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-4373 or go to hamstation .com. Good evening,
everyone. It's HamTalk Live. Episode number 69,
the Hamvention Wrap Up. Recorded live on Thursday,
June 15th, 2017. I am your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight we're joined once again by Michael
Coulter, W8CI, the official spokesperson for
the Dayton Hamvention. to talk about how the
first year went at the new location and the changes
being made for next year. And we'll take your
calls live in just a few minutes. Well, last
week on the show, Bryant Rascal, KG5HVO was here
to talk about his CW operations. And if you missed
that or any other show, you can always go to
HamTalkLive .com and pull it up there or on any
of the podcast outlets like Apple Podcasts, Stitcher,
I Heart Radio. Google Play, TuneIn, or SoundCloud,
and we're also over on YouTube. But I have an
update. Speaking of last week's show, I had asked
Bryant on the show if his parents were going
to get licensed. And Bryant said, well, there's
a one day class coming up soon and mom's talking
about maybe going. Well, very pleased to report
that Bryant's mom, Lauren Rascal, did indeed
attend that class. And yes, she passed her technician
exam. So congratulations to Lauren. Better known
to us at the moment, at least, as Bryant's mom.
Congratulations on becoming a Ham. Her new call
sign is KG5TQO. And she mentioned to me in an
email that the Hamvention experience is what
put her on board trying for her license. So great
story there. Uh, that, uh, she got her license
and, um, Brian's already scheming, um, multi
multi -contesting with mom. So we'll, uh, look
forward to, uh, seeing how that turns out. Uh,
also this week, um, just for fun, I picked, posted
a picture of flat. Hammy. So we've got a cutout
version of Hammy the mascot. So print out your
copy of Flat Hammy if you want to and send us
a picture with him from anywhere you go this
summer. Maybe it's a ham fest, field day, club
meeting, vacation, sporting event, you name it.
And all the instructions are on the page. You
can send it in by social media or email or whatever.
and if you don't have any social media you can
find it on the schedule page if you go to HamTalkLive
.com click on the schedule page at the top there's
a link there for shirts and then right next to
it there's a link for Flat Hammy so check that
out if you want to and we'll have some fun with
that well we're gonna Talk to Michael here in
just a moment. So get your questions ready to
go about Hamvention. And after we talk about
a few things, you can give us a call at 812 -NET
-HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. And we've got
some issues with Skype. We're trying to work
them out. We finally got a hold of some people
at Skype, and we're trying to work it out. So
we won't be able to take any Skype calls tonight.
You'll have to call the phone number, 812. But
you can tweet us also. Our Twitter handle is
at HamTalkLive. So I'll be back with Michael
right after this word from Tower Electronics
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from now here's neil rap with more ham talk live
Thanks again to Tower Electronics. Scott and
Jill, they're there for you to bring you ham
talk live. And if you missed them at Hamvention,
you can see them this weekend in Monroe, Michigan
on June 18th and July 8th will be in Oak Creek,
Wisconsin. or you can call them at 920 -435 -2973
or visit their website at pl -259 .com. Tell
them you heard it on HamTalk Live. HamTalk Live
is on the air every Thursday at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time right here at hamtalklive .com or you can
catch us later on the podcasting outlets and
on the website. Michael Coulter, WHCI, is the
official spokesperson of the Dayton Hamvention
and the treasurer of the Dayton Amateur Radio
Association. He's been kind enough to be on the
show several times lately and so he is back to
tell us how everything went. So Michael, welcome
to HamTalk Live. Hey, it's good to be back here,
Neil. Appreciate what you're doing for Amateur
Radio and appreciate to get yet another opportunity
to discuss Hamvention. Yeah, so we're going to
wrap things up here a little bit pardon the pun
and I know that you've got Some traveling coming
up. You're going to be heading off to Germany
here soon And talk about hand -vention there
and some others So before we dive into the questions
here, why don't you you tell us what you've got
coming up there in the travel plans? Well, there's
a team of us that are going to go to free week
shopping and middle of July looking forward to
that and yeah, I get to be a speaker there and
We'll be talking about convention and things
are going on with with our club Dayton amateur
radio association So that's always an honor.
