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
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for more information about ICOM radios. Here
we go, welcome to... Good evening, everyone.
It's time for ham talk live. It's episode number
160 the 75th anniversary of the voice of America
Bethany station recorded live on Thursday, April
11 2019 I'm your host Neil rap WB 9 VPG. Thanks
for tuning in to Another episode of HamTalk Live.
Tonight we're joined by Melinda Zemper, Leigh
Height, K8CLI, and Jocelyn Brough, KD8VRX. And
we'll take your calls live in just a few minutes.
Last week here on the show, Emmet Onasi, the
third W0QH, was here to talk about... EMCOM -1.
That's the mobile interoperable communications
van that goes around to various hamfests for
display and is on call at a moment's notice if
needed in an emergency. So if you want to hear
more about that you can listen anytime just go
to hamtalklive .com or your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube or you can catch the rebroadcast
on WTWW 5085 AM shortwave Saturday evenings at
about 6 30 p .m. Eastern Time. So we're going
to talk about the Voice of America Museum tonight
so get those questions ready to go. And I'm going
to give you the phone number to call here. So
if you want to write this down, I'll give you
that number. But if you're listening to us on
Thursday night, you can give us a call. If you're
not listening to us on Thursday night at 9 p
.m. Eastern. nobody's going to answer the phone
so here's that number it's 812 -650 -9556 again
812 -650 -9556 is the number that you will call
when we get to the second part of the show when
we invite you to call in you can tweet us though
anytime on Twitter we'll be watching that throughout
the night it's at ham talk live on Twitter so
I'll be back with Melinda, Jocelyn and Lee right
after this word from ICOM America right here
on HamTalk Live. Create your own band opening.
ICOM's newest SDR transceiver, the IC9700 is
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on 1 .2 gigahertz. Pack your bags because the
Dayton Hamvention is coming up! From May 17th
to 19th at the Green County Fairgrounds and Expo
Center, you can see the latest and greatest ICOM
gear and meet hams from all over the world. Visit
www .icomamerica .com slash amateur for more
information on ICOM radios. Oh yeah, you're talking
ham radio, baby. You're listening to Ham Talk
Live with Neil Rapp. Thanks to Icom America for
sponsoring the show again tonight. Be sure to
check them out at the upcoming Dayton Hamvention.
We'll be talking more about Hamvention soon.
You can check them out online though at icomamerica
.com slash amateur. Tonight our guests are Melinda
Zemper. Melinda's the president of Oak Tree Communications,
which provides writing, editing, and media relations.
publicity and marketing services. She's a graduate
of Miami University, Ohio and a member of the
National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting
Board of Directors and does the media relations
for the museum. Jocelyn Breaux, KD8 VRX and VA2
VRX became interested in ham radio as a Boy Scout.
He became licensed in 2013. Now holds an extra
class license. He is a technical analyst and
systems administrator with Vertical Solutions
in Cincinnati. He was a scout leader and now
a radio merit badge counselor, a mentor with
VEX Robotics, and a member of the Westchester
Amateur Radio Association, the Dayton Amateur
Radio Association, the Ohio Valley Experimenter
Club, and the Greater Cincinnati Builders Group.
He's the proud father of Chris KD8YVJ, or as
Don Wilbanks calls him, Cincinnati Short Rib.
He's the 2015 Hiram Percy Maxim Award winner
and the member of the 2017 Youth DX adventure
to Costa Rica. And finally, Lee Hite, K8CLI,
is one of the lead docents at the National Voice
of America Museum of Broadcasting in Westchester,
Ohio. Lee is a retired electronics engineer with
a passion for investigating technical issues,
occasionally surrounded with mystery and often
bridging several fields of technology. first
licensed in 1954 and is active with the Mason,
Ohio and Warren County CERT teams. And he also
engineers wind chimes and biomass briquettes.
