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. Hey good
evening everyone it's time for ham talk live
it's Episode number 278, Collegiate Radio Update,
recorded live on Thursday, October 28th, 2021.
I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for
tuning into this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight,
we're joined by Tony Melusi, KD8RTT, and Andy
Melusi, KK4LWR, and we will take your calls.
live in just a few minutes. Last week here on
the show, Don Wilbanks, AE5DW was here, and we
just talked about anything and everything. We
talked a little bit about the Ham Nation program
now that it is over on the Ham Radio Crash Course
channel. We just kept on going from there. So,
um, if you want to tune in, uh, to Dawn, listen,
uh, to our conversation and, and some of the
newsline crew, uh, calling in, go over to ham
talk live .com or on your favorite podcast app
or on YouTube. And you can listen there or don't
forget, you can also listen to HamTalk Live on
WTWW. That's 5085 on your AM dial. Saturday afternoons
at about 3 .30 PM Eastern Time. Tonight we're
talking about the Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative
or C .A .R .R .Y. And we'll get an update from
the Brothers Malusi here about how things are
going with that. If you're listening to us live
on Thursday night, you'll be able to give us
a call a little later on in the show and ask
your questions or offer some encouragement here.
The phone number will be 859... 9 8 2 73 73 I'll
repeat that here in just a second So you can
write it down punch it in have it ready to go
whatever you want to do But that's the phone
number that we'll use a little later on in the
show I'll let you know when it's time for calls,
but it's 8 5 9 8 5 9 is the area code and then
9 8 2 Again, 859 -982 -7373. You can also tweet
us. It's at HamTalk Live on Twitter and I'll
be back with Tony and Andy right after this word
from ICOM America right here. on HamTalk Live.
Contest remotely or from the comfort of your
own home, iCom has the perfect base station ready
for action. The IC9700, IC7610, and IC7300 SDR
transceivers are top of the line and are the
first choice for contesters across the globe.
Robust base stations like these cut through pileups,
letting you work the bands and record those contacts.
Stay connected remotely with the RSBA1 app and
keep your competitive contesting Edge with iCom.
Heard it. Worked it. Logged it. IC7851 gives
you a new window into the RF world and is HF
excellence unparalleled. With faster processors,
high input gain, high display resolution, and
a cleaner signal, it is truly the pinnacle of
HF perfection. It has dual receivers, digital
IF filters, a memory key or digital voice recorder,
a high resolution spectrum waterfall display,
enhanced PC connectivity, and an SD card slot.
The IC7610 is the SDR every ham once. This high
performance SDR can pick out the faintest of
signals even in the presence of stronger adjacent
ones. The IC7610 from ICOM is a direct sampling
software -defined radio that will change the
world's definition of an SDR transceiver. It
has RF direct sampling 110 dB RMDR, independent
dual receivers and dual digicel. And the IC9700,
you can create your own band opening with it.
This transceiver radio brings direct sampling
to the UHF VHF weak signal world. This all -mode
transceiver is loaded with innovative features
that are sure to help keep you busy, faster processors,
higher input gain, higher display resolution,
and a cleaner signal. It has a 4 .3 inch color
touch screen, real -time spectrum scope and waterfall
smooth satellite operation with 99 satellite
channels with dual watch operation and full duplex
operation in satellite mode. Visit icomamerica
.com slash amateur for more information on ICOM
radios. If Denny's is open 24 hours a day, 365
days a year, why are there locks on the doors?
Now, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live.
Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Tonight, Tony Melusi,
KD8RTT, and Andy Melusi, KK4LWR. Join us on the
Orlando Amateur Radio Club at Hamcation Hotline.
