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888 -850 -63. three nine one. Good evening, everyone.
It's time for yet another episode of HamTalk
Live. It's number 52, DXing with Fred Rigenider
in K4IU, recorded live on Thursday, February
16th, 2017. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning into this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight, we're joined by Fred Reganider
K4IU and we'll be talking about DXing and take
your calls live in just a few minutes. Last week
George Nicholson in for GRN was on the show to
talk about logistics for DXpeditions. And if
you missed that show, you can listen anytime.
You just go to HamTalkLive .com and you can listen
on demand. Or you can listen to one of those
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those. And tonight, we celebrate our first year
on the air. So one year ago. I decided it was
time to give talk radio a shot something I've
been wanting to do for a very very long time
and so I decided that it was time to get back
into broadcasting at least just a little bit
and since last year we've grown to over a thousand
listeners each week and we just celebrated our
2 ,000th follower on Twitter and we did a show
at Dayton with a live audience we added Instagram
and Periscope to of our Facebook and Twitter
feeds and even did a show with open phone lines
and hopefully we'll do some more of those. Stephen
Hawking, Samuel F .B. Morris, Kate Upton and
Oprah Winfrey are just a few of the stars who
have never been featured right here on HamTalk
Live. But we have had some of the top names in
amateur radio and leading experts on this program
covering everything from DXpeditions to Young
Ham of the Year. So to our listeners, our guests,
our callers, and our tweeters, we say thanks.
And we hope you continue to listen and more of
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to come. Also, don't forget, there's one day
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little bit ago from working on that. So get on
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Time right here at HamTalkLive .com and if you
missed the show you can listen to the archive
on the website or download it from most popular
podcasting websites. Fred Rigginiter, K4IU, is
a retired orthodontist and consummate DXer and
contestor. He traveled the world as an officer
in the US Army as an orthodontist, being stationed
in Germany, Seoul, South Korea, and the Canal
Zone, as well as across the USA, including as
the commander of orthodontics while stationed
at Fort Knox, Kentucky. While at Fort Knox, he
had a stealth Yagi living next door to the base
commander even. He's operated from Germany, Korea,
and the Canal Zone with his wife Judy K0UH. He
was a big contester in the Canal Zone working
with Jim K4SQR who started Comtech Products.
Fred worked DXCC from the canal zone and from
Korea. He was transferred back to the continental
United States in the 80s and landed at Fort Knox,
Kentucky. He and Judy raised two children, Chris
and Jill. Chris followed his dad's footsteps
and did a short career in the army after graduating
from West Point. And Chris is now an executive
with Frito -Lay and Jill went on to the best
university south of the Ohio river. It's the
university of Kentucky where she majored in marketing
and was a member of my beloved big blue nation.
Uh, she's a strong UK fan even to this day and
she lives in Chicago. And that instantly just...
Made her okay in my book. I haven't met her,
but that's okay. She's a part of big blue nation.
So, uh, Fred and Judy have six grandchildren
and, uh, he taught at that other big university
in Kentucky that I try not to talk about. That's
the university of Louisville, uh, in the dental
school and was a member of the Kentucky contest
group. So Fred now, uh, competes with wires in
his backyard. He has an off center fed dipole.
runs a Flex 6700 and an ICOM 7700. He's a local
contest mentor to hams in the Rochester Minnesota
community and is a board member of the Minnesota
Wireless Association. Fred's an active contester
weekly in the CWT and nearly every weekend in
a contest. He has more quesos per foot of wire
than most hams ever dream possible. And he's
almost completed 80 meter DXCC just on an off
-center fed dipole. So Fred, welcome to HamTalk
Live. Well, thanks, Neil. I'm honored to be your
guest on this first anniversary of your radio
talk show. Happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you.
And I'll try not to hold the Louisville thing
against you. We were talking about that a little
bit before the show. well thank you what we'll
try to skip over there is a lot of work my resume
they're exactly but everything else you know
we could we could we could overlook that being
that being u k fan that i am so uh... we we just
want to talk some dexing tonight and you've had
uh... a rare experience of being able to work
the act cc uh... from several different places
and and uh... and DX from not just here in the
United States but from several locations. So
the first question here is for somebody starting
out in DXing and wants to work toward getting
100 entities for DXCC, what would you recommend
is the best way to accomplish that goal for the
first time? Well, you have to get on the air.
