Trojan ARC Colby, northwest Kansas 2A entry 1050 CW Qs 315 SSB Qs         QSO   Score : 4,830 1365 QSOs      5980 expected score      8 hams

15 and 6 meter propagation didn't come close to last year - in fact we had NO 6M Qs, compared with 330 last year. Despite that our six experienced ops and one FD first-timer had at least one radio productive the full 24 hours; both were being used all but about two hours. We came within 70 Qs of last year's total, with heavy 77% use of cw this year for a higher expected score. Another factor may be the Dunestar triplexer we added to more fully utilize our tribander -- this will REALLY come into play when 10 M opens. Joining the Trojans were two misplaced SHARKs from swKS. AC0E and FD newbie KD0EZS were a delightful addition - the other SHARKs had non-radio obligations this weekend. We narrowly missed capturing KS 2A honors last year. In an effort to avoid this fate we gunned for all available non-GOTA bonus points this time. We fell short on youth participation and satellite QSOs (we're yearning for a shot at a linear transponder bird which is merely difficult to QSO on in FD with a minimal station -- the single channel FM birds are hopeless for non-fortified FD ops). Who'd have thought lack of wind would have foiled our Kansas effort at natural power via a homebrew generator. But our ‘secret weapon’ solar cells  worked very well in our 107 F sunny skies and rounded out our bonus points. As always QSOs with friends, and armchair chatting amongst off-duty ops led to a rewarding weekend. Trying unfamiliar rigs is always fun and educational. A local auctioneer dropped in -- he was a cw op in the Marines, at an auction-style 30 wpm rate. He was surprised and pleased to find that 70% of his speed and 90% of the characters were still with him after well over 40 years of hibernation.

Our crew:

WY0I Bob    SSB   logistics    food procurement   Yaesu VHF rig   stats

KC0GLA Nathan   SSB    graveyard  

K0FJ Mike   IT   APRS/Winlink 2000 systems/maintenance    submission

K0BJ Bruce CW   graveyard   climbing    FT1000MP soapbox

K0FW Jeff CW   food

AC0E Jim   CW    K3

KD0EZS Matt First-timer   SSB   (procured a local basement-worth of mil surplus and a tribander, thanks to a visit from the purchaser of an SK ham's QTH.)

N0XNK Gary   setup-teardown    logistics

Will 15, 10 and 6 open next year? Will there be even more 1x1 calls on the bands? We plan to be there to find out.