This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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we go, welcome to Hamtop Live Call in, let's
talk, Neil's your guy Hamtop Live, here we go
Hey, good evening, everyone. It's time for Ham
Talk Live. It's episode number 153. Ham radio
dating stories for Valentine's Day recorded live
on Thursday, February 14th, 2019. I'm your host,
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of Ham Talk Live. Tonight, it's open
lines. We're going to take your ham radio dating
stories and we've got a bunch of them lined up
here so uh we're gonna try to work them in we've
got a lot of schedules to play with so i don't
know what order we're going in but we're gonna
figure this out uh but we've got several and
um We're gonna we're gonna see what we get here
tonight and my phone's kind of going crazy here,
too We're trying to figure out the order of things.
So If you have a ham radio dating story, give
us a call here. Here's the way it's going to
work tonight We actually have a call screener
tonight. We have this new phone system we've
been talking about that we're still kind of working
out the bugs but Marty in 1C is our call screener
tonight. He's set up all this phone stuff and
so he will take your calls and then he'll put
you on hold and then we'll get a line going.
So you can go ahead and call right now and that
number to call is 812 -650 -9556. Again, it's
our temporary number. tonight 812 -650 -9556.
Give that number a call. Marty in N1C will answer
and he will talk to you and get you in the list
and let you know what's going on and then we'll
get to as many of these calls as we can tonight.
So again the phone number to call 812 -650 -9556
and Marty will Get everybody in line Last week
here on the show Craig Thompson canine CT and
Joe fitter k7joe We're here to talk about the
North American collegiate Championships if you
missed that show you can listen anytime and ham
talk live comm or on your favorite podcast app
or YouTube or you can catch the rebroadcast on
WTWW 508 5 a .m Saturday evenings about 6 30
p .m. Eastern time So get your dating stories
ready to go again if you're listening to us live
on Thursday night You can give us a call at eight
one two six five zero nine five five six You
can call in, talk to Marty. He'll put you on
hold and let you know what's going on there.
You can also tweet us. We've got a couple of
them that were sent in by email and tweet. So
I won't have time to check the email here, but
we'll check the tweets at HamTalk Live. So if
you have one you want to send in, you can do
that. So I'll be back with some of our couples
that'll get the ball rolling and dating stories.
right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. I'm not so sure why
I ever used any other PL259s. Mine are better.
Besides, you deserve the best. You know I love
you. Don't be caught without PL259s. Visit Tower
Electronics at a ham fest near you. Or visit
them online anytime at PL -259 .com or call 920
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Go to pl -259 .com, Tower Electronics, the Ham's
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to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring
the show tonight to help bring you HamTalk Live.
They will be at Dalton, Georgia on February 23rd
and March 2nd, Cave City, Kentucky, March 16th,
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Or you can catch them any time online at PL -259.
Well, we've got some calls lined up here tonight,
and our first caller tonight is Amanda, K1DDN.
Good evening, Amanda. Good evening. You have
me and Jeff here on the line. Say hello, Jeff.
Hello. Hello, Jeff. So nice to join you tonight.
Jeff was just mentioning... Sorry, somebody wanted
to call me. Apologies. listening and Jeff said
that sounds like all -star that Neil's got or
asterisk excuse me that you have on your PBX
is that true oh I have no idea you'll have to
ask Marty he did all that very very familiar
to Jeff so it sounds like our system a lot in
our phone yeah it probably is so well yeah tell
us about tell us about you and Jeff some ham
radio Dating stories. Well, let's see. Are they
nightmares or are they happy endings? Oh, either
one. Either one. Sometimes it's pretty hard to
share a shack. You know, during a contest, if
I want to be serious about it or if Jeff wants
to be, it's hard to share the radio a little
bit. But we tend to make it work and have fun.
Also, another thing is it's hard to find logging
software where you can have multiple call signs
running at the same time and log. I don't know
what you use. What do you use? I use DXKeeper
as my main log. I actually do the same thing
Val does. I have this convoluted system of...
