This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
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we go, welcome to Hamtop Live Call in, let's
talk, Neil's your guy Hamtop Live, here we go
Good evening, everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live episode number 256, Hamvention 2021 virtual
and on -air activities. Recorded live on Thursday,
April 22nd, 2021. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight we're joined once again by Michael
Coulter, WHCI, and we'll take your calls live
in just a few minutes. Last week here on the
show, Philip Springer, DK6SP, Marcus Grosser,
DL8GM, and Tommy Varro, HA8RT, were up early
or up late, one or the other, over in Europe.
They were on the show here to talk about the
new Yoda contest. If you missed the show, you
can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or on
your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. And
don't forget, you can catch HamTalk Live rebroadcast
on shortwave on WTWW. That's 5085 AM Saturday
afternoons at about 3 .30 PM Eastern time. So
get your questions ready to go for Michael. If
you're listening to us live on Thursday night,
you can give us a call. We'll do that part of
the show a little bit later, but I'll go ahead
and give you the phone number So you can have
it ready to dial. It's eight five nine nine eight
two seventy three seventy three again the phone
number to call later on in the show will be eight
five nine nine eight two seventy three seventy
three you can also tweet us whenever you like
over on Twitter at HamTalkLive. And I'll be back
with Michael right after this word from Icom
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Why else would I be talking like this? Welcome
back to HamTalk Live. Tonight, Michael Coulter,
WHCI, joins us on the Orlando Amateur Radio Club
and hamcation line. Michael is the official spokesperson,
the finance chair and the co -chair of the awards
committee of the Dayton Hamvention. Mike lives
in Xenia, Ohio and is past president of the Dayton
Amateur Radio Association and Hamvention general
chairman. back in 2011 and 2012. So Michael,
welcome back once again. Hey, I'm really glad
to be here and to be able to talk to you and
Yilin, to everybody else. And, you know, once
again, it is very disappointing and sad that
we're not going to be able to have a convention
this year. It's just pushing right up against
the time. And I don't know that As many people
would have been able to make it, we're still
having problems getting, you know, traveling
from other countries in and out of other countries.
And Hamvention is such an international event.
So we had to make our decision early on. But
we have some other pretty exciting things planned
for that weekend. Yeah, we'll talk about some
of those here tonight. You know, we're all disappointed
that. The second cancellation had to come but
I know you've got some Some activities again
and some new activities during the weekend So
we'll talk about some of those in a minute, but
I'm kind of excited and I haven't haven't officially
I think said it on the show here that the the
home office of ham talk live is is on the move
It's it's finally official I'll be moving to
just south of Florence, Kentucky, which is the
kentucky side of cincinnati and and i've already
figured out uh... that it's one hour and twenty
two minutes from zinnia my commute has just gone
way down yeah that's wonderful that's great news
great news for you i know you've been planning
that and anytime you can get closer to move closer
to ham benchan you're going to be a lot better
off right Was yeah, I was thinking about this
and and I thought okay now, let's see Let's see
the first move I made was to Evansville and that
got me just a few minutes closer to ham vincen
and then I moved from Evansville to Bloomington
which got me about an hour closer to ham vincen
and now I'm now I'm an hour and 22 minutes from
ham vincen, so I guess the next move is it's
got to be like, you know Beaver Creek or something
Or Xenia, you can move right into Xenia. Yeah,
there we go. Just move right into Xenia, you
know Get one of those houses right down from
the fairgrounds. So you just walk over and and
there you go You'd have a lot of friends then.
Oh yeah, I would have a lot of friends and I
better have a big driveway. Yeah. No, but that's
all right. That's what Amateur Radio is about.
That's what we do. I mean, we're all, you know,
it's a brotherhood and a sisterhood. So it's
what we do and we have the opportunity to share
and share cultures. I mean, I know when I'm on
the radio. Hey, Jeff. I'm talking to a fellow
from Ireland tonight, and he was telling me,
oh, Michael, when you're here, I'll at least
show you around Galway. He said, but if I come
there, I want you to show me around Hamvention.
