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you or call 920 -435 -2973 or online at pl -259
.com. Good evening everyone coming to you live
Not from Dayton anymore, which is kind of a bummer.
It's ham talk live episode number 116 amateur
radio calm recorded live on Thursday May 24th
2018 I am your host Neil rap WB 9 VPG Thanks
for tuning in to this episode of ham talk live
tonight. We're joined by Matt Thomas W1 MST the
founder and managing editor of amateurradio .com
and we'll take your calls live in just a few
minutes. Well, yeah, I'm home from Hamvention.
Last week was our live Hamvention Eve episode
with weather, traffic, parking, and more. And
if you missed that, it's still online. You can
listen at hamtalklive .com or on any of the podcast
outlets. But we would like to hear from you about
that episode and about next year So we'd like
to know do you want another show? next year that
has all the information like we did this time
all the Ham invention conditions the night before
all in one place Or would you rather go back
to the interviews and taking calls and telling
stories about Hamvention? So let us know on our
polls. We've got a poll on Facebook and one on
Twitter. So you've got a few more days to vote
on there. Please let us know and even put some
comments in there if you have something specific
we'd like to know. what to plan for for next
year. So if that was helpful to you, let us know.
If it was not, let us know and we'll take a look
at those and figure it out. If you don't do Facebook
or Twitter, you can email us. Just email us at
survey at hamptalklive .com and we'll read the
emails there too. So I'd like to hear from you
about that. Well get your questions ready to
go about blogging and amateurradio .com and after
the interview you can give us a call We'll go
ahead and give you the phone number. It's 812
net ham one eight one two six three eight four
two six one or you can call us on Skype our Skype
name is ham talk live You can also tweet us.
We're at ham talk live on Twitter. So we'll be
looking for your submissions throughout the show.
So I'll be back with Matt right after this word
from Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk
Live. This episode of HamTalk Live is brought
to you in part by Tower Electronics. Tower Electronics
has been the Ham's Dime Store since 1978. When
you need connectors, mobile and handheld antennas,
cables, or adapters, visit Scott or Jill at a
HamFest near you. Or you can order online at
PL -259 .com or call 920 -435 -2973. Stock up
on those supplies like PL -259 and end connectors,
SMA adapters, audio cables, soldering supplies,
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to sponsor this episode of HamTalk Live. This
is your announcer, Andy Morrison, K9AWM. Why
else would I be talking like this? You're listening
to Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp. Thanks to Scott
and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring
the show tonight to help bring you Ham Talk Live.
You can give them a call their number nine two
zero four three five twenty nine seventy three
or visit their website pl -259 .com and tell
them you heard it on ham talk lives good to see
them over at hamvention and catch up with them
and Got hammy out there for a while and got some
pictures and gave away some some t -shirts so
That was great. And thanks to our new hammy.
Now, last year's hammy is graduating high school
tonight. That's Tyler and 7TMW. But Teresa was
our hammy this year. And so if you're listening,
Teresa, thank you again for a great job. And
we look forward to hopefully getting her back
next year. So we'll give that a shot. Well, tonight
our guest is Matt Thomas. W1MST, he is the managing
editor at amateurradio .com. Matt lives in Maine
and has been a ham for 17 years and enjoys VHF
work chasing amateur radio satellites, which
is something I've been getting into lately, software
-defined radio and building with Arduino's and
other microcontrollers. So Matt, thanks for coming
on the show tonight. Neil, thank you so much
for having me on the show. You know, we were
talking before it started. I was kind of embarrassed.
