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ICOM radios. Hey, good evening, everyone. It's
time for HamTalk Live. It's episode number 222.
The Orlando Hamcation plans and award nominations
recorded live on Thursday, August 6th, 2020.
I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for
tuning in to this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight,
we're joined by Michael Cawley. W4MCA and Mike
Banagan, KJ4UDO. And we will take your calls
live as we always do a little later in the show.
Last week here on HamTalk Live, Chris Breaux,
KD8YVJ and Don Wilbanks, hey E5DW, we're here
to talk about the Newsline Young Ham of the Year
Award 2020. Chris was the winner of that. So
congratulations once again to Chris. And if you
missed that show, you can listen anytime over
at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app. or on YouTube and you can listen to rebroadcasts
of HamTalk Live on WTWW. That's 5085 AM 5 .085
Saturday afternoons. It's about 3 .30 PM Eastern
time when HamTalk Live comes your way over shortwave.
Also, before we get going here about Orlando,
don't forget that the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo
is coming up this weekend. In fact, in the U
.S. it starts tomorrow night at 9 o 'clock, which
is 0100 Zulu Saturday, UTC time. Go to QSOtodayhamexpo
.com to check it out live this weekend. If you
can't make it while it's live, just like this
show, you can check it out on demand after it's
over. So I'll be over at the youth on the air
booth for a part of the time this weekend at
the expo. So be sure to stop by there. And also
tonight on here on ham talk live, we're going
to give away a ham talk live t -shirt. Thanks
to Tanner Jones, W9TWJ for donating another shirt
to the prize box. So we'll be giving one of those
away to the call or tweet of the night. So here's
how you can call in and win that shirt later
on in the show. You'll have a chance to do that.
The phone number is 859 -982 -73. 73. He'll give
you the number again here in a second so you
can punch it in. Write it down so you have it
ready to go and after we talk to Michael and
Mike, we'll give you that number again and we'll
let you know when it's time to call. But again,
the number 859 -982 -7373. You can also tweet
us. We're watching Twitter off and on throughout
the evening. The Twitter handle is at HamTalk
Live. So we'll be checking that as well. And
if you're on Spreaker, you can type a comment
and we'll check those periodically throughout
the evening as well. So I'll be back with Michael
and Mike right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey, have you
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-259 .com. Or call 920 -435 -2973. Do we sell
PL259 connectors? Right now, you could be sitting
on a beach, sipping a drink with an umbrella
in it, and enjoying the good life. But instead,
you've decided to listen to Ham Talk Live. So
we thank you. And now here's Neil Rapp with more
of the show. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Thanks
to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring
the show tonight to help bring you HamTalk Live.
They'll be at the Angola Indiana HamFest this
weekend. That's on Saturday, August 8th. They'll
also be in Winchester, Indiana on August 15th,
but you can visit them anywhere, anytime from
PL -259 .com. Well, my guests tonight are Michael
Colley, W4MCA. He is the chairman of the Orlando
Hamcation for the fourth year now, and he served
seven years as the tailgate chairman and six
years as the IT chairman previously, and a year
as the finance chair. Hamcation is sponsored
by the Orlando Amateur Radio Club, and joining
him tonight is Mike Banigan, KJ4UDO, the awards
chairman of the Orlando hamcation. Mike is an
engineer and program manager at Lockheed Martin.
So thanks guys for being on the show tonight
and welcome to ham talk live. Thank you for having
us tonight, Neil. And I think we may have to
get John not in here on the. in the background.
He's hiding back there apparently, so. And I
almost thought I was on ESPN because I've got
Mike and Mike, but it's not in the morning, so
I don't know. So, well, let's talk a little bit
about hamcation. I know you've got a lot of things
going on and you're, what, six months out here?
Yes, a little over six months, yes. Yeah. So,
you know, it's a little early, but there's a
lot of planning that goes into making this work.
And there's a lot to do ahead of time and things
are kind of ramping up this week. So tell us
a little bit about, um, the plans for hamcation
that started up this week and how things are
going for 2021. Um, everything is, uh, Move along
quickly actually this week our website is now
live You can go on there buy your tickets. You
can buy your tailgate spots your RV nights Commercial
tables is open the swaps tables are open So you
can actually go on there do everything you need
to do Uh, we had our first, uh, actual hamcation
committee meeting, uh, on the first of the month.
