This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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evening everyone! That's HamTalk Live number
206. Hamvention cancellation and the new Hamvention
QSO party recorded live on Thursday, April 2,
2020. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks
for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk Live.
Tonight we're joined by Michael Coulter, W8CI,
and we'll take your calls live in just a few
minutes. Last week, Frank Bauer, KA3 HDO, was
here to talk about the new radio on the International
Space Station. 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 also catch the rebroadcast every Saturday
evening at about 630 p .m. Eastern Time. over
on WTWW. That's 5085AM. Again, that's Saturdays
at about 630PM Eastern Time. So get your questions
ready to go for Michael. We'll be talking about,
like I said, the cancellation of Hamvention,
but also the QSO party that will be going on
when Hamvention was supposed to happen. So we'll
hear about that as well. So if you're listening
to us live on Thursday night, you can give us
a call in the next segment after the interview.
The telephone number 859 -982 -7373. You can
also tweet us. The Twitter handle is at HamTalk
Live and I'll be back. with Michael right after
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Amateur Radio Newsline. Coming to you live from
the glass -enclosed Faraday box, here's Neil
Rapp with more Ham Talk Live. Thanks to Tower
Electronics for sponsoring the show tonight.
They help bring you HamTalk Live. Each and every
week you can visit Scott and Jill online at PL
-259 .com and we'll be back on the HamFest schedule
as those get back up and running. Tonight our
guest is Michael Coulter, a frequent guest of
the show, W8CI. He is the official spokesperson,
finance chair and co -chair of the awards committee
of the Dayton Hamvention. He lives in Xenia,
Ohio and is a past president of the Dayton Amateur
Radio Association and was Hamvention general
chairman in 2011 and 2012. And he is currently
the treasurer and a board member of Dara. So
Michael, welcome back. Hey, thanks Neil. Always
great to be on your program and you have such
a fine program. Very well coordinated, very well
done and I'm glad to be here. Well, we're glad
that you're here. We're not glad about the timing
and circumstances. We would rather have you on
about a month from now telling us about all the
things that are going to be happening at Hamvention,
but we're going to have to change that up this
year and hopefully it's just once. We're all
disappointed about all those events. So, you
know, everything's been canceled for the last
month pretty much, except for the radio. The
radio is like, hey, you know, I thought the bands
were dead, but no, everybody's on. So we're going
to talk about that here in a little bit, but
You know, Hamvention is one of the big events
and that had to be canceled this year. So tell
us how that decision came to be. Well, you know,
Neil, that, um, having gone through a few years
back, I mean, Hamvention has really got an interesting
history. One of these days we'll talk about it
and different things to happen and things that
happen behind the scenes that most people do
not even realize. Let me first start off by,
number one, thanking our 700 plus volunteers.
And I mean, these men and women, they swing for
the bleachers, they try as hard as they can,
and so many of them had already been doing so
many things to make this happen. So I'm just
a volunteer, like the rest of our team, and I
wanna make sure that their voices out there as
well. And what happened was is that as we got
closer and closer, I mean, we looked at it and
we were two months out. And after we were reading
all the, watching our governor, watching our
elected officials and listening to how bad this
thing was beginning to unroll and unravel, we
thought that the best thing was to make a decision
pretty quickly because You know, man, it had
been quick enough for some people, but you know,
you got vendors that are putting a lot of money
into this, making a lot of plans and, you know,
reservations have been made, things like that.
And, and, and just so many of the stakeholders,
the people who, you know, the big events that
occurred during hand bench and we took all that
into account. And it was, a couple of very gut
-wrenching days. We had some long meetings and
our executive team, about five of us on that
team, and we came to the conclusion that we had
to close it. We had to just say, draw a line
in the sand and say, you know, we can't have
this. We can't let it go on because it jeopardizes
the health and the safety of a lot of people.
You know, there wasn't people quitting or not,
excuse me, our vendors weren't dropping out,
things like that. And people had been buying
tickets, but we were getting pretty worried about
actual health of people. And so we made that
decision and drafted the news releases and kind
of coordinated all of that simultaneously. and
now we've been working to very diligently to
begin to get money back to people who want their
money back and we have three ways that you can
give your money back or excuse me, three ways,
three different things you can do with your money.
