This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit PL -259
.com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged
it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur
for more information about ICOM radios. Standing
in the snow with a brand new radio Catching the
ISS, satellites are the best A gate on the roof,
repeater down the street What fun it is to make
contacts with everyone I meet Oh, radio, radio,
QTS and Volkswagen I like to get all the gifts
around the USA at Fox One, eh? Thanks to Emily,
the Harmonic of KE8FZT for writing our holiday
version of the opening of Cam Talk Live. It's
episode number 283, the amateur radio newsline
takeover. Recorded live on Thursday, December
9th, 2021. Good evening, everyone. I'm your host,
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of Ham Talk Live. Tonight we're joined
by a whole bunch of people from amateur radio
news line and we'll join in that conversation
here in just a little bit. Last week here on
the show, Case Van Osprey, W0AAE was here to
talk about December Yoda month. And if you missed
that show you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive
.com or on your favorite podcast app or YouTube
or you can catch the re -broadcast on WTWW that's
5085 AM. HamTalk Live is heard on WTWW Saturday
afternoons at about 3 .30 PM Eastern Time. Well,
before we get into the show tonight, I want to
take this opportunity to announce our prize winners
of our remote license testing giveaway. So Tanner
Jones, W9TWJ is paying the fees and we're going
to give away three remote upgrades. We did not
have any takers on New Ham's, but we're giving
away three tests for upgrades. And here are the
winners. Kevin KC1 OIZ Manuel KN6 BFJ and Jeff
N8 ACL so congratulations to all three of you
and Tanner will be in touch about scheduling
your upgrade exam and good luck on your upgrade
so tonight we'll open up the phone lines and
we'll have the zoom running here with all the
news line people the phone number that you can
call in and join us later on in the show i will
give you that it's 859 -982 -7373 again it's
859 982 -7373. We will go to the phones a little
later in the show. I'll let you know when it's
time to call. But if you're listening to us live
on Thursday night, you'll be able to do that.
You can also tweet us. It's at HamTalk Live on
Twitter, so we'll check that. And if you're on
Spreaker and have an account, you can type in
the comments as well. So I'll be back with the
Newsline crew right after this word. from Tower
Electronics right here on HamTalk Live. Thank
you for a lovely dinner. Aren't you going to
ask me in to solder some PL -259s? Well, I do
have some from Tower Electronics. How can I refuse?
Consider the sophisticated quality of PL -259s
from Tower Electronics. From soldering supplies
to adapters, connectors to cables, and all types
of connectors, Tower Electronics has the parts
you're looking for. Well? Just one more connector?
You know I love your PL259s. Then by all means,
take some with you. Don't be caught without PL259s.
Visit Tower Electronics at a ham fest near you.
Or visit them online anytime at PL -259 .com
or call 920 -435 -2973. They also have ham sticks,
mobile antennas and meters too. See the whole
catalog. Go to PL -259 .com. Tower Electronics,
the Ham's Dime Store since 1978. If a man says
something in the woods and there are no women
there, is he still wrong? You're listening to
Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp. Welcome back to
HamTalk Live! Tower Electronics will be at Plant
City Florida this weekend December 10th and 11th
but you can visit them anytime at PL -259 .com
Well, welcome back to HamTalk Live. Tonight,
the Amateur Radio Newsline crew, Amateur Radio
Newsline crew joins us on the Orlando Amateur
Radio Club and Hamcation Zoom line. Amateur Radio
Newsline produces a weekly newscast of interest
to radio amateurs worldwide. Oprah Winfrey, Tom
Brokaw, and Kevin Nealon are but a few of the
people who are not correspondents for Amateur
Radio Newsline. The bulletins conform to all
sections and codes as outlined in part 97 of
the FCC rules about legal means of issuing bulletins
of interest to all amateurs. And Newsline has
a more traditional radio spot news format as
it's completely independent. In addition to the
20 minute newscast each week, we also have highlights
on Ham Nation with Don Wilbanks at E5DW. You
can listen to the full report though on a repeater
near you or online at arnewsline .org or your
favorite podcast app for that matter as well
as HamTalk Live. So here at HamTalk Live we have
some some really great informative shows from
time to time and I'm betting this is not one
of them. Yeah. So, so there we go. And guys,
I forgot, I forgot to tell you to kill the video
because it was the bandwidth here, but, uh, and
yes, and, and bar the door, I think Skeeter just
arrived. So I hope that was him. Uh, so anyway,
welcome guys to ham talk live. I know some of
you've been here before. Some of you haven't.
So, uh, let's see. We've got it. We've got a
whole, whole crew here tonight. In fact, let
me pull this up here. We've got Dave WB nine
or WB eight ODF Don AE five DW Paul WD nine GCO,
Randy W four XJ Chris. WB5ITT, Jim, N8TNW, Kevin
Trotman, N5PRE, Andy, K9AWM, and I'm assuming
Zoom user is N5ASH, so. Is that you, Skeeter?
Yeah, that's me. That's Zoom user, okay. I just
got dialed in, you know, in a hurry here. All
right. Well, guys, welcome to... Didn't want
to miss out on the festivities. Exactly. So,
so welcome to the show. And so I'm going to kind
of try to, you know, throw in all the legal stuff
and all that kind of thing and kind of guide
this. But we build this as the news line takeover
and Don's already laughing about. Yeah. Right.
Good luck with kind of kind of the operative
word. Kind of hurting. Yeah. Yes, and I love
that you say you throw in the legal stuff. You're
just going to keep your sponsors happy. I mean,
we've been watching you on the radio. We know
how that works. Yeah, we know how that works.