So that was really nice. But I do get a fair
amount of those, and I like it when people want
to talk about Hamvention, good or bad, on the
radio. But it happens. I mean, that's what I
do. Drink and breathe it. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
And we're ready for it to happen. But, you know,
it's going to be another year. But let's talk
a little bit about some of these things that
will be happening during the weekend that's supposed
to be. uh... the date the invention and and the
first one who were just going in chronological
order here uh... the first one is actually the
day before which is thursday and uh... there's
another big virtual contest university planned
yeah that's right uh... and up the and contest
university group we partnered up with them and
uh... That is going to be a very virtual event
that's going to start at 9 a .m., 1300 Zulu.
That's 9 a .m. Eastern Daylight Time, about 1300
Zulu. And the course outline will be out soon.
And I think today, just starting today, you can
actually get on the Contest University site and
sign up. You need to sign up separately for both
the events that the Thursday event and the Friday
event so This is going to be a really a big deal
Also, the other big thing is for both Thursday
and Friday We've teamed up with DX engineering
as well as icon America and we're giving away
for for icon radios We're giving away to 7300
One each day, one Friday and one Saturday. Well,
let me just tell you what we're gonna give away
each day. Each day we're gonna give away 173
hundred, excuse me, 273 hundred, 273 hundred,
176 .10 and ICOM 705. Each day, that's a total
of four major radios each day. Plus we're going
to be giving away a lot of tickets for next year
for, hand mentions and you know we don't we don't
expect we'll have to cancel next year so we're
gonna have and it'll be a great event so all
together our prizes are gonna be over $15 ,000
for two days wow all the events are free nobody's
got to pay a dime you just got to sign up however
however you've got to be online when we give
away a radio it's gonna be a random time you
know, suddenly we're gonna go, wait a minute,
we're gonna give away one of these radios. And
we'll quickly do the generator, the name generator
thing. And if you're there, you're gonna win.
You claim it. If you're not there, you're not
gonna win it. So it's important to pay attention
because it's really a big deal. It's gonna be
exciting anyway. For those of you who have not
been to Contest University, It's not just about
contesters. Contesters like to hone in their
skills, all their radio skills, transmitting
skills, listening skills, and you're gonna learn
a whole lot about how to do that in that time
period. And if you don't learn something in that
time frame, and you're... you're either a genius
or you weren't paying attention. But I really
enjoy the event. I'm not a contester really,
but I do enjoy deaxing and I like to have a good
signal when I'm on the radio. And they give you
so much information, things you may not have
thought of before from very, very, I know this
is gonna be a very international and very international
set of instructors this time that Tim has put
together. Yeah, it's I always learn something
new Going to contest University and and it's
and like you said, it's not always contesting
I've learned about USB ports and making sure
that those things are working with your radio
properly and and how to tape on a PL 259 and
and it just All these little things that you
pick up along the way to make your station better,
whether you're a contestor or a DXer or just
a rag chewer, it's all helpful. And you can kind
of pick and choose the ones that apply to you.
And it's always a great event. So we look forward
to Contest University. again this year contestuniversity
.com is where you go to sign up and you can even
catch some of the old contest university videos
up there so be sure to check that out and wow
all these radios you're giving away a ton of
radios so that'll that'll be really great too.
Well on Friday you've got a webinar this year
which is something that's new that you didn't
do last year, although we're trying not to make
this cancellation thing a regular scheduled event,
but tell us a little bit about this webinar that
you've put together. Yeah, this particular event
on Friday will start at 11 a .m. Eastern Daylight
Time, or that's 1500 Zulu. That way folks can
on the West Coast have a chance to get in there
and don't have to lose too much sleep. But what
that's going to be, we're going to have our award
winners from Hamvention are going to each of
them present, you know, and they're going to
have a moderator for each one. You know, Tamatha
Skov as the space weather woman won our technical
achievement award. And she is going to give,
I know, an exciting presentation. And if you've
never listened to her talk, I mean, she is so
exciting in what she presents and how she presents
it. And always, we can learn something new from
Tamatha. Our special achievement winner, W3WL,
Wesley Lombali, He's done a lot of things in
his lifetime, and he's got a lot of high energy
support for the science and art of amateur radio.
He's done a lot to support youth coaching, membership
recruiting, and technical problem assistance.
