This episode of ham talk live is brought to you
by tower electronics for connectors cables and
more Visit them at a ham fest near you or call
nine to zero four three five Twenty nine seventy
three or online at pl -259 .com Hey good evening
everyone! Yeah, it's a little early. This is
a bonus mini episode of HamTalk Live. It's Walmart
parking lots on the air for Thursday, April 26,
2018. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9's VPG. Thanks
for tuning into this special episode of HamTalk
Live. Later tonight at our usual time, we'll
be joined by Carol Perry, WB2MGP. and Mason Matrezzo
KM4SII and we'll take your calls live but we
promised you to talk about Walmart parking lots
on the air so we're going to do that for a little
bit tonight here a couple hours before the show
and before I start I should mention that this
is plan B we were planning on having a full extra
episode on Wednesday night at 7 with some of
the organizers of WMPLOTA or as I pronounce it
WMPLOTA and some portable satellite experts well
The main organizer of WMPLOTA came down with
something on Tuesday and can barely talk so We're
going to reschedule that episode after Wimploda
when you'll have a chance to call in and talk
about it too. And we'll throw around some ideas
and see how things went. So we'll get a full
episode of Wimploda going, but I didn't want
to let this go totally unnoticed here on the
show. So we're going to talk a little bit about
Wimploda and there's a story about Wimploda that
I did on Amateur Radio Newsline, which comes
out in the morning. So make sure you check that
out over at ARNewsline .org. But I at least wanted
to get the word out about Wimploda if you haven't
heard about it and get into a few of the details.
So we'll get into how this crazy idea got started
and talk about the next Wimploda weekend. Yes,
there's going to be another one at least. We'll
talk about all that when we do the rescheduled
episode. And if it seems like the first Wimploda
episode was a little bit rushed, well, that's
because it was. Um, one of the participants is
retiring and moving out of the country. So everything
kind of got put together on short notice. And
so we didn't have time to work it into the schedule
here. And, um, the rules and everything just
kind of got finalized yesterday. So we're still,
uh, still making some tweaks over there with
the Wimploda folks, but Rest assured there's
another one coming up this summer so we'll have
a chance to do another one. So the bottom line
is some satellite operators were looking for
grid lines to operate. Now grid lines are the
lines that separate grid squares and they count
for both squares so it's kind of nice because
you can get kind of a buy one get one free deal
and some of them discovered that a lot of those
grid lines happen to run through Walmart parking
lots and since they're wide open spaces it's
easier to point the satellite antenna and get
a contact and it's easier to get on the grid
line exactly so the phrase Wimploda was born
and everybody thought it was Really funny and
it was a great idea and it just kept growing
and so yes, it is real And yes, it's wacky But
it's just a fun time and it's been so much fun
to read the tweets from people with ideas about
the special event and the the award list just
keeps growing and growing and it's It just sounds
like a fun time. So I'm really looking forward
to it I don't know how much I'll be able to get
in on it, but I'm gonna try to get in on it and
and hope you can too So as a result, Adam started
putting together a website wmplota .org and that
website has been collecting ideas from people
and he's been setting some of that stuff up and
the public was invited to come up with some award
ideas and rules for the event. Let me go through
some of those. I won't hit all of them. If you
want to read all of the rules and all of the
bonuses, just go over to wmplota .org. That's
W -M -P -L -O -T -A, WalmartParkingLotsOnTheAir
.org. And you can read those. Now, the event
or contest, whatever you want to call it, starts
at 0100 UTC on April 28th and goes through 2359.
on April 29th. And the exchange on satellite
is always call sign and grid square. Well, if
you can, we're going to add the Walmart store
number. And that's kind of at the discretion
of the operator, but his time is precious on
satellites. But the Walmart store number or the
Sam's Club store number, Sam's Club counts also.
And you can get that from a store receipt or
from the online store finder. And we've got shoppers
that are going to be the chasers, what we would
normally call the chasers that are going to go
look for stations setting up at Walmart parking
lots and Sam's club. And then we've got associates
who are the people who set up and activate those
sites. So. The associates operating from multiple
stores are encouraged to exchange store numbers
just so we can reduce the duplicates and preserve
the satellite bandwidth. So exchanging store
numbers just lets people know if and when it's
appropriate to work an associate again for a
new credit. Associates will identify as stroke
Walmart. So that way you know that they're participating
Walmart Walmart neighborhood markets and Sam's
clubs are all Allowable for credit and if you're
a DX station you may not have a Walmart now some
of them do But if you don't have a local Walmart
branded store, and you're a DX station you can
activate the nearest local equivalent but it
does have to be portable and of course you have
to have a license and you can be near the store
now a picture of the activated location has to
be available on request include the operator
and a portion of the store or at least signage
or something so we can tell that it's identifiable
as Walmart and you can even use a Walmart sharpen
card if you want and you can operate as far from
a store as the stores sign or as far as an associate
can legally take the shopping carts. Please don't
steal the carts but you might pose them in a
picture. Dislocated or abandoned carts found
in the wild cannot be used and they do adhere
to the image Requirements there that you got
to be able to to see those and make sure that
you return the carts when you're done operating
shopping cart mobile is allowed but you still
got to have the verification so oh My and this
is gonna be be a blast So there's some other
things here. You get a point, a QSO point, if
you get a contact with a shopper or another associate.
