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Good evening, everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live. It's episode number 141, planning your
trip to Orlando. Hamcation, recorded live on
Thursday, November 15th, 2018. I'm your host,
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of HamTalk Live tonight. We're joined
by Michael Colley, W4MCA, the chairman of the
Orlando Hamcation, and we'll take your calls
live in just a few minutes. Last week on the
show, Joe Eisenberg, KZeroNEB, was here to talk
about kits for the holidays. So if you missed
that show, you can listen anytime. Just go to
HamTalkLive .com or your favorite podcast app.
or YouTube, and you can find us there. A couple
of announcements here before we get started.
The HamTalk Live Limited Edition, may the grid
square be your shirts, are ready to pick up,
I'm told. So if you ordered one of those, I will
be getting those in the mail next week as soon
as I can get to them and get those addressed
and shipped out. I did get a few extras to keep
the cost down. So if you still want one I do
have some extras of adult size small to 2x So
if you want to order one of those go to the link
For the Google form it's on Facebook or Twitter
It's the first post on those or you can go to
ham talk live comm click on the show schedule
link and then there's a link on there for the
shirt orders and information on how to paypal
the cost of those and we'll get those out to
you and also a programming note due to thanksgiving
being next thursday there won't be a new show
next week so we'll return at our regularly scheduled
time on thursday november twenty ninth and we'll
be talking about the santa net and the santa
himself may even be here, so make sure you tune
in for that. But we won't have a new live show
next Thursday due to Thanksgiving, so make sure
you enjoy Thanksgiving. Give thanks for what
you have, and we'll see you a week after that.
So we're going to talk ham -cation tonight, so
get your questions ready to go. After the interview,
you can call us The phone number is 812 -NET
-HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. You can also
tweet us. It's at HamTalk Live on Twitter. And
we'll take your calls after we talk to Michael
for a bit. We look forward to hearing from you
tonight. So I'll be back with Michael right after
this word from Tower Electronics right here on
HamTalk Live. Hey, honey. Have you seen the PL
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And we're in the yellow pages under amateur radio
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Right now, you could be sitting on a beach, sipping
a drink with an umbrella in it, and enjoying
the good life. But instead, you've decided to
listen to Ham Talk Live. So we thank you. And
now here's Neil Rapp with more of the show. Yeah
sitting in a on a beach with a drink with an
umbrella in it sounding pretty good right now
after All the ice that's come down. So coming
to you live from the ice castle of EM 69 It's
ham talk live Okay, let's see tower electronics.
They're up here in the icy Midwest, too They
are in Fort Wayne, Indiana this weekend Saturday
and Sunday the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
It's a great show there and they will be there.
Then they're gonna go get warm in Ocala on November
30th and December 1st. They'll be in Ocala, Florida
and then Plant City, Florida just outside Tampa
on December 7th and 8th or you can visit them
anytime at PL -259 .com. So make sure you...
Check in with Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics,
and thanks for helping bring the show to you
tonight. Well, tonight, our guest is also in
Florida. It's Michael Colley, W4MCA. He's the
new chairman of the Orlando Hamcation. Michael's
been the... Uh, tailgate chairman for the last
seven years and, uh, six years as the IT chairman
and one year as a finance chairman. And hamcation
is sponsored by the Orlando amateur radio club.
So Michael, welcome back. Thank you, Neil, for
having me back home. Now tonight we only have
one Michael. Last time it was two Michaels. So,
uh, a little less confusion this time. That is
true. Well, we're going to have you back January
24th to tell us all the latest news about hamcation.
Tonight we're going to talk a little bit about
accommodations and planning your trip to hamcation
and a little bit of a preview so you can you
can make some plans to take off for ham -cation.
So what advice do you have for the trip? Do you
have some hotels, transportation, any ways that
you can kind of turn this into a vacation if
you want to? What advice do you have for traveling
to Orlando in February? Yeah, there's a couple
of things. First, we'll go into how beautiful
it is in Orlando in February. Usually average
of 74 degrees, 53 in the evenings. We do occasionally
get cold fronts that drop the temperature down
during the day. It can be warm too, so biggest
thing, watch your weather forecast. Then you
can check out our website at www .hamcation .com,
attending hamcation. After you arrive there,
if you scroll down a little bit, you'll go down
to our choice hotels. Kind of partnered with
a few hotels to give better discounts. Holiday
Inn is the closest to the fairgrounds and it
fills up the quickest. So if you want to stay
really close to the show, it's Holiday Inn Express.
