[NLRS] 2018 Minnesota QSO Party and 1x1 calls

[Jon Platt]

Hello NLRS land,
 
The 2018 Minnesota QSO Party will be running the day before the Super Bowl, Saturday, Feb 3rd, from 1400 UTC (8:00 AM) through 2400 UTC (6 PM).  This year is the 20th annual running of this fun operating event that promotes Minnesota and Minnesota operators.  In celebration of 20 years, and to promote even more fun, any Minnesota station has the opportunity to use a special 1x1 call sign, for example W0M, where stations who work Minnesota 1x1's during the QSO Party can spell out Minnesota based words for awards, fun, and bragging rights.  That list of Minnesota based words will be forthcoming.  

Full rules for the Minnesota QSO Party can be found at the w0aa.org webpage at http://www.w0aa.org/index.php/mn-qso-party .   On this page there is a link on the left side that will show you who has reserved what 1x1 call sign so far.  Note that there are a lot of 1x1's still open.   Here is the important part .  If you are interested in participating in the Minnesota QSO Party with a special 1x1 call sign, please send your request to Rich, N0HJZ, at richn0hjz at gmail.com as Rich is working to coordinate all letters to assure that we have good coverage of the needed alphabet.  Additional information about this operating event with 1x1's will be added to the website as we get close to the Party date, but for now the important thing is to reserve your 1x1.  If you have any question you can drop me an email direct. 

PS:  Note that the Minnesota QSO Party home page at http://www.w0aa.org/index.php/home-9 has a link to the "Activity Map".  On the Activity Map page, the map allows you to add grid square lines to the county map overlay.  This map may be helpful for mobile station planning where they may want to operate from any given county or county line while also providing unique grid square(s) for the ARRL's 2018 International Grid Chase event.   

73, Jon
W0ZQ/W0O/m