[NLRS] Announcement - Minnesota QSO Party Next Sat., Feb 4th

[W0ZQ at aol.com]

Just a reminder that the Minnesota QSO Party is next Saturday, Feb 4th,  from 
8:00 AM (CST) to 6 PM (CST), or 1400 to 2400 UTC.    The  entire world works 
Minnesota stations, Minnesota stations work the  world.    You send your 
county and your name, they send  state/province/country and their name.    All 
Minnesota counties  have a three letter code ; for example Hennepin is HEN so I 
would send "HEN JON"  for my exchange and receive back "PA FRED" for example.  
You can work  stations once per band & mode from each county you are in so look 
for  activity on both CW and Phone modes.   The contest covers HF and VHF  
with separate awards (same rules).

Check out the full set of rules at  http://w0aa.org/mnqp.htm  .    The site 
contains the three  letter abbreviations for MN counties, the full set of 
rules, and even free  downloadable software for those who don't have any contesting 
 software.   BTW, most major contesting software packages (NA,CT,  WriteLog, 
N1MM) do cover this contest .... just make sure that it uses the THREE  letter 
county designators and not the older two letter abbreviations.

If  you have ANY questions, ANY, ask.   This contest is sponsored by the  
Minnesota Wireless Association, a HF DX & contesting club that many NLRS  members 
are also members of.   If you have not operated this contest  before, give it 
some consideration whether its HF, VHF, or both (you can enter  both logs !) 
.   
 
Watch for W0ZQ/mobile from west central MN on 20m and 40m.

73,  Jon
W0ZQ

Come and join us here in Bloomington, Minnesota, home of the  Mall of 
America, July 27 & 28, 2006 for the 40th annual Central States VHF  Society 
Conference hosted once again by the NLRS.