This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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we go, welcome to Hamtop Life Call in, let's
talk, Neil's your guy Hamtop Life, here we go
on Hamtop Good evening everyone, it's HamTalk
Live, episode number 245, The Voice of America
Museum Virtual Tours Stories from Bethany Station,
recorded live on Thursday, February 4th, 2021.
I'm your host, Neil Rapp, my call sign. Thanks
for tuning in to another episode of HamTalk Live.
Tonight we're joined by Jack Dominick, the executive
director of the National Voice of America Museum
of Broadcasting. and we'll take your calls live
in a little while. Last week, Dr. Scott Wright,
KZeroMD was here to talk about COVID research
results for hams. He gave us an update on his
convalescent plasma study and how hams Helped
out with that study So if you missed that show
you can listen anytime at ham talk live comm
or on your favorite podcast app Or on YouTube
or you can catch the rebroadcast of ham talk
live on WTWW that's 5085 a .m. Saturday afternoons
at about 3 30 p .m eastern time well again uh
several announcements here uh the am rally is
this weekend so get on am 160 80 40 20 15 10
and 6 meters and that starts actually tomorrow
night 7 p .m. Eastern which is zero hundred UTC
And then it runs through 2 a .m. On Monday, which
is 700 UTC on Monday So just get on a am on any
radio, whether it's vintage or the new fancy
stuff, and get on and talk on AM. Next weekend,
Orlando Hamcation's special edition. will be
taking place from 10 until 4 Eastern Time at
hamcation .com. You can sign up for the webinars.
They will also have their QSO party on that day,
Saturday the 13th, from 10 until 10, from 10
a .m. to 10 p .m. Eastern Time. on saturday the
13th and the webinars will take place on the
13th and the 14th so make sure you check that
out and then also coming up in the future march
13th and 14th uh the qso today ham expo will
return early bird tickets are ten dollars They've
just added air meet to facilitate some more interaction
what this does is it? Provides a virtual lounge
with tables and chairs to do live video a hallway
meetup so you can visit with people and The exhibitors
will have some demos and answer questions and
take orders with the live video and There'll
be some lounges scattered throughout just to
go Talk with people so if you're interested in
the virtual ham expo Early bird tickets are $10
Alright, well get your questions ready to go
if you're listening to us live on Thursday night
You can call us after the interview by telephone.
I'll give you the number so you can have it handy
It's not time to call just yet, but we'll give
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nine 9 8 2 73 73 again 8 5 9 9 8 2 73 73 you
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tower electronics right here on ham talk live
Jerry, what's up, man? I haven't seen you at
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morning getting coffee. What's up? Well, I can't
afford Sunbucks five days a week anymore. I had
to spend my money on PL -259s. You know, those
antenna projects I've been meaning to do. I had
to do them before my HOA finds out I have antennas.
That's too bad, Jerry. I miss seeing you and
catching up over coffee. You should get your
PL -259s from Tower Electronics. They have great
stuff. Jerry, you're back. Oh, QRM Heterodyne
Frappuccino. That's a good choice. How's it going?
Did you get all those antennas up before the
HOA police showed up? Yeah, I got them all done.
Thanks for telling me about Tower Electronics.
Now I can have my coffee. I just saved a bunch
of money on my PL259s by switching to Tower Electronics.
Don't get caught without PL259s. Visit Tower
Electronics online at pl -259 .com or at a ham
fest near you. Or give them a call at 920 -435
-2973 and be sure to pick up some power poles,
adapters and cables too. Right now, you could
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work the pileup of the century. But instead,
you've decided to listen to HamTalk Live. We
thank you. And now, here's Neil Rapp with more
of the show. Welcome back to HamTalk Live, thanks
to Tower Electronics for sponsoring the show.
