This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259
.com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged
it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur
for more information about ICOM radios. Here
we go, welcome to Amtrak Hey, good evening, everyone.
It's time for ham talk live episode number 130
Dayton Orlando and Huntsville ham fest roundtable
Recorded live on Thursday, August 30th 2018.
I'm your host Neil rap WB 9 VPG Thanks for tuning
in to another episode of ham talk live tonight.
We're joined by Michael Coulter w8 CI Michael
Colley W4MCA and Mark Brown in for BCD and we'll
take your calls live in just a few minutes last
week here on the show Ward Silver in zero AX
The professor was here to talk about efficient
operating. And if you missed the show, you can
listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or on your
favorite podcast app or over on YouTube. A couple
of announcements before we get started here.
A note from AMSAT. Recently, there's been a DMR
signal that's QRMing the AO92 uplink on 435 .35
or close by. So just heads up, if you've got
a hotspot, a repeater, just regular Simplex,
and you've got DMRs, something's getting into
it. So make sure you're clear of 145 .8 to 146
.0 and 435 to 438 megahertz. That's by International
Band Plan. Please QSY. If you've been operating
in that area because that's a satellite only
area and it's causing some Issues for them. So
we'd appreciate your cooperation with that Also
want to mention if you haven't heard which you
probably have but if you haven't heard the NIST
Is talking about cutting funding for WWV and
also the WWVH and WWVB and there are some petitions
out there right now I'm seeing three of those
and I posted links again just before the show
this evening to all three of those petitions
and so if you'd like to join in on that I would
invite you to do so and posted the links again
on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. and you can
search those out if you're not on those, but
there's a couple of WWV petitions going around
to try to keep them on the air. So just wanted
to mention that if you're into signing that.
So we're going to talk HamFest tonight, so get
your questions ready to go. After the interview,
you can give us a call. You can do that via telephone
at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812. 638 -4261 or
you can Skype us. It's just HamTalk Live on Skype
and you can also tweet us. Our Twitter handle
is at HamTalk Live and we'll let you know when
it's time to make those phone calls. We just
wanted to give you the number ahead of time so
that way you have that number ready to go 812
-638 -4261. So I'll be back with Michael, Michael
and Mark right after this word from Icom America
right here on HamTalk Live. Heard it, worked
it, logged it. It's time to get the transceiver
that is best suited for your lifestyle. Icom
offers a variety of high performance and innovative
products. See how you can make the most out of
contest season with one of these transceivers.
First the IC7851. It's the competitive edge you've
been looking for. Raise the bar and hear what
others cannot with this flagship HF and 50 MHz
transceiver that has reciprocal mixing dynamic
range, crystal clear LO design, spectrum scope,
dual receivers, and digital voice recorder. The
one I've been drooling over lately, the IC7610.
It's the SDR every ham wants and just in time
for contest season. This high -performance SDR
has the ability to pick out the faintest of signals
even in the presence of stronger adjacent ones.
The new ICOM IC7610 is a direct sampling software
-defined radio that will change the world's definition
of an SDR transceiver. It has RF direct sampling
system, 110 dB RMDR, independent dual receiver,
and dual digit select. The reason I've been drooling
over the IC7610 is the performance I've seen
at work with our IC7300. It's changing the way
entry -level HF is designed. This high -performance,
innovative HF transceiver with a compact design
will far exceed your expectations. RF direct
sampling, 15 discrete bandpass filters, a large
touchscreen, a real -time spectrum scope, and
an SD card slot. It's all in the IC7300. Visit
www .icomamerica .com slash amateur for more
information on ICOM radios. Welcome back to ham
talk live and thanks to icon America for sponsoring
the show and Oh at 7610 looks nice Break out
the wall here ham talk lives on the air every
Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern time and tonight
we have three very knowledgeable guests about
HamFest and we've been Already talking before
the show here. So want to get them on the line
here. First of all, we have Michael Coulter,
W8CI, the official spokesperson of the Dayton
Hamvention. Mike resides in Zeno, Ohio and is
a past president of the Dayton Amateur Radio
Association and a former Hamvention general chairman
back in 2011 and 12. He is currently the treasurer
and a board member of DERA and the finance chair
for Hamvention. Our other Michael tonight is
Michael Colley, W -4 MCA. He is the new chairman
of the Orlando Hamcation. Michael served for
seven years as Hamcation's tailgate chairman,
six years as the IT chairman, and one year as
finance chairman, and Hamcation is sponsored
by the Orlando Amateur Radio Club. And Mark Brown
in for BCD is the... new chairman of the huntsville
ham fest he's he's completed his first year and
uh... he works at uh... one of the high -tech
government contracting firms in huntsville alabama
and he has been the president of the north alabama
d x club huntsville amateur radio club and this
in both the tennessee and alabama contest group
so michael michael and mark welcome to the show
a good evening welcome thanks Yeah, thank you,
Neil, for having us on tonight. And with four
of us here, it's kind of confusing who's supposed
to talk when. So that'll work. You lead us. I
will. I will lead. So tonight, we're going to
talk about how you all team up and help promote
each other's HamFest. learn from each other and
and put on some things that uh... no one else
does and uh... maybe uh... some of the smaller
ham fest uh... chairman and and people who work
with smaller ham fest can can grab some ideas
here tonight but uh... first let's let's get
the stuff out of the way that that that people
are going to ask i know uh... and that's Okay,
what's the news from from each one of these?
