[NLRS] MNQP de W9FZ/R

[Bruce Richardson]

Hi Gang:

Jon, thanks for the extra details. About a week ago, I asked MWA about
those details and it seems that they came up with some answers and got
them on the page.  I was kinda hoping they'd let VHF mobiles duke it out
with HF mobiles, but I see they've created a separate class.

W9FZ VHF-Mobile:  I plan to be on and activate between 5 and 10 counties.
Sure, I know VHF participation won't equal what we had last weekend in the
VHF Sweeps, but I hope some of the guys will get on and move through the
bands with me.  This contest gives additional points for CW QSO's that may
be completed with the same ops on a phone QSO--even on the same freq and
they count as separate QSO's.  So thge plan is to work who is there first
on phone and then switch to CW mode and then switch back to SSB briefly
prior to switching bands.

I intend to stay close enough to the cities to be strong enough on most of
the bands.  But I hope to fill in some holes around the big five counties
of the metroplex.  As the week goes along and I learn of counties that
will be well covered by others, I may try to avoid those.  That said, it
would be convenient for me if I ended up in SE Minnesota at the end of the
day.

The thing I'm pumped about VHF in the MNQP is that we've got so many bands
to move through to make so many Q's.  Sure, the HF guys can touch all
corners of the state on 40 and 80.  But if we can bang out 6,2, and 432
Q's with MANY ops....and make CW QSO's too....then I see us having
respectable scores--even from VHF only.  I'll be on 6-2304 +10G.  So
that's 7+bands with 2 QSO's per band--that's a lot of QSO's from each
county (for those that have those bands :-) )

I won't be signing /R during this but rather /xx where xx is the two
letter abbreviation for the county per the MNQSOP website.  I encourage
you to print out the sheets before hand. I've used the free software in
previous years and thought it worked pretty well.

I intend to be on the contest from start to finish.  I know most of you
can't spend the whole day contesting, but when you can, please get on and
make some Q's.  Again, there will be plenty of assistance here on this
reflector to help you get your logs straight and submitted properly (as an
NLRS entry :-) )

At this point I'm planning on using 144.220 as my Rover freq.  I feel that
should be far enough from .200 to keep a peaceful band but with the
expected activity levels, there is no need to go all the way up to .250.

Sure, I hope one or two other guys will put 6,2, and 432 (or more in their
cars) and go out rovering too.  But we need fixed stations to work also.

I'll have more detail later in the week about what counties I intend to
hit and in what order.  If some of you know some great operating
locations, I open to suggestions.

Even if you only make 1 contact, please go through the effort to submit
your score.

Thanks and more later....
Bruce Richardson W9FZ