This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259
.com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged
it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur
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the ISS, satellites are the best At gate on the
roof, repeater down the street What fun it is
to make contacts with everyone I meet Oh, radio,
radio, QTS and Volkswagen I like to get all the
gifts around the USA Hello everyone, it's time
for... you guessed it ham talk live it's episode
number 309 December Yoda month recorded on December
the 8th 2022 I'm your host Neil Rapp WB9B2G thanks
for tuning in to this episode of ham talk live
tonight we're joined by Case Van Oospreay W0AAE
Last week or last episode actually Marvin Turner
W0MET was here to talk about Winter Field Day.
So if you missed that show you can listen anytime
at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
or app or on YouTube. But we've got another special
event, Yoda Month we're going to talk about and
actually the next episode is going to be... the
12 days of Christmas special event. So all kinds
of special events going on right now in the,
in the winter time when, when, you know, you
can't just, uh, run outside and, and, and throw
up a tent and get on the normal field day. So,
uh, we're going to talk with a case about December
Yoda month right after this word from ICOM America
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Here's the snap. Rapp takes the rig. He breaks
through the pile up. He's on 80. Now 40. Now
20. 15. 10. Two meters. Touchdown. Ham talk live.
Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Tonight, Case Van
Oesprey, W -0 -A -A -E joins us on the Orlando
Amateur Radio Club and HamCation Zoom line. Case
is one of the Yoda Month participation coordinators
for the Americas. And he is 18 years old, an
active contester and also serves as the youth
on the air Paper QSL manager. So case it's great
to have you back on the show You know for having
me on tonight now before we get into this This
Yoda mutt stuff. There was one thing that I did
want to throw in here and and that is some other
success story for case You've had quite the cross
-country season I hear. So I know that Yoda camp
a couple years ago. Wow, that was two years ago.
That doesn't seem possible. You were in the ARDF
contest and your cross -country training paid
off big time because you were running through
the course with no problem whatsoever. I understand
the cross -country season for your state competitions
went really well, so tell everybody about that.
Yeah, we have a team. We're a decently small
school, so we're quite the underdogs in regards
to the entire state. There were about seven of
us on the team, and there were two guys who can
sub in when one of us gets hurt, for instance.
But our team took first in the state this year
for Minnesota State High School cross -country
season. And at the beginning of the year, our
goal was just to make it to state, regardless,
because we had gotten like 13th two years earlier
in the state. And this year... One of my friends
said hey one of our one of our goals should be
to actually win it this year and I was going
now There's no I don't think we can do that,
but it turned out to be Quite the adventure and
when we got the first place ranking a few meets
in when we when we beat the number one Number
one seeded team that they took third this year
I was like, wow, this might actually be possible.
And it turned out that way. And it was the first
weekend in November, sweepstakes weekend for
CW that weekend. We took first by three points,
so pretty much one place, separating us from
first and second. So it was quite the ride. And
then a week later, we got to run in the regional
cross -country meet for the Nike. Nike sponsors
it. We got a bunch of Nike stuff in it for that,
and it was quite the fun ride for that, being
chosen for the regional and the Midwest. We weren't
really trying very hard in that meet, but it
was fun to get a bunch of Nike apparel and go
to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for that. It was
quite the year, and one for the record books,
for our school at least, and a great way to end
senior year for cross -country. I'm thinking
about doing more of that amateur radio direction
finding stuff regarding cross -country. Does
this mean that if you go and do an ARDF course,
that's going to get you a state championship?
Is that how that works? I don't know. It sounds
pretty fun. And I really should get into that,
honestly, because when you introduced that to
me at Yoda Camp, I was like, wow, this is so
cool. I never knew about this. There should be
more of these around the Twin Cities area where
I live. So there are a few, and I need to get
out and do some. Well, speaking of athletic success,
you have a new helper this year. uh... that uh...
has a little bit of athletic uh... success in
his past as well the little league world series
uh... so tell us a little bit about blake Yeah,
Blake is is one of the helpers this year for
Yoda month and now he was in the Little League
World Series I was watching him on TV a very
talented kid at shortstop. I couldn't believe
the place he was making It was quite entertaining.