And, uh, hamcation is in full swing, uh, ready
to go for 2021. Now already everybody's saying,
okay, you gotta have backup plan. And I know
you guys, because you've, you're totally organized
and you plan and plan and plan. And so, you know,
There there is a backup plan But six months out
Who knows what it's gonna look like so so talk
a little bit about that Yeah, actually today
we started getting some emails from people concerned
about it and like we're telling everybody It
six months out. It's hard to say currently hearing
Orlando or Orange County that we live in. We
do have a mass mandate. If you go out in public
inside stores, anything like that, you have to
wear a mask. You got a social distance, six foot.
Um, but then, um, six months out, we really don't
want to give anybody any ideas of what they have
to do when they come to the show because we really
don't know what it's going to be like in six
months. Um, How the this virus has been it's
hit or miss if it's good or bad For the area.
So some areas are doing very well right now.
We're Last couple days. We've actually been on
a downward slide a little bit or downward Positive
rate here locally, which is good. We'll see if
it lasts But there is plans and work if for something
Um, if for some reason we can't have the show,
uh, we will contact everybody in enough time
to, so everybody can cancel their plans at the
time. Um, but, um, so that's what's going on
right now. Yeah. Six months out. It's, it's hard
to say what things are going to look like, and
we're going to be optimistic and, and, uh, go
forward and be ready to go. and hopefully things
will get back closer to normal in the next few
months. So we're very hopeful for that. Well,
you know, this is a big deal and you guys kind
of ducked the beginning of this because you were
able to have the event right before everything
started going really haywire. And a double RL
has, has given you the, um, honor of, of hosting
the national convention for the year. So talk
a little bit about that and what that means to
hamcation. Yeah. Just to let everybody know that,
uh, this coming to 2021 will actually be our
75th anniversary. So we were thinking, what can
we do to, um, make the 75th a. Big deal for us
and we decided to host the National Convention
again for ARL. So we put in the paperwork, everything
that was approved. Actually about four weeks
ago, press release went out from ARL about the
National Convention. Some things that will be
happening during the show. The actual show at
hamcation is February 12th, 13th and 14th. But
on February 11th, ARL is going to be doing, uh,
what they call the ARL training tracks. Um, it
will be four different, uh, courses. Basically,
if you want to say that, uh, it is being done
at double tree at sea world hotel. You're going
to go in there. You're going to pick register
with them. Um, You're going to pick one of the
training tracks. You're going to go in there
half the day. You're going to be in it. Uh, then
they're going to do a lunching where all four
of, um, everybody in all four training tracks
will go to a lunch lunching. They will be a keynote
speaker. Then you'll go back to that training
track for the rest of the day. Um, for, uh, February
11th, all that information will be coming out,
uh, should be within probably the next couple
of weeks of that. what the actual training tracks
are. They've already been planned. Uh, there's
going to be some good ones. Everybody will, uh,
really enjoy it, uh, this year. Also with, uh,
the national convention, uh, there'll be more,
um, ARL forms, uh, during the hamcation also.
Um, so I know that's, uh, in the plans also.
Sounds good. And there's a lot of things going
on and, and you've got some things going on on,
you know, early too. Yeah. Yeah. With the, um,
the training tracks. So that's going to bring
people in on, uh, probably starting on Wednesday
so they can attend that on Thursday. Uh, which
is really good. Um, so. Well, let's also talk
a little bit about the awards because that's
something that that's you know leading up to
Hamcation and let's turn to Mike here You've
got the award nominations opening up. So tell
us all about the awards and how the nominations
work Yep, as Michael mentioned the website is
open and with the website opening up, we're now
starting to accept nominations for the Carroll
Educator of the Year Award. So we just go out
to the website www .hamcation .com and once you
get to that website there you can turn around
and there's a pull down under event info and
under there there's an awards tab and with some
of the details of the award and the nomination
form that can be placed in. But the award was
established after Carol Perry, WB2MGP, back in
2018. So this will be coming up on the third
year for the award. But Carol's been working
with youth her whole career. You know, both in
the education world and then, you know, wherever
she can round up children, you know, kids, she's
off working with them. And in fact, she will
be, you know, you had commented on the QSO Virtual
Expo. She will be doing a presentation for Youth
and Ham Radio. That'll be Sunday, one of the,
in Track 3 on the first forum of the day there
at 1130 Eastern. So even though she's a retired
teacher, she's still pushing strong and hard
on promoting amateur radio within youth. So the
award was initially established to recognize
an individual that's been making strong contributions
to educating, advancing youth in amateur radio.
