Thanks for tuning in. HamTalk Live will be on
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Please stand by. This episode of Ham Talk Live
is brought to you by Tower Electronics. For cables,
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your new radio or antenna by calling 800 -729
-4373 or go to hamstation .com. Good evening,
everyone. It's time for HamTalk Live, episode
number 82, Public Relations Tips and the Great
Lakes HamCon, recorded live on Thursday, September
21st, 2017. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight, we're joined by Scott Westerman,
W9WSW, and he will take your calls live in just
a few minutes. Last week on the show Gary West
K8DEV was here and Jay Adrick K8CJY and they
were talking about the 75th anniversary celebration
and the new Crosley exhibit at the National Voice
of America Museum of Broadcasting and that's
coming up on Saturday so don't forget they will
be on the air they don't have any frequencies
planned out just yet. But they will be on the
air around 9 or 10 Eastern and go until the big
celebration over there in Westchester, Ohio at
6 p .m. Eastern time. So be sure to listen for
WC8VOA on Saturday and you can work the 75th
anniversary celebration station over at the Voice
of America Museum. If you missed that show, you
can listen to us at HamTalkLive .com anytime
or you can catch us on one of those podcast apps
like Apple Podcasts or Stitcher, Google Play,
TuneIn, SoundCloud. We're also over on YouTube.
We're on Overcast and some others as well. So
pick out your favorite app. Chances are we are
there. And we're on iHeart Media as well on iHeart
Podcasts. So just a quick update on a couple
of things. First of all, the hurricane nets,
they are stood down. There's still a lot of health
and welfare stuff going on. So keep an eye on
that and you can find those resources out there.
on the internet pretty easily for some of the
health and welfare stuff coming out of the Caribbean
especially. And special event station W7NTV is
the National Tribal Emergency Management Association.
their amateur radio association and they're at
an emergency management conference at the Tai
Chi Palace Casino and Resort in Lemoore, California
and they've been on since the 18th and they will
finish things up tomorrow. So make sure you look
for them on 20 meters and on 40 meters. They
are posting frequencies and times on their Facebook
page. That's the NTARA, National Tribal Amateur
Radio Association. Right now they're on 14 dot
two four five so after the show you can look
over there and see if they're still there they've
been hanging around fourteen dot two three five
but right now they're on two four five so give
them a listen And I think that's all the updates
we have for you. So I'll come back. We'll talk
to Scott about some things. And then we will
take your calls after the interview. You can
give us a call. And I'll go ahead and give you
the phone number to call. It's 812 -NET -HAM
-1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Or you can Skype us
at HamTalk Live. You can also tweet us anytime.
Our Twitter handle is... is at HamTalk Live,
but I'll let you know when it's time to call.
We're gonna talk to Scott first and then we'll
take your calls live. So I'll be back right after
this 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
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ham, all the time. HamTalk Live. I'd like to
thank Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics for
helping to bring HamTalk Live your way this evening.
They're going to be in Cedarburg, Wisconsin this
weekend. And then Saturday, October 7th, they'll
be in Belton, Texas. And October 13th and 14th,
they'll be down in Melbourne, Florida. Or you
can give them a phone call, 920 -435 -2973, or
catch them at their website PL -259 .com. Tell
them you heard it on HamTalk Live. We're here
every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time
at HamTalkLive .com. Scott Westerman, W9WSW resides
in East Lansing, Michigan where he is an Associate
Vice President of Alumni Relations and Executive
Director of the Michigan State University Alumni
Association. Scott spent 32 years as a broadcaster,
corporate executive and entrepreneur after graduating
from Michigan State. Scott is actively engaged
with the Michigan State University Amateur Radio
Club W8SH and is the chair of the ARRL Public
Relations Committee. He's also been a technical
coordinator for the New Mexico section of the
ARRL. Scott was licensed in 1982 and he is the
social media director for the upcoming Great
Lakes HamCon that we'll be talking about. So
Scott, welcome to HamTalk Live. Neil it's great
to be with you. You read that just exactly the
way I wrote it. Thank you very much. Yeah Well,
it's it's a pleasure to have you on and I Feel
like after reading that that that I should play
the Michigan State fight song here But I figured
that would be a copyright violation. So I didn't
I didn't pull out my copy of the fight song It's
no copyright violation, but I hear that often.
