This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
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for more information about ICOM radios. Here
we go, welcome to Amtopi Calling laptop Neil's
your guy Amtopi, here we go Hey good evening
everyone it's HamTalk Live episode number 265
live from Yoda America's Camp 2021 recorded live
on Thursday July 15th 2021. I'm your host Neil
Rapp WB9VPG thanks for tuning into this episode.
of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined by some
of the campers, staff, parents, and volunteers
at this year's Youth on the Air Camp in Westchester,
Ohio. And we will take your calls live in just
a few minutes. Last week here on the show, Mark
Brown in for BCD was here to talk about the Huntsville
Ham Fest coming up here in just a few weeks.
If you missed that show, you can listen anytime
at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube. Or you can catch the rebroadcast
on WTWW. That's five zero eight five on your
AM dial Saturday afternoons at about three 30
PM Eastern time. So get your questions. It's
ready to go about youth on the air if you're
listening to us live on Thursday night You can
give us a call in just a little bit Let me go
ahead and give you the telephone number So you
have it ready and we'll let you know when it's
time to call the number is eight five nine nine
eight two seventy three seventy three and I'll
give that number again here in just a moment
and a couple other times later on in the show
again the number eight five nine 9827373, you
can also tweet us, it's at HamTalk Live on Twitter,
and I'll be back live from Yoda Camp right after
this word from Tower Electronics right here on
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We're not sure what's up with the fifth dentist,
but four out of five dentists recommend listening
to HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live.
Thanks to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics
for sponsoring the show as they do each and every
week to help bring HamTalk Live your way. Make
sure you visit them at a HamFest near you or
online at PL -259. Welcome back to HamTalk Live,
coming to you live from Westchester, Ohio. We're
here in the Yoda Camp Hotel, actually. We're
in one of the meeting rooms here next to the
lobby, and we have several campers and staff
and volunteers in the room tonight, so we're
going to talk to many of them, but if you have
a question for one of them... give us a call
at 859 -982 -7373 or tweet us it's at HamTalk
Live and if you're on Spreaker you can type in
the comments and we'll check those as we go throughout
the evening and It's been a great week of camp.
We are just starting this program. It's the first
time it's been done over here in the Americas.
It's basically a copy of the Youngsters on the
Air camp programs over in Europe and Western
Asia and Africa. Things have gone really, really
well. We've, of course, had a few learning moments
along the way, but we've been pretty successful
in all of the projects, which is what we really
wanted. We've also been pretty successful at
getting these young people to know each other
a little bit better and know that they're not
alone in this hobby and service. It's worked
out really well. So, happy to report that things
are going so well. We're going to finish up tomorrow.
We're going to send everybody home at 2 o 'clock
tomorrow. There will be a live stream of the
closing ceremony from 1 to 2 p .m. tomorrow on
our YouTube channel, so check that out. And if
you haven't been following along with the daily
highlight videos, Brian Esche, WB9QVR, or as
we call him back home, The Q, has been editing
these highlight videos every day. And Sterling
Mann, N0SSC, who's waving at me at the moment,
and James Lee, WX4TV, have been shooting tons
of video all week. So every day we upload all
this stuff and then Brian goes out and edits
it all into a couple of minutes so you can see
what we're doing. So make sure you check out
the Youth on the Air YouTube channel and watch
the little highlight videos. You can also watch
the opening ceremony. We did have an official
ceremony for that and keynote speaker Tim Duffy,
K3LR. And you can also watch the Eris contact
that we made yesterday. Another exciting moment
when we were able to talk with an astronaut.
So be sure you check that out. Well, first off,
I want to bring on John Dykstra, N0JSD. He has
called into the show a couple of times, and he's
a frequent listener of the show. And John, I
want you to to tell everybody what your thoughts
are on camp this week. Okay, Neil. Hey, good
evening, everyone. This is John Dystra, N0JSD.
I'm a contestor out in Northern Virginia. So
we got here. I got in around Saturday night,
spent the night here. Then Sunday we went in
orientation got an idea what the voice of America
is down here in Westchester, Ohio I tell you
what Jocelyn brought he's a really good guy showed
us around and He definitely gives a really good
show this past week so When we next day we built
80 meter kits really nice, and then we just used
them today actually for a little bit of ARGF.