I put my satellite contacts in TQSL and then
move them over into DXKeeper and N1MM and then
move it into DXKeeper. It's kind of the same
system she does actually. Some of the other things,
I think Jeff could tell this story best about
irritation. of a YL making a contact before a
guy? What do you think, Jeff? Did you always
get through first? Yeah, that might be the one.
It's pretty rare when I win a pilot before Amanda,
I'll tell you that. It happens every now and
then, but it's rare. Yeah, I've always heard
that YL voice is an extra 3DB at least, so. I
think so. I think it works. I know, because I
try to turn the amp up an extra 3 dB and it doesn't
help. It's funny how he's like, hey, don't be
pushing the amp. Don't push the amp, sweetheart.
Just keep it down. Keep it down. And then all
of a sudden, when he can't make a contact, he's
in the back of it adjusting the ALC and turning
that sucker up. I mean, really? I can't deny
that. I guess you do what you have to do. One
of our sweetest stories was kind of being invited
on Ham Nation for the first time, which was on
Valentine's Day back in 2010. I think that was
pretty fun. And I'll tell you a funny story.
We all know Bob Hile. Well, guess what? I didn't
at the time. And he sent me an email and I told
Jeff, I said, Jeff, I don't know, this Bob Hile
guy just sent me an email and asked me to be
on a show with him. Who is he? And Jeff fell
out of his chair. He couldn't believe it. I didn't
believe it. I had to see the email and then I
didn't believe it until she called him. But yeah,
it was amazing. But, you know, otherwise we usually,
we typically get along. There's things that I
know. Like, we just did this event last weekend,
the Snow Queen. And we bring out the QRV. the
quick response van or vehicle. And it's our com
van basically. And so, there's a lot of cuss
words thrown when Jeff's setting it up and getting
everything connected. And I know to just stay
out. I just give them a half an hour, let them
set it up, and then I can start bugging him about,
are we ready? Are we ready to rock and roll?
We've got to support this. Let's go. But there's
what we actually manage to work pretty good together.
Don't you think, Jeff? I think so. We do. Yeah,
it's just a lot of fun. And I think that we influence
a lot of other people to get involved. I would
hope so. Yeah, it's great. In fact, we're about
to go down to Walsh, Colorado, which is about
four hours away, and get a bunch of Hams, or
soon to be Hams, licensed. We're teaching a class
over there. Nobody's ever heard of Walsh, Colorado
because it's very, very small. Well, I got a
couple of questions for you, but how did you
and Jeff meet? How did that work? So we used
to all be roommates back in the day. Boy, when
was that? Maybe 2001, 2002. There was three of
us that were roommates. together. And that's
where we first met. And then I moved out and
moved to a different town and about four years
later he ended up in my same town and I needed
IT help. When I heard he was in town he was the
guy that I called. And he came over to the print
shop and he got our network together and set
up our server and our email server. and all of
that good stuff. And, you know, just your typical,
we were just hanging out a lot. So one thing
became to another. And he had always been interested
in getting his ham license. He got licensed in
2007. And another funny thing is him and one
of our good friends were studying together in
our very, very tiny apartment. And so I couldn't
help but always catch all of their study sessions.
