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.com. Good evening, everyone. It's time for Ham
Talk Live. It's episode number 104. The Collegiate
Amateur Radio Initiative recorded live on Thursday,
March 1st, 2018. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Ham Talk
Live. Tonight we're joined by Andy Malusi, KK4LWR,
and we'll take your calls live in just a few
minutes. Last week here on the show, Michael
Coulter, W8CI, was here to talk about the progress
of changes coming to this year's Dayton Hamvention.
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Tell them you heard it on HamTalk Live and thanks
to them for all they do for us here. And tonight
on the show is Andy Maluzzi, KK5LWR. He's the
past president of the Gator Amateur Radio Club
at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
He's currently a systems engineer for Walt Disney
Parks and Resorts in Florida. Andy became a ham
in 2012 at the coaxing of his brother, Anthony
KD8RTT. Andy's undergraduate work was down the
road for me in Terre Haute, Indiana at the Rose
-Hulman Institute of Technology and he recently
received a Master of Science and PhD in Electrical
and Computer Engineering from the University
of Florida. Andy is originally from Westlake,
Ohio, which is just west of Cleveland and has
lived in Redmond, Washington and Austin, Texas,
in addition to his two college stops. And Andy
is a key leader in the ARRL Collegiate Amateur
Radio Initiative, a group that has been formed
to share ideas and promote and rejuvenate amateur
radio clubs in colleges and universities. in
North America. And a few years ago we even had
a chance to publish an article in QST about School
Club Roundup or more like Andy did and I sent
him some stuff and so did Troy. So Andy, good
evening and welcome. Good evening. Good evening.
Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming
on and been talking to several of the people
in the Cary field and Wanted to get you in here
this evening and talk a little more specifically
about it So why don't you tell us about to carry
and how that came about? Yeah, so the collegiate
amateur radio initiative Under the American radio
relay league really sort of came out of a sort
of a grassroots grouping on Facebook, so sterling
Fellow ham He started a Facebook group just for
college clubs to talk about the problems of college
amateur radio. It's a unique beast because in
today's society, students are walking around
with radios in their pocket, but they don't really
realize it. They all got cell phones and they
assume they can call anywhere in the world and
do pretty much anything with them. The technology
is accessible to everyone, but they don't really
realize the art and the science behind it. Some
are stronger, some are weaker, and it just went
by student interest. We've all struggled there.
When I led the Gator Amateur Radio Club at UF,
we'd have some good years and we'd have some
rough years in terms of student involvement.
This was a forum for us to group together, and
then the league came along and said, foster this
you know part of the league's mission is to continue
to grow amateur radio and You know college hams
and you know even younger. You know are really
the future of the hobby so they came in Sort
of helped manage the page has also given a lot
of PR boost to it And really sort of made it
loud especially dating back now, you know over
a year now and making it loud so that we sort
of have some funding behind it as well as you
know some PR to make it happen. That came really
through the Ed Schneider gift to the league,
which his call is W1YSM. and he came from Yale
Medical School and he worked with Tom Gallagher
and they started this endowment for college clubs
with the league and that kickstarted everything.
So far, we've had really some amazing growth.
The Facebook group was just a few of us in the
beginning, relatively close -knit group of people
that knew each other from other things and now
we're talking. you know, over 700 members in
this group. And I was actually doing the numbers
before hamcation. And, you know, from just the
posts on there, it looks like we've had over
six clubs form, or at least announced that they've
reactivated on that group just in the last year
alone. And I think a lot of that comes through
having the support of, you know, that great group
of hams to make it happen. In the high school
realm, I get a lot of questions, you know, of
you know how do I get started with a school club
and how do I how do I do this how do I do that
and and so there's some support activities that
you know we do uh which school club round up
which you and I kind of met through um is one
of those uh but for the colleges there there
really wasn't a whole lot there to to start with
and so this group has uh has kind of let people
share ideas and and what works and what doesn't
and and and you come up with some interesting
ideas and and like You know Scott Westerman was
on the show W9 W SW and he he was telling me
about the APRS on the on the mascot for the college
and you know people could actually track him
on football games and find him to get a picture.
