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Standing in the snow with a brand new radio Catching
the ISS, satellites are the best At gate on the
roof, repeater down the street What fun it is
to make box one Hey, good evening, everyone.
It's time for HamTalk Live. It's episode number
194. The 12 Days of Christmas special event recorded
live on Thursday, December 19th, 2019. I am your
host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in
to this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're
joined by Lou Maggio in O2C. And we'll take your
calls live in just a few minutes. Last week,
Katie Allen, WY7YL, was here to talk about holiday
gift ideas for hams and some ham holiday traditions.
And you heard one of our new traditions, the
new holiday theme song that Emily wrote. We unveiled
that last week. But if you missed the show with
Katie you can still listen at HamTalkLive .com
or on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube
or you can catch the rebroadcast each week at
WTWW 5085 a .m. And that's on Saturday evenings
at about 630 p .m. Eastern Time. So get your
questions ready to go about the 12 Days of Christmas
special event. And if you're listening to us
live on Thursday night, you can give us a call
tonight. I'll give you the phone number here
in just a second. So you can write that down
and have it ready. We're going to talk to Lou
first for a while, but we'll give you the phone
number so you have it ready. So after the interview,
you'll be able to give us a call at 812 -638
-4261. That's 812 -NET. ham one. You can also
tweet us anytime tonight on Twitter we're at
ham talk live and if you're listening to us directly
on Spreaker and you've got an account you can
type in the comments there we'll see those as
well so I'll be back with Lou right after this
word from ICOM America right here on ham talk
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ICOM enjoys hams being radioactive in addition
to all the contests and activities that they
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of youngsters on the air Yoda and December is
Yoda month around the world all the regions are
activated this month so work one or all of the
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to ICOM for bringing HamTalk live your way each
and every week and tonight we're bringing you
Lou Maggio in O2C and he's here to talk about
the 12 days of Christmas special event. His wife
Sally K2RYD came up with the idea and they've
operated and managed it together in this, the
second year of the event. Sally had a previous
engagement and couldn't be with us tonight, but
Lou knows all about it and he has another special
event that we're going to talk about on December
25th that he started a few years ago. And they
are both members of the great South Bay amateur
radio club in Long Island, New York. So Lou,
welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Thanks
for having me Now I talked to you and Sally last
year actually doing a story for Newsline and
we didn't we didn't have you on the show. I forget
the circumstances. I think the scheduling was
already messed up but but we kind of Advertised
it a little bit here and and now you're on year
two. So tell us how this whole special event
got started Well, we were having a conversation
at the Great South Bay Club about the Christmas
holidays and the 12 days of Christmas got mentioned
and Sally got this idea that gee that would make
a great special event so since we do work a lot
of special events either as participants or as
chasers She took her experience from the Lake
Havasu event the 13 colonies the museum ships
the events that we've done with Great South Bay
and she designed this 12 day of Christmas event
and we worked with Karen, KD2GUT, designing a
certificate that we would make available to be
downloaded if you worked one or if you worked
all 12 of the special event stations. They're
all one by one call signs. And what was interesting
about the certificate is if you work all 12 of
the stations, then your certificate would then
say clean sweep across the top. And that has
become incredibly popular. So it started like
that. Of course, we had to get operators. And
originally, we went with the 12 operators for
the 12 days of Christmas. That turned out to
be not the best thing. We realized we needed
more than 12 operators because Condition people
change people had to something to do and it paid
to have more than one operator So this year where
I think we're at 18 or 19 operators with people
sharing call signs and things like that So that's
how it started Yeah, and I remember you had a
shortage last year and I was able to jump in
and do a little bit and got a satellite contact
or two going and got on HF a little bit and it
was a lot of fun and I really wish I could have
done it this year, but there's just too many
Excuse me too many other things Demanding my
time at the moment, but I have had a chance to
to work your station actually Sally was at the
mic and then talked to Oh, you're gonna have
to remind me. We were just talking about Gary
Gary out in Arizona talked to him this afternoon
in fact and apparently he's from right around
here because he was an Indiana University fan
and so he knew where Bloomington, Indiana was
and I had to disappoint him that I'm not an Indiana
University fan. but it was it was good to get
him in the log and hopefully next week I can
find a day or two that I can that I can get in
there but but yeah so you've worked out some
of the bugs here you know you've got more operators
so that way you can kind of rotate it around
and and fill in and if some of the call signs
haven't been used as much you can kind of level
that out a little bit so So that's some good
news. Well, how did the event go last year? Let's
take a look back at last year. How did things
go? All in all, I think it went great. We did
12 ,200 contacts last year. As you know, the
certificate is downloadable. That's a word, I
think. It's downloadable and you're able to...