They are planning on being at Dalton, Georgia,
assuming that that ham fest is still going on
February 27th, but you can visit them anytime
online at PL -259 .com. Well, welcome back to
HamTalk Live. Tonight, Jack Dominick joins us
on the Orlando Amateur Radio Club and hamcation
Zoom line. Jack is the executive director. of
the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting
in Westchester, Ohio. Jack worked for 37 years
at PBS station WCET TV, doing everything from
station manager to executive vice president,
chief operating officer, tech blog writer, and
marketing director. And now he's working full
time to keep the stories from the Voice of America
Bethany station alive and well. for generations
to come. So Jack, thank you for being on the
show tonight. Oh, Neil, it is a pleasure. It's
always great to talk about the voice of America.
Well, I really enjoy the museum and I enjoy seeing
you over there when I can. It seems like it's
been forever with all this COVID stuff going
on. But I just just fell in love with the place
and we've been sharing a lot of things about
it on this show from time to time and and I was
really You know encouraged to see some emails
here recently Because you know the doors have
been closed for a lot of the past year not all
of it but for a lot of it and There was already
some talk, I know, of heading in a more virtual
direction. And being closed just kind of made
that a little more important. So this new video
series allows people to visit the museum that,
you know, can't visit the museum right now because
it's closed, but may not be able to ever visit
because of the distance. So tell us a little
bit about this series and exactly why this video
series is being done for these virtual tours.
Well, thanks. We were going to do the tours,
the video tours anyway, but as you said, with
the COVID situation, we've had to be closed with
a majority of, well, all of this year so far
and a great part of last year, obviously. And
that's due to a couple things. First of all,
we're essentially an all -volunteer organization.
I'm the only guy that gets money to be there.
Everybody is a volunteer. And, you know, all
of our tour guides, our docents are volunteers.
And many of those folks are retired. And it's
not at all surprising that you know you don't
want to be out in a crowd of people at a museum
if you can help it. So the video series is really
was always on our mind to to to just kind of
give little we try to keep them as short three
minutes max maybe three and a half minutes. of
one element, maybe it's a display or a person
or something about the museum that may be interesting
and also can be be told in a very short time.
So we started off and we've got two that have
been, we're doing them about twice a month, first
part of the month and the middle of the month.
So just last Monday We released one and we will
release another one toward the middle of February
and keep going that way to a month. But the videos
are not meant to replace a visit, although, you
know, I guess if you watched enough of them,
eventually we'll get to most of the exhibits.
But as you said, Neil, the Voice of America Bethany
Station just north of Cincinnati, is perhaps,
well, not perhaps, it is perhaps the most important
historical record of the voice of the voice of
America, which was and is still very, very important
to many millions of people around the world.
And we've got some cool stories we want to talk
about how important that is to people around
the world. We'll do that here in a little bit.
But if people want to tune in and watch these
videos, how do they do that? How do they go on
a virtual tour? It's pretty simple. You just
go to our website, which is easy, voamuseum .org.
and right up at the top one of the things visit
the museum and you'll click on that and we're
going to library them as we as we put them out
also if you are on our mailing list and many
of your listeners perhaps are each month you'll
get a notice that there's a video and actually
we give you a link so you don't even have to
go to the website. If you're interested in getting
on our email list, really simple, just go to
the website and there's an area where it says
contact and you just fill in your name and we'll
add you to the list. Yeah, that's where I saw
them. I knew they were coming, but I knew they
were out when the emails arrived. So it's always
good to sign up for that and be able to get notice
that, hey, a new one is up and running. So give
it a little bit of an idea to folks out there
listening. Why was this important? Why should
they go out and watch these videos if you had
to twist somebody's arm? Well, I think to understand
the the impact of the voice of America You know
a lot of people Don't know anything about the
voice of America. You know that that shouldn't
be surprising Because it wasn't for us It wasn't
aimed at us. And as you know, and your listeners
know, perhaps better than most, shortwave radio
in the United States, unlike the rest of the
world, really never took off except for the hobbyist
area. But the voice of America's impact around
the world can't be understated. And some of the
stories we're talking about, for instance, the
first video that we put out was on the Wolfson
Fonger. How do you like that? My German isn't
all that very good. But the Wolfson Fonger was
a radio. Now, your listeners will all remember
from their study of history that Hitler and Goebbels
and all of those folks had a keen understanding
of the importance of propaganda. And Goebbels
is quoted as saying the radio is going to be
extremely and the dominant source of information.