And Jeff was like, well, I'd like you to get
licensed as well. And I said, I'm not really
interested. You guys are too geeky for me. And
he said, yeah, you know, you probably wouldn't
be able to pass it anyways. So that was it. That
was it. OK, now my other question, and I didn't
do this and I'm not going to incriminate anybody
because I know this story, but. What what would
you have done if if you and Jeff went out to
a movie and Jeff brought his HT along I Think
he has Yeah, I'm pretty sure so that's okay Um
as long as it's turned off. Oh, okay as long
as it's turned off. Yeah. Yeah, he can bring
it long as it's turned off. So that way if you
have like a weather emergency you're prepared
right? That's absolutely right or you know whatever
kind of emergency the electricity goes out and
we need to get out quickly he's gonna be on the
he's gonna be on the radio listening to the traffic
so I guarantee it. I'm pretty I'm pretty flexible
on that actually. She's actually worse than she's
actually worse than me she's a She's an assistant
to our local emergency manager. So he gave her
this radio and in our we're wearing one of those
counties where Oh We've lost you there for a
second Jeff Okay, I think we've we've lost Jeff
here so we'll We'll have to try it again Jeff
you there Okay, I think we lost lost the signal
on Jeff here so we will move along here, but
Amanda and Jeff thanks for calling in and sharing
those stories with us and Note for Marty here
is if you called in He lost some people along
the way so if you called in and you're not in
line Go ahead and give us a call at 812 -650
-9556. Sorry about the bug in the system there,
but if you If you didn't get picked up to you
know, just call back. We'll get you in line here
as soon as we can and Let's see if we can get
another call in here and it looks like Okay,
we've got a call on Skype so let's see what we've
got here Hello welcome to ham talk live oh Hey,
I just wanted to call in I saw your topic on
Twitter earlier, and I want to pass along our
story my wife before she was my wife is I guess
we were dating and talking on the phone a lot
back in the early 90s when cell phones are fine
a minute and She saw I always had this radio
around and thought maybe it'd be a good idea
for her to get her ham license So she studied,
took her test, got a ham license, and then I
was out of college before she was, and then we
used ham radio to spend a lot of hours talking
with one another instead of using cell phones.
So it was kind of an interesting thing as a part
of our relationship. So when we got married,
the pastor made a comment that he knew that she
was getting pretty serious when she started talking
about radios. So she was the English major and
I was the engineer. But it's worked out real
well. Oh, that's great. Who do we have here,
by the way? Yeah, this is Tom in 4 -H and ZX.
All right, Tom. Thanks for calling in. Appreciate
it. And yeah, you know, there's just all kinds
of stories out there. And that's what we're after
tonight. So thanks for giving us a call. Yeah,
she still does. She still carries a radio with
her, more for just emergency purposes. gets the
fun out of talking that she used to but she's
all current and still enjoys it and I'm still
very active in the hobby but I thought that was
an interesting story and got us off to a good
start and ham radio played a very major role
in that. I find a nice simplex frequency and
unlimited talk time. Yeah oh yeah I would have
would really like to have that because it was
just You know, unlimited, like you said, free
talking, where you don't have to pay long distance.
And I've done that long distance thing quite
a bit. So yeah, that would have been great. Well,
thanks for calling in. Appreciate it. Okay. Good
show. Thanks a lot. You take care. All right.
You too. Bye. Okay. Bye bye. All right eight
one two six five zero nine five five six is the
phone number and apparently the phone system
crashed so Sorry but if you would call back and
Get in on the number here. We're going to try
to get this set up again. 812 -650 -9556 is the
number. 812 -650 -9556. And I think we've got
the phone system back up and running now, but
we need people to call back. So sorry about the
technical problems here tonight, but give us
a call and we'll get that going on. Okay, let's
see. Oh, Troy W9KVR says, true love is having
a wife who understands that you need to operate
at the school on Valentine's Day during school
club roundup every year. And it also doesn't
hurt that his father -in -law operates as well.
Yeah, I get that. The school club roundup is
always the week of Valentine's Day and so you
always have to kind of juggle the system around
a little bit to make that work out. Okay, well,
I'll tell you what. We're going to take a break
here and we're going to get everybody lined back
up here in the queue and get things going here
and we've got some more stories that who were
sent in earlier that we can go to as well. So
let's do that. Let's take a break. And when we
come back, we'll get the phones all running again.
So we'll be back after this word from iCall America
right here on HamTalk Live. Create your own band
opening! ICOM's newest SDR transceiver, the IC
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radios. Is it getting hot in here or is that
just your amplifier? You're listening to HamTalk
Live with Neil Rapp. Alright, thanks to ICOM
America for bringing the show to you 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 I think we've got our
call system set back up again so that phone number
again 812 -650 -9556 or tweet us at HamTalkLive
and if you're listening to us on WTWW or the
podcast edition. You won't be able to reach us
live since the show was on Thursday. So next
on our list here we have Val in V9L and Jerry
WB9Z. Good evening Val and good evening Jerry.
