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ICOM radios. Good evening, everyone. It's time
for HamTalk Live. It's episode number 152, the
North American Collegiate Championships 2019,
recorded live on Thursday, February 7th, 2019.
I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for
tuning in to this episode of HamTalk. live. Tonight
we're joined by Craig Thompson, K9CT and Joe
Fitter, K7JOE and we'll take your calls live
in just a few minutes. Last week it was Frank
Bauer, KA3 HDO here on the show to talk about
the latest news from the International Space
Station. If you missed that show you can listen
anytime at hamptalklive .com or on your favorite
podcast app or YouTube or you can catch the rebroadcast
on WTWW 5085 AM Saturday evenings at about 6
30 p .m. Eastern Time. So we're going to talk
collegiate championship contesting tonight. So
get your questions ready to go. If you're listening
to us live on Thursday night, you can call us.
After the interview and I'll let me give you
the phone number and we're still on our temporary
phone number my apologies for that The phone
number will be eight one two six five zero nine
five five six again We're still on the temporary
number tonight eight one two six five zero 9556
and I'll let you know when it's time to call,
but that way you can have that number handy and
ready to go. 812 -650 -9556. You can tweet us
anytime though. You can tweet us at HamTalk Live.
And so I'll be checking that throughout the night
and I'll be back with Craig and Joe right after
this word from Icom America right here on HamTalk
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Your host Neil Rapp would tell you a chemistry
joke but he probably wouldn't get a reaction.
Now more HamTalk Live. Thanks to iCub America
for helping bring the show to you each and every
week here Thursday nights live and. on the podcast
and the rebroadcast. Make sure you check out
ICOM at Hamcation this weekend. They're showing
off their new IC 9700, so make sure you stop
by and see that. My guest this evening, we have
two tonight, Craig Thompson, K9CT is from Trevoli,
Illinois, which is not too far from... Peoria
and Craig is an extra class license holder and
been a ham for 52 years. He has a degree in electronics
engineering technology from Bradley University
and as well as worked toward an MBA and after
serving as an operations manager and vice president
with small company. Craig started his own in
1980. Thompson Electronics Company provides solutions
for security, communications, audio, video, fire
alarms, all kinds of stuff in central Illinois.
And his combination of ham radio and electronics
careers allowed him to build an impressive contesting
station and participate in several de -expeditions.
Craig is president of the Society of Midwest
Contestors, which sponsors the North American
Collegiate Championships, along with the National
Contest Journal, and is a member of the ARRL
Contest Advisory Committee. Joe Fitter, K7 JOE,
is a lecturer of finance and the director of
the MBA Strategic Finance Academy at Indiana
University's Kelly School of Business, where
he is the faculty sponsor of the amateur radio
club, K9IU. where he was the club's president
30 years ago. Joe's finance experience is mostly
with Intel Corporation, which took him to China
for several years. Joe is a member of the Society
of Midwest Contestors and is also active in the
Southern Indiana Amateur Radio Association. He's
an avid DXer contestor and CW operator and has
been licensed since 1986 at age 17 and has rejuvenated
the club at Indiana University and thankfully
He does all of my antenna work at Blueton High
School South, too. So thanks for that, Joe. And
Craig and Joe, welcome to HamTalk Live. It's
great to be here. Thank you. Yeah, very good,
Neil. Thanks for having us. Now, Joe, you know,
school club roundup is next week. We still have
to get that dipole up. Yes, indeed. With the
tornadoes in the area, I'm actually... down here
in sunny Orlando this weekend for the hamcation
and to visit some family. But I promise that
we will be on that rooftop working on that dipole
as soon as I get back. Yeah, we had 35 mile an
hour winds right now, Craig and I do, and you're
down there in Orlando. So, and I, and I couldn't,
you know, I couldn't, uh, I couldn't call you
and say, Hey, you know, it's negative 25 wind
chill. Can we go put that dipole up now? So we'll
work on that later. Yeah, sure. Well, Craig,
let's talk a little bit about this. This is the
second sideband version of the North American
Collegiate Championship that just finished up
a few weeks ago. So tell us about the contest
this year and how that all went. Well, I thought
it was very successful. I'm always a little concerned
because the clubs change every year in terms
of who's active in the club. You remember they're
only there for four years and they change quite
a bit from year to year. But I was quite pleased
with the amount of participants. We marketed
this through the ARRL and NCJ and the contest
forums. And also the ARRL has a website for collegiate
activities and we set up two events there. So
we try to get as much marketing done as possible.
