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we go, welcome to Amtok Hey, good evening, everyone.
It's time for HamTalk Live. It's episode number
203. Team Exuberance CW 2020, recorded live on
Thursday, March 12th, 2020. I'm your host, Neil
Rapp, WB9 VPG. Thanks for tuning in. To this
episode of HamTalk Live, tonight we're joined
by Bryant Rascal, KG5HVO, and Marty Salloway,
NN1C, and we'll take your calls live in just
a few minutes. Last week here on the show, Joe
Eisenberg, KZeroNEB, was here to talk about some
new kits and if you missed that show you can
listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or on your
favorite podcast app or on YouTube and of course
we have the rebroadcast every Saturday night
at about 6 30 p .m. Eastern Time over on WTWW
that's 5085 on the AM dial 5085 And you can catch
the rebroadcast there. So we're going to be talking
about these young contesters tonight. And so
if you have a question for them and you're listening
to us live on Thursday night, you can give us
a call after the interview by calling this phone
number 859 -982 -7373. And I'll give you that
phone number again later but we'll do it again
here in just a second so you can write that down
and have it ready to go. It's 859 -982 -7373
and we'll let you know when it's time to call
but that's the number to have handy. You can
also tweet us. We'll be watching that. It's at
HamTalk Live on Twitter and of course if you're
on Spreaker. We'll be watching the chat here
as well. So I'll be back with Bryant and Marty
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Right now you could be sitting on a beach sipping
a drink with an umbrella in it and enjoying the
good life, but instead you've decided to listen
to Ham Talk Live. So we thank you and now here's
Neil Rapp with more of the show. Welcome back
to HamTalk Live. IcomAmerica .com slash amateur
is the place to go to find out more about Icom
radios. And thanks to Icom America for sponsoring
HamTalk Live every Thursday night. And thanks
for joining us tonight. And our guests tonight
are some familiar faces to HamTalk Live. First,
Bryant Rascal KG5HVO is a 16 year old ham that's
a past winner of the Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial
Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year
award. And Brian is a member of the Montgomery
Alabama Amateur Radio Club, the Alabama Contest
Group, the Georgia Contest Group, and CW Ops,
just to name a few. He was a participant in the
World Radio Sport Team Championships last summer
in Germany, and was a member of the 2017 Dave
Coulter Youth DX Adventure to Costa Rica, and
2019 to Carousel, and he was the 2019 Yoda Month
Coordinator for Youth on the Air. in the Americas.
Marty Salloway, NN1C, is 18 years old. He became
a ham at age 12 in November 2014, and he is also
a past winner of the Newsline Young Ham of the
Year award. Four months after he became a ham,
he upgraded to general, now has his extra. He
enjoys tinkering, rag chewing, and contesting.
He builds his own antennas. likes to help people
get on HF and mentor other hams. He also recently
has been getting into design and manufacturing
of some electronic devices, one of which is an
interface box for SO2R, that single operator
two radios. He is a past speaker at the Dayton
Ham Invention Youth Forum, as is Bryant, and
often contributes to various ham radio podcasts.
And he is the travel coordinator for Youth on
the Air Camp that's coming up this summer. And
Marty will be studying engineering at Northeastern
University. the fall so Bryant Marty Thanks for
coming on the show. And by the way, both of these
young men will be teaching Contesting at the
upcoming youth on the air camp Coming up June
21st. So so welcome back to the show guys Great.
Oh, thanks for having us Neil. It's always a
fun time Well, we try to have some fun and we
try to Let people know what's going on with various
activities and you've got another one coming
up now team exuberance was something You know
that started up last year and had a great experience
Number one in North America last year with the
single sideband CQ worldwide contest And now
you've got something new. So Bryant, tell us
about Team Exuberance's latest event. Oh, well,
thanks, Neil. So Team Exuberance started last
year when Violeta Latham, KK8AT, asked Tim Duffy,
K3LR, if she could invite a group of her ham
radio contest friends to compete from his world
-class superstation in the WPX SSB 2019 contest.
