[PaQSO] N3SH 2006 Bonus Station Update

[Ron Notarius WN3VAW]

Here’s about where things currently stand with the N3SH Bonus Station operations:

The Wireless Association of South Hills is going to run multiple fixed stations from different counties (treat them as a “Rover” for logging purposes) plus one mobile.  All operations will be under the club’s primary call, N3SH.   Our secondary call, WA3SH will be taking the year off after being in use from Fayette County the last few years.  (And if anyone wants to operate from the USVI this year, we can make arrangements for use of NP2SH, but I digress
)

At present, we are planning on three Primary stations.  Primary stations will have at least 2 transceivers QRV at any one time (Murphy not withstanding, of course) and should be manned by a crew of at least 6 operators over the course of the weekend.  We also would like to operate at least three Secondary stations.  Secondary stations will have at least one transceiver QRV at all times, but will be manned by a smaller operator crew, between 2 and 5 ops.  And there will be a mobile station too.

Our Primary stations will be as follows:

N3SH Allegheny, hosted by Team Captain Frank N3XI at his QTH
            (We hope to run some VHF on 6 & 2 meters from 
             this location)
N3SH Washington, hosted by Team Captain Ted W4XE at his QTH
            (This will be our primary Digital modes station)
N3SH Fayette, at the Heritage BSA facility (normally WA3SH),
           Team Captains Frank KB3FZU and Rick KB3IAC

Our Secondary stations are tentatively as follows:

N3SH Clarion, Rich N3SBF & Carol KB3GMN, 
              from their cabin near the Forest line
           (N3SH & WA3SH have operated from here in the past)
N3SH Butler, hosted by Team Captain Mike K3AIR at his QTH
N3SH Armstrong, exact location to be determined, 
          Ron W3WN & Greg KQ3DX

There may be additional secondary stations, but we are going to concentrate on making certain we have enough operators and equipment at the primary stations first.  [Anyone who is interested in helping to operate any of the Bonus stations, please contact me directly.]

Our mobile station, N3SH/M, will be operated by the tag team crew of Ed N3ZNI and Dave K3LGM, whom most of you know from the last few years as the N3ZNI/M station.  To avoid confusion between the stations, while the exact itinerary has yet to be worked out, our plans are to have N3SH/M avoid counties where the N3SH primary and secondary stations are operating from.  If it turns out that this is unavoidable, N3SH/M will either go silent when crossing these counties, or operate under a different call.  Otherwise, we have a potential problem when someone would try to log N3SH/M and N3SH/R from the same county!

As the bonus stations, the N3SH crews aren’t supposed to be eligible to compete in their counties, but they will be competing amongst themselves to see who can beat whom.  It will prove interesting!

We also plan on making some sort of certificate or other award available to anyone who works more than one N3SH operation.  Details have yet to be worked out, so input on this is welcome (please send it direct to me, not via the reflector).  We also have the capability, courtesy of Dan KB3HVN and OnlyGoodStuff.com, to make comemorative shirts, mugs, laser engravings, etc. available; again, details to be worked out.  (Remember, this is referring just to the Bonus Stations, not to the contest as a whole!  Items for the overall contest are available via the Nittany ARC.)

More information to come!  And looking forward to October already!

73, ron w3wn
Coordinator, N3SH Bonus Stations, 2006 Pennsylvania QSO Party