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Good morning, everyone. Boy, that sounds weird.
Good morning. It's usually good evening. But
this is HamTalk Live, episode number 123, live
from WRTC 2018 in Germany, recorded live Thursday,
July 12th, 2018. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode. HamTalk
Live. Today we're joined by Ed Durant, DD5LP,
who is in Germany and he's going to bring us
some of the organizers and the competitors from
the headquarters hotel of the World Radio Team.
Champ radio sport team championship in Wittenberg
Germany and we'll take your calls live in just
a few minutes and Last week here on the show.
It was Corey sickles wa3 UVV that was here and
he talked about system fusion so you can catch
that over at ham talk live comm if you missed
that or on your favorite podcast app or also
over on YouTube and Hope you have some questions
this morning. You can tweet your questions in
you can Skype them in or You can give us a call
at 812 net ham 1 8 1 2 6 3 8 4 2 6 1 so I'll
be back with Ed and the gang over at WRTC right
after this word from tower electronics right
here on ham talk live Come on kids, let's go!
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where you can visit them at pl -259 .com. And
now from Rainey Wittenberg, Germany. to the geographical
center of Europe. We cross the pond to a remote
operations crew at the WRTC headquarters hotel.
Ed, how are things in Germany this morning, or
this afternoon for you? That's right, this afternoon
it's 2 p .m. here. Hi, Neil. Yeah, we're all
here in the HQ hotel of the WRTC 2018 in Wittenberg,
Germany, waiting for your and any callers' questions.
With me I have Xenia ZL4YL her father Holger
ZL3IO and from those call signs you realize I
hope that they're actually from New Zealand so
they've come a long way to be here and also a
father and daughter team I believe they must
be the attendees that are from the furthest distance.
I also have Michael DL6MHW, the Vice President
of WRTC 2018 and I also have Bryant KG5HVO representing
the US. So we've got a really international group
here. So let me personally welcome all the attendees
here and then pass it back over to you Neil for
your first question and I believe that's going
to be for Michael. Yes, that's Michael first
so If you your are listeners If you have a question
for one of our guests just go ahead and call
at that point or normally we kind of talk first
and then we do the the call -in thing but since
we have people kind of rotating through today.
Just go ahead and give us a call. And again,
the phone number in the US is 812 -NET -HAM -1.
That's 812 -638 -4261. Or you can call via Skype.
We're HamTalk Live on Skype. And you can tweet
us at HamTalk Live as well. And we'll take calls
through the rest of the show this morning. So
just give us a call here in a couple of minutes.
minutes and we'll get you on here. And as with
all of our shows this summer, we'll take a call
of the day. So today's call of the day, we'll
win a 40 meter double bazooka courtesy of radio
waves and antennas. So we'll take a random caller
at the end of the show for that. And we'll mention,
hopefully we get Skype working. Skype keeps messing
with us and they released a new edition yesterday
and so adding the calls is a little tricky so
we'll hopefully get that going but first we have
we have Michael Hudink, DL6MHW. He's the vice
president of WRTC. So how are things going so
far Michael? It's just about here. Nice to hear
you, Neil. Greetings to America from Wittenberg
in the heart of Europe. I'm here in the headquarters
hotel and we are very happy. So many people from
all over the world visit us here. The noise are
sometimes very high. We have some rain today,
as you mentioned. The volunteers, we have 300
volunteers outside the fields. They erecting
the antennas by spider beam. And yesterday we
set up. I think 35 antennas and today the remaining
30. So things are going good. Some many small
problems, but a lot of solutions and good hemp
spirit around here. Good. Well, yeah, there's
always there's always those problems that you
don't expect kind of like Skype doing an update
for me this morning. So Hopefully we're resourceful
enough to get through those and I'm sure your
your crew is is more than adequate to to get
that done so What does it mean to you and to
the team there in Germany to host such a big
event that's only every four years? What does
that mean to you? It's a big project, the biggest
project of my life and I think also of my future
life. We had to collect about half a million
euro and we did it with the help of all the sponsors
and the donations especially from the US clubs.