Andy Melusi, KK4LWR, is the past president of
the Gator Amateur Radio Club at the University
of Florida in Gainesville. And he is currently
a systems engineer at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
in Florida. He is a key leader in the ARRL Collegiate
Amateur Radio Initiative, a group that's been
formed to share ideas and promote and rejuvenate
amateur radio clubs in colleges and universities
in North America. Andy came into ham radio thanks
to his brother Tony KD8RTT. Tony is an electrical
engineer with Garmin and he attended grad school
at Ohio University where he was the amateur radio
club president and during undergrad he was just
down the road from from where I used to be, over
in Terre Haute, Indiana, at the Rose Tech Amateur
Radio Club, W9NAA. He is a pilot and also a key
leader in the Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative.
You can find him on satellites or operating CW
or portable on HF. So, welcome back, guys. Thanks,
Neil. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been a
couple of weeks, I suppose, since we last met.
Yes, it has. It has. I actually looked for the
script because I usually copy the bios over,
you know, when we've done it before. And it's
been a little over a year since we've had you
on the show. But we got to have a great time
this summer together. So we actually saw each
other not that long ago. And then when Jocelyn
was on, I called in. Yeah, exactly. So Andy and
Tony were camp counselors or camp staff, whatever
you want to call it, uh, at Yoda camp this summer.
And, uh, they were big help. They did our, uh,
our antenna building, uh, session as, as well
as a lot of other things. Tony was, was our registration
guy. He checked everybody in and cleared their
COVID status and all that fun stuff. So, uh,
you guys did a fabulous job, got, got to meet
Christie and got to meet Daisy as well. Yes,
Daisy loved the attention, that's for sure. Sorry,
we couldn't find a hotel room that would allow
the dog, but you were able to find one on your
own, so it all worked out. Yep, we made do. Yep.
And she had fun. That was the most important
thing, is Daisy was loving it. Yes. Absolutely.
Well, we're here to talk. About Carrie. Yeah,
we're here to talk about Carrie, the Collegiate
Amateur Radio Initiative. And this has been going
on for a while now. You're hanging in there.
And I notice every once in a while in my email,
I get these notices of, you know, be sure to
join the Carrie Zoom meeting tonight. You know,
we're going to give away this or we're going
to do that. So so are you giving away like free
pizza or what are you doing? So there has been
pizza given away that is a true statement. There's
also been various items from the league so over
the last year. The monthly calls they're hosted
on the second Tuesday of each month and you can
register for them on arrl .org slash we want
you and U is the letter U. You can go there and
register for them. Any college student is eligible
to win. We did a pizza party for you know a college
club that was fun we've given away handbooks
we've given away licensing materials we've given
away field day t -shirts that's where i think
the league has really been a great sponsor and
that's resulted in a lot of folks attending the
calls and some really great discussions so it's
been quite the year watching it grow and we've
actually evolved quite a bit you know, from where
we started, you know, Tony and I have been listening
a lot to what, you know, everyone is saying.
So this year, for example, just a few months
ago, we got a discord up there and that has been
quite the busy platform with school club roundup
and the collegiate QSO party, which has been
fantastic. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff up there.
Go ahead, Tony. Yeah, no problem. I was just
going to say, so like Andy said, you know, this
last year has kind of been a revitalization.
probably call it a lot of ways, but we've been
doing this for several years now. So it's a consistent
meeting place for college clubs and other interested
hams to kind of join in and help keep the hobby
going in colleges and universities. You know,
one of the challenges of the university clubs,
as well as the high school clubs that I used
to do and below, is the turnover. You have students
for a limited number of years, sometimes two,
sometimes four, or elementary I guess is a little
bit better actually, I think six or seven. But
you constantly have this turnover and I think
that having this resource there on a consistent
basis is kind of you know help so that there
is there is some consistency there uh because
membership just kind of goes up and down with
your enrollment yeah and that's that's something
we've you know really seen uh i think in terms
of the initiative itself beyond just the monthly
call i think we're i don't know maybe like four
five years into it um and we've seen some clubs
that were you know really active in the beginning
when we started this kind of faded away and then
have come back so Yeah, it's a constant thing.
