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Good evening, everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live, episode 118. From the National Contest
Journal, the WRTC 2018 Competitors, recorded
live on Thursday, June 7th, 2018. I'm your host,
Neil Rapp, WB9 VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight, we're joined
by the editor of the National Contest Journal,
Dr. Scott Wright, KZeroMD, and the deputy editor,
Dr. Fred Reigenhauer, K4IU, and we'll take your
calls live in a little bit. Last week here on
the show, Adam Whitney, KZeroFFY, and Josh Ward,
W3ARD. We're here to talk about the Walmart parking
lots on the air, and another one's coming up
on July 2nd. If you missed that show, you can
listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com, or you can
listen to the podcast edition on your favorite
podcast app, which could be Apple Podcasts, Stitcher,
iHeart Podcasts, Google Play, TuneIn, or SoundCloud,
or you can catch us on YouTube. Get your questions
ready to go and call in tonight. And we may even
have something special for you. You never know.
So after the interview, you can call us. I'll
go ahead and give you the number, but it's not
time to call yet. It's 812 -NET -HAM -1. 812
-638 -4261. Or you can Skype us. We're ham talk
live on Skype and you can send a question via
Twitter our Twitter handle is at ham talk live
So I'll be back with Scott and Fred right after
this word from tower electronics right here on
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barefoot is for the beach. We're cranking 1 .5
trillion nanowatts right here on HamTalk Live.
We'd like to thank Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics
for sponsoring the show tonight to help bring
you HamTalk Live. Coming up June 9th, they'll
be in Newberry, Michigan. That's up in the upper
peninsula of Michigan. June 17th, Monroe, Michigan,
that's south of Detroit. And July 7th, Oak Creek,
Wisconsin, which is the south side of Milwaukee.
You can visit them online at PL -259 .com. Our
guest tonight, Dr. Scott Wright, K0MD, is the
editor of the National Contest Journal. He's
from Rochester, Minnesota, and Scott works for
the Mayo Clinic teaching cardiology. which often
takes him abroad where ham radio can go with
him and scott is an excellent contestor and been
on several de -expeditions scott and i met when
we were kids at an fcc test session in louisville
kentucky and scott became the editor of the national
contest journal the beginning of the year and
has added some great content to the bimonthly
publication from arrl and scott is a graduate
of the University of Kentucky. And Dr. Fred Rigenider,
K4IU, is the deputy editor of the National Contest
Journal and a retired orthodontist and consummate
DXer and contester. He traveled the world as
an officer in the U .S. Army as an orthodontist,
being stationed in Germany, Seoul, South Korea,
and the Canal Zone, as well as across the United
States, including the commander of orthodontics
while stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky. And his
daughter Jill went to the University of Kentucky
where she majored in marketing and was a member
of Big Blue Nation. And Fred taught at the other
big university in Kentucky that Scott and I try
not to talk about. That's the University of Louisville
in the dental school and was a member of the
Kentucky contest group. And Fred now competes
with wires. in his backyard. He's a local contest
mentor to hams in the Rochester Minnesota area
and a board member of the Minnesota Wireless
Association. He's an active contester and is
weekly in the CWT and nearly every weekend in
a contest but I guess we should call him Colonel
Fred Reganider. U .S. Army retired. So I don't
know if it's Dr. Colonel or Colonel Doctor. I
actually had to go look it up and it says now
it's Colonel. It's not Dr. Colonel or Colonel
Doctor or whatever. So Scott and Fred, welcome
to the show. Hey, thank you, Neil. I wonder if
Fred's still on the line. I fear we lost him.
Oh, did we lose? Did we lose Fred? Oh, we may
have lost him. I really think your software is
likely set up just to drop anyone who's affiliated
with the University of Louisville, I suspect.
