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Good evening, everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live. It's episode number 174. It's Ruth Willett,
KM4LAO, the 2018 Hiram Percy Maxim Award winner
recorded live on Thursday, July 25th, 2019. I'm
your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning
in to this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're
joined by Ruth KM4LAO. As she's known on Twitter,
it's just KM4Ruth and we'll take your calls live
in just a few minutes. Last week here on the
show, Bill Stern's NE4RD was here to give an
update from the World Scout Jamboree and they
are rolling. They've been doing balloon launches
and HF contacts and the satellite contacts and
everything. So if you hear NA1WJ, give them a
call. But he was here to update us on everything
and also Brian Tarascal, KG5HVO, called in from
Carousel. He's on the Youth DX Adventure and
gave us an update on the totals there and they're
back home. But if you missed the 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 5085
AM Saturday evenings about 630 PM Eastern Time.
So get your questions ready for Ruth. If you're
joining us tonight live on Thursday, you can
give us a call after the interview by telephone
at 812 -NET - Ham 1. I'll give you the number
here again in a minute, but you can give us a
call and ask your question a little later on.
It's not time to call just yet, but we'll announce
when it is time. That number again, 812 -NET
-HAM -1. 812 -638 -4261. You can also tweet us.
It's at HamTalkLive on Twitter. I'll be checking
that. throughout the night. So I'll be back with
Ruth right after this word from ICOM right here
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Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. Thanks to
ICOM America for sponsoring the show again tonight.
Make sure you check them out at icomamerica .com
slash amateur. Tonight's guest is Ruth Willett,
KM4 LAO. Ruth is now a senior at Kettering University
studying engineering physics and mechanical engineering.
Originally from Georgia, Ruth spends a lot of
her operating time at school in Michigan and
her co -op job in Georgia or back home now in
Virginia. She is the 2018 Hiram Percy Maxim Award
winner, which is presented by the ARRL to recognize
young hands. She's also spoken at many club meetings
and conventions including Suodexa, the DX dinner
that's always held during Hamvention Weekend
and the Hamvention Youth Forum. She's been a
member on the Dave called her Memorial Youth
DX Adventure team. We were just talking about
Bryant KG5HVO that just got back from that and
they're going back to Saba, which is where Ruth
went when she did her DX Adventure. And she's
also revived the Kettering University Amateur
Radio Club. She is the president of that. And
she's been licensed for four years and enjoys
all kinds of operating, especially CW and satellite.
She's a member of many clubs, including CW ops
and is featured in the heiress video. Now the
heiress video is played just before each US school.
actually makes the contact with the astronaut.
So it's to kind of get you hyped up and ready
to go for that astronaut contact on the International
Space Station and Ruth and Chris are on that.
I got to see that at Hamvention. That was pretty
cool. So Ruth, welcome to the show. Thank you
so much, Neil. It's really fun to be on tonight.
Dodging coughing here. So if you hear the mic
drop out, it's probably because I have to cough
But anyway, Ruth, it's good to have you on tonight
We want to talk a little bit about some of the
things you've been doing and some of the things
that has happened to you so First let's talk
a little bit about the award the Hiram Percy
Maxim award is from ARL for hams under 21 and
Tell us a little bit about that award and some
of the opportunities it's brought to you and
what that means to you. It was really an incredible
honor to be named the 2018 A .W .R .L. Hiram
Percy Maxim Memorial Award recipient. As my friends
and family can attest, I was on cloud nine for
weeks after I heard the news that I'd won it.
There's so many active young hams in the hobby
and I'm so grateful that the AWRL Board of Directors
selected me last year. So the award presentation
came last year in November at the Stone Mountain
Hamfest, and it was so special to receive the
actual award plaque surrounded by friends and
people who just loved and mentored me for so
many years. This award definitely has given me
a platform that I'm really grateful for. It enabled
me to share him radio with a lot of people. I
just love this hobby and I really want to do
whatever I can to help it grow and get stronger.
This award has allowed me to connect with more
youth in the hobby, offering mentorship and friendship.
