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Hey, good evening, everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live once again. It's episode number 131, The
Collegiate Kyuso Party, recorded live on Thursday,
September 6th, 2018. I'm your host, Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this episode
of HamTalk Live tonight. We're joined once again
by our regular Andy Malusi, KK4LWR, and we'll
take your calls live in just a few minutes. Last
week here on the show, if you missed that, Michael
Coulter, W8CI, Michael Colley, W4MCA, and Mark
Brown in for BCD. We're here to talk about Dayton,
Orlando, and Huntsville Ham Fests. all working
together. And if you missed that, you can listen
anytime at HamTalkLive .com or your favorite
podcast app or over on YouTube. So get your questions
ready to go about the collegiate QSO party. After
the interview, you can give us a call. I'll go
ahead and give you the number. We're not ready
for calls just yet, but I'll give you the number
so you have it ready. It's 812 -NET -HAM -1.
812 -638 -4261. You can also Skype us for HamTalk
Live on Skype. You can send us a tweet. Our Twitter
handle is at HamTalk Live. If you're on Spreaker,
you can also put something in the comments there
and we'll see it and love to hear from you tonight.
So I'll be back with Andy right after this word
from Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk
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you HamTalk Live. They just left Shelby. And
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PL -259 .com. Well, he's back once again, and
we're in Orlando two weeks in a row here. Andy
Malusi, KK4, LWR. He's the past president of
the Gator Amateur Radio Club at the University
of Florida in Gainesville. He's currently a systems
engineer for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in
Florida, and Andy's a key leader in the ARRL
Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative. the group
that's been formed to share ideas and promote
and rejuvenate amateur radio clubs in colleges
and universities in North America. So Andy, you're
back again. Yeah, it's always great to talk to
you, Neil. This has been quite the year. I've
seen you more than ever and we've been talking
a lot more than ever. It's been great. And you've
been in QST and NCJ and you've been on here like
two or three times and you're the man right now.
Yeah, yeah, I'm enjoying the hobby. So, you know
when you do something you enjoy Yeah, you know,
you don't mind getting out and showing it off
Yeah, well, we're gonna talk about the the collegiate
Q so party But but first I know we talked about
this before the show, but let me go ahead and
and throw it in here real quick last time I Talked
to you on the show. I was at the Deers shack
there at Disney with you and we found the van
The communications of van in the sinkhole and
and we didn't get an update on that So so quickly,
let's let's fill everybody in what happened with
the the sinkhole thing So it appears they were
doing some drilling in the area and it appears
that they were boring something and they nicked
the water pipe and that washed out that sinkhole
there and the contractors took care of everything.
They got the truck out. It seems to be in good
shape, no major damage or anything and they've
filled in the sinkhole there and I think mostly
completed what they're working on. So, you know,
happy ending to that one. It ended much better
than it could have ended, so we were quite happy
to see that. All right. So life is good at Disney.
Again, the con van is back up and running. So,
all right. Let's talk about this collegiate QSO
party. And we kind of mentioned that, uh, when
we were together down in Florida, uh, so how
did this all get started? I mean, this has been
talked about for years. How did this, this get
going and why is this, um, effort being made
to make this Go So like you said this has been
talked about for years. It's not my idea at all
It has been tossed around and debated all over
the place You know, and I think it sort of addresses
a couple of things within the college schedule
A lot of people go back to school at the end
of August beginning of September And really the
big existing, you know school contest is school
club roundup So you're waiting until late October
for that. And for some schools, that's right
after they start. I know I've heard from a lot
of schools over these last few weeks since the
articles dropped in NCJ and QST. You know about
the QSO party saying we don't go back to school
until you know October 1st We might not be all
that active and there are some schools that do
but there's a lot of schools that also go back
You know as early as middle of August And they
have those, you know student fairs, you know
student activity fairs, you know in collegiate
clubs There's if you go on the Facebook group
right now, you'll see clubs posting You know
their outreach at these student activity fairs
trying to get new members trying to you know
show off amateur radio But having to wait, you
know, two months or most of a semester in some
cases, you know, can be pretty difficult for
those schools. So that was one of the big factors
was trying to see something that sort of fit,
you know, on that timeline to be, you know, welcome
back to school, you know, check out the amateur
radio club. Oh, and next week, we have this big
event, and you should come check it out. So something
to immediately get. new hams and potentially
new hams and you know existing hams quickly engaged
in the hobby and hopefully get them hooked for
the entire school year okay so that's that's
the goal here and so tell everybody how you can
participate and this is not just limited to school
stations we got to get some Contacts out there
so tell everybody how they can participate depending
on whether they're involved with a school or
Not involved with the school and how all that
works So the good news is that this contest is
open to any hand We have four major categories
each with a subcategory We have the collegiate
station, we have the employee slash faculty slash
staff station, we have a individual station,
and then we have a alumni station. Let me just
pull up here on my own all the details of those
stations because I want to make sure I give them
all correctly here because there are some interesting
caveats to each of the You know rules for them.
