Some comments as of March 21
N5UM:
Total: 54 14 Mults = 31 Total Score = 5,890
Comments:
Did not rover this year. Just not enough energy to go out. Conditions were
poor.
--------------------------------------
W0PAN:
Total: 0 35 Mults = 24 Total Score = 1,680
Comments:
The CME wiped out the AZ to OK path most of the time late Saturday and Sunday.
Thanks to k5CM/W0BH/AF5Q/K0WHY for the total of 24 Qso's out of 35!!!!
Hope next year is better. As always, Dave, W5CW did a great job on 20 and had
a consistant great signal into AZ until 1400Z Sunday then barely S1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: VE5KS
Operator(s): VE5KS
Station: VE5KS
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: SK
Total: 105 53 Mults = 65 Total Score = 36,865
Comments:
Had a lot of fun. Many thanks to all the mobiles, without you it definitely
would not have been as much fun. I am sorry my voice was not too good, I was
barely able to speak due to a cold, so thaks to all that could understand me.
Conditions were great from Saskatchewan to Oklahoma, even on Sunday with the
overall poor
Worked K5CM (20 counties), W0BH (19 counties), AF5Q (15 counties), K0WHY (14
counties), K5YAA (12 counties), W3DYA (8 counties) and AD0DX (6 counties).
Missed 12 counties for a sweep, maybe next year.
Once again thanks to all the operators and organizers for the great contest.
Rig: Kenwood TS 140s
Antenna: Cushcraft A3S @ 40 ft and G5RV inverted Vee for 40/80.
Rigblaster Advantage
John
VE5KS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: N5XG
Operator(s): N5XG
Station: N5XG
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Texas
Total: 82 0 Mults = 53 Total Score = 12,879
Club:
Comments:
plus 6,000 bonus points
OK only good here across the Red River on 40/80M
(That doesn't count CME disturbance Sat am)
K5CM(17) W0BH(16) K5YAA(14) AD0DX(10) W3DYA (6) W5LE(6) AF5Q(3) - Thank you
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: N6MU
Operator(s): N6MU
Station: N6MU
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 32 18
20: 138 87
15: 48 40
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 218 145 Mults = 77 Total Score = 92,188
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
Score includes 13500 mobile bonus points and 6000 3-band bonus points.
Despite the solar activities causing some interesting conditions, I managed a
sweep for the second year in a row. I needed eight counties after Saturday.
Once again AF5Q was instrumental in my sweep as he gave me five of the eight.
My last five were: COT, JEF, LOV, KAY and GNT. Fittingly, W0BH gave me the last
one this year!
As is usually the case, the mobiles make the Party. Top mobile for me with at
least 20 Qs was K5CM with 86 followed by W0BH(69), AF5Q(45), K5YAA(35) and
W5LE/K0WHY with 23 each.
15 was wide open Saturday but dead Sunday. Normally the east coast stations
like NT2A and N4PN are very loud out here on 20 all weekend but this year they
were all barely readable due to the strange conditions. Sure cuts down on the
pileup QRM, hi!
Thanks again for the latest rendition of one of my favorite Parties. 73...
John, N6MU TS-570 & 4BTV
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: KS4X
Operator(s): KS4X
Station: KS4X
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: TN EM75
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 1
20: 4
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 1 4 Mults = 5 Total Score = 55
Club: Tennessee Contest Group
---------------------------------------------------------------
Call: VE7CV
Operator(s): VE7CV
Station: VE7CV
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Kamloops, BC
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 2
20: 72 35
15: 8 11
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 82 46 Mults = 61 Total Score = 24,618
Club: Orca DX and Contest Club
Comments:
4,000 bonus points.
Thanks to W5LE, K5YAA, AD0DX, W0BH, K0WHY, AF5Q and K5CM for all the counties
that they activated for us.
Hope to see you all next year.
73,
Pete, VE7CV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: VE9AA
Operator(s): VE9AA
Station: VE9AA
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: nb
Operating Time (hrs): 2:04
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 14
15: 8
10: 3
6:
------------------------
Total: 25 0 Mults = 18 Total Score = 1,350
Club: Maritime Contest Club
Comments:
Condx not the greatest, but was able to chase COnnie K5CM and W0BH and W5LE
around a little when the prop permitted.