He's way better way way way better than I was
at his age and he's gonna excel greatly I wouldn't
doubt if he's that he would be a good college
pick Just just seeing the plays that he can make
very impressive for a kid and kid of his stature
and everything like that So it'll be fun to see
where he goes and he's a very talented operator.
I was listening to him last year do Yoda Month
on the radio at my station. I was listening to
him and he's quite the operator and pretty fun
listening to him. I made a contact with him last
year and I'm gonna look for him on the bands
during his allotted hour, this allotted day rather
this year. So it'll be fun to see what he does
with his life and it'll be nice for him to take
over. the yoda month in a few years when I'm
off in college and handing it over to him. So
very talented operator and he was at yoda month
this past summer. So very, very talented operator
and can't wait to see where he goes with amateur
radio in his life. Yeah. And our other coordinator
that you've kind of more or less taken over for
uh... who has that situation right now is bryant
rascal k g five h v o he's he's often college
in uh... nashville tennessee and he is playing
college baseball so all our athletes are running
yoda month here so uh... that's cool but you
had a chance to kind of learn some stuff from
him and and you're gonna pass it on to to Blake
and that's how Yoda works is we have the youth
out there running as much of it as possible.
So thanks to you for stepping up to take on a
bigger role in that this year and getting Blake
up and running. Well, let us talk a little bit
about what December Yoda month is for those people
who aren't familiar with it and who can participate
in this special event. Yeah, so Yoda month is
pretty well first of all stands for Youngsters
on the air or youth on the air as we say as we
like to say here in the Americas first started
in Europe a few years back and It has gradually
moved over to all regions of the world including
Japan Asia and the United States was his IAR
you region to Europe is IAR you region one and
so pretty much it it seeks to get youngsters
on the air pretty much in regards to every aspect
of the hobby. So as I was saying earlier, maturity
direction finding, it exposes youngsters to different
aspects of the hobby, like that I've never heard
of. I've heard of satellite, do satellite and
contesting, but didn't hear of that. So now it's
something that I do and that's the reason, really
the reason why Youth on the Air is around. It
exposes the the youngster to different aspects
of the hobby, while exposing them to older people
who can mentor them throughout their ham career
here. And it's pretty much, it's based on what
the ham operator wants to achieve, so it's kind
of their adventure to find out what they'd want
to do in this hobby. What do they really enjoy?
And that's the tools that Youth on the Air really
puts forward for each of us. And regards to Yoda
Month, so that is pretty much when a bunch of
hams around the world, pretty much a lot of countries
in Europe and Asia, as well as South America,
come to get youth on the air with these special
call signs, either in the suffix using Y -O -T
-A as a suffix, or... in the Americas case we
have to use one by one call signs for special
event stations and you can work these special
event stations all through the month of December
starting December 1st to December 31st of 2022
and this happens each year and pretty much older
guys or younger guys can work these guys on the
air. that just seek to make contacts with hams
around the world and rack up some QSOs. I believe
our goal this year is over 100 ,000 QSOs for
all of the stations around the globe here. So
that's pretty much the goal and get as many youth
on the air as possible. I know... There are a
few of my friends that love using these call
signs, like Michael, who was running a lot of
FTA a few days ago, running eight radios at once
with a huge station in Massachusetts, so that
was fun to see. And seeing on the DX cluster
there, I was going, what are you doing? No, no,
I'm just running SO8R FTA, but pretty funny.
And yeah, I couldn't believe it. And so you can
hear the Americas on Kilo 8 Yankee, Kilo 8 Oscar,
Kilo 8 Tango, and Kilo 8 Alpha. You can pretty
much figure out that the suffix spells Y -O -T
-A with each of these four call signs. And you
can rack up awards to get certificates or plaques
and get points for each station you work on.
on each individual ban and mode. So pretty entertaining
for the oldie to try to work as many special
event stations as they can during this month.
And I've gotten a few emails saying, oh, what's
my point status? I'm going, well, check the website.
You might be doing pretty well. So it's pretty
entertaining for these old folks to try to work
us. And we've gotten some good compliments from
a lot of people. on social media, et cetera.
