This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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we go, welcome to Amtok Live Call in, let's talk,
Neil's your guy Amtok Live, here we go Good evening,
everyone. It's time for ham talk live episode
number 191. Youth on the air camp recorded live
on Thursday, November 21 2019. I'm your host
Neil Rapp WB nine VPG. Thanks for tuning into
this episode of ham talk live tonight we're joined
by Sam Rose Casey to We'll take your calls live
a little later on in the show. Last week, Becky
Schoenfeld, W1BXY was here to talk about what
goes into making QST Magazine and the new On
The Air Magazine. If you missed the show, you
can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or on
your favorite podcast app. or on YouTube, or
you can catch the rebroadcast on WTWW. That's
5085 AM Saturday evenings at about 630 PM Eastern
Time. So let's get some questions ready to go
about Youth On The Air. If you're listening to
us live on Thursday night, you can give us a
call later on in the show. Let me go ahead and
give you the phone number so you can have it
ready to go. It's 812 -638 -4261. 812 -NET -HAM
-1. Or you can tweet us. Our Twitter handle is
at HamTalk Live. You'll be watching those throughout
the evening as well. So I'll be back with Sam
and Jocelyn right after this word from Tower
Electronics right here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey,
have you seen the the PL -259s? Anywhere? No
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host, Neil Rapp, would tell you a chemistry joke,
but he probably wouldn't get a reaction. Now,
more HamTalk Live. Thanks to Scott and Jill at
Tower Electronics for sponsoring the show tonight
to help bring you HamTalk Live. They're gonna
be in Ocala, Florida December 6th and 7th and
then in Plant City, Florida near Tampa December
13th and 14th or you can visit them online at
PL -259 .com Well tonight my guests are a couple
of very familiar voices Here on the show Sam
Rose KC to LRC is from Syracuse, New York Sam
was first licensed in June 2003 at the age of
13 He studied electrical engineering at Clarkson
University where he was president of Clarkson's
radio club K2CC from 2010 to 2012 He started
his career doing engineering and data performance
analysis work on C -Speed Lightwave Radar, a
next -generation S -band air traffic surveillance
radar, and now he supports phased array radar
systems at Lockheed Martin. Sam is an avid contester,
works satellites, public service events, IRLP,
restores radios, and enjoys special events like
balloon launches, ISS retransmissions, and weird
contests. Since he started ham radio at a young
age, he's particularly interested in introducing
ham radio to youth and young adults, and he attended
the Youngsters on the Air Camp in IARU Region
1 in the summer of 2016 held in Austria. Jocelyn
Bro, KD8 VRX, and VA2 VRX. first became interested
in ham radio as a boy scout. He became licensed
in 2013 and now holds an extra class license.
He is a technical analyst and systems administrator
with Vertical Solutions in Cincinnati. He was
a scout leader and now a merit badge counselor
for the radio merit badge. He's a mentor with
VEX Robotics and a member of the Westchester
Amateur Radio Association. the Dayton Amateur
Radio Association, the Ohio Valley Experimental
Club, and the Greater Cincinnati Builders Group.
Jocelyn volunteers at the Voice of America Museum
of Broadcasting, where he's the IT director and
organizes and conducts youth events. He is better
known as the proud father of Chris KD8YVJ, the
2015 Hiram Percy Maxim Award winner. and member
of the 2017 Youth DX Adventure to Costa Rica.