Yeah, that could be it. So let's see if we can
get Fred back on the line. We had another call
there going during the break, and that may have
knocked Fred out. So Fred, are you back? Yeah,
we're back. Thanks, Neil. Glad to be back. All
right. Thanks for catching that, Scott. We just
read all the bio stuff here. So welcome to the
show, Fred. Thank you. Good to be back with you
and Scott. Now, in honor of Scott going to the
University of Kentucky, and I went to the University
of Kentucky for a while, and your daughter going
to the University of Kentucky, I thought maybe
we need a moment of silence to play the The UK
fight song. Would that be, would that be acceptable,
Fred? Most appropriate. Most appropriate. So
we had to, we had to get the big blue nation
stuff in there, you know, whenever I can. So,
all right. Well, we, we got that in, but, um,
we're going to talk about WRTC tonight and, uh,
We're proud to announce that HamTalk Live will
be live from Wittenberg, Germany on the day the
competitors arrive at the headquarters hotel,
which is Thursday, July 12th. And Ed Durant,
DD5LP, will be there via Skype to talk with some
of the competitors passing through the lobby
there before the opening ceremonies. So be sure
to tune in to HamTalk Live. It'll be a special
time on July 12th instead of 9 p .m. It'll be
8 a .m. Eastern Time which is 2 p .m. in Germany
or 1200 Zulu. And of course we'll have it on
demand so you can listen after that but we'll
be live at 8 a .m. Eastern Time on the July 12th
episode. Let's tear right into it here. We were
fortunate to have Doug Grant, K1DG, on the show
back in January to talk about what goes on at
WRTC, but this week we want to take a look at
the teams. that will be competing in the event.
There's some great human interest stories here
to tell and Scott and Fred teamed up to interview
as many WRTC teams as they could for the May
-June issue of the National Contest Journal which
is on sale now. So let's talk about some of the,
the front runners for this event. And we were
kind of joking around, you know, if, if Vegas
had odds on WRTC, you know, if you could, if
you could rate them, you know, like at Keeneland.
Obviously did not have a good start and will
not go to the front at least not yet. Teppen
is out of the gate quicker. So, so we can, we
can handicap the whole field and come up with
odds here. So. If we get some odds going, Scott,
who are your frontrunners? You know, Neil, that
is a great question. And I looked on Nate Silver's
538 .com website, and I couldn't find any rankings.
And of course, the WRTC 2018 .de website doesn't
list. So I guess I'm going to go out on a limb
here. So I'm gonna give the odds is five to eight
that the defending champions will win again.
If one looks at Chris and, oh I'm blanking on
the other ones, N6MJ, Dan, Dan Craig, if one
looks at their performance and contest, they
really are in the stratosphere. Dan Craig, N6MJ,
often does SO3R when he's operating by himself.
So he's got one radio on the left here. and two
radios going into the right ear and he can do
something on three bands. And I think he can
do more contacts in an hour than most of us can
do in a half a day. And Chris is very good as
well with SO2R. Now there are a number of other
competitors like Nate in for I guess YDU from
North Carolina also can do that. So we have some
really tremendously talented young operators.
But I think if one looks at the margin of victory
in 2014, and the sheer performance in contests
between then and now, I really think the defending
champions are most likely going to win again.
There's been nothing to suggest they have not
remained at the top. So that's who I think is
likely to win. Neil, I think if you look at OM3BH,
Rasty and his partner Joseph OM3GI. They came
in number two the last time. If anyone gives
a serious run to Dan and to Chris, it'll be those
two. I think any of the German teams are especially,
especially competitive. Manfred and Stefan, DJ5MW
and DL1IAO are good. I personally think Frank
and Winifred, DL2CC and DK9IP are very competitive.
I mean, Frank loves CW. Fred and I are both CW
Ops guys, so what more can we say? And then I
think any of the Russian stations run a very
good chance of winning. So, not trying to hedge
here, but I think probably the likely winners
are going to come, one team from the U .S., and
then the next two will likely be from Europe,
either from Slovakia or from Germany. I also
think that you can never underestimate K1DG,
who was on your show the last time, he wants
He wants a bronze medal badly, and I could see
Doug placing third in this contest. I also thank
K9VB and VE3EJ. They came so close the last time,
they could end up in the top three as well. So
lots of opportunities. And I guess the other
team that I really ought to mention who I think
has a real shot at placing in the top three are
Crassie, K1LZ, and Y09GZU, his partner. They
did a tremendous job. in the last WRTC, and I
think Krassi's hungry to win the whole contest,
so don't be surprised to see him make a move
on the inside to try to pull up as the contest
goes on. And finally, I just want to say I think
based on his ARRL DXCW performance in Tango India
7 Whiskey, which will be featured in the upcoming
edition of National Contest Journal, Nate N4YDU
and his partner Cam N3KS also. I think have the
potential to place anywhere in the top four.