If you bought tickets, you can just donate the
money or you can... let us know and we'll send
you tickets for next year or we'll send you the
money back. And that's all listed on our website
at www .hamvention .org. But Neil, to say the
least, it was an extremely painful, gut -wrenching,
hard decision. After we made that decision, we
let our troops know and volunteers, and they
were all very disappointed, understood it. They
understood it. And now in retrospect, it was
the right move because the state of Ohio still
is closed up, basically, and it looks, now the
date is May 1st, and they just announced that
today we all have stay -at -home orders until
May the 1st. but it could be extended even farther.
So I'm sure you probably got some questions about
it, and I'm truly sorry it had to happen. You
know, and Neil, looking back on it, we had Xenia,
you know, where we moved to Xenia from Hera Arena.
We only had a short period of time to do that.
We thought it's so important, we worked hard,
we worked hard back in 2017 to make that happen.
But this one, We just couldn't get around it.
I mean we're the kind of people that We're tough
and robust go ahead Well, you know it is disappointing
but like you said you know the the cancellations
just keep coming and and the shelter -in -place
calls just keep coming and you know today I I
you know just this afternoon found out, you know
I'm not going back to my school for the rest
of the year already and I imagine A lot of other
states will be doing the same and it's just a
tough situation and we've got to be responsible
and you know maintain our distance and try to
drag this thing out a little longer so that it's
not so intense and it's difficult but we do have
something on the plans that will not take the
place of it but it will at least let everybody
gather. We'll talk about that here in a little
bit. But you were telling me before the show
that you actually had some pretty high -level
intel on all of this decision -making on deciding
whether to cancel or not. My high decision Intel,
I have five children, two of them are medical
doctors and one of them is an internal medicine
doctor at The Ohio State University and she specializes
in infectious diseases and I was running all
this by her and she didn't say you shouldn't
do it or you should do it. She just kind of told
me you know, what the outlook was. And because
it's her group up there, they actually do a lot
of work with the governor and the Ohio Department
of Health. And my daughter is, that particular
daughter is very serious. Well, all my kids are
very serious about what they do in their professions.
But I said, well, what if we cancel Hamvention
and she said, Yeah, you know dad, that might
not be a bad idea. But she didn't come out and
say they would, you know, that I would be up
to the governor. The governor would have done
that. And right now, and that really, let me
back up, that would, that gave me a lot of insight
in, and taking that back to the team and also
listening to what our governor was saying and
what Dr. Fauci was saying that, This thing is
getting pretty serious and I just hope that all
of our ham friends all over the United States
are being careful and are taking this thing very
seriously because I would hate to see us lose
a lot of our population in the ham radio world.
But yeah, as far as having insight, I'm fortunate
that my daughter in some ways is in that But
I'm really, really worried about it all the time.
Yeah, absolutely. They're out there doing incredible
things and at their risk and I too was... speaking
with a couple of doctors up at Ohio State and,
you know, they're facing the same thing and,
you know, if they're going to go home to their
families every day now, you know, and that kind
of thing. And it's really difficult and so shout
out to all of them for all of their hard work.
Well, how's the club dealing with this cancellation,
you know, financially and, you know, How's the
spirit of the club and how's how's Dara dealing
with all this? Well, you know, it was quite a
blow and Trying to be good stewards of the future
We had always kept her on a good ring day fund
just in case something like this would happen
and I don't know if it's a pandemic or whatever
would have happened that we weren't allowed to
have hand -vention and so We will you know, we'll
have one next year Hand -vention will be back
More robust. Um, yeah, we lost a lot of money
to be expected and um, but I think people people
know that and you know the outpouring the outpouring
of of amateur radio operators from all over the
world has been just tremendous. I mean, I got
calls, phone calls from people all over the world,
you know, really trying to sympathize and appreciate
it. At least we let them know ahead of time.
