Some of the team had to leave early, but those who remained to the end got in on a group picture in front of a sod roof building. Jeff is behind the camera.
With a light north wind and mostly clear skies, the SFTARC’s annual mini-DXpidtion to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was among the most pleasant we have ever had. Not only was the weather pleasant, but we had the most SFTARC participants ever. A total of 14 club members participated in this May 17th event! For several participants, this was their first Parks-on-the-Air event from the Tallgrass (POTA designator US-3673).
Starting early on Saturday morning, about eight cars departed Gardner at 6:00 am to form a convoy down I-35 to Emporia, then west to eventually arrive at the Tallgrass just north of Strong City, KS. Other members met the convoy at the Tallgrass or at a breakfast stop.
Breakfast at BETO Junction was good--but a bit slow.
Breakfast at BETO Junction took a bit longer than expected. As a result, we were not on the air at 10 am as we had planned; our first contact was logged at 15:53Z. While we fought poor propagation conditions we enjoyed really pleasant weather. Setting up three HF stations just north of the three-story limestone barn, we operated under the shade of two ramps that lead to the upper story of the limestone barn. To be able to look out over the prairie as we operated, really enhanced the experience.
With the green prairie in the background, Trig operates the 20m station into the Cushcraft R5 vertical antenna, while Ben logs and Greg observes.
Taking advantage of the shade of the barn's ramp, the CW station worked mostly 30m using a dipole antenna.
Operators rotated in and out of the various operating and logging positions. Three laptops supported logging with N3FJP AC-Log software; Icom radios were prevalent. An IC-706 provided for phone operation on 20m gathering 32 QSO. On 40m, operators of the IC-7300 station struggled with propagation, making just 1 or 2 QSOs. An IC-746 brought in 24 QSOs on 30m and 1 on 17m. The ionosphere simply did not allow the higher bands to work. A mix of vertical antennas and an end-fed 40m HW antenna along with a 30m dipole served as our antenna farm. The final log showed 58 contacts, several being POTA Park-2-Park.
For lunch, we had more pizza delivered than the 14 participants could eat. Our time at the Tallgrass is considered volunteer hours by the National Park Service and we entered our service hours in the park’s Volunteer Log. As always, we were welcomed and appreciated by Ranger Heather.
The convoy stopped at Braum’s in Emporia for a bit of ice cream on the way home. You might call that stop “Icing on the cake,” topping off a very pleasant day.
Those SFTARC members that participated in 2025 were, Mike Stewart, Trig Morley, Larry Hall, George McCarville, Greg Wolfe, Ben Rocke, Robert Orr, Jason Gaumer, Rex Gaumer, Bob Davidson, Jeff Darby, Zach Brittan, Tom Brittan and Jim Andera.
Click here to see Tall Grass 2025 Pictures
Thanks to Jeff, KS0JD, for the photos.