So it's been a blast and I'm not really sure
on how the award system works. I'm kind of the
person who really dives into the logs and scheduling
and everything. But there are some cool plaques
that people around the world can earn if they
work as many stations as possible. So it's quite
a blast for the young people as well, getting
high rates and stuff like that. I use them during
the CWTs, which is a Wednesday CW contest that
runs an hour long and you get huge pileups with
people wondering what the special event station
is doing, doing CWs. So it's quite fun and I
can't wait to use them for that. Yeah. Well,
all the information about the plaques and the
awards, uh... is on the uh... the website we've
copied that over on the youth on the air website
so if you go to youth on the air dot org and
click on yoda month uh... you'll you'll find
a copy of that or you can go uh... to the official
website over in uh... in region one uh... that's
events dot ham dash yoda dot com and uh... There
are four awards. There's a bronze award, it's
15 points, silver is 35, gold 65, platinum is
105. There's even SWL points, so you can get
that. And it explains all the, you know, how
many points you get and that kind of thing. And
then there's plaques for most stations contacted
on CW, Sideband and Digital. uh... overall and
then uh... why elward and and a youth award uh...
so those of the plaques but uh... you can check
all that out on the the website uh... but what
lots of uh... stuff there but you can go to events
dot and go to dot com or the link on uh... youth
on the air dot com and uh... type in your call
sign and you can see uh... you know what's been
uploaded so far in the logs now sometimes those
logs take a while to gather so keep that in mind
when you look them up but now you've been talking
about you know in the USA we have K8, Y, O, T,
and A but also in the Americas we have some other
stations that you're not scheduling everything
but we've been the team's been kind of helping
get them on the air and get them registered and
everything. So who else should we be looking
for in the western hemisphere here? Yeah, so
there are a few other stations in the in the
Western Hemisphere here We've got oh what let
me I need to pull up the call signs for those,
but we've got El Salvador I know that another
kid was asking for the the Haitian Haitian station
that he'd he'd he'd want to work with and There
are a few others I need to scan my memory for
those. I've got them here. Argentina is LR1 Yoda
and a shout out to Theo down in Argentina. He's
really getting things moving down there and they've
got a whole crew of people running LR1 Yoda down
there. In Canada we've got VC3 Yoda and VB7 Yoda.
And you mentioned El Salvador, Milly, YS1, YXI.
She's down there running YS1 Yoda. And then in
Honduras, we have HQ2 Yoda, which actually came
about from Milly and her father meeting some
people over in Honduras and talking them into
getting involved. And like you said, we're working
on Haiti, possibly, for Corinne. uh... we're
waiting to hear on uh... if she can get that
call sign squared away but uh... those are the
ones that are in the americas but there's all
kinds of them around the world and and uh...
all three of the uh... regions uh... that uh...
that are on the air for the month of december
and you know i i had a couple people say you
know it'd be nice if there were more people on
and you know I agree, but most people are in
school right now. The second half of the month
seems to be much more active. That is very very
true with the Christmas season running around
here pretty quickly. The operators will have
way more time to participate. And likewise for
me, I will have way more time in my hands with
finals coming up here and everything like that.
I realized that in the 2020 season, during the
pandemic, we had a lot more time because a lot
of people were online, et cetera, and they were
pretty much just running FT while they were in
class on the side there. That's what I heard
from Michael anyway. Yeah, we had a lot more
people during that time and especially during
2019 because I think it was brand new in the
Americas at least. I'm not sure down in South
America and Europe, but in the Americas, I think
it was like brand new. in 2019 when I first got
into it and I asked Brian if I could participate
and he took me in immediately and got me scheduled
and everything like that. 2020 was probably our
highest amount of participants this year in 2020.
And then this year, I think it's up from last
year. because I've gotten a way more younger
hams, even technicians that say they can run
10 meter FTA or phone or whatever since the new
solar cycle's kicked in and we have more propagation
on 10 meters. And so we've gotten a lot more
technicians asking to be put on the list and
it's very fun because there are some technicians
that are pretty much brand new. They're three
months into the hobby and they're looking for
something to do during this Christmas season.