And then we went to, then we did a bunch of other
stuff. And I think Wednesday, what was it? Yeah,
we did Kings Island in the air's contact. So
pretty cool. I've talked to anyone at SS many
times and it's good to hear it again, hear the
good voice up there at the ISS. Other than that,
it's been a really good week with the with the
guys down here at youngsters on the air and All
the guys that I talked to over the air. I actually
get to meet in person So back over to you Neil
wb9vpg. This is n0jsd All right, John if you
had to pick your favorite thing so far, which
we've still got a few hours of camp left tomorrow
But if you had to pick your favorite thing out
of this week, what would it be? So definitely
making the contacts all the people who've been
wanting to work us because we did operate the
special event station w8y 98 % of the time I've
been on 40 meter CW so We've been making many
contacts off that it's just good to hear people
all around the world who are actually interested
in us and supporting us by making their contacts
so Haven't seen logs yet, but I know we've made
a lot of contacts and thank you guys very much
for this contacts All right, John. Well, thanks
for sharing with us tonight and Again, if you
have a question about youth on the air can't
give us a call at eight five nine nine eight
two seventy three seventy three or tweet us at
ham talk live and Want to bring on Michael? W3.
Oh now I'm going to turn your badge around w3
MLJ. That's it Michael Lippert is from up in
northeast Ohio and he's here to, or more or less,
on the Pennsylvania side. Anyway, Michael is
here and he's big into contesting and we started
off the week uh... on monday with some contesting
stuff so uh... michael won't you talk a little
bit about uh... what you've enjoyed about you
know the camp and and maybe some of the contesting
aspects of the camp okay thank you neil uh...
it's uh... been very fun uh... uh... the contesting
uh... was very fun we uh... uh... learned a lot
uh... some that i didn't know but uh... I've
been very active in contests ever since I think
it was the first year I've got my license. So
I've been to multiple contest stations up in
Maine, Massachusetts, and North Me, K3LR, which
he was here Monday, or Sunday, I guess it is.
But yeah, contesting is mainly my thing, HF and
running that sorts. All right, and I'll ask you
the same thing what what was your favorite thing
The favorite thing was What would it be probably
the International Space Station contact that
was a really cool haven't done that yet, but
that was probably the favorite part so far Now
there's a lot to pick from and that's a good
one and that's one that Took a lot of setup and
and so trend transitioning to that The young
lady who? Put all of that stuff together to make
that heiress contact is behind me She's been
on the show before Ruth will it came for lao
talk a little bit about the experience of being
in charge of an heiress contact Good evening,
everyone. This is Ruth Kielomike for Lima Alpha
Oscar from Virginia Getting to be in charge of
that heiress contact Getting to be in charge
of that heiress contact was really incredible
It's been a multi -year process. I think at this
point just working with our heiress mentors and
working with heiress North America trying to
try to make this contact happened during the
only couple of days we had for it. So definitely
a lot of paperwork, a lot of emails, a lot of
patients from Neil and John Clute and then Fred
Kramer who came in at the last minute to be our
heiress mentor as well as communications with
our telebridge station because we did a telebridge
contact. But it was absolutely incredible a big
bucket list item for me that I wanted to talk
with an astronaut for quite some time and attend
to their contacts run by good friends But never
been able to be in charge of one So it was incredible
to be up there and be the yoda host for that
and to get to talk to the astronauts directly
Now you had You know the the chance to do this
but what one of my favorite parts was You know
they said okay, well you can run this this video
before the contact and this video explains what's
going to happen and it was starring you and Chris
bro who see in the room he's in the next room
over and he's also as soon as I brought brought
the broadcast up he ran off. uh... but both of
you are here this week but uh... the video was
was of the two of you uh... i think it was like
five or six years ago so you look you look nothing
like you did in the video so how did you feel
about that it was really exciting to see that
video actually being played for contact uh...
it was quite the experience and tom delaney who
directed that incredibly well, was so patient
with us. We were, we never, Chris and I had never
done anything quite like that before. And just
seeing how, I'd seen the video before, but seeing
it in the context of a contact and seeing how
it helped some of the folks there be able to
understand a little better exactly what was happening,
how well the video was put together, it was really
cool to see. I've definitely grown up a lot since
then but I'm really proud of how that came together
and that it's still good enough to be used right
now for heiress contacts every week. It was a
cool thing and we want to wish John Clute the
best. He had a medical issue to deal with at
the very last second and Fred Kimmer came over
and jumped right in where John left off and made
everything work. But we want to wish John the
best and a speedy recovery because he's been
very helpful in making all of this happen. Well,
another camper here tonight is Graham and it's
K04, I'm looking at your badge, FJK. And Graham's
been enjoying Yoda camp as well and been doing
some cool stuff. So talk about your favorite
parts of the week. Alright, good evening everyone.
