MNQRP NEWS

May 1998 Volume 1 Number 5

Gardens are Growing, and the Minnesota QRP Gopher is Hiding Out!

With the snow and ice of the past winter just a melting memory away, the QRP Gophers of Minnesota are coming out of their winter hibernation with thoughts of green, spring Gardens growing forth all around the state.

Although "Elmer" Fudd isn’t the greatest rabbit hunter of all time, he has been known to bag a Fox now and again. Rumor has it, he’s after Gophers now and wishes to bag a few before he plants his Garden.

All MNQRP members are encouraged to bring their latest radios and station accessories, as well as antennas and power supplies, to this Saturday’s meeting and have fun being the MNQRP Gopher for a day. Operating as QRP station WQ0RP from 1700Z to 2100Z, MNQRP club members will try to evade any and all Elmers (and friends) out in Radio land. Using varying times and bands/frequencies, the MNQRP Gophers will make the hunt as difficult as possible for Elmer.

Any Elmer catching a Gopher will be awarded a "Gopher Hunt Certificate" and have the honor of saying they bagged a Gopher, thereby making Minnesota, if not the world, safer for Gardens of all kinds. Hope to see everyone there!

Meeting Location Reminder

The May meeting of the MNQRP Society will be held at the usual time and place. All Gophers should report to the Minnetonka Community Center, at 1:30PM, Saturday, May 2^nd. Talk in on the 145.05 repeater. For more information on the meeting location as well as the MNQRP club in general, visit the website at

http://www.qsl.net/mnqrp/

Minnesota QRP’ers Partake in the Spring "QRP To The Field" Border Event

Just a quick note on what really happened. First, don't tell us about wind. The best part of the trip was the guy who owned the land where we set up. The road to the border ended about 1/4 mile from the actual border, but there was a small farm road which would lead us there. Not too far away was a small farm, and it looked like someone was home so we decided we better ask permission to go on his property. I don't know about you, but I hate strangers knocking on my door, and I didn't know the best way to approach him with our idea.

Well this young man (Stacey) answered the door, and it looked like we had woke him up. I quickly told what we would like to do, he just smiled and said "come on in",.... this was good! I first noticed a holster and a revolver with a belt full of bullets hanging on the chair in the kitchen, then the rifles and shotguns hanging on the wall, we just smiled while he got dressed and thought, "no tvi...no tvi."

Stacey took us down and showed us just where the border was, the best way to get down there, and where not to go because there was still soft ground. There in front of us was "the border," the Boise de Sioux on the MN side and a drainage ditch between SD and ND. The closest we could get, without carrying everything across a muddy field by hand, was 100 yards. With the weather forecast, we stuck with the van 100 yards east, did I mention the wind??

To make a long story short, it rained off and on all afternoon, I tried not to think about it, but this field was getting muddy. We'll be fine I kept telling myself. The rain let up about 2300Z so we thought we better start taking down the R-7 vertical we were using. We got packed up, then came the moment of truth, I put it in drive, slowly pressed on the gas....and nothing, we just spun, it wasn't even close, we were stuck!

I didn't want to, but Stacey was our only hope. Of course it had started to rain again while I ran up to the farm. Stacey opened the door, warm and dry with a beer in his hand and said "come on in". As I started to tell him about our problem he pulled on his boots, before I could even ask him if he would pull us out he said "get in the truck", when I started to tell him how much we were willing to pay he said "bullsh*t".

It didn't take very long to get us out, lots of flying mud spraying my van. He still would not take any money, so I took all the cash I had and threw it in the cab of his truck. He did let me take a photo of him and Larry in front of my muddy van. We were wet and full of mud, but they still served us lasagna and beer in Wheaton, where, by the way, we met the other MN-ND-SD (kind of on the border) station W0QF for coffee.

We did take some photos and Larry is going to make up some QSL's so let us know if you would like one. Oh yea, the contest was fun, if we win any "wallpaper" I'm going to give it to Stacey.

73's, Jim (N0UR) & Larry (KB0R)

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