Hello, Val's got the phone right now. Hey, I
wanted to let Amanda know we have that same trouble
too with the logging software. I have to keep
my DX Lab Suite on two different computers, but
anyway. Yeah, so everybody probably already heard
the story of me and Jerry, you know, how I met
him at W9DXCC. I just started DXing and he gave
a presentation. He had just come back from South
Orkney. And so I met him at the Hospitality Suite.
I got to talk to him a little bit, but a couple
months later I was doing CQ Worldwide. sideband
and i was doing ten meters only low -power he
was ten meters only high -power and i bumped
into a month frequency and so then we started
talking and texting and emailing uh... but it
wasn't so probably February that he asked me
if i would be his date at the uh... DX dinner
at Dayton like three months later he asked me
in February to be a date in May on Friday night
so i accepted And the same day, another ham,
who will remain nameless, asked me if I would
be his date in Dayton three months later, Saturday
night. So the second guy, I was like, all right,
who is this guy? So I knew him a little bit from
Facebook, so I Googled him, and the first picture
that pops up is him and Jerry. Sitting at a bar
in a foreign country having a beer. They had
been on a de -expedition together and I'm like,
okay These two guys have a bet on me. Don't say
and I wish But anyway, so I ended up dating Jerry
St. Patty's date so we ended up going out earlier
than that May, you know date and thing and then
it started getting serious so I had to cancel
the It's like a date, that Saturday night date.
But anyway, I thought that was kind of funny
that another ham had asked me out and they both
knew each other, but they swear it wasn't a bet.
And then I have one other thing. Before I met
Jerry, when I was still separated, I wasn't quite
divorced yet, so I was checking out that match
.com thing and being the cheap ham that I am,
AKA single mom. I thought, well, you have to,
you know, they kind of give you a brief, they
give you a picture and a little bit about the
guy, but if you want to, you know, email them
or chat with them, you have to pay the fee. Well,
I was looking at this one guy and it said that
he liked, I did a search for ham radio men. So
I was living in Wisconsin at the time and I found
this one guy in Michigan who will remain nameless.
And it said he was into ham radio and it gave
his first name and his town. So I went into QRZ.
looked up his first name and his town and there's
like a few of them so I checked them all out
and they're blown to hold he had a picture of
himself on there and it matched the picture on
the thing so I emailed him and I was able to
communicate with them and we started calling
each other we never actually went on a date but
i was able to get around the paying the fianna
i can't remember the match dot com or one of
those services but uh... but i don't know if
you want to get on and add anything to a jerry
jerry's kind of chicken he's got a horror story
from his ex -wife of when she's like cut his
beverages when she was mad at him oh no but i
think that you've ever to see that kind of but
uh... yet so but No, we're very happy and thank
God for ham radio or I never would have met him.
So I'm very happy for him radio. So Love is in
the air. It sounds like so more Ham ham stories
come on and I'll let you go All right, well,
thanks Val and thanks Jerry appreciate you calling
it All right, Jerry You can get a word in edgewise
Jerry Hey, it's impossible to do that. Hey, I
just want to say hi to our good friend, Dr. Scott
Wright, down on Turks and Caicos right now. I
bet he's listening. Somehow or another, he's
listening. Yeah, I talked to him earlier. He
actually is in Kentucky at the moment. Oh, he
is? He hasn't made it down to a Turks and Caicos
check? Cause he put you on for the contest. We'll
have to talk about that off the air. Okay. Roger
that. Roger that. Wow. You're having a great
show tonight. You're having a great show tonight.
So continue on Neil. Always good to say hello
to you. Okay. Thanks, Jerry. Appreciate it. 73s.