What a cool idea. And if some others had been
able to share that, who knows where it could
go. And there are just a lot of things like that.
Small things that might spark an interest and
give some exposure to the radio clubs on campuses.
Yeah, I mean one of those Opportunities is definitely
the overlap with some other, you know activities
right now It is very very popular in the engineering
field to look at satellites and to look at space
it's a really difficult problem to put something
in orbit and It's also really difficult to get
spectrum to talk to your thing that you put into
orbit So amateur radio offers a really unique
opportunity and I know Amstats partnered with
universities for a while now and making that
happen but even students on campus are using
as an experimentation platform. They're doing
high altitude balloons with APRS tracking, you
know, really just sort of. starting to integrate
the hobby in some really cool ways into other
parts of their curriculum or co -curricular activities,
which I think is doing wonders for the hobby
and bringing new people in. I know at UF a large
contingent of our group actually came from our
SwampSat group and we actually had two ground
stations because when we launched the satellite
they wanted to have a backup ground station and
all that. That was a huge motivating factor in
terms of making the club active and loud. this
Facebook group really provides the opportunity
to suggest those sorts of things or to coordinate
things. Most recently this past Tuesday night,
technically Wednesday morning at midnight on
talk group 9500 on Brandmeister DMR, there was
a college net and sort of making that happen,
new ways to connect with hams. So it's really
done wonders for that connection. And then also
like at events, being able to recognize hams,
having swag special for hams, college hams. and
really sort of promoting, you know, and providing
schools with the, you know, the tools to sort
of make a club happen. You know, it's nice to
have, you know, stickers or giveaway stuff when
you do like a career fair or a student activities
fair or that sort of thing, you know, or for
alumni. So, you know, there's also been some
of that, which has really been helpful. And there's
been a lot of exchange of ideas on the group,
which is just really what I think led to the
success in the last year. Excellent stuff. Now
we've talked a little bit about what the league
has done to promote this and give some PR for
the initiative and everything and kind of come
in. What other kinds of support is the league
offering through some of this money that's come
in from the donation that you were talking about
and what are some ways that ARRL supports schools
that are out there that are trying to make this
happen. So some really cool things that have
happened has been forums Specifically targeted
at college students at ham fest all over we had
one at Dayton last year. We've had a couple now
at ham occasion I know box bro has had a couple
so I mean You know the league has come out in
force sort of saying you know Not only do we
want to you know give you on -campus tools, but
we also want to give you You know a forum within
the ham community as well, and then also the
league has provided You know Different materials
for getting hams licensed. We have given away
lots and lots of books at our talks We've given
away, you know operator handbooks We've given
away, you know licensing guides and all that
and raffle them off specifically, you know focus
that college students Either to help college
students, you know increase their license and
move from tech to general or general extra or
to use it as a way to get students into the club.
