WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.160 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:06.559 by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables, 00:00:06.820 --> 00:00:13.519 and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit PL -259 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:18.179 .com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged 00:00:18.179 --> 00:00:23.399 it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:28.219 for more information about ICOM radios. It's 00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:35.479 Ham Radio, with Neorep. Here we go, welcome to 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:39.380 Hamtop Live. Call in, let's talk, Neil's your 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:45.200 guy. Hamtop Live, here we go, on Hamtop Radio. 00:00:58.409 --> 00:01:02.509 Hello everyone, it's time for HamTalk Live episode 00:01:02.509 --> 00:01:07.769 number 289, the Voice of America 80th anniversary 00:01:07.769 --> 00:01:12.629 special event. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. 00:01:12.650 --> 00:01:16.150 Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk 00:01:16.150 --> 00:01:20.150 Live. We're doing this on February 17th, 2022. 00:01:20.890 --> 00:01:26.209 And we're joined by Jocelyn KD8VRX, Mark K3POE, 00:01:26.209 --> 00:01:30.500 and Peter. in for PVH in just a short while. 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:35.849 Last episode... It was on live from Orlando Hamcation. 00:01:36.430 --> 00:01:38.650 So if you missed that show, you can listen anytime 00:01:38.650 --> 00:01:42.250 at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast 00:01:42.250 --> 00:01:44.849 app or on YouTube. And don't forget, you can 00:01:44.849 --> 00:01:47.810 catch the re -broadcast of HamTalk Live over 00:01:47.810 --> 00:01:54.650 on WTWW Shortwave. They're at 5085 on your AM 00:01:54.650 --> 00:01:59.329 dial. Again, 5 .085 Saturday afternoons at about 00:01:59.329 --> 00:02:04.010 3 .30 PM Eastern time. So we're going to talk 00:02:04.010 --> 00:02:07.569 about this special event tonight and one of the 00:02:07.569 --> 00:02:10.569 places that you can find a lot of information 00:02:10.569 --> 00:02:13.469 about this special event is on the QRZ pages 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:18.289 of the the call sign. So there's W3V, Whiskey 00:02:18.289 --> 00:02:23.330 3 Victor, Whiskey 8 Oscar And Whiskey 4 Alpha 00:02:23.330 --> 00:02:27.090 are the three special event calls that will be 00:02:27.090 --> 00:02:30.169 on the air this weekend. And so check out their 00:02:30.169 --> 00:02:34.310 QRZ pages and you can see some links to some 00:02:34.310 --> 00:02:36.849 of the things that we're going to talk about 00:02:36.849 --> 00:02:40.229 tonight. So make sure you check that out. So 00:02:40.229 --> 00:02:43.289 I'll be back with Jocelyn, Mark and Peter right 00:02:43.289 --> 00:02:47.349 after this word from Tower Electronics right 00:02:47.349 --> 00:02:53.310 here on HamTalk Live. Jerry, what's up, man? 00:02:53.710 --> 00:02:56.449 I haven't seen you at Sunbucks in a while. I 00:02:56.449 --> 00:02:58.349 used to see you every morning getting coffee. 00:02:58.449 --> 00:03:02.169 What's up? Well, I can't afford Sunbucks five 00:03:02.169 --> 00:03:04.849 days a week anymore. I had to spend my money 00:03:04.849 --> 00:03:08.530 on PL -259s. You know, those antenna projects 00:03:08.530 --> 00:03:11.310 I've been meaning to do. I had to do them before 00:03:11.310 --> 00:03:15.110 my HOA finds out I have antennas. That's too 00:03:15.110 --> 00:03:17.650 bad, Jerry. I miss seeing you and catching up 00:03:17.650 --> 00:03:20.930 over coffee. You should get your PL -259s from 00:03:20.930 --> 00:03:27.909 Tower Electronics. They have great stuff. Jerry, 00:03:28.129 --> 00:03:32.229 you're back. Oh, QRM Heterodyne Frappuccino. 00:03:32.550 --> 00:03:35.250 That's a good choice. How's it going? Did you 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:38.030 get all those antennas up before the HOA police 00:03:38.030 --> 00:03:41.520 showed up? Yeah, I got them all done. Thanks 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:44.060 for telling me about Tower Electronics. Now I 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:46.939 can have my coffee. I just saved a bunch of money 00:03:46.939 --> 00:03:50.680 on my PL259s by switching to Tower Electronics. 00:03:50.979 --> 00:03:54.139 Don't get caught without PL259s. Visit Tower 00:03:54.139 --> 00:03:58.860 Electronics online at pl -259 .com or at a ham 00:03:58.860 --> 00:04:02.819 fest near you. Or give them a call at 920 -435 00:04:02.819 --> 00:04:06.439 -2973. And be sure to pick up some power poles, 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:10.150 adapters, and cables too. Running barefoot is 00:04:10.150 --> 00:04:14.770 for the beach. We're cranking 1 .5 trillion nanowatts 00:04:14.770 --> 00:04:42.209 right here on HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk 00:04:42.209 --> 00:04:48.009 Live. Tower Electronics will be at Dalton, Georgia 00:04:48.009 --> 00:04:51.649 on February 26th. That's at the North Georgia 00:04:51.649 --> 00:04:55.230 Ag Fairgrounds. And then November 5th will be 00:04:55.230 --> 00:04:58.250 at Cave City, Kentucky at the Cave City Convention 00:04:58.250 --> 00:05:05.110 Center. Or you can visit them anytime at PL -259 00:05:05.110 --> 00:05:10.639 .com. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Tonight, 00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:16.600 Jocelyn KD8VRX, Mark K3POE, and Peter N4PVH join 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:20.279 us on the Orlando Amateur Radio Club and hamcation 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:24.300 Zoom line. Jocelyn Bro KD8VRX is the past president 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:27.000 of the Westchester Amateur Radio Association, 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:32.240 WCHVOA, located at the Voice of America Bethany 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:36.100 Relay Station in Northern Cincinnati and Jocelyn 00:05:36.100 --> 00:05:39.379 organizes many special events and contest entries 00:05:39.379 --> 00:05:42.560 at the Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:48.689 located on the original VOA site. Mark Poe, K3POE 00:05:48.689 --> 00:05:52.790 is one of the Voice of America's RF engineers 00:05:52.790 --> 00:05:58.230 based in Washington DC. And Mark got licensed 00:05:58.230 --> 00:06:03.050 because of the other engineers at the VOA and 00:06:03.050 --> 00:06:06.550 their influence. And then we also have with us 00:06:06.550 --> 00:06:10.540 tonight, Peter Van Houten. in for PVH. He is 00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:12.899 the president of the Brightleaf Amateur Radio 00:06:12.899 --> 00:06:17.120 Club in Greenville, North Carolina, and is spearheading 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.600 a restoration of the Voice of America site there 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:25.759 into a ham radio superstation. So Jocelyn, Mark 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:30.519 and Peter, welcome to Ham Talk Live. Good evening, 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:34.220 Neil. Good evening. Good evening, Neil. It's 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:38.389 an honor. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Well, we 00:06:38.389 --> 00:06:41.790 have this special event coming up this weekend 00:06:41.790 --> 00:06:44.949 and So we want to make sure everybody knows about 00:06:44.949 --> 00:06:48.750 it and what's taking place here. So Let's start 00:06:48.750 --> 00:06:53.470 off with talking about the call signs that are 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:56.970 involved and and the dates and times and locations 00:06:56.970 --> 00:07:02.170 here for this special event So, let's see Peter 00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:07.350 you want to take that one? Sure So we all got 00:07:07.350 --> 00:07:10.290 together and decided to get some one -by -one 00:07:10.290 --> 00:07:16.149 calls and the suffix of them spell out VOA. So 00:07:16.149 --> 00:07:23.089 in Washington DC, we will have W3V and in Westchester, 00:07:23.410 --> 00:07:27.870 Ohio, we will have WHO and in Greenville, North 00:07:27.870 --> 00:07:35.290 Carolina, we will have W4Alpha and We'll be operating 00:07:35.290 --> 00:07:37.829 somewhere around 10 o 'clock in the morning until 00:07:37.829 --> 00:07:42.689 about 8 p .m. Obviously, operators can go longer 00:07:42.689 --> 00:07:48.610 if they so desire. And the bands that we've been 00:07:48.610 --> 00:07:53.750 looking to start with is 20 meters, 40 meters, 00:07:53.889 --> 00:08:01.769 80 with single sideband CW and FTA. Okay, very 00:08:01.769 --> 00:08:05.649 good. So that's 10 to 8 Eastern time here in 00:08:05.649 --> 00:08:09.730 the US and It will be on the air from those three 00:08:09.730 --> 00:08:12.029 call signs at those three different locations 00:08:12.029 --> 00:08:16.189 Okay, so Jocelyn what bands and modes are going 00:08:16.189 --> 00:08:20.870 to be active and What about the spotting or some 00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:23.709 of the stations gonna be spotted so we can find 00:08:23.709 --> 00:08:29.439 you all that way? Yeah, absolutely I'll answer 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:31.339 your questions, or I'll repeat a little bit what 00:08:31.339 --> 00:08:33.559 Peter said. So yeah, we're looking from 20 to 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:36.820 80. If 10 and 15 meters are open, we're going 00:08:36.820 --> 00:08:38.519 to try those bands, but we're going to go with 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.740 the good old 10, 40, 80, which usually works. 00:08:43.019 --> 00:08:47.580 As Peter said, we're doing a sideband, FT8. We're 00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:49.919 going to try to do CW. I'm what we are aware 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:54.159 that the AWRL DX CW contest is also this weekend. 00:08:54.700 --> 00:08:57.039 If the bands are too crowded, we may switch to 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:01.360 a non -CW. a contesting band like 12 or 17 meters. 00:09:02.379 --> 00:09:06.179 As far as spotting, yeah, we had a quick intro 00:09:06.179 --> 00:09:10.600 of DX Heat. I know that not everybody is familiar 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:13.460 with it, but I think everybody likes it. So we're 00:09:13.460 --> 00:09:16.500 gonna be spotting ourselves and we encourage 00:09:16.500 --> 00:09:18.639 people that hear us on the air to, you know, 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:21.820 re -spot us just to make sure we're easy to find 00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:25.720 for everybody. All right, very good. Okay, and 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:30.539 I'm sure you have QSL cards available for everybody 00:09:30.539 --> 00:09:34.799 who works the station. So let's hear about those 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:38.879 and where people should send those and all those 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:44.039 details. So let's go to Mark on that one. So 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:49.379 each station in the W3V W8O and W4A will have 00:09:49.379 --> 00:09:55.759 their own EQSL card that will be sent out within 00:09:55.759 --> 00:10:00.240 a few days after the contest is over, once we 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:03.740 process all the logs and all the AIIDF files 00:10:03.740 --> 00:10:07.740 and so on and so forth. And then those who submit 00:10:07.740 --> 00:10:11.720 a SASC will get a paper card and there will also 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:15.019 be a certificate. And our certificate will have 00:10:15.019 --> 00:10:17.820 written on the back which stations they contacted 00:10:17.820 --> 00:10:21.360 on which mode and at what time and all that would 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:24.460 be filled out and it'll be it'll be double -sided 00:10:24.460 --> 00:10:26.679 obviously and it'll have you correct me if I'm 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:29.940 wrong just let me that the certificate will have 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:34.840 the a picture of the wlo transmitter on the on 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:39.419 one side is that correct that's the that's the 00:10:39.419 --> 00:10:42.860 qsl card yeah the certificate is just the pdf 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:46.440 that will be emailed to the qrz email address 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:48.500 of the recipient. So if you make contact with 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:52.539 us, make sure your QRZ email address is up to 00:10:52.539 --> 00:10:54.980 date because that's what we will be using to 00:10:54.980 --> 00:10:58.799 send out the certificate and the digital QSL 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:03.769 cards. with all the information. The certificate, 00:11:04.250 --> 00:11:08.070 we were lucky enough to have Lou N02C and Sally 00:11:08.070 --> 00:11:12.669 K2RYD helping us out with generating those certificates 00:11:12.669 --> 00:11:16.409 for us and emailing those out to all the people 00:11:16.409 --> 00:11:18.789 that make contact. You only need to make a contact 00:11:18.789 --> 00:11:22.789 to get either the certificate, the QSL or the 00:11:22.789 --> 00:11:28.370 electronic QSL, digital QSL card. or the SASC. 00:11:28.570 --> 00:11:30.610 Obviously, you should shoot for the clean sweep. 