I've never made the 16 hour trek from Maine to
Dayton. And, uh, and I feel real bad about that
because it sounds like you guys had a lot of
fun. Well, we did have a lot of fun and, uh,
there were so many things I could go on and on
about things that just absolutely went totally
wrong. This weekend, audio problems and my girlfriend's
grandmother had a stroke right in the middle
of one of the forums and we had to go take care
of that. But luckily, the hospital they took
her to was in Dayton. So it is just crazy how
this stuff works sometimes. Um, so we, we, we
made it through all that and still managed to
have a good time. So, uh, yeah, you ha you have
to go. We had some, uh, some craziness going
on over at the, uh, news line booth with all
these, I'm not Will Banks buttons and, and all
this craziness, but it was fun. And we had Hammy
going around. Hammy's the, uh, the, uh, pig.
mascot of the show. And so Hammy was going around
giving out t -shirts and stickers and stuff and
getting pictures taken. And she even made the
newspaper, the Xenia Gazette. They got a picture
of her going around greeting everybody and promoting
the show. So it was a lot of fun. So I'll have
to check it out. You got to put it on the list
of things to do. Absolutely. Well, now at amateurradio
.com, you cover all this stuff and more and it's
been around for 20 some years. So tell us how
this all got started. Sure. You know, I got involved
in the early two thousands and kind of saw an
area that needed needed some extra attention.
I felt like there was a lot of great bloggers
out there that kind of They were kind of blogging
to themselves, really. Unfortunately, there wasn't
a lot of promotion. And what I wanted to do is
kind of bring all those great voices together
in one place and kind of take advantage of an
economy of scale where we could kind of have
one big promotion and let everyone's voice be
heard in one place. And I think it's worked pretty
well. We have, gosh, probably Three dozen bloggers
who contribute right now they're very generous
with writing for us and allowing us to share
their writing and We've just continued to grow
and I've been been very blessed by that So Tell
us about some of these regular contributors.
I know I see several of them on Twitter a lot
Tell us about some of the your regulars and some
of the columns that you'll see on amateurradio
.com. Yeah, you know, I have to say I don't really
have a favorite. I mean, they're all fantastic.
And that's the amazing thing about ham radio
is the is the the quality of the writing is is
something that has always amazed me. People like,
you know, you must know Kale K4. HCK he writes
a fantastic roundup each week of blog posts ham
radio weekly And he shares that with us and and
we transmit that out in our newsletter He does
a fantastic job, you know, I think that We've
lost a lot of valuable publications 73 for whatever
you think of the publication. I think really
was a great contribution to our hobby and so
I feel like we've had some consolidation of that
and these extra outlets for those voices have
been something that I think that the ham radio
community needed and I'm hoping that we provide
some of that. Well, it's funny that you mentioned
73 because in the last couple of weeks we've
been going through well a couple of us have been
going through the 73 magazine archive and Trying
to dig up we were actually looking for some prices
of some equipment from way back when to see right
You know what it was actually going forward when
we never did find it but but it was it was kind
of cool to go back through and see some of the
You know, the old, Oh, I used to have one of
those, you know, and, and, uh, and some of the,
some of the pictures that, uh, that, that Wayne
put on the cover to get, where I have attention
was, was kind of unusual. A lady in a swimsuit
holding a handheld next to a pool, uh, was one.
Never say die. And so, so then I started going
over to. Some other magazines trying to find
this information that I was looking for. Ham
Radio, Ham Radio Horizons, which was kind of
the one for the newcomers from Ham Radio. And
those were published up in up in your area. And
so, you know, those have gone away as well, which
you got to be an old geezer like me, I guess,
to remember those. But You know there was the
the W5YI report there was You know several other
Magazines and now you know mainstream. We're
looking at it. You know CQ and Q Street, so It's
it is You know a situation where we've got less
printed publications, but yet with the internet
and all the blogging and and Podcasting and and
all these new outlets that there's there's all
kinds of stuff out there You do see you know,
I remember great magazines not particularly ham
related, but like Monitoring Times, the Grove
Enterprise magazine, you know, that has kind
of had a reincarnation in a way with the Spectrum
Monitor. And those were valuable publications.
And I think it's sad that maybe the heyday of
that sort of publication was behind us and maybe
in favor of some maybe more loosely organized
writing and Think that again is is was kind of
the impetus for For trying to organize it a little
more in one place with some with a little bit
at least editorial direction But the economics
are hard, you know, honestly, you know, you can't
I mean this isn't you know, this isn't my full
-time job, you know, I I certainly do this as
a labor of love and It's It's something that
takes a lot of time and effort, and I know with
our site, with amateurradio .com, we don't have
a system where someone has to log in to comment.