And let's start with Mark. Huntsville was just
two weeks ago. And so how did things go as the
first year being the chairman? And do you have
any any results any numbers from two weeks ago?
Mark? Well, Neil, we have A gross count of between
4 and 5 ,000 attendees on the Saturday, Sunday
event. Our ladies are still who sell the admission
tickets. They're tallying the final figures and
double -checking things. But we feel like we
had a good attendance. It was up from last year.
Last year was impacted by the total solar eclipse.
But we're back to where we want to be and probably
grow it even more next year. Well, it sure looked
like there was a bigger crowd this year I can
tell that just from from walking around and you
all did a great job of putting everything on
and Yeah, it was just amazing and it never ceases
to amaze me how friendly, comfortable, and easy
that HamFest is to navigate and so thanks to
everyone who's volunteered for that and your
team and it's a great bunch of people and some
great forums and I've already had people say
it. that went for the first time that said, how
in the world did they pull off that youth lounge?
How do they do that? And it is, it's one of the
best youth lounges I think I've ever seen. That
is really one of our shining stars, Neil. We
doubled the size of the youth lounge this year.
Dr. Monty Bateman, he studies solar physics and
and thunderstorms and lightning for NASA. And
he's been running the Youth Lounge now for about
nine years. His wife is involved, his kids are
involved. He handpicks additional volunteers
to work with the kids. uh... we had a go -to
station for two years now uh... one kid got earned
his merit badge uh... by making a i can't remember
how many contacts he needed but uh... the youth
lounge has really been uh... a great day for
the huntsville ham fest and and uh... monies
wife mentioned to me that uh... she's seen a
couple of kids uh... through the years uh...
you know they come in as an eight -year -old
and they're now sixteen or seventeen years old
and they've been coming every year so there's
something for all ages because uh... they somehow
make it relevant for all the age groups well
they sure do and i've had uh... you know some
kids from up here go and and learned how to solder
down there and and everything else and uh...
it's just a great experience and and a lot of
my uh... satellite friends were down there and
came for the first time and wanted to see the
Young Ham of the Year presentation and some of
those things and brought their kids along and
they really enjoyed it. So kudos on that. Now
let's go to the Michaels. Let's go to Michael
Coulter first and just kind of give us a quick
recap of how things went last year and how some
of those improvements went. Well, thanks for
letting me say a few words. First off, Neil,
I want to thank you for putting this forum of
the three of us together. This is really exciting
because as you'll find out in the discussion
how much we work together. And Neil, I really
appreciate all the work that you do for amateur
radio to get the word out. So thank you. I want
to make sure we got that. I got that in there.
As for, you know, we, as for us at hand benching,
you know, we're always trying to, you know, look
for new improvements. What can we do? How can
we take it to a new level? And, or just improve
what we got, you know, because this is the second,
this was the second year at our new location.
And, you know, there's a lot of things that we
tried to get fixed, some things that, and we
looked at, look at next year. the newer things
that are going to be happening. But overall,
we were very excited. Although our attendance
was down right around about 900 less than the
previous year, but we think that's going to go
back up. People were hesitant for whatever reason.