Can they overtake Dan and Chris? I don't know.
And I think it's hard to say. Fred, those are
my predictions. What are yours? Well, we asked
this question of the respondents. And so each
one of them had a chance to kind of tell us who
they favored and why they thought they might
be. winners. They felt the top finishers in the
last WRTC would have the better odds, of course.
And some gave the EU teams the edge, as you said,
with the German teams. But within the 63 teams,
you've got it all. You have age diversity. I
mean, I think the ages range from some of the
youth of 15 to age 77, Marva, N5AW. There's gender
diversity. There's career and equipment diversity.
There's lots of variables that take into account.
Every skill that you acquire, you know, kind
of doubles your odds of success. I like dark
horses. I think everybody likes dark horses.
I don't think Okay, I'm gonna give you two dark
horses then okay, these are both sponsored teams
All right in six in six XI and AE 6y They they
are a sponsored team, but they're premier contesters
and I would never ever bet against K3 LR and
DL 1 qq I think they will do very well as well.
Yeah, I think Sandy DL1QQ has got kind of the
insights group on some of the propagation variations
that they have in Germany as opposed to here
in the States. And Tim was actually over there
last year. And then what's not to like about
the youth teams? And we know a couple of them,
so youth enthusiasm. Yeah, you're exactly right.
I mean, if you look at the WPX contest a couple
of weeks ago, CETMVF, who by the way now is Charlie
Echo 2 Lima Radio, and Bryant, Kilo Golf 5 Hotel
Victor Ocean, scored over 2 million points with
dipoles in the tree from Alabama and with low
power. They are tremendous operators and contesters.
Never underestimate Matias. That guy's a competitor.
He nearly qualified himself with a small station
in the central part of Chile, going up against
some of the big stations in South America. And
then, of course, HA8RT and Y08TTT both are high
-speed telegraphy champions and contesters. HA8RT,
I think, has been mentored by his father, unless
I have him switched with Y08TTT. So, boy, the
youth teams could make a run here, too. I think
contesting is a learned skill. So, I'm not predicting
any of the youth teams to win. Because I think
in 10 years time, they will be like N6MJ and
KL9A, Dan and Chris. They'll be at the top. But
right now, I think they're still learning the
techniques. You've probably seen that cartoon,
and perhaps some of Neil's listeners have as
well. This cartoon goes something like that.
They say old age and treachery will always be
youth and experience. There's something to be
said for experience. But youth, no boundaries,
no fears, and no expectations either. Now again,
I want to I want to I also want to stress that
I I would not rule out wild card team for K1
DG and in to NT They are phenomenal. They are
phenomenal Now let me ask this, you know, we
were joking around and then you know saying well,
you know the betting odds and we're handicapping
everybody and figuring this out, but Is there
a home team advantage? Do you think the Germans
are going to have a significant advantage over
everybody else? I think any of the European teams
have a home team advantage. I don't think propagation
in Germany is materially different than Slovenia
or Slovakia or Hungary. I think it's like saying
does someone from Indiana have an advantage over
someone from Illinois, Kentucky or Ohio? The
answer is the propagation is pretty similar.
If you get in the northern latitudes like where
we live, it's tougher, and that would be the
same for the OH guys. But remember, Rasty and
Joseph came in number two despite coming from
Propagation Challenge OH. I'm sorry, they're
from Slovakia, excuse me, OM, but the OH stations,
I don't know that they have an advantage based
on that. I think they're going to find different
propagation in Central Europe. Well, the antennas
and the locations are all standardized. They
set power limits, so propagation is a variable.