And he always seems to do this with smile and
great humor. And unbeknownst to me, when we had
made the decision, and it wasn't in his bio,
Excuse me, he had worked with the Dave Coulter
de -expedition, our youth de -expedition group,
so he should be putting on a very interesting
presentation. Like I say, each one of these people
will have moderators, they will have former Ham
of the Years that will be giving them information.
Our Club of the Year, which is a K for HTA, the
Vienna Wireless Society outside of Washington,
D .C. They're actually in Vienna, Virginia, but
they've done an awful lot for their community
and they're going to talk a lot about what they're
doing and with their youth education, public
service, and promoting the overall growth of
radio through the D .C. area and around the world.
We're excited to have them on board. And then
our amateur of the year, Angel Vasquez, WP3R,
he's been known for being one of the principle
support engineers of what was once one of the
greatest antennas in the world at Arecibo. But
he's done so much for amateur radio throughout
the entire territory of Puerto Rico and extends
worldwide. He's really respected, a very respected
image radio operator. And Joe Taylor will be
his moderator asking him questions. And if you
know Joe, Joe's one of the inventors of FTA.
So we're really looking forward to that. That
event should, it will start at 11 a .m. Eastern
Daylight Time. And we should be over sometime
by 3 PM to 3 .30 PM. Very good. Well, you've
got Dr. Scove, you've got Angel, you've got the
Vienna Club, you've got all these very deserving
people. And it's great that you can give them
some time to share. uh... some of the things
that they have done and then uh... on saturday
uh... the the second hopefully not annual ham
vincian q so party takes place so uh... any changes
from last year and and how are people uh... going
to participate this year yet let me get right
to that i don't want to forget that uh... you
need to sign up for the Hamvention forum and
that will be, if it isn't there tonight, it should
be there tomorrow. We're just getting the links
all set up for the virtual Hamvention forums.
So be sure you sign up for that. Be sure you
watch it because those same great radios are
gonna be given away on Friday as well at different
times. So you gotta be there to win. Okay, let's
talk about Saturday. the Ham Bench and QSO party.
That's gonna be from 8 a .m. to 8 p .m. Eastern
Daylight Savings Time, which is 1200 to 0000
on May 23rd. Our WAPI is our club call of the
Dayton Amateur Radio Association. It'll be a
bonus station. It'll be scored at 10 points per
band and mode. And we'll be working 10 meters,
15 meters, 20 meters, 40 meters, 80 meters. And
the typical call will be CQ, CQ, HVQP, or Ham
-Benchen, QSO party, and then your call. And
a typical exchange will be a signal report in
the first year you attended Ham -Benchen. You
know, for example, if you were 1998 or, you know,
1952, you give that exchange. And if you've never
attended Hamvention, send 2021 in place of that
year. Now, in the end, you send your score, which
is the number of QSOs, including bonus points,
to the 3830scores .com within five days of the
event. and you will be able to print a certificate
after that contest. So should be pretty nice.
I mean, it's not a high pressure event, but last
year the QSO party was so much fun. I really
enjoyed talking to so many people. And, you know,
I tried to take the extra time and ask people,
tell me what was the, what do you remember the
most about hand benching? What was your most
interesting experience? So I take an extra minute.
two minutes with everybody, and it was absolutely
fascinating and great, great, great stories to
be had. All right, back to you, Neil. All right.
Well, I enjoyed the event as well and have the
QSL card here from WABI and just appreciate everything
that happened for that one and look forward to
another great Hamvention QSO party. And once
again, I will say, I hope it's the last one.
Oh, man, you and me both. I don't want to go
through this again. This is not You know, planning
virtual events and things like that is not really
what we do. We put on major amateur radio events,
I mean, in -person events, and this has been
a switch for us, and a switch for everybody,
I think. But, you know, there's been so many
virtual events. We want to make ours kind of
easy, and we want to make it worthwhile. We figured
that over $15 ,000 worth of prizes, and it doesn't
cost anything. You know, why not? Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's great. So, a chance to win some
prizes, a chance to learn, a chance to hear from
all four of the award winners. Very deserving
award winners. And you can check it all out at
hamvention .org, and the signups will be there
soon. Check that out and then contestuniversity
.com for the contest university on Thursday.
