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Neon Wrap, here we go! Welcome to Hamtop Live,
call in, let's talk, Neil's your guy! Hamtop
Live, here we go, on Hamtop Radio! Good evening,
everyone. It's time once again for ham talk live.
This is episode number 280 The Orlando Hamcation
2022 update recorded live on Thursday, November
11th. November 11th, 2021. I'm your host, Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this episode
of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined by Michael
Colley, W4ORL, and we'll take your calls live
a little later in the show. Last week, we had
Christina Collins, KD8OXT, and Dr. Nathaniel
Frisell, W2NAF. They were here to talk about
the Antarctic Eclipse Festival of Frequency Measurement.
So if you missed that show, you can listen anytime
at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube, and you can catch the rebroadcast.
Ham talk live Saturday afternoons at about 3
30 p .m. Eastern over on WTWW that's five zero
eight five on your am dial Saturday afternoons
about 3 30 p .m. Eastern is when you'll hear
the the rebroadcast there So we'll be talking
about hamcation making some plans to get to get
ready to go So if you have some questions We
can take those little later on tonight if you're
listening to us live here on Thursday night You
can give us a call in the second half of the
show But let me go ahead and give you the phone
number so you can have it ready to go You can
write it down or punch it in and have it ready
that phone number to call is eight five nine
nine eight two seventy three seventy three again
eight five nine nine eight two seventy three
seventy three you can also tweet us it's at ham
talk live on twitter and if you're on speaker
you can type in the comments and we'll take a
look at all of that a little later on in the
show but first i'll be back with michael right
after this word from icom america right here
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Right now, you could be sitting on a beach, sipping
a drink with an umbrella in it, and enjoying
the good life. But instead, you've decided to
listen to Ham Talk Live. So we thank you, and
now here's Neil Rapp with more of the show. Welcome
back to Ham Talk Live. Tonight, Michael Colley,
W4ORL, joins us on the Orlando Amateur Radio
Club and hamcation hotline. Michael is the chairman
of the Orlando hamcation and served Seven years
as the tailgate chairman, six years as the IT
chairman and a year in finance and hamcation
of course is sponsored by the Orlando amateur
radio club. And Michael, I still can't get used
to that new call sign. Me either. I still goof
it up when I say it. It's just automatic W four
MCA. And it was like, wait, wait, no, no, not
anymore. Oh, I really thought and I thought,
you know, now that I'm moving to the foreland,
it's like, do I go ahead and get a short? Nah,
I've had this one for 46 years and can't let
go of it. But well, you know, I've been making
my hamcation plans here because we've got a got
a big party going on. I think I've already been
invited to like two dinners already. So there's
a lot going on. So I'm looking forward to my
first trip to hamcation. So for some other people
who maybe are planning their first trip to hamcation,
let's talk a little bit about the options on
planning a trip. And we were talking before the
show, you've even Try to make some accommodations
for people who really do want to make it a vacation
Yeah Some of the things that we have done, of
course Orlando is home to all your theme parks
Disney Universal Lego lands close by a Sea World
all that stuff So what we've done we've got some
special rates at hotels And we've added a lot
of new hotels this year. So I think we're up
to around 10 hotels we've partnered with to get
special rates for the show for attendees that's
come to the show. And these rates are actually
set up before and after the show. So it's just
not for the couple of days of the show. So if
you want to come in with your family, enjoy a
vacation. Hopefully this will save you some money
for a hotel room so you don't have to. go looking
for another hotel room before or after the show
so you can just stay in one hotel. Yeah, that'll
be nice. So, you know, if somebody is planning
on doing hamcation for the first time, you know,
talk a little bit about, you know, obviously
you need to be able to get there and you need
to be able to, you know, have some place to stay,
which You know, hotels are an option. You've
also got a lot of RV space as well. have usually
over 200 RVs on the Fairgrounds property. We
are lucky enough to have hookups for all of those
for power and water, hookups for the RVs. So
if you do want to stay on property and have a
RV, you can do that. This year we've actually
partnered with the Fairgrounds to upgrade some
of our connections for RVs. So this year we're
actually doubling the number of 50 amp connections
That the fairgrounds has and we're going to keep
doing this every year until we max it out because
most of the newer RVs require 50 amps not 30
So we are improving that every year So hopefully
hopefully that will help out RVs coming in to
pretty much guarantee It will guarantee them
a spot a 50 amp spot if that's what they purchase
Okay, cool. So what else do people need to know?