And Tim Duffy generously said, yes, you can definitely
do that. And that was the real start. And we
had a phenomenal time during that competition,
creating new relationships, scored first in North
America in the multi -two category. So we had
a great time, made over 6 ,000 QSOs, and Marty,
who is also on the show tonight, co -led that
event and did a great job creating our strategy
and coordinating a lot of our travel efforts.
And we really think the event was a success because
not only did we have fun and make a high score
in the contest, but we hopefully inspired a lot
of other youth to become active in radio sport
competitions. This year, Tim Duffy asked me to
assemble a dream team of youth operators for
the WPXCW2020 contest. This was fun, but also
quite difficult. As small as youth in radio sport
is, there are some really outstanding CW ops
out there. But I am super excited about this
team. They're from four continents and six countries.
We have Bruce Yang, KNAU, who also holds a BH4
EPL. And he won the world... rookie plaque last
year in the WPXCW 2019 contest and is active
from W4AQL or the Georgia Tech Radio Club. We
also have Marty NN1C, a fantastic operator from
Massachusetts who I believe made over 3 ,000
QSOs just running 100 watts in the ARRL DXCW
2020 contest just a few weekends ago. And again,
just an outstanding technical expert, strategist,
and we're super excited to have him on the team.
We also have David, VE7DZO, another great operator
from British Columbia who puts up some great
scores in the CQ Worldwide events. He does really
fantastic for his setup with just a four element
Yagi on 20 and a two element on 40. And he can
also copy 55 words a minute, so another very
impressive operator. We have Matias Acevedo Von
Frey from Chile. Matias is an awesome guy. I
can consider him a mentor as well as a peer.
I was very fortunate to be his teammate at WRTC
2018 in Germany. He's super smart, a killer CWOP,
and he's actually tracking for another place
at WRTC 2022 in Italy. We have Philip, DK6SP,
who is currently a QRV in Zambia as 9J2LA as
part of a D Expedition there. another great operator,
a WRTC 2018 competitor. We also have Tommy, HA8RT,
who was on Team Exuberance last year and is from
Hungary. Tommy actually was the regional winner
for the high -speed telegraphy competition in
Eastern Europe a couple years ago. We know from
last year that he can definitely run a European
pile -up. It's just like operating at home for
him. Again, tons of contesting experience for
someone his age. And then myself, I enjoy doing
single ops from my home as well as contesting
with the Georgia Contest Group at WW4LL. And
I'm a big proponent for youth and radio as it's
given me opportunities that I wouldn't have imagined
when I first got my license. Marty, do you want
to add anything? No, I think Brian did a fantastic
job. We're just so excited to have this opportunity
and Brian said it well. It's a dream team and
I'm honored to be surrounded by just fantastic
operators and I think Brian's spoken well to
our preparation going into this and bringing
a lot of operators together is a lot of work.
It costs a lot of money, obviously, but we know
that with hard work... and persistence, we can
be successful. I think there is, there's one
thing I had to offer about our operations, that
there is no magic. There's a lot of grit and
sweat and planning and strategy that goes into
them. And we are gonna continue that and hopefully
be successful again in the CQWPX contest, CW
contest this May. And if Bryant said that finding
a team of youth contesters was hard, youth CW
contesters, there are even fewer of us, but.
As the name suggests, we are exuberant and excited
and practicing, and we are stoked for WPXCW2020.
