For my fifth year participating in the Kansas QSO Party, I decided to reprise my efforts of last year by again activating several counties as an Expedition station. As outlined in my initial planning post, I was going to head to Kanopolis Lake State Park (US-2342) on Saturday and operate all day from a shelter before moving to a three-county corner for Chase, Marion, and Morris counties on Sunday. I was given K0T as a special event 1×1 for this year’s event.
I ended up driving out Friday evening from Kansas City and staying in a hotel in Salina to minimize my drive the next morning which let me stay on schedule in the morning. I got to Kanopolis Lake State Park an hour or so before the event started at 9am and made my way to the Beachhouse Shelter which I reserved for the day. I was originally anticipating using my telescopic drive-on mast to hold up my 20m/40m linked dipole in an inverted vee configuration, but I found when I got there, I found that might get in the way of the entrance to the office that sits adjacent to the shelter. I instead found a tree that sat between the shelter and the shower house, and hoisted my antenna up there (in the end, the office never opened throughout that day, so perhaps it isn’t used anymore). I was a bit concerned that this would be a busy area given the office and shower house and there were a decent number of people walking through the area, but I didn’t really have any issues. I was on the air around 9am and started to make a few contacts on 20m.
As a secondary goal was to do a POTA activation with only satellite contacts in furtherance of my longterm goal of activating all Kansas State Parks on satellites, I quickly jumped off 20m after about 15 minutes to get ready for my first pass. I was originally planning to get on four passes throughout the day to make sure I got the ten contacts I needed for a successful activation. There was also the challenge of timing; there were four FM passes in the morning soon after QSO party start and none until much later after the UTC day rolled over. So there was pressure to get it done on these first few passes!
I ended up getting on three passes as follows:
- ISS 1439z: 4 QSOs
- SO-50 1528z: 4 QSOs
- SO-124 1758z: 3 QSOs
Theodolite View of my Horizon for Satellites
I also tried AO-123 between the last two, but I never heard the bird. Luckily I was able to make exactly ten POTA-eligible contacts with that last pass. I worked the same person on the ISS and SO-50 passes, but since the transponder was V/U in both cases, it didn’t count as separate contacts for POTA.
I did do some HF operation between those passes on 20m as well, but going back and forth prevented me from really running a frequency. However, by about 11am, I was done with satellites and settled into a long afternoon on HF. By dinner time, I had just about surprised my Saturday score from last year which was a great sign. It got really exciting when I switched to 40m around sunset and found the band booming. For the last hour or so, I was able to run a pileup on 40m and really rack up the score!
At 9pm, I tore down my setup (using a shelter with power and lights was awesome!) and packed up for the drive to my hotel Everything had gone very smoothly so far and with my log where it was, I felt sure that no matter what happened the next morning, I would be in good shape to continue my 1st place position for a second.
Sunday’s Operating Position on Marion/Morris County Line
Imagine my surprise when just about the only possible damper greeted me when I awoke around 6am the following morning: a torrential downpour. Given that I was heading back to a county corner at the end of several miles of dirt, minimum-maintenance roads in my Honda Accord, I know this would not end well. Although it seemed like the rain was letting up, but the time I made it to where that road peeled off the pavement, it was clear the mud was a showstopper. I almost got stuck long before I reached the worst of it, so I turned back and reevaluated. In the end, I found another minimum maintenance road turnoff that tracked a county line for Marion and Morris counties. The sign that said the road was impassible when wet gave me confidence no one would be coming down from the other direction, so I pulled in and set up there. No one bothered me in this spot for all of Saturday.
Of course, a county line meant each contact counted as only two contacts rather than my planned three. This would have a significant impact on my score, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I got on the air only a little late and got to work. Luckily, 20m was in good shape, and I was able to jump to 40m and even 15m at some points using the harmonic relationship when 40m was linked in on the antenna.
Operating position inside car
I had a ton of fun despite the challenges! I got a surprise contact with a friend, K4RAY, who was doing POTA which was cool. My radio setup also worked nicely, especially the would shelf unit I built (using this article as inspiration) that held everything strapped in place. I again needed to switch to powering my radio from my car as my battery gave out an hour or so before the end of the event. The temperatures were so cool this year that I didn’t need to run AC for most of the morning which was nice for the fuel expenses as well.
Next year, I want to switch a few things up. First off, I want to try a different antenna. The 20/40m linked dipole works well, but it is annoying to have to get out of the car, lower it, and mess with the links to change bands. It is also limiting it those three bands. I am in the midst of creating a vertical antenna that uses the same mast with a ground plane for next year. Not sure if this will be a fan-style vertical or use a single element with remote auto tuner,
The other thing to change up is location. Obviously, county lines and corners are key to big scores. But for an Expedition station, they are tricky. That category limits me to one location per day, and one of those has to use commercial power. That makes state parks a great option (as I’ve done multiple times now), but there are no county lines that also cross those spots. I could try to do county lines/corners operations on Saturday, but 12 hours without a bathroom or other amenities nearby is tricky. I think I’ll do a similar structure (park Saturday, remote location Sunday), but I want to find a different county line/corner elsewhere in the state.
My score breakdown for this year was as follows (keep in mind each county line contact counted as two in these numbers):
- 40m: 270 QSOs
- 20m: 816 QSOs
- 15m: 50 QSOs
All in all, it was a ton of fun again. I really enjoy this event and look forward to it each summer. Based on preliminary scores, it looks like I won again with 1120 contacts with 55 multipliers and a 100 point bonus for contacting KS0KS yielding a final score of 123,300. See you next year!