What about getting around from the hotel to the
fairgrounds and back and those kinds of things
and what they need to bring and what they need
to have ready to go for the trip to Orlando?
Pretty much all the hotels, unfortunately, they
don't have buses that come to the fairgrounds,
but we have plenty of public transportation available.
We have city buses, Uber, Lyft, all your rideshare
platforms will go to the fairgrounds. So all
that, I do know a lot of the hotels do have buses
that actually take you from the airport to the
hotels. So I would just check with the hotel
because I know some of them are still getting
back up and running because of COVID. That was
one thing a lot of the hotels did cut out during
that time, but some of them are starting to do
that. The shuttle bus is from the airport back
to the hotel. So I would just recommend checking
with whatever hotel you're staying in. But rental
cars, Orlando has plenty of rental cars. They
can be rented also. A lot of people actually,
once they get to a hotel, they find other hams.
A lot of these hotels, there's lots of hams staying
at them. And they're just meet up with somebody
and ride with them if they have a car. So that
could be a way to save money also, is if a whole
bunch of you are meeting up, just rent one car
and everybody use it. Okay, some good ideas there.
So lots of options for making the trip. to ham
-cation. Now, the one nice thing about ham -cation,
even though it's in February, is we're not going
to worry about snow, right? No, that's the one
thing I can guarantee that there will not be
snow on the ground. We've had to have it rain
before. It's been cold out, but usually in February
our temperatures are mid -70s. So, uh, we should
have a decent temperature wise weather. Um, so
now by, by cold, you're, you're talking like,
you know, what 60. Yeah, that's, uh, that's usually
our, uh, cold. Uh, we, we do get down colder
than that. And I do remember six, seven years
ago in the morning time at hamcation, it was
actually in the thirties, uh, and rain. So it
does happen every once in a while but Not that
often so our normal temperature is mid 70s during
that time and usually about 50s at night That's
that's a great thing to do Get away and and go
get some warmth in the middle of the winter so
Excellent news. Well, you know the one thing
that that's Really messed with amfas and we've
talked about it on this show before Is kovat
19 and and you know, I just You never know what's
gonna happen, you know Huntsville they they had
everything going full blast and then all of a
sudden they were kind of stuck and had to go
and still pulled off a great show, but what what
kovat 19 frustrations are still looming there
and kind of give us a status on that and of course
that can change tomorrow so who knows but give
us a little update on your plans for that. Currently
the plans are at the time ever what they are
when come February we will follow any local or
any government mandates that are in place currently
we have none. Uh, Orange County, um, just put
out that they hit for a 14 day rolling average
for COVID. We're down to like 2 .6%. Um, and
we, they did say now we have hit herd, uh, um,
immunity here in Orange County, uh, where over
75 % of the residents are vaccinated here. Which
is good for us the local government removed all
State of emergency here. I can tell you even
the school board this week has removed mass mandates
in schools for students and teachers So it's
looking very good here locally So, just like
I said, at the time, whenever it comes in February,
we will follow any guidelines that we have to.
I can let you know that we do have plenty of
hand sanitizer and stock masks, so PPE stuff.
We will have it around hamcation for the people
that still want to wear a mask. Uh, anything
like that. So we will have them to give out and
same thing with hand sanitizer. We'll have it
all over hamcation, uh, for people to use. All
right. Very good. Well, you've got some, uh,
some breaking news. I need my, I need my breaking
news music. I didn't think about that. Um, but
you've got some breaking news here about, uh,
You know some things going on earlier in the
week, so Go ahead and tell us about it Okay,
we'll start off This year as I think I've mentioned
in the past Hamcation is the ARL National Convention
But this year we're actually going to make a
full week of hamcation on Let me just pull up
the information so I tell it to you properly.
Starting on February 7th through the 9th, that's
going to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Hamcation
is partnering with DHS, Department of Homeland
Security, to have a OXCOM course in Orlando.