Okay, well, we've got several calls here and
I believe we've got Liz coming up next here if
I Remember correctly. So let's see if we've got
that. Okay, I think we've got it. Hello Welcome
to ham talk live on the NASA steamboat. All right,
Liz. Yeah, Liz and Brian are on a on a little
jazz dinner cruise kind of thing going on calling
in from the Mississippi River. So, so let's let's
hear your story, Liz. You've got, you know, your
license, KG5ONB and Brian and and Brian likes
to stir up trouble on the satellites, I know.
so so let's hear some of these uh some of the
dating stories well the we've been married 23
years and we've been together 26 years and we
just got licensed like the crime just got licensed
four years ago and i was licensed around three
years ago and um i guess the bad it's been like
when we went on the anniversary trip He needed
to do a grid for people that needed matches Mississippi
and he was like, you know mine don't show I'm
like, I know that's fine. Whatever we have it,
you know a fair minute you can go do that and
Then he did it like immediately when we got there
and then when we finished our our dinner He he
he was like, okay, I'm gonna go do a pass at
11 o 'clock and I'm like, oh my gosh what? The
good part is like, things like this where we,
you know, like we're calling into the show and
it's fun. We're on our little adventure here
on the Natchez, but we're still having fun. So
yeah, everything's going good. Thanks for calling.
I again apologize for all the... phone difficulties
here tonight. I know you guys are on tight schedule
because you want to enjoy your cruise there.
Well, one question I have to ask here is that
Brian on Twitter is always saying that he's the
captain. So is he really the captain? Yeah, he's
the captain. He's the captain. Okay. All right,
we just want we just wondered about that cuz
we were thinking maybe Liz was was in charge
but All right, he's gonna be the captain all
right Brian, you know, yeah get word in here
Brian. Yep Hello, okay, so Brian it's okay to
do those Those 11 o 'clock satellite passes.
That's, that's okay. That's approved because
I'm the captain, Neil. I tell you, we're having
a good time on this cruise though, Neil. It's
a lot of fun and a lot of place to see on the
river. Well, that's really cool. Well, enjoy
your Valentine's Day. Thanks for calling in.
I'll let you get back to the dinner and music
and all that stuff going down the river. Great
choice, by the way. That was a good choice there.
So, thanks for calling in. Well, look, I have
to say. All right. Yeah, go ahead. I have to
say one thing. Liz, I couldn't do it without
her. And I love her very much and we've been
together a long time and I'm lucky to have her.
Well, there you go. Can't ask for much more than
that. All right, Neil. Thanks for calling, Brian.
All right. Okay, you too. And Liz, thanks a lot
for calling in. KG5GJT and Liz. KG5ONB, thanks
for calling in. And I think we've got some more
on the line here. So let's see, uh, see what
we have here. And, uh, Carl KD9 HQT says he's
ready for, for love on the ionosphere. So let's
see what we get here. And I believe we have Carol.
Is this Carol? This is Amanda. Oh, this is Amanda.
Oh, Amanda's back. Okay. Yeah. If you, if you
need to take Carol though, go ahead. No, no,
no. Go ahead. Yeah, we lost Jeff there. He was
talking about the handheld you had. Oh, yeah,
the one that she's addicted to. That was it.
It's kind of funny. I'm addicted to police bands.
That's all I can say. Other than that, I just
thought that Liz and Brian were so cute. Brian
is so sweet. And while we were muted on hold,
And I can't cuss on the show, because it's a
show. I said, how come you don't say bleep like
that to me? So they were so sweet. I guess that's
just not us. I thought that was neat that they
joined in during their cruise. I would like to
say there was one time the scariest part of ham
radio was one time when Jeff went to one of his
repeater sites and they had a break -in and There
was two criminals inside, you know stealing copper
or whatever. They're stripping wires out of the
building and I don't know Ben to some of those
and huge huge concrete buildings very vast and
Scary in the dark. Let's put it that way, but
these guys were there And Jeff and his crew show
up there to do some work and to secure it a little
bit better. And they called the cops, and the
cops took these two criminals down. Well, in
fact, they didn't secure everything. And they
all went inside the building. And I could see
it on the security camera. So I'm watching live.