The collegiate station is probably the easiest
one for everyone to you know sort of comprehend
that is the Station for if you are a college
student or you are a college club. You are a
collegiate station, which is really fantastic
That means if you don't have a club yet at your
school You can still activate your school and
get on the air and do all that fun stuff without
having to worry about submitting a log as a club
that doesn't exist or not having a call sign.
So we really tried to make that flexible for
if you're an existing club, great, you're a collegiate
station, that's easy. If you're at the university,
if you're just a student though and your school
doesn't have one, you can still get on the air.
So that's probably the coolest category and most
unique of any other event out there. The next
one that we sort of go into is the employee club
and the employee, or sorry, employee, not club,
but an employee station. And the employee station
is basically anyone who's faculty, staff, administrator.
If you're an adjunct, if you work at a university
or college in some capacity, you qualify for
the employee category. You can operate as part
of the collegiate club. That's totally cool.
If you're active with your collegiate club, you
can help them out and be that. Or if you choose
to operate on your own, under your own call sign,
there's an entire employee category. Because
we really want to encourage everyone who is involved
at some level with a collegiate station to get
on the air. Then the individual station is pretty
much everyone else. So either a club or an individual
who wants to work the contest, we have a category
for you. You don't have to be associated with
the university, but you can just feel free to
operate that. Probably one of the more interesting
categories and one that I hope grows over time
is this idea of a collegiate club alumni category
So basically this is for hams that were part
of a college club when they were a student at
a university and the idea of this category specifically
is to help Try and you know recognize those hams
that have continued the hobby, you know beyond
college But also try to help them, you know get
involved and stay active with maybe the school
they attend or with the larger movement itself.
So those are the four categories, and their subcategories
are basically a high power and low power. So
we wanted to basically say, if you don't have
a high power station, that's totally cool. If
you're under 150 watts, you're a low power station.
If you're above 150 watts, you fall into the
high power station. And basically, that's the
peak wattage used during the contest. So if you
operate most of the contest at 100 watts, but
then you turn on the amp for 10 contacts, you
become a high power station. So just something
to sort of keep in mind there. OK. Oh, go ahead.
No, so I was going to say, there's lots of different
ways that folks can get involved and really sort
of display their college colors. Okay, now we're
going to, you know, display the college colors
as you say. Let's talk about the exchange so
that people know what kind of exchange you're
going to make during this QSO party and how that
is going to work with making contact and then
also maybe Is there anything special for digital
modes, like if you're going to do FTA? You're
limited on the number of characters, so let's
talk about the exchanges a little bit. Yeah,
so we want to do a really really unique exchange
for this QSO party something to sort of differentiate
us from every other contest So naturally you'll
have to exchange your call sign and your operating
class And then the other thing that you need
to exchange is going to be the college or university
that you attended and the mascot So we wanted
to have something fun in there. So like I went
to Florida for my PhD. So I would say, you know
Andy, University of Florida, and Gators, and
make sure that's in my exchange. If you didn't
go to college, we still want you to feel involved,
or if you're part of a club, we still want you
to feel involved. So you sort of have the option
that you can say none, or you can share your
club name in the exchange, if you are in the
individual category. So, you know, there's an
option for both, but really the idea is to sort
of show your college colors. This event's happening
on college football weekend, so there's a lot
of good opportunity to have some bragging rights
there. You know, I mean, I know the SEC's, you
know, quite a competitive football conference.