Well, you all really have assembled a dream team,
and most of these operators on the team, if not
all of them, are better CW operators than a lot
of us. I can guarantee you, I can't. copy 55
words a minute and never did. Even when I was
running code a lot. So, you know, it's pretty
impressive that you've got members like that
that can really, you know, get the speed up and
get going on this. And I look forward to hearing
how you all do on this one as well. And I know
the first one just went. nearly flawlessly. So
we've kind of looked at the operators and who
those will be. Let's talk a little bit, Brian,
about how people can help out the cause here
for the event. How can they help? Sure, so one
of our goals as an organization is to promote
youth in radio sport. So any mention or promotion
of Team Exuberance is helping with awareness
and letting the larger amateur radio community
know that there are indeed kids and youth contesters
out there on the air and having fun. But if you
want to help in a really tangible way, we have
a GoFundMe campaign going on. It's on our website
teamexuberance .org I'll say that again teamexuberance
.org and we are fundraising to cover the cost
of the travel expenses for the team to get to
and from K3LR and to also cover some of the lodging
cost and food. Marty, do you have anything? No,
I think it's important just to note that we take
donations. We're very grateful for all donations
that come in. And a big part of what we do is
trying to make sure that what we're doing is
accessible to anybody who's proficient and skilled
to join the team. And we want to make sure that
it's financially accessible for everybody who
we have invited. And that means removing the
financial burden from the operator. You don't
want that to be a limiting factor So all of the
funds go directly to cover our costs. There's
no profiting. There's no money -making This is
I think it's a really meaningful donation to
amateur radio because you see you see the funds
going directly into giving young people experiences
and I think the Experiences that I've crafted
an amateur radio have given or have been invaluable
for my life and invaluable for my growth both
personal and as a contestor. And I think these
experiences really propel each operator to the
next level. So it's a privilege to be part of
this team and it's a privilege to ask for your
support. And if you're going to contribute to
an amateur radio cause this year, I would suggest
that Team Exuberance is a really good one to
support. Yes. And I also just want to add in
a big thank you. to all of the individuals and
clubs that have already contributed to Team Exuberance
because we really wouldn't be able to do this
without your support and generosity towards youth
in contesting. Seriously, it's very touching
when we find out that somebody thought what we
were doing was special enough to donate and we're
very grateful for every single penny. Seriously,
every penny helps. So yeah, make sure you check
that out. You know on go fund me and they're
raising the money and I put my donation in pretty
early on and encourage you to do the same It's
just a great likely said a great opportunity
for youth and you know, there are some other
youth Contesting things that you know, for example,
Yark has tried to put together that kind of comes
off of this whole team exuberance thing to get
more young people involved in contesting and
it's a real role model for young hams and gives
them the experience of, you know, or the knowledge
of knowing that there are great young hams that
are great young operators out there. And so it's
a great role model as well. And Bryant, I know
that should there be any funds left over, there's
a cause that's near and dear to your heart because
you've been on two of these expeditions. So,
or, well, okay, I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to
use the word expedition. It's adventure. So tell
us a little bit about that. Yes, so any remaining
funds that we have left over from this Team Exuberance
operation, we will be contributing to the Dave
Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure, which is
a great organization that gives youth operators
the opportunity to travel to a DX location like
Curaçao. or Costa Rica or the island of Ceiba.
And it really gives them the opportunity to receive
mentoring and to run some really fast -paced
pileups from the Caribbean on the HF bands. I've
been very fortunate. to be on two YouthDX Adventure
teams, one in 2017 that went to Costa Rica and
one in 2019 that went to Curacao at the PJ2T
contest station. were just phenomenal experiences,
getting to meet and operate with other youth
who shared the same passion for DXing and contesting,
and to also receive some coaching and instruction
from Don Dubon, N6JRL, and Jim Storms, AB8YK,
who work really hard to organize and put these
events on for youth contesters. So, the Youth
TX Adventure is another youth dedicated and heavily
driven and motivated organization to draw youth
into the hobby and to nurture them in their journey.
Now, we've got one other thing that we kind of
need to talk about here and it's been a pretty
crazy last couple of days. And I'm sure, you
know, everybody is kind of sick of hearing about
this coronavirus thing. And I tried to avoid
it because I'm sick of hearing about it. I was
announcing a basketball tournament tonight and
got a phone call right in the middle of the tournament
that, you know, school's canceled tomorrow and
we're doing all this stuff with e -learning to
try to keep going with school without being there.