This NACC is held in conjunction with the North
American QSO party. So we didn't have to create
a new contest. This is a really successful and
very active contest that's quite short. It's
12 hours long. And it's a Saturday afternoon,
and we thought that that would be befitting of
college -age students to be able to participate.
So it's not something we had to invent. So we
had a lot of the teams repeat from last year,
a lot of the school clubs, and we had some additional
ones. In fact, I know you're going to talk about
this, but with the addition of the RIDI weekend,
we've also had some additional clubs that have
joined since the sideband. heard about the activity
in the sideband contest and wanted to join for
the RIDI contest as well. So quite pleased. Technically,
I think it went better this year. They sent out
some reminder emails on how to set up the linking
for online scoring. And a lot of the testing
was done. The timing of the contest is such that
a lot of the kids are just getting back from
their break. So it's kind of a rush for them
to get back in their rooms, get everything going,
and get into the contest. They kind of had a
rush job getting on, I think, but it'll be better
for Ready Weekend. So I think it went really
well. We had about 15 schools participate online,
and there were some that had some issues that
didn't get online, but they participated anyhow,
and their scores were submitted directly to NCJ.
And then we'll have the results in the NCJ magazine
coming up very soon. All right, very good. Well,
Joe, your group at Indiana University was able
to pull off the victory this time around. So
congratulations and tell us how the club reacted
to the win. And I also want you to talk a little
bit about the live scoreboard. uh... that was
instituted in this and you guys had a brace down
to the wire uh... between your club in the defending
champs down at georgia tech so uh... tell us
how everybody reacted to that i know it was in
the middle of uh... but really bad snowstorm
to so you might talk about that okay very good
meal well first let me let me come in craig and
also stew out on the west coast w sixty u Is
it W6TU or N6TU? Apologies, Sue. But anyway,
for the excellent effort of putting together
not just the collegiate championship, but the
technology that's being used to create a new
dimension of contesting, and that is the live
scoreboard. So for those that aren't familiar
with the live scoreboard, I'm going to start
there first because I think, quite frankly, that's
the bigger story than which university won the
event. The big story is using the live scoreboard
really takes a new dimension of contesting into
the hands of hams. And the younger people like
instant gratification, I think much more so than
the older generation of hams. And if you look
at the contesting demographic, most contesters,
at least in our club, are age 60 and above. And
you're talking about a demographic that's two
generations behind that typical demographic of
contesters. And the younger generation, quite
frankly, wants that instant feedback. And so
the live scoreboard technology allows you to
marry The capability of your logging software,
let's say N1MM is one of the contesting softwares,
and allows you to connect through the internet
real time to compare scores across a variety
of schools. And in this case, we had 15 or 20
schools that were on the scoreboard running real
time. competition and so you weren't just competing
for highest score you are maybe competing with
uh... another school that was uh... in your in
your uh... conference for example the big ten
schools there were and a number of them that
uh... joined a tremendous turnout fact and so
that dimension of contesting i think really inspired
the participants to stick with it When the going
got tough and the bands weren't always terrific,
there were some moments where 80 meters was completely
obliterated by the snowfall and the noise, the
static on the wire antenna that was caused by
the snowfall, we actually thought that we had
blown a radio up and it turned out it was just
static induced from the snow. But anyway, the
scoreboard is the real story here, I think. And
that's what I think has inspired folks to get
involved and to stay involved through the duration
of the contest. K -9IU specifically at Indiana
University. We've been in a state of rebuilding
the station for the last two or three years.
We've received some money from the ARRL, a very
generous grant, last year, courtesy of them,
and that was able to help us get some additional
equipment. Antennas have been updated. We removed
a tri -band antenna that was around since the
early 1970s and a couple years ago we were able
to put up a new antenna and then later on a rotator.
Anyway, long story short, the equipment is in
place and now the students are starting to come
around and getting interested in being competitive
with a competitive radio station and getting
on the air. And for us, really my mission as
one of the faculty sponsors is to get students
on the air. That's really what it was all about.