It's been very much a place where people are
respectful and there's not a lot of shouting
back and forth that you see on so many other
of the forums. online and that's, it's been refreshing
for me as someone that's had to manage it. And
I hope it's also been a refreshing for, for our,
our, our readers. Oh yeah. Uh, there's a lot
of, there's a lot of back and forth on, on another
site that I know that it's not necessarily, um,
totally news related, uh, or opinion related,
but uh... whether some some opinions on their
but uh... you know that's uh... definitely is
is refreshing to see that well i know you've
you've got this passion for blogging in like
me you know i've got the passion for for radio
and and see if you know i this is not mine full
-time job by any means and but i've been listening
to the passion your first episode ever since
you had doctor i think it was scott right and
yes it's your first One of your first guess at
least and I really enjoyed that interview. So
I think, uh, you've, you've managed to, to beat
the odds of a lot of podcasts that kind of begin
and fizzle out and you've continued and you must
be up to well over a hundred episodes. I would
imagine by now. Yep. This is one 16 now. And
I remember you, uh, covering, uh, when, when
we first announced, uh, that the show was, uh,
coming out and, um, Dr. Scott Wright was my first
interview by choice and got to see him this weekend
as well. You do these things because you're passionate
about them, you're interested in it. It's not
a job where you're like, well, okay, I got to
do this to bring in the paycheck. Thank goodness.
Thank goodness, exactly. So I know that you feel
like the ham radio blogs are very important to
ham radio and they continue to grow in number
and in breadth. So tell us a little bit about
that and how you feel about the importance of
all of this. And then I know that another one
of your things with related to this is how to
start up your own blog and how to contribute
to that. So why don't you talk a little bit about
that? Yeah, you know, there's really an unlimited
number of reasons why someone would want to start
a ham radio related blog. I mean, if you have
a passion for a specific part of the hobby and
As we know you know this hobby has an amazing
amount of of Sub -interest and sub sub interest
below that so there's there's no shortage of
things to write about for sure I think I think
a mistake some people make when they get into
blogging They I think everyone has a the long
-lost relative or a co -worker who likes to post
everything about what they've eaten and where
they go and what they're wearing and And you
know, no one really cares about your you know,
latest fantastic lunch, unfortunately um, so
I I think that that if I had to give one piece
of advice for someone thinking about getting
into blogging is is it's good to have some focus
and and Have a fairly specific point. Um, you
know, let me give you an example. Let's say you're
doing um summits on the air activations or you
maybe enjoy working QRRP portable and you carry
your gear on hikes and you operate there. You
know people with similar interests I think are
going to be interested and follow your stuff.
Yeah, I think that there's a lot out there and
then you're trying to kind of compile all that
to put it all in into one place. Kind of on a
related note, Neil, I think I'm pretty intrigued
by your topic next week. Walmart parking lots
on the air. Oh, my goodness. That sounds like
a a must listen episode if I ever heard one,
because that sounds fascinating. The the whole
Walmart parking lot on the air thing is has just
been a conversation on Twitter that just took
off. And, and, and I'm just getting started into
satellites for real. I've done a couple of satellite
contacts here and there, but I'm just starting
out. I bought my arrow at Dayton this year. So
I've been doing, uh, A lot of the satellite just
from school on a vertical or actually in the
car. I've done some mobile ones just in the car
with my standard mobile antenna. It's a lot of
fun. It is. It's a lot of fun and I'm really
enjoying it but the Walmart parking lots on the
air thing just... Kind of made me want to go
out and and okay. Here is a day in a time. There's
a purpose That's when I went out and started
getting Portable and getting on the air, you
know, I might listen while I'm driving and yeah,
okay once in a while, you know pull over and
make a contact or two, but But now it's like
okay. I got to go out there and and activate
it and it's stuff like this that You know is
like okay let's have some fun with this let's
let's do something that that will create some
interest. Exactly i think that that's you know
i think soda sounds fantastic i have been involved
with that but it sounds like a lot of fun but
with with this it seems to have the added. Not
to mention it's easy to get to a Walmart parking
lot much more so than maybe a 8000 foot. mountain
summit, certainly. But, uh, you can add that
component of, of sharing the hobby with the public.