Mike VE9AA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: KV8Q
Operator(s): KV8Q
Station: KV8Q
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: OH
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160: 0 0
80: 1 0
40: 34 0
20: 96 0
15: 3 0
10: 0 0
6: 0 0
------------------------
Total: 134 0 Mults = 66 Total Score = 39,732
Club: DELARA Contest Team
Comments:
What a fun contest!!! You guys know how to have a party. Lots
of mobiles but not very many fixed stations on the CW bands. QRN
was bad on 80 once the sun set and 10/15 never opened to OKLA
from OHIO. That really hurt the bonus points. Got W5TM on 4 bands
and W0BH & K5CM on three bands for 1,500 bonus points. The RTTY
on 40 and the Russian DX contest made life a bit more challenging; but,
it was nothing too bad. I had a ton of fun chasing the mobiles all over
the state. Here is who I found (QSO/counties):
K5CM (24/17) (1500 bonus)
W5LE (19/18) (1500 bonus)
K5YAA (19/15) (1500 bonus)
AD0DX (17/15) (1500 bonus)
W0BH (16/15) (1500 bonus)
AF5Q (14/9) (1000 bonus)
W3DYA (10/6) (500 bonus)
My only regret is that I already had a committment on Sunday and could
not operate the last six hours of the contest. I'm sure I missed six more
hours of fun and a much better score. Thanks for all the Q's and I'll sure
try to get two days on the calendar for next year. 73 tom KV8Q
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: AF5Q
Operator(s): AF5Q
Station: AF5Q
Class: Mobile Single Op LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 17.5
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 152 6
20: 122 192
15: 9
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 283 198 Mults = 49 Total Score = 61,005
Club:
Comments:
Started out with dead battery Saturday, but made do. Operated single op
unassisted. Ran all my counties except Jackson for the day. CME took me out
for noon to around 4pm while in NW Oklahoma, so nothing to listen to except
static. Also changed out the Tarheel to an MFJ whip where I could run 100w on
CW for 20/40.
Glad to help out with John' sweep, but thought LOL Love county was the final
one. Ah well... this QSO party is fun and I like going out to see Oklahoma.
Also great to see W5LE and K5YAA back in the contest!!
Sunday set me a new personal record going from Tillman/Jackson to love
county...1/2 the state...even made it to Carter then back to Stephens.
73s to all and see ya all next year!
AF5Q
----------------------------------------------------
Call: K4AMA
Operator(s): K4AMA
Station: K4AMA
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: SC
Operating Time (hrs): 1
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 4
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 4 0 Mults = 4 Total Score = 48
Club: South East Contest Club
Comments:
Thanks for the Q's !!
73, Tony K4AMA
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: KN4Y
Operator(s): KN4Y
Station: KN4Y
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: FL
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80: 1 0
40: 16 0
20: 85 0
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 102 0 Mults = 63 Total Score = 25,704
Club: SPORTSMAN'S PARADISE ARC (SPARK)
Comments:
Saturday the bands were great, Sunday the bands sucked.Plenty of CW activity
both mobile (8) and Fixed stations. short time between CW contacts, my super
sized drinks got warm. All in all a fun weekend.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: W4UT
Operator(s): W4UT
Station: W4UT
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: TN
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 9 0
20: 19 19
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 28 19 Mults = 32 Total Score = 3,904
Club: Tennessee Contest Group
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: K5CM
Operator(s): K5CM, N5KW
Station: K5CM
Class: Mobile Assisted LP
QTH: 27 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 17
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 1003(CW) 279(SSB) Mults = 69 Total Score = 250,623
Club: Oklahoma DX Association
Comments:
Score includes 4500 bonus points for working stations on 3 and 5 bands.
It was great to have such good activity from the mobiles. It would seem they
stayed busy. I know N6MU made a sweep again this year. Congrats John and
Congrats to all the mobiles and fixed station that supported him. It was crazy
on Saturday morning with good conditions to Eu and all the Russian contest
particpants, not to mention the VAQP. Then Sunday brought very unstable
conditions as a result of the CME that impacted Earth Early Sunday morning. The
K index was at 6 near the end of the QP, making 15m very difficult. Absortion
was very noticable on 20 meters, making signal fade and very weak at times.
Some of the most worked stations:
N6MU(88), W5CW(78), NT2A(52), VE3KZ(36), VE5KS(32), K3TW(25), KV8Q(24)
WA2VYA(23), W0GXQ(21), VE7CV(20), K0HNC(20), N5XG,N4UF,KN4Y(16), W5TM(14)
N9WKW(12), W5HY,AD0DX(11), W8POF/4,W8KNO,N1NN,KB3AAG,K5DC,K4AMA,DL5ME(10)
WA1ZIC,N4PN,N4JT,K7INA,K1TKL(9), W9MSE,W8CAG,W2RR,N8II,N4CD,K6LJC(8)
YV5OIE,W4UT,W0PAN,KI0I,K5KDG,K5BZH,DK2CF(7), W1END,VE9AA,N0UY,KM1C,K4YT(6)
It was great to have Jerry, K5YAA back in the fray!
73,
Connie and Pam
K5CM and N5KW
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: VE3KZ
Operator(s): VE3KZ
Station: VE3KZ
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: ON
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 68 8
20: 97 33
15: 5 7
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 170 48 Mults = 72 Total Score = 57,632
Club: Contest Club Ontario
Comments:
Congratulations to John, N6MU!