And it was just a ton of fun. And whether it
was in the mid -afternoon, things were kind of
slow, or late in the evening, when things really
got hopping, it was a bunch of fun to see the
students run. At one point, one of our members
was working at stations. I think the rate meter
went to 240 contacts per hour. If you think about
that, that's four contacts per minute. That's
pretty phenomenal. So they're getting good. They're
competitive. Absolutely well you know it was
it was cool to kind of sneak in and take a look
at the scoreboard as things were going and and
watch and you know all of a sudden you're you're
you know way up on top and then here comes you
know Georgia Tech on your heels and they took
over the lead for a little bit I think And then
it was kind of a fight to the finish. So I think
this scoreboard thing, not only does it give
the instant feedback at the end, but I think
it also may encourage some that are not up in
the first, second, third place to say, hey, well,
at least we can pass these guys. And I think
it creates some, some motivation to stay in the
chair and, and keep on going. Well, I would agree
with that. Um, one thing that we could look forward
to is some, uh, intercollegiate competitions
amongst rival schools, um, where one club challenges
another club and, uh, I, or, you know, conferences
or state intrastate. So. There could be all kinds
of things that would come of this. I'd like to,
one thing I have to go back on that's part of
this is that I was actually kind of shocked at
how many club stations there were not anymore
when we first started this. I thought that when
we would start this up that there would in fact
be many college stations that I remember from
when I was in college. And I'm sure Joe knows
exactly what I'm talking about here. But in the
process of, over the years, building new buildings
and changes being made, stations have disappeared
from some of the biggest universities. And it's
great that somebody like Joe comes back to Indiana
University and helps them out. I personally help
Bradley University and help them get going. But
I think it would be a really good challenge if
local clubs would help. their local university
or any alumni would go back and help their local
university get back on the air or to help them
get on the air. They may be missing a radio or
they may be missing an antenna and you could
give them some help and help these young people
get keep ham radio going, keep contesting going.
Craig, I think that's an excellent call to action.
If there's one thing that I've realized or come
to realize is exactly the point that you made.
In fact, not a couple of weeks ago, I was trying
to look up one of the old club stations that
I used to operate from back in the November sweepstakes
era. This was even before I was a college student.
I hung out with some guys that were a little
bit older and they were members of the Washington
University. Ham Club, W -0 -Q -E -V over in St.
Louis and apparently that club is inactive and
it would be wonderful to have clubs like that
back on the air if older folks can help get them
on the air. The beauty of a college club station
is tremendous because most college students,
you know, they're living in an apartment complex
or they're in a dormitory. They can't have antennas.
uh... you know h f radios the cost is is a little
bit prohibitive when you're a student you know
paying for books and other things and so the
college club station is really an anchor point
i think that thirty years ago when uh... when
i was in new ham and uh... i was in the license
and it got on the air because of the college
club station and that really propelled me not
just in my ham radio endeavors but eventually
my career in semiconductors and you know on and
on so you know that they're very important their
instrumental they shaped a lot of young people's
lives over the course of their existence, and
the fact that they're going away is a little
bit disappointing. So I agree. If there's a call
to action, it's try to help your local university
or college ham radio club station to get on the
air. If a club doesn't exist anymore, perhaps
there's an opportunity to partner with a local
radio club, a ham club, to bring a station on
air and perhaps reinvigorate or reinvent the
club station. It's a great resource, a tremendous
resource for activity. It would be unfortunate
if they go away. To go even further with that,
the website for the North American Collegiate
Championship is actually on the Society of Midwest
Contestors website and that's w9smc .com and
then it would be forward slash NACC for North
American Collegiate Championship. you'll actually
see a lot of information on there. And there's
even a list of every single college ham license
that exists. That doesn't mean that the station
is there. But if you're looking for, and by the
way, somebody went into all the work to do that.
Sean Barnes and 3JQ did that. But if you want
to look up and see whatever happened or who the
trustee is, you may know them. And maybe you
could help. get that station back on the air.
So I think that we should try to encourage as
much activity as possible. And with an existing
contest like this where there's a lot of activity,
it's very rewarding for kids to get on the air.
Here are all the activity. It isn't just them.
They might not even work each other. But there's
all these other people to work. And they're all,
I would say, really good contesters for the most
part that are in these contests. And so they
learn a great deal about communication skills
as a Well, this is all some great stuff, and
we're going to keep talking about that. Yeah,
go ahead, Joe. I just wanted to see if Craig
or you could talk a little bit about the RIDI
contest. I'm not a real digital operator other
than CW, but I know the young people in our club
are very interested in digital modes. they're
quite active in those digital modes. So maybe
you could talk a little bit about the RIDI challenge
and some of the things that we should be mindful
of or to help get stations on the air for RIDI,
which is quite a bit different than digging out
a microphone and making sure the antennas work
for single sideband contest. So maybe you could
talk about that just a little bit. I congratulate
you, Joe, because you did your homework. You
read your script. segue, man, because that was
exactly the segue I was in when you said, Hey
Neil, so Craig, this is all great stuff. And
we're going to talk about this more, but we want
to talk about the ready contest. So let's talk
a little bit about ready and how this is all
going to work. This is the first time for it.