The flea market, we did make the improvements,
although it was right at the last minute before
we got that done. And we have much improved tents
that we've had. As far as I know, all of the
people that displayed and sold things there,
we're very, very happy. And the food, we're gonna
ramp up the food even more next year. And working
on the traffic situation, which I think is really
not a problem anymore. I think we've got that
one done. But at any rate, let me give some time
back to Michael at Orlando. Yeah, very good and
Michael you are new at running Orlando at the
hamcation and and I'm at a disadvantage here
because I haven't been to Orlando hamcation yet
and I'm dying to go and I wish my teaching schedule
would Will allow me to do that, but that's kind
of a difficult one. So I'm not familiar with
yours, but I was able to meet you down at Huntsville.
That was good. And glad to talk to you for a
little bit down there, but tell us about what's
happening down in Orlando, how last year went
and some of the things that happened. Our show
was great this past year in February. This year
we did one of the improvements I made was we
had our website professionally redesigned which
helped a lot to bring it up to today's standards
of what you can do with it. Also we redesigned
the flyer that gets sent out. We send it out
to over 52 ,000 hems. We totally redesigned that
and got a lot of good feedback on that. One of
the things we did do this year was increase our
parking capabilities. One problem we did run
into, we still ran out of parking, which is a
good and bad thing. One of the other big things
this year, Peter Meyers and Liddy Meyers, Peter
was the past hamcation chairman for the last
nine years. They moved back to the Netherlands
and they actually become our international relations
liaisons. So they actually set up a booth in
Frevenschofen this year and had Hamcation over
there to advertise us over in that part of the
world, which was a big success. And we've already
started getting inquiries from some of the vendors
from there that's going to come to Hamcation
next year. And one of the biggest things that
we improved this year was getting more volunteers.
Just like Michael and Mark will tell you, without
the volunteers, the show won't happen. So that
was the biggest things that we did this year
for hamcation. All right. Very good. Now we're
going to go around to everybody again and let's
keep it here with you, Michael, about Orlando.
What's your plans for next year? Do you have
anything that's changing for next year or any
big news about next year? Yeah, no, there's actually
a lot of changes coming for hamcation this coming
year I'll go over a few of them here. One of
the issues we've had in the past was not having
enough form space for everybody putting on forms
So this year, I'm actually going to go out and
rent three clear span tents with hard sides glass
doors They will be aced And they each one will
hold 150 people each Also this year we'll be
doing forums on Friday and Saturday Last year
we only did Friday or Saturday And this year
we're only going to have them in one location
instead of two locations like before Also with
the help With the help from the fairgrounds,
we're actually working on getting some more parking
for this year. So that's something in the works
One of the big things that happened we started
a chairman's dinner and reception to recognize
vendors volunteers and VIP is a amateur radio
That has supported hamcation in the past So that's
one thing we did do this year Michael and mark
can contest to that dinner. They both went to
it and Wow, it was good and one of the big things
that I did this year I've actually signed a five
year contract with the central Florida fairgrounds.
So for the next five years, we will be there
until at least 2023. All right. Very good. And
your website is up and running and open for business
and selling tickets. And, uh, and a friend of
mine, uh, has already bought his, so you're ready
to go. All right. Let's, uh, let's go over to
Mark. Uh, Mark, it's only two weeks since you
finished up, but, uh, do you have anything that
you noticed that, you know, okay, this is, we're
going to do this next year. Well, there were
a couple of little tweaks we made, things we've
learned. We tried to actually reduce the size
of the stage this year a little bit, and the
Vaughan Braun Center gave us a sturdier platform,
and that was a great blessing to be able to display
the projection. uh... of the uh... of the of
the hourly door prize winners and things like
that uh... we tried a uh... a smaller p a system
uh... just uh... a near -stage coverage uh...