That is a great great event free reach often
and we simply Enjoy hanging out with our friends
there from the DARC and if you've never been
to free reach often, it's an absolutely beautiful
a location, a beautiful place. Then shortly after
that, we'll be heading to Huntsville and see
our friends down in Huntsville. I think that's
sometime in August. I can't remember the dates.
Then after that, we're packing our bags and we're
headed to Japan. on the Japan radio event and
talk about Hamvention over there. And people
are always fascinated to hear about amateur radio
in this country and Hamvention. So we're marketing
all that. It's important. We're an international
event being Hamvention. And we like to talk about
it all over the world. Very good. Well, first
let me congratulate you, Dara, the Green County
Fairgrounds staff, the public safety officers,
and the over 600 volunteers that pulled off Hamvention
in just under nine months at a totally new facility.
It's just a monumental task and I congratulate
you totally on the event and appreciate all the
work that went into it and we're looking forward
to some attendance numbers here in a little bit.
Is that right? Yeah, I have the attendance numbers
but that's not important but we can get to it
toward the end of the program. If you're interested,
I am definitely interested. So we'll talk about
that here in a little bit so Well, there were
some issues that that came up but you know, I
think things went pretty well and your volunteers
they They were everywhere. They were they were
In the parking lots. In fact, I didn't I didn't
mention this one We can talk about the parking
thing in here in a little bit, but there was
a guy on a megaphone Said you know with instructions
There was a volunteer sitting out there with
a megaphone Trying to help people get around
and you know you guys did a fabulous job Yeah,
I can't really I can't really convey to I can't
hardly convey the gratitude that we all have
for 657 volunteers, you know, that put on hand
benches. Nobody got paid anything. I mean, we
had to give donations to, or not had to, but
we did. People helped park and we had to, you
know, make sure that we had good fire and EMS.
Beyond that, our club members from all over the
world came and volunteered and with good attitudes.
trying their heart out to make it a really good
event and And I'll tell you why they do that
why we do that Because it's not my event. It's
not Ron Kramer who is our general chairman or
Jack Gerbs our assistant or any of the committee
chairs. Everybody's working to make this happen
Because we love amateur radio and we do see amateur
radio. I mentioned as an important And I want
to mention this, I get a lot of emails of information
and people are welcome to email me their ideas
and concerns or whatever they want to send because
I pass it on to the correct people. But I received
one email that particularly moved me and it was
the fact that they really so appreciated that
Han mentioned continued on and that it was at
a better location in their mind that it even
got them much more excited about the hobby than
they had been for a long time. And so with that
we've begun to do our job a little bit in Hamvention
because we want that to happen, we want more
interest and then we want to give back to the
amateur radio community which I think people
see that we do that. Absolutely. And then we've
got success stories like, like Lauren that, you
know, that was what put her over the top to encourage
her to, Hey, maybe I better give this a try.
Yeah, that's just great. I, I quickly got a chance
to, uh, well, when I was at the contest university,
I was a speaker in the morning and when it started
and, and Welcome people to the event, but Bryant
was up there with me and I thought that that
was pretty pretty great and I believe he's going
to be attending the the Dave Coulter Memorial
the expedition for youth at my brother with my
brother and Don Dubon N6JRL Started some years
back and you know my brother passed on of cancer
and I sure miss him And if he's listening, I
hey brother David so Go ahead. Yeah, I know how
that's going. In fact, today again, last two
shows, I've been running back from my dad's.
He's just been diagnosed with leukemia here recently
and so we're trying to trying to make all those
preparations for nursing homes and all that kind
of thing and so been kind of running around.
