This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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everyone out there in cyberspace! This is Ham
Talk Live, episode number 307, CQ Worldwide CW.
It's recorded live on Tuesday, November 15th,
2022. I am your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks
for tuning in to this episode of Ham Talk Live.
Tonight, we're joined by John Doar, K1AR, from
the CQ Worldwide CW contest. Last episode, Joe
Eisenberg KZeroNEB was here to talk about new
kits and new tools. If you missed that show,
you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or
on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. And
make sure you check that out. Okay. It was a
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in this contest at the end of the month. So we'll
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Copy 594 from HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk
Live. Tonight John Doar K1AR joins us on the
Orlando Amateur Radio Club and Hamcation Zoom
line. We want to thank the Orlando Club and Hamcation
for providing that Zoom service for us. John
K1AR was named the CQ Worldwide DX Contest Director.
Back in 2018, he's been a member of the CQ Worldwide
Contest Committee since the mid -1970s and was
CQ Magazine's Contesting Editor from 1989 until
2011. He's also a two -time World Radio Sport
Team Championship medalist. and was elected to
the CQ Contest Hall of Fame in 1997. So John,
welcome back. Thanks for coming back to the show.
All right. I'm excited to be here. And you sure
that was me you were talking about? Yeah, it
was. It was. Sometimes when people hear those
bios, they're like, oh, wow. I did that? Who's
that guy? Well, last time you were here we were
talking about a youth initiative that kind of
started some youth categories in the CQ Worldwide
Contest and we can talk about that a little bit
later in the show, but CQ Worldwide CW is coming
up and I got a chance to actually get on the
radio for a while and operate the sideband contest,
picked up several new uh... countries all -time
new ones and uh... so that was great and uh...
i think uh... things went really well there uh...
but we've got cw coming up so tell us all about
the cw contest when it is how people can participate
what's the exchange where can they find the rules
all that good stuff well the uh... the best place
to go for information in general is to the uh...
CQ Worldwide website, which is cqww .com. And
there's just a ton of resource there. Everything
from the rules for the contest to awards programs
and results. You can enter your call in and look
at every CQ Worldwide you've entered. And we
have records going all the way back to the beginning
in 1948, which is a little before my time. So
it's secret wide has in recent years really continue
to grow in popularity. And this upcoming CW edition,
which is always on the last weekend of the month
of November, will be nothing short of spectacular,
I think, because we have we have a little gift
that we've been given. And that is the sun is
waking up a little bit. Yeah. With as often said
there's no meters like 10 meters, right? Yeah
It's going to be it's going to be a great time
and I think there's enough Resiliency and and
what the Sun has given us that even if we have
some solar disturbances things are still going
to be good because the world wide has, I often
say has magical powers. It can just turn the
bands on no matter what's going on with the sun.
Yeah, I heard this theory that the ionosphere
actually changes with contests, that all the
contest activity actually ionizes the layers
and everything and all of a sudden there are
people on the bands. It's one of the secret keys
that they gave me when I became director. Oh,
you can turn it on and off. Very good. If I'm
operating and the competition's way ahead of
me, just flip that baby off and then there you
go. But we really, all kidding aside. have really
grown in the phone section here last month. In
October, we are now creeping up on 8 ,900 logs,
so close to 9 ,000 logs. That literally represents
millions of QSOs being made, probably in the
range of 40 ,000 people. getting on the air,
not all of them submit logs, obviously, because
we only get 9 ,000 of them, but say some 40 ,000
people are getting on and in some way or fashion
to operate the contest. And that's really the
message for anybody who's listening here is that
the beauty of the Worldwide is it's a great contest
just to flip on the radio and have a little bit
of fun. And your definition of fun is whatever
you want to make it. It could be It can be a
couple hours on Saturday morning before the family
wakes up, or you can be a crazy man like me and
do it all weekend for 50 straight years. And
there's a lot of guys like me, I guess, out there
that have been going at this for as long as we
have. And I guess you kind of have to ask the
question, why do we do that? And for me at this
point in the... in operating at all is, I do
it just because it's fun. And I do it because
I enjoy the camaraderie of working other guys
and all that comes with it. And, you know, it
doesn't hurt to have a little bit of solar activity
to kind of spice things up, as I said before.
