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ICOM radios. Hey good evening everyone it's time
for HamTalk Live episode number 215. The family
that hams together. If you make that a verb I
guess I don't know. Anyway we're recording this
live on Thursday June 4th 2020. I'm your host
Neil Rapp WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined
by Andrew KN4VKX, Ryan KN4VKW, and Blake KN4VKY,
and they're all Pearsons. And we'll take your
calls live in just a few minutes. Last week here
on the show, Dr. Paul Jaffe, KJ4IKI, was here
to talk about gathering solar power in space.
So if you missed that show, make sure you listen
at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube. You can listen anytime to
those replays. And remember the show is rebroadcast
every Saturday on WTWW. That's 5085 AM. And the
new time is 3 .30 p .m. Eastern on Saturday afternoon.
So 3 .30 p .m. Eastern, 2 .30 p .m. Central time
on WTWW is when you will hear us there. We've
moved up about four hours there. That's the new
time. I do have three or four things to talk
about here before we get started. And I know
you want to get into the topic right away, but
there are a few things I need to talk about here
real quick. First, we are putting together another
HamTalk Live t -shirt order. We haven't done
one of those in about a year. So if you're interested,
they're $20, which includes US postage. If you're
outside of the US, Just add on the price difference
on the shipping For international go to ham talk
live comm click on the hyperlink and Fill out
the form to order and we're going to cut that
off on June 15th So if you want to get your order
in make sure you do that by June 15th Secondly
a programming note. Don't forget the field day
question and answer show with Paul Bork in one
sfe uh, will be on June 18th. Now that's a week
and a day before field day. Um, usually we do
it the weekend of, um, there's been some rule
changes due to the pandemic. So if you still
have questions, you'll be able to get those answered
live on the 18th. And to get you ready for that,
don't forget the 100 Watts and a Wire podcast
is having the tune up on June 12th through 14th.
It's a chance to test everything out, get ready
for field day, so check them out at 100wattsandwire
.com. And then lastly, uh... some sad news came
out this morning uh... the huntsville ham fest
announced that uh... they did have to cancel
this year's ham fest mark brown in four b c d
gave me a call this morning make sure i heard
about it and uh... talk a little bit about the
decision and uh... he may call in tonight he
had some obligations uh... so i'm not positive
that he's going to call in tonight, but he may
give us a call tonight. And if so, we will interrupt
our normal programming for just a few minutes
to bring him on and he can tell everybody about
what's going on. And if not, I do have some information
here that he emailed me. So we'll, we'll see
if Mark has a chance to call. And if not, I'll
I'll fill in for him. So we're going to talk
to the Pearsons here. If you're listening live
on Thursday night after the interview, you'll
be able to call us. So let me go ahead and give
you the phone number so you can write that down
and have it ready. It's 859 -982. 73 73 again
it's eight five nine nine eight two seventy three
seventy three you can also tweet us on Twitter
we are at ham talk live so I'll be back with
the Pearsons right after this word from ICOM
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radios. The grass may be greener on the other
side but at least we don't have to mow it. You're
listening to HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp. Thanks
to ICOM America for sponsoring the show again
tonight. Make sure you check out all their fine
radios at icomamerica .com Slash amateur Ham
talk lives on the air every Thursday night 9
p .m. Eastern time at ham talk live .com My guests
tonight the Pearson family we have Andrew Who's
the father K in for VKX? and Blake is KN4VKY
and he is 12 years old and Ryan KN4VKW is 11
years old and mom Jacqueline is is out working
tonight so we couldn't get Jacqueline on the
air but but guys welcome to the show thank you
very much we're glad to be here thank you we're
glad to be with you tonight Well, these guys
all became technicians all three of them at the
same time June in 2019 became generals in July
of 2019 and They've been building their ham station
with some help from their Club with the Williamson
County Aries group down in the Brentwood and
Franklin, Tennessee area. And they've had a lot
of support from their Elmer RJ KC4LRR. And the
boys are active members of Yacht, which is led
by Ed KG8CX. That's the youth amateur communications
ham team. They have a net for young people every
week and you should check them out. And then
Blake and Ryan were set to speak at this year's
Dayton Hamvington Youth Forum, led by Carol Perry,
WB2MGP, that we talk about often on this show.
