NAQCC Special Event Station N3A

Our Fourth Anniversary celebration with our special event call N3A which was used during the entire month of October (0000Z on the 1st through 2400Z on the 31st) is now history. This page was here to provide all the latest up to date information for both our N3A ops and those working our N3A stations. Now it will serve as a summary of our very successful operation.

We broke our record of 1,125 QSO's last year by a sizeable margin. So far with most ops reporting, we are just under 1,600 QSO's this year.

If you worked one of our N3A/# stations and would like a beautiful certificate to remember the occasion, send a large (9x12) SASE with $1.00 postage to:

Thomas Mitchell WY3H
210 Garretts Run Rd.
Kittanning, PA 16201

You may also ask for a QSL card to be included with your certificate. If you need any info or have comments about the certificate or QSL, email

only.

If you only want a QSL card, send your QSL card and a 6x9 SASE with first class postage (42 cents - USA) to the above address.

Be sure to include full QSO details with your certificate and/or QSL request - your call, date, time, which of the 10 stations you worked, on which band. If your log has more info, that's fine, but those items must be included.

In a co-operative agreement worked out between FISTS and NAQCC, the NAQCC is issuing three special certificates to FISTS members:

1. To the FISTS member who made the most band QSO's with our N3A stations during the FISTS sprint on the 11th.
2. To the FISTS member who made the most N3A band QSO's in our NAQCC sprint on the 15th (UTC).
3. To the FISTS member who made the most band QSO's with N3A stations during the entire month (including those from both sprints).

A band QSO means working N3A on a specific band, i.e. working N3A/3 on 80, then 40, and also N3A/4 on 40 and 30 counts as 4 band QSO's towards the certificate. Only one specific band QSO may be counted, i.e working N3A/3 twice on 80 only counts as one band QSO. In case of ties, duplicate certificates will be awarded.

FISTS members should send their info on the QSO's as in the following example, being sure to mention which of the three certificates the info applies to. You may submit up to 3 sets of info, one for each certificate:

K3WWP 10 QSO's in the FISTS Sprint:
80 - N3A/2, N3A/3
40 - N3A/1, N3A/3, N3A/4, N3A/5
20 - N3A/4, N3A/5, N3A/7
15 - N3A/6

Send to

before November 30th at 2400Z. The three winners will be announced here on this page shortly after that. Here are the entries we've received so far.

ENTRANTS & STATS:

FISTS SPRINT:

NAQCC SPRINT:
K3WWP: (5) 80-N3A/2, N3A/3, N3A/4, N3A/9, N3A/8
W1OH: (3) 80-N3A/2, N3A/3, N3A/8
WY3H: (2) 80-N3A/3, N3A/3

WHOLE MONTH:
K3WWP: (7) 80-N3A/1, N3A/2, N3A/3, N3A/4, N3A/9, N3A/8 40-N3A/9
W1OH: (4) 80-N3A/2, N3A/3, N3A/8 40-N3A/5
KC2EGL: (4)
WY3H: (3) 80-N3A/2, N3A/3 40-N3A/3

The following is a list of our wonderful operators. We thank each and every one of them for their efforts during the month. Unfortunately some had other situations come up that allowed them to only make a few QSO's or not make any QSO's at all. Those ops get an equal share of our thanks as well for volunteering to help out.

N3A/1 - W1OH (MA), K1YAN (MA)
N3A/2 - N2JNZ (NY), W9VES (NJ), KD2MX (NJ)
N3A/3 - WY3H (PA), K3WWP (PA), AF3Z (PA), AE3J (DE), KC2EGL (PA)
N3A/4 - K4UK (VA), KB4QQJ (NC), AA4W (FL), W4ONC (VA)
N3A/5 - W5TM (OK), AE5BH (TX), WA5TCZ (LA)
N3A/6 - K6BBQ (CA)
N3A/7 - KH6OZ (MT), WY7N (UT)
N3A/8 - WB8LZG (MI), K8KFJ (WV), KB2FEL (WV)
N3A/9 - K9JWI (IN), AI4AW (WI)
N3A/0 - AB0TX (KS)

Where more than one op signed up from a call area, it was up to the ops to decide how they divided their operating time. We could only have one N3A station at a time active from a specific call area. This system worked out exceedingly well, and probably allowed our ops to become better acquainted with their fellow area ops as an additional benefit.