I think that those sorts of things are really
invaluable because if you think about the cost
of a book from the league, it's $50 for the handbook
and it's a great resource. But again, going to
the size of college clubs and the funding they
typically get from their schools, that can be
difficult to obtain. Unless you have some alumni
or something like that to donate that, it's really
difficult. thing and it really helps motivate
the club to do different things. Getting an antenna
booking like the Wires Classic antenna books
are great for really motivating a club and being
able to give away some of that stuff at the different
events has really been fantastic from the league's
end. Just besides the PR of promoting it but
just providing useful materials that turn directly
into student activities and student activities
is how you grow the club. And let's talk a little
bit about growing the club and maintaining activity
From year to year and that's something we were
talking about just before the show came on of
how you maintain a group from one year to the
next to the next when You know the The turnover
is pretty high because students are only there
for a limited amount of time. So how What are
some of the suggestions that you offer to keep
things going from year to year? You know, one
of the things that sounds like it would do really
well, but doesn't really turn into things, is
regular meetings. Or meetings just for... administrative
or unstructured. Things that do phenomenal year
over year is when you decide to actually do a
specific thing and you announce that. So if you
say, we're going to make a two -meter yagi, a
tape measure yagi that I'm sure we've all done
before, or if you haven't, you should definitely
try it. But it's a simple, relatively inexpensive
project. We would have three or four people show
up to our regular weekly meetings at UF. We did
that. We had like 35 people show up. And I'm
like, where are these people coming from? They're
coming out of the woodwork. Those sorts of things
where there's something tangible and they understand
and they learn something is really cool. Piggybacking
on really new technology also helps. FT8 this
last year has been huge in the amateur radio
community, but also been huge in the college
community because it's a relatively accessible
digital mode. It's something that doesn't require
the best antenna yet doesn't take as long as
JT65. College students were doing skids and all
that all over. FT8, you know, and I saw multiple
schools posting in the Facebook group saying
hey, we're gonna be on FT8 tonight, you know
work us and that sort of thing and that really
helps too and then Probably, you know the most
awesome You know way to include and grow your
club to include others and grow your club is
to piggyback on other events Wherever you can
so tailgating before football games. I know there's
been some great success Down here in Florida.
I believe UCF has done that a few times I know
at UF, we actually partnered with the other SEC
schools. So we're talking like University of
Tennessee, those sorts of things. And we would
do on the SEC championship game, we would do
a special event. And we get a lot of students
that want to work that, because it's a relatively
low pressure thing to do a special event. And
it's relatively high visibility. And it gives
you something fun to do, something to talk about
with everyone. you know on the air you know the
gators might not have been the strongest team
the last couple years but you know it was still
something fun that you could uh to talk about
and uh you know pretty much everyone loves college
football so it was an easy instant connection
um for new hams and i think that that's you know
the biggest thing is getting a new ham on the
air and sort of breaking down those barriers
and you know Building an antenna is great because
you've given them a tool, which is usually a
great way to start. But then the next step is
giving them reason to get on the air and making
them feel comfortable. So having a low barrier
to entry like college sports really helps. Yeah,
and I would say in the SEC, my beloved Kentucky
Wildcats, they could get involved in this. But
in football, we're never in that conversation.
I don't think that's going to work. They're a
confident game for the Gators. I'll put it to
you that way. Yeah. That's an understatement.
Well, anyway, those are some ideas that are out
there to help keep activity going. And we've
also talked a little bit about Just being out
there in the community and like we go out and
try to Talk to some of the elementary schools,
you know so that those kids know a little bit
about ham radio before they get to high school
and and you were talking before the show to about
up at uf Going out into the community and and
always you know being there so that you're visible
so that when those kids were come to college
they they knew what it was yeah we would definitely
do that if there's like the boy scouts want to
do radio merit badge we would offer up our station
get them up there get them on the air that sort
of thing we do local marathons yeah i mean you
know and that also drives club activity because
it's something with a very specific purpose um
and students will come out to that and they'll
say oh yeah i know exactly what i'm getting into
this is going to be fun so yeah it's a great
way to sort of build the future and keep a club
active Some great ideas there. Well, we're going
to take a break and when we come back We'll start
checking the tweets and the messages and take
your phone calls So be sure to give us a call.
We've got a couple of Public service announcements
to get in here But we'll be back with Andy right
after this word from the National Voice of America
Museum of Broadcasting and amateur radio newsline
right after this 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 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 newsline, 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 news line. Join the conversation.