If my voice sounds funny, it's because I have
to cough, so hang on a second. OK, we got that
out of the way. The other member of the group,
Sterling Mann in Zero SFC, is on assignment tonight
at the Georgia Tech football game. So Sam and
Jocelyn, welcome to the show. Hey, greetings
from Syracuse. Thanks Neil for having us on tonight
Yeah, but it's it's been a little over a week
now since the announcement came out about youth
on the air camp and we've we've had a lot of
of questions and and comments and oh we see Some
people here on the on the chat. So we'll say
hello to them but Sam you haven't had a whole
lot to say about this because you've been buried
in retro game con and and All kinds of stuff
at work and and so you haven't had a whole lot
to say about this. So first of all, let's let's
get Your focus on what this camp is and and how
you think that the launch is going and what's
your reaction to finally? Getting this to be
a reality Well, I mean, I'm pretty pumped at
say the least it's been what I'm in the making
I think we all got the conflict here. It's been
quite some time in the making There's there's
a lot we're excited to announce I mean, this
is the first week long camp in the US or really
in IARU region two of this program So what it
is is it's a week long youth camp where? Various
ham radio activities and workshops are presented
for youth involvement and participation and it's
very hands -on. And then in that week that you've
got, there's a lot of other things. You've got
some just plain recreational activities, you've
got some trips in there, maybe some touristy
things, and just some time to let kids be kids
and get to know each other. You walk away from
this with not just some interesting ideas of
what can you do in ham radio land that you might
not have thought of, but also you walk away from
this with a whole bunch of buddies you've made
who might not live where you are. They probably
don't, but you can keep in touch and say, hey,
well, what do we want to do? We want to go get
on the air for this contest or do this. You get
some networking out of it also and for the longest
time I thought the US has had strong programs
in terms of exposing uninterested people or interested
people or non hams to ham radio But once they've
kind of gotten them interested and gotten them
to be licensed They haven't really had a whole
lot more for them to do. It's like, okay, well,
what's the next thing to do? You got your HT,
now talking on repeaters, interesting at first,
maybe I don't want to do it anymore. What's next?
This is kind of a camp that is going to bring
that to a lot of interested youths, and it's
going to offer that next level up. It's going
to offer the, oh, what else are the activities
and what are the things that we can do? And who
are the people that we can do them with? And
so it's really geared more towards people who
have maybe some experience to even a lot of experience
in ham radio. And so it's not really something
aimed at people who don't have a license. It's
aimed at people who do have a license already
and want to take it up to the next step. So really
proud to see that this is coming to the US and
to region two. Yeah, it's been a while coming
and I got in on it a little late, but I was able
to step in and get it rolling here. So we're
excited to see how this pilot program goes. This
will be the first one and then, you know, hopefully
we can get these all over the place. in the Americas,
and we're really looking forward to trying to
get people from all over the Americas. And that's
something we can talk about later on for sure.
Well Jocelyn, you're over at the Voice of America
Museum of Broadcasting all the time where the
camp's gonna be held, and we're both members
of the club, but... I still haven't been to a
club meeting because I live two and a half hours
away. Tell us a little bit about the club and
the museum and what are the campers really going
to enjoy with this camp being over in Cincinnati?
Alright, Neil, not a problem. Well, as you mentioned,
yes, I am with the VOA Museum of Broadcasting.
Museums open on the weekends, so we always have
guests and we try to show what amateur radio
is and it kind of helps them understand why the
VOA was there and kind of how it worked. So we
always like to take visitors to the shack in
the beginning and usually we get more people
coming back after to once they understood a little
bit of what what the VOA was doing to come and
see how we're doing and getting a feeling of
what the new technologies are. So the club is
happy and excited to and the museum as well to
get everybody there. I know Sterling and I met
way back in 2016, I want to say, and we were
just talking about oh they had just come back
from Austria. We met in Huntsville and we were
just chatting about it and now to see it a few
years later and it's you know everything's lining
up and it's going to be a reality here soon is
very interesting and very good. So yeah the the
campers will get to experience all kinds of different
things. So we will have a special event station
Whiskey Yankee and that will be in the VOA shack.
Currently there are seven almost eight operating
position. We have one that's basically a workbench,
so there's plenty of room for people to fit in.
ICOM will be supplying us with some really good
radios that we will be able to make sure everybody
gets to learn those radios, the latest and greatest,
so that will be awesome. Obviously, the museum
will be open for tour, so they'll get a little
bit of a history lesson of what the VOA is and
the significance of the VOA in World War II.
So it'll be very good there. And then we've got
plenty of yard because the VOA site used to be
at one square mile. A lot of that got sold off
when the VOA was decommissioned back in 94. So
there's a shopping center, there's different
things, but there's a big park at the back and
we're going to be some fox oaring orientation
back there. I believe it's on Thursday. The front
lawn is... Plenty of room, that's usually where
we do field day, where we have any type of big
events. So besides the radio stuff, they'll have
to, we will get them to taste some of the local
foods, Skyline Chili, one of them. I will say
that not being a native from here, it's an acquired
taste. But then once you have it, you start craving
it. We also have La Rosa's pizza, which is unique
to Cincinnati and Grater's ice cream, small batch
ice cream, which Neil, I know you've had the
pleasure of having and I know some of the news
line people as well. So it should be fun. And
then we've got Kings Island down the road where
we will be doing the FM contest. So I think they're
gonna have a good time and I think everybody's
looking forward to it. So I'll turn it back to
you, Neil. Yeah, we've been making the graders
a ham -vention tradition here lately, but I have
to admit though, secretly, they're not as well
known, but I'm more of a UDF fan than graders.