I'm watching them. And one more guy comes out
of the woods. and jumps in a car that was there
and drives off but everybody is in this blind
spot including the deputy that was there and
I didn't know if he had if they had all been
mowed down by this guy or what and scariest moment
in my life and there's no cell coverage out there
there is DTR there because the self that site
is right next door but I was screaming on ham
radio and nobody answered me. The one time you
didn't have your HT, Jeff. No, because the repeater
that I needed to hear her was there and they
shut it off because they were stealing. Oh. So
she was screaming on the radio and we couldn't
hear her and we were fine, but I get it. It was
a, it was a, yeah. It was a scary moment. Yeah,
I had a feed line pulled off of one of my repeater
sites. They stole it. Yeah, but the But it was
on them because it was an aluminum feed line
So the joke was on them Yeah Well, I did I just
got out of the repeater business here about a
year ago just Not enough time to take care of
them and they were scattered all over the place.
So But I did that for about 20 years, so, yep.
Money, money, money. Exactly. It's not even the
money part. It's mostly the technical side anymore
and finding people that know IT stuff, networking
in, et cetera, anymore to go out and work on
them. That's usually the problem, not anything
easy to fix. I'm used to asking the questions.
Yeah, yeah, the tables have turned. Well, thanks
for calling back, Jeff and Amanda. Appreciate
it, and have a great Valentine's Day. Thank you,
Neil. It was so great to be here tonight, and
hello to all of your viewers. And then after
listening to Liz again, I realized I screwed
this all up. I'm just used to being on camera.
So hello, my name's Amanda. Call us, P1DN, I'm
in Spanien City, Colorado. Jeff? K0JSC, yeah,
we get it. Okay, so goodnight everyone and happy
Valentine's Day. Yeah, we don't have lower thirds
on radio, so. I know, don't get that. All right,
thanks YouTube, appreciate it. Have a great Valentine's
Day. Thanks, sir. Thank you, 73 everyone. All
right, 73. All right. Well, I think we've got
another call here. So let's let's see if we can
Get that switched over and from the area code,
I'm guessing this is Carol Yes, it is. This is
Carol. I'm in Moorhead, Kentucky And my call
is kilo four Sierra Alpha Foxtrot Well, Carol,
thank you so much for calling in. And by the
way, Carolyn KC9URR says hello. She came into
school to relieve me a little earlier tonight,
along with her husband, Plato. And she said,
oh, you have to talk to Carol because Carol has
a great ham radio dating story. So tell us your
story about CW. Yes, yes. This happened a long
time ago, but a 53 -year -old marriage resulted
from it. But I got my license when I was 15,
September 28, 1957. And my first day on the air,
of course I was very excited to get on the air.
And I was a novice, so it was CW. And my second
contact was K4GFY, Kilo Ford Golf Foxtrot Yankee,
and he was from Kentucky. He was in the Air Force.
His name's Don. He was in the Air Force, and
he was home on leave at his parents' home, and
he had a radio, a radio set up there. So he was
my second contact and I still have my log book
and I looked in it in anticipation of talking
to you and I even I talked to him at 4 46 p .m.
on 3725 in the 80 80 meter band and this was
all CW It was CW because I was a novice. He had
had his license about three years and of course
I was a novice so I had to be on CW there for
a whole year before I finally got my general
license. So we didn't talk too long and there
was nothing, you know, spectacular about it.
I asked him later after we were married. I asked
him how my CW was on that first contact, and
he said, well, you know, it wasn't all that great.
Of course, I felt it was great, you know, but
I wasn't nervous. I was nervous with my first
contacts. So, I turned 16 two days later. I got
my license at 15 but two days later I turned
16. So he was in the Air Force and we didn't
see each other very much or talk very much until
I was a senior in high school and then of course
he was stationed in different places and I was
in college then for two years. So I knew him
and talked to him and saw him some. Over a period
of five years and five years after we met with
that first contact. We did get married and We
he was an Air Force career person. So we lived
all over the USA and He always set up a ham station
in base housing Put up antennas. I don't know
how he got away with all that He did. He always
managed to have some sort of an antenna. But
I was busy with three children and just taking
care of a family. So I wasn't very active for
many years. So he retired and we moved here to
Kentucky. And we had more or less his and hers
stations in the last few years. His was much
more sophisticated than mine. But he took care
of all the antennas and any time I had a problem
he was right there to fix it. And so that worked
out well for us. It's kind of like couples now
each having their own computer I think. I think
that works out better. But we have three children.
