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
for more information about ICOM radios. Hey everyone,
it's time for another episode of HamTalk Live.
It's number 302, the Huntsville HamFest Preview
2022, recorded on Thursday, July 21st, 2022.
I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for
tuning into this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight,
we're joined by Mark Brown in for BCD. And last
time here on the show, the Youth DX Adventure
Crew was here live from Carousel. So if you missed
that, you can listen to that anytime at HamTalkLive
.com. or you can play it on your favorite podcast
app or you can also play it through youtube and
uh... don't forget we are rebroadcast over on
shortwave on w t w w that's five zero eight five
on your am dial Saturday afternoons at about
3 .30 p .m. Eastern Time. So tonight we'll be
talking about the Huntsville HamFest and Mark
Brown in 4BCD, the chairman of that HamFest,
is here with us and we'll talk with him right
after this word from Tower Electronics right
here on HamTalk Live. Thanks for choosing Tower
Electronics. How may we help you today? We have
PL 259s. We have in connectors. We have SMA adapters.
We have BNC adapters. What can I show you today?
Where's the tower? Well, we don't actually have
a tower with us. But we have all kinds of things
you can use with a tower. We have power poles,
antennas, soldering irons and meters. Where's
the tower? Ma 'am, that's the name of our company.
We can't haul towers to all the ham -fests across
the country that we visit, but we have almost
every connector and adapter you would need to
connect your antenna that's on your tower. I
don't think there's a tower back there. I really
don't. Tower Electronics. Visit us at a ham -fest
near you or call 920 -435 -2973 or see our whole
catalog at pl -259 .com. Sorry, one thing we
don't have is a tower. On the Tower Electronics
HamFest schedule, they'll be in Winchester, Indiana
on July 30th, August 6th, they'll be in Elkhart,
Indiana, August 13th, they'll be in Huntington,
West Virginia, and then of course they'll be
at the Huntsville HamFest we're talking about
tonight August 20th and 21st, and then in Shelby,
North Carolina, but you can visit them anytime
at PL -259 .com. This portion of the show sponsored
by our mystery sponsor, a product so good they
are paying us not to advertise it on this program.
You're listening to Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp.
Welcome back to Ham Talk Live. Mark Brown, N4BCD,
joins us tonight on the Orlando Amateur Radio
Club and Hamcation Zoom line. Mark is the chairman
of the Huntsville Ham Fest, and I've lost track,
Mark. How many years has it been now that you've
been chairman? That's a good question, Neil.
I think it's four or five. I inherited the job
from Charlie Emerson. Everybody remembers Charlie.
I'm doing his job, but I will never fill his
shoes. Yeah, Charlie was a tough one to fill.
So he did an excellent job. You've been doing
a fabulous job as well. Each in their own way
so welcome mark back to ham talk live and then
that means it's it's time again for The Huntsville
ham fest in Huntsville, Alabama As I always like
to say that the easiest ham fest in the world
to go to it's all air -conditioned it's all in
indoors the the hotel connects and there's couple
right across the street and Just always an enjoyable
time to go to Huntsville. So let's talk about
this expanded area you've got at the Vaughn Braun
Center. That was something you added last year.
So let's talk a little bit about this new expanded
area that you're using for ZAMFest. Yeah, Neil.
In 2019, you know, and all the years prior, The
Huntsville Handfest was in the Long Braun Center
South Hall, part of the South Hall. That was
80 ,000 square feet of the South Hall. And then,
of course, in 2020, we had no show. And then
2021, when we got back, the first big handfest
that came back after COVID, not without its challenges,
but we expanded with the Long Braun Center, working
with them. We expanded to take up the entire
South Hall. which was 140 ,000 square feet. So
we've gone from 80 ,000 to 140 ,000 square feet.