My favorite parts of the week have been all the
amazing things we've done with amateur radio.
I really enjoyed. We did some satellite stuff
with Ruth KM4 LAO this morning and it was really
cool to connect with three different satellites
this morning. We got lucky and there were some
good passes and it was a lot of fun trying to
track in with the Yagington and get on through
the pileup. even if it was a bit difficult at
times. I also enjoyed all the fun things that
we got taken to. We got to go to an arcade and
we got to Kings Island and had a blast there.
It was so much fun. But most important thing,
I think, is all the connections that I've made
and all the friends I've made and all the great
experiences that we've had through it. Back to
you, Neil. Now you mentioned the you know your
favorite thing being the connections that you
made so So this was kind of our big goal for
this week was so that you all didn't feel alone
in ham radio, so I'll ask you the question which
which we hope we know the answer to After leaving
this camp do you think that? You'll stick with
ham radio and be able to Get some help from your
peers when you have different projects that you
want to try Thank you. I think I definitely will
because before this I did never knew how to use
FTA. I mean My dad, who's also Ham, KR4BKE, he
works on it on his computer, but I had never
seen how it worked before, and I got to learn
firsthand how to work FT8, and I think that's
a great experience, because FT8 can run off almost
anything, as you know. It has great propagation
and reaches everything, and contacts are very
straightforward on it. And, you know, this has
really helped to encourage me and helped me to
learn different modes of amateur radio communication,
such as D -Star and, of course, satellite contact,
which I had never done before. Very good and
the satellite thing is just really cool and like
we said Ruth did that today and we'll Be on some
of the passes again tomorrow as we have time
as we do our antenna build tomorrow, but we'll
have a chance to be on the birds one last time
before we go home and That's something I've been
into the last two or three years and just ready
to get back on with the move and and getting
ready for this camp and everything just haven't
been on and uh... i'm looking forward to some
some satellite operating time here uh... before
too long All right, well, it's time to take a
break. So we're going to take a break. We're
going to come back with yet more people here
at Yoda Camp after this word from ICOM America
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radios. Join the conversation. Give us a call
at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the number to call
is 859 -982 -7373. Or, if you'd rather type than
talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live. Now, here's Neil
Rapp with more HamTalk Live. You're listening
to Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp. sponsoring the
show to bring HamTalk Live your way each and
every week. Make sure you check them out at iconamerica
.com slash amateur. All right, well, we have
some more people to talk to and we want to make
sure that you know that HamTalk Live is on the
air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern time.
right here at HamTalkLive .com. Make sure to
check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
And before we get to more of our people here,
we have some more campers and a special guest
that we'll bring to you. But we're going to go
to 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 in 9GSU with today's HamTalk
Live Joke of the Week. I was working slow scan
with a fellow ham that also happens to be a dentist.
the other day. He sent me a whole bunch of toothpicks.
This has been the HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke
of the Week with Rick Garrett in 9GSU. Tune in
again next week for another joke from Rick. Oh
my goodness, thank you Rick, we think. We're
not sure. The toothpicks. There we go. Now we
had some of the campers sending some pictures
across the airwaves with the ICOM IC705 and it
was pretty cool. Well welcome back to HamTalk
Live and again it's time for your call so if
you have a call to make to us give us a call
at 859 -982 -7373 or you can tweet us at HamTalk
Live again if you have a question for us. 859
-982 -7373 now is the time to call. And if you're
listening to us on WTWW or on the podcast edition,
you won't be able to reach us because we're doing
this live on Thursday night. All right. Well,
we have a call on the line, so let's go to the
phones. Good evening. Welcome to Amtok Live.
Oh hi Neil, it's Connor and Ben and Patrick.
So we have Connor calling in from behind the
wall here. So, Connor, what's been your favorite
thing to do this week? Our heiress contact was
pretty good. Well, it was definitely a unique
experience because Just not too many people get
to do that. So it was pretty pretty cool and
I know you've you've had a a fun -filled Trip
getting here. Tell us a little bit about that.