Now my husband Don, K4GFY, he's a silent key.
He passed away August 2015. So just short of
our 53rd wedding anniversary. Well that's just
such a neat story that you guys actually met
on CW. So you didn't even have a voice to go
on and you started talking and one thing led
to another and here you are now and had 53 years
of marriage Right, right and it was it was a
couple years before I met him Like I like to
say it really wasn't love at first dog It was
a couple of years before I actually met him because
I was quite young and My father and my brother,
they were both hams, and they pretty much got
me into it. So we were a ham family. And one
thing, I was just thinking about the CW back
in those days. This was 57 when I got on. We
had crystals. We were crystal controlled. And
I remember we'd have one crystal down in the
CW band. and maybe one crystal up in the phone
band on 80 and 40 and I think I remember working
15. So you know I was probably on the air for
a couple of years just crystal controlled and
then we did get a better rig and a VFO and so
forth. Now he didn't use a quartz crystal for
the ring did he? No, I think it's real. Oh, okay.
Yeah, I believe it's real. You know, you just
rip one of those crystals open and get a little
piece of quartz out of there and... Well, I hadn't
thought about that. I hadn't thought about that.
But now our oldest son, who lives in Wisconsin,
he has his dad's call now. I pretty much... He
had a general call, so I pretty much insisted
that he go ahead and apply for his dad's call.
So he's now K4GFY, and I do have a daughter in
Arizona. She is not a ham, but I've been trying
to encourage her to get her technician so that
someday when my key goes silent, hopefully she
could get my call, but I don't know if that's
going to work out. Well, you just never know.
I mean, you know, you never know. You work somebody
in CW and then you end up married. So anything
can happen. Well, we had a long, long happy marriage.
And so it's kind of like nowadays, I guess with
the Internet in a way, you know, you never know
what can happen when. different kinds of communication
bring people together. Well that's a great story
Carol. Thanks so much for coming on and telling
us all about it and enjoy the rest of your Valentine's
Day and we really appreciate you taking the time
to tell your story. Yeah, and I'm still active.
I'm still on CW. That's my mode of being on Hammer
Radio. I'm still on CW. Yeah, your mode of choice.
Very good. It is. It really is. I really like
it. All right, Neil. Well, it's so great to talk
to you, and thank you very much. All right, Carol.
Take care. 73. All right. 73 to you and everybody
else. All right. Bye -bye. Okay, wow, we've had
a busy we've had a busy show here tonight and
I've still got some more here on on email so
Wow, there's a there's a lot going on here on
Twitter too here. So Let's see. Let's finish
off with a couple of these Stories here. We'll
finish it off tonight First of all, Scott KB9
AMM and Jill KB9 PZF from Tower Electronics had
a cool story. Scott writes, Jill and I met on
the CB radio back in 1976. She lived on the east
side of town. I lived on the west side. And I
drove across town in my 1962 Ford Falcon. It
overheated on the way across town, a thing it
did quite often. He met her at Dairy Queen down
by the river spent many nights talking to her
on the radio after that and had a wonderful time
and and they got married in April of 1980 because
Her mother would not let them leave town together
without being married and they wanted to go.
Yes to Dayton And so that was back when the Hamvention
was in April. And so they got married and took
off to Dayton. They honeymooned in a Pontiac
Phoenix in the parking lot of Hera Arena. And
their big meal, it was at the Denny's located
across the street from Hera Arena. Wow, how about
that story? And then JW5WHN writes in, my wife
WB5LYJ and I met via amateur radio about 45 years
ago at a 1973 Christmas party hosted by another
ham WB5EGD in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And they've
been married for over 40 years and Jay says his
most memorable field day was in 1974. He was
a young Navy radio man who was waiting discharge
and had met up with several other U .S. Navy
personnel at K6NCG and that's Treasure Island
California Amateur Radio Club in the same situation.
