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we go, welcome to Hamtop Live Calling Let's Talk,
Neil's your guy Hamtop Live Here we go on Hamtop
Radio Hello everyone! It's time for HamTalk Live
episode number 299, Walmart parking lots on the
air three recorded on June 29th, 2022. I'm your
host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in
to this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're
joined by Mitch Arenstorf, AD0HJ, and Andrew
Northam, K -E -8 -F -Z -T. Last episode, Adam
Johnson, KD9KIS, was here to talk about Youth
on the Air Camp 2022 and hope you had a chance
to check out the highlight videos from each day.
Had another successful camp with 21 campers,
so make sure you check those videos out at youthontheair
.org or the Youth on the Air YouTube channel
and see what we were up to. uh... but if you
missed the show you can listen to that anytime
at hamtalklive dot com or on your favorite podcast
app or we're also on youtube and you can catch
the rebroadcast of hamtalk live saturday afternoons
at about three thirty p m eastern on shortwave
w t w w that's five zero eight five a m so make
sure you check that out as well Alright, well
I'll be back with Mitch and Andrew right after
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Your host, Neil Rapp, may be two radios short
of a full ground system, but he's back now with
more HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live
tonight and it's Aaron Storf, AD0HJ, and Andrew
Northam. K -E -8 -F -Z -T join us on the Orlando
Amateur Radio Club and Hamcation Zoom line. Mitch
is a very active satellite operator from Jackson,
Minnesota and is the co -founder of the 80 Zero
Squared Award. And Andrew is no stranger to the
show because his daughter wrote the song we use
here on the show during Christmastime, the radio
radio jingle. Andrew is also an avid satellite
operator from Portage, Michigan. So guys, welcome
to HamTalk Live. Hey, good evening, Neil. Hey,
good evening, Neil. Thanks for having me on.
All right. Well, I saw the tweet the other day
and I got all excited because we had a year off
there and, you know, it was one of the favorite
events in ham radio I think in in my 45 some
years in ham radio and it's it's Wimploda the
Walmart parking lots on the air it's back for
round three so before we tell everybody about
what's going on this year let's talk a little
bit about how this event started for those people
who don't know how how it all came about Sure,
that's right Neil. We've been missing the last
two years of Wimploda and first event actually
happened when Chris K7TAP, another big amateur
radio satellite operator, had put out a tweet
that he had operated a grid line from a Walmart
parking lot in Morgantown, West Virginia. And
as things often happen in Twitter, a lot of other
people mentioned how they had also worked from
Walmart parking lots and a lot of them were on
gridlines also. Well, it makes sense because,
you know, these Walmart parking lots are pretty
big open areas and, you know, so it makes it
an easy place to, you know, park at the end of
the parking lot and get some uh get some elevation
for uh pointing the antenna that is a good point
probably not as good as uh being out in the middle
of farmland north dakota certainly being my favorite
um and you're gonna have a lot of of radio interference
but typically parking lot like you said is big
enough you can get away and actually do a satellite
pass that would be 20 30 degrees at least over
the horizon Yeah, and you know Walmart's typically
aren't all that tall either so that that kind
of helps out a little bit but Seems like there's
some good places and there are several and I
know there's one that I'm contemplating about
an hour south of here that's sitting right on
a grid line and I'm trying to make up my mind
if I'm going to drive down there or just run
from here but there are several that happen to
end up on grid lines so that counts for both
grids if you're sitting right on the grid line
so a lot of people like that. So let's talk a
little bit about this year so when is Wimploda
this year and are there any rule changes we need
to know about? Sure, yeah. This year Wemploda
was shortened to a 24 -hour event. A little different
than the previous years. Wanted to interfere
a little less with the holiday weekend. But Wemploda
takes place this weekend, July 2nd, and it starts
Friday night at zero zero zero zero Zulu and
goes for 24 hours. So Andrew, why is this event
taking place on July 2nd? Is there some kind
of significance to that? Oh yeah, Neil, the July
2nd is the anniversary of Walmart's opening date.
Okay, very good. So, you know, it's Walmart's
birthday, so to speak. In fact, there's one of
the bonuses that talks about that. We'll deal
with that in a little bit. But any rule changes
for this year? No, I don't believe there are
any rule changes this year. You know, the goal
is to make as many contacts as you can. You can
participate as either a shopper or an associate.