Things are always changing. New clubs pop up,
become very active, then they fade away for sometimes
a year or two, or sometimes much longer. So our
hope has been, in addition to these calls, just
kind of be the central resource that someone
can come back to to help get their club going
again, get ideas, just so they know where to
turn, really. Tell everybody again what... Resources
are there for for clubs, you know, you meant
we mentioned already, you know trying to to Rejuvenate
the club because it does kind of go up and down
There are a few clubs out there that actually
can can maintain a year -to -year You know basis
for you know, 10 20 30 40 years So what resources
do you have? And what ideas do you have? to help
that continue. So a big part of that is making
sure that there is some consistency year over
year and that doesn't necessarily have to be
student consistency, although that's probably
the best way to go. So we've actually had a lot
of discussions and Some clubs are actually jumping
on board. This is starting up alumni sister clubs
that sort of preserve the shack, keep the resources
going, keep the call sign active when there's
sort of lower student activity. It's also a good
way to get funding and continue to support the
club. year -round. So, you know, letting the
alumni donate directly to the club or sort of
treat things out. And it keeps them engaged,
which is good for the university. So that has
been something that we have seen come over and
over and over. And that was an idea that was
originally discussed in great detail, actually
by a good friend of mine, Dr. Jay Garlitz, AA4FL
with the University of Florida, as we set one
up for that. And I'm on the board for the University
of Florida Club, or the University of Florida
Alumni Club, I should say. And he was gracious
enough, probably four years ago, four or five
years ago now, to share that with everyone else.
So there's been a few other clubs following in
that footstep. The other thing, of course, is
a dedicated faculty advisor. And we have been
very, very lucky to meet many of those hams across
the nation, be it Larry at OSU or Dave Kazdan
over at CASE, just to name a few. There have
been some very, very active you know, faculty
that have integrated amateur radio into their
curriculum, like Case did a whole thing with
their civil engineering department laying out
their field day site, which was a very, very
cool way to bring in folks that maybe wouldn't
otherwise get exposed to amateur radio. So those
sorts of things really help keep the clubs active
and bridge that activity as it comes in waves.
Yeah, and as as the initiative, you know, we
try to be the be a place people can turn for
those ideas So, you know, like Andy said, we've
talked about that in the past kind of trying
to expand that But we have a Facebook group where
you can talk about the share ideas discuss any
anyone's welcome to join that Andy said we have
a discord. Also, that's kind of the more day
-to -day tactical discussions But we've also
started kind of a repository of some of this
information So in addition to like recordings
of previous calls we've tried to collect some
things that could be beneficial for new clubs,
like sample club bylaws and constitutions, a
listing of club information that is fairly up
to date, that sort of thing. So when people go
out looking, we hope they find us and they can
start digging through our resources, get those
ideas, like Andy pointed out, and implement them
with their club. Yeah, I know I published my
Bylaws and or articles of incorporation or whatever
whatever all that legal stuff was That you had
to have to become an ARRL affiliated club, you
know for the school I took the took it but I
had to modify the one that you know, the league
gives you Just for any club because you know,
it was more of a dictatorship than a democracy
The teachers in charge so I had to you know chop
it up and take this out and put this in and So
I put it up on the on the heiress website Which
they're doing the same thing. They're building
a repository of all this information for People
who want to get into heiress. So so it's great
to hear that that's Being done for the college
clubs as well. So so You know in all of this
There's always great ideas running around Making
the contact and collecting all of this is is
a big big help and I changed locations and changed
jobs over the summer and come to find out there
is an alumni amateur radio club at Xavier University
where I'm teaching chemistry now on a part -time
basis and so I haven't pushed the ham radio angle
just yet but every time I look out my office
window I see this tower on top of a building
with a with a ham rotor and this big 40 meter
yaggy and all this stuff. It's been sitting there
for 25 years and hasn't been touched. It makes
me want to jump in and revive everything. If
that turns into a permanent thing, I'm sure it
will. The story goes at Xavier that somebody
stole the equipment and that was it. Somebody
broke into the building, stole the equipment
and that just kind of ended it. And it's been
out since like 79 or something. So, um, you know,
there are some, some ways to get some equipment
too, uh, from the league. You might talk a little
bit about that or maybe I need to talk about
it. I don't know. Maybe you guys have some knowledge
of that program. Yeah, so there is an education
grant. There's actually a number of different
grants out there. Some of them are by individual
clubs and some of them are at larger organizations
like the League to support specifically the education
side of things. It's obviously promoted a lot
in the sort of elementary and high school sort
of grades, but many of them still include collegiate
clubs in terms of allowing them to apply for
resources to set up a station. So yeah, that's
definitely out there. I don't have it all in
front of me right now, but yes, those are great
opportunities. As well as, you know, we've been
encouraging clubs to also seek, you know, student
government funding. And that sort of is a double
-sided benefit, right? In addition to getting
money to, you know, invest in the club, you also
get... the exposure of bringing it up to student
government and all of those other students learning
about the club and what it brings to campus.
