Minnesota QSO Party
Call: W0ZQ
Operator(s): W0ZQ
Station: W0ZQ
Class: Mobile Single Xmtr LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-RTTY Qs Ph Qs
-------------------------
160:
80: 158
40: 283
20: 287 62
15: 2
10:
6:
2:
UHF:
-------------------------
Total: 730 62 Mults = 76 Total Score = 120,386
Club: Northern Lights Radio Society
Comments:
I think the solar flare that sent the K index to 6 on Friday night did not help
propagation on the low bands, especially Saturday morning. However,as poor as
80m was in the morning, 20m seemed to be rocking by mid day which was a very
nice surprise. Over the last several MnQP contests, either 40 or 80m was the
money band with 20m as a distant third. While its certainly fun working
evryone on 20m, it also means total mults were down as it was very difficult to
work in-state this year.
I worked the TOD/STR/POP/DOU county line area in the morning hours, then hopped
on I-94 towards Fargo to work the OTT/GRA/WIL/TRA corner in the afternoon for a
total of eight counties. I'm a solo op/driver, so when driving I work 20m
phone and use a digital voice recorder & log those contacts after the contest.
While the weather was pretty good with temps in the upper 20's, there is lots
and lots of snow out there making it a bit harder to find a safe parking spot.
I saw a wolf trot about 50 yards away from me while I was sitting in a rural
church parking lot in GRA (far west central MN) ... just me, the wolf, and a
lot of snow around - sure makes antenna change time more interesting.
New for me this year was N1MM with Windows7 running on a used netbook. For all
these years I've been a DOS/NA groupy so I thought I would join the modern era.
With the netbook the keyboard is smaller, so sorry for the Q's that I fat
fingered - first thing that I learned is where is the "ESC" key so that I could
back out of whatever error I was in .... the <ESC> key got a good workout. The
touch pad/mouse is a significant source of "operator error".
The shack & equipmemt was a Subaru Forester (135K - starting to like oil),
heated seats, FT897D, LDG tuner, N1MM/Windows7, a MicroKeyer, and roof mounted
hamstiks or a MFJ manual tune screw driver with a 12' whip when stopped.
Everthing worked well and with the new netbook I was able to skip the power
inverter that was required for my old DOS based laptop and that was a source of
noise, especially on the low bands.
Many many thanks to all that work me during the contest - the last 28 minutes
of the contest from TRA on 80m was the best ... I was tired and it was getting
dark with just 28 minutes left in the contest - I stopped, got set-up, called
CQ MnP on 80m just once, and 28 minutes later I looked up and the contest was
over and I had 54 new Q's in the log - that was fun. Also thanks to those who
stood by on 20m when asked too so that I could work a few DX stations that were
calling.
I plan to be on from the WiQP next month, so keep the rigs warmed up and the
antennas pointed this way.
73, Jon
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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