Kansas QSO Party - 2023
Call: W0O
Operator(s): W0ZQ
Station: W0O
Class: Rover LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80: 37
40: 429
20: 1095
15: 154
10:
6:
----------------------------
Total: 1715 0 0 Mults = 51 Total Score = 262,342
Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn
Comments:
This year I operated as a solo driver/operator in the KSQP Rover category
activating 14 counties on Saturday and another 9 on Sunday, all in the
northeastern part of KS. Arriving in the Kansas City area on Friday night it
was over 100 degrees but that night a cold front moved through resulting in
temperatures on Saturday and Sunday in the low 80s, often with cloud cover,
absolutely perfect weather for a Rover.
As a solo driver/operator I decided to operate only while stopped as those
northeastern KS country roads are narrow, do a lot of dipping up and down, and
have really steep ditch lines so between operating, while driving, I
concentrated only on driving. Besides, that way I was able to enjoy the scenery
of the Flint Hills. Like many of the Upper Midwest states, this part of Kansas
is quite beautiful.
For the contest I operated CW only rotating through 40 and 20m from each stop
with trips to 15m as my time planning allowed. Propagation on Saturday was
good, really good, with short skip on 20m most of the day resulting in MN, WI,
IL, AR stations just bombing in with big big signals. As expected 40m took a
dip midday but was still fairly active with the closer in guys. A pleasant
surprise was 15m kicking in 154 Q. After finding some dinner on Saturday
evening I did work some 80m resulting in 37 more Qs from GEA.
Sunday was more of the same as I worked my way back to the northeast and towards
home in MN ending the day as far northeast as I could go in KS operating from
BRO/ATC and DON. However, propagation was not quite as good with much of the
short 20m stuff much weaker now and only three Qs made on 15m, all long haul DX,
no stateside.
One story to tell. Sunday morning from the hotel I check the oil level in the
2013 Subaru and found it down a half quart. As a Rover (and a Subaru owner) I
always carry some oil with me so I added a half quart. Later on, sometime
around 1pm that day as I was working my way up to BRO/ATC, the oil light came
on. OK, now what. I pulled over to the side of the road, open the car's hood,
and the entire engine compartment was covered in oil. My first thought was all
bad as the car has over 100K miles on it. Then I look over and see that the oil
filler cap is gone! Apparently I had forgot to replace the filler cap back at
the hotel when I added some oil .... not enough coffee at that time. However,
much to my delight, looking down inside the engine compartment there was the oil
cap lodge in some of the engine, so it was an easy thing to add some more oil
again, reach down and grab the oil cap and this time put it back where it
belongs. Emergency avoided.
I think this may have been my personal best for the KSQP. I had a great time
playing radio at each stop and enjoying the scenery driving from county to
county. My shack, a Subaru Impreza, is from 2013, the little Gateway netbook I
used for logging is from 2009 running Windows 7 Starter, N1MM is version
V13.12.2 from 2013 (works great, why change), the radio is a FT897 from 2004,
and the operator is from 1955, all old stuff, no waterfall, DSP, or rig control
in sight.
Many thanks to Bob, W0BH, and his team for organizing a really fun event, a big
tip of the hat to all the other mobiles and rovers who keep the event churning
with activity, and to all the fixed stations who came out to play some radio and
have fun. For those that I may have missed from a given county please know
that I tired really hard from each stop to work down the pile ups until even the
ESP Qs were worked.
73, Jon W0O/W0ZQ
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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