You know, Neil, it's often easy to work DXCC
in a single contest weekend. And I think electronic
logs have taught a lot. A log book of the world
makes it easy to get the confirmations without
doing all the busy work with QSL -ing and SASCs.
You know, consider the major DX contests promoted
by the American Radio Relay League, CQ Magazine.
There's one this weekend, the American Radio
Relay League CW DX Contest. If you don't do Morse
code, wait until next month when it's single
sideband. And don't forget, there are some of
the DX contests, good ones, sponsored by countries
outside of North America that worked all European
contests, Russian Federation contests, JARL,
French contests, HA, Hungarian, Polish, and Scandinavian,
just to name a few. There are weekly and monthly
annual contest calendars. You can find these
on a number of different sites. One of them is
WA7B &M's site, the CQ and QST publications.
On a day -to -day basis, I think spotting networks
are helpful. And of course, there are newsletters
like the Daily DX, QRZDX, you know. Neil, DX
is relative. It can be a remote rock or island,
or it can be an entity, which prohibits ham radio.
If you take a look at the 10 most wanted lists,
10 most wanted DX entity lists, now it's different
than it was 10 years ago, or 20 years ago. Number
two on that list is Bouvet Island. You've had
one of your guests, Ralph Fedora, KZO Isle, I
think. So he's been there and that's number two
on the list. P5 is number one the North Korean
Republic. Which by the way, I saw that come across
DX Summit today. Really? Somebody decided to
spot P5DX today. Well, I don't know if it's a
pirate or a swimmer or who that is. Today was
the day that It was supposed to happen from the
guy that was stateside. Today was the day he
was supposed to go. The cancelled trip. Well,
I could definitely put that one in my log book.
Yeah. As could I. So those are just some suggestions.
I mean, the radios are sophisticated now. They
do what you have to do for antennas, but 100
watts to wire. a good contest weekend with a
little help from the solar cycle, I think it's
entirely possible to get it knocked out pretty
fast. Well, there's a lot of opportunities to
get these. And like you said, in a contest, we
did this at school where I teach. We got DXCC.
worked at least. We didn't get it all confirmed
yet, but we got it all worked in just a weekend
on CQ Worldwide. So there's opportunities like
that. And then how do you like to keep up with
all the de -expeditions, the Bouvet Islands and
the Peter Wands and those? How do you like to
keep up with those? Well, probably the best is
some of the the DX newsletters, I like the daily
DX. And then, you know, I just get on. I'm more
interested in the contesting aspect of it now
than chasing down the DXCCs. I have work to do,
you know, I need a few more on 80 for five band
DXCC from this QTH and I think, you know, a contest
we can do. I could probably knock that out. We're
not out of time for this season though. Yeah,
it's not an optimal time for a lot of those with
the cycle where it is as well, so it makes it
difficult. Well, let's talk about DXing from
other countries. So do you think it's easier
to get contacts when you're not in the United
States and you've got that call sign from someplace
else? What's different about DXing when you're
not here in the United States? Well, it never
hurts if you're on the air to have a rare, cool
call. DX is kind of irrelevant. It just depends.
So what's DX for me is maybe not necessarily
DX for a JA. So DXing is the... Kind of the pursuit
of distance with the goal of earning an award
like the FCC or worked all zones And your DX
and neighbors are all going to be a little different.
So for example in Korea You know, it's difficult
from that part of the world to work into the
Caribbean So we had to get through a wall of
Jay's to overcome to be able to work the VP fives
and you know the KP twos and and to the west
at least in the 80s there was this huge interference
from what was known as the Russian Woodpecker.
And this was kind of their over -the -horizon
radar, and it would randomly show up in 20 meters,
and it was a lot of interference. In the canal
zone, from KZ -5, we had great propagation worldwide.
We were near the water in the equatorial zone,
and it was always good. In Germany, You know,
we had Russians and Italians. I didn't really
have a very good set -up in Germany antenna -wise.
It was tough to, you know, if you're working
in, let's say, a double RL VX contest, you know,
we're trying to work the west coast and we have
to get over the east coast first. So differences
can also occur in some of these countries, not
so much in the ones, you know, like Germany,
Korea, Panama, but differences can occur in,
you know, just the local infrastructure, you
know. electricity may not be always 100 % reliable.