Call us on voice with Skype at HamTalk Live or
give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812
-638 -4261. Now here's more HamTalk Live. Ham
talk live is on the air every Thursday night
at 9 p .m. Eastern time right here Ham talk live
comm and be sure to check us out on Facebook
Twitter and Instagram And it's time for your
calls now if you have a question for Andy give
us a call at eight one two net ham one That's
eight one two six three eight four two six one
or you can Skype us at HamTalk Live or tweet
us at HamTalk Live. We've got a couple of comments
on the website as well to get to. But first,
we do have a caller on the line and no surprise,
Sterling. Good evening. No surprise. Hey, you
hear me okay? I hear you just fine. This is Sterling
Coffee in Zero SSC that we were talking about
earlier. Oh, yeah. A little bit later, I think
you guys mentioned the DMR net. It's kind of
a funny story. We started that. A couple of us
were up at night, at midnight, and we're like,
why don't we have a net? And we all kind of like
pulled each other on our GroupMe chat saying,
you know, what do we do? EchoLink, DMR. Discord
or where you know VoIP kind of things, you know,
and we ended up with DMR and it was surprising
because you know It's a digital radio and there's
a you know a buried entry to that But surprisingly
DMR is super popular. It's like it's like hype.
It's it's it's like everywhere Triple E put up
a DMR repeater a lot of a lot of other clubs
been putting up DMR. It's it's kind of cool I
think it's a good mix of you know technology
as well as you know amateur It definitely forces
you to experiment a bit to get it right. Yeah,
absolutely. Me personally, trying to put a code
plug in my GD77, it's just a pain and I almost
bricked the radio. I had to call radiodity to
be like, help. But I eventually got it fixed
and it's cool to have that challenge. I do agree
with that. And they're also pretty cheap. But
yeah, we had it at midnight. A lot of people
came on. And but there was a consensus that it
was a bit late for most and we turned the midnight
net into an informal net and now we're having
it on Tuesdays at Whatever six or seven or eight
Eastern something like that. Yes Yep, and there's
a group. There's an event inside the Carrie Facebook
page. Yeah, so check out Yeah, I just wanted
to relay one thing from Tripoli that that caught
my eye today on their their chat Tonight, they
had a licensing session, and they had 15 applicants
come in, and 16 elements were passed. Apparently,
I think that math works out that 14 New Ham's,
there was one New Ham general who passed the
tech and the journal at the same time, and then
an upgrade to general. So big round of applause
for the W0EEE. ham radio class and a test session
there. They've been also doing a PCB class that's
been on their Facebook and I've been poking around
on the Facebook group me on Cary. One of the
really good examples of what can we do with this
collegiate ecosystem. I think the PCB class is
one of those perfect examples. Yeah, it's really
got good overlay with other curricular activities
and provides a good. low barrier to entry or
natural sort of overlap with amateur radio. So
yeah, that's been really fun to watch. And it's
all Ham's doing it too. It's the Triple E Radio
Club doing it entirely. And it's KiCad, so it's
open source, free software that you can download
and learn how to make printed circuit boards
and schematics and learn a little bit of electrical
theory as anybody. You can go on the Triple E
WZero Echo Echo Echo Facebook page. and or pcb
.w0ee .radio is where all of the pdfs presentations
and stuff is stored so if anybody wants to check
that out please do all right well thanks for
uh thanks for calling in sterling and and we'll
we'll keep you around here for a little bit if
you uh are willing um we've got a few messages
here from troy simpson w9kvr who's the um, trustee
over at W9GRS and they've been underwater. Uh,
they've, they've been out of school because of
all the flooding. So he says he's drying out
here. Uh, but one of the things that he noticed,
um, the, uh, collegiate participation in school
core roundup has gone up in the last few years.