Weather is another other variable, but it affects
all of the competitors equally. There's some
differences in equipment and then nobody can
rule out Murphy. Now, what do you think on these
youth teams? They are preparing and running all
these contests and trying to do all this stuff,
but what do you think it means to have them in
the competition? Well, we've had the good fortune
to meet both Zina, ZL4, YL, and Bryant, KG5,
HVO. Actually, Bryant was at Contest U a couple
years ago, and most recently, we saw Zina at
Vasalia. And they're pretty impressive young
people, and with lots of enthusiasm. And I've
worked both of them on the air. They've got skills.
Yeah, and I know Matthias from my time in Chile,
CE2MVF, who by the way is now CE2 Lima Radio.
He's been mentored by CE3CT and VE7 Sugar Victor.
By the way, VE7 Sugar Victor is a competitor
in the contest. But Matthias, or Chuki as his
friends call him, that guy's got incredible energy.
I've never seen anyone who can work a pile up
and correspond with me on WhatsApp about when
I'm coming and how the bands are here versus
there. So I say jokingly, he can do SO3R, two
rigs at once, and his WhatsApp by iPhone. And
remember, Brian was a young man who was first
doing the CW, keying his mic. Yeah, and now with
a Bagali key, I would say watch out. That guy's
going to be on the roll. He's going to tear it
up on sideband and CW. I think he's probably
going to be doing CW while Chucky is doing sideband.
Well, now we've got an interesting situation
that came up just in the last couple of days
here. And I was joking that, okay, I'm going
to take the long shot. We've got a team without
a leader. Oh, I wouldn't. Look, there's going
to be a number of people who apply for that,
all of whom are good contesters. We have a lot
of people who didn't make the competition, who
came in second or third in their regions. And
my guess is you're going to see a top tier contestor
jump in and work with Delta Lima 1 Charlie Whiskey
to represent Africa. But they'll never underestimate
that, Neil. I wouldn't bet that is a long shot.
Yeah, so one of the competitors had to to drop
out and so they're They're looking for a replacement.
So, oh, you never know. You just you don't know
what could happen and So, you know, we'll keep
the odds down I guess on Well, I also want to
mention, you know Pat Barkey in nine Romeo Victor
the editor of NCJ before me Pat's going over
there with a plan to win, he and N6TR. So don't
be surprised if Pat surfaces in the top three
as well as K3PA. Biomedical engineer in Kansas,
he has done extraordinarily well in contests
and won the zero competition. So those are two
other names that you may not think about, but
they have every opportunity to go for the gold
on this as well. Well, speaking of of spots to
fill Ed Durant DD5 LP who was going to be our
correspondent during WRTC live here on the show
He couldn't be with us tonight because in Germany,
it's 2 a .m. Right now But he wants to pass along
his regards to both of you for all the work that
you put into in CJ but he is working with the
organizing committee and media and some other
things and and wanted me to pass along the need
for a few more volunteers. If you're going to
Germany during WRTC to visit or for another reason,
please consider volunteering. I'll read this
here that he sent me. The WRTC organizing committee
is looking for another dozen volunteers to support
the 65 contest sites. They need help putting
up antennas and tents, making sure the generators
don't run out of fuel, active security so that
we don't have any interruptions during the competition
time. visiting to see what's happening. This
is a great way to become a part of the event
and take away some great memories. So new volunteers
will be teamed up with trained experienced ones.
So if you think that you can't help well, yeah,
you can. And you don't have to speak Germany
either. English is fine. So Ed says otherwise,
everything is on schedule and the finances are
good. Of course, you can always use more donations,
but They're in pretty good shape, but they do
need a few more volunteers to kind of lighten
the load. So if that applies to you, they are
looking for that and the website, wrtc2018 .de.