So there's a few different options available
both within our community and at the broader
level. So when we talk about these incentives
to be on the call and everything, let's talk
about some incentives that the colleges might
have. Would pizza fall under that as well then?
Oh, nobody's saying in terms of like the school
reaching out to the club. Yes, yes, the school,
the school or the school's club reaching out
to prospective members. Oh yeah, yeah, so I think
a big way you know that's probably one of the
things we talk about the most. In our calls of
these clubs is you know, how you get new members
and and coming up with creative ideas like that
So yeah, we that's that's one of the good tools
of like the pizza party that was donated from
the URL earlier But just kind of coming up with
creative ways to get people involved is a big
big part of discussion for us Well, you guys
have come up with a lot of great ideas and Great
to hear the success stories and how this has
been a you know a constant thing because again
You know the turnover from year to year is just
It's just something we all have to deal with
and It's not always easy All right. Well, we're
going to take a break and when we come back,
we'll talk some more. We'll take your calls We'll
take your tweets at am talk live um and phone
calls at nine or eight five nine sorry eight
five nine nine eight two seventy three seventy
three i'll be back with tony and andy right after
this word from tower electronics right here on
ham talk live hey honey have you seen the pl
259s anywhere no i haven't come on kids let's
go There's just one place to go for all of your
connector needs. Tower electronics. Tower electronics.
Tower electronics. A giant warehouse of connectors
and adapters for every occasion. Thousands to
choose from in every shape, size and color. And
they have antennas, soldering supplies, cables,
meters and more. Where do you go if you want
to buy a connector at a fraction of retail cost?
Tower electronics. Tower electronics. Tower electronics.
And this weekend only, take advantage of our
special liquidation sale. Buy nine solder -type
PL259s, get the tenth one for just one penny.
They make great Christmas presents. And what
better way to say, I love you, than with the
gift of a PL259. Tower Electronics. Tower Electronics.
Tower Electronics. I'm Scott, KB9AMM of Tower
Electronics. I like the PL259 connectors so much,
I bought the company. Tower Electronics, coming
to a hand -fest near you. Or online at pl -259
.com. And we're on the yellow pages under amateur
radio connectors. My, wherever did you get that
lovely PL259? Tower Electronics, pl -259 .com.
Or call 920 -435 -2973. Do we sell PL259 connectors?
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. Copy 594 from HamTalk
Live. Welcome back to Ham Talk Live. Tower Electronics
will be at Chickasaw, Alabama. That's Stone Mountain,
Georgia, more or less, November 6th and 7th.
Fort Wayne, Indiana, November 13th and 14th.
Montgomery, Alabama, November 19th and 20th.
Then off to Ocala, Florida, December 4th and
Plant City, Florida, December 10th and 11th,
but you can visit them whenever you want at PL
-259 .com. HamTalk Live is on the air every Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Eastern time right here at HamTalkLive
.com. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. And before we get back to Tony
and Andy, It's time once again for the Joke of
the Week. Now it's time for the HamTalk Live
Ham Radio Joke of the Week, the part of the show
where Rick tells us a ham radio joke. The HamTalk
Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week is brought to
you by QRM Labs. Now here's Rick Garrett in 9GSU
with today's HamTalk Live Joke of the Week. When
I was studying for my ticket, The hardest part
for me was all that math. I guess you could say
it gave me a lot of problems. I mean, that's
what engineers are, right? We're just really
good at math. Just really good at math, exactly.
