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
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for more information about ICOM radios. Here
we go and welcome to... Good evening to everyone.
It's time for ham talk live episode number 264
the Huntsville ham fest preview 2021 recorded
live on Thursday, July 8th 2021 I'm your host
Neil rap WB 9 VPG and Union, Kentucky now and
thanks for tuning in to this episode of ham talk
live tonight were joined by Mark Brown in for
BCD and We will take your calls live a little
later on in the show. Last week here on HamTalk
Live, Junie in one DUC was here to talk about
poda and lighthouses and ducks and even had her
ducks on the show. So if you missed that show,
get your ducks in a row and listen over at HamTalk
Live. or on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube.
And of course, don't forget you can catch the
rebroadcast on WTWW. That's 5085 on your AM dial,
Saturday afternoons at about 3 .30 PM Eastern
time. So get your questions ready to go for Mark.
If you're listening to us live on Thursday night,
you can give us a call a little later on in the
show. I'll give you the phone. number so you
can type that in punch that in and write it down
whatever and and have it ready to go the number
is eight five nine nine eight two seventy three
seventy three again eight five nine nine eight
two 73 73 and I'll give out that number a few
more times before it's time to call so Have no
fear. We will do that again. We'd like to get
some participation tonight from you all also
You can tweet us Send in your questions or comments
on Twitter. It's at ham talk live over on Twitter
and if you're on Spreaker you can type into the
comments if you have an account there so feel
free to do that as well and I'll be back with
Mark right after this word from ICOM America
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there locks on the doors? Now, here's Neil Rapp
with more HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk
Live. Icom America has all kinds of cool gear.
Check them out at icomamerica .com. Tonight we
have Mark Brown in for BCD joining us on the
Orlando Amateur Radio Club and Hamcation hotline.
Mark is the chairman of the Huntsville Ham Fest
and works at one of the many high tech government
contracting firms found in Huntsville, Alabama.
He's been the president of the North Alabama
DX club, the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club, and
is a member of both the Tennessee and Alabama
contest groups. Mark started out as a novice
back in high school and got back into the service
full force at age 50. Mark works really hard
all year long in his role as the chairman of
the Huntsville Hamfest, and he is a frequent
Collar to the show so mark. Thank you for coming
on and talking to us And it's exciting to be
talking about a big ham fest again Hey, thanks
Neil and good evening Neil and everyone listening.
Yes, we are just beyond excited You know, we
started the planning for this back in the January,
February timeframe when we saw the vaccine rollouts
and things were starting to look up. And we've
met with the Von Braun Center and we've made
some adjustments. They made some adjustments,
allowances for us to grow the hamfest in size
so that we can space things out. We're gonna
be the same. The same number of flea, actually
a few more flea market tables and the same number
of vendors, but we're just spread out in a bigger
space from 80 ,000 square feet to 140 ,000 square
feet. So we're gonna have a big ham fest and
lots of big aisles, so plenty of room for everybody.
That sounds fabulous. It's just been... You know,
over a year since we've had a big ham fest, a
lot of the smaller ones have been popping up
and showing up with a vengeance. And I'm even
seeing some that have just moved their dates
up just so they can, you know, go. And as the
restrictions are easing somewhat, the vaccine
is getting to be more predominant. Things are
getting better. So, so, uh, what are you looking
at here for 2021 at the Hamfest? Well, you know,
we sent out a, we sent out a non -binding, uh,
questionnaire to our vendors and a lot of our
visitors back in the February time frame asking
what their thoughts were on should we have the
hemp vest in August. And there was a lot of cautious
optimism. And as the weeks and months have gone
by, that word cautious has kind of gone away,
replaced with just optimism. We've had vendors
that that are coming that just couldn't wait
to sign up. We've had a few late comers that
saw that things are looking up and got approval
from their corporate folks to travel. And same
with the vendors, the organizations. Orlando
and Dayton, they're chomping at the bit. Their
whole crews will be here. They booked early.
They'll be at the embassy and we'll be able to
all get together, the league at headquarters.