So Melinda, Jocelyn and Lee, welcome to HamTalk
Live. Thank you. Thank you, Neil. Thank you,
Neil. Well, thanks for the invite. Yeah, Lee's
on his second pass through the the show here
and Jocelyn has been calling in some but Melinda's
the newbie here tonight and Melinda's going to
start off we're going to talk a little bit about
this 75th anniversary celebration that's going
on this year at the Bethany station and so first
of all just for those tuning in who maybe haven't
heard about the Bethany Station there on the
north side of Cincinnati. Give us a little bit
of a history on the Voice of America Bethany
Station, Melinda. Wow, I can tell I can talk
for a long time about this, but I'll try to make
it relatively short. In order to get a clear
picture of the VOA Museum. I think I need to
tell you a little bit about the history of the
VOA Bethany Station. So if we step back in time
for a moment to the 30s and early 40s when radio
was king, this was the time before TV and the
internet when people got their news from the
plop of the newspaper on their front porch and
from their living room radio. And here in Cincinnati,
entrepreneur Paul Crosley Jr. had by the mid
-20s become the world's largest manufacturer
of radios. His Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
was on the cutting edge of radio technology,
especially with the development of radio, I'm
sorry, with antenna technology. He knew early
on that it wasn't enough to buy a radio. You
had to have something to listen to on it. So
at a time when other radio stations were small
and local, Crosley was developing radio programming
on his WLW radio station. He was also experimenting
with radio technology, I'm sorry, antenna technology,
and looking into expanding radio broadcast markets.
So by 1939, he was broadcasting news and music
to Europe and Latin America with WLWO. That's
WLW Overseas. That was a 50 kilowatt shortwave
transmitter designed by R .J. Rockwell, one of
his lead engineers. So, going back to Pearl Harbor
on December 7th, 1944, when the Japanese attacked
the United States, it was the single largest
loss of life on American soil in one day until
September 11th. Within days after Pearl Harbor,
The U .S. was at war on two fronts, Japan as
well as Germany. And President Roosevelt knew
that our nation was ill -prepared to combat the
sophisticated Japanese and Nazi Germany propaganda
machines that were in place at that time. So
we called together the top U .S. broadcasting
companies to come to Washington, D .C. to help
them develop a communications strategy to help
them fight this new war on the communications
front. It was going to be, on this front, a war
of words. So, in this meeting was CBS, NBC, ABC,
General Electric, and Crosley. They were all
invited to that meeting in January of 1942. Now,
Crosley was asked if he could build transmitters
powerful enough to send American war news to
Europe and Nazi occupied countries. During a
break in the meeting, Crosley's Jim Schaus called
Cincinnati to ask Rockwell if Crosley could build
transmitters that were powerful enough to do
the job. And with this kind of, you know, offhand
courage that's typical of that greatest generation,
Rockwell said, hey, I don't know, but I'll sure
give it a try. So engineers at WLW came home
from that meeting with a one -page contract,
which is difficult to believe today. but they
had this one -page contract to acquire another
shortwave transmitter and design and construct
four larger and more efficient antennas to better
serve Europe and South America. So that was the
birth of the VOA station, Bethany Station. Shall
I continue on or did you want to interject anything,
Neil? Yeah, let's forward a little bit to to
where things are today and we're going to talk
a little bit about these anniversary events.
So let's kind of finish that up and then we'll
get into the anniversary stuff. Okay, well with
the 75th anniversary of the VOA Bethany Station
this year we've got about a dozen free events
that we're hosting and primarily the reason is
to bring community awareness about the museum
and bring people actually into the museum. So
this year, which is exciting, is a four -part
event series called The Voice of Truth in America,
celebrating 75 years of the VOA Bethany Station.
And we're doing that in conjunction with the
Midpoint Library System here in Westchester.
We've hosted two of the events already, and they've
been among our most powerful and popular events
ever at the museum. Jocelyn Brew is right here
with me. now, and he's the WCARA event designer
for the June 5th Ride the Radio Waves event.