Yes, I was very excited. Actually, it was striking
to me after we started the first NACC last year,
how many of the college clubs sent an email to
me or to K6TU and said, we loved it. Can we do
digital? And so I, of course, had to have permission.
So NCJ editors. ScottK0MD and Scott is a real
champion of what we're doing. He really really
likes what we're doing and he went to the trouble
of contacting the contest manager and discussed
it with them and of course this adds a little
extra work because we're actually not following
the rules as written for the college competition.
But we did it so it'd be an easier and level
playing field for the colleges. But anyhow, we
had great success and they were very excited
about doing this. And I think college kids, in
particular, love digital modes. And I think Joe
can probably attest to this. I've been to the
Bradley club several times. In fact, I usually
speak once or twice a year at their club meetings.
And it always strikes me as to the interest in
digital modes. So I think we're going to have
a great deal of success with the RIDI. It's interesting
to see who likes to do this. One of the things
that's apparent to me as an older person is how
many young ladies are members of these ham radio
clubs. We never, I think maybe once or twice,
were graced with the presence of a female while
we were in college at our ham radio club meetings.
quite important right now. There's a lot of these
students in electrical engineering and computer
science and robotics, and this is of an equal
appeal. So one thing about RIDD -E is you cannot
tell who you're talking to. You can't tell if
you're talking to a female or a male, and I think
that that's what's also really good about the
mode. I noticed when I operate RIDD -E contests,
how many more ladies I end up talking to than
any other mode. So I think this is really quite
interesting to the college clubs, and I think
it appeals to the whole demographic of that age
and the group of members. So I'm pretty excited.
As I said, every one of the people that said
that we're in sideband are going to compete in
RIDI. And in fact, West Point Amateur Radio Club
joined. They were the last one, and they specifically
said they wanted to operate digital. And they
said they're going to be army is they're going
to be their name. So back to you. So, so fill
everybody in on, you know, how this is going
to, you know, play out what modes in particular,
um, and, and how this is all going to play out.
Is this the contest in a contest again? And that
kind of thing. Oh, sure. Well, what it is, it's,
uh, the, Just so you know, RIDI is the digital
mode. And there's two sets of NAQPs every year,
North American QSO parties. And like I said,
they only operate 12 hours. So everybody kind
of likes them because it doesn't take your whole
weekend. So there's a sideband, a CW, and then
there's a NAQP RIDI. It's going to be ready.
There's no other modes as part of this. So it's
really a lot of fun, and you can diddle your
heart's content, I guess. But one of the things
that's fascinating is the kids that are really
into this digital communication, they get it.
They like to set this up and there's actually
some tricks and nuances and I'm sure those that
are in ready know this and these kids take to
this they really enjoy Setting up the station
so it receives maybe one or two decoders or maybe
three decoders and They really do like really
enjoy this mode so I don't know, I guess I could
ask Joe what he thinks is going to happen there.
But I already know that at Bradley, that they've
already tested everything. They're ready to go.
And I'm sure several others are too. So I'm pretty
excited about seeing what's going to happen here.
But the bands will be full of ready signals.
When the NAQP starts, it'll be a lot of fun.
And buried within that will be a lot of college
club stations. Joe? Yeah, I'm looking forward
to the competition. I think it'll be something
new and different. I'm not a RIDI operator, and
I probably made on one hand five contacts in
my entire 32 years as a ham on the radio teletype.
But what I've learned is the new radios have
the capability to operate RIDI without even having
them connected to a computer. For example, you
take an ICOM 7300, it's got a decoding feature
in there. You can program up some of the memory
channels or the memory capabilities. have your
exchange set up in there so even if someone is
not completely verse with the setting up a full
ready station they could certainly get on and
make some contacts and join in the competition
and that's the whole idea is getting yourself
exposed by getting some young people on the air
but of course uh... i think the uh... look at
the college stations uh... probably from the
uh... you know the schools that have uh... you
know uh... folks that are very computer literate
and savvy uh... will probably have a really fun
time getting their computers interface with the
radio you know getting on the air the other thing
is it's only a 100 watt competition and as a
result of that you don't have to worry much about
RF interference or feedback or problems just
pretty much get on the air and go and i think
that's going to be uh the way it works and it's
going to be it's going to be a lot of fun it's
going to be interesting to watch again i'm not
a real ready operator but i'm going to learn
something so you know you can teach old dogs
some new tricks too which you know makes it fun
so from somebody who used to run a lot of ready
Even on an old ASR machine and everything else,
I can tell you, you got to turn the diddle on.