I have to say thank you for that and we got a
lot of help from the previous organizers from
WRTC 2014 in Boston. It's a big community and
we are proud to be a part of it. So any anything
Anything that you're short on you you still have
enough volunteers To get get everything done
everything pretty much in shape here Yes, I think
so. We will reach our goals and now we have the
competitions on the weekend during the weekend
the 24 hours of the ERUHF Championship. We have
63 stations on the air with very special call
signs and we have some awards so please call
every station and please work those awards and
produce pile -ups for the competitors. Okay,
very good. Well if you have a question give us
a call I know we've had somebody trying to call
and this new system is not helping me today,
so Hopefully we'll get a call here in a second
and see What that was for let's see here, let's
see if we can get that get that back okay Let's
do this Okay, and let's see if we can add that
Okay, I think we've got it. Okay, who do we have
on the line here? Hi, this is Brian KG 5g JT.
Oh Hi, Brian. Good morning Good to get to hear
you on the show here. And and let me check with
Ed. Ed you can hear us For Michael. Yes. Yeah,
here's okay yes we can okay it takes it takes
a few extra button clicks but we got it figured
out here so yeah uh you have a question for us
this morning yeah i do um i saw on on on the
website there's a lot of awards for people that
work the stations uh so they obviously encourage
people to to work the stations but the other
question is is as far as people come into the
event if they're in in the city or or relatives
or friends are there are there many events for
guests there or for people that want to see what's
going on. I didn't know if they could see the
operating stations at all or if it's mainly just
for the competitors and their families. I didn't
know if it was open to guests to come to join
in or if they had vendors there, things like
that, where a regular person can come see what's
going on. Yes, a lot of events around here. The
big event is of course setting up all the stations
and the second big event is the contest, but
it's not possible. to go into the tents to visit
the sites because it has to be a level playing
field and everybody has to be concentrated on
working the contest. So you can come to Wittenberg
to the headquarters hotel, meet some of the organizers,
go up to the fourth floor to visit the HQ station
and then you can make contacts with the WRTC
stations. Okay. Yeah, that's what I was wondering.
That's, that's, that's how I wondered if, if,
if many people showed up and if it was a big
event, cause I'm sure, uh, people that happen
to be in the area or friends and relatives would
love to see what's going on. So I appreciate
the, uh, the answer. All right. Thank you, Brian,
for calling. We appreciate it. Alright, thanks,
and I'd also like to tell Bryant, KG5HBO, good
luck. Bryant was in a local club here with me.
He moved recently, but we missed him and we're
wishing him good luck. Oh, thank you. I appreciate
it. Alright, Bryant. See you later. Alright,
thanks, Bryant. Take care. 812 -638 -4261 is
the number and and yeah This is proving a little
tricky this morning to add the calls in but we'll
we'll make it work. So Michael anything else
before you go here? Uh, yes. Um, I, I asked again,
call, call us during the contest and, uh, be
a part of WLTC also for the next years. It is
a big camp fest and it's nice to meet so many
people, new friendships. And this is, uh, I think
the, the core objective of our hobby. All right,
Michael. Well, thank you so much for. all of
your efforts and the whole team and good luck
with everything. Hope everything goes smoothly
and thank you so much for taking the time to
join us this morning and you're welcome to hang
around as long as you can but I know you've got
a lot of things going on there. Yeah, well Michael's
actually left us now but we've got more guests
for people to talk to so I'll pass you over now
to Holger ZL3IO and you could ask him the questions
you've got prepared for him and then Neil Okay,
very good. Well, good morning This is Holger
Hannemann, ZL3IO, and his teammate is his 17
-year -old daughter, Xenia Berger, ZL4YL, and
they are from New Zealand, and I had a chance
to talk with them over email for an article for
the National Contest Journal. So good afternoon
to you, Holger, and how are things going so far?
How does it feel to be there? Yeah, hi Neil and
Hi audience pleasure to be here. Yes an exciting
Undertaking for us as well a bit of traveling
of course to come here. I guess we won again
the the competition with the longest Distance
to travel to be here, but we typically do wherever
we go. So that's a very difficult from New Zealand
Yeah. Otherwise, um, first impression, I would
say very well organized so far. Everything went
smooth. Everything was, uh, spot on here, reception,
registration, everything went very well first
dinner. And it's, it's great to meet so many,
uh, people that, you know, from the bands over
all the years, obviously. Now, have you had to,
uh, make any adjustment so far, any last minute
equipment changes or anything that, uh, you know,
has come up here in the last few days? Not really
changes. So what we did actually, we organized
a lot of our equipment was in Germany, but we
still have to collect a few bits and pieces here.
