but if
you're in the spot, watch out!
I use seven Hustler verticals on top of the Astro van, two triples covering
40-10 CW/SSB on triple-mag mounts (guyed), and an 80m CW resonator which I
didn't use this trip due to noise from storms. As Hustler resonators age, the
plastic coating can let moisture in and short out the coil. Before the trip, I
noticed that my 40m resonator (the high-power version), was showing signs of
age, so I bought a new one and tuned it up before the trip. I was able to
operate 20m throughout the rain, but when I switched to 40m, SWR showed moisture
in my new resonator. When the rain stopped, I swapped it out with the old one
and had no more issues. Otherwise, no equipment problems this time around
including my radio power problem from the last three outings. I finally found a
loose connection in the power booster and that seems to have fixed the issue.
The run across the northern counties on US-36 was smooth and cool behind the
front. As we turned south on I-135, Lorna was watching radar again and saw
storms near where we lived. We were the only station in Ottawa to my knowledge,
but luckily both 20 and 40m were open. We also covered it again the next day, so
a number of stations put it in the log. It started to rain again as we got to
Saline county. We pulled into Salina under a gas station canopy and finished the
last 10 minutes dry before getting gas and taking down the antennas. After that
the rain really started to come down. I gave Lorna a break from driving and
survived the last 50 miles or so trying to stay on the newly black-topped road
in the dark and rain until we finally pulled into our farm driveway. We finished
Saturday with 629 miles and 974 Qs in the K0S/m log.
Sunday
Sunday dawned clear and beautiful after the rains, unfortunately none at our
farm. The rains stopped about 5 miles west, for us the story of the drought this
year. I wondered how wet some of the sand roads on our route would be since we
were heading west. Lorna was off to a Kansas native plant event, so family
friend, Kendra, volunteered to drive for me while her sister went with Lorna.
Kendra is not a ham, but she's heard about Lorna's and my QSO party adventures
and seen me on the radio from time to time. She also turned out to be an
excellent driver! I decided not to put W0I on the air unless Kendra wanted to
give it a try later after she had some time to listen and learn.
We started in McPherson county which was a new one for me, then back north on
I-135 through three counties from Saturday. Right away, it was obvious
conditions were much improved from Saturday. Lots of calls on 40m, and 20m was
already open and busy. Our route covered 13 counties, some "rare" and
some needed on Sunday. As we turned west towards the first three-county line,
conditions improved even more with most signals really 59 and 59+ on 20m. I
remember thinking, "This will really be fun!" To top it off, all three
counties were new ones. Kendra turned onto a dirt road which narrowed even more
after a mile. Fortunately, it wasn't muddy and we didn't see standing water so
we ventured on through cropland and tall sunflowers. After a few miles, the
three-county line appeared and Kendra used the GPS to get situated.
I made my one and only 15m contact with NS2N on CW a few minutes before, but I
knew everyone was waiting for me to start out on 20m phone from the line. I put
out the CQ on 14237 expecting a big pileup and got absolutely nothing. I mean
nothing. I tried again. Zilch. I tuned up and down the band and heard nothing. I
went to CW and heard nothing. I went to 40m and heard 59+ static. Power was
fine, SWR was fine, the radio was working. Was it the location just a bit down
along a creek or perhaps the power lines? Sixteen minutes later after trying up
the road a bit on what was still a two-county line, we returned to the
three-county line and I heard a faint N6MU come back, followed by VE5KS and
N8II. All were practically ESP contacts. We tried CW with the same result. Of
course now we know it was a solar flare and that's what I finally concluded.
Kendra ate lunch and I started making a few CW contacts before heading down the
road.
Rates weren't great after the flare, but they did come back a bit. Kendra drove
us through some truly beautiful hill county, one of my favorite parts of the
trip. In Osborne county, I worked N4RKK for his last Kansas county. He made
really, really sure by duping me several times, which was a good plan given the
weak signals. This time I couldn't spot, not because of the spotting page
problem, but because there was no cell coverage! We arrived at our last
three-county line and I had a nice run. Then I surprised Kendra by suggesting
she make a few contacts with W0I. She wrote down exactly what to say, and even
though she was nervous, she hardly believed it afterwards when I told her she
made 14 contacts! Thanks to those of you who encouraged her along the way
including KE6GFI/Sheila, who overheard us and came on to specifically request
Kendra!
Time ran out too soon as it does on Sunday with only six hours of operating time
and 608 more Qs in the K0S log. Thanks everyone for the fun .. a great way to
end the 2022 KSQP!
