Del Sawyer's vintage camper in Edgerton provided the setting Saturday, January 28 for a special event celebrating the 162nd anniversary of the admission of Kansas to the Union.
Over a period of roughly four and a half hours, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., members of the club manned two operating stations in striving to hook up with as many other hams as possible the day before Kansas Day.
The group included Del, K0DDS, Gil Ludwig, WA0YCY, Joe Krout, KR0UT, Marty Peters, KE0PEZ, Bob Shaumeyer, KC0TZX, Woody Jeffrey, KE0NTU, Woody's friend Mike Buckley, Peg Nichols, KD0VQO, and myself.
Using the club call sign of KS0KS, the operators connected with a total of 113 hams, 103 from the single sideband station in the front part of the camper and 10 from the continuous wave station in the back. According to Marty, the SSB station operated on 15 meters and 20 meters and was heard in 16 foreign countries and 22 different states. Canada and nations in Europe accounted for most of these countries, but one member of the club managed to reach a station in South Africa. The CW station operated on 20 meters and 40 meters and got into seven states.
Mike Buckley's sketch of the scene inside the camper
“Many of the hams contacted said that they enjoyed chatting about Kansas and taking part in our special event," Marty reported afterward. He went on to add, "All in all this was a successful event for the Santa Fe Trail Amateur Radio Club. We still have a ways to go to get the bugs out of the system at Del’s. There remains a problem with the control software/hardware that connects each station to its desired antenna. In addition, there was a problem logging from both stations to the same log file. The entries from the CW station were overwritten by information being logged at the single sideband station.”
Gil said most of the operating that took place at the SSB station occurred on 15 meters. "We received many great comments on how well the station sounded," he reported. "We did spend a lot of time talking about Kansas and Del’s radio and antenna setup. We enjoyed talking about Kansas more than trying to get a larger count of QSOs."
He proceeded to say, "It was a great time with 15 wide open. With a few more operators we could have had a lot more contacts. The few logging problems and switching of antennas will be addressed and fixed for the next event."
Asked by me what he likes most about the Sunflower State, Marty mentioned the Flint Hills.
Del took something of an opposing position and simply replied, "It's flat."
As for Gil, he went with both the climate and his fellow Kansans. "I think the weather's pretty neat, but the people are extremely helpful and friendly," he related.