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. with
neorep here we go welcome to hamtok live call
in let's talk neil's your guy hamtok live here
we go on hamtok radio Good evening, everyone.
It's Ham Talk Live, episode number 277, a talk
with Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, recorded live on Thursday,
excuse me, recorded live on Thursday, October
21st, 2021. I am your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Ham Talk
Live. Tonight we're joined by Don Wilbanks, AE5DW
and we'll take your calls a little later in the
show. Last week here on HamTalk Live, we had
Michael Coulter, W8CI from Hamvention and W4ORL,
Michael Colley and Mark Brown in 4BCD from Orlando
and Huntsville HamFest respectively. And they
were here to talk about the challenges of the
HamFest. Running in a pandemic. So if you missed
that show you can listen anytime over at ham
talk live comm on your favorite podcast app and
you can also listen to us on YouTube and Don't
forget you can catch the rebroadcast of ham talk
live every Saturday afternoon at about 3 30 p
.m. Eastern time over on shortwave on WTWW that's
five zero eight five on your a .m. Dial so We'll
talk to Don here in a little bit, so if you have
some questions or comments, feel free to give
us a call a little later on in the show. If you're
listening to us live on Thursday night, you can
call us after the interview. Let me give you
the phone number so you have it ready to go.
You can punch it in, write it down, type it in,
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9 9 8 2 73 73 you can also tweet us we're at
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Hope to hear from you tonight, and I'll be back
with dawn right after this word from tower electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey, have you
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Do we sell PL259 connectors? Who is the most
dangerous person in the world a ham with some
wire a potato gun and an idea Welcome back to
HamTalk Live. Tower Electronics will be at Chickasaw,
Alabama on October 23rd. It's mole day for you
chemistry fans out there. 1023. And then Stone
Mountain, Georgia, November 6th and 7th, Fort
Wayne, Indiana, November 13th and 14th, Montgomery,
Alabama, November 19th and 20th. Ocala Florida
December 4th and Plant City Florida December
10th and 11th, but you can visit them anytime
at pl -259 .com So welcome back to ham talk live
tonight Don Wilbanks AE5DW joins us on the Orlando
amateur radio club and hamcation hotline Ham
radio's Don Wilbanks joins us from Picayune,
Mississippi. You know him from amateur radio
news line and from ham nation and we'll talk
about that. And, and who knows what else tonight?
We didn't have a real strict plan for tonight.
So Don, welcome back. Great to talk to you again.
Yeah, clearly you hit rock bottom again and invited
me on. Here's what I want to know. Now, first
off, I don't, I do not want you to explain to
me molde because just the thought of a ham with
a piece of wire a potato gun and an idea was
enough to make my hair hurt so I don't want to
hear about molde I don't want to know I thought
it was I thought it was some weird thing with
Maybe Groundhog Day some I don't know Alabama
Chickasaw deal, but then you bring the whole
chemistry thing and at that point I'm like, no,
that's gonna make stuff smoke and it's probably
gonna come out of my ears So I really don't want
to hear about that. How you doing Neil? I'm doing
good. I'm doing good Yeah, I'm excited because
you know, I teach chemistry and so yeah, I'm
excited for mole day It's kind of like Pi Day.
You've heard of Pi Day, right? I know about that,
yeah. On March 14th, because it's 3 .14. Well,
Avogadro's number is 6 .02 times 10 to the 23rd
power. So, it's 1023. So, it's not that complicated.
I asked you specifically not to explain it. I
know, I told you. What do you do? I explained
it. This is why you can't get quality guests,
Neil. This is it. This is why you have to resort
to me. Oh my goodness. So there we go. Now the
world knows. Moldy. Now the world knows. Not
M -O -L -E, not M -O -L -D as we have done here
in the South. Yes, not moldy. It rhymes with
moldy, but yeah. Well, Don, it's been a while.
It seems like every time we talk we have some...
Children with us and we have to behave so Yeah,
I mean besides those listening are us the childish
adults which is fine Yeah Always around the young
ham of the year or something and we have to behave
like upstanding, you know, exactly whatever we
tend to be So it's been a while since we've kind
of gone outside of that realm. So Yeah, there's
been a lot of changes in your life one of which
Is a move? That happened at the beginning of
the year with ham nation Over to the ham radio
crash course channel with our friend Josh over
there and yeah, so so tell us how that's How
that's going with, uh, with the move from twit
over to, um, YouTube. Yeah, it's been, it's been
very interesting. First off, we found out, um,
back probably around October of last year, October,
November, something, something around that time.