He was well ahead of the curve. So they embraced
radio, but they were also afraid of radio. Radio,
as you know, doesn't have fences, or at least
not easily fenced in or fenced out. But what
they did is they developed a radio called the
Bolzenfanker, and they did a couple things. First
of all, they made sure that it was affordable.
Now radios back then, now we're in the late 30s,
early 40s, they were expensive. So they made
them inexpensive. And one of the ways they did
that is they made them not very sensitive so
that they were unable to pick up BBC or later
on the Voice of America or almost any other Western
radio station. Now, during this period, the Nazis
had 68, 68 radio stations in Germany, constantly
beaming out Hitler's fake news. And into the
Bolzenfanger. So the Bolzenfanger, perhaps, but
not perhaps, is the reason that Voice of America
was created. Because President Roosevelt says,
you know, they're doing one heck of a job. getting
their message out. Not a good message, but they're
doing a darn good job of getting it out. What
can we do? And that's what prompted his idea
of building out high -power radio transmitters
here in the United States capable of putting
signals into Europe, North Africa, and South
America. South America was extremely important,
if you remember your history. Hitler kept saying,
you know, if we we rile people up in the South
America, maybe the Americans will pay more attention
down there and pay no attention to what's going
on in Europe. That was that was one of the things
he was trying to do. But anyway, so that the
Bolsenfanger that radio spawned the whole concept
of the voice of America and ultimately Bethany
Station, because Bethany Station. where the museum
is, was the first transmission facility for the
Voice of America. Now, a lot of people will say,
they study their history, and they say, wait
a minute, didn't the Voice of America start in
1942, but you didn't build the building and get
on the air until 4044. Well, the answer to that
is yes. But if you've been to the Bethany Station,
and Neil, you know what is down the street, don't
you? Oh, I do. Yes, that's beautiful beautiful
tower. That's right. And that tower was WLW Now
across the street from that tower that was not
that's not there any longer was some other towers
some Rhombics and We all, or many of your listeners,
will recognize WLW as the AM powerhouse that
Crosley, Powell Crosley, built in Cincinnati,
and at one time operated at 500 ,000 watts, making
it the most powerful AM station legally operating.
I must say. And by the way, let me interject
this real quick too. Don't get any ideas, folks,
about the AM rally this weekend. 1 ,500 watts
is the max. Sorry. Had to throw that in there.
I do have this transmitter down in the basement.
I could be bought. I'm not sure I want to pay
the electric bill, though. But anyway, across
the street was WLWO. Roosevelt decided he wanted
to build transmitters that could reach those
Europe, especially. A lot of folks said it couldn't
be done except this guy in Cincinnati said, well,
we're already doing it. Crosley was already operating
WLWO shortwave and sending a programming to Europe.
So the first broadcasts of Voice of America were
not from Bethany Station, but they were from
a tower about half a mile away. Bethany Station,
of course, wasn't finished yet. So these are
the... Go ahead. And I remember... Oh, okay.
We're doubling here. I remember, you know, the
Bethany station being That place that we drove
by going to the Dayton Hamvention on 75 that
had miles and miles of wires strung out and your
AM radio would like just go nuts. It would just
desense the radio so bad that you couldn't hear
anything on any frequency and that was it. But
you know, there are these stories like this that
You know still have some some meaning and and
you can come in and see all of these things and
learn about them at the museum What is what is
I think really? It's very emotional we get people
At the museum when we're open and we'll be hopefully
they'd be back open in the spring People come
to Cincinnati and then they find out wait a minute
Isn't that where Bethany station, you know, these
people coming from other countries We'll have
people walking in the front door with tears in
their eyes And they'll each of them relates a
different story, you know, I listened You know
in my grandfather's attic because we weren't
allowed to listen The government wouldn't allow
us to listen where that's where I learned English
or that's why I learned that I wanted to move
to the United States The stories are amazing.