So we got the radios borrowed from France and
other devices like monitors and so we have set
up. The first or whatever we have here looks
like everything is here Regarding cabling etc.
We still need of another power supply to come
in and another radio But looks pretty pretty
okay. I guess tonight. We know if everything
is working Yeah, that that would be a relief
to make sure it's all there so how was Xenia
she She dealing with with the trip okay and ready
to go Yeah, the trip was fine it was longer than
expected but it was good I like being here yeah,
so you're are you ready for this whole 24 hours
of non -stop calling and everything you ready
I Hope I am I think so We practiced a lot of
long contests last year so we should be good.
Well, I look forward to seeing how you and your
father do as a father -daughter team that creates
some interesting ideas because You all, you know,
will know each other a lot better than some of
the other teams. So it'll be interesting to see
how that goes. But I hope, hope everything goes
well for the, for the both of you. Yeah, so do
I. And I'm sure living together has helped us
be more problem solving together. Sure. Yeah.
And, and being able to, to meet and practice.
Sure sure is a lot easier Absolutely, yeah Just
coming in to to the to the well you spent some
time in Germany though What are your impressions
with with Wittenberg and with the with the setup
and where you're going to be operating Well,
I think Wittenberg is very pretty and the church
is really nice And like dad said, the whole thing
is very organized and there's been no hitches
that I know of. I think we're pretty prepared
for Saturday. I think it's going to go well.
Okay. And are we looking for, we'll see, we're
looking for the rain to kind of clear out, right?
Yeah, it's already dead. The sun's shining again.
Ah, good, good, good, good. Alright, well thanks
for coming on and talking to us and we look forward
to seeing how things go over the weekend and
so people will be giving you a call and we hope
that everybody out there listening will have
a chance to give some calls to some of these
teams over in Germany. So Xenia and Holger, thank
you so much for... for being there and make sure
you stick around for a while here. We'll see
if we have some calls and stick around as long
as you can and good luck. Yeah, thanks for having
us. All right. Well, we're gonna take a break
and we're gonna come back and we'll be in Germany
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at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now
here's more HamTalk Live. HamTalk Live is on
the air every Thursday and except today it's
at 9 p .m. Eastern Time right here at HamTalkLive
.com and be sure to check us out on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram and we're still taking
your calls on WRTC at 812 -NET -HAM -1. It's
812 -638 -4261 or you can Skype us at HamTalk
Live or you can tweet us at HamTalk Live. fact
check that right now okay good and we'll talk
to some more of the competitors here momentarily
but ed durant dd5 lp is on hand with the remote
broadcast system over there and we want to thank
ed for putting everything together to to bring
all these people to us and setting up the interviews
and everything And before we talk to Bryant,
let me talk to Ed for just a minute. Now, Ed,
give us a little bit of a feel for where we are
with things. I know the opening ceremonies are
going to be starting here in just a little while.
Is that right? Yeah, that's right. So up to yesterday,
half of the sites were already built and ready
for operation. The other half will be finished
today. Everything's on schedule despite the rain
this morning. But the rain has, as Zinnia said,
the rain has actually stopped now but it's given
the ground a good soaking which is a good thing
because it was tinder dry before. So that's all
very good news. Tonight is the opening ceremony.
and a meal after that. Last night there was the
Ham Widows Ball as I think Michael was trying
to explain to you that there is a lot of different
events going on around the actual competition.
Competition is Saturday, Sunday for 24 hours
in line with the IARUHF competition but apart
from that there's lots of things. Best way for
the listeners go to the website www .wrtc2018
.de everything's listed there. but everything
on schedule all right very good well that's that's
what we want to hear so uh joining us now is
a familiar voice that's uh been on the show a
couple of times and i've had the uh the pleasure
of uh Spending some time with that Dayton and
at Huntsville. It's Brian Terrasco kg5 HVO and
his partner Mateus Acevedo and his new call sign
is ce2 LR and They're one of the youth teams.