Well, thanks, Rick, for the joke here. And we'll
catch another one next week from him. And it's
time for your phone calls right now. So if you
have a question or a comment, give us a call
right now. It's time to call 859. 9 8 2 73 73
or you can tweet us at ham talk live and if you're
listening to us on WTWW or on the podcast edition
You won't be able to reach us. We're doing this
live on Thursday night so You know one thing
that's coming up this weekend is CQ worldwide
and and we've been talking a lot about these
new youth categories in CQ Worldwide. What are
some of the colleges planning on doing for CQ
Worldwide? Well, it looks like there's a mix
of plans. I was actually just looking through
Discord and that was actually one of the questions
that came up was asking who else is going to
be on the air for CQ Worldwide. I think sort
of the The mainstays of, you know, collegiate,
you know, contesting has been School Club Roundup,
you know, both in October and February, you know,
and then the North American Quso party has crept
in there. And I think the collegiate Quso party
has become a big part of that. And, you know,
seeing CQ Worldwide get added is just adding
another event to that already busy gallery, which
I think is great. keeps clubs active. I know
when I was at UF, the number one issue I had
was, okay, why should people come to the station?
What's going on? And whenever there's a contest
or something that you're participating in, that
really does wonders for driving club activity.
So seeing more of these contests, you're in it
towards youth in these categories, I think is
just... Just a way to further expand the hobby.
And I'm 100 % on board with that. I think that's
great from a Cary perspective and great from
a Yoda perspective. Yeah, and I think one of
the best parts about Cary is since we have that
central place, the central meeting hubs, both
the Facebook group and Discord, now you've got
people talking about the contests before they
happen, kind of planning, letting each other
know, kind of build it up, kind of build up some
of that competitiveness between the schools.
So even a more general sense for contests. You
know now you have a place to go and talk to people
who you might know And get advice or just kind
of get ready for the for the event It was kind
of cool watching on Twitter the Ohio State University
amateur radio club Plan for school club roundup
Because they sent out some tweets, you know,
what do you think our scores gonna be what you
know, what do you think you know? uh... will
will do for the number of hours that were on
the air you know this is that and that it just
kind of got everybody excited and and aware that
this event was coming up and Yeah, you're exactly
right. I mean, School Club Roundup for us was
always the highlight of the year because it drew
attention to what we were doing. It kind of focuses
everything in and it was fabulous. And so, you
know, CQ Worldwide with the new youth category
is just that much more incentive to get involved
in a lot of these. And I know you guys have been
trying to get like, you know, at least once a
month for there to be some kind of activity on
the air for these school clubs. Yeah. Yeah. Go
ahead, Tony. Okay. Yeah. No, I was just going
to say that's, that's, you know, trying to get
the clubs to be active and really get on the
air. I think a lot of clubs kind of have this,
you know, they meet so often every so often as
a group, but they don't end up actually getting
on the radio all the time. So even in these monthly
calls, you know, you'll hear people discussing
like, oh, hey, you want to on the radio at some
point in future, or they move it to discord and
say, hey, let's make a contact after the call
or later in the week or whatever. That's been
really great. And I think the other thing that
Andy kind of mentioned are the collegiate QSO
party, which is something that Andy and I have
kind of put together over the past few years
as a yearly event. has been made to serve specifically
college and university clubs. Again, everyone's
welcome to join those categories. If you're not
involved with a school club at all, you're welcome
to join. But we want to make sure that they're
recognized, there being an opportunity where
others can come talk to the college clubs. And
I think going back to the Ohio State University
Club's tweets was another great thing that part
of the collegiate QSO party is we had some bonuses
for social media use. So I think recognizing
that kind of the tools Today that can promote
these clubs are something we should really push
for and encourage people to use Just to generate
awareness Yeah, I think anything that you can
do, you know is always helpful and I know a lot
of the the high schools have these Little video
programs that they put together to show the whole
school or the school newspaper which is now more
of an electronic thing, but But they still have,
you know, the journalistic feel. But, you know,
they talk about what they do and just raises
some awareness and raises some interest. So that's
always very helpful. All right. Troy Simpson,
W9KVR, speaking of a school club roundup guy
over in Watsika, Illinois, has finally made it
here. Just finished some some conferences. So
yeah, Troy, I do not miss. I do not miss parent
conferences. I'm just I'm still in shock. I mean,
we're almost a semester and I'm still in shock.