We had Mickey Baker, our Southeastern Division
Director and a lot of the state and and assistant
section managers, those kind of guys, they signed
up early, but the league, you know, up in Connecticut,
they were still locked down. And so it was a
well into, I can't remember the month, but they
were, they were recent in their, in their approval
to travel. And so we'll have Bob Enderbitzen,
Yvette, Rick Roderick is coming over from Arkansas,
the CEO. David Minster, I'm not sure where he
lives, and I'm not sure. This may be his first
big ham fest as CEO. or COO. I get I confuse
those. My apologies, but David will be here.
And so the League will have a huge presence and
we're very excited to just host a real live hand
fest. We wanted to do it right. We didn't want
to do anything virtual. Some folks wanted to
phone in their presentations. No, our forums
are going to be real live in person where you'll
be able to ask the speaker to interrupt the speaker
and ask the question. So It's a real hand fest,
and we're really excited that we're one of the
first ones back, and we hope this is an indicator
of things to come. Next February, Orlando is
happening. Unfortunately, Dayton had to cancel
two years in a row. They'll be back in May of
next year, so we're all excited to get together
and meet in person and see everybody's face again.
There's just no substitute for in -person events.
Yeah, that's very true the virtual ones have
their place and and they're great for certain
items but it just doesn't replace the real thing
and so I'm really looking forward to to seeing
everyone down in Huntsville so another way oh
go ahead Yeah, one of the things I'm very excited
about is uh you know over the pandemic and and
everybody was locked down at home well that didn't
that didn't prevent people from going online
and buying radios i can't imagine what the flea
market area is going to look like this year where
everybody's got an old radio to sell and so uh
you know flea market's normally a vibrant uh
uh really exciting thing especially in huntsville
we get up you know it's indoors uh Stuff is protected
from the weather. It's all air conditioning and
all air conditioned and So, you know a lot of
folks are gonna bring radio and this year. I
think it will be even more now You've expanded
the the area which again you're spreading things
out more but you've expanded the area and and
so How many spots do you have left for for the
vendors? None We spent the weekend trying to
shoehorn in the last two commercial vendors that
wanted single -wide 10 -foot booths. Art, our
commercial guy that's been doing this for decades,
he was able to find a place for these guys. I
don't know if he'll be able to go to that well
again. But the same thing with the flea market.
We recently added an additional five or six tables,
taking the total to I think 384. And there just
simply isn't more room. One of the things we
could not do. You know, we started with this
design with 12 foot aisles. We've jiggered things
around a little bit, but one thing we can't do
is just a whole skill change to suddenly make
10 foot aisles and add another bank of tables.
It's too much of a tear up in the design to try
to do something like that. All right. So yeah,
sold out. So we like those words. When you're
looking for stuff, that's good news. So let's
talk a little bit about, you know, the restrictions
are not totally gone. We've talked about some
of the spacing that's happening, but what are
the precautions and restrictions that will still
be in place or you expect to be in place at that
point? Okay, when we met with the Vaughan Braun
Center in February to get this kicked off, they
told us that as a facility, they will be providing
the hand sanitizing stations, the signage, the
admonishments for social distancing, if you will,
and all that stuff. They don't require us to
do the one -way aisles anymore, the dedicated
entry, the dedicated exit. It's a bidirectional
entry -exit. like we've had in the past, at the
time they said masks are required. Now, just
very recently, as of a week ago, we have heard,
not officially, that the VBC mask policy has
gone to be optional. It's not something we know
for a fact, and clearly it's one of those things
we know could change. And purposefully, we have
not We have not said one way or the other, will
masks be required or not, because it's a changing
landscape. I've got to think that where we are
now in Alabama, in Madison County, with the high
number of vaccinations, I think we're going to
be OK. I don't know if they're going to do a
mask policy or not, but my thinking, my hope
is that it's not. That's the way things have
been heading and so just wanted to to make sure
people know that yeah, you know, we're not out
totally out of the woods yet, but It's looking
so much better and and it is it's a moving target.