And instead, they're going to be speaking next
year because of the pandemic. So we're just going
to talk to them a little bit tonight. And again,
my apologies if Mark calls in, we're going to
switch to Mark real quick about Huntsville. and
and we're gonna talk about Huntsville a little
bit because Ryan had a real cool story from Huntsville
from last year, but I had the pleasure of meeting
you all and sitting with your family at Carol
Perry's youth forum at Huntsville last year along
with Don Wilbanks AE5DW and he said you got to
have these people on your show you got it you
got to get them on and you know the more I heard
about Your story Andrew You know the more I realized
that we had a lot in common There's a lot of
parallels because you and your family became
hams Together much like mine. So so tell us a
little bit about how you all got into ham radio
All right, I will start it off so it all began
for me when I was in high school There were some
friends of mine that were hams and so I was able
to see their equipment and watch them as they
were on the radio. They were advanced level and
definitely as I share I got bit by the bug of
amateur radio at that point. They helped me out
and guided me towards trying to pass that or
be prepared for my novice. and I ended up studying,
I passed the written, but I did not pass the
code portion back then. I had the cassette tape,
I was a teenager in high school playing sports,
and I just obviously did not dedicate enough
time to the CW portion. And that is when the
no code technician first came out. I was looking
at that, figuring that maybe I could just jam
studying in on it, but at that point in time,
it was kind of frowned upon for my ham being
a no -coater. So I actually, with that feeling
of some pressure, I just stepped out of it and
stepped away from it. And then my wife and I
had the privilege of making it to EAA, the Experimental
Aircraft Association, been wanting to go there
my entire life and finally made it by having
the boys. And that was in the summer of 2018.
And at EAA, they have this amazing area for all
the youth that show up there to go and explore
and learn and just have a blast. It's called
KidVenture. And we ended up spending an amazing
day at KidVenture at EAA. And while we were there
waiting to or walking towards one of the other
buildings, I saw this old building. It was a
solid wooden structure. And I'm like, wow, that
just looks like an interesting building. And
so I got closer and was invited in to come take
a peek. And it turned out to be an old ham shack
that was about 50, 60, 70 years old. And it was
still in excellent condition. But what was really
cool is it felt like walking into a time machine
because they had equipment that dated back to
those yester decades. And it was very neat seeing
the old maps and old QSL cards. you know, old
school amateur radio and I just started looking
at that and I remembered what captivated me when
I was young and started talking with the guys
and just had a great conversation. Made sure
to bring Blake and Ryan in there and made sure
that they were listening and looking and enjoying
and when we walked out I just had that thought
because of knowing what a ham fest was. I'm like,
I've got to find a ham fest. And later after
we left, I got home and I jumped on the computer
and I was able to find Huntsville Ham Fest. So
our oldest son, he's a student. He's now going
to be attending Tennessee Tech. He'll be a junior
in engineering. And so it was a nice boys, dad
and the boys day away. And I said, hey, we're
going to go down to this thing called the ham
fest. Just trust me, we're going to have a great
time and we're going to spend some time together.
And we just walked around and all the excitement
that I had when I was a youth was back alive
again and had a blast. We were able to take Flake
and Ryan to the area where they have a kids section
where they have all sorts of different activities
going on. And they had a wonderful time there.
And then we were told that we needed to go to
this one room because there was this youth gathering
while we went in there. And we got to listen
to some youth amateur radio operators that were
presenting. And I was just blown away with. how
intelligent they were, the fact that they were
hams, and the excellent presentations that they
did. And afterwards, we happened to speak to
an amazing woman, Carol Berry, and she was so
friendly and so encouraging, and she encouraged
us to not only get our license, but she said,
don't stop studying until you get your general.