It doesn't sound right unless you have the diddle.
So that's my advice. There you go. I started
off on that re -perf tape, man. That re -perf
tape that had the little holes in it that would
record everything. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The smell
of warm oil. Oh, yeah. Well, we're going to take
a break. But Craig, did you want to finish something
up on that? Well, I would just say that it isn't
really difficult. Most of these radios, especially
the newer ones now, though, have a USB or similar
interface. And you can plug it right into your
computer. And if you can do CAT, generally, you
can probably do RIDI. There's two types of RIDI.
There's FSK and AFSK. One is just an audio feed,
and the other one is a different way of toggling
the radio on and off with the two tones that
we were just talking about in terms of a diddle.
So that's the only additional interface. You
can run N1MM or write log any of the generally
available software. And MMTTY is the most common.
software used and there's another very popular
one called Two Tone. All of this is free and
the N1MM uses MMTTY, they're embedded. So when
you turn on N1MM and then you say you're going
to operate RIDI, MMTTY pops up and you have what's
a interface window that people will click. They'll
take their mouse and click on it. I operate the
whole RIDI contest with my mouse. I rarely touch
the keyboard. So that's another interesting thing
for kids to experience is you just point and
click and it's a lot of fun. All right. Well,
we're going to take a break. We're going to come
back. We're going to talk some more and we're
going to take your calls 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
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812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now,
here's more HamTalk Live. You're listening to
HamTalk Live, the most popular podcast with the
words ham, talk, and live in the title. Here's
your host, Neil Rapp. Tower Electronics will
be at Hamcation this weekend, so make sure you
check them out Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Orlando.
And then they'll be going to Dalton, Georgia
on February 23rd. And you can visit them anytime
over at PL -259 .com. HamTalk Live is on the
air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time
right here at HamTalkLive .com. Be sure to check
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well and it's time for your calls now so if you
have a question for uh craig or joe give us a
call at 812 -650 9556 again we're on a temporary
number tonight 812 -650 -9556 or you can tweet
us at ham talk live as well I'll be watching
that and if you're listening to us on WTWW on
the weekend or on the podcast edition you won't
get anybody if you call that number because We're
here on Thursday. So let's get back to Joe and
Craig here, and we'll see if we get some calls.
But one thing we were talking about over the
break was implementing the live scoreboard into
the logging program. So Craig, why don't you
follow up on that? Sure. This online scoreboarding
is actually quite popular, and there's There
was one, a US station that started one, and then
that led to one in Russia, which now has a, it's
called CQ Contest, and a lot of people went to
that site, and then recently VA2WA with contest
online scoreboard also came on, and a lot of
people are using that as well. How do you talk
to those scoreboards? Just so you also know,
K6TU created this scoreboard just for the NACC.
And I say just for it in that he already had
one set up for the Northern California Contest
Club for their inter -club competitions. And
I thought it worked really well for having a
separate room, we'll call it, or page just for.
the college competition, so that's why Stu hosted
this. But the procedure for all of these is the
same, and N1MM is the large market shareholder
of contest software at this time. Not to say
that there's anything wrong with any one of the
other ones, but N1MM and WriteLog are two of
the principal ones in the United States along
with N3FJP. And they all have a way of sending
scores to the live scoreboard. And what we did
is every school that registered that they were
going to compete, we sent them the instructions
for how to set up their logging software. It's
actually quite simple. All it does is it directs
it to a link. In the software, you just enter
the link, and it sends a score automatically
to any one of those scoreboards. We try to make
it as simple as possible, and if you use that
software, for instance, N1MM is free, just download
it, set it up, and don't do this the day of the
contest, by the way, but get it set up and running,
and then you can actually set up the link to
the scoreboard and see it work. So we try to
make it as simple as possible. setting up for
RIDI. There's probably several sources for doing
that, but if anybody wants to know anything more
about that, I would be glad to help them or direct
them to someone that could help them. Hopefully,
there's somebody in their club that could help
them get it set up. But the instructions that
come with any of these software are very good.
And as they operate this contest, they'll want
to know more. And they'll probably want to participate
in another RIDI contest because they have one
almost every weekend. This will just get them
inspired to get on. All right. Very good. Well,
we've got a call on the line, so let's see who
we have. Welcome to HamTalk Live. Hey, Neil.