Maybe we're the most competitive, you know, amateur
radio conference. Who knows? So, you know, there's
an opportunity. You're not going to make me get
out the sound effect. I mean, we did have the
champion of the college football last year, and
yeah, we're a good football conference. But maybe
we want to get schools out there really identifying
and cheering themselves on. Part of the exchange
as well is to hopefully start making some connections.
There's a lot of people I talk to on the radio
that I've gotten to know over the years and a
lot of times it comes from just one of those
comments in the exchange of, oh wait, I didn't
know you did that or you're from here or that
sort of thing. Hopefully, you know, if an alumni
reaches out, you know, or you make a contact
with an alumni, you know, I love talking to fellow
Gators when I'm on the radio. I also went to
Rose Holden Institute of Technology for my undergrad.
I love talking to fellow fighting engineers on
the radio. So, you know, if if that can spur
some connections, you know, all the better as
well. So hopefully it'll be a fun exchange. And
then you asked about exchanging for digital modes
and all that. The good news is that you can exchange
the acronym of the university you went to in
the logging software. The way it'll work is the
header file of your log will say the university
and the abbreviation, and then we will match
call sign and abbreviation in the log. So I know
if you put MSU, Some people might think Michigan
State University. Some people might think Mississippi
or Missouri. Some people say, OSU, I grew up
in Ohio. I think Ohio State, but there's also
Oklahoma State and there's also Oregon State.
If you do have an acronym that's shared, you
know, between schools, that's totally okay. You
can exchange just the acronym. If you're on phone,
I would encourage you to say the name of your
school. But I understand a digital or CW land
or JT 65 or, you know, slow scan TV, you might
not want to, you know, write it all out. So,
you know, that would be an easy way for logging.
Yeah, like even here in Indiana, we have VU.
And I went to VU, and that's Vincennes University.
But then the people on the north end of the state
say that's Valparaiso University. So we've got
to watch out for that. And now there's even,
you know, there's two Indianas. There's Indiana
and there's Indiana, Pennsylvania. So you just
never know. The best mascot may be the fighting
engineers from oh, yeah the Rose -Hulman Institute
of Technology Yeah, yeah the fighting engineers
Just down the road Yep, and Terre Haute not too
far from now now you realize You realize who?
Florida's playing in football this weekend, right?
I haven't actually looked I confess. I've been
on business travel. So my mind's been there Okay,
it's my beloved Kentucky Wildcats. Oh, okay.
So, so yeah, yeah, thanks. Yeah, it probably
will be knowing knowing how we play football.
But oh, it's that SEC thing. SEC, SEC. I don't
know. I'm sorry. That's got to be like the worst
commercial marketing idea ever. SEC, SEC. I don't
get it. But anyway. All right. So we've got all
this information about the, uh, collegiate CQ
or QSO party. Sorry. And I was, I was getting
ready to talk about CQP and then CQP is, is like
also two different things. So we're back to that
again. Yeah. So, I mean, CQP is the acronym that
I've been using for this, uh, event. you know,
for myself, when people have asked, Hey, how
should I identify in CW? Um, CQP totally is cool.
Uh, the other CQPs aren't going on this weekend.
So, you know, they aren't going on the 15th and
16th of September. So you shouldn't have any
conflicts there. Okay. So where can you find
all this information, uh, written out for CQP?
So, we have it on the Cary Facebook page. So,
if you go to ARRL .org slash we want you. That's
just the capital letter U. That will link you
over there. Or the Gator Amateur Radio Club at
the University of Florida has been gracious enough
to set up a static webpage with the rules and
some links to the logging format. And some folks
at FAU actually created an N1MM template that
I'm also going to get up there this weekend.
So you can go to, like I said, the Facebook page
and engage in the conversation. That's where
the rules are sort of previewed. They've been
posted there for several months, actually, and
a lot of the members of that group have actually
contributed. I know, Neil, you were even part
of that, you know, trying to get ideas and thoughts
on how the rules would be sort of fallen. So
that's a great place to go. But if you're just
looking for a quick and dirty, you know, webpage,
gatorradio .org slash collegiate, and that will
get you to all the rules there. Okay, so there
you have it folks you can you can get on the
air maybe you're an alumnus maybe you're in a
college or maybe you're not maybe you're you're
just Just a ham and so you've got all these categories
Possible just go to Gator radio org Correct slash
collegiate and you can find all that information
there It's also in QST and in the National Contest
Journal so you can find some information there
as well All right. Well, we're gonna take a break
and when we come back we're going to take some
calls and some tweets and all that good stuff
so get ready to give us a call and Send us a
tweet if you have Something that you want to
ask? We'll talk about that and more with Andy
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a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261.