So I will just conclude this part with saying
that we walked away from there. And I told the
boys, we're a homeschool family as well. And
I told the boys, I said, hey, when we're done
with this year of school, so starting the fall
of 18, finishing spring of 19, I said, just trust
me, we're going to do this together. And I will
take a pause and I will let the boys now jump
in and explain. uh... well do you want me to
stop right there yeah no go right go right ahead
let's let's hear from ryan and blake okay um
so this is blake and then we finished out that
school year and then early june uh... we ended
a lot of people fellow hams and rj uh... they
had recommended using ham test online uh... so
that's what we use we sat on the computer all
three of us together We ran it two to four hours
every day. And once we felt like we were ready
to pass it, after a lot of studying, we ended
up taking our technician. And when we took our
technician just for the fun of it, we ended up
taking our general just to see what would happen
and see how many questions we'd get right from
everything we already knew. from the other percentage
that people just get from guessing. We didn't
pass, but we weren't surprised. But it was fun
doing that. It was a late night. After a few
weeks off from passing our technician, I will
actually let Ryan say that. Well, after we finished
our technician, we were just like practically
celebrating and everything. And then we just
decided to hop in for our general since we just
decide that it would be a great idea to do that.
So we jumped back on the hand test online and
did the same thing as we did for our tech for
general. Relatively in a matter of around two
weeks, two to three weeks, we actually got ready
to take it. So we took our general class. Technically,
exactly one month after we took our tech class.
And so we were just having a great time. And
then since we went to Huntsville that first year,
we decided to go again the next year. And it
got a little interesting there, but I will just
Ask and see if you would like to talk about anything
right now Yeah, yeah, we'll save that story for
for a little bit but you all had have so many
parallels to to my story because My dad and I
got into ham radio at the same time He was interested
in ham radio in high school and he never did
take the test and then we ended up doing it together
And so there's just so many parallels between
you all that it makes me remember all those times
back when I was five years old and did that with
my dad. But the funny thing was that my mom,
she didn't want anything to do with it. But she
couldn't stand not knowing what we were saying
in Morris code So she decided she was gonna go
to the class and she was just gonna learn the
code She wasn't gonna get her license. She wasn't
gonna take the written test. She wasn't gonna
do any of that She was just gonna learn how to
copy code so she would know what we were saying
Well, she got hooked and and so she a year later
ended up becoming a ham too. So what's your mom
thinking about ham radio? I mean there's all
this peer pressure going on and if she were here
I'd ask her about it and I did that with Bryant
Rascal's mom and she ended up getting her license.
So what's mom think about this? Well I want to
say that mom would have loved to have been able
to be here with us but she's a flight nurse and
as a matter of fact the program she works for,
not only does she get to work on the rotor wing,
the helicopters, but they also have a fixed wing,
so an airplane. And I don't know where she's
going to right now, but she is somewhere flying
in the sky to go get a patient and bring them
back here. And she's going to be taking great
care of that patient. So she would have loved
to been here, but duty calls for her. And so
with that, I want to say that she enjoys her
professional communications. We just keep hoping
that someday she'll want to join us on the HAM
side of life, but she's really excellent at what
she does and she's really involved in the program
and she supports us just amazingly. So we couldn't
have a better uh, partner, uh, for, for us and
our ham adventures, um, without her actually
being a ham than what we have. So, um, we'll
see what the future holds, but we, what we have
is, is absolutely wonderful. Um, we just hope
we will get that cherry on top and have a bunch
of ticket at some point in the future. Well,
you know, we were talking about CW, we were talking
about the coder before the show and you know,
maybe that, maybe that would be the way to get
it is if you all start doing code and she doesn't
know what you're saying then maybe maybe that'll
be it. Well Jacqueline whenever you listen to
this we thank you for for supporting these guys
and their hobby and service and if you decide
to do it we welcome you with open arms. Well
later that day that I met you all after the youth
forum I was about to walk out the door to go
actually have dinner with some young hams and
the young ham of the year award crowd and all
that and they were getting ready to announce
the grand prize and I turned around and I saw
this 10 year old kid just running up to the stage
all excited that you just won an ICOM IC7610.