And then he ties that directly to the college
initiative and, and helped, um, when, um, you
know, the students are able to talk to some of
those college stations. And Troy, by the way,
says, good to hear you again, Andy. So, you know,
there's some connections there. And I know, you
know, we always talk, you know, on School Club
Roundup in high school, we always talk to K -5
LSU. We always talk to Dana down in the physics
department down there. And so he always sends
us stuff, you know, and it's even a good recruitment
tool. Oh, yeah, and I mean for schools, you know,
especially like college stations I know my when
my brother was up at Rose Holman and he was president
of Rose Tech radio club up there They were very
very lucky that their station is like five feet
off a main hallway So they set up a you know,
basically a public station and work school club
round up from the hallway And you know got a
whole bunch of people passing by and just interested
just by pure, it was going on in the hall while
they were walking to class. And it's really a
great sort of definite activity, going back to
that saying, okay, we've planned, we're gonna
do this activity. And again, it's a low barrier
to entry. You're talking to people that wanna
talk to students. And that really makes people
feel comfortable. I have several YouTube videos
up there, up on YouTube that show, new hams just
getting on for School Club Roundup for the first
time. And the fact that people want to talk to
them, that people are very, very understanding
of them being new and getting on the air. It's
just a great way to break down those barriers
and really drive activity. And then another thing
that I'm actually working on an article for for
the next edition of the National Contest Journal
is the national collegiate championships, which
was a contest within a contest. You had the colleges
doing a contest on the North American QSO party
with live scoring going on in between. And I
believe Georgia Tech was the winner on that one.
But a lot of schools participated in that, and
I'll be interviewing some of those and writing
that up for an upcoming edition of NCJ. So it's
another opportunity for colleges to get on the
air and do a little competition. Yeah. Piggybacking
on that NCA rivalry. Like I said, I think all
those are doing really fantastic and I know there's
been, we've been tossing around some ideas. I
know Sterling and I talked about last year with
Triple E as well at Hamvention about even potentially
a college specific sprint or something like that.
So figuring out the logistics of doing something
like that. But I think that the more activities
like that, the easier it is to drive club activity.
You know again, I can't harp it enough You know
if you have good planning for an event and you
you know are very very specific and not just
you know Come hang out at the radio station That
really does wonders for driving activity and
the more that we can provide as a community.
I think better Sterling anything to follow up
with on that. Oh Yeah, exactly. I I also think
we'll have you having a couple more nets coming
up like an hf net for sure, but a contest collegiate
college specific and also just trying to like
get out more of the I guess college spirit into
all of the contests that are as many as we possibly
can and intersperse that between you know finals
week and test area areas in the year where tests
are more common than others. I think that'll
be like a super exciting event or super exciting
like whole shift for the collegiate side of things
so yeah for sure and I really love I'll just
go back to the live streaming introductory things
and that sort of stuff where we can all share
it on the carry page. anything that brings us
together is super powerful and I think it'll
make for a lot of new hams, a lot of interesting
hams and a lot of like careers out of this too.
I just gave a talk to American Public University
System, they're an online university about the
impact of amateur radio in my life as an electrical
engineer and the way, you know, what it can do
for you as a STEM, you know, soon to be student.
Potential student right and it was super well
attended And it was recorded. I don't have the
recording yet, but I can't post it because it
was like Closing to their sister their university,
but I think I'm gonna take that speak speech
I did and push it around to places like Dayton
or I'm even going to Friedrichshafen I don't
know if I'll be able to get a form at Friedrichshafen
or Dayton at this point, but I do have that in
my back pocket I think it's really important.
Ham Radio as a hobby is potentially life -changing
for good reasons. That's something we brought
up at the very first Cary Forum when we did a
hamcation last year was the networking aspect
of it. For instance, I know my brother Tony.
He got some of his internships because he was
a ham, and that came up, and I know you're in
a similar boat. And it's even come up for me.
In interviews, people look at that and they go,
oh, I'm a ham too, or the best one is when they
start tapping something out in Morse code and
ask you to. Fortunately, I did the CW Academy,
so I'm actually much better with my Morse code.
Yeah, I mean, it's really cool. And I think another
way that it can really change your life, too,
is to look at the scholarship dollars available.
