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Hey good evening everyone and welcome to HamTalk
Live, it's episode number 181. The WWV 100th
anniversary special event station recorded live
on Thursday, September 12th, 2019. I'm your host,
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight, we're joined
by Dave Swartz, W0DAS, and Matt Deutsch in Zero
RGT. and we'll take your calls live in just a
few minutes. Last week here on the show Howard
Bernstein WB2UZE and Rich Collins K2UPS were
here to talk about the Long Island CW club and
their online CW classes. So if you missed that
show you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com
or on your favorite podcast app or YouTube or
you can catch the rebroadcast on WTWW that's
5085AM. Saturday evenings at about 630 p .m.
Eastern Time. So get your WWV questions ready
to go. If you're listening to us live on Thursday
night, you can call us after the interview and
I'll go ahead and give you the number so you
can write it down and have it ready to go when
we ask for calls. That number is 812 -NET. It's
812 -638 -4261. You can also tweet us. I'll be
watching Twitter throughout the night. It's at
HamTalkLive on Twitter and if you're on Spreaker
you can type into the comments there and that
should pop up here on the screen as well. So
I'll give you that number again a little bit
later. But first we're gonna talk to Matt and
Dave right after this word from tower electronics
right here on ham talk live I'm sorry to bother
you, but I'm having an antenna party and I ran
out of PL 259s. Oh come in Thank you would silver
plated PL 259s 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. Thanks to Scott and
Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring the
show again tonight to bring you Cam Talk Live.
They'll be in Peoria at the Superfest that's
September 21st and 22nd and then they'll be in
Sweetwater, Tennessee on September 28th and October
4th and 5th they'll be in Belton, Texas but you
can visit them anytime you want day or night
at PL -259 .com Joining us tonight, Dave Schwartz,
W -0 -D -A -S. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado
and was first licensed in 1974 as a teenager
in Pennsylvania. Dave graduated from Colorado
State University as a geologist in 1982 and became
a high school science teacher at Rocky Mountain
High School. And Dave is helping organize the
WWV Centennial Celebration. And Matt Deutsch
in Zero RGT has been the chief engineer at WWV.
and WWVB for the National Institute of Standards
and Technology in Fort Collins since 1989. From
1979 to 1991, he was an electronics technician
for the Coast Guard and Matt received his amateur
radio license in 1992. So guys, welcome back
to the show. Thank you. Yeah, we were able to
talk back in Hamvention season during our date
and preview here on the show. We had you guys
on to talk about the forum that took place at
Hamvention about the 100th anniversary of WWV.
And now we know a lot more about the special
event and some of the festivities that are going
to take place. So that's coming up real soon.
So Dave let's hear about the final plans and
details for the on -air part of that 100th anniversary
celebration. Well we're very busy getting ready
just trying to make sure all the pieces parts
are in place and we met this afternoon we do
a video conference every week and so I really
feel like things are coming together. You wonder
at points, but it really is. We're going to be
on the air starting on Friday night. That would
be September 27th. But we're going to start at
zero hours on September 28th, UTC. So here in
the West, we start at 6 o 'clock. On the East
Coast, it'll be 8 o 'clock in the evening on
that Friday. And of course, 5 o 'clock on the
West Coast. But we'll get started. We're going
to be operating a variety of different modes.
We'll be doing digital. CW, single sideband.
The digital, I think we've settled in on, we're
going to be focused in on FTA. I know there's
some demand for other digital formats, but we're
going to try to use the KISS philosophy, keep
it simple, and hopefully that works out well.
So anyhow, we're getting ready for all that.
That's going to run for five full days, and we'll
have our schedule up on our website. We have
a website. www .v100 .com and we'll post our
operating schedule or the operating schedules
up there already and You have to look out. It's
just a Google spreadsheet. That's got a color
code and tells What mode will be operating in
a what bands and we'll try to stick to that schedule
We'll have a fifth station that's going to be
also set up to be sort of a very flexible station
if we have an opportunity a special guest that
comes in and would like to operate a little while
then they'd have that opportunity to do that.
We're going to contact schools. We got some museums
lined up as well. So we're hoping to keep that
sort of flexible station. Also, we're going to
have a six meter operation from that same sort
of extra station. So we're going to venture into
the six meter round and do some meteor scatter
digital. So got some great guys working on that
here. Very tuned into that whole world So they're
gonna be offering that up for a lot of people
to to be able to get to the station By digital
via meteor scatter. I think that's pretty neat.
