This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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neorep here we go welcome to hamtok live call
in let's talk neil's your guy hamtok live Good
evening, everyone. It's time for another HamTalk
Live. It's episode number 287, 10 meters of the
1010 International Net recorded live on Thursday,
January 27th, 2022. I'm your host, Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to another episode
of HamTalk Live. Tonight, we're joined by Keith
Schlotman. KR7RK and we'll take your calls live
a little later on in the show. Last week, Dr.
Nathaniel Frisel, W2NAF, was here to talk about
the upcoming HamSci conference in Huntsville.
And if you missed the show, you can listen anytime
at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube. And you can always catch the
rebroadcast of HamTalk Live over on shortwave
at five zero eight five a .m. That's WTWW five
point zero eight five Saturday afternoons at
about three thirty p .m. Eastern Time so we'll
be talking about ten meters tonight if you have
some questions about ten meters in the ten ten
net Like have a chance to for you to chime in
here in just a little bit If you're listening
to us live on Thursday night, you can give us
a call later on in the show. Let me go ahead
and give you the phone number so you can write
it down or punch it in and have it ready to go.
And we'll give that number out several times
again between now and when it is time to call.
But that telephone number will be 859 -982 -7373.
Again, the number is eight five nine nine eight
two Seventy -three seventy -three. You can also
tweet us. It's at ham talk live on Twitter If
you're in on Spreaker and you have an account
you can type to us In the comments as well. So
I'll be back with Keith right after this word
from tower electronics Right here on ham talk
live Jerry, what's up, man? I haven't seen you
at Sunbucks in a while. I used to see you every
morning getting coffee. What's up? Well, I can't
afford Sunbucks five days a week anymore. I had
to spend my money on PL -259s. You know, those
antenna projects I've been meaning to do. I had
to do them before my HOA finds out I have antennas.
That's too bad, Jerry. I miss seeing you and
catching up over coffee. You should get your
PL -259s from Tower Electronics. They have great
stuff. Jerry, you're back! Oh, QRM Heterodyne
Frappuccino. That's a good choice. How's it going?
Did you get all those antennas up before the
HOA police showed up? Yeah, I got them all done.
Thanks for telling me about Tower Electronics.
Now I can have my coffee. I just saved a bunch
of money on my PL259s by switching to Tower Electronics.
Don't get caught without PL259s. Visit Tower
Electronics online at pl -259 .com or at a ham
fest near you. Or give them a call at 920 -435
-2973. And be sure to pick up some power poles,
adapters, and cables too. Coming to you live
from the glass -enclosed Faraday box. Here's
Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live. Welcome back
to HamTalk Live. Tower electronics ham fest schedule
coming up January 29th this weekend. It will
be in Arcadia, Florida Then they'll be at hamcation
February 11th 12th and 13th Then it's off to
Dalton, Georgia February 26th and Cave City,
Kentucky on March 5th But you can visit them
anytime anywhere at PL -259 .com Welcome back
to HamTalk Live. Tonight, Keith Schlotman, KR7
Arcade, joins us on the Orlando amateur radio
club and hamcation Zoom line. Keith has served
as the treasure of the 10 -10 international net
since 1994. He's an active ham on almost every
band, but his favorite band has been 10 meters
from the day he earned his first amateur radio
license. Keith is also very involved with the
Summits on the Air or SODA program and generally
activates over 100 summits per year and on most
of them he includes 10 meters in his operating
plans. He's also frequently found operating his
mobile station and occasionally from home and
he's been a forum presenter at numerous ham radio
conventions including Dayton, Huntsville, some
of the ARRL conventions and and even some local
clubs. So Keith, thanks for joining us tonight.
Oh, thanks, Neil. Good evening from Tucson, Arizona.
Well, I'm sure it's just warmer there than it
is here. It's getting crazy out here, but hopefully
we'll get things warmed up here soon and hamcation
will be warmer and hamvention will be warmer.
Hopefully that will, uh, that will work. And,
and, and the, and the COVID numbers go down.