Now, Julie and I have this argument about, you
know, we both agree on Skyline, but, you know,
the graders and UDF argument, you know, it's
different. But but graders will graders is close
by so we'll do that Yep, that yeah, it works
out really well. Yeah. Well, you know you talked
a little bit about the Fox oaring event that
it's going to take place on Thursday and That's
going to be a big event in itself but to both
of you, you know now that you've seen the list
of topics and who's going to be doing what and
everything on the schedule, for sure. What's
your favorite thing? What are you looking forward
to seeing the most at the camp? Boy, that's a
hard one to say. I mean, the fox soaring was
really fun in Austria. I'm pretty excited to
do that one again. And for those of you who don't
know, the European way of doing a fox hunt, which
they call fox soaring, They usually do it on
80 meters with a ferrite bar antenna receiver
and so you get this bi -directional pattern with
a loop on one side that you can click a switch
on the thing to put in line and that kind of
makes the pattern lopsided. So you use that to
figure out which direction the fox is in then
you turn the thing on like put it parallel in
the direction of the fox And you get a really
sharp null on that antenna. So where you don't
hear the fox on the thing is where it is. And
they're really good. But the other thing they
do is they turn it into a race. So they'll have
a group of two or three people start at a given
time. And they have to go probably about a mile,
it was what they did in Europe, and find four
or five, six or seven, or however many of these
foxes are hidden out there. And so you're not
only competing, you're not only trying to find
the foxes, you're trying to get the best time.
So that means you've got to be able to run fast
and you've also got to be good at RDF. And if
you're not good at both, well, you're going to
get slowed down. So that was really fun at Austria.
I'm not entirely sure what else. I'm just excited
to see the event in general start happening in
the US. I think this is the first one where we've
got to hit the ground really hard and do really
well. And everybody's going to say, oh, wow,
this event has some potential. And young hams
are going to get to learn from young hams. And
then I think this is the point where this begins
the program where you know you get some people
into the event and those people eventually become
leaders organizers and such and it grows the
program and then we go from there so that's what
i'm excited to see uh... jocelyn well uh... You
know as Sam said we've got so many awesome workshops
that it's hard to pick a Favorite one that I'm
looking for. I think they're all going to be
awesome The one though that I am looking forward
to is I have a D star rig and I've never I mean
I do the it's just an HD It's the ID 51 a plus
I believe But I've never gotten to D star and
I just don't have the time and you know There's
other things are getting in the way put it that
way And I'm looking forward to just having the
icon guys there to kind of walk us through on
how this works and Kind of get a lesson that
I can but you know, it's not just for the kids.
I'll get something out of it, too So that should
be good. But as Sam said, yeah, I I've never
done the we've done a fox hunt But it was on
two meters very simple Describe the way he was
describing it is it should be really fun And
then we've got the FM contest at Kings Island.
We've got so many great things It's hard to pick
one. I think that would be a better question
after we're done. Which one was your favorite
one? Right now it's hard to tell, but yeah, everything
sounds awesome. Well, the ISS contact and the
foxering certainly topped my list at Austria.
But I mean, the other things are, you know, just
the intercultural night was fabulous. Granted,
the European culture is a bit... How do I say
this, boozier than ours is, so that's not going
to come over the pond quite exactly as it was.
But then just hanging out at the beach with a
bunch of guys who are as much of a geek as you
are was just a lot of fun. The strength of their
event, I thought, was it also mixed in plenty
of free time for people to just kick back and
chat and not have too much of an agenda and get
to know each other. yeah, all great stuff and
stuff that we've planned out for the week and
I Don't want to go through the whole list again
because we've done it on two or three shows now
But you know you can you can check that out on
our website at Yoda region to yota region and
the number two dot org Has some descriptions
there of what? Going to be taking place there.