Now here's more HamTalk Live. Well, thanks to
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And, uh, we've got all those great radios for
contesting season just in time. So, uh, Check
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And you can check out our Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram pages too. put some stuff up there
from time to time. And right now it's time for
your calls. So if you have a question for Andy,
give us a call. The phone number 812 -NET -HAM
-1 812 -638 -4261 or you can Skype us. It's just
HamTalk Live on Skype and on Twitter. You can
tweet us at HamTalk Live and a couple of things
here. First of all, Tom says go cats, so that's
good. So we've got two for the cats and one gator.
I mean, you know the old saying. You know, the
Gators have won how many games against the Wildcats
in the last 30 years? Um, yeah, we're moving
right along back to the collegiate QSO party
here. Now, speaking of ICOM, we were going to
go and talk about something else here, but we
forgot to mention that ICOM has come through
with, uh, some prizes. So why don't you talk
about that? Yeah, so for the first year of the
QSO party the ARRL has stepped up and they're
going to help us with you know, recognizing first
and second place in all of our different categories.
And then for the collegiate stations, ICOM of
America has decided to sponsor some swag packs.
So those will be good either for the club to
give away to, you know, new members or at events
to sort of, you know, promote it. Or as you know,
for club members to, you know, show their amateur
radio pride and all that. So they have really
come through with us this first year and I look
forward to working more with Ray and all the
folks at ICOM on that. I think they, just like
the league, see that this is a big thing moving
forward and definitely the future of the hobby
in terms of keeping new people getting involved
in it. Collegiate clubs are a great way to do
that. Many thanks out to both the American Radio
Relay League and ICOM for helping us make this
contest possible. All right, there you go so
you can win some some swag there with the collegiate
Q so party so make sure you participate if you
can and Let's talk about and I'll let me again
invite everybody eight one two six three eight
four two six one or Tweet us and we'd love to
hear your questions about this, but I was going
to ask you about some of the bonuses. Now, now
this was one of my favorite parts of the whole
Walmart parking lots on the air that we had all
these ridiculous bonuses like, you know, all
Roy with Roy where you had to take your dog with
you and you had to talk to somebody named Roy
in order to get the bonus. So I don't think you've
got any quite. That far off the wall, but you've
got some interesting bonuses on this one Yeah,
so We want to make some special bonuses as well
as special multipliers So we'll start with the
multipliers. They're probably the easiest one.
The first one is if you work in alumni You get
a three times multiplier on that Q. So so an
alumni would be You know me working another Gator
is working an alumni or the Gator Club working
me They will get the them the alumni bonus. So
there are some good alumni bonuses there for
both, you know the individual and Collegiate
and even employee categories, so that's really
cool Working college clubs, get a five times
multiplier on that QSO. And if you work your
alma mater, if you work the college that you
attended, the collegiate club there, you get
a 25 times multiplier on that QSO. So a big point
bonus for that. We also know that... Some people
prefer to get on the air in different ways. So
we want to recognize QRP. That's a multiplier
that can stack with everything except the satellite
QSO. And you identify that with your call sign,
stroke QRP, in the log. So yeah, that's going
to be a cool one there. It's a times two multiplier.
I know my brother does a lot of soda, and he
loves to work with his KX3. So we definitely
want to recognize the low power guys out there
because that's a lot of fun. It's a great challenge.
And then also, we're trying it out. We'll see
how it goes. There's a satellite QSO multiplier.
So you can do up to two QSOs on a satellite and
count the multiplier. And that's a times 50 multiplier
for working the satellite QSO. So potentially
you could stack that. Well, you can't really
stack the multipliers, but you can stack QRP
with some of the other ones there and get some
good bonuses. But yeah, the satellite one should
be fun too. So I'm hoping to hear a lot of...
college stations get on the air. A lot of them
have satellite stations. So it'd be really cool
to start hearing them light up some of the birds
and Oscars floating around. And then we put in
some bonus points. They're mainly targeted at
school clubs to try and encourage activity. So
the first one is media for school clubs. So there's
600 points of just straight up bonus points available
for the use of social media and traditional media.
