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Hey, good evening, everyone. It's time for another
HamTalk Live. It's episode number 196. The Orlando
hamcation preview 2020 recorded live on Thursday,
January 16th, 2020. I'm your host, Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to another episode
of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined by Michael
Colley. W4MCA and we will take your calls live
in just a few minutes. Last week Paul Stetzer
in 8HM was here to talk about the AMSAT 50th
anniversary recap on that and if you missed that
show you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com
or on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube.
or you can catch the rebroadcast over on WTWW
that's 5085 AM Saturday evenings at about 630
PM Eastern Time and looks like episode number
200 is Going to land on February 20th and we've
got some giveaways planned. ICOM, Tower Electronics,
and LDG Electronics have all stepped up with
some prizes to give away that night. So be sure
to tune in live and you'll have a chance to win.
So be sure you keep that on your calendar for
February 20th. Well tonight we're talking about
hamcation and you'll have a chance to win at
hamcation too. So get those questions ready to
go for Michael if you're listening to us live
on Thursday night. You can give us a call after
the interview by calling the telephone number
812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638. Or you can
send us a question on Twitter. It's at HamTalk
Live on Twitter. We'll be watching that throughout
the night as well. And we'll give you the phone
number again a little bit later when it's time
to call in. So we'll talk with Michael first
right after this word from ICOM right here on
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You're listening to HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp.
Be sure to check out IcomAmerica .com slash amateur.
Thanks to them for sponsoring the show and some
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check that out. IcomAmerica .com slash amateur.
HamTalk Live's on the air every Thursday night
at 9 p .m. Eastern time, right here at HamTalk
Live. and joining us here on HamTalkLive .com
tonight is Michael Colley, W4MCA. He is the chairman
of the Orlando Hamcation. He served seven years
as Hamcation's tailgate chairman and six years
as the IT chairman and for one year as the finance
chairman and Hamcation is sponsored by the Orlando
amateur radio club and, and he's, he's looking
pretty good. I saw a picture of you while ago
that I think was taken this afternoon. I saw
on Facebook while ago, somebody came and visited
you at work. Oh, Scott did. Yeah. Yeah. A couple
of days ago. Yeah. So, so we got to, so we got
to see the, what was the Buffalo head? What,
what, what was it? Buffalo Yeah, so yeah, it's
all Scott from tower electronics. He'll be Down
there for hamcation, of course and Was able to
stop by and see it. So let's get into it. Let's
talk about hamcation We're gonna talk about what's
old what's new what what what can you not miss?
So let's start off with what's new This year
we actually have several new things One of the
new things a RL will be doing a radio build build
a radio at their booth this year It is basically
they're gonna have everything there to build
a little trans meter type of radio I'm not sure
about all the details of it, but I do know it
is a geared toward youth or young adults. Uh,
they did it up in a group of individuals, did
it up in Oshkosh, uh, at the air show. And it
was a big hit up there. So, uh, ARL has got them
to come down to hamcation and do it at their
booth this year. Very good. Well, what, what
else is new? One of the big things this year,
we're going to have a hamcation information station
on AM 610. You tune your car radio or any radio
to AM Channel 610 and it will be broadcasting
information about the show, parking details,
any type of information we need to give out to
the public. Uh, show hours, stuff like that.
So it should help out, uh, with people coming
in and it has about a five to 10 mile range from
the fairgrounds. Well, very good. Well, that'll
be, uh, that'll be helpful to get some, uh, updated
information through the broadcast radio too.
So that sounds good. And then, uh, of course,
uh, I'm sure you have talking. Yeah. We'll still
have the talk in, uh, one 46 .76, uh, is the
frequency and it will be going on. I believe
it starts on Wednesday, uh, before the show all
the way until Sunday. All right. Very good. Anything
else new coming up this year? Yeah. One of the
big things this year, we've actually partnered
with ARL and him Vincent to, uh, offer the ARL
events app to our attendees this year. You can
go on your Play Store for either Google Play
or Apple. And if you search for ARRL Events app,
you can find this app. And it's basically the
program on your phone. You can keep track of
forms. You can keep track of the prizes every
hour on there. You can search for vendors. You
can search for other attendees and connect with
them, keep track of friends and stuff like that
on there. There's maps of the show. So everything
pretty much on your phone that you would need
to attend the event. I use that a lot at Hamvention.