to go to our website, the club website, and you
can download the certificate. You just have to
put in your call sign, and if you're in the log,
you can get a certificate. If you've worked all
12 of the stations, then your certificate will
say clean sweep across the top. 1800 of those
certificates were downloaded, so that's pretty
good, I think. And again, we learned a lot from
last year, and I think we've put some changes
in because of what we learned. So how are things
going so far? This year you're what? 19 days
in So so how are things going compared to last
year and our things moving along? Yeah, we're
only six days in six days. Yeah, we started on
the on the 14th and Of course, I don't have to
tell you about band conditions. Everybody listening
knows all about that But today was a good day.
Conditions were really good for us today, I think.
So we're a little behind last year's numbers.
But again, the bigger push always starts near
the end of the event. So I would imagine that
as we approach Christmas, we're going to do that.
Some of the changes we've made from last year
is we are being very, very careful that the addresses
in QRZ represent the address of the person that's
operating. So in other words, when W2F, which
is being run from Arizona, if you look in the
QRZ page for W2F, you will see Gary's address
in Arizona. So the automatic antenna pointing
programs will not be pointing the antennas. towards
Long Island instead of towards Arizona. So we're
careful with that. We did a much better job with
that. Gary pointed that out to us last year and
we made that change. The other thing is we have
more people involved in the event this year so
we're able to rotate the calls. We also have
more people that have never done it before involved
in the event, which I think has been great. It's
like training people for where they're going
to be next year, and that's worked out. So we've
got the people that are used to operating special
events and used to operating under pile -up conditions,
and boy do we have pile -ups. They're in there.
But the people that have never done it are learning
from that. So it's been a very, very good thing.
And I think that the changes we made are good.
And I would imagine we're going to make changes
next year, too. It's bound to happen. Well, it's
a learning experience. And you're always going
to. find this or that, that you can change and
make better as time goes on. So I'm glad that
you're paying attention to those things and improving
on those things. Now, one of the things that
I did, and I don't know if you saw the social
media posts for advertising for this show, but
one of the things that I put in there was a picture.
You and Sally that was at field day. I think
a couple of years ago But the other picture was
was Danny Bonaduce standing on a ladder next
to a tree and a lot of people apparently did
not get But that was a partridge in a pear tree
So we want to tell everybody They hadn't heard
of Danny Partridge, I guess. Oh, I guess so.
They hadn't heard of the Partridge family. No.
So we had a picture of a Partridge in a pear
tree. It's not funny if you have to explain it.
No, no, it loses it if you have to explain it.
But sometimes, sometimes, and Kevin at Great
South Bay would be first to... The best ones
are the ones that go over everybody's head except
for one person. And and they get it and one person
Yeah, so if you're wondering you're out there
listening wondering why in the world we posted
a picture of a guy on a ladder Next to a pear
tree That was it character on TV was Danny Partridge
so Well, anyway, let's talk about this other
event real quick before we go to break That is
your little baby on on December 25th. So let's
let's talk about that a little bit, too Yeah,
this was kind of funny. We were sitting at the
club about four years ago and it was approaching
the holidays or three years ago whatever it was
and and I happen to mention, I don't know, what
brought up the Christmas birthday. I think someone
said something about the best birthday, and I
said, no, I have the best birthday. I was born
on Christmas Day. Karen, KD2GUT. was also born
on Christmas. So she said, hey, why don't we
just do a thing on two meters? We'll just go
on the air on Christmas day and work a couple
of people and they can say happy birthday. So
we did it. We did our little mini special event.
