2024 PA QSO Party Bonus Station
Steel City Amateur Radio Club, Operating as N3LL:
The Club was formed in 1941 and is based in the Pittsburgh area. Steel City ARC will be using the callsign N3LL which honors its former owner Robert “Bobby” Carnahan who was an active contester and a recipient of many PA QSO Party awards.
The Steel City ARC has a clubhouse located near Pittsburgh and is one of the oldest clubs in the area with a very long active history. In the clubhouse they have two operating rooms. The HF room has six different HF radios, with a mix of radios to choose from: a 1960’s Drake transceiver to the latest SDR radios like the Flex Radio 6600 and Icom 7610 radio. The VHF room also has an HF operating position and a dedicated VHF/UHF station using an ICOM-9700 for use on contesting the upper bands. Steel City ARC membership currently stands at 77 members with quite a range of operators.
OPERATIONAL PLANS:
Our goal for operating as a bonus station is to keep four HF transmitters on the air the whole time that the QSO party has its active hours. We will be operating on voice and cw modes during the event. We could also add an extra station to operate on 6m and 2m at times. It is important to us to have a station on 10m, 6m, and 2m for the tech class operators that want to contact us. We will also use spotting websites for posting our operating frequencies to give other operators the greatest chance to work the bonus station.
In their submission, they noted "We handle the PA QSO PARTY as a party since we have a clubhouse with a full kitchen. There is plenty of food to go around to attract members to attend the event. We go as far as posting a large picture of the state on our white board and marking off each county as we work them. The party is one of our most fun events that we do as a club each year."