So We're gonna take a break and when we come
back, we're gonna talk a little more about Yoda
camp and we're going to talk a little bit about
Yoda month, which is coming up also and We'll
take your calls and questions right after this
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Give us a call at 812 -NET -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. ICOM enjoys hams
being radioactive in addition to the various
contests and ham radio activities we support
and sponsor. ICOM is proud supporters of Youngsters
on the Air or Yoda. December is both a Region
1 and Region 2 Yoda activation. Work one or all
of the Yoda stations in Region 1 and Region 2
and help create excitement in our wonderful hobby,
visit events .ham -yoda .com Ham talk live is
on the air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
time right here at ham talk live comm 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 us, give us a call
at eight one two six three eight 4 2 6 1 again,
that's 8 1 2 6 3 8 4 2 6 1 or you can tweet us
at am talk live If you're listening on speaker,
you can type into the comments there too. That'll
come up and if you're listening to us on WTWW
or the podcast edition We're not here because
it's Thursday night right now as we record this
so I'm sorry, but we won't be able to take your
calls live, but We'll take some calls and some
questions. We do have some coming in, but let's
talk just a little bit about Yoda Month since
we were just talking about ICOM here helping
us do the Yoda Month thing. We don't have the
exact details just yet from Region 2. Bryant,
KG5HVO, has been working on this and he's got
everything ready to roll. We're just waiting
on some official paperwork is what we're waiting
on. But if you go to events .ham -yoda .com,
you'll see all the details, all the awards that
you can get for the Region 1 stations and then
hopefully we'll get the paperwork worked out
and then we'll have some Region 2 stations on
there as well but basically it's a bunch of special
event calls through the month of December and
you get on the air and make some contacts and
so they'll have like I said the award program
so check that out over on the Region 1 Yoda website
and give them a call and then Like I said, hopefully
we can get some region two call signs added in
there here in the next few days, and we'll announce
that a little better later on. Well, let's take
a look at some of the comments here. Troy W9KVR
says, mm, Skyline. Mm, graders. So I think Troy's...
Troy's ready for that Let's see on Twitter. Oh,
don't forget about big boy. Oh, oh my yeah Big
boys. No, we got list yet. Yeah, we got frishes,
too. Yeah Brett wi7bg says he's got a question
from a young perspective ham looking over his
shoulder. What's the youth? So thanks for listening
Brett and He's Saying what youth on the air.
What's that? Well, there we go. Oh and and and
Something very important. I haven't given the
score update at Georgia Tech. They were up 14
nothing It's now 21 to 3 Georgia Tech over NC
State. So Sterling, we hope you're enjoying That
means we're not getting sterling tonight is what
that means. Yes, that means sterling is not calling
in Well, let's see What else have we got to talk
about? We've got ways to help what we're gonna
talk about that. I know And This wouldn't be
possible without a lot of help And we've been
able to get some corporate sponsors to help pay
for the camp and provide the equipment for the
camp. And, you know, we're about three -fourths
of the way there. That was kind of our self -imposed
goal. And ICOM, like Jocelyn said, is going to
provide all the radios for us. Heil Sam's going
to provide mics and headsets and headphones and
all that kind of thing. R &L electronics is just
down the road. They're going to provide all the
last -minute necessities and connectors and tuners
and stuff like that. And then our financial donors,
the YASME Foundation, the Worldwide Radio Operators
Foundation, some of the major hamfests, Orlando,
Dayton, Huntsville. All of those, Orlando Hamcation,
Dayton Hamvention and Huntsville Hamfest are
donating. The Northern California DX Foundation
is a big donor. And then we've got ARRL Foundation,
the Southwest Ohio DX Association. Xtronic donated
all their soldering stations for the camp. And
Radio Amateurs of Canada. They're going to try
to send some campers and Gary West, K8DEV and
his wife Dede, K8DXE. They are there in Westchester
and Gary's been a big help getting me connected
with resources in the community. So thanks to
all of them and then we've got our fundraising
campaign and thanks to all of you who have already
donated to it. We'll talk more. about that in
a bit. Joshlin, you had something else too? Yeah,
I was going to say for the gentleman that was
wondering the youth, I guess one thing we should
specify is the age ratio or the age range, sorry.
So we're looking at 15 to 25 as our age range
for now. So if you're in that age group, you're
certainly welcome to apply. I believe registration
will open in February. But if you want more information,
as Neil mentioned earlier, if you go to yotaregion2
.org and right off there on the main site, on
the left side, it says... You'd on the air camp
come is coming to the USA and there's a couple
links there and you'll find out more information
about the camp and the activities and really
how we're send this up. So just hopefully that
answers the question. So back to you, Neil. Yeah.