I've been working on writing different articles
and creating presentations that are hopefully
both exciting and informational. I'm very thankful
for more leadership opportunities that are upcoming
because it's very important for me to keep learning
and growing and improving my skills because there's
always always something new to learn. Just knowing
that someone may be looking up at me and watching
my track record in the hobbies exciting because
it motivates me to just keep being myself, keep
loving the hobby, enjoying all types of activities,
and above all, learning as much as I can and
having a lot of fun along the way. That's cool
and and and that happens I mean, you know It
seems like it kind of snowballs once people find
out about you then all of a sudden It just kind
of kind of snowballs and everybody's watching
Pretty cool. Well Speaking of that, you were
able to revive the Amateur Radio Club at Kettering
where you're going to school right now. So tell
us a little bit about that adventure. Oh yes,
that's been awesome. It's been a really good
learning experience for me getting to restart
the Kettering University Amateur Radio Club or
K8HPS. So there was a club at school a number
of years ago that had been been inactive for
quite a while. So when I started at Kettering
back in 2016, I was active in the hobby. I was
like, I want to start the club up again. So through
the next couple of years, I just worked to recruit
members, apply for club recognition, and just
get the word out there around campus. We were
approved and our first term as an active club
was the spring of 2018. So we've been going for
just over a year. So far we've been able to do
interesting presentations on a variety of topics
with hams from around the country, usually skyping
in and such. It's been awesome. We've hosted
a licensing class and gotten a couple of students
licensed and we have plans to do another one.
We've experimented with different types of operating
and kit building and we even got to put K8HPS
back on the air during the School Club Roundup
last year. That was made possible thanks to some
Kettering alumni that brought radio equipment
for us to use. It was just a whole lot of fun.
I just love that I can share this amazing hobby
with my fellow students and faculty and teachers
and alumni. It's just a lot of fun. Restarting
the club has definitely been an adventure. Science
and engineering students were notoriously busy
and trying to add in clubs to be active in through
our already shortened semester. We only have
11 weeks for semesters because we alternate between
school and co -op. Adding in clubs can be a challenge.
So it's definitely been good for me learning
how to communicate and get more students interested.
But we have a good group of officers now and
we're working on some cool ideas for the fall,
this fall term. So I'm hoping we can do some
fun events and attract some more students. Yeah,
I've gone through this process. I restarted W9MOK.
the University of Southern Indiana when I was
there and they had a mop closet. It was literally
a mop closet. There was actually water running
through the drains in this closet. That was our
station. And we were able to upgrade it and get
some antennas back up and get through all the
red tape of the university and all the student
boards and everything to get approval and so
that is one of the challenges of the college
clubs as well as the school clubs is keeping
it going. You get somebody in there and you know
will run it while they're there and then who
takes over next and so these clubs are often
you know shut down and restarted and it's no
small feat so congratulations on getting that
going and we've talked about that quite a bit
and told me some of the things that you went
through to get that going and you had Dan come
in and KB6NU and do the tech class and some things
up there to get things rolling and the university
was able to publicize that some. Yes, they've
been very excited that we're doing the club I
was not expecting the university to take it and
run with it and they've been so excited whenever
we do stuff They're like let us know we want
to support you all So yeah, definitely the hardest
thing is trying to keep it going But I've got
another two years of school left So I am hopeful
that I will we will be able to recruit more students
and keep it going now when you get on the air,
I hear you on satellite because That's usually
where I end up is I have this little 10 minute
window of time that I can get on the air and
then back to work. And so I usually hear you
on there, but I know you're on CW. I know you're
on sideband as well. So, so let's talk a little
bit about your operating and we'll talk about
satellites a little bit too. What do you enjoy
about those? Oh, for sure. I just love trying
to experience as many types of operating as I
can. So definitely my peak interests are definitely
single side bands, CW, and satellites. I got
into the hobby as many of you probably know.