So posting on your school's Facebook page or
your club's Twitter account or Facebook page
or Snapchat or Instagram or YouTube or even posting
in the newspaper or flyers around campus, that
sort of thing. And you get 100 points per post,
max 200 per day. So that leads up to the event.
You can do it over three separate days. And you
get 600 points there, pretty easy points. And
this includes, like I said, live streaming, Facebook
posts, all that sort of stuff. So even post -it
alumni newspapers count. So very, very broad
category there. And you can do six discrete days
or three days with two posts a day. And for that,
just on. when you submit your logs, send a picture,
that sort of thing, or a link. And that's good
for that. We also have a public operation for
school clubs. So you get 250 point per hour bonus,
maximum 1 ,000 points, so four hours, of operating
a self -contained portable station in a public
space on campus. So you gotta have a sign. You
can't just bring an HT and sit on a bench. You
can't do remote station. You truly have to be
portable. But if you do that, take a photo of
yourself doing that. And if you do that for four
hours, you can get 1 ,000 points. So we really
want to see schools get out there on the quad
and throw up an antenna between a couple of trees
and just get on the air or work their satellite
QSOs out in public or maybe also set up just
a simple you know, vertical or something out
there to get on the air and really engage other
students. And then lastly is the one that I think
will be the most exciting. I really wanna see
happen, but I'm not sure this is gonna happen,
but it's the school administrator bonus. So 300
points for each unique school administrator,
and that's like department chairman and above.
So department chairman, dean, president, provost,
board member, if you can get them on the air
and make a contact. So you still have to be the
control operator, but if you can get them on
the air making the contact from the school station,
you get 300 points. You can have them, you get
one bonus per administrator. So if they sit there
and they're on it all afternoon, you don't get
the same 300 point bonus. But you also have to
provide the name, position, and signature of
all the administrators who operate. And you can
just email that as a PDF or whatever when you
submit your logs. So trying to do some fun bonuses
for the school category that also help the schools,
again, do that outreach and get on the air and
help bring new people into the hobby. Okay, well
there you have it. Some cool and unique bonuses
and multipliers for the collegiate QSO party
coming up. Soon, so you can check that out. All
right. We've got a couple of comments online
or questions online and and so Sticking with
the SEC here. We're going back to Tom Sorrell
and he says and I'm not sure you're gonna have
an answer for this But we'll try what's the best
way to find what University clubs are participating?
so I don't have a good answer for that yet. I
can tell you that I have been inundated with
emails since the QST article post. Evidently
putting your email address in QST means you get
a lot of messages. So that's been an experience.
I can tell you that Missouri S &T has said they're
going to be on the air. Michigan State has emailed
me. The Manchester Community College of Manchester,
New Hampshire has emailed me. FAU is going to
be on the air. I think I heard MIT is going to
be on the air. I know IU is going to be on the
air. I have heard lots and lots of schools. I
don't know all that will be on the air. I am
hoping that they will, if you are a school and
you're thinking about participating, definitely
hop on the Facebook page and post that you'll
be on there and sort of share that and create
hype. But there is no one list. I'm hoping that
we consume all of the DX spots and we get up
there and we get schools from around the world.
There's nothing in this contest that says it's
USA only. We want this to be schools everywhere,
collegiate clubs and universities everywhere
getting on the air. So I don't have a list, but
those are the ones who have already reached out
to me in the last couple of weeks and I'm sure
it will just be getting more. You know, I know
UF said they're going to be on the air. Um, you
know, so yeah, it'll be exciting. So. All right.
From the SEC to the big 10, Carl KD9HQT says,
I'm a member of the, uh, amateur radio club at
Indiana university, K9IU, but he's not a student
alumni nor faculty associated with club. and
IU, but he's just a member within the ham community.
So how would he categorize himself if he's contacting
with the club and other club stations on HF?
So the class that you're in follows the call
sign of what you're operating under. So if he
is operating as the club at the club station
with other club members, then he would be a collegiate
club. And if he decides to go operate on his
own, he would fall into the individual category.
