Thanks for tuning in. HamTalk Live will be on
the air shortly. Please stand by. This episode
of HamTalk Live is brought to you by Tower Electronics.
For connectors, cables, and more, call 920 -435
-2973 or visit pl -259 .com. And by ICOM, heard
it, worked it, logged it. Visit www .icomamerica
.com slash amateur for more information about
ICOM radios. Good evening, everyone. It's time
for HamTalk Live, episode number 167, the Digicom
Cafe, recorded live on Thursday, May 30th, 2019.
I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for
tuning in to this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight,
we're joined by Denny Johnson, KD5DLJ, and we'll
take your calls live in just a few minutes. Last
week here on the show author Dr. DM Barrett in
for ECW was here to talk about his new sci -fi
book Equinox and 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 5085 AM Saturday evenings
at or about 630 PM Eastern Time. So get your
questions ready to go about the Digicom Cafe.
If you're listening to us live on Thursday night,
you can call us after the interview by calling
812 -650 -9556. We'll give that number again
here in a second so you can write that down and
have it ready to go. Again, the number 812 -650
-9556. And you can also send us a question via
Twitter. In fact, you can do that right now if
you like. It's at HamTalk Live on Twitter. So
I'll be back with Denny right after this word
from Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk
Live. Is this getting serious? I think so. Well,
how do you feel about it? Just imagine if you
hadn't run out of PL -259s. Just imagine if your
connectors weren't from Tower Electronics. Consider
the sophisticated quality of connectors from
Tower Electronics. Their silver -plated end connectors
are so good, they've even been used on the International
Space Station. I'm not so sure why I ever used
any other PL -259s. Mine are better. Besides,
you deserve the best. You know I love you. Don't
be caught without PL259's. Visit Tower Electronics
at a ham fest near you or visit them online anytime
at pl -259 .com or call 920 -435 -2973. They
also have ham sticks, mobile antennas, and meters
too. See the whole catalog. Go to pl -259 .com
Tower Electronics, the hams dime store since
1978. The grass may be greener on the other side,
but at least we don't have to mow it. You're
listening to Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp. Thanks
to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring
the show once again tonight to help bring you
Ham Talk Live. Hamfest schedule coming up. They're
still recovering a little bit from Hamvention
but up in the UP Newbury, Michigan on June 1st
and then June 16th the Father's Day Fest in Monroe,
Michigan and then July 6th Oak Creek, Wisconsin
But you can visit them anywhere anytime at PL
-259 .com Denny Johnson KD5DLJ is the host of
the Digicom Cafe, a global multi -mode communications
buffet that caters to your digital and spiritual
appetites located at the intersection of faith
and technology. All are welcome with or without
a particular faith or even a radio. The Digicom
Cafe links several different voiceover IP radio
formats and technologies together and separately
offers Zillow channels, Discord chat, and podcasts.
And Denny facilitates a new digital voice net
for the Christian Amateur Radio Fellowship, resides
in the Ozarks in Northwest Arkansas, and his
Radio on the Rocks podcast, which goes along
with the Digicom Cafe, is his... Latest venture
and it's building the hobby as he says one story
at a time where he interviews various hams about
All kinds of things and interviewed yours truly
on April 16th. So Danny welcome to the show Well,
thanks Neil, this is nice to be able to be interviewed
instead of interview Yeah, you get a chance to
be on the other side Yeah, I sure appreciate
that. I sure loved interviewing you and hearing
your story. You're one of the Most interesting
people I've had in terms of becoming a ham at
the ripe old age of five and you lost that record
Yeah, it's not even a record anymore But yeah,
it is it is I keep wondering if maybe since advanced
class went away if maybe I could maybe hold the
record for advanced but that's kind of cheating
because it because it's no longer a an option
but oh who knows but we had a lot of fun on there
and in fact we did the interview over Zello which
is something that that I've heard about a little
bit but that was my first time on on Zello. So
we're going to talk about all these different
technologies because really there's a lot going
on here. So we're going to try to kind of work
through this a little bit. So first let's just
talk about the Digicom Cafe and where the idea
for all of this stuff came from. All right well
thanks Neil. Well I've been a hamper over 50
years. I didn't get mine at five years old. I
was 17 in high school. And I've loved the hobby
ever since. But as you know, technology keeps
marching forward. We've gone from tube radios
to transistor radios to software -defined radios
and Internet VoIP technologies that is just exploding.
