This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For cables, connectors
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hamstation .com. everyone it's time for ham talk
live episode number 76 the 2017 Huntsville ham
fest preview recorded live on Thursday August
10th 2017 I'm your host Neil Rapp WB9VPG thanks
for tuning in to yet another episode of ham talk
live tonight we're joined by Dave Gibbons K5RSI
and he's the chairman of the Huntsville HamFest
and we will take your calls live in just a few
minutes. Last week the Ham Band was here to talk
about their music and the OZ5E contest station
and if you missed the show you can listen anytime
at HamTalkLive .com or on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher,
iHeart Radio, Google Play, TuneIn, SoundCloud,
or on YouTube. We encourage you to do that. They
were really good. So get all your questions ready
to go. After the introduction, you can give us
a call. The phone number that you will call at
that point is 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638
-4261, or you can Skype us. We're at HamTalk
Live. You can also tweet us a question and our
Twitter handle is at HamTalk Live. So hope you'll
join in and comment and question Dave about the
Huntsville Ham Fest coming up in just another
few days. So I'll be back with Dave right after
this word from the ham station right here. on
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Neil Rapp with more Ham Talk Live. Welcome back
to HamTalk Live. Hey, the HamStation. Got Kenwood,
Icom, Yezu, you name it, they've got it. New
equipment, used equipment, give Dan or Jeff a
call at 800 -729 -4373 or you can visit them
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it on HamTalk Live. We're on the air every Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Eastern time. Right here at
HamTalkLive .com and if you missed the show Why
we're on those podcasts so you can catch us on
your favorite podcast app Dave Given's K5RSI
was first licensed as KN5RSI back in July 1958.
He upgraded to conditional a year later with
the call sign changed to K5RSI. After earning
a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering
from Mississippi State, In 1964 he briefly held
the call signed W4PFK in Gadsden, Alabama from
1966 to 1969 and then went back to his current
call K5RSI when he went to advanced class and
finally extra in 1975. Dave has served as the
flea market chairman of the Huntsville Hamfest
for many years. before relinquishing that responsibility
to assist the chairman. And with the chairman
becoming silent key, David stepped in to be this
year's chairman. So Dave, welcome to Hand Talk
Live. Yeah, thanks for having me, Neil. Yeah,
well, it's hard to think about the Huntsville
Hand Fest without talking about the former chairman
Charlie Emerson in for OKL who was the chairman
for the last several years and was on the show
with us last year and he became a silent key
in January and I had the honor of doing one of
the stories bearing that sad news for amateur
radio news line along with Don Wilbanks, 85DW
and so Before we get started in the Hamfest,
let's take a couple of minutes. Just tell me
a little bit about what Charlie meant to you
and to the Hamfest. Well, Charlie was a unique
person. He had the gift of gab like you wouldn't
believe. And if you got to know him, you had
a friend for life. He could really roll on the
BS. and just get people to feel good about themselves.
And having a ham fest, and especially during
move in and move out, you know, tense situations
always arise. And Charlie was the best I have
ever seen in defusing tense situations with just
a few kind of words. And he was just that sort
of person. He loved the hustle ham fest, although
when he got started, he wasn't so sure. I'll
tell you a little story about that. When he retired,
he took a job down at civic center, just kind
of as a part time to have a little play money.
And he happened to be on duty the weekend. I
guess it must've been back in around 2000 or
1999. He was on duty when we were having a ham
fest. And he became very interested in it and
wanted to know what all was going on. And at
that time, I'm not sure he actually had his license
or not. I know he worked CB for quite a while
before that. Anyway, our chairman noticed his
interest and he latched on to Charlie right away.
And Charlie began helping us with the ham fest.
He assisted the chairman and learned the ropes
as things went along. And then in 2000, And nine,
the original chairman passed away. And so Charlie
took it on his own and he had it by himself.
But by that time, he knew all the ropes. And
just from his personality, he visited a lot of
other hamfests. He could talk to you about anything.
I teased him a lot, saying that he could talk
more than anybody I've ever heard and not seen.
