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we go! Welcome to Hamtop Live, call in last time,
Neil's your guy! Hamtop Live, here we go, on
Hamtop Radio! Good evening everyone, it's time
for another episode of HamTalk Live. It's episode
number 207, the Support Your Parks event, recorded
live on Thursday, April 9th, 2020. Boy, I'm a
year behind. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight we're joined by Vance Martin. N3
VEM and we'll take your calls live in just a
few minutes. Last week here on the show, Michael
Coulter, W8CI, was here to talk about the cancellation
of Hamvention and the new QSO party. And if you
missed that show, you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive
.com or on your favorite podcast app or over
on YouTube. And you can always catch the rebroadcast
of this show on Saturday evenings at about 6
30 p .m. Eastern Time on WTWW that's 5085 a .m.
So we're gonna talk to Vance here in a little
bit about some Parks on the Air stuff and that's
coming up in July But there's something coming
up this weekend actually that I need to make
you aware of And that is going to be Saturday,
April 11th through the 17th of April. I got a
note from Dr. Rob Suggs about the NASA on the
air. The NASA clubs will be on the air. They're
going to be on the air from their homes though
with all the quarantine stuff going on. But they
will be using the NASA club call signs. to commemorate
the 50th anniversary of Apollo 13. So they're
not planning any NASA wide certificates or the
score tracking like they did for the NASA on
the Air event, but they will be celebrating the
50th anniversary of Apollo 13. Again, that's
Saturday, April 11th through the 17th of April.
And there will be opportunities for QSL cards
from those clubs. Just go to their site on QRZ
.com and you can find the specific instructions
on QSLs. Those are not really standardized. So
check out whichever one that you work and you
can find out that information. There will be
news on their website, nasaontheair .wordpress
.com and also on their Twitter feed, which is
NASA. On the air so check that out and you can
catch the Locations of those stations on the
DX spotting sites Starting on Saturday. So if
you want to work one of those Apollo 13 Special
event stations they will be on All right. Well
get your questions ready to go about parks on
the air and we're going to talk to Vance about
a plaque award event that he is coordinating
this year. So we'll talk about that here in just
a little bit. So if you have some questions,
we'll give you a chance to call in. We'll talk
to Vance first and then we'll take a break. And
then after the break, we'll take your questions
live by phone, by Twitter. And here on Spreaker,
the platform where the show is streaming, there's
comments. So we'll be watching the comments there
as well. So to find us on Twitter, it's at HamTalk
Live and call us on the phone. Let me give you
the number so you can write it down. We're not
ready for calls just yet, but I'll give you the
number so that way you have it ready to go. It's
859. 9 8 2 73 73 8 5 9 9 8 2 73 73 is how you
can call and join in the conversation. So keep
that on hand. I'll give that out again in a little
bit and I'll be back with Vance right after this
word from ICOM right here. on HamTalk Live. Get
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about ICOM 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. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Thanks
to ICOM for bringing the show your way. Visit
them at icomamerica .com slash amateur. We're
on the air every Thursday night, 9 p .m. Eastern
time at hamtalklive .com. And tonight joining
us is Vance Martin, N3 VEM. He became aware of
ham radio as a teenager when he stumbled onto
some of his dad's old radio books, but didn't
become a ham until April 2014. He passed his
extra in 2015 and is working on CW skills. Spent
a lot of the first years on the air from a mobile
station, but now he has a nice shack at home
and that he's built and Still does a lot of mobile
and portable operation and he is coordinating
the support your parks event for the parks on
the air program this summer. And that's why we
have him on the show tonight. So Vance, welcome
to the show. Yeah, thanks, Neil. Thanks for having
me and thrilled to be on. Well, you you you've
been a caller or a longtime listener first time
caller last time so now you're second time caller
so We'll we'll get you back on here. So You know
the national parks on the air program Was a big
hit and we've had a plethora of different events
and one of my favorites, of course was the the
famous Walmart parking lots on the air. And actually,
I did an impromptu Walmart parking lot on the
air contact yesterday. In fact, I got a Shawn
KX9X from a Walmart parking lot. on one of the
satellites. And then there's lighthouses on the
air. There's mines on the air, islands on the
air. Somebody even had Dollar General parking
lots on the air. There's all these on the air
things. And so you've got just parks on the air.