So we appreciate the the remembrance of your
brother and that youth de -expedition to where
these kids like Bryant can go and like Ruth did
and some of the Lee girls were able to go on
a real de -expedition. It's just a pretty cool
thing. Right. Yeah, it is. Wonderful thing. But
once again, I can't tell you how much I appreciate
all of our volunteers and you know Ron, Ron Kramer
and Jack Irv's their leadership and our board.
Everybody's working as a team. And yet one other
thing I just want to mention before we get too
far along is that we all, all the people that
run these big radio events, the group down in
Huntsville, the group in Germany, Orlando team
and almost any other ham fest big hand vest event
or even a smaller one we all are partners in
this and there's no we don't consider it competition
we want to see everybody succeed because if we're
such a small community right now that if we all
work together in the spirit of amateur radio
it's uh it's really going to be it's It's just
going to do nothing but get greater. And just
to further on top of that is the spirit, the
real spirit of amateur radio and Hamvention or
any of these events, these belong to all of us.
When you're at Hamvention, you're really a member
of it. So we appreciate the feedback, we appreciate
the help and hope that everybody enjoys it. Oh,
yeah, I totally enjoyed it and you know, there
there were some trade -offs we were talking before
the show, you know a lot of things were considerably
better than Hara Arena was and and I don't know
if you've heard the Hara Arena song yet, but
if you haven't oh, yeah boy she She would absolutely
nailed that song. And I drove by Hera on Wednesday
night on my way in and just kind of, you know,
looked around the outside a little bit for old
time's sake. But, you know, just look at the
place. It's like, wow, you know, it's such much
better, you know, facilities, you know, at Green
County. You know, yeah, there were some things
that we're going to talk about a little bit that,
you know, did come up that weren't issues at
HERA, but there were so many positive things
that, you know, it was a great time. It was just
different. Yeah, let me hit a couple of things
right away. You know, the mud, you know, we're
definitely aware of the mud situation. We are
already taking steps actually with the affair
and expo board. They're working together with
an engineering group. We're going to get we are
going to improve that. But the tent situation,
you know, with poor lighting and we had heavy
winds at times in the rain. And so that we've
already had several discussions about the possibility.
It's not a done deal, but the possibility of
having a having them build another large building
for our event next year so we can eliminate most
all of the all the tents and then you know we've
already are trying to get more food vendors and
I'm sure we will and more places more picnic
tables will be staged in the kind of the courtyard
area so people have better places to sit and
of course we had the bleachers there as well
but we still seem to fill everything all the
time It was a bigger number than we've seen in
a while. The sound in the forum rooms, we are
really aware of all these things. For example,
we talk to them a lot about the noisy fans in
some of the buildings. We've got to get those
things taken care of, and they're already working
on it. They're already getting that done now.
And believe me, we've already had a wrap -up
meeting with all the committee members, and the
wrap -up meeting was basically the critique meeting.
And so the critique meeting is over, and then
we're going to move from that. And then we're
already doing planning for next year, but get
into it even heavier. Ordering online should
be easier because we'll have things already laid
out and we'll be able to learn from our issues.
We had to download so many things into our computerized,
into our computer system so we could sell the
boost and that meant having kind of CAD CAM layouts
of the flea market areas as well as inside exhibit
areas. All that being said, it should be, it
will be, not should be, it will be much smoother
next year. And committee leaders are already
working on that. Everybody is. So hitting some
of those things just right the square away. So
we're very excited about it. I appreciate you
looking into those things and doing what you
can. And I know some of those things you can
do something about and some of them you can't.
The National Weather Service didn't do their
part. you gave them a direct order to hold the
rain off, and they didn't come through. What
was up with that? Well, I have to tell you that
I live near the Weather Bureau for the lower
half of Ohio, northern Kentucky, and eastern
Indiana, and I'm a net control operator there
for events, and so I'm pretty good terms with
them. And yeah, I was disappointed that Didn't
happen and of course I've gotten comments. Well,
you know Statistically, it always rains that
weekend, but not the weekend And move it back
to April and as people remember, oh, wait a minute
didn't wait Yeah, didn't we move it from April
because of the rain? Well because of snow and
rain so right now we're pretty much set on that
that week but but the Weather Bureau I will tell
you how they really cooperated. If you were there
Saturday when that big storm hit, we gave everybody
warning. We knew when it was going to hit because
the Weather Bureau was tracking that for us.