This was my first venture into the OK QSO Party. I had originally planned on
the RDX contest but a note from Bob W0BH decided me to give this one a try. I
convinced my TR4W software to work with this contest, pointed my venerable
204BA to the SW, and made sure the base of the 40m vertical was clear of snow!
On Saturday 15 and 20 were wall to wall Europeans all day, even though my 204BA
and 155CA were pointed directly away. In the afternoon and evening the same was
true of 40 and 80. It was truly like looking for needles in a hay-stack
searching out the Oklahoma stations. Those very strong VA stations were less of
a factor on CW but covered most of the 40m SSB band. It was great that the
exchange format was different for each of the three contests, making IDing the
proper quarry a little quicker. 15 was barely open for a couple of fixed
stations earlier but sprung open for a short time on Saturday afternoon with
big signals. The disturbance on Sunday left the bands with large empty holes,
punctuated by a few Russians fluttery through on aurora. Conditions to OK were
sporadic. 15 was stone dead.
The mobiles came through with the goods as they always do in these QSO
Parties:
W0BH/m - 49
K5CM/m - 35
W5LE/m - 27
K5YAA/m - 23
AD0DX/m - 22
K0WHY/m - 17
AF5Q/m - 16
W3DYA/m - 8
The score was made up of 37,632 raw score plus 12,000 mobile bonus plus 2,000
3-band bonus. 72 multipliers was as many as I could manage. Maybe 77 another
time! [72 would be more than enough for the FQP ;-) ]
See you in one month in the Ontario QSO Party!
73 Bob VE3KZ
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: K5YAA
Operator(s): AK5X, K5YAA
Station: K5YAA
Class: Mobile Unlimited HP
QTH: Oklahoma
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160: 0 0
80: 2 0
40: 299 0
20: 337 0
15: 44 0
10: 0 0
6: 0 0
------------------------
Total: 682 0 Mults = 60 Total Score = 124,760
Club: Oklahoma DX Association
Comments:
For the Record - Activity was very light for a variety of reasons mainly a hot
15 meters on Saturday.
Murphy started riding with us in the first few miles when the Amp would not
stay on line for us and the generator suddenly developed a noise level of 7 on
the receiver. The amp was so bad we went to 100 watts for the rest of the
contest. Probably didn't make 10 QSOs high power before deciding it wasn't
worth having to keep resetting the amplifier every few seconds. It just
wouldn't stay on line for more than a q or two. Second Murphy attack was
software not changing bands for us automatically. We had to do it manually but
not until we made several Qs on the wrong band - editor came in handy there.
Had to manually select bands all day Saturday and Sunday for some unknown
reason - yet to be determined. Third Murphy attack had to do with trailer
lighting. I had installed a new pigtail for this years use of the trailer and
it turned out to be too short. Driving during the day Saturday all the wires
came out of the crimps I had installed and two of them happen to touch causing
a fuse to blow in the van. The fuse happen to be turn signals and dash panel
instruments. Drive a while without a speedometer for some fun. Also take a
guess at how much gas you have left! End of Murphy attacks. We were deciding
about Sunday - determined to finish the contest in a blaze without the Russians
in the way. We just took it easy and followed the other traffic for speed
control. As far as gas we filled up a couple of times to be sure we had enough
to finish the run through the northeast counties. All went very well on Sunday
except for the flare that occurred when we were on the Adair Cherokee line. A
dissapointment with only 27 Qs for the double count. A surprise on Sunday were
calls from OE5KE and DL8MLD / USA out of the blue - very strong on 20 meters.
Here are some counts of Qs for many of the stations we worked. Of special note
was W5TM instate - he was everywhere we traveled with a good signal.
N6MU 34
NT2A 34
W5TM 19
W5CW 8
K5BZH 11
W0GXQ 21
WB0CLL 9
AF5CC 5
K3TW 18
WA2VYA 25
KN4Y 17
K0HNC 14
W5FIT 12
KV8Q 18 <- Saturday Only
Of special note are canadians who were very active - thanks for the Canada Qs.
VE7CV 13
VE5KS 12
VE3KZ 23
Our best county Q counts were Craig and Nowata counties on Sunday with 58 and
51 respectfully.
Our worst was McIntosh with 1 and Oklahoma with 8. We were either driving too
fast or the bands just didn't cooperate with us.
Despite the Murphy attacks we had great fun. A stop or two for coffee and a
lunch plus great company made for a FB weekend indeed. Ready for the next
one.
Jerry K5YAA and Bill AK5X
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: AD0DX
Operator(s): AD0DX K1BBR
Station: AD0DX
Class: Mobile Assisted LP
QTH: OK
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 379 2 Mults = 57 Total Score = 60,000
Club:
Comments:
Bob and I worked the KS qso party last Aug and made 700 q's. I was really
hoping to break the 1000 qso barrier. But it was not to be.