Pay the bills, pay the bills, and legal ID at
the top of the hour and we're good to go. All
right, well, let's talk a little bit about what
Newsline is before we get into all the mischief
here. And I'm gonna throw this to Don just because
Don's kind of the the guy that's been around
for for forever Don you want to talk about that
a little bit and then and maybe Jim as well Yeah,
now Chris Boone He predates me by a long shot
he and bill go way back But since I have the
floor you mentioned all these people in the preamble
who were not? Reporters for amateur radio news
line you mentioned all these famous people But
let me tell you one who was and that is the great
Roy Neal K6 DUI who was the voice of the space
program for NBC back in the Apollo days So, yeah,
he was, in fact, part of the Newsline crew. And
he's a silent key now, of course. But yeah, Newsline
is a news and bulletin service, like you said,
and we present a weekly magazine type format,
loosely based on spot news, the spot news format,
and also something like a magazine, like, say,
a 60 minutes or something like that. It's just
a short minute, minute and a half, maybe two
minutes, sometimes stories, about 20 minutes
worth. of just stories of interest to amateur
radio operators. They may or may not have anything
to do with ham radio, but they certainly have
something to do with people who are of that hobby,
more or less. So yeah, if it's of interest to
an amateur radio operator, then we're more than
likely going to cover it. And that's kind of
it. It's been going for over 40 years now. Started,
of course, by the late great Bill Pasternak,
WA6ITF. And there you go. He also began the amateur
radio news line, Young Ham of the Year Award,
back about 30 years ago. And it is now named
posthumously in his honor as the WA6ITF amateur
radio news line, Young Ham of the Year Award.
So that's kind of a thumbnail sketch of what
news line is, Neil. Jim, uh, let's go to you
in a TMW. Uh, Jim's our resident movie star here
too, which we can talk about that maybe in a
little bit, but, uh, but Jim, you you've been
with newsline, uh, over the years. What, what
kind of, uh, what kind of adjustments and changes
have you, you seen since you started at newsline?
Well, uh, I, uh, proud to be part of this great
team, by the way. You guys are just terrific.
And I kind of fell into a news line with Jeff
Clark, K -A -J -A -C, who used to co -anchor
with Jim Davis, W -8. Oops, can't think of his
call. Sorry about that. But they do a Huntley
-Brinkley kind of a thing. And they were both
here in Charleston, West Virginia. And At any
rate, after Jim left the area to go elsewhere,
why? Jeff asked me if I would be interested in
doing that. Of course, I was honored to do that.
That's how we got started. I guess the main changes
I've seen, I think it's a little more streamlined
now. When we did it, Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
would send us the script, just the anchor script.
we would record it doing the Huntley Brinkley
thing back and forth, and then send him by FTP
protocol, file transfer protocol, if you remember
that, and then Bill would then add all the actuality
sound bites. So now, of course, that's changed
and Karen sends the script to us and all the
correspondence. record their sound bites and
we each anchor puts his show together of the
week he's anchoring. So and I think it makes
for a more streamlined show and but it's been
very informational. I always love to listen to
it. We had a gentleman here a hand in our area
who we air news line here in Charleston on Sunday
nights at eight thirty during our net our club
net. Bill Hunter, K -8BS, who's a silent key
now, he faithfully aired Newsline every week
before it was Newsline, even when it was Westlink
and all that. So I was very familiar with the
program, loved it, and again, was so honored
when I got to be a part of it. So that's it in
a nutshell from changes that I've noticed. I
love it how Jim talks about doing the FTP file
transfer protocol thing. You had it easy, Dameron.
I used to have to record mine and then FedEx
the tape back to Basternak. You had it easy.
I had a lot of trouble with FTP. I bet you did
cooperate. I can't even spell FTP. Dropbox does
make it easier. Yes, it does. Oh, yes, it does.
Well, we're going to, we're going to get through
a few more little things here. And I think I'll
throw this one to Paul. Kind of try to get everybody
involved here Talk about how newsline is independent
and supported We are completely independent of
any sort of corporate interest or sponsors and
we We intend to keep it that way just so that
we can retain Journalistic independence So we're
all volunteers Nobody on staff gets paid. We
all just do this because we love it. But we do
still have expenses. So whatever we don't cover
ourselves, we do accept outside donations. And
there is a link on our website. So if you appreciate
what it is we do, and you'd like to help support
us, there's a PayPal link and you can throw a
couple of shekels in the box. We don't take sponsorship
for that very reason so that we can retain editorial
independence. It doesn't happen often, but if
there's a story about something that reflects
a little bit oddly on somebody who may at the
time be a sponsor, we don't have to worry about
that. It really keeps us independent and honest.
We sleep better at night. Yes, and sleep better
at night. There you go, Kevin. Well, let's talk
a little bit how it's produced. So, for somebody
who doesn't have any idea of how this thing comes
together every week, which I think it's like
bubblegum, duct tape, and bailing wire sometimes,
but we have this wonderful script writer who
collects all the news. We have these copy editors
like Ed who... It's 3 a .m., I think, over in
Germany, so he's not with us tonight. But talk
a little bit about how the program is produced
each week. I can speak to that since I just got
done minting this week's edition. Karen. Karen
Eve Murray, who is our editor, and I speak for
all of us that if we did not have Karen, there
would not be a news line. She does a lot of the
behind the scenes stuff, assembling stories,
hunting them down. She hands out assignments.
She'll send a story and a script or a story assignment
if there needs to be an interview. I've done
quite a few of those to all the correspondents.
and then rides herd on the cats until all the
audio comes in and then she writes the script,
she writes the anchor script that wraps around
all the stories. And then she controls the schedule.