You might need generators. 20 or 30 years ago,
we didn't have the luxury of the internet. Now,
you're in VP5 and the internet goes down. It's
like somebody cut one of your antennas, but you
know what I mean. The climates, like I go back
to Ralph's, his free wife, Bouvet Island expedition,
the harsh climates. In some countries, we just
talked about P5, restrictive governments, they
all make a difference. A few years ago, it was
the ZAs, Albanians weren't on, BYs weren't on.
Now you've got some of my mentors like Scott
KZRMD going over there and operating a contest
from a club station. So it's kind of a moving
landscape. Well, tell me a little bit more about
this stealth. Yaggy. Now, Scott tells me that
you had this set up next to the base commander's
house. Well, we have to get one thing straight.
So a base is an Air Force location. A post is
an Army post. So on the Army post at Fort Knox,
it was right in his backyard. We had been stationed
in Fort Knox before, and I had a tower up one
of the other. housing developments, but this
time we were kind of up on Colonel's Row and,
you know, post commander is a two -star, major
general, and so I had this TA -33 Junior, which
is kind of a small, lightweight antenna. I put
it on a TV mass, I spray painted it, not Army
camouflage back then, but spray painted it so
it didn't stand out too much, but it was fine.
I had to turn it up with the Armstrong method.
And it worked out okay. I mean, it was better
than not being on the air. And it really didn't
have any problems. You know, in the military,
I'd move most of my hardware, the tower and the
antennas with being a Mars affiliate, military
amateur radio service. And that's still in existence
today. But the weight did not count against your
household goods. So when you move in the Army,
The amount of stuff you can move kind of depends
on your rank That did not come against my my
move which was good because we still need to
close in furniture Well, yeah, you might need
those things, but you have to decide if you had
to decide that wouldn't be a good good decision
Yeah, even having the next while who's a ham
she probably wouldn't side with me on that one
Probably probably correct Well, that's a good
story. Well, we're going to take a quick break
and then we're going to come back and we're going
to take your calls live. So if you have some
questions about DXing and some of Fred's adventures,
give us a call. It's 812 -NET -HAM -1 is the
phone number. And we'll be back to do that right
after this message from Spring Hill Suites, Miamisburg,
right here on HamTalk Live. If you're going to
the Dayton Hamvention this year, be sure to join
us for a live broadcast from Spring Hill Suites
Dayton South in Miamisburg, Ohio on Hamvention
Eve, Thursday, May 18th. HamTalk Live will have
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on the air to celebrate the annual migration
to Dayton. and if you're still in need of a place
to stay, Spring Hill Suites Dayton South Miamisburg
still has some rooms available. Just 25 minutes
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Hill Suites Dayton South Miamisburg is near the
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Join the conversation. Call us on voice with
Skype at HamTalk Live or give us a call at 812
-NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now, here's
more HamTalk Live! Welcome back to HamTalk Live.
We're here every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time. Be sure to check out our Facebook page
and our Twitter feed. Just look for HamTalk Live.
You'll find us there. And we're going to take
your call. So if you have a question for Fred,
call 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261.
Or you can Skype us at HamTalk Live. you can
tweet us at HamTalk Live, and we do have a couple
of tweets ready to go here too. But while we're
waiting on the calls, Fred, you had a couple
other things about working from overseas that
you wanted to throw in here, so why don't you
go ahead and do that? Well, many hams don't have
like a high school club like you have. We were
lucky, I was in rural Iowa, small town Iowa,
and there was a ham K0RLX Anton helped me earn
my license and my brothers. And as I was active,
I met another guy who later would become a good
friend, Steve W0HT, who was a radiologist, retired.
And he got me interested in DXing back in the
70s. So between him and the mentor I previously
mentioned, KZ5JM, that was kind of my learning.
And KZ -5 was a looting experience with DX and
DXing. We had 24 -7 propagation pretty much everywhere.