Um, it was about the same time I got fired from
my heart, which oddly enough, um, uh, so forgive
me if my brain is a little muddled from that.
at the end of, you know, having to make a career
change at my age. But anyway, yeah, that was
when, you know, the pandemic was, I mean, it
was hitting everything really hard, especially
companies like broadcasters who lost all of a
sudden 50 to 70 percent of their advertisers
and therefore 50 to 70 percent of their income.
So, you know, Leo Laporte on Twitter was no different
and he being a Basically a small business, you
know, he owns that it's not like he's a huge
corporation like I heart was or is But yeah,
so he had to get rid of some shows and unfortunately
get rid of some people in order to keep the lights
on over there and and ham talk or ham nation
was one of those shows which was consistently
in the top five or six of What they call landed
shows which are shows that are not produced necessarily
in -house Through twit and not hosted by Leo
You know ham nation is was and is still owned
by Bob Hile he has he owns the show and So it
was an outside outside show produced by twit
So anyway that you know that we were one of the
ones that that fell by the wayside they they
canceled a lot of shows in order to keep the
lights on over there and it was just And it's
what happened with COVID. It's just like I said,
it affected every company on the planet and broadcasting
was no different. So we weren't sure what was
going to happen. And then thankfully, Ray Novak
said he sent me an email. I believe email or
private message or something. And he said, what
if I can find a way to keep Ham Nation on the
air? Would you guys be willing to continue with
that? And I'm like, well, let's find out what
you're talking about. And he said, well, you
know, Josh, with Ham Radio Crash Course, we're
going to move it over there. I'm like, OK, that'll
be cool. We decided since Josh already has quite
a full plate with his his own YouTube stuff,
plus his job, and he's an IT guy, we kind of
all decided that we would do it every other week,
at least for now. Because remember we were losing
Bob Hile and we were losing George Thomas as
well. So the show was going to have a completely
different look and feel and everything else.
So there was a major retooling not only going
to a different platform but different production
with you know Twit no longer handling it and
Josh doing it all basically live on the fly.
He had to learn how to do that because I mean,
he has done his own live presentations, but it's
just him. And all of a sudden he has an ensemble
cast and video pieces to throw in there and live
guests to bring in and this, that and 17 other
things to juggle. So we all learned how to do
the show a different way while Josh learned how
to do the show. And we all together, we figured
it out. And so it has a slightly, I mean, pretty
much the same format. Slightly different look
and feel it definitely skews younger Just with
with having Josh as the main host We miss Bob
tremendously Bob comes on has been on a few times
He was on for the 500th episode Which is amazing
that when you think about it ham nation's been
going for over ten years the first show was I
think like a week after Dayton in 2011 so to
have something like that that That was kind of
started by Leo's idea of Telling Bob When he
came on one of his one of his shows like it you've
got to do a show about ham radio You've got to
you've got to you got to and Bob's like I don't
have time to do that I don't know it. I don't
know how to do that since we know just You got
to do it and so Leo talked him into it now here.
We are ten years plus later five hundred and
five six whatever it is You know shows later
here. We are Is a is pretty amazing but yeah,
so a lot of changes with ham nation a lot of
a lot of stuff That's the same as well and what
I like about it is we have brought in Joe Eisenberg
k0 Neb Who has always been one of my favorite
guests? He's the the kit building editor from
CQ magazine. So with with losing George with
smoke and solder we have We have Joe now in like
every other show like once a month To do kit
building and show us a bunch of techniques like
that so yeah it's a. It's been interesting change
the show is taking on a new life i think like
like i said excuse younger and plus we have an
entirely new audience who may not have ever heard
of us. Now that we're on on josh's ham radio
crash course youtube platform so it's been really
good i think. Yeah, I want one story that Bob
has told me and I don't remember the exact number
but one of the stories he told me about ham nation
was that when it first came on and Somebody had
commented to him. Well, what are you gonna do
after the first 20 shows because you're gonna
run out of material And now you're over 500 500
well listen as anybody knows if you've been around
ham radio for any any length of time at all There
are so many different facets and elements to
this hobby Service whatever it is that if you
get bored in amateur radio, it's your own fault
because there's so many, I mean, you can do microwave
stuff, you can do VHF, UHF, you can do weak signal,
you can do meteor scatter, you can do moon bounce,
you can do satellites, you can do slow scan TV,
you can do amateur TV with fast scan full motion
video, you can do DXing, you can do contests,
you can... County hunt you can grid chase You
can just hang out on your local repeater and
chat with your friends You can do nothing, but
CW. You can do nothing, but AM I mean you can
now on and on and on and on if you get bored
in this hobby And so there's always gonna be
something new to talk about always and plus with
now I mean you have all these digital modes now
FTA and everything else which You know as i mean
a lot of people are divided by f t eight some
people love it some people think it's the death
knell of amateur radio much like a lot of people
thought sideband would be back in the early days.