So, you know, you can now with, you know, a marginal
antenna system still get on and Uh, either work
new countries or, you know, work the most guys
you've ever worked in an hour or, uh, beat your,
uh, your friend across town, you know, whatever,
whatever gets you excited about the stuff. Uh,
that's, that's what's in it for you. Yeah. I,
you know, I was very casual in my approach to
sideband, uh, here a few weeks ago. Just, you
know, did two or three hours, took a break, came
back, did a couple hours later that night to
get a little, you know, different band, different
propagation. And then the next day came in and
just kind of wrote out the end of the contest
when things were kind of thinned out a little
bit. And I went to country searching and just
started spinning the knob and trying to find
some of those and was able to to get several
of them. I'm still waiting on all the confirmations
to come in to see if I got the new DXCC count
of 100 started over on that. So I've been right
there on the edge and I'm hoping that CQ Worldwide
Sideband finished that off for me. We'll see
how that goes, but this is CW. So, so after all
the turkey and the tryptophan and everything,
you're supposed to stay awake and work CW. Well,
you know, I will say this at one, one thing that,
uh, certainly the worldwide and other, other
big contests approving is that For the naysayers
out there that are sort of saying CW is a thing
of the past. CW is dead and all of that. Boy,
you just got to take a listen during this upcoming
weekend and let's say 20 meters, for example.
You're going to find signals from the bottom
all the way up to the top. And, you know, 14
000 up to 100 and actually even above that. And
it's just wall to wall. madness, you know, there's,
on any given worldwide weekend, you know, ground
numbers, there's just a couple hundred countries
that are actually on the air. So a significant
line share of DXCC is actually operating. And
now that, you know, what we all hope is the COVID
pandemic being behind us for the most part. You
know, you're starting to see the de -expeditions
and the people traveling and, you know, putting
interesting places on the air and it's becoming
almost back to the good old days again, where,
you know, some people would argue the Worldwide
is a good tune up for the Bouvier Expeditions
coming up. Indeed, indeed. Well, let's talk a
little bit about the exchange for people who
maybe haven't done CQ Worldwide CW before, or
maybe some people that are just casually on the
air and, oh, there's a contest. What should I
give to people who work? Let's go over the exchange
and how that works. Sure. attractions of the
CQ Worldwide in particular is the simplicity
of the contest. And what I mean by that is when
you get on and work other guys, other folks in
the contest, you simply exchange a signal report,
599, and your CQ zone. So there's 40 of them
divided around the world. You can look up your
zone on the CQ website. But as an example, on
the East Coast of the US, your zone is five.
If you're in Western Europe, your zone is 14
and so forth. And just simply sending a call
and a 599 and the zone and getting the same in
return is all you have to do. A lot of people
ask me, do I have to pre -register? Do I have
to do anything? There's only one requirement.
Uh, and it's, it's a fairly significant one.
Uh, it takes a lot of thought, but what you have
to do before any secure worldwide is sit down
in front of your radio and turn it on. And, uh,
and once you had accomplished that task, uh,
you are ready to rock and roll. And it's a, it's
really, really that, uh, that simple. And let's
go over the official start and end times and
dates here. Make sure we've got everybody on
the same page here. So, so it's a, it's a 48
hour contest in total. Uh, you can operate anywhere
from 48 hours to 30 seconds. So again, that's
just a function of, of, uh, what your schedule
and, uh, perhaps what your spouse allows, um,
or other significant. Yes. You know, one of the
challenges of this contest, and we deal with
this except once in 10 or 11 years, is this thing
called Thanksgiving in the U .S. And of course,
this is Thanksgiving weekend and there's always
that balancing act. So the contest this year
is going to be starting on the evening of the
25th, the 26th GMT and run through Sunday, the
27th of this year. for 48 hours. And like I said,
one of the nice things about the worldwide is
there's also a category, there's many categories
we can get into a lot of detail on that. But
one of the things, one of the areas that is really
popular is we created this idea of the classic
entry. And with that thing, they were like the
classic car, you know, where... Roll many of
us are becoming antiques so we can probably relate
to this to some degree but you know back when
I was a young pup you know that doing 48 hours
is not a big deal but as we say mature the idea
of being up for 48 straight hours physically
is a pretty big challenge so we create his idea
of a 24 hour window that you can operate. And
it's really the idea is just a boy and his radio.