00:11:31.090 --> 00:11:35.769 You will have a clean sweep endorsement on the 00:11:35.769 --> 00:11:38.889 certificate. But yeah, so one contact, doesn't 00:11:38.889 --> 00:11:41.889 matter what mode, gets you possibly three awards. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:47.940 All right. Thank you. So Mark, you're a current 00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:51.879 employee of Voice of America as the RF engineer. 00:11:52.379 --> 00:11:54.919 Let's talk a little bit about the 80th anniversary 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:59.299 here and what that means to you and the staff 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:05.200 at VOA. It is really a milestone to still be 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.460 in existence after 80 years. We started at the 00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:13.039 end of World War II to combat Nazi propaganda 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.620 with the truth. And from the very beginning, 00:12:17.139 --> 00:12:19.639 even in those early first broadcasts, it was 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:21.960 said that whether the good sorry, whether the 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:23.720 news would be good or bad, we would we would 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:27.500 tell you the truth. And a lot of times, the news 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:29.860 was bad. And it was it was negative. You know, 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:32.740 when the allies were losing, it really didn't 00:12:32.740 --> 00:12:36.960 look good. But it was it's it made us credible. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.799 to have to share that with the world and to not 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:44.039 try and try to hide it like like the Nazis did 00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:47.940 and later the with the Russians that everything's 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:50.240 copacetic everything's great you know there's 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:53.679 the uh harvests are plentiful don't question 00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:57.340 if you're and you know we were have have been 00:12:57.340 --> 00:13:02.779 and remain a um a the voice of America and we 00:13:02.779 --> 00:13:05.679 were we are intended to represent not just a 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:10.070 view but the but a comprehensive view of significant 00:13:10.070 --> 00:13:14.269 quote, significant American thought to paraphrase 00:13:14.269 --> 00:13:17.250 our charter. And ever, ever since then, you know, 00:13:17.250 --> 00:13:19.690 we haven't shied away to going, going forward. 00:13:19.769 --> 00:13:21.950 You know, now, you know, we're, we're in the 00:13:21.950 --> 00:13:25.070 21st century and VOA has, has been a pioneer 00:13:25.070 --> 00:13:28.370 in a lot of areas, including being the first 00:13:28.370 --> 00:13:32.629 broadcaster to distribute programming on the 00:13:32.629 --> 00:13:37.549 internet in 1994, using a gopher which I guess 00:13:37.549 --> 00:13:40.649 you would call a browser back a long long long 00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:44.110 ago and then for audio files it had an ftp site 00:13:44.110 --> 00:13:47.870 that you had to download them very very slowly 00:13:47.870 --> 00:13:55.610 um yeah but it's it existed and yeah so The VOA 00:13:55.610 --> 00:13:59.909 has decommissioned these two sites that are going 00:13:59.909 --> 00:14:02.570 to be in the special event in Westchester, Ohio 00:14:02.570 --> 00:14:07.230 and in Greenville. But the VOA is still operating. 00:14:07.830 --> 00:14:10.509 And again, you're one of the people in charge 00:14:10.509 --> 00:14:13.750 of making sure that RF is still going where it's 00:14:13.750 --> 00:14:18.730 supposed to go. So where is VOA right now? And 00:14:18.730 --> 00:14:23.730 what are the target audiences for the RF? side 00:14:23.730 --> 00:14:26.490 of things and then of course it's you know worldwide 00:14:26.490 --> 00:14:29.090 with streaming i would assume target audience 00:14:29.090 --> 00:14:32.230 is that that's uh i can just say there we are 00:14:32.230 --> 00:14:34.549 broadcasting in 40 40 different languages at 00:14:34.549 --> 00:14:39.009 the moment the every everything from weger to 00:14:39.009 --> 00:14:47.889 tigray to swahili tibetan and spanish some english 00:14:47.889 --> 00:14:51.049 there's the learning the special english broadcast 00:14:51.049 --> 00:14:54.870 is still is still on the air and there have been 00:14:54.870 --> 00:14:57.789 many people who who visited Jocelyn's museum 00:14:57.789 --> 00:15:00.769 who who said that you know they learned to speak 00:15:00.769 --> 00:15:04.450 English from uh the voice of America and that 00:15:04.450 --> 00:15:07.730 is just one of the many languages English is 00:15:07.730 --> 00:15:10.789 just one of the many languages although we uh 00:15:10.789 --> 00:15:15.490 the standard English broadcasts as like the BBC 00:15:15.490 --> 00:15:19.990 might have are they have kind of taken a back 00:15:19.990 --> 00:15:24.289 seat to other More important, um, targets, I 00:15:24.289 --> 00:15:26.529 guess you would say, but I'm not, I'm not here 00:15:26.529 --> 00:15:28.570 as a representative of the voice of America. 00:15:28.710 --> 00:15:30.769 I can only state what's, you know, what's public 00:15:30.769 --> 00:15:35.029 knowledge. And, um, I guess that's, uh, I guess 00:15:35.029 --> 00:15:38.149 that's, uh, did that answer your question? Tell 00:15:38.149 --> 00:15:41.250 me a little more about the RF. Let's, you know, 00:15:41.330 --> 00:15:44.850 just like, like you said, you're not a representative 00:15:44.850 --> 00:15:49.460 necessarily in this. uh wearing this hat tonight 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:53.960 but but you know what bands what bands what uh 00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:55.879 you know what are some of the transmitters that 00:15:55.879 --> 00:15:59.580 are currently running and antennas those kinds 00:15:59.580 --> 00:16:05.679 of things oh wow um we have oh running down through 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:12.120 the sites we have there is greenville obviously 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:18.330 site a there's in marathon we have the Largest 00:16:18.330 --> 00:16:22.610 AM station in the country broadcasts out of Marathon 00:16:22.610 --> 00:16:28.389 Quay towards Cuba. We have Sao Tomei. There's 00:16:28.389 --> 00:16:33.409 Botswana. We have two stations in Germany. There's 00:16:33.409 --> 00:16:37.649 Kuwait. There's Philippines, Thailand. There 00:16:37.649 --> 00:16:41.090 are two in the Marianas at Saipan and Tinian. 