So Ryan, congratulations because I haven't told
you that yet because I was walking out the door,
but tell us all about the big prize. Okay, well,
um, first of all, I'll just say, uh, thank you
very much. And, um, well, um, it was just all
started with, uh, we never really thought that
we were going to be there that long, but, um,
so we just, uh, when, uh, we were just looking
for stuff, we just took around and, um, we just
were in the back, seeing who won the grand prize.
And we're like, okay, let's just see it since
we're going to leave slant until it's getting
over with. They call it, they say the worst Christmas
in August for Ryan. And then as I said in the
animation, okay, there's probably maximum only
10 people who have to name Ryan, that are probably
Tams in this room of good, probably 100 people.
And then I hear tan four, and then I'm like,
there's not really a lot of possibilities. hand
with the name ryan and the prefix of their call
k and four that might be still here and then
i hear vkw and then at that point since i really
didn't know too much about him ray i asked my
dad what do i do and then he says go run up there
so i run up there um let me get it i was actually
confused what the guy was asking me for apparently
he was asking me for my ticket that my dad had
put his name up showed it Um, so we just won
the icon 7610 there and uh, signed to a friend
of yours. All that. How cool is that? You get,
you get an icon 7610 just by being there. That's
pretty cool. Blake, what did you think of all
of this? And do you, does he let you use the
radio? Yes, he actually does let me use it some
of the time. We enjoy using it a lot. During
the Dayton contest, I actually made 325 quesos.
And overall, in the 10 months that we've been
generals, I've made over 800 HF contacts. So
I'm very proud of that. We've done a lot of working
on the rig. I am a huge fan of QSL cards. I collect
a lot of them. I have a lot of them. I'm very
grateful. I cherish them all. I do have one out
of the states, and that's from Puerto Rico. I'm
hoping we could get more out of there. I'm looking
to get a Brazil and Nicaragua, but I do not know
if that will happen. I also really like the ones
that are far away, so today in the mail. I actually
got one of my Alaska QSL cards that I sent out
on the 16th, apparently. I didn't know it, but
I had two. I knew one person was in Alaska, and
I keyed up the mic, and I was like, wait, did
you say you were in Alaska? And then he actually
talked back and said that I heard him right.
His call is Kilo Lima 7 Sierra Bravo. I had a
nice contact with him, and then also I contacted
a different Alaska ham, but I did not copy his
state well, but I later learned that he was in
Alaska as well. He's actually in North Pole,
Alaska, and I'm hoping to get a QSL card back
from him, but I enjoy collecting a lot of them.
Here in Tennessee we check into the Tennessee
phone net and I actually have a QSL card from
one I'm pretty sure it's the Thursday morning
session of the Tennessee phone net I actually
have Mark one of the net control operators QSL
cards kilo Mike for India Zulu Zulu So that is
also another one that I very cherish a lot But
I will send it back to you All right, and yeah,
and you need one from Indiana I need to send
you one because I don't know if it was you or
Ryan but I worked one of you two during that
Hamvention Q so party so I'll have to send you
a card I and I don't always send out cards unless
I get one but but you're gonna get one so We'll
make sure that you get one from Indiana. Well,
it's time for our break. So we're going to take
a break right now, but I'll be back with the
Pearsons and we'll take your phone calls and
comments and tweets and all that stuff right
after this word from Tower Electronics right
here on HamTalk Live. Thanks for choosing Tower
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Now, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live.