I can tell you Yeah, I don't know if you saw
the summer camp guidelines, but oh my goodness
they They tightened them up and then they turned
right around like two weeks later and and and
loosen them from where they were previously yeah
it is a tough it's a tough it's a tough call
to make and it's it's really it's not our call
to make and uh... you know rather than put wrong
information on the website we're waiting until
a week or two before to uh... to post up and
make a face book and twitter post and and and
let folks know definitively uh... what that what
the current information is and so that that's
the way we're gonna play Yeah, I think that's
a smart move because it does it changes constantly
and You just you just don't know so We'll we'll
keep an eye on that and let our listeners know
as well when when that comes out, but We'll wait
for the official word on that now. How about
the hotel? How's the hotel doing? Are they full
up? Will you still have forums over there? What's
going on over across the street? Neil, you mentioned
the hotel as though there's only one, but there
are several. I think the one you're referring
to is the embassy hotel that's connected via
the walkway. And yes, we're going to have forums
over there on Saturday. We're not sure if we're
going to need those rooms on Sunday. We'll take
them if we need them, but they're available to
us. But yeah, we'll have our hospitality suite
available on the second floor there on Friday
and Saturday nights. But yeah, that hotel has,
it's completely full. It may be oversold. They
sold out in record time this year. Back behind
it is another Marriott property. We've heard
that they're sold out. There's a Homewood Suites
that's over near the hospital. I think it may
have some rooms available, but the uptake on
these hotel rooms was if it's any indication
of what crowd we're going to see, it's very encouraging
that these hotels sold out quickly this year.
And then you've got the AC across the street.
The AC Marriott, it's a it's a very nice new
hotel. Fortunately, it's a bit pricey Yeah, and
then You've got Spring Hill Pretty close by yes
spring spring hills suites behind the the Von
Braun Center That's where the DX banquet is held
and they they work with them this year and they're
going to be able to host a large event. You know,
back when we were in the planning stages of this
stuff, they've got a finite room with a certain
amount of square feet. And to make a DX banquet
work, you need upwards of 80 to 100 guests to
just to make just to make the math work, and
if they were only going to allow 50 people in
the room, that wasn't going to work. Well, they
worked through that and everything's okay. I
can't remember the name of the speaker, but he's
one of the guys that was headed to Bouvier. Okay,
very good. And yeah, we'll see how the Bouvier
thing turns out. Stay tuned on that one. But
sounds like things are going along really well.
And again, I'm just excited to see everybody.
It's been way too long. So really looking forward
to heading down there. All right. Well, it's
time to take a break. And when we come back,
we'll take your phone calls. We'll take your
comments and tweets and all that stuff. The phone
number to call 859. 9827373, and I'll be back
with Mark right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey, have you
seen the PL 259s anywhere? No I haven't. Come
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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. Welcome back to HamTalk
Live. Tower Electronics will be in Oak Creek,
Wisconsin this weekend on July 10th and of course
they will be at Huntsville. So make sure you
visit them at Huntsville and you can check them
out online at PL -259 .com. HamTalk Live is on
the air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time right here at HamTalkLive .com. And be sure
to check us out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
And, yes, ladies and gentlemen, before we get
back to Mark, it's time once again for the N9GSU
Ham Radio 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. I was going to tell you
all a joke about building a new HeathKid radio,
but I'm still working on it. 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, he's still
working on it. Alright, thanks Rick and we'll
look for another one next week. Right now it
is time for your calls. So if you have a question
or a comment for Mark Brown in for BCD with the
Huntsville hamfest give us a call right now at
eight five nine nine eight two seventy three
seventy three again, it's eight five nine nine
eight You can also tweet us, it's at HamTalk
Live on Twitter and if you're listening to us
on WTWW or on the podcast edition of the show.