Or if he went to another school and was an alumni
member there, he could be in that category. So
that's sort of how you'd fall into that. There's
nothing that says a collegiate club is only students.
We totally get that you have faculty and staff
and friends and all that sort of stuff that are
active in that. I don't think there's any ham
club that is necessarily exclusive to just any
one group. So we totally get that. And if you're
operating under the IU call sign, and you're
doing it as the club, then you are totally a
collegiate club. when you're on the air for the
station, you are still counted as a collegiate
club. Okay, so Carl, there you go. So you've
got both options there. So if you're home, why
you're an individual, and if you operate over
on campus with the group, then it's collegiate
for the class. Yep. Now the only thing I was
going to say in that is we can't have more than
one school counted as a collegiate club. So if
you are a student at a school with a club and
you decide to go rogue because of whatever reason,
unfortunately you can't be in that category.
And that just, you know, we're trying to promote
clubs and activity within that, not trying to
have 15 different people all being, you know,
Ohio State for the contest. So just one thing
to consider in that regard. But you can have
a student club and then you can also have the
employee slash whatever club. No, there should
only be one club for a school. So you are you
know, if you the club with students would be
the one that would be registered as the school
club If you're an alumni club or something you
would not count as the school club in that regard
So like at uf we have an alumni club. It's called
time is we are for uf and That would not be the
school club because that is not w4d fu which
is the Gator amateur radio club So whichever
one is the school club that's recognized, that
would be the one that can compete in that category.
And if we have conflicts, we'll be following
up and sorting those out. Okay. All right. Very
good. 812 -638 -4261 is the telephone number.
If you have a question, go ahead and give us
a call and we'll try to get that in here before
we leave the internet this evening. Give us a
call eight one two six three eight four two six
one or you can tweet us at ham talk live and
We'll check that here and see if we have that
and and we thought That we might have another
Moluse on the line tonight. We haven't We haven't
heard from Tony yet, but you might but you know
since he's not here to defend himself You might
talk about your brother and how he's helped out
on this yeah so uh this has hardly been like
i have been the one who's been writing things
but that's been you know Literally, my biggest
contribution. There has been a huge group of
people that have helped make this happen. My
brother, Tony, is from my right -hand man. We
make a great team. If you ever hang out at the
league booth at HamVenture in the last couple
years, you'd hear them announce, oh, the Malusi
brothers are here. Because, yeah, we both do
amateur radio. It's something. So, yeah. Fun
fact also, Tony's birthday is this coming Saturday.
So if you see Tony or if you're on social media
his birthday, September 8th, you should wish
him a happy birthday because You know figure
as a brother might as well embarrass him on the
air because he's not here to defend himself.
So wish Tony happy birthday this Come race. So
but yeah, he has been huge. He is He was he started
up the Ohio University Amateur radio club there
and got that going again He's actually still
a student, but he also just recently started
his career at Honeywell over in Kansas. He's
hanging out over there and he's been doing fantastic.
Part of it is he's only a couple of weeks into
his new career and he's also balancing school.
Tonight he said it would be tight if he could
get on the air or not. Yeah, he has been heavily
involved. He has been sort of the sanity person,
as I've come up with ridiculous rules and things
for the contest. He has been the one saying,
you can't do that. No ham is going to want to
hear you do that. So he's been a good sanity
check. If you're an alumni and you work your
school, you get five million nano points. That's
right. Yeah, no, I had some interesting bonuses
and points in there that you know He and a few
others just said no don't do that. So You know
so they've been one that no one that came to
mind wall ago is what if you get well and and
of course I use gonna throw a fit because they
don't have a mascot but What if you get a the
mascot to make a contact while in costume You
see, that would be a fantastic bonus. That sounds
like one I would suggest. And one that my brother
would be like, no, no, you don't want to have
that mascot in your ham shack. They're not going
to fit. They're going to knock something over.
It's going to be like, yeah. Um, he's the voice
of reason. Um, but yes, that, that sounds like
something I would suggest. Um, but, uh, yeah,
I mean, I want to see what schools come up with
on this contest. It's going to be a lot of fun.