It's not double, but it's close. And that was
so well received in 2019. The wider aisles in
the flea market area, the wider aisles in the
commercial area, expanded youth lounge, a bigger
hospitality area, places for folks to sit and
gather and congregate. It was just, it worked
for everybody. Um, we decided to keep it this
year. Um, it's just, it's, it's a good thing
to do and we hope to just keep doing that. So
we're, we're excited about the new expanded layout.
Yeah. You, you, you had some pretty nice aisles
there to start with, but yeah, if you can, you
can do that and why you don't get the traffic
congestion there, uh, trying to get through the
flea market. And that's going to be really cool
to see. We had actual gridlock on some of the
three market areas at the peak time of Saturday,
noontime or so. Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.
So... Yeah, that'll be really cool. And you mentioned...
the Youth Lounge. You've got several special
activities going on, but let's talk a little
bit about the Youth Lounge and testing and some
of those things. We'll hold off on the forums
until after the break, but let's talk about some
of these special activities. Right, this Youth
Lounge. Dr. Monty Bateman is one of our forum
presenters, and he's a NASA lightning physicist.
He and his wife have been doing the youth lounge
now for 12 or maybe 13 years and each year it
gets bigger and better There's all kinds of activities
for kids of all ages It's just a wonderful thing
from soldering to Morse code practice and and
you know those kind of things it's geared to
the youngster and We just keep expanding that
area because I think by what are you estimate
last year? we had somewhere north of 120 kids
come through that youth lounge, which we consider
a very good number. Just outside of the youth
lounge and with Flex Radio's sponsorship, Remote
Cam Radio, where a couple of college kids actually
manned these stations, but their Flex front ends
and computer interfaces out to literally single
off contest grade stations with stack yagis.
amplifiers and just all kinds of bling that's
not there but controllable from the Hanfest.
So if folks get a hankering to play in the NAQP
QSO party, they can sit down for a few minutes,
rest their feet and make a couple of contacts.
So a lot going on there at the Youth Lounge and
I understand we're working with you too to bring
in a Yoda table somewhere in or around the Youth
Lounge this year because You know, Yoda has gotten
very popular. And we're working on the layout
to accommodate you in that area. Yeah, we appreciate
that. And we'll be handing out some swag and
that kind of thing at the youth lounge area.
So make sure to stop by there. And then I'm assuming
the usual license testing and those kinds of
things going on. You also have... I'll go ahead
and talk about that. Yeah, you mentioned that
exam. One of the things we did in this expanded
layout was remove the exam area from outside
of that pre -function hallway a little further
down the hallway and around the corner. Acoustically,
it's much, much quieter. And it's a much better
location for folks to take their exams. There's
no cross traffic outside the curtained area where
anybody is taking a test and trying to concentrate.
So move that around the corner. The fee and the
documentation you need to bring, it's on the
HamFest website. I don't have it on the top of
my head, so I don't want to tell anybody wrong.
Yeah, the FCC has made some new requirements
about having a valid email address and whatnot.
So check the website. If you're interested in
coming and taking your exam, we'll fix you up
on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Yep, and that
is hamfest .org. And I'm actually pulling it
up right now. But yes, there are some changes.
It looks like the schedule is 10 o 'clock on
Saturday and Sunday. And there are some changes
with the fee structure and all that. So it's
all listed here. Um, so check that out at hamfest
.org and, uh, you can, you can see, uh, you see
a picture there of, uh, of the testing going
on from, uh, previous years and, uh, all the
things that are allowed and not allowed and,
and the testing fee and all that kind of thing.
So check that out. Let's see, you've also got
a big event that our friend Ward Silver in Zero
AX was going to be speaking at, and that's the
DX Banquet, so talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, in addition to a forum presentation, Ward
is the featured speaker at the North Alabama
DX Club Banquet this year. And they've moved
that from the local hotel to a facility, a lodge
that's sort of near Huntsville Hospital. It's
literally within walking distance of the downtown
hotels. You can drive it, but it's that close.
