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hamstation .com. Good evening, everyone. It's
time for another edition of HamTalk Live. It's
episode number 41. ARRL retired COO and key collector,
Harold Kramer, WJ1B recorded live on Thursday,
December 1st, 2016. I'm your host, Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning into this episode of
HamTalk Live. Tonight, we'll be joined by Harold
Kramer, WJ1B. and we'll take your calls live
in just a few minutes. Last week was Thanksgiving
so we took the week off to give thanks and two
weeks ago we were honored by the presence of
Last Man Standing producer John Amadeo in N6JA
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Live is on the air every Thursday night at 9
p .m. Eastern Time right here on 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. Our guest
tonight is Harold Kramer, WJ1B. He's been a amateur
radio operator since 1962. He's the retired chief
operating officer of the ARRL. Prior to working
at the ARRL, he was in the cable television and
broadcast industries, including some time in
Connecticut Public Radio. He was hired as chief
operating officer of the American Radio Relay
League and the publisher of QST. and QEX magazines
in February of 2005. Harold retired as the COO
in March of 2016. He is now a contributing editor
for QST Magazine. Harold holds an amateur extra
class license and a general radio telephone license,
and he is an official emergency station, a volunteer
examiner, a life member of ARRL, and a past emergency
coordinator. He has also been an adjunct faculty
member at the University of Hartford and other
local colleges teaching communications and electronics.
He's also involved in local government in the
city where he resides, Cheshire, Connecticut,
and he holds an AAS from the University of Hartford
and a BA and an MA from the University of Connecticut.
Usually operates CW, PSK 31 and 63. Ready JT65
or JT9. And he has quite an impressive collection
of telegraph keys and other telegraphic apparatus.
So Harold, thank you and welcome to HamTalk Live.
Oh, thanks, Neil. Thanks for inviting me. Well,
in your 11 years as the COO of ARRL, What are
some of the highlights of some of those things
that you accomplished that you wanted to see
happen at the league? Well, I think one of the
things I'm really proud of is that I really increased
the emphasis and involvement on public service
and emergency communications. You know, as you
said in my intro there, I was an EC here in Connecticut
and public service was always my thing in amateur
radio. So help start things with the staff like
the Ares e -letter that wasn't there until I
got there. So now we have a source of electronic
newsletter, things like Ham Aid, which former
chief development officer Mary Hobart helped
start right around Katrina's, which gives equipment
to people who lose their equipment in disasters.
And we ship that stuff all over the world. And
we now I'm going to use the pronoun we because
it gets a little tough. Sure. I'm used to using
it for 11 years. It's a team effort. Yep. And
the ARL has now, when I started, didn't really
have any full -time emergency management people,
but now it has two full -time staff members.
It has really improved the relationship with
many of the served agencies. I think also, it
was kind of a bumpy start in 2011, I think it
was. helped get a new website up for the ARL.
The old website was getting pretty long in a
tooth and ironically this one is now six years
old so that's it's getting a little long in a
tooth but it was a tough job to get that new
website up there. I remember that was that was
quite the quite the ordeal to get all that all
that done and and keep it all formatted and consistent
and yeah yeah it was a big deal. Maybe almost
200 embedded databases. Yeah Of course the 2014
centennial year was a real highlight, you know
with the Centennial Convention in Hartford To
hear guys like Craig Fugate speak, you know the
head of FEMA and Joe Taylor That was a really
amazing event and it was the first time the ARL
put on a national convention of its own Since
I believe the 30s So that was a pretty amazing
effort. And the Centennial QSO party, which made
over a million QSOs and involved every single
ARL member, was worth a point, if you remember.
I used to like that. I was worth, I think, 140
points or something. Yeah, you got the bonus.
Yeah, that was great. Helping the education department,
building that up a bit, you know, Eris contacts.
I went out to a couple of those. pretty amazing
to see and working with instructors. I think
with the great staff of the ARL really worked
to improve the quality of our publications and
our content. I had worked in TV and radio for
many years, so I had a background in content
production and had some really good people at
the ARL. So I think I would list as one of my
accomplishments is improving the quality of the
books and getting many of the books Online is
Kindle editions, which Every month I was there
would continue to to sell even more Kindle editions
of the ARL books And I think more of them need
to be in electronic form. I mean, that's the
way the world is going Yeah, it's it's always
going somewhere is you know, it hops from one
technology to the next so right? Yeah, that's
that's a that's a big deal. And you know, I was
just thinking back, um, yesterday, I think it
was that there was this thing called call book.