And about a year ago, in playing with all these
different tools, I decided that the time has
come to try and reach a new generation. with
what they have in common, and that's their cell
phone. I was a little frustrated and disappointed,
I think disappointed, with how hams have not
really been actively reaching out to the younger
generation, not making any real efforts to be
a little creative in their thinking. And so I
thought, I'm gonna start with Zillow. That seems
to be a very popular VoIP channel, VoIP network
I should say, on smartphones. And many people
have heard about it as a result of the hurricanes
down in Texas, Louisiana. We've got the Cajun
Navy that came to light. We're just a bunch of
old buddies fishing together. Decided to use
their cell phones with Zello as their technology
of communication to help people. And so they
went about in their boats rescuing people from
rooftops and whatnot. And that really brought
a lot of attention to Zello. as probably one
of our most popular platforms in our network.
My initial thought was, how can we get young
people involved using their smartphone? As you
know, there's a lot of at -risk kids out there
that are getting involved in a lot of things
that are dangerous. And I have to say, Zello
is pretty dangerous too, unsupervised. It's wide
open. It's like a wild west out there. There
are predators. There are people with false profiles
that can lure people into their little traps,
and we hear some of those stories on the news.
But I thought, what could we find positive for
young people to do? And so I started what I call
the Northwest Arkansas Skywarn Save a Life Initiative.
My thought, and you'd appreciate this as a teacher,
was to somehow get instructors in school to teach
skywarn weather as part of their science curriculum.
And with that, they could use the tests provided
by some of these educational platforms on the
internet and have them test out and be certified
as a Skywarn spotter. And that way they could
use their smartphone as an unlicensed individual,
join a Zello channel to use their skills to spot,
report weather as it comes through their area.
and eventually, of course, rub shoulders with
licensed amateur radio operators who are also
on those platforms and get Elmered and mentored
into the hobby. And hopefully they'd get beyond
their smartphone and go into maybe VHF or UHF
or eventually even do HF. And so I tried to get
something like that started here. I did a presentation
at our local library here in Harrison, Arkansas,
and they're a young man. 13 years old. Blaze
is his name. He and his father came and he was
my poster boy. Within three days he got the test
done, got certified as a Skywarn spotter and
two or three days later he got his tech license
as an amateur radio operator and he's now running
the Skywarn Little Rock Zello channel that I
put up and invited him into and now I've turned
it over to him completely. and he's doing a great
job building that up. So this whole concept of
using the internet as our mode of propagation
and starting with Zello, very quickly I started
a net called The Breakfast Club on Saturday mornings.
I was very surprised to have a young man join
us and invite me to become a member or listen
to at least the Guild's IRN, International Radio
Network. which I did, and things just happened
pretty quickly from there. I joined the guild.
We had a Digicom Cafe channel that we created
there, and this whole concept of the Digicom
Cafe was just my paradigm for my hobby, a way
of making it maybe somewhat more interesting
to a non -tech person. We all go to cafes. We
know what it's like to sit down, grab a menu,
order a meal. enjoyed the fellowship. And so
I thought, what a neat paradigm for amateur radio.