There's a group of us that are regular anchors
and we rotate unless somebody's got something
going on and then some will cover for somebody.
But so Karen hands out that assignment and then...
We go to the Dropbox folder where all the week's
audio and script is, and we pull those files
down. And then it's up to us to... Well, first,
Kevin has taken on the responsibility of proof
listening to the stories to make sure that they
match up with the script. There's no major errors
or omissions. And then once he's given it the
thumbs up, then we're free to produce. And we
pull all the audio files and the script down
locally. And then we just bring it into our,
you know, our audio editing software. And then
we record our anchor vocals on top of that. And
then we cut it up into pieces and glue it all
together and then render out the news line for
the week. And then we put it back in Dropbox.
And then Kevin, we'll let Kevin explain what
happens to it from there. But so that's, I mean,
that's, and you know, the first time I did it,
It was kind of scary because Don and Karen, I
mean, I had volunteered to be a correspondent
right after Bill passed away because it sounded
like they could use some help and I had some
experience and I had the equipment. And for whatever
reason, Don temporarily lost his mind and said,
sure, come on in. And then about a month or so
later, they said, hey, you want to try being
an anchor? I'm like, oh crap. But you know, you
get used to it. And you know, this last one here,
I did some pre -production work last night. And
then when I got home from work tonight, it went
together pretty quickly. So we've got a pretty
good system and it works really well. So Kevin,
I will say though real quick, but while we interject,
since you just finished the upcoming report.
Karen does have to take one extra step when it's
your turn to anchor. She makes sure that she
types real slow because she knows you can't read
real fast. And she uses really big type and tries
to use really small words. And when I'm anchoring,
it's the world of unpronounceable DX. Every crazy
country that I've never heard of before. Yeah.
All right. So then Kevin, once we put the finished
files up in Dropbox, what do you do from there?
Because Kevin's our webmaster. Right. Well, once
in a while I get thrown a bone as well, and I
can read a story. Kevin is also one of our correspondents.
Yes, I actually I kind of got it started. I put
my foot in the door about 2009. I became official.
But a couple of years before that, I was actually
taking the go into the website, downloading the
MP3 and reposting it as a podcast so I could.
have it automatically be on my iPod at the time.
And I did that for a couple of years and I reached
out and I asked sheepishly if Bill Pasternak
minded if I did that and he was overjoyed that
I took the initiative to do that and invited
me to actually come and make it official. So
some of my duties are, like Paul said, We get
little bits of the script, each one of us, and
read our stories, and we save them all on Dropbox,
and then... On Wednesday afternoon, usually about
four o 'clock or so, Karen is finished with the
entire script, has it all together and she puts
it on Dropbox. So I pull it down and I start
listening to each of the audio files and I compare
them to what is written in the script and we
have to make a few adjustments once in a while
and every once in a while somebody will get a
call sign wrong or something. So we get them,
hopefully there's something in there we can fix
it. um, surgically, you know, uh, like if, if
somebody says a letter and it was wrong, but
they also say somewhere else in the story, we,
we lift and insert, well, to make the correction
or if we had, if the person is available, we'll
have them just recut it. And, uh, sometimes though,
some of those correspondents are on the other
side of the world and they're asleep, you know,
and it's, we gotta go produce. So we do the best
we can with, uh, mistakes like that, but they
don't happen very often. Once I've listened to
the proof, listened to everything, I put my thumbs
up on the messenger, on Facebook Messenger, let
everybody know that whoever's producing this
week, you've got a green light to go ahead and
produce. And they will put the files together
along with the words in between and make sure
everything is all at the same levels. Make sure
we don't have over 20 megabytes on the file size
because there's a hard limit on our website for
that and they post it and let us know and then
that's when I go in and take the finished files
and I prepare the web page for a new entry. It's
basically like a blog. and you go to the news
portion of the website and you'll see the most
recent episode. And there's a title, and then
there's bullets, and then there's a link for
the script and the audio. There's several ways
you can get the audio. You can get it directly
with a download, right click, or you can, there
is an actual download button in a little black
box, or you can play it on the actual webpage.
Also, we're listed as a podcast in Apple Podcasts
or in Google Play, or you can just get the RSS
feed at the top right -hand part of the page
and put it in your favorite podcast. you know,
whatever you use, what software you use. And
you could also ask what we call the magic genie,
because if you say her name, it'll invoke her,
A -L -E -X -A. You could ask A -L -E -X -A to
play Amateur Radio Newsline, and it'll play the
most recent episode for you. So here we go. We
got everything together. I get it prepared, and
I put it on the website, and I just published
it just prior to us going live here tonight.
So Thursday night, usually around 7 .30, 8 .30,
9 o 'clock, somewhere in that range. That's usually
when we get it posted, and I put links on Facebook,
on our newsline page on Facebook, and a couple
other places, and people find it that way. And
it's been going great for the last 12 years or
so. And most almost all of those shows are archived
on our website. I think there are a few exceptions.
But if you if you are searching for one, usually
you can reach out to our group and somebody will
have it downloaded and saved and preserved because
that's just the kind of fans we have. You know,
they really are good. And then we've got Dave
who who puts it out there for IR LP and all -star
and all that kind of thing and that's right about
that, but It's already time to take our first
break. So we're gonna have to do that, but we'll
come back and we'll talk about the IR LP stuff
with with Dave and and everything else Under
the Sun most likely So I'll be back right after
this word from ICOM America right here on HamTalk
Live. Happy holidays from ICOM. This season spice
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information on Icom radios. 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.
You're listening to HamTalk Live, the number
one podcast amongst the podcasts with the words
ham, talk, and live in the title. Here's your
host, Neil Rapp. Welcome back to HamTalk Live.