We had all call areas signed up to operate in both our October NAQCC sprint as well as for the FISTS sprint, although as with the overall operation, a couple were unable to honor their committments due to circumstances beyond their control. We also encouraged our ops to participate in the PA QSO Party. Here is a list of those who signed up for each event:

FISTS Sprint (11th/1700-2100Z):
N3A/1 - W1OH
N3A/2 - N2JNZ
N3A/3 - K3WWP
N3A/4 - W4ONC
N3A/5 - WA5TCZ
N3A/6 - K6BBQ
N3A/7 - WY7N
N3A/8 - K8KFJ
N3A/9 - K9JWI
N3A/0 - AB0TX

PA QSO Party (11th/2100-12th/0500 & 12th/1300-2200Z):
N3A/1 - W1OH
N3A/2 - N2JNZ
N3A/3 - K3WWP
N3A/4 - KB4QQJ
N3A/7 - WY7N
N3A/9 - K9JWI

NAQCC Sprint (15th/0030-0230Z):
N3A/1 - K1YAN
N3A/2 - KD2MX
N3A/3 - AF3Z
N3A/4 - KB4QQJ
N3A/5 - WA5TCZ
N3A/6 - K6BBQ
N3A/7 - WY7N
N3A/8 - WB8LZG
N3A/9 - K9JWI
N3A/0 - AB0TX

Scheduled operations including the contests/sprints listed above were found on a new feature this year - a daily calendar.

The NAQCC used its two club numbers - a NAQCC number (1100) and a FISTS number (11900) as follows for our N3A operation:

11900 ONLY in the FISTS Sprint.

1100 ONLY in our NAQCC Sprint and in non-contest, non-sprint QSO's the rest of the month.

2007 Operation

N3A was operated during the entire month of October 2007 in honor of the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the NAQCC around October 15, 2004. The operation was a complete success with over 1,128 QSO's made by the 16 hams who operated N3A. Here is a summary of our operation preceded by certificate and QSL info.

CERTIFICATE & QSL:

Tom WY3H took care of the certificates and QSL's for N3A. The deadline for getting a certificate and QSL is now past, and all those who applied should have received them by now. If not, contact Tom via

SUMMARY:

We can't thank the following 16 ops enough for contributing their skills to the operation of N3A. Some were not able to operate as many hours as others due to various reasons, but we feel that ALL contributed equally to the effort. We had 7 call areas involved for the whole month, and 3 other areas came on board for the October sprint and continued for the rest of the month. Each operator used a portable designation after the call to avoid confusion. Hopefully all 16 ops will be back again next year for the 4th anniversary running of our special event call along with some additional ops as well.

N3A/1 - N1EAV, N1LU*
N3A/2 - KD2MX, AB2WH
N3A/3 - WY3H, K3WWP, K3OQ
N3A/4 - AA4W, N3ZL
N3A/5 - AE5BH
N3A/6 - K6BBQ
N3A/7 - NU7T, WY7N
N3A/8 - WB8LZG*
N3A/9 - W9ILF*
N3A/0 - NO2D*
* - These ops joined the effort at the time of the sprint.

We also thank VA3RJ who was one of the first to volunteer to operate the station as N3A/VE3, but after checking we found that special event calls, unlike regular calls, cannot be operated outside the USA.

We have not received a detailed breakdown from a couple of our ops, but here are the partial overall totals we have received:

QSO's - 1,128
QSO's in contests - 710
Other QSO's - 322
2-way N3A/# QSO's - 38
DX (non-W/VE) QSO's - 23
QSO's by Band:
160: 14
80: 283
40: 423
30: 31
20: 225
17: 3
15: 13
12: 0
10: 1
States worked - (45) ALL but AK, HI, MT, ND, RI
DX entities worked including W/VE - (16) CO DL EI FM GM HA HP J3 KP4 OH0 OM UR VE V3 W ZF

OP COMMENTS

K3WWP - One of the thrills I got from the operation was seeing how hesitatingly some ops volunteered, saying they were afraid they weren't good enough to operate the station. Then those same ops turned in some very good results. I'm delighted these ops learned that they were indeed good enough to be ops of a special event station, and gained confidence in themselves as a result.

NU7T - Being a part of N3A was fun. I tried to email each noncontest contact with club information. Sharing days with Bruce, WY7N, was interesting. Two of my days were wiped out with thunderstorms.

AA4W - I had a ball operating N3A/4. I had many FB QSO's, meet a lot of nice folks and made a couple new friends along the way. I worked a number of members but I had expected to work more. I'm already looking forward to next year.