00:16:41.830 --> 00:16:45.379 There's a megawatt. We have a megawatt. AM station 00:16:45.379 --> 00:16:50.039 in Thailand as well. The coolest antenna we have 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:56.220 is in Kuwait. It's a rotatable 2x2 curtain that 00:16:56.220 --> 00:17:01.080 spins like on a shaft and I can't hit anywhere 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:06.480 from Europe all the way to China from that antenna. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.740 I'll say that most of the sites These days use 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:16.859 curtains, usually sluable curtains. The transmitters 00:17:16.859 --> 00:17:21.079 are predominantly 250 kilowatts. There are some 00:17:21.079 --> 00:17:24.759 that are 50 kilowatts backup transmitters. For 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.000 a while, we were using one of these 50 kilowatts 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:33.180 to run a DRM program out of Greenville Transmitting 00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:39.380 Station there. Greenville and that has since 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:43.480 ceased, but we maintain the capability to broadcast 00:17:43.480 --> 00:17:46.660 DRM in the future. Personally, I would like to 00:17:46.660 --> 00:17:49.579 see some of that come back, but that's neither 00:17:49.579 --> 00:17:54.180 here nor there at the moment. The Greenville 00:17:54.180 --> 00:17:56.940 station still maintains many Romic antennas. 00:17:57.259 --> 00:18:01.460 Whether they're using them or not, I can't speak 00:18:01.460 --> 00:18:04.319 about, but They are pretty impressive when you 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:07.519 see just the amount of steel that went into building 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:12.359 these things. And in one of my jobs, we were 00:18:12.359 --> 00:18:15.599 dismantling antennas and moving things around 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:18.039 and moving transmitters around. And, you know, 00:18:18.380 --> 00:18:21.740 you really learn to respect how well these things 00:18:21.740 --> 00:18:24.940 were built. And, you know, I am younger than 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:29.440 most of the transmitters in our system. I don't 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:32.960 think we bought. I think the last shortwave transmitter 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:37.039 we bought was in the 80s. Wow. And I know that 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:40.880 the last medium wave we bought was in 2004, which 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:48.599 was a 800 ,000 water for Central Asia. And I 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:51.740 can say that because I did the factory acceptance 00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:56.779 test for it in France. It's a Talos transmitter. 00:18:57.380 --> 00:19:02.779 But as far as The majority of our transmitters 00:19:02.779 --> 00:19:06.819 are continental. There are some Marconi as in 00:19:06.819 --> 00:19:12.859 a short wave side. We have, I know Harris, there 00:19:12.859 --> 00:19:18.359 are a few Harris DX series AM transmitters. There 00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:22.359 are some Marconi medium wave transmitters. I'm 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:25.730 not sure what the megawatt is in Thailand. but 00:19:25.730 --> 00:19:32.470 that's impressive, regardless. A lot of the AAMs 00:19:32.470 --> 00:19:36.690 have gone by the wayside. We had one in Cyprus 00:19:36.690 --> 00:19:40.650 and it's off the air. We closed a shortwave station 00:19:40.650 --> 00:19:45.430 in Sri Lanka within the past six years, seven 00:19:45.430 --> 00:19:50.109 years. Site A in Greenville was closed, but yeah, 00:19:51.190 --> 00:19:55.990 that's what remains to be seen. It seems like 00:19:55.990 --> 00:19:58.650 every time they talk about cutting back programming 00:19:58.650 --> 00:20:01.470 and cutting languages or, you know, defund, you 00:20:01.470 --> 00:20:05.549 know, the sun setting of shortwave, there's some 00:20:05.549 --> 00:20:11.470 disaster that happened, some crisis that, you 00:20:11.470 --> 00:20:13.549 know, they immediately, someone wants to know 00:20:13.549 --> 00:20:19.269 how do we get into this region that is landlocked 00:20:19.269 --> 00:20:22.049 mentally, you know, there's no there's no free 00:20:22.049 --> 00:20:27.309 flow of information of or into or about a certain 00:20:27.309 --> 00:20:31.589 region and it falls back on the short way. It 00:20:31.589 --> 00:20:35.269 falls back on this quote antiquated technology. 00:20:36.150 --> 00:20:38.329 Yeah, I never thought of that, but you know, 00:20:38.329 --> 00:20:42.529 with so much of the internet, you know, being, 00:20:42.529 --> 00:20:46.109 you know, cut off and filtered by certain countries, 00:20:46.650 --> 00:20:49.069 that would be one way you could get around that. 00:20:50.869 --> 00:20:56.210 Mark, how many listeners did you have here recently? 00:20:57.049 --> 00:21:02.910 We have 310 million audience, up from 280 in 00:21:02.910 --> 00:21:09.109 2020. So the audience is growing still. It's 00:21:09.109 --> 00:21:12.990 some pretty cool stuff. When I went to the museum 00:21:12.990 --> 00:21:15.069 the first time in Westchester and heard about 00:21:15.069 --> 00:21:19.809 the the special English thing that really caught 00:21:19.809 --> 00:21:23.789 my attention that, you know, by using basic English 00:21:23.789 --> 00:21:26.089 words, you could, you could actually, you know, 00:21:26.190 --> 00:21:29.630 teach people English over, over a radio. And, 00:21:29.630 --> 00:21:32.990 um, it was just fascinating, um, you know, the, 00:21:33.309 --> 00:21:36.609 the progress that that made teaching people and, 00:21:36.769 --> 00:21:39.390 and so that they can listen to, you know, the 00:21:39.390 --> 00:21:43.950 newscasts and know, you know, what the true happenings 00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:47.670 are in their world. Did I answer your questions 00:21:47.670 --> 00:21:50.950 officially there? Is that? Yeah, that's good. 00:21:51.150 --> 00:21:56.210 That's good. I will admit, my favorite antenna 00:21:56.210 --> 00:22:02.869 in the network is in Djibouti. It's one of the 00:22:02.869 --> 00:22:07.210 medium waves I forgot to mention. We have one 00:22:07.210 --> 00:22:11.609 site next to a short wave site run by the government 00:22:11.609 --> 00:22:16.079 of Djibouti. One of my first jobs was to model 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:21.539 a log periodic antenna, very similar to the one 00:22:21.539 --> 00:22:25.480 that they have at WRNO, the Rock of New Orleans. 