So there's a lot going on Neil It's a little
hard to wrap up into one one explanation, but
it'll be a lot of fun the can I think what Matt
said was that on email that After this is over
that you could do just about anything, maybe
even run a three ring circus. Well, not exactly.
And, and this is certainly not my effort. This
is a, this is a team effort. I just happen to
be the guy that has a little bit more flexibility
in his day. So I get called on to do the oddball
things, but, uh, it's really a group effort.
Uh, the Northern Colorado radio club. We're getting
help from Rocky Mountain Ham, which is a big
organization throughout Colorado. They're going
to provide us with a comm trailer and several
towers for our beams. So we're excited to have
them involved. We have a small startup club,
Fort Collins CW Group, that's going to support
the operations of the event as well. So it's
really all of these different organizations across
Colorado coming together to make this a really
fun event. Well, it sounds like a great event
and really looking forward to all of it and Matt
you've got some some celebration going on down
In Albuquerque is that is that right? That is
correct. First of all, I do want to say that
You know Dave and his crew have poured themselves
into this upcoming special event station and
I'm just astounded where all the guys at the
radio station are in awe about how organized
and hard -working these guys are and so there's
a shout out to them but I am going I've been
invited to the Duke City Hamvention in Albuquerque
and I will be speaking Sunday morning the 22nd
of September I believe it is about the history
of the 100 year history of WWD. So if anyone's
in the area and can make it, I'm sure they'd
love to have you. That'll be doing my part. All
right. Sounds good. So Albuquerque on September
22nd. And if you get a chance to get out there
and see Matt and hear about the 100th anniversary,
that'd be a great opportunity. Well, Dave. I
noticed that you guys did a test run because
you know, you're, you're out there operating
where there's all kinds of RF. And so you decided
to do a test run. I'd say that was a great idea.
So what did that entail and how did that test
run go? Well, we went out a couple of weekends
ago on a Saturday and we had a lot of help from,
like I said, the whole crew and other people
joined us as well. We had David Casden from Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland actually
flew out to help us and to get oriented with
what's going on. He's going to be doing a wonderful
festival of frequency measurement event along
with the WWV event. We'll have more on the website
about that later. But we had a great group of
people. We got one of our beams put together.
We were using Step -by -R beams that were loaned
to us from Step -by -R. And they're just a great,
incredible tool once you get to working with
it. So we got that assembled, set up, got used
to working with the beam. The big question was
the RF environment for sure. And of course, we're
going to be using bandpass filters just to isolate
ourselves from each other. But we do have to
do some notch filtering. So we've got some stub
filters that are going on. The receive end of
things coming into a radio. We took on a challenge
and we're trying to operate 30 meters And so
we're only 100 kilohertz away from a 10 kilo
10 kilowatt broadcast and it's a hundred yards
from us so that definitely the background noise
is up and When we do the filtering we have a
tendency to drop everything so we're looking
at some crystal filtering options as well But
we're gonna give 30 meters ago. That would be
our real challenge to see Especially with everybody
being 200 watts or less. So it'll be a lot of
fun. We'll give it a try. Yeah. Anytime you're
in a high RF situation like that, and then you've
got multiple. transmitters on multiple frequencies
at the same time, that's got to be a challenge.
So I'm glad that the test run went well. Well,
last time you were on the show, we were talking
about a song about WWV. And after the show, I
I had to go find it. I had to go listen to it.
And I found it. It's by Science Park. And it's
a one -man band. His name is Mike Weiskopf. And
he was kind enough to give us permission to play
part of the song tonight. So if you like it and
you want the rest of it, you can go over to Science
Park at sciencepark .la. And you can download
those tracks from there. We're going to take
a moment here and listen to this, this song.
Now, now, Dave, you've heard this song too. What,
what are your thoughts here on the song before
we play it? Well, this is a really interesting
album. I mean, it came out in 1990. Is that right?
19 or 1998, something like that. So about 20
year old album and, uh, Mike is in Southern California,
so it has that Southern California 1990s feel
to the music a little bit, which I think is kind
of fun. So it's a neat to, it's interesting.
When I played it for the guys at the station,
they were astounded. Let's just put it that way.