You know so it's it's it's constantly evolving
and constantly changing and there's always gonna
be something new to talk about in this hobby
so the fact that that here we are ten years and
five hundred and change episodes now. We still
have just barely scratched the surface of it
gives you some idea of of You know the the well
to go to as far as subject material And I don't
know when I look back at you know 40 some years
of 45 six it is Of ham radio it seems like I
tend to go in cycles So I'll be on repeaters,
and I spent so many years working on repeaters
and trying to link repeaters and do all this
remote receiver stuff and do all of that kind
of thing. And then finally it came to the time
where, okay, it's time to move on to something
else. And so then all of a sudden... get fired
up about HF again and then I get on HF and do
a whole bunch. The one that I've added is the
satellite thing. I had to take some time off
for the move and all the changes that happened
this summer, but now I'm starting to get back
on maybe once a week or so at least to get on
satellite. But it seems like I just kind of go
in spurts. For a while I'll be on VHF, UHF, and
then then I'll go to HF, then I'll go to, you
know, digital or, you know, and then, then it
come back around to all of it again. So there's,
there's always something and yeah, these new
digital modes are popping up all the time. It
used to be, you had, you know, four or five and
that was it. And hardly anybody ran those. It
was always you know 45 baud ready and that was
it and and now there's there's a ton of them
out there in fact sometimes it's kind of hard
to tell which one's which yeah i don't have the
years in amateur radio that you do i i would
have if i had gotten licensed back in 1975 when
i was 15 you know then then i would have um you
know i would have uh i would have had uh A great
deal more years in it than I do but I got licensed
in in 95 and I remember You know the on the local
repeaters packet was the big deal. Oh, you know,
you got to get a kpc3, man You got to do that,
you know, and you got to get on packet Check
the bulletin board and you can get email off
packet and everything and that so that was the
big deal and then PSK 31 came along and I got
I got involved in that a little bit, and I've
played with Ritty a little bit in slow -scan
TV, and I've made a few contacts on FTA. It's
interesting. it's I see people complain that
oh you just turn it on in the morning and you
come back home after work and you've You've got
your DX CC. Well, no, it's not exactly like there's
a lot more It's a lot more I found unless I'm
doing it wrong There's a lot more hands -on to
ft8 than there is just turning on your computer
and letting it fly But I have not I have not
completely embraced that but I can see I can
see its usefulness and it's just another mode,
much in the same way that people get all cranked
up about D -Star and DMR and you know, Yezu system
fusion. I saw some post on one of the Facebook
amateur radio groups today is like, okay, if
I connect to my hotspot using D -Star and make
contact around the world, is that ham radio?
Well, yeah, it is because you're talking into
a handy talkie and you're and you're accessing
the internet via radio Then I think that you
know and the person you're talking to is is very
likely listening Maybe on a local repeater or
is listening via their own hotspot or whatever
on on a on a radio that That has an RF link to
it. And so yeah, that's radio. It's like somebody
else said, you know, everything is radio. Hell
your cell phones radio Um, you know, it's all
radio. So I, to me that stuff, that's just another
mode. And, um, you know, there's, there's a lot
of the vision in that, but you know what? Get
on, you get on your radio, you do radio the way
you want to do it. And don't worry about what
everybody else says. As long as you're out there
and you're having fun, you earned your license,
you are using your privileges. If that's ham
radio to you, then. Works for me. That's ham
radio. That's that's where I stand You mentioned
bulletin boards because the old packet bulletin
boards and I remember I wasted many many many
hours of my childhood on Teletype and boards
Yeah, get on on on 40 meters and and these guys
would have that I think it was w4 cn if I remember
right and it had this huge bulletin board system
so you could you know you could send messages
and stuff but but the big thing that I really
got into with teletype is sending pictures so
what they would do is they would use letters
on the keyboard uh huh yeah and send it one line
at a time Yeah, and so like I got a picture of
what one of the ones I remember is there was
a picture of Abraham Lincoln But it was all in
ASCII characters and it was the oh My goodness,
I can't the names escape me the four score and
seven years ago Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the Gettysburg
address. Yeah, it was the words of the Gettysburg
address. Oh, that's shaped Shaped as as like
in head And so I collected tons and tons and
tons of stuff like that I mean pictures of Garfield
the cat and you know, right? It's just you know
but I Don't know how many hundreds of hours My
childhood got sunk into that but it was fun When
I speaking of totally totally apropos, I mean
totally off off -subject Speaking of Abraham
Lincoln in childhood. I can remember as a young
kid. I'm talking like four three or four years
old my mother had this big bucket full of pennies