And just wanted to let us know that they felt
it and their hearts are with it. Because to me,
it's not only the volunteers who hurt at this.
It is all of us. all the amateur radio operators
who truly love amateur radio. So it's been tough
for all of them. I know Jack, WBA, SCT, our general
chairman, you know, it's been really hard on
him because we only allow a general, a person
to be general chairman for two years. And this
was his second year and he's like feeling, oh
my gosh. So, but you know, in terms of, I don't
know if you know Scott Wright, I think his call
is W0MD. K0MD. I'm sorry, K0MD. Great guy. He
works at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He has
been on the front line of this whole thing too.
I make contact with him. He was telling me that
one of his colleagues was on a ventilator intensive
care in one of the other parts of the hospital,
one of his fellow doctors, and they're really
fighting on the front lines. So if you know Scott,
Scott is the editor of the National Contest Journal,
just a fabulous guy. I really enjoy him, he's
become a good friend. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm very
glad to have him as a friend as well and and
to all of the Health care workers and especially
the hams You know take care and and and we're
we're thinking of you Well, what about the fairgrounds?
How is this impacting the fairgrounds? Yeah,
obviously hamvention is one of their big things
but They have other events too. So how's the
fairgrounds dealing with all this? Well, they
are, as anybody, I mean, we're all, everybody's
very concerned, you know, financially, what's
going to happen? Can they, are they going to
make it? The fairgrounds will survive. I talked
to our county administrator. I would call him
the day that we eat actually. that we decided
to cancel Hanventsh and I called him at home
and talked to him. And, you know, the county's
been pretty good about putting money away and
they have a bit of a surplus. Green County's
a very, you know, there's a lot of good business
happening in Green County. But I'm worried too
about, you know, it's been a while since I talked
to him. But you know all the malls are closed
stores are closed here. It's just You know the
stores that you go to would be a grocery store
Maybe a hardware store, but they closed all the
malls and that there's a lot of revenue that
comes in for the county and some of that funnels
right into the fairgrounds and All the events
of course have been canceled at the fairgrounds
until further notice, and that's a big deal Fortunately,
their fare is a little ways away and we're hoping
they can still, they have that fare because that's
a nice revenue for them. But all the other events
so far, just every weekend they have to cancel
something. And does that make an effect? Absolutely.
And they are tightening their belt, doing the
very best they can, as I think all of us are.
Yeah, I mean this is gonna be a big thing but
a Lot of a lot of comebacks, you know, there
will be a lot of comebacks here and I think it's
good to know that Hamvention and the fairgrounds
are on pretty decent footing of course, you know
you never know just how bad it's going to be
but But at least there's some pretty good footing
there and some planning ahead that's been done
to Make things stable. So hopefully next year
we can we can be back again Well, it's it's not
the same as being at Hamvention but there's an
event that's going to take place during part
of the time of Hamvention that would have happened
and I know the worldwide radio operators foundation
has been working on this and Tim Duffy, K3LR,
who actually is in the chat this evening, just
saw a hello from him, has been working on this
Hamvention QSO party. So Michael, tell us what's
up with the QSO party this year. Well, I do want
to, I'm glad that Tim's in the chat room. Probably
you should have him on the program very soon
as well. Tim Duffy is an extremely amazing amateur
radio operator. I mean, I have the greatest amount
of respect for the guy. He's tireless in his
love. He's tireless in his energy for amateur
radio. And, you know, when I talked to him, I
actually went up to his shop, which is here in
Ohio. And so I did the announcement. We did kind
of a quick thing where I could get on and do
the announcement about the cancellation of the
original cancellation of Hamvention. And he floated
this idea by me. And he said, well, you know,
we ought to have, you know, we ought to have
some way, you know, guys and gals are still looking
for this weekend. You know, they've had it all
planned. And now it's Basically, we pulled the
rug out from under all of it. And he said, hey,
I'll coordinate this whole thing. And he has
with the Worldwide Radio Operators Foundation.