So we're going to take a break right now and
then we're going to come back and talk a little
more and take your calls and we'll talk about
some of the other teams. uh... that we haven't
uh... dived into just yet uh... but uh... we're
also uh... going to give away something here
after uh... after a while so uh... call in you
may get a chance to win here uh... but we'll
be back after this word from the national voice
of america museum of broadcasting right here
on ham talk live The National Voice of America
Museum of Broadcasting, located in Westchester,
Ohio, just north of Cincinnati, is only two minutes
off I -75. The museum is the former home of the
Voice of America Bethany Relay Station. Tours
are now available every Saturday and Sunday from
1 to 4 p .m. Eastern Time. You can see the control
room. a 200 ,000 watt transmitter, and the most
comprehensive collection of inventions by the
iconic Powell -Crosley Jr. Also on display is
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a trip to the VOA museum or visit us online at
voamuseum .org. You're listening to HamTalk Live
with Neil Rapp. Yesterday, my XYL said she'd
leave me if I didn't give up ham radio. Over.
HamTalk Live is on the air every Thursday night
at 9 p .m. Eastern Time right here at HamTalkLive
.com and be sure to check us out on Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram and right now it's time
for your calls. So if you have a question for
Scott or Fred, give us a call. Again, that number
is 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261 or
you can Skype us. We're HamTalk Live on Skype,
and we're also on Twitter, at HamTalk Live. So
if you have a question or comment, be sure to
send it our way, because that's what we're here
for, is to get your input during the show. So
Scott, let's pick up here. We want to talk a
little bit about... about jet lag and some of
the radios and how that's going to affect, you
know, what equipment they're bringing over, how
that's going to affect things. Yeah, thanks Neil.
As you mentioned at the beginning of the show,
I travel enough internationally to suffer from
jet lag every other month or two. And I think
that's going to be a factor for everyone flying
into Europe, whether it's Asia or the United
States. I've asked a number of the competitors
if they plan to go about a week early to acclimate,
and almost none of them have. And I think people
are underestimating how tired they're going to
be. You know, for your own biological system,
about 2 p .m. in the afternoon and 2 a .m., you
hit a low, where your cortisol is low and you're
just ready to take a nap or fall asleep. And
I think with the competition, a lot of our friends
who are going over from the United States and
Canada are going to find themselves having that
tough feeling during a contest even worse because
of jet lag. So if anything, I think that gives
a bit of an advantage to anyone who lives within
an hour or two of Central European time, which
is German time. So we'll see if that's a factor.
You know, in the May -June issue of NCJ, we featured
Martin, who's going to be using a Hilberling.
I think it's only appropriate that at least one
German amateur use a Hilberling in the contest.
Those are wonderful radios. I don't own one,
but I've looked at them at Dayton, and they sort
of represent the best of German engineering and
transceivers. So, that's interesting. I know
the defending champs are taking ICOM 7851s over.
Tim Duffy and Sandy are going to use 7610 ICOMs.
Probably 20 % of the participants are using ICOM
radios. About half are using Eli Craft K3 or
K3S radios. And that's not a surprise. It's a
tremendous contest rig and it's very lightweight.
And then there's a mixture, Yeh Su, and a couple
people are taking new Flex 6600Ms over. So we're
going to get to see a real... a real test of
all the different radios, super heads and SDRs
and it'll be really interesting to see how they
hold up and perform in that very close in transmitter
environment with very loud signals on the bands
because I suspect a lot of the Europeans are
going to be running more than 100 watts to work
all of the stations. That was an aspect of the
article interviews that kind of we had to kind
of compress towards the very end of the of the
article, the equipment, and the software, and
the radios, because there's quite some detail
that the teams listed. They didn't go into all
of their secret strategies, but that was an area
that we kind of overlooked. But think about those
278 -51s being hauled around in the overhead
luggage on a 10 -hour flight. Oh, yeah. And just
think about how the shoulders and backs are going
to hurt from lifting a 90 -pound Pelican case,
even just to move it to the rental car. I don't
envy that. I've taken some 70 -pound Pelican
cases with smaller ICOM radios and ACOM amplifiers
when I've been overseas, and that's heavy enough.
Fred and I can laugh about the time we came back
from VP5, and I stopped halfway to the car at
the Minneapolis airport and said, I've got to
find something to pull this thing. I'm tired.
He said, no, I'll carry it the rest of the way,
and he picked it up and carried it. It's not
inconsequential. You know, Neil, this is probably
the first WRTC, at least to my knowledge, where
there's a father -daughter team who qualified.