and we would go through it and I found a penny
that had it was Abraham Lincoln, but there was
a Pipe that had been I don't know struck into
but it was Abraham Lincoln smoking a pipe I don't
know if you've ever seen these pennies or heard
of them, but I found one and I still have it
it's around here somewhere and and I have the
newspaper clipping that my mother sent to To
the to the local newspaper the Shawnee news star
in Shawnee, Oklahoma They had a little a little
a little blurb called star ology, which was Which
is like you know local happenings and whatever
it was like a three -year -old don will banks
the son of archie and lorraine will banks. Over
at you know that was when they would. Publish
your address on the front page of the paper us
nineteen sixty three sixty four crying out loud
you know over on tucker street reports that their
son don found that. a penny with Abraham Lincoln
smoking a pipe. And so I have that newspaper
clipping around here somewhere. My mother cut
it out with pinking shears so it has the jagged
edges and I still have that. And here now it's
almost 60 years old and I scanned it and I scanned
it along with the penny so I have an image of
that. But yeah, so you're talking about Abraham
Lincoln in childhood. Just brought that back.
So completely, completely off subject. It's a
cool memory. So thanks for triggering that. Yeah,
it is cool stuff. Yeah. A trip down memory lane.
So back when you had to walk to school uphill,
both ways through 10 feet of snow without any
shoes in the middle of a hurricane and a sharknado.
So exactly. That's right. Yeah. there you go
all right well it's it's break time here so we
need to take a break but when we come back we're
going to talk a little more about uh young ham
of the year and and and some other stuff uh and
who knows and and i see mike askens has even
left a comment here so so who knows what we're
in for so did he spell it all right yeah yeah
you did I'll give you a sneak peek here. It's
a Shawnee shoutout. There you go. Hey, Mikey,
my closest friend, my brother from another mother.
We met in first grade. Love that guy. Love you,
Mike. Ke5 CXP and part of the Newsline family.
So, all right. Well, we're going to take a break.
When we come back, we'll talk more with Don Wilbanks,
85 DW right after this word. from ICOM, right
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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. Here's the snap. Rapp
takes the rig. He breaks through the pile -up.
He's on 80, now 40, now 20, 15, 10, 2 meters,
touchdown, Hamtok live. 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. All right, well, before
we get back to Dawn and the phone lines here,
we've already got calls and comments here. We'll
get through all of those in just a moment, but
first it is time once again And I've been saving
this one because as I said, you know We had to
behave, you know most of the time but I figured
Figured this would be the night to bring this
one out. So strap in, here we go. It's 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. So one of my hand buddies showed
up with a brand new HT and I asked him where'd
you get that? He said it's the strangest story
I was walking down the street and this beautiful
girl comes up carrying this radio takes all of
her clothes off and says you can have anything
you want So I took the radio. I said good thing
because her clothes probably would not have fit
you anyway 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 Okay, I take it back we had not quite
hit rock bottom, but now yeah, but we have now
Well, no not yet, we have it oh wait That's right
Brown Paul Brown is on the line. Yes Co as I
refer to him as qr Paul cuz I can never hear
him on the air Once he comes out we then we hit
rock bottom Now we've hit rock bottom. Yeah,
now we there we go. That's it No place to go,
but mark mark this time down nine thirty two
This is when the world ended Just what you thought
the show couldn't suck more I'm here. We are.
Well, good evening, Paul. Welcome to Hamtalk
Live. Yeah. Yeah. If we get Askins on here, that's
yeah, that'd be a lot of fun. Yeah. Askin says
Dawn's wasted youth on CB and then the Shawnee
shout out and then says, love you, Dawn. And
I really like you a lot, Neil. Yeah. So you really
just could have stopped with Dawn's wasted. That
would have been just, that would have said it
all anyway. well paul what do you have for us
tonight? well you know don had mentioned uh...
about ham nation being you know being on for
you know now a little bit over ten years and
uh... you know ham nation is actually responsible
for me getting back into ham radio and unfortunately
for you guys, also responsible for me being on
Newsline. I got licensed in 77, and then college
happened, and then condo and apartment life and
everything, and I always kept my license current,
but I only played on two meters a little bit
here and there. And then when I heard that Bob
was gonna have a Ham Radio podcast, I thought,
hey, I know Bob. I'll listen and see what it's
like. And I started listening right away and
it got the interest going again. And I'm like,
you know, I've still got my radios all set up
over here. Maybe I'll just put up an antenna
and see if I still like ham radio. And turned
out that I did. I mean, I really, it woke everything
back up. It's like, yeah, you know what? All
the things I've tried over years. This is the
one hobby that has stuck with me my whole life.
