2015 SOAPBOX
THE KANSAS QSO PARTY
Updated: Monday, October 12, 2015 19:52
AB4SF
Good KS Ops and good 20M condx to your part of the world made for a very pleasant couple of hours on Sunday afternoon. Many thanks and see y'all next year! 73, Wray AB4SF
AE8M
Great contest! Decent fixed activity and lots of mobiles to chase. The mobile operators were efficient at working the pile-ups.
AI4DB
Propagation was pretty rough in Western Tennessee. I enjoyed trying to get all the special call signs.
AK2S
My first Kansas QSO party. I do not know how N1MM+ calculates the score and I cannot duplicate the numbers but this is what score N1MM+ shows. I had a lot of fun and will be back next year to improve my score. As far as I can tell this does not include the bonus. I am a brand new contester with a lot of room for improvement.
KØBAK
Managed to participate most of the contest ex Sat. night. Does everyone in Kansas use a 1x1 special event call? My "high" power was only ~400w. Thanks to all the mobiles who covered so much territory, and thanks to the party organizers. Didn't expect to make this many contacts. Most of all, I had fun.
KØFJ/KØF
Great fun operating as K0F this year. Missed most of Sunday due to Church and Family commitments.
KØVXU/KØN
K3, TL-922A, TH6DXX, Slopping Vees (80, 40) Couldn't put in a full effort, but did manage to get over 15 hours in. Bands were very poor. Even on Sunday with the solar numbers getting somewhere back to the normal range the signals to Europe were down. Lots of QSB and the low bands were very noisy Saturday.

That said, this was my best effort so far in the Kansas QSO Party. Still, not enough to beat Bruce, K0BJ (W0S). Losing the first 2 hours Sunday morning was a killer. Still got 58 mults, same as last year. But didn't work AK, PE, or NL as I did last year. I notice that Bruce missed RI and I must have worked a dozen. UT and SD were my last finds Sunday afternoon. And worked only one NE and that was on 20 meters no less.

All in all it was a fun event. Look forward to doing it again next year.

Thanks to all that provided me with a QSO.

73, Russ - K0VXU/K0N
KØOU
I'm too close to KS for any HF contacts. Also, family business kept me off the radio on Sunday- result = not much fun
KØAP/KØW
Fun event. Enjoyed running the pileups. I wish the bands were a little bit better but it is what it is... Looking forward to KSQP 2016. Big thanks to Bob W0BH for meticulous organization, as usual. 73 Dragan K0AP
K4BAI
FT1000MP, Alpha 78, 1 KW, TH6DXX, dipole, zepp. Limited time. Thanks for the QSOs. Score includes 100 bonus points for QSOs with KS0KS. 73, John, K4BAI.
K4YND
My first KS QSO. great fun I love all the mobiles. you have plently to work as they move around. 40 was rough to VA 73 K4YND
K7DR
FT-450
G5RV, Jr
Write Log 11.25C

Worked 1x1's to spell out KANSAS SUNFLOWER QSOPARTY

73 Dave - K7DR
K8BYP
First contest ever besides FD.

K8MR
I usually miss the KsQP, other than to get the KS multiplier in the Ohio QSO Party. But this year August had five full weekends, which did not include Labor Day weekend, so we were able to avoid the normal KS/OH conflict. (Back to normal next year :-( )

Good conditions and activity. Those KS guys are really organized - I had only four QSOs with non-special callsigns, one of which was K0A/W0BH's XYL, K0WHY.

Mobile operation must be quite easy in Kansas, since it is flatter than a pancake out there: http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/v9i3/kansas.html

73 - Jim K8MR

K9ELF
Thx for QSOs. Found KS0KS for 100 pt bonus.
K9NW
Tnx QSOs!

73, Mike K9NW
KCØDEB/KØL
Besides the brutal QSB at times, conditions on 20m and 40m were kinda OK. The 1x1's attract plenty of attention, which makes the KSQP so much fun. I enjoyed it, and hope to do it again next year!