And I'll just let him talk about that in just
a second. I just want to talk about two new events
that we're still working on. One is a 75th anniversary
of D -Day commemoration, which will be held Thursday,
June 6th at 9 a .m. on the front lawn of the
VOA Museum. After a short ceremony, we'll have
coffee and donuts in the museum lobby and veterans
will be admitted to the museum for free until
about noon. So friends and families and vets
are welcome as well. This is going to be open
to the public. Also in June, we're going to have
a really fun fundraiser. We're rolling out our
Cincinnati Liars Lager beer. We're working with
Grainworks, which is a Westchester brewery located
across the street from the museum. And they're
developing this beer with us and donating some
proceeds from sales to go to the museum this
year. Ironically, or serendipitously, Grainworks
is located on land that used to house some of
our rhombic antennas. And details are kind of
still forthcoming on this fundraiser. We don't
have an exact date for that event yet, but expect
it to happen on a Saturday in June, so stay tuned
for more on that front. Now, Melinda, let me
stop you there for a second. In terms of my part
of this here, the most important event that we
have coming up is the fourth annual Rocking the
Radio fundraiser event on Saturday, September
21st. The revenue raised from that event goes
towards keeping the lights on and museum operations
running smoothly. Cost is $150 per person. We
have a variety of sponsorship levels available
if you can help out. So check out our website
in the coming months for details on that. Jocelyn,
would you like to talk to us a little bit about
the Ride the Radio Waves event? I can certainly
do that. Neil, did you have any questions for
Melinda? Yeah, I wanted to stop Melinda there
for a second. Yes, she couldn't hear me. The
Cincinnati Liars lager beer you might explain
about the Cincinnati Liars because everybody
may not be aware of That term Cincinnati Liars
what that's all about and that's kind of an interesting
Aspect and I think you guys even have t -shirts
for that now and isn't that right? Well, we're
going to have t -shirts shortly, but Cincinnati
Liars is really a lot of fun It is for Bethany
Station anyway Right after September 1944, when
the VOA Bethany station went live with transmitting
VOA news to Europe on the European front to Germany
as well as North Africa, nobody really knew at
first whether the VOA was going to be listened
to. But we found out pretty much immediately
that a lot of people were listening, including
Adolf Hitler, because Hitler who had the most
advanced propaganda machine going, you know,
in the world probably at that time, called the
Bethany station, quote, those Cincinnati liars.
That was really a nice compliment for us. So
that just kind of caught on and now, you know,
we're working on the t -shirts and now we've
got blogger beer. Yep. Can't wait for that. Yeah.
Alright, Jocelyn, tell us a little bit about
this ride in the radio waves thing. Yeah, absolutely,
Neil. So, as Melinda said, we're partnered with
the Midpoint Library System here in Westchester
to have a few events. One of them is geared towards
kids of all ages and it will be on Wednesday,
June 5th from 1 to 3 p .m. And what we're going
to do is we're going to set up a VHF station,
a two meter station there for the kids to be
able to talk to operators on the air. And we're
also going to have a couple of computers showing
animation of radio waves, amplitude. We have
a couple of demo programs where basically they
talk and they can see the modulation of their
voice. And we're kind of trying to explain to
them how we go from the voice being modulated
to being transformed into energy and being sent
out the antenna through the transmitter. And
then for the younger crowds, we'll have some
puzzles and coloring and stuff like that. But
the big takeaway that we want them to go away
with is... know what a two radio is. They're
all familiar with radio, but not a lot of them
understand, you know, but they're used to the
broadcast part, not the, hey, I can talk back.
So do a little bit of two -way there, learn,
push to talk. The frequency concept, wave motion,
transmitter and receiver protocol, so we'll have
a little animation probably of how... You know
the waves are transmitted and how they're captured
and stuff and we all have always have them do
a little bit of phonetic alphabet where they
have to say their name and you know what school
their age or something like that and just talk
to, we've got a couple of friendly operators
on the other side that are willing to talk to
children and basically keep them active and going
and at the end of course we'll have some flyers
for the museum and for the radio club for them
to come and stop by and if they're interested
in pursuing it. Now Jocelyn I'm going to go off
the beaten path here for a second. There's another
activity in this series that that I just love
the title of and it's There's a radio in my cell
phone A lot of kids don't realize that a cell
phone is a radio And it's funny because one of
the trick question is always, when's the last
time you used a radio? And everybody goes, hmm,
I don't know. Well, in the car earlier this today
or something, they always go back and you're
like, when's the last time you checked your phone?