The the differences between teaching at the university
and teaching in high school. It's just incredibly,
incredibly different. And I must say much easier.
So yeah, thanks for tuning in and chiming in
here tonight. What's the next thing coming up
here? You mentioned you've got the collegiate
QSO party and we've got some of these youth categories
in here. What's next? The next thing is probably
just going to be continuing to evolve. This year
we sort of had a really good heart -to -heart
and sit -down about the collegiate QSTO party
and what purpose it serves for the clubs and
where they'd like to see it go. And we're expecting
some pretty big changes going into next year,
all coming from the feedback of folks that participated
and folks that were active in the QSTO party
this year. We're going to make it more of one
of the that the feedback we got was folks not
realizing that, you know, more than college clubs
can participate. So we're going to switch things
up a little bit, maybe make it less of like a
traditional contest and more of a true QSO party
where there's awards for working different college
clubs and, you know, some certificates and stuff
to sort of make a broader appeal and sort of
grow the event. There still probably will be
some awards with it, but, you know, some proper
awards and all that, but I think being able to
expand that participation, really bring that
into focus, you know, does really well. One thing
I think that's maybe difficult for, you know,
hams to sort of understand is, and some people
have never been on the side of it, is receiving
a pile up and getting to work, you know, a million
stations trying to call you at once. It's a lot
of fun and invigorating. And when you give that
to a college club, you build a lot of very active
hams, you know, and School Club Roundup has done
that fantastically well for school clubs. you
know, over that course of that week and we want
to see if we can make it just as good for, you
know, specifically collegiate clubs. there in
September, probably still about the same time,
but give them that same experience to get folks
more aggressively hunting for them to get their
calls in their book. And like I said, it's a
great way to motivate people to stick with the
hobby and gain more experience. So we're looking
at rule changes to help encourage that as well
as continue to grow and expand our clubs and
their social media and their membership on campus.
Yeah, I think the other kind of more near term
thing we're looking at or I guess from a Cary
perspective is we're planning for, as HamFest
kind of returned to normal, probably having a
forum at Hamcation and Hamvention like we've
done in years past that are collegiate amateur
radio focused. Of course, again, everyone's invited,
but you'll probably see us there continuing on.
And yeah, the monthly calls will continue every
month and all are welcome to join. You can access
the registration from the at awrl .org slash
we want the letter U, our website. All right.
And, you know, we've got December Yoda month
coming up. It's time to start getting ready for
that. And so we'll have a lot of young people
on the air for that as well. Troy W9KVR again
here says, Hi, Andy and Tony, and what about
partnerships between colleges and and some of
the k -12 schools so you guys want to tackle
that one yeah uh... i mean first of all uh...
howdy long time no see uh... I think long -time
listeners have probably heard you and I mention
this a couple of times, but the three of us there
authored a QST article, what, five, seven years
ago now, something like that. And that's, I think,
was our first introduction and working together.