And be sure to sign up. There's a sign up there.
It doesn't commit you to the camp. It's just
a sign up so that we know you're interested and
then we can get a hold of you. to tell you as
registration opens in February and kind of remind
you about that and some things that are going
to be happening between now and then. So be sure
to sign up there on the website just so we can
get your contact information and let you know
more about the camp. Sam, over to you. Oh, okay.
Yeah, I think the age range Think is an interesting
one. I was surprised actually when I went over
to Austria And they said oh, well, you know,
this is uh, this is the age range we're doing
but I mean that's a good age range in a lot of
ways I mean, there's there's a lot of overlap
between you know people in high school and such
and college and young adults who maybe have just
Gotten their job in engineering or something
or looking for something else to do. I mean that's
It's a bit broader, I think, than what would
often be considered a youth in this region. But,
I mean, it worked well in Austria, so this is
kind of the thing we're basing it on. Yeah, and
I was going to say, Sam, also, I'm sure that,
you know, we're expecting about, well, right
now we're limited to 20 campers. If we can get
more funds, then obviously we'll open up to more.
But I was going to say, Guess the younger kids
are probably going to go towards each other as
peers and the older kids or the young adults
Are probably going to hang out more together?
Because they have more in common just from you
know life and stuff in general So I think that's
going to be great because they'll be able to
meet people That are interested in radio just
like they are and being able to keep in touch
and you know Like you said jobs or it could be
very simple things, but I think I think it would
be very good to to see all that uh... dynamics
work out and uh... you know i think friendships
are going to come out of this uh... no matter
what i think uh... people are gonna have a good
time i mean that's why we're going to the effort
we want everybody to have a good time and uh...
make sure that the program is successful now
for sure well i mean the age range is uh... they
actually co -mingled a lot more than i had expected
when i went to austria so you know that they
had a bit of a different organization they had
uh... the teams there were grouped by country
so you know you have a radio organization there
for a given country and that radio organization
was kind of the gatekeeper of who they sent to
the big national camp every summer. So those
people you know you might have a group where
they were We had groups where they were on all
edges of that age range and we had groups where
they were kind of in the center or to one side
or the other. And, you know, that stuff kind
of broke down while we were there. So that was
another thing we were talking about also is that
there's, you know, how to figure out who exactly
is going to come. I imagine we're going to have
more applicants than we have spaces. Now, we
hope we'll get enough sponsorship that we'll
be able to offer a few more spaces than the 20
that are planned right now. But, you know, there
may be some things that we look at like having
recommendations from certain hams and local clubs
as a head up to do that to make sure that we
come up with a good group for our first event
because the chemistry of the group is going to
be one of the critical factors. But I think we'll
come up with a really great group. And I'm really
excited that people are going to be able to go
and sit next to the radio with people like Marty
or KG5HVO and get to do things with people who
have really, really good radio experience at
their own age range. So that'll be a great experience
for them. Now, in addition to this, we've got
the whole international thing going so We've
we've done a little bit of promoting down in
Central and South America on social media We
did some this summer. We did some more last week
as we opened up the camp, but You know one of
the things that we're going to be Working on
is making sure we get the word down there and
try to get some people from some other countries
besides just the U .S. and Canada? Yeah, I mean,
that's kind of how the European won. Well, I
say European just because that's where it was
when I was there. It's really IARU region one.
So some years they did it up in Europe. One year
they did it in South Africa. And then when they
were doing it in Europe, they had participants
from Africa come up there. And we certainly hope
to have some participants from Canada and South
America come up. And that's something that's
interesting when you start traveling internationally
or go to one of the really big hamfests. I mean,
you get a certain amount of it at Hamvention,
some of the bigger ones here, but you actually
get to meet the DX. I may be called to a certain
group overseas, our favorite US East Coast spotting
station, because every once in a while I will
get a message on Telegram saying, Sam, hey, can
you get on the air? Because we want some spots
from the East Coast. And so I say, oh, OK, well,
maybe now's a good time to turn the radio on.
