[NLRS] 2011 Mn QSO Party - new tools

[w0zq at aol.com]

Hello NLRS land

Attached below is a forward from the MWA reflector in regards to the Minnesota QSO Party.  The MnQP is scheduled for Saturday, Feb 5.   This is always a fun event and has grwon in leaps & bounds over the last several years.  I hope that NLRS club members can find some time to participate and to help put Minnesota on the map.  If you have any questions/concerns about HOW to operate, check out the "Guideline For MN Stations" link found at 
http://www.w0aa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=16  .  This guideline is quite helpful for those who don't operate a lot of HF or that are new to the MnQP.  You can also ask me !   When you send in your log don't forget to add "Northern Lights Radio Society" to it.  

PS:  If you plan to be active in the MnQP, please drop a note to Bob, K0RC at k0rc at citlink.net and give him your call and county.  Your activity status will be added to the "big map" per the note below and at http://www.w0aa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31&Itemid=30

73, Jon
W0ZQ/m

 
 
The Minnesota QSO Party will be on the air the first Saturday, the 5th of February starting at 14:00 UTC. 
 
The Minnesota Wireless Association members have been busy lining up mobile and rover stations, and pursuing fixed stations to operate again this year. We want to make 2011 another record year of participation.  There are 14 mobile / rover stations and dozens of fixed stations signed up to make QSOs with you. We look forward to putting your call sign into our logs! 
 
Attention potential MnQP "Sweepers"... The MWA has developed some new tools to make our QSO Party more fun. Here's a quick overview... 
 
I can already tell you the Achilles heal of a MnQP 87-county sweep this year will be *Norman* county, a few wavelengths north of Fargo/Moorehead on the North Dakota / Minnesota border. That county will be visited by the *NØIJ/m* team at their traditional lightning speed!  You definitely don't want to blink or you might miss the 19 minute "window of opportunity" to put "*NOR*" into your log! 
 
"So... what time will the NØIJ/m team be there", you ask? 
 
I'm really glad you asked that question!  It would be easy for me to tell you in this message, but the MWA really wants you to check out the great tool that Pat KØPC has created on the website.   Follow this link: http://www.w0aa.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33&Itemid=31 
 
Then left click that red, northwestern county that shows the town of Ada near its center. Voila! A helper window will pop up and give you all the details! 
 
Next, look over to the menu of callsigns on the right side and click the NØIJ/m check box. The NØIJ/m route will paint onto the map. You can even determine which direction they're traveling by clicking one of the next counties on their route. Comparing its start time to the Norman county start time will answer that question! When you double left click onto the map it will zoom you in for a closer look of the route... right down to the specific highways that will be used. 
 
So... how did I know Norman county will be a critical QSO for the MnQP sweep? 
 
The answer comes from another tool developed during the previous years.  This is the Excel workbook I use to collect mobile routes and times, then generate different views of the information. The 2011 MnQP workbook has been redesigned to be more user friendly and is available for download from my web site, here: http://tinyurl.com/4gblrgh 
 
Select the 2011 folder and you will find an XLS file. It's the actual Excel workbook I use. You can also download the PDF file which is a 4-page table that you can print. The table lists the planned activity in chronological order and provides columns to "check off" the counties for CW or Phone QSOs. 
 
You might not be going for an 87-county sweep, but you might be interested in filling in some missing counties for your County Hunter quest. The workbook will provide the call signs, times, and durations of all the mobile and rover stations, as well as the call signs of MN fixed stations who will be active. 
 
The new workbook design includes "Sort" buttons that allow you to change to different views of the schedules. Use them to change from an alphabetic list of counties to a numeric list of stations that will visit counties. (This is where you will find Norman county will be visited for 19 minutes by NØIJ/m.) 
 
NOTE: The sorting routines rely on macro coding so it is a requisite that VBA be enabled. The standard Microsoft installation has this advanced feature disabled to thwart malicious code from being executed by a hacker. 
 
Turning the VBA feature "on" is buried within the TOOLS> OPTIONS> SECURITY> MACRO SECURITY> SECURITY LEVEL path. You will want to change this setting to "Medium" and "OK" your way back to the program. 
 
If you have any questions or problems, send me an email. Your comments and ideas are also welcomed! 
 
A couple final thoughts... please be aware these are estimated times at best. Any number of factors can influence the planned schedule of any station. You should also know the new MWA website will be tracking those stations who have APRS capability in their vehicles. 
 
73 de Bob - KØRC in MN (CHS) 
 k0rc at citlink.net