Well, speaking of heating up, let's, let's talk
about 10 meters. How, you know, cycle 25 is here.
So what's 10 meters look like these days? Well,
so we're definitely seeing that improvement in
10 meter activity. There's no, no doubt about
it. Um, The numbers in the 1010 international
net statistics definitely support that, but you
don't really need to see those numbers to just
know if you tune around on 10 meters, you're
likely at times to find activity. I'm not gonna
gloss it over too much. 10 meters can be at times
a challenging band. And that makes it, that's
part of the fun of it in reality is you can't
be guaranteed except during the absolute solar
maximum probably. But if you compare 10 meter
activity today to 10 meter activity two years
ago, it's certainly easier to make contacts and
a lot of those contacts are farther away. it's
just and that's you know, part of the fun of
ham radio is is learning different things and
10 meters allows you to To learn different parts
of the solar cycle and what times of day might
work and even what times a year I'd be glad to
talk about some of those differences with you
if you'd like. Oh Absolutely. Yeah, let's talk
a little bit about those differences. And we
know that, you know, in a few years, things are
going to be just really hopping on 10. But yeah,
go ahead and talk a little bit about those. Yeah,
so first of all, the cycle itself, which is roughly
an 11 year solar cycle, goes through a minimum
to maximum kind of a sine wave. The predictions,
current predictions seem to be probably in the
summer of 2025 is when we might see the maximum.
And what that means is that there's gonna be
many, many sunspots on the sun. And I won't try
to go into all the physics involved here, but
as the cycle of sunspots increases to maximum,
generally the Earth's ionosphere works much better
at reflecting 10 meter radio waves. you actually,
10 meters is particularly evident when the cycle
is hot, 10 meters gets hot. And when the cycle
is low, it doesn't work as well as some of the
other HF bands. And so that's kind of the first
level is that solar cycle level and we are on
the curve going up and up and up constantly towards
maximum right now. So it's a great time to to
get involved and learn some of the unique things
about 10 meters as we go towards maximum. So
when things get really easy and the band is just
hopping, you'll know exactly what to do to take
advantage of that. So that's kind of the broad
cycle, Neil. I remember a long time ago, I started
working on the Tasmanian Devil Award and you
had to work so many people from Tasmania and
you know you got to get on like midnight or you
know 5 or 6 a .m. to catch those people usually
and and lo and behold you know I started getting
a few and and they were almost always on 10 meters.
And so when I think of 10 meters, that's what
comes into my mind is being able to finally get
some of those Tasmanian contacts. So one of these
days I need to, once I get an antenna back up
here, I need to finish that up. I think in North
America you have to have 10 from Tasmania if
I remember correctly. If they even still have
that anymore, I don't know if that's even a...
even a thing but yeah you know 10 meters I don't
know either but certainly there's certain countries
that definitely get more actively involved with
10 meters I would say probably you know in addition
to the award that you're referring to there's
a lot of 10 meter activities from South Africa
a lot from England, United Kingdom, and Germany
is very active on 10. Australia and New Zealand
and Japan is often a good place to find DX to
Japan on 10 meters. And that doesn't mean other
countries, of course, are very active as well.
And oftentimes, yeah, during the solar maximums,
you'll find different country -specific awards.
And right now, people might say, would give anything
to work Germany on 10 meters and and during the
maximum you might say boy I can't believe how
many I'm getting how many of those deals I'm
getting so it sounds like right in line with
that Neil yeah well there's just you know it's
always great to go check 10 meters you know and
it's like you know when everything else is bad
go check 10 meters because you know it is different
and sometimes it'll it'll work a lot better but
it just kind of comes and goes and you know when
when people are actually on the bands they're
not quite as dead yeah And if I can just address
that for a minute, we like to say, and you and
I were chatting about this, if nobody calls CQ,
it might sound very much like the band is dead.