I am one of those people that I don't want to
carry around paper. I don't want to carry around
all this extra stuff. I can pull it up on my
phone go right to the forum schedule find out
what room I was supposed to be in next and worked
really well and I noticed a few weeks ago there
was an update and all of a sudden it changed
icons and names and everything and then I saw
the release that from ARL that they were going
to support hamcation so I was very glad to see
that and that should be real helpful. Yeah, and
the nice thing about that, too, if there are
attending forums, you can actually click the
little round button next to them and it will
actually add it to your calendar and it will
actually send you a reminder. I believe it's
15 minutes before the forum starts. So if you
forget about it, it will actually alert you and
let you know the forum that you want to watch
is getting ready to start. Yeah, I remember doing
that last time and the way I end up hopping forums.
That was real handy. So yeah, so that that's
gonna be a great addition to hamcation. I'm sure
so We've talked about new stuff What's coming
back? Back this year will be the Boy Scouts.
They will be selling lanyards for five dollar
donation For the lanyard and that will also get
your ticket laminated Uh, so when you come and
go throughout the show, your ticket will be around
your neck. You don't have to pull it out of your
pocket anymore. And all proceeds to that goes
to the local boy scout club. Uh, that's actually
doing that. Very good. And our other big thing
this year first robotics will be back Actually
right behind the Boy Scouts in the north building
and they're gonna have a bigger area this year
So hopefully they'll have more robots out there
to play with Also coming back this year will
be Carol Perry with her youth form this year
and She puts on a very good form post have some
good speakers at it this year Yeah, always always
like to see Carol and all the kids and and that's
a cool thing so glad that But that's all coming
back again And so what are some things that you
know if you're coming to hamcation for the first
time? What are some things that you just cannot
afford to miss water or the things you you just
have to do? The biggest one I would say this
year would be our forms We've added a fourth
clear span tent because the man from people that
want to put on forms will be having 47 forms
this year over two days So that's the biggest
thing. There's a lot of technical forms A lot
of forms Ward silver is actually doing a form.
I believe on grounding uh... so some good forms
this year to uh... check out and uh... learn
some stuff well that'll be good and ward always
does a fabulous job so that'll be good uh...
so let's get an update on uh... some of the travel
uh... information that people are going to need
uh... water the hotel uh... reservations looking
like at this point uh... parking traffic, those
kinds of things. What's the latest on all of
that? Um, the parking is looking good for hamcation.
All of our parking is actually onsite and it
is free. Um, we've added, there's a flea market
out front that we have bought out last year and
we're doing the same thing this year, which will
add more parking to the show. So we should have
no issues with parking, uh, hotels. Most of the
hotels are still got rooms available The cutoff
date for some of them have already passed to
get a discounted rate But I do know our two Rosen
hotels is still offering discounted rooms until
124 and all that info is actually on our website
Okay, very good and And any updates on traffic
patterns or anything changing on any of that?
The traffic in Orlando, I4 is still under construction.
When is I4 not under construction? That is true.
We joke here locally when they get done, they're
going to have to start over because it's still
not going to be big enough by the time they get
done with it. So but it is still under construction.
That's one thing with the information Radio and
the Tolkien will have information on that if
there is any road closures because they change
it daily pretty much And then if there's any
construction around the fairgrounds will let
people know that away also Or as we like to call
it the I for parking lot Yep, that's why locals
try to stay off Now we're going to talk a little
bit about routes here in a little bit. We'll
do that after the break, but we'll talk about
that, some different ways that you can take care
of getting from one place to another. So anything
else that sticks out that we need to talk about
here, about what's coming up? One of the big
things we have added this year, we've added more
golf carts and they're actually going to transport
people from the parking areas to the ticket booths
and then back to their cars when they're leaving.
Since we've added more parking, our furthest
parking lot is pretty far from the ticket booths.
So that's one thing people are asking for last
year. So that's a new thing for this year. And
the other big thing we're adding a 40 by 40 tent
outside so we can add more areas for people to
sit out of the sun, uh, talk to people, eat food,
stuff like that. So that's another, uh, big thing
that people are asking for last year that we
ran out of seating areas outside. Yeah. It's
always hard to find a place to sit down and,
uh, catch up with friends and that kind of thing
because you've got so many people there that
it's difficult. So that should relieve a lot
of that as well and I'm sure those golf cart
rides will be greatly appreciated. I know I do
appreciate those at Hamvention for sure. Well,
let's take a break here, and then we'll come
back. We'll take your questions. We'll take your
phone calls. The phone number is 812 -638 -4261.