It's not 20 or 30 minutes out of town. But yeah,
the banquet's looking like a real good thing
this year. They've upped their game with better
food concession or vendor. I can't remember the
name. I think it's Budda's catering that they're
using, but food should be good. And that DX banquet,
oh, it's cheaper than years past. I think they
went from 38 down to $36. So I'm looking forward
to, I'm going to try my best to make it on Saturday
night for the banquet. Yeah, it's always hard
in your role. To get away because it seems like
every time you turn around there's something
to do I understand that try to get their thing
because Yeah, you can't you can't always get
to everything unfortunately, but Ward will be
a great speaker for the DX banquet. So that's
something else to look forward to Let's talk
a little bit about travel here You know airport
Any construction going on and the hotel listings
and things like that? Well the hotel listings
on the website we've just listed a few cherry
-picked up, but there's there's a numerous collection
of thought Let's see Hilton properties Marriott
properties I think the clarion days in kind of
things There's there's a tremendous number of
hotels And Huntsville is not a big town. It's
easy to get around in, especially on the weekend.
So I would suggest that nobody put themselves
off by thinking that getting a hotel out of town
is a long commute. We've all been to Dayton,
and the hotels mostly are 20, 30 minutes away.
We have a lot of places closer than that. I want
to circle back a minute to the exams and the
forums. We touched on Ward doing the forum. We
have a first rate collection of forums in the
BBC and the attached embassy during the Hamfest.
And I want to point out that those are outside
the ticketed area. So if you're thinking about
coming to take your exam, you don't have to buy
a Hamfest ticket. We hope you do. But you can
take the exam. If you pass, You'll know immediately,
and then you can choose to come in to the event
and learn some more. I wanted to point out that
the forums and the exam area are outside of the
ticketed area here. All right. Any major construction
going on that's going to get in the way or things
flowing smoothly? This year, it's not too bad.
Last year, they were constructing some condos
on the backside of the Vaughan Braun Center.
The street was open, but it was a bit congested.
We don't see any problems this year. There's
a New Hampton Inn on the corner of the North
Hall of the VBC. It's fully open. The AC Marriott
Hotel outside of the embassy across the street
from back, it's open. They haven't broken ground
on the next hotel, which is going to be what
we call the old Coca -Cola bottling plant. That
will probably start sometime in the winter of
2022 here. But no, no construction to really
get in the way. So, you know, we're looking forward
and we're working too with the Convention and
Visitors Bureau to streamline things. Of course,
we have talk in on the 146 .94 repeater. There's
a D star link node. And so folks needing directions
can just get on their radio and call out for
help, and we're there for them. All right. Well,
sounds like great planning as always down at
Huntsville, the world's friendliest hamfest.
So be sure to check that out at hamfest .org.
And we're going to take a break right now, but
when we come back with Mark, we'll talk about
the forums and a few other things right after
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You're listening to Ham Talk Live, the number
one podcast amongst the podcasts with the words
ham, talk, and live in the title. Here's your
host, Neil Rapp. and welcome back to ham talk
live be sure to check us out on Facebook Twitter
and Instagram we send out some noteworthy things
there and like this episode We gave a chance
for people to Chime in with some comments and
questions Before the show and we did have one
tweet from the Orlando hamcation crew Wishing
mark and then the gang a successful show down
in Huntsville. So we know that they're listening
and thanks for the note here. So we'll get back
to Mark here in just a minute, but 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. I went to the
wedding of two Ringo Rangers yesterday. The ceremony
was kind of boring, but the reception was excellent.