And John, W4USF, who's in the chat, it was like
great to have HamTalk Live to listen to because
the Big Ten basketball tournament. is gone and
now the NCAA tournament's gone and and all these
things are being canceled and there's all kinds
of stuff going on and it's kind of crazy but
you know Marty you know I'm sure you're keeping
an eye on this because you do have some international
people coming in on this. Well, certainly to
Neil and I'd first like to mention that I turn
off the tournaments to listen to him talk live
it's really a key part of my my afternoon routine,
my Thursday evening routine. But of course, yeah,
we are monitoring the coronavirus, the COVID
-19 outbreak here in the United States, and we
are following it closely. Our top priority is
protecting, keeping, safeguarding all of our
team members and their families, and we would
not want to do anything that would jeopardize
that. closely monitoring the situation and we
will take action as needed. But so far we are
just monitoring and soaking in as much data as
we can and talking to as many experts as we can
so we can act responsibly and act with information.
And that's what a lot of events are doing right
now is just kind of watching to see what's going
to happen. I know You know, some local hamfests
around here for this weekend have cancelled.
So, you know, just keep an eye on this stuff
before you take off to a hamfest. You might want
to check the website and just kind of make sure.
But that's what's going on right now. So we'll
leave it at that and know that we're keeping
an eye on it. Wash your hands. Yes, and wash
your hands. Wash your hands wash your hands and
wash your hands and and and Seeing happy birthday
while you're doing it. Yes and wash your hands
again So, you know, we'll keep you know being
vigilant about it and and hopefully things will
I want to say what is it the flattening of the
curve? Yeah, so hopefully we'll get the curve
flattened soon and we can kind of get back to
normal so we'll We'll leave it there. Well, we're
going to take a break. When we come back, we're
going to talk a little more with Bryant and Marty
and we'll take your phone calls and your questions
right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Thanks for choosing
Tower Electronics. How may we help you today?
We have PL 259s. We have in connectors. We have
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Join the conversation. Give us a call at 859
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Talk Live with Neil Rapp. Tower electronics ham
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That's been canceled. So you might want to check
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And be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. And it's time for your calls now.
So if you have a question for Bryant and or Marty,
give us a call. Phone number is 859 -982 -7373.
Again, 859 -982 -7373. Or you can tweet us at
HamTalk Live. If you're in the speaker chat,
you can comment there as well. And if you're
listening to us on the podcast edition of the
show or on WTWW, I'm sorry, but we're not. Here
so It's Thursday night right now Chris blocks
of a for CB says we just canceled the Gulf Coast
amateur radio club Amfest in Pasco County, Florida.
So there's another cancellation coming on. So
again, you know, check the websites if you're
going to a ham fest or planning on going to a
ham fest here in the next few weeks because there
have been quite a few of those. cancelled so
make sure you check that out. Okay again 859
-982 -7373 is the phone number to call and we'll
check Twitter here and we'll check some of the
the chat and everything but feel free to give
us a call 859 -982 -7373. And thanks to Marty
in N1C, he's the engineer behind 859 -982 -7373.
So thanks to Marty for working on our phone system.
And actually we've got an interesting question
from John I'm going to take here before we talk
about some things that they learned at K3LR last
time around. John W4USF wants to know what got
both of you interested in ham radio. So Marty,
we'll go to you first this time. I'll punt to
Bryant. He has a much more interesting story.
Oh, okay. Bryant, there you go. You're on. So
I've always been interested in two -way communications.
From a very young age, I was always playing outside
with my younger brother, and we had walkie -talkies.