So guys, how's how's it going? Oh Thank you great
to be here So what are your first impressions
Bryant now that you're you're there it's a little
different from Alabama Yes, it sure is the weather
is a lot cooler and there's no humidity whatsoever.
That's great No, the event has run smoothly so
far the organizers have done a great job of putting
the event on and just all Been released a very
smooth process. Do you have anything Matt? Hi,
Neil. Hi, Matt. How are you? Good. Good to hear
you again. I will enjoy too much with the crazy
peoples here around every part of the hotel,
but I enjoy too much here and it's a pleasure
to be here and the organization guys make a great,
great job to do all of this. So well. So so how
how many contacts do you think you're gonna make
this weekend? How many has possible? Have you
set any kind of a goal for from numbers or just
just go just for fun and Great make a great job
there All right. Well, I think I think that'll
be great. Now, why don't you talk a little bit
about how you qualified for this event? Well,
this is starting around 2015 when Roberto C.
3CT is telling me if you can use my stage and
try to qualify for South America 2. So, while
I'm trying, I get in the third place in This
run and well after date on 2017 I saw the guys
of WRTC there and I see They will have some youth
team. You must be applied later and well also
he made him Brian who is now is my partner and
Here we are Okay, well Bryant now when you went
to Costa Rica you took along Flat hammy which
was the thing that we were doing last year with
with ham talk live and printing out the picture
of hammy the mascot and taking it with you and
And your mom sent me an email the other day and
showed me what you took this time You didn't
take flat hammy So tell us about Flat Martin.
Yes, in my homeschool curriculum we have timeline
cards that have all sorts of historical events
and one of the cards was the Protestant Reformation
and on the card is Martin Luther and so my mom
has been getting all sorts of photos of Flat
Martin. Around Wittenberg and all the WRTC events.
So maybe he'll pop up at the operating site Maybe
he'll end up on top of the spider beam mast.
Who knows? So yeah, so with the with the church
there in Wittenberg, it's almost like you can
you can hear him hammering away on the door there
So yeah, that's pretty cool Well, we'll see how
how flat Martin does and and maybe maybe we'll
get flat hammy in there somewhere, but I To look
forward to to watching the results and and seeing
how You guys do because I think your your energy
will will be an advantage on this and you know
the I know you've said that, you know, you're
the underdogs, but I think, you know, what you
guys lack in experience with some of these other
experienced, very experienced hands. You may
make up for an energy. So look forward to watching
the scoreboard and seeing how that all goes so
Any any concern so far about the equipment or
anything? Are you ready to go? Oh Well, I think
we're uh, we're set for success So we have all
of our equipment as far as we know nothing was
destroyed on the flights across the Atlantic
Ocean Thanks to the many generous Elmers and
contest mentors that set us up for success here
at WRTC. I know a lot of people helped us to
get us on the road here. Okay, I am going to
put you on hold for just a moment while we bring
in our next caller. Let's make sure we've got
it there. I believe we have everybody back now.
Karen Eve Murray, KD2GUT. Good morning. Good
morning. Good morning to you and good afternoon
or good evening to our friends in Germany. Very
impressive. It's finally happening. I had a question
for any of our participants, which has to do
with the time and the contact. What are the secrets?
Hang on just a moment. We're having some problems
getting the calls in here. Something just went
haywire. actually let me call you or no let's
see okay I can do this actually we can get I
think we've got this I don't know if we lost
the connection to Ed or okay now yes we have
Karen on the line okay so we were having trouble
getting everything going Okay, so Karen go ahead
and ask your your question Yeah, I was most curious
about the fact that here everybody has crossed
date lines time zones Showing up for something
that is going to be physically mentally and Many
other ways challenging and I wonder Sleep deprivation
extreme competition, short of caffeine, that
will not only keep everybody going, but at top
performance level. Yeah, I'm sorry, Karen, but
through this end in Wittenberg, you came through
very choppy. Skype is not our friend today, I
think. Yeah, and she was asking... She was asking
about what are the secrets to keep your energy
up other than caffeine? What can you do to keep
going and how do you deal with the long hours?
Okay, well, Matias and I did a contest together
back in May 2018. It was a WPXCW contest. We
set a goal for how many QSOs we wanted to get,
and that goal kept us motivated the entire contest.