And you might be really surprised if you call
CQ, who might come back to you. And I will tell
you personally, I have worked DX on 10 meters
in the last, well, really pretty much every year,
even through the solar minimum. So it's there
to be had, but you can't get it just any old
time. And there are different seasons. You know,
if I drop down from the solar cycle level, seasonally,
we have what's called the E -skip season, where
the E layer of the ionosphere becomes better
at reflecting. And typically that's gonna occur
around the... basically in February and June
around the winter and summer solstice. And oftentimes
you'll get east skip openings, but those openings
oftentimes for people in the United States will
be within the United States, but maybe I would
get an east skip over to North Carolina from
Arizona or up to Michigan or something like that.
But even At other times of the year, I'm getting
plenty. For example, very recently I'm working
New Hampshire and New Jersey and New York on
10 meters. And when I say very recently, I mean
within the last few weeks. So there's plenty
of activity there. And the other thing that's
making activity pick up is the introduction of
some of the digital modes. So if people are interested
in particularly in FT8. And I personally don't
do very much FT8 at all, but I know with certainty
that FT8 activity is very active on 10 meters
and it's not hard at all to get DX or work many
different states if you're stateside, just using
the FT8 digital mode. Well, let's talk a little
bit about the net because you're one of the officers
and you've been with them for a long time. So
let's talk about the 1010 International Net and
its function and how you can join. Okay. Yeah,
I'd be happy to do that. Some people may be surprised
to learn that 1010 International Net is actually
one of the largest amateur radio organizations
in the world, as well as one of the longest lasting.
And it formed in 1962. So what is that 70 or
I'm sorry, 60 years ago. And it formed as the
1010 net of Southern California, but quickly
expanded to become the 1010 International Net.
And everybody who wants to join 1010 as a member
is issued a unique membership number and the
numbers are sequential. And we're currently very
close to 80 ,000 numbers having been issued worldwide.
We have members in, I don't even remember how
many countries, but it's in the hundreds. And
so it's a long lasting and very popular organization.
And the function is basically to promote the
use of 10 meters. Many newer amateurs don't realize
that 11 meters, the CB radio band, originally
was an amateur allocation and it got converted.
And so one of the, whether it's true or just
old lore, legend or whatever, Some people say
that one of the reasons 1010 was formed was to
try to encourage activity in order to protect
10 meters to make sure that we didn't also lose
that band. 10 meters is such a great band. It's
the widest HF band that we have. It's almost
two full megahertz wide and you can use CW and
sideband, but you can also use FM on some of
the upper frequencies and it's been used in the
past for satellites and so it's a it's a very
fun band in so many ways and by having an organization
to kind of promote the use of it we're helping
to to in some ways ensure the safety of not losing
those frequencies and as you know frequencies
are so valuable nowadays and Yeah, so so if somebody
wants more information about the net and and
the Organization and wants to get a number. How
do they do that? So the first thing I would say
is is go to our website Which is ten dash ten
dot net I'm sorry ten dash ten org we are a nonprofit
organization and If you go to TEN -TEN .org or
also 10 -10 .org, there's a tremendous amount
of information about the club and the history
and some resources on there. And so that's a
good starting point. To join 1010, the current
rules require that you actually submit a log
of having worked at least 10, 10 current members
of 1010. And that's actually very easy to do
and I'd like to share in a few minutes one upcoming
opportunity to do that that would probably make
it fairly easy to join. But you submit a log
and you have to record the person's first name
and their QTH and their 1010 number. And a legal
exchange of for 1010 purposes is considered to
include all of that, the name and the QTH and
their number. And part of the goal is to get
people to make friends on 10 meters. And I can
tell you personally, I've made so many wonderful
friends from all over the world, not just in
the United States. And, you know, when we have
gatherings at Dayton or wherever we run into
all these old friends and by by requiring exchanging
the name and the state, it's, you know, you're
gonna get to know somebody much easier than if
all you're doing is sending a 599 or a, you know,
how many DB you are or something. So it's a fun,
really fun, and we have little QSO parties and
even in those where you're trying to make lots
and lots of contacts, you still have to exchange
the name. Anyway, you work 10 members and it's
a very inexpensive, depending on whether you
want an electronic version of the news, meaning
a PDF copy or a paper version, it's like $10
or $15. And you really only have to pay it once
to get your 1010 assigned number. Your number
is yours for life. And once you've been issued
that number, it will never be issued to anybody
else, even if you don't renew your dues. But
of course, we encourage you to renew your dues
and that also has some benefits associated with
being a current paid up member. So I think, does
that answer the question on how to get involved?
