WQ6X Wanders thru a Weird QSO Party weekend.

Whenever there is a 5th contest weekend in August, it brings out the WEIRDness in things. 
Throughout the weekend, I relied HEAVILY on the F-12 (WEIRD) key in the N1MM software. 
The previous weekend WQ6X dabbled in the Ohio QSO Party (OHQP) and the Hawaiian HQP
(which was a DuD like COQP).

• [X] - COQP QSO Party
• [X] - KSQP QSO Party
   

Taking the time to setup N1MM software macros and load up the K3/0-Mini voice memories
made for a more-or-less "seamless" operation.  Voice QSOs are always tenuous in state QSO
parties - having 3 different styles DVK recording to say the callsign certainly made a difference.

Overall, the KSQP is one of the BEST organized state QSO parties as represented by the THOROUGH website behind the entire operation.  This website has been meticulously maintained
for years, and seems to get better every year I make preparations for the KSQP QSO Party.

A unique characteristic of the KSQP QSO Party is the use of 1x1 Callsigns to spell out
various  words for Bonus points and awards for: KANSAS, QSOPARTY, SUNFLOWER
and YELLOWBRICKROAD.  [CLICK HERE] to see what 1x1 stations were on.
Of 72 1x1 callsign possibilities, WQ6X managed the following:

• K0A, K0B, K0C, K0F, K0I, K0K, K0P, K0Q, K0R, K0S, K0T, K0U, K0W, K0Y, K0Z
• N0A, N0B, N0C, NOD, N0J, N0K, N0N, N0P, N0Q, N0R, N0S, N0T, N0U, N0W
• W0E, W0F, W0I, W0K, W0L, W0O, W0P, W0R, W0S, W0W, W0Y

The Kansas QSO Party brought us over a dozen rover stations, each with a pre-announced
path to activate dozens of counties. I found the above stations to be representative of how it's
all done.  [CLICK HERE] to see the list of Rovers and Expedition stations.

My only BEEF with the KSQP GiG is that it ends for the day on Saturday @02:00z (7pm PDT),
just as 40-meters is opening up to the state of Kansas.  Altho KSQP allows 80-meter operations,
we never get a chance at 80 on the Left Coast - Bummer DEWD.  

At the break, WQ6X had put 100  QSOs in the log.  Then again, on Sunday, KSQP brings
us  6 more hours of county hunting beginning @14:00z.  This year, those 6 hours produced
another 50+ QSOs, something that WQ6X has yet to accomplish in past events.

 

One of the nice things about running only state QSO parties throughout
a weekend is that the antennas can
be  set to one azimuth position and pretty much left there for the entire
time of the QSO party.

Because the Shorty-40 and Stepp-IR yagi antennas are 90-degrees opposed, when it finally came time to move down to 40-meters, the Shorty-40 needed to be turned 90-degrees bringing it to the same azimuth occupied by the
Stepp-IR earlier.

Of course all these wonderful pieces of technology all have one  potential caveat - a solid internet connection; lose that and it's all over.  Fortunately, there were only a handful of full-blown internet dropouts over the weekend - amazingly most being on Sunday morning.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X took 2nd place to K7SS in Washington for
the QRP mixed-mode category - not bad when you continue what I had to work with overall.

DiD YOU work the KSQP and/or COQP QSO Parties?

How many counties made it into YOUR Logs?