So it's okay to go an evening without it. Every
time there's a touchdown, here comes another.
Michigan State fight song play so yeah I do some
sports announcing and with doing high schools
you know they always steal all the college fight
songs so I have a collection of all of you know
the major college fight songs so I do actually
have a copy of it but Well, anyway, tonight we're
here to talk about ham radio. So let's do that.
And since you work every day promoting Michigan
State and the alumni and working with people
every day, you spend a lot of time promoting
things and relating with the public. And you
also spend a lot of time promoting ham radio.
So let's talk a little bit about public relations
and how you can Get the word out on on ham radio
and maybe your local club and and Kind of spread
the word about ham radio Well, I mean it all
it really public relations is is simply the narrative,
right? So the first thing you need to think about
is what is your narrative and for every club
it's a little bit different because every club
has its own personality and its own membership
and its own culture. And one of the things that
translated very well for me from my day job to
Ham Radio is the whole notion of the club structure.
Because we at Michigan State, the Alumni Association,
have over 140 clubs worldwide. And no two are
the same. But the narrative we try and work with
is very similar. So when we're thinking about
what the value of ham radio is the kind of the
old saw that we've always used is when all else
fails were there. And we have a lot of really
neat examples of that, especially now, when the
infrastructure fails. For example, today, Carl
Berry, Kilo Charlie 5, Charlie Mike x -ray, set
up a website which is kilo golf, kilo for golf,
Sierra Oscar dash us. And what that does is that
takes the current technologies of a website and
allows you to put a message if you're looking
for somebody or want to get a message to somebody
in Puerto Rico or any of the other disaster areas
where the infrastructure is currently down, he
will make sure that gets into the national traffic
system. So that's an interesting piece of the
emergency communications narrative but there
are several others that that i think work equally
well and it depends again on the second piece
of this public relations uh puzzle which is what
what is your audience right so neil for guys
like you and me that have been around a while
there are certain things that we're interested
in right and that's the typical club stuff but
the next generation that we're trying to attract
may not be interested in that. And so that's
where the opportunity to think about what it
is that your audience is interested in and how
do they like to consume information. So, for
example, at our club, we do an awful lot with
the maker movement. We hold our meetings in the
maker space. We align with the various maker
organizations around town because that's where
we find the new hams. That's, in essence, what
we were when you and I, when you got, I think
you were licensed around, let's see, if you were
five, so that'd be 1975, right? 76. 76 around
the same time I was and back then we were still
building things and it was still cool to use
a foam patch and all that kind of stuff and That's
in essence what the maker guys are doing now
So when you think about that demographic the
Millennials and some of the younger folks, that's
what they're interested in so part of the secret
of public relations is number one figuring out
what your narrative it is and then figuring out
the the network that you want to use to get it
to them. For example, we think that websites,
guys our age still think websites are pretty
cool, but there are a lot of clubs out there
in my world that don't have a website that exists
primarily on Facebook and Twitter because that's
where their members are. So part of what you
need to do in the club world is figure out how
your your folks like to be communicated with.
Our students, for example, Neil, don't open email
anymore. If you want to talk to a student, you
got to text them, right? So that's all about
mine. Mine are even getting away from from texting.
And I went to Twitter because they were on Twitter.
Now they've left that. Now it's Snapchat. Everybody
on Snapchat. Because they think it disappears.
They don't realize you can screenshot all that
and keep it forever just like anything else.
But that's what we've got to do. We have to be
out on the cutting edge. And one of the most
interesting things for me about the most recent
hurricane adventures is the emergence of Zello
as a communications app. And some of my more
seasoned amateur radio buddies say, well, that's
not ham radio. But it is what we do. Because
after all, What my narrative is for amateur radio,
and I think it's a very powerful narrative, is
that we're the communication and technology specialists.
It doesn't matter what the platform is, we know
how to utilize it to make sure that the message
gets through. Some of this, I've actually had
a couple of conversations with the folks that
were running the hurricane Irma Zello net because
they wanted to talk about, okay, so how do you
guys really handle a net control situation? Right.
And there may or may not be a call sign in involved,
but there are amateur radio guys involved. And
at the end of the day, that's what we really
need to, that's where our value add is. We're
the experts in technology and communication.