If any weather was going to hit, that event,
we were going to know about it and we were able
to announce it well in advance that it would
be a severe thunderstorm that was coming through
and it would even... We're able to say what's
gonna last about 20 minutes. I mean it was that
was a major help and I'm glad that you know kudos
to the weather station for working with us and
they had a booth there and Tremendous people
and I hope people got to see their forum I don't
think everybody did but what a great forum they
had but yeah a lot of things went wrong But,
uh, we learned from those things, but, you know,
the traffic the first day, I know that what it
took you what eight hours to get there. Well,
not quite eight, but it was about two and a half
on the first day and we left an hour and a half
early. So, you know, that one was, um, but, but
we met with the, um, sheriff's department at
different police departments and, and then they
went off on their own with, uh, some of the traffic
engineers and they fixed it. Because next day,
Saturday, really the traffic flow went a whole
lot better and we had as many people if not more
on Saturday. Saturday is generally our biggest
day. So we got that one taken care of and we've
already been talking to the sheriffs and for
next year and all that went I think very well
and we learned a lot got it all under our belt
and even leaving the event should have been a
lot better and because I ended up having to leave
to rush to something and Right after the event
was over and I thought oh man, I might be caught
in horrible traffic They moved that traffic so
well. I was very thankful and impressed. I was
not late for my event Yeah, now, you know, you've
talked about some of these things on other shows
So we're gonna try to go kind of quickly through
a lot of these things rather than rehash a lot
of that But one other one thing I did want to
bring up on the traffic was what was the solution?
to the problem on Friday. What was done differently
by those public safety officers on Saturday?
Well, I think that basically they were much more
aggressive in making things happen. And I don't
think that I think there was a lot of people
even coming into the event, parking people, confusion
from people. Where do I go the first time? stop
here is if this gate or that gate, what do I
need to do? People had to drill down by the second
day. Plus, we had more aggressive on the traffic
lights and the stop signs and things like that.
And I think even the second day, a lot more people
used the off -site parking. And I had a lot of
comments like, boy, those guys knew some kind
of back way we didn't know. And I thought to
myself, well, yeah. They're bus drivers. That's
what they do for a living and they know the area
really well. So, so they know it better than,
yeah. So that was pretty much it on the traffic
and it doesn't take a lot to pay attention to
it. Just getting that flow a little bit better
and keeping people moving. So, okay. Now, speaking
of officers where we needed them. Yeah. Okay.
Now, speaking of flowing, uh, airflow on Friday
was, was a bit of a, uh, issue, and it was just
hot. I mean, it was just hot. But I believe I'm
seeing something that that's being addressed,
too. So you do you want to speak to the to that?
Yeah, the county commissioners have already promised
us that they're going to put this is truly the
name of the company. It's the big ass fan company
in Lexington, Kentucky. I have been by there.
I have been by there many times. We'll be installing
those as well. They run very quietly and they
push an amazing amount of air and all the air
handling units. I guess when we were checking
the place out, we made sure that they went through
and fixed all the leaks and everything, but I
never really noticed the noise from a few of
the blowers and air handlers. We'll take care
of that as well because certainly want to have
better airflow. And once you get, you know, a
lot of the boosts in there and some of the boosts
really built up well and some of them can cause
a little bit of an airflow restriction. So. But
I will say another on a positive note. I think
the internet was very, very good there. I don't
know if you used it, but it was, we had a lot
of kudos on how well the internet works. And
that was a lot of throwing things together at
the last minute. I mean, you can't believe, you
know, there was a lot of questions. Well, what's
this going to be like and what's that going to
be like? And we couldn't answer some of the questions
because, you know, we pretty much wanted to speak
with real data, real answers. And, and once we
got that internet in and really working. Plus
we even had a backup. We were thrilled at that.
