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Previous MNQP travels:  2013 MNQP   2014 MNQP   2015 MNQP   2016 MNQP   2017 MNQP   2018 MNQP
2019 MNQP   2020 MNQP   2021 MNQP   2022 MNQP   2023 MNQP   2024 MNQP

This travelogue will have fewer pictures than some years. Temperatures were MUCH milder this year. However, the wind was HOWLING all day. Any attempt to set up the camera tripod for "selfies" would have resulted in the tripod blowing over. Except for Cottonwood County. There, we pulled in to a boat landing by a lake surrounded by.......Cottonwood trees. There we took our only selfies for the day. One will go on the QSL card.

This year, we only self-spotted at QSOPARTYHUB.com. I hope it helped. If some of you found us spotted elsewhere, I'd love to hear about it.

Now that we live in Marshfield, WI, it is a long drive to participate anywhere in Minnesota (as a mobile). We are attempting to activate all 87 counties in the state so this year, we chose eight counties in far southwestern Minnesota that we'd never been to before. This meant an all-day drive to Pipestone, MN. It was a pleasant day on Friday--mild temperatures and clear skies. We checked out the Lock and Dam on the Mississippi River by La Crosse, WI. We had dinner at the Bean Town Grill in Fairmont, MN. Finally, after dark, we arrived at the Grandstay Hotel in Pipestone.

The photo of the dawn sunrise is about twenty minutes before the contest start. The first two counties were Lincoln and Lyon. The two spots were only about 100 yards apart so we could roll back and forth between the counties as we switched from 80m to 40m to 20m. There is my obligatory train photo. I love the BNSF (and the old Great Northern) so when I see one, I have to shoot a picture. I was working a pile-up while taking the train photo.

Lincoln County was first, but we alternated with Lyon County during band changes.

I include the pictures of the county signs because you can see the flat fields for most of our trek. With no trees, the wind HOWLED all day.

A "Check Engine" light appears!

While backing into the field pull-off in Lyon County, I noticed the "Check Engine" light and the "TRAC OFF" light illuminated. I've seen them before in slippery conditions and thought that maybe the traction in the field pull-off set off the lights. We had about 20 more minutes of pile-up to work. I also knew that sometimes shutting the engine off and restarting sometimes would give the lights an opportunity to disappear. I tried that unsuccessfully. So after completing Lyon County, we got underway back to the town of Pipestone in order to grab lunch at Mac and Don's Supper Club. On the highway, the car would not go over 45 miles per hour with the gas pedal at normal positions. Hmmmmm. Something is not right. I pulled in to a gas station to top off the gas because I also know that a common cause of these lights is "loose gas cap". With no improvement, we limped the next 10 miles into Pipestone.

In the parking lot of the hotel we had used, we dug out my ODB2 reader and plugged it in to see what codes it was giving. There were at least six and the two most important ones were: "Secondary Air Injection System Switching Valve Stuck Open Bank1and2". The low power seemed to confirm a problem like this. Using the hotels internet, we researched on the web just what these codes mean, what valves are they, and where they are located on the car. Eventually, I decided to use the "clear codes" function of the ODB2 reader. The two about the Air Valves would not clear--at least not right then. I shut the car down and restarted to idle a few times and I noted that the Check Engine light and the TRAC OFF lights were now extinguished even though I was still showing the two Air Valve codes. We decided to have lunch and head out on the highway and see if it would go at highway speeds.

The car got up to highway speeds just fine and seemed to get normal gas mileage. Power seemed normal.I now think that the car DID detect some unusual air pressures. Perhaps the Air Injection valves really were stuck open for awhile. I think the 30-50 mph winds may have had something to do with it. We lost 2.5 hours over this issue--and it was concerning because we were looking at trying to get repairs in Sioux Falls in the following week. I think the codes sunset with normal operation of the valves. I will check soon to confirm that. The web also has self-help videos on how I can replace the valves for myself--if I ever need to.

Here is Nobles County as we drove eastward.

This year, I chirped w9fz-4 via iPhone (aprs.fi app) and the cellular network. In the graphic to the left, the red line is our track. The MNQP website offers a click through to our track. I wonder if fixed stations use the APRS depiction to find out where we are?

Here is the special QSL card we will send out this year. We make a small "limited edition" printing run.