because the uh... the bond run center uh... p
a system it uh... when when that when d m c announces
something it can drown out every conversation
in the uh... within the uh... commercial and
flea market space eighty thousand square feet
indoors and uh... so we're looking at a smaller
point source up there. We had something but it
wasn't quite enough. We need a couple more DB
to make that work. Cleaned up the stage. We put
the Convention and Visitors Bureau at their own
table. They were kind of on an island up there
last year with the MC on the stage and nobody
could get to them. One of the things we're going
to try next year, we're going to try online ticket
sales. It makes things easy the why else who
sell the tickets outside They're easily overwhelmed
the first couple of hours for with everybody
trying to get in Right there on Saturday morning
at nine o 'clock. So this may be doing a will
call or or mail out the tickets We're not sure
yet. We haven't worked out the details You guys
have mentioned parking. We're in a downtown location,
not a county fairgrounds, and so we're really
at the mercy of the city and the Von Braun Center
when it comes to parking facilities. We want
to work with the city and try to negotiate maybe
a better parking arrangements, so we'll see what
we can do there because that's really important
for our visitors to be able to attend and have
a reasonable walk. to get into the Vaughn -Baron
Center. We have a new webmaster and we're going
to redesign our website and it's been kind of
static for the last couple of years. We're going
to bump that up a notch, but no huge changes.
We're looking at just little tweaks to make things
better year after year. And if you can come up
with some squirrel repellent, that might help.
Well, yeah Huntsville utilities kind of did us
twice and a squirrel got into this was after
After the hemp has closed Saturday night a squirrel
got into a substation and took out a significant
portion of downtown Huntsville that affected
the von Braun Center the adjacent embassy suites
hotel the elevators, of course and Another hotel
nearby where the DX Bank what was was going on?
I was at that banquet and they kind of winged
it. We did a dinner, then we did door prizes,
and then we did a note card speech by Jim Fensterbacher,
our banquet speaker. So about 20 minutes into
his note card speech, the power came back up.
He was able to see his pictures and all was good.
But things were a bit dicey. And the other thing
they did was to park. uh... four bucket trucks
uh... back behind the bond bronze center the
kind of interfered with uh... saturday uh...
saturday morning move in before we open and there's
a giant bus that comes in from uh... from memphis
that brings up i think uh... i don't know a lot
of people a lot of guys from from memphis uh...
they charter a bus and uh... Completely blocked
their normal entrance and so we coordinated with
the the Vaughan Braun Center They had a guy on
a golf cart meet him at a street and and direct
him up an alley So that they could park that
day where they normally do so we worked it we
worked it out But not without a couple of a couple
of tense moments now the The elevator thing caught
me off guard for sure and then the elevators
still acted up after that. I don't know if they
ever fixed those. I had a friend that stayed
a couple of days after the ham fest and that
said they were still down to one elevator, but
it is time for a break. So let's go ahead and
do that and we'll come back and talk a little
bit more about next year and how these guys team
up right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey, have you
seen the PL -259s? Anywhere? No, I haven't. Come
on, kids. Let's go! There's just one place to
go for all of your connector needs. A giant warehouse
of connectors and adapters for every occasion.
Thousands to choose from in every shape, size
and color. And they have antennas, soldering
supplies, cables, meters and more. Where do you
go if you want to buy a connector at a fraction
of retail cost? And this weekend only, take advantage
of our special They make great Christmas presents.
And what better way to say I love you than with
the gift of a PL -259. TOWER ELECTRONICS! TOWER
ELECTRONICS! TOWER ELECTRONICS! Hi, I'm Scott
Cole, KB9 AMM, President of TOWER ELECTRONICS.
I like the company so much that I bought it!
TOWER ELECTRONICS! Coming to a hand fest near
you or online at PL -259 .com. And we're in the
Yellow Pages under... Amateur radio connectors.
My, wherever did you get that lovely PL259? Tower
Electronics, pl -259 .com or call 920 -435 -2973.
Do we sell PL259 connectors? Join the conversation.