I got my amateur radio license in the first place
four years ago because I wanted to learn Morse
code. That's all I knew about the hobby. But
since then I've really, really expanded and really
enjoyed trying as much as I can whenever I'm
at co -op or home usually or with friends who
have of HF stations. I'm on the air on HF. I
love doing single sideband in CW, especially
CW because that's my first love. But you are
right, satellites have been quite big for me
the last couple of years. They've been incredibly
fun because Operating on satellites really is
the perfect fit for my busy lifestyle kind of
like you've already you've mentioned yourself
They really allow me to get on the air easily
wherever I am using this incredible form of communication
That's always changing challenging but fun and
adaptable to the gear that I will have on hand
So I have portable equipment. I have handhelds
as well as some FT -817s and some handheld aero
antennas and whether I'm at school in Michigan
in between classes if I'm on lunch break at work
or driving home, if I'm home in Virginia, or
just driving around the country, exploring or
moving in between these places. I can just get
on the air wherever I am, and it's so much fun
just having this easily portable equipment that
I can just get on, have fun, get some rover credit,
and make adventures. I just love this thrill
of communicating with someone through a satellite
that's literally orbiting the Earth. The community
of satellite operators is pretty small so there's
people always willing to share their knowledge
and advice and they've really helped me to become
the satellite operator I am today. There's so
many people that I've asked questions about different
aspects and they've just been so willing to help
me or send me files with frequencies if I can't
find them easily and so forth. So I've currently
only made voice and digital QSOs on satellites,
but I am gearing up and my next goal is to make
some low power, definitely low power, CW contacts
on a linear satellite as well, just so I can
say I've done it all, and low power so that I
don't... Flip any satellite. Yeah, you don't
flip the satellite. Yeah, especially You overwhelm
it and it's going to flip modes on you and that's
not good. So what's the goal at some point? So
I love it. It's so much fun Well, you know, I
enjoy hearing you on and when you get on I hear
people calling you like crazy you've got the
yl factor going for you so you get the extra
3db and you create a pile up, whatever you're
on. And I always enjoy hearing that. And I try
to jump in there as well. And I'm going to have
to get some more grids from you over the years
here. But let's talk about this Eris video for
a little bit. This was a really cool project.
I actually had kind of heard about the project
before it got rolling and they wanted... some
young people to be on the video and get kids
excited about talking to the astronauts on the
space station. So tell us a little bit about
this video. Yes, I'm so glad you brought it up
because I absolutely love that I got to be a
part of this project. It's definitely been one
of the most unique experiences I've had in ham
radio and I'm just, like I said, so happy I got
to do it. So back in 2017, I believe it was,
the AWL was working with ARIS and they wanted
to, like you said, create a video, a short video
that's shown before ARIS context to get people
interested. So the video we have explains to
students how ham radio is making their contact
happen and just a general overview of what the
QSO is going to be like. So I heard about this
because Chris, KD8YVJ and myself were invited
to be the student hosts on the camera. So we
were gonna be in front of the camera and talking
to the kids. I'm so thrilled that they asked
me to be a part of it. I always loved space and
PAM radio and the ISS and just getting to be
part of this was thrilling. So we ended up shooting
the video back in 2017 at the Dayton Amateur
Radio Association Clubhouse with an awesome team
after the Dayton Hamvention that year. It worked
out well since we were all in the area. So they
had made up sample scripts for Chris and me to
use, and we worked through them to create the
video. So Tom, Whiskey8WhiskeyTangoDelta, he
was the video director and he was Superbly directing
this entire thing with his video crew and it
was just such a fascinating process working with
them figuring out if Chris or me would say which
lines Interacting with each other and just being
filmed for the entire thing. I Love as you may
have told I just love sharing my excitement for
ham radio with others and this video really gave
me a unique way to do that I'm just thrilled
that eras uses the video now I've heard so many
positive comments from teachers that they it
works so well and the students getting so excited
about the Contacts and they understand what's
going on and the teacher are so excited to have
something to show and I've had a couple people
who recognized me from doing the video which
was like I was like wow this was a couple years
ago and it's just cool and I'm just so thankful
that in this small way, I can be a part of these
hundreds of successful ARSS contacts that take
place like every day. It's just really awesome.
Well, and we're going to have to get you involved
in one of those contacts, but we'll talk more
about that later. So we're going to take a break
right now and we're going to come back and take
your questions for Ruth. And I think maybe we'll
we'll talk a little Wimploda or something when
we get back. So we'll take a break and get your
questions ready to go and we'll open up the phone
lines here in just a minute after this word from
Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk Live.