And we would play in the woods and perform different
experiments and try and learn as much as we could
about how terrain and topography affects radio
signals. And that eventually led to an interest
in CB radio, unfortunately. But it was really
cool though, because it was about 2014 when the
solar cycle was at its peak. And so I was hearing
lots of stations from across the country, and
that got me even more interested. And I'm a Boy
Scout, and I decided that I wanted to take the
Radio Merit Badge course at Auburn University.
While we were at the course the instructor made
a contact in the a double RL DX SSB contest in
2015 and he made a contact to the Netherlands
and that sealed the deal for me I wanted to become
a ham radio operator and I was hooked on DX and
I was fortunate to join a really good club in
New Orleans, Louisiana that Was able to help
me get started in the hobby. So I guess I'll
shoot it back at Marty Certainly My story is
not nearly as interesting. It actually starts
on the internet. I discovered amateur radio I
think was a YouTube video to be precise I've
always I think I think that's what I've decided
the answer is I didn't know any radio hams or
anything like that And I just started studying.
I figured out there is this ham radio thing I
took a bunch of practice tests and My favorite
ham radio experience is when I went to get my
technician license. I walked into the exam. Yeah,
I was a young kid and The examiner said, oh,
is your father here to sit for the exam? I said,
no, I am. So what class of license does your
father have? They asked. Oh, no, I'm the only
ham. So your grandfather was a ham, right? No,
sir. I just found Ham Radio on the internet.
I studied, and now I'm here to take the test.
Oh, well, you're going to fail, son. And I said,
no, sir, I'm going to pass the test. And the
rest is history, as they like to say. I was quickly
hooked. I became active on two meter repeaters,
which morphed into learning about HF. I learned
so much on those two meter repeaters. I can't
tell people enough how great that period of my
life was for homering and mentorship. And then
I went on to get my general, and HF came soon
after. And once I was bit by the contesting bug,
as they say, the rest was history. And I have
just been... so privileged and honored to be
surrounded by a great community with fantastic
mentors and Elmers to learn from and contesters
who have both shown me the way and given me opportunities
to use their stations and practice new things.
And when the opportunity came to become involved
with Team Exuberance, I said, yes, this is the
thing. Because like Bryant, one of my biggest
goals is I keep getting more people involved
in amateur radio and advancing what we do. I
am a big technology for amateur radio, a technology
developer for amateur radio and I love this hobby.
It has been such a key part of my education and
my experiences and it's the best gift I've ever
been given which was my amateur radio journey
and it started out with that YouTube video way
back then in the VE who wouldn't let me take
the test. Well, I think that's still pretty good
story and I know that the your second favorite
gift My second favorite gift is within reach
actually 2017 Dayton Hamvention outside of the
Oh, what was it called the old the the low ceiling
the forums room. Yeah the forums buildings this
this guy from Ohio presented me with a plastic
chicken and a plastic fries and the chicken and
the fries squeak and I still have them both and
it was this really nice guy named you rap the
next year he started a podcast called ham talk
live and my call sign at the time was KC one
CW F chicken with fries and believe it or not
It is maybe 15 feet from where I'm standing right
now So now he's just in in one chicken, but and
and one chicken All right. Well Troy w9kvr wants
wants a follow -up on this and and this is something
that I've Kind of noticing a trend with young
hams is YCW How did you get interested specifically
in CW? So for me I was really interested in DX
when I first got my general and I lived in New
Orleans Louisiana at the time and I had a very
small station just a few dipole antennas and
a tree in the front yard and so I was having
a lot of trouble contacting DX stations on SSB
and I was talking to a few guys at the Jefferson
Amateur Radio Club about my frustrations. And
they said, oh, well, you might want to just try
CW. And that really was a great suggestion. And
they let me take a practice oscillator home.
And I just began tapping out CW since late 2016.
And it's been really a really awesome because
CW will get through when SSB won't. And I find
CW pileups to be a lot of fun and a great challenge
that takes a lot of practice and skill to become
proficient at. So I hope that answers your question.