00:22:27.180 --> 00:22:34.119 And I was given a paper size C drawing. This 00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:39.099 is like two feet by three feet in French. And 00:22:39.099 --> 00:22:42.900 the drawing was only the it was wire lengths. 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.900 There's wire links and I had and it had like 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:50.119 a few notations on angle like pitch angle and 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:54.140 and rib angle and cage you know wire diameter 00:22:54.140 --> 00:22:58.299 and insulator size. I had to like model all this 00:22:58.299 --> 00:23:01.920 in neck to try to figure out whether doubling 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:05.339 the power would make would cause corona on the 00:23:05.339 --> 00:23:11.700 insulators. And I just like I had literally had, 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:14.180 this is before Google Translate, I literally 00:23:14.180 --> 00:23:16.680 had a French to English dictionary out trying 00:23:16.680 --> 00:23:21.559 to understand what all this stuff was. I had 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:27.740 never done log periodic antennas, sort of new 00:23:27.740 --> 00:23:32.859 TV antennas, but anyway, long story short, the 00:23:32.859 --> 00:23:35.819 model predicted that there would be no corona. 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.940 We doubled the power and the Djibouti government 00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:44.740 was very happy. Well, there you go. Can't ask 00:23:44.740 --> 00:23:47.700 for much better than that. Alright, well we're 00:23:47.700 --> 00:23:50.680 going to take a break here and when we come back 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:53.640 we're going to talk a little bit more about some 00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:58.480 of the history of VOA and a little bit more with 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:02.619 the special event when we come back with Jocelyn, 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:05.960 Mark, and Peter right after this word. from iCom 00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:10.359 America right here on HamTalk Live. Now is the 00:24:10.359 --> 00:24:13.779 time to spice up your ham shack with iCom's new 00:24:13.779 --> 00:24:18.920 ID52 handheld. Now shipping. This radio is perfect 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:22.039 for staying in or venturing out and working your 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:25.599 favorite bands this winter season. The ID52A 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:29.140 is now shipping. ICOM's newest handheld amateur 00:24:29.140 --> 00:24:32.559 radio is a VHF -UHF dual bander with D -Star 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:35.980 and FM dual mode functions. This radio supports 00:24:35.980 --> 00:24:39.299 conventional FM communications and D -Star simplex 00:24:39.299 --> 00:24:42.079 repeater, regional and worldwide calls over the 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:45.839 D -Star internet gateway. The ID52A is the first 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:49.559 amateur radio handheld with a full color 2 .3 00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:52.500 inch waterfall display and the ability to send 00:24:52.500 --> 00:24:56.099 photos over star with a connected Android device. 00:24:56.519 --> 00:24:59.140 Other features include a wideband receiver with 00:24:59.140 --> 00:25:03.200 a guaranteed range of 144 to 148 and 440 to 450 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:06.400 megahertz, integrated GPS including grid square 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:09.960 location, micro SD card slot, micro USB connector, 00:25:10.440 --> 00:25:14.160 and IPX7 waterproof. For more information about 00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:19.460 ICOM radios go to icomamerica .com slash amateur. 00:25:19.819 --> 00:25:22.960 You're listening to Ham Talk Live, the number 00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:25.960 one podcast amongst the podcasts with the words 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:29.319 ham, talk, and live in the title. Here's your 00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:56.220 host, Neil Rapp. Welcome back to Ham Talk Live. 00:25:56.819 --> 00:25:58.980 Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, 00:25:59.619 --> 00:26:02.859 and Instagram. And you want to watch those as 00:26:02.859 --> 00:26:07.079 we record shows. We'll be posting the topic and 00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:11.059 you'll have a chance to ask your questions in 00:26:11.059 --> 00:26:14.480 advance since we're not doing live shows much 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:18.119 anymore. That's how we'll take your questions 00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:22.150 is on Twitter. uh... ahead of time so make sure 00:26:22.150 --> 00:26:25.569 you check us out there on social media for the 00:26:25.569 --> 00:26:30.430 topics as uh... these programs are produced all 00:26:30.430 --> 00:26:32.990 right well let's get back to the guys here talking 00:26:32.990 --> 00:26:37.109 about the eightieth anniversary of the voice 00:26:37.109 --> 00:26:40.569 of america special event All right, welcome back. 00:26:40.589 --> 00:26:44.769 We're here with Jocelyn Bro, KD8VRX and Mark 00:26:44.769 --> 00:26:51.470 K3POE and Peter N4PVH. They are the people behind 00:26:51.470 --> 00:26:55.150 the 80th anniversary of the Voice of America 00:26:55.150 --> 00:26:58.549 special event coming up this weekend. And I want 00:26:58.549 --> 00:27:01.930 to go to Peter here for a little bit. Peter, 00:27:01.930 --> 00:27:04.970 talk about what's going on at the Greenville 00:27:04.970 --> 00:27:09.269 site and trying to build this the Superstation 00:27:09.269 --> 00:27:12.809 down there. Tell us what's going on. Yeah, just 00:27:12.809 --> 00:27:17.269 as a brief intro to the Greenville sites, we 00:27:17.269 --> 00:27:22.690 had, I think back in the 1963, was it? JFK went 00:27:22.690 --> 00:27:27.289 and commissioned the VOA site in Greenville and 00:27:27.289 --> 00:27:30.369 they made A and B. They had three of them, A, 00:27:30.390 --> 00:27:34.910 B and C. A and B were identical all the way down 00:27:34.910 --> 00:27:40.339 to the water coolers. And eventually A got decommissioned, 00:27:40.500 --> 00:27:44.059 budget cuts or whatever. And B currently is very 00:27:44.059 --> 00:27:46.440 much up and running and broadcasting to South 00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:51.220 America. Site C was more of a relay station and 00:27:51.220 --> 00:27:54.640 a listening post than it was anything else. And 00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:57.960 so it wasn't really designed to have the huge 00:27:57.960 --> 00:28:02.980 transmitters that A or B had. So C got decommissioned 00:28:02.980 --> 00:28:07.670 in the 90s. And so, our brightly -famature radio 00:28:07.670 --> 00:28:10.049 club has been going out there ever since then 00:28:10.049 --> 00:28:13.769 and hooking up, you know, a ladder line to these 00:28:13.769 --> 00:28:17.470 things and blasting our signal all over the world 00:28:17.470 --> 00:28:21.819 with about 20 to 23 dB gain. on these rhombic 00:28:21.819 --> 00:28:26.960 antennas. So there used to be 23 rhombic antennas 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:29.559 and a bunch of them got carted off to other places, 00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:33.460 but we have four of them left in the major directions. 