I don't think that we put enough focus on that
enough. Both the ARRL Foundation offers a bunch
of scholarships either directly from the league
or coordinates with clubs, as well as the Foundation
for Amateur Radio. And while the league's scholarships
end January 31st, the FAR scholarships are due
at tax time every year, so it's a very easy time
to remember when those are due. A lot of those
dollars could really go to either hams that are
active in clubs and could benefit from that,
or going to your wheelhouse there, Neil, students
that want to get active in amateur radio in college,
or maybe were active in high school. are at least
interested in keeping it going forward. That's
a nice way to sort of give them a reminder when
they have some hams help and support them in
their studies. 812 -638 -4261 is the phone number
if you'd like to join in. That's 812 -NET -AM1
where you can tweet us or Skype us. We have a
few minutes remaining here. So if you'd like
to chime in, please do. And Dr. Scott Wright
KZOMD reminded me that's the North American Collegiate
Championship. I didn't get the name quite right
on that, but that's coming up in NCJ soon. We'll
talk about that in that forum. But again, the
number is 812 -638 -4261 if you would like to
call. What are some resources that are out there
for? a university that wants to start a brand
new club or restart a club, what do you suggest
for getting some equipment to get started on
that? You know, I think the best way is to look
at your local clubs and look at what is in the
area. in terms of just the community itself.
I know, for instance, in Gainesville, we have
the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society, K4GNV,
and that's worked in partnership with the Gator
Amateur Radio Club, W4DFU, for years. And I know
most college clubs are within, likely, a community
of... really a community of hams. There's a lot
of professors or just engineers or staff members
at schools that are hams and they just. It doesn't
come up during the day, and there's more than
likely a club accessible. So that's a great way
to start getting on the air, is to just sort
of partner with that club and say, hey, we want
to start. And really, all you need to start a
college club is three friends and register for
your call sign with the FCC if you don't have
one already. And a cheap HT is enough to start,
and you can sort of work your way up from there.
You know, there's a lot of resources on the,
uh, Carrie Facebook page in terms of just asking,
um, other hams, how to do it, how to work through
student government, um, student government's
usually a pretty difficult challenge for three
students. So, you know, having other, yeah. I
remember fighting that the university of Southern
Indiana and trying to get, uh, through student
government. We finally got through it, but it
did take a little while. Go ahead. Sterling.
The good thing about that, about having all these
colleges in one place, is that when you want
to start a club and you have to deal with student
government, we have all these boilerplates that
we've given for funding or for club appropriations
and actually starting and making the club a registered
organization. You know freely and quickly as
possible because you know, we always need more
clubs I've also seen a lot of people ask this
question on reddit The amateur radio subreddit.
There's a lot of college hands on there that
uh go through a painstaking process of detailing
their whole club's history and how they dealt
with it and following through and actually contacting
that person. And I'm one of those people. There's
been a lot of that with Triple -E, especially
with our tower upgrades. I wasn't there at the
time, but the Double -E building caught on fire.
And so we had to strip every single tile out
of the ham shack to get it. deep clean from all
of the water damage and everything. I think they
ended up getting carpet out of it or maybe fresh
tile. No, they got tile. But yeah, just feel
free to ask and somebody will be like, at least
three people will be on you in no time because
all of us really want to help everybody. Amateur
radio is a very different hobby than a lot of
college. clubs. You know, for instance, most
of our stuff is like a capital improvement, right?
We're going to put something on the building,
we're going to invest in expensive radios, you
know, we're not buying pizza and t -shirts, you
know. So, you know, that's a separate whole thing
to navigate. Sometimes student government funds
can't even be used for that sort of thing. So
sort of keeping that, you know, in mind and that's
like Sterling said, you know, if someone posts
with those questions or wants to offer help.
you know, the carry page is a great way for us
to, you know, sort of coordinate that. And chances
are someone else has been through that problem
before you, so it's nice to not have to work
through the same problem 15 times. Now, one of
the things you guys just mentioned was social
media and the connection to that. And Andy, we
want to talk a little bit about some ways that
we can communicate with this age group maybe
a little little better to recruit those people
and get a hold of those because in a confined
environment like mine we can you know put it
on the announcements and put it on the little
TV show that's inside the school. But when you're
on a university campus, it's a lot harder to
track down even those people who are already
licensed or have already been in a ham radio
club. So talk a little bit about interfacing
with those students. Yeah. So the, the, the problem
is, is that we got to make amateur radio loud.