So let's take a break right here and we'll come
back. We'll talk some more with Michael and we'll
take your phone calls and tweets and comments.
on Spreaker, if I can talk, and we'll take the
calls at 859 -982 -7373 when we come back after
this word from Tower Electronics right here on
HamTalk Live. Hey honey, have you seen the PL259s
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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.
We all started out with nothing and still have
most of it. You're listening to HamTalk Live
with Neil Rapp. Welcome back to HamTalk Live,
thanks to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics
for sponsoring the show again tonight. They help
bring you HamTalk Live every week, as does ICOM
America. And Tower Electronics will be at the
Sandwich, Illinois, HamFest on May 2nd. And then
Newberry, Michigan, June 12th, Monroe, Michigan,
June 20th. But visit them anytime, anywhere 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. Before
we get back to Michael, it's time for the 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 in 9GSU with today's HamTalk Live
Joke of the Week. I was talking on the two meter
repeater while I was driving through Louisville
last week and one of the locals told me I was
pronouncing the name of the town wrong. He said
it's Louisville not Louisville. So I stopped
for supper and I asked the server can you tell
me real slow how you pronounce this place and
she said burger king. 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. Oh He's done it again Burger
King But it is Louisville Not Louisville, so
there we go. All right, Rick will be back again
next week with another Ham radio joke of the
week. So now it is time for your phone call.
So if you have a question for Michael, give us
a call right now at 859 -982 -7373. Or you can
tweet us at HamTalk Live is the handle 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 reach us live. We're doing this. on Thursday
night, so give us a call right now at 859 -982
-7373. Okay, well Michael, we've talked a little
bit about everything going on. Let's talk a little
bit about 2022. You know, you said it's going
to be bigger and better. What do you have forthcoming
here? Well right now, you know we are we are
looking you know every committees trying to refine
and trying to make their improvements and For
next year, but even the fairgrounds themselves
have been doing a whole lot of improvement For
example, you know all the inside rooms have been
painted bright Walls all touched up. It looks
really pristine, looks very, very nice. And they're
getting new electronic signs. We're hoping by
next year that the signs that just kind of hang
over the barns there that we put up become digital
signs and we can digitally have each one of the
buildings named. and that we can have some better
information through the digital displays. So
those are just a few of the things, but the team's
not let up. We're still putting things together,
looking for next year, and it isn't that we're
asleep at the wheel. We can't be with an event
like this. find to improve on and that's taking
place. I know the fairgrounds has done a lot
with fans and and opening up the the other building
and putting those grindings down and the flea
market and there's still a lot of upgrades and
it's good to hear that those have continued while
things are are kind of calm and peaceful at the
fairgrounds and hopefully It won't be long before
they start hosting Some events and and then we
can get hamvention going again eight five nine
nine eight two seventy three seventy three is
the phone number if you have something that you
want to Chime in about with Amvention. Give us
a call right now. 859 -982 -7373. Now you mentioned
these prizes that you're going to be giving away.
Just kind of remind everybody, you know, how
they can win those because you got to be there.
Right. This, these prizes are donated by, you
know, Hamvention and ICOM America and DX Engineering.
And, you know, DX Engineering has supplied the
platform, the virtual platform. They seem to
be very, very good at that. And they have donated
the use of their platform, which I know they
pay a fair amount of money for. You have to sign
up. You got to sign. And all you need to do is
go to the Contest University site and you can
sign up there for Contest University. That's
the Thursday event. Then you can go to the handvention
.org site and sign up for the Friday event. But
you got to sign up separate, both of them. And
then to win the prize, like I say, from the very
start, You know, at the forum start on Friday
at 11 a .m., who knows, maybe at 1102, we might
give a radio away. So you gotta be there. You
gotta be paying attention and you gotta be online.
It isn't just where people pile in at the end
of the day and say, oh, I better get here now.
They're gonna give away that big prize. I better
make sure I show my face. We decided not to do
that and spread it out. But these radios, You
know there's two 7300s each day, a 7610 each
day, and an ICOM 705 each day. That's pretty
good. I mean, for no admission. And that's just
a spectacular, I think, lineup of prizes. Yeah,
you better believe it. So make sure you get there
and sign up for these virtual webinars and then
and then get on the air with the Hamvention QSO
party on Saturday and again that's the exchange
there is is your signal report and your the first
year you attended Hamvention so I think mine's
77 if I remember right Well, let's go to the
phone lines here. It looks like we have Mark
in for BCD on the line. Good evening, Mark. Good
evening, Neil and Michael. Good evening, Mark.