Let's see if I can hear some of y 'all. It's
fun to maintain some connections to people who
are so far -flung, and certainly doing that for
North and South America would be a great opportunity
if we can make it work. There may be a guest
or two from Europe, we don't know yet, but some
of the big people in European Yoda want to see
our event, so we may wind up with some pretty
far -flung guests, and I hope we do. Yeah, I'm
really looking forward to seeing what we can
do with that and I think that Those experiences
that you have, you know, you you're talking to
these people all the time on telegram, you know
because you spent a week with them you got to
know them and now you're working with them to
To help bring this camp over here and it's exactly
what we hope will We'll take off from this one.
Yeah, I made such good friends. I try to get
out to Friedrichshafen every year to see him
there. Yeah, so now I'm going to hear about the
camp being. Right before Friedrich Hoffman Sometimes
stuff falls the way it does. Yeah, I might have
to I might have to go see them a different time
this year Well, and I was gonna say to Sam's
point, that's the that's the beauty of having
it close to Dayton as well Because the folks
that are gonna meet here are probably able to
also get to Dayton and that may be their meeting
point Kind of like what Sam is saying there about
Friedrich Hoffman Yeah, that's what happens in
Friedrichshafen and now in Friedrichshafen they
they have a big youth camp which is actually
in one of the unused exhibition halls that a
lot of the Yoda people stay at and that's open
pretty much to anybody 27 and under and so the
same age ranges tend to congregate there and
It kind of similar effect happens there. There's
a bunch of buddies who met up there just doing
activities there and so they've got they've got
a ham radio station they set up for that where
they let people bring boat anchors that they
bought at Friedrichshoff and over to try them
out right then and stuff like that. They'll usually
have a game server set up and some soldering
stations and the pile of test equipment. this
weird thing that they call a beamer, which is
their word for a projector. I laughed the first
time I heard that. I had a buddy from Yoda Japan
came over, and he brought his Japanese Nintendo
Entertainment System, or they call it a Famicom
there, and we were just shining the thing on
the wall with the beamer, oops, I mean projector,
and playing God. Japanese Mega Man X on the on
the wall and it's like, you know, this is the
type of thing that kids do when You're just given
the freedom to hang out. And so that's We've
got plenty of time for that But yeah, I mean,
I think a lot of people are gonna get together
hamvention and you know Maybe we'll either start
doing something in subsequent years and hamvention
where we have like some kind of dinner where
we get everybody together or some or do an Airbnb
or something. I mean, there's a lot of ideas
that we can do going forward, but the first one
is to just get the camp off well and the rest
will fall into place. Troy W9KVR has a question.
I know it's a week long camp, but will there
be single day opportunities available? And I'm,
I guess, I guess since I'm I'm the guy that has
to say no. I don't like saying no. But yeah,
not really. We're going to have the whole week
kind of mapped out. Now I know there are some
people who maybe have to leave a little early.
Yeah, we really won't be able to do that at least
this time. It's something interesting to think
about It's something that there might be some
possibility also, you know, maybe we will be
as flexible as we can but maybe if there's people
who live nearby who want to just come and visit
for a particular time or see a particular opportunity
or See a particular activity or something like
that There may be some possibilities to accommodate
them but in general the event is designed such
that You're gonna be there for the whole week
and we really want it to be like that because
if you're just there for a few hours or whatnot
No, cool. Well, I saw an activity if you're there
for the week Well, I made buddies and that's
really really what it's aimed at Now I will say
this the Thursday afternoon the camp we need
visitors we want visitors because we need fans
for this race and so if you're gonna come visit
for one day Thursday afternoon is the day to
do that go ahead Jocelyn no no sorry I was going
to say, yeah, Sam, I think has got a good point.
If people are local, we may be able to work something
if they want to stop in for a few hours. But
as he said, the camp is aimed at building friendship
relationships and be getting the whole package
experience. So that's all I was trying to say.
Sorry. No, no, that's fine. So, yeah, we are
we are going to be looking for. Some local help
with things But you know most of it at this point
is Set up tear down And and again, we'd really
want to get a big crowd if we can on Thursday
To cheer on the the race. So You know, that's
that's something we'll be working on and we'll
talk about But really I want to focus on three
ways you can help if you want to help make this
Successful and you you want to help us out and
in making this thing ago I see three things that
you can do to help one Be on the air during that
week. We need pile -ups If they're gonna practice
contesting skills and operating skills We need
to have some Pile -ups and so we need people
to be on the air during that week, especially
that Monday evening when we have some dedicated
time for that. We need people on the air and
so that's one way you can help. Another way you
can help is identify and support. There will
be QSL cards, so you're going to want to be on
the air and I will make sure they are very good.