Then it grew. We did the same thing the second
year. And then of course, 12 days of Christmas
came along and we said, well, why don't we slide
in at the end of 12 days of Christmas? We'll
have a certificate you can download. And what
happens? We get 200 contacts. So now, Rick one
of the people from QST magazine. He contacts
us and he says hey, I was born on Christmas Can
I join you guys on he's an editor at QST and
he said can I join you guys on Christmas Day?
Now he lives down in Florida. So we're gonna
have three operators this year on Christmas Day
with the special event station k2b kilo two bravo
and there's a special certificate for that if
you work us on our on christmas day so that's
where that came from so if you're born on on
december 25th this is this is for you yes check
out k2b k2b Well, we're gonna take a break and
we're gonna come back and we're gonna talk a
little more about the 12 days of Christmas and
some of the other things that are going on on
the air right now After this word from tower
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-HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now, here's more
HamTalk Live. This is your announcer, Andy Morrison,
K9AWM. Why else would I be talking like this?
You're listening to HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp.
Thanks to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics.
They just made the trek home from Florida up
to Wisconsin and now they're freezing because
they were down in sunny Florida. They're off
of the Hamfest Trail for a couple of weeks for
Christmas, but they'll be back out on the Hamfest
Tour in January, but don't let that stop you.
Just visit them online at PL -259 .com. HamTalk
Live is on the air Thursday nights at 9 p .m.
Eastern Time 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 for Lou, give us a call. It's 812
-638 -4261. Again, that number, 812 -638 -4261,
or you can tweet us. It's at HamTalk Live. And
if you're listening to us on WTWW or on the podcast
edition, we're not here because it's, it's Thursday
night right now. So, so sorry. And, and Sally
just arrived. So, so can we get a high from Sally?
We can, we can. She wants to say hi. Hi there
everybody in radio land. So that's Sally K2RYD
and she's home now. So we have her as well as
Lou NO2C with us tonight. So again, give us a
call 812 -638 -4261 or tweet us and we'll be
talking about the 12 days of Christmas. So there's
a one by one call sign for all of the 12 days
and you just collect all 12 and And you can get
your certificate so and I guess we should mention.
Where do they go to get the certificate? If they
go to the Great South Bay, which is www gsbarc
.org and they go to the special events section,
there's a link there to get the certificate,
or if you go to QRZ page for any one of the special
event one by ones, they'll point you back to
Sally's page, which is K2RYD, and there's a link
right there to get you to where you can download
the certificate. Go to GSB ARC and and look that
up or the QRZ page of all of those one -by -ones
will get you there eventually so make sure right
check that out and That would be after the event
is over after the event is over Okay, very good
All right, well again give us a call if you have
questions or comments about the 12 days of Christmas
8 1 2 6 3 8 4 2 6 1 Also want to give you an
update For all of you out there in in radio land
On some of the other things that are going on
this month because there's a bunch of stuff going
on Yoda month is is kind of a new one for this
region anyway It's been around for a good while,
but we haven't had too many US operators. We
did have one US operator. The Lee family was
on last year. And so we've kind of expanded that
with the K8, Y, O, T, and A call signs. And that's
going really well. They're on track for 100 ,000
worldwide. uh... and in the u .s. we've got maybe
around i want to say was right around uh... nine
ten percent of that uh... coming from the u .s.
station so they're racking up the queues and
uh... so make sure you give them a call and then
uh... the santa net we mentioned that last week
on thirty nine sixteen uh... they've got a new
website cqsanta dot com and they're starting
at 8 15 Eastern. And then the Santa watch net
is on Echo Link and Santa will be making his
rounds and it's the ninth year for this and it's
on the do drop in conference server. uh... which
is three five five eight hundred on echo link
and uh... so they're going to track santa so
uh... that starts at six p m eastern time christmas
eve uh... dave n three n tv will be calling the
net and keeping track of where santa's qth is
and uh... santa may tune in and talk to some
of the kids too so uh... again santa watch net
christmas eve six p m eastern on do drop in EchoLink
conference server 355 -800. So those are some
opportunities to talk to Santa and talk to some
of the youth around the world. And then you've
got the 12 days of Christmas and we'll talk about
that. We'll get back to that here in just a second.
And then for the people who were born on Christmas
Day, you've got the K2B special event. So all
kinds of stuff going on this month and Lou, I
know you and Sally have been on all kinds of
park activations and you guys like to go out
and set up and get on the air. Well, I have to
tell you something that happened to me the other
day with Santa, which was a little bit disturbing.
