Although technically a Kansas State Park entity, the Prairie Spirit Trail State Park is actually a 51 mile trail that connects Ottawa and Iola, Kansas and replaces the old railroad that used to link the cities. Along the way, this trail brushes up against several city parks which makes for several convenient access points. I chose to base my activation at Kanza Park in Ottawa, located less than two miles from the trailhead, as it has a parking lot near the trail and gave me some room to activate within 100 feet of the trail without being up on the trail itself. The park was quiet for a Saturday morning (5/9/2020), but I saw several people walking and biking down the trail. It was an easy park to get to being in the middle of Ottawa near a lot of shops and restaurants.
I planned for three satellite passes throughout the early afternoon. After the first one, I was a little concerned as to whether I’d get to 10 QSOs after those three passes, but I was able to get well above the threshold and ended up with 20 (19 unique) contacts total:
- AO-91 (1639z) – max 25 degree pass: 1 QSO
- AO-92 (1655z) – max 87 degree pass: 8 QSOs (including a dupe from the previous pass)
- AO-91 (1815z) – max 37 degree pass: 11 QSOs
This park was again within my VUCC circle (and my home grid EM28), so I was able to count these contacts towards my home VUCC. As of 5/11/2020, I am up to 116 grids with three new grids from this trip.
Theodolite screenshot of my operating point near the parking lot. In this photo, my antenna is aimed toward the trail.
Other notes:
- As I arrived to the park a bit early, I was able to listen into an RS-44 pass before my first AO-91. While I didn’t attempt any QSOs, it was neat to hear all the activity people are talking about.
- I tested my new headset (Koss SB-45) with my FT-817ND and TH-D74 on two of the passes, and it worked fairly well. I’m planning a more thorough review in a future blog post, but I think this is a decent headset for ham radio. My only gripe so far is that the boom mic is a bit loose so it flops around a bit if you’re moving your head. Audio quality seems fine, though.
Looking north along the trail. There is a disc golf course that winds through the park, and one of the baskets can be seen here.
Looking south along the trail toward the entrance to the park.
The park was fairly quiet for most of the time I was there with only a few walkers taking advantage of the cool day.
The workout equipment and playground was still wrapped in caution tape due to the COVID-19-related restrictions.