But I think it's fun. And to be honest with you,
I think Mike Weiskopf, he just put out a new
album. So people do go check out Science Park
LA. It's a really good album and a very different
and much more mature musician and a lot of fun
to listen to that one too. So he has some, he
has some very good music. I like the song you're
about to play. So I'm ready. All right. Well,
let's give a listen. This is science park and
WWV right here on ham talk live. All right. So
there you go. So if you want to hear the rest
of that, uh, science park .la and, uh, Mike,
thanks for letting us use that. And, and, uh,
Dave, Mike's got a lot of WWV recordings too.
Yeah. He's got a, an amazing collection of, uh,
WWV throughout history and really starting about
the 1940s. Didn't go back further than that,
but it's really interesting to hear some of the
announcements. It's got leap seconds in there.
If you're a time fanatic, you're going to love
to listen to that extra leap second thrown in
there a few times. And it's a very good recording.
He also has gone around the world recording shortwave
broadcasts from all over the planet. And I've
never seen a collection anything like it. So
if people have a chance to go check that out,
there are links to the sound recordings, I think,
from Science Park. But we'll have to go. I haven't
been to that site, so. Not exactly sure. Keep
an eye on Mike Weisskopf though, for some really
interesting recordings. I think they're great.
Yeah. I know you were telling me about some of
that earlier and I haven't had a chance today
to go listen, but I want to go listen to some
of those leap seconds and, and some of that stuff.
So, uh, we'll check that out, but Mike, thanks
for letting us, uh, use that tonight and, uh,
It was a lot of fun. So again, sciencepark .la
is where you will find that song if you're interested
in hearing the rest of that and downloading that.
I did that after we talked back in May. And so
it's on my phone now all the time. Well, let's
talk about the QSL card. for the, uh, special
event and certificates and whatever else you've
got planned. And the call sign is w w zero w
w V. So tell us how people can, uh, contact the
special event station and get that confirmation.
Well, just have a QSO. We were going to have
everything uploaded to OQRS and club log, uh,
logbook of the world as fast as we can get it
up there as well. but OQRS has a very neat new
service that is a mapping service and so you
can actually watch the contacts coming in from
around the world. I've seen it on other DX traditions
in different forms and it's really kind of neat.
So we're glad that they just announced that they
have that tool and we're going to try to take
advantage of that. The QSL cards will be through
OQRS and PayPal. We'll probably get the cards
out Several weeks after the event because we
want to include photographs of the event and
at the site and everything So the cards are designed
but have yet to be populated with some good images
from the event and Matt you've got something
going on too, right? I do I am looking at providing
a QSL card for just one day on October 1st of
this year marking the 100th anniversary. And
certainly anyone who hears us on October 1st,
they're more than welcome to write to us or you
can reach us by email, www .nis .gov and send
in a reception report and we'll send you a 100th
anniversary QSL card. And we interestingly just
ran out of... our old -style QSL cards which
have been around for longer than I've been at
the station. They're more than 30 years old.
We finally ran out and actually I'm kind of glad
because they were kind of not colorful. Yeah,
they were. So I'm looking forward to over the
years here coming up to rotate through some different
photographs we have and maybe make them more
colorful and more exciting after the The event
comes and goes October 1st. All right. So you've
got a chance to get a card on October 1st, just
by listening to WWV and sending in a signal report.
And then if you work WWW zero WWV, you can get
on OQRS and request a card that way and take
care of that. So. Lots of good stuff going on
with the WWV 100th anniversary special event.
So we're going to take a break and when we come
back, we're going to take your calls and your
questions at 812 -638 -4261 and on Twitter and
we'll talk more with Matt and Dave after this
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Give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812
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for sponsoring the show once again tonight check
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ham talk live is at ham talk live calm and we're
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Eastern time Be sure to check us out on Facebook
Twitter and Instagram and it's time now For your
call. So if you have a question or comment for
Dave or Matt Give us a call right now at 812
-638 -4261. That's 812 -NET -HAM -1. 812 -638
-4261. Or tweet us. It's at HamTalk Live on Twitter.
And if you're listening to us on WTWW or on the
podcast edition, we're not here. Because it's
Thursday right now, so we're not here, so you're
not going to be able to reach us But we were
glad that you're listening anyway, so While we're
waiting on some of those questions to roll in
Let's talk a little bit about the museums and
schools Dave that you've got some some schedules
planned and trying to involve some of those schools
because, you know, you're the school teacher
at heart like I am. So tell us about some of
those plans. Well, we've put out the word to
the school club roundup group and we've gotten
at least a half dozen schools very interested
in contacting us. And also we've had a couple
of universities that I think are really actually
very tied into the history of radio. that are
interested in the University of Pittsburgh, uh,
has an amateur club that we're going to have
a scheduled contact with. And then also, uh,
in your home state, Purdue is going to, uh, have
a, uh, contact with us. And they were nice enough
to, to fill us in that, uh, Purdue, uh, the club
is actually older than WWV, which I think - Oh,
wow. W9YB is older than WWV. I did not know that.