And what I mean by that is we've stripped away
all the other things that people are doing, such
as SO2R, meaning using two radios, we've taken
away spotting. And it's just a basic get on for
24 hours. And you can operate more than that,
by the way, but the 24 hours is what will count
for your actual score. And that's it. And then
in terms of the actual scoring for the CQ Worldwide,
one of the things that is, I think, important
to know is that you can submit a log and you
really don't even have to worry about your score
because we ended up calculating them all anyway.
So it's not something you have to get too hung
up on. But it fundamentally comes down to you
know, multiplying the number of countries and
zones that you work in the contest by the number
of QSOs that you make. And QSOs have a certain
number of points assigned to them. And all this
is written down in very clear, very clear way
in the rules that I would suggest anybody take
a peek at because we're always changing little
things. Sometimes we do bigger things in rule
changes. This year we did not. But we're always
doing things like creating new categories such
as the focus on youth that we did last year as
a new thing and other kinds of things. There's
also tons of awards. We have something on the
order of close to 200 plaques available. And
I kind of struggle and wrap my head around that
as I'm the guy that gets to prepare all those
and send them out. But it's all part of the excitement
around the contest. The most populated, most
popular contest with the best awards program
reaching the most number of people in the world
in one weekend. It doesn't get any better than
that. Oh, yeah. You bet. Well, we're talking
with John Doar, K1AR. He is the... Director of
the CQ Worldwide DX Contest and a member of the
CQ Worldwide Contest Committee. And we're talking
about CQ Worldwide CW coming up Thanksgiving
weekend here in the US. Yeah, let's dig into
the categories a little bit. You talked about
the classic overlay, that that's an option to
kind of trim out 24 hours. Kind of simplify things
a little bit, but let's let's dig into those
categories and you mentioned the youth which
of course is is one that's that's near and dear
to my heart because I do so much with that but
There are some some rookie things and others
that Will give a chance for some people to enter
and you just never know you you know sometimes
you might be the only one to enter that category
so so what are the choices here for uh... for
categories well uh... you know the the category
definition in the world wide was really designed
to to give people as many different options as
reasonable uh... and without going completely
crazy in terms of uh... you know making everybody
a winner so to speak but Fundamentally, they
come down to the idea of operating by yourself
as a single operator or operating as a group,
meaning a multi -operator situation. And then
within the construct of that, as a single op,
for example, you may have a station that specializes
in mediocrity on every band, but say 15 meters.
15 meters, you got a 700 foot tower with stacked
yagis up and down and that's what you got, right?
So you might be the kind of person who says,
you know what, I'm going to enter the single
operator, single band, 15 meter category. And
that would be for you, right? Or you might want
to do 20 or 40 or whatever. So that's one way
to slice it. Another way to slice it is uh, high
power, low power QRP. There are people who through
the bottom of the sunspot cycle have entered
QRP every year. Uh, God bless them. Um, you know,
if you, uh, if you want to win a category, a
good shot of winning a category would be to enter
single up QRP, 10 meter model band at the bottom
of the cycle. Yeah. You probably win that category,
or certainly be in the top couple. And believe
it or not, people do that. And that's their idea
of having fun, right? So in the multi -op category,
there's the idea of multi -single, meaning you
and just you and a group and a single transmitter.