That spells Net Ham 1. That's area code 812 Net
Ham 1. And we'll take your questions, and we'll
look at the tweets here right after this word
from Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk
Live. I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm having
an antenna party and I ran out of PL259s. Oh,
come in. Thank you. Would silver -plated PL259s
from Tower Electronics be too good for your guests?
Those will be fine. Thank you. You saved my life
the other night. Oh, the PL -259s from Tower
Electronics? Yes, they were very successful at
the antenna party. My antenna works like a charm.
Then how can you ever thank me? I'll try to think
of something. Don't be caught without PL -259s.
Visit Tower Electronics at a ham fest near you.
Or visit them online anytime at PL -259 .com.
or call 920 -435 -2973. They have adapters, cables,
antennas, soldering supplies, and meters too.
Join the conversation. Give us a call at 812
-NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now, here's
more HamTalk Live. Oh, yeah. You're talking ham
radio, baby. You're listening to Ham Talk Live
with Neil Rapp. Tower electronics will be in
Fort Myers, Florida coming up this weekend on
the 18th then on the 19th Wheaton, Illinois the
25th of January Arcadia, Florida as well as Collinsville,
Illinois and I will be there and Visit them and
of course, it'll be at hamcation, but you can
visit them anytime anywhere from your computer
at PL dash HamTalk Live is on the air every Thursday
night, 9 p .m. Eastern at HamTalkLive .com. 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 or a comment, give us
a call right now at 812 -638. 4 2 6 1 8 1 2 net
ham 1 or tweet us at ham talk live and if you're
listening to us on WTWW or the podcast edition
you're listening to a replay so we won't be there
to answer your call unfortunately. We do have
a couple things to talk about but speaking of
tower electronics I just got a text from Mr.
Scott Cole himself Saying that he missed out
on the app information so Michael can you repeat
the the app information how people can get a
hold of that app? Yeah, if you're on Android
or iPhone Google or Apple Store if you search
for a RRL events app if you search for that in
a search thing it will pop up with it and You
can download it and from there you can keep track
of everything that's going on, hamcation, all
the forms, prizes, hourly prize drawings you
can keep up with. So pretty much it's like having
a program in your pocket without carrying around
a paper program. So if you're on Android, look
for it on the Google Play Store. If you're on
Apple, if you're on iPhone, look under the...
iTunes store and just search ARRL events and
you'll be able to download that free app and
check all that out. Now I still had the one from
Hamvention installed and when it updated it put
that on there but I can't guarantee that it's
functional that way. You may need to download
it again. I don't know. Or maybe it'll work.
I don't know. I'll find out. I know mine worked
also. I had it already installed and updated
itself when they put it live. Ah, okay. So if
you still have it on there from Hamvention, then
you can get it for Hamcation. So be sure to check
that out. So again, the phone number 812 -638
-4261 or tweet us at HamTalk Live if you have
some... some questions. And we did have a tweet
come in early from Brett, wy7bg. And Brett, thank
you for listening and chiming in as you do from
time to time. And he says that he won't be attending
hamcation this year. He hopes to one day. He
sounds like me. But here's a question related
to it. How can attendees, especially those driving
from out of state or flying in and renting cars,
avoid exorbitant toll charges from all of Orlando's
ubiquitous toll roads. Yeah, that's a, I believe
Florida has more toll roads than anybody in the
country. Um, but there is ways to say it. off
of it coming to hamcation. Of course you have
I -4. The Main Road Colonial Drive runs pretty
much all the way to Cimarron and then Cimarron
will take you straight to the airport if you're
flying in. That would probably be one of the
best ways to get to the fairgrounds. From the
airport you can easily take Oh, what road was
it to like your hotels? Um, most of them, uh,
will be easy to get to might take a little longer
without getting on a toll road, but there's ways
in Orlando, uh, to get around getting on the
toll roads to make it pretty much anywhere. Yeah.