00:28:34.180 --> 00:28:36.859 They're typically about a little less than, the 00:28:36.859 --> 00:28:40.019 towers are a little less than 200 feet and they 00:28:40.019 --> 00:28:44.319 have, so diamond shaped, the rhombic shape, and 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.420 they have typically three wires going from the 00:28:47.420 --> 00:28:51.779 apex to the side antenna. tower and then back 00:28:51.779 --> 00:28:54.799 to the apex again. So it makes them rather broad 00:28:54.799 --> 00:28:58.859 -banded. And then, so these towers have been 00:28:58.859 --> 00:29:03.720 up since, well, since 63. And we actually managed 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:08.460 to have a little test where the Navy did a rim 00:29:08.460 --> 00:29:13.059 pack exercise all the way out in Hawaii. And 00:29:13.059 --> 00:29:17.039 one of our members went out with a small antenna 00:29:17.039 --> 00:29:24.950 and radio. And they set up there in the one of 00:29:24.950 --> 00:29:28.210 the dormant volcanoes. And what they really were 00:29:28.210 --> 00:29:30.250 trying to do is to see if they could have an 00:29:30.250 --> 00:29:34.630 emergency hospital set up and sort of if there 00:29:34.630 --> 00:29:38.890 was a big disaster, how the Navy help out. And 00:29:38.890 --> 00:29:41.849 so they all set up their tents and everybody 00:29:41.849 --> 00:29:44.089 got ready to communicate all over the world. 00:29:44.509 --> 00:29:49.230 and our little bright leaf club of 69 members, 00:29:49.750 --> 00:29:52.730 one of them was out there. And within one day, 00:29:52.789 --> 00:29:56.170 he was on the air and communicating all the way 00:29:56.170 --> 00:29:58.650 back to these antennas at the Greenville site. 00:29:59.069 --> 00:30:03.309 It was called Project Strong Angel. And so the 00:30:03.309 --> 00:30:06.869 next transmission didn't occur for three days 00:30:06.869 --> 00:30:12.529 later. So the amateur radio boys, we got it done. 00:30:12.750 --> 00:30:16.130 So just to prove that we could do stuff in an 00:30:16.130 --> 00:30:20.470 emergency. But those antennas were very critical 00:30:20.470 --> 00:30:22.990 to be able to make the distance all the way to 00:30:22.990 --> 00:30:27.589 Hawaii. And they did. So obviously, our one guy 00:30:27.589 --> 00:30:31.109 out there with a small antenna on a pole wasn't 00:30:31.109 --> 00:30:34.190 exactly broadcasting a whole lot of power. but 00:30:34.190 --> 00:30:36.529 he established communications and had a wonderful 00:30:36.529 --> 00:30:40.490 link that way. So we've realized the emergency 00:30:40.490 --> 00:30:44.069 use of these antennas has been, you know, it's 00:30:44.069 --> 00:30:47.289 one of those things you wish they were up all 00:30:47.289 --> 00:30:50.549 the time. So we kept putting up temporary feed 00:30:50.549 --> 00:30:54.170 lines and they kept getting torn down. So finally 00:30:54.170 --> 00:30:56.809 after, you know, two years of COVID, we couldn't 00:30:56.809 --> 00:30:59.990 get there. Everything had been torn down. And 00:30:59.990 --> 00:31:04.650 so, you know, one question after another and 00:31:04.650 --> 00:31:07.690 starting to get involved into this project you 00:31:07.690 --> 00:31:11.230 know I kind of realized hey why don't we put 00:31:11.230 --> 00:31:17.289 out some permanent feed lines and my co -hosts 00:31:17.289 --> 00:31:20.529 here kind of suggested a bunch of things and 00:31:20.529 --> 00:31:23.490 this thing this project just started to spin 00:31:23.490 --> 00:31:28.269 itself up spool itself up into full gear so as 00:31:28.269 --> 00:31:31.710 it stands now we have two log periodic antennas 00:31:31.869 --> 00:31:36.569 that are steerable and on 96 foot towers and 00:31:36.569 --> 00:31:39.390 then we have the four rhombics and we'd love 00:31:39.390 --> 00:31:42.849 to have all of them come back into the ham shack 00:31:42.849 --> 00:31:46.750 and then we've been working on a station design 00:31:46.750 --> 00:31:51.410 looking at all kinds of SDR radios and so that 00:31:51.410 --> 00:31:54.730 could possibly be controlled remotely and looking 00:31:54.730 --> 00:31:59.549 at a software called Node -RED to automate all 00:31:59.549 --> 00:32:03.049 of this. And this has been done by several other 00:32:03.049 --> 00:32:06.170 people already. So it's not like we're inventing 00:32:06.170 --> 00:32:09.490 something new, but with a browser, any browser 00:32:09.490 --> 00:32:13.650 on any machine could come in and with the right 00:32:13.650 --> 00:32:18.210 credentials run the station. We have fiber optic 00:32:18.210 --> 00:32:21.130 internet coming into the station and we're going 00:32:21.130 --> 00:32:24.430 to have four drops right into the room. So we 00:32:24.430 --> 00:32:27.930 have internet out the yin yang. Then we have 00:32:27.930 --> 00:32:31.539 a generator for the entire building so whenever 00:32:31.539 --> 00:32:34.539 the power goes out we're still going to be on 00:32:34.539 --> 00:32:37.920 the air and we also have a tower outside that 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:41.500 we could put either a mesh network or a repeater 00:32:41.500 --> 00:32:44.960 or some other kind of a thing and oh one extra 00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:50.160 thing we have a 30 -foot satellite dish if we 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:52.799 could do something with if somebody could figure 00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:57.069 out how to make it work so We have a whole bunch 00:32:57.069 --> 00:33:01.490 of old parts that we're trying to spin up into 00:33:01.490 --> 00:33:05.450 a Superstation if I can get the funding and we're 00:33:05.450 --> 00:33:09.930 looking into you know Go fund me and in grants 00:33:09.930 --> 00:33:14.869 and whatever I can find to to do this But so 00:33:14.869 --> 00:33:18.190 we're we're actively in the planning stages right 00:33:18.190 --> 00:33:23.210 now. So Sounds like a fabulous Set up and you 00:33:23.210 --> 00:33:26.230 know that one of the things that you know kind 00:33:26.230 --> 00:33:30.130 of disappointed me at Bethany is you know the 00:33:30.130 --> 00:33:33.069 antennas are all gone. And you know, the matching 00:33:33.069 --> 00:33:35.910 network is still out there, but in the, in the 00:33:35.910 --> 00:33:39.329 tower bases out in the park, but the antennas 00:33:39.329 --> 00:33:42.009 are gone and y 'all were lucky enough to hang 00:33:42.009 --> 00:33:45.670 on to at least four of the, uh, the rhombics. 