But that was the way he was. And everybody liked
that. So he really helped the ham fest and he
helped put us on a spur of growth that we've
grown to what we are today. Right now the attendance
runs between five and six thousand. Closer to
six thousand because I bought six thousand buttons
this year and we don't expect to have any left
over. But Charlie was one of a kind and we're
gonna miss him. I just hope he guides us as we
go on and I know I'll think about him every day.
I'm sure that a lot of the things that he put
in place there at the Hamfest and in the Huntsville
area will remain going for quite some time and
I always enjoyed talking to him and being able
to have him on this show and talk about what
was coming up was always a fun thing to do and
so we're looking forward to this year's HamFest
and so now that Charlie's gone you've got a team
working hard to make that legacy continue. So
tell us about some of those changes that have
taken place and some of the new things that we'll
be seeing this year at Huntsville. Well, when
Charlie passed, me and Art Davis realized that
it was up to us to put the show on. See, Art
and I started about and back in early 80s. He
always did the dealer show and I always did the
front. So that's what, like I told you earlier,
it's been a trail of discovery for me to find
out just what all had to be done, stuff that
I'd not normally have been associated with. So
I've been very busy. Arts is still handling the
dealers. And Art always did the dealer layout,
or for that matter, he did the home show layout,
the dealers and the flea market. So he's just
continuing in that role. But we decided that
Charlie was doing way too much stuff on his own,
or not on his own, but by himself. And so what
we decided to do, we're trying to cultivate a
new chairman. We got a guy on board. He was very
gung -ho. He was a lot younger than we are. And
he just wants to put on a good hand vest. And
that's what everybody's goal was. And I think
that's why we work so good together. But we're
bringing him on board. We sent him to Dayton
and to Orlando this year to be our spokesman.
See, that's where a lot of people saw Charlie.
He would always go down to Orlando. press the
flesh with all the dealers and whoever he could
talk to and he did the same thing at Dayton.
And the guy we're bringing on board witnessed
all that so he knows what the routine is and
he's wanting to get involved in it so we're going
to take him as his word. But we're also going
to encourage him to spread some of the workout
and not have one person doing all the mailing
and the printing. and the finances and the dealers
and stuff like that. And so we're going to spread
that out and hopefully make it a little bit easier.
See, I'm not getting any older and that's the
reason I turned the flea market over to a younger
person. I really did it to give Charlie a hand
because at that time he was having some back
problems and I was afraid he was going to wind
up in a wheelchair. So by 2016, I had handed
the flea market off to another fellow, and I
helped Charlie last year. Lo and behold, I didn't
know it was going to end this way. But we're
going to have a ham fest. We don't plan on changing
anything. We're trying very, very hard to keep
everything the same. We don't want to surprise
people. You know, when you make major changes,
it's when people see that, And they're always
used to being one way. And they say, oh, something's
changed. Maybe they're going downhill, and word
will spread like wildfire. And we don't want
that to happen. It will. It will, whether it's
true or not. Right. So we plan on keeping everything
the same. And any changes that will be made will
be behind the scenes that the public wants to
see. Although we may make some improvements at
the public, we'll see, and we're looking for
that, too. We've got plenty of space in that
civic center to expand. We could almost double
the size of the ham fed. The only thing we're
fighting now is rising costs. You know, everything's
going up. And there's been more demand on the
civic center for more and more conventions. And
we've been... We've been fighting off groups
anywhere from these civil groups all the way
from the Army. The Army is a big presence in
this town, and whenever they want something,
they pretty well get it. Up until this year,
there's always been a missile and space defense
program down there. they were moving out on Friday
while we were trying to move in on Friday and
you can and they were using the same space that
we're we are moving into so you can imagine the
conflict and the congestion but this year they're
not doing it this year they've already had their
program and I hope they choose that weekend or
that time rather than the weekend right before
I or the week right before I am fit so we are
We're looking for a big year, and we just hope
that this coming eclipse is not going to hurt
us too bad. I know the forum chairman said that
some of the big forum presenters are not coming
this year because of their involvement with the
solar eclipse. And, of course, they're going
to have totality right up here in Nashville,