It's not national parks. It's all parks. It's
just parks on the air. So before we get into
this specific event that you're coordinating,
let's hear a little bit in general, just about
the whole parks on the air program. Sure thing.
Yeah, so so basically parks on the air got started
because there was there was a lot of folks myself
included that wanted to continue the type of
activity that we had had so much fun with during
national parks on the air and Jason Johnston
was the the one who kind of had the vision to
hey, let's put something together and coordinate
and make a like a an evergreen parks on the air
program something that just kind of runs runs
continually like the other programs so So Jason
was the one with that vision. He pulled together
a group of us as volunteers to help build the
database and the website and all the other infrastructure
stuff to basically support running an ongoing
program like that. And really the idea was to
create a program so we could all just have fun.
So we set out to essentially mirror the rules
that existed for national parks on the air. So
10 contacts from a park equals an activation.
But we also wanted to include state parks just
to make it more accessible. So that's why it's
the generic parks on the air. Just so there's
more places folks can go and play portable radio.
So in the interest of fun and accessibility,
the program doesn't have a long list of rules.
Basically, you just have to be inside the boundary
of a park and make contacts to earn activator
credit or make contacts with somebody in a park
to earn credit as like a hunter. So folks can,
you know, start at parksontheair .com and click
around their stats and links to get registered
and things like that. Really one of the main
differences from the old National Parks on the
Air program was that with POTA we added a list
of certificates or achievements that folks can
work towards for activating or hunting certain
numbers of parks, activating or hunting Parks
certain numbers of times making park to park
contacts. So basically things that that you can
kind of accumulate over time to earn certificates
So that's that's the quick high level summary.
Really. It's just a program to Get out in the
park play radio and uh and have fun And I think
you know, um Sean and norm's idea of the national
parks on the air also kind of created an awareness
with a lot of the park management so that they
knew what was going on and you know people would
kind of check in and tell them what was going
on and so I think they're a little more comfortable
with this happening just because it's more of
a common thing now and they know that we're not
just bunch of weirdos showing up with all this
well, okay, maybe we are a bunch of weirdos,
but But we're showing up with all this radio
equipment and stuff In the middle of their park
and so they've got a little better idea of what's
going on Yep, yeah for sure. It's there's certainly
more and more Rangers and facilities that are
kind of aware of ham radio operators and what
we do And it's a neat way to interact with park
rangers too, because at the end of the day, the
rangers are, they're just other people that are
also curious about what's going on. So I've had
a, personally, I've had a lot of neat conversations
with park rangers just being out and they'd swing
by, oh, what are you doing? And you talk to them
a little bit and kind of get the little ham radio
cell in to expose more people to ham radio. And
once in a while you'll stumble on a park ranger
that's also a ham. That happened to me once up
in Connecticut, stumbled on a park ranger that
was an inactive ham. So I actually got to show
off some of my radio gear to the park ranger
and rekindled some interest there. So yeah, it's
definitely something that they're becoming more
and more aware of. We do tell people, you know,
respect the rangers. You know, if somebody isn't
sure about what you're doing, is a little uncomfortable,
just... Kind of respect and obey, and we can
always, it's easier to be polite and explain
later than to try to push back if somebody isn't
sure about what you're doing. Yeah, good advice.
Well, let's talk a little bit about this event
that you're coordinating, which is the support
your parks plaque event. So tell us all about
that and how people will be able to participate
in that. Yeah, it's something that I'm really
excited about because it's an activity that I've
spearheaded. This will be the third year now.
When I talked about the different awards and
certificates that are available through Parks
on the Air, one of them is just called Support
Your Parks. Support Your Parks is actually something
we do quarterly. We do one with every season.
winter, spring, summer, fall, the Portier Parks
events. And essentially what started about three
years ago in the summertime event, we decided
to add an extra twist and basically say, hey,
let's coordinate this plaque event to kind of
add some excitement and maybe draw in some new
people. So back in 2018, we had our first plaque
event In conjunction with the summer supports
your parks and in 2018 we just had two plaques
available. It was a Most contacts for an activator
and most contacts for a hunter Then last year
we added some more categories because there was
a lot of interest and a lot of folks wanted to
wanted to sponsor plaques so we had eight categories
last year and this year in 2020 there's going
to be 11 categories, so 11 plaques up for grab,
which are basically most contacts for an Activator
and a Hunter, most voice contacts. We have an
N2CX Memorial, which is a CW contacts for an
Activator. Then there's a Hunter version of that
also. And we do a digital contacts awards. Then
there's one we call Rover, which is for activating
the most unique parks. So for folks that are
familiar with... Like vhf, you know grid chasing.