So it's quite fun to... to get all of them on
board, and I hope they stay with it, because
I put them on a list for future emails, and hopefully
they can get on the list for some other Yoda
activities, including the camp, so promoting
that is one of our huge things, is promoting
the camp, and hopefully more people this year
will come from South America and North America,
and will get sticked into this December Yoda
month, so it's been quite the adventure. and
I hope to get more people into it. Yeah, there's
been a lot of activity so far, and like I said,
there'll be more after school winds down here,
at least in this area. But there's actually a
large contingent. of people that are operating
remotes. And I know you're a part of the remote
ham radio, RHR, youth initiative. And, you know,
Michael was on one, you know, running SO8R. But
we've even got some people over in Europe, right,
that are running remotes in the US. Yeah, so
this is really, really interesting. So I got
an email just a few days ago from a JA station.
Speaking of Europe, too, there have been a lot
of guys who have been operating 9A1TT, which
is also on the RHR network. So guys who do not
have... call signs that pertain to the Americas
can use Richard's station, which is just phenomenal.
We have two stations on the Youth Network that
are just great. They're amazing stations. I've
tested them out myself, because generals can
use the 9A station. But it's quite amazing, and
they can use that station to make a ton of contacts
with their 9A call sign. But I got an email.
a couple days ago from a JA station, a youth
JA station who also has his... his American call
sign, and I didn't realize it before, because
he contacted me, he's like, hey, can I run RHR
into the Americas, and I was like, well, you
have to have your American call sign, you can't
just do that, and he was like, oh no, here's
my American call sign, and I was going, okay,
then I'll give you the call sign, yeah, go at
it, so it was quite fun to know that a JA station
wanted to run our call signs, and they can do
that, because they have an American call sign,
so they decided. So he decided just to get on
there immediately and used RHR, which is just
amazing. Ray W2RE has been adding stations to
the network, like we got another 9A Croatian
station recently, which is just amazing for contesting,
runs 1 ,500 watts, and the flex radio system
really pairs well with RHR. So Ray's been doing
a lot for us youth and it's been fun to really
have him as a team member and I think we might
get Jonesport. We did last year, we got Jonesport
last year which is Ray's flagship station on
the network which is... It's amazing because
I got a huge pile up on that station last year
into the Middle East. I was here in the Middle
East as well as Europe and I couldn't pick up
a call sign on phone. Hopefully he continues
helping us youth out with Youth On The Air. The
Yoda contest is coming up here as well, December
30th. I'll be operating that from K1TTT remote.
Hopefully, I'm hoping to do my best in that three
band, but you'll hear those call signs during,
the American call signs rather, in that contest.
I'm gonna be operating KY and rack up as many
contests. context as I can and add them to the
awards log. So that gives you another chance
to get into another contest before the end of
the year here, which is on December 30th. And
us who love contesting, at least most of us do,
and it'll be fun to use this call sign because
I noticed that you get... way bigger pile up
than with my normal call sign in the contest.
So it'll be fun to see what happens and I can't
wait for the Yoda contest coming up here. It's
one of my highlights of the year. Yeah, that's
a three time a year contest and they always put
that December 30th in there for Yoda month to
go inside and works out really well. Alright
well it's time to take a break so we're going
to do that but we're going to come back and talk
to Case about the QSL information and some other
stuff about Yoda month and there's some camp
news to talk about so we'll do that right after
this word from Tower Electronics right here on
HamTalk Live. He once ran a marathon because
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ear. He once worked North Korea on every band
in one minute using only a microwatt. He slowed
down his code speed to work a de -expedition
to 200 words a minute. He is, indeed, the most
interesting ham in the world. I don't always
put on my own PL -259s, but when I do, I prefer
them from Tower Electronics. Stay resident, my
friends. Tower Electronics has all the adapters,
cables, connectors, and yes, PL250 -9s you need
at a ham fest near you. Or visit pl -259 .com.
And the Tower Electronics ham fest schedule.
Plant City, Florida this weekend, December 9th
and 10th, and then they'll be taking some time
off. and then back on the Hamfest circuit down
in Florida mostly in January. But you can visit
them anytime, anywhere at PL -259 .com. What's
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going on and find out when we're actually live.