A clean house is a sign of a broken radio. You're
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right here at HamTalkLive .com. And be sure to
check us out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
And it is time for your phone calls in just a
minute. But first we have a special phone call
we're gonna take. But let me give you the number
so you can have it ready. It's 859 -982 -7373
or you can tweet us at HamTalk Live. If you're
listening to us on WTWW or on the podcast edition,
you won't be able to reach us live since we're
recording this on Thursday. So we're going to
pause here for just a couple of minutes with
the Pearsons because Mark Brown in for BCD, the
chairman of the Huntsville Hamfest just called
in. So Mark, I know you've you've released some
bad news today, but We understand, and we're
hopeful for next year, so tell us all about it,
Mark. Well, good evening, Neil, and to your listeners.
Yeah, it's been quite an emotional week, I would
say, where we've taken the hard decision to unanimously,
the board of directors voted last night to cancel
the Huntsville -Alabama hamfest. uh... we just
saw things were not improving as as quick as
we will as we would have we will all would like
and uh... did that the risk to uh... that the
ham fest the vendors the visitors of the health
of the visitors was was paramount our volunteers
to uh... as as we all know the amateur radio
population uh... were not all young credit like
your act like a program guest tonight uh... so
uh... we've we've got a look out for them and
uh... it just didn't make sense uh... there are
so many uh... camp that's not i spoke to bob
into bits and on the phone uh... sometime this
morning i think it was and uh... he mentioned
that uh... they've added the campus cancellation
to uh... just uh... a tremendously long list
of of campus through uh... june july august and
even into september on the a double rl website
uh... that have canceled so it's not just huntsville
of course dayton uh... i had to pull the plug
i remember uh... a call from jack curbs uh...
on a sunday uh... preceding their announcement
i called jack this morning and uh... his first
words were oh no i think you know why i was calling
and uh... it's kindred a kindred spirits uh...
we we hate to do what we did but it was uh...
in we we know that it's it's the right decision
in the long run and uh... we'll be back next
year it's it's going to be a a wonderful event
we We had a great, great program last year. Your
guests tonight, I want to mention, I've listened
to the program here waiting for the break. The
Pearsons, I remember, and I want to thank them
for the personal card they mailed after winning
that radio some months later. But I did receive
that at my home. They live up in Brentwood, Tennessee.
I'm down in Fayetteville, Tennessee, but I work
down in Huntsville. You know, I talked with,
I think it was Don Wilbanks and Bob Heil on Sunday
morning of the Hamfest, and none of us can ever
remember a crowd breaking into spontaneous applause
over not winning a radio. Seeing the joy on Ryan's
face and that of his family of winning the grand
prize there on Saturday, it was priceless. We
could not have bottled that any better. It just
worked out. It was, it was just a wonderful,
wonderful experience. And I'm glad, I'm really
glad that they're getting the radio on the air
and using it, making contacts at, you know, the
sky's the limit. We're glad we're able to help
that family get started on a good path in ham
radio. Absolutely. And it was everybody just,
the crowd erupted and to see him run up there
and waved his arms in the air and, and, and go
up there and get that radio. I couldn't have
been, couldn't have been happier unless maybe
it had been me, but yeah, yeah. I've been talking
to a lot of folks today, Neil, um, actually,
uh, just at, just after I got home tonight, uh,
Carol Perry called me from New York where, uh,
she's sheltering in, uh, in her big house up
there. I think it's Brooklyn, but, uh, she's
doing well. And, you know, staying healthy, but
she's, of course, disappointed. A lot of us are
disappointed, but, you know, we made the right
decision to cancel the event. But she'll be back
next year also with the youth lounge, the youth
forum. She also goes to Dayton, of course, and
she does so much for the youth in ham radio,
and we're talking about how she's... She had
some trouble this year with trying to get folks
lined up because of the travel restrictions.
Parents don't want to release kids. It's just,
it was a real tough situation on several fronts
this year and trying to pull off a hand fest.