I took time Friday afternoon to get set up for the qso party, after spending a
number of hours planning our route. I had a really nice route with
20+ counties so I was excited for the OKQP. I was going to use CQX for the
first time, but since I was also using the Delorme street maps
software with gps for navigating, I decided to stick with N1MM for logging and
rig control becuase I am familiar with N1MM. I updated N1MM
and reread the OKQP contest rules and found that now DXCC countries were to be
counted as multipliers for OK stations. Great!
I also made a quick trip to the local ham radio store to get a cable to control
Bob's FT-857 from the computer. I had everything working on
kitchen table on Friday afternoon; FT-857 hooked up to a 17AH battery, DeLorme
software with GPS and usb Connection to the WinKeyer. I was
sending cw to a dummy load but I never actually turned the gps on... sure
enough we get everthing installed in the truck, and I turn the
gps on and the mapping software locks up as long as the rig control usb cable
is active. I decided that the mapping software with the route was more
important
than the rig control so I had to enter our freq and mode changes into N1MM
manually. I did make a few freq errors during the contest
(I changed bands on the radio and forgot to update N1MM) but I think I caught
them all during the contest.
I created the OKQP contest file and entered a qso with DL8USA but the station
was logged as DX only in N1MM. Rats. I posted a question on the
N1MM Yahoo! group and John K3CT answered that he would update N1MM THAT DAY so
that it would be ready for the contest. I updated N1MM around
9pm Fri evening and indeed he had added DX contacts as separate multipliers for
the OKQP. Wow, that was really impressive. Thanks John!
Since it had been a while since our last qso party, we allocated some extra
time on Fri night to check out Bob's truck. That turned
out to be a good decision. The first problem we had was not being able to get
power to the rig runner Bob had installed behind the seat.
Bob has put together a very nice installation for HF in his truck. This
problem turned out to be that the power cable from the battery had frayed
and we had to replace it. This was in front of my house (Ron, AD0DX) and so we
loaded up and drover over to Bob's house.
On the way to Bob's house, we found that we could not get the swr down on Bob's
TarHeel Jr that had served us well in KS.
By now it was 9 or 9:30 pm and so
we were anxious to start the 2 hour drive to Joplin MO where we were going to
sleep so that we were close to the OK border. Bob had
50 ft of new coax so we replaced the existing coax and the swr problem was
solved. Anxious to get going, we just decided to use the 50 ft
run of coax.
We crossed the OK border about 20 min early which was nice. Our first surprise
of the day was the DeLorme software had us turning off of
the turnpike but there was no interchange to exit the highway. I had caught
this in one other location earlier in the week while
checking our route and had changed the route accordingly.
In this instance I had wanted to get off the Turnpike early to make a short
detour and pick up Delaware county. We just kept driving
rather than backtrack knowing that we were going to hit Delaware on Sunday.
40 mtrs was ok on Sat morning but we never got a really good pileup going.
When we tried 20mtrs later in the afternoon we found that
we had a lot of engine noise. This really prevented us from operating on
20mtrs while driving. This is something that Bob is planning
on investigating. If anyone has any advice for dealing with engine noise on
diesel trucks please email me at the address below.
Later on Sat afternoon it seemed that there was a lot of noise on the radio.
Just for fun I turned off the inverter used to keep the
logging / navigation laptop running. The background noise died down quite a
lot. It seems like the inverter had gotten
progressively noisier and we had not noticed. I'm guessing due to the heat
because the inverter was crammed behind the passenger
seat in the truck and sitting next to the body of the FT-857. From that point
on we played a game of leaving the inverter off as
much as possible and only turning the inverter on (and the radio off) when
necessary. This inverter had worked well for Bob W0BH and
myself in the MN qso party, so I was suprised it was causing us trouble now.
Sigh.
We really enjoyed our route. We started in Ottawa at the NE corner of OK and
our most southern and western point was the SW corner of Love
County where we were only a few miles from the Red River and the Texas border.
We stuck to 40 mtrs and 15 mtrs most of the time on Sat,
only working 20mtrs when stopped due to the engine noise. One exception to
that was when we called cq once on 20 ssb and got a response
from ND. It was great to work ND during the contest, now if only I could work
ND more often from home for my 5BWAS :-).
We stayed overnight in Atoka OK and started out early again so we were almost
to the Pittsburg county line when the bell rang at 8am on
Sunday. This weekend was my first time driving around OK and there are some
very nice areas. The eastern counties are very lush and it looks
like it would be fun to visit in the summer.
Thanks to everyone for all the qso's during the contest. Thanks to Bob W0BH
for taking me along on the TXQP / IAQP / MNQP where he taught
me all about mobile contesting but apparently I still have a lot to learn. I
look forward to seeing you all in August for the KSQP.
