A week ago Saturday, I worked the Minnesota QSO Party. Fortunately, I’m in a sweet spot for working Minnesota on 40m. Coupled with good band conditions, that made working this year’s MNQP a lot of fun.
Here are the vital statistics:
- Operating time: 5 hours, 55 minutes
- Totals Qs: 89
- Counties worked: 53 out of 87
- Mode: All contacts were CW. I tuned around the phone band a couple of times, but never heard anyone on phone.
- Claimed score: 9,434
Overall, the contest was a blast. There were many rovers, and as I’ve said before, it’s the rovers that really make a QSO party. I’d like to especially thank:
- AC0W (5 contacts)
- K0PC (7 contacts)
- KE0G (3 contacts)
- N0EO (6 contacts)
- N0IJ (5 contacts)
- N0IM (7 contacts)
- N0PI (8 contacts)
- NE9U (9 contacts)
- W0AA (9 contacts)
They were all great ops, and I thank them for their efforts. I got a nice QSL card from N0PI. I actually got four cards, each listing two of the eight contacts. The back of the card has a photo of N0PI, who did all the driving and worked VHF and UHF, and a photo of K0AD, who apparently worked the CW HF station. The card notes that their route took them 330 miles, through 20 counties in 9 and a half hours. Now I feel cheated that I only worked them in 8 of the 20 counties!
Another side benefit of working the MN QP is that I worked three stations whose call signs spell words: the aforementioned N0PI, N0AT, and W0OR. All three of their QSLs arrived today, and I was happy to get them. Thanks, guys!
Leave a Reply