Spring Fling 2004

Boy, we sure had rotten weather for the 4SQRP Spring Fling! Thunderstorms and heavy rain hit the four state area for several days before the weekend. On Friday night, Tom N2UHC braved the elements by camping out alone at the Twin Bridges State Park in the northeast corner of Oklahoma. Tom wins the "Lightning Rod Award" for staying at the campsite though a night of lightning and heavy rain.

Saturday morning dawned overcast and damp, but the storms finally stopped long enough for three of us to get some on-the-air time in the QRP To The Field operating event. This is an annual fun event for QRP operators to take to the field and operate from interesting locations.

The theme of this year's QRPTTF contest was "Battle Stations" where operators try to operate from or near historic battle sites. The research we done indicates that the area was very active during the American Civil War. While we can't find evidence of a battle right at Twin Bridges, there were several battles fought in the area.

During the Civil War, Indian Territory (as Oklahoma was known at the time) was on the frontier. Many of the Indian nations were aligned and fought on the side of the Confederacy.

Locust Grove in Mayes County, in the Cherokee Nation
Fort Wayne in Delaware County, in the Cherokee Nation
Cowskin Prairie in Ottawa County, in the Quapaw Nation
Cabin Creek, in Craig County, in the Cherokee Nation

Just across the Indian Territory boundary, a congress was convened at Neosho where Missouri succeeded from the Union and established Neosho as the capital of Confederate Missouri. The Confederate States of America Congress admitted
Missouri to membership on Nov. 28, 1861.

Several battles were fought in southwest Missouri to determine control of the state. Nearby battle sites include Neosho, Carthage, Pineville, Wilsons Creek (Springfield) and Newtonia, Missouri plus Pea Ridge in northern Arkansas.

Just north of Twin Bridges park is Baxter Springs, Kansas where a force of 600 to 800 Confederates under the command of Quantrell attacked the Union garrison in October, 1863. Baxter Springs was at the north end of the "Texas Road" which
was the cattle trail from Kansas to Texas. The road followed the Spring and Grand rivers southward through Indian Territory to Fort Gibson, Fort Washita and thence to Texas. This road passed our field site on the east side of the Spring Rriver and saw much traffic from both Union and Confederate armies.

Enough of the history lesson! The following photos are "clickable" to view larger images.


Tom N2UHC working CW with his Small Wonder transceiver and an inverted vee antenna.	Dave WØCH operating an Elecraft K1 transceiver into a 20 meter EDZ antenna.

Jay KØETC giving his brand new SW20+ transceiver it's first field test.	Jay's SW20 may be connected via clip leads in fine amateur tradition, but it works great!

Since we had poor weather for the 4SQRP Spring Fling, we will try again in May and see if conditions are any better.