We've also partnered this year for the first
time with Comfort Inns and Suites and Lake Buena
Vista, which is actually pretty close to the
Disney property. So if you're bringing family
down. and want to stay close to Disney so they
don't have far to go, that would be your choice
there. And we got really great room nights there,
really cheap. If you plan on going to Universal
or SeaWorld, the Drury Inn or Rosen Hotel partners
are a great choice with great rates also. We're
also on the website some links to our visitor's
bureau set up for us that will include discounts
to area transportation, restaurants and other
attractions. and culture sites. Okay so you've
got some connections there to to make it more
affordable to come and and you can turn it into
a vacation if you want to and and I guess Mickey's
not gonna like like show up at the ham fest or
anything. No not yet anyway. well that sounds
like some some good options there and yeah Lake
Buena Vista was just there not too long ago and
stayed there for an evening so that's a good
place to go if you're wanting to get in on the
on the mouse thing down there at Disney World
well let's see I know you you've been improving
things and working on some some new things and
bigger things for hamcation. And one of those
was the prizes, uh, the prize selection. So tell
us, um, how that's going and what we can expect
on the prize for it this year. Uh, right now
it's going good. Uh, one thing we did do this
year, we kind of reached out to some of the major
manufacturers a little earlier, try to get in
there. Uh, Their budgets to donate some prizes
to our organization or to hamcation and it has
worked out a little bit this year some of the
prizes that we've got already secured is on Saturday
the grand prize will be an FTDX 1200 Yezu and
then on Sunday our main grand prize is going
to be the new Kenwood TS 890 which is a very
nice rig and we also have the early bird price
for on Kenwood of a THD 74 handheld and That's
a some of them. We got more of them coming in
So we're looking at having a lot more prizes
this year, especially radios All right, very
good and you know, you've been pretty good about
timing some of these big announcements, uh, to
the show here. And I know you said you've got,
uh, got a couple, uh, of bigger announcements
to make. So, uh, why don't you go ahead and,
and fill everybody in here with the good news.
Okay. A couple of the announcements I do have
also, other than the prizes was, uh, some, uh,
special guests that's coming to Impatient. This
one is no stranger to amateur radio, including
newbies or seasoned operators. The author of
many great books, including his own instruction
series, a writer of many wonderful articles on
the hobby, and magazine like QST, CQ, radio communications,
and more. Gordon West, WB0NOA, will be returning
to Hamcation in 2019. Gordon will be doing a
great forum on propagation on Friday at Hamcation.
Also returning this year will be Carol Perry,
is a huge advocate on youth and amateur radio.
She's a former school teacher on Staten Island
who taught introduction to amateur radio for
30 years in the classroom, a mentor to many amateur
use and supports 33 schools and three museums
with the help of Radio Club of America. And a
member of the board of directors of Radio Club
of America, the wonderful Carol Perry, WB2, MGP
will be returning to Hamcation in 2019. Carol
will also be putting on a youth forum on Saturday
at Hamcation. Our next guest will be returning
to Hamcation in 2019 after 10 years of hiatus
is also a well -known webcaster, just like you,
Nil, since 2001, all major supporter in all things
amateur radio and amateur radio operator since
1964. Tom Medlin, W5KUB. Tom and his wonderful
wife Kathy will be coming to hamcation for a
visit in 2019. Tom will be taking lots of video
and doing interviews for future W5KUB shows while
here. He won't be doing any live streams while
in hamcation because they're on their way to
a great vacation after hamcation and doesn't
have room for all the gear. We are honored to
have these great guests at hamcation once a year
again and would love to have Neil come to hamcation
Also a one -year. Oh, wouldn't I love to come?
I've really gotten the bug to come now, and it's
just my teaching schedule is just the wrong time.
But one of these days, it's not going to be the
wrong time. And I fully intend to come down there
and enjoy it. I really would love to. And, uh,
Jill Wolf, uh, just, uh, said that she's, uh,
she's heading to hamcation and Carl, Katie, not
HQT says I want to go. So yeah, I'm sure. I'm
sure you've got a lot of people wanting to go
and I would love to do that. But glad to hear
you've got Gordon WB6NOA and Carol, a good friend,
WB2MGP, and Tom W5KUB coming down. So you've
got some great guests. You've got some great
prizes and a big grand prize there. So it sounds
like things are really shaping up. Yes, it is.