which is only 90 miles away. So a lot of them
are not coming to our fest this year, I guess,
you know, to get ready for that. Yeah, Eclipse
Mania is definitely hit, but that's not until
Monday. So we've got time to get to the ham fest
and get home and then partake in the eclipse
and maybe even the QSO party after the ham fest
is over. Uh, plenty of opportunities there and
yeah, I hope, uh, hope the, uh, um, scheduling
at the Vaughn Braun center is, is, uh, better,
uh, with that other group moving and the Vaughn
Braun center is, is, is something that's very
unique. And we were talking before the show,
um, that, you know, I used to run a small ham
fest down in, uh, Evansville, Indiana at about
500 people. um and you know the facility was
always the issue was trying to find a facility
that was affordable but yet big enough and had
enough access and and everything at Huntsville
uh just works so smoothly um in the Vaughan Braun
Center because you've got the the parking right
underneath you've got Uh, plenty of room, plenty
of facilities. It's well maintained. And, um,
and like you said, there's, there's room for
growth. And that's something that a lot of ham
fest don't have is they don't have room for growth
given what they can afford. And I've just been
always so impressed with. the Vaughan Braun Center
and how that really makes a good hamfest. Well
let me tell you a funny story about the Vaughan
Braun Center, Neil. That place has beaucoup of
floor space and they can have like four or five
major events on the same day. But a few years
ago, We were sitting down with the defense chairman
and planning the ham fest and talking about this,
that, and the other. And we were discussing cost.
And the event coordinator said, well, let me
tell you something, says Boeing has a big contingency
of folks here. They do work out on the arsenal
for the Army and for NASA. The event coordinator
at the BBC said that Boeing wanted to put on
some military hardware show and that they had
sent their event coordinator from Seattle down
to Huntsville to make plans and talk with the
Civic Center and make plans for the show and
to see what the Civic Center here could provide.
so forth and so on. And the BBC coordinator said
that they got down to security. And the Boeing
guy asked how much for an armed security guard.
And the BBC guy said, well, it'll be this much.
And the Boeing guy asked him that much for one
guard. He said, yes. the Boeing guy said well
in that case I'll have 40 and The BBC event coordinator
said I got the idea right then that we weren't
charging No boy being a big company like they
are they had fixed budgets for these kinds of
show and that guy had to spend the budget Although
our next year may not have enough so he signed
up for 40 40 security guards. I've looked in
one every 10 feet. Let's see, that's the problem.
The Civic Center has got an idea now that their
space is worth more. Of course, Huntsville is
growing like crazy. There's metropolitan area
now. They're supposed to have many people. And
we've got all these aerospace and all these military
companies down here. It's getting to the point
where just about every weekend, and even during
the week, there's some event going on down there.
So we're having to compete with that. We've hung
on to our weekend. It's always the third full
weekend in August. And it's been that ever since
day one. And so far, we've been able to hang
on to that weekend. It's our opinion that to
have a good Hanfest, you have to have one good
date. that you don't compete with a lot of people,
and you have to have a good space to do it in.
When I was doing the flea market, I would get
a lot of calls from people saying, well, y 'all
don't have any boneyard. I said, no, it's all
inside an air -conditioned comfort. You drive
in and unload, and then when it's over, you drive
in and load out. He said, well, but y 'all ought
to have some outside boneyard. I asked him, I
said, well, have you ever been to Alabama in
August? A lot of those people say, well, now
I have. Now you know why it's all inside. So
when they get out in here, they appreciate the
air -conditioned comfort that the whole show
is in. Yeah, it's a really, really great facility
and being able to just walk across the walkway
over to The hotel and then a couple other hotels
nearby just Just a real real nice way to go to
a ham fest and you can easily stash your stuff
in the hotel room and run back and get more and
I've always really enjoyed that. That's something
that I don't know of any other ham fest that
has that kind of close accessibility to lodging.
It really is like what you said, you know, you
got to have a good date where you're not competing
with other places. You got to have a good space
and you've got both of those. And so that's the
reason I think, you know, that it's worked as
well as some really hardworking volunteers and
friendly faces down there. that helped put it
on. Well, we're going to take some calls here
in a little bit. But one other thing we want
to talk about here are the forums. You mentioned
that some of the familiar faces may not be available
this year with all the Eclipse stuff going on.