There's some really emotional ones and there's
some funny ones as well. Let's talk about one
of those because you've got the blanket radio
video and some of the stories that I know that
I've heard from docents of people coming in and
saying, you know, I had one of those blanket
radios. That was the only way that we had any
kind of news. So talk about some of those stories
of people coming in. That's exactly like the
video that we just released. It's called the
under the blanket radio. And what that means,
I guess it's been about four years. You know,
I was sitting in the office And a gentleman and
his wife came to the front door and knocked on
the door during the week. We weren't open during
that time, but I went down and I greeted him
and I said, I'm sorry, we're not open right now.
We'll be open this weekend. He said, no, no,
no, no, no. I don't want to see the museum. I
want to give you something. And he presented
me with a plastic radio, transistor radio that
he purchased when he lived in Ukraine. He and
his wife. were Ukrainian, they had since moved
to the United States. And it was a pretty standard
radio. I mean, you probably have one in your
garage you listen to the baseball game on. Nothing
special. In fact, it was kind of beat up. And
he could tell from my expression that, Neil,
you've been to our facility, we don't need another
radio. Yeah. We have a few. Yeah, we have a few.
Then he said, you don't understand. And then
he relates this story. He said, I bought this
radio when we lived in Ukraine. It was manufactured
in the Soviet Union during the cold war. And
it was designed such that it didn't have the
capacity to listen. Remember the, uh, the, uh,
Wolfson Fonger. It didn't have the capacity to,
to pick up. easily the Voice of America or any
Western station. He said, uh, then he had this
gleam in his eye and he said, but I knew a guy
and his wife relates that there was a gentleman
in their village who rewired all these radios
for people so they could listen. And she said,
we called them the under the blanket radio because
you weren't allowed to listen to Western broadcast,
especially the Voice of America. But Felix says
that's the only place we would ever find what
was really going on. And another guy came in
one time and he said, yeah, in the Soviet Union,
airplanes never crash. Crops are always good.
Yeah. But I mean, there are just tons of emotional
stories. And then your story about driving to
Dayton and losing, you know, your radio and all
of that. I mean, There are so many funny stories.
We had a gentleman come in the museum probably
in September, I guess we were open. He was from
across the street from Bethany Station. He went
to the church over there. That church was built
when Bethany Station was still in operation.
When they were building the church, the engineers
from Bethany Station went across the street and
met with the construction people and said, would
you like us to help you with your PA system?
You know where this is. Oh, I know. You know
where this is going. I know exactly where this
is going. So anyway, it's, oh, no, no, we know
exactly what we're doing. Well, thank you very
much. Okay. So see you later. Well, of course,
the first time the church opened, they were right
smack dab in the Path of our South American transmitter
which fires up at noon or fired up at noon. Okay.
Well The pastor was still preaching but he was
speaking Spanish But the funny the funny part
of that is is of course they fixed it eventually
but the gentleman who still goes to that church
and remembered this okay said We love the voice
of America because we knew that the pastor could
never speak after New York. So he said the service
was always over and we were always at the restaurants
before all the other churches. Yeah, and that's
not the only story I know, kind of similar to
that. There was a church next door to an AM station
and they're getting ready to do their Christmas
program and they bring up the lights and bring
up the audio and all of a sudden they hear...
and this bud for you oh yeah oh yeah and yeah
and if you if you visit the ham shack if you
visit the ham shack at the museum you'll notice
that there's an extra tuner on every radio that's
because wlw is a half mile away but seriously
though that We are making great strides. We're
in construction right now. We're building a new
exhibit hall, new meeting facilities, et cetera.
And it is, I apologize. I should have turned
that down. The building is just a marvelous facility.