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you. Would silver -plated PL259s from Tower Electronics
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Give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812
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calls now. So if you have a question for Ruth,
call 812 -NET -HAM -1. 812. 6 3 8 4 2 6 1 now
is the time to call 8 1 2 6 3 8 4 2 6 1 or you
can tweet us it's at ham talk live on twitter
and if you're listening to us on the podcast
or on wtww you call the number nobody's going
to answer because we're not there anymore it's
thursday night live right now So we won't be
there. We've got a couple of tweets here and
let's let's start off first with this one. Ruth,
this is Jacob KG7EQN tweeted in earlier today
and he says, what advice do you have for a father
of two girls, one age six and one age four? That
is a great question. So I'll go I'll start with
the ham radio side of things just because I figure
that's half the question First off congrats on
having two daughters. It's awesome. I have two
older sisters myself. So girls are awesome so
Hand radio wise, there's just so much to enjoy
in the hobby. And since you're already licensed,
I'm guessing you may want to get your daughter's
license. So I just encourage you to take your
time, introduce them to different aspects of
the hobby. There's so much to enjoy. And they
may like different things that you never even
thought you might enjoy. So definitely I would
encourage you to, when they're ready, to introduce
them to different parts of the hobby that they
may be interested in. And of course a big huge
thing for me was finding good clubs with supporting
hams. I've had so many incredible mentors who
have turned into honorary grandparents and uncles
and aunts and just friends and they've truly
changed my life. So I know there aren't good
clubs everywhere and depending on where you live
but if you can try to find some good clubs that'll
be encouraging and welcome you and your family
in the hobby. I'd say the biggest thing is definitely
don't over pressure them if they want to get
their licenses because that will turn them away.
That will turn them away if it's too much pressure.
But just show them through what you're doing,
how fun it is. Help them get on the air using
third party, using your own call sign and be
ready and able to help them when and if they
want to get their licenses so you can have a
lot of fun together. Some of my best memories
in the hobby had been when my mom got licensed
I got licensed first and then my mom got licensed
after me as Sharon came for TVU and I just had
so many adventures in the hobby and that most
of them are Were made even better because she
was there Anything other than ham radio, I would
just encourage them To try to help your daughters
be well -rounded. It's it's a wonderful thing
to experience many different types of life. And
I love the fact that my parents were committed
so that I could enjoy both science things and
music. And those are two things specifically
that I've enjoyed and carried now into adulthood.
Definitely enjoy that precious childhood time.
I have so many good memories from when I was
those ages. And just encourage them to follow
their passions and be supportive of whatever
they end up doing. So that's the best I've got.
I think that's some good advice, which I've told
this story a million times, so I'll tell the
short version of the story and not bore everybody
with it, but I got my license when I was five
and had it not been for a good radio club. I
don't think that would have ever happened. You
know, they had the class set up and they had
an age limit of 13 on it, but they were willing
to let me come in and just be there with dad.
And all of a sudden things started to fall together
and they figured out, hey, this kid can do this.
And so if it hadn't have been for that club that
was... you know willing to work with my dad and
say yeah you can bring him along he you know
as long as he doesn't make any noise and you
know disrupt the class you can bring him along
and you don't have to get a sitter you know and
it turned into uh you know doing this and the
other thing that i'm going to throw in here is
people always ask me how in the world did you
study for the test when you were five and it
was flashcards So we matched up flashcards. So
we had the question on a card, answer on a card,
and matched them up. And of course Morse code,
I just had to learn Morse code. I mean, that
was the class part of it. But the theory, we
kind of made up questions and made up answers
and matched them up. And so I could figure out
how to do those. So if you make it into a kind
of a game kind of thing, maybe that will help
if you're looking into that. So I don't want
to take... take away from Ruth's time here, but
just had to throw that in. We've got some more
tweets and some comments and Chris Bloxham's
listening tonight. So Chris, thanks for listening.
And he says, hi, Jill, even though I haven't
seen Jill say anything yet, but Jill is probably
listening. So hi, Jill. And Katie, wy7yl is listening
tonight. So thanks for doing that, Katie. And
here it comes. We were talking about this during
the break, Ruth. We have a question that's come
in from Sean, KX9X. So here you go. She was saying,
Sean was telling her that, you know, he was going
to give her all these tough questions tonight.