Oh Yes, I flew all the way from Virginia met
with Patrick who's right here. Hi Then we drove
in here from Indianapolis on Sunday Saturday
or one of the week weekend days and Then we leave
tomorrow afternoon. I go back to India and then
fly home Saturday so you actually got to the
Indianapolis ham fest and Went and checked out,
Kentucky and and checked out all kinds of stuff
Oh, yeah, we went to the levees in Kentucky.
We made a whole trip out of this, you know, I
kind of stay on my side of the coast. So this
was a fun trip. All right. Well, thank you, Connor,
for calling in. Thanks for taking our call from
the 200 level of the hotel. Oh, there we go.
All right, Connor, thanks. We'll see you in the
morning if not before. Bye, Neil. Bye -bye. 859
-982 -7373 is the phone number, and these guys,
you can tell, really get along well and are all
smiles this week, and it's just been fabulous
to do that. Case W0AAE is here with me, and he
is our paper QSL card manager, and he's been
doing some of the cards for the special events.
All that kind of thing and he's going to have
a big job to do when you get home. So tell us
a little bit about some of that and your favorite
parts of the week. Yeah, I'm going to have to
do a lot of QSOing when I get home and maybe
set up some DX cards as well. But I've had a
lot of fun this week. I can't wait. to do more
tomorrow. And what was most fun was the sprint
that we did at the park. Even though it was five
minutes long, it was a lot of fun. I'm actually
going to score those tonight. I should really
get on that before it gets too late. And that
was a lot of fun. It was a lot of QRM on the
frequency from RFI in the building and all kinds
of things. And I love contesting as well. It's
one passion I enjoy. And I enjoy CW. One thing
that I never thought I would enjoy more was the
balloon launch that we did. That was very entertaining,
and just seeing how cheap everything was, technically
cheap, I thought it would be at least $1 ,000.
But it seems decently cheap for what we were
doing. And I'm actually thinking about doing
that when I get home or sometime in the future.
So that might be pretty fun. Uh, yeah, it's just
been a lot of fun and, um, the amateur radio,
um, uh, direction finding was also a great, uh,
the kit building. Um, it's nice to solder some
stuff again, but anyway, I'll send back over
to Neil W zero AAE. All right. Well, we appreciate
all of your, uh, efforts in helping, uh, get
this thing going. And that's one of the, the
things that we want to accomplish, uh, with this
camp is that the youth are, uh, leading, um,
more and more of the logistics. We have the youth
doing most of the sessions and we want to expand
that as we go. Well, Case mentioned, or Keys
as we call him, Case mentioned the balloon launch
and Jack McElroy, KM4ZIA is here, and it was
just a fabulous experience. And and you missed
out on Dave and Buster's to go get the payload
but Getting the payload back is is quite the
story So tell us the story of getting the payload
back from the boy Thanks Neil so first of all
if you heard my voice begin I'll let you know
that we will be sending QSO cards to you. Just
email me. It came from Jack B. McElroy at gmail
.com. Just email me if you heard my balloon and
I'll send you all a QSO card. So retrieving the
payload, what it was, we had to basically drive
about 100 miles to near Marysville, Ohio. to
get this payload, and it was by this little farm
called Wishwell Farms, and it was run by these
two friends. Both of them were mechanical engineers,
and they ran this farm where they grew soybeans.
So we tracked the balloon to one of their fields,
and we asked them if we could go in their fields
to retrieve the payload, and they're like, Oh
yeah, sure, let's just go grab the ATV. Because
they already launched balloons before, like the
ones that we launched on Tuesday. So they knew
what it was like to launch one of these balloons
and track it and chase it and retrieve it. So
we hopped on this big ATV and we drove out on
these... big soybean field and we finally found
the payload and it was completely intact and
landed in a way so the very bomb of the all the
payloads and the very top which is the actual
bloom all laid out perfectly in the soybean field.