It's kind of the parks version of that, you know
trying to bounce between as many parks as you
can during the event Then chaser is the the flip
side of that for hunting the most parks And then
lastly there's a a club category for the club
that makes the most contacts as a group of three
or more operators, so It really started as a
really just a passion project myself and and
one other active POTA member said, hey, let's
put the money for the plaques and do this. And
it was real popular. So I said, hey, I'll keep
coordinating this, but we'll need to find sponsors
to help pay for all the extra plaques. So that's
what we did. So this was a chance to add to the
hardware to put up on the wall and also a chance
to just get out and operate. And, you know, it
sounds like a fun time. And I know that you know
in doing my research here you You know kind of
headed up getting those plaques going so so thanks
to you for for doing that so Let's say you know
somebody goes out and and make some contacts
and of course logs those Afterwards How do they
submit their logs and how do they apply for the
awards and all that kind of thing and get a chance
to get some new hardware? Yeah, so we've tried
to make it really as easy as possible to participate.
So it's just, it follows all the standard POTA
rules and log submission stuff. So as an activator,
you go out to the park, you make your contacts,
do your logging. any way that you're comfortable
with. So most folks will use logging on the computer.
Some folks will do handwritten logs and then
type them into a computer when they get home.
Really the only requirement is that you get your
logs into a program that'll spit out a standard
ADF file. And then after the event ends, we give
a couple -week window and those logs just get
emailed in. So when somebody registers on the
website, they go under their... call sign on
the website and there's a link to email in the
logs. So you click that link, drop your login
in that email, and it gets sent in. And it's
really as easy as that for activators. For hunters,
it's actually even easier because all of the
hunter activity is actually based on the activator's
logs. So all hunters need to do is make sure
they're registered on the website at a time and
they'll get their credits automatically as folks
start submitting their logs. So participation
is pretty straightforward. The plaques themselves
are really nice plaques. I worked with a local
trophy shop here in the town where I live. So
they're a real nice black piano finish wood with
an 8 by 10 textured black aluminum plate has
a fancy silver border around it. There's pictures
of those plaques from past events on the website
where folks can go to check those out, but they're
a neat thing. They're definitely a nice piece
of hardware to have hanging on the shack wall.
And remind us of the address of the website again?
Yep, it's just parksontheair .com is the main
website and you can kind of click through the
menus to get to everywhere you need to go from
there. Okay, so that's that's where you can check
all this out and you can get out and and Activate
some of these parks and and if you can't activate
a park then you work one of the parks and I know
I actually had this For when we come back from
the break, but But we probably ought to go ahead
and hit this because it's already come up on
QRZ. I was looking at the announcement of the
show and there seems to be more, well, not more
discussion on there than here, but it seems to
trigger a discussion, which isn't exactly why
I put it on there. But anyway, there was a lot
of people saying, wait a minute, I thought all
the parks were shut down right now. So in looking
at that, there's a lot of places that have shut
down their parks. But then there were places
like here in Indiana where they've done the exact
opposite. They said, you know what, we're not
going to charge you to use the state parks. We're
going to just open them up so that way you don't
have to stop and exchange money and all that
kind of thing. We're going to open them up so
that way. you've got some place to go where you
can spread out and stay away from each other
and, you know, enjoy the outdoors. So I know
there's some other states that are doing that.