You can listen live as opposed to recorded. But
right now, it's almost time to get back to Case
and talking about December Yoda month, but First,
it's the N9GSU Joke of the Week. Now it's time
for the HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week,
the part of the show where Rick tells us a ham
radio joke. The HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke of
the Week is brought to you by QRM Labs. Now,
here's Rick Garrett, N9GSU with today's HamTalk
Live Joke of the Week. Last week I went shopping
and bought a brand new HF rig and the next day
I got an email from my bank congratulating me
on my purchase told me I had an outstanding balance
This has been the ham talk live ham radio joke
of the week with Rick Garrett in nine GSU Tune
in again next week for another joke from Rick
All right, welcome back to HamTalk Live. We're
here with Case Van Oespri, W -0 -A -A -E. He
is one of the participation coordinators for
the Americas for December Yoda Month, a month
-long special event. All the operators are under
26 years old. And this is an event sponsored
by the IARU Region 1 Youth Working Group. and
uh... the website events dot ham dash yoda dot
com or we've copied it over on youth on the air
dot org you can you can visit the site for the
americas as well and get the uh... the same information
but uh... if you want to check your logs and
everything you need to go to the uh... the official
website uh... but he is here we're talking a
little bit about uh... december yoda month and
the participation here in the western hemisphere
and one of the things that that i did want to
bring up is is the q s l policy because when
you have you know a hundred and i think it was
one year it was a hundred and twenty two thousand
quesos uh... in the logs uh... it's kinda hard
to keep up with qsl cards and so the uh... the
team over in in region one that that runs the
uh... event uh... has implemented a a qsl policy
and And you don't need to send in your QSLs.
Your QSLs are not going to the individual operators.
It would be nice if we could do that, but there's
just too many of them, too many operators, too
many cards to do that. So you really don't need
to send in a QSL card, but there is a way for
you to get QSL cards. So let's talk a little
bit about the QSL policy here for Yoda Month.
Yeah, so it so you can actually look at our our
individual QRZ pages if you have any questions
regarding any any of this and send email to QSL
at ham dash Yoda comm but you can request your
your your QSL your QSL card from club log oqrs
the ClubLog OQRS system, which is quite popular.
I've really never used it myself, but I've heard
it works pretty well. And for those of you who
use ClubLog, it's quite a useful tool there.
And you do not need to send us your QSL card,
as repeated by Neil here. And that's pretty much
it. If you want an SW... If you are an SWL and
want to receive your QSL card, feel free to fill
out a form here that is on our QRZ page. All
of our QSLs are through European E -A1J -A -Y.
It used to be Tomy, H -A -1 -R -T. I think that
was his call sign. I don't remember. H -A -8.
So it's pretty simple and any questions can be
contacted via QSL at ham -uda .com so you can
get your awards and everything like this. And
then we have a page where you can claim your
awards, et cetera, on the QRZ page. So check
out our individual QRZ pages and there are links
all over the place on there that you can access.
QSL information. And Bureau cards, it looks like
will be available to receive the QSL cards via
the Bureau. You have to be a member, of course.
So that's a good thing to remember. So that's
pretty much it. And so it does not go through
the U .S. It goes to the European system for
all the US hams. That's just a heads up there.
So for those of you that like cards, you can
sure go at it and try to get your awards and
QSLs all taken care of. And you can find those
individual links on the QRZ pages, K8Y, K8O,
K8T, and K8A. And so they're all there. And you
can see the stations that we worked on a particular
day. So, yeah, that's pretty much it for QSL.
Yeah, if you do the OQRS and request, there's
an online request for a card. If you wait for
it through the Bureau, it's free. We kind of
pass the hat between all the Yoda and youngsters
on the air groups and pay for it. uh... that
but uh... if you want to direct there is uh...
three euro charge uh... to help pay for the the
postage uh... and if you have a bunch of cards
that email them and they'll figure out what the
postage is uh... to make that happen but uh...
like i said if you wait on the bureau it's actually
free of charge they uh... they print all the
cards in one place and have all those and take
care of all that so Um, the youngsters over in,
um, over in region one are, are taking care of
all of that. So we thank them for that. And,
uh, but yeah, don't send them to case. Don't
send them to me. Don't we can't handle them.