So I think it's the right thing to do is for
everybody to regroup, stay healthy, and we'll
hit it again in 2021. Yeah, it is. And I know,
you know, when we had to cancel Yoda camp this
year and postpone it till next year, I was, I
was miserable. I hated it, but. uh... now that
we're getting closer and closer it's like yeah
we did the right thing so uh... that's right
uh... i remember i remember hearing that yeah
i would echo that with you all yeah well before
you go in your inaugural yes that was the first
time and uh... but uh... we do have a plan we're
actually going to announce that soon we're putting
the last of the details together We have a plan
that we're going to get everybody together on
a day and we're going to do some activities and
some competitions and we're going to get a thing
together for field day too. So, uh, we'll be
talking more about that later on, but, uh, before
you go, Mark, um, I know you, you sent me the
press release this afternoon. Um, you've got
some, some refund info and hotel reservation
info. You want to run through that real quick
so people know what. going on with that? Yeah,
sure, Neil. Let me pull that up real quick. Yeah,
the refund, what we decided to do, we're taking
a hit on some things, but we just decided that
that was the right thing to do. The commercial
vendors are going to get a full refund, you know,
even the PayPal expenses that they made, or if
they paid by a check. commercial vendors will
get a full refund. The same with the flea market
vendors. Depending on how they paid, that's how
we will refund their payments in full. The online
ticket buyers, a few. We didn't actively promote
online ticket sales, but we do have several that
will be, of course, refunding their admission
tickets in full. The embassy, a lot of folks
stay there at the embassy. I think we had contracted
190 plus room nights on on friday night and saturday
night and those were all taken uh... the embassy
with an agreement with us uh... they are going
to just blanket cancel all those hotel reservations
but i encourage everybody who's made a reservation
to check in a few weeks on europe on your personal
hilton account or whatever to make sure that
that in that that reservation is off the books
uh... don't want to get uh... get dinged for
us you know being charged for a hotel without
canceling But like I said, the embassy should
be taking care of those reservations. Other hotels,
even the ones we had agreements with, it's going
to be up to the individual making those reservations
to manually cancel. So that's the long and the
short of it. Like I said, we're going to regroup
and we'll be back next year. All right, Mark.
Thank you so much. And Pearsons, you have anything
you want to chime in here with before Mark takes
off? Well, Mark, it's great to hear your voice.
I'm definitely saddened by the news. Going to
Huntsville is definitely a big adventure that
we look forward to every year together, but I
understand the decision that you made, but glad
you got the card and we really appreciate everything
that you and everyone that helps out to make
Huntsville be such an amazing AmFest do each
and every year, so we appreciate it. we look
forward to seeing you back in twenty one okay
well thanks for the guy kind words guys and i'll
let you get back to the program ideal seventy
three all right mark thank you so much and and
best of luck on two thousand twenty one and and
thanks for uh... putting everything in to try
to make it work take care about it all right
by by that's mark brown in for bcd the chairman
of the huntsville ham fest that again uh... announced
this morning that they are not going to be able
to have this year's event. So now that means,
Blake, you're not going to be able to win a 7610.
At least at Huntsville. Phone number is 859 -982
-7373. 859 -982 -7373. If you want to call, if
you have a question or comment for the Pearsons,
give us a call or you can also tweet us at amtalklive.
And again, if you're listening to WTWW or the
podcast version, you won't be able to reach us.
Well, we'll check those here in a minute and
and see what you all have to say So what all
have you you all been doing on the air? And how
do you like that? 7610 Well, I'll start Well
me and Blake have actually enjoyed ever since
like A good amount of months ago. We've been
we've enjoyed starting on calling CQ Yoda Oh
getting us a bunch of contacts We've enjoyed
working that. Personally, I think whenever I
want to get DS or a long farther away station,
I work 20 meters. But for the majority, I work
40 meters because here the bands are better on
40 meters and I can get a bunch of contacts.
But we're just having a great time working the
radio. I will just say that in the contacts we
have, especially through Dayton, I was able to
get the Dayton General Chairman for 2019 -2020.