So if you want to sign up for that, if you go
to our website on the front page, there's a thing
there that says affiliated events if you click
on that more information is there you have to
pre -register and there is requirements that
you have to meet to do it and is limited to 30
students so it's pretty much first come first
serve when they sign up all the information is
there of how to sign up So that's going to be
Monday through Wednesday. Then actually starting
on Thursday, the ARRL will be doing the national
convention training tracks at a hotel, DoubleTree
at SeaWorld. And there will be four training
tracks that you can sign up for. One of them
is going to be Contest University put on by Tim
Duffy. The second one is going to be a Emergency
Communications Academy. The third one is going
to be called a hands -on handbook. It's pretty
much going to be hands -on for parks on the air
remote station operating satellite communications
Hf digital mode so it's pretty much going over
that arl handbook of what's in it stuff that
you can do with amateur radio and the last training
tracks going to be a technology Academy going
over Different technologies that we use in amateur
radio from antennas to radios All kind of stuff
there so that will be a all -day Courses at the
hotel put on by ARRL and Pretty much you'll go
half a day. Everybody will break lunch will be
included in this And then after lunch, you'll
have a keynote speaker during lunch. After lunch,
everybody will go back, finish up their day there
for that. And all the information is also on
the front page of our website at hamcation .com,
or you can go to arl .org slash arlexpo. And
all the information is there of how to register.
You will register through ARRL for that one.
And then of course come Friday, Saturday and
Sunday is what everybody's been waiting on. It's
a hamcation at the central Florida fairgrounds.
It is over 84 acres of property there that we
use. And then the other big thing that we have
done this year, we are actually partnering with
hamstudy .org. for our VE sessions. We have two
VE sessions on Friday and Saturday and these
will be in -person digital test sessions. There
will be no paper. Everything will be done on
tablets. You will take the test. Soon as you
finish the test, it will be instantly graded
and everything's done electronically from that
point on. So hopefully it will speed up. how
quick we can do the test, get more people in
and out during hamcation. And so that's the other
big thing that we're doing this year. All right.
Well, let's see. I think I've got the music now.
So there we go. Breaking news. Yeah, you heard
it here first. All right. Oxcom training, you've
got the training tracks, contest university,
you can make a great week out of it and then
take another week and go to Disney World. So
great time. And I think I might do the two week
thing if I had the time off to do that. But we're
going to enjoy the time that we do get, which
will be a few days down there. So sounds like
a great time and all kinds of cool stuff. And
I like the electronic grading thing. I did that
way back when and it was really cool. So definitely
speeds things up and a great way to move people
in and out of there a lot quicker. So sounds
like a great plan. Alright well we're going to
take a break and when we come back we're going
to talk more about hamcation. We're going to
take your phone calls and your tweets and comments
at 859 -982 -7373 and we'll do that after this
word from Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk
Live. I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm having
an antenna party and I ran out of PL -259s. Oh,
come in. Thank you. Would silver -plated PL -259s
from Tower Electronics be too good for your guests?
Those will be fine. Thank you. You saved my life
the other night. Oh, the PL -259s from Tower
Electronics? Yes, they were very successful at
the antenna party. My antenna works like a charm.
Then how can you ever thank me? I'll try to think
of something. Don't be caught without PL -259s.
Visit Tower Electronics at a ham fest near you
or visit them online anytime at PL -259 .com
or call 920 -435 -2973. They have adapters, cables,
antennas, soldering supplies, and meters too.
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. This portion of the show
sponsored by our mystery sponsor a product so
good They are paying us not to advertise it on
this program. You're listening to ham talk live
with Neil rap Thank you Mr. Morrison at HamTalk
Live. We're back here with you as we are 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
if you want to check out Tower Electronics, they
will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana this weekend,
the 13th and 14th. They amfest there at the War
Memorial Coliseum, I believe is the name of that
building. And then Montgomery, Alabama, November
19th and 20th. And then they'll be back in Florida.
So they'll be in Ocala on December 4th. and Plant
City on December 10th and 11th but you can visit
them anytime at PL -259 .com. Well before we
get back to Michael and your calls and comments
and again the phone number to call is 859 -982
-7373 but before we do that it's time for Yeah,
you guessed it, the joke of the week. Now it's
time for the HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke of the
Week, the part of the show where Rick tells us
a ham radio joke. The HamTalk Live Ham Radio
Joke of the Week is brought to you by QRM Labs.
Now here's Rick Garrett in 9GSU with today's
HamTalk Live Joke of the Week. My doctor told
me I was spending way too much time sitting at
the radio and I was really out of shape and I
should start exercising So I did some lunges.