This has been the HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke
of the Week with Rick Garrett in 9GSU. Tune in
again next week for another joke from Rick. Now
and we're back with Mark Brown in for BCD here
on ham talk live mark is the chairman of the
Huntsville ham fest in Huntsville, Alabama and
that's coming up here in just a little under
a month and Mark's as always been working year
-round to make this a successful event and We're
down under under 30 days here. So Tell us a little
bit about your forums because I know you have
Quite the the list of forums and some some great
topics available. So Point out some of the high
points here of the forum schedule for this year
Okay, well Neil I'll start out with the week
that they've been so helpful to us throughout
the years in moral and material support. The
league is bringing David Minster, NAQAA, the
CEO, President Rick Roderick, K5UR, Education
and Learning Manager Steve Goodgame, PR Director
Bob Intervitsen, you know these guys, and maybe
Kathleen Reid to sell books, I'm not sure. But
they'll be doing, I think, a three -hour block
of different forums on the national, state, and
local, well, national, division, and state level
between the various presenters. We'll get Mickey
Baker, the Southeastern Division Director, David
Norris, the Delta Division Director, maybe a
few others. We don't know. But those are the
ones I know of for sure. So, good line -up of
ARRL membership forums. That's a good long track.
Of course, there's Mars forums, that's probably
two hours. The microwave guys, I got a five paragraph
description of what the microwave guys are up
to this year. Something called an X factor, X
being 10 for gigahertz. And in conjunction with
a weekend contest, they're going to have a morning
forum. And then they're going to go out and make
microwave contacts throughout the area. Guy's
going to pre -position themselves on some mountaintops,
and they're going to do some UHF 1296 type stuff.
So that's going to be interesting. Of course,
Dr. Bateman is going to pull himself away from
the youth lounge and do a couple of forums on
lightning and grounding. Bill Brown, no relation.
WB8ELK, one of the acknowledged experts on these
lighter, lightweight cheap party balloons. He
plans to have a forum and, weather permitting,
he will launch a feature balloon outside of the
Von Braun Center after his program. Of course,
Warren Silver, grounding and bonding. Let's see,
amateur radio in space, Frank Bauer from the
Eris Group. Fox hunting, oh, we mailed a really
good poda exhibit for Sunday. I saw this guy,
he's been licensed about a year and a half and
his program was so well done. It was literally
a voyage of discovery. He taught himself and
he not only taught himself but he gave a really
concise program and got a lot of folks in the
local club. motivated to try this Parts on the
Air stuff. It's a very popular activity, and
I'm very excited to see his program again on
Sunday. So lots of stuff, and everything from
meteor scatter, test equipment. We've got a new
thing, the Museum of Information Explosion. This
is where the local club has been holding their
meetings. It's not open to the public yet, but
Mark Ben -Dixon, M -A -R -C, Ben -Dixon, He's
a former member of Dynetics. He's retired, but
he has amassed literally a museum of museum quality,
radios, switchboards, communications equipment,
and the like. He'll be giving a program complete
with photos of his forthcoming museum that's
literally a stone's throw from the Vaughan Broad
Center. And we hope to work with him very closely
in the future to feature his museum and encourage
folks that if they have some free time to go
visit this incredible museum. ARDC, the folks
that are doing the ham radio grants that are
helping through the league and then other 501c3
clubs, ARDC will be here. so folks can talk face
-to -face with their representatives if they're
interested in their clubs submitting a grant
proposal to Amateur Radio Digital Communications,
I think is what ARDC stands for. Really great
group. They were here last year, but they'll
be back. Of course, Glenn Bopeel, always a popular
draw. He's got something all new, and he hasn't
shared it before or yet. But I'm looking forward
to what Glenn has to show and share with us regarding
Arduino. So lots of really cool forums. And I
would be honored to hold up the quality of our
forums to the lineups that they have in Orlando
and Dayton. And they're just really wonderful
events. I regret not being able to go to all
of them. Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm like, okay,
I need to go to this one. I'll wait, but I need
to go to this one. Uh, there's just so many good
ones out there and, uh, you've got a great lineup
of them. And, and, and if I don't mention Joe,
I'm probably going to get nasty emails saying,
but I'm going to be there. So Joe will be there
case. You're already be with his. with his kit
building expertise without his Dr. Seuss hat
but he will be there and there's a kit build
there and that's always a great time as well.