So I really think setting a goal is very important,
and right now we've been talking about what kind
of goals we want to make as far as QSOs and multiplier
numbers go. Caffeine is always good, as Mathias
knows. Diet Coke. The Diet Coke is what he says.
But what about Holger and Xenia? Are they still
there, Ed? No, they've actually moved on, I'm
afraid. So you've just got the future winners
of the WRTC sat next to us here. Yes, the future.
Wouldn't that be something? Youth group number
one finishing number one. I wish them well. They're
certainly got the energy. And the humor. And
the humor, yes. Yes, exactly. All right, Karen,
well. there's your answer okay well i wish everybody
everybody well i hope there are both coffee urns
and soda machines free body can't wait uh can't
wait for the action to start thank you all right
sorry i'm just gonna say about Karen, yeah, for
the youth team here, yeah, coffee and soda. But
I guess the rest of the guys are looking for
what the beer machine is. Ah, could make for
some very interesting QS those. Yeah, wouldn't
help with staying awake though. Okay, thank you
both so much. Okay, bye -bye. Thanks, Karen.
All right, bye -bye, Karen. That's Karen E. Murray,
KD2GUT, and we appreciate her giving us a call
this morning as well. And you can too. The phone
number is 812 -638 -4261. We do have a few minutes
left here. Right now we have Brian Terrasco,
KG5HVO, and Matias Acevedo, CE2LR. They're the
youth team number one in this WRTC. version 2018
and And I just realized that there's something
that we didn't we didn't plan for and didn't
put on the script But I'm hoping you know I Mentioned
the scoreboard and being able to watch the scoreboard
Here as things progress So can you fill everybody
in on how they can watch along this weekend?
Okay as all good organizations everything comes
back to a center point which is that website
www .wrtc2018 .de As the contest starts there
will be a link from there to an online scoreboard
What's interesting is what's behind the scenes
on that as well. There are actually small mini
computers in each of the sites that are linked
to the logging software that's been used by the
competitors and that then automatically sends
back every minute to the HQ site the information
via our own secure LAN or secure, you know, wire.
Secure channel over the cellular network And
that then gets processed here comes up onto a
big screen in the lobby for those who aren't
actually out at the site and also go straight
to the website as well, so that means yeah every
minute you'll know how many points each of the
teams have got and If that should fail we've
got a backup system where the the referees who
are based on the sites will actually call in
every five minutes or so until whatever the computer
problem is is fixed although we're not expecting
any problems but it's always good to have a backup
but again anything and everything so even we've
got we've already started the daily videos we
did one the last two days everything linked through
that important website wrtc2018 .de Yeah, and
while we're mentioning the website I know that
you want to mention that the opening and closing
ceremonies will be live streamed So you can watch
those and then of course the online scoreboard
You can see and the video reports you just talked
about so you can feel like you're there. So wrtc
2018 dot de this the place to go. Well, if you
want to follow this some more, there's another
opportunity for you and we thank everybody for
a good job for getting up and calling in this
morning. Saturday at 7 a .m. Eastern time there's
going to be another breakfast radio show and
This time it's from the German National Radio
Society the darc radio is producing a special
in English from the wrtc and it'll be transmitted
on the 22 meter a .m. Shortwave broadcast band
with 30 megawatts of radiated power What's that?
Yeah, sorry, Neil. I was trying to jump in there.
You're right. It's actually 300 kilowatts being
transmitted through a 20 dB antenna. So yeah,
just around 30 megawatts. They're beamed at the
U .S. from Austria, from Vienna. And there's
also concurrently on 607 kilohertz on the 49
meter band, there's also the same transmission
for Europe. So we're looking forward to... that
being a first that we're getting so much out
there and if i can just quickly come back on
your earlier comments i'd just like to say don't
forget the awards we would really love or the
organizers would really love this wrtc to be
one where a lot of people get involved remotely,
calling the stations and getting those awards.
There's several different awards to go for, all
the details on the website. Let's make it really
not just the competitors here, not just the 63
two -man teams. Let's make it a lot more people
outside of Germany as well, winning awards from
the WR. All right, well and again, you know if
you want to listen to this special broadcast
you can do that with with 30 megawatts so Effective
radiated power that is so that's Coming up on
Saturday again 7 a .m. And 13 .860 and if you
don't have an HF station pull up WebSDR and you
can listen on WebSDR and again 1100 UTC in the
49 meter band at 6 .070 and so those are the
frequencies again 13 .860 Saturday at 7 a .m.
