2012 MNQSO Party Contest results

 I started searching the 75m band just a few minutes after 8:00am CST and logged several contacts before trying a "run" frequency. I typically do a search and pounce operation but this the perfect contest to practice running. Everyone is trying to find Minnesota stations and the pile ups should be small and manageable. They ended up being very manageable but way too short! The 75m band for Me was noisy and not too productive . I tire easily when the lull is too long and went searching for more Q's. Wasn't many to be found and going over the same ground I found a logging issue-- My logging program was not showing "dupes" ! I was using the MNQP logger which I've used for many years with no issues! This could be bad- will feel real stupid every "dupe" My program doesn't show. Maybe a fat finger with the letter "O" instead of the number "0" ? Nope- that wasn't it! I spent some time checking the setup and  after toggling several setup parameters it magically started working! I still don't know how I fixed it-but it appeared to be good to go!
  Since 75m wasn't producing well, I jumped to 40m and did manage a few good runs on and off. I also tried 20m and added just a few contacts but I just was not being heard very well! Later in the day also tried getting somes runs on both 15 and 10m but no luck! Eventually after a brief stop on 20m again ,I settled on 40m till supper time. After supper with Less than an hour left , I jumped to 75m for a few more until rounding out the last 15 minutes on 160m. I only gained 4 QSO's on 160 but two were with a rover I know so the finish was fun, chatting with them till the end as they raced to their final county!
  I had set a goal of beating My highest score and having more Q's and Mults than My previous results. This I was able to manage but had really hoped for many more contacts. After adding up all the "on" times ,I was surprised to see just a little more than 5 hours operating time out of 10 hours . Some of this was even with no contacts logged! I thought I had devoted more time but with other distractions I had missed about half of the total operating time. I guess this is very typical for Me!
  My biggest mistake in hindsight was not pushing 40m more. 20m and up just was not happening at My far North QTH and 75m was noisy and just did not produce well. 112 Q's,50 mults for a score of 11,200 left Me feeling thirsty for more! Next year!
 73---Tim