We upload to LOTW. We build TQSL locations in each of the counties that we operate. We sign our logs as W9FZ, W9FZ/m, and as W9FZ/XXX. Looking in LOTW, of the 290 QSOs, I see 113 QSL'd QSOs. 69 to W9FZ, 40 to W9FZ/m, and 4 to W9FZ/XXX. (as of February 10, 2025)

Please know that we will gladly QSL any of our QSO's (and we'll probably send your SASE back to you).

The reason we use "Jan" for our name in the exchange is that we are a multi-op Mobile. We both take turns on the microphone. Janice, KA9VVQ (wife of Bruce) is half of our team. We think it's better for both of us to use the name "Jan" than the confusion that would arise if she had to keep saying "Bruce".

                   MN QSO PARTY Summary Sheet       

    CallSign Used : W9FZ
      Operator(s) : W9FZ KA9VVQ

Operator Category : Rover LP
             Band : ALL
            Power : LOW
             Mode : SSB
 Default Exchange : JAN MN
     ARRL Section : MN
        Club/Team : Northern Lights Radio Society
 

        Band    QSOs     Pts   Mul
		  
        3.5       24      48
          7       25      50
         14      241     482   
		  
Total            290     580    63    36,540

            

Q's per county:

LIN 63
LYO 57
MUR 26
PIP 25
ROC 15
NOB 25
COT 26
JAC 53

Our goals for MNQP are to have fun and see some of Minnesota that we have not seen before. We achieved that in abundance!

We appreciate every operator who finds us CQ'ing and works us. As the day proceeded, we would hear familiar callsigns as we were found multiple times by some operators. These multiple q's were 160 of our 290 QSOs. So we apparently worked 130 other stations just once.

2025 W9FZ/M Honor Roll
    8 contacts:  N8II
    7 contacts:  KI5MM, VE3RGO, W1SSN
    6 contacts:  KK7AC, W4ANT, W5VS, WA1SAY, WN4AFP 
    5 contacts:  WA9YI
    4 contacts:  K8BF, KN6VTC, N0HJZ
    3 contacts:  AJ5ZX, K4DR, K7SEN, KC0RIS, KE4GTQ, N2ZZ, W8PI, W8PRO
    2 contacts:  AI0M, AI7RK, K3WSP, K4SBZ, K5MAY, KA0PQW, KB0NES, KB5ILY, KB9LGS, KC0NFB, 
                 KC1QEM, KE4ZUN, KE8PX, KJ6EPH, KJ9B, N1QY, NE8P, NI0K, NW5Q, VA3PC, 
                 W0ELT, W0PI, W0PR, W2ARP, W4BQN, W5JCC, W9RWG, WA2CNV, WA5SOG, WB4SAB 
                

You'll note that we log on paper. Once home after the contest, I load the log into N3FJP software to help me prepare the Cabrillo file and the .adifs to upload to LOTW.

Windmills are very prevalent in southwest Minnesota on account of the constant winds. There is a land feature called Buffalo Ridge that is particularly littered with windmills. Janice and I have operated 10 GHz Microwaves many times on the Buffalo Ridge.

These pictures of us operating are similar to other years--we are still out there having adventures in our thirteenth year.

Our next to last county was Cottonwood. As you've seen, there were not many trees in southwest Minnesota. However, for our spot in Cottonwood County, I selected a boat landing at a small lake. Here, there were Cottonwood trees making a windbreak. Now we could set up our camera tripod without it being blown over.

The two pictures below are our last county (Jackson) just before the end of the event. We got to our location with about 40 minutes to go and made 53 contacts.

After the QSO Party was over, we drove just 17 miles to Windom, MN in order to dine at Duffy's Bar and Grill . They have three locations and we'd been to the one in Montevideo on other ham radio adventures. This one was perfect--diverse menu and a short time to dine after the end of the contest. After dinner, we had a fifty minute drive to Fairmont, MN where we stayed at the Hampton Inn.

On Sunday, we drove back to Marshfield. Again, the temperatures were unusually mild for February 2nd. We stopped in Blue Earth and learned about Green Giant canning.

Thanks to all the stations who found us and worked us.

If you would like a QSL card, just let us know.
We have twelve counties left unactivated by us. The next two years should find us in NW Minnesota activating six counties per year.
See you in just under a year!
Bruce W9FZ and Janice KA9VVQ

BRUCE RICHARDSON
w9fz (at) w9fz.com

W9FZ/m 2025 Minnesota QSO Party Travelogue