Marty. All right, Marty. Yeah, I mean, I think
CW is kind of. It's what the it's it's certainly
the place where I think there's actually the
most kind of growth and change in techniques
in operating at the moment and with the kind
of advent of 2BS IQ or synchronized derleving
of QSOs on two bands during contests that really
drew me in and you want to be a competitive contester
that's something you need in your arsenal and
I gotta say once you do a code contest phone
contesting seems a little bit less fun and I
really enjoy CW contesting immensely for two
reasons. One of which is It's just a really good
brain exercise, and there's always room for constant
improvement, and you can measure your improvement.
And two, because we have lots of great training
tools to use to practice CW, and there are a
lot of great programs out there to get people
into CW. I highly recommend if you're not a CW
operator or a recovering CW operator, CW Ops,
which their website is cwops .org, I believe,
runs the CW Academy. or CWA, which are leveled
courses for introducing people to Morse code
or CW. They're level one courses, a great introduction
to learning how to send CW. And if you want to
make the jump, I recommend you go to the website,
cwops .org and sign up for a course. It's free
and it's really fantastic. And once you take
the first course, you can level up. So to tie
in learning CW, my strong recommendation is check
out CW Ops. Bryant and I are both members and
CW Ops is fantastic and of course there's plenty
of other great pieces of software out there for
learning CW, but that's certainly a place to
go look. So CW is cool, CW is in and it's really
just a fantastic part of the hobby and it's...
It's a game to continually improve, and Bryant
hit the head on the hammer. There's always room
for refinement and improvement, and it's kind
of cool. You know, it's the original digital
mode, and it's a cool common denominator to have
in our bag of tricks. And there's nothing more
exhilarating than sending your call sign to a
distant, weak DX station on CW and having them
come back to you, and that thrill will never
leave me. Yeah, I said I'm noticing a trend with
young hams and one of the things that we Noticed
it with Yoda month Was people saying why are
you kids on the sideband more? Why are you on
CW all the time? So it's kind of funny to hear
that Yes You know, Yoda Month 2019 was a great
success. Thanks to your help, Neil, and to the
many Yoda Month operators worldwide that got
on to promote youth and amateur radio. And CW,
yes, quite successful mode. Lots of pileups.
I think one of the best runs I had using the
Kilo 8 Alpha call sign was on 20 meter CW on
a Sunday morning. The Europeans just kept calling
and I kept answering. Lots of fun on CW. Can
I just jump in here? We got a question on Facebook,
which I thought was kind of interesting, and
can I address it real quick? Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, so Bob W3RQ Facebooked me, and he asked
again about coronavirus, particularly not only
for Team Exuberance, but also for multi -operator
stations in general, and I thought it was worth
addressing. So for Team Exuberance again, Your
donations are safe. The money will only go to
benefit our operations in the event of some sort
of contingency. It's not the last thing you'll
see from us. We are a nonprofit incorporated
in Massachusetts, and we are going to continue
to work on great projects. But I assure you,
nothing is going to waste. And CWI, excuse me,
multi -operator events in general, I'd say wash
your hands, be cautious, and if you're sick,
don't come. But a whole lot of common sense there.
Okay, very good. Well, yeah, we've got a lot
of that going on. So wash your hands. What do
they say? Social distancing? And wash your hands.
Yeah, social distancing. But see, with ham radio,
you get, you don't have to be distanced. I'd
say watch your headsets. Headsets, be careful
with maybe in a multi -operator environment.