73, John KC0DEB / K0L
KEØG
K3 at 5 watts to a 40 M dipole at 40' or a 20 M dipole at 50' . Skip wasn't good into KS most of Saturday, but enjoyed making a few Q's. Didn't have much time to spend on it, but thanks for throwing the party ! 73, Dan ke0g
KF4LM
Considering I had a 200+ mi trip yesterday and church activities today until almost 2 pm, I didn't do too poorly. Wish I could have snagged more contacts on CW. Didn't get on CW until the last 35 minutes.

Thanks for a great annual contest!
KJ4WD
Enjoyed the party. Well executed. Plenty of in-state op's to work both CW and phone. Mobiles provided an extra bonus while operating on the boundary of more than one county. 20 meter band held up well in North Carolina during the time I was on. Picked up my 50th two minutes before the bell rang. My thanks to ALL who made this happen. Till next year. 73 to all KJ4WD
KN4Y
Mostly a 20 % 40 meter QSO party for me. Plenty of mobiles, what a blast. Went church missed Sunday start. No time to get a power nap.
KS4X
Thanks for all the mobiles ,great job thanks for listening to My weak signals. FT-817 Yaesu 5 watts
NSØR/NØP
Had a good time this year. Great participation. Had rates well into the 100's on phone and CW. I put up an end fed half wave vertical for 20 meters that I built a matchbox for and it worked great. Only took 10 minutes to put up. I still need better antennas, had a 20 meter half square but take off angle is a little low for domestic. I had to take 3 hours off right in the prime time for 40 meters due to family commitments but still managed to do OK. Thanks for the QSO's and thanks to W0BH for putting on such a great event.

73, Morgan, NS0R
N1CC
Station: Elecraft K3/100 @100W to F-12 C3 @64' and 80/40 Fan Dipole @50' broadside North/South. WriteLog V11.27H fully supported logging and scoring, with manual add of 100 Bonus Points for KS0KS.

Challenging exercise! Saturday 60+ K-Index and 10+ A-Index with intense Solar noise made 20 Meters pretty "sad" here in North Texas. 40 Meters was the money band. Sunday K-Index of 9 and A-Index of 3 made for better 20 Meter conditions, and most 20 Meter contacts were made then.

Note, both days, I lost ALL ability to work into Kansas on 20 Meters from about 1700 UTC until after 2000 UTC. What I observed both days is that I could HEAR the KS stations by pointing due East during that afternoon period, actually pretty strong. They were not able to hear me calling. I presume this was some kind of sporadic E propagation, and with the huge F2 Layer signals from the East Coast possibility of using that to an advantage did not happen for me.

See complete 3830 Soapbox
N1EN
Wish I had more time to play this weekend.
N2CQ
Poor condx but great mobile OPs!
N4PN
Thanks to Bob, W0BH and crew...this was quite a party... Had 100 counties at the end of first day.... Got the other six to complete the "sweep" with Mark, KI0I at N0E in WOOdson and finding N0U running thru SUMter for the last one... Lots of really great mobile operators... Great to work another friend, Jerry, K5YAA as W0L in a bunch of counties.. Thanks to all, including many fixed stations.. Never heard anyone on 15m, but the "numbers" were terrible for 10 & 15m.

See ya next time.
73, Paul, N4PN
N6MU
W0BH advertised that all 105 counties would be on Saturday. I tried to prove it but never heard LCN. However, I did get the other 104! K0O/m gave me LCN early Sunday morning for the Sweep. Thanks, Butch! Congrats to Paul, N4PN, who also got a Sweep. It ain't that easy folks, hi.

There were 16 active mobiles which makes for a fantastic Party. I love the challenge of tracking all of them. The mobile CW frequency assignments really helped again this year. Thanks for using them.

Top mobile for me was K0A with 46 Qs followed by W0L(39), K0O/N0R(31), N0A(28), N0U(26), W0Q(25), N0K/W0O(23), N0Y/W0E(22), K0WHY(20), N0Q(10), W0R(8), N0T(7) and W0W(4).