And they're like, well, just before I got it
here and it's like. that there's a radio, and
there's more than one radio. Obviously, there's
the data, there's Wi -Fi, there's the LTE for
data and voice, there's the GPS, there's Bluetooth,
there's NFC, there's tons of radios in there.
So yeah, it's always interesting to see the kids'
reactions, because they don't realize. that there's
radios in there. And I think one of the concepts
that's missing today is a lot of the kids don't
understand the infrastructure, right? They're
like, it works, but they don't really question
why it works. They just know it works. And as
long as it works, they're happy. So we're going
to try to demystify that a little bit with them.
Oh, that's a great idea. And you know, a lot
of these ideas, you know, check them out over
at the VOA museum, but if you're not located
near the VOA museum, you can't get there. These
are some ideas that maybe you can run off with
and use in your local area. Stuff like, there's
a radio in my cell phone. That's some important
things that kids need to learn and probably some
adults too. Yep. Well, we're going to talk a
little bit about some fundraisers coming up and
we've already talked a little bit about that,
but Melinda, let me throw it back over to you
and talk a little bit about what these funds
are going toward that we're trying to raise here
and then we're going to talk about a real special
fundraiser that's going to be of interest to
the ham radio community here in just a minute.
But tell us what this is all going toward. Well,
we're really looking for money for a variety
of projects. We hope to raise eventually between
$750 ,000 and a million dollars to install an
energy -efficient HVAC system that will allow
all visitors to be comfortable no matter what
room they're in in the museum. We also want to
renovate our West Garage, which looks like and
has the acoustics of a working garage right now.
So we want to make that into curated exhibit
space so we can put exhibits inside there. We
also want to make the entire first floor accessible
to everybody who comes into the museum, people
of all abilities, by eliminating ramps and steps
throughout the whole first floor. And also on
that list, to become ADA compliant, we'd like
to build a handicapped accessible entrance on
the west side of the building. Okay, so if you
want to check out what they're doing voamuseum
.org and if you're interested in supporting you
can contact admin at voamuseum .org and you'll
have a chance to help them out on that. And another
way that you can help out on that is actually
during Hamvention Weekend. So Lee, tell us all
about Hamvention Weekend at the museum. Yes,
absolutely. The museum has put together a very
special tour specifically for amateur radio operators
on Saturday of Hamfest weekend. That's Saturday,
May 18th. And it will be a private tour of the
complete Paul Crosley collection, which is one
of the best collections in the world. And secondly,
and very special, will be a tour of the 500 kilowatt
Paul Crosley Jr. WLW transmitter. It was the
only half a million watt AM broadcast transmitter
in North America and is on display about a mile
and a half down the road at the WLW transmitter
site. And that is being put together specifically
for HAMS. It is conducted by a person that you
probably already know, Jay Adrick, K8 CJY and
Jeff Mendenhall W8 GMN. They will be conducting
the tour and the cost is a simple $45 donation
to the museum and that will provide you transportation
from the museum. We will have a shuttle running
from the museum down to the WLW transmitter site.
back and forth. So you get yourself to the museum
and we'll take care of the rest. The tour is
630 p .m. to 9 p .m. Saturday, May 18th. It's
going to be a once -in -a -lifetime opportunity
here because that property has been sold and
it's uncertain about the longevity of this transmitter.
So it's a great opportunity to come see it. It
was on the air for nine years from 1934 to 1943
and is an amazing thing to see. If you've not
looked inside a big powerful half million watt
AM broadcast transmitter, I think you're going
to be quite surprised at how you go about doing
some things that we do in an amateur radio kilowatt
amplifier. They're done much differently when
you have to do a half a million watts. Get reservations
in. Reservations are required. You can put your
reservation in at the VOA Museum website. The
URL on that is voamuseum .org. Voamuseum .org.
You can sign up there. And it's a $45 donation
to the museum. And it's going to be an amazing
tour because if you've never looked inside a
big transmitter like this, It is very much worth
it. So that's what we're doing specifically for
hams and specifically for the ham fest weekend.