Call us on voice with Skype at HamTalk Live or
give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812
-638 -4261. Now, here's more HamTalk Live. Tower
electronics will be at Shelby, North Carolina
this weekend August 31st through September the
2nd then they'll be in Findlay, Ohio on September
9th and Peoria, Illinois on September 15th and
16th and of course you can catch them at PL -259
.com and HamTalk Live is on the air every Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time right here at HamTalkLive
.com be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. We've got Michael Coulter back
with us. Lost a cell signal there, so we've got
him back. And Michael, we were talking about
next year, so what I was asking was we've heard
a little bit about the new building, you know,
may happen, may not happen, and so we've heard
a little bit about that, and then I know you've
got some other... uh... things you're working
on so tell us uh... where things are for next
year ideal thanks i'll be kind of brief with
that because we'll have uh... more definite things
coming out about a month month and a half that
we want to announce to everyone but until things
are inked inside i can't I can't talk a lot about
it, but what I do want to tell you is the fact
that we are working well with the Fair and Expo
board. They have been absolutely pleasant to
work with, great to work with, and I think that
one of the big things next year will be improving
even some more of the flea market area. You know,
we got those grindings down and got them rolled,
and we're going to improve that even more and
expand that so that we have better coverage out
there. Um, you know, every year I talk about
improving the weather. I think I'm, I'm not sure
I can really do that. I thought I had connections,
but I'm not really sure I do. The weather service
hasn't been helping out on that. Yeah, I know.
And they're right down there and I work with
them. I'm a, I am a, uh, one of the, uh, uh,
lead coordinators down there when we have, uh,
emergency weather for southern half of Ohio and
bad weather commit. But I do want to say we're
working on that. We're working on probably better
bus delivery of folks and more surprises in store.
Yeah, the sad part about it is we probably will
not get the building this year, but it doesn't
mean we aren't working on it. It just means that
the negotiations, we couldn't quite get it through
and there's been an election change with some
of the elected folks and we'll be working with
some new people when they take office. So we
decided to make the announcement early on. Hey,
we can't. we're not going to get there. And that's,
you know, we're trying to be a little bit more
transparent about what's going on with Hamvention
so that all of our stakeholders know that. But,
you know, we'll have more stuff forthcoming,
but we're excited about what happened last year.
We're even more excited about next year. So with
that, let me send it back to you. All right,
very good. Well, we'll look forward to. hearing
about that and hearing what you have planned.
So before we take calls here, I want to talk
a little bit about how you all work together.
And I know at Dayton, I've seen you and Mark
going around and talking about things. And at
Huntsville, I saw Michael Colley and Mark. There
were always booths there to talk about each other's
ham fest. So, uh, Michael culture, why don't
you go ahead and start off about how you guys
team up and how you support, uh, each other and
offer each other some assistance to make all
of these better. Well, you know, in amateur radio,
uh, just quickly into the my synopsis and what
went on, what we see as personally important
to all of us is to be successful in amateur radio.
we all have to be successful. And that is you,
Neil. That is all the ham fest around. That is
especially the big ham fest. So we need to support
each other. And when I hear people, well, who's
biggest, who's best? You know, it's all in the
person's mind that goes there. to enjoy the event.
And I was glad to hear Mark had some really memorable
things happen at his because people remember
those things and they have great stories to tell
you. I was there when the power went out. It
was terrible, but we still had this much fun.
And I know Orlando gets rain now and then, but
we all got together and we decided, hey, we're
not enemies, we're friends. And it kind of started
with Peter and Lee down there in Orlando some
years ago. invited them up, they ended up being
club of the year because their club just does
a tremendous job putting on Orlando. So things
have evolved since then and Mark came in and
we're so glad and you know we all meet together
to talk about oh you have that problem this is
what I did about that problem or you know and
they've helped me considerably and we help each
other and it's important all the facets of amateur
radio. Need to work together. We're too small
to be arguing and I think my compadres here will
agree but this has been going on for a few years
and You know, we're so glad you finally pulled
this off to have three of us here so we can tell
you know the amateur radio public We want to
support each other if Orlando fails hand -vention
fails Huntsville fails we all fail, you know,
we can't let that happen. We got to support each
other And that's sort of how this has evolved.
So let me turn it back to you, Neil, because
the other guys, I'm sure they'll want to chime
in. Yeah. Let's go over to Mark down in Huntsville
and your comments on the cooperation that's taken
place between the three of you. Well, Neil and
yeah, Michael, he raised... He brings a lot of
really good points. We have to make these things
good for both the visitor and the vendor alike
and make it a destination, make it a positive
experience that folks will want to go to multiple
ham fest per year. Lord knows there's a lot of
small ones and a lot of big ones and we hope
they come to our events. They wanted to come
to multiple events, but you know at hamcation
back in February as a new guy on the block I
want to share a kind of a story, but back at
hamcation in Orlando in february i was that i
stayed at the same hotel as the dating guys that
was uh... ron kramer the uh... the outgoing uh...