There are some ways to do that. And I'll throw
in my two cents since I, I flew for the very
first time. in October and we ran down to Orlando
for a couple of days and that was my first time
flying and so we rented a car and we just stayed
off of the toll roads. We mapped it out and fortunately
I've had a little bit of you know experience
driving around Orlando so I knew some of the
other roads besides the toll roads so we just
avoided them but I was searching around because
I've got the little Florida sticker in my car
so you know what I did was as soon as I crossed
over into Florida I went and bought the little
five dollar sticker thing and put it on the car
and then you know I wouldn't get Charged all
this extra stuff that the rental car people would
do but but when I actually did rent a car I didn't
have that with me, but there is a pilot program
that Florida is doing called visitor toll pass
so if you fly in there's actually a little kiosk
at the Orlando International Airport and you
can reserve one of these things ahead of time
on the website it's visitortollpass .com and
you can reserve this thing and you just pick
up this little it looks like a little parking
hanger thing you know for your rearview mirror
at the visitor toll pass kiosk there in the airport
and it'll just charge you regular toll rates
it won't charge you the extra for toll by plate
and then the car rental companies like to add
on all these fees on top of it for using theirs
and getting the bill and and all that kind of
thing so if you use this it'll it'll charge you
directly and it'll charge you the regular rate
instead of the the higher rates and then you
just drop that pass back off at the kiosk when
you get back to the airport but you have to do
that at the airport that's a pilot program they're
testing it out because that's been a A concern
of a lot of travelers is having to take care
of tolls when you're renting a car and it's not
yours. So you can save a lot of money doing that.
So visitortollpass .com is the name of that.
And if you're flying in and renting a car, you
might want to check that out. That's my two cents
worth. So let's see. Scott is texting me some
more. So let's see what Scott has to say here.
KB9AMM. He must be in Florida with nothing else
to do right now. So let's see. Ask about SpaceX
launch Wednesday night before the fest. Is there
a SpaceX rocket launch coming up? Uh, there is,
um, I remember Scott actually saying something
about this. I believe it is January six. Uh,
February six, or I'm sorry. I'm looking here
on the web. No. Well, they haven't updated it,
but there is one. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, there is
one the week of or that Wednesday, I believe
he said yes I'm not sure what time it is, but
you can go to Looks like SpaceX calm for more
information on it Okay. Yeah launches are always
getting delayed and rescheduled and all that
so it's always good to check out the The websites
and find that out. I've been able to catch one
or two down there And it's a lot of fun, pretty
cool. But they do get delayed and rescheduled
and everything. So hopefully that one will work
for some people that are down there. So make
sure you check that out as well. Maybe you can
catch a launch while you're down there. Yeah,
even from Orlando, if it's clear skies, you could
actually see the launch from here. Yeah, yeah.
Always like I liked the night launch because
all of a sudden the sky just lights up like it
was daylight You hear the roosters crowing and
everything else and then all of a sudden it goes
right back to dark again So that'll be another
good opportunity While you're down there at hamcation
so Remind us again the dates and the location
and and the times Michael It's gonna be February
7th 8th and 9th and we are open from 9 to 5 on
Friday 9 to 5 on Saturday and 9 to 2 on Sunday
and the location will be the Central Florida
Fairgrounds and Expo Park And your website is
fabulous that you you redid that a couple years
ago and that is Uh, the website is going to be
www .hamcation .com and, uh, pretty much we're
updating it every couple of days, uh, keeping
up with all the new information going up there.
Okay. So make sure you check that out hamcation
.com and, uh, you can get the latest. information
on the Orlando hamcation. If you have a question
or a comment, give us a call at 812 -638 -4261.
812 -NET -HAM -1 is the number. So we would like
to get your questions answered and take your
comments. While we're waiting to see if we have
some of those, Michael, I know you've got a ton
Prizes and we we kind of teased that that you
know you're gonna have a chance to win here on
ham talk live on February 20th, but You're also
gonna have a chance to win before that and that's
it hamcation. You've got some fabulous prizes
we do this year again, we're gonna have over
$25 ,000 in prizes and Some of the big prizes
our grand prizes will be on Friday a Kenwood
590 SG Our Saturday grand prize is going to be
an icon 9700 and Then the Sunday big grand prize
is going to be the new Yezu FT DX 101 D And then
we have lots of hourly prizes also Throughout
the show lots of radios HF radios handhelds hotspots
power supplies books You name it will have it
in prizes and we are also selling extra chance
tickets for prizes So if you want to buy some
extra chance tickets to toss in the prize barrel
to give you a little more chance to win We will
be selling those Thursday before the show at
the East ticket booth And then during the show
you can pick them up at the prize and info booth
on Friday Saturday and Sunday Okay, now you should
repeat that one more time specifically for Joe
Eisenberg, KZeroNEB, and Jill Wolf, KD8QGA. I
think both of them already know. Oh, they already
know, yes, because they're notorious for buying
all these... Prizes and then they they walk away
with all these prizes or but they buy all the
tickets and then they yeah They walk away with
money was last year the person that won the Sunday
grand prize last year Which was the icon? I believe
it was the 7610 Or no, it wasn't it was the new
Kenwood they come out the 890 I believe they
bought one a mission ticket And that's who won
the grand prize. Well, that's a good, uh, good
deal. And, and you know, your chances are pretty
good at a ham fest. You know, you play the lottery,
your chances, you know, you, you've got a better
chance of getting hit by lightning than winning
that. But at a ham fest, your chances really
aren't that bad. No, they're not and with the
number of prizes we have makes it even better.