So get your reservations in. I just talked to
Jay Edrick today and they're already signing
up. So I'm sure these reservations are going
to go quickly. So back to you, Neil. Okay. And
we just released a short video promotion on this
special tour of the WLW transmitter and the Voice
of America Museum special hours for Hamvention
Weekend on our social media site. So if you look
on Facebook, on Twitter, or on YouTube, you'll
see a link to a video there that shows you a
little sneak peek of the tour if you're interested
in seeing that and thanks to Randy K7AGE for
giving us the WLW tour video and then the museum
provided the rest so check out that video on
social media and that'll give you all the information
again and let you have a little sneak peek there
at at what you can get. So I'm sure those will
go fast. And while we're talking about Hamvention,
it's not just Saturday night. Saturday night
is the WLW tour in addition to the museum being
open. But you've got all kinds of opportunities
for hams to run down from Dayton and check out
the museum. So tell us about that before we go
to break here. Yes, we're open Thursday, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday. Thursday and Friday the
hours are 4 p .m. to 9 p .m. and Saturday the
hours are 1 p .m. to 9 p .m. At the museum it's
about a 35 -40 minute drive south of Xenia where
the ham fest will be taking place. So it's an
easy drive down and back. One of the things that
I think hams are going to be interested in, we
have just opened up the Collins transmitter.
We used a quarter million watt Collins 821A transmitters
and it has not been opened to the tour guest
of the museum except the front end of it, the
control end. And we spent the last couple of
months opening that up. We have removed a lot
of the sheet metal. And you can really see inside
this. And it would be a good precursor to look
at the quarter million watt transmitter and then
go down the road and look at the WLW 500 ,000
watt transmitter. So stop in, see that. You're
more than welcome and encouraged to visit our
ham shack. I think Jocelyn's going to talk a
little bit about that, WCA BOA. And there's a
lot of other things. We have a new wireless collection
room with a demonstration of the wireless technology.
So back to you there, Neil. Okay, and I got to
mention because there's those Drake fans out
there. That Drake collection that's there is
just unmatched. It's practically every Drake
radio ever made. You get a chance to check that
out as well. Okay. Well, we're overdue for a
break. So We're gonna take a break. We'll come
back. We'll take your calls We'll take your tweets
and we'll talk to Jocelyn about the ham shack
a little bit more and some other things going
on at the National Voice of America Museum of
Broadcasting in Westchester, Ohio right after
this word from Tower Electronics right here on
ham talk 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
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You know I love you. Don't be caught without
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the hams dime store since 1978. Nominations are
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Pasternak, WA6ITF Young Ham of the Year Award.
I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW. Since 1986, we've had
the honor of celebrating the accomplishments
of Youth and Ham Radio when we want to know about
your exceptional young ham. You'll find the rules
and a nominating form by clicking the Y -H -O
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it in, and we'll see you and an amazing young
ham at the Huntsville Alabama Ham Fest in August.
Thanks, and 73. from Amateur Radio Newsline.
Thanks to Tower Electronics for sponsoring the
show again tonight. Coming up their HamFest schedule
April 13th. This weekend they're in Stoughton,
Wisconsin and Mobile, Alabama. And then April
20th, Gainesville, Florida and April 27th, Calhoun,
Georgia. Or you can visit them anytime at PL
-259 .com and of course they will be at Hamvention
as well. 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. So it's time now for
your calls. If you have a question for Melinda,
Jocelyn, or Lee, give us a call at 812 -650 -9556.
Again, 812 -650. 9556 is the phone number or
you can tweet us or at ham talk live and if you're
listening to us on WTWW shortwave or on the podcast
edition of the show You won't be able to reach
us because because we're not there anymore It's
Thursday night at 930 Eastern daylight at 932
Eastern daylight time at the moment. So Unless
you're listening live you won't be able to to
reach us Okay, so when we ran out of time here
Jocelyn We cut you off a little bit. You want
to talk a little bit about the ham shack. So
let's do that while we're waiting on the phone
calls and the tweets to come in. And you're going
to have a booth at Hamvention as well, right?
That's correct, Neil. We do have a booth at Hamvention.