We're on the air every Thursday night at 9 p
.m. Eastern Time, right here at HamTalkLive .com.
And be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. And we're going to talk about
Amateur Radio Newsline a little bit more here
in just a minute. But first... It is time for
the N9GSU 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, N9GSU, with today's HamTalk
Live Joke of the Week. At field day last year,
I was surprised when one of the operators pulled
up in an exterminator's van. I said, you told
me you worked on computers. He said, no, I said
I was a debugger. This has been the ham talk
live ham radio joke of the week with Rick Garrett
in nine GSU. Tune in again next week for another
joke from Rick. All right. Well, Rick's got another,
another day one for next week. So we'll, we'll,
we'll get another one. Great. Thanks. Great.
Yeah. Absolutely. I think you're at least not.
That's what makes me tuning in. Well, let's go
over to Dave Park. So you'd be at ODF and I ran
into Dave because there were some issues. uh...
with playing newsline over i think it was echo
link i was trying to get to work and so he jumped
in and started helping and and help me with uh...
getting my rlp node going and everything and
then all of a sudden a few months later he shows
up and and starts being a correspondent for amateur
radio news line and and he has uh... taken his
uh... i rlp and echo link and all -star talents
and uh... and made some things happen. We had
another situation, kind of like Kevin, where
someone had just decided, oh, I'm going to put
Newsline out on IRLP so that everybody can download
it. And then it kind of, you know, it was just
kind of forgotten about. And so Dave came in
and has been doing some stuff. So tell us a little
bit about that, Dave. Oh, hi, Neil and everybody.
I want to start by saying that joke, it's just
hard to follow. It really is. I first wrote,
I see a hissing in the background there. I wrote
the first IRLP script to download and play IRLP,
I'm sorry, a news line. And just recently I've
moved over to All -Star and I'm starting to...
you know, support everybody as far as Newsline's
concerned on All -Star as well. And let me say
we don't have time tonight, but I have a great
story of how I came into Newsline through Don
Wilbanks, and it's kind of a funny story. But
anyways, back to IRLP Newsline. many, many, many
people wanted to move over to having Newsline
on their own machines instead of listening to
the repeaters and whatnot. And I thought, well,
let's talk more about the owners of the repeaters.
You know, can you guys play it? They started
playing it every week, almost every day of the
week. Well, different repeaters for different
days of the week. But man, I program. That's
what I do. And I fell in love with amateur radio
newsline early, early on. Been listening for
years and years and years and wanted to become
part of it. And I got to say, Neil, you mentioned
that you and I got together. You are the reason
I finally emailed Karen Eve Murray, KD2GUT, and
said, hey, I really would love to be part of
this group." And then she said, well, send a
little something to Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, and
see what he says. We're always looking for people.
So I did. And here I am. But again, next time
we all get together, I will tell you the Don
Wilbanks. I'm a program manager, and I got a
couple of things I want to say. I like the read
and we'll do the rest later. I don't even remember
this, but OK, yeah, production production director.
That's that's what I'm sorry. What did I say
program? Yeah, I was production. Yeah, I'm sorry.
That was me. Yeah, I was I was a production director
and got you got you. I thought it was a funny
story. We'll get to it later. I want to hear
it because that's going to be new to me, too,
because I can't remember that I did. I did the
reading of space bees. All of the satellites
out there ready to crash into each other. And
I thought, Hey, that's a great read right there.
But I'm going to hold it. Yeah. Hold it. This
is great. Yeah. We'll, we'll do it next time
we all get together. But, uh, Neil, it's been
a pleasure doing a scripting for IRLP and all
star as well. And, uh, above all, it's just great
to be part of this group. It really is. You guys
are fantastic way before I became. You know any
part of this. It's just I've been listening since
I was cheese I want to say in my teens, but jeez
that would be like a hundred years ago. So That's
my that's my story It's true. It's true. I have
been fantastic for quite a long time. Yes, you
have and I'm glad He's really humble. He's the
most humble person he knows. Yeah, he's got the
book out. I agree with him. Neil, that's my report
for today and thanks for having me on here. Yeah,
thanks for being here. Well, we'll open up the
phone lines. If you have a question, give us
a call 859 -982 -7373 or you can tweet us at
HamTalk Live and if you're listening to us...
On WTWW or the podcast edition, you won't be
able to reach us because we're doing this live
on Thursday. All right. Well, we've got a few
other things, uh, to get to, but, but Andy Morris
and K9AWM has just kind of been lurking around
in the background here, but you hear his voice
on this show. Yeah, and Andy and I actually got
started in radio about the same time. I think
I was maybe one year ahead of him or something,
but it was just about the same time, the same
FM broadcast station. So you got smart and got
out of it. Yeah. And I got out of it. Yeah. Everybody,
I still remember everybody saying, well, wait
a minute, you're training me on this radio station.
Why haven't I seen you in any of the broadcast
classes and it's like, well, I'm pre -med. I
thought you were pre -logged. Same difference.
Sorry, flashing back to Animal House there. There
you go. So Andy, talk about, you're one of the
newer news line people, but you've been doing
this for a while. Talk about, you know, being
a correspondent and what you've done here. Well,
I kind of had a story similar to Dave's. I just
kind of fell into it. Obviously, I've known Neil
for a while, a long time. I heard amateur radio
news line and I thought, well, that might be
fun. I can volunteer for that. So got ahold of
Neil who then sent me through Dawn and to Karen
and around the horn we went and I've only been
doing it for I think about two years now. I really
enjoy it. I get a lot of feedback from the local
hams here in Southwest Indiana and Southeast
Illinois. You'll kind of get that look occasionally
if they hear my call sign or recognize my voice
and they'll say, I heard you do a news line the
other day. Was that you? And I go, yeah, thanks
for listening. So I enjoy it. I love it. I just
get a text or a email every now and again from
Karen saying, hey, can you knock this out before
Tuesday or Wednesday? And I'm happy to do so
and looking forward to getting more involved.