And, uh, one person I did forget to mention,
um, a lot of people like him, Vincent will know
who this person probably is. It's, uh, the sheriff
of green County, um, Jean Fisher. Don't know
if his wife has actually come into hamcation
also for the first time this year. He's a newer
newly licensed amateur, uh, thanks to the guys
up at, uh, Dara. Oh, excellent. Well, he was,
uh, here on the show to give a little bit of
traffic report the night before Hamvention. So
if you listen to that episode of HamTalk Live,
you'll recognize Sheriff Fisher. So that's great
that he's able to come too. So lots of things
going on down in Orlando and lots of other things
available too. I know Several of us today enjoyed
watching a rocket launch from down there over
at the Cape. So you've got Kennedy Space Center
close by, you've got Universal, you've got Disney
World, you've got all these different places
that are available to you while you're in the
area and it makes for a great vacation as well
as you get to go. Get the geek on with the ham
radio stuff That is true and there's other ones
too smaller venues that you can go to amusement
parks We have a Lego land which is getting really
big down here It's close enough to drive to especially
if you have children. That's a really good option,
too. Oh Yeah down in down in Winter Haven. We've
got the the lego land now so all kinds of of
cool stuff going on so if you get a chance to
go to hamcation why uh you know it's it's getting
better uh than it was before so you can't uh
can't argue with that so you know get on there
uh the website is hamcation .com yes it is ok
.com so you can check out all kinds of information
there and they've really done a nice job with
updating that website and making it look really
good and and lots of information there so you
can you can check that out and plan your trip
so We're going to take a break and we're going
to come back. We're going to talk a little bit
more about some of the forums and parking and
that kind of thing. And we want to take your
calls, questions and comments. So again, the
phone number is 812 -NET -HAM -1, 812 -638 -4261.
Or you can tweet us at HamTalk Live, or if you're
listening on Spreaker, you can put a comment
in there and that'll pop up on the screen. can
do that and we'll do that all when we come back
after this word from ICOM America right here.
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Join the conversation. give us a call at 812
-NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now, here's
more HamTalk Live. If at first you don't succeed,
skydiving isn't for you. You're listening to
HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp. Thank you once again
to ICOM America for sponsoring the show again
tonight We're on every Thursday night at 9 p
.m Eastern time right here at ham talk live calm
and be sure to check us out on Facebook Twitter
and Instagram and it's time for your calls now
So if you have a question for Michael, give us
a call the phone number 8 1 2 net ham 1 that's
8 1 2 six three eight four two six one or you
can tweet us at ham talk live. We'd love to hear
from you and talk a little bit about Orlando
hamcation planning your trip down there. And
we have a couple of things that we can talk about
while we're waiting on those. But we got a few
comments here. Jill says call off sick. Oh Yeah,
you know, I might have been able to do that at
some point But February is not the good time
to do that when you're on trimesters And then
Joe K zero any be your guest from last week Reminds
us that he'll be in Orlando to doing the kit
building talk. So while we're talking about talks
Let's talk about the forums a little bit, Michael,
and we'll see if we get some calls here at 812
Net Ham 1. But let's talk a little bit about
the forums. I know you've also upgraded some
of the forum areas for this year. We did. One
thing we did was go to clear span tents with
hard sides with AC to accommodate holding more
people in each one. Each one will hold roughly
150 people. We went to two days this year of
forums, so we will have forums on Friday and
Saturday this year. Debuting this year at Hamcation
will be Tapper. Tucson Amateur Radio, or Packet
Radio, along with Open Research Institute will
both have booths at Hamcation. Both will be doing
forums on Friday. They're actually doing six
forums all day long. So they're actually picking
up one of the rooms on Friday. A lot of technical,
good technical forums. If you've been to Hamvention,
they go there and do the same thing. Other great
forums will include ARL Southeastern Division
forum. I also had it on here, Joe Eisenberg will
be doing his kit building forum. There will be
a D -Star forum, Yezu, and a Wires X. AMSAT will
be having their... forum there. QCWA will be
having a forum slash meeting. And then we'll
have Inside Enigma with the Enigma machines.