I had good antennas, mono -banders, big power,
and it was just fun. Hotel Lima 9 was fun because,
as a U .S. ham, all of the call signs in that
part of the planet were exotic to me because
I just worked the stateside stations. So the
deep Central Asia stations and... Malaysia and
Indonesia, you know, those were like my back
hair, but they felt like real DX. In Germany,
DA to call, you know, I was just, again, this
garden variety DX, really not that much of a
DX station, but it was fun to be able to hear
what DX sounded like from that QTH. And so I
think with contesting that helps in kind of knowing
when those guys were listening and what their
conditions are like too. So that's just the continuation
of the story, what it was like to operate for
a protracted period of time from other QTHs.
812 -NET -HAM -1 is the phone number. If you'd
like to talk to Fred about DXing, give us a call.
812 -NET -HAM -1 is the number or you can Skype
us or tweet us. at HamTalk Live. Well, Dr. Scott
Wright, K0MD, as we mentioned, did have a couple
of questions ready for you. And he wants to know
which of the five locations you've worked DXCC
from was the hardest and the most interesting.
And he wanted to know, can you compare DXing
from those as an operator, which I think we We
kind of addressed that a little bit, but if you
have anything else you can think of on that,
that's fine, too. Well, I've been a ham a long
time, and so I wouldn't say working DXAC from
the States is that difficult. Over the time that
we were in Germany, it was difficult. Probably
the fastest time was a weekend, a couple weekends
in the VP5 land, so we got on there for the contest.
We've been down there, I think, three times.
with Scott and his team W0B and KC0W and K0PC.
You know, we worked out a day practically. And
so I think the Caribbean has been a good location
for me to knock out DXCC the fastest. All right,
very good. Now, what do you think made Germany
a little more challenging? Well, you don't have
that cool call sign. The antennas really were
the problem. I lived in a restricted antenna
network, so I didn't have good location right
next to the post commander. We were in a stairwell,
which it's Army slang for living in multi -unit
dwelling, like a series of condos. You've got
to keep a low profile antenna and minimize all
the RFI. We had a club station there as well,
but it was just too lazy to get down there and
use it routinely. And another question from Dr.
Scott Wright, KZeroMD. Can you tell a substantial
difference in the receivers between your ICOM
7700 and the FLEX 6700 when contesting or DXing?
other than the top drawer pan adapter? On the
Flex. Well, I like them both. I've had the Flex
for a little bit less than a year. I have to
tell you, I just scratched the surface on this
radio's capability. So it's a 6700. And Neil,
it's got eight receivers. You can look at eight,
and it's two radios in one. So it's just a multi,
I mean, there's so much flexibility with it.
It's an amazing radio, so I try to use it. I
have to say, though, in all honesty, it is not
my go -to contest radio, but it is my, that radio
is on all the time. And, you know, I come downstairs
and I look at the pan adapters and see what's
going on. I mean, it's just kind of a cool thing.
So I'm looking forward to kind of really getting
into that radio. Superheterodynes, you know,
like... I've done 70, 700, I've been around for
a long time, 100 years. But recently you've probably
have seen the SDRs make the top of Rob Sherwood's
list. But like I said, for serious contest activity,
I'm on the ICOM, and I've had ICOMs for many,
many years. And so part of it is just familiarity
with the dial layout, and as I get older I'm
a little less flexible. But the flex is, like
Scott said, The pan adapter is amazing and it's
such a visual experience. The integration of
the visual and the sound, being able to look
at not just one band but say eight bands, which
I rarely do, but you could, it's just remarkable.
On my webpage I've got a couple of picture QSLs
from way back when, and none of those pictures,
are there any computers? Okay, so very few computer
monitors now you look at the average station
They may have one or more and you know the bigger
the better so there's a lot of power in this
visual Sound interaction and and really if you
look at those pan adapters now you've got a sense
of time as well So you can almost say it's three
-dimensional. I know that you've had some of
the SDR folks on here, too I I hate to highlight
my Ignorance about you know some of the more
some of this technology, but I like them both
Oh yeah, I think they both have a lot of benefits.
It's always a good question to ask. It's one
that we ask a lot is, which one do you like better?
Because there's still some advantages and disadvantages
to both and so we'll see how it all plays out.