general chairman michael's there are jack curbs
uh... the uh... the new uh... general chairman
for for dating and uh... over some really good
irish whiskey we shared a lot of good uh... experiences
tales that tips about these are different hand
fast uh... concerns uh... it was just a great
thing until uh... until jack's wife made us leave
the room about eleven thirty or twelve o 'clock
but uh... it was just a It was a great experience
to meet these guys, and of course Dayton guys
in Orlando, they had time to chat. And then in
May, I had a similar opportunity in Dayton, where
I stayed at the same hotel as Michael and John
from Orlando. And we continued to learn a lot
from each other. And there in Dayton, we had
adjacent booths. We talked to each other. We
saw the same visitors going by, stopping at our
respective booths, and just talking up our various
ham fest. Here in Huntsville, I barely had time
to talk to most guys. chat with everybody for
at least a few minutes, and it was really wonderful
to be able to network together. And I'm sure
that the Dayton and Orlando guys had a similar
experience here in Huntsville, that they were
more relaxed and could share knowledge. So back
to you, Neil. All right, very good. And last
but not least, by any means, Michael Colley.
Yeah, like Michael and Mark said, we work very
closely together, actually a lot more than people
realize. Like Mark was saying, it's hard for
When we went to Dayton, it's hard to talk to
those guys because they're so busy. But in Huntsville,
we were right next to them with their booth.
And like there, we're just telling people that
come up, they're like, oh, we've never been to
neither show. We advertise both shows. I mean,
we tell people you need to go to both of them.
They're both great shows. And same way with in
Dayton, we were actually right next to the booth
with Mark. And same thing there. We played up
each other shows. At one time, Mark, a couple
times, he was by himself there, so he left the
booth. And when people walked up, we just started
talking about Huntsville with them, letting them
know about Huntsville and everything like that.
So yeah, for us, it is not a competition. We're
here to do the same thing, and that's to make
amateur radio great. And by us working together,
we think that that's what actually helps do it.
And then we can actually tell each other, Hey,
this didn't work. This did work. Try this. Um,
so we all don't fell on the same items. Uh, I
mean, everybody's going to have their issues
with stuff, but by us talking, um, everybody
ain't going to have the same issue. Hopefully.
Very good. Well, I'm, uh, I'm glad to know that,
uh, You all have been able to you know get the
booths next to each other and and be able to
stay at some of the same places and that creates
an opportunity to learn from each other and and
Have a chance to talk and I know Michael has
those meetings out there Outside of the fifth
wheel and maybe one of these days. I'm going
to take him up on sitting in on one of them,
but You know that that's important stuff that
you know you could learn from each other and
and I know I've helped mentor some of the smaller
shows that they said well, you know you did this
for 17 years with this little show what what
what do you need to do and? and uh... there's
some important things there that uh... that folks
need to know and and the more you can uh... communicate
that the better off we all are so i i appreciate
all of that uh... taking place in the u .s. you
know can i jump in with one more thing this is
uh... whiskey charlie india he anyway i i just
want to say that you know anybody listening that
has questions on their hands fast it doesn't
matter if it's a small hand fast a large ham
fest or wherever it is, all three of us are absolutely
ready, willing, and we will be glad to give any
advice or help in any way we can. Don't think
you're too small for it because all these events
start out small and they become great. But every
one of these events is a seed for more amateur
radio and for the growth of amateur radio. And
one other thing, I was in Japan the last few
weeks at their ham fair. That was an amazing
event. And I know that I have good friends that
run that event and talk to them about it, as
well as very good friends with the people in
Freeridge Shelf. And matter of fact, I've shared
a booth with the folks in Freeridge Shelf in
Japan before because they couldn't get booth
space. So we all work together, all of us. It's
important that people know that, that it's not
us against each other. Anyway, thanks for letting
me pop that in there. Go ahead. Very good. Good
points. And I'm glad you mentioned the trip to
Japan there too. So let's give a chance for some
people to call. I know we're running way late,
which I knew would happen when we have four people
on here and four microphones and hams. uh...
we're gonna talk so uh... let's give people a
chance here eight one two six three eight four
two six one is the phone number if you'd like
to call in eight one two six three eight four
two six one go ahead and give us a call now and
uh... we'll see if we can get you in here and
we may hang on for a few extra minutes here if
everybody can uh... can hang around and uh...
see if we can get some and actually we have one
Right now, I believe it's Socks on the line.