So could we address, you know, some of the concerns
of the COVID -19 implications of this? And it
is going to be in the summertime. So hopefully
we'll be in a better shape by then. Yep. Yeah,
certainly. Yeah. And as we were talking about
getting stuff rolling for this summer. That was
obviously part of the conversation that myself
and the other folks on the admin team had. So
basically the way we're doing it, and we actually
put this information on the website, so folks
go and start clicking around and looking at the
plaque information, they'll see it. But what
we decided is there's a lot of park activation
still going on right now because there are a
lot of states, like you said, that have really
actually opened their parks up for folks. But
there are those that have have completely shut
down and to make sure The the playing field is
fair that everybody who wants to participate
can basically what we decided is that One we're
going to hope that by by the july date That everything's
opened back up again But if it's not if if there's
even a single state that still has park closures
We'll actually just postpone the event so like
I said the support your parks we do quarterly
and the plaques we do along with the summer event
but if there are still park closures when the
summer event comes we'll actually just postpone
three months to the fall event hopefully by then
everything will be open back up and we can just
keep going a quarter at a time like that if we
need to so so our backup is to just make it a
fall support your parks event instead of summer
if we have to Okay, very good. Well, it's good
information because I know a lot of people are
going to ask about that. So, all right. Well,
let's let's take a break. And when we come back,
we'll take more of the questions for Vance here
that are popping in on the comments on Spreaker
and on the tweets. And we'll take your calls
live on the show at 859. 982 -7373 and we'll
give you that number again here in just a minute
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So. All right. Well, let's bring Vance back in
here and we're going to talk about some some
portable operating tips here in just a bit. But
we got a tweet here that's that's come in Vance
that says, why is your guest so awesome? Who
was that from? I think that was from Vance in
3 V E M. You heard of him? Yeah, well, we might
want to uh, we might want to double check that
guy's credentials. I'm not sure. Oh my goodness.
Well, if you have a question, you can tweet us
it's at ham talk live. And again, the number
859 -982 -7373 And let's go to the comments here.
We've had a ton of comments and I really appreciate
we're kind of getting a usual crew on the comments
here. And the interaction is what the show is
all about. So we want to thank everybody for
being in there tonight. Joe KZeroNEB mentions
that the IC705 is going to be delayed. That's
ICOM's new little bitty QRP rig, which would
be great for parks on the air. So it looks like
it's going to take a little longer than expected
with all this chaos going on. So it's going to
be a little bit longer before that's out. And
we've got a bunch of other things here, but we
have a phone call. So let's go to the phone.
Hello. Welcome to HamTalk Live. Hi, Neil Vance.
How are you this evening? Good. Who do we have
here? This is Carmen. It's me again. Oh, hi,
Carmen. How have you been? Been good. How are
you? Good, good. In regards to the subject here
tonight, POTA, over the years, I've had the opportunity
to work about 10 different POTA stations, okay?
And one of the things I'd like to suggest, i
.e. going forward, is that whoever these folks
are who decide to set up a POTA station, they
should put all the info on their QRZ page ahead
of time. Because many times, you talk to these
folks, you get the number that they're at, okay?
You go to their QRZ page and there's nothing
that they're on a photo adventure, okay? All
right, Carmen, can you turn your speakers down
there? Oh, I'm sorry, I apologize. We're getting
a delay there. I apologize, okay. No problem.
Yeah, that's my suggestion is these folks who
are going to go out into the fields, and operate
a POTA station, they should put all this information
on their QRZ page ahead of time. So the people,
when they go back, look up their QRZ thing, and
they're not scratching their head. Also, they
should have on their individual QRZ page the
link that Vance gave us tonight, which was poxontheair
.com. Yeah, that's that's the link Okay, now
that's a great page One of the things if it's
possible, okay to do on that page If there's
really like a search window where a person could
go in and put in the that one of them or the
typical numbers that You would get For instance,
I recently worked somebody and they gave me a
K If they had a search window on that page and
where it took you right, bingo, right to the
location with all the information about K -2028,
that would be great. Vance, you want to talk
about that? And I know you've got some postings
of stuff on the website actually. Yeah, yeah,
for sure. Yeah, so the QRZ pages that's um, you
know, that's something that is definitely a good
suggestion. Um, you know, the POTA is a program
that's that's open to to anybody. So there's
uh, there's four thousand and some registered
users. Um, so for the most part, you know, most
the activators, you know, each person that's
going to go out kind of does their own thing
as far as announcing themselves and what info
they share. So the the folks that are most active
You'll find that they usually do have some information
on their QRZ pages kind of pointing you back
to POTA information and things like that, but
there are certainly folks that don't. So I personally
don't mind just popping into the Facebook group
or Twitter and just kind of sharing your tip
because that is a very good idea. On the search
pages, there's actually some things that are
already there, but there's also some new things
in the works just from a... Technology standpoint
from the main website If you click the the dashboard
button that gets you to like what we call our
stats page And that's where all the metrics are
that show top activators and things like that
and from that section of the website There is
a parks section where you can search for parks
by State by program by entity and things like
that. So some of that functionality is already
there Uh, but it's not all yet out on the main
page. So certainly adding a link to the main
page for that is not a bad idea at all. So I'll
actually scribble that down since I'm part of
the team that manages the websites there. Yeah.