So we got it got some pictures and we told them
all about the Arduino and Arduino we had it it
had multiple sensors on it for temperature internal
external temperature and barometric pressure
for altitude and it was a DHT 22 sensor a DHT
11 sensor and a BMP 1a sensor so we retrieve
all data they wanted to know all about so it's
really awesome talking to them and they even
made their own maple syrup and we have bought
a good bit of it. We haven't tasted it yet, so
soon enough we'll buy it. Or sorry, not buy it,
sorry, taste it. But great guys and definitely
we are really glad that land in there feeling
not some angry guys, old front yard. Anyway,
that's what it was on the balloon. So thanks
and back to Neil. Now these just weren't any
mechanical engineers turned farmers You left
out one important point there So so where were
they working as mechanical engineers? Yeah, they're
mechanical engineers and One of them I believe
actually worked for is Google Loon, I believe
it was called, and they launched balloons just
like ours are payloads. And traveling around
the world, they weren't like HABs where they
go up to about 100 ,000 feet in pop. They were
like SBSs or super pressure balloons where they
basically just go up to a set altitude because
of a film or the plastic on the balloon basically
stops the balloon from its air pressure inside
going up and up. So. their balloons went around
the world and they had payloads that land in
these countries that are not very nice to the
US. And so Google would basically hire these
PMCs or private military contractors like these
retired Special Forces guys to basically go out
to these countries and retrieve the payload and
bring it back to Google. So that was really interesting
to know about that. So it was awesome to know
that, first of all, got the balloon in a fellow
balloonist's yard and they knew all, they knew
what the balloon was about, they knew how it
worked, and so it was really awesome just talking
to them because, you know, they're not knowledgeable
on the topic as well. So, I think, I think that's
it on the balloon retrieval. Yeah, I just couldn't
believe it when I heard the story, you know,
it was, oh my gosh, these guys know exactly what
was going on and started asking questions. You
couldn't ask for a smoother retrieval and actually
to get people that knew what was going on. So
just fabulous. And things have really gone, for
the most part, pretty well this week. It's just
been these kinds of things. Things have worked
and science doesn't always work especially when
you do that in front of a whole bunch of students.
That's been my experience, anyway. Well, let's
change routes here. Will Jordan, a 4WJ from ICOM
America, has been spending the week with us.
And they provided all of our communications things
and you heard the ad about the IP501 handheld
and we have 11 of those. We've been using them
as staff radios so I can personally attest now
to the IP501 and it's kind of the first time
you've had a chance to play with it so it was
a good experiment for you. Well, no, you're exactly
right, you know, we Well, I suppose really at
the end of the day Neil I just wanted a chance
to play with them, you know plain and simple.
Let's let's not let's not mince words here They're
super duper cool and this seemed like a great
opportunity to test them out in a very Worthwhile
and a very real type of situation and they have
served us Incredibly well all the way from Kings
Island to Dave and Buster's back here the hotel
and the VOA Museum all week long so It's been
a great experience with these little guys, and
I'm going to be sad when we have to ship them
back home. Not only do we have these LTE staff
radios, but you've brought handhelds for them
to use, some IC -705s for them to use out in
the field. Tomorrow, they're going to be testing
out their antennas that they're going to build
in a competition. with those 705s and then you
also brought IC 7300s for them to use in the
shack at the museum as well as here in the hotel
so talk a little bit about the the shack in the
hotel that you've been in charge of and and tell
us how that went this week well Neil, it's gone
incredibly well. And in fact, I'm getting some
sideways glances from some of the campers here.
They want me upstairs in the hotel shack to unlock
it for them so that we can get back on the air
and make some contacts here before we close camp
out. So I'll need to be doing that here before
too much longer. But it's been a great time.
We've had some 7300s in action, both at the museum
and here in the hotel, with some really great
antennas. Some of the VOA club members were kind
enough to venture to the top of the hotel roof
to install for us. We've made some great DX contacts.
We hit Belgium at one point. We hit Greece at
one point, I know. Maybe even more on CW. Hawaii
a couple times. So we've been getting out there
into the world on the airwaves and doing what
we love to do best. We have one more night for
them to enjoy that so When we sign off here in
just a little bit I'm sure they'll be wanting
to get back up there and get on okay, so so I
Joked a little while ago about I wasn't going
to read the ICOM ad tonight. You were going to
read the ICOM ad. And so I see Sterling, one
of our committee members and staff members this
week, had some advice of some lines to say. So
here you go. Here's your 15 -second extra ICOM
ad for tonight. So as Sterling suggested, buy
my radios, yo. everybody buy those ICOM radios
it has been Neil before before I sign off on
the show tonight I want to take a quick opportunity
to thank you on behalf of not only myself but
on behalf of ICOM as well for allowing us the
privilege and it is a privilege to be here this
week and to share in this marvelous event with
all of these great kids the kids everybody as
they say are alright And they love this hobby
and we owe it to them. It is our duty, in fact,
to show to them that the hobby loves them too.