Absolutely. And, uh, There's there's all kinds
of things. In fact, I got an email or tweet this
week from somebody saying that they were doing
some GMRS cross -platform things with with hams
and and trying to get you know something out
there with the GMRS that's a little more Steered,
you know toward the public and although a lot
of people don't realize you're supposed to have
a license for that But but there's some interoperability
that that's going on over on GMRS and I'd never
heard of it before so we're gonna look into it
a little bit, but There's all kinds of app opportunities
and that the app The Zillow app, I know, I think
it even got overloaded with a lot of things going
on here in the last couple of weeks with all
the hurricanes. Well, that's exactly right. If
you look up radiorelay .org, that's a group founded
by fans of the National Traffic System, and they
actually created a guide for people who own GMRS
or FRS rigs on how to use them to summon help.
and they set out a system where you make your
call for the first five to eight minutes at the
top of the hour and then you listen to tell you
how to conserve your power and how to, basically
setting up a protocol very much like we do so
naturally at Amateur Radio. So I think that's
part of the value we add, right, is we can train
these folks in how to use their technology. And
then... what naturally kind of happens. I'm sure
this happened for you, right? I mean, there's
somewhere out there, there was an Elmer that
kept you interested from the time you got your
license till the time you decided this was going
to be not just a hobby, but an essential avocation
for you. And then that's kind of what we do best
is like that. So I was, I was really glad to
see radio relay .org put out a manual for GMRS
folks and how they can use their stuff to summon
help. Yeah. And you know, I just, found out on
on facebook here actually um that one of my former
ham radio students was lost in a cave for three
days and what wait a minute here how did that
happen of course he didn't have a radio with
him uh but You know, they finally, you know,
organized a search and they found him. But, you
know, these kinds of things happen. And, you
know, there's all kinds of possibilities there,
you know, and ham radio is definitely one of
those avenues, but there's several out there.
And, like you said, you get the message across
of how to handle the traffic and how to handle
the flow. And of course, we want to use, you
know, ham radio stuff to do that with. But, you
know, in an emergency situation, you know, we
may need to use more than that. Yeah, the platform
doesn't matter at the end of the day. It's the
people behind the platform. And the great thing
about our essential avocation is that we spend
a lot of time encouraging people to get trained.
Right. So one of the first things I did when
I was licensed was I went to Skywarn training
and I was assigned my bridge down near Roseville
in Metro Detroit. And every time there would
be a watch that looked like it was going to go
to warning. I went to my bridge and I looked
for circulation in that cumulonimbus cloud that
was supposedly coming over. And that's that's
the value that we can add. If you look at a lot
of organizations at Michigan State University,
we have a C .E .R. RT team. And there are some
ham radio guys on there. But the ham radio knowledge
and technology and the ability to train is, I
think, one of our strongest suits. And it is
interesting because what tends to happen, I think,
to a lot of us after time goes by is that we
kind of latch on to a certain dimension of the
hobby. One of the things that's so great about
this hobby, Neil, is there's something for everyone.
There's a wide array of things you could do with
ham radio that it's very easy to find something
you're interested in. But as you grow older,
you get hooked on CW like some guys do, or some
guys are DMR, D -Star guys, or some guys are
satellite guys, like my good friend KX9X, Sean
Kutsko. And you end up wanting to do specifically
that. And then that's where I think you get into
some trouble because then you begin to think,
well, this is what ham radio is. So for example,
when somebody gets a license, the first thing
I tell them to do before they even go out and
buy a radio is I tell them to go get the echo
link app for their phone and start talking to
people there. The key is to find ways to keep
them engaged and excited about it. And from a
public relations perspective, that's the challenge
that we have is how do we tell those stories,
right? Because it's the stories that really excite
people about the hobby. Absolutely and and you
know and even as a teacher that that's that's
chemistry even you know it's storytelling and
and you got it you have to get those those stories
in there to get the get the attention of them
and and and get in there and and and get them
excited about something and get them interested
in one of the things that I talk about a lot
is listening to drive -up headsets they have
no idea that you could actually listen to you
know Drive -up headset at McDonald's and it's
like oh you can do that It's like yeah, you know
and Thursdays after school we have him radio
club come join us and and it works See that's
fascinating that's the stuff I love because there's
always somebody somebody out there figuring something
out I have sitting next to me a Kenwood tk820
formerly a business band repeater that I've repurposed
for a 77 centimeter repeater and it is controlled
by a Raspberry Pi which is using the asterisk
all -star image and of course I had some Elmer's
that helped me figure out how to do that but
that thing you know it has you can connect to
any all -star echo link node with that thing
using DTMF You can do it from an IXRPT phone
on your computer. It has the weather at the bottom
of the hour. I connect to the Insomniac's Net
every morning at 2 a .m. and to the Good Morning
Net every day at 10. It does everything that
that controller we used to pay $2 ,500 or $3
,000 for does. And it was some guy that figured
out how to put it on a $25 item. So that's that's
what I really love about this hobby. It's just
there's just so many dimensions and for a guy
like me that has a very short attention span
there's always something new and shiny I could
play with. Oh yeah absolutely. Well let's talk
a little bit about what the league is doing.