Yeah, I was able to get on and do live updates
on my phone with only one time that I had any
issue at all and I couldn't get on at all. And
I waited a few minutes and then all of a sudden
I was right back on again. So I was able to do
live streaming video, which takes you know, quite
a bit of bandwidth without any hands. Yeah. Yeah.
Let me talk a little bit about that is that,
um, Tim Duffy, um, who's been a real supporter
of hand -vention, as you know, as you are, he
told me, he said, you know what? I used to work
in that business. I know these engineers, I'm
going to call and let them know to come out and
check it. And evidently they did. And whatever
they did, we didn't get cell phone complaints.
I mean, It depends on who your carrier was, but
generally the major carriers were fine. No problem
at all. I was very impressed with that. I was
very worried about it. It ended up being great.
I'm telling you, Neil, the food will be better.
The food was great this year, but it will be
better. We want to have more of them. Shorter
lines. I love the mom and pop family. farm food
that we were able to gather this year, and we'll
be more of that next year as well. Yeah, I had
the bourbon chicken, like Tim Duffy said, I had
the bourbon chicken, and had a grilled chicken
wrap from one of the other places on the other
day, and it was great. The only thing I said,
you know, were the lines, but like you said,
you know, you're getting some more. hopefully
to come in, and I think it was well worth the
wait because it was pretty good stuff and a lot
of choices that weren't there previously. But
here's my one nitpicky thing, and you know what
I'm going to say. The Hamfest tradition was missing.
The cheesecake on a stick it never found the
cheesecake on a stick now. You've got this you've
got this whole What's the word I'm looking for
this whole group of fans of Cheesecake on a stick
at Dayton and and and they weren't there. So
can we can we work on that one? I'm not going
to promise that. I'll take a look at it. I mean,
that was, you know, the only thing, you know,
the cheat, you know, you, every time you walk
by cheesecake on a stick and you're like, what
cheesecake on a stick? I only got it once, but
you know, it was just a tradition. You always
went by the cheesecake on a stick. And I know,
I know there there's this there's a group of
people out there i've talked to many of them
that are like okay but we gotta have our cheesecake
on the stick back so i don't know we may have
to check into that one you're the so you're the
first one you're the first person that told me
that okay i mean absolutely okay so well i know
well i know i know jill i know jill combs and
joe isenberg will chime in on that one but but
uh there's some others but uh... now by the way
by the way did you like joe joe did a really
good yes he did too to very good videos so far
and uh... we posted those on our social media
too uh... very good very good shows uh... okay
or uh... finish up with just a couple of things
here uh... you know, parking. I read a news story
from WHO television that, you know, those were
soccer fields and we kind of left the soccer
fields in a mess. But you know, that's typical
for some big event that that parks on the grass.
And I remember you saying that that Dara had
already purchased a roller before all of that.
So how bad how bad was What condition are they
in now, or have they been able to get things
kind of back the way they were and or better?
Of course, they jumped on it nearly right away
and county commissioners taking care of it. you
know, we did buy him a big roller for the, for
them in the eventualities, something like that
might happen and actually roll the fields prior
to the event. And, and now they'll, they'll continue
to roll the fields, but they're going to also
look at ways to prevent some of the ruts. But
I'll tell you, I, I have a really nice fifth
wheeler that I was able to have, have out there
and it became kind of a a center of where things
were happening, you know, one of our little hidden
away offices. But man, I was laying there sleeping
on Saturday morning thinking, oh man, this rain
is unreal. I mean, it just kept coming and coming
and coming. So, but we, you know, went through
it anyway. So. Are you still there? Yeah, yeah,
and one last one last thing and then we're gonna
get into the call so get Get ready to call in.
I know we've already had one person try. Uh,
so get ready to call in here in just a minute.