So that was a good contact I made with him, and
I also got Bob Heil and one of his friends. So
I sent the QSL card in, so I'm hoping to get
one back, because now that's just what sparked
my interest in hopefully getting a QSL card from
all the animation people. Anyway, so... That's
about it for me. I'll just see if Blake wants
to talk about it. Yes, as Ryan said, we have
been doing a lot of CTO to actually. My record
was set during the Dayton Contacts. That's when
I got 325 CTO to contact all day. So it was a
very fun and enjoyable day. Um, as I said earlier,
um, so far in the past 10 months, I have over
800 HS contacts. Um, and on June 6th, so in two
days, if I get Kentucky, um, which during the
Kentucky Q's or cardio, I hope I should, then
I will officially have, um, all 50 states. So
I'm hoping that I get Kentucky. Um, and that
is somebody to call that I need. and then to
get but also we have a making time on the yacht
news net every Saturday 7 p .m central on echo
link um there's also one where the kids can also
join in but uh it's more on anyone's yacht net
that's the one on Tuesday at the same time 7
central uh but we enjoy checking into the nets
and doing everything we do All right, very good.
Well, let's see what we have here. Uh, first
of all, John W four USF, uh, down in Florida
says it takes four hams to get a club call sign.
So there's more pressure on getting Jacqueline
in there so you can have a family club. Um, so
yeah, get mom involved and you can have your
own family ham club. Well, there, there are a
few of those out there. So Uh, boy, we're putting
the pressure on Jacqueline again. Uh, well, let's
see. Uh, Jacob, KG7EQN asks a question I get
every once in a while. Um, how do you balance
introducing ham radio to your children without
pushing them away? How do you come up with family
radio activities and plan them? So I want to
hear your answer on that one. Well, you know
a lot of times the boys They just work it out
between themselves Who's going to jump on the
radio and that always makes it easy? What you
know the only time we've really had a difficulty
where they have not Well, and I can't say that
they haven't played nice, but where it really
wasn't going to work out for the two of them
was for the Dayton QSO party because this was
a sentimental one. This would have been our first
trip up to Dayton and would have been a big one
for the boys. And it was important to me to make
sure that both of them could still participate.
on that day like they were supposed to in Dayton.
And so that's where RJ, KC4LRR, our Elmer came
in and he saved the day as he regularly does
for us. And he let Ryan go over to his house
and jump on his radio and then Blake stayed at
home on the 7610. You know, what a day. They
both ended up working the radios hard, and both
of them had about 325 contacts that day. And
so, Jacob, I'm very lucky. These boys, they are
team players the majority of the time. We homeschool
together. We go to church together. We do ham
radio together. We're a baseball family, and
fortunately, Ryan's 11, Blake's 12, so they've
been generally able to play on the same team
together because Ryan's a great ball player like
Blake, but Ryan's able to be good enough where
he can play up with his brother. And so that's
worked out pretty well. So all I can say is that
we're just blessed beyond my understanding by
God that, you know, we're able to do what we
do and that it works as well as it does. That's
a fine answer And you know, I think you know
pushing people into into ham radio is probably
not quite the way to do it and You know when
people ask me about school clubs, it's well,
you know, we introduce it would explain what
it is We show them what you can do with it. We
get them on the air and have them do it and then
they want to get their license so they can do
it on their own and Instead of pushing the test
and and that's something I learned from You guessed
it Carol Perry WB to MGP Who was one of my mentors
in teaching ham radio in schools? Was you know,
you don't worry about the test you you you teach
the technology and you get them to have fun with
it and and go from there. So that's a good strategy.