You're the chair of the public relations committee
and so tell us some of the things that the the
league is doing to help promote ham radio. Well,
I mean the most exciting thing that's going on
right now and that the league now that and Pota
is over I think the national parks on the air
thing that Sean and Norm Fusaro came up with
it HQ was probably the most exciting thing that's
happened Oh since there were sunspots the last
decent sunspot cycle we had There were so many
people that were involved in that last year and
there was just so much fun. So many new friendships
were made. New stars emerged in the hobby. That
was really an out of the park home run for the
league. And one of the things that Tom Gallagher,
our CEO, started to think about is how can we
engage the collegiate audience? So he came up
with the Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative.
And there is a Facebook page for that. And there's
a dedicated group of a growing number of groups
that represent ham radio clubs at the college
level across the country. Some that had been
dormant for many years that are coming back,
some that are legendary, like W1YU, the Yale
University group that's got a net every Tuesday
night. And they're all coming together and talking
about how to excite the next generation about
amateur radio and that's been great fun for me
because what it's helped me do is to research
What the things are that are out there? that
really make for revitalizing a college ham club.
And if you go to my website, W9WSW .com and scroll
down a little bit, you'll see that revitalizing
your college ham club. And I got about two dozen
ideas that I picked up along the way, many of
which we've used at the MSU Amateur Radio Club,
which can work to get people excited about the
hobby and get things organized and get things
going. And the best thing about it, Neil, is
it really can be used beyond the collegiate level
and you can plug it in basically to any club
that's out there. And if you use some of those
ideas, you can't help but get people excited
about it. One of the things that we do at Michigan
State is on game day, we attach an APRS beacon
to our mascot. Sparty is the world's most well
-known college mascot, and you can follow Sparty
wherever he is on game day by going to aprs .fi
and looking at uh whiskey nine mike sierra uniform
w8 msu whiskey eight mike sierra uniform slash
13 and you'll see that's exactly where sparty
is so that's just one example of many things
that you can do at the collegiate level to get
people excited but also translates real well
no matter what department of ham radio you're
really working on so you you heard it here on
ham talk live if you if you're michigan state
fan you want to get a picture with sparty All
he got to do is pull up a PRS People have done
that very thing I you know, I've seen guys that
have come up to me and they're waving their their
HT in their hands and they're saying this is
how I found you That's great that is great I
love it. Well, we've got to take a break here
soon, but I know we wanted take at least a couple
of minutes here to talk about another event that
you're associated with, you're promoting, and
that's a new convention up in Michigan. It's
the Great Lakes HamCon coming up soon. So take
a couple of minutes and fill us in on what's
going on with HamCon. Well, I'm really excited
about Great Lakes Ham Con, because in essence,
it's the latest startup in amateur radio ham
fest. We have this fantastic venue, the Michigan
International Speedway. There are no races going
on that weekend, so it's all ours. The flea market
is going to be on pit road. We have a special
event station that's going to be in one of the
garages. The league is sending out representation.
Rick Roderick's gonna be our keynote speaker.
We got Carol Perry, the legendary Youth Forums
person that's coming. We have a few vendors.