This is Eric, WB9PTN. Hi, Eric. Good to see you
yesterday, and thanks for calling in. What do
you have for us tonight? Absolutely, Neil. First
thing I'd like to congratulate Craig, Joe, and
yourself on all the accomplishments that you've
had in the last last year's and also a big thank
you for you guys for taking the time to share
this great hobby with all these young people
and I guess my question is how do you see the
enthusiasm with the young people as it applies
with AMRADIO? Is it increasing about the same
or is that you see it decrease? What are you
seeing in the last year or two? We'll give that
to Joe first. Yeah, Neil, I'm sorry, I'm not
receiving audio from the phone line, but maybe
you can just summarize quickly the question.
Oh, okay, sorry. Yeah, Eric, OEB9PTN is calling
in and was asking about how do you see the enthusiasm
of college students toward ham radio in general?
It's a hard sell nowadays because if you go back
even 15 or 20 years ago, Things like handheld
transceivers were not very popular, not very
common. The idea of being able to communicate
when you were away from a landline was not very
common and that's all changed with the advent
of the cell phone where everyone has a global
communicator in their pocket. I think the unique
aspect that appeals to students in ham radio
now is what you can do with the technology. talking
on a radio. It's integration. It's using technology
to advance some other mission, whether it's public
service and helping with the traditional emergency
communication activities. I think contesting
is combining things like physics and science
and antenna theory and propagation. It's limited
to a select set of students. But I think the
maker community is helping to revitalize or recreate
some incremental interest for students, but it's
a hard sell. Go to any ham fest and look around.
It's mostly silver haired hams and not a lot
of young people. And so the more we can do to
encourage them to get on the air or to expose
them to ham radio to give them. the club stations
where they can go and operate, the better off
will be because I think that exposure, that initial
exposure, getting them on the air, as you know,
Neil, is what hooks them. And then the rest comes
over time. Craig? You know, that's kind of interesting
because I've been observing the Bradley University
club for quite a while. And of course, that's
just one of many college clubs. But I've watched
students become fresh. freshman through senior,
and then they graduate and move on. And how the
activities of the club vary and what they're
enthusiastic about varies from year to year.
And I think that the more active internally that
they are with the things that they like to do,
then it lends itself to the other things like
contesting or going on de -expeditions or whatever
you want to camp out or whatever they want to
do, going soda. I'm just surprised from year
to year what their interests are because it's
always different. And one thing that I found
that's common in working with all of these clubs
and trying to generate the activity for this
competition is most of these clubs are as good
as the trustee or sponsor. And you can tell Joe
here is very active and he's full of enthusiasm.
But that's not shared by every college. And so
Indiana University is very lucky to have somebody
like Joe. But that's so true. And some of the
activities of the clubs and the enthusiasm by
students really rests upon the sponsor, which
is usually a faculty member on the campus, and
their interest anymore. For the most part, they
may be older and not as enthusiastic as Joe is.
Joe sounds like he's 20 years younger. But I
think that that is also a true statement that
a lot of these clubs are a reflection of the
enthusiasm of the person that anchors it. All
right, Eric. Well, there you go. And on the high
school side, it's a lot of the same thing. So
there you go. Okay, well I appreciate your time
tonight and again appreciate Craig, Joe and all
you do to help these youngsters in this great
hobby we have. Alright, thanks a lot Eric for
calling. Appreciate it and thank you for your
support yesterday as well for the high school.
All right the phone number eight one two six
five zero nine five five six we have a few minutes
left so if you'd like to Give us a call do that
and actually we have another call on the line
already, so let's Take it our other call a good
evening. You're on ham talk live Hi, this is
Galen KB six doubly Hi Galen nice to hear you
watch your question for tonight Well, I'm president
of W2SZ, it's RPI. We participated in SSB and
I thought it was a great idea and thing to have
going on. My one question is, is the score going
to be the SSB and RIDD combined or are they separate
competitions? I don't know if Craig and Joe can
hear or not, so let me repeat this. Our caller
here is from one of the participating schools
in the sideband group, and they want to know,
will the scoring for the RIDI contest be a combined
score of both contests, or will it be a separate
score? So we'll let Craig take that one. Yeah,
it'll be a separate score. It'll be sent in with
the... When you submitted your SideVan score,
you sent it in. Actually, as part of your file
format, it went to the exact right place. So
when you submit your READY score, because you
will select that contest in your software, it
will go in with the READY scores. So there will
not be a combined score. It'll be a separate
posting, and it'll be a separate winner. However.