I think that's a big step forward 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 Well, what do
you think Michael some some lunges to get ready
for hamcation Yeah, you do a whole bunch. I'm
a lot of walking There you go. Yeah, you got
it. Got to get ready for for that Flea market,
you know, you got to you got to be ready for
that. So All right. Well, it's time for your
calls right now. So if you have a question for
Michael, give us a call right now eight five
nine nine eight two seventy three seventy three
or you can tweet us at ham talk live over there
on the Twitter machine and And if you're listening
to us on WTWW or on the podcast edition, you
won't be able to reach us live since we're doing
this on Thursday night. So before we get back
into things, Chris, AA4CB has a nice hamcation
tip here on Spreaker. He says, the colder it
gets, the better the prices on used gear. So
I guess if it gets 30 degrees in Florida, you're
gonna walk away with a bargain Yeah, because
everybody wants to sell everything and pack up
So there you go, there's there's a trip from
tip from Chris a for CB. So there there we go
He's counting down the days until hamcation.
So Uh, very good. And, and John, of course, in
for J T K from the Orlando amateur radio club
is with us in the chat tonight. So thank you,
John, for, for being there and, and for all your
work. And, um, if you had, have a question or
a comment, give us a call eight five nine. 9827373
Let me check over here on Twitter lots of activity
on Twitter, but I don't see any questions. So
Let's talk a little bit about Well, actually
little of the split, you know I was kind of joking
about the lunges and everything and walking the
flea market Let's talk a little bit about the
flea market. What what's that shaping up to look
like? So far is good It's hard to say exactly
how many people we have come to it all depends
on the weather and what people have to sell But
currently with the last in 2020 we had probably
around 250 tailgaters out in the tailgate area
selling stuff So there's a lot of gear out there.
You usually find some good deals Tailgate is
spread out almost all over the whole fairgrounds
in different areas So yeah bring your walking
shoes you will be doing a lot of walking and
One thing I did forget to mention that I always
forget about we do have a company called scoot
around own property They do rent Scooters and
wheelchairs stuff like that if you need one if
you go to our website You can actually there's
a link on there to go to their website and register
for one or Um, reserve one. Uh, so, um, that's
something for the people that can't get around
as good, uh, to be able to be able to ride around
in style. There you go. Those are fun. And you
can always, I don't know if this is advised by,
by hamcation, but you can, you can have races.
I would just recommend to have them outside.
Just not in the buildings. Yeah. Yeah. Not inside
the building, but yeah, but yeah, you know, you
can do that. You can go like a Walmart and you
have cart races. So yeah, anyway. All right.
We're getting off topic, but anyway, um, Let's
talk a little bit about some of the forums and
activities. I know we talked about that because
We're putting together something about youth
on the air camp And so I know that there's a
little little bit of room available So talk a
little bit about the forums that you've got coming
up Yeah, right now. We're still in the stages
of working out a schedule, but I can tell you
they will be forums on Friday Saturday Usually
we have somewhere in the ballpark of about 40
forms. Our forms chairman James is currently
working on getting the schedule up. And I would
probably say within the next two weeks or so,
you should start seeing them start popping up
on the website. So if you go to the forms page
on the website, keep an eye on it. They will
be popping up there once we start getting them
scheduled exactly. Some good forums, I know Tapper
is doing some, you're doing one. Joe Eisenberg
is doing some. ARL will have several forums because
of the national convention. So there's a whole
bunch of them coming up and like John mentioned
in the chat, they're always subject to change
also. So best thing to do is keep an eye on the
website and we do try to keep it updated. As
soon as we get a change, we try to get it updated
pretty quickly up there. So just keep eye on
the website. And while you're mentioning the
website, let's make sure everybody has the address
for the website. Okay. It's going to be of course
www .hamcation .com. All the information is there
everything is available. We're selling tickets
already So if you want to buy tickets, if you
do want to tailgate spot RV spot If you're looking
for if there's any vendors out there that want
to come and present their products at hamcation
We still have a few commercial booths available
not many but we have a few We do have a large
indoor, what we call swaps area, which is basically
an indoor tailgate for used gear. There's over
200 tables in there and there's a little bit
available there also. You can go on the website
and purchase any of these items from the website
at www .hamcation .com. All right, check it out.