There's so much going on surrounding our date
that many of the major vendors who will be with
us next time around. can't make it because they're
still unpacking from Pacificon and that kind
of stuff. But we're really excited about this
as a festival that we think will grow. We have
representatives from the Dayton Hamvention coming
up. We got people from Orlando Hamcation that
are going to be there. And we expect we're going
to have right around 1 ,000 people show up for
this first time. And if we do, that'll be a success
and we'll break even. So the date is October
7th and 8th. And it's going to be at the Michigan
International Speedway in Brooklyn. We got hotel
discounts in Jackson. We have a ton of great
camping. This is a NASCAR event. So you know
they do the camping stuff really well. And we
got the banquet. We're doing a woof -ong. We're
doing the whole nine yards. And you can learn
all about it at glhamcon .org. GL for Great Lakes,
hamcon .org. sounds on the uh... p a of warm
you know make people feel like you know they're
there at the speedway or you know what i had
not thought about that deal i think that's a
great idea yeah normally at a race to have a
bit of a NASCAR but you can hear a darn thing
it's really well uh... so it's it's going to
be uh... at the the venue itself is going to
be so much fun because we'll have the whole infield
One of the things that Dayton guys are very interested
on is figuring out how to make it so that the
flea market's not so muddy at Xenia. And at MIS,
it's all asphalt. So we guarantee that even if
it were to rain, you're going to have a perfect
place for your flea market. But it's going to
be great fun. We're looking forward to it. Now,
I got to throw this out there, OK? If it's NASCAR,
you know what's going to come up? after they
go down the straightaway, it's another left turn.
And what comes up next? Oh, it's another left
turn. So does that mean that if you drive those
little scooters around at the Hamfest, you can
only turn left? Yeah, that's great. Well, we
won't restrict people from turning left. We'll
make it very easy for you to do it if you want
to. Oh, it's another left turn. All right. Well,
we're going to take a break, we're going to come
back and we'll take your calls and we may talk
a little more about Michigan State and the collegiate
initiative and all that kind of thing, but we'll
give you a chance to call in and that phone number
is 812 -NET -HAM -1, 812 -638 -4261 and we'll
be back after we pay a bill or two and take your
calls after this from the Ham Station right here
on HamTalk Live. This episode of HamTalk Live
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-NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now here's
more HamTalk Live. All right, well it's still
buy your husband a ham radio month according
to Twitter So give ham station a call at eight
hundred seven two nine forty three seventy three
or go to hamstation .com and and you know, leave
that web page up and intentionally open maybe
maybe you know, maybe buy you a new radio. You
never know. Be sure to listen to HamTalk Live
every Thursday night, 9 p .m. Eastern Time at
HamTalkLive .com. Check out our Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. Just search HamTalk Live. You'll
find us. And it's time for your call. So if you
have a question for Scott about public relations,
about the Great Lakes HamCon or the college initiative,
any of those things, give us a call right now.
And our number is 81263. 8 4 2 6 1 that spells
out 8 1 2 net ham one or you can just Skype us
just look for ham talk live on Skype you can
find us there or you can tweet us if you're too
Mike shy you can give us a tweet and that's at
ham talk live as well so give us a call 812 net
ham one is the number. Now let's follow up a
little bit more on this ham con thing because
we cut that a little short. You know, you said
my friend Carol's coming to do some some youth
stuff and you've got some of the people coming
from Dayton and Orlando and that kind of thing
and so what are some of the Some of the other
events that are going on there at ham con and
and fill us in a little bit more on on that Well,
we have a full slate of forums that are going
on and this way it's gonna be very similar to
what you experience when you go to a place like
Dayton or Orlando. You know, we have my good
friend Dan Romanchek is going to be there with
his technician license in a day class if you
want to get licensed for the first time. Whatever
the area of amateur radio that you're interested
in, we've probably got a forum for you from DX
to YL, the contesting and propagation, kit building,
fox hunting, QRP, you name it. And several of
the area clubs are actually using that venue
for an opportunity for a club meeting. So it's
going to feel very much like one of the majors
in that space. I mean, the main thing that I'm
trying to make sure that people realize is that
this is a startup. We have some angel investors
that are helping us get off the ground, and this
is going to be the first year. We'll have our
bumps and stuff like that. But the great thing
about it is that both the Great Lakes Amateur
Radio Association, which is the group behind
this, and MIS are in this for the long haul.
And we're going to take what we learn and make
it better with every passing year. We are accessible.
You were talking about scooters turning left.
We do have scooters available there. So if getting
around is a challenge for you, we'll make it
very easy for you. Great, great camping opportunities.