Ah, close. Socks' roommate. Socks' roommate.
It's Scott Cole, KB9AMM. Good evening, Scott.
Thank you for calling in. Good evening, Scott.
And good evening to Michael, Michael, and Mark.
My gosh. The three big power players of HamFest.
Good to hear from you, Scott. The largest HamFest
in the United States. You guys all in one place.
Hey, Scott. Fantastic. I wanted to call and say
hi and let everybody know that these guys are
fantastic. They work well with people, they listen,
they overcome problems. If you've made the annual
pilgrimage, you know the things that they've
gone through in the last years and the triumphs
that they've made in the last two years. My hat's
off. Michael, you got your hands full, but I
think Ron set you up real good when he turned
the reins over to you. I wish you well, and I
wish you luck. Mark, in Huntsville, you're filling
Charlie's shoes quite well. Great ham -fest in
Huntsville. All indoor in an air -conditioned
facility. The staff is second to none. I mean,
they unload me when I go there and load me back
up. I think they're in a hurry to get me out
of there. They want me to go home. And I'll tell
you, this is the first I've heard of the squirrels,
but it makes a lot of sense now because we were
out of power for a while there. Yeah, we got
a call. We got a call from you guys I Was wondering
if the guys that were doing the wiring behind
the building messed something up, but evidently
not or else they blame the squirrels I don't
know Michael in Orlando Boy, I'll tell you if
you have not been to the Orlando show You need
to go the number one place for Family Fund USA
the home of Mickey Mouse and a lot of others
It's the only place I know where you can take
your family, fly down there at a reasonable cost,
in a motel at a reasonable price, send the wife
and kids to go see Mickey Mouse, and you're gonna
be at one of the best ham fest there is, and
guess what? They hold it in February when I've
got 20 degree blue zero wind chills at home,
and there's two feet of snow on the ground, and
it's 70 and 70 degrees down there. Fantastic!
It's something that you need to go and see. And
Michael, you're doing a great job. And I know
a lot of John helps keep you in line down there,
too. So anyway, I just wanted to call and thank
you guys for your tireless work, because it's
tough. It's not easy running a hand fest. And
any way that thinks it is, you need to try it
once and you'll find out. But anyway, I'm going
to let it go with that, Neil. I'll clear the
line. But thanks again, guys. Thanks, Neil. And
I wish you best of luck. And I look forward to
seeing each and every one of you. Mark, it's
going to be about a year yet, but I'll come back
and see you, too. 73 guys. I got a smile on my
face now, Scott. I got to come to Orlando and
see you again. Thanks. Thanks for calling. Sounds
like fun. Thanks, Scott. All right. Thanks, Scott.
Say hi to Sox for us. I'll do that. Okay. 812
-638 -4261. If you don't know, Sox is Scott's
new mascot. It's like a six foot tall sock monkey.
He's a driving partner in the RV. So 812 -638
-4261 is the phone number. Give us a call. We'd
love to hear from you. We just have a few minutes
left here, or you can call us on Skype or tweet
us here. And in fact, let me run over here and
check that real quick. I got a quick comment
if you get a second. Michael, yes, go right ahead.
I want to mention that we have a new General
Chairman and Assistant Chairman in our new General
Chairman, Jack Gerbs, Whiskey Bravo 8, Sierra
Charlie Tango, and if you look him up on QRZ,
he's got a lot of good information about what
he does. He's a very active ham on a lot of different
modes. 8 Sierra Charlie Tango and our Assistant
General Chairman is Dr. Rick Allnut and he is
Whiskey Sierra 8 Golf and his QRZ page is up
to date as well and I am just simply a spokesperson.
That's what I do. Anyway, thanks for letting
me mention those guys. Very good. 812 -638 -4261.
Let's take One final shout out here for phone
calls tonight and then we'll finish things up
here. But we're talking about the HamFest at
Dayton, Orlando, and Huntsville with Michael,
Michael, and Mark. from each one of those. And
boy, Scott's got me sold on Orlando. I'm going
to have to find a new job so I can go. It's a
great event, I'm telling you. I enjoy going to
Orlando. I really enjoy going there. Let's take
just a minute here. There are people out there
with some of the smaller shows. What what advice
would you give to somebody in like a minute?