And you can shoot a video of it and it'd be like
one of those. Sports center commercials, you
know with oh, yeah, you know with the mascot
in there, you know Yeah, it might work. Maybe
we can do that next year. I Mean the other one
I thought that would be fun is a big bonus if
you could do it from the 50 -yard line of Your
school's football stadium which I understand
this contest also happens on a Saturday during
football season. So that would be why there'd
be a big bonus for that, is if you can get down
to the 50 -yard line and start making contacts.
If you can get past security. String up an antenna.
No one knows. I mean, the goalposts would be
great for it. But yeah, I mean, and there was
a big group of maybe about a dozen or so people
that, you know, students, faculty, staff, alumni,
to help come up with the rules. And that was
a fun email chain to sort of start seeing people
suggest things and me trying to keep updates
going. I sort of was the secretary of that trying
to just keep the document together as they were
suggesting things and all that. So that was really
cool to see everyone coming together to suggest
all that. All right. Well, we had a phone call
and now it's gone. Oh, boy. We'll give a minute
here if you want to. Want to call back but we
did have a call and was on the line for just
a few seconds while we were mid -sentence and
and Now they're gone. So we'll we'll get a better
so but we are just about out of time But we'll
wait and see here for just a moment. Go ahead.
Yeah Yeah, no, I'm hoping you know to see photos
and stuff from this event too. Like I'm hoping
to see you know colleges Wearing, you know their
college colors, you know, even like I would love
to see the college station that has a TV going
with the football game while also making contacts.
I think that would be a lot of fun. Hey, there
we go. And our call's back. So let's see who
we have on the line here. Hi, it's Tony KD8RTT.
Oh, he made it. He did. Yes, I did. Happy birthday,
Tony. Well, thank you. It's a little early. I
called in and I heard some of... I was able to
catch some of it tonight, so it sounds like Andy
has given a good overview of things. Okay, now
we kind of let him take the thing with the birthday
thing, so do you have any ammo to fire back?
Um, let's see. No, not right now, but... Man,
I have nothing to shoot back at him right now.
But I think he gave a pretty good overview of
things. Um, it's definitely right though. I am
the voice of reason. And here I am giving him
all these ideas of, you know, you can have your
mascot do this, you know? Well, yeah, I think
it is good though, that, you know, schools want
to come up with some ideas like that. One of
the things I don't think Andy mentioned was,
uh, we just talked about this the other day.
We're probably going to send out a post event
survey, um, after people submit their logs. So
if they've got ideas for neat bonuses, send them
back or feedback or any sort of thing like that,
this is a first run and we'll do whatever we
can to make it better. Yeah, we were talking
about the survey a little bit. Andy, do you want
to chime in on that? Yeah, like Tony said Tony
and I were discussing this pretty extensively
the last couple of days We definitely want to
get a survey out there See if people are interested
in helping run the contest if people want to
tell us what worked what didn't work You know
recognize that I am really bad at coming up with
bonuses, you know, that's totally cool, too You
know that sort of thing to just sort of help
us You know looking at next year because we don't
intend this for this to be a one and done contest,
it's probably going to be around the same time
next year if we hear that this time works well.
If we hear the time doesn't work well, we're
going to move it. If we hear that they want five
of these contests a year, we might do another
one or two. If we hear that it should be every
six years, we might not do one for a couple of
years. So we definitely want to hear what the
community says. And I will be the one advocating
for the more ridiculous things, and Tony will
be the one like, no, you can't do that. And I'll
also just point out that if people, you know,
want to step forward and help a little bit more
with the administrative back end with Andy and
me, you know, let us know you're more than welcome
to. This is kind of everyone's event. So, you
know, it's not, we're not trying to be the total
control of it. So, you know, if you want to volunteer
some time, we could certainly use it. You know,
as we go forward, we're looking at things like
making a logo for the event, stuff like that.
Website. Yes, website, definitely. Live logging
is also something we would love to do so that
you could post it to your school and say, hey,
watch us on this website. And you can see our
points as we make contacts. And maybe even have
Google Maps if we get someone who's really awesome
at that. And I was hoping to do that this summer,
but I ended up traveling a lot more than I expected.