We'll be in building one. And the boot numbers
1190 were by, I think, the exit door. That's
funny. But last year, that was the Maxim building.
So as you walk into the fairgrounds through the
ticket entrance, we're the first major building
on the left. So we'll be in there. And then,
as Lee mentioned, we are going to have extended
hours for people to come down after Hamvention
closes to come and see us here at the museum.
And for people that's going to be exit 22 off
of I -75, it's the Tyler'sville axis. Just go
east off the exit, and we're about a mile down
the road on the left, and you can't miss us.
As Lee mentioned, it's about 35, 40 minutes.
There's going to be VOA Park sign, the brown
sign on the highway. Don't follow those. Those
will take you to the park side of the VOA grounds.
And we also have a talking frequency, which will
be on our repeater, which is 145 .39 negative
and no PL. And we have more information on our
website at WC8VOA .org if people want to check
that out. Now, you were mentioning about the
ham shack. So yes, we have seven operating positions.
We've got four fairly recent radio. We've got
a 7300 ICOM, a 9100 ICOM. We've got the Kenwood
590. We've got a Yesu 450D. And we've got a couple
of older models. We've got a Kenwood TS -520
and a Yesu FT -101E. Not the newer version, the
old, old version. And then we've got antennas
to match there. We've got tri -bands and dipoles
and fan dipoles and stuff. So the shack will
be open. We only ask that people bring their
license and they can operate from the shack.
And we're happy to show them what we can do and
what we have. So looking forward to see some
visitors in here. Now speaking of licenses when
somebody puts a call sign in on the signup sheet
We know how to find the name and address and
everything because we do that all the time as
hams Jack Dominic the executive director of the
museum, however Doesn't So we need to make sure
that if you sign up for the special wlw tour
voa museum org that you put all that information
in. Some people are just putting the call sign
in there and boom, gone. And so some people don't
know what your name is from your call sign. So
we just wanted to get that out there too. So
anything else on the ham shack, Jocelyn? No,
Neil, that's it. Well, actually, you know, obviously
the museum is, there's an admission fee for the
museum. It's a very small $5. And that will get
you through the museum, of course, and be able
to get on the radio here. And the museum, if
you're not coming for Hamvention, we also have
normal hours, which is 1 to 4 p .m. on Saturday
and Sunday. And it's a great place to come in
and work and Jocelyn and I were working with
the youth contesting program here a couple of
weeks ago in the shack and Mike and Mark and
some others throughout the weekend for WPX and
it was a lot of fun. Yeah, we had a good time.
I think our final score, Neil, I don't know if
you saw it, it was 1 .4 million. So we did way
better than we thought we would with the, you
know, as we say, we're not a big gun station,
but we've got a decent sized setup, better than
most people have at their house. So anyways,
it worked out well. Yeah, it really did. It worked
out well and we got some youth operators involved
and trained and better contesters as a result.
It was a great experience over there. I always
enjoy getting over there. Well the phone number
is 812 -650 -9556. If you have a question or
comment to add in here on the show give us a
call. It's 812 -650 -9556 and we're checking
the tweets here as well and lots of fan mail
here tonight as usual but don't see any questions
as of yet. So if you have one give us give us
a tweet or give us a call at 812 -650 -9556 and
we'll try to get that answered for you. Lee,
let's go back to you and I know you've got a
long list of things that are happening and you
all do such a great job of adding to the museum
and updating things in the museum as time goes
by so every time I walk in It's not the same
as it was before so tell us a little bit more
about What's been going on lately with the museum
itself? Okay, yeah, we'll do Neil one thing I'll
mention while Jocelyn is talking about the The
ham shack there is if you get into the ham shack
make sure you Take a look at the omni graph.
We have a functional 1904 code practice machine
called the OmniGraph. And it's kind of fun to
watch. It's very mechanical. It's hooked up to
a code practice oscillator and a sounder. And
it's kind of fun to see how telegraphy was done
at the turn of the century. So take a look at
that when you get into the ham shack. Other things
going on in the museum is, as you mentioned,
Neil, we've been focusing very much on trying
to make the museum layman friendly. Engineers
understand what we did, ham radio operators understand
what we do, but a lot of our visitors are not
technical. So we've been focusing on that. And
in the control room for the VOA, we have a new
propagation display. It's a laser display actually
to try to communicate. exactly how signals bounce
off the ionosphere and how do we push a signal
around the world. And it's an interesting display.