And again, and then when I heard Don mention
about Bill passing away, I thought, well, I wonder
if they could use some help. And I got some experience
doing this stuff. So I emailed Don and unfortunately
he lost his brain temporarily and said, yes.
But for me, the news line thing is just, has
also been part of my life forever since back
when I first started and I belonged to Bob's
Club down in Marissa, Illinois. And we would
carry the Westlink report on our repeater every
week. Somebody would bring up the auto patch
and dial in and we'd play Westlink. So I used
to listen to the predecessor as a kid. And now
I get to be an anchor, which is just for me really
cool. Well, you know the reason that the reason
that that I said yes was because the salad your
seller demands were just Exactly in line with
what we were willing to pay which is nothing
Which is good because you get 10 % of that is
my agent. Yeah, and believe me we're getting
every penny's worth Paul and I have this it seems
like this adversarial relationship, but it's
just because I I love to dig at people especially
people who can take it and Dish it right back
and so that's that's Paul seriously People listening
Probably think that oh my god. What in the hell
will banks must hate Paul I don't dude. I think
you're like you're like the coolest guy You really
are and I just want to I just want to get that
out on the record and no That's not necessarily
the alcohol talking but just the fact that you
and I just we have this this this this You you
can you can give as well as get and that's I
really appreciate that because I'm one of these
kind of people that That if I'm leaving you alone,
you probably want to find out why So yeah, I
just I really appreciate you Paul. I just want
to go out on the record and say that and again
That's not necessarily the alcohol talking Yeah,
I you know the same here You know I had a lot
of respect for what you were doing before I emailed
you to see if I could help and that's why I did
that but you know Neil and you know do that the
news line family we're all like a weird dysfunctional
group that just We agreed that if we could all
be in a physical office We are all the people
we would want to work with Exactly, and you said
it right? It is a family news I mean I got involved
with it in 95 right after I became after I got
licensed when when One our young ham of the year
winner from from 93 introduced me to Bill, and
Bill was like, oh, you're in radio? Oh, well,
have I got a golden opportunity for you. And
so the ink hadn't even dried on my license before
I was involved with amateur radio newsline, which
was cool to me because as soon as I bought that
HTX 202 for myself for my birthday in 1994 in
September when I was studying for my license,
and then ended up, what, a couple months later
taking the test, I discovered newsline on the
local repeater, and I thought, well, this is
the best thing since sliced bread. And, you know,
to be involved in that and to have kind of grown
up as a ham with having Bill Pasternak as the
weird uncle mentor kind of a deal, you know,
and I love that man. I mean, like a brother or
an older brother or uncle or whatever. I mean,
there's not a day goes by that. just like with
my parents, you know, my mother, my dad died
in 91, my mother in 95, and then Bill seven years
ago, and those three people, there's not a day
goes by that I don't need to pick up the phone
and call them and ask them something, and Bill
is right there, right there, right there in that
group. Yep, I agree, and I really wish I had
had the opportunity to meet Bill, but I have
never in any of the public appearances we've
done, Hurry anybody sick in but wonderful things
about bill. Oh, you won't you won't hear it You
won't hear a bad thing period. You just never
well I haven't in 25 26 years or whatever of
being in this hot. No, I've never heard a bad
thing Yeah, just the best Yeah, well Paul, thanks
so much for calling in and and and bringing the
show to a new low Yeah, exactly. Oh, we appreciate
You know, you got it got to go with your strength
and yeah, you know, that's mine Yeah, there you
go. So nowhere to go but up get Askins on the
horn. Yeah, there you go Yeah, I appreciate you
man, I really do I Brought it to a certain low,
but then you know Mike Mike's got the capacity
to take it even lower. So yeah Well, Mike, Mike,
listen, Mike was on QVC for a while and home
shopping. So, yeah. I have to ask him about that.