Absolutely. Well, why is 10 meters so, I'm setting
you up here, why is 10 meters so important for
beginning hams? I don't think your audience is
exclusively United States, but I do think that
the reason here is equally valid for the vast
majority of other countries, and that is that
the entry -level amateur radio licensing in most
countries does permit 10 -meter operation. At
least under current rules, if somebody gets their
technician license, they're immediately allowed
to start using 10 meters and they can get a,
you know, they don't have to know Morse code.
They can get a HF rig and operate sideband between
28 .3 and 28 .5 megahertz, which is actually
where the vast majority of 10 meter activity
will be found for phone. If they want to learn
CW, they have access to that range of the band
as well. And so I think that's the answer to
the question is, it's so important because those
beginning hands, it's kind of like the gateway
drug to HF radio for many. Yeah. Yes, it is.
Somebody can get a technician license and get
a Baofeng or a Uh, inexpensive. Oh, wait a minute.
You said, you said that we're just saying, just
saying it's been forever since we played the
bow thing song. So, okay. Got it in there. Go
ahead. Um, you know, somebody can get a, uh,
inexpensive handy talky and there was a lot of
fun to be had with that. I'm not trying to put
that down at all, but if you take one of those
same hands and bring them over to your station
and say, How would you like to get on 10 meters
and talk to somebody in Virginia? Or, hey, if
we're lucky, talk to somebody in Japan. Talk
to somebody in Germany. And not just through
a repeater, but you're actually from your microphone
to their microphone, sending a radio wave across
space. And you just can't beat that feeling,
in my opinion. And so I think it's a crucial
introductory band, but I will also tell you,
you know, all you have to do is look at the AWRL
10 meter contest to know that 10 meters is incredibly
popular amongst seasoned, experienced contesters.
You know, the guys with the mega stations are
pounding it out on 10 meters when they get the
opportunity. So it's an excellent, excellent
place for a beginning ham to get some of that
HF experience, to get introduced to somewhere,
maybe a new Elmer. It's an easy band to get on.
You don't need a gigantic antenna. You can even
buy a 10 meter only rig in some cases. Uh, I
just think it's a fantastic place for a beginner
for sure. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well,
it's time to take a break. So we're going to
do that. And then we'll come back with Keith
and, uh, we'll open up the phone lines and, uh,
check the tweets and all that good stuff. Um,
here with, uh, Keith Schlotman, KR seven RK from
the 10 10 international net right after this
word from icon America. Right here on ham talk
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amateur. Join the conversation. Give us a call
at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the number to call
is 859 -982 -7373. Or, if you'd rather type than
talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live. Now, here's Neil
Rapp with more HamTalk Live. Oh yeah, you're
talking ham radio, baby. You're listening to
HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp. Welcome back to
ham talk live We're on the air every Thursday
night at 9 p .m Eastern time right here at ham
talk live comm and be sure to check us out on
Facebook Twitter and Instagram and before we
get back to Keith and phone calls I think we've
got a we've got a caller on the line here. So
we'll We'll pick up a caller here in just a second
and then we've got a couple people in the comments.
