Kansas Day celebrates the admission of the Kansas Territory into the Union as the 34th state. President James Buchanan signed the bill admitting Kansas into the Union on January 29, 1861.

The Santa Fe Trail Amateur Radio Club used the club call - KS0KS - for our Kansas Day Special Event Station Saturday, January 23, 2016. We went on-the-air at 10 a. m. Central Standard Time.

We had two stations—one SSB and one CW—operating from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m., using various operators. Del Sawyer K0DDS was once again a mad-man raking in one SSB QSO after another. At a more controlled pace were Greg Wolfe KI0KK, Ed Kurtz KU0RTZ, Jim Cessna AC0KN, Charlie Drake KA0AEN, and Gil Ludwig WA0YCY. On the CW station, were Mike Stewart N0TU, Jim Andera K0NK. Chris Figures KE0GQY who logged for Andera, and learned a lot from watching and asking questions. Bob Shaumeyer KC0TZX stuck his head in the door and wished us well, but couldn’t stay.

Our planned frequencies were 14.250, 14.055, 10.115, and 7.250. We'll follow propagation up and down the bands and QSY to avoid nets and other QSOs. We found 20m and 40m were again the money bands throughout most of the day.

Interesting note, as the morning progressed, we found ourselves BETWEEN the RX and TX frequencies of a major K5P DXpedition. DXpeditions usually work split frequencies in order for everyone to hear the DXpedition. As soon as we were informed of this, we immediately QSY’d to a clear frequency.

For all of our special events; KS DAY, FIELD DAY, and KSQSOPARTY, we upload our contacts into LoTW and eQSL web sites for eQSL card validation. Anyone who contacts our special event will receive a QSL card. If you wish a KS0KS physical QSL card, please include a SASE with your QSL card and we will be glad to reply.

The Kansas State Historical Society’s article, “When Kansas Became a State,” details the story behind Kansas’ admission to the Union. To learn more please visit www.kshs.org/p/when-kansas-became-a-state/13159. A good time was had by one and all.