So we established the award based on that. So
it kind of carols the namesake for us for that
award. This last year we had Melissa Poor, KM4CZN,
that received the award and she was an educator
also, but she's been working with youth, she's
been promoting teaching methods with her colleagues,
and she is also the ambassador for the U .S.
education team for the amateur radio of the International
Space Station, ARIS. So she's a real go -getter.
In fact, I was just chatting with her or exchanging
emails the other day, and she was doing a virtual
Morse code class. So she's finding ways every
time we turn around on helping to get youth involved
in amateur radio. So we're going to be looking
for nominees this year. And I want to highlight
that probably that could be a potential misnomer
is the award is not limited to just teachers.
I know we've got educator of the year, but we
want to use that in a very broad term. So if
we've got an Elmer, if you've got a merit badge
counselor, anybody that's involved with youth
that's promoting amateur radio is an excellent
candidate for this award. As we mentioned, with
the website going up, we're now accepting nominations,
and we will accept those nominations till November
1st. And then we'll collect all those nominations,
and we'll have the tough challenge of selecting
a winner for the award, and get that announced
probably in early December, and hopefully have
the awardee. Hamcation 2021 in February. All
right, so get your nominations in and you couldn't
have have a better namesake for that award. Carol
is one of my mentors and she's been working with
youth in schools for a very long time and you
couldn't have a better Namesake and first recipient
of the award so get your nominations in that
It's time to do that and you said until November
1st, right? Correct. Yes So you got a couple
of months here to three months to get to get
those in so That's something else that hamcation
is is doing and we're going to talk More about
hamcation and what they're doing when we come
back right after this word from ICOM America
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Visit qsotodayhamexpo .com to register. 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 put the ham in HamTalk
Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Thanks to
Icom America for sponsoring the show. They help
bring HamTalk Live your way each and every week.
Make sure you check them out at icomamerica .com
slash amateur and be sure to check out HamTalk
Live 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 it's time for your calls now so now is your
chance and we're gonna give away a t -shirt for
the call or tweet of the night as well so make
sure you do that so if you want to ask a question
of Michael or Mike give us a call right now 859
-982 73 -73 -859 -982 -7373 or tweet us at HamTalk
Live. And if you're listening to us on the podcast
version or on WTWW, you won't reach us at that
phone number because it's Thursday night and
it's already past the time to call. Again, thanks
to Tanner Jones, W9TWJ for donating the shirt
to give away tonight. And we do have a couple
of questions up here. So let's go ahead and take
those. First of all, for Michael Brett, wy7bg
says, if there's no COVID -19 vaccine by then,
will hamcation go virtual? So Michael, you want
to? address that one? Yeah. Um, unfortunately
we will not be going virtual if there is no vaccine
by then. Um, a lot of people, I mean, here locally,
um, there is shows starting to start up already
at the fairgrounds and other areas of Orlando.
Um, personally, I don't think we would need a
vaccine to be able to have the show. A lot of
people do want to see a vaccine happening. But,
um, just because there is not a vaccine is not
a reason why we would cancel the show, uh, for
that purpose. Uh, so no, we will not be going
virtual. Uh, it'd be very hard to plan a virtual
hand fest and a regular hand fest at the same
time. Uh, so right now we're full on board of,
um, doing it in person. And of course, you know,
you're, you're following all the. Appropriate
guidelines. So, you know, we'll just have to
wait and see what it looks like when we get closer
to time. Correct. Uh, we will follow all, uh,
federal state and local guidelines at the time,
uh, of the show, what they are. Um, once we find
out what they are, we will let everybody know
what needs to be done for them to attend the
show. If it's to wear a mask, if it's, uh, we
have to do temperature checks. Uh, ever what
it is, once we're a hundred percent sure, uh,
what they are, we will release a press release
of, uh, what people should expect, uh, coming
to the show. Okay. Very good. Uh, well this one's
for Mike. Um, so let's switch over to him. Uh,
John in for JTK, uh, wants to know how the, um,
award became named after Carol Perry. OK, I'd
be glad to take that question. When the Amcation
Committee turned around and said they wanted
to get an award together, we kept looking and
saying, OK, how do you turn around, promote amateur
radio? And when you really look at it, people
educating our youth are some of our best ambassadors
for the hobby. And also, it's bringing youth
into the hobby. And that seems to always be a
challenge. A lot of amateur radio clubs and groups
are working on is how do you turn around and
bring new people in? And it's going to be the
youth that we need to get the youth to get interested
in it. So I came up with the educator of the
year award. And then committee turned around
and said, well, who would we potentially go pick
for that? And it was almost hands down, Carol
Perry. Carol Perry has been coming to Hamcation
for years, doing youth forums. She's doing youth
forums almost nonstop, it seems, every time you
turn around and take a look at another forum
at a ham -ben -tion, ham -cation or ham -ben
-tion. Carol's there. Carol's always, whenever
it comes to youth, she's there. She's helping
other people on how to bring youth into radio.