And Lord knows there are a lot of people at a
Walmart parking lot. So I can only imagine the
kind of gawking interest you'd get. Yeah, they
did. And when they had the one where, where you
actually operated from a shopping cart, that,
that drew some attention. So, so things like
this, you know, you, you. You blog about them,
you put stuff out there, you put the pictures
out there, you put the information out there
and share it with people so that they know what's
going on and ideas like this catch on. And, you
know, before all of the social media and blogging
and all this kind of stuff, I'm not sure that
kind of an event would have happened. Yeah exactly,
you know and people like to be entertained and
they enjoy reading about other people's adventures
and Getting ideas about their own adventures
for sure so so if we Now we've got another Walmart
parking lots on the air coming up in July. So
are we going to read about this on the blog?
You know, I hope so. I hope so. And I may have
to outfit my own shopping cart and have to activate
my nearby Walmarts as well. You know, we can
talk a little bit about kind of some nitty gritty,
some specifics about how you might get a blog
kind of online for someone that might not know
much about that. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Let's, let's
talk a little bit about getting your own started.
And also one thing, you know, what about submitting
it for your site once you do? Yeah, no, absolutely.
Absolutely. You know, and that's, I mean, I certainly,
I certainly think that, that getting started,
there's a couple of ways to go about it. I think
that the first thing you've got to decide is,
um, do you want to kind of Submit your articles
or your post to a place a place like amateur
radio .com or do you want to have your own kind
of your own? WordPress blog and I would encourage
people to To have their own have their own place
have their own Home online instead of writing
on Facebook or writing on some of the other There
are some other ham radio related sites out there
that will take some of your submission so I would
encourage you to have a kind of a library a place
where you can Kind of consolidate your posts
and then You know if you have something that
someone's interested in kind of share those things
maybe To a wider audience through either our
site or some of the others Pretty much WordPress
you probably have heard of that and probably
most people that listen to this have heard of
WordPress WordPress is kind of the de facto standard
for blogging And it's been that way for quite
a long time. They've not been dethroned as kind
of the blogging platform. You kind of have two
choices. You can host your own WordPress software
on your own server, or you can use WordPress
.com. We'll do that for you. And there's some
advantages and disadvantages to both. The cost
is going to be roughly the same. Everyone's going
to want to take their piece. from you for the
server space, but whether you host it yourself
and kind of have more customization options,
more control, but maybe some more headaches as
far as doing updates and patches, or you maybe
give up some of that control and let WordPress
.com do it, that's kind of up to you. Either
way, I think it's important right off the bat
when someone gets started in blogging. to have
your own domain name, your own .com or .org.
And often people will choose their call sign,
especially if it's a call sign you intend to
hang on to for a while. And that kind of gives
you something that people can identify with and
it helps with search engines and that sort of
thing. So I would highly recommend you start
right away. and get your own domain name and
start blogging kind of under your own identity.
Very good. And then there are some other ones
out there that you can use that are free but
maybe don't have the same customization options
and some of the more advanced features. Yeah,
you know, that's that is is true and sometimes
I think that I've noticed people start off with
the with the free option and I kind of end up
wishing they had spent a little bit more and
and gone with their own kind of there again their
own domain their own maybe their own hosting
and I think that you've got to kind of decide
is this something that you are going to give
some effort to and it's worth three or four dollars
a month in hosting to do. I would say that probably
if you're willing to invest five bucks a month
in the whole endeavor maybe it's not worth getting
into because I think that you're going to spend
a lot of time and effort creating those posts
and that content. You might as well have a a
place that it looks, you know, professional.
And, uh, I guess it probably is a juxtaposition
when you say professional and in amateur radio,
but you certainly, you do certainly want it to
look, uh, to look somewhat presentable. Absolutely.
All right. Well, we're going to take a break.