All right. Well, thank you for Andy for being
here and let's go over to Chris because Trying
to trying to get everybody in the list here a
little bit at least before we have to go Chris
talk a little bit about you know, your history
with Newsline and some of the origins Don says
even goes back before him. So yeah. Well, I I
became involved after I met Bill Bill was writing
for 73 magazine, the looking West column. And,
uh, I think it was about 15 or 16 at the time.
And I called bill on the phone one night. We
chatted for about three hours. Uh, needless to
say, my mom was not happy about the telephone
bill the next month. Uh, 30 cents a minute adds
up, you know, and, uh, We were discussing repeaters
and VHF in Texas. I was active in the one. I
still am a life member of the Texas VHFM society
and served on the board of directors twice. And,
uh, but, uh, we were, we just got to shoot in
the bowl. And of course it dragged on and finally
had to hang up. Well, uh, Bill and I kept in
contact on a regular basis. And about that time,
my neighbor across the street. uh... vehicle
rock at the beginning five e f i he started getting
the cassette tapes from jim hinder shot of the
old westlink radio news and uh... i started actually
taking them out on my motorcycle and i'd find
the highest overpass in the area broadcasted
on five two simple acts and then uh... the mobile
or amateur radio club but Decided to start a
net up on their two meter repeater. So I started
doing it over there after every Monday night
net and of course Jim and Bill got together and
Bill took over the Westlake Operations and changed
the name to news line. I think there was a trademark
issue somewhere in that and I've been I'm probably
the oldest well jim jim jim jim jim jim jim jim
jim jim jim jim at least every week, sometimes
two times a week on the phone. I'd call him late
at night, and we'd shoot the bull for about 30
minutes to an hour. And really got to know Bill
real well over the years. And in fact, the night
before he passed, I called him at about 11 o
'clock, and something in the back of my mind
said I hadn't talked to Bill in a while, and
I picked the phone up and called him. And he
answered, and he said it horrible. And he just
said, Chris, he said, I'm going to bed. And this
was early for Bill. And he said, I'm going straight
to bed. Can you call me back tomorrow, the next
day? And I went, yeah, sure. And then, unfortunately,
the next day, I heard he was in the hospital
and then passed away. And that just, it kind
of shocked me and stoned me. But I made his...
uh... made his memorial service out there in
california uh... in fact i did well in fact uh...
about there's six months to a year earlier just
bought an a m radio station in the bullock texas
area and uh... i started playing news line on
sunday mornings there and uh... i know bill was
happy to see that added to the list and uh...
uh... his uh... adopted daughter uh... We were
talking on the phone the night before I was flying
out, and she went, now, Chris, you want dad would
like you to come out here, dress casual, you
know, no suit or anything. And I went, it's only
80 degrees out there in California. Come on,
you know, and, uh, made the trip don't ever fly
spirit airlines by the way we were supposed to
push away from intercontinental in houston at
two o 'clock and we didn't finally leave the
airport until 10 p .m. and it's like never again
but uh... made the uh... made the memorial service
and we're standing outside the church richard
rudman and a bunch of other broadcast engineers
were all standing around shooting the bull Uh,
Bill's daughter comes walking up and of course
we're all in suits and she walks up and she goes,
are you guys all hot? You know, it's a heat wave
out here. And I looked over and I kind of smirked
and I went, yeah, she's never been to Texas and
seen a tree melt in the summer. So we had to
throw a little humor in there. Uh, and everybody
got a good laugh out of it. And she kind of looked
at me and finally like, what is he talking about?
But, uh, You know, it's been a proud association
with Newsline. And I still remember the good
times with Bill. Well, there's been some not
so good times, but not with Bill. It was with
third parties. But he was kind of like a second
father to me growing up. I lost my dad early
before my 14th birthday and Bill and I really
got to really bonded on the phone and became
good friends. And all I can say is I'm very proud
to still be associated with the group, even though
I'm kind of inactive right now, but hopefully
that'll be changing before too long. Very good.
Well, I want to get Randy in here before we go
back to Zoom user. um better known as skeeter
why you i oughta so randy you've come on board
uh recently so so talk a little bit about your
uh your joining newsline yeah i'm the new kid
on the block i've been around about a year now
i think and uh even though i've been at ham radio
about 57 years so i've been around ham radio
a long time and just had a kind of a time in
my life where I have a little bit more time to
kind of give back and I thought this is a place
for me I've got some gifts and skills that I
can offer and just contacted Don and Karen and
just kind of went to work and I love it it's
really fun and working with Karen is great because
I'll write a story and it's the first time in
working with an editor, she'll send it back saying
I made some gentle edits. You know, I've never
had gentle edits before. I've had copy thrown
back at me. So kind of kind of cool working with
somebody that gives you gentle at it. Yeah, that
doesn't exist in radio. No, it sure doesn't.
So anyway, it's great. I've just been enjoying
being a part of this this great group and look
forward to many years doing it. All right. Well,
thank you, Randy. And thank you for all you do
to help us out here at Newsline. And all right.