you know, we could actually combine that. Somebody
actually asked the question a couple of days
ago, why don't we do it for CW as well? And the,
of course, I don't know how many kids, young
people know CW. I know some of them do, but that'd
probably be a lot less participation. But right
now, I know there's a lot of interest in both
Sideman and Ritty, and they will be separately,
separate articles with separate winners. That's
how we're going to manage and also the awards
are separate All right Galen there's your answer
Hey, I wonder if you could comment on trophies
or plaques I know that our town shack at canine
IU is adorned with Many different plaques over
the years that have been won and trophies. Are
there are there prizes that are going to be available
over time? Yes, there are opportunities. Perhaps
there's some hands that are listening that might
want to contribute You know towards that effort
to make sure that the schools that are active
and participating it recognized Yes, in fact
if there's anybody that's interested in sponsoring
Please just send me something. But I have to
tell you, after last year, ICOM, who's one of
the sponsors actually of this program, stepped
up and they are now our principal sponsor for
awards. So we have the award sponsored and the
NCJ and SMC sponsor the championship. So you
will get an award. I'd love it if enough schools,
let's say from the Big Ten, conference wanted
to have an award for the Big Ten, you know, you'd
probably get a Big Ten sponsor and it might actually
create more activity. So if anybody's interested
in, just go to that webpage that I said before,
you'll see my emails on that page and just send
me an email and we'll see what we can do to create
something. Anything to reward participation I
think is really important. Recognition of the
effort put into getting on the air and operating.
All right. Well, there you go Galen. Thank you.
Thank you for calling in and thanks for participating
and good luck in the ready competition Thanks
7 -3 7 -3. What school was that? That was a RPI.
Was that Rochester Polytech? Oh, okay, great.
I believe is who that was. Yes. I think he said
RPI, but I think that's I think that's who that
is if I remember correctly So, okay. Well, we're
Rensselaer maybe. Rensselaer. Rensselaer. That's
it. I think you're right. I think it's Rensselaer.
I think that's it. Well, we're just about out
of time here, so we need to finish things up.
So, Joe, any last thoughts here? The only comment
I would say is get on the air or do what you
can to help students get on the air. It's just
fundamentally important and all of those who
are out there that are doing that My big appreciation.
It's kind of my mission, as you know, Neil, to
get young people on the air and active in the
hobby. I think contesting is a great avenue.
And I'm grateful, Craig, to you and the folks
at SMC and also out on the West Coast there,
the Northern Cal Contest Club, for helping. and
really making this go and you know it's about
Elmering and it's maybe indirect Elmering but
it's super important. I think back 30 years ago
when I was a member of the K9IU radio club and
at the time Pat N9RV was there at IU and he was
a big mentor of mine and so that mentorship really
it sticks with you it carries you through you
know through a lifetime of the hobby and so whatever
folks can do out there that are listening to
get hams on the air that's what it's all about.
And Craig you get the last word. Well, Joe actually
expressed my thoughts very well. We always say,
what is the point of doing this? And the point,
of course, is to get younger people involved
in our hobby and enjoy it. We want them to enjoy
it as much as possible so that they enthusiastically
will participate for the rest of their lives.
We want hams. We want that new generation of
ham radio operator and contestor so that we have
People that will carry on the hobby for life
and I think with the younger people Really enjoying
competitive games and they're so game savvy if
we can get them interested in our game They're
gonna find out we have a fun hobby, too All right,
well I I'm I messed up we're not done there's
one okay that came in and I forgot all about
it and so I need to get back and it's And it's
from KG5HVO. So I'm going to hear about it if
I don't do this. So are the participants in the
NACC contesting outside of these collegiate events?
Or are they already experienced contesters? And
after the NACC, are the participants showing
more interest in radio sport overall? Or is it
both at the same time? Well, first of all, hi,
Bryant. Bryant is an up and coming Contester
and not only that he's a very young high -speed
CW operator. He's a really good operator and
Enjoy talking to him almost every Wednesday on
the CW contest In answer to your question What
happens in the contest is these are they're supposed
to be students that participate. It's not that
a sponsor is not there and making sure that they're
legal to operate, but they're students and getting
mentored and helped. And I have noticed, for
instance, one student from Bradley came out here
and operated two times over two years. And then
when he graduated, he moved to Denver to take
a job in that area. And he joined the contest
club out there, and he's now contesting. So in
answer to your question, my experience is that
was the perfect example. And I've known actually
of others that have come back after they graduated
from Bradley and operated in contests because
they didn't even have their own station. So I
would say yes. I think some kids don't care about
it, but some catch the bug and they get excited
about it. And I think that it becomes a lifelong
thing. Life always gets in the way, so it's going
to come and go. We've all experienced that. But
once you've put your toe in the water and you've
had fun doing this, I think that you'll always
find a contest club to help you and get you on
the air. That's the great thing about contest
clubs all across the country, is someone will
help you get on the air. They'll say, come on
over to my station, or we're going to do a multi
-operator station. Come on in and help out, I
think. your interests be known, and we can advance
your contesting for the rest of your life after
you've operated. So I think this is a great way
to get started, and I do think that they do carry
it on once they catch the bug. Joe, you want
to say something about that? Yeah, no. What I
would say is activity breeds activity. And so
I'll use the example that we saw with this last
contest, where we had the ham shack open. The
door was open. It's normally a door that's closed,
and you have to have an access code. We left
it open. and guys came and went as they had time.