Right, and you've got a 7300 and so you've got
a taste of the SDR at a price point that is very
good. Oh yeah. What do you think? I tell you
what, I've been a Kenwood fan all my life and
the 7300 at school that we have, we're just falling
in love with it. The options of the scope and
the touchscreen and how quiet it is compared
to what I'm used to with the SDR is just... Just
fabulous, so. That's a lot cheaper than the 991,
isn't it? Oh yeah, it's a lot cheaper than that
990 that I keep wanting, and Scott keeps reminding
me that I need. Well, we've got a caller on the
line. He's been patiently waiting, so let's see
who we have here. Welcome to HamTalk Live. Hello?
Are you there? Okay, we have lost our caller,
so if you want to call back, give us a call.
812 -NET -HAM -1 is the number. 812 -638 -4261
to talk with Fred, and hopefully they'll call
us back here in a minute. Oh, here we go. Let's
see if we can pick this up. Yeah, now we've got
you. Who's this? This is WB0WIV Gordon. Hey,
Gordon. Thanks for calling. I had a question
for Fred since he was kind of my mentor, got
me started in AM radio years ago. We both came
from the same hometown. And I just kind of wondered
if Fred had any ideas on how to work. some of
the more Central Asian countries from Eastern
Iowa since I don't have much luck at it Well,
thanks Gordon good to hear you again and Gordon
was One of yes, we worked him on 10 meters from
HL 9 land which is pretty remarkable feet at
the time He was using the dipole. So if you can
work Korea, I think that Gordon if you If you
just kind of keep your ears out, watch those
spotting networks. First of all, ham activity
tends to cluster around technology. And in certain
parts of the world, that technology doesn't exist.
And I think some of the Stans, and I think that's
what you're referring to, Tersmekistan, and let's
see, that's number 10 or 11 on the list, Kazikistan.
Those countries just don't have a lot of operators.
Again, the governments are restrictive, so the
Maldives, Diego Garcia, those may be a little
bit further south than Central Asia, but you
got to have people that are hamps who are there.
Does that help? Yes, it does. Thank you, Fred.
Appreciate it. Good to hear you. Thanks for calling
in, Gordon. Appreciate it. 812 Net Ham 1 is the
phone number 812 -638 -4261 or you can Skype
us or tweet us at HamTalkLive. We do have a few
minutes remaining so if you want to ask a question
about DXing or something about Fred's experiences
why go ahead and give us a call or a tweet right
now at 812 Net Ham 1. So, talk a little bit about
contesting. What is your favorite contest award?
Well, Neil, I'm, as you know, antenna restricted,
so we have some limitations. So I personally
like the CWA contest. I feel like I'm a better
competitor and I like the CQ Worldwide CWA contest
in November. We've done the CQ Worldwide Single
Side Band in October, as I mentioned, with Scott
down from BP5 land. These are big league contest
events with a variety of operators. There are
big guns and little pistols together. No matter
what the contest, every competitor is important
to the success of the event. If you're a big
gun station, you need little guns to give you
a call. keep your rate up. So everybody's important,
everybody has a role. With the skills and the
station designs, some of those can change, but
there are also some equalizers like solar conditions,
and they all tend to affect the conditions, the
conditions affect the contestants equally. So
you've had some amazing guest operators as well
as owners and operators of super stations, so
you know this too. 812 net ham one is the phone
number. We have a few minutes left. So give us
a call 812 net ham one So yeah the the favorite
contest maybe Whatever one is this weekend? Seeker
worldwide CW man. Yeah. Yep. Yep. The I'm sorry.
That's not right. That's not right. It's a double
RLCW Got too excited about the CQ worldwide.
Yeah, there you go I didn't mention the RTTY
contest, so that's kind of a new mode for me.
I've been active probably for only about eight
or nine years, but that's a whole different world
in itself, and some of these guys were in eight
and single operator, four radials or three radials.
That's amazing. Think about the way that these
guys... And so that's why a radio like the Flex
has a lot of potential. Sure. Well, what's your
best recommendation to someone who hasn't worked
one of these contests before and somebody that's
new? What would you suggest to them to try to
knock out, you know, 100 countries in a weekend?
Get on 20 meters, get on with your 100 watts
in a wire and just give somebody a call. Kind
of know what the rules of the contest are. You
go to one of the websites I mentioned, W7BNM's,
and each one of those links tells you what the
rules and the scoring is. It helps if you have
computer logging, but you don't have to. You
can still keep a paper log and just get on Saturday
night or Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon
when things kind of thin out, the frenzy is over,
and the big guns are looking for the little pistols.