But in looking at your list of forums, you've
still got a pretty impressive list of forum opportunities
there. To participate in and you still got some
some pretty good names coming in So tell us a
little bit about the forums here before we take
a break Well Since I don't work the forums Tom
Duncan is the one who's been doing that I really
can't speak too much to the form content and
I'm basically going to have to read them off
the website as we have them posted. I know that
the list is posted on our website at HamFest
.org. And because of this eclipse, some of the
big forum presenters are not going to be here.
So that's going to cut our forum. down to Saturday
only. But you're right, there are some big names
here that give forums. One of the forum presenters
I know personally, he's a local guy. It's Dr.
Monty Bateman. He's also a ham, and I have lunch
with him just about every Tuesday. He's a climate
scientist that works for, or works in conjunction
with the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
And he works closely with Dr. Christie, whose
name you've probably heard of before. He's been
quoted a lot in the national media about global
warming and that sort of thing. But Dr. Bateman,
he always gives a good program on grounding.
And he's going to be there again this year to
do the same thing. Some of the other ones here
Well, you can take a look a look at the listing
here and yeah lightning protection for radio
amateurs by dr. Money Bateman That that form
is always a hit. It's it's standing room only
and Then he's also give gonna give some form
about lightning research NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center. And those are all good forums.
There's going to be some DSTAR and then AMSAT
forums. And I see one here, amateur radio balloon
goes around the world. That ought to be interesting.
But yeah, we pride ourselves in having a good
forum session. And a lot of people come just
for that. And we try to grow that as much as
we can. Unfortunately, the totality put a little
crimp in our get -along this year, but we'll
be back strong as ever next year. Still plenty
of good opportunities there and look forward
to seeing some of those. Well, we're gonna open
up the phone lines here in just a moment and
I see we've got Got one trying already here.
So we're gonna take a break and then when we
come back we'll open up the lines and See if
we've got Some people that want to talk Huntsville
ham fest here tonight But first let's listen
to this message from one of the vendors that
will be at the Huntsville ham fest It's tower
electronics right here on ham talk live This
episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you in
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has been the Ham's Dime Store since 1978. When
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HamFest near you. Or you can order online at
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at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now,
here's more HamTalk Live. Thanks once again to
Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring
the show tonight to help bring you HamTalk Live.
Well, they'll be in Huntington, West Virginia
on Saturday, and then they'll be at Huntsville.
It's August 19th and 20th, and then in Shelby,
North Carolina, September 1st, 2nd and 3rd. And
if you're not at any of those, you can call them
at 920 -435 -2973 or visit them online at pl
-2. 559 .com and tell them you heard it on HamTalk
Live. Looking forward to seeing Scott and Jill
here down in Huntsville soon. So it's time for
your calls now. So if you have a question for
Dave, give us a call. That number to call is
812 -638 -4261. 812, that spells out Net Ham
One. Or you can Skype us. Skype name is HamTalk
Live or you can tweet us at HamTalk Live as well.
And we do have a phone call. So welcome to HamTalk
Live. Who is this? Hi, this is Mark Brown in
for BCD also with the Huntsville Hamfest. Hi
Mark. Thanks for calling in and I believe you've
got a little bit to comment on here with some
of the forums and some of the stuff, so tell
us a little more about Huntsville. Yeah, Neil,
thanks for taking my call. Yeah, like Dave said,
it's a great collection of forums, and it's a
varied collection of forums. Not just technical,
but there's no one right way to do this hobby.
There's VHF, there's HF, there's balloon launches.
We've got a program on balloon launches, WB8ELK,
Bill Brown Relation. He's been published in QST.
He'll be doing a forum Saturday afternoon. There's
forums on D -Star, the Yesu system. uh... portable
operation and of course the a double r l uh...
does their forms up on the section level and
uh... i think next year will be uh... division
level but uh... you have the forms are great
collection of stuff and one mention to uh...
the d x bank with its uh... saturday night we're
having bob often over from uh... from georgia
talking about the challenges of the group of
a island uh... but that uh... that uh... a banquet
for the first time ever is sold out this year
so a lot of interest uh... in his uh... in his
talk We're very excited about the weekend and
I hope you can join us at the Huntsville Hanfest.
Thanks, Neil. Yeah, thanks Mark for calling in.