And so that's something I came up with early
one morning in my sleep and ran with it. I had
a good friend of mine, Charles NX5E. He and I
were kind of commiserating together about the
disappointing efforts of the ham radio community
to reach out to young people. And he kind of
supported me in this net idea. And the rest is
history. as a result of my relationships with
many of these folks in the guild. And buying
into this concept of the Digicom Cafe is kind
of my digital playground. That's what I've always
said it is. It's just my digital playground where
I hang out with my ham friends and partners to
help build a hobby. And so more and more people
started getting involved. We started experimenting
with bridging and started out bridging from Zello
to All -Star. We have an all -star, several all
-star nodes. That's kind of the heart of our
multi -mode system. And from there, we added
some of this new software transcoding tools that
have been provided. We've got DMR and D -Star,
Fusion. I've got several partners I want to mention.
We've got, my first one was Sammy, KD2KMP. He's
providing our bridge to D -Star. and he also
has a bridge to TeamSpeak, which is the international
radio network in his New York link channel. We've
got John, N1PCE out there in New Hampshire, and
he is providing our Zello link also through his
All -Star node. We're all kind of connected at
the hip at All -Star. And so we've got four different
Zello channels. I call them Digicom Cafe 1, 2,
and 3. which are strictly VoIP, open to hams
and non -hams alike, where we can enjoy conversation
about digital technology or just life in general.
And then we have the digicomcafe -link Zello
channel, which bridges to, now you're ready.
You might want to write these down or just go
to our website to learn about them, but we have
All -Star, DMR, D -Star, Fusion, Hamshack Hotline,
Peanut, Zello, TeamSpeak. And we also have some
side things going on with Orion. Orion Labs has
a great platform for smartphones that even shows
APRS location on a map. We've got our Discord,
I call it the DCS, Discord comm server, and several
other things that we're doing to kind of help
bring it all together. So you have a radio? Great.
What radio is it? Join us. You don't have a radio?
Not a problem. Use your phone. join us on Zello
and building a wide fellowship, but with some
unique qualities. I say we want to maintain a
culture of kindness. As a follower of Christ,
I really believe in having a place that is safe,
a place where people are valued, people where
people respect each other, as I say it, where
we listen, acknowledge, and share. And it takes
all three of those to have a successful conversation.
And so we stress that. We're not an organization.
We're not a club. It's not a democratic organization.
I'm head of it. I make the decisions because
it's my digital playground and nothing more.
But I'm partnering with people who like that
vision, like the idea of having a culture of
kindness and who want to provide any resources
they have to help us out. And so I'm thrilled
to be partnering with the Guild Hamshack Hotline
is another great VoIP service. We are promotional
partners of one another. The Guild, as I'm a
member of them, they are now bridging to us on
the All -Star node with their multi -mode channel
on TeamSpeak. We hear their nets, they hear our
nets, and we have a broad worldwide global fellowship
that is just rich. Good, good people and very
excited about it. Now I know what some people
are gonna say That there's there's IR LP. There's
echo link. There's you know, all these different
digital VoIP technologies and there and I know
what they're gonna say they're gonna say But
wait a minute That's not radio and and they're
gonna they're gonna say that and and and to some
extent. Yes You know, I see both sides of that
It depends on internet and internet can go down
and and so, you know there there is you know
pros and cons to both sides but where In all
of this is the line drawn between this isn't
ham radio and this is ham radio and how do you
make sure that people are you know all of this
is legal and and according to the rules and everything
like Echo link and then people want to get into
the whole echo link isn't you know is or isn't
Not going to get into that. But but what do you
do and where is that line between? the radio
and totally just VoIP, but it happens to be radio
people. Well, if I could use another illustration
that I heard from Chris, G7DDN over in the UK.
They've been really big on network radios, which
is an internet -based VoIP concept for communication,
based mainly in Zello. There's a group of channels
there, multiple channels, called Network Radio.
And of course, like everything, it starts to
splinter and you've got knockoffs of it and all
kinds of channels being created by hams and non
-hams alike, but with the same general concept.
And that is, what is ham radio about? It's about
communication. It's about talking to people.