There's one on software -defined radio and much
more. Our primary forum list will be going up
this weekend. Just remember it's the first issue
of the forums and it is subject to change, so
please keep... a look out on the website under
the forums and you'll notice they're changed
and more of them will be added. But there's at
least probably around 20 of them going up this
weekend. Okay, very good. Well, a lot's going
on there with the forums and air conditioning
and bigger temps. That's always a good thing
to have. So be sure you check those out on the
website and get to those. 812 net ham one eight
one two six three eight four two six one is the
phone number if you'd like to call in and talk
a little bit about hamcation And again, you can
tweet us at ham talk live as well Now we talked
a little bit about the hotels and some of those
options both Near the fairgrounds an expo center
as well as near some of the parks Um, but you
also have some, uh, some RV parking for those
people who like to, uh, camp out and, and pull
the RV in, um, tell us a little bit about the
arrangements for, um, the camping. Yeah. If you
do have an RV or a camper or a pull along fifth
wheel or whatever, what it is, you can, uh, actually
stay on property. Um, last year we had a little
over, uh, 200 RVs. and then in 2016 we've had
our most which was almost 230 that was a national
convention for us but there is water and power
hookups that for the RV and we do have a dump
station on property also so please yes that's
a good way to stay and it's a other than the
price of the RV per night is cheaper than staying
in a hotel Very good. And then let's talk a little
bit about parking. All right. Um, one thing we
did have an issue with last year, we kind of
ran out of parking on a Saturday. Uh, so we've,
uh, actually, uh, have lots of free parking.
We have over 33 acres with ability to add another
14 acres of onsite parking also this year. So
we're working on, uh, get rid of that issue of
parking and it will be all free parking on site.
Okay, very good. So lots of choices there. You
can camp out on the fairground. You can park
there. Are there any mass transits to any of
the parks or anything like that set up maybe?
Or hotels? A lot of the hotels do do transits
to the parks from the hotels You just have to
check with the hotel when you're checking in
but a lot of them do have that already Especially
the ones up Down toward I drive and Universal
Studios Those do I'm not sure about the holiday
and it's probably gonna be the furthest one out
It might not but I know the rest of them would
Okay, very good Well, remember, it's a hamcation,
February 8th, 9th and 10th, Central Florida Fairgrounds
and Expo Park. And you're also the Southeast
Division ARRL convention. I noticed that happened
the other day. So tell us a little bit about
that. Yeah, every year we put in either for that
or the Florida State Convention this year. We'll
take this one. And when that does that pulls
Greg Surratt, uh, is our Southeast and division,
uh, director. Uh, he'll be here and he'll be
having meetings with, um, his guys throughout
the Southeast division will also come here and
have meetings. So this is their little area to
have their own little convention and meet up
and talk about ARL and, um, emergency communications
and stuff that's happening. Okay. Very good.
Well, Uh, lots of things going on and hamcation
.com is where you can find out about all of that.
So, uh, let's, let's invite everybody again,
uh, to call in eight, one, two, six, three, eight,
four, two, six, one, or you can, uh, tweet us
at ham talk live. We'll check all of that again.
And, and Jill's determined that I'm going. She's
like, you got to, you got to, um, take your,
uh, Take your days If it wasn't for final exams
right in there yeah, it might it might happen
but Not yet, but we're gonna make it happen at
some point eight one two six three eight four
two six one is the number and it looks like we
do have a familiar call on the line If we can
get this to Quit ringing there. He is good evening
Greeting sir and hi to Michael We have KB 9 a
mm From the infamous tower electronics on the
line. Good evening. And and how are things in
the in the frozen north? Holy mackerel we had
some snow and some ice today. We made it true.
We're in Fort Wayne I'm staring out the window
right now looking at the Coliseum They have the
Siberian Orchestra going on there tonight. So
the place is absolutely packed I can't get in
there tonight. So I'll make my arrival tomorrow
morning early, but I had to call in I heard Michael
in there and I Cannot say enough good things
about hamcation And the crew down there is second
to none. And if you ever have thought about going
to this show, make the effort. They hold it in
February, one of the coldest months of the year
and one of the warmest places in the country.