An associate would be operating from a Walmart
store, whereas a shopper would be operating from
home trying to contact all the associates at
those Walmart locations. Okay and then typically
the exchange that we use on satellite is call
sign and grid square so uh... the exchange is
a little different and it depends on whether
you're an associate or whether you're a a shopper
so explain what the exchange will be for all
of this okay the exchange will be if you are
an associate you would give your call sign and
walmart store number You can look that up Walmart
store locator on the internet and it should give
you the unique store identifier that you're that
you're at also If you're on a linear satellite,
you might as well give the main head grid square
and if you're a shopper four -ditch main head
grid square is Is what you want along with your
call sign? Okay. So again, the associates are
what they call, you know, what would normally
call activators or rovers or whatever. Uh, you're
operating actually from the Walmart store and
then the shoppers are the people who are trying
to work them. So, uh, so if you're a shopper,
go just normal grid square, um, and call sign.
And then, um, for the, the associates, the activators,
uh, Throw in that store number if you can, that'll
help cut down on some of the dupes. So Adam,
K0FFY, kind of took this on and kind of got the
ball rolling with the website and Twitter and
making it all official like. And he's on vacation
this year. So talk a little bit about your role
kind of standing in to make this happen this
year. Sure. Adam K0FFY and a lot of others started
this back. I believe the first event, actual
Wimploda, was April of 2018. So they did quite
a bit as far as getting the the website Wimploda
.org updated and there's also a wiki and associated
Twitter account. A lot had been done there, 2018,
2019, 2020, 2021. I believe it was dropped because
of COVID and everything that was happening there.
And I was watching for it, of course, this year,
like a lot of other satellite operators, looking
to see if Wimploda was going to happen. and heard
some rumblings of it, but yeah, nothing was coming
together. We decided on a date on the AMSAT Twitter
Meetup Net that we do every Wednesday night on
DMR, January or July 2nd was going to be the
date, the founding of the first Walmart by Sam
Walton in Rogers, Arkansas. So we had that reaching
out to Adam? Yeah, Adam was going to be busy.
Like you said, he was on vacation. So, so I decided
to pick it up and looking for volunteers. Andrew,
KE8, FCT was good enough to help me out. Well,
Andrew, talk a little bit about your role in
this helping, helping out with Mitch and, and
getting this party started again. Oh yeah. I've,
uh, you know, been a participant of Wimplata
since day one. You know a couple years ago during
Wimplata I did a big massive rove up in the the
UP or headed towards the UP on vacation there.
Unfortunately this year I'm not really going
anywhere and was really looking forward to Wimplata
so you know wanted to reach out to Mitch and
help out and you know helping out. Getting some
posts on Twitter and promoting it, you know trying
to get kicked off the amps at BB Having a great
time there so You know This is one of the let's
see. How did I put it? I've got it in for newsline
this week also to help promote it and I think
the word I used was zany activities And I remember
as this was coming together and I was actually
in on some of it as well. Um, you know, people
were on Twitter just coming up with all these
ridiculous, you know, crazy bonuses. And, and
it was just, it was a lot of fun to just kind
of sit around and think up, you know, okay, what
would, you know, what would these bonuses be?
And, you know, what. What should the rules be?
And, and, and it was just, it was hilarious.
And, and it finally came together. And, um, I
remember, um, driving down to Lexington and getting
on from the grid line there. One year I was in,
uh, Connecticut actually getting ready to go
to the ARL teachers Institute and that stopped
at like three different. Walmart's on the way
trying to break in and I remember I never did
get in that year but the year before I got several
from a couple of different locations. It's always
been a fun event, one that I always look forward
to and looking forward to it again on Saturday
July 2nd, 0100 UTC to 2359. Okay, well we'll
come back here in a minute and talk some more
with Mitch and Andrew about Walmart parking lots
on the air right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Thanks for choosing
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to ham chalk live Well, welcome back to HamTalk
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HamTalkLive .com. Well, before we get back into
the craziness and wackiness of Wimploda, it's
time for some other wackiness and craziness.
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 really miss
Radio Shack. That place I could just run down
and get something when I was working on a project.