You won't be able to call in because we're doing
this on Thursday evening. We do have several
people on Spreaker tonight Jill KD8 QGA is in
the house. Thanks for listening as well as Joe
Eisenberg K zero in EB who says he will be speaking
at 3 p .m. In the embassy suites on Saturday
of ham or of unspills ham fest and uh... john
not in four j t k uh... says greetings from orlando
and yes i will be at huntsville uh... so hope
to see you there john and uh... me yeah he says
wish it was this weekend so ready for ham fest
absolutely Yeah, sure, sure is. All right, well,
let's see here. Let me punch the right buttons
and go to the phones because we have a special
guest on the phone. Good evening. Welcome to
HamTalk Live. Hello. How are you, Michael? I'm
good. How are you all? I am good. This is Michael
Colley, W4MCA from Orlando Hamcation. And thanks
for joining us tonight. How you doing, Michael?
Thank you for having me on. I'm good, Mark. How
are you doing? Great. I can't wait to see you
guys. Yeah, same here. That's why I was calling
in. Just wish you all the best for the ham fest
and hopefully record numbers this year. I know
you and John are coming and Peter and Lydia Meyer,
your past chairpeople. and your uh... your european
outreach or ambassadors i guess you call them
now is uh... is any other other of your uh...
your your hamcation staff come uh... actually
uh... our uh... commercial chairman bob coming
is uh... coming up and actually my swaps chairman
uh... jim roe barb actually going to come for
the first time awesome we're we're excited to
have you Looking forward to it Well, Michael
look forward to seeing you and and John as well
and and the whole gang and It won't be long.
So It'll be great to I know you guys I know you
guys are staying in in the embassy and and Neil
you also I will share something. I it just occurred
to me a couple We learned that the embassy has
reverted from a served breakfast where they were
serving the hot breakfast to a self -serve. They
don't have the omelet station as they had in
the past, but they are doing. It's a self -serve
breakfast line with the hot breakfast and of
course the juices and pastries and all that good
stuff. So another step in return to normal. Sounds
good. Yep, sounds good. Always enjoy breakfast
at the embassy. That's always a fun time. Most
important meal of the day. Yes, sir. But yeah,
one of the things I forgot to mention earlier,
Neil, was we published our dealer list over the
4th of July weekend. I think it went live July
5. So folks, go to hamfest .org, look at the
dealers. I think we've got 52 on the list. And
we think it's a great lineup of commercial vendors.
And, of course, we'll be publishing the names
and call signs of the flea market vendors also
as we get closer. Always great to have all that
information. Michael, while we have you on the
phone here, not to steal the Huntsville thunder
here, but any quick updates on Orlando? Full
steam ahead, our website's already live for 2022.
You can go there right now at www .hamcation
.com. You can purchase tickets, RV spaces. If
you are a vendor, you can pay for your commercial
or your swap tables, your tailgate area. So we've
been pretty much ready to go now and just working
with ARL for the national convention and a couple
new things this year. Get on the show with a
later date to share with you. Okay, sounds good.
Well, thanks for calling in and look forward
to talking about Orlando here in a few months.
Sounds good, Mark. I'll see you in a little over
a month. 40, 43 days. Not that he's counting.
Thanks for calling. Take care. All right, Mark.
Neil, thank you. All right. Thanks, Michael.
Take care. All right. Bye. Bye bye. Bye bye.
859 -982 -7373 is the phone number if you'd like
to chime in here tonight. And, uh, let's see.
Joe says they've got a small ham fest, uh, And
North Bend about an hour away on Saturday and
another one about 45 minutes from Kansas City
next weekend. So yeah, they're, they're popping
up all over the place and I'm seeing the Hamfest
schedule pretty full actually. Yes. Uh, the Saturday
schedule, uh, The forum schedule is full for
Saturday. We're working to finalize this Sunday.
But you said Joe, is it a chat room or something?
I don't have visibility to that, but I'll mention
too, Joe's not only doing a forum on Saturday,
Joe is hosting something new for us this year.
We're gonna do a couple of solder school sessions.
adult solder school sessions. We're not sure
exactly which kit it will be, but a lot of adults
have expressed interest in learning to solder,
and we're going to use a simple kit that takes,
I don't know, 45 minutes or so to put together
some sort of functional kit. And this is different.
