[NLRS] W0ZQ - 2008 Minnesota QSO Party results

[W0ZQ at aol.com]

Hello NLRS land.
 
Yes, this is HF, operating frequencies that are actually LOWER than our IF  
radios, but it is the Minnesota QSO Party, so cut me a little slack.   
 
I operated the MnQP as W0ZQ/m on 20, 40, and 80m CW only from Carver,  
Sibley, Scott, LesSueur, Nicollet, Blue Earth, Waseca, Steele, Rice, Goodhue,  and 
Dodge counties just south of the Twin Cities.  The table below shows  the QSO 
breakdown by band from each of the 11 counties - they are listed in  the order 
that I worked from starting out in Carver at 8:00am and ending in  Dodge at 
6:00pm.   
 
The weather was pretty good - good for February - with temperatures that  
started out around 20 degrees but warmed to around 30 by midday, not too  bad.  
The wind was up some, steady at around 15 to 20 mph with occasional  higher 
gusts, so the wind chill was significant.   Snow was compacted,  so drifting was 
not a problem and the roads were dry.
 
Backing out of my garage I discovered that my APRS system was down, and  five 
minutes of playing with it did not bring it back to life, so if anyone had  
tried to track my APRS, sorry it was down .... next year.   I also  blew a fuse 
on my HF rig, my FT897, that took me 15 minutes to straighten  out.  Other 
than that, Murphy stayed away, no law enforcement visits, and  only a few waves 
from the locals this time.   
 
I started the contest just north of Bell Plaine on Market Ave which is the  
dividing line between CRV and SIB.  This allowed me to move from CRV to SIB  in 
just a few minutes.  From SIB I crossed the river on Hwy 25 into Belle  
Plaine, picked up Hwy 169 south, and operated SCO from the north side of 169  & 19. 
 From there, it was back onto Hwy 169 south to the rest stop just  above Les 
Sueur for LES.  From there, it was further south on Hwy  169 into St. Peter 
where I operated NIC from Hwy 22 and 169.  From St.  Peter, it was east on Hwy 
99, then south on 15 to a farm pull-off just north of  Madison Lake and BLU.  
>From there, I picked up east Hwy 60 to 440th St just  south of Waterville that 
is the LES & WSC county line and operated WSC from  there.  From WSC it was 
east on Hwy 7, straight east on series of nice cty  roads into Medford where I 
operated on the east side of town at the Medford HS  for STE county.  From STE, 
it was just north and east a few miles to the  intersection of 
STE/RIC/GOO/DOD, near Morland, where I finished out the contest  from the last three 
counties.
 
N0KP was able to work me 14 times, N0HJZ twice, W0PHD once, W6GMT four  times 
(from TX), KA0PQW twice, KH6FI (Fred, ex WA2HFI, from HI) 4 times, NG0R  
once, WB0CFF twice, WB0GGM once and WQ0A five times.  Ended up with 769  contacts 
from 11 counties with about 93 miles of driving. 
 
For those who are going to submit logs, don't forget to indicate NLRS as  
your club.
 
73, Jon
W0ZQ
 
 
Cty   20m  40m  80m   Total
CRV    0     44     26     70
SIB      0    34    26     60
SCO   15   28    11     54
LES    14   37    11      62
NIC     15   27     23     65
BLU    18    28    17     63
WSC    19   25    21     65
STE   17    28   32      77
RIC      9    38     40     87
GOO   11    35    42     88
DOD     0    40    38      78
Tot   118  364  287     769     

769 x 2 x 81 mults = 124,578
 
 
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