Cheers,
Ron, AD0DX (and Bob, K1BBR)
ad0dx at yahoo dot com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: W5TM
Operator(s): W5TM
Station: K5KC
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: PAYNE COUNTY
Operating Time (hrs): 15:52
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160: 0 0
80: 22 0
40: 172 0
20: 136 0
15: 33 0
10: 2 0
6: 0 0
------------------------
Total: 365 0 Mults = 117 Total Score = 134,115
Club:
Comments:
Includes 6000 bonus points.
Thanks to Ken for the use of his fine station.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: K4ZGB
Operator(s): K4ZGB
Station: K4ZGB
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: AL
Operating Time (hrs): 00:45
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 16 1 Mults = 13 Total Score = 658
Club: Alabama Contest Group
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: VA3RKM
Operator(s): VA3RKM
Station: VA3RKM
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: Ottawa, ON
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 1
20: 3 1
15: 4
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 8 1 Mults = 8 Total Score = 208
Club: Central Virginia Contest Club
Comments:
KX3, 5 w, verticals. Thanks for the contacts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: W5CW
Operator(s): W5CW
Station: K5CM
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: OK
Operating Time (hrs): 17
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 160 875 Mults = 129 Total Score = 290,670
Club: Oklahoma DX Association
Comments:
Thanks to every one for all the Q's. Socore includes bonus points.
73, Dave W5CW
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: N5XE
Operator(s): N5XE
Station: N5XE
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MURRAY
Operating Time (hrs): 1.5
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 31
20: 20
15: 9
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 60 0 Mults = 27 Total Score = 5,040
Club:
Comments:
Worked N6WU for 500 point bonus. Not much time for this one, but had fun just
the same.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: K0TC
Operator(s): K0TC
Station: K0TC
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MN
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 1
20: 12
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 13 0 Mults = 36 Total Score = 468
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: K5BZH
Operator(s): K5BZH
Station: K5BZH
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 6
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160: 0 0
80: 1 0
40: 37 0
20: 0 0
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
6: 0 0
------------------------
Total: 38 0 Mults = 28 Total Score = 5,192
Comments:
Nice bonus thanks to K5YAA, K5CM, and W0BH. Working Jerry, K5YAA, again after
several months of his being off the air brought a smile to my face. Overall
the band conditions from the Texas Panhandle appeared pretty poor this time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call: W2RR
Operator(s): WA2AOG
Station: W2RR
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NY
Operating Time (hrs): 8
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 14
20: 24
15: 2
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 40 0 Mults = 32 Total Score = 3,808
Club: Western NY DX Association
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALLSIGN: DK2CF
CLUB: DARC
CONTEST: OK-QSO-PARTY
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP ALL HIGH CW
CLAIMED-SCORE: 324
SOAPBOX: my first OKQSP, much QRM on Saturday from russian-dx-contest, sunday
SOAPBOX: bad propagation from aurora. thanks to K5cm for activity from different
SOAPBOX: counties.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALLSIGN: K3TW
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-MODE: MIXED QRP ALL
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CLAIMED-SCORE: 30,400
CLUB: FLORIDA CONTEST GROUP
CONTEST: Ok-qso-party
"Many thanks to the mobile stations for making the OKQP a big success. Band conditions
were not as good as last year, but I managed to work one more county. I
should have a tower with yagis up next year to replace the dipole antennas
I have been using for the past two years at this new Florida QTH."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALLSIGN: K5ZZR
ARRL-SECTION: 5
CATEGORY: OKLAHOMA ROVER
CLAIMED-SCORE: 3,224
NAME: Russ Dearmore
I was a single operator unassisted rover, Phone Only. Really started out slow on Saturday but
as the day progressed the bands got much better, then ended slow again. Sunday was again slow but
I must say overall I had a great time..... Looking forward to next year. Russ K5ZZR
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LOCATION: NFL
CALLSIGN: KN4Y
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CLAIMED-SCORE: 25704
CLUB: SPORTSMAN'S PARADISE ARC
SOAPBOX: It was a CW operators heaven on earth, plenty of
SOAPBOX: mobiles (8) ands fixed stations to kleep a fist
SOAPBOX: lubricated. Saturday band copnditions are a
SOAPBOX: delight, Sunday sucked. A fun party.
