[NLRS] Minnesota QSO Party, Feb 1, and some road ahead VHF stuff

[Jon Platt]

The 27th Annual Minnesota QSO Party is tomorrow, Saturday, Feb 1, running from 1400 UTC (8:00 AM CST) to 2400 UTC (6:00 PM CST).   Yes, this a HF only contest and yes, its a lot of fun !  Minnesota stations work everyone and everyone is looking for Minnesota stations to work.  For the contest exchange you send your first name and your Minnesota county, for example "Jon in Hennepin" while they send to you their first name and their MN county, State/Province or DX.  Easy and fun.  This is Phone and CW only, no FT8.  You can work a station on each unique band/mode which makes for lots of QSOs.  Full rules and lots of great information can be found at https://www.w0aa.org/mn-qso-party/  . If you have any questions, ask.
Myself, I had plans to work the contest as a mobile in far northwestern MN but those plans change as I need to stay closer to home.  Instead I will be meandering my way at a leisurely pace through the following 10 counties:  Wright, McLeod, Carver, Stearns, Sherburne, Benton, Mille Lacs, Isanti, Chisago and Anoka.  I plan to be on 40m and 20m, CW and phone, maybe 15m if the propagation is there, and 80m CW at the very end.  
The Minnesota QSO Party is a really fun, laid back event.  On phone call "CQ the Minnesota QSO Party" and on CW call "CQ MNQP" and you will be amazed at the people around the World that will call you.   There is also several spotting pages, one is http://qsopartyhub.com/mnqp-spots.php  and yes, you can spot yourself.  I plan to self spot using this tool, so watch for me !
OK, now back to the World Above 50 MHz.  I have two pieces of information to pass along.   
   - NLRS will have a club table at Midwinter Madness in Buffalo on Saturday, March 22.  Plan on stopping by for an eyeball QSO.
   - The CSVHFS sponsored Spring Sprints have a few significant rule changes that should be fun.  Here is an outline:  (see the full rules at https://sites.google.com/site/springvhfupsprints/2025-information  )
   
   
   - For the 2, 222, and 432 Sprints, to address the problem that those who live close to different time zones have, the start and stop times has changed to provide flexibility as to when you start and when you have to stop.  The total operating time remains the same at four hours.  No start/stop time changes to the 6m or microwave Sprints.
   - For all Sprint events other than the Microwave Sprint, a station may be worked once on SSB, CW, FM or AM (i.e. Analog) and once again using a digital mode for a total of two times per band.  Analog contacts cannot be made on generally recognized digital frequencies while digit contacts must be made on generally recognized digital frequencies.  Count grids worked only once per band regardless of mode worked. For the Microwave Sprint work a station only once per band regardless of mode.   


73, JonW0ZQ
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