If you could make it quote as Sesame street as
possible, it would help out. Sure thing. Tonight's
contact is brought to you by the letter Q. There
you go. Look, I've worked a lot of these POTA
folks over the years, and I usually have a little
fun with them already. As I end the QSA with
them, I tell them, have fun out there on the
potato fields. P -O -T -A -O. Oh, wait a minute.
I'm on the wrong screen here. Wait a minute.
Okay, there's my punchline sound effect. I had
to switch over and get that. Very good, Carmen.
Well, thanks so much for calling in and the suggestion.
Well, you know, hopefully it helps out. I think
it might make it less frustrating for people
and then they might, you know, feel more excited
about working a POTA station. Very good. Thank
you so much. Keep safe with this darn coronavirus
going around. Oh, I know. Okay, take care. God
bless to all. Bye. God bless to you, Carmen.
Thank you. Bye. Bye -bye. Eight five nine nine
eight two seventy three seventy three the number
some some some good tips there from Carmen We've
got some more stuff here on the comments and
on Twitter. So let's get to those Troy w9kbr
says we have snow tonight in the flatlands of
Illinois. So I think actually we may be getting
some snow here. So it's from 85 yesterday to
snow. So I don't think we'll have any snow by
July though. Let's see what else we have here.
Oh Joe says two to three inches in Lincoln on
Easter. Wow. Uh, Joe also says case you're going
to be the, the parks in Nebraska are open, but
no restrooms and no overnight camping or anything
like that. Troy W nine KBR says state parks are
closed in Illinois. Um, so there's, like I said,
a lot of different things. So check and see,
you know, cause some, some states just opened
everything up and some closed down and some just,
you know, are kind of in the middle. So. Check
that out. Okay, so Troy also asks, what constitutes
as a park that can be activated? Now, Troy is
also a science teacher. He teaches middle school
and he was on a field trip over in my area, actually,
at Turkey Run State Park back in 2016 where he
worked our high school ham radio club. But Is
there is he's asking you know, is there a standard
list if you just have a neighborhood park down
the down the street Does that count what what
constitute as a park for the parks on the air
program? Yep. Yeah, so it is a defined list of
parks and from the website You can go to that
that stack stats section and then the the parks
under the parks tab You can find the the lists
of the the eligible parks But generally, it's
all federal and state parks that are on the list.
There are some state parks that are missing,
but there's actually park administrators that
are constantly going through. And if there are
state -run parks that aren't on the list, we're
slowly getting those added. But but they're pretty
much all on it does not include. However, like
county or city parks So if you just have a small
county park or a municipal park in your area,
those would not be on the list Okay, very good
John down in Florida W4USF asks How difficult
is it to gain approval to set up a radio in a
park? And are there any environmental impact
forms to fill out? So for the most part there
there's no approval required with with Pota being
Kind of designed to be very accessible a lot
of a lot of the activators if they're going to
a park where they think there could be sensitivity
issues or environmental issues Will often just
park and sit in their car in a parking lot and
do an activation from a mobile station but most
of the time the type of activity we're doing
doesn't require any special permission. Personally,
I've always operated under the, you know, activate
first and ask for forgiveness if somebody tells
me to stop, but I've never been actually told
to stop by a ranger. You know, I've had folks
pass by say, oh, what are you doing? And you
explain and they're usually fine with it. The
biggest thing to be aware of, and I'm glad that
he asked specifically about the environmental
impacts. because we are encouraging people to
be out in natural spaces, the one caveat is however
you're going to set up your station, you do have
to do it within the rules of whatever rules apply
for that state's parks. So you generally don't
have to ask for permission, but I do advise that
you go to your state's Agency that manages the
parks and just make sure you're familiar with
the park rules because as an example there are
some states that Specifically say no ropes and
trees or no stakes in the ground things like
that So just be aware of those rules and as long
as you're following all of the other parks rules
You shouldn't have any any issue during your
activation Okay, very good. Ralph Hess says,
yeah, there's a list on the website, and he also
says Vance Martin is awesome. Yeah, Ralph lives
right down the street from me, and we actually
ought to give Ralph some credit and some business.