We have nothing to do with QSL and awards and
all that. So, um, yeah, don't. don't send it
because it's going to go in this pile that I
have here and that's where it sits. Anything
else we need to talk about here about Yoda month
before we kind of switch gears to Yoda camp because
we've got some news on that. Well, nothing really
much here. I just wanted to say that for all
those satellite operators as well I know Ke8RJU
is is doing some satellite operating as well.
So for those who like 2 meters and 70 centimeters
Long distance contacts go ahead with satellite
and you'll you'll have a fun time so Ke8RJU Grace
has already been stacking up the two meter and
70 centimeter contacts and linear satellites
here. So it's pretty fun to see what she's doing.
And she's been sending me a lot of logs here
to upload. So for all those people who love satellites,
try to look for us on the satellites with KEH,
RGU, and others. So that's it about Yoda month.
All aspects of the hobby, I guess, are on the
air. All right. Well, the big news on the camp
front, of course, we've known for a while that
camp's going to be in Canada this year. So Radio
Amateurs of Canada is the host organization.
So thank them for hosting the camp. But we'll
be programming the camp for the third year now
over here in the Americas. And applications are
now open. They opened just about a week ago,
so if you know a young person under 26 years
old that is licensed. We've got a great summer
camp program. It's going to be in July this year.
We alternate June and July because different
schools get out at different times and different
extracurriculars start up earlier and later.
We try to alternate June and July from one year
to the next. So this year is our July year. For
those who get out of school a little bit later,
this is your chance to go. So go over to youthontheair
.org and you can apply. There's brochures there
that you can read up more information about that.
If you're in the US, all you need is a passport.
If you are outside of the US or Canada obviously
Then you're going to need a passport and possibly
a visa But we've got that information on the
website so you can you can find out more of that
so You know case convince these people that these
young people need to go to yoda camp Oh yeah,
so it was a blast when I went two years ago.
I couldn't go last year because of some conflicts
during that week that we had Yoda camp, but it's
just a blast. I've been I was waiting for it
since, what was it, early 2020. Then the COVID
-19 pandemic hit and it went out the window.
But then it came back the next year and I couldn't
wait for that weekend in July. And I still have
memories and still talk to some guys that I met
at Yoda Camp from that year. And each day was
just full of fun. We even got to go to an amusement
park, which was a blast to do some ham radio
stuff off the Eiffel Tower, the small Eiffel
Tower there, which was quite fun. I learned so
much stuff regarding DMR, which I had never done.
I haven't really done any 2 -meter 440 digital
stuff before. I'm mostly an A .H .F. guy, but
we had the hotel station on the air there, which
I don't know how you guys set that up. That was
quite amazing, because I see COEX going through
the roof and everything. I'm going, wow, the
hotel must be pretty nice in doing this. But
we did a CWT from there, I believe. All by hand,
which was quite impressive because I usually
use a cure but yeah just like x exposing us to
the two different aspects of the hobby we used
We use the the 9700 and the 7300 Didn't use the
7610 because they were they were short There
was a shortage of them in the icon needed as
many as they could but last year I know they
used a lot of 70 610s, which is a which is a
fun radio And it was it was nice to have icon
donate or Let us use those different There's
different radios and they even let us use a ton
of new brand new I see some of those sixes couldn't
believe it I saw the most money of my life stacked
in front of me that day With all the boxes of
some of those sixes and we dove into those open
them up and started you but using them on A ton
of other things, we sent SSTV, explored different
things. 705, yeah. Yeah, 705. I don't know why
it's 706. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, the 705. So
it was pretty fun. We got to use them during
satellite passes. And even one thing that I'm
getting into now is... is image radio balloons.