So we'll pick all that up right after this week's
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've been working on a joke about
my HeathKid Radio for this podcast, but it's
just taken forever to put together. 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. Uh -uh Rick,
those HeathKid instructions are fabulous. You
should use those. Well, thanks, Rick, for the
joke of the week. We'll have another one next
time. And now is the time for your call. So if
you have a question for Keith Schlotman, KR7RK,
give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the
number is 859 -982 -7373. You can also tweet
us. It's at HamTalk Live. If you're on Spreaker
and you have an account you can comment and that'll
pop up here on the screen and we have a couple
of those and if you're listening to us on WTWW
or on the podcast version of the show you won't
be able to reach us live since we're doing this
this on Thursday night, but First of all, before
we get to the phones, we've got a couple of hellos
on Spreaker here. First of all, hello from Southern
Oregon. It's Art, K7DWI, number 40849, and also
Horacio, or LU1BJW, number 39329. So Keith and
Art, thank you for... for being here. And, uh,
it says, remind Keith that the winter contest
is on February 5th. So, uh, so Keith, you want
to, you want to say something there? Yeah, yeah,
absolutely. Um, so first of all, thank you from,
uh, KR seven arcade number six, three, three,
two, four. And, uh, you heard the other numbers
there. That's part of, you know, like I mentioned,
we get our own, uh, unique 1010 number, never
reissued to anyone, so it becomes part of your
identity to other 1010 members. Yes, thank you
so much for bringing up the upcoming CUSO party.
And I had mentioned earlier, there's a very easy
way to get your 10 numbers to, if you wanna join
1010, we have CUSO parties and there's quite
a few CUSO parties actually. You can look on
the website to get information about when those
are occurring. But it just so happens that our
very next upcoming QSO party is right around
the corner. It's going to be February 5th and
6th. And it starts at 01 UTC on February 5th
and goes through to 2400 base 2359 on February
6. So it's a 48 hour Q. So party Currently you're
probably not gonna operate the full 40 hours
like we may have it some contest during solar
maximum But if you get on and I would recommend,
you know most activity Currently is going to
be found during daylight hours I find my best
success is usually late morning to early afternoon,
but that can vary a lot, sometimes in the early
evening as well. There's no time that's bad to
try, but on February 5th and 6th, I almost can
guarantee, and the party, the QSO party for that
period is our winter phone party, so it is a
sideband party, and you will find the vast majority
of activity somewhere, between 28 .3 to 28 .5,
and very frequently, if you go towards the center
of that, around 28 .400, you'll find activity.
Many of the DX stations, LU1, DJW, who's checked
in here, oftentimes the Argentinian stations,
Brazil, you'll find them up around 28 ,450 to
28 ,500. And it's not difficult to get DX to
South America if you learn how to use trans -equatorial
propagation. And the timing of that can be important
during the daytime. So I'd encourage everybody,
let's see if we can go get LU1 -DJW in our logs,
not this coming weekend, but next weekend. Okay,
so a great way to get those those 10 10 10 numbers.
So well, that's a lot of 10 the 10 10 10 number
All right. Well, let's go to the phones here.
Oh, go I make another quick comment. Yeah now
that you said 10 for 10 10 one of the one of
the founding principles of the 10 10 international
net is that we do indeed have a daily net and
except for Sundays, never on Sunday, so Mondays
through Saturday, we have 1010 nets, and those
are basically international, and 28 .380 is the
most common net frequency, but also 28800, and
what the, kind of the slogan for that is see
you on 10 at 10, because in, Southern California
You know, that's it would be 10 a .m. In Southern
California, so it's actually 1800 UTC So at 1800
UTC daily except Sunday we have in that and if
you're in California, you can say see you on
10 at 10 There you go. All right. Well lots of
tens going around. So just remember 10. All right.
All right. We've got a We got a caller on the
line here, so let's see who we have. Good evening
and welcome to HamTalk Live. Hi, my name is Tom.
My call is Whiskey8TangoKilo. I'm located in
Tucson, so I know Keith and I've worked him dozens
of times on his Summits on the Air activations,
but I want to change topics altogether. He's
been talking mostly about DX on 10 meters. And
I am familiar with that. I was one of the founding
members of the PJ 2T Superstation, operated many
contests from there, including a 10 meter contest,
probably 15 or 16 years ago. And we made several
thousand contacts in a weekend on 10 meters.
So when it's hot, it's hot. But what I'm interested
in is local communications on 10 meters. I personally
don't like repeaters. I think repeaters have
been obsolete since the 80s when cell phones
use became widespread and when the cell phone
towers are down due to a emergency, a weather
emergency or whatever, the repeaters are down
too. So I think that 10 meters would be more
valuable for local communications for public
service events with just a 10 meter whip and
100 watts. I think you could cover most of the
urban area here and I just I wonder if Keith
has any experience with that. So, well, good
evening, Tom. Great to hear you. And yes, we
have worked so many times, and Tom's a great
asset to the southern Arizona ham community.