Some of the best, I think, anywhere. So you can
actually, and of course, the hotel rates in our
part of Michigan are very, very reasonable. So
you can get there for relatively inexpensively,
and it won't cost you a whole lot. And there
will be a lot to do while you're there. All right.
Sounds like a great time. And like you said,
first year is always figuring out stuff. But
it sounds like, like I said, you've got a commitment
for the long haul, and it's just going to get
better. So it sounds like a great time. So make
sure you check that out. And that website, again,
is glhamcon .org. GL for Great Lakes and then
hamcon .org and everything that you could ever
want to know about about it is listed over there
in great detail We're also on Facebook and Twitter
by the way under GL hamcon for late updates as
they say in the radio business Alright, very
good. So check that out and if you can make it
up there why sounds like a great time. 812 -638
-4261 is the Teleo phone number. 812 -NET -HAM
-1 is how you spell that out or Skype us or tweet
us and we'd love to hear from you right now and
ask questions here with Scott Westerman W9WSW
who's joining us. Talking a little public relations
tonight and a little bit about the Michigan State
Amateur Radio Club and the Great Lakes Ham Con.
So give us a call 812 -638 -4261. Okay, so while
we're waiting here, let's get back to the college
initiative a little bit. kind of in the same
kind of thing where we do it at high school level,
but we're always trying to recruit new members
and trying to get people engaged. So tell us
a little bit about what the club there at Michigan
State is doing to kind of work with that college
initiative and how you're trying to grow the
club there at W8SH. Well, MSUARC .com is our
website for MSU Amateur Radio. We have a very
robust presence on Facebook and Twitter and that's
that's you know Kind of a common theme that I'll
be repeating is that you really need to have
an outpost Wherever you think your membership
is And the kind of stuff that we've been doing
over the last few years at Emma at the MSU amateur
radio club It's been fun and is really easily
translatable beyond chasing Sparty around We
had a couple of years ago, we did a special event
station for every home game with customized QSL
cards for each of those games. And you could
collect the whole set by making a contact for
every one of those games. And if you got them
all, we would send you a poster into which you
could place those cards. They had specific spaces.
And that was a lot of fun. That generated a lot
of interest. Oh, I love that idea. The other
thing is to is to think about how you make your
shack state -of -the -art. That's really really
important Dave Sumner K1 ZZ went to Michigan
State and he's not even from the state of Michigan
But he came to MSU because back when he was around
was was hamming The coolest thing out there was
the Collins s line and we had one we had that
set up at the station. So now what our Philanthropic
members are doing is they're helping us get the
state -of -the -art stuff. So we've got a we've
got a flex in the in the student in this in the
shack and we also have something really fun which
is we've got a Kenwood 480 that is connected
to a remote rig setup so if you're a student
you can take a control head in a remote rig with
you anywhere on campus and use the campus Wi
-Fi and actually connect to the base unit, which
is located in the shack, and you can operate.
So imagine if you want to take that control head
back to your dorm room and do some hamming from
back there, or it's very easy for us, for example,
to set up a special event station anywhere on
campus without having to worry about moving the
antennas and all that stuff. So those kind of
things are important. I think the most important
thing, Neil, is programming. you really need
to make sure that your club meetings have topics
of interest that are going to make people want
to come and check it out. And that requires some
thought. It can't just be the latest build night
or something like that. You really need to think
about how you can get some rock stars. So think
about getting Tamitha Scove to talk about a propagation
on Skype with you for one night. We have a guy
who is heavily into DMR that brought 13 different
digital radios to show us and took us right back
to the very beginning of how digital communication
started to happen, how it happens commercially
and in the ham world. And that was fascinating.
That brought you a bunch of people. And use your
resources. For example, we have an AM and FM
and a TV station on campus. And later this month,
we're doing a behind the scenes tour of the facilities
there because they are absolutely state of the
art. So those kind of things from a programming
perspective are really, really important. Another
thing to think about is how you can interconnect
with other college ham clubs. And that's where
the N1YR Weekly All -Star EchoLink Net, the Collegiate
Ham Radio Net, which happens Tuesday nights at
8 p .m. Eastern, is really a great place to make
new friends because there are other folks in
the collegiate world that have the same interests
and you're able to broaden your reach even if
you don't necessarily have a critical mass of
members there. So those are a few of the things
to think about from a social media perspective.