So it was almost a natural fit for that. And
I wasn't present for when Carol received the
award, but she was totally caught off guard when
the award was presented to her. And she's been
beaming about it ever since and continuing to
promote amateur radio, great ambassador and great
bringing youth back into, you know, pulling youth
into our into our hobby. So. Okay, I can actually
probably go a little further on it real quick
of how it actually became her award Actually
when you're at Hamvention Myself John actually
Mark Brown from Huntsville was there and then
at the time Michael Coulter outside of his little
RV trailer that he has we're sitting out there
talking and he brought up the idea that Hamcation
should do some type of award like they do Just
something to get Help us out Get our name on
on the map a little more with some type of award
So we left her thinking about it and I've come
up with the idea of an educator award Um, at
the time, Hamvention didn't do it. No other real
Hamfest does an educator award. Uh, so I actually
got with, uh, Carol Perry and she actually helped
create the award, um, at the time, uh, helped
create some of the rules for the nominations
and all that. But at the time she didn't know
that, um, one we're going to name the ward after
her and two, she was the first recipient of the
ward. Uh, so actually the fault that year at
Huntsville. We asked her if she would be willing
for us to actually put her name on the ward to
make it the Carol Perry Educator of the Year
award. And she was tickled to death and was this
blown away with the idea that we would come to
her with that. And she loved it. And then that
following hamcation, we actually give it to her
at the award ceremony that we did. uh did and
she was even more blown away at that point so
that's a little more detail of actually how um
the war had actually come about all right good
good story there of of how that happened so if
you have a question now is the time to call eight
five nine nine eight two seventy three seventy
three and uh Michael and Mike will try to answer
all of your questions this evening again eight
five nine nine eight two seventy three seventy
three give us a call or Tweet us at ham talk
live and Joe K zero neb on Spreaker on the comments
has a couple of questions for you Michael How
soon do we speakers register our forums and when
is the deadline for any announcement if the event?
Is postponed or canceled or whatever? Um, the
first question is it's open now. Uh, so please
go up there, register, uh, for a form. Um, right
now nobody's registered. Uh, so it's kind of
more open if you want a certain time slot. Uh,
so please go up there and register any time.
Uh, James is still our forums chairman. He'll
be receiving the email and, uh, would be in contact
with you soon. If for some reason the deadline
for any announcement, pretty much we would have
to let anybody know by December 1st. That would
give everybody enough time for vendors and stuff
like that to cancel any type of plans they made
to come here. So if for some reason if we did
have to postpone or cancel, we're looking at
a December 1st timeline. Okay, that's good to
know as well. So thanks, Joe, for your question.
859 -982 -7373 is the phone number at HamTalk
Live on Twitter. And if you're on Spreaker, you
can type into the comments and we'll take a few
more questions here tonight about the Orlando
hamcation. So Michael, let's talk a little bit
about this 75th anniversary. This is a milestone
for you all. Um, or, well, I guess you're in
the South. So it's y 'all, right? Y 'all. Yeah.
So talk a little bit about the, the anniversary
and what, what you have planned. Okay. Um, for
the 75th, uh, let everybody know, uh, a little
bit about hamcation. Our first ham fest was actually
back in 1946. Um, If anybody's from Florida,
I'm pretty sure they've heard of Rock Springs.
It's a spring here locally up in the Popca area.