And he's just been a tremendous powerhouse on
this. And if you go to, normally he's a sponsor
on this. And we've had other organizations that
wanted to you know give us donations and money
toward this event and we turned them down actually
and between Tim and I and Tim even took the DX
Engineering logo off because even though there
are support DX Engineering is a support for this
organization the Worldwide Radio Operators Foundation
he left just the Hamvention logo on there and
so we're doing a couple of things with this This
will be, you know, in place of our great gathering
that we normally have, you know, the gathering
of amateur radio operators. And I call it a gathering
because it's just, it's more than a show. It's
where we all get together and celebrate what
we've been doing for so long, many of us our
whole lives. You, since you were, I think as
soon as you get off your Gerber baby food, you
got your license, right? Pretty much. So, I mean,
a lot of people like that. Lots of stories about
Hamvention. So Tim says, and I totally agree,
let's bring this together and get on the air.
And it's not so much to get the total amount
of points. If you win, that's wonderful. But
the thing of it is, we want to celebrate amateur
radio together. This is really a tough time.
And for Hamvention to actually cancel, You know,
that's that's a I mean to me. I still can't believe
it But let's get on and let's talk about you
know, hey, for example, what what year? what
was your first year that you attended hand mention
and We have a lot of different categories in
here. I Don't know if you're going to go to a
break or you want me to start talking about that
a Break here in a minute, but go ahead That I
do want to say, you know, I also want to thank
a shout out to Ted Randall on his shortwave Program
that he's done a lot of work for hand -vention,
you know, he's done a lot of promotion of hand
-vention he does that year after year and and
and I'm thinking about all these vendors out
there that you know do so much for hand -vention
and guys like Tim they have the you know, the
the contest dinners, he does the contest university,
which I believe he's gonna do online. So I hope
that you take the time to find that out, Neil,
and to talk to him about that. It'll be a fabulous
event, see if we can pull that off online. But
so many people who depend on Hamvention. they
depend on us to at least have the platform, the
gathering. And so now we can't have that gathering,
let's gather on the radio, let's get on the radio.
And that's kind of where I think our heads are
at with this whole thing, Neil, so, yeah. Yep.
All right, well let's take a break here and we'll
go ahead and do that and then we'll... Maybe
talk a little more specifics on the QSO party,
how that's going to work, and that kind of thing.
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about Icom radios. 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. Everyone
in the audience on HamTalk Live today is going
to get one of my favorite things. You get a 5
-9! You get a 5 -9! Everyone gets a 5 -9! Well,
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It's time for your calls and your comments and
questions. If you have a question for Michael,
give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. That's 859
-982 -7373. And I better mention that Marty was
working on the phone system and I'm not sure
if it got fixed. So if not, If you get a busy
signal there, give us a call at the old number.
It's 812 -638 -4261. I'll give those out here
again in just a minute. But the backup number
is 812 -638 -4261. So Michael, we've got a lot
of comments out here tonight on the chat and
on the tweets. Not too many questions here, but
all very supportive of the club and Hamvention
and all the things that are going on. And so
we thank everybody for those. And we'll get through
some of those here in a little bit, but let's
pick up where we left off here about the QSO
party. Can you fill us in a little bit on the
details on when that's going to be and how that's
going to work? Absolutely. I wanted to give a
quick shout out and hello to my friends in Orlando
and my friends in Huntsville and my friends in
Germany and in Japan and all the parts of the
world who have been so supportive. Thank you.
Thanks to all of you. It means a lot. It's a
very tough decision and as pillars of we're all
you know, are doing our thing, are working hard
with their volunteers and our volunteers to try
to keep, to push amateur radio farther out. Anyway,
I wanna say that, and one other thing about this
QSO party, is that, you know, we've had many,
many years of this great gathering that we call
Hamvention. But we also, as ironic as this is,
within, two or three days after we decided to
cancel Hamvention. We have a member who's been
very involved with us, Ron Moorfield, W8ILC.