We have Holger, ZL3IO or ZL2IO, and his daughter,
Zenia, ZL4YYL. And Holger qualified from the
Pacific Rim, from New Zealand. Holger's originally
from Germany, and his wife is also a ham, she's
from Germany. but they live and work in New Zealand
because they wanted to experience that climate
and raise their daughters there, and their youngest
daughter, Xenia, is a very active contestor.
Fred and I both met her at Visalia, and Fred
worked her in the WPX contest. She is a very
competitive contester for a 15 -year -old. And
I have to say, they had the luck of the Irish.
They each won a brand -new transceiver while
they were in Visalia. So, you know, their luck
may be continuing on at WRTC. 812 -638 -4261
is the phone number if you want to give us a
call and chime in now's the time to do that 812
-638 -4261 or you can tweet us at ham talk live
So yeah, the father -daughter team, you know
had a chance to talk to them and uh... holder
you know just decided well you know uh... it
sure makes the the meetings a lot easier and
she's doing well and cw and and it just made
sense to go ahead and do it you know she's developed
a strategy uh... i think zinni is going to stay
on twenty meters the entire contest and run for
twenty four hours that's my understanding it
what she's derived is their strategy uh... they've
analyzed the logs of the last four wrtc's and
looked at the top top five finishing teams versus
the others and they put a lot of thought into
this so uh... we'll see you know it's going to
be uh... it's going to be interesting and exciting
to watch uh... Roberto Ramirez Charlie Echo 3
Charlie Tango is one of our new contributing
editors in NCJ we'll be introducing him in the
next issue but he's going to give us a uh...
article about WRTC right after the competition
so i'm hopeful in the september october issue
of NCJ we will have a an article about the competition
the winners and how the contest went Now Fred,
did you have any teams that just kind of there
was a story there that that kind of stood out
to you? Well, I think Xenia and Holger story
was probably the most notable one I mean, I I
like the fact that the seven sugar Victor is
coming back for like his seventh time. So it's
got this longevity Marv in five AW, you know,
he's got this He's 77 years old and I hope that
when I get to that age I can hang in there with
the big guns too. I mean these are all giants,
Neil. And there's 63 participants who are just
the best of the best contesters and just to get
there is an honor. So nothing really jumps out
at me with the team selections or how one team
member would choose another other than just...
competitors and then been friends and hey, you
want to go to WRTC with me and let's do it. You
know, two stuck out to me, you know, that Fred
hasn't mentioned yet that I think are worth mentioning.
John Cravoly, W2GD, and Bud AA3 Bravo. They're
both premier contesters, both over 50, shall
we say. John's been at WRTC before. He is a tremendous
CW guy. Goes 40, 45 words a minute constantly.
And then Ranko, 403A and Echo 73 Alpha are a
sponsored team. These guys are tremendous contesters.