It's about learning about other cultures around
the world. It's about building friendships. And
we've got to start somewhere. Why not? start
with where people are at and like I say my focus
is reaching young people with the one thing they
all have in common and that's their smartphone
and from there then it's our job as hands to
get out of our little our own secluded little
silos and reach out and start being friends with
these young people and showing them all the different
things about technology and just kind of show
them a little bit how that ties in. with regular
RF that we recognize as amateur radio. But, you
know, there's some great arguments going on out
there about this whole issue of is it real radio?
And this great illustration I was going to use
of Chris, G7DDN, is talking about people who
want to get into rock climbing. Rock climbing
has been pretty big in our family. Our son and
our grandson, they're avid rock climbers. And
they didn't start out climbing maybe rocks necessarily.
but they go to some of these stores that have
climbing walls. It's just a wall with some notches
and things hanging on the wall where people can
grab a hold of and put a foot on and they can
wear a safety harness to get used to trying to
find their way around this wall, find a foothold,
find a handhold. Is that real rock climbing?
No. It's in preparation for it though. They can
build their arm strength, their leg strength,
get the feel of what that's like. And then they
go out and tackle the mountain. So I thought
that was a great comparison to what we're trying
to do here using VoIP technology to introduce
people to our very broad -ranged hobby of amateur
radio. One thing comes to mind that I have done
with young people and, you know, I have a school
club and we have some kids that go ahead and
get their licenses and we have some that don't.
You know, we've got the control operator in place
and that kind of thing. And one of the training
exercises that we did was learning how to do
message handling in case of an emergency. And
so we used the standard radiogram forms and everything.
And I had various teachers throughout the school
that were staying late after school for one reason
or another. and they had messages and they had
to go find that person and then deliver that
message and so the ones that did have a license
they called in on on their handheld on you know
two meters and simplex and and i took all of
the messages that way but we had a lot of students
who didn't have their license yet so gave them
an FRS radio and so they called it in on an FRS
radio and so I would take you know in one hand
I'd have an HT on two meters on in the other
hand I had you know an FRS radio now there wasn't
a link between those other than me but that way
it provided a way for them to learn how to do
some of those protocol things and learn how to
pass messages and everything without being licensed
yet because they weren't on amateur frequencies.
And so I see some parallels there with that and
what you're trying to do with the cell phone.
Right. And what we do is provide structure, just
like you do in your classroom. And you're teaching
your kids all about the hobby and providing ways
for them to get involved. What they need is structure.
Our whole culture is falling apart because we've
lost our structure. We can't even relate to one
another. We can't civilly communicate with one
another without arguing, debating, and fighting,
and name -calling. Our whole politics is like
that. So what we're trying to do in a Digicom
Cafe, and I hope across amateur radio as a whole,
and unfortunately it's not really so because
we've devolved even in our relationships as older
hams. If you listen across some of the HF bands,
it's really amazing some of these people even
have a license. But what we want to do here in
the CAFE and this CAFE concept is let's get together,
let's learn the structure of communication, let's
learn how to listen respectfully, learn how to
share our own thoughts in a creative way without
passing judgment, but being able to be comfortable
with who we are and accept others where they
are, whether they're licensed or not, and then
acknowledge those things in one another and build
a safe community. And the reason I sell ham radio
as a safe place for kids is that we're a known
community. Most people on Zello that aren't licensed
that have their groups of whatever kind of genre
you want to find, it's out there, believe me.