You could have multi -two, where you can have
two transmitters going at the same time. where
you can have a room filled with equipment and
a room filled with people and have what's called
multi -multi which is kind of the granddaddy
of all of this and everything in between. And
then to make it a little more interesting we
added a few extra what we call overlays or special
categories. So I already mentioned the 24 -hour
classic. We've mentioned the youth. So if you're
25 or under, you can essentially now compete
against your peer group from an age point of
view. We also have a rookie category where if
you've been licensed just for three years, I
think it is a couple years, you can enter that.
as a rookie and compete against other rookies
and see how you do against other newer folks
as opposed to trying to only compare your score
against somebody who's been doing it for a hundred
years and kind of say, well, that's not fair.
It's another way to just have interest created
and make it special for you. And then we just
kind of go from there. With all of these categories
and groupings, of course, it makes it challenging,
frankly, when you get 9 ,000 logs coming in to
kind of keep all this straight. And believe it
or not, in years gone by, when I was in the early
days of doing this, everything was on paper.
And I'll never forget the one fatal question
I asked. Uh, one of my predecessors, Bob Cox,
K3ST, back, uh, when I first discovered this
thing called, uh, the CQY and the contest committee
and all that, I went to his house and in his
family room, he had all these boxes all over
the room. And I made, I asked him one fatal question.
I said, Hey Bob, what's in those boxes? Fast
forward, uh, 40 years and now I'm directing the
contest, right? But what was in those boxes?
all the paper logs from those days. And somehow,
again, more of this magical power thing, somehow
we managed to figure out how to receive logs
from hundreds of countries, tabulate them all,
get them into a format that we could then send
to CQ, get them to figure out how to put that
into a format that could result in a magazine.
And that magazine gets shipped to a newsstand
in New Delhi. and have an Indian ham pick up
his copy of CQ and see his call sign on page
96. And now that's happened year after year after
year now for over 70 years in the CQ Worldwide.
Yep. And now we've got those nice little contest
robots to go through and crunch all those numbers.
Here's a question for you. How long does it take
to run through once you've got all the logs?
How long does the computer take to figure out
all that stuff? It's, um, we've been constantly
upgrading, uh, our systems. Uh, it's all, it's
all, you know, largely PC based. So it's not
like we have a, you know, a Cray supercomputer
running in, uh, in a secret military location.
Um, but, uh, you know, the, the run of the logs
is, um, you know, under an hour and it's got
faster and faster over time to do that. What's
interesting now is with computers, and we should
probably talk a little bit about what it takes
to actually submit a log, which I'll help you
with here in just a second, but with computers
now we actually are able to produce what we call
the raw scores or the preliminary results. It's
just what everybody claimed they did. and we
tabulated all and we published a set of results
and we published that for the phone contest six
days after the contest where we had at that time
probably about 8 ,000 logs and you can go on
there now on the CQ website if you submitted
a log and you can see now before scores get you
know checked and adjusted and all you can see
where you actually are standing in placement
for your your call area or your country or, you
know, various ways to slice and dice it. Um,
and that's all available now online on, on cqww
.com site. Um, so some, some people are, and
for good reason, if you're not experienced in
this game or, or a little bit intimidated when
they start hearing all these words like, uh,
you know, Cabrillo and, and ADIF files and all
this stuff, right. and they're saying, oh man,
you know, I guess I have to go back to computer
science school to be able to enter the CQ Worldwide.