And Renko, of course, develops world -class contesting
technology. I have some of his stuff in my home,
in my station. So the engineering behind this,
I think it will be fascinating to watch the engineering,
the K3LR. 403A and a couple of others will bring
just to see what they do to really mitigate noise
and mitigate interference and to give them advantage
in hearing the weak station. You know these contests
are won and lost not by working the loud stations
or the medium -sized stations. It's how many
can you work who are weak to keep your run rates
as fast as possible. Yeah and then also reduce
the error rates and pass multipliers and you
know finding the right optimal mix of single
sideband and CWQSOs because this is a dual mode
contest and you know that takes a little strategizing
as well but passing those multipliers and keeping
the error rates down as well as maintaining the
rate is so critical to the ultimate winner. 8126384261
if you have a question here or a comment and
Scott you've got something to give away here
too. Yeah, I do, Neil. I wanted to say also,
if you are a contester but not one who ever thinks
you can win a contest, listen to some of these
operators on the air after they come back. For
example, K1DG and N2 November Tango operated
V47 Tango. And I've operated from the Caribbean
and Sideman and CW contests and I listened to
them in the last CQ contest they did and I learned
something. They are just... they are just one
constant -going machine. They can make a run
like no one else can. So I think, you know, look
these calls up when you're on the next contest
and just spend five minutes listening to how
they work piled up. You'll learn a lot about
very effective contesting tactics. Well, you've
got something there to give away and we're getting
toward the end of the show here. So I thought
I might go ahead and bring that up. All of this
you know, information that we're talking about
tonight. The WRTC competitors and some of these
teams are featured in the National Contest Journal
and Scott has a chance for someone who's not
a subscriber to the National Contest Journal
to pick one up for free tonight. So tell us about
that. Yeah, we do. The AWRL has provided a free
subscription tonight available to any of your
callers or people who tweet who don't subscribe
with a question that you pick up and use during
the interview so hopefully someone will take
advantage of this short term but great opportunity
as they say on television operators are standing
by or sometimes they're standing yeah bye and
they take off so Give us a call eight one two
six three four two six one and if you're not
a current Subscriber to NCJ we have a prize for
you and let's let's talk a little bit about you
know the the journal for a minute We've got all
this stuff going on with WRTC, but there's there's
a lot Of other things that are going on in there
There are. You know, it's a great journal. It
is the Journal of Radio Sport. It's a wonderful
journal. It was started back in the 70s by KZero
Tango Ocean Todd Olson. Started it in his kitchen
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Todd was the first,
but not the last editor. It's gone through a
number of editors. Since Fred and I took over,
we've expanded it a bit in terms of its focus.
We have a next -gen contributing editor, you,
Neil, do a fabulous job. We have a DX editor
coming on board. We have a new editor, Mark Aker,
K6 UFO, who will be talking about remote contesting
in every issue. Of course, we have really well
-respected and well -recognized contributing
editors. Mike Goldstein, who writes the Little
Pistols page. Don Dazzo on Towers, K4ZA. Ed Muns
on RIDI contesting, W0 Yankee Kilo. Gary Sutcliffe
on... Contest Tips, Tricks, and Techniques, who's
a well -known contester and writes great articles,
as well as John Jones on VHF UHF Contesting.
We also sponsor the NAQP QSO parties and sprints,
and we hope to grow the journal. We've had some
articles this year on propagation, on what makes
a good receiver, what are the characteristics
of a good solid -state amplifier. And also some
good ones on contesting retrograde. Coming up
in the next issue, we have an interview with
retired Admiral Scott Redd, who is a well -known
contester. He won all six major contests at one
point and also was honored by one of our presidents
with the highest level of honor that any soldier
can get. We have an article with a fairly new
contester who is in his 60s, retired, and won
the CQ Rookie Award. I think you're doing an
article on Holger and Zina and her rise as a
next -gen contestor And then we have part three
of Peter Chadwick's article on what makes a great
receiver This is the best of the third best part
the third parts the best part So I'm really looking
forward to it coming out. I saw the proofs today
in it So we're very very close to mailing the
journal off to the printer having it Hopefully
and everyone's home by a WRTC also encourage
go ahead Fred Yeah, no, and John Thompson K3
MD does our surveys and book reviews and he's
a great source. Oh, yeah, I'm very sorry. I should
have mentioned John. John does tremendous book
reviews and surveys. He's got both coming up
in the next edition. Thank you, Fred. And of
course, Fred is the deputy editor and does a
superb job. And I appreciate his willingness
to work with me and to travel with me. Also in
the next issue, we have some new things that
I saw at Visalien Dayton that will be helpful
for contesters to make your shack a better place
to operate. So stay tuned. Maybe a couple new
radios that are being mentioned, a new SDR, two
new SDRs, excuse me. I'm sorry, three new SDRs.
There are more SDRs than superhats now, believe
it or not. And then of course, four new SDRs.
I guess I should have added this all up in my
head, Neil. You know, we have a Yesu SDR coming
out. We have the MB1 from the electronics group
out of Russia where a young ham designed it as
a graduate school thesis and now he's turned
it into a company. We have the 7610 by ICOM,
an SDR that I own. We have the Flex 6600M and
6400M featured, which will be SDRs at WRTC along
with the 7610. And then we have a little story
about the new Kenwood 890S. And, of course, a
new antenna design for the person who's got the
small real estate area, a good vertical for 80
and 40 that will be powerful for DXing and contesting.