We're getting ready to, uh, to go to the call
in segment, but, uh, give us a little report
on the offsite, uh, parking. Uh, I know that
was a bit of a later ad, um, to the plans, but
how did that go? And are you looking at any modifications
to the offsite parking next time? Yeah, absolutely.
We're looking at modifications of how we would
do that You know you have to remember that all
these things happened in a very short period
of time and Along with that, you know, then you
have to get certificates of insurance You have
to make sure everything's approved a lot of people
don't realize what goes on but on an event like
this and make sure that we had busing set up
and how that busing was going to work where the
buses would go how we would communicate with
that but I had reports that all of them went
well. There was one that wasn't used much and
that was actually at Young's Dairy up north of
Zena, just up 68, and had more people use that
and those people got in very quickly for the
most part from what I heard, but I'll take any
feedback people have on how the busing went for
them. But most of what I heard was, yeah, we
jumped on a bus and it worked out great. So we're
also looking at possibly a more a better, like
a will call area. Say if you're riding a bus,
but you bought something big old piece and you
want to hold it somewhere until you're ready
to leave and how we could help with that a little
bit more. I heard that and we're looking at ways
to do that. You know, the refinements, I think.
to make it better. Sure. Very good. Well, again,
congratulations to the whole staff, the volunteers,
all the groups that helped out with this and
make it a great event. And everybody's been asking,
OK, do you have an official count? Do you have
an official count? So do you have an official
count? Yeah, I do, but let's kind of take the
phone calls first and I'll kind of wrap up with
that official Okay, all right. Okay. We'll do
that. Well, here's the phone number eight one
two net ham one eight one two six three eight
four two 6 1 to call in or you can tweet us again.
Skype is not cooperating tonight. So use the
phone. Don't use Skype just for tonight. Hopefully
by next week, Skype will will have us fixed.
But until then, if I can talk, 812 -638 -4261.
812 -638 -4261. Or you can tweet us at HamTalkLive.
So I know we've got a couple of tweets. We had
somebody trying to call. So let's see what we
got. K to H a T says gravel will help the roads
make them roads and cheesecake on a stick never
tried it at her arena, so I Guess my cheesecake
on a stick thing didn't go anywhere We've got
a we've got a call here, so let's go ahead and
do that hello. Who's this? Oh, turn your sound
down, please. You're getting the delay there.
All right. Who's this? My name's Jim and my call
is WA8SDF. All right, Jim, thanks for calling
in. What's your question for Michael or your
comment? Well, I got a question about the flea
market. Are you guys going to try to do something
about since they now know where people are going
to drive their cars. put gravel or some crushed
stone at some sort down so it doesn't turn into
a mud pit? Well, we're going to put so much water
on it so that we'll keep it muddy so we can wear
it down completely to the clay. Now seriously,
I was kind of kidding, but we are going to work
on that. We were very disappointed. I was personally
very disappointed because That infield has actually
a very good drainage system. However, it could
not cope with the amount of rain, the inches
of rain that we actually got. We have a roller
in there and the fair board, an expo board, they're
already on top of this with an engineering group
trying to figure out the best ways to... make
those roads stronger so we don't have all that
mud. Definitely we're on it. I don't have a definitive
answer right now, but they're definitely working
on it. We don't want that to happen again. Well,
I mean, where people weren't driving their vehicles
in the motorized wheelchair stuff, the grass
where people were just standing, it was nice.
I mean, it drained away quite well. You're right
about that. But it's just the mud got to the
point or the grass got chewed up to the point
where You know, it drained, but it drained into
the mud, you know. Right, so we're going to fix
it. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Well, yeah, I mean,
I was going to make a comment about the school
buses and the fact that if you're trying to haul
like a DX100 or, you know, an Apache or something
really big out of the flea market back to a remote
parking site, that could be a problem. I mean,
it's not like the old... the buses that here
of where where they were city transit buses with
big wide doors and places that you inside the
bus where you can actually put stuff these are
school buses for little kids and you know so
my thought would well you have yeah to I mean
you got tickets with barcodes on them scan the
barcode print a ticket slap it on the whatever
the piece of equipment you're going to have and
route it out on a truck to the remote site and
put someone out there in a tent and park the
stuff there and then, you know, match up your
ticket with the equipment when you get there
to take it home. I like the idea. We are definitely
aware of that. In a short period of time, we
couldn't get to that level of refinement on moving
that kind of equipment. But it's been one of
the top things. It was a class act putting all
those carts out in the flea market to haul stuff
back to your car. That was a brilliant idea.
