Minnesota QSO Party
Call: N2CU
Operator(s): N2CU
Station: N2CU
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: NY
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band CW-RTTY Qs Ph Qs
-------------------------
160: 4 0
80: 41 13
40: 127 14
20: 67 2
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
-------------------------
Total: 239 29 Mults = 87 Total Score = 46,632
Club: North Coast Contesters
Comments:
Another fine running of the MNQP. You can't do a thing about conditions, so you
might as well grin and bear it. This is a contest that I just can't miss, no
matter what. I even put only a token appearance in the CQ 160 last weekend so I
could save my kitchen points for the big event. Glad I did. Although my score is
10,000+ points less than last year, I still managed to get another sweep (my
second in all the years of running this contest).
I almost got off on the wrong foot by thinking the contest started at 10 AM
local. Went into the shack at 8:15 AM to set up the contest logger and was
surprised when I read the rules (always a good thing) and found it starts at 9
AM local. You would think I would know this after playing in this one every
year.
I was looking forward to getting a couple dozen QSOs from Rich, N0HJZ, but when
I went to 14256 at the start, nary a peep. And not much else heard on 20m
either. Gee, I hope Rich didn't say hello to one of the ditches along the icy
roads. Down to 80 CW to grab some quick QSOs while the propagation still
allowed and then off to the races. I kept checking 14256 and thereabouts but
still no Rich. In fact, not much else was heard from MN on 20m SSB.
Someone mentioned things starting off slowly; I experienced that every year
when I go mobile in the PA and NY QSO parties. However, in the MNQP the first
hour was my best (42 QSOs) followed by the last hour (36 QSOs).
Of particular note was that the mobiles and rovers had better signals than
fixed stations. Please explain that to me! Jon, W0ZQ (rover), was pretty much
S9 everywhere, as was N0EO. Mobiles K0PC and N0IJ had consistently good signals
every time and always picked my callsign out of the pileup quickly.
With a couple of hours left I was in the 70's for county count. I was thinking
that with activity from MN being down, there's no way to repeat the sweep from
last year. But they kept coming one by one. With about 40 minutes to go, I was
holding at 85. Then I came across a "net" on 75m SSB. They were all
MN stations running down a list of a dozen stations. At the time I needed only
Carver and Cook. What's this? There's a Carver station on frequency. So I tried
to break in when I could and joined a bunch of friendly MN ops who were more
than happy to give me a Q and work NY in return. Carver went in the log. Then I
mentioned that I only needed Cook, and Bob, K0RC, told me that N0IJ was going to
be there in about 15 minutes. I thanked everyone and politely backed out of the
net to look for John. My bandmap showed his last frequency on 80 CW and sure
enough, there he was. But in Lake county (I believe). I worked him and then
asked about Cook. Seven more minutes was his reply, so I just hung out there
waiting to pounce. When I heard him tell everyone to QRX, I knew what it meant;
he was entering Cook. So I threw in my call just to let him know I was standing
by. As soon as he got back on he called me and Cook was in the log. How sweep
it is!
Great job by all the mobiles and fixed stations getting all 87 counties on the
air. QSO leaders were: N0IJ (36), K0PC (35), W0ZQ (25), NR0T and N0UR (21),
N0EO (16). Kudos to KE0TT (7), who I believe was QRP and had a great signal. I
had 4-band QSOs with AE0EE and K0MPH.
A big thank you to the MWA and other clubs that sponsor this event. It's one of
my favorites, and as I said earlier, I wouldn't miss it.
K3/100, TH6DXX @ 48', 40m Delta Loop, 80m Wire Vertical, 160m Inverted L @ 46',
N1MM.
73, Tom N2CU
PS Glad to hear N0HJZ was safe. Murphy hitched a ride with him.
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