He never missed a Hamvention from 1952 all the
way through 2019. And he died, he passed on three
days after we announced that we weren't gonna
have a Hamvention. Ron was one of the guys in
our club and I like to think that maybe some
of us who are really intricately involved with
Hamvention, we stand on his shoulders and the
shoulders of the guys and gals that he worked
with back then. So we want to remember him through
this event. And we also want to light up the
airways on May the 16th. That's Saturday, May
the 16th. And if you look on our webpage, www
.hamvention .org, and you just, it'll have the
events there, and just click right on it, and
it'll give you a whole lot of information about
it, and it'll also lead you to another website,
which I'll give you in a minute. But the deal
is this, it's a 12 -hour event, 8 a .m. to 8
p .m. Eastern Daylight savings time on the Saturday
of Hanvention. That's a Saturday. You can operate
CW or single side ban on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15,
and 10. The exchange is simply a signal report
in the first year you attended Hanvention. And
if you have never attended Hanvention, that's
okay, join in. and just send a 20 -20 on it.
And then where you send your score in and that
will be, it's all posted there. But there's a
special bonus and it kind of depends on what
our distancing things are gonna be. But Rob,
KB8UEY, he's our station manager at WBI, W8BI.
That's a club call of the Dayton Amateur Radio
Association. And of course everybody knows that
DERA is the host of Hamvention. But he will have
designated people from their homes that will
be on these frequencies and these designated
DERA members will be allowed to use the W8BI
call sign and there'll be 12 available. So you
can earn extra bonus points and, you know, have
like a additional 120 points or 120 additional
QSOs. So it is 10 points for each band or mode
QSO with W -8BI, which gave Borat, India. So
also the other website to go look at and you
can actually see the official WWROF, the Worldwide
Radio Operators Foundation, at the website of,
let's see, I have it right here. Did I go too
quick? I think I went too quick. Here it is.
Yes, it is www .hbqp. That's for Hamvention,
QSOparty .org. It's www .hbqp .org. And we just
want people to get on. and let's commensurate
together some of the best conventions you've
been to, some of the worst you've been to, what
are your best memories? And maybe you'll hear
some of your pals on there and let's get on and
celebrate. Let's celebrate our great gathering
and what we've done with amateur radio. And that's
kind of it. There are different power levels
and all that we can get into. But at the same
time, all this information is posted. And I know
Tim Duffy, K3LR, has kindly put down himself
for the WROF. He is a contact person there. And
if you have further questions or comments, go
through him. Because he is the one that we're
leaning on. Or has put this whole thing together
even out of his own pocket pay for the websites
got everything set up Just really amazing and
really thank him for that. By the way, he is
a DERA member Back to you Neil. Okay. Well, actually
we have a call on the line and I believe it's
it is Tim. Is this Tim? Hello Neil, how are you
K3LR here? Yeah, so Tim anything you want to
add here to all this or we can do another episode
We probably should do another episode just because
there's so many Dayton events As Michael mentioned
there's so many Dayton events. They were affected
by this I mean, you know four days in May the
slow scan TV guys the RTTY guys So many events
are built around Dodara Hamvention. And, you
know, I just can't imagine how the 700 volunteers
feel with Hamvention being canceled for this
year. And, you know, I go back to Ron Moorfield,
WA to ILC, who I saw here a few months ago. And
now that he's a silent key, I just... I think
about Ham Benjamin breaking his heart. I really,
my thoughts and prayers go out to Ron and his
family and all the things that went on. Ron was
such a tremendous DERA member and Michael has
focused on that and certainly the, you know,
in remembrance of Ron Moorfield, W -A -I -L -C,
during the Hamvention QSO party, but I wanted
to congratulate Michael for getting out in front
of this and being very transparent, and the rest
of the Hamvention team, Jack Grebs and Ron Moorfield,
and just all of the tremendous volunteers, and
to you, Neil, for hosting this show here tonight.
Well, thank you very much, Tim, and if you don't
mind, we'll keep you on here for a little bit.
We've got a few comments and questions here that
you can probably help Michael out with a little
bit. Well, Michael is the best little operation.