And it was started by Dr. Fessenden, I think.
I think I might have said his name wrong, but
the inventor of AM radio was also key in starting
the Purdue Electrical Engineering Department.
And so they have, their station has been around
a long time. So it'd be really fun to have contacts
with them. We have a local museum in town. The
public part of the celebration has been really
scaled back to rather a small group of people
that are going to actually celebrate the event
on October 1st. But we're going to have our local
museum, the Museum of Discovery in Fort Collins.
It's going to have some hams down there. We're
going to have scheduled QSOs back and forth and
questions up to the operators at the special
events station. But it will be a chance for the
public to come in and get a little exposure to
ham radio. They're gonna have some historical
documents from when the station was first brought
to four columns from the museum Which is kind
of fun, too So it's really gonna tie the community
into that as well And if there are other museums
out there as well, I'd like you would love to
reach out and have some schedule contacts I think
of the paddock museum in Minnesota would be a
good one to go to And we're gonna we're gonna
get canine SOU in there, too We have to figure
that out. We'll get that. Yeah. We got to figure
that out. Your step IR working better, right?
Yeah. I worked on it, worked on it today and
I think maybe I've got a lead on the problem.
So we'll see how that goes. I think, I think
I got it figured out. 40 was great. 20 and 20
was not doing well, but well got a lead. So we're
going to try it. Yeah, we'll see if we will do
40 or 20. We'll try both. We'll figure it out
Yeah, or maybe we'll get our dipole up by then
We don't know we'll we're gonna give it a shot
anyway Well, we've got a couple of questions
that have come in on Twitter. So let's take a
look at those and I This one I'm assuming is
about WWV itself, so this may be one for Matt.
KC7ZIE would like to know what is the power that
is broadcasted and do you do tours? The power
that is broadcasted, the three frequencies that
we consider our primary Frequencies 5 megahertz
10 megahertz and 15 megahertz. They're all 10
kilowatts and then we have 2 .5 megahertz 20
and 25 megahertz and they're all two and a half
kilowatts and The question of tours does come
up a lot Unfortunately since 18 years ago yesterday
We've been told to scale back or eliminate the
tours, though on rare occasions we have gotten
permission to let in like a large radio club,
something where we can vet a large group of people,
and it's more efficient for the staff to get
in a large group. So if a radio club wants to
take a tour, we've been able to accommodate them,
but it's been pretty rare. All right, very good.
Um, and I guess this one would be for either
one of you. Uh, Carl KD9HQT is what wants to
know, how is the QRM around Fort Collins? And
do you think that the band conditions will be
good without conditions interfering since the
station is out in the country? you definitely
a lot less static and so you get out of the city
you get away from all the fluorescent lights
so where we can hear on the band where we don't
have our harmonic landing on top of us it's actually
really a good environment and so I was surprised
s1 s2 type of thing with any static so down down
low in town it could be s5 6 Just depends on
the time of day that type of thing. So especially
around the hospital a lot of noise, you know
I've noticed that I drive for whatever reason
driving by that and I do a HF net when I'm driving
home in the middle of the day and I You're right.
So cities are cities are bad. I Would love to
live out in the country, but that's also a little
tough to do as well. So but WWE is a very nice
location as far as you know the the qrm and the
qrm it definitely is uh a little quieter there
it's very nice as long as you're not on a harmonic
or sitting there you know 100 kilohertz off but
we're gonna make 30 meters work all right sounds
good and uh Welcome to Carl's dad's listening
so to Carl's up visiting his dad so welcome.