We got to make amateur radio loud to, um, the
people that are You know sort of younger than
us and they listen very differently than my generation
sterling and I pay attention to way different
things than what our parents paid attention to
And we pay attention to things differently than
what current high school students do So it's
adapting with the time. So obviously social media
is this huge thing, you know People don't read,
you know qst like they used to they're gonna
consume it on a digital platform instead of the
paper They're gonna be more in tune with twitter.
They're gonna be more in tune with snapchat.
So Making amateur radio loud is piggybacking
on things that maybe aren't directly amateur
radio related But sharing that on social media
and at least drawing the connection getting that
exposure, you know Recently for instance SpaceX
had the Falcon heavy launch, you know, that's
a huge deal Everyone was talking about it, but
the amateur radio community on social media was
largely silent about it Why I don't know this
is something that affects amateur radio operators.
This could help us launch more Oscars. And a
lot of hams are naturally interested in space.
As I mentioned before, the SwampSat club at UF
was very interested in getting their amateur
radio license because they wanted to put a satellite
in orbit and they needed the spectrum. So when
you're on social media and you're trying to promote
amateur radio, don't just look at it in a vacuum
and say, I can only post about things that involve
radio. Look at similar hobbies. A lot of hams
are outdoors. and they love going to the park
and operating. Napoto is great for that. So if
you see something come up about a national park,
share that. And I'm sure that will get retweeted
by more than just your amateur radio friends.
And that really creates that exposure and sort
of gives people the idea of, oh, this isn't my
grandfather's amateur radio. These are really
still an active, vibrant community that's out
doing different and cool things. And Sterling,
you've got 40 seconds, but I know what you're
going to say. Oh yeah, I bet you do. I totally
agree. Big antennas at your organization showcase
events always helps. We had a satellite arrow
antenna. We had CW in the background playing.
E -connection is our email list serve that we
have for the whole university. I'm sure most
universities have something like that. And like
I agree, events which aren't directly amateur
radio related and are supported by other organizations
like IEEE. We did an Easter egg hunt where we
made the Easter eggs into RF beacons and we used
a little $2 receivers that we built design and
built to receive them or advanced or associates
for computing machinery We did a war Wi -Fi Wardrive
and got a lot of overlap between the comp side
department and the Electro engineering department.
We built cantenna's to detect the un password
protected Wi -Fi Access on the city. So that
was a lot of fun and it was huge draw Anything
that has wireless satellite teams solar car telemetry
Is something and we started Mars over design
team and did networking and we've got a lot of
hams license because we wanted more power on
our Ubiquiti Wi -Fi bullet so things like that.
It's a it's a big draw and I set you up but but
I Set you up for reddit. Oh Yeah, yeah, of course
always go to the reddit and And the reddit meetups
at hamcation and hamvention. Mm -hmm I think
Reddit is one of the best AMERITA communities
on the internet. It's a bunch of really good
people. Who are slightly sarcastic, but always
really helpful. And everything that is just goes
down. It's like, there's a noise floor at the
bottom of every page because it's sorted by upboats.
Don't go down below in the noise floor. Stay
above the noise. Stay above the noises. Christian
says, yes. All right. Well, we've got to leave
it there. We are out of time. That is a wrap
for this week's edition of ham talk live, but
thanks to Andy Malusi, KK4LWR for joining us
tonight and also Sterling. and Zero SSE for calling
in and everyone out there for chiming in tonight
and listening and invite you all back next Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Steve Waterman K4CGX and Phil
Sherrod W4PHS will be here to talk about WinLink
and for a list of all of our upcoming guests
visit HamTalkLive .com. So for now this is Neil
Rapp WB9VPG saying 7375 and may the good DX be
yours. Thank you.