No, no, no, no, no. No, I'm not. Well, the first
one that I know I'm going to have to ask, because
he's been asking me for like... Two days now
Joe K zero NEB wants to know about the cat in
the hat being a Dayton bonus station Well, you
know, here's the thing we've had Michael and
I have had several emails into us about bonus
this bonus that and Here here's how we have Michael
and I have Have done a real good session on this
and the bottom line is there is only one bonus
station and that is the 700 volunteers of the
Dayton Amateur Radio Association that give their
time, their efforts, they take off work to produce
Hamvention so there is only one bonus station
and there will only be one bonus station and
that's W8 Bravo India the Dayton Amateur Radio
Association stations operating from home and
so WABI is it. Okay and if there are DARA members
like Joe because I know what he's going to ask
next that want to operate WBI who do they contact
how do they how do they find out if they can
do that? Well, Michael had a... Go ahead, Michael.
Yeah, I was going to say probably the best thing
to do is, you know, I'm good on QRZ. You can
just email me and I will forward it to Rob. Because
Rob is our station manager and he is the ultimate
decider on who's going to be doing that. And
I know he's got a very eager team that he's already
been working with. some discussions about this
already, and you know, Rob puts in, that's K
-B -8 -U -E -Y, calls himself UE, but he just
is tremendous at our W -8 -B -I station, and
he keeps everything tweaked and running. So,
he's the guy that I'm going to, to say, Rob,
you make these decisions, in terms of who's gonna
be the W -8 -B -I point. person for it. And so,
if anybody, you know, if you're a DARA member,
you gotta be a DARA member, for one. And I know
that the cat in the hat is, I know Joe is, but
you can send me an email, and my call is Whiskey8CharlieIndia,
and, you know, let me know and I'll pass it on.
Does that sound alright, you, Tim? Well, yeah,
no, it needs to go all through, Rob. In fact,
tomorrow morning, Rob We'll be getting a scheduler
that we developed during the WNAW centennial
event and we're going to give Rob and Michael
a scheduler that will allow hour by hour scheduling
of WAPI on all of the HF bands during the event.
So stay tuned for that. You know, this is a one
time event. We hope that Hamvention never gets
cancelled again. So stay tuned and we'll get
that to Rob tomorrow morning and that'll take
care of all the scheduling of WA Bravo India.
Okay, very good. Well there's your answer, Joe,
so thank you for that and thank you guys for
the answers and yeah, Tim, no offense, but I
hope we don't ever have to do this again. As
long as we have to this is a good way to do it
Well, let's go through some of the comments here
and and Tim yeah, let's let we'll talk but maybe
we can work out a another episode of some stuff
here Michael Colley w4mca from The Orlando Amateur
Radio Club says, we support the decision that
Hamvention Executive Committee made. We wish
Dara all the best from Hamcation. During the
difficult time, please support the vendors. Most
of them are still open and shipping. So there
you go. That's from, from Michael. Oh, go ahead,
Michael. Yeah, I do want to, I want to emphasize
that too. I mean, I represent a not -for -profit
organization, but you know, our vendors are all
pillars in this amateur radio community. And,
you know, it's a scary time for them. A lot of
them are working from home and trying to take
care of all of us as amateur radio operators
and keeping their organizations, their companies
alive and vibrant. So now's the time to just
jump right in there if there's something you're
looking for. I know everybody wants to take care
of you, including Tim. Yeah, I'm sure Tim will
take care of you. I know Let's see Chris is Always
support the club. So then that's great 2019 was
his first time to him invention and Troy said
w9kvr says 2020 was going to be he finally had
an opening in his schedule and And it's not gonna
work Oh, goodness. Oh, let's see. What else do
we have here? Tim reminds us that 2021 will be
awesome. Joe says he's working on a 2020 Salute
Slideshow for Hamvention. So we'll look forward
to seeing another one of those. Lisa, who actually
I met last summer out at Newington in the Teachers
Institute says last year was going to be the
year she went. Her dad lived long enough they
were going to go and then he passed away the
October before so she didn't get to go. So we've
still got a lot of people who are wanting to
go for the first time so next year we're going
to have to get them there right Michael? Absolutely
you know it's a I'll tell you what every volunteer
They're welcoming people, they bend over backwards
for every one of our guests, and that's how all
of our volunteers treat people, because it's
a labor of love, it's their passion, and it's
what we do. It's what Hamvention does, as our
simple contribution to Amateur Radio is to put
on this gathering, not a show, it's a gathering,
and they all work hard for that. WZ1L says, I'm
looking forward to the QSO party for Hamvention
Weekend and see you there. So look forward to
hearing you on during the QSO party. John W4USF
wants to know any thoughts about virtual forums
and continuation of virtual awards that were
a part of Hamvention. Michael? Virtual awards,
I probably, we will wait till next year to do
the award ceremonies. We will combine 2019 and
2020 and have a bigger event for all of our award
winners. We felt like that, you know, we've discussed
that and just, it's that really good personal
touch to make sure that they get honored because
we have a very nice banquet and things like that.