They're not around anymore. I'm going to start
a chain of electronic supply stores for hobbyists
and I'm going to call it the Ohm Depot. 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. All right.
Well, from, from Ohm Depot to a Walmart parking
lots on the air. Uh, we're back with, uh, Mitch
Aaron Storf, 80 zero H J and Andrew Northam,
K E eight F Z T talking about this, uh, this
rather unusual, uh, crowd, uh, created special
event happening at a Walmart parking lot near
you on July 2nd. So just looking over the scoring
here, but before we get into all the details
and everything, Mitch, you want everybody to
fill out the little spreadsheet so that everything
is scored kind of auto -magically, right? Yeah,
absolutely. We have no idea what Walmart you
visited, what bonus points you've gone after
so in the Wimploda website there's a link for
the the wiki actually it's under rules and awards
if you go to the very bottom there's an award
submission Wimploda scorecard either in excel
or open office okay so you just go in there and
check the boxes punch in the numbers and it'll
calculate everything for you and Send it in to
Mr. Sparky, right? Oh, yeah, Mr. Sparky been
around the satellite community for I'd say three
years Really good monkey 80 zero squared has
utilized him to push out QSL cards and a few
random tasks So so we did obtain him for this
that he was happy to work with us and We appreciate
mr. Sparky being there All right, so yeah fill
out spreadsheet send it in and and They'll tally
up the the results here. So again, we explained
you know a shopper is somebody who's just calling
an associate is someone who's at the Walmart
store and then you get multipliers for like the
number of Walmart stores you activate and that
kind of thing So let's talk a little bit about
multipliers here. Yeah the multipliers Multiply
your QSOs times the number of unique associates
worked. We're gonna add that with the Walmart
stores activated as an associate. We're gonna
add the number of satellite passes that have
had at least one confirmed contact. We're going
to also add the number of different satellites
that were used for at least one confirmed QSO,
and we're going to add the number of different
grid squares with at least one confirmed QSO.
So as you can see, there's a big opportunity
if you travel around, visit a few Walmarts, cross
a few state lines, you can have a big multiplier
in this contest. All right, and then we get to
the bonus points. which are rather creative,
we'll say. So, you know, some kind of, you know,
ordinary ones, you know, if you're working on
a grid line, you know, where you get both grids
at the same time, of course, or near a grid line.
But there are some other ones that are a little
more unique to this event, shall we say. Exactly
and like you said before this is all a grassroots
effort by the satellite operating community.
AMSAT or Walmart any other entity is not behind
us. It's just satellite operators and of course
we want to be good stewards while we're at the
Walmart so you will get a points for finding
the shopping carts and putting them back or picking
up trash, buying birthday cake from Walmart,
eating it, take a picture of it, post it to Twitter,
you get points for that. There's, let's see,
there's some for social media posts. Ooh, I like
this one called to the office 30 points for having
an actual Walmart manager participate in an on
air Q. So, and the great part about that, it
says planned or unplanned. So to me, that means
that maybe the manager had to come out and talk
to you. Now, to my knowledge, that's, that's
never happened. So if, if anyone does have that
happen, 30 points. for a call to the office.
Yes. And we need to hear the story. That would
be even better. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Uh, let's see,
um, special envoy. You get seven points for being
an advocate and explaining what Wimploda is to
an actual Walmart customer. So, and then there's
like some, some for Alaska, Hawaii, uh, Northwest
territories none of the Yukon all that kind of
thing. I Know we didn't we've got the zombie.
Oh Yeah, the zombie, you know land multiplier
So that's you know, of course two additional
QSO points When you make a contact through a
oh seven, of course a oh seven we all know came
back from the dead many years ago and It's a
great satellite working out there and hopefully
it'll be up and running in well on Friday night,
Saturday. And then we've got the zombie apocalypse,
which is activating a zombie Walmart. So it's
a permanently closed Walmart that remains vacant.
So, and then there's some with spelling bead
where you can take the call signs and spell out
words and stuff like that. So. So, Mitch, what's
your favorite one out of this list? I don't think
it's on this list. The one I always liked was
the MacGyver Works at Walmart award, and I can
only remember one person ever doing that. That
was Soren. I can't remember Soren's call sign,
but yeah, he had actually taken, I think it was...