uh... and you know you had a couple people that
were operating the contest seriously and yet
seven others that were standing around or sitting
around or you know working soldering something
in the corner uh... talking about radios uh...
and getting active get interested in you know
contesting may ultimately not be their thing
but the fact that they're getting exposure the
fact that they're getting off there you know
twenty dollar balfang handheld and moving forward
with the hobby you know i think that's fantastic
and you know there's there's far too many hands
to go and pastor technician ticket then never
experience the challenges of really operating
on high frequency and listening and the communication
skills and all that goes into that. And I think
just even having the Hamshack open and sort of
on display for lack of a better word i think
it does inspire an interest uh... people will
they all stick with contesting probably not if
you say craig but uh... there are some that when
the bug bites it bites hard and you know they're
the ones that are uh... you know showing up enjoying
the contest clubs and and staying active and
i think but that's the goal and uh... while it
may not appeal to everyone it exposes them to
another facet of the hobby which again this is
that you know coolest hobby in the world because
there's so much to do in so many different angles
and you'll find your niche and so I guess the
bottom line is it's getting folks on the air
and some of them are going to stay with it and
they'll be the next generation of contesters,
de -expeditioners and that's cool in my mind.
All right very good well there's your answer
Bryant and Joe you said the the b -word so we
have to play the Baofeng song. Anytime somebody
says the B word, we have to play the Bao Feng
song. The Bao Feng bingo, huh? Yeah, exactly.
Well guys, thanks so much for coming on the show.
It's been a lot of fun, a lot of interest tonight,
and some calls and some tweets, so it's been
a good night, so thank you so much. Well, thank
you very much, Neil, for hosting this. I enjoy
your programs. I think you always get some interesting
programs. And thank you for thinking about us
and having us on. Yeah, likewise. And thank you,
Craig, for inspiring this idea and this activity.
I think it's going to go a long way to continue
to help increase the interest in the hobby for
the next generation. And Neil, again, for the
publicity and for doing what you do. It's great
to have you as a friend and as a member of the
HAM community. Alright guys, well thanks so much
and that is a wrap for this week's episode of
HamTalk Live. Thanks to Craig Thompson, K9CT,
Joe Fitter, K7JOE and everybody out there in
cyberspace for listening and calling in and invite
you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time when when hold on to your hats. We're gonna
have open lines on Valentine's Day and we need
your ham radio dating stories Now these could
be good or bad But yeah, it's Valentine's Day
I can blame this all on Val because I asked for
ideas and Val said, oh yeah, you got to do this.
And I was like, oh yeah, okay, we're going to
try it. So we need your ham radio dating story.
So if you have a story good or bad about how
ham radio played a part in a romance, give us
a call next week. We need some calls, so we're
going open line. So, uh, and before I go, uh,
just got a note today from Carol Perry, WB2MGP
about the Young Ham Lends a Hand contest nominating
period. It's now open. Uh, the recipient of this
award will be announced at the Hamvention Youth
Forum in May, and it's sponsored by Radio Club
of America and QCWA, the Quarter Century Wireless
Association. When it receives a hundred dollars,
the Young Ham should be a representative of our
amateur radio tenant of service and it can be
service to the community like assisting an elderly
person or military personnel. It can be a young
ham who helps with radio recruiting and tutoring
other people. You just need a written statement
of why you believe that this youngster deserves
the award and include contact information if
you would and give that to Carol Perry WB2MGP
before April 1st. And her email is wb2mgp at
gmail dot com. So make sure you do that. And
Indiana University had a recipient of one of
those a few years ago. So Ryan's still still
going strong. So if you like HamTalk Live, please
consider leaving us a review at iTunes or wherever
you listen. That helps others find us faster
and we're going to get out of here. So for now,
this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG saying seven three
seven five and may the good DX. be yours.