The site of a popular campground in the days of the covered wagons, Olathe's Lone Elm Park became what club member Jim Andera, K0NK, called a "POTA 3-fer" on Saturday, October 9 when he and other members of the club participated in a special event roughly coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the Santa Fe Trail.
Two full centuries and a month after William Becknell opened the Santa Fe Trail, our hams engaged in an adventure of their own by setting up three temporary stations, two for voice and one for CW, along the tree line at the southern edge of the historic section of the park. A trio of Icom transceivers was employed for this operation, an IC 7200 for 20-meter SSB, an IC 7300 for 40-meter SSB and an IC 746 for 17-meter and 30-meter CW. They were complemented by a 20-meter vertical antenna, a 40-meter inverted "V" antenna, an 80-meter end-fed wire, and a 17-meter and 30-meter fan-inverted "V" antenna, providing the operators with what Jim described as "our skyhooks to the rest of the world."
While station KS0KS was listed in the magazine QST as a special event station, Jim reported that most of the stations that were contacted by our hams seemed more interested in the Parks on the Air activation possibilities than in anything else. That's because any contact with any of the temporary stations was the equivalent of three POTA contacts, one for the Santa Fe Trail, one for the Oregon Trail and one for the California Trail, all of which passed through the campground with its solitary elm tree for a landmark before the trails separated near Gardner.
Still, Jim related, some of the operators our hams talked to did receive "a brief history lesson" that connected the park back to the three-trails campground, which also was part of a military trail in the 1800s.
The club's trailer having been driven to the park the afternoon of Friday, October 8, hams were able to start setting up the temporary stations and the antennas for them shortly after the club's business meeting the morning of the 9th had concluded. " I am always impressed with the way the members of the Santa Fe Trail Amateur Radio Club work together to get things done," Jim said recently as he fondly recalled the experience. "The Lone Elm Park operation was a perfect example of cooperation and willingness (on the part of club members) to take an active role in making an event a success."
On a day when mostly cloudy skies prevented the temperature from reaching the 90-degree mark and vehicular traffic at the west end of the park never became an issue the club had to be concerned about, our hams made a total of 189 contacts between shortly after 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. when the last of the operators and their loggers called it a day. Using N3FJP amateur contact logging software, those loggers registered 80 contacts on 20 meters, 78 on 40 meters and 31 on 17 and 30 meters.
"We worked a lot of Canadians for some reason," Jim said later. And the hams also worked club member Howard Cripe, N0AZ, who was positioned at Ensor Park and Museum, the shortest contact of the day, and an operator in the Czech Republic, OK1DX, the longest contact of the day.
According to Jim, those who were involved with the operation at the park in any way left the place with the feeling that it had been "a fun day" all in all. In addition to Jim, this group included club members Tom Apalenek, WA2IVD, Jeff Darby, KS0JD, Larry Hall, KD0RIU, Jim Krentzel, KE0GEY, Joe Krout, KR0UT, George McCarville, WB0CNK, Del Sawyer, K0DDS, Bob Shaumeyer, KC0TZX, Greg Wolfe, KI0KK, and Rick Nichols, and a friend of Larry, John Williamson.
In the post-event photograph above, which was taken by Jim Andera, pictured kneeling are, from left to right, Rick Nichols, George McCarville, John Williamson and Joe Krout, and pictured standing are Jim, Greg Wolfe, Larry Hall, Del Sawyer and Jeff Darby.