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ARRL-SECTION: OH
CALLSIGN: KV8Q
CLUB: DELARA Contest Team
CLAIMED-SCORE: 36732 (with bonus)
SOAPBOX: What a fun contest!!! You guys know how to have a party. Lots
SOAPBOX: of mobiles but not very many fixed stations on the CW bands. QRN
SOAPBOX: was bad on 80 once the sun set and 10/15 never opened to OKLA
SOAPBOX: from OHIO. That really hurt the bonus points. Got W5TM on 4 bands
SOAPBOX: and W0BH & K5CM on three bands for 1,500 bonus points. The RTTY
SOAPBOX: on 40 and the Russian DX contest made life a bit more challenging; but,
SOAPBOX: it was nothing too bad. I had a ton of fun chasing the mobiles all over
SOAPBOX: the state. Here is who I found (QSO/counties):
SOAPBOX: K5CM (24/17) (1500 bonus)
SOAPBOX: W5LE (19/18) (1500 bonus)
SOAPBOX: K5YAA (19/15) (1500 bonus)
SOAPBOX: AD0DX (17/15) (1500 bonus)
SOAPBOX: W0BH (16/15) (1500 bonus)
SOAPBOX: AF5Q (14/9) (1000 bonus)
SOAPBOX: W3DYA (10/6) (500 bonus)
SOAPBOX: My only regret is that I already had a committment on Sunday and could
SOAPBOX: not operate the last six hours of the contest. I'm sure I missed six more
SOAPBOX: hours of fun and a much better score. Thanks for all the Q's and I'll sure
SOAPBOX: try to get two days on the calendar for next year. 73 tom KV8Q
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CALLSIGN: VA3RKM
QRP
CLAIMED-SCORE: 208
SOAPBOX: KX3, 5 watts, verticals. Thanks for the contacts.
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CALLSIGN: VE5KS
CLAIMED-SCORE: 36,865
SOAPBOX: Had a great time even though I was sick with a cold.
Worked K5CM (20 cntys), W0BH (19 cntys), W5LE (18 cntys), AF5Q (15 cntys), K0WHY (14 cntys),
K5YAA (12 cntys), W3DYA (8 cntys) and AD0DX (6 cntys).
Propagation was great on Saturday but very poor on Sunday but even that still allowed
for a few contacts. Many Thanks to all the mobile stns, without you guys/gals it would not
have been as much fun. See you next year
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ARRL-SECTION: MAR
CALLSIGN: VE9AA
CLUB: Maritime Contest Club
CLAIMED-SCORE: 1350
OPERATORS: VE9AA
SOAPBOX: not sure about bonus stns and the proper way to calculate, but I
SOAPBOX: worked a few OK stns on a few bands and multiple counties. Hopefully
SOAPBOX: your log checking software will fix that up for me, thanks ! Mike VE9AA
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ARRL-SECTION: WWA
CALLSIGN: WW7D
SOAPBOX: This was my first OKQP. I loved working all the mobiles!
SOAPBOX: Worked K5YAA, K5CM, W5LE and W0BH in 5 or more counties each for
SOAPBOX: a bonus total of 2000
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K5DAL, KA5CJJ and W5BL
had a great time operating a multi-single entry in the 2013 Oklahoma QSO Party
from a field day style set-up near Broken Bow in McCurtain County. Murphy paid a
visit bright and early Saturday morning as the team encountered antenna problems
and by the time we got them all sorted out we lost the first three hours of the
contest. Operations were primarily conducted on 40 and 15 meters both phone and
CW with a few contacts made on 20 meters as well. We earned 500 bonus points by
contacting N6MU on 40, 20 and 15 meters. We only contacted 15 of the other
Oklahoma counties which was a great disappointment to us. We obviously still
have a lot to learn about operating patterns of the mobiles in the contest as we
suspect that we missed pockets of activity by being at the wrong placed at the
wrong time. It would be interesting to see a band by band break down of contacts
by mode. We enjoyed operating in the event and will be back again next year for
sure. Thanks to all of the guys and gals who gave us contacts and to the event
organizers for all of their hard work in putting the event on again this year.
Call: W0BH Operator(s): W0BH K0WHY
Station: W0BH Class: Mobile Assisted LP QTH: 25 OK counties Operating Time (hrs): 17.2
Summary: Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs ------------------------ 160: 80: 40: 217 52 20: 367 564 15: 58 33 10: 3 0 6: ------------------------ Total: 645 649 Mults = 68 Total Score = 224,344 Club:
Comments: Score includes 4,500 bonus points for working K3TW KV8Q N6MU NT2A VE3KZ VE9AA W0GXQ W2RR AND WA2VYA on 3 bands. 2013 Oklahoma QSO Party This year, the OKQP fell on the last weekend of Spring Break at Hesston College, so Lorna/k0why and I decided to catch it on the way home from a desert trip to Phoenix. We bravely started out in our 281,000 mile '91 Astro van, and we made it to Guymon OK when our alternator froze up at a stoplight on a Sunday afternoon. Considering when and where it could have stopped :-), we were really lucky. We got it going enough to jump the curb and park in a gas station right next to a repair shop. The shop manager happened to be there, and promised us a mechanic at 8:00am the next morning. After a night at the Super-8 across the street, that's exactly what happened. We had a new alternator the next morning by 9:30 and were on our way to Phoenix by 10. No more van stories for the rest of the trip (but in case you want another one, check out my Minnesota QSO Party 3830 post from last month! This year we drew Panhandle duty. Coming home from Phoenix, we drove 731 miles on Friday to end up in Dalhart TX, a short 30 