How are you guys doing tonight? Doing just fine.
I'm doing, I'm doing great. Good deal. I saw
you guys got some snow up there, but we just
got some cold weather down here and it's getting
back to warm again. But listening to you guys
chat tonight, I went ahead and signed up for
the contest university and looking forward to
signing up for the forums. Well, I'm sorry, signed
up for the forums and looking forward to contest
you and all that. But Michael, I was gonna ask,
With the QSO party, what band are you going to
focus on? So I'm looking forward to working you.
Well, I don't know. It's whatever. I'm not in
charge of assigning them, but I probably will
end up on 20 or 40 meters. Well, that's great.
I know you got that beam for 40 meters. You got
a great signal on 40. and probably something
good on 20 also. But looking forward to working
you in the QSO party and the other guys, Jack
and Rick and the other folks up there in Dayton.
And looking forward to seeing you guys as soon
as we can get together. Well, we're hoping it's
down there at your place at Huntsville. And,
you know, it looks like that that's going to
happen for you and for the team and for Amateur
Radio. real excited about that. I really, really
am. And we've got to start having these big ham
radio events, right? Exactly. The virtual things
are fun and they're enjoyable, but there's no
substitute for solder smoke coming out of the
youth lounge where kids are putting kids together.
and real live exam sessions and forums with real
people up there. We're looking forward to putting
on an event in August safely, and it looks like
it's a go down here. And our condolences to everybody
up there in Dayton and Orlando, too, that had
to cancel. It's painful for everyone, but we're
gonna get through this, and we're gonna be healthy,
and look forward to better times. Yeah, thanks,
Mark. Absolutely. Hamvention's still healthy.
You know, we're financially robust. We're gonna,
you know, already planning for next year. And,
you know, as the proof is, we've got some spectacular
radios, you know, giveaways, prizes for a two
-day event. That's, I think, over $15 ,000 in
prizes and things. It speaks for itself. It's
gonna be a super -duper event. Anyway, Mark,
I appreciate you calling in. Yeah, thanks, Michael.
And yeah, you guys really do have an all -star
list of prizes for this event. It's going to
keep me tuned in for sure. But I just wanted
to say hello tonight, and we'll look for you
on the bands during the QSO party. 73, Michael
and Neil from N4BCD, Mark and Huntsville. Thank
you so much Mark for calling in and we look forward
to hearing you on the bands and Seeing you down
in Huntsville that my my reservations are are
made. So We're ready for for that big event.
So we're looking forward to it for sure Take
care guys. Thanks. Yep 73 mark Take care mark.
Appreciate it Alright, if you have a question
or comment, give us a call at 859 -982 -7373.
Our time is almost up here, so... If you're going
to give us a call, now's the time to do it, 859
-982 -7373. Let me check the tweets here, and
also the chat, and hi to Chris, AA4CB, thanks
for listening in, and Mark was in there earlier,
so we appreciate everybody tuning in and listening
live, and on the replay. Well, Michael, I think
we've we've got it all covered. So we we look
forward to all these events that are virtual
and wish you the best of luck with everything
and hope to hear you on. And it sounds like we
got the inside track here. Look on 20 or 40.
And for you and and we'll We'll look forward
to 2022 when we can get the gang back together
again Boy, I agree with him you know, man I'm
so looking forward to it. But thank you very
much for having me on your program and allowing
me to you know Tell some of the amateur radio
community about what hand mentions going to do
for our weekend Yeah Sounds great and definitely
looking forward to it. Well, thank you so much.
That is a wrap for this week's edition of ham
talk live Thanks to my guest Michael Coulter
w8 ci and everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening in and calling in and typing in and
invite you back next Thursday night 9 p .m Eastern
time and for a list of our guests go to ham talk
live Dot -com and if you like the show, please
leave a review that'll help others find the show
And that's all for now. So this is Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG, saying 7375, and may the good DX be yours.