We also have on display a lot of the high -power
tubes. When you get back into the Collins, we
display the quarter million watt tubes and we
do have one tube there that's rated at 250 ,000
watts on a single tube. It's kind of fun to take
a look at that. And when we get over into the
wireless area, uh... you may be surprised but
the overall story for the titanic of course did
not end well but it has a fantastic wireless
story and we tell that story in the uh... wireless
timeline room so stop and take a look at that
i think you'd be surprised that uh... what spark
transmitters did back then uh... back to you
neil all right eight one two six five zero nine
five five six you have a question now is uh...
Now's your chance because we're going to run
out of time here pretty soon. So give us a call
812 -650 -9556 or tweet us at HamTalkLive and
yeah I'm kind of excited actually. I haven't
made it back to the to the Collins since you
took all those plates off so you can see in that
thing. So I'm kind of excited to get a chance
to sneak back there and take a look at it. And,
you know, inside the museum you've got an exhibit
that's the Gray History of Wireless exhibit and
there's a lot of the Drake gear in there and
so just talk a little bit about the Gray Museum
within the Voice of America Museum. Yeah, sure.
Jack Gray was an early employee of Paul Crosley
and worked for Paul during the startup of his
radio business down on Arlington Street. And
then when the VOA was formed, he was immediately
transferred out to the VOA and was with Crosley
and the VOA for pretty much the rest of his career.
And one of the things Jack did Early on, clear
back with the beginning of crystal sets is when
he found an extra one at the plant, he took it
home. And he started collecting wireless equipment
from the very get -go, the very beginning of
wireless. And the great history of wireless collection
is an amazing collection of authentic, original
equipment, all the way from the beginning of
crystals to through spark transmitters, rotary
spark. up through Atworth Kent and of course
the Crosley Connection. We have one of the best
Crosley Connections or Crosley collections in
the world and moves in then all the way through
up to about 1940. So if you're interested in
old -time radio it is a fantastic place to see.
In the next room right beside it as Neil mentioned
is the Drake collection that was actually donated
by Mr. Drake. and is pretty much a complete collection.
I have not counted every single model number,
but it's very close to being a complete collection.
In addition, we have a lot of the original microphones,
the carbon button microphones that were originally
used by WLW. It's interesting to see how technology
has evolved over time, and you'll not be disappointed.
And the last thing we're going to throw in here
is the gift shop. We're working on a gift shop
and I'm kind of excited to see what all's going
in that. So tell us a little bit about the gift
shop. Yes, one of our volunteers, Mark, has spent
a great deal of time rehabbing an old room in
the museum. We have a very attractive gift shop.
We are still populating it, but we have quite
a bit in there now. We have several of the various
Powell -Crosley books. We have shirts, BOA shirts
and BOA hats. Last year we sold out of hats.
We will try to have an adequate supply this year
to supply everyone that wants a BOA hat. We have
a lot of artifacts from the original transmitter.
We have 807s mounted on a walnut display board.
That is a very popular item. People like to buy
artifacts from the original transmitter. We have
vacuum variable capacitors for sale and some
other high -power resistors that are kind of
interesting when you try to think of a large
power transmitter. We also have a collection
of puzzles. They're free. Stop in, get a free
puzzle. We have puzzles for amateur radio. We
have puzzles for old -time radio. We have puzzles
for the boys of America. So they're all free
to stop in. If you like puzzles, make sure you
stop in and pick up one of those. Now, let me
get this right, Lee. Let me get this straight.
I just made this connection. So Melinda was telling
us about the Cincinnati Liars Lager beer that's
going to be coming out and in the gift shop.