There's some zombie QSOs. The Zombieland Multiplier.
If you get a contact through Oscar7... the satellite
that came back to life. You get two QSO points
for going through ZombieSat -7 and then you get
a Zombie Apocalypse Multiplier. 20 QSO points
for each appropriate QSO made through the ZombieSat
PCSat NO -44 and it's really important that these
zombie chasers always roll back the power because
that can mess up the satellite. So you got to
watch out for those. There's some multipliers,
the number of unique associates worked, the number
of Walmart stores activated, number of passes
with at least one confirmed QSO. different grid
squares, different satellites, that kind of thing.
Some bonus points. You get 40 points for being
on a grid line. 15 if you're within three kilometers
of a grid line. You can do a buy one, get one
bonus. That's 20 points for anybody contacting
an associate who's operating on a grid line in
a Walmart parking lot. There's a back to school
bonus. 25 points for anybody who is currently
a student, kindergarten through college. Some
others, there's an Alaskan activator and shopper,
also the Northwest Passage. If you're in Yukon,
Northwest Territories, none of it. There's some
bonuses there. The Aloha for Hawaii. There's
a Black Friday bonus. Five points for a Q so
made on Friday night So when it's dark when it's
black you get a black Friday bonus There's all
kinds of things. There's a good Samaritan bonus
ten points for returning a dislocated shopping
cart and Wally's world ten points for packing
up trash on green space near an activated store
and you can figure out your score there and there's
some awards that are going to come out and the
award levels the express lane is one Q so the
checkout two to four your greeter if you get
up to five if you work overnight you get the
overnight stalker there's the sam walton award
for the most stores activated there's regional
manager district manager about how many walmarts
you are able to activate and contact people of
Walmart. I think somebody suggested that, um,
you had to get featured on people of Walmart
to get that one. But what you're going to do
for the people of Walmart award is you do a selfie,
uh, from the parking lot and upload it to Twitter,
uh, with the hashtag W M P L O T A. Um, and anything
here that says that you tweet it, you gotta use
the hashtag WMPLOTA. There's MacGyver works at
Walmart, you build an antenna from parts from
Walmart to make the contact. There's OlRoy. It's
a Twitter post from your operation with your
dog. And then there's OlRoy with Roy. So it's
an activator. whose name is Roy with the most
Twitter posts of their dog at the activated parking
lot. Special kitty, it's the same as ol' Roy
but with your cat. Straight talk broadcast the
pass on your cell phone on periscope Twitter
YouTube live Facebook live something like that
and again use the hashtag Mobility you get a
Q so from a motorized shopping cart or a regular
shopping cart being pushed by an assistant There's
the buy one get one free Tabor squared You work
Chris Tabor and Douglas Tabor, K7TAB and N6UA
on the same pass. You get that award. Sam's Choice
is a QSO with any op named Sam. So there's all
kinds of these and you know, the ideas just kept
flowing and just, you know, they're just funny
things. And so this is a chance for you to have
a good time and just kind of enjoy the craziness
of. all these award levels and yes, it's a real
thing. I see so many people say, oh, this must
be a late April fool's joke. No, it's not. It
really is a real thing. So if this sounds fun
to you, you can be a shopper where you chase
the stations or you can be an associate where
you activate a Walmart or Sam's club. Just get
on a satellite between 0100 Zulu on April 28th,
which would be Friday night at 8 p .m. Eastern
Time and 2359 Zulu on April 29th, which would
be 759 Eastern Time on Sunday night. And again,
the exchange, the call sign, grid square, and
the Walmart or Sam's Club store number. and the
final set of rules again w m p l o t a dot org
and make sure you use the hashtag w m p l o t
a if you're tweeting pictures from your operation
and please do because that's that's a lot of
the fun of this. So put on your PJs and bag some
contacts and if you don't catch this one the
next Wimploda weekend is scheduled for July 2nd
which is the birthday of Walmart and coincidentally
it's World UFO Day. Now that that that's kind
of strange because it's a satellite operation
so We're talking about stuff from outer space.
So maybe it maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe it's
not who knows But remember when you're working
satellites, you know running too much power can
be bad, especially for those zombie ones So be
sure you roll back the power always So that's
a wrap for this special mini episode Ham talk
live be sure to tune in at our regularly scheduled
time for our Dayton Hamvention preview, that's
it, coming up in a couple of hours. Tonight features
the Instructor's Forum and Youth Forum with Carol
Perry, WB2MGP, and Mason Matrezzo, KM4SII. And
for all of our upcoming guests, you can visit
hamtalklive .com. So for now, this is Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG, saying seven three, seven five. Hope
to hear you on Wimploda. this weekend, and may
the good DX be yours.