00:33:46.250 --> 00:33:48.869 And so, yeah, I can't, I can't imagine being 00:33:48.869 --> 00:33:52.049 able to, to hook up to those. So I hope, uh, 00:33:52.049 --> 00:33:56.809 hope that project comes to fruition. Yeah. So 00:33:56.809 --> 00:33:59.910 if any of your people want to see what we're 00:33:59.910 --> 00:34:06.880 talking about, The internet site W4AMC .com has 00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:10.039 a link that shows the project and where it stands 00:34:10.039 --> 00:34:14.539 and what we're doing. So that's easy. You know, 00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:16.099 if people are interested, they can go hit it 00:34:16.099 --> 00:34:17.980 and see, all right, what are they doing now? 00:34:18.599 --> 00:34:22.340 So. Yep, very good. Well, let's go over to Jocelyn 00:34:22.340 --> 00:34:28.460 again up in Westchester and just kind of. talk 00:34:28.460 --> 00:34:31.219 a little bit more about the special event before 00:34:31.219 --> 00:34:36.239 we sign off tonight about the certificates and 00:34:36.239 --> 00:34:39.320 QSL information. Just kind of recap everything 00:34:39.320 --> 00:34:42.659 for us so people can work this special event 00:34:42.659 --> 00:34:46.909 this weekend. Yeah, happy to do so Neil. So as 00:34:46.909 --> 00:34:49.889 we mentioned there'll be three stations on the 00:34:49.889 --> 00:34:55.210 air whiskey 3v from the DC area whiskey 8 Oscar 00:34:55.210 --> 00:34:59.329 obviously from VOA Bethany and whiskey 4 alpha 00:34:59.329 --> 00:35:03.610 from the Greenville site and We'll be on again 00:35:03.610 --> 00:35:07.070 2280 for sure if 10 and 15 are open. We're gonna 00:35:07.070 --> 00:35:09.889 try to get on those band look for us on sideband 00:35:09.889 --> 00:35:13.090 There'll be some fd8 stations running And we 00:35:13.090 --> 00:35:16.929 will also try to get some CWN. As I mentioned 00:35:16.929 --> 00:35:20.849 before, the ARRL contest is going on. So we won't 00:35:20.849 --> 00:35:22.989 be able to, you know, we'll see what we can do 00:35:22.989 --> 00:35:26.090 there on the bands. And if you make a contact 00:35:26.090 --> 00:35:29.730 with anybody or any of the stations, I should 00:35:29.730 --> 00:35:33.610 say, you'll be able to get the certificate that 00:35:33.610 --> 00:35:36.829 will be emailed to your QRZ address within two 00:35:36.829 --> 00:35:40.760 weeks, I believe is what Lou said. The digital 00:35:40.760 --> 00:35:44.559 QSL card will be emailed to your QRZ email address 00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:47.599 as well, and that will take about a day or so 00:35:47.599 --> 00:35:52.119 for us to process that. And then if you send 00:35:52.119 --> 00:35:57.500 an SASC to the QSL information that's on the 00:35:57.500 --> 00:36:01.550 QRZ page, you'll be able to get the... card, 00:36:01.750 --> 00:36:03.730 the paper card as well. And now it'll take a 00:36:03.730 --> 00:36:05.909 little longer, obviously, to sort everything 00:36:05.909 --> 00:36:10.150 out. But those are the things we have. And we've 00:36:10.150 --> 00:36:12.230 already got some offerings lined up for us to 00:36:12.230 --> 00:36:14.789 work while the museum will be operating. I want 00:36:14.789 --> 00:36:17.730 to remind the listeners that the VOA Museum and 00:36:17.730 --> 00:36:20.829 Broadcasting is open on the weekends in the afternoon. 00:36:21.269 --> 00:36:24.090 And during Hampvention, if you're coming for 00:36:24.090 --> 00:36:26.829 Hampvention, we always have extended hours. It 00:36:26.829 --> 00:36:30.730 will start Thursday and will end Sunday. during 00:36:30.730 --> 00:36:34.090 from Thursday to Saturday will be 1 p .m. to 00:36:34.090 --> 00:36:37.510 9 p .m. and then on Sunday it will be 12 p .m. 00:36:37.570 --> 00:36:42.409 to 5 p .m. okay so I'm sure we'll be talking 00:36:42.409 --> 00:36:46.030 about that again before Hamvention but that's 00:36:46.539 --> 00:36:50.820 a little preview here to put that thought in 00:36:50.820 --> 00:36:53.920 people's minds that if you're coming to Hamvention, 00:36:54.119 --> 00:36:58.480 you haven't seen one of these VOA sites, this 00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:02.320 is a great one to come check out. And there's 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:05.059 just a ton of work's been done to make it very 00:37:05.059 --> 00:37:09.219 accessible and friendly to people going around 00:37:09.219 --> 00:37:12.320 looking at all this. You know all this vintage 00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:19.039 equipment and So it's a must -see so we'll talk 00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:22.579 about that more. I'm sure as we get closer to 00:37:22.579 --> 00:37:27.039 Hamvention, but Every year when I go to Hamvention 00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:32.039 take a bunch of people down to the museum and 00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:35.940 do a tour and You know always see something different 00:37:35.940 --> 00:37:38.780 every time I walk into the place. There's something 00:37:38.780 --> 00:37:42.880 different so Jocelyn, what else do you have for 00:37:42.880 --> 00:37:46.860 us? I just forgot to mention one thing, which 00:37:46.860 --> 00:37:50.539 is if you go on a different weekend that's not 00:37:50.539 --> 00:37:53.820 Hamvention, let the person at the front desk 00:37:53.820 --> 00:37:57.440 know you are a Ham. Uh, we understand you want 00:37:57.440 --> 00:38:00.239 probably a more technical tour and we'll try 00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:02.840 to get you a docent that has more, uh, understands 00:38:02.840 --> 00:38:04.760 a little bit more of the tactical background, 00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:07.360 uh, versus just getting the general public tour, 00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:09.699 which is still fabulous. Uh, but you, you get 00:38:09.699 --> 00:38:12.159 a little bit more insight on some of the stuff. 