Well, you know, the good news is that if you're
using any kind of a logging program like N1MM
or WinTest or something like that, N1MM is a
great choice for a lot of people because it appeals
to HAM's basic DNA. It's free. all of the logging
programs do all the heavy lifting for you. They
create the files you need on the output side
after the contest and submitting the log is really
honestly a pretty simple process that when you
go on to the CQ Worldwide site, you'll see it
just kind of guide you through the steps. And
you know, everybody gets challenged. with this
including myself sometimes when I'm working on
somebody's blog and trying to get it submitted
for them. But you can always, always, always,
always reach out to us with the contact page
on the CQ site. All that mail comes to me, all
three, the 400 of them per mode. And all three
to 400 of them, every single one of them usually
gets answered within a day or less when I get
it. So it really does work. So worst case, if
you're having problems and you can't figure out
how to do this stuff and I get it, just send
me a note and say, I'm struggling here and we'll
work through. What doesn't work as well, and
as you might imagine, we see logs that come in
with amazing variants of formats. 98 % of them
are the ones that are created by the computer
logs, the logging programs. But every once in
a while, we'll get a PDF, we'll get an Excel
spreadsheet, a Word document, a JPEG, and things
like that. And even those, we'll work with you
and get it figured out for you. And you'll get
to see your call in print and on the website
and everywhere else. uh it's it really is is
helpful for us to as we're going through the
log checking process which is not a court of
law it's simply saying hey you said you worked
this guy let's see if you did and the way we
can tell is by looking at his log oh you're in
that log and you're in your log check you made
it you passed the test um so that's why we do
all this and and whether you got a a tiny little
100 QSO or 50 QSO log, or 10 ,000 people, they're
all valuable. And we really would ask that you
all try to send them in. Very good. All right.
Well, we're going to take a break right now.
But when we come back, I've got a kind of tough
question to ask John here. So we'll talk about
that. And we'll talk about some of the hardware
that you can receive. when we come back with
John right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. His two cents is
worth $37 in change. He once ran a marathon because
it was on his way to Dayton. He works FT8 by
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 PL259s, but when I do, I prefer
them from Tower Electronics. Stay resident, my
friends. Tower Electronics has all the adapters,
cables, connectors, and yes, PL259s you need
at a ham fest near you. Or visit PL -259 .com.
And on the tower electronics ham fest schedule
will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana on November 19th
and 20th Ocala, Florida December 2nd and 3rd
and Plant City, Florida December 9th and 10th,
but you can visit them anytime at pl -259 .com
Running barefoot is for the beach. We're cranking
1 .5 trillion nanowatts right here on ham talk
live Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Make sure
you check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Coming up here in just a moment, we'll come back
to John Doerr, K1AR, talking about CQ Worldwide
CW. But for right now, it's time for the 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 in
9GSU with today's HamTalk Live Joke of the Week.
The other day a buddy of mine told me he got
Mexico on his ham radio. That's no big deal.
I opened my window and got killy. This has been
the HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week with
Rick Garrett N9 GSU. Tune in again next week
for another joke from Rick. We are back here
on HamTalk Live with John Doar K1AR the CQ Worldwide
DX Contest Director and we have CQ... worldwide
CW coming up Thanksgiving weekend in the United
States the last weekend of November. So we want
to try to help get you ready for that. And, and
John, one of the big controversial things right
now in contesting is, is, you know, we do have
some, some war time situations going on and And
there's been a lot of controversy over Russian
participation in contesting and CQ Worldwide
is no exception. So kind of wanted to ask you
what's being done here with the Russians participation
in these contests. Sure. Well, you know, this
is a topic that Frankly, every sponsor of a contest
as well as awards programs and any kind of on
-air activity is dealing with right now. And
the question is, how do we respond to what's
happening in the geopolitical world of the Ukraine
and Russia in particular? And it's been a challenge.