Thanks to the myriad of fixed stations that hung in there the whole time as well. Never heard a signal on 15 but 20 kept me plenty busy.

Kudos to Bob, W0BH, for organizing one of the best Parties around!!

73... John, N6MU TS-570 & 5BTV
N8BJQ
Nice contest - great turnout by the KS stations.
N8FYL
Oh, if only I had found (and worked) a *0P station I could have spelled ALL the words (KANSAS, SUNFLOWER, QSOPARTY) without using the KS0KS wild card. Maybe next time I should track my progress during the contest? :-)
N9VPV
TS-2000 @ 100w, Alpha-Delta DX-CC @ 20ft.
NS8O
Tri-Band Quad 20-15-10 meters, wires on 80-40m and tower on 160. 6 meter quad and 2meter 13 element yagi
NS9I
Tnx Sponsors - good activity - limited time - tnx q's
NU4Y
Having fun, playing with radio. Just a vertical and a KW
VE5KS
This is one of my favourite contests, I guess it helps having KS as a suffix. Thanks for all the Q's, had lots of fun. Can't wait for next year. 73 John VE5KS

Rig: Kenwood TS 140S Antennas: Cushcraft A3S @ 40 ft Fan Inverted Vee for 40/80m
KØVBU/WØF
More time on this year, but condx were very marginal at best. Nothing on 15 or 10. Very enjoyable format. Thanks to especially to Bob, W0BH, for all his effort, both organizing and operating! 73 Bill, K0VBU - W0F - The F in Sunflower (Say that 3 times real fast!)
KØBJ/WØS
Condx seemed baddish before the start, but it proved to be good for stateside, if not EU. Sunday improved a bit for DX. The N0T/m guys overnighted with me Friday. They had various issues at the start but I see from APRS they forged ahead.

Always fun to bump into friends. I got at least 31 of our 1x1 calls in the log.... may have missed marking some on my tally sheet. Last year I had WAS and 58 mults. This year I failed to log RI but still had 58 mults.

This is my best QSO total for the KSQP. I didn't really expect to go hard, but in the end I held to ~20 minute lunch breaks, and just a handful of ~5 minute off times.

TNX to W0BH and Lorna, the mobiles, our sponsors and all the wackos that enjoy chasing us.
WØXI
ROOKIE, FIRST TIME ON KsQP, 73, Phil, W0XI, Lawrence, KS 7029 is claimed score on Cabrillo file submitted via email
W1TEF
Late start Saturday, only a couple of hours, much better on Sunday with a really good start. This was one of the best QSO Parties I've worked this year. The 1X1 operators were excellent, very active mobiles, some line sitting which I think was interesting. Overall, I'd give this QSO Party a big A++++ - couldn't have asked for a better one.

I managed to Clean Sweep the 1X1 stations so I have KANSAS, SUNFLOWER and QSOPARTY as well as the KS0KS bonus station. I am very happy with my QRP results. Conditions were a little QSB later on Sunday, but overall decent for a QRP station. I will definitely be back to operate this one next year.
WN4AFP
I know that the activity was very high for this QP, but it was difficult from SC. I could only put-in a very limited part-time effort on this one. I ran QRP on 20m and 80w on 40m. 40m finally opened about 2200z. The 1x1 stations were awesome! Great operators and what fun trying to work them. I was unable to operate on Sunday. Congrats to the KSQP team! Y'all had a great QP... Within 3 weeks make plans to attend the South Carolina QSO Party..September 19th... Please RSVP at www.scqso.com. 73s Dave WN4AFP "Nothing beats a good QP!".
WØBH/KØA
It was a year of change this year. XYL Lorna/k0why and I bought a "new" '05 Chevy Astro with 64,000 miles to replace our aging '91 Astro with 296,000 miles. The old Astro still runs fine and talks and listens like a dream, so I wanted to make sure the new one would perform comparably before retiring it. The Astro body was the same, so I positioned the three triple mag mounts (plus 2m/440) on the huge metal roof in exactly the same position as the other van. Instead of the IC706MkIIG (still in the old van), I installed an IC7000 plus other electronics in an upside down milk create behind the driver's seat. A fan on the side of the crate provided additional cooling, and wires were hidden for a really clean installation.