So here's your question from KX9X. What aspect
of ham radio intrigues you that you haven't tried
yet? Ooh, that is a good one. Thank you. So,
let's see. I think the biggest aspect of the
hobby that I have not had the chance to do much
yet of are fox hunts. They just, the whole search
and rescue and trying to find things and hide
and seek and going, wandering around with this
antenna that I'm used to carrying around anyway
for satellite contacts. So I think the biggest
thing that I'm intrigued by would be fox hunts,
that whole theory behind it now that I've done
more of those types of classes in college, as
well as just wanting to experience it. So I definitely
say Fox hunts. Okay. Yeah. We enjoy Fox hunts
at school. We, uh, we do them and excuse, excuse
to drive around for the first part. Yeah. Multiple
clubs I'm in have done them, but I've managed
to be like my club in Georgia did one, but I
was in Michigan and then, so I managed to be
in the wrong part of the country when they're
doing them. So. I'm definitely, it's on my bucket
list, top of the list probably. Yeah. Well, I
know, I know that, uh, you're going to have an
opportunity to do that down the road. And again,
we'll talk about that later, but. I know you're
gonna get a chance to do that, and you'll probably
have several more chances to do that, but they're
a lot of fun. It gets, you know, the high schoolers,
they like to drive because that's new, and so
they like to go out and do that and go find those
hidden transmitters, so that sounds like a lot
of fun. 812 -638 -4261 is the phone number if
you'd like to call in, or you can tweet us at
HamTalkLive, and we'll take some more of your
questions, but Want to talk about some special
events because I know you really like special
events And and if you want to call in go ahead
and call in what we won't worry about the interruption
and oh and Jill says she's in the chat room ham
chicks rule. Okay, so Katie a QGA she's here
so great But you do a lot of special events and
and I guess got to talk about one of my favorites
because it's one of my favorites. It's Wemploda
and I know you were out of the country for Wemploda
this year, but you were still helping out trying
to help get it publicized and organized and everything.
Talk a little bit about some of these special
events and let's at least start off with the
Walmart parking lots on the air. That's a great
one to start with. Yes, I love special events.
Just connecting with History or something randomly
fun like Walmart parking lots It's just exciting
to me like this past couple weeks has been a
thrill just chasing all the Apollo 11 50th anniversary
stations Yes, Walmart parking lots on the air.
That is very fun. So it started for the first
time last year I know you talked in the show
about it, but basically salad operators we were
all like well there's we were operating from
Walmart parking lots a lot because They're very
flat and you get a fairly good horizon if you're
on one side of the parking lot or the other So
we decided to on spur of the moment on Twitter
at like 11 PM at night as these things happen,
we decided to create Walmart parking lots on
the air and it has gone from there. So much fun.
It's basically we just go to a Walmart parking
lot on the air, go to a Walmart parking lot and
put it on the air. And we can find like a Walmart
store or designator online, easy enough to do.
And you get different bonuses for doing different
things like working at transatlantic contact
which I did last year because my very first transatlantic
contact on a satellite was during Walmart parking
lots on the air which was thrilling. You can
get bonuses for good things like buying stuff
from Walmart or putting shopping carts away or
completely loony things like operating shopping
cart mobile which of course I had to do which
was a thrill. So yeah I've operated that we've
had Two, no, we had three Walmart parking lot
events, Walmart parking lot on the air events.
Just because the schedule I've operated in one
of them had a ton of fun. It turned out that
I was on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and
in some rare grids too. So I got to activate
rare grids from a Walmart parking lot right next
to the ocean. It was beautiful. So it's a lot
of fun. It's definitely a bit nerdy, but it's
very enjoyable and just. Just a lot of fun to
do and keep looking for it. We're planning to
hopefully do it again next year there's two things
that I love about this and You know one is it
Allows you to do some some crazy things, you
know, there's you know, you go build your own
antenna the MacGyver award, you know or And there's
something with like a tinfoil hat or something.
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The alien war or something.
Well, Martians or something. I don't remember.
But anyway, but, but the other thing that really
made this fun was everybody just kind of started
making up rules and awards and bonuses and stuff.