Oh, he was really? Yeah, yeah, he was a yeah,
he was they would he had a weekly a weekly deal
where they would they would send him product
or whatever to to a review. And he had he would
spend like an hour or two on camera from his
studio there in Oklahoma. Talking about whatever
product it was that they sent him. Yeah, he's
a he's a home shopping star that boy. Oh Well,
no, we have a little no, we have a little income
and then because my wife bought a lot of home
shopping My wife and I had a thing had a stained
-glass studio at one point and when QVC did that
50 and 50 thing where they traveled around the
country and looked for you know, local people's
stuff. When they came to Indiana, we were actually
on and we had a stained glass piece we did that
they sold. Well, that's neat. Yeah, I'll sign
autographs for you if you want. Nah, that's fine.
All right. I'm good. All right, guys. All right.
Thanks, Paul. See ya. Paul Brown, OED9GCO from
Valparaiso. But a moment too soon. Yeah. All
right, let's see. Well, we've got another call
on the line. Let's see Yeah, let's do it Good
evening. Welcome to ham talk live Well, hello
Neil, it's Skeeter in five a sh and Don how are
you? It's another one. There's another one radio
dude. Hey Skeeter Hey guys Listen, when I saw
Don... Live from the old Disjockey's retirement
home. Well, also known as the Kenworth T680 in
my case. There you go. There you go. So, just
when I saw that, Neil, when I saw that Don was
going to be on tonight, I thought, well, maybe
I better call in just to offer balance to the
program. Yeah, exactly. Yes, a little touch of
sanity. Well now I'm not gonna go that far but
But you know we I heard you guys talking earlier
about you know ham nation hitting over 500 episodes
and and you know the what could have possibly
Been the end of it, you know at the end of this
last year and the rebirth Thanks to Josh and
and the continuance of it and it just kind of
the the word that came to my mind was commitment
because again You know, just like amateur radio
news line, it's it's a volunteer situation. It's
people that love this hobby, love sharing this
hobby and through. Yeah, I was barely I mean,
it was barely dry on my license when Ham Nation
came on. I got licensed the end of November of
2010. And so I'm just on fire for Ham Radio.
I'm trying to absorb every absorb everything
I can on the subject and learn as much as I can
because. actually wanted to become a ham, kind
of like Don when I was like 13 years old, but
the circumstances just weren't right, there were
family situations going on and stuff I won't
go into, but it just was not the time for me
to do it. I did not have the time to learn the
code, nobody to study it with, so it just kind
of went by the wayside and then I went off and
got interested in other things when I was in
junior high and then high school. So Ham Nation
comes along and I knew about Bob Heil through
his work with The Who and The Who is one of my
favorite bands of all time and so I knew the
name Heil Sound and I knew You know, I knew that
Bob was involved with their sound and their productions
back in the day. And so when I saw this show
coming on, I thought, man, I got to watch this.
It's another thing I can use to keep learning
about ham radio. And lo and behold, it was everything
I'd hoped it would be. And then it grew and kept
improving and growing. And the production values
got even better. And the guests got cooler and
more interesting. You know, and like you said,
here it is, 500 episodes later. And I am even
in one of the episodes of Ham Nation, briefly.
I mean, I was sitting in Bob Shack. I just happened
to be in the Springfield area when he was living
in the Ozarks still. And I got a hold of him
just to see, hey, can we go out to lunch or dinner?
Are you in the area? And he told me he was. And
so... We wound up going out to dinner, but then
he invited me to come into the shack at his house
there and Participate in the program that night,
and it's the episode from from Dayton to Visalia
I think is the title of it anyway. It's on my
QRZ page. I've got a link there, but That was
that was so great to actually see Bob's shack
in person. I mean that's a Serious Radio Shack
right there. Yeah, I think that I need to get
there and shit I've never I've never been to
Bob's place, but that's not that wasn't the first
time you were on When we brought you in to amateur
radio newsline you cut a little video piece on
on how you produce Newsline and we've we played
that on ham nation too. So That's right. That
came before that that is true. I came before
that right with that together. Yeah, yeah, but
And just like, and linking them together, Newsline,
again, all volunteers, all people who love the
hobby, and again, we also hit a crossroads when
Bill passed away and became a silent key. But
there was a commitment there, we've got to keep
this going. and we've got to find the people
that we need because Bill, as you've said often
Don, Bill was a one -man show as far as writing.
He was. And submitting and soliciting the reporters
to do their bits and the anchors to do their
jobs. And so, you know, I didn't have a very
long time to get to know Bill, but we did have
several conversations. over the few years from
the time I started with Newsline, which really
started with me just filing an audio report regarding
a special event station that our club in northeast
Arkansas, the Northeast Arkansas Radio Club,
was putting on in honor of Johnny Cash's birthday.