So it's cool to hear Mr. Simpson there calling
in. I think growing that partnership is really
essential and it's a difficult one to form because
of the transitiveness of so many students on
both ends. So one of the ways that we can start
to see that develop is if we get the educators
in the K -12 space in the same room or virtual
room. Thank you to Zoom and Microsoft Teams and
all that to make those happen. to start building
those relationships and looking at collegiate
clubs as an opportunity to really give a destination
for primary school clubs and secondary school
clubs to sort of target. So I think there's a
lot of potential there and it's probably one
of the next great challenges of doing that. In
an ideal world, everyone would get their ham
ticket at age like four and you know be extra
by age four and a half and you know be lifelong
uh excited hams right and they they pick their
college based on who has the uh best uh you know
cq worldwide uh contest score for their collegiate
club but uh i think we're a ways off from maybe
that dream uh but i think if we can start getting
those folks in the room and you know i think
a great place to start that is with the uh hamvention
uh you know calls um or you know hopefully this
year in person, and the Hamcasian in -person
forums to start building those connections. And
I think it'll just take some time, just like
everything else. But once we can figure out the
right forum of how to continually do that throughout
the year and build those connections, I think
that is a great opportunity for both schools
and colleges around our country. I think one
other piece are the local clubs, too, that I
think are important. If you have that key partnership
between the younger kids, college kids and you
know general ham radio club in the area even
better we've seen some really great synergy in
that way from different different clubs throughout
the year so if you're you know part of a ham
radio club and there's a school nearby be it
you know elementary school or high school or
college reach out to them see if there's a club
see if there's any interested kids and you might
be able to make a good connection there. And
check into each other's nets. Like, that's another
great way to meet those folks. And I know, for
example, many local clubs recognize that college
students are transient. And, you know, they usually
open up their meetings to them. When I was up
in Gainesville, for example, the Gainesville
Amateur Radio Society, K4GNV, they were very
gracious about letting students from UF in Santa
Fe attend their meetings. you know and sort of
be an open forum and to participate and they
weren't worried about you know getting dues or
anything out of them it was just you know yeah
we know you're a student we know you're a ham
you know come be part of the community do field
day with us that sort of thing and and there
were several of us that did and that was really
rewarding and it made some lifelong friends and
they've been having their meetings on zoom lately
as well just like everyone else and you know
because i made friends there i still call in
Uh, you know, maybe not nearly as frequently
as when I was there in person, but you know,
uh, it does serve, you know, both a, uh, short
-term and long -term benefit for the organizations.
And let's face it, this is a social hobby. So,
you know, those connections are always fun, uh,
and helpful as you grow and learn more. Yeah.
And Troy says recruiting just like sports. Yeah.
You know, you've got the whole e -sports thing
now where, you know, there's Scholarships for
for video games, you know That's it, you know
and trying to recruit video gamers to colleges.
So why not? I mean radio There have been scholarships
for amateur radio a lot longer than there have
been scholarships for video games Very there
have been There have been clubs including, you
know, local clubs as well as national organizations
like the FAR scholarships or the ARRL scholarships
that have been out there long before eSports.
So, I mean, I think that's another way to look
at it too is, you know, get them to pay for your
college and stay in the hobby. And speaking of,
the ARRL scholarship window opens on November
1st, so just a couple of days away. If you qualify
for that, fill out the application and get registered
for that and maybe you can get some assistance.
So we have that coming up too. All right, well
guys, we're about out of time here, but any closing
comments here before we take off? I just want
to say, Anyone who's interested more about Collegiate
Amateur Radio, feel free to reach out to Andy
or me or join us at Facebook group, Discord or
our monthly calls. So, you know, we're always
looking for feedback and ways we can better serve
the Collegiate community with Amateur Radio.
So let us know. And I mean, if you want to help
make it happen as well, if you want to step into
that leadership role. We would welcome folks
helping with the QSO party. If they want to make
a financial gift, the ARL does have a fund specifically
for Cary that was started by Dr. Schneider. And
that has done fantastically well at making some
of this stuff happen. So there's lots of opportunities
to get involved, to give, and to continue to
grow what is probably one of the fastest growing
and most dynamic and exciting demographics of
our hobby. Very good. Well, we have a call that
just came in on the line. So we're going to sneak
this one in here. Good evening, Jocelyn. Welcome
to HamTalk Live. Hey, good evening, Neil. Good
evening, Tony and with Andy, because I think
you you foobar his name on the on the intro.