Take your own headset if you're worried. That's
a good precaution. Yeah, which is a good idea
anyway. If you want to wipe down the key in the
keyboard when you sit down at the position or
the radio knob, another good thing you should
do anyways. But single operator contesting is
the best form of a coronavirus self -isolation
you can possibly do. So if you want to stay safe,
do a single op. If you want to stay safe in the
world, do a single op. You're not going to catch
it over the airwaves. No. Ham radio is the epitome
of distance learning. So all of you who are trying
to figure out zoom right now Try 20 meters. Yeah,
there you go Alright good stuff. Hey, let's let's
switch gears a little bit and If you want to
call in give us a call eight five nine nine eight
two Seventy three seventy three is that phone
number eight five nine nine eight two 73 73,
but one of the things that I wanted to ask you
was You know you went through you know the first
time at k3lr which you know had to be you know
all Inspiring when you walk in and you're like
wow is this real? But when you walk in and and
you and you see everything and After you kind
of get settled a little bit and get into the
groove and and on that last go -around What have
you learned from that experience that? You know
this time I'll know how to do that. You know
I'll know how to do this or next time I'm going
to do this different What what did you learn
from that last experience guys? Well, I think
from an operational point of view, we came into
the last contest with a lot of meticulous strategy
that worked well. I think a key element of being
successful in contesting is not just when you
sit down in the chair, but your understanding
of conditions and propagation and openings. And
I think we did a really good job last time of
trying to keep ourselves familiar with what to
expect, but knowing when to go off script when
plans and reality don't quite line up. It's the
operator's intuition that really leads to success.
And I thought we were good at harnessing that,
and harnessing that again, I think, is very important.
For what we've improved, I think last time we
struggled a little bit. Struggle is probably
the wrong word. But we deviated from our operator
schedule a little bit. And I think being even
more strategic about that is certainly a challenge.
And as always, at any sort of contest you do,
making sure that you're always checking for...
Different openings on different bands to make
sure you're not missing anything and you know
It's always being in the right place at the right
time with the right antennas pointed in the right
direction doing the right thing So there's a
lot of rights there. That's hard to nail every
time all the time But we keep improving and we
plan diligently to make sure we are ready to
do the best we can Right Wow, that was really
good Marty. And again, he did a great job formulating
a strategy and getting the team prepared for
the contest with the proper intel. One thing
I learned is that you better bring your A game
when operating at K3LR. He is an amazing coach
and he has high expectations for all of his operators.
Another thing is communication can make or break
a team. Even before we arrived at K3LR, Marty
and Violetta did a great job at keeping us all
aware of everything. And once we arrived and
we were operating during the contest, we all
needed to be on the same page with, again, propagation,
band openings, run frequencies, operator schedules,
etc. And we were all... We were generally able
to communicate that information pretty smoothly,
but seeing it all in battle really hammered it
through. There were definitely some good runs,
especially on 20 meters, and surprise openings
on spotty bands like 15 and 10 meters. We wanted
to make sure that we really capitalized on those,
and we will make sure we capitalize on band openings
intensely this year in the WPXCW2020 competition.
All right. Brian just hit the nail on the head.
Couldn't have said it any better. Look forward
to just hearing you all on and watching the results.
Although, I have to admit, my time is going to
be a little bit limited that weekend. So I'm
not sure how much I'll be able to listen, but
maybe we can sneak that in between getting married
and, you know, just a little bit of a, you know,
other things on that weekend. So, yeah. Well,
we're about out of time here, but before you
go guys I Kind of wanted to ask you personally
what? What does it mean to you to be a part of
this team? Well, I would say that we are all
truly fortunate fortunate to have strong mentors
like Tim Duffy K3LR and Ray Novak N9JA at ICOM
who are trusting us kids. We all like to be taken
seriously and we hope that we can live up to
the expectations and also inspire other youth
operators to give contesting a try. It's kind
of weird. I've only had my license for five years,
but I've been given so many amazing opportunities
to grow and learn in really big ways in the hobby.
I think that the opportunities that I've been
given have put me in a unique place to be more
of a leader on the youth front. It's energizing
and I've made so many friends all over the world.