And when I sent him the press release and he
got back to me and said, hey, you're a radio
guy, you're an on -air guy, why don't you just,
I'll write the script, you record it and send
it. So, okay. And then we got on the subject
of anchoring and... And as Donna said in the
past many times, Bill was a guy you couldn't
say no to. And I was thrilled. I wanted to anchor.
I kind of offered my services and said, look,
I'd like to dip my toe into this and see if I
can anchor this newscast. And so from there it
went on. And then we teamed up with Karen Eve
Murray. God bless her. She picked up the mantle
and ran with it. And we've had lots of conversations.
I've kind of helped her because she wrote for
so long for newspapers and magazines and writing
for the eye to read is very different from writing
for the ears to hear. Yeah, writing for radio
and writing for print is completely different.
And this bears repeating. We need to repeat this
again because we've told this story, at least
I have several times. Bill got sick and I had
to take a break from anchoring because I was
doing night classes for real estate back during
that time and you had kind of taken over. running
things while Bill was in the hospital and then
I remember my phone rang one night and it was
it was you and Bill and you brought me in together
on a on a on a conference call and it was like
we were talking about the people like we'd gotten
these emails and I think you were the one I think
who mentioned Karen Eve Murray and you were going
down her resume and all I could hear was Bill
and and his voice was kind of frail at the time
all I heard was hire her hire her hire her hire
her Okay, we'll do that and it was like it I
I want to say it was the next day or the next
day or two after that that bill had passed and
It was like it was like a punch to the gut that
that that that last time I talked to bill Was
that night with the three of us on the phone
and I will never forget that Never forget that
was a that was a pretty amazing situation and
and yeah she came with with great credentials
and great experience and and and and a love of
the hobby just like all the rest of us and so
she uh... you know we we worked with her and
showed her some of the past scripts and how they
went the interesting thing was what the way that
she came our way was i'd kind of put the word
out in various uh... ham radio circles hey you
know because we we knew i think we all pretty
much knew that that bill was not going to be
able to come back and and to do a job again i
mean he he he made it pretty clear that he was
not not at all going to be able to pick it up.
So I knew we had to put the word out. And so
we got several responses from people who, yeah,
you know, I'd like to be part of Newsline and
stuff. In fact, it was kind of overwhelming.
And if anybody's listening that I did not get
back to on that, please, a thousand pardons.
I apologize. It was just a bit overwhelming.
It was like putting a job. uh... listing out
there and having a thousand resumes come in the
also never wasn't quite that many but it was
a lot and yellow there was was among those and
uh... and so we did quote unquote hire her even
though nobody's getting paid anything right but
she can she is this is a little bit around i
mean she she she went from being from from say
okay well maybe i can help a little bit all the
sudden bill dying they were like okay you're
the new bill And it was overwhelming. Yeah, but
she just she jumped right in the big middle of
it and she I mean, it was like the ultimate on
-the -job training. She learned how to you know,
okay, you got to have these these blocks have
to be Ten minutes long they can't go over and
yeah, and and then I think it was my idea to
shorten it from three segments to two just to
make things a little bit easier and Streamline
things a little bit because there were there
were a lot of stories that bill had that that
were radio related But not necessarily amateur
radio related and I thought you know we could
probably do some streamlining a little bit and
And that's kind of what we did and so now we're
a 20 minute ish show instead of a 30 minute ish
show and and yeah, I just I just the people who
came in after bill passed away just absolutely
saved news line, oh, with the exception of Paul
Brown. But. No, well, you know. But. Yeah. To
that, to that, to that end, a lot of the people
that did, you know, step up, raise their hand
and say, hey, can I be part of it? Several of
them, like you and I, had broadcast radio careers
or television careers and were licensed hams.
And what what wound up doing, you know, when
Bill wrote the scripts, they were very anchor.