And to see what the engineers were able to do,
you have to remember that in 1942, when you were
building a transmitter, especially a quarter
million watt transmitter, you didn't go down
to Radio Shack and pick up parts. These early
transmitters were built screw by screw, wire
by wire, coil by coil for this facility designed
and built right there. The only pieces that were
not built in Cincinnati were the tubes. And they
were manufactured by federal on the East Coast.
But everything else was put together in Cincinnati.
And when I say put together, I mean that. And
then, of course, the design of the antenna field
that you talk about, which was when we were in
operation, was one square mile, 20 plus rhombic
antennas plus a curtain antenna for Europe. And
just all of those antennas, that design of those
antennas, they were called reentrant rhombics.
And your more adroit transmitter people will
understand that. And interestingly enough, the
specifications for those antennas were considered
a top secret well into after the Cold War Now
it was a sight to see and you can still see the
tower legs You can't see that the whole antenna
and it would have made a great great right 160
meter antenna, but But we do have that, you know,
we have the We have the diorama as you know that
we built this to show how that how that looked
Yeah Absolutely. All right, well we're going
to take a break right now. We're going to come
back and we're going to take some questions and
we're going to talk more about Some of the renovations
and things that are going on and a little more
about the virtual tours at the Voice of America
Museum of Broadcasting when we come back after
this word from ICOM America right here on HamTalk
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Give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the
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with today's HamTalk Live Joke of the Week. Talking
to a fella on the local repeater yesterday and
I said you sound just like Bill Withers and he
said I know I know I know I know I know I know
I know 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 Yeah And look out next week. I just, I just
got the one for next week earlier today and oh
my goodness. So thank you, Rick. Appreciate it.
859 -982 -7373 is the phone number. We're here
with Jack Dominic, the executive director of
the. National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting.
So if you have a question now is the time to
call. It's 859 -982 -7373 or you can tweet us
at HamTalk Live. or you can type in the comments
on Spreaker and if you're listening to us on
WTWW shortwave or on the podcast edition you
won't be able to reach us live since we're doing
this on Thursday. We do have a couple of questions
that came in on Twitter here so first off let's
Talk about Jacob KG 7 EQ in who would like to
know do you have any? recommendations on books
to read about the VOA Perhaps the most Academic
if you were really into the history and the and
the geopolitical Impact etc is a book by a gentleman
by the name of Alan And it's called Voice of
America, a VOA history. You can get that on,
it's H -E -I -L by the way. And I noticed it
is available on Amazon, which by the way, I was
surprised because I thought it was out of print,
but apparently it is available. If you want something
a little bit lighter reading, there is a section
in Rusty McClure's book about Powell Crosley
Jr., and that's Crosley, the Two Brothers. Again,
that's available on Amazon as well. Crosley and
the Voice of America are really joined at the
hip, as we discussed before. Bethany Station
is in northern Cincinnati for one reason and
one reason only, and that is that's where the
expertise for building high -power antennas resided
back in the early 1940s, and they resided at
the Crosley Corporation headed by Powell Crosley.
All right. And then Lloyd, KC5FM, wants to know
when did VOA start and why? And I know we've
got some of that we touch it already but very
simply sure very simply 1942 president roosevelt
wanted to combat the nazi propaganda lies fake
news he called some people together in washington
dc from nbc mutual cbs all the big radio folks
and then a small radio guy in Cincinnati by the
name of Paul Crosley called them all to Washington
DC and said what would it take to build out a
system of transmitting into Europe especially
and then North Africa and South America so we
can get our messages out. Now it's really interesting
if you read the literature and I believe it's
in Alan's book there are many engineers uh...
in washington dc uh... with the federal government
it said this thing had to be in greenland uh...
in order to do it uh... well apparently they
discussed that uh... at this meeting and gentlemen
uh... in the in the back of the room kind of
raised his hand and said uh... excuse me but
we're already doing it and that of course was
uh... was the Crosley uh... tie in. But that's
1942. Interestingly enough, Voice of America
was very, very important during World War II.
There's no doubt about that. But it was more
important during the Cold War and probably had
more of an impact during the Cold War for a variety
of reasons. First of all, the number of radios,
you know, for a normal person to have a radio,
etc. And then, of course, the fact that getting
reliable information if you happen to live in
one of the Soviet states was hard to come by.