Like roasting forks from campaign and maybe a
wooden doll and drill and some drill belts and
actually fabricated his own yay antenna probably
only brought along a coax and some alligator
clips and Actually made a qso. So so In my memory
that was 2018 and yeah MacGyver Certainly my
so that's you got to get at least one Q. So with
the antenna that you built with stuff you buy
at the Walmart, so That's that's a good yeah,
that's one of the awards so while we're talking
about Awards, let's talk about some of the awards
you you get an award for Making at least one
Q. So two to four Q. So's five Q. So's you're
a greeter You know, if you do the overnight stuff,
you've got overnight stocker. Then we get into
the extra credit awards and these are some of
my favorites. So, uh, we'll get into those a
little bit. Uh, but Andrew, what was your favorite
one on the list here? Oh, my favorite one is
definitely the early bird award. That's, you
know, there's always a good fight for that one.
Uh, early bird award is The first confirmed contact,
you know, after one plot of starts. So depending
on where the satellites fall, you know, usually
people are trying to make that contact in the
first couple of minutes. And then in a couple
of years, we've had satellites directly overhead
right at zero UTC. So people made the contacts
right at zero UTC and then to break the tie you've
got to do your upload and the time of confirming
the contact on Logbook of the World is the tiebreaker
for that. So there's been some pretty good races
for that one in the past. Yeah, remember that
was quite the competition there trying to get
the first one. So then the extra credit is where
it gets really Really strange. So we have Ol'
Roy, the activator with the most Twitter posts
of their dog from an activated parking lot. Then
we have Ol' Roy with Roy. If your name is Roy
and you have the most Twitter posts of your dog
activated from the parking lot. You know, and
then Special Kitty, the same as Ol' Roy but with
your cat. It's really oh, yeah, really fun things
and then oh and then there's the Mitch one of
your favorites ought to be the buy one get one
free 80 squared award Absolutely, I don't know
if anyone's ever Earned that I did participate
in 2019 and don't remember working Ron 80 DX
on on any of those passes so that should actually
be a really really special award but yeah these
were all submitted by people and got kind of
crazy as you said old Roy with Roy I mean that's
very specific that your name is Roy and you have
a dog so I suppose someone out there was named
Roy and brought that one up but some of them
are a lot easier Twitter a photo of the operation
with the US flag in the background or Canadian
or Mexican. Most Walmart branded stores will
have that. One of my favorites to see on Twitter
is the one with the shopping cart. It's called
Mobility. QSL from a motorized shopping cart
or regular shopping cart. So you might need two
people for that. One person to jump in the shopping
cart. Another person take the picture. And, well,
if you're like me, pull you back out of the shopping
cart. I seem to remember a couple of those pictures.
I think Sean was involved in one of those. One
spray. And then, you know, here's the safety
officer, you know, wear your high vis vest and
a tin foil hat. There's all kinds of good stuff.
One of the ones I like is, you know, I usually
end up doing the lunchtime passes because I pretty
much do FM with my mobile setup or portable setup.
So great value is a QSO while eating chicken
from the deli. Yeah, I mean, that's just insane.
Whoever thought of that one, I could have never
imagined making a satellite QSO while eating
chicken. Do it. You get a little extra credit
points for that. Yep. That's one of my favorite
ones. I've participated in that one a few times.
I usually send my wife inside while I'm doing
the passes outside to pick me up a fresh bucket
of their little popcorn chicken. There you go.
And then you get the cupcake and you get the
birthday cake covered. You know, definitely and
get lunch at the same time Well, you know we
talked a little bit about this buy one get one
free 80 zero squared award Mitch For people who
don't know talk a little bit about the the usual
80 zero squared award Okay Ron 80 zero DX and
I started that maybe back in 2019, we found ourselves
on a lot of satellite passes at the same time.
And just talking back and forth. No, it was actually
Ruth, it was Ruth KM4 LAO that that suggested
that and said, hey, you need an award for that.
And after considering for a month or so, I think
we said, yeah, we do need an award. So we started
with the 80 zero squared award, which is a special
qso card filled out by myself and ron serialized
uh sent to you we haven't sent those out for
for quite a while ron hasn't been quite as active
but uh it inspired a lot of knockoffs which we
fully approve of so uh i remember there being
maybe seven or eight different variations of
that award that you could earn. So a lot of fun
and created a lot of chaos whenever Ron and myself
were on the same satellite, especially AFM satellite.