Well, I know Paul's chomping at the bit to talk
about, you know. Here hearing news line from
an early age. I remember being like, I don't
know seven eight I actually found a tape of one
of the the teleconferences that bill did And
they'd call up on the auto patch and dial in
and pay the long -distance phone bill to tie
in and all that kind of stuff But but I haven't
got Skeeter on here yet. So so zoom user Where
where are you tonight and and and what's what's
going on? Well, I'm actually eastbound on interstate
24 driving my big semi truck enjoying the program
and I'm headed back down to Get a live load in
Murfreesboro and back all that to the place where
I work out of in in Shelbyville, Tennessee so
I am mobile and they have this is in five a SH
mobile and Just glad to be a part of the show,
really. Neil, thanks for hosting us tonight.
Several of us have kind of hog -tied your show
a time or two and had a great time doing it,
but this is really nice that you've kind of let
us all come on and tell a little bit about not
only Newsline, but also the people behind it,
because they are a solid group of folks. Honored
and and and grateful to be a Associated with
Newsline. It's it's it's a blast All right. Well,
let's go to Paul here because I know he's got
to take off To run Newsline actually on his local
net so Paul, you know talk a little bit about
about You know hearing this and you're back in
your childhood Okay, yeah, I'm gonna have to
go quick as news line is ending and then my net
starts I grew up down in Southern, Illinois I
was licensed in 77 and I belong to the Marissa,
Illinois amateur radio club, which is Hiles Club
and Our repeater carried Westlink once a week
somebody would punch up the auto patch and dial
into one of those answering machines and play
it so I listened to it every week when I was
a kid in high school and For me now to be one
of the anchors on this thing after, you know,
I've been licensed for 44 years. It's just really
a thrill and an honor to me that it's kind of
like a full circle thing that I get to be part
of it now, so. Very good. Little external audio
there, that's nice. I'm sorry, I was checking
my repeater. Unfortunately, I have to do last
call for one of our club members who passed away
this past week, so I don't want to miss that.
I'm sorry to hear that. Very good. I'm sorry
to hear that. We'll let you get on your way and
get that done because that's an important duty.
We'll let you go, Paul, but thanks for being
here. All right. Well, I think I've got, yeah,
Andy's gone. And I think I've got everybody.
I think we got everybody in tonight. So, so,
and we're still running late, but, but I don't
know. I think Skeeter, I'm thinking I want to
hear this story from Dave. Me too. From Dave.
Oh, okay. I don't know the story from Dave. Are
you sending it to me? Yes. I'm sending it to
you, Dave. Yeah, because he doesn't want to hear
any of my stories. No one does. Although I do
appreciate Skeeter delivering the goods. Oh,
being a truck driver. I mean, thanks. Thanks
for doing that. I really appreciate it. Well,
everybody's got to eat. It's the second joke
of the week. That's job security for me, unlike
what I had in broadcast radio. Right, Don? Yes,
yes. Don and I have both been shown the door
on our radio careers, basically, and it was fun.
It hardly paid anything, but it was fun. Right
and Chris was Chris was my chief engineer at
I heart New Orleans for a number of years right
there at the end so that was kind of cool alright
so Dave Dave enlighten us with this story that
involves me that I don't remember. Alright well
I. I remember clearly that it was Neil. when
I was helping him with IRLP that I said, okay,
you know what? I've been listening to these guys
for years and years and years. I'd like to be
part of it. And Neil, you said, get in touch
with Karen Eve Marie, KD2GUT. And I did. I said,
I would really like to get in on this. I haven't
done anything radio wise in many years. And she
said, grab a little audition tape. And actually,
I know I said tape. It was an MP3. When you have
gray hair like me, you have to say tape. So I
sent my Space Bees reread to Don and Don wrote
me back and said, I like the read, but as a production
person, I'm probably the only person that will
say this. From the newsline crew and that's I
don't know what microphone you're using but I
can hear your entire room and I thought Kenny
really I went back and listened to it and sure
enough my condenser microphone was picking up
everything. Yep and Don I changed microphones
and I mean just to say nobody else is gonna say
this to you Dave, but I just just word I can
hear your own Well, that was that wasn't nearly
as as asinine and nasty as as I thought I would
say I'm known for being nasty and asinine. So
let me let me right dress right. Let me finish
by saying It was interesting. It was fun and
got to be honest with you Don. You're just the
team bit Intimidating and I think that I think
that was part of my read I have i've heard that
before and i don't understand it but i'm i'm
the hugest teddy bear in the world it was so
funny and i know we're running way over but my
wife when when we first met she was working at
a local auto parts place a western auto which
of course doesn't exist anymore i would go in
and all of the the guys that work there they
were scared to death me they were like. He beat
you, doesn't he? I know it is. He just looks
mean. I don't see any bruises. He must hit you
where, like, your, you know, doesn't show. And
Don's like, no, he's the biggest pussycat in
the world. I don't know where you're getting
this. It's just a teeny tiniest bit, but it was
enough for me to go, oh, I'd better go back and
listen to that. Dave, this is this is Paul. Actually,
I had a short check in tonight. Just poke him
back. Yeah, exactly. Just poke him back and it'll
be all right. Yeah. Well, I can do that now.
Yeah. Well, you can do that then. I would I would
just like to mention, I don't know if this was
mentioned while I was running my thing. This
group really is like family. Yeah. All of us,
we've discovered actually, surprisingly, we all
like each other and. And we've all agreed that
if we had a physical office to work in, we would
pretty much all be the people we would want to
work with. Yep, pretty much. We all work very
much together. We all cover each other. We've
got each other's back. If somebody has an emergency
and can't do something, somebody's always there
to step in and take care of it. So and I've been
there. I mean, this really is this really is.