Oh yeah. If you want to look somebody up, you
didn't just, you know, hop on the internet and
go to, you know, QRZ or whatever, and, and, and
look it up. Yeah. get out this big phone book
and look it up and hope that they hadn't moved
since the last year you bought one and how much
that's changed. Oh yeah. Well, you mentioned
phone books. We don't use those anymore either.
Yeah, exactly. In line with that, I think I'd
say the digital edition of QST was one of the
things I helped accomplish with the staff. And
that was not an easy thing to do either. Figuring
out what the business model would be and which
vendor to use and how it's going to be distributed
and what extra content would be added. You know,
it has a couple of videos every month in it now,
usually by the lab guys talking about the new
products. So that was a pretty big leap. Other
things that come to mind is improvements in the
lab. You know, we were talking about Rob Sherwood
earlier, but with Ed Hare and Bob Allison and
Zach Lau and Mike Gruber, I think during my time,
we really improved the lab. The type of test
equipment was all upgraded, and particularly
being able to evaluate some of the newer rigs.
You know, they were getting beyond the measurement
of the test equipment that existed. So I would
list that. is something that Ed Hare, who's still
the lab manager, W1RFI, working with him, we
really, and the board, who had to allocate the
money to do it, really improved the, and Bob
Allison, who's the test engineer, really improved
the capabilities of the lab. And also, I would
put down the physical building of W1AW needed
a lot of work when I was there. And working with
Joe Karschia, Did a lot of that and by physical
I mean things like the roof, you know, just like
any other building Yeah, you know, it's not a
monument the roof had to be done Things like
the windows the sidewalks the heat systems lots
of things got improved at w1aw over the last
ten years and and not just antennas and rigs
but the building itself And I think I would list
the strategic plan the new strategic plan that
I worked on the last year with a board committee.
I think it's a pretty solid effort. It's available
for anybody to see out on the website. And I
think working through that and trying to determine
what the ARL is going to be doing the next five
years and a little further out than that, having
the privilege to work with some of the guys on
that committee, like Jim Fenstermaker, who's
now a VP of the ARRL, and Greg Wyden. who is
now a VP of the ARL. It was an amazing effort.
We started out by having a company, Redex, a
third party do a survey of the membership to
determine what their thinking was and kind of
based a lot of our effort on that. So I think
I'd list those things. One more personal thing
that I wouldn't list in print or anything, but
I enjoyed doing it. I think I licensed up I taught
license courses in the building. So I think I
probably licensed 15 to 20 people. Sure. With
tech or general licenses. And that was very rewarding
things to do. And I felt it was important for
staff members, to be honest, even if they never
went on the air, but to go through the process
of learning about amateur radio, taking the exam.
dealing with VEs, getting a license and a call
sign so that when they spoke to members or did
other things they had gone through the process
themselves and understood what it was involved
and how proud you feel when you finally get that
call sign. So that's kind of where I'm coming
from. Sure absolutely and you know I was so so
fortunate to uh to come out there for a week
and in the Teachers Institute and and got a glimpse
at that lab and went over to W1AW every day on
lunch and saw a lot of those upgrades and those
were very, very well done and just amazed. at
those upgrades. So good job. That was one of
the highlights. I've always said that I've never
been to a professional development better than
that one and the opportunity to do that out in
Newington at headquarters and get to go over
on lunch and get on W1AW and show some of these
other teachers how it's done. We had two or three
of those teachers become hams by the end of the
week and they took their test right there and
ran upstairs and filed it and got their call
sign. So this is a great way to get into ham
radio. for them. Yeah, those TIs as we call them,
you know, part of that education that I mentioned.
We have some great instructors. I don't know
who your instructor was, so we had some great
instructors. Deborah Johnson, K1 DMJ, runs that
program for the ARL and she really developed
a good core of instructors. And they do between
two and four a year of a teacher's institute.
If people don't know what they are, they train
teachers in Not just ham radio and not primarily
ham radio because you've been through it pretty
much electronics Fundamentals digital technology
a little bit of robotics And then a little bit
of ham radio thrown in there. So I think those
are pretty good programs You know, I also was
thinking about it here. One of the other things
I think I'm proud of is just a business thing
in that I really worked with Dave Patton and
n1n and Sharon over at the Awards Department
to improve the ARAL's award processing and participation.