See complete and detailed 3830 Soapbox
WX4G
Split my time between SCC, KSQP and US Open Tennis on TV. Due to band conditions, the US Open Tennis won. Thanks to all the Rovers...they made the contest!!!
K6CSL
The only place I was hearing KS on was 20m. Conditions were poor, with no openings on 15m and 10m. The period that 40m would have been good, I was in the NA Sprint for a Northern California Contest Club team. The KS QSO Party was one of the best I've had this year with 17 new KS counties.I have 2 brothers in law and nieces and nephews in KS. A couple of the nephews live in Haskell County. If Haskell County has any hams there, I've yet to find one. I now have 39 of the 105 KS counties. TNX for the fun. Bert, K6CSL
K5YAA/WØL
I was supposed to go pick up my guest op "Murphy" at the airport but he was waiting for me in the driveway around 11AM on Friday just before my departure toward Guymon Oklahoma for the evening. Colin KU5B could not make it. Seems he has completed his PHD and somebody offered him some kind of work. Seems he decided to report to duty instead of having some radio fun. Colin, you were missed by this OT.

On Thursday I had seen a scrape on the coax feeding my Tarheel so I decided I should use my spare coax run to replace the worn one. Out came the toolbox, pliers. I started the loosening the PL259. Hand cranking was getting nowhere so pliers at it again. Something ain't quite right here. Oh, I have loosened the adapter and was unscrewing the entire feed point from the base of the Tarheel. Tightened it back up and said to myself I hope I haven't made matters worse because even with the scrape the coax and Tarheel were showing 1.2:1 or less on every band last night. Took the seat and lit off the K3. Dang now 4.5:1 - motor engaged upward. No resonance anywhere. Well obviously I made matters worse. Murph kind of grinned.

See complete "Murphy" details 3830 Soapbox
KØESU/KØE
We had a great time working the stations looking for the e in sunflower. A special thanks to Bob Harder, W0BH, who must work many hours to keep us all organized.
KDØEZS/KØQ
Third year in a row to be asked to op as K0Q, this QSO party is so much fun! I want to thank Bob (W0BH)for all the hard work he does to organize this event! Also, its a honor to have Jim (AC0E) and his 4 legged crew as quests at the QTH. Jims a valuable asset and a wonderful friend, Its my pleasure to have him OP with me. after all, He is the guy that got me interested in "radio sports". so much better than football! hihi. this is the third year in a row that we worked THO county on 20m. this year was W0S, Bruce (K0BJ) that is a 73 mile trip on 20 meters. thank you to all the stations that worked K0Q and the all other KSQP stations! A super duper fun event! see you on the air!

73, Matt (KD0EZS), OP as K0Q for KSQP.
ADØDX/NØA
The Kansas QSO Party has come and gone and we had a lot of fun. My wife was my driver and we covered 25+ counties in the KSQP. This was my first time using my Ford Ranger; in previous years I had taken my 2004 Chevy Venture. The Venture is great because it has a large roof. Unfortunately as I put more and more miles on it, the engine noise got worse and worse. It was so bad that in the Missouri QSO Party this year I couldn't operate while my wife was driving.

Usually I drive east to west in northern KS on Sat and return on Sunday, one county south of Saturday's counties. But this year a number of other operators picked similar routes, ending up in Cheyenne county in the NW corner of KS. Looking at the mobile route map on the KSQP web site about a week before the KSQP, there were a lot of counties not covered at all in the SE corner of Kansas. So I called Bob to discuss route options and decided to change to the SE corner.