So do y 'all have any aspirations of learning
some new modes, learning some new things to do
with ham radio? Well, I'll be the one to answer
that question. Just because I came up with a
um so instead of going Satan's icon sent us this
Box and we got some pretty cool stuff like a
hat. We got this cool jacket A very nice backpack,
but one of the main ones is me and Blake got
a new icon ID 51 a digital radio So now we're
probably going to be learning the new subject
of digital ham radio but We'll probably be getting
into D -Star Digital. I don't know about AMFM,
but probably that as well. I just know all the
phrases, Digital D -Star AMFM. But anyways, we'll
probably be getting into that, learning about
that. But that's one thing new, and me and Blake
are hoping to get into RCW and working it on
the air. Just have to... keep practicing and
get used to all the, to copying it and then sending
it out. But I will send it to Blake and see what
he has to say. Yeah, so we've also actually,
another mode that we've been able to do is we've
done PSK 31 a little bit. We actually did use
PSK 31 during our winter field day here, W CARES
group. We operated portable. We set up stations,
and we had an SSB station, a CW, and a digital
PSK station, so we got to work that. That was
a lot of fun. We really enjoyed doing that a
lot, and we also got to work FT8 and FT4. I made
a few contacts actually at the Huntsville Hand
Fest next to the youth area. There was a person
there that was actually operating digital modes
and people there got to sit back with them and
learn how to do it and have a nice conversation
while trying to make a few contacts. So that
was pretty fun and that has been, we've also
set up some of the PSK on our radio. Um, I haven't
made a contact with it yet, but I'm hoping to
do that soon. Uh, but anyways, that is, those
are some of our experiences with the other digital
modes. Very cool. Troy W9KVR says you can get
a club call if you're homeschooled and we have
those in school club roundup. And that's one
of the things that, that Troy and I both are
pretty big into his school club roundup and,
and you can be considered a school as a home
school. So we'll have to get you in this school
club roundup. And Troy also says slow scan television
is kind of fun. His, his daughter's like doing
that. So maybe that's something else you can
try. And let's see one more. Yeah. I think we
need to edit that part out of this so that my
wife doesn't hear that because I really like
the idea of needing to have her join us to be
able to have her. I appreciate that, Troy. That's
wonderful, but darn it, that just works against
us. Oh, we've got one more here. Carl KD9HQT
says his father is his Elmer and then got him
into Ham Radio as many people experience and
he didn't understand it for a long time but he
had some videotape when he was a baby on the
same chair that's in his ham shack in 93 so it
all worked out so he's got quite the history
with the cousin and his dad and grandfather so
Yeah, we're the ham families. That happens quite
a bit. Well, we're going to wrap things up here
tonight, but let me give you one final chance
to make some comments here before we go. And
I will say it's been great having you on. Glad
to meet you. And I was actually right down the
road from you all last weekend. I didn't even
put two and two together, but It was great to
meet you, and I would wish we could have seen
each other at Dayton and now Huntsville, but
we will next year. So we'll see you then. So
if you've got any final thoughts, go right ahead.
Well, I just want to say thank you again, Neil,
for reaching out to us. Thank you for the opportunity
to be able to share this story, this memory.
And we're definitely encouraged by people like
you. We're just so excited to be able to be an
amateur radio and we appreciate all of you that
have been before us that are helping us out and
encouraging us and keeping us motivated to moving
forward and learning and growing and sharing
with others. And we definitely look forward to
being able to meet you in person as soon as that
happens. Well, I would just say thank you very
much. for having us on this program. And I will
just say 73s and thank you very much. This is
also thank you very much Mr. Neal for having
us on. We had a great time and hope to be back
on and I'll say 73s to you as well. All right
guys, well thank you so much for being on tonight
and We wish you the best of luck. And I have
a feeling that we're going to have some extra
class operators here before long, too. So we'll
put the pressure on you all, too, as well as
mom. But it wouldn't surprise me a bit that the
next time I see you, you're an extra. So we'll
see how that goes. But look forward to that and
seeing some of the youth on the air stuff, too.
So we're going to wrap this up for tonight. So.
That's it for this edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks
to my guests, Andrew KN4VKX, Ryan KN4VKW, and
Blake KN4VKY, and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and calling in and typing in and
invite you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m.
Eastern Time. And for a list of all of our upcoming
guests, and if you want to order a shirt, go
over to HamTalk Live. And if you like the show,
please leave us a review. That helps other people
find the show faster, so we'll sign off for tonight.
For now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7
-3, 7 -5, and as always, may the good DX be yours.
Thanks for watching.