Thanks for listening in tonight to us and If
you have a question You can tweet us it's at
ham talk live or better yet. Give us a call It's
eight one two six three eight four two six one
eight one two net ham one and we'll try to get
your Questions answered. We're talking about
wwv tonight and the 100th anniversary with Dave
Swartz W0das and Matt Deutsch in zero rgt the
chief engineer at wwv Dave I know that There
were some plans for open house and then There
were some changes. Can you can you tell us a
little bit about what's going on with the open
house? Well that the open house is now a closed
house, I suppose is the best way to put it and
You know that was something the one thing that
we've done very well with nest and with the the
special event station is that we've kept ourselves
separate from one another and so what NIST decides
is really not going to impact us, other than
the fact that they're, you know, they're not
going to have the doors open for anybody just
to come up and see the station. The operators
are going to be at WW0, WWV for the special event
station. We are going to get a chance to make
sure that those operators get to visit the actual
WWV station. And so we'll be able to, like Matt
said, we'll have a bigger group and that will
be busy. We'll keep those guys busy, but we'll
do a tour for the operators. The government is
concerned. We have to give them a list of who's
going in and things like that. It's not your
normal government facility. They don't necessarily
have all of the same precautions up. They do
want to be careful as far as having people come
in and walking just through the property. It
just wouldn't work very well. area. So it would
be tough to manage it. Neil, if I could add on
to ZIE's question about the tours. If you go
on on YouTube, there is one video group that
we did take through several years ago and somebody
videotaped a large portion of it. Our videotape
shows you how old I am. It's recorded on their
phone, a large portion of video and obviously
not the same as a live tour, but it does cover
a lot of the bases and I would recommend You
know searching for that on YouTube and until
you know, we hopefully our public affairs people
said they would like to do a Professional tour
through there with good video equipment and post
that in the future. Oh That would be nice hopefully
they will Follow through and and do that. So
that'll be cool. We'll have to keep our eyes
open for that Well, if you have a question, give
us a call at 812 -638 -4261 or tweet us at HamTalkLive.
And we're going to finish things up here pretty
soon. So if you have a question, now is the time.
812 -638 -4261 or tweet us. Guys, anything that
we've left out here that we need to bring up?
I can't think of anything else. We really appreciate
being able to come on and talk about this with
you, Neil, and everybody else on HamTalk Live.
And we're excited about the event. I hope people
tune us in. We'll do our best to have as many
QSOs with everybody that we can. And I'm very
excited. I'll put it that way. We're looking
forward to it. It's going to be fun. All right.
Well there you have it. Before we go Dave, let's
remind everybody how they can find you on the
air and find the website and all the information
that they need to know here for the big special
event in a couple of weeks. Well the best way
to learn about the event is to go visit our website
www .v100 .com And we will update that and have
current operating frequencies and things like
that during the event posted. There is an operator
schedule posted on that website, so you could
go look and see what modes were operating when.
And again, we'll start on Friday evening, local
US time. That'll be zero hours on the 28th of
September, and we'll go for five days until the
end of October 2nd. And we'll be on all the HF
bands. We will not be doing 12 meters and Nothing's
good on 17 the warp bands. We are going to do
30 and We will be trying to do 160 and 80 as
well. So we'll see how that goes Okay, so be
sure to check out www V 100 comm and get all
that information. Well guys Have a great time.
I'm envious. I wish I could be out there and
check all that out. But it should be a really
great time. You had to get that in there, didn't
you? I had to do it. It's the chemistry teacher
in me. I tell my kids, we actually you know as
science teachers we actually have to take classes
on how to tell bad science jokes. Oh absolutely
it's part of your training that you get that
you definitely get that from your uh cooperating
teacher when you're student teaching too. Oh
yeah absolutely so we had to get it in there.
We'll be listening for you WB9BBG and uh what
modes do you like to operate Neil? I I'll operate
just about anything now My CW is pretty rusty,
so I kind of avoid CW, but sideband, PSK, FT8,
FM, sideband, whatever works. Well, we'll definitely
look for us FT8 and sideband. And CW if you warm
up a little bit. Yeah, I have to warm up a little
bit. And satellite. I can't forget satellite.
There you go. I added that in the last few years.
Absolutely. Alrighty. Okay. Well, that's, that's
going to be it for tonight. So guys, thanks so
much for coming on the show and have a great
time and enjoy it. And congratulations on making
it to 100. And we hope to hear WWV on for many,
many years to come. Me too. Thank you, Neil.
Thanks Neil. All right. Well, that is a wrap
for this week's edition of ham talk live. Thanks
to my guests Dave Swartz W0DAS and Matt Deutsch
N0RGT and everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening and typing in tonight and I invite
you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time when Joe Karsha NJ1Q and Michelle Patnode
W3MVP will be here to talk about ARRL's podcast
So Now What? And for a list of all of our upcoming
guests, visit HamTalkLive .com. And if you like
the show, please leave us a review. That helps
us out a lot and helps others find us faster.
So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying
7375, and may the good DX be yours. WWV all the
time all the time