It's a good, really nice... website. I know you
spent some time and money on that a couple years
ago to really spruce that up and you can tell
it. It looks very nice and very professional
and has all the information. I know your team
works hard to keep that updated all the time.
So great place to check that out. I'll throw
you a curveball here. Will the app thing is,
is that coming back? Um, we're hoping. So, um,
we're in talks with ARL on it and ARL is actually
in talks with the company. Um, there apparently
was some COVID issues with the company. So, um,
we're currently in talks, so we're not sure if
it, we're hopefully some type of app. It might
not be the same one, but hopefully something,
but, um, We will keep everybody informed on it
once we make a final decision. Okay, very good.
Well, maybe something else to look forward to.
So, and then prizes. I know you've really gone
after the prizes. So let's talk a little bit
about that. We have, and we're still in works
with some sponsorships. that we're in works with
to get some prizes coming in. I'm not sure exactly
what all we will have, but in all the years prior,
we've given out over $25 ,000 in prizes from,
of course, gift certificates to radios. So once
we start getting that in, you can actually go
to the hamcation website and we will have all
the prizes listed there. One thing we are doing
again this year, we are taking Selling the prize
tickets for donations like we did for the special
event station that worked out very well So we
are doing that again, but they're only going
to be available at hamcation so You'll go to
the prize and info booth and you can actually
purchase extra prize donation tickets to for
extra chances for the prizes and All proceeds
of that goes to donations that we do for local
clubs and programs that we do for the OARC. So
that's where all the proceeds from the sales
of that goes to. Very good. Now, if you have
something to talk about, then give us a call
at 859 -982 -7373 or tweet us or comment here
on Spreaker. We have a few minutes left with
Michael Colley, W4. I almost did it again. W4ORL,
not MCA. And we're just talking a lot about hamcation
here and I know we're going to have you back
on in early January to kind of give us the last
minute update before February gets here and we
get to do this thing. So anything else that we
need to let people know is going on? I think
we covered everything the other thing that will
be coming out is of course the The nominations
has closed for the Kara Perry educator of the
year award. So our committee will be selecting
a winner soon So that info will be coming out
also soon of who won that award this year Okay,
very good. Well, I'll look forward to to hearing
about that and look forward to the the gathering
for the Award that I am grateful for for winning
last year. So I'm told it's a real great time.
So I'm looking forward to to doing that. Okay.
Well, I'm you know, go to hamcation comm get
get your tickets get the links to the hotels
there. You can get to special rates, get the
rooms booked and get your travel booked and go.
I think, you know, like you said, the COVID numbers
are looking really good down there. It's looking
like herd immunity. And, you know, I think a
lot of other places are heading that direction.
So we don't have a crystal ball and can't tell
you exactly what it's going to be in February,
but It's looking promising, so we'll go with
that and keep it positive and keep hoping that
things continue to progress. ChrisAA4CB says,
always a great show and always look forward to
going to hamcation and looking forward to going
again. So there we go. That pretty much says
it so get ready to go and we'll we'll bring you
the latest news again in January anything that
Has changed or been added or whatever? We'll
talk about it then so Michael. Thank you for
doing that and appreciate you being on the show
tonight as always and Look forward to seeing
you here in a few months Yeah, no, thank you
for having me on the show and Of course, look
forward to seeing you in February and everybody
else out there. Look forward to seeing everybody
at February at Hamcation. All right. Well, that
is a wrap for this week's episode of HamTalk
Live. Thanks to my guest, Michael Colley, W4ORL.
and everybody out there in cyberspace for listening
and calling in, typing in, whatever you do, and
invite you back next Thursday night, 9 p .m.
Eastern Time. We have four guests next week,
so we've got a packed house here. Ron AC2C, Ted
K8AQM, Randy KB4Q, let's see, what is that, QQJ?
Yeah, QQJ, and Doug N3PDT. They're from the straight
key century club and they just hit a big milestone
So we're gonna talk to the straight key century
club folks Next week here on the show. So if
you want to check out what's coming up You just
go to ham talk live comm and there's a link you
can click there So for now, this is Neil rap
WB 9 VPG saying seven three Seven five and may
the good DX be yours Well you came right back
to my secure call Your readability five and strength
nine You never once mentioned your weather at
all And I didn't mention mine