This will be in a separate room from the youth
lounge. The youth lounge, they typically, you
know, Of course, they teach kids. But Joe is
heading up this effort for us. And we're going
to use one of the forum rooms on Sunday morning
for these classes. And I want to thank Joe for
stepping up and helping us with this. Yeah, Joe's
got all kinds of great ideas. And I've been picking
his brain a little extra here in the last three
or four weeks. getting ready for uh... for youth
on the air camp which starts on sunday we'll
talk about that uh... just a little bit of the
end of the show but uh... but joe's uh... always
uh... a wealth of information so glad to hear
that there's solder school alright yes and let's
go back to the other thing go ahead one of the
other things that i forgot to mention is uh...
you know we got a call from a local club that
meets on the uh... meets on redstone arsenal
and due to the uh... the the government uh...
mandated uh... COVID restrictions, that club
has not been able to meet since February of last
year. And when he asked the question, I thought,
you know, there's probably other clubs and groups
that have the same concern or problem. And so
what we decided to do was to put together a couple
of of lounges, curtained rooms where 10 or 15
people can gather for a one -hour block free
of charge. They just need to sign up on the website
or send an email to, I think it's webmaster at
hamfest .org. And so folks can sign up for these
rooms for the groups and just have a quiet place
to meet in a curtained off area. And we thought
it would just be helpful to the ham radio community
at large. Yeah, it's You know, it's been a while
since a lot of clubs have been able to meet so
that's a that's a cool deal All right. Well,
let's go back to the phones and see who we have
here with us tonight. Good evening Welcome to
ham talk live. Who's this? I'm so excited This
is this is Skeeter Nash n5 ash almost famous
amateur radio newsline guy and almost Turn truck
driver and I'm driving right now, but I thought
I'd tune in because I'll tell you why you know
why I'm excited I'll tell you why I'm excited
because my wife Kf5 KRN also known as that lucky
lucky woman and I are going to be at Huntsville
this year See here's the thing we We planned
it earlier this year once they announced that,
hey, they're going to have a ham fest and everything's
going to be cool. They're going to have all the
usual stuff and all that kind of stuff. I went
ahead and reserved a room. Of course, all the
rooms at the nearby hotels were taken up, the
immediate area hotels. So we had reserved a room
somewhere a little further outlying. Then in
the process or in the interim, we moved from
Fairview, Tennessee to Shelbyville, Tennessee,
so I could be closer to my terminal where my
truck is out of, right? And I could come home
every day when I'm done driving instead of having
to sleep in the truck and only go home once a
week for my long break, you know, my 34 -hour
restart that's required for us truck drivers
to have after a certain amount of time. So, that
being said, when I started looking again... And
a lot of, and my route takes me, some of my route
takes me quite often down through Huntsville.