00:38:12.400 --> 00:38:15.940 So I just, uh, wanted to mention that. Yeah. 00:38:16.019 --> 00:38:19.280 And you know, and they, you'll probably get the 00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:23.699 Drake collection on top of everything. where 00:38:23.699 --> 00:38:27.239 everybody else might be going what's that uh 00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:30.219 so all right very good well uh i think we're 00:38:30.219 --> 00:38:32.960 we're about finished here so let me let me just 00:38:32.960 --> 00:38:36.340 kind of go around everybody uh any final comments 00:38:36.340 --> 00:38:38.940 or anything that we've left out uh let's go to 00:38:38.940 --> 00:38:41.719 mark first i would like to mention one thing 00:38:41.719 --> 00:38:45.659 that's uh as we were talking about the uh the 00:38:45.659 --> 00:38:49.960 voa museum there in ohio they have the first 00:38:49.960 --> 00:38:52.719 transmitter that was used to broadcast the first 00:38:53.699 --> 00:38:57.400 program from the Voice of America overseas, the 00:38:57.400 --> 00:39:01.159 WLWO. Right, Brightoslan? Yep, yeah, absolutely 00:39:01.159 --> 00:39:05.079 right. And that was a, I'll call it a barn find. 00:39:05.900 --> 00:39:09.360 As some of you may know, WLW down the road from 00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:15.000 the VOA Museum is the land is being redeveloped, 00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:16.719 so to speak. There'll be a little commercial 00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:20.440 center near the tower. It's going to be interesting. 00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:24.119 But as they were tearing down some stuff and 00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:27.380 moving stuff, one of the, actually, Lee, which 00:39:27.380 --> 00:39:30.980 is the museum curator, asked if he could look 00:39:30.980 --> 00:39:34.880 around and ask what's in the back shed. Oh, just 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:38.139 a bunch of nothing. And he started looking at 00:39:38.139 --> 00:39:40.280 it and then opened a couple of doors. And then 00:39:40.280 --> 00:39:43.400 he knew exactly what he was looking at and salvaged 00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:46.159 it, the parts that could be salvaged and brought 00:39:46.159 --> 00:39:49.659 back to the museum and is now on display. So 00:39:49.659 --> 00:39:52.420 we're very fortunate. that we were able to save 00:39:52.420 --> 00:39:55.460 it and bring it back. So thank you, Mark, for 00:39:55.460 --> 00:39:57.400 bringing that up. I've forgotten to mention, 00:39:57.920 --> 00:40:01.900 yes, before VOA, the Bethany station was fully 00:40:01.900 --> 00:40:04.559 operational. The way to get the message back 00:40:04.559 --> 00:40:10.900 to Europe was with the WLWO over overseas. transmitter 00:40:10.900 --> 00:40:13.440 out of Mason that would basically beam it back 00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:17.599 to the United Kingdom and then the BBC would 00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:20.880 take it from shortwave and rebroadcast over longwave 00:40:20.880 --> 00:40:23.940 and mediumwave for the German public to hear. 00:40:24.460 --> 00:40:28.500 All right, anything else, Mark? Well, one of 00:40:28.500 --> 00:40:31.519 the QSL cards will have a picture of the transmitter 00:40:31.519 --> 00:40:35.880 on it. Well, very good. In case you're interested 00:40:35.880 --> 00:40:40.579 in that. As well there, and Joss Linz will have 00:40:40.579 --> 00:40:43.780 an image of the massive log periodic there at 00:40:43.780 --> 00:40:48.000 Site C. For all those interested in antennas 00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:53.579 and RF side of things. I know from my point of 00:40:53.579 --> 00:40:57.860 view, this whole episode has brought up an old 00:40:57.860 --> 00:41:05.059 memory and I was a young kid in 1963 in Germany. 00:41:05.449 --> 00:41:09.309 And after the assassination of President Kennedy, 00:41:09.869 --> 00:41:12.650 we tuned into the Voice of America to find out 00:41:12.650 --> 00:41:15.090 what the truth was, rather than whatever was 00:41:15.090 --> 00:41:20.389 being spoken at the time. So we moved quite frequently, 00:41:20.610 --> 00:41:22.909 about every two years, international business 00:41:22.909 --> 00:41:25.769 is what my father was doing. And for us, for 00:41:25.769 --> 00:41:28.469 me and our family, it was very, very important 00:41:28.469 --> 00:41:31.829 to really understand what was going on so you 00:41:31.829 --> 00:41:34.340 could make the proper decisions about. what was 00:41:34.340 --> 00:41:38.199 happening. So the service has been an incredible 00:41:38.199 --> 00:41:42.099 influence to world events and trying to being 00:41:42.099 --> 00:41:47.940 an equalizer in the playing field. So I'm very 00:41:47.940 --> 00:41:51.099 honored to be able to do this. All right, Peter. 00:41:51.239 --> 00:41:54.619 Well, thank you so much for being here. And Mark 00:41:54.619 --> 00:41:58.760 and Jocelyn, appreciate all your work and getting 00:41:58.760 --> 00:42:02.489 this special event going. chance to remember 00:42:02.489 --> 00:42:06.309 back 80 years ago when when that transmitter 00:42:06.309 --> 00:42:11.769 first came on the air and was operational. So 00:42:11.769 --> 00:42:14.889 thank you all for being here tonight and we look 00:42:14.889 --> 00:42:16.989 forward to hearing you on the air this weekend. 00:42:17.530 --> 00:42:19.829 Yep, look it sounds fantastic. We're looking 00:42:19.829 --> 00:42:23.329 for a lot of people calling us. Help us spot 00:42:23.329 --> 00:42:25.789 and keep us keep us busy. That's what we're there 00:42:25.789 --> 00:42:30.130 for. Thank you, Neil. Thank you, Neil. You're 00:42:30.130 --> 00:42:32.190 most welcome. Appreciate it. You're most welcome. 00:42:32.489 --> 00:42:37.190 All right. Well, that is a wrap for this edition 00:42:37.190 --> 00:42:40.369 of HamTalk Live. I'd like to thank my guests 00:42:40.369 --> 00:42:46.329 Jocelyn KD8VRX and Mark N3 or K3POE rather and 00:42:46.329 --> 00:42:49.769 Peter N4PVH and everybody out there in cyberspace 00:42:49.769 --> 00:42:53.630 for listening and invite you back next week when 00:42:53.630 --> 00:42:59.150 Mark Smith N6MTS will be here to talk about SOAR, 00:42:59.429 --> 00:43:04.090 that's Satellite Optimized Amateur Radio. And 00:43:04.090 --> 00:43:07.289 for a list of all of our upcoming guests, visit 00:43:07.289 --> 00:43:11.670 HamTalkLive .com. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, 00:43:11.829 --> 00:43:16.170 WB9VPG, saying seven three, seven five, and may 00:43:16.170 --> 00:43:28.750 the good DX be yours. Well you came right back 00:43:28.750 --> 00:43:33.110 to my secure core Your readability five and strength 00:43:33.110 --> 00:43:38.050 nine You never once mentioned your weather at 00:43:38.050 --> 00:43:43.690 all And I didn't mention mine We talked and talked 00:43:43.690 --> 00:43:47.829 for hours and hours I completely forgot you're 00:43:47.829 --> 00:43:52.469 a ham I don't know your power or the height of 00:43:52.469 --> 00:43:57.070 your tower But frankly I don't give a damn So 00:43:57.070 --> 00:44:02.130 73, to you and your family, I'll be seeing you 00:44:02.130 --> 00:44:06.710 further down the line. So 73, to you and your 00:44:06.710 --> 00:44:10.309 family, I'll be seeing you further down the line.