If you like phone, you don't do CW, get on phone.
20 meters is going to be your go -to band with
declining solar conditions. 40 meters might be
a little bit more of a challenge, but I think
20 for a stateside guy in the morning or afternoon,
you're going to find some DX. Remember, it's
all relative. Now, what is your strategy for
the next few years when the dead bands are going
to get worse? So what's your strategy for the
next few years? Well, the low bands are going
to probably be your new favorite bands, you know,
2040, 80, maybe 160 if you've got some real estate
you can put up. So I think, you know, you can
work a lot of DX on 20 and 40 and that will keep
us into the solar minimum and through the next
maximum. Very good. 812 Nat Ham 1. We've got
time for one more. 812 -638 -4261. If you have
a question give us a call or a tweet here real
quick and we're just about to finish things up
with Fred and want to appreciate or extend our
appreciation for you coming on the show and sharing
some of your experiences with us. Tell us a little
bit more about the canal zone and we actually
posted a picture from Your QSL card from the
canal zone on social media Tell us a little more
about about operating from there Well, it's pretty
amazing So, you know, I was done with school
just finished a fellowship at Fort Brad, North
Carolina So this is my first overseas first time
really ever out of the country. So Junie and
I we had a one -year -old went down there and
We were stationed on the Atlantic side of the
canal zone Remember, this was a 10 -mile wide,
15 -mile long U .S. territory and had been there
since the 1990s. And we took down the radio equipment.
We were able to get a canal zone call through
the local administration. We met some really
good hands. I mentioned one of them, KZ -5JM.
He was on the Pacific side. But on our side,
I was able to help mentor a Ham KZ -5 RO. Ron,
he's silent key now, but he was a fireman. There
were a couple of physicians at the Cocosolo Hospital
there, and we just made some friends, and I had
the real estate and the antennas, four element
mono -band or 204BA on 20, 153, three elements
on 15, and. Three elements went 10. And it was
just a great setup and a great location. They
had tennis help, but I think the location was
even better. So I'd seen patients during the
day and we did some contest weekends with Jim.
His favorite contest was always the... the CQ
Worldwide WPX contest. We always had a unique
call, KZ0DX. At the time, KZ5FR was a U .S. territory,
so it was for sweepstakes, it was kind of like
an entity that everybody wanted, so it was kind
of cool to operate sweepstakes from down in KZ5
land as well. So it was just a lot of fun. It
really became a solid part of my... identity
and happy to carry it through to this point in
time. All right. Well, if you haven't checked
out that QSL card on Fred's QRZ page or on our
social media that we tweeted out and on Instagram
and Facebook, check that out. It's a pretty cool
picture. And Fred, thanks so much for coming
on the show tonight. Really enjoyed it. And Hope
to catch you down the log. Well, Neil, thank
you. Good luck with your school roundup and thank
you for all the work you do with the kids in
your radio club. They're the future of the hobby.
73. Thank you very much. That's a wrap for this
week's edition of HamTalk Live. I'd like to thank
my guest. Fred Rigginite or k4iu and everyone
out there in cyberspace for listening and calling
in and Invite you all back next week now next
week Looking at doing the show actually on Wednesday
night and we'll probably do that a little earlier
so we don't run up against ham nation, but I've
got to announce a basketball game next Thursday
night happens once every other year and Next
Thursday is the night that it happens on Thursday.
So check Twitter or Facebook for the time, but
I think we're going to do that a couple hours
early, probably on Wednesday next week. And of
course, if you tune in at the normal time, we're
still there on the archive. You can listen to
it anytime. So if you tune in at the regular
time, just go ahead and hit play at that point.
And so I just wanted to let you know that we
won't be live during our normal time slot next
week. But we will bring you another episode of
HamTalk Live. And as we bring year one to a close.
We thank you for listening, tweeting, and calling
in, and hope you enjoy year number two even more
than the first. For a list of all of our upcoming
guests, visit HamTalkLive .com. So for now, this
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying seven three, seven
five, and may the good DX be yours. Thanks for
watching! 73, and good luck from HamTalk Live.