centric that anchor did carried the most of the
heavy lifting of reading the stories and we'd
have a few What we would call in the business
actualities or reports from other voices mixed
in from time to time But but Karen Ede Murray
took over and you and I kind of started working
with her and and working on the newscast itself
we started to realize hey we've got a lot of
voices out there and not just here in the US
but around the world let's utilize them let's
truly make this sound like from around the world
which is the opening line of the of the newscast
it truly does over the last you know however
many years we've been doing this now without
Bill it truly does sound like it's coming in
from around the world and I think that is just
the coolest thing And you know, Bill always patterned
after spot radio news. That was how he patterned
Newsline and everything else. And I think now
it's more like 60 minutes where the story is
the main thing and you have an anchor or whatever
who just introduces the story and it's actually
the story and the actuality that makes it. And
so I think the flow is really good. I like how
Newsline has changed, I really do. Yeah, and
speaking of 60 minutes or something Yeah, yeah,
I know we're way we're already over time so Skeeter
It's great to hear from you, but but we're gonna
have to move it along here We got a couple of
other things we're gonna do real quick here before
we sign off so seven three everybody seven three
Seven three Skeeter. Take care. Be careful out
there Another good one. Bye bye. Yep. Yep. Absolutely
All right. Well wish we had time to to take more
open and here's another call coming in I wish
we had time to to take some more calls, but we're
already over our 45 minutes here, so I did say
one thing I had like two or three other things
we were going to talk about but as usual throw
the script out the window, but Just have you
mentioned a couple of minutes here on the young
ham of the year award ceremony that that kind
of Changed due to kovat and yeah, and so so so
tell us a little bit about how that went and
and then we'll Read some comments and sign off
Well, I thought it went well. I was like how
can we do this since the board the young ham
of the year? Awards committee decided not to
do it live at Huntsville which I did not agree
with it first, but it actually yeah, you know
it turned out to be it's and that was before
the Delta variant really hit and then when that
really got cranked up and You know, yeah, it
was it was the right decision. It really was
and they're much brighter people than I am or
I'll ever be but We we took it over to Tom Medlin's
Platform and he jumped at it. I figured that
would be the easiest way to do it Tom's been
a big friend of the amateur radio news line and
always broadcast live from Huntsville, the Youngham
of the Year Award. And so we did it there. We
did it live on Tom Mellon's amateur radio roundtable
and it just went really well. And I want to thank
Tom again for giving us the platform and the
time and the production value there to do that.
But I cannot wait. to get back to a ham fest.
It's been almost two years. It'll be two years
in January that I've been to a ham fest. And
I missed last week's show where you had the two
Michaels and Mark from Dayton, from Orlando,
and from Huntsville. I've got to go back and
listen to that. I've met Michael Colley. I've
not been to the Orlando hamcation. Michael Coulter,
I think, is the greatest guy in the world, and
I absolutely love Mark Brown. He's a huge, huge
friend of Amateur Radio Newsline and helps us
out tremendously with our presentation at the
Huntsville Hamfest. So I want to thank Mark for
everything that he's done for us, and we're going
to call Huntsville home for as long as they'll
have us. so uh... uh... i can't wait to go back
and listen to that episode but yeah i can't wait
to get back to him as that's where that's where
this award needs to be presented as in front
of people uh... i'm i'm i'm ready as well so
all right well uh... let let's run down a few
of the uh... The typers here, let's make sure
we get them in. Uh, Troy W9KVR says, uh, just
rolled in from, uh, from a park, put 16 in the
log is W9GRS slash nine, which reminds me it's
nice school club roundup week. So, um, that's
going to end tomorrow. So if you haven't been
on to talk to the kids, uh, and a lot of schools
are not on because of COVID, but there are several
that are on. So, uh, give them a. call and see
how they're doing. Chris A4CB says hello everyone
and Troy says missed K9SOU being around. Not
at K9SOU this year. Kind of sad not to have them
on, but COVID's kind of stopping that process.
So hopefully they can get back on the air. And
Askins says, the request line is hot tonight.
Tried to call, but the screen kept telling him,
no, not you. So that must have been the issue.
We need to get Mike on sometime. Yeah, we do.
We need to we could just do a whole show about
amateur radio news line and have the anchor,
you know, have our have the voice as a news line.
I think that'd be a great idea. We have to do
that sometime. Yeah, sounds like a plan. Well,
we had some other things that we can talk about,
but we'll just have to talk about them later.
So I'm not going to keep everybody here too much
longer. So thanks, Don, for coming on and we'll
talk again soon. Well, I'm glad you hit I'm glad
I'm glad that I was able to come on and that
yeah you You're misfortune of not having a guest
turned out to be a really good thing. So I'm
glad that I'm glad I was your I'm glad I was
your last chance to go to and it turned out good.
So Thank you, sir. I appreciate that All right,
Don well, thanks so much that is a wrap for this
week's edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks to John
Wilbanks, AE5DW, and everybody out there at Cyberspace
for listening and calling in and typing in. And
come back next Thursday night, 9 p .m. Eastern
time, for a list of our upcoming guests, go to
hamtalklive .com. So for now, this is Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may the good DX
be yours. Well you came right back to my CQ call
Your Readability 5 and Strength 9 You never once
mentioned your weather at all