[ETS/PARC List] NN3SI QRT

[Drew Moore]

==> AMATEUR STATION AT SMITHSONIAN QRT AFTER 32 YEARS 

After more than 30 years on the air from the nation's capital, NN3SI
<http://americanhistory.si.edu/events/programdetail.cfm?newskey=48>, the
Amateur Radio station at the National Museum of American History
<http://americanhistory.si.edu/index.cfm> -- part of the Smithsonian
Institution <http://www.si.edu/> -- became silent on Thursday, July 31.
Originally located in the Nations of Nations exhibit, the station first
went on-the-air in 1976 in celebration of the US Bicentennial. The FCC
caught the patriotic spirit, giving the station a temporary call sign --
NN3SI -- standing for Nation of Nations, Smithsonian Institution. The
Commission later made the call sign allocation permanent.

According to NN3SI volunteer Carl Lagoda, W3CL, a Special Event
operation was planned for earlier this week, with certificates available
to those who contacted NN3SI. DX Summit <http://www.dxsummit.fi/>
spotted NN3SI on 75, 40 and 20 meters SSB. 

NN3SI has been situated in several different exhibitions in the Museum;
it was most recently housed in the former Information Age exhibit. This
exhibit chronicled the birth and growth of the electronic information
age -- from Samuel Morse's invention of a practical telegraph in the
1830s through the development of the telephone, radio, television and
computer. The Museum has been closed since 2006 while undergoing a major
renovation and is scheduled to reopen to the public this fall.

The station participated in many special events throughout its history.
During the dedication of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall,
station operators made many contacts and taught children visiting the
Museum how to spell their names in Morse code. Over the years, operators
at NN3SI -- who hailed from the District of Columbia, Maryland and
Virginia (and the occasional guest operators from various parts of the
globe) -- have logged contacts with amateurs in all parts of the world
and with astronauts and cosmonauts in orbit. By operating the station,
NN3SI ops promoted Amateur Radio as a national resource for emergency
communications, trained operators, technicians and engineers -- as well
as an outstanding hobby -- to the more than 4 million people who visit
the Museum each year.

QSL via NN3SI, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American
History, 17701 Bowie Mill Rd, Derwood, MD 20855.