The real key is to make sure that your social
media accounts have personality. One of the things
that I love about the way you do what you do,
Neil, is your personality exudes everywhere that
you are on the web. We know all about you and
all about the things that makes you such a great
hamster, such a great guy, right? And that's
why people tune into your show, because they
tune in for the personality and the conversation.
So as you're thinking about your social media
presence, Give some personality to that and have
an interactive relationship So be if you're gonna
do for example Twitter monitor that Twitter feed
and when somebody Retweets you or makes a comment
talk back to them engagement conversation the
minute I saw that you would you would post it
about my joining you on the show I made sure
that all of our social media channels at Michigan
State and everybody that I knew knew about that.
And the great thing about that is they speak
in their own voice to their own audience. So
it's a very important thing to think about as
you're communicating is that each medium has
its own cultural language, right? So what you
say on Facebook is different than what you say
on Twitter. Absolutely, it is. And, but your
personality needs to shine through there. They
need to know who you are and why it's important
that they want to make you their friend. And,
and mascots help too. So you've got, you've got
Sparty, I've got Hammy. Yeah, right. Exactly.
I've got Hammy, you know, maybe we need to put
APRS on Hammy. Well, it's, it's, it's real easy
to do. I mean, basically what you, what you do
is you find one of the, uh, the HTs that has
APRS built in. Program your SS ID for whatever
you want and and stick it on the guys belt and
wherever they go You'll be able to find them.
We actually have an eye gate on campus so it's
very easy for even very low power signals to
get out into the You know the digital atmosphere
over the in the cloud as they say And that works.
That's fun stuff. Use APRS, for example, to help
people find you if you're doing a special event
station somewhere on campus. Do that as well.
The other thing to do is to think about other
platforms. One of the things we do at Michigan
State is we have a Google map where you can self
pin your tailgate location. So if you want Sparty
and his appers radio to come your way, you can
just put your pin down and say, this is where
I'm going to be when I'm going to be there. Same
things work with APRS for amateur radio guys.
Very good. And I love the remote through the
Wi -Fi. When I was in school at the University
of Southern Indiana, W9MOK, our station was literally
in a mop closet. That's where the radios were.
And a lot of the radios, you know, really got
a lot of damage from the humidity and then all
the contacts were always, you know, messed up
and everything. But we were literally stuck in
a mop closet. It was the only place we could
get with, you know, access to the tower and everything.
And, you know, it was an ordeal to get there.
you know, the remote and you can be back in your
dorm room or, you know, back in your apartment
or whatever, and just hop on there, you know,
the possibilities are endless. Well, when you
think about the creativity of the current crop
of college kids, there's a lot of ways to do
it. You don't have to buy a remote rig in a 480.
If you have Ham Radio Deluxe running any of your
rigs and you want to set up a remote control
application like TeamViewer or something like
that to be able to give people access to it,
it's possible to set up a user list based upon
your membership where you can do what in essence
is going on right now at remotehamradio .com,
right? A lot of us got booked on remote ham radio
during Epota. Right. And that costs money, but
it doesn't have to cost money at your school.
If you want to set up a ham radio deluxe with
a remote control, you can do it that way too.
Yeah. Now we've got an ICOM 7300 and we've just
bought the software for it. And so we can remote
from my classroom and remote around, but I haven't
been able to get the IT guys to let us through
the firewall yet. So we're going to have to.
That's a challenge, isn't it? Yes, that's the
big challenge. Do you have a ham net mesh thing
going on where you live? No, we don't have any
mesh that I know of anyway. That's another interesting
thing wouldn't surprise me I mean one of the
things that that our double e guys are doing
is they're actually building and a ham ham net
mesh overlay as kind of a backup to the university's
Wi -Fi and it's totally You know unique and separate.
It's all solar powered. So it's always available
and What we hope to be able to do is actually
interconnect it We have a backbone that goes
around the state a microwave backbone that one
of our guys got some Homeland Security money
for and that's all ham that stuff So, uh, depending
upon the thing that I love about this hobby is
it's only limited by your imagination and your
energy. Any idea that you have, you can make
real with hamburger. I'm going to have to cut
you off there, Scott, but well said. And so,
uh, seven threes to everybody and seven to five,
may the good DX be yours next week. We're talking
about handy hams. Lucinda Moody, a, eight, AB
eight WF will be here. So, uh, be sure to tune
in then. So seven three for now.