And this week has done that to a degree that
I could not have even dreamed about before I
got here. So many thanks to you for the untold
hours that you've put in to make this happen.
And thanks to all these kids as well for showing
up here this week, for showing us their enthusiasm,
for showing us that they love this hobby because
it is the greatest hobby. in the world. Well,
thank you, Will. You're very kind and you have
jumped in and done everything that we have asked
and set up rigs, set up antennas and everything.
I'm sorry we couldn't sneak you into Kings Island
yesterday, but duty calls. But you know, you've
done so much work with keeping all of our communications
options up and running and getting all the questions
asked and I think the kids have learned a lot
from you this week and so we're very thankful
for ICOM's support this week. Okay, yeah, and
I see you on the telegram already shack ain't
open yet, so yeah, they're they're they're ready
to go so We're gonna we're gonna finish up here
a little bit, but I do have a tweet that came
in from Jacob kg7 EQ in and Jacob wants to know
what my favorite part of Yoda camp was and What
did it take to put it on and what was the most
challenging part? And what was something that
worked out well that you didn't think it would?
So, you know, we did a ton of really big things
this week. We made an terrorist contact. We launched
a balloon to near space. We did all those things
and they were fabulous. But I don't know that
I've had as much fun. that eyeball sprint that
we did which nobody mentioned but the entire
room was laughing hysterically we did Doug Grant
K1 DG always does this eyeball sprint thing at
contest University where you practice your contesting
skills by making an exchange not on the radio
but just with your voice And so you walk around
the room and you make contacts and you practice
getting the exchange and the serial numbers and
all that kind of thing. And it's great practice.
So I told all of the adults ahead of time that
we were going to do two of these. And on the
second one, we wanted you to be the QRM. And
so we started cranking through the PA system
recordings of pileups and the slow -scan television
and everything we could think of and all the
adults are going around the room just yelling
and I kept doing oh over and over again for the
entire eight minutes and and I think it was Tony
said that he got like pushed, he got shoved out
of the way. Uh, I mean, yeah. Oh, John was responsible
for that. He's owning up to it. Uh, but I mean,
you know, we were, we were just giving them all
kinds of QRM to, to, you know, make it more challenging.
And so they could learn to fight through the
QRM and. I think that was my favorite part. People
just were cracking up and just having a fabulous
time. And I think it was. The time that it took
to put this on, we don't have enough time on
this show to talk about that. It was an incredible
amount of time. I'm not gonna lie, we spent two
years and four months working on this, which
a year of that was not by choice, but that was
due to COVID. But we still spent that time working
and refining and trying to make all of the arrangements.
The most challenging part was Was liability the
insurance that that actually took almost two
years to to get it actually on the dotted line.
There's just so many liability things that we
have to worry about here in the US that. the
the europeans don't have to worry about and uh...
i'd say that was definitely the most challenging
part was was all the liability in insurance uh...
definitely and something that worked out well
you didn't think would again i i'd go back to
the eyeball sprint i figured the eyeball sprint
would be you know okay this is kinda lame but
we'll do it you know and and it didn't turn out
that way at all so so that would be it jacob
so thank you for for your question here tonight.