Some of it's pretty sick. These people can create
their profiles totally fake, non -verified, no
idea who they are, what their phone number is,
where they live, email address. But as a ham,
all you have to do is go to QRZ .com, look them
up. You know where they live. You can see pictures
of them often. And so for young people to come
into our world, which is a known community, is
the safest place for them to be, I think. And
I'm not saying that all hams are angels. We know
that they're not. But I think what's available,
I think the amateur community is the safest place
to be. And I think we hold in our hands the tools
to help mold and shape and attract this young
generation into this culture to teach them how
to communicate civilly, how to be of service
to the community, how to learn and grow in technology
in useful ways. And I'm just excited as I'll
get out, but I can already sleep sometimes. I
wake up with all kinds of ideas that I'm trying
to put into play here, not only just this Digicom
Cafe, but my podcast and my Cafe on Ice Stream,
which we have. a 24 -7 ice cast radio stream,
and I'm partnering with BransonRadio .com here
in our region here in the Ozarks. We've got an
arrangement with them. I've got my Cafe on Ice
advertisement on their website, and they allow
me to stream their music in the background in
this Cafe on Ice, which is basically like a virtual
cafe. You come in, you hear the ambient sounds
of the cafe, you hear the dishes clattering,
you hear the murmur of conversation. but it's
also a live stream for our conversations on our
multi -mode system and others. We've also brought
in the Ham Radio Hub or the Guild QSO as a member
of the Guild, want to help promote what they're
doing. We've got Skywarn Little Rocks so when
we have severe weather sometimes I'll dump that
into the live stream so people can hear what's
going on here weather -wise in Northwest Arkansas
in the region. when tornadoes come. They can
hear the live banter and the reports of what
people are seeing or what I'm seeing on radar.
But it's a way for people to come chill out rather
than listen to a dead channel with no conversation.
They can at least listen to the radio, the jukebox
in the background if you will, a Branson radio
playing. Plus I'm able to market what we have
here in this Midwest part of our country. It's
a very conservative uh, Christian oriented, patriotic,
uh, God loving, police loving, uh, they, they
high five the, the Patriots of our country that
are serving. These are the kinds of things we
want to instill in our young people. And so I
think we've got a real magical group going on
here. And, uh, like I said, I'm just very excited
about it as are many others. Well, we're, we're
overdue for a break here, but real fast, let's,
let's talk about the podcast a little bit radio
on the rocks. It's. It's again an off the radio
kind of thing, but it talks about ham radio,
kind of like this show actually, except we do
get out on broadcast radio, but we're not on
ham radio. So tell us a little bit about the
podcast and what you're trying to accomplish
with that. Well, part of that came from a little
frustration in running nets and trying to get
people involved. Especially when you're in a
group that's a global group, the time differences
make it very difficult to find a time that suits
everybody. And one of the things I really wanted
to do in my breakfast club was to bring in a
guest to help bring some interesting topic to
the group. They can share their experience of
how they got into amateur radio and talk about
a particular passion they have, whether they're
a manufacturer of hardware, like a hotspot. We've
had many guests that have produced a lot of those
things, like Bob Greenberg of R -Finder and Rude
and Goose, they call them, over there in the
Netherlands. They've come out with some hotspot
equipment, the new radio that they've got, people
with software. Andrew is over there in the Netherlands
also and has produced some great software. for
the hot spots and several others. But anyway,
I thought it would be great to have people have
an opportunity to tell their story that would
be available to everyone else at their leisure,
on demand. And so I got this idea of doing this
little podcast, very short little podcast, simply,
you know, what's your story? Tell me how you
got into amateur radio. Who introduced you? What
experiences did you have beforehand? Many of
which started in CB, of course. And then what
is it you're particularly passionate about now?
What mode of amateur radio do you spend most
of your time with? Things like that. And so I
started throwing them up right and left here
and found a real warm reception to that. People
like that idea of hearing stories. And some people
will say, well, I don't have a story. Let me
tell you, everybody has a story. And that's been
kind of my... My mission statement for even my
business, DennyJ .com, for the websites and as
a marketing guy, let me help you tell your story.
And there's a lot of ways I can do that with
all the tools we have digitally. And like you
used Zello, that's one of my tools. I like to
use that for doing my recording and things. And
so that's all I'm doing is I'm using what skills
I've developed over the years in my retirement
years to create some platforms. where we can
build the hobby, bring inspiration to people
who are living passionately to people on demand
when they're free to listen to it. And so I'm
kind of abandoning nets for now. It takes a lot
of work to do that and takes a lot of time. I'd
rather do this at my leisure when I happen to
meet somebody. Hey, let's sit down on the cafe.