I worked PA 19 Xmas over in the Netherlands and
he got my call wrong. Now, yeah, Santa gets your
call wrong. That can't be good, right? No, that
can't be good. That was going to get you on the
wrong list. Yeah. So, uh, the parks, we don't,
we don't activate as many as we chase. So we,
we do a lot of chasing. Um, Sally is probably
at around, she has worked a thousand different
parks. I'm at about 1 ,200 different parks that
I've actually talked to around the world. And
we actually have, Julie is one of the operators
for this special event. She's helping us out
with this special event. And K8VOX, Julie, who
is a big park activator, she does a lot of park
activations. She has activated actually every
single park in Michigan. And she's on... and
helping us out. She is W2C. So if you work W2C,
you're working someone that does a tremendous
amount of parks. But working the parks is a lot
of fun. It's like a little de -expedition all
the time. And we really enjoy doing it. 812 -638
-4261 is the phone number. If you want to chime
in tonight, please give us a call right now at
812 -638. four, two, six, one. Well, uh, Lou,
before the show, you were telling me a little
bit about, uh, some satellite opportunities for
the 12 days of Christmas and, and somehow I must've
been an instigator on that. I guess last year
trying out one of them, but now you've got all
12. Yeah, you did. You were the one that inspired
us. to uh... to go out to satellite and frank
w a two n d v has volunteered he didn't volunteer
i think we actually we probably don't want to
hold it it's uh... he's done a lot of satellite
operation and uh... uh... he is going to uh...
operate he's back from his uh... cruises on a
cruise with his wife they got back and he's going
to go on the air and and do the uh... all 12,
uh, stations via satellite. So they're going
to be a chance to actually get a certificate
with all satellite context. That I think is very
cool. That is pretty cool. So, you know, last
year I think I had one call sign on there and
so now you get or two, two. Okay. So now we've
got, uh, all 12. Well, we've got a caller on
the line. So let's see who we have here tonight.
Good evening. Welcome to HamTalk Live. Yeah,
good evening. I hope this counts as a valid contact.
This is it does tango One of the two to turtle
doves whiskey TGT now wait a minute 12 let's
see I'm trying to figure out if there's squirrels
in the 12 Christmas Well, you know all this or
you know what the squirrels want for Christmas
all the skin the squirrels all want to come over
to Karen's house They're here I just got back
from buying about a dozen bags of nuts. Don't
ask I know what I want for Christmas I Need I
need a pecan tree Well, I have to tell you, this
is as incredible an event as Lou has described
it. It is more fun this year than last year.
It would help with the propagation cooperated,
but that's sort of out of our control. But let
me tell you, this is a blast. This is a blast.
And a lot of the people we contact remembered
us from last year and couldn't wait. to work
us. They remember us from the first. They remember
us also from the birthday event. They're like
old friends. It's one of the nicest things to
bring the ham community together at the holidays.
Don't you think, Lou? Oh, I agree. And, Neil,
one of the things that when someone says, well,
you know, what is it about this thing that makes
it so special? I think if I had to sum it up
in one thing, I would say, how often do you get
to tell 12 ,000 people to have a great holiday?
And that's what we do. We get to do it. Yeah,
but you don't get to do it. We get to do it personally.
We're actually talking directly to the people.
So it's very cool. Yeah, and by the way, unlike
Santa Claus, we do try to get the calls. So that's
another plus. Our operators are listening. But
it's a great gift. It's a great gift to the Ham
radio community, for the Ham radio community.
So much fun. And, Lou, you didn't share with
Neil a little secret about the birthday event.
Interesting thing about the birthday event, you
know, we made the debut on HF, and we're doing
it again this year. Remarkable, remarkable thing
is we are the same age. as we were last year.