Ralph, I don't know how many radio chefs are
still in business, but Ralph is the last active
Shack distributor, you know, we've still got
one of the last ones around in our in our town.
Oh Very good. Oh, that's cool Chris a for CB
says that Florida closed their parks to the public
on Monday, March 23rd. So Florida's shut down
at the moment. But again, hopefully that'll that'll
change by July and Troy says thanks. He was wondering
about the county park. So That takes care of
that and let's see let's go over to Twitter Wayne
Says I'm having a great time with Pota. Just
want to make a comment. The awards are very easy
to obtain for hunters stirring at ten unique
parks and there's up to 300 almost up to 300
unique parks and He's only been active since
November. So There you go, and Jason W3PC also
asked why is your guest so awesome? You've got
a fan club here, Vance. Yeah, me and one other
person. Yeah, there you go. Well, we're getting
close to the end here, so if you have a question,
give us a call, 859 -982. 73 73 or at ham talk
live on Twitter or if you're on speaker type
into the the comments there, but I did ask about
some portable operating tips and We've had some
folks on talk about that before but what What
are your operating tips for going out and setting
up in a park? Yeah, so probably the the biggest
tip that that I give to people is Is don't get
hung up on what the perfect equipment is for
operating you see a lot of questions like that
in the groups and on Twitter and things like
that I tell people the the best equipment you
have to activate portable is whatever equipment
you already own You know poda doesn't have Strict
rules as far as power sources and things like
that. So whatever you have take it out to a park
Find a pavilion to plug into AC power if you
need to and and just have fun. That's really
my my biggest tip Once you've done a couple activations.
It's a lot easier to learn firsthand What kind
of gear you might want to have if you're going
to do it regularly? But but when you're just
getting started just just grab whatever you've
got and get out there and have fun That's that's
what it's all about Now I'm gonna I'm gonna throw
one at you here and hope I don't oh, okay, I
hope I don't Throw you too much of a curveball
here, but at school we actually went it out and
activated a county for The Indiana Q so party
at Brown County State Park and they've got some
great elevation out there and everything and
we had a nice setup. We took a buddy pole out
and we also took a ham stick and the buddy pole
we just couldn't get it to really work right
and I guess it was It was too close to our tent
or something and and all of a sudden we went
to the ham stick on top of the car and and we
moved the car around and finally was able to
To get on the air a little bit with the ham stick.
So My question would be what kind of an antenna
setup do you like to do in a park? Yeah, so I
have Really like three different things that
I use most often So a lot of times it was just
a ham stick on the car. I do have a buddy pole
and then I also just have a push -up mast with
full -size dipoles. It's kind of arranged like
a fan dipole, but it's just two elements, one
for 40 and one for 20. I think you'll find in
Pota that 40 meters and 20 meters are kind of...
the money bands they're the ones where where
most pod activity happens so if you can cover
those two bands you're good to go. So that's
actually my preferred one the push -up mast with
the full -size dipoles because usually you can
put up a full -size push -up mast in like an
inverted V without having to worry about ropes
and trees if you're in one of the states that
that prohibits that. Depending on the base you
have you can sometimes you know park a car tire
on it or something like that to keep it from
moving around. So that's been the most versatile.
The buddy pole, I have, I'll be honest, you see
a lot of fandom around the buddy pole antennas.