Tell me your story. And I want to thank you for
telling me yours. All right. Well, you're very
welcome. And thanks for Coming on and telling
yours. So we're going to be back with Denny and
take some questions right after this word from
ICOM America right here on HamTalk Live. Contest
from home or remotely. ICOM's IC -9700 is now
available and shipping. Create your own band
opening with ICOM's newest SDR transceiver, the
IC -9700. This new radio is bringing direct sampling
to the UHF and VHF week signal world. The IC
-9700 all -mode transceiver is loaded with innovative
features like dedicated amateur satellite operation,
color touchscreen, D -Star built -in, RF direct
sampling on 2 meters and 70 centimeters, dual
independent receivers capable of full duplex,
as well as dual watch and 100 watts maximum output
powers on 2 meters, 75 watts on 70 centimeters,
and 10 watts max on 1 .2 gigahertz. For HF, it's
the SDR every ham wants. It's the IC7610. This
high -performance SDR has the ability to pick
out the faintest of signals even in the presence
of stronger adjacent ones. The ICOM IC7610 is
a direct sampling software -defined radio that
will change the world's definition of an SDR
transceiver as RF direct sampling 110 dB RMDR.
independent dual receiver, and dual digicel,
and the IC7300 is changing the way entry -level
HF is designed, this high -performance innovative
HF transceiver with a compact design will far
exceed your expectations with RFDirect sampling.
15 discrete bandpass filters. a large 4 .3 -inch
color touchscreen, real -time spectrum scope,
SD, memory card slot, and more. Visit icomamerica
.com slash amateur for more information on ICOM
radios. And don't forget to be ham active in
June. Participate in both the June VHF contest
as well as field day. Submit your logs and see
how you did in the pileup. At HamTalk Live, we
use commercial breaks to debate where the seeds
for seedless watermelons come from. Now, here's
Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live. Thanks to Icom
America for sponsoring the show each and every
week. Check them out at icomamerica .com slash
amateur and all kinds of good stuff from them
right now. HamTalk Live is on the air every Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time right here at HamTalkLive
.com 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 Denny
give us a call at 812 -650 -9556 again the number
812 -650 -9556 or you can tweet us at HamTalkLive
and if you're listening to us on WTWW or on the
podcast edition you won't be able to reach us
live because it's Thursday night so you won't
be able to get us but we're gonna talk here a
little bit more with Denny and I do have One
tweet that came in from Brett wy7bg And he says
spiritual needs so this person has established
a religious enclave within the ham radio community
so Denny You want to address that? Religious
enclave that sounds like a cult Basically it's
I'm just bringing to the hobby who I am I've
been a Christian most of my life and I developed
my own mission statement actually years ago,
and it's simply this, bringing the kingdom to
where I live, work, and play. And I'm done working,
and I live here in the Ozarks, which is a very
faith -centered kind of culture we have here,
and I play a lot with radio. Just ask my wife
and family. But anyway, it's who I am, and it's
really from that that I get my values, and one
of those values is kindness, I guess, right at
the top of the list. And I don't see a lot of
kindness in amateur radio these days, or in politics,
or in life, and it's sad. I want to make a difference.
And so, as a follower of Christ, I'm not a perfect
man, but I want to love and respect everyone
who comes into our group. And that's why I state
in our promotional materials that all are welcome,
radio or no radio, license or no license, faith
or no faith. And we don't endorse any one particular
faith viewpoint here. I see us as, right now,
a fellowship of Christians and Jews. And we have
many wonderful Jewish friends that are free to
express themselves and join in the fellowship.