See complete and detailed 3830 Soapbox
ACØRL/NØL
We decided to make this an event for the local hams that are new or have not experienced this kind of activity. We had major QRM from a nearby electric fence so 40m was a problem with the vintage rig we were using, a Collins S-Line. The K3 had no issues... We ran multi radio multi op... What was important was that we had a great time.
NØNB/NØN
Poorer band conditions with my low wires left me without any DX in the log until Sunday and even then I could only must 10. I worked more KS (13) than DX!

Fought an RFI issue on the fan dipole on 40m on Saturday and finally minimized it by lowering the microphone compression on the K3. Of course no issue on CW.

PSK31 operators in general seem not to have an appreciation for someone trying to make quick contacts.

CW was my money mode so I worked it as much as possible.

Missed KS0KS AGAIN even though the mobile ops activating it on CW went within five miles of here late Sunday, but were working as N0T and had a pileup going so I went back to calling.

See complete 3830 Soapbox
N5NA/NØR
This is my third mobile KSQP operation. In 2012 and 2013 Chuck, NO5W, and I ran multi-ops using N0R. In 2014 and this year Chuck had a conflict and couldn't make it. So, this year my wife and I decided to head straight north and do a KSQP road trip in western KS.

On Saturday I thought conditions would be much poorer than they were. Plenty of US stations but I think my only EU on Saturday was DL3GA. Sunday was improved with ON4AAC, DK3BN, SM6BZV, DK2OY, and LY7Z in the log. Everything went smoothly.

No Murphy in our backseat. I think we only made one wrong turn on our route and it was noticed quickly so we didn't drive too far before turning around.

See complete 3830 Soapbox
KØRU/NØT
At first we never thought we would get started, the battery in my car went dead over night and I had to jump start it in the morning on Friday to go to work. While at work, I was able to locate a battery that could be installed and had it changed out. Swung by John-N0EI and picked him up and since we had time we decided to get the oil changed in the car and swing by our favorite candy store (Associated Radio) and pickup a few more antenna parts and just more stuff.

Finally we're on the road, with plans to meet K0BJ-Bruce in Colby KS for dinner with him and his wife and son at Montana Mike's Steakhouse. Wonderful people and of course fantastic steak dinner. We didn't have the SSB Mobile antenna's installed we only had the 2m/70cm and Tarheel Screwdriver antenna installed, we still had to get the hustler SSB antennas setup as a spider mount so we would not have to constantly have to be screwing the screw driver from band to band etc.

Saturday morning arrives and we get up at 6 am to begin installing antennas on my car (K0RU car) and we begin to run into stumbling blocks, this is missing, that is missing. Oh well, we work through with what we had and then we didn't have a strong enough fishing line to tie down the antenna on the roof top of the Buick so we decided we would swing by Walmart in Colby, KS and get some 50 lb test line to tie down the antenna.

See complete 3830 Soapbox
WØZQ/WØO
Cool temperatures and hot bands made for lots of fun. Some of the pile ups were more than my FT897 front end could withstand .... or perhaps it was the operator!

Thanks to Bob, W0BH, and his KSQP team for another fine event, this year a personal best for me. The cool weather was awesome to, so please re-order that for next year.
NØJK/WØP
Due to urgent family issues, I was able to operate only briefly Sunday morning. A strong tropospheric opening was in progress over the Midwest. I set up portable just west of Lawrence, KS overlooking the Kansas River Valley. I worked VE4KQ/VE4 EN09 followed by stations in the Twin Cities, North Dakota and Wisconsin on 2 meter SSB. Station barefoot FT-897 to a 7 element M2 yagi on a 10 foot mast. VE4KQ peaked over S-9! He is nearly 1,000 miles away.
WØSO/WØR
Good party again, condx fair. We had pileup contacts stolen from us several times by another station in the mobile window. As always, many thanks to Bob WØBH for his super organization of the Party !