And then when we come back, uh, we'll talk some
more with Matt and we'll give, uh, you a chance
to call in or tweet in and ask some questions
with W1MST from amateurradio .com and we'll come
back after this word from the National Voice
of America Museum of Broadcasting and Amateur
Radio Newsline right here on AmToc 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 a huge antique
radio exhibit and R .L. Drake's personal collection
of most every Drake amateur rig ever made. This
is a unique opportunity to see amateur radio
in action and have a chance to get on the air
from WC8VOA. Admission is only $5 a person. The
museum is located close to historic WLWAM and
tons of shopping and restaurants. Take a trip
to the VOA museum or visit us online at voamuseum
.org. Nominations are now open for the amateur
radio news line, Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF Young
Ham of the Year Award. I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW.
Since 1986, we've had the honor of celebrating
the accomplishments of Youth and Ham Radio when
we want to know about your exceptional Young
Ham. You'll find the rules and a nominating form
by clicking the Y -H -O -T -Y tab on ARNewsline
.org. Fill it out, send it in, and we'll see
you and an amazing young ham at the Huntsville
Alabama Ham Fest in August. Thanks and 73 from
Amateur Radio Newsline. Oh baby, you put a 5
-9 in my log book. Now enjoy more HamTalk Live.
HamTalk Live is on the air every Thursday night
at 9 p .m. Eastern right here at HamTalkLive
.com. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. And it's time for your calls now.
So if you have a question for Matt, give us a
call at 812 -NET -HAM -1, 812 -638 -4261. Or
you can Skype us your question. You can give
us a call with Skype at HamTalk Live, or you
can tweet us at HamTalk Live. We'll check that
here as fact as we speak. And oh, we have a tweet
here from another editor, the one that I work
with commonly, and that's Karen Eve Murray KD2GUT
from Amateur Radio Newsline and she says Matt
you got to make that long drive next year, but
Meanwhile, please give your thoughts on embedded
multimedia content and blogs So mp3s photo carousels
video clips that kind of thing Well, you know
I'm kind of old school in the sense and in a
way old school because it seems like for a while
there were there was lots of of Auto play audio
and video and those sorts of things that come
out of favor. I think in fact Chrome and other
web browsers were starting to maybe Kind of shut
those things off the the videos that that automatically
play I think everyone's been to a news site news
sites are especially Guilty of auto playing their
their their video and it can sometimes be pretty
annoying So I and I like to kind of control that
myself and decide what I want to kind of what
I want to see that The other thing that's been
big Lately especially are our ad blockers and
these these ad blockers that people install as
extensions to their browsers Are great in a lot
of ways But they they tend to kind of cast a
wide net with some of these Multimedia Components
and sometimes they'll they'll cause them to malfunction
or break or maybe disable them all together I
think that certainly the web has become much
more multimedia Certainly, you know, I know with
your show Neil It's available across a wide variety
of platforms, most of which, including YouTube
and SoundCloud and all those, you can embed into
a website and I think it's neat that you could
do that. I do think however you can go overboard
and kind of make things a little too entertaining,
a little too busy, and I think that's what you
have to try to avoid doing. Yeah that in fact
When I worked on a doctorate and maybe one day
I'll get to finish it it was on cognitive load
theory and how how textbooks will Overload you
with information. It's like, you know, you're
reading along and then there's this picture over
here and this little caption over here and this
special over here and and and it's like It's
overload. But yet you don't want line after line
after line after line after line after line after
line of flat text either. And so there's a balance
there. It's so true. I was working on a learning
management system which is kind of technical
jargon for kind of online course software. And
the psychology behind those systems and how they
present information is something that I had no
appreciation for. For example, whether or not
you should display the text of what you're also
narrating and that sort of thing to encourage
learning. And it's pretty complicated. And it's
really an amazing science. One of my favorite
things that I use in my class to demonstrate
some of this stuff is a comedian by the name
of Don McMillan. He's an engineer. He's a former
IBM computer engineer. And he actually has nerd
comedy. And he has this thing, his big claim
to fame is this life after death by PowerPoint.
And he has this video and instead of going on
about okay now you need to make sure that you've
got good Contrast and you don't have you know
all these spinny things and all these busy backgrounds
and everything Instead of doing that I show this
10 minute clip on YouTube from him That shows
exactly what not to do and why you don't do it.