Yeah. Okay. Well, there's a little more about
that Lloyd. So thank you, Lloyd. And thank you,
Jacob, for your questions. And we have a caller
on the line. So let's see who we have on the
phones. Good evening. Welcome to HamTalk Live.
Good evening, gentlemen. Hello, Neil. Great.
This is my first time listening to you guys.
But I appreciate it. I'm a long time short wave
listener. I also wound up with a great career
since retired as a transmitter engineer, both
with the NBC networks, I got shipped all around
the country to help the affiliates, as well as
full time with the old RKO General WOR and work
with a bunch of guys who are Armstrong engineers
just towards the end of their careers. Quick
question. So, over the years, did VOA do any
frequency shifting regarding the signals into
Russia, Soviet Union, as they began their jamming
techniques? Absolutely. Absolutely. And how quick
did you guys do that? Well, it's pretty interesting.
The early Crosley transmitters, okay, the first
ones put in, took forever to switch frequencies,
I mean like 15 or 20 minutes. But the new Collins
transmitters that were put in were very agile
and within a few seconds. Now, of course, you
also had antenna issues that had to be addressed.
But no, the jamming was a big deal. And there
were many, many different ways of going about
that. a very interesting one if you come to the
museum. We have a display of the United States
Coast Guard Cutter Courier. Does that ring a
bell to you of anything? It does, yes sir. When
I got out of school, I worked with an organization
at Fort Meade in Maryland, so I have an idea.
Well, what the Courier was, the Courier was a
Coast Guard cutter, not a cutter, a Coast Guard
ship that was anchored in the harbor off the
coast of Greece. And it received signals from
Bethany Station, received them, and then retransmitted
them with a high -power AM transmitter on board
right into the heart of the Soviet Union. No
kidding, we had a repeater on board a ship. We
had a repeater, and early on, the way they received
it was by taking a barrage balloon from the World
War II barrage balloons. That was the antenna.
They did build a receiving station on land. But
there was a lot of politics. You might say, why
on the heck did they do this in a ship? Well,
the Greeks didn't want it on their land because
they didn't want to get the Soviets upset. Originally,
the United States said, well, we'll send a Navy
ship. But they said, no, no, no, no. The Navy
ship is a ship of war. A Coast Guard ship is
not a ship of war. So, I mean, there's all kinds
of political intrigue that went into that, but
the courier is a great example. Yes, but the
whole business of shifting, the courier actually
just, I forget the strength of the transmitters,
but it was an AAM transmitter directional right
up into the belly of the Soviet Union. In fact,
I'm often wondered whether or not Felix's radio
is the one that picked it up. Interesting. Well,
gentlemen, everybody stay healthy. You guys all
stay healthy and we'll see you on the radio.
All right. Come visit the museum sometime. Yeah,
if you ever come visit the museum, this may be
something that's a little more technical on this,
but there's some really cool technical stuff
in that control room about how they change frequencies
and what they did to change frequencies so fast.
So if you get a chance, you need to come check
that out. It's very cool. Yeah, I'm glad that
that you know there that you guys are still keeping
the history and I'm also thrilled that we finally
have voice of America news back in where it should
be You know And I hope that you guys again like
I said stay healthy We're up here in the high
country in Arizona on the desert. You want to
talk about great reception? Nothing in my way.
Gentlemen, enjoy. Have a great one. All right.
Thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate
it. And if you go to Hamvention, that's always
a good time to visit. It's always a good little
side trip if you go to Hamvention. All right.
Yep. Go ahead, Jack. Neil, one of the things
I wanted to say while I was thinking of it is
that the museum is is really an important part
of history. And the ham club that actually is
at the museum, the Westchester Amateur Radio
Association, and of course, the members of that
ham club have really been critical to the development
of the museum, not only from the ham side of
the business, but just overall the support that
they give on a daily basis to the museum is outstanding.