You've got 807s Mounted on a board so you can
have an 807 with your 807 I just got it. I just
got it Neil. I see where I see what you've connected
Yeah, because we've always historically referred
to let's go out and have an 807 and Yeah, we
need to pick up on that. That's a very good observation
deal So there you go folks. You can go to the
museum and have an 807 With an 807 Doesn't get
much better than that Well, we've thrown a lot
of dates and times and all this kind of stuff
at you and We're about to finish up here. So
I'm gonna throw it back to Melinda to kind of
remind us Where we can find all this information?
So if we happen to be in the area and want to
go to one of these 75th anniversary events How
do we find out where these are and when? Well,
you can always go to our website at www .VOAMuseum
.org or even call us at 513 -777 -0027. If you've
got any questions, especially questions for Jack
Dominick, our director, Contact us here at admin,
that's A -D -M -I -N, at voamuseum .org, and
we'll be sure to get back to you as soon as we
can. All right, so check that out. And if you
get a chance during Hamvention weekend, if you're
going to be in the area, swing on down to the
museum. I'm looking forward to Saturday night.
with some of the Newsline crew and some of the
ICQ podcast crew and some of the workbench crew,
I think. We're all going to meet down there.
So looking forward to that. But if you get a
chance, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Sunday, there are extended hours for the museum.
It's a great chance to get down there and check
that out. And then Saturday, the WLW tour is
just... something that's going to be fabulous
and and may never happen again we don't know
but we'll have to see what happens with that
property but could could be so now's the time
to check it out so come on down to the museum
and and look things over okay well let's go around
here anything any last comments anything we missed
here gang before we close it down for tonight
I would say just one thing here, Neil, that make
sure if you want to take that tour of the WLW
transmitter, half a million watt, make sure you
get a reservation in early. They are already
filling up. It's limited to 50 people, 50 people
max is all that Jay and Jeff can handle. So get
your reservation in and make sure, as Neil said,
put in all of your information, not just your
call sign, but your name and fill out the rest
of the form. Jocelyn? Not much else to say, Neil.
I think just reminder people of, you know, stop
by at Hamvention, see us at the booth, and then
once it closes, come in down here to take a little
drive south and come and visit us. All right,
and Melinda? Well, if I can just say one more
thing. The VOA Museum educates a whole new generation
of people about the contribution that shortwave
radio technology and the Bethany Station played
in supporting and sustaining democracy. So we
have an ongoing need for visitors and docents
as well as donors for the museum. We're largely
dependent on donations and volunteer labor for
a lot of the things that we want to do here in
the development of the museum. So we just ask
you to come on out and support us as you can.
Thank you. All right. Well, that's a wrap for
this week's HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guests,
Melinda Zimper and Lee Height, K8CLI and Jocelyn
Breaux, KD8VRX, and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and calling in and invite you all
back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time.
When we start our Hamvention preview shows and
send out some information on that we've got the
schedule all put together. Next week Paul Stetzer
in 8HM will be here from AMSAT. He's the executive
vice president of AMSAT and he'll be here to
talk about the AMSAT Academy that's taking place
the day before Hamvention and a lot of the other
AMSAT related activities at this year's Dayton
Hamvention and then we're going to have the Hamvention
Award winners on the show. We're going to have
some of them on the show with Michael Coulter,
W8CI. And then we have some other shows coming
up. Michael's going to come back and give us
all the latest news a week before. And then on
Hamvention Eve, don't forget about Hamvention
Eve, we'll be on the air. and we'll track down
all the weather and traffic and parking and everything
you need to know to get out to Hamvention. Be
sure to tune in on Thursday night and we've got
some nice surprises planned for that broadcast
as well. And the other show that's going to be
on May 2nd is going to feature WWV. Matt Deutsch,
the... chief engineer at WWV and one of the guys
from the club out there they're celebrating their
100th anniversary this year and so they're going
to do a special forum at Hamvention and we're
going to preview that on May 2nd on the show
as well so make sure you check all of that out
but tune in the night before Hamvention here
at HamTalkLive .com and find out all the latest
weather traffic and transportation issues and
all that kind of information that you need before
you go out to Xenia. So I'll say good night for
now and invite you back next week. Paul will
be here to talk about the AmSat stuff and if
you like AmTalk Live, please consider leaving
us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.
It 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!