Okay, well let me check and make sure we've got
everybody, and John says, did I yell bandpass
filter enough? during that eyeball sprint. Yeah,
he's like, we need a bandpass filter. We need
to get rid of all you people. But you know, we've
just had a fabulous time here. And Chris, AA4CB
is listening to the show tonight. So thank you,
Chris, for that. But we've had a really good
time. Tomorrow is going to be a little bittersweet
because It's going to be time to go home. I think
well, I know the staff is exhausted I think the
campers are probably starting to get to that
point we stayed at the hotel today just Kind
of take it easy a little bit and enjoy the the
pool and the patio And you know right outside
on the back patio. We had a go box And we had
an EME demo. And what else was it? There was
something else out there. There was like a mag
loop or something. Yeah, it was a mag loop. They
had a mag loop out there and was just making
some contacts out here on the patio. And as soon
as we got to Kings Island yesterday, the first
thing I hear on the staff radio is, well there's
a bunch of kids up at the top of the eiffel tower
with their 705 making cues and i'm just like
oh my gosh what you know we we've got some some
serious ham radio going on this week and it's
it's been great was a sterling uh... man in cirrhosis
c uh... just stopped by here i just saw him one
of the other got my line of sight uh... before
we go sterling uh... talk about being uh... a
staff member this week and and your role with
IARU region two being the youth liaison. All
right, thanks Neil. I'll try to stretch over
here. So everyone hopefully knows me at this
point. I'm N -Zero Sierra Sierra Charlie, sterling
man, and Sam Rose KC2LRC and I are the OG American
What do you call it? What would you say? Infiltrators,
invaders of the IRE region one Yoda camp. And
that was back in 2016. And like Neil said, this
has been a long time coming to, and that was
our mission, is to create this here in region
two. So my experiences as a staff, well, I've
been behind the camera, all that footage you've
seen, at least half of it, the other half being
James WX4 TV. has been me and a lot of photos
from Sam as well. I've been also just running
around, taking care of business where it needs
to be taken care of. I was on the committee and
it was hard. It was really hard to put it together
and props to Neil. Give him a round of applause.
Without Neil, this would not have happened. And
Julie. Got a shout out for Julie. So, and honestly,
I just feel like a kid again. And you also see
that in Sam. He think, we both think we're, you
know, just a part of the camp because we're having
as much fun. And it's just been especially fun
sharing all of this, all of these experiences
with everyone out there, like on the Instagram
and YouTube and everything. And trying to, what
do you say, spread the gospel of youth in ham
radio. You know, there is youth in ham radio.
And so all of this, I'm the youth liaison for
IRE Region 2, and what that basically means is
I'm trying to be the thorn in the side of as
many member societies as possible in Region 2,
and that includes all the way from Canada all
the way south to Argentina. So South America,
Latin America, Caribbean. And we've been doing
Zoom meetings through COVID to try to inspire
some of the adults, some of the Elmers out there
in Latin America especially, to try to start
up some sub -regional camps. You could almost
say this was a sub -regional camp because we
only had U .S. Americans here just because, you
know, COVID and all that stuff. We couldn't get
our friends from Canada and Iceland and Chile
to join us due to travel restrictions. But hopefully
next year we're going to have a lot more Latin
American and Canadian and Mexican, I guess, part
of Latin America, Caribbean. campers on board
and staff on board and we'll start to see some
some critical mass and hopefully this really
takes off and we can create the next generation
of ham radio operators. Thanks Neil. Well said
and you've been a tremendous help in getting
all this video going and live streaming everything
so the world can see what's happening here and
and uh... really appreciate it but uh... tomorrow
we will will uh... finish things up uh... the
malusi brothers are here to do their antenna
build contest so we'll do that and uh... we'll
have some lunch and then we'll have our closing
ceremony so again check that out on youtube will
be live streaming that as well check out the
uh... the videos and uh... Just just too much
to talk about in 45 minutes. In fact, we're already
at 51 minutes. So we're gonna have to end this
here tonight, but just a fabulous experience
and so please spread the word about it and check
out youth on the air org and and you'll see all
the videos from the week and Just just a lot
of information and and you know, we'll start
making plans for the next one. So Be sure to
check that out All right. Well, that is a wrap
for this week's edition of ham talk live Thanks
to the entire Yoda crew and everybody out there
in cyberspace for listening and typing in tonight
and and even Connor calling from upstairs And
Michael, I had to laugh. Michael just tweeted
in from one chair over and says, the eyeball
sprint was like calling CQ on 7200. We had some
great signs this afternoon. You'll have to check
out the pictures. But we had some signs cheering
on the fox -roaring competitors. And I think,
let's see, one of them was guys who operate on
7200 site Wikipedia. And just some silly things
like that that made it just... Even that much
more fun. So Come back next Thursday night 9
p .m. Eastern Time And we'll have another edition
of ham talk live for a list of all of the upcoming
guests visit ham talk live calm But if you like
the show, please leave us a review That'll help
other people find the show faster. So for now
live from Yoda camp 2021 Westchester, Ohio. This
is Neil rap WB 9 VPG saying 7 -3. Oh, oh hang
on. Oh Came right back to my CQ call Readability
5 and Strength 9 You never once mentioned your
weather at all And I didn't mention mine We talked
and talked but I