I have kind of a love -hate relationship with
my buddy pole. I love it when I'm traveling for
work and I'm flying somewhere because I can throw
a rig in my backpack and carry the buddy pole
bag as my carry -on and it's very easy to travel
with. but because it is a very shortened, compromised
antenna, they can be finicky to tune just because
that's kind of the nature of a shortened antenna
when you start getting coils involved and things
like that. So the buddy poles are nice for portability,
but at the end of the day, nothing beats a full
-size wire if you can get one up somehow. Okay,
very good. Troy says they used a TS -480SAT,
a 12 -volt battery, and a screwdriver antenna,
but the screwdriver antenna was mounted on the
roof of the school bus, so he had a ground plane
there. And Douglas Rice says Monkey Wrench ARC
loves Vance, so more Vance fan club here. Yeah,
more folks I'm familiar with for sure. See, that's
the thing is they see we get listeners by by
you know, bringing people like Vance on so that
way, you know People come to hear Vance, right?
Yep. Yeah. Yeah and Doug I'll give a shout out
for Doug to Doug's I might have my my titles
Mixed up Doug's actually on the board of the
the local club here in town one of the board
members So the monkey wrenches, you know him
and a few other folks from the club like to get
out do some do some poda stuff. So That's the
Monkey Ranch club there. Very good. Well, hopefully
people can get out to these parks this summer
and get on there and activate. And definitely
people can get on and talk to the ones that are.
So we just advise everybody to keep an eye on
the rules and keep an eye on. what's open and
what's not in your area because it's very different
depending on where you are and hopefully by July
we'll get enough UV and heat and everything else
and we'll be in good shape. But make sure you
check those out. Be safe. Same thing for field
day. We're probably going to see a lot of backyard
activations on field day I have a feeling. Make
sure you check that out. Let's see. Did we have
something else on here? Oh Ralph says he didn't
know this existed. So he'll tune in. So there
we go. We got we got more up We have another
call. Let's let's go ahead and take another call
here real quick Good evening. Welcome to ham
talk live. Who do we have? This is Wayne. Oh
Hi, Wayne. Thanks for calling and doing November
3 Charlie Delta Foxtrot. I was just listening
to the show here Vance unfortunately, I've never
made contact with Vance yet, but I have some
of the other administrators There was there was
one comment that I just wanted to make about
the hunters Even if you're not even if you've
made contacts with with some of the activators
and haven't registered I would kind of implore
any of the people that have To go ahead and register
because there may be an award waiting for you
With without without even knowing it absolutely
yeah the the activators logs are all there and
and just like Wayne said as a hunter to kind
of unlock the magic all you have to do is register
so if you've contacted a bunch of stations and
you register you might see that just like Wayne
said there there could be a pile of awards just
waiting for you absolutely absolutely and that
was uh that was my only comment other than I
love the program it's It's great for the hunters
that can't get out or are homebound that can't
get out but still can talk on the radio. And
it's a great program for them to hunt these people
down. All right, Wayne, thank you so much for
calling in. We appreciate it. All right, thank
you. 73. All right, well Vance we've kept you
a little bit over time here so we'll we'll give
you a chance to finish things up and and then
we'll get on our way and and hope for the best
for for parks being open. So any final thoughts
here? I don't think I have anything extra other
than just make sure you check out the website.
We'll obviously keep updated information there.
So if the dates do have to push out to the fall,
that's where we'll announce it. And there likely
will be a couple sponsorship opportunities left.
So if there's anybody who's really anxious to
sponsor an award, May 23rd is the official date
that those gates open up for anybody to throw
their name in the hat if they'd like to sponsor.
any of these plaques. But other than that, I
hope folks have fun with the event and I'm looking
forward to contacting and hearing a lot of folks
making contacts on that weekend. Okay and remind
us the dates again and the website. Oh, so the
website is parksontheair .com and a lot of the
statistics are at stats .parksontheair .com and
the 2020 event is right now scheduled for July
18th and 19th and that is UTC time. All right,
very good. Well, thank you so much for coming
on the show Vance and talking to us about Parks
on the Air and good luck with the event and all
the awards and getting all this going. You bet.
Thanks for having me on. All right. Well, that
is a wrap for this week's edition of HamTalk
Live. Thanks to my guest, Vance Martin, N3 VEM
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.
be sure to visit HamTalkLive .com. Just click
on the link there and it'll take you to that
page. And if you like the show, please leave
us a review. That helps others find us faster.
So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying
seven three, seven five, and may the good DX
be yours. Thanks for watching!