As far as the virtual forums, There's been some
talk about it, but quite honestly, we are trying
to close down a ham -vention that didn't happen.
And the bandwidth of the time that we have and
the energy we have, we're not sure we can pull
that off. We're looking at it, and I know I talked
to Jack Gerbs about it, WBA SCT, our general
chairman, and we've been looking at the possibility
of doing it to see if we can pull that off in
such a short period of time. good idea. But logistically,
we're not sure how we're going to do that at
this point. Okay. And also John says, or wants
to know, is there a vendors list that he can
look at so that Dayton vendors can be supported?
I think it's on there, but I'm not really sure.
I didn't look for it, but You know, I know that
whoever's favorite vendor is that he's been to
at Hamvention, they were coming back because
we didn't have people drop out. But let me find
out about that and we'll take a look at that.
That's a great question and a great comment.
I like hearing that. I may be wrong, but I think
pcboard .ca has the list every year, so you might
be able to look up last year's if nothing else.
Right, I believe it's there, but I never like
to say I don't know what you know I try to keep
up with that website as well, so All right, very
good and Got a lot a lot of support here tonight
for you, so so we won't get through all of these
but A lot of people very understanding and looking
forward to 2021 and also the QSO party. And,
and I got to throw this in Brett, wy7bg on Twitter
says, hope you'll still go ahead with your wedding
plans. Well, Brett, actually this afternoon,
uh, we moved it back. So it's still on, but now
it's going to be on, uh, July 11th. So it's seven
11. So. If we do it on that day, everybody gets
a free Slurpee from 7 -Eleven. So I don't know
if that's good or bad. But yeah, we're going
to move that back. And there's a lot of other
things that are going to get moved back too.
And I got a couple of those that we're working
on as well. Go ahead, Michael. Well, congratulations
to you and I understand that you're going to
be moving a lot closer to Zina, just right down
the highway, about 50 miles or so. So everybody's
excited about that. And I know your youth gathering
is, you're looking for a new date for that as
well. So, and all of us at DERA can eventually
appreciate all the work that you do for youth,
just so you know. Well, thank you very much.
Well, Tim, let me get you off of the phone here.
We're going to wrap things up here pretty soon,
but anything else you need to throw in here?
And again, maybe we'll get another episode going,
but anything tonight here real quick? No, I just
want to make sure that the amateur radio community
is behind the Dayton Amateur Radio Association.
and all the support that comes from Orlando,
comes from Germany, that comes from Huntsville.
MarkN4BCD has been so tremendous. I mean, right
now, we're pinning our hopes on having a reunion
event down at Huntsville here in August. So,
thanks very much for having this, Neil. and to
Michael for staying strong and Neil we really
should do a show just about all of the things
that are going on here as we get Contest University
up online which will occur on Zoom and lots of
good things here coming in the future but it's
just different and it's okay to be different
and Michael so much Thanks and outpouring for
your leadership and taking the high road here
and all that you do for the amateur radio community.
Thank you, Neil. Hey, I'm gonna add a word in
there, Tim. I appreciate you jumping on as well.