DXCC WAS applications are now flowing much better
than when I started. So that took a lot of work
to get right. People used to wait a long time,
but pretty much changed a lot of the process.
Now you can submit DXCC cards through the website
online. Of course Logbook of the World, when
I started, I think had 25 ,000 users. Now it's
up over 90 ,000 users. So a lot of stuff in 11
years. And certainly I didn't do it all. Like
I said, I had a great team at the ARL. Really
outstanding group of very dedicated people. Yeah,
well Mark Spencer was my instructor for that
he he built the whole thing and yes He did a
fabulous job. Well, I do want to before time
gets away Too much further do want to switch
over to your key collection for a little bit
So tell us about some of your prized keys and
which one is is your favorite and and Let's talk
about the keys for a few minutes here. Okay You
know, one time I was at a company presentation
and somebody was introducing me and they said
I was a key collector and people thought I meant
the kind of keys that went into locks. Yeah.
Well, I have car keys. I have door keys. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just say, no, no, it's telegraph
keys. Well, anyway, I think I like a lot of the
keys that I have. I like the ones best that really
tell the story about Who owned the key or the
history of the key that his collectors say have
some kind of provenance You know, there's a story
associated with it I think those are the those
are the kind I like to collect the most and I've
really Got a good collection of and I'm never
sure how he pronounces. It's either McElroy or
McElroy. I've heard both But he Ted McElroy was,
at one time, Bill is the world's fastest telegrapher.
They used to have contests, like at the World's
Fair and stuff. This guy could copy, I think,
like 90 words a minute on a mill. Wow. Amazing.
And he started a company. He made beautiful keys.
Tear -shaped stream keys, they're called. And
beautiful bugs. And they, so I have a lot of
those that I've collected through the years that
I've found. They kind of tie in with the other
part of my collection that I like, which are
keys from New England. Actually, all of McElroy
keys were built around the Boston area, so they're
all kind of New England keys. And I have a couple
from Connecticut. At one time, Connecticut and
where I'm from in Waterbury used to be called
the brass city of the world. Lots of metal was
made in Connecticut and worked in Connecticut.
We had the skilled craftsmen and we had the water
power to do it so there were lots of shops that
made metal things and One of them was in clocks
One of them was called the New Haven clock company
and I have one of their telegraph keys, which
is kind of rare I just kept watching looking
for one and I finally found one so I like that
and then in the town next door to me Meriden,
Connecticut, there was a company called the Connecticut
Telephone and Telegraph Company that made toy
keys and practice keys. They're on my website
and I've managed to find a couple of those through
the years, which is pretty cool to have these
fairly elaborate toy keys that were made by that
company that's right next door to me. There's
also some Toy keys that I like as well and I
wrote a QST article on my toy keys I got a pretty
good response to it Some of these are from like
the Boy Scouts and some of them are from they're
sort of toy and practice keys I have a couple
from Russia one of my boss actually two of my
boss Dave Sumner brought back when in one of
his trips to Eastern Europe and They're little
wooden base keys with little cheap metal things
little plastic handles on them that they used
to train the equivalent of the Russian Boy Scouts
So those are kind of cool. And I have a toy practice
key from A .C. Gilbert, which is also a New Haven
company here in Connecticut, or was a New Haven
company. And people know A .C. Gilbert company
from Erector Sets, you know. Most boys had Erector
Sets when we grew up, or at least those of us
who were interested in those kind of things.
Sure, sure. So that's kind of the way I've focused
it. You know, the McElroy Keys and Keyswood stories.
I have a little... Naval key Navy key, you know,
it's a made for the US Navy and it just does
very innocuous looking straight key and The guy
I bought it from sent me this whole story about
it was his father's key in World War two and
he was in Hawaii and then when they Moved into
Japan. He took the key with him there and he
worked in intelligence, you know, and it's so
very innocuous looking device But it's got quite
a little history to it Sure. And the one we posted
on Twitter and Facebook was one that was a clothespin,
pretty much. Oh, yes. That was a gift that's
called a wild witty key. I didn't see that. I'll
have to take a look at that. But those were hand
-built by Dave Ingram. Dave wrote two or three
books about telegraph keys, maybe more. And I