minute drive to the Oklahoma border and Cimarron county. I don't like to start out in the Panhandle because propagation is really poor the first several hours and the counties are huge, but the driving worked out, so we were happy to help out. Because of all the miles, I planned a short 25 county route (more counties would have added many more miles). We were already tired of driving, so the decision was a good one in all respects except score. Saturday After record-setting warmth in Phoenix, the strong, cold northeast wind on Saturday morning was a shock to the system. Some road construction and fighting the wind got us into Oklahoma 9 minutes late. We switched drivers, took a picture of the OK state sign, and put out our first CQ on 7037. VE3KZ and N6MU were there as they were all day, and we were off. Well, sort of. After two hours, 2 counties, and only 77 Qs in the log (11 of them Lorna's), it became obvious that this was going to be a different year. Rates picked up a bit later, but 51 Qs/hr over the first 6 hours (compared to 119/hr last year) tells the story. A huge bright momemt was my first contact with Jerry, K5YAA/m. Welcome back, my friend! What a surprise. I spent the extra time listening for other mobiles and found Norm, W3DYA/m. Calls on 80m didn't work out either. Lorna enjoys making contacts with her own call when requested, so that kept us entertained, but the pileups I'm used to in the OKQP were basically non-existent except for short periods at county lines. As John/N6MU said a number of times, "strange conditions this year." So we rolled along. It was cloudy and the computer screens were easy to see, it was cool which is better than too warm, and there were only occasional light sprinkles, so the few back roads we needed to take were in good shape. Lorna got a few naps and lots of paper grading in at the long county line stops. Although we were behind our schedule about 10-15 minutes most of the day, the long stops made that a non-issue. It ended up being a really relaxing day, not necessary a good thing for me, but great for Lorna! The DX contest made things entertaining on occasion, too. Heading to our last four-county line and less than 400 miles into the day, Lorna mentioned that our fuel was running a bit low. That shouldn't have happened with our 26 gallon tank and 23 mpg, but the wind had been a ferocious head/crosswind most of the day, so we made a precautionary gas stop. Then finally, some real action at the four-county line, the kind we all mobile for. When that died down, the NA SSB Sprint started up and got me more Qs from the line. I also surprised some ops who expected me to be at home in Kansas. Most chuckled when I gave them four counties as a bonus! At the line, we were noticed by cars as expected. Everyone knows about storm spotters in Oklahoma and there are lots of vans with antennas running around at times, so I was surprised when someone apparently called us in as "suspicious activity." That resulted in two county sheriff cars arriving (I wonder how they figured out which county to send :-) and sort of boxed us in. No one got out of the cars for awhile, so I kept operating and Lorna kept grading papers. Eventually (I assume after they ran our ham tag), an officer appeared at the window. Lorna chatted with him while I kept running SSB. His comment after we explained we were ham operators? "I know what you're doing and I don't know why anyone called us about you." Lorna explained a bit about the Oklahoma QSO Party, the officer wished us luck, and both cruisers left. Shortly after that, Lorna noticed that the low battery light was on in the van. I use a battery booster, so the radio didn't care, but we started the van and left it running. Sometime after that, I noticed that the car clock wasn't working anymore and figured we might have blown a fuse. The cigarette lighter plug I had the GPS computer on also wasn't working so the computer was running on battery. We shut it down to check out later that evening. It was getting dark anyway, so we headed towards Guthrie with 979 combined Qs in the log. At the motel, I checked all the fuses but didn't find the problem, so I rewired the GPS computer to use my accessories battery. Sunday After a good night's sleep, we woke to even cooler temperatures but less wind. Unlike the day before, we crossed the border into our first county a few minutes early. Once again N6MU and VE3KZ were there to greet us. John had spent the evening before figuring out if another Sweep was possible (sweeps don't just happen!), and he needed me in Grant county at the end of the party. Rates were still slow, but driving wasn't this time. We stayed on the beautiful Turner and Cimmaron Turnpikes and ran ahead of schedule most of the day. A highlight for Lorna was the Payne/Pawnee line, within easy walking distance of Lone Chimney Lake. She went bird-watching for awhile and came back with a big smile. Of course a number of ops were also waiting for her to pick up the mic when she got back. Payne county always seems to have less Qs for me because of the unfortunate fact that PAW and PAY start out the same on morse code. As ops keep checking back, I think they hear the PA and just assume I'm still in the same county. Leaving that line behind, we headed