And you've added a lot to the conversation and
I'm sure we'll be talking. And I do hope that,
Neil, that you have that show with him pretty
soon. He's got a lot. A lot of good things cooking,
a man with a lot of ideas. 73, Tim. All right,
Tim. Yeah, we'll be in touch. We'll do that as
soon as we can fit it into your schedule. We'll
do that. All right. Thanks again, Neil. Oh, you're
very welcome. Well, that's Tim Duffy K3LR here
and we'll find out more about this QSO party
and the online contest University and all that
kind of thing here in matter of just a few weeks
because you know, we're what six weeks away from
when the date would be something like that. So
We will definitely update you and we're gonna
do something special too here on the show to
celebrate Hamvention that Thursday night that
we usually have Contest University and then I
do the live broadcast from Dayton where I'm still
kind of working on the details on that but we
will do something to to honor Hamvention that
night the night before Hamvention normally would
open so We will do that, and we'll be talking
more about that later. Well, okay. Looks like
we are over time here, and that's not surprising
because Hamvention is on the minds and in the
hearts of so many people. And so we'll wrap things
up here, but thanks so much for all the comments
tonight. We've had a lot of... participation
in here and that's what makes this show run.
So we appreciate the calls and all the tweets
and the chat and all that kind of thing. So Michael,
let me turn it back to you for any final thoughts
here before we go tonight. Well, Neil, thanks
for what you do. Thanks for having us on the
program. And to anybody out there listening,
get on the radio. get on there, get warmed up
for this big event that we're gonna have. And
this is just, it's a contest, true. But it's
gonna be, you know, the remembrance of our great
gathering. And I hope everybody gets on, has
fun, that's the name of the game, we're gonna
have fun. And maybe you'll make contact with
some people that, oh yeah, I knew you, I talked
to you before. And I remember, I was at the Hamvention
when the sewer line broke, or I was at the Hamvention
when, you know, back in the 50s, you know, and,
you know, all those different things, all the
different events. And I want to say, too, that
people that go to Hamvention, you know, you come
back with a story, one way or another, there's
always a story. If it's the weather, if it's
the people you meet, if it's some, forum or some
aha moment, or the day you brought back so many
boat anchors that the rear bumper was dragging
in your vehicle, or you were stuck in the mud.
All the different things that happened. For me,
I've lived a lot of it, and some of it was pretty
tough, and some of it was extremely pleasant.
But that's what we amateur radio operators do.
You know what? We take a slammin' and we keep
on hammin'. Thanks, 73, everybody, and I'll see
you on the air. All right, Michael, thank you
so much for being on. Well, that is a wrap for
this week's edition of HamTalk Live. I'd like
to thank my guest, Michael Coulter, W8CI, and
everyone out there in cyberspace for listening
and calling in and invite you all back next Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time. And for a list
of all of our upcoming guests, visit HamTalkLive
.com. If you like the show, please leave us a
review. That helps us on iTunes or wherever you
listen. That helps others find us faster. And
we're going to end a little differently tonight.
And some of you may want to just stop at this
point. And this is the nice thing about the podcast
edition is if you don't want to listen to the
rest of it, you can just stop. But there were
some queue codes running around. And actually,
let me throw Michael back on here again for just
a second. I don't know if you've seen these.
They're running around the internet. Some new
queue codes that we've got for temporary use
right now, like QTP. Do you know what QTP means?
No. Go ahead and let me know. I have toilet paper,
want to trade for a new car. That's a new Q signal.
Or QFC, I'm flattening the curve. Or QHS, I have
hand sanitizer, want to trade for two new cars.
QUA, I am quarantined. There you go. Anyway,
yeah look around you'll see those. Well, anyway,
all right. So tonight we are going to end a little
differently Yesterday of course was April Fool's
Day and we did our April Fool's ad last week
and and we had some some requests To hear some
of the past ones. So as we leave tonight I'm
gonna play all of the old April Fool's ads so
If you're not a fan of those, then we'll say
7 .3 here in a minute. But if you want to listen
to those, they're coming up next. So for now,
this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 .3, 7 .5,
and may the good DX be yours. Hi folks, Billy
Hayes back again here to help all of you hams
out who just can't get rid of that annoying guy
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Download your copy today. Hello, Willie Mays
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