Um, the, uh, the original position that, that
CQ magazine took, uh, which, uh, really, uh,
was initiated right after the, uh, uh, the events
over in Ukraine began in March was to basically,
uh, put a ban on accepting, uh, entries from,
uh, Russian, uh, uh, hams. Um, and basically,
uh, they could They could operate the contest,
but their logs would not be accepted and they
were not eligible for awards or anything like
that. In this case in the WPX contest, which
takes place the end of March and then later in
the end of May for CW. So as we were rolling
through the summer, I think everyone hoped for
many better reasons that uh, things would change
geopolitically. And as we're sadly seeing, uh,
you know, the conflict continues. And as we were
coming up to the time of the CQ worldwide here
in the fall, uh, we had to ask the question again,
and that is, do we maintain this policy? Uh,
should we do something different? Because the
thing that was nagging, I think, at us was the
fact that Ham Radio for all of its existence
has really taken pride in sort of separating
itself from all the controversies that seem to
in particular are rising to the surface nowadays,
whether it's politics or religion or gender or
war. All of these things are things that Ham
Radio has kind of avoided very intentionally.
And it seemed a little bit contradictory to be
taking a position with that backdrop in our history.
So after a whole lot of discussion, the bottom
line that was included was for the CQ Worldwide
and actually all of CQ's contests going forward
is that we have allowed for Russian and Belarus
hams both. who were previously banned to now
operate and participate. They can submit logs.
We did have one caveat though, and that is that
we're continuing to exclude their ability to
receive awards in the CQ contest, but other than
that, they are basically allowed to operate and
enter the contest. And the thinking behind it
was actually very simple, and that is that...
Rather than trying to create a one -size -fits
-all sort of moral statement on what you should
do as a ham in this situation, we decided that
we should leave that up to the operators themselves,
individually, one by one. And you have the choice
of working other Russian hams or not, or anybody
for that matter. rather than trying to create
a role that fits all that you may in fact disagree
with. And what we learned as we reached out to
the conscious community is that this was a much
more desirable conclusion. And what we saw was
that there was a number of folks who did take
a personal stand and did not. operate the contest
for moral reasons. And the vast majority of folks
did, as we see by the 9 ,000 logs that came in.
And I think for now, that's probably the right
position. CQ is holding to the idea that if things
change, for the worse or the better, that's certainly
the option to adjust. what is happening right
now can take place just like we did recently
for this round. And I think it's everyone's hope
that all of this goes away and we can really
just get back to doing what we love and that's
just getting on the radio and having fun. So
that's really why we do all this. And that's
why I hope we continue to do it in the future.
Okay. Very good. Well, Let's talk about some
of those awards. You said you have several plaques
and you get the fun job of making sure those
get distributed to the winners and created. So
let's talk about the plaques and who those go
to and how all that works. And do you need any
sponsors for plaques? Well, we have a group of
incredibly generous sponsors who are sponsoring,
as I mentioned earlier, pushing close to 200
plaques, which is far and away the largest program
out there in any contest I'm aware of in terms
of numbers. And the need for sponsors is not
large, but it's greater than zero. The best way
to to review that. Again, just go to the CK Worldwide
website. There's a tab on the top there for plaque.
So you can see what's being offered as well as
where there's need for sponsorship. And I update
that in real time as things change. It's very
easy to do. And one of the things that's nice
about it is that you can see something that maybe
is a fit for you. in terms of your station or
your experience or your desired operate, and
you can actually set as one of your personal
goals to say, I want to go after that plaque,
right? And those plaques are available for all
those categories I mentioned earlier. I mentioned
briefly how we initiated a new program centered
on under 25 youth. Neil here has been a very,
very strong supporter of that, both in terms
of sponsorship and encouragement. And, uh, we,
um, we created 14 plaques just for youth, uh,
last year. And, um, you know, it's funny, uh,
uh, I am because there's just a lot going on.
I'm perpetually behind in the plaque game of
getting these things out the door. Uh, so I,
I, I beg in advance for, uh, for mercy. Uh, from,
uh, from those that are do one and, uh, are listening,
but, um, I will say that, uh, not surprisingly,
the youth guys who are used to instantaneous
results on the internet and everything else,
you know, the contest will be about three, three
hours old. They'll say, Hey, have you shipped
my plaque yet? Surprised me at all. So but that's
a good for them. I'm glad they're they're they're
beating on us and in a good way and keeping us
honest, but particularly for the youth I What
I learned in talking to a number of young guys
about how to put this together These things are
meaningful They're they're meaningful in a lot
of different ways Which is why I take it so seriously.