So I know you can't do much in a minute, but
in a minute or maybe two What advice would you
give to somebody that's trying to put on? a smaller
show Michael Michael Collie The biggest thing
I would say just don't give up and don't I mean
you can dream big but It's going to take time
to become a bigger show. Biggest thing is take
care of your volunteers. That's the most important
thing. Take care of your vendors and just work
together. I mean, just like you said, Michael
said, if anybody needs any help with it, any
questions, call one of us. We're easy to get
a hold of. Mark. I think in addition to what
Michael said, I think put yourself in the shoes
of your visitor. What do you want that visitor
to experience? You want him to have a good time.
You're the host of a party, like you're a host
of a party in your home. You want to make sure
that visitor or guest is having a good time.
The same goes for the vendors that you have.
You want to make sure they're treated well and
have a good experience. So that's what I would
suggest. And Michael Coulter. And this is the
fastest one hour in amateur radio. I would say
that I Would say that Like the other guy said
listen to your vendors. You're gonna get phone
calls. You're gonna get emails Follow -up follow
-up follow -up. It's really hard. I mean, it's
you know know who you know these people and understand
that you know, there are a lot of the vendors
are business people and they're coming in and
They are wanting to extend their business out.
Take care of your volunteers, just as both the
other guys said. Man, your volunteers are really,
really important, but you gotta work with them.
So the final thing that I wanna say is you empower
your volunteers. You need to delegate that. You
can't do it all yourself if you're the leader.
You delegate the duties, and then at the same
time, you empower them to do it, but you hold
them accountable. Hey guys, you said you were
going to get this done by such and such a date.
It's much like what Michael at Orlando was saying.
We've got the website and we've got to have all
this information by such and such a date and
it forces you to get it done by then. But the
final word is communication. back to you absolutely
I would agree and I Think that's an appropriate
place To leave this tonight. It is is communication
and that's what ham radio is all about and that's
also what putting these ham fests on is all about
so Let me let me Let you guys get a last word
in and then we're going to, uh, shut things down
for the night. But, uh, let me, let me go back
around real quick. Any last things that you need
to get in here before we go, uh, Michael Colley.
I just want to thank you, Neil and, uh, Mark
and, uh, Michael, uh, for being on the show.
I think this was great. I think we need to start
doing it more often. Um, and, uh, just again,
thank you for, uh, having us on here and talking
about all three of our handfests at the same
time. Michael. Yeah, I really agree. I think
it's important to do and I want to let Michael
know from Orlando I still have all his stuff
for his booth down in my barn all safely tucked
away for next year. Anyway, everybody, we are
really supporting each other as we support you,
Neil, and we all have to do this together. So
I appreciate being on here with both Mark and
Michael. Two really great guys and their teams
are just dependant. So thanks again Neil All
right, and mark you're gonna get the last word
tonight. I Wasn't expecting that but yeah I wanted
I want to thank you Neil for for the invitation
to be on the show tonight and Michael and Michael
I've learned so much from you guys. I'm kind
of the new guy on the block. We have volunteers
here in Huntsville that You know they have man
decades of experience and like I say I'm the
new guy and I'm learning from them and I'm also
learning from you and how you guys do things
and it's just been a voyage of discovery and
I'm looking forward to many more years to come
and continuing a great relationship with all
of you. Thanks again for all of your support
and looking forward to seeing you guys as soon
as our paths cross again. 73. All right, well
that is a wrap for this week's edition of ham
talk live Thanks to all of my guests, Michael
Coulter, W8CI from Dayton, Michael Cawley, W4MCA
from Orlando, and Mark Brown, N4BCD from Huntsville,
and everybody out there in cyberspace for listening
and calling in and invite you back next Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time. Andy Maluzzi will
be going back to Orlando again. KK4LWR will be
here to talk about the Collegiate QSO Party.
And for a list of all of our upcoming guests,
be sure to visit hamtalklive .com. And if you
like HamTalk Live, please consider leaving us
a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. That'll
help others find us. So this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
for now saying 7375, and may the good DX be yours.
Thanks for watching!