Our first ham fest was there outside at the Springs,
apparently in 1946. So over the years we've moved
around, but we've been at the fairgrounds now
for almost 30 years, a little over 30 years at
the fairgrounds. So for the 75th, it's going
to be big for us. We're trying to, um, of course,
COVID doesn't help, but, um, just plan some,
uh, good forums this year. Uh, our theme actually
this year with, uh, ARL, we're doing a joint
theme this year for the 75th. It's going to be
rediscover radio. If you go on the website, we
have the logos up there and what rediscover means
it's two parts to it The first one is the RE
part of it for the rediscover is for hands that
are active anymore in amateur radio trying to
get them more active Active in the current technology
digital stuff of amateur radio stuff like that
Then if you just go with the discover amateur
radio is for the new hams teaching them about
amateur radio and What they can do with amateur
radio the digital aspects of amateur radio So
that's actually our joint theme with a RL this
year about that I was actually just informed
I made a mistake about the forms the forums page
is not live yet on the website It should be up
by the end of the week. Okay, so Joe, you gotta
wait a few more days. So, all right, well, you
know, it sounds like some good stuff, and I'm
sure knowing you, you'll have some surprises
that you're holding back. uh... and and come
up with some ideas uh... to add to that as you
go because you're you're always coming up with
ideas so uh... we'll we'll have to talk about
those next time you're on with uh... when we're
closer to uh... the hamcation taking place so
let's uh... give one last chance here for uh...
phone calls and questions eight five nine nine
eight two seventy three seventy three at ham
talk live on twitter Um, and let's see if we
have any other questions or comments before we
go. Um, guys, anything, anything else that, that
we needed to, uh, to address that we, we didn't
hit? This is Mike. If we do have any, um, anyone
that does have questions or comments about the
awards, they can always email, email me at awards
at hamcation .com and be able to Take care of
any questions that pop up along the way and be
looking forward to hearing and seeing everybody
at hamcation here. After the first of the year.
Only thing I got to add is. Is for anybody for
the form side, if somebody nominated somebody
last year. Please re nominate them. We had some
very good. People that was nominated it was very
hard to make a decision of who won it It come
down to actually between three people Out of
all the nominations we got and it was very hard
to pick the person So, please if you nominated
somebody last year, please also Don't give up
renominate them. They could be a good chance
that they could be picked this year Okay. And,
uh, John W four U S F wants to know when tickets
go on sale. They are on sale now. You can go
to a www .hamcation .com and on the top tab,
you can click tickets and you can buy them right
now. Okay. There you go. All right. Well, I think
we have, uh, we have covered everything that
we needed to. So, um, let's, uh, Let's see here.
Actually, uh, Michael, if you don't mind, um,
well, I'll let you pick the winner of the t -shirt
tonight. Okay. So you want to, you want to pick
one of the questions from tonight? Um, Oh yeah.
Let's go with, um, let's go with the last gentleman,
John. W four USF with the question about tickets
on sale about tickets. There we go. Okay. We
got to sell the tickets. All right. All right.
So John, congratulations. I'll get with you and
we'll figure out the size of shirt and we'll
get that sent out to you. And again, thanks to
Tanner W nine TWJ for, for donating that and
we'll, we'll get that shirt out to you. So you
listen and you win a shirt. So we will do that.
And Michael, we'll have you back. when we get
closer to time and talk about some more details
as things get even more nailed down and ready
to go for hamcation. But I'm telling you right
now, after being back at work for all of two
days, I think Orlando is sounding pretty good
right now. I think I think I think a vacation
is well in order. So there we go Well guys, any
any final comments here before we go? Just want
to thank you. Thank him talk live for having
us on here Also, I haven't told you officially
but congratulations on the wedding Thank you
and just thank all the viewers for Hopping in
and listening live and being in the chat room
and Hopefully we'll pull this off with or without
the Kovac issue and it'd be one of the best ham
hamcations. We've had yet Yes, and Neil thanks
for having us on tonight much appreciated to
give us the opportunity to speak about hamcation
and Carol Perry award Well, thank you guys so
much for being here and and thank you to all
the people that were chiming in tonight We've
got a lot of our our usual crew here Jill Katie
8 QG a is in the shack as she always says and
Chris a for CB and All kinds of people are your
usual group here. So thanks for being in there
and John and Joe and another John. I think we've
had two or three Johns and a bill and two or
three mics in here. So it's like a lot of people
in here tonight. So so thanks a lot for for being
there and chiming in tonight and we'll do it
again next week. So that is a wrap. for this
week's episode of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my
guests, Michael Colley, W4MCA and Mike Vanigan
to KJ4UDO and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and typing in and invite you back
next Thursday night, 9 p .m. Eastern Time. And
for a list of all of our upcoming guests, visit
HamTalkLive .com. And if you like the show, please
leave us a review. That helps us. So please do
that and helps other people. Find the show! So
for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG saying 7 -3,
7 -5, and may the good DX be yours!