I got a an email from a family, obviously, not
obviously, but an email from a family over in
Eastern Europe who the ham and the family had
passed away from COVID, but they received the
plaque and they were just so happy to be able
to honor their family member. and put it on the
wall was kind of that person's last thing they
did in ham radio contesting. And that plaque
probably meant more to them than any other thing
that came in the mailbox in all these years that
they were participating. So you can never underestimate
the story. So many of these plaques are now done
in memory of people who have left us become silent
keys. And we can perpetuate their memory in a
very positive way and have that name hanging
on somebody's wall proudly that they achieved
that award and that accomplishment in memory
of the individual and the family that sponsored
it. So it's really a great thing. Well, I know
there were some young people that will be anxiously
awaiting those plaques. And, you know, it was
nice to be able to jump in. And I know with the
youth, I think all yours were filled within like
a few days, weren't they? Oh, it was phenomenal.
We put the word out. I didn't even have to really
ask. People were kind of coming to me, which
was a nice problem. One other thing I'd say about
awards is that if you submit a log and the log
is on time, in other words, it's not past the
deadline, you're able and eligible to get a certificate
regardless of where you're placed. And you can
download that right off the website. And it's
actually a pretty, pretty handsome certificate
in the same format that the CQ's used for many
years. And everyone who participates and sends
a log in can get one. Yeah, those are very, very
nice and much appreciated. And yeah, I know what
we just signed on for. Another plaque from from
Yoda for the ready contest which you don't have
to handle the plaques on though that one but
But that's being added the youth category over
there and you know same kind of story with a
few of us got together and those plaques were
all filled Within no time So make sure you check
out that list on the website and if there's one
out there that that needs a sponsor but you know
consider doing that it's a It's not overly expensive
to do that but it can be a nice reminder and
I'm glad you shared some of the stories here
of What those plaques do mean to to families
and people? around the world. So that's pretty
cool. Well, John, I think we're, I could add
one. Sorry. I could add one other quick story.
Uh, uh, this just happened recently. Um, uh,
one of the winners last year, uh, in last year's
contest was a Mongolian station. Um, and it turns
out that there's no easy way, uh, for, I guess
COVID reasons or whatever to get mail from here
to Mongolia. And it turned out that there was
a Mongolian ham who lives here in the U .S. now,
who was going to be traveling back to Mongolia.
And I was able to snag the plaque, ship it to
him out in the West Coast, U .S. West Coast.
The ham carried it on the plane to Mongolia.
And then they sent me a picture of the team together,
all holding their plaque, you know, in the shack.
And I just thought about again. What transpired
from the time I typed in the letters that were
going to be on that plaque to ordering the plaque,
to having it sent to me, having it paid for,
to getting it shipped, to getting it hand carried
over there and have it eventually be on their
wall. Right. And it's just so cool to see these
things. They were super proud. Oh, I bet. I bet
that's a very cool story. Thanks for sharing
that. Well, John, we are out of time here today,
but I want to thank you for coming on and sharing
some information about CQ Worldwide CW coming
up and all the things around it, and I look forward
to doing this with you again soon. All righty.
My pleasure, and please reach out through the
contact page on the website if you have questions
or problems or anything that's on your mind.
I love hearing from people. So don't be shy.
And that website is cqww .com. Correct? You got
it. Yep. That's it. All right. So make sure you
check that out. Looking forward to a busy, uh,
busy time in a couple of weeks. All right, John,
thanks so much. For being here and yeah, let's
let's try to keep John busy with all this stuff.
So Well, that is a wrap for this edition of ham
talk live I'd like to thank my guest John door
k1 AR and everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening and invite you back next time For a
list of all of our upcoming guests. Just go to
ham talk live .com So for now, this is Neil rap
WB nine VPG saying seven three Seven five and
may the good DX be yours