So he's got these graphs and charts and spinning
texts and written every word out so that you
have to go through like five slides to get through
one thought and it's just total overload. And
so I really like Don McMillan's thing. He has
all these even a font analysis what what font
makes you you know what what does that font say
about you and um there's a lot of that stuff
out there that that just it just goes crazy and
you get too many of the you know the big thing
a long time ago were those animated uh gifs on
web page. And now they're back, it seems as in
texting and that sort of thing. It seems like
everyone's sending animated GIFs again. And I
appreciate that you do call them GIFs, not GIFs,
Neil. Yes. Well, I mean, they work well in conversations
and stuff. So they've kind of made the comeback
there. But but on the web page, it's like you
had to put 20 animations on your on your website.
And it's like It's overload, you know, in a conversation
and in a vertical sense, you know, it works.
But when you, you know, well, I mean, one of
the most popular websites back in the back in
the day was hamster dance. And that's all it
was, was a whole bunch of animated gifts in a
line spinning around with hamsters. Well, they're
entertaining, I guess. And that's kind of appropriate
with Karen being the hamster guru, so I guess
maybe she enjoyed the hamster dance. Thank you,
Karen. Thank you, Karen, for writing in and asking
that because that's a very valid point. We got
a bit off topic, though I feel bad. Well, you
know, that happens. I'm gonna bring it back around
again. So we've been talking about how to start
up your blog and the next thing on the agenda
was do's and don'ts. So we actually kind of got
there. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I put together
a web page or a video for folks to kind of give
them an idea of how to start, how to start up
a blog. And it's at amateurradio .com slash ham
talk live one word so if people want to kind
of get some more information about how they can
do that step -by -step they can go to that that's
I'll say that one more time amateurradio .com
slash ham talk live and we post a link to that
on our social media so you can find that as well
as my desk wrapped in saran wrap that you noticed
earlier you know I really I think that if you
haven't been to Neil's Twitter feed, I'm not
sure maybe it's posted in other places. You do
need to see that they have wrapped, no pun intended,
wrapped his desk in Saran wrap. So it's definitely
worth checking out. The two things I think, and
we've covered them a little bit, the two things
I think that are the biggest mistakes, the biggest
pitfalls. Again, or the lack of focus and and
not having a regular schedule not kind of deciding
that I'm going to get on this blog and I'm going
to write Once a week once a month, whatever it
is to kind of establish a schedule Where you
kind of expect from yourself that you're gonna
write because if you don't you'll kind of end
up putting it off and putting it off and then
eventually you'll you'll join the ranks of of
probably a million other blogs that have been
kind of left to languish. And I think if you
start off thinking about something you're really
interested in writing about and you set a schedule
and you stick to it, I think that the blog will
get traction. You'll get interaction with readers
and it'll become more fulfilling. But it does,
you know, I think I'm sure that you experienced
it a little bit too, Neil, when you first started,
you probably felt like you were talking to an
echo chamber until your podcast got some real
traction. And it's the same thing with any blog
or any site on the internet, for sure, that until,
you know, you don't, I mean, we didn't wake up
with, you know, 15 ,000 social media followers
and 7 ,000 newsletter subscribers. I mean, you
know, it took a lot of time to get that traction
to be able to do that. So stick with it. If it's
something you're passionate about and interested
in, stick with it until it succeeds. 812 -638
-4261 is the phone number if you have a question
or a comment for Matt. W1MST from amateurradio
.com and you can give us a call or you can tweet
us at hamtalklive as well. So if somebody wants
to submit something for amateurradio .com, how
would they go about doing that? they just send
me an email my email is editor at amateur radio
comm and we can have a conversation and and Talk
about what they're writing and you know, we're
very appreciative people that want to submit
things I've been incredibly impressed by the
the generosity and the in the caliber of the
things people write and we are more than happy
to use you know, it's it's not a it's not a giant
voice certainly, but it's a It's a reasonably
good sized voice and to help you kind of get
some traction and maybe decide if this is something
that you want to do more of. So if you want to
send us an article and have us take a look and
consider publishing it, we'd be really happy
to do that and hopefully give you some feedback
and some sense of whether it's something that
people might want to hear more about. All right,
well we're going to take one last call here for
Matt W1 MST If you want to chime in now's the
time 812 net ham one eight one two six three
eight four two six one or tweet us at ham talk
live Uh, so you were talking a bit about the,
uh, the WordPress and setting up things and we
went to break. Was there anything else that you
wanted to add in on the, you know, how to set
up and how to, to go about those things? Yeah.