Stats
We operated 14.8 hours, 910 miles, 1582 K0S/m Qs, 2597 combined Qs, 526 unique
calls, 47 dupes, one radio.
States not worked ------ : AK HI ND
VE worked -------------- : QC ON SK AB BC NB
KS worked (4 counties) - : THO LEA SMN GLY
DX worked (1 country)--- : OM
Overall rate : 107/hr (K0S)
Six-hour Rates (K0S)
------- Sat --- Sat --- Sun Q/hr
----- 14Z-20Z 20Z-02Z 14Z-20Z
2022 -- 121 ---- 83 --- 118
2021 -- 126 ---- 87 --- 149
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
K0S/m County Breakdown (in visited order, dupes not included)
Saturday (629 miles)
01 SAL 42 Saline
02 DIC 33 Dickinson
03 GEA 100 Geary
04 CLY 70 Clay
05 RIL 76 Riley
06 POT 47 Pottawatomie
07 SHA 46 Shawnee
08 JEF 44 Jefferson
09 DOU 36 Douglas
10 LEA 49 Leavenworth
11 WYA 43 Wyandotte
12 JAC 46 Jackson
13 BRO 60 Brown
14 ATC 38 Atchison
15 DON 38 Doniphan
16 NEM 34 Nemaha
17 MSH 32 Marshall
18 WAS 37 Washington
19 REP 13 Republic
20 CLO 37 Cloud
21 OTT 27 Ottawa
Sunday (281 miles)
22 MCP 39 McPherson
01 SAL 18 Saline (again)
21 OTT 44 Ottawa (again)
20 CLO 42 Cloud (again)
23 MIT 65 Mitchell
24 SMI 29 Smith
25 JEW 29 Jewell
26 OSB 49 Osborne
27 RSL 47 Russell
28 LCN 24 Lincoln
29 ELS 78 Elsworth
30 BRT 70 Barton
31 RIC 53 Rice
Special thanks to the following ops for 10 or more contacts:
48: NS2N
47: VE5KS
29: W4UT
24: N8II
23: N6MU VE7CV
20: W0PI
19: AC7GG
18: AA4TI K7RC
17: K9CW N5RZ N7GR VE3YT WB2FUE
16: K4AMC
15: N6GP
14: AC0CU KE6GFI KS4X VE6BMX W5LXS W5VS
13: K5GA WA1SAY WA4EEZ
12: WB9HFK
11: K5KG N9HDE N9NM W1FJ W1QK WC7Q
10: AD1C K3TW K4NMR N6WM WB2WPM
1x1 stations worked (3) : W0S W0R K0Q
Other Kansas worked (1) : K0PV
W0BH Award Winners - First Place - Very Honorable Mention
-------------------------------------------------------------
Most overall Qs ---- NS2N/48 ----- VE5KS/47 ------- W4UT/29
Most CW Qs --------- NS2N/34 ----- VE5KS/26 ------- AG7GG/18
Most PH Qs --------- VE5KS/21 ---- NS2N/KE6GFI/14 - W4UT/13
Most counties ------ VE5KS/28 ---- NS2N/25 -------- AG7GG/18
AFTERWARDS
Logs are coming into the log respository from the Log Submission page on the
KSQP web site. Remember to email me a separate FT8 log since we score FT8 logs
separately, and they can be in any format. Also remember to log county line
contacts on one line per county.
Another big, BIG THANKS to Bruce/WA7BNM and Trey/N5KO for making log submission
available to us again this year. It saves me a tremendous amount of time by
letting me return emails instead of collect logs. Bruce is also the one in
charge of the 3830 pages we're all using to post our scores and comments. Be
sure to post yours!
Another donation came in again this year to find a way to honor our medical
heroes during the pandemic. We do so with the Medical Challenge. This year, four
1x1 calls were designated to be "Medical" calls: K0M, N0M, W0M and
N0V. The M calls are "M for Medical," and the V call is "V for
Victory over COVID." We truly do appreciate the hard work and service
performed by the medical and emergency medical professionals in these continued
difficult times. We hope you were able to find some of these operators, several
who work in the medical field, around the bands.
THANKS to the ARRL, all the sponsors, ops, clubs, KS0KS bonus station crew, and
support teams (log-checking/AD0DX, web/KB0RWI and stamps/KI5TE) who made this
fourteenth 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/k0s/m
2022 KSQP Coordinator
QPC #31
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|