All of us at the Treasure Island ARC were licensed
amateur radio operators and we decided to go
operate field day from a location that included
an abandoned lookout station near Sacramento.
And on June 23rd, 1974, field day, early in the
morning on 75 meters, he was sleeping on a cot
near the sideband station and got a slight tap
on his shoulder and was informed turned to sailor
someone would like to talk to you in New Mexico
and the person using the distant microphone was
a young lady that he'd met at that 1973 Christmas
party of WB5 EGDs and it was WN5LYJ at the time
operating with a field day group set up at K5
CQH's QTH on the east side in the woods and all
I heard was Jay and I had replied yes, and they
proceeded to chat for 15 minutes. The signals
were excellent and after they talked he had a
big smile on his face knowing that he would be
home in a few months and be able to participate
in field day 75 from New Mexico. So now WN5LYJ
is WB5LYJ and they were married in 1977. So Just
all kinds of stories here and... Wow. Okay, now
I was going to end here and now Julie's giving
me a hard time. Julie, I was trying to get her
to come on the show and she's always saying,
you know... you know, you should have me on the
show. You can fill in, you know, and if I have
somebody cancel last minute or something, I say,
you know, okay, Julie, you're going on the air.
And then then I was planning on this tonight
to have Julie end the show here and come on.
And, and she was like, Oh, I don't know if I
want to want to, you know, get on the radio and
everything. And so, well, So she's at this meeting
and says she can't call in, but she sends her
regards to everyone. And we'll end with a little
bit of a story. Saturday night, this past Saturday,
Julie and I went down to Lexington, Kentucky
and went to a place called the Kentucky Castle.
So shout out to the Kentucky Castle, folks. and
we went down there for dinner and we got there
a little early and walked around a little bit
and went up to the rooftop and I asked her to
marry me and she said yes so Julie and I are
engaged now we've been kind of keeping it low
-key here for a few days but but Julie's been
to Huntsville a couple of times to Dayton a couple
of times so You know and she gets these road
trips where I have to you know, okay, there's
a satellite pass in five minutes I have to you
know, I got to get my satellite pass in so so
she puts up with that and and and my visits to
Disney amateur radio club and Kennedy Space Center
and all this stuff. So so Julie thank you for
putting up with my ham radio habit and And so
we're engaged now. So we'll see how that works
out on timing, because we don't have a plan yet.
But we'll figure that out. And we're supposed
to get some pictures here over the weekend, maybe,
from that. So we may post a couple of those.
But anyway, wanted to share that news with you
today. Being Valentine's Day and all, we wanted
to to get that out there. So thank you all. And
some of you have been keep asking, you know,
where's that ring? Well, well, she's got one
now. So we took care of that. So anyway, we will
finish things up here tonight with that. And
that is going to be a wrap. And so is Julie,
actually, I guess. But that's a wrap. For this
week's am talk live. Thanks to everybody out
there in cyberspace for listening and calling
in next week We don't have a show next week.
Sorry. I've got a basketball game to announce
it happens once a year on a Thursday and So I'm
not gonna be around next week, but in two weeks
we'll be back So I invite you back on Thursday,
February 28th at 9 p .m. Eastern Time. Sean Kutsko,
KX9X, will be here to talk about several portable
operations. The Canadian National Parks on the
air, the U .S. Islands, a thing called CT90.
You'll have to tune in to find out what that
is and a whole lot more. And so next week on
WTWW, we'll replay episode 99 with Rob Sherwood
in C0B. talking about receiver comparisons because
we won't have a new show to play. Make sure to
listen for us in two weeks, so we'll miss you
next week, but we'll be back on the 28th with
a brand new episode with Sean Cutsco KX9X. 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. It helps others find
us faster. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying Happy Valentine's Day! 7 3 7 5 and may
the good DX be yours 7 -3 and good luck from
HamTalk Live.