I will tell everybody that. I'm sure you already
figured that out. 10 meters as a local mode,
in my opinion, is absolutely wonderful. Many
years ago, in the early 90s, I actually started
a 10 meter net every Thursday evening in Tucson.
And I don't believe that's still going, but it
gave me a lot of respect for a local 10 meter
net because, you know, two meters is pretty blocked.
It's pretty much line of sight in most cases.
10 meters on the other hand, can easily work
its way over a hill or around a building and
you know, it's helpful to be line of sight, but
it's not mandatory. You can still get a contact.
So from that regard, I think it's a better mode,
or I'm sorry, a better band than some of the
VHF and UHF. And there are many places where
local nets have existed for many years. very
successfully continuing to go. If you go to our
1010 .org website, some local nets are listed
there. It's always the people who try to maintain
the lists of active local nets have a real challenge
because they come and go. They're always dependent
on at least a few people to be really dependable.
You know, I guess, You know, Tom, I would be
supportive of a local net around here as much
as possible, but I would encourage anybody who,
if you don't have a local net, consider opening
one up. And one of the funnest parts of all about
it is the band may very well pop open on you.
And whereas, you know, for four weeks running,
you get all the local guys and you all know each
other. The next week you open the net and somebody's
checking in from out of state and everybody's
shocked. And that can be a lot of fun, the surprise
of who's gonna have access. But for more reliable
local communications, I'm a big fan of it. Yeah,
I think it's a good thing. And you can of course
have 10 meter repeaters as well. Okay, thanks
Keith. I think we will try that get a 10 meter
net going here in Tucson and See, we've got people
all over the metro area as well as out of state
So we'll see who shows up and see if we can get
it going That's I remember correctly if I remember
correctly. It was didn't a lot of the Puerto
Rico traffic ended up on 10 meters Hurricane
I think I remember that. It didn't actually end
up working out better, so yeah, it's a good tool
to have. Yeah, I would totally believe that.
I don't know that for a fact, but it would make
a lot of sense, actually, because they have hills
on the island. And if the hurricane comes over
and blows down all the repeater towers, you might
still want to get across to the other side of
the island. And if there's a hill between you.
You probably either gonna have to use 10 meters
or some really steep NVIS, you know on 80 meters
or something Well Tom, thanks so much for calling
in Thanks, thanks. All right. Thank you 7 3 7
3 All right, the phone number is 8 5 9 9 8 2
73 73 if you'd like to to chime in here and let
me pull up Twitter again here and see make sure
we don't leave anybody out and in the chat make
sure okay well I think we're caught up here Keith
and we're getting close to the end here so let
me let me just throw it to you for any final
comments anything we missed uh... and and then
of course remind everyone where they can find
the ten ten net information online so they can
sign up in and find out about these accused so
parties well i think i want to come back to something
i mentioned earlier uh... about the friends you
can make and uh... i think this is relevant for
any amateur radio band and as much as I'm a total
fan of 10 meters, I'm a total fan of anything
amateur radio. But I got my introduction to 1010
when I had my very first license and the bands
were good and I worked somebody and I wish I
had kept track of who it was. But he said, hey,
do you have a 1010 number? And I said, no, I
don't know what that is. And he said, well, let
me just I'll send you something and you know
and I went on and made more contacts and then
you know a few days later in the mail I get a
package and the guy sent me a copy of the 10
10 news which is our our quarterly we have a
quarterly newsletter it's 32 pages full of information
about the activities and different 10 meter things
and and there's no advertising, so it's 32 good
pages of information. And this gentleman had
taken the time to put his newsletter in the mail
for me and paid the postage just to be a friend
and encourage me to join up. And that meant so
much to me and put me on the path to be in the
fortunate position of being the treasurer here
of 1010 for going on close to 30 years now. And
I've gone to, you know, we used to have conventions
and for a specific 10 10 conventions and and
of course just meetups at Dayton and things like
that. And I've made so many really good friends
and there's very good people. The board of directors
are all very friendly. And I think if if there's
no other reason to join any club, it's to make
some friends and to find people that, you know,
are interested in the same things you are and
so on. And so I would encourage you to anybody
listening to consider joining 1010 for various
reasons. One is, like I said, to support and
help us protect 10 meters as a band that's allocated
to amateur radio, but... Also, there's just so
many benefits to the friendship and camaraderie,
and it can get fun to exchange numbers, and there's
awards for collecting various numbers and things,
and you find your own level at where that fun
lies. But I think that kind of sums up my thoughts
about 1010. Does that make sense, Neil? Yeah,
yeah, very good. You know, I appreciate you taking
the time and actually contacting me to get on
the show and come on here and talk about 10 meters.