Yeah, we've got those haven't got too far on
that yet, but we've got some ideas But we will
definitely have some some cool QSL cards from
that The second way is to find some youth to
attend the camp. We need some Recommendations
we need people to know about this camp That are
between the ages of 15 and 25 and have a license
They do need to be licensed before they come
because they're going to have to operate on their
own. So we need to find some youth and again
getting the word down to Central and South America
is going to be a little more challenging. We've
got some avenues to do that and like I said we've
been doing some social media promotion even this
summer. But we need to get some youth identified.
And maybe you can sponsor local youth to come
to the camp, help them get to Cincinnati. That's
the one thing that is going to cost the camper
other than the $100 registration fee is transportation
there and back. And so maybe you can help them
out with that. And then lastly, Uh, we, we still
need donations. Uh, we have about $5 ,000, uh,
left that we need to raise. Um, after all the
corporate sponsors, uh, have chipped in. Um,
and so we have a GoFundMe page set up. Um, and
we also take donations by PayPal, if you'd rather
do it on PayPal. And then I kind of transfer
it over. So we get the. The running total but
you can donate on PayPal you can donate on the
GoFundMe site We need to finish that off and
then The more we get the more campers we can
host We've got 20 right now. We hope to go up
to 30 So we got to get up to $11 ,000 over the
Already pledged donations So an extra $6 ,000
means we can get 10 more kids in. So $11 ,000
would put us in the ballpark of being able to
have our maximum, which is $30 ,000. So donate
if you can. Ask your club to donate. Ask others
to donate. And you can find that on our website
at yota .org. And there's a donate button there.
And also, as you're shopping, and rumor has it
there may be some shopping going on about a week
from today, if you're on Amazon, if you do smile
.amazon .com and sign up there, anything that
you purchased, over smile .amazon .com a percentage
of that sale is donated by Amazon to the camp
so that information is also on the website so
those are some ways that you can help if you
want to see this happen that's some ways that
you can help All right. Well, it looks like our
time is gone. So let me run around the horn one
last time here For anything we might have missed
or any closing comments. So Sam, why don't you
go ahead first? No, I mean for sure, you know
the more help we can get that more people we
can put up in the camp Do think we're probably
we were saying that the upper limit would be
around 30 just because of how big the place is
but you know if we get a lot of support we'll
try to bring in as many people as we can and
Then this I hope is just the beginning of a really
big Yona program in North and South America,
you know that everything started small the In
Europe was pretty humble it was pretty small
It was the beginning of a big program now that
does one huge camp during the summer and several
smaller ones during the rest of the year. So
they've got their Nordics on the air camp in
Scandinavia coming up and they're going to have
another big one next summer and probably a few
big ones in between. I mean the one in southern
Germany, which was considered a subregional Yoda
camp, I think had 60 attendees. this is the sort
of thing where, you know, maybe some of you listening
are interested in participating in this camp
and this program, but maybe some others of you
listening are interested in what you can do to
expand the program once we get our feet in the
ground. You know, maybe there's going to be a
whole bunch of different smaller camps going
on in a few years. You know, that's just something
that I want everybody to keep in the back of
their heads is that, you know, this is kind of
they'd say be the change you want to see and
if we can get lots of good mentors of all ages
together to see the program forward then we're
gonna have a terrific program and I'm pretty
confident we're gonna be off to a great start
so and finally thank you Neil for being the prime
organizer of this of course because you you had
to change something in my My introduction, you
should have said instead of restoring vintage
radios, you meant restoring vintage computers
for the retro game con stuff. Yes. I'm probably
one of the youngest people now who knows how
to take apart a CRT television without killing
myself, but you know, the hobbies. I really appreciated
having you take the reins on things while I've
been... trying to further some other events i've
been involved with so you're going to be the
reason why this is successful well thank you
jocelyn well i think yes Was going to say Sam
kind of summed it all up You know as you said
also donations It's just just the way that these
camp type thing work is we need we need funds
to make this happen The more campers the better.