And they would make up these awards that were
either impossible to get or impossible for anybody
else to get but themselves. And it was just,
you know, the ol' Roy with Roy, you know, you
take your dog with you to the activation, but
your name has to be Roy also. Yeah, I have no
shot at that one. Yeah, I'm out of luck. I'm
gone. But but for Roy, it worked, you know. It
was just so much fun to make all these things
up. Oh yeah. Having fun, not taking yourself
too seriously and learning stuff along the way.
I mean, there's, there's, there's an, a MacGyver
award for buying parts in Walmart and putting
together an antenna and making a contact. And
a lot of people did that and it was so fascinating.
That was like my favorite part was going through
and looking all these pictures that people had
built their own little arrow antenna from Walmart.
Stuff it's very fascinating Yeah, you go to the
camping area and get you know in the kitchen
area and get like, you know forks and you know
rods and stuff and you just put it together and
it works so It is a good time. So we'll have
to talk about some more special events here Uh,
and men and yes, all Roy is the name of their
dog food. That's why, why Roy got involved. But
then there was an operator, um, named Roy on,
on satellites. Uh, Jill threw that in there.
Um, but we've got a couple of tweets here, so
let's, let's get those. And then if we have time,
we'll come back to some of the special events.
Uh, Carl KD9HQT says we need to add more cats
on our QRZ pages, just like Ruth's. And I will
second that motion completely. Allie is laying
here about eight feet away, and she is sound
asleep. But she has been known to meow on the
show. That's great. And if you haven't seen this,
you may not have seen this. This summer, I'm
working on some video to use at Julie and I's
wedding next summer and I found some old home
movies and had them digitally converted and Bert,
my cat who actually looks a lot like Allie, you
know, I'm sitting there copying Morse code and
Bert gets up on top of the radio and starts batting
the top of my pencil. To where I couldn't copy
code because the cat was you know getting in
the way and it's hilarious So so I put it up.
I put that up on YouTube. So yeah, you have to
check that out But yeah, we need the ham cats
I try to do my part to that. Yeah, my cats, half
the time my radios are, when I'm home, my radios
are like, they're perched so that they can look
out the window, but they always come in when
I'm on the air. So definitely, ham cats are the
best. They are. I haven't got Allie on too often,
but she does meow from time to time. Oh, she
got up and walked off. So, oh well. All right,
here's another tweet from Somebody here's Dave
W4DTR and wants to know what did you like the
most about Impoda and what was the most fun part
and what did you learn about ham radio from national
parks on the air? Oh, it's also a really good
question. So that's Dave W4DTR. That was my very
first mentor actually in the hobby. So hi, Dave.
I'm glad you're listening. Yay. So national parks
in the air was incredible. Absolutely absolutely
incredible. It was at the perfect time because
I'd just gotten my license my technician license
in 2015 and I upgraded to general the first week
of January So I get general and there's all these
people on the air and they're fun It's fun to
work because I absolutely love national parks.
Our family has visited so many parks so I think
the most the one I like the most about national
parks in the air was connection with history.
You're working parks and you can go look up the
park and see what it's all about and learn about
it and just connecting with the park and seeing
connecting with the people that are there. So
that was definitely the historical part that
I loved. What was the most fun part for me was
getting to meet up with other hams to activate
parks. So at that point in time I still don't
actually but I didn't have any mobile HF equipment
but I wanted to activate a park. I wasn't going
to let this whole year -long event happen without
me activating a park. So every single one of
my 20 activations were due to somebody else lending
me equipment and letting me get on the air from
a park. Either we would meet up like we did with
Bill and Will, and we met up with Dave a number
of times, and we met up with Stuart, KB1HQS up
in Virginia. They were willing to help me, and
so I could activate a park with their equipment.
Or we took my own equipment, piled it all in
the car. This was actually on the way to and
from my school, my freshman year of college.
On the way to school, I was activating parks.