I had never done high altitude or medium altitude
balloons before and I never really expressed
a big interest in it until that Yoda camp. I
was like, wait, this is so cool. So now I've
got a helium tank here and I'm gonna do it here
pretty soon. I got a little transmitter and I'm
waiting on a balloon right now. That I'll put
up here pretty soon because the thunderstorms
have kind of moved away from the Midwest area
so the winter is pretty good for setting up balloons,
but That's one thing that I had never done before
and Yoda Cam exposed me to it and it was cool
just seeing where our balloon was on the map
and now guys have been, I've been contacting
a lot of guys on how to do this stuff and they've
been open to it so really just exposing us to
different aspects of the hobby. I keep saying
that but it's the truth about Yoda Camp and if
you're a new ham, It's a place for you to go
because you see stuff you've never seen before
and pretty much just getting on the air with
our special W8Y call sign. It won't be that this
year because we're up in Canada, but making as
many contacts as possible during that period
as well. The classes were amazing on contesting
and on other things. Yeah, I hope to get up there
again sometime maybe not this year, but maybe
maybe sometime in the future I can I can head
up to to Yoda camp again and Meet all the all
the great guys that put this together I'm zero
SSC And a bunch of other guys and I I talked
to Sam what's his call sign? I don't remember
what? Yep, KC2LRC. I talked to him for about
an hour the night before we left the camp and
it was nice knowing his story and everything
like that and getting to know these adults that
love you so much that they decided to put this...
put this together was a huge thing. And I just
want to thank you, Neil, because you're the one
who really got the insurance, all the things
that needed to be done with these last few years.
So I appreciate it so much. And I hope to continue
this legacy onto the next generation. Well, that's
the key, is continuing it on. And I appreciate
the thanks. The thanks also is hearing stories
like this that, hey, I didn't do this before,
but now I know about it and now I know people
that I can talk to and help do these things and
make it happen yourself. When I get done recording
this interview, I actually have to switch gears
and record this week's amateur radio news line
and Spoiler alert here. The top story is about
our own Jack McElroy came for the CIA because
a balloon that he launched Similar to to Yoda
camp similar to one of them actually is going
over the South Pole right now and It kept firing
all these error messages Because it didn't know
where it was because it was so close to the South
Pole that it actually started Sending out a bunch
of errors that it couldn't get its location.
So uh... that's that's pretty cool so he's uh...
he's making records here the first balloon to
uh... to cross the south pole so uh... all kinds
of cool stuff that's that's a lot of fun to uh...
to hear from a young ham while that's that's
pretty impressive yeah so he's uh... done our
our ballooning for the last couple years of course
audrey his sister's been helping she's been tied
up with things too and hasn't been physically
there yet, but Jack stepped in and did it and
now you're getting ready to do one. So it's some
pretty cool stuff. So make sure you check out
that story over on Amateur Radio Newsline this
week and you'll hear a little bit more about
that story. get on my way over to Newsline, but
thank you so much for taking the time to share
about Yoda Month with us and Yoda Camp. Remind
everybody that youth on the air org you can find
all this information and a bunch of other places
as well, but Everything is there So if you want
one single place youth on the air org There's
even a link there that you can click on that
will filter out all the Yoda call signs around
the world on DX Summit for you. So it'll give
you a list of who is on at the moment. So that's
a cool little link that's available there as
well. But thanks for coming on. Thanks for all
your hard work in getting all these schedules
made for the U .S. and getting everybody's logs
in. And we remind all the young people out there
that are participating, get your logs in. We
need your logs as soon as possible. So make sure
you upload those to the Google Drive and get
those to case. And thanks for. You know all the
work you've done and the team has done to get
other countries besides the U .S. involved in
this great special event and your help has been
tremendous so thank you so much for doing that.
Well thank you very much for having me on tonight
and I appreciate all you're doing. for uh...
you know that you're the stuff itself but you
have a cap and etc and we'll see uh... we'll
see what uh... this year comes uh... comes to
for the uh... for the canadian one i i hear there
are a lot of kids signing up so uh... yet thank
you for having me on that neil and i uh... uh...
i can't wait to use these calls and in a few
weeks on done with files for uh... for the senior
uh... they think very much all right well that
is a wrap For this edition of HamTalk Live, thanks
to my guest, Case Van Osprey, W -0 -A -A -E,
and everybody out there in cyberspace for listening,
and I invite you back next time. Next time, Sally,
K -2 -R -Y -D, and Lou, N -O -2 -C, will be here
to talk about the 12 Days of Christmas special
event that's coming up soon. And for a list of
all of our upcoming guests, just go to HamTalkLive
.com. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying 7 -3. 75 and may the good DX be yours.