I mean, it's a weird, dysfunctional, twisted
family, but we are all family. The biggest problem
with this job is pronunciation. I have gone to
Karen many, many times. Is that this or is it
that? And she said, no, it's that. The great
thing about Google is Google will You can Google
something and you can actually hear a native
speaker pronounce it. I have done that many times
in the world. I went over there because Karen
got tired of me going, how do you pronounce Bill?
Bill Pasternak never did that with his scripts.
It was all these names and of course people's
names. can be pronounced anyway they wanted to
be pronounced we never knew what we just took
you know we take a gamble let's just say it this
way and stab in the dark yeah at least now we
can somewhat sound like you know something if
you if you don't know how to pronounce it properly
pronounce it, however, but make it sound authoritative.
Exactly. Make it sound like you know what you're
doing. That's right. Yeah. And speaking of being,
um, if we were all together in a group, we would
be the people that we would want to be all together
in a group, um, in a room somewhere working.
Um, I got to think that Pasternak would be so
freaking proud of, um, of the group that has
come together to continue, um, the walk that
he started. I know I certainly am. Yeah, I can't
be more proud to be part of this. And it was
earlier tonight, but thank goodness for Karen.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, she's got the pace to
keep us together. Well, you know, here's here's
how Karen came on since the Zoom user is here
with us tonight. I get no respect at all. My
phone rings one night and it's like, hey, Don,
I got I got Bill on the horn. I'm like, oh, great.
So we're sitting there talking and and and we're
talking about, OK, well, you know, Bill was sick
and like, you know, we got to make sure that
the newscast gets out. And and Skeeter, I was
actually I had taken a brief break from producing
because I was doing. night classes three nights
a week for real estate school back then. And
Skeeter was kind of taking over the helm for
Bill. I just couldn't do it. I didn't have time.
And he's like, OK, well, we've got someone who
is who is written in who who would like to help
in the interim, you know, until you get the feeling
better, Bill. And her name is Karen Eve Murray.
And she used to write for. New York Newsday and
all you can hear and again like like Like Chris
said man builds voice was so frail. This was
probably the night after you talked to him Chris
It really probably was because the next day he
was gone It was he was like all he all Skeeter
is is basically reading her resume and you can
hear him in the background going hire her hire
her Hire her hire her hire her and that's all
he said was hire her hire and and we did and
she has been the saving grace of Of what we were
doing and unfortunately, she never got to meet
bill or no bill but I know that those two would
be just fast friends and Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
They would have been proud. He's he's looking
down and in his in his in his Brooklyn Jewish
accent he's going Such a fine thing. Don, I don't
know if you mentioned, but we now have an amateur
radio news line ham radio club. We do. We did
you mention that? No, I did not. But yeah, and
it our call sign, oddly enough, is W .A. 6 I
.T .F. And it was it was Bill's daughter who
helped us get that. She wrote the letter that
we submitted to the FCC to to get that. that
call sign released because it was still valid.
And so, yeah, the amateur radio newsline amateur
radio club are not is sorry. That's how I hear
it in my head is is W .A. 6 I .T .F. And it's
about time we activated that call sign. Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, you know something
that you guys were mentioning IR LP and and all
that earlier something I came across I think
totally by accident but found out there is a
dedicated echo link node That if you dial into
it if you if you pull it up, it's called newsline
and it will start playing This the current week's
newscast. So if for some reason you're not on
the internet, you're not you know, you're You're
not able to hear it on a repeater or whatever.
You've also got that as a resource for listeners
that want to check it out. Just go to EchoLink
and go look for the search the news line node.
And it's just an automatic start. It starts playing
and it stops every few minutes. The thing can
reset, but it does play the whole newscast. So
let me mention this, Skeeter. There's also an
IRLP reflector, 0016. If you're on IRLP and your
repeater or your node just doesn't play it, you
can go to 0016, hear the entire thing, and I
know it's up and working because they're getting
the newscast off my servers and not off of...
I shouldn't say this but what is square square
whatever square space yeah thank you yeah also
if you are part of the hamshack hotline network
there is an extension you can dial into now to
listen to newsline as well and the old -fashioned
way over the phone you can't hide from us anymore
can you well yeah the old -fashioned way well
the new old -fashioned way over the phone goes
around comes around That's right. Amen. Started
with phones, and now you can listen to it on
a phone again. Oh, by the way, we should probably
mention, for those who don't know, the website
addressed is arnewsline .org. Paul mentioned
the PayPal link that's up there. We are a 501c3
organization. Donations are accepted. Mr. or
Ms. Ham radio operator that has a little bit
of money laying around. It doesn't want to give
it to Uncle Sam. It's that time of year you can
still get that tax deductible donation to an
amateur radio news line and knock that off the
top of your taxes. So we got that going for us,
which is nice. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. And any
help would be appreciated. Neil, back to you.
Yep. Thank you. How long is it until Speaker
Jeter kicks us out? Yeah, actually, we've got
an hour and 56 minutes before that happens, but
plenty of time. Neil's going to wrap things up
here pretty pretty soon here. But I do want to
mention, you know, Karen couldn't be with us.
She sent me a text a little bit earlier. She
she I don't know something. It hasn't been a
good day, apparently. So she had to respectfully,
but sadly bail on us tonight, but our thoughts
are with Karen and and we miss her and and you
know, we've got I don't know what 30 some people
on that email list of people in New Zealand and
then in England and then Germany Germany and
yeah all over the place that that are a part
of the news line uh... family and uh... so uh...
you know you you've got about a third of them
tonight uh... gap but more or less really well
as well what's what's really cool is and the
the beginning of newsletters always starts with
it from around the world's it literally is you
know problem around the world so yeah we're real
proud of that and the news that covered to it
is is not just local now it's we carry national
absolutely So and we have like international
newsmaker awards and stuff. So it's It's really
a thing that we're all kind of proud of Most
recent winner is extraterrestrial Yeah, yes,
that's right All right, well Paul give us a little
preview here you just finished anchoring while
ago Give us a little preview and then we're gonna
Shut things down for the night. Well, like what?