And Dave let me borrow some of his mobile antennas
and batteries. And I brought my own radio and
got to activate it from the car. So that was
the most fun, just getting to activate. And thanks
to the community of operators that were there
and willing to help me operate it. And what did
I learn about Ham Radio? Oh, a whole lot, because
it was my first year on general. I mean, my first
year as a general and then an extra and my first
year on HF. So it really taught me how to operate
on HF, what the protocol was, how to handle a
pile -up, because the first time I got on, I
got a pile -up and I was like, whoa, I didn't
know I'd be this popular. And then I worked on
Kay Craigie, who's... former president of ARRL
and I was like, whoa, I was stunned. It was incredible.
So just getting to learn how to operate on HF
on single sideband and CW, just that invaluable
on air time has been invaluable and has been
the basis for so many adventures in the hobby.
812 -638 -4261 is the phone number if you have
a question for Ruth or tweet us at HamTalkLive.
We're just about out of time. So if you're gonna
do that, you need to do so right now. It's 812
-638 -4261. I had a similar experience on Napoda.
I went to my hometown and I was thinking, oh,
you know, I need to go down there because no
one's gonna activate this park. You know, it's...
kind of, you know, out in the middle of nowhere
and, and nobody's going to go to Vincent's Indiana
to activate the park. And I get there, there's
already somebody there and they're like, yeah,
this is like our third time down here at the
park. You know, and they let me use their, their
antenna cause my ham stick setup wasn't working
like it should have. And so they stayed around,
let me use their antenna just long enough to
to grab a few contacts and yeah there were all
kinds of people out there doing it so that was
that was cool so kind of a similar experience
there well before we go Ruth let's let's get
back to the special events what what other special
events are kind of your your favorite ones Ooh,
so I love the 13 colonies. I've operated at a
Georgia station a couple years ago. Again, I
was out of the country this year, so I wasn't
able to do that this year. But I love that event.
I've gotten clean sweeps on it a couple of times,
and I was literally bouncing up and down in my
room and waking the rest of my family up. The
one year that I managed to get the Great Britain
station, I was thrilled. Oh, yeah. So that's
a lot. Or as Paul calls it, unobtanium. You can't
ever hear them. Yeah, but it made this challenge
good. I also have worked the, I can't remember
the route, it's Route 61 or something on the
air. 66? Yeah, 66, Route 66. I haven't driven
that way, so I don't know road names over there.
Route 66, I've worked out a couple of times.
I've never gotten all of the stations, but I've
worked a number of them. And then, oh, the Navajo
Code Talkers. That one is so much fun because
the Navajo Code Talkers were Code Talkers in
World War II, and I read an incredible book about
them, and that book was talking about Morse code,
and that was one of the books I was reading right
before I started teaching myself Morse code before
I got into ham radio. So I worked that special
event the last couple of years. Like they're
running it out in Arizona and I've been able
to make contact with them for a couple of years
and gotten the QSL card. So that's been very
special to me as well. Okay, very good. Well,
I think we've got all the questions in and the
clock is ticking here. So we're going to finish
things up, but I think we've got all the questions
answered that have come in tonight. So thank
you. to all of those who participated in the
show tonight. And Ruth, any final comments before
we go? I think I'm good. We just about covered
a lot of things. Thanks again for having me on.
It's a pleasure to be here. Great to talk on
what I like to do in the hobby, talk with you
more, and get to interact with more folks in
ham radio through questions and et cetera. So
really appreciate you having me on, and have
a great evening. All right. Well, that is a wrap
for this week's edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks
to my guest, Ruth Willett, KM4LAO. And oh, wait
a minute. We didn't get the unicorn in tonight.
There were no unicorns used in the making of
the show. So everybody on Twitter's is like,
wait a minute, there's no unicorn on there. So
we don't have the unicorn. Yep, no, I'm known
as unicorn on satellites just because I'm a while
I'm on the air a lot and people get so excited
to work me so It's fun. Yeah Well, thanks to
Ruth the km4 lao for being on the show and everybody
out there in cyberspace for listening and calling
in and typing in all that and Invite you back
next Thursday night at 9 p .m Eastern time mark
Brown and for BCD is going to be here to give
us a preview of the upcoming Huntsville HamFest.
And for a list of all of our upcoming guests,
just go to HamTalkLive .com. And if you like
the show, please leave us a review on iTunes
or wherever you listen. That helps others find
us faster. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying seven three, seven five, and may the good
DX be yours. Thanks for watching.