Yeah. Well, so you can get your 80 zero squared
award and then you can get the BOGO 80 zero squared
award, buy one, get one free during July 2nd
if both of them are on. So give that a shot.
All right. Well, we're going to finish things
up here. But guys, I want to ask you about your
favorite Wimploda contact or memory, because
there were quite a few pictures out there that
I think would count as a memory. So I want to
ask you, what's your favorite Wimploda moment?
One of my favorite moments was during my role
back in 2018. I was up in Tawas. and I was standing
on the side of a parking lot doing a satellite
pass and a guy drives by in a big pickup truck
and he looks over at me and he goes are you doing
a satellite and I kind of nod at him you know
and I had my headphones on so I'm in the middle
of the pass and then he looks and he says Wim
Plata are you doing Walmart's parking lot in
the air and I I about dropped the arrow and pulled
my antenna off and I'm like, what, uh, how do
you know about that? He goes, Oh, I'm, I'm on
one of the, you know, satellite mailing lists.
And I heard about it. I'm like, wow. Like it's,
it's spread that far. You just never know. Oh,
Mitch, what, what do you got here? Well, I'm
trying to think back 2019 was really the only
year that I did it and That year I purchased
a you know, the Walmart t -shirt the blue that
says with the Walmart logo on there Saying the
parking lot someone asked me for some help with
something I'm I'm guessing thinking that that
I worked at the store which I would have helped
them if they needed something carried or or whatever
but I said you know give me 15 minutes I'll be
with you and I think they gave up on me moved
on but certainly making FM passes on a you know
Saturday noontime oh that was that was crazy
back that year and I have to imagine people that
maybe weren't clued into it just wondering what
all the Walmart store numbers were My favorite
contact being with the captain, Brian KG5GJT
at that time, but many others. The captain. He's
there. Well, it's a great time. So satellite
operators encourage you to put on your PJs and
aluminum foil hat, head to a parking lot nearest
you and get on the air. Anything else here to
bring up before we go and get ready for WMPLOTA?
Make sure you follow us on Twitter. We're at
WMPLOTA and I know Andrew and I both have activations
that we're currently planning, but we're going
to try and keep up with it the best we can. And
this is kind of our first year we're feeling
it out, but hopefully we can add some more stuff
to the Wimplota site as kind of overview in the
coming weeks. Yeah. Keep an eye on our Twitter
page. You know, lots of updates there and we'll
look for tweets from everyone else with hashtag
Wimplota as the fun begins Friday night. Okay.
So we've, you know, we've got mines on the air.
We've got parks on the air. We've, you know,
this is Walmart parking lots on the air. So why
not? And I think if I remember right, there was
even a special consideration for like other countries
that if you hadn't like an equivalent store,
you could, you could go ahead and do that too.
So check the rules. That's fine. Yep. Yep. check
the rules again, w m p l o t a dot org. And,
uh, the Wiki has all the rules and awards and
spreadsheet there to fill out and, uh, and send
it in and tweet out those pictures. Uh, we love
to hear the stories and see the pictures from
all these Wimploda activation. So, uh, be sure
to do that. Well guys, thanks so much for being
on the show, taking time out to talk about it
and, uh, I will hear you on the air this weekend
on the third Walmart parking lots on the air.
Okay, thank you, Neil. Thanks, Neil. Hope to
catch you on the birds. That is a wrap for this
edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guest,
Mitch Erinstorf. AD0HJ and Andrew Northam, KE8FCT,
and everybody out there in cyberspace for listening.
And I invite you back next time for a list of
all of our upcoming guests, visit HamTalkLive
.com. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, the WB9VPG,
saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may the good DX be yours.
I'll be seeing you further down the loch Your
73's To you and your family I'll be seeing you
further down the loch It's hard to believe that
you're empty indeed Cause you sound just like
a local up here But why don't those whistling
Mediterranean's check if your frequency's clear?
We're warm and cozy in our shacks of realtor
thousands of things. About shoes, about ships,
about ceiling wax, about cabbages and keys. So
73's, to you and your family, I'll be seeing
you further down the line. Your 73's, to you
and your family, I'll be seeing you further down
the line.