out through Noble county to get to the final three county line. Chatting with John, we found out he was on schedule to complete his Sweep, needing only Grant county. That's where we were headed. There were a number of ways to get to the final three-county line. Part of my planning involves which counties to go through and which counties/modes to work or not work (yet) to minimize confusion at the lines and avoid lots of DUPES. We chose to head north on I-35. I was working CW when I noticed that my logging computer was showing a low battery light and the display had dimmed. I quickly checked the plug and it had come out. Plugging it back in worked at first, but then the computer kept alternating between power and no power. I thought perhaps the plug was loose, but I knew the computer would soon shut down. To be safe, I backed up again and swapped computers. That worked. It's great to be running DOS with such short boot times! Lorna had been watching me work with the computers, so we both missed our planned freeway exit. Rather than turn around, we just rerouted from the next exit, getting into Kay county early. After some long sand roads, fortunately dry, we bumped along the final "path" to the three county line. I was on SSB and took a list to avoid a huge pileup, of course putting John at the top. Then the CME (coronal mass ejection) took him out! Arriving at the line, I called and called and no N6MU. As I continued down the list, I couldn't hear a number of ops I'd heard well only minutes before from less than a mile away. Slowly the band came back and I had my second really fun run. John finally put in an appearance, got his Sweep, and of course congratulations from us all. John has done it two years in a row now. When you consider he lives in the city of Los Angeles, he doesn't have a beam, and he doesn't use spotting networks, you start to understand how amazing he really is! When the pileups on both SSB and CW died down, I backed up the logging computer, worked one more station, and the computer crashed. I'd been noticing that my computer CW was sounding a bit strange, with dits or dahs dropping and keying speeding up or slowing down at odd times. With only 15 minutes to go, it was occasional enough that I kept going, but the computer crash I couldn't ignore. The low battery light was back on the new computer and I finally realized that my accessories battery which ran the logging computer, keyer, and also the GPS computer today, was exhausted. I got out and rerouted once again to run everything off the van battery. As long as we didn't shut off the engine, we should last another 15 minutes and we did. Never a dull moment in mobile contesting! If I hadn't put in the extra battery extension cable from my home shack, we would have been done early. You can't ever have enough "spares." But we finished, then headed 30 miles to my dad's house (also in Grant county) for a post-OKQP visit. Stats We operated 17.2 hours, 1466 combined Qs, 299 unique calls, 20 dupes. Lorna ended up with 143 contacts in her log. In 2012, we had 1902 combined Qs. States not worked : DE HI ME NE OR RI SD WY Canadian mults worked : AB BC MB NB ON SK OK worked : 9 counties : CHO CLE COM MCL MCU MUS OKL PAY TUL DX worked : 12 countries : CM YV DL EA F HA OE OK PA SP YU CN Six-hour Rates (W0BH only) block ----- 2013 - 2012 ----------------------- 1300-1900 51/hr 119/hr 1900-0200 97/hr 104/hr 1300-1900 71/hr 082/hr County breakdown (in visited order) Saturday (407 miles) 01 CIM 23 Cimarron 02 TEX 54 Texas 03 BEA 55 Beaver 04 HRP 51 Harper 05 ELL 39 Ellis 06 WDW 42 Woodward 07 MAJ 83 Major 08 ALF 36 Alfalfa 09 WOO 36 Woods 10 BLA 65 Blaine 11 DEW 29 Dewey 12 KIN 108 Kingfisher 13 CAN 94 Canadian 14 LOG 81 Logan 15 OKL 81 Oklahoma Sunday (208 miles) 16 LIN 21 Lincoln 17 CRE 30 Creek 18 TUL 27 Tulsa 19 OSA 25 Osage 20 PAW 43 Pawnee 21 PAY 27 Payne 22 NOB 41 Noble 23 KAY 67 Kay 24 GAR 68 Garfield 25 GNT 68 Grant Special thanks to the following ops for 10 or (way) more contacts! 69: N6MU 51: VE3KZ WA2VYA 48: NT2A 36: K3TW 31: VE5KS 29: VE7CV 20: W0GXQ 18: N0UY 17: N1NN N5XG 16: K0HNC KN4Y KV8Q 14: K4YT N4UF W8KNO 13: N9WKW 12: K5DC W8CAG 10: K8MR N4CD W2RR OK Mobiles worked: K5YAA/m (3), W3DYA/m (3) Consistently loudest signal: WA2VYA W0BH Award Winners ----------------- First Place - Very Honorable Mention -------------- Most overall Qs - N6MU/69 ----- VE3KZ/WA2VYA/51 ---- NT2A/48 Most CW Qs ------ N6MU/35 ----- VE3KZ/WA2VYA/31 ---- NT2A/27 Most PH Qs ------ N6MU/34 ----- NT2A/21 ------------ VE3KZ/WA2VYA/20 Most counties --- N6MU/25 ----- NT2A/24 ------------ VE3KZ/23 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Connie (K5CM) and Pam (N5KW) for coordinating one of my favorite mobile events and to the OKDXA as sponsor. Also, congratulations to Connie and Pam on a great run. I wish I could have worked all of the mobiles and Oklahoma base stations who helped put all 77 counties out there for N6MU to collect, but it's enough to have just been part of it. We'll be back next year! The Kansas QSO Party is scheduled for the last weekend in August. With 105 counties, we need all the help we can get. If you're a mobile, consider yourself invited. And we hope all of you who read this will come join the fun! 73, Bob/w0bh and Lorna/k0why