Eastern Time and then at 1100 UTC on 6 .070 MHz.
You can follow along on that and also in the
line scoreboard at wrtc2018 .de and so we hope
that you'll follow along. So, Edward, we're just
about out of time. Do we have anything? Going
on there that we need to to wrap up here No,
just let you guys say cheers from their end Okay
73 and thank you for enjoyed with us. I guess
everybody's give just for us Well, thanks to
the listeners for tuning in and thank you for
all the support 73 and I'll jump in before you
do Neil that's oh hang on we've got something
else from Mattias oh okay he just wanted to shake
my hand that's okay so yeah that's us that's
us pretty well finished here we're just gonna
get ready for the opening ceremony this evening
and then all the competitors get ready for Saturday
Now you are going to be helping out quite a bit.
This is just one of your duties What what else
will you be working with this weekend and WRTC?
Well, actually the weekend for me is hopefully
gonna be less work than it has been because I'm
doing all the Not all but some recordings for
other podcasts and also for that that special
broadcast in English And there's also another
one from the da RC on Sunday in German And yeah,
so we're doing some more interviews for that.
And I also do a bit of the translation and copy
reading work for the website stuff and everything.
All right, very good. Well, we appreciate you
putting all this together and getting all the
equipment together. I know you've been working
on this for quite some time, getting equipment
ready and backup plans and everything. And fortunately,
we didn't need too many of the backup plans this
morning. But we sure appreciate you taking the
time to do all of this and look forward to seeing
how this all turns out at WRTC and Oh, I did
have one other question Ed and I and again, I
hope I'm not putting you on the spot here I know
that one of the teams had to lose a team leader
At the last minute were they able to fill that
spot? Yeah, I know this spot has been filled,
but I don't know what the neighbor call sign
of the person is. Somebody else would know, but
unfortunately the person that would know has
gone from here at the moment. Yeah, all filled.
We've got 63 full teams and 300 volunteers supporting
them. Okay very good. Well yeah I was just curious
about that and should have thought of that earlier
but anyway we're glad that that spot's been filled
and everything's ready to go and we'll get on
with all the all the parties and celebrations
here of the opening in just a few hours and everything
will get underway and hope everybody out there
listening can get on this weekend and give these
guys some contacts and let them run the pileups
and good luck to all of the teams that are involved
here. We were able to bring you a couple of the
younger teams This morning, but there's just
some fabulous talent there and And hope that
that you'll get involved and you can go for some
of these awards, too for working different stations,
so and we appreciate it. Thank you so much and
We'll be talking to you Yeah, you're very welcome
Neil as we always say hams help hams so it's
it's great to be part of this and it's great
also to be exchanging words with yourself 73
to everybody All right, seven three and take
care and it's time for the call of the day Today's
winner gets a 40 meter double bazooka courtesy
of radio waves And the call of the day goes to
Karen Eve Murray, KD2GUT. So congratulations
on that, and we'll get that out to you. And that's
a wrap for this week's HamTalk Live. Thanks to
my guests, Ed Durant, DD5LP over in Germany.
uh, michael hooting dayl6mhw the vice president
of wrtc and holger hanneman zl3io and his daughter
zenia burger zl4yl and of course, uh, brian rascal
kg5hvo and, uh, matteus hossoveto ce2lr for joining
us and Everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening and calling in and next thursday night.
We'll be back at our usual time at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time and Dr. Rob Suggs, KB5EZ and some others
from NASA on the Air will be here to give us
an update on how that's going and it's really
kind of got to rev up here soon. There's several
anniversaries including the Apollo 11 anniversary
coming up and so they're going to tell us all
about it, how things are going with NASA on the
Air and how the the second half going to go,
so be sure to join us next Thursday night at
9 p .m. for that. And for a list of all of our
upcoming guests, just go to HamTalkLive .com,
click on the schedule button, and you'll find
the list there. And if you like the show, give
us a review on iTunes if you can. We would appreciate
that. It'll help others find us faster. For now,
this is Neal Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5,
and may the good DX be yours. you