Yes, I did. Hey, good evening, Jocelyn. Hey,
Jocelyn. Good evening. I was going to say, I
just wanted to keep up the good work. I know
sometimes it's hard because sometimes you get
a lot of traction, sometimes you don't, but you're
heading in the right direction. I think the college
QSO party is fantastic. I will try to take part
of it, even though I'm not in college, but always
try to make contacts with everybody that's on
the air, just like a school club roundup, and
try to just grow the activity. Awesome, we appreciate
that. You know, that's cool, you know, and of
course if you're doing it from VOA as well, you
know, that's a cool call sign to get in the logbook.
I know a lot of folks look forward to that. Yeah,
contesting season is about to start here. As
Neil said, we've got the World Wide coming up
this weekend. We'll see how we're going to do.
We've got a few members that are talking about
doing it. So I don't think we've got a serious
team, but we're certainly going to partake and
do our fair share. But I just want to say hi
and hope everybody was fine. And like I said,
keep up the great work. We're looking forward
to all meeting in person. I know we were lucky
enough to see each other over the summer, but
we'd like to see a ham fest as well. I agree
totally. I mean, I think there's a lot of opportunity.
I'm not sure how many of the folks listening
know this, but there is some overlap between
Cary and Yoda. So I think that there's lots of
opportunity there for students at universities
to participate in Yoda camp, to present at Yoda
camp and that sort of thing, as well as Some
of the younger folks on the Yoda spectrum Looking
forward to getting involved with the carry activities
as well. So I think there's a lot of opportunity
there That's a very good point, yep, absolutely
That's the plan well, thanks Jocelyn for calling
in Jocelyn broke 88 VRX on the Orlando amateur
radio club hotline tonight. Thanks For calling
and I'll see you soon You have 73 guys. Have
a good evening Yeah, you too. Thanks Oh, you
know, I forgot to ask him a question I forgot
to ask him what he was pointing out right now.
Yeah Yeah, and I'm now I meant to start off the
show asking you about that that Florida, Kentucky
football score this year, but Yeah, you know
that game didn't happen that game didn't happen
well, we always we always have to take sides
and and and support our colleges and and so that's
kind of a running gag with us, but But yeah,
Kentucky Finally got the better end of that deal
this year. So Hey, you guys had a win a few years
ago, too, right? Yeah a few years ago. You let
us win one, you know Yeah, so I mean a while
Yeah, I keep it interesting, right? Yeah, otherwise
no one would show up to the game You know, we'll
see how the Gators do this weekend, it's maybe
a rebuilding year for we'll see Well, there you
go. Yeah, that's the thing with sports. There's
always next year. So yeah, I mean Tony and I
are from Cleveland. We're used to that phrase
All right, guys. Well, thanks so much for being
on the show tonight and telling us about what's
happening with Carrie recently, and we'll do
it again at some point. Thanks, Neil. Great time.
Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having
us. And actually a little carryover to next week.
We'll talk about that here in just a second.
But that is a wrap. For this week's edition of
HamTalk Live, thanks to Tony Maluzzi, KD8RTT,
Andy Maluzzi, KK4LWR, and everybody out there
in cyberspace for listening, calling in, typing
in. and invite you back next week uh... thursday
night at nine p m eastern time our our collegiate
uh... theme will continue as uh... christina
collins k d eight o x t who is a graduate student
at uh... case western reserve w a d d u and uh...
dr nathaniel frisell w two n a f from the University
of Scranton. We'll be here to talk about the
Antarctic Eclipse Festival of Frequency Measurement
that will be happening in December. So be sure
to tune in and hear what's going on with that.
And for a list of all of our upcoming guests,
visit HamTalkLive .com. So for now, this is Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may the
good DX be yours. When you came right back to
my CQ call The readability vibe and strength