It's the greatest time to go down there. Valentine's
Day is the following week. You can say, hey,
wife, happy Valentine's Day. I'm going to take
you to Orlando for Valentine's Day. And you could
hit the ham fest while you're down there. She
can go shopping, and then you can take the whole
family to see Mickey Mouse, too. I mean, it's
fantastic. You couldn't ask for anything better.
They've got hundreds of motels down there, very
inexpensive. One of the cheapest airports to
fly into in the country from anywhere. Great
shopping, fantastic restaurants. Make the effort
and go. It's something that is not going to be
disappointed. They've got lots of forums. They're
doing VE testing and get your upgrade while you're
down there. How many times can you say, yeah,
while it was snowing at home, I went and got
my upgrade, saw Mickey Mouse and had a great
meal. Do it. Do it. And if, and Neo, we have
to drag you down there. I'm sorry to say it's
going to have to happen sometime sooner or later.
You're not getting any younger and neither am
I. So think about it. I'll introduce you to Mickey
Mouse. I know Mickey Mouse personally. And I'll
introduce you to them. Wow. I think you've got
your PR manager here, Michael. That's what I
was going to say. I think I'm going to have to
put them on the payroll. The pay ain't much,
but... That's right. I'll tell you what, buy
me lunch. I can do that one. I don't want to
hold you up, but I wanted to say hi to everybody.
And again, it's one of the greatest handfests
to go to. Make the effort to go down there and
you will not be disappointed. Alright Scott,
well thanks for calling and enjoy Fort Wayne
for now until you can get to hamcation and have
a good show up there and be careful up there
with all the ice. We got a few more hours of
it and then supposedly it's going away. I hope
so, I hope so. I'm hoping for an early spring
but nothing else. Yeah, I'll spend extra time
down in Florida. i'll see you in a week or two
michael yep see you down here all right bye bye
see you later scott eight one two six three eight
four two six one is the phone number and you
can visit tower electronics at hamcation as well
so uh all kinds of good stuff going on there
michael have we missed anything here that uh
that we need to make everybody aware of The only
other thing I have to go over real quick is our
annual flyer is going to be going out the week
of Thanksgiving, actually next week. And it will
be going out to over 55 ,000 hams in the southeast
by now. But once we get it up, if you aren't
in the southeast and would like a copy of it,
we're going to put it up on the hamcation website.
And you'll be able to download it from there
also. Okay, very good. So if you need some printed
information, there it is hamcation .com. You
can get a hold of that and check out the stuff
on the website as well. So let me take one more
look here and make sure we haven't missed anybody,
but we'll finish things up here momentarily.
And it looks like we've got everything in. So
Michael, I'll... I'll let you, uh, get going,
but thanks a lot for coming on the show. And
then, uh, Oh, we got another one here. Hang on
here. Okay. See if I can get this up. It's Scott
saying, have a think great Thanksgiving to all
in 73. So we got Scott in there again, but, um,
yeah, we'll, uh, we'll, we'll get going, but
then, uh, we're going to look forward to having
you back on January 24th and, um, tell us all
the last minute details as all of the little
things start to come together and all the blanks
are filled in and get everything finished up
and ready to go for this year's hamcation. So
thanks so much for being on the show. That was
good, Bill. Thank you for having me on. All right,
that is Michael Colley w4mca Thanks to him and
that's a wrap for this week's edition of ham
talk live. Thanks to Everybody for listening
and calling in and remind you next week. We won't
have a live show. It's Thanksgiving So give thanks
next week and then we'll be on the following
week. So we'll be back in two weeks on Thursday
night, 9 p .m. Eastern Time. We'll take your
calls about the 3916 Santa Net and we may even
have Santa here. So be sure you catch that and
for a list of all of our upcoming guests. visit
HamTalkLive .com. And if you like HamTalk Live,
please consider leaving us a review on iTunes
or wherever you listen. That helps others find
us a little bit faster. So for now, this is Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG, saying seven three seven five,
have a great Thanksgiving. And as Les Nessman
would say, this is Les Nessman saying good day
and may the good be yours. As God is my witness,
I thought turkeys could fly. We talked and talked
for hours and hours I've completely forgot you're
a ham I don't know your power or the height of
your tower Frankly, I don't give a damn So 73's
to you and your family I'll be seeing you further
down the line You're 73's to you and your family
I'll be seeing you further