So the ham community around the United States
should be extremely proud of what their folks
are doing here in Cincinnati. It's a great group
of people. proud to be a part of them. Well,
let's talk a little bit. We're already over time,
but I want to talk a little bit about the renovations
that are going on because, you know, things are
closed down, but you've got a lot of things going
on right now. So let's talk a little bit about
the the renovations that are going on before
we sign off here. Very, very quickly. We have
a 1944 building that was built to withstand a
direct hit. In other words, you don't do a lot
of... It's pretty solid. It's pretty solid. I
mean, when you have 18 -inch concrete walls between
offices... But anyway, the building was never
ever built to have people in it. I mean, other
than the other operators. And as a museum, where
you need to have people who can you know accessibility
etc just you know it was a disaster uh there's
steps there's curbs there's you know there are
more floors you would think it's only like a
three story building but you know when you get
to the levels it's probably a 10 story building
anyway the bottom line is is that in order to
to make it accessible for people, people who
may have mobility issues. You can't have all
these steps and curbs, et cetera. So we're in
the process of building out a new entrance, a
secondary entrance. Pardon me, excuse me. I don't
have a cough button on my mic. We're building
a new entrance new restrooms when the building
was built Well, first of all when the building
was built, you know, I don't want to sound sexist,
but they didn't worry about women's bathrooms
I mean what women's we didn't have any women
there, you know and it Obviously you didn't have
to have a bathroom that a wheelchair a walker
could come in because people who were in wheelchairs
and walkers didn't go to work All of those things
have to be addressed. So we're in the process
of putting in new ADA compliant restrooms. We're
leveling all the floors, getting away from all
of the barriers. We're building a brand new meeting
room that can be used for exhibits, for community
organizations to meet, receptions, our own lecture
series, et cetera. And, uh, all of this is going
on right now, which, uh, right now the building
has got more plaster and concrete dust. I'm kind
of glad we're not open, but that's, that's all
going on. And with a little luck, uh, we'll be
done with that. Uh, when we really, you know,
get back to being normal. Yeah. Whatever, whatever
that's going to look like. That's right. Well,
Jack, you, you've, uh, been a wealth of information
here tonight and we appreciate you taking the
time to come on the show and talk about some
of these things that are going on while things
are shut down and and these videos so that you
know if you are out in Arizona and you can't
make it to the museum you know you can check
out what's going on and if you want a little
preview and see if you know that's a you know
a trip you want to take or again you know for
for the ham radio operators you know always mention
Hamvention Weekend because if you know you can
do right two things in one trip you know you
can kind of see what to expect and see if that's
you know, something that you would want to visit.
So I think this virtual tour is a really cool
thing and I'm glad that you were able to come
on and share that with us tonight. Well, thank
you for letting us get the message out. We're
always open online, so feel free to go to voamuseum
.org. And if you want to be on our mailing list,
and we promise not to bombard you with a lot
of junk mail, so feel free to sign up and we'll
get you on our mailing list. All right. Thanks
so much, Jack. All right. You have a good day.
You too. And that is a wrap for this week's edition
of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guest, Jack Dominick
from the National Voice of America Museum of
Broadcasting in Westchester, Ohio. That's voamuseum
.org. And everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening and calling in and typing in. And I
invite you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m.
Eastern Time when Tim Helming, WT1IM, will be
here to talk about the COM Academy. It's a communications
academy for emergency communications, but it's
gonna be virtual this year. So we'll take a look
at that next week. And for a list of all of our
upcoming guests, visit HamTalkLive .com. And
before we go, we want to announce again the t
-shirt giveaway. We're giving away some free
t -shirts out of the reviews that are left on
iTunes throughout February. So sometime in February,
get on iTunes, search HamTalk Live, click on
the logo, scroll down and hit write a review.
Leave a review, make sure you leave your call
sign there so I can get a hold of you if you
win. And we're going to give away some t -shirts
this month, so that's your chance to win some
free stuff. For now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may the good DX be yours.