While it was a shame that conditions weren't better we still had lots of fun and were glad to help activate counties that didn't have coverage. We tried a new route this year and I think it went well. We had to laugh on Sunday handing out "jackpots" as we were on the Jackson (JAC) and Pottawatomie (POT) county line. Congrats to those of you that won a "JAC/POT" from us! (Hi !) Sadly, it seems there was/were someone(s) that didn't show their "amateur courtesy" toward the mobiles. Bob, and many others, have worked very hard to make the KS QSO Party one of the most anticipated and popular state parties and it would be a shame to have a few poor sports ruin that good reputation and spoil it for everyone. Until next year, 73. KDØDSU
W1END
Rather hectic weekend for me as I was race director for our local cross country 5K race held on Sunday. Managed to hit the radio on and off. Had the usual afternoon slump when I could hear almost nothing from KS. Like the three-letter call activity. Missed one letter in each of the three key words. Also missed KS0KS. Bah humbug. Thanks to all especially W0BH's creativity in organizing this activity.

Eldon
NUØQ/NØU
Another great party! We made fewer stops for sight-seeing this year resulting in more QSOs. Still, we took a total of 4 hours off for lunch, dinner, gas, etc. We were way ahead of schedule on both days, so we improvised at the end of each day and worked in a few more counties. Didn't work any DX on Saturday, and only 1 DX QSO on Sunday, so maybe my signal is a little weaker than others. Also, only 1 QSO (Arizona) on 15 meters, also on Sunday. Smoke from wildfires out west made the full moon very red Saturday night, and then dense fog on Sunday morning slowed us down at first, but otherwise the weather was great. I'm not using the TurboTuner anymore, so I don't have to slow the serial port down to 110 baud between the radio and the computer anymore, which made the logging software much happier. I did have to reinstall the serial port driver for the Winkeyer, and that caused a bit of a late start on Saturday, but once everything was working, it was great! The best moment was giving N4PN his last county (Sumter) for the sweep. I appreciated all the QSOs, and thanks to everyone for following us around.
K1JB
I only had a few minutes to get on the air, but whenever I did, there were lots of KS stations on multiple bands. Nice job!
K8HQ
Enjoyed participating in your QSO Party. All ops were courteous and professional. Look for y'all next year!
WA9LEY
Thanks for the fun contest. Only wish 15m was open. Still need KS on 15m or 5BWAS. I appreciate the efforts by all of the 1x1s.
K6PGH
Thank you for putting on the most entertaining QSO Party. I really enjoyed working the state of Kansas with its fantastic operators. Fine business and 73 to all who organized it and operated from the great state of Kansas.
WØYJT
Well I had hoped for a higher score but we had company show up and that ended the contest for me try again next year 73 John
K1AUS
I heard many kansas stations but they couldn't hear me.
W8KNO
Did not start off strong. Saturday was spent grinding and preserving the tower.
K3JRZ
Thank you for the special event!
KC7YE
Is one of the better run state parties and if bands open possible to do well. Could only hear KS on 20 this year but did work last two needed for usca. Was on a roll saturday when lost power for 6 + hrs due to wind storm. Sundays are busy here so not much bic. However am a happy camper! Same set up as last year.
WA8REI
More fun than a barrel of Omaha Steaks! TNX all for a fun time. QRP 5 watts; FT-2000 and Mosley PRO 65B (assembled by K0RU).
DK2OY
Tough condx for a DX station
WYØA/KØO
Enjoyed another Kansas QSO Party out on the roads. Thanks to all those that rode along with me. Will be looking forward to participating again next year.
KF5WFL
Terrible propagation into ntx. See you next year.
AA9K/M
Mobile in motion I-24 between Murfreesboro and Monteagle, TN.
WC5D
Thanks for running the QSO party. Stamps as a reward is very cool!
N7MZW
Another "Boy and his Wire Adventure" from my Cheyenne, WY. Apartment QTH. TNX for the Q's.Equipment: Kenwood TS-950SD, Heil BM-10 Head Set, and "Home Brew" G5RV up 50 feet running N-S from 6,053 feet elevation in Laramie Co., Wyoming.
Update: October 12, 2015 19:52