And I started to realize, hey, this isn't that
long of a drive. So I looked from our house to
the Vaughan Braun Center. It's an hour and 10
minutes. Oh, wow. So we're going to go down,
we're going to go down Saturday, you know, get
there early and enjoy the day. Go home. rest
up and then I don't know if my wife's gonna make
it back on Sunday but I'm certainly gonna come
back down because I've been I've been jonesing
for a ham fest especially Huntsville because
it's indoors. It's nice and cool They've got
everything you want to look at there. I mean
it's believe me anybody listening right now If
you have not been to the Huntsville ham fest
you owe it to yourself to go It is one of the
nicest ham fest I haven't been back to I've only
been to the Hamvention once and that was just
a couple of years before they moved it out of
Dayton and down to Xenia. So I haven't been back
since they moved it to Xenia. And as soon as
they fire that thing up, I'm planning on hopefully
being able to go to that as well. But I mean,
this is the next best thing to go into Dayton,
as far as I'm concerned. So anyway, I thought
I'd share that with you. How are you doing? And
then the company at breakfast is kind of questionable
though. Well, you know, the company at breakfast,
the company at dinner after the thing closes
down, the company at the bar, you know, I mean,
last time I was there a couple of years ago,
I did bend an elbow with Don Will Banks for a
little while, and we had a wonderful time. getting
to know each other a little better. It turns
out that we have a whole lot in common with our
broadcast backgrounds and just music taste stuff
that we like and ham radio, of course, being
a big one. Speaking of Don, he fixed me up with
a box with the transformer in it, the 49 to one
balance for an NFET half wave. And I just kind
of rigged that thing up real temporarily a couple
of weeks ago. And I was amazed at how well it
worked. I cut it for 40 meters, but with my tuner,
it will tune pretty much anything up to 10 meters
because that's what my radio will do. And it
was just amazing. I didn't get the bonus stations,
but I did manage to get all 13 of the 13 colonies
stations. So I consider that a clean sweep. The
bonus stations were insane. uh... too many pile
-ups, a lot of bad band conditions but it was
a fun event nonetheless so in my spare time when
i come home in the morning after driving all
night i try to hunt down the stations i needed
when i got up in the afternoon or evening i try
to hunt down the ones i needed and i was sweating
that last one which was pennsylvania uh... but
i finally got it uh... night before last and
and was able to get the thirteen colonies into
the log so uh... so that was another exciting
thing Neil, this is the first time I've had an
HF station up in five years. So I'm just busting
at the seams to do ham radio. Excuse my over,
my zealotry, my zealousness, but dad gum, I love
this hobby. Well, it's great to hear that you've
got all that going and it's great to hear that
I'll have somebody to sit with at breakfast again.
I'll watch out when you and Will Banks are together,
because yeah. Yeah. Jim, it's good to meet you
on the air here, and I'm looking forward to meeting
you in person. Actually, I live in Fayetteville,
and so you're probably going to drive through
my berg on your way down to Huntsville, but looking
forward to meeting you at the Hamfest. Well,
I'm looking forward to meeting you too, and I'm
looking forward to winning the grand prize and
I'm looking I'm looking forward to taking my
wife to the first large ham fest that she's ever
been to We've been to a lot of small ones like
up in Arkansas with our friends up there that
we used to Be a part of the amateur radio club
there in Northeast Arkansas radio club in Jonesboro
a wonderful club by the way great folks They've
become dear dear friends of ours uh... every
year except one or two since we left jones borough
in twenty twelve we have gone back for field
day to be with these folks because that that's
how good a friend they are at how much fun we
have uh... they're they're really good club i'd
want to put in a plug for them as well but uh...
yeah it's it the the friends that you can make
in this hobby are just unbelievable like like
you and i we we had never seen each other in
person till till I was at Huntsville that last
time. And boy, we just had a great time. He and
his fiance then, she was then his fiance, now
she's his lovely blushing bride. Congratulations.
Or as I like to call her, Mrs. WB9VPG. There
you go there you go and then the new house you
guys moved into blessings on that that's fantastic
I've been following your progress on Facebook
and I know it was a struggle to get there and
you guys had to make a lot of sacrifices and
deal with a lot of changes some of them pretty
much on the fly, but you did it you're there
and You know may may you live a happy life ever
after And thank you for my best and I'm looking
forward to see she coming to Huntsville. We're
gonna see her I I think she is I can't confirm
that, but I believe she is. Well, if you tell
her Will Banks is coming, she might hesitate,
so I don't know. Yeah, yeah, we won't tell her
that. Well, Skeeter, thanks so much for calling
in. It's great to hear you once again, and it's
great to hear about your excitement for Huntsville,
and I look forward to seeing you there soon.
Yes, sir. All right. Carry on with the show.
Thanks for letting me get on. I appreciate it
and I'll hang up and listen. All right, Skeeter
Nash in five A .S .H. Thanks for giving us a
call tonight and we probably have time for one
more if you want to give us a call at 859 -982
-7373. Looks like we've got the whole news line
crew in here tonight. Karen Eve Murray, KD2GUT
says good to hear plans being made for real and
hello. to Skeeter and good to hear you on HamTalk
Live. So, let's see, Mark, we've got one other
one. I'm not going to read this word for word,
but basically, what would you have to say to
people who are still a little nervous about being
there just right now? I think we're delving into
physician and doctor territory or maybe psychologist.