I think more kids will have fun We're looking
for a great success at this camp. I was going
to say real quick. I got a email here from Mr.
Ed KGHCX up there in Michigan, and he basically
is saying that he's already promoting the Yoda
events to his group and looking forward to Yoda
December on the air. So, Neil, that's all I got.
Thank you again for having us on and for making
this happen for the youth in Region 2. I think
it's going to be fantastic. So, that's all I
got. All right. Well, I want to thank everybody
for listening. Um, if, if you want to hear more
about this, um, we did the announcement on, uh,
ham nation last week, so you can, you can catch
that. Um, and then, uh, we were also last night
or not last night, Tuesday night. Uh, we were
over on w five K U B .com. So thanks, um, to,
uh, the whole crew over there at w five K U B
and, and to Tom and Katie for. I'm having Jocelyn
and I on Tuesday night and make sure you check
out w5kub .com and take a look at some of the
things that they're doing. So we want to express
our gratitude to that and also Amateur Radio
Newsline. We've got an article coming out in
National Contest Journal. We've got an article
coming out in CQ Magazine, I know. And so many
different places have helped us. promote this
and I know we're going to be on Linux and the
ham shack soon. So there's all kinds of things
we're trying to kind of make each one different
so you know you can check those out. The video
from ham nation we have linked I know over on
the web page so if you want to check that out
you can. We'll try to get some of the others
on there as well, but yota region and the number
2 .org is where you'll find all that information.
And Yoda month, that announcement is going to
take place here within a few days of what the
call signs are and just exactly what the region
2 participation is. but the Region 1 participation
is already up on the Region 1 Yoda website so
check that out at events .ham -yota .com and
you can see that and then we'll be adding in
the Region 2 stuff as soon as we get all the
I's dotted and T's crossed and all that kind
of thing but we've got a schedule already set
up and a lot of young operators, some great young
operators. Uh, that are going to be working those.
So, uh, be listening for the announcement about,
uh, Yoda month over here in, um, the Americas.
So Jocelyn Sam, thank you for being here. Thank
you so much for your work on, on the committee.
Uh, it, it takes, uh, the entire group and I
know you get like inundated with emails from
me like daily. So thank you so much for doing
that. I think I get more emails than some of
the Yoda chat rooms. Yeah. But by all means,
I mean, I'm sure we'll be back on here to talk
about Yoda month, whether it's before it happens
or right at the beginning. But that's going to
be a fun one. And Europe, what they do is they
have the thing on and they They do it all December
they get a couple of big stations to host and
they bring youngsters over and they have a competition
as to who can Believe this is how it works. They
have a competition as to which station You know
can reel in the most points at the end. So it's
a they They make a competition out of it. It's
a lot of fun. I work a lot of them every year
Yeah, it should be should be a blast and also
thanks to ICOM ICOM is sponsoring our website.
So when you go there, click on the icon ad there
and check them out because they've got some great
stuff and we're going to get to use a lot of
it at the camp. So we're looking forward to that.
Well, we are way over time here, so we better
get going. And one final check. Let's see, it's
still, oh no, the third quarter started. It's
still 21 to three. Georgia Tech, so still no
word from Sterling, but we'll excuse him for
that. So one last note, programming note. Next
week is Thanksgiving. I'm going to be over in
Westchester so we won't have a show next week
but the following Thursday we'll be back with
another show and it might even be about Yoda
month is kind of what I'm thinking so if we can
get that scheduled we'll talk about that then
but as Sam said if not then it'll it'll be soon
thereafter and we'll get the word out on that
but for now that's a wrap for this edition of
HamTalk Live. Thanks to Sam Rose, KC2LRC, Jocelyn
Breaux, KD8VRX, and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and typing in. And on WTWW next
week, we'll have an encore performance of a previous
episode since next Thursday's Thanksgiving. So
happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and we'll see
you back here Thursday, December 5th. at our
usual 9 p .m eastern time and for a list of all
of our upcoming guests go to hamptalklive .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 WB9 VPG saying seven three seven
five and may the good DX be yours oh wait less
is going to say it tonight This is Les Nessman
saying good day and may the good dicks be yours.
This has been the family news with Les Nessman.
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could
fly. We came right back to my security call Your
readability five and strength nine You never
once mentioned your weather at all And I didn't
mention mine We talked and talked for hours and
hours I completely forgot you're a ham