We are not getting any older, but we are marking
our birthdays anyway. Yes, that is one of the
things that you get from being exposed to 1 ,500
watts of RF. There you go. So guys, I just wanted
to check in and the squirrels and I send our
best. I'm going to get back on the air and start
calling QRZ. If all it takes is 1 ,500 watts
for you to not get a year older, I need to get
an amplifier. And I had to look up because I
remember doing this story for Newsline last year,
and I just happened to remember one of the favorite
lines, Karen, that you said for my story was,
That's a lot of birds. Oh, yes. In 12 days of
Christmas, you've got a partridge in a pear tree,
two turtle doves, and the partridge in a pear
tree. You've got three French hens, four calling
birds. and then day five you got ten birds again
and then you got six geese a lane seven swans
a swimming uh... day eight you've got another
twenty three birds nine ten eleven and twelve
you got another twenty three birds that's a hundred
and eighty four birds and you know what the moral
of the story is watch where you step yes Get
a newspaper subscription. Yeah, I can't help
you with that anymore, unfortunately 184 birds
one certificate But because we have all those
birds the certificate will be winging its way
to you Right a download and if you get all 12
you get that special clean sweep And it's beautiful.
It's beautiful. I happen to know the designer.
She'll say, she'll say. Okay, guys. Enjoy. Thanks.
All right. Thanks, Karen, for calling in. Okay.
Take care now. Bye bye. All right. Bye bye. That's
Karen E. Murray, Katie2GUT, the editor at Newsline
and one of the... birthday or Christmas birthday
people and and she's getting back on the air
so we're gonna wrap things up here but but yeah
if you go listen for W2T because she's gonna
get right back on the air so so you can you can
check that out 812 -638 -4261 let's take one
last standby here for any calls and let me check
the the tweets here i was i was off looking up
the number of birds so i'm gonna go back to twitter
here because i couldn't remember how many birds
there were but we got 184 so we did the math
all right looks like we're caught up on everything
there so again the phone number 812 -638 -4261
yeah go ahead Alright, so right now we're sitting
at about 3 ,500 queues We have worked 40 different
countries. We've worked all 50 states and About
700 counties. So we're going along pretty good
That's our that's as of right now, but I know
there's logs that I haven't updated yet. They'll
come in later tonight so You know, we'll be updating
So we'll definitely be at 4 ,000 queues by tomorrow.
All right. Sounds great. And I'm sure it'll pick
up next week as well as we get closer to Christmas.
So I'm sure you'll rack up a whole bunch of queues
and probably some birds. Yes, birds. Definitely
some birds. All right Since Sally's there Sally
you got anything you want to say here before
we wrap things up? She has She's on her way out
to the barn. Nope. She's left the building She
has to go out and feed the horses and So she's
doing that right now All right. Well Lou any
any final comments here? I I think that again
the thing I said earlier You get to wish 12 ,000
people a happy holiday. And I think it's a positive
event. People get a kick out of it. It's a fun
thing. You get to tell them Merry Christmas.
And unlike the social media where you kind of
put out these blasts, this is a one -on -one
thing. We're actually talking to each person.
And I think that's what makes it so special.
Yeah, and they get to tell us. Happy holiday.
It's a special thing and Sally really, you know,
is doing a great job promoting this. So it's
great. Well, it's the second annual 12 days of
Christmas special event. Look for those call
signs on the air here through Christmas and then
K2B on Christmas Day and for the big birthday
celebration. So happy birthday, by the way. Well
early, but happy birthday and to Karen and and
to Rick so that that's great. So Maybe you'll
you'll pick up a few more of those Christmas
birthday people this year Well, thanks so much
Lou for coming on the show and and you and Sally
for putting this on and I wish you the best of
success Through the rest of the event and a Merry
Christmas And Merry Christmas to you from the
12 days of Christmas 73 and have a great holiday
You too. Well that is a wrap for this week's
ham talk live Thanks to Lou in o2c and everybody
out there for listening calling in typing in
And I decided we're going to take next Thursday
off. So we're not going to have a show next Thursday.
So I invite you back two weeks from tonight,
January 2nd at 9 p .m. Eastern time. We'll be
back. And for a list of all of our upcoming guests,
go to HamTalkLive .com. And if you like the show,
please leave us a review. We don't ask for money.
We don't ask for funding. we need reviews. So
if you can leave us a review that'll help others
find us faster and that'll help us out too. So
for now this is Neil Rapp WB9VPG saying seven
three seven five Merry Christmas and may the
good DX be yours. Thanks for watching.