Sammy is a dear brother from another mother,
I tell him. I just love him. He's providing our
cross -link, our bridge, to D -Star and to his
channel, the New York Link. on the IRN. Just
about everybody that I've been partnering with
are people of faith of one persuasion or another
that makes them who they are and brings kindness
to the table. So, no, we're not endorsing any
denomination. I don't belong to any particular
denomination. I just want to make sure that I
don't segregate my life into, oh, just family
or work or radio or faith. It's all part of who
I am and if people are uncomfortable with who
I am, if I tell you I'm concerned about you and
your need, I want to pray for you and keep you
in my thoughts and prayers when you're suffering
and have an accident or lose a loved one. We
have many friends in our group that are struggling
with illness. One recently just lost his mother.
I think he finds encouragement to know that he's
got people of faith that are praying for him
and supporting him. This kind of stuff goes on
all the time. Plus, we have a net on Saturday
afternoons, and you're familiar with this, Neil,
the CARF Group Christian Amrich Radio Fellowship.
We have a friend, Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, who leads
this net at 2 o 'clock p .m. Central Time. It's
just a simple check -in. He'll have a simple
question, share some prayer concerns, and someone
will close in prayer. And if that's offensive
to people, you don't have to hang around and
listen. It's kind of like on TV. People always
make a big deal of, well, you know, if you don't
like that trash on TV, just turn the dial. Well,
it's the same thing here. If people are uncomfortable,
and we sure do not want to make anybody uncomfortable,
we don't preach at anybody, we don't try and
argue or debate. That's one of the things I absolutely
despise and will not tolerate here. And that
is no arguing, no drama, no debate. We're just
going to listen, acknowledge, and share. So even
if a Muslim came in and wanted to share his viewpoints,
they are more than welcome as long as they respectfully
listen to others and we can have a mutual respect
for one another and our cultures and our backgrounds.
And as a global group of people fellowshipping
together, it's rich to be able to understand
where each one is coming from in our own national
cultures. And that's the richness of amateur
radio, isn't it? Yeah, the international goodwill
and I've you know, I've been a member of car
since You know the late 70s And there are other
groups out there that carf is one in particular
and you know I always sign off with 75 at the
end of the show which you know, which is God
bless you and you or yours and you know it so
an option for people who you know want to get
involved with that to do so and you're providing
that in a VoIP format in addition to the HF format
that CARF has done for many many years. Yep and
we enjoy that and we're not always available
to participate in those nets. We had another
gentleman came up recently who would like to
start a Bible study on one of the Voigt channels,
and I gave him permission to do so. But with
this caveat, I don't want to get into doctrinal
discussions and arguments that will not be tolerated.
There's a lot of groups out there that have those
kind of Bible studies. Bible Study Fellowship,
I think, is one. And people from many different
denominations can come together and just study.
And we have a good resource that I promote on
my website. By the way, digicommcafe .com has
a menu list of all of our resources of how you
can join our conversations on the multimode network
or on just some of these standalone platforms
like Orion. But we have a group called, oh, my
mind just went blank. But anyway, there's a link
there in the menu for the Bible study material
that is not denominationally centered. It's just
a very wonderful, it uses video, kind of cartoon
video, great posters and things and podcasts
to help people understand the scriptures, but
not associated with any particular group, which
I love. But I'm going to do what I can to promote
the things I'm passionate about. And like I say,
this isn't a democratic group. We don't vote
on these things. I make the decisions and if
people don't like it, You know, that's just the
way it is. But that way I can alleviate all the
drama. If people don't like it, that's fine.
I respect that. There's plenty of places to go.
But I'm going to do my best to provide a platform
that is safe for young people, that builds the
hobby, and builds my promotional partners like
the Guild, Hamshack Hotline, TGIF, which is a
DMR network, things like that. And I'm not here
to protect my little world. I'm here to promote.
others. And one of my favorite slogans that has
been a theme of my life for a long time comes
from Zig Ziglar. He says, you can get what you
want when you help others get what they want.
And so that's part of what I want to do is help
tell other stories or help them tell their story.