So We'll be giving away a lot of prizes. So and
Then you get the extra tickets and and you've
got a better chance. So All kinds of stuff gonna
be given away at hamcation. So make sure you
check that out as well Well, Michael, before
we go, let's, let's talk a little bit about the
forums. I know you've got like what you say,
40 some forums. So I don't know that we're going
to cover all of them, but, but let's, let's get
a little bit of a preview on some of those. Um,
some of the forums, like I said, ward silver
is going to be here doing one on grounding and
bonding. Um, let's see. Ella craft's going to
be doing one on the new K four direct sampling
SDR. Let's see here going through the list Joe
Eisenberg is going to be doing one on kit building
One of the big ones we're doing this year, which
will be new Also on Saturday will be Let me find
this name here He's gonna be actually doing a
balloon launch bill brown bill brown. Well, we
be a yeah, okay. Yeah Yeah, he's gonna actually
be doing a forum at three o 'clock On Saturday
then after that he's gonna be actually doing
a balloon launch from hamcation also So and a
RL is gonna have some forms Let's see here. And
of course the guys from West Mountain radio is
going to be doing one on echo link node for personal
or shared use There's going to be a build an
antenna form out of aluminum crutches, which
sounds interesting this year Mars is going to
be having one Let's see here Tim Duffy is coming
in also to do one on low band receive antennas
for 160 and 80 meters So there's gonna be a lot
of good forms this year Tapper is actually doing
a total of six forms over both days So those
are pretty technical forms also that people like
to sit into from them on digital type of stuff
Okay, so you've got several of those so make
sure you stop by the website hamcation .com and
check those out and then the the app again if
you have a smartphone get that app because that
way you can you can look everything up on your
phone while you're walking around hamcation and
get those alerts so check out the iTunes store
or Google Play store for the ARRL events app,
and it will be featuring hamcation now for a
while. So sounds great, Michael. Any last comments
here before we go? So far, the weather was looking
good. One thing I can guarantee, we won't have
no snow on the ground. But just if you're coming.
Please enjoy yourself. So have fun. And one thing
I didn't mention, our theme this year is volunteers
make the difference. So like we say, without
volunteers, the shows wouldn't happen anywhere
for amateur radio. So please, if you see volunteers,
thank them for volunteering, even if they're
not. a amateur radio volunteer, even when you're
out and about, you see volunteers, please thank
them because a lot of stuff won't happen without
volunteers. Yeah, it always takes a lot of people
to pull off a ham fest and that many more to
pull off a large ham fest like you have. So thanks
to all the volunteers from all of us and And
I'm still saying I'm going to get there. I thought
this was going to be my year. I really did. I
thought this year I'm going to be able to get
away. I'm going to be able to go. I can fly now
because I know what's going on with the whole
flight thing. And I don't have the flight fear
anymore. And I thought this was going to be my
year. And it didn't work. I'm gonna make it down
there. I promise Sounds good All right. Well,
that's Michael Colley W4 MCA and He's the chairman
of Orlando hamcation. So thank you so much for
spending Our 45 minutes together on ham talk
live tonight You're welcome. Thank you for having
me here and We'll see a lot of you in less than
three weeks All right, very good. Well, that
is a wrap for this week's am talk live. Thanks
again to Michael Colley W4 MCA and everybody
out there in cyberspace for listening and For
those of you who are typing in and texting in
Scott Thank you. And we invite you back next
Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time. And if
you want to know who's coming up on the show,
just go over to HamTalkLive .com. I update that
as soon as I know, so it'll be there at HamTalkLive
.com. Just click on the link for the show schedule
and you can see who our upcoming guests are.
And, you know, we don't... need donations. We
don't do the begging for funding foundation that,
you know, some people do and that works for them
and that's fine. But we don't do that. But what
we do ask for, what we are begging for, is reviews
on iTunes. That really helps us out and it helps
other people find us faster. So if you like the
show, please just leave us a review. That's all
we ask. Try to do that if you can. Well, I'll
say 73 and 75 for now. This is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG
saying may the good DX be yours.