But personally, I'm ready to get out and live
again. I've had my shots. I'm ready to rejoin
society. And I hope everyone feels safe enough.
We're taking precautions. We're spreading things
out. We believe it's going to be a safe and well
-attended event, and we really hope that folks
feel the same and join us. All right. Very good.
Well, we are just about out of time here, so
I want to make sure we catch everything. I know
I kind of had on the back burner to talk about
some of the forums and the youth lounge, of course,
and so we'll mention those quickly. But in a
couple of minutes here, let's talk about anything
that we've missed that you need to let folks
know. Well, the one thing I forgot to mention
is we're encouraging folks to purchase their
tickets online. We do take a small hit from PayPal,
but we absorb that. But the reason we want to
do that is we want to try to streamline the entry.
That's Saturday morning crush. with literally
hundreds and thousands of people trying to get
in on Saturday morning. If we can steer them
towards a will call window where it's simply
look up their call sign, hand them their button
and their price tickets, that speeds up the process
for everyone and eliminates cash handling by
our haylarks. the YL group that helps with our
ticket sales. So yeah, go to campfest .org, punch
that ticket button, buy your tickets online,
and streamline Saturday morning admission. All
right, very good. Well, thank you for coming
on the show and talking to us about it. And like
many of the folks here, commenting on Spreaker
tonight, can't wait for it to happen. So we'll
see everybody there that can make it and choose
to and we'll hopefully see all of you at events
in the future. We've got Orlando that Michael
talked about a little bit and then of course
Dayton again and hopefully things will continue
to progress and get better. and we'll be able
to catch all of these. So thank you so much and
best of luck with everything and I'll be seeing
you soon. Hey Neil, thank you so much for letting
me on the show tonight talking about the Huntsville
HamFest. It's going to be a great weekend Saturday
August 21 and 22. Hope everybody can make it
and thanks again Neil. Alright and hamfest .org
is the place to go to Find out all things about
Huntsville. So make sure you check that out.
Well, uh, yeah, I mentioned that, uh, youth on
the air camp is next week. I have been busier
in the last month than I think I ever have. Uh,
Skeeter talked a little bit about the move and
everything and, and, and that was stressful.
And then I'm taking two classes and then Getting
this first ever Yoda camp ready to go and it
starts on Sunday and I start Saturday morning
Officially full time, but it's been full time
for about a month. I think but It's it's coming
up and we are going to do the show next week
live from Yoda camp I kind of went back and forth
on that but We need to hear from the campers
and so I will be Back on the show next Thursday
night at 9 p .m.. Eastern time we will be in
the middle of a pizza and pool party, so We'll
see how that goes next week, so be sure to tune
in for that and also don't forget Listen for
w8y all next week Throughout Yoda camp. There
are some dedicated times on Monday night and
on HF and some on Tuesday late afternoon and
then on satellites Thursday morning and Friday
morning. So check out youth on the air org. You'll
see that there but what there will be People
on all throughout the week it just at various
times. So make sure you check out w8y on the
spots and and look for us and if you're in the
greater Cincinnati area You can come out and
cheer on the competitors in the fox oaring Event
on Thursday afternoon from 3 to 5 the Voice of
America Museum of Broadcasting out front out
in the yard and we've got signs for you to hold
up and we've even got free Kona ice so you can
bring the family and and come cheer on the competitors
so check that out as well all right well that's
a wrap for this week's edition of ham talk live
thanks to my guest mark brown in for bcd and
everybody out there in cyberspace for listening
and calling and typing in invite you back next
Thursday night 9 p .m. Eastern Time when we will
come to you live from Youth on the Air Camp and
for a list of all of our upcoming guests just
go to hamtalklive .com and if you like the show
please leave us a review that helps us and helps
people find the show faster So for now, this
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and
may the good DX be yours.