I'm excited to get an antenna up and running
and see how 10 meters is improving and get on
there. maybe get Tasmania again. I'm excited
to do that. Hopefully we'll get a break through
here soon and be able to do that. It's just great
to have you on and talk about this. I'm sure
we can do it again down the road. Remind everyone
of the website again. If they miss the information,
they can find that. Okay, so the website is 10
-10 .org, T -E -N -T -E -N .org. And also at,
you know, February 5th and 6th, that Sideband
QSO party, you do not have to be a member. It's
a great time to collect your numbers to join.
And if you're not a member, you're welcome to
send a number zero or just say, I'm not yet a
member, I'm collecting my... and the people who
are members are thrilled to work you. So come
join us for some fun and hopefully I will see
you on 10 at any time, not just 10. Very good.
Yeah, and hopefully we can say hi at Hamvention
or Hamcation or something or other soon. We'll
hope that that all works out. So thanks for being
here Keith. Appreciate it. Thank you, Neil All
right Well, that is a wrap for this week's edition
of ham talk live I'd like to thank my guest Keith
Schlotman KR7 RK and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and calling in and chiming in tonight
here with us talking about 10 meters Before I
sign off tonight I want to share some news with
you about this very program. When I started HamTalk
Live back in February 2016, I set out to create
a call -in talk show with a professional broadcast
feel. I'd always wanted to do talk radio instead
of music and HamTalk Live was a chance for me
to finally give it a try. My hope was that the
interviews would be few and far between and instead
I could introduce a topic and provide you, the
listener, an opportunity to discuss these topics
in a talk radio broadcast format. Once in a while
I'd throw in an expert on a topic and give everyday
hams a chance to speak directly with the experts.
I also knew from the start that live broadcast
media was already in a steep decline and on -demand
media is what's booming. That trend is finally
caught up with ham talk live to stay responsive
to our growing base of listeners We are hoping
to make the show more accessible more portable
and more friendly to our listeners lifestyles
and schedules So perhaps you can start thinking
of us now as ham talk on demand or even ham talk
live once in a while I ran the numbers and and
found that During the past several months, for
example, 99 .43 % of people who listen to HamTalk
Live do so after the show is completely over.
That's not even counting the listeners on WTWW
and YouTube. I recognize that listening or watching
programming on demand isn't the future anymore,
it's the present. As our audience grows, So does
the variety of lifestyles and schedules of each
of our listeners. I'm grateful for all of you.
So I'm going to make life and listening even
easier. We're changing our format and we will
be pre -recorded, not necessarily released on
a specific day and time or schedule. You can
still reach us on social media and definitely
do that. But now you can carry us. Wherever you
go listen to us when you want and know that even
if we are not so live anymore We're still bringing
you the best in ham radio expertise personalities
and of course Some humor so live shows may happen
on occasion But for the most part the shows will
be pre -recorded as hams We've all learned to
tinker with things to make them work even better
and that's what I'm doing So I'm looking forward
to sharing it with all of you So for now, this
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and
may the good DX be yours. And I didn't mention
mine We talked and talked for hours and hours
I completely forgot you're a ham I don't know
your power or the height of your tower