So it's actually, you know, I don't want to make
it sound over overly complicated. It's actually
pretty easy to set up. Uh, I, but I think that,
like I said, uh, not. Not kind of starting off
with your own identity, your own dot com is probably
something you'll regret later to have to kind
of, it's kind of like, I'm trying to think of
a good example, kind of like having to reprint
your business cards when you change your phone
number. If you start off with kind of the information
that you think you'll have long term, you'll
be happier that everyone will have their links.
Pointed correctly and that sort of thing. So
you won't have to change it all later you know,
even if even if you did have a a free blogging
solution and you You had your your comm whether
it's your call sign or whatever you choose point
forward to that that at least Kind of gets you
started in the right direction. I think Yeah,
and that's kind of what we've done. Yeah, I think
that's true. It's got it because Spreaker has
this You know all automated and everything website,
but the URL is just ridiculous so we'd set up
hamtalklive .com just to go to there and It may
change at some point we may get more into it,
but at least that again gives a an easy place
to go to that's always going to be the same address.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I also wanted to
mention too that if someone was interested in
signing up for our daily or weekly amateur radio
dot com newsletter, we do do some frequent giveaways.
About a month ago, we gave away 50 new elect
software to find SDR radios. And those are pretty
pretty cool little gadgets. I don't know if you've
played around with those. those little USB dongles
there that they sell. But they're pretty amazing
and great to get people into thinking about the
hobby for really not a lot of money. So that
sort of thing is a lot of fun. And when you only
have 1 ,000 entrants and you give away 50 radios,
your chances of winning are pretty good. So that
was a worldwide promotion, which is a lot of
fun, too. And that's another thing about our
hobby that I think is so fantastic is the bridging
between so many different cultures and so many
different countries and so many different people
and it's just an amazing hobby, Neil. Yeah, it
certainly is and you've got some good stuff there.
So again, if you're interested in the newsletter
from amateurradio .com, just sign up for that
and then you may win something too. I hope. Yeah,
we have another antenna we're going to be giving
away. I brought home from Dayton, so we'll be
releasing the details. No sneak previews? No,
no sneak previews, but we have an antenna we're
going to be giving away. It's right here, so
we'll be doing that here soon. Well, Matt, thank
you so much for coming on the show tonight. Thank
you for, uh, what you do at, uh, amateur radio
.com and, uh, we'll look forward to, uh, speaking
with you again and, and hope to, to catch you
at Hamvention one of these days. I absolutely
hope that then I hope I meet, like, what was
the name again of your, uh, character that's
running around? I hope I get to meet Hammy at
next year's Hamvention. So thank you so much,
Neil, for having me. Yep. All right. That's a
wrap. for this week's edition of HamTalk Live.
Thanks to Matt Thomas, W1MST and everybody out
there in cyberspace for listening and tweeting
in and invite you back next Thursday night. As
Matt said, nine o 'clock Eastern time. It's the
full length Walmart parking lots on the air show.
Adam Whitney, K0FFY will be here as well as a
couple of the others that helped put that together
for real. opposed to just a silly idea running
around and so we're going to talk about how it
went and the next one coming up July 2nd Walmart's
birthday and world UFO day coincidence maybe
So we'll talk about that, so don't miss that
next week. For a list of all of our upcoming
guests, just go to HamTalkLive .com and if you
would, please leave us a review on iTunes or
wherever you listen. We're trying to build that
up a little bit and get it to where we're a little
easier to find. If you would leave us a review,
we would appreciate that. So for now, this is
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7375, and may the good
DX be yours. Thanks for watching!