But even somewhere, as you log it, you start
seeing the arcs bouncing around the globe and
letting people see our club station made it all
the way there. So now you mentioned the pictures
and then again Wimploda comes back to mind and
some people just Enjoyed looking at all the Wimploda
pictures, you know with all the ridiculous bonuses
at Walmart parking lots on Twitter Do you have
a central place to send those? photos to, do
you have a hashtag or something to put those
with during the QSO party? So after the QSO party,
you can totally send them to my email address
because that will be inundated with emails, hopefully
with lots of logs. And I will definitely put
those together and they will be at the Cary booths
at Hamcasian and at Hamvention for sure, to show
off some of the success. if we get a lot of great
photos coming in. In terms of during the event,
we actually, we haven't spent the time to come
up with a hashtag for it. We've been sort of
trying to handle all the other stuff. So, you
know, we would love if there was someone from
the community too that wants to sort of step
up and handle the social media side of this and
all that. That would be really cool. But right
now, you know, you can always throw, of course,
hashtag ICOM, hashtag ARRL, and then hashtag
CQP or hashtag collegiate QSO party. You know,
or hashtag Gators are going to beat the Wildcats.
Any of those are pretty good. Oh, my goodness.
Tony, Tony, what are we going to do with this
boy? Well, at this point, this is the point I
usually just hang up on him, but you know, oh
my goodness. Yeah, he's the voice of the reason
on this. Oh, oh and Tom says ouch too. So wow,
we've got all a big blue nation upset now. You
can post any photos during the event right to
the Facebook group. That's always a good place
to put it too. Yeah. Oh yeah, the Cary Facebook
group. So that's Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative,
C -A -R -I, and you can find that. on the old
facebook so tony thanks for calling in tonight
it's good to hear from you and then we'll be
hearing you on the birds hopefully and uh yeah
enjoy your birthday alright thanks yeah i'll
be i'll be doing some roving on my birthday so
maybe work very good i am i am actually thinking
uh i've kind of got my birthday plans here in
about Two or three weeks, and I actually think
I'm going to get some roving in that morning
so and probably from the land of the wildcats,
so We'll see All right, well we'll be looking
for you and enjoy it and thanks for coming on
Okay, and Andy that's that's gonna do it for
us for tonight so any final words I Mean like
Tony said, you know share it to the Facebook
group, you know If you're a collegiate club update
your QR Zed page show it off on there if you're
planning operating times post that out on social
media You know, it's a 48 -hour contest. So there's
a lot of time on there for you know people to
operate I'm going to be on the air probably from
the Deere station at Walt Disney World. So you'll
probably hear me competing. I might venture up
to UF and join my fellow Gators up there for
a bit too. But I'm hoping to work a whole bunch
of college stations, talk to some fellow Gator
and Rose Holman alumni. Have a really great weekend,
because I think it's going to be a blast. And
like I said, if people have suggestions, feel
free to reach out. Either post in the Facebook
group, or you can reach me directly at andy at
gatorradio .org. Or you can read the QST article.
My email's there, so you can get it there as
well. And if you have questions, if you want
to get involved, Tony and I are going to be putting
together a FAQ. I was hoping to post it earlier
this week, but like I said, I've been on travel.
So I'm going to try and get that posted up this
weekend with just some of those common questions,
and also updating the rules as we've had to clarify
some things. So like your question tonight about
non -student clubs, that's a new one, and I didn't
think of that. So making sure that gets referenced
correctly, too, in the rules. So we're going
to try and keep all that stuff as up to date
and as, you know. current as possible. Um, you
know, and as questions come in, you know, we've
had some great ones come in. So, uh, you know,
want to make sure that happens. Um, and the logging
format is published up there too. Um, so I think
it's going to be a great event. I'm hoping to
hear lots of people on the air and I'm praying
for good band conditions. Oh yeah, we can always
use those. So, all right. Well, that's got to
do it for tonight. That is a wrap for this week's
edition of ham talk live. Thanks to Andy Blusey,
KK4LWR, and everyone out there in cyberspace
for listening and typing in. And I invite you
back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time.
Lee Height, K8CLI, will be here from the Voice
of America Museum of Broadcasting talking about
the USCGC Courier exhibit that's just opened
there. It's a whole new meaning of the word relay.
So be sure to tune in for that and for a list
of all of our upcoming guests. You can see that
at HamTalkLive .com. Just click on the show schedule
link. And if you like the show, please leave
us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.
That helps people find us faster. And that's
all for tonight. So for now, this is Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG saying 7375 and may the good DX be yours.
Thanks for watching!