Very cool. A very cool thing, you know, just
a few weeks ago, Marty was in the Atlanta area
and he was able to drive over to my QTH here
in Montgomery, Alabama and we got to work on
a few antennas and have lots of fun messing with
a 160 meter inverted L in my backyard. Matias
CE2LR flew up from Chile and we got to work the
WPX CW 2018 competition from my home just using
simple equipment, dipoles and a few radios and
you know always keeping our hands on the paddling
keyboard but I'm very grateful for The relationships
that Team Exuberance has opened up for me, you
know, friendship and competition, just fun times.
Marty? Yeah, Bryant said it so well. Ham Radio
opens doors, Contesting opens doors, and I think
we're both fortunate that we've kind of become
kind of, like to admit it or not, I think it's
true we've kind of... Brian particularly is rose
to come become kind of figures of this youth
contesting landscape and I There's a lot of pressure
there to make sure that we're doing the right
thing and pushing as hard as we can because we
want to move this hobby forward and we want to
keep drawing new people in and we both think
and have both dedicated so much time to contesting.
We know how important it is and how fantastic
a facet it is and we think Team Exuberance is
just a great opportunity to showcase that and
encourage others to get into contesting. It's
not scary. Having fun is very easy and there
are such a large community of people that want
to see you successful and mentor you and support
you as you grow. So again, to check out our website
where there's more information, teamexuberance
.org and if you click on the big 2020 banner
on the homepage, you'll be taken right to that
page where we're providing some information about
our latest operation in the CQWPXCW contest in
the end of May. And, of course, we would really
appreciate your donation to make this something
that is financially accessible for all of our
operators and doesn't place an undue burden on
their families. You read my mind. I was just
getting ready to say, can you remind us one more
time where to donate and find more information?
So, as usual, Marty, excellent job. Bryant, thank
you so much for coming on and heading this one
up. I wish you all the best of luck with the
contest. And again, I'm sorry if I don't get
to work you, but I might be a little bit busy
that weekend, but we'll make it work. And I also
look forward to seeing both of you at Youth on
the Air Camp this summer. So thanks so much,
guys. Can I just add one thing in real quick?
Sure. I just want to give a big thank you to
Tim Duffy, K3LR. for the use of his station for
this and ICOM America for their generous support,
as they do also support HamTalk Live as well.
Without both of those two groups, this would
not be possible. And all our donors who have
supported us already and those who we hope will
do so in the future, especially the clubs who
have made sizable donations, we are very grateful
and we feel very fortunate to be able to provide
this opportunity. So thank you from the bottom
of our hearts, very seriously. Yes, thanks to
K3LR and N9JA. at ICOM, you know, without their
generosity and support events like these for
youth operators simply wouldn't be possible.
Yep, and we appreciate all that they do. And
there's all kinds of great things out there for
youth because of generosity and people that are
grabbing the bull by the horns and getting these
things moving. And this is one of the bigger
ones. And so we appreciate everyone's support.
We appreciate Ray and Tim and their work on this.
And you know, there's more coming there's just
more and more opportunities for this and when
I was that age I wish I would have had opportunities
as a as a young ham because There's some pretty
cool stuff going on. So Hopefully it will continue
to shine and continue to grow. So Thanks so much
for being on the show guys, and I will see you
soon. Hopefully Hamvention, we hope. We hope.
Yes, we hope so. Okay. Fingers crossed. Yep.
All right. Well, hopefully that will work out
and if not, I'll be seeing you soon anyway. Well,
that is a wrap for this week's edition of HamTalk
Live. Thanks to my guests, Bryant Rascal, KG5HVO,
and Marty Sillaway, NN1C. Everybody out there
in cyberspace for listening and typing in tonight.
We had a lot of people on the chat, so thanks
for that. And always great to hear from all of
you in the chat room there. And we invite you
back next. Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time and we'll talk more about Ham Radio for
a list of all of our upcoming guests. You can
find that at HamTalkLive .com. 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 7 -3, 7 -5, and as always,
may the good DX be yours. Thank you.