And I can do that with all these platforms. By
the way, I also have two skills on the Amazon
system. The X, I can't say the name or she'll
wake up here, but One is called ham buffet if
you go on Amazon and do a search for ham buffet
and Enable it or radio on the rocks either one
of those you can just use the power of voice
to access our information All right, and if you
have a question give us a call we're just about
to finish up here, but give us call eight one
two six five zero nine five five six or you can
tweet us at ham talk live we're going to finish
up here in just a couple of minutes so if you
want to give us a call this is the time to do
so eight one two six five zero nine five five
six now what one of the things when i went to
your website and saw the the big list of all
these different platforms How do you keep up
with these different platforms because you've
got a ton of them I Don't have to do it myself.
Thankfully. I have a great Great family and we
call ourselves a family here We have many moderators
in our channels and they all do it voluntarily
I don't have to hog time down to spend three
four hours a day to do it I just say whenever
you're around you can moderate if you hear somebody
arguing and fighting, kindly just let them know
it's not tolerated here. And if they create trouble,
that's a nice thing about VoIP. You can turn
the switch off and they don't bother you. You
can't do that on normal RF modes of communication.
If you've got someone that wants to be a problem,
you just have to ignore it and hope it goes away.
But with these VoIP technologies, it's a simple
matter of pulling a switch and saying, you're
done, you're gone, bye -bye. So we can control
it and that's what we like. Well, there's a ton
of those technologies and if you're interested
in that, definitely go to the website and they're
all listed there. So why don't we finish up here
again with where they can find this if they're
interested in getting on one of these digital
channels or the linked network or both, where
they can find all that information. Thank you.
The website digicomcafe .com is our main website.
From there you will find links to all of our
other different platforms including another website
for those that are on Facebook. digicomcafe .mnformightynetworks
.co. Digicomcafe .mnco. That's a nice little
community portal, much like Facebook, but without
the ads and without people listening over your
shoulder. I know we have a lot of people that
refuse to be on Facebook. We also have a Facebook
group, Digicomcafe. I try to keep people up to
date with things that we're doing and would love
to see more people participate. I've always opened
it up for anyone who wants to post information
about their AmpFest or Nets or whatever else
I can say. I'm here to help promote everyone
else too and help make this a very rich hobby.
But everything can be found at digicomcafe .com
including the links to the audio from the streaming
radio Cafe on Ice and all the podcasts which
are there on one of the links which are housed
at SoundCloud. and shared over the multitude
of other podcast services like iTunes and many
others, Stitcher. So you can listen to them on
your phone, on your Echo Dot, on your website,
whatever you want to do. You just enjoy it all
to your leisure. All right. Well, Danny, thank
you so much. We're out of time, but thank you
so much for coming on and telling your story.
uh... about the digit com cafe to everyone and
uh... i'll be talking with you later sounds good
if i could issue one challenge to your listeners
what are you doing to bring kindness and bring
something of value to your community to your
world to your hobby it's not beyond any one of
us to jump in and be creative and think of ways
To bring good in this world there's too much
division too much fighting and we need to we
need to take the lead as amateur radio operators.
And learn how to communicate civilly and bring
this world together so I issue that challenge.
Thank you very much Denny we appreciate you being
here. Let is a wrap for this week's edition of
ham talk live. I'd like to thank my guest, Denny
Johnson, KD5DLJ, and everyone out there in cyberspace
for listening and typing in and invite you back
next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time when
Joe Moll, KZeroOV will be here to talk about
getting started with amateur radio direction
finding. And for a list of all of our upcoming
guests, visit HamTalkLive .com. And if you like
HamTalk Live, please consider leaving us a review
on iTunes or wherever you listen, that helps
others find us faster. So for now, this is Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may the
good DX be yours. 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 I don't know your power or the height
of your tower Frankly, I don't give a damn So
73s, to you and your family I'll be seeing you
further down To you and your family Obviously
in your bourbon