We utilized that a few times. I used to flag
somebody down that was driving up and down the
flea market and say, hey, I've got to come over
here and I've got to put this stuff back in the
car. and you drive out and they help you dump
it in the car and you know you're you're free
to go again you know that was a great idea we
need to work on that we need to work on how to
do it on the bus is better I agree or have you
know like if you're taking a bus how we can even
have a holding area for that I we are looking
at all of those things Jim but overall let me
ask you a question did you enjoy the hand bench
and at all was it oh absolutely My first hand
-vention was in 1966, the morning after my senior
prom. Oh, wow. You just verbally carbon -dated
yourself, I think. Yeah, well, okay. I'm not
worried about that anymore. No, me neither. Okay,
one other suggestion just came to my mind. Obviously
you can't open the thing at 8 o 'clock because
people have horses out there and for whatever
reason. And you may want to comment on the situation
with that. But while people were standing out
there in the cold, especially on Saturday morning,
what would have been great would have been a
bunch of food trucks serving hot coffee. Not
to mention the fact that it's another profit
center for Dara or the group or whatever. But
it was freezing cold out there Saturday morning.
You know you guys could have sold out a billion
gallons of hot coffee and while people were waiting
to get in Well, that's it. You know we thought
about that. You know what can we do to make the
whole experience better? And this is the first
time as you know I'm not trying to make excuses,
but actually say this was the issue I really
appreciate that and feel free to drop me an email
too with these points, so I'll pass them on there
the team so Yeah, well it was a really really
really good invention and anyone who's thinking
about going next year go Thank you, it was it
was funny to see some of the videos on YouTube
for people who've never been there before and
Prior to the invention they're you know worried
about this and worried about that and You have
no clue what you're going to get. And then they
got, you know, then the video afterwards is the
guy standing on. I'm so overwhelmed. Thank you
so much for calling in, Jim. We're going to have
to move along here. We're just about out of time,
but thanks a lot. We appreciate it. Great work.
Great work. All right, Michael, we're down to
the final minute here. So. We're gonna give out
those We're out of time We're out of time. I've
got more I've got tweets like crazy here So we'll
have to try to address the tweets here in a little
bit, but we are out of time So I want to get
that number in so Maybe I need a 29 ,000 Okay,
no no, I don't have one so go ahead 29 ,296.
So, we were shooting for 30 ,000, didn't quite
make it. Well, that's very close, very good.
You put on and the volunteers put on a show for
those 29 ,000 plus and we really appreciate all
that you've done and thanks for coming on the
show and sharing with us and taking calls and
taking these questions tonight. Really appreciate
it, Michael, and we'll have you back. Yeah, thanks,
Neil. We appreciate, um, we at Dara and Hamvention
certainly appreciate your support, your support
for us, plus for Amateur Radio altogether. So
once again, that number that everybody's been
asking about, 29 ,296. All right. There you have
it. So thanks again, Michael. And that is a wrap
for this week's episode of HamTalk Live. Thanks
to Michael Coulter, WHCI, and everyone out there
in cyberspace for listening and calling in. And
next Thursday night at 9 p .m., Sean Kutsko,
KX9x, will be here to take your field day questions.
So he's the former contest branch manager and
currently the public relations person at He's
going to take your field day, rule questions
and other questions. So if you have any last
second questions, make sure you tune in next
Thursday night and HamTalkLive .com has a list
of all of those. So 7375 and may the good DX
be yours.