And then a whole bunch of other things that I
think people will find of interest. There's a
lot of content, Neil, and we can't always get
it between the front and back cover. And that's
where another unsung hero, KirkK4RO, can put
it on the NCJ webpage. So we have some of the
articles that spill over into the webpage. Very
good and remind everybody how they can sign up
for the NCJ Go to the a double RL website a RRL
dot o RG in the search tab at the top type in
NCJ and then It will take you directly to the
link and you can pay there by credit card or
PayPal for a one year subscription six issues
Delivered to your home QTH and anywhere in the
world at a very good price All right, so that's
the current issue of NCJ and what's coming up
and You should check it out. It's got some some
really good information in there for for contesters
and DXers so Hopefully if there's a lucky caller
tonight, we'll be able to give a new subscription
away. Yeah, we need that phone to ring Yep 812
-638 -4261 and we are just about out of time
so if you're going to call this is the time to
do it and also want to mention that the 100 watts
of the wire tune up started just a few hours
ago so that's a chance to get out and check out
your field day equipment and get on the air so
that'll be running this weekend and Also want
to invite you to leave us a review on ham talk
live if you like what you're hearing Leave us
a review on iTunes or wherever you listen that
that helps us out. So Okay, the phone's not ringing
and we know that most people listen to the to
the replay. So so what if I propose this? Scott
what if we we tweet out a question? from the
episode and then we'll do a drawing from the
responses from that. Does that sound like a good
plan? Neil, that's a wrap. That's a wrap. He
was just waiting to do that, you know that. I
waited the entire show. All night, all night,
he's been waiting to do that. All right, so.
So we'll send out a question on social media
and we'll take the responses and out of the correct
responses we'll take a winner for that. free
years subscription to NCJ if you are not a current
subscriber. So we will do that and we want to
thank everybody that did listen in tonight live
and we'll be listening on the podcast or on the
on -demand version but guys let's go ahead and
as Scott says let's wrap this up. Any last thoughts
here before we... Get off the air Yeah, I mean
one of the things they didn't get into the article
was that there's been a tremendous effort by
our German friends to coordinate this and it's
and it's a It's a tireless job and the fundraising
by you know ambassador is here and abroad and
you know It's just been that's enough. That's
a story that is It should be not forgotten You
know, that's right. I have to say Neil that the
Society Midwest contesters has three tents The
Minnesota Wireless Association in collaboration
with the Rochester DX and Contest Club has a
tenth, and most other contest clubs in North
America have one or two tenths. And you know,
we just appreciate the generosity of everyone
who's reached into their wallet. put in some
money away from their spending on equipment and
antennas to make this an event a possibility
and my hats off to all the German organizers
for The great job they've done and Neil. I just
want to say congratulations on this show It's
one of my favorite podcast. It is a great asset
for ham radio thank you again for promoting contesting
promoting the National Contest Journal and It's
just great to also watch all the people that
you mentor at the Bloomington South High School.
You are one of the real movers and shakers in
making Ham Radio reach into the next generation.
I'm not surprised. The enthusiasm you had when
I met you when you were five continues to permeate
all you do with the hobby. Neil, my hat, and
I know Fred would say the same as tip to you
tonight for what you do. Thanks for all you do
for the hobby and for ... really promoting contesting.
Thanks, Neil. Well, thank you guys for coming
on and thanks for the kind words and we look
forward to more editions of the National Contest
Journal and more editions of HamTalk Live. But
that's a wrap for this week. And thanks to Dr.
Scott Wright, KZeroMD, and Dr. Fred Reganiter,
K4IU, and everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening. And we'll invite you back next Thursday
night, 9 p .m. Eastern Time. And for our upcoming
guests, just go to HamTalkLive .com, click on
the schedule link, and you can find out who's
going to be on in the near future. So for now,
this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying, 7 3 7 5 and
may the good DX be yours Thank you.