Well and you remind me, Neil, that after Joe's
kit building forum on Sunday morning our forum
coordinator and his assistant will be hosting
an adult solder class and this is a two hour
block and so folks can go in It's some kind of
little $7 through hole blinking light kit. But
actually, you know, put some solder, build a
kit, and make it work. So, you know, a lot of
hams have never picked up a soldering iron. This
is something we started last year. It was very
popular, and we're going to repeat it again this
year. Yeah, that's a great thing. And, you know,
even with working with Yoda, I'm amazed. How
many of the kids haven't picked up a soldering
iron before? And so that's their first opportunity
to solder. I know some of my students had their
first opportunity to solder at Huntsville in
the youth lounge. So that's a great thing that
we're doing it for adults too. Yes, and I'm hopeful
that one of these years we get all these folks
trained up and maybe we move on to surface mount.
Yeah And maybe maybe we can even get some some
like, you know robots putting them together and
everything that'd be cool Yeah, the sky is the
limit absolutely so again ham fest org and and
the dates again Mark and the hours August 20
and 21. 9 to 430 Central Time on Saturday, 9
to 3 Central Time on Sunday. And of course, there'll
be some, uh, some YouTube action going on and
some, some live streaming and that kind of thing,
uh, going on from the show if you can't make
it. But, uh, yeah, we've got, we've got all the
YouTube guys, uh, Jason from Ham Radio 2 .0,
Mike K8 MRG radio stuff, Josh Nass will be there,
Don Wilbanks will be again conveying the Young
Ham of the Year Award at 2 o 'clock on Saturday,
George Thomas and a couple of other guys from
Amateur Logic, Tom W5KUB and of course yours
truly, Neil, you'll be there. So yeah, lots of
media folks will be milling around. Yeah, and
let's mention the the young ham of the year thing.
I know we'll get Don and Audrey on the show here
soon to do that, but that was Actually watched
the odd ham nation last night Talking about that
a little bit. So that presentation Will take
place at Huntsville as well. So tell us just
a little bit about that Well, I don't know a
whole lot about it I know that the bill Pasternak
young hand -of -the -year award has been awarded
in Huntsville for probably more than two decades
and This year's recipient Audrey and I don't
have her last name. He'll am I for global uniform
November from from Georgia I think she's 18.
She's already enrolled at Georgia Tech majoring
in IT computer computer science and working with
electrical engineering. She's quite a lady. I
first saw her last night on Hand Nation, I think
it was. She's just a tremendous lady and I'm
excited to meet her, but she'll be here to receive
the Young Hand of the Year Award on Saturday,
August 20th. Yeah, it'll be a good time and we
always enjoy that and that's kind of been...
My number one priority of getting to Huntsville
is for that and so we'll be glad to see Audrey
again and Newsline will present that to her as
well as their corporate sponsors. So congratulations
to Audrey and be great to see the McElroy family
at Huntsville once again. So, all right. Mark,
any last words of wisdom here before we wrap
this one up tonight? Well, you know, we know
how hot it is throughout the southeast and southwest
this time of the year. I'll just remind folks
that this entire Hanfest is all indoors, including
the entire 400 -table flea market. All indoors
and all air -conditioned. Yes. That's a good
thing in the southeast in August, let me tell
you. Absolutely. Yeah, sure is. We're very excited.
Things are moving downhill for us. Like I said,
we posted on the web today, T -30 days, go for
launch, and we got the forum schedule out there
to go along with it. Alright, very good. Again,
that's hamfest .org. The easiest place to find
information on a ham fest too, hamfest .org.
We'll look forward to seeing you here in 30 days
and looking forward to another great event. Well
thanks Neil, thanks for having me on the show
tonight. Alright, well that is a wrap for this
edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guest Mark
Brown, N4BCD. and everybody out in cyberspace
for listening and invite you back next time for
another episode of HamTalk Live. 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, 7 -5, and may the good DX be yours.
I'll be seeing you further down the log Your
73's To you and your family I'll be seeing you
further down the log It's hard to believe that
you're empty indeed Cause you sound just like
a local up here