And yeah, I didn't realize Bob was coming. So
that'll be good. And Bouvier's getting ramped
up here. That's going to happen before you know
it. And lots of news coming from that team. So
that'll be a great thing on Saturday evening.
So thanks for calling in, Mark. Really appreciate
it. And we'll see you here in about a week. See
you in about a week. Bye bye. All right and we
have another call and it is the man himself.
Good evening Mr. Scott Cole. How you doing Neil
and special greetings today. Glad to hear you
on tonight. Hope you guys are doing all right
and getting all rested up for the calm before
the storm so to speak. Yeah Scott, good to hear
you. I just wanted to say that we don't have
any inhibitions about saying you're going to
be able to fill the shoes of the chairman because
the person that previously ran this learn from
the best and you were great and instrumental
in helping them and I have no doubt things are
going to go well this year. And I just wanted
to, I always wanted to ask and now that I got
you on here, this is a good time. You guys have
like a super pep rally or something for all the
helpers that they're in such a good mood when
we get there because it's the only thing that
the guy that's standing outside in the sun all
day directing traffic is just as happy and jolly
at the beginning of the day as he is at the end
of the day. Yeah, we're very lucky, Scott, and
that we picked a good group. We drill into them
that always smile, never a crossword. Help anybody
with anything they can and we tell our guests
that We're here to have you make sure you have
a good time if you do have a good time Tell all
your friends, but if you have a problem tell
us And we'll try to straighten it out. I Congratulate
you guys have always done just that I always
put on a real high quality show without a doubt
one of the best in the country that I've ever
been to. And my hat's off to you guys and your
entire staff. Everybody's got a great disposition.
Everybody's there to help. And everybody has
a good time. And you've got things well planned.
And it's always a great time when we're up there
for that show, even though we're working our
butts off all weekend long. But I just wanted
to say, we've got your backside. Things will
go well, and we appreciate everything that you're
doing, and thanks for everything that you guys
are doing. Well, I thank Scott, and we appreciate
those words. We looked to have a good prize lineup
this year. We worked with the embassy next door
to set aside a block of rooms that get a special
ham fest rate, and that block was sold out. by
May the 1st this year. And we've constantly been
having to get them to add some more rooms to
our block. So I don't know how many will eventually
fill up. But you're talking about the situation
with the embassy suite right next door to the
civic center. And we've had more than one of
our dealers tell us That they really like the
situation because the day of the ham fest they
get up get the clothes on walk downstairs to
the ham fest You don't have to fill with a car.
You don't have to worry about parking. You don't
have to worry about driving anywhere and A lot
of those dealers really like that and I'm sure
some of the flea market folks do that very well
also They're planning an expansion to that civic
center And we don't know how that's going to
impact us, but we hope it will expand our capability
even more. The Huntsville -Hamfest organization
is kind of unique. I think we've set ourselves
up very much like Dayton and very much like Orlando,
although I'm not sure about Orlando. But the
Huntsville -Hamfest association is separate from
the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club. Now, a lot
of us... associated with the HamFest are members
of the Humphill Amesier Radio Club and we depend
very heavily on them to supply volunteers. But
we are separate. We are separate organizations
and I think that was the wisdom of our forefather
who dreamed up this HamFest and having it at
the Civic Center. To keep them separate so that
we're not affected by club politics and you know
how stuff like that go and We can always pretty
much do what we want to do. But now we take a
lot of input From in suggestions from the fan
club and they help us tremendously and any profits
it will make Over and above our seed money for
next year. We hand it out to the club and repeater
association since we use their repeater for talking
and Try to keep everybody interested Well Scott,
thanks for calling in and and save me some reverse
polarity SMA's I'm gonna have to grab some from
you, so Take care and one other comment for Dave
I think that's really cool how you managed to
muscle off the Defense Department show this year,
so they went in your way. Congratulations. Well,
we certainly hope they're going for good. I hope
they chose it. They had it this week, and I hope
they'll continue to do that in the future. So
we won't be butting in with them trying to move
in when they're moving out. Very good. I'll say
seven three Neil and Dave. Take care. We'll see
you both in another week Take care. All right,
Scott. Take care. We'll see you soon 812 -NATAM
-1 is the phone number. We have time for one
more call here this evening. 812 -638 -4261 if
you'd like to call in and talk about the Huntsville
HamFest coming up. And one of the things that
will be happening that I'll be involved with,
at least taking some pictures, is the Young Ham
of the Year Award presentation taking place on
Saturday afternoon and our friend Marty, Casey
1 - CWF is receiving that. So looking forward
to that as well. And I know the youth lounge
down there is just fabulous. Some of my former
students have built stuff in there and just a
very welcoming thing and prizes and kits and
all kinds of stuff. So all kinds of activities
for the youth there at Huntsville as well. So
hopefully people will hear this, and if you get
a chance to run down to Huntsville, it's a great
opportunity. 812 -638 -4261 is the phone number.