You want me to read some of it? No, just, just
some of the topics. Oh, the bullet point. Oh,
sure. Point. Um, the talking point. Yeah. Read
the whole thing. If I had the script up handy,
hang on, hang on. And you sign tracks. Amateur
radio news line report number. No current week
files and. There we go. Okay. Well, we we do
mention the new FCC commissioner The first time
that it's been a woman in charge of the FCC.
I'm sorry Yeah, Jim Jim did that story so and
we talked about How some hams have possibly used
some data from whispernet to possibly locate
a missing airliner that crashed Seven years ago.
That's a cool story that that made international
news everywhere with which is really cool for
amateur. Yeah, absolutely Yeah, we talked about
skywarn recognition and that was my story. Yep,
and there's a there's a new chapter of the AMSAT
group overseas now and We did talk about Bill
Somerville the one of the the main developers
in the WSJTX. And yeah, there's a variety of
things. There's a story from India about a very
early Indian radio engineer who kind of laid
the ground for the work that Marconi later did.
And it's all that, all kinds of stuff. So. It's
a plethora, a virtual cornucopia, if you will.
Yeah, it is, yeah. It's a typical thing. I mean,
it's stories, news, slice of life. The ending
story, the kicker is always usually something
heartwarming or fun. So, yeah. So, listenanarnewsline
.org or a repeater near you. Fire or subscribe
to the podcast or subscribe you name it were
there so. I'm gonna finish up here with the last
word the last word just was texted to me from
downstairs. Here we go from Julie. It says, Don
doesn't intimidate me. You may be giving the
last word, but this show has been done for a
long time. Yeah. She says, Don doesn't intimidate
me. I've traced his whole body. That's true.
And printed it out on multiple sheets of paper
and glued it to a foam board. So she has literally
touched every square inch. of an image of my
body. And it's a very small image. Well, yeah,
I got the proportions off just a little bit.
Yeah, not quite the scale. Flat Dawn ended up
about a foot short. I still have that, by the
way. That cardboard cutout is around here somewhere.
The original Flat Dawn was such a success that
I have a friend of mine who owns a sign shop.
Had him print out a permanent flat down that
we can take around to hamfests. And I love the
kilt. The kilt really pops. Oh, the fans stopping
by the booth love to pose with flat down. Let
me tell you something. My wife and I went out
to see some live music one night and I know the
pain that women go through with perverts because
there were some drunk chicks behind me with a
cell phone camera and I got to tell you, it wasn't
fun. Probably wasn't for them either, but be
that as it may. Yeah, that was the weirdest experience
I've ever had in my life. Are we still on the
air? Over to you, Paul. Yeah. Thinking of weird
experiences. Yeah. Played off. Hope the tape
delays will be. Good night, everybody. That's
a true story. That's a true story. I've spent
a weekend in a hotel room with him. That was
scarring. You too? Yeah. Too much information.
By the way, before I forget, Jacob Lindsay did
write in on Twitter and says, you know it's a
party when Dawn shows up for ARN. Oh Lord, here
we go. I was going to say, Neil, we didn't get
any phone calls. I mean, I was expecting some
requests, you know. You say it, we play it. That's
how we do it. That's exactly. It's the million
dollar request guarantee. That's right. People
did ask me give us a million dollars and we'll
talk about it. You're not how they asked for
us. Well, never mind Yeah Several other letters
you don't want to talk about yeah. All right,
and Andy you want to get us out of this live?
Are you there Andy? You're muted. Oh, I can do
that. Sure. Thanks for listening to ham talk
live There you go To do that as we do for news
line Just remember it's the number one podcast
with the words ham talk and live in the title.
Yeah, that's right. I've heard that yeah All
the podcasts you'll listen to this week. We're
one of them. We're one of them. Exactly. You
need to just We'll keep going till midnight I
could do this. Oh, I know I know You want me
to mention Icom? Icom's great. I love Icom. As
a matter of fact, if anybody feels like gifting
things to, you know, a certain hardworking truck
driving amateur radio operator, send me a 7300.
Santa, bring me a 7300. I love PL259. Send me
PL259. You can mail that to amateur radio news
line in care of Zoom user. Yes, that's right.
Nothing said nothing says I love you like the
gift of appeal 259. Yeah, that's right. That's
right from a zoom user All right, well we're
gonna end this thanks guys for being here thanks
for for being your usual entertaining cells and
as well as Unusual educating us about amateur
radio news line Neil, it's been fun to be on
the final episode of Ham Talk Live. That's right.
Next week's news line includes an obituary on
Ham Talk Live. Well, I'll get that story. Karen
seems to give me all the silent key stories.
Yeah, what is it with that, Dave? You always
get the silent key stories. Well, you know, in
her defense, she also gave me the poda scripts
because I truly am the first Parks on the Air.
We got three jokes this week. Yeah, that's in
name only. All right. Well, that's a wrap for
this week's edition of ham talk live. Thanks
to my guests from amateur radio news line. and
everybody out there in cyberspace for listening
and typing in and invite you back next Thursday
night, 9 p .m. Eastern Time when HamTalk Live
may return. And for now, this is... Meanwhile,
it's very difficult to have normal amateur use.
Yes, exactly. So for now, this is Diorap, WB9VPG7375,
and may the good DX be yours. And that's a wrap.