And Dave, did you want to comment on any of the
youth stuff going on? Yeah, Dr. Monty Bateman,
the one I mentioned earlier about giving forums,
he's the one that sponsors that youth lounge.
He's big into Boy Scouts, and he's very involved
with his children in robotics, and he's done
a great job with that youth lounge, and it just
grows every year. And I'm afraid he's going to
outgrow his space, but, you know, that's okay
because we'd like for him to do that. We'd like
to increase the young hands participation, and
maybe we can get him interested in amateur radio
as things go. But, uh, Monty does a great job
with that and, um, we're trying to push it every,
every chance we get. Yeah. It's a great opportunity.
I know the students that come just as well. Yeah.
Yeah. I remember, uh, one of the young ladies
in my group, uh, that's where she learned how
to solder is, is down there in the, uh, the youth
lounge and just all kinds of opportunities there
so and and all kinds of space for the forums
and the youth lounge and the flea market the
vendors all under one big roof and It's just
a very enjoyable time. It's not the size of Dayton
or Orlando, but it is the world's friendliest
ham fest. I can certainly testify to that. And
it is a good sized ham fest and plenty of opportunities
there. So one of my favorites. And so looking
forward to getting back down there. to Huntsville
once again. Okay, let's throw that phone number
out one last time. 812 -638 -4261. Just have
a couple of minutes left, so if you want to jump
in here, now is the time to do that. 812 -net
-ham -1. Now, Dave, I remember Charlie telling
me that you've got a special group there that
is kind of the welcoming committee out there
selling tickets and taking tickets. So tell us
a little bit about the friendly folks that help
make all this happen, including them. Yes, we
have a group of ladies that are also hands, and
they have formed their organization called the
HALARC. And it stands for something like hunts
fall amateur young ladies Something like that
and they are the ones that man the booze out
front to sell the prize ticket and We could not
do it without me. I Was meeting them this afternoon
or I mean this morning when I carried them to
tickets from the button and The lady that's doing
it that's heading that up she is about 94 years
old and she's been doing it a long time. Wow.
She did say this morning that this may be her
last year because you know getting up in age
that just it's just hard to get out of bed sometimes
so we've got she's been she's been grooming younger
ladies to take that function over but they this
lady will take those tickets and she will count
every one of them. And I carried her 22 ,000
tickets this morning, and she will count every
one of those to make sure that they're all there.
And she can tell us by the hour what the admission
sales are doing and how much we did at the end
of the day and then at the end of the ham fest.
So she's been a great asset. Those ladies have
helped us tremendously, and they always promote
the show. And they always have a kind word for
the people who come up and buy admission and
buy tickets. And I just don't think we could
do it without them. Well, that's where we're
going to leave things, Dave. But yeah, they are
very friendly and very helpful. They're great
representatives of the HamFest. And again, hamfest
.org is the address. Very easy one to find, so
check that out. Hope to see you down in Huntsville
next week. So that is a wrap for this week's
HamTalk Live. Thanks again to my guest, Dave
Givens, K5 RSI, and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and calling in. And next Thursday
night at 9 o 'clock Eastern time, Ken Olke, VE6AFO
from the Quarter Century Wireless Association
will be here to talk about that group. So we
look forward to hearing from Ken now. week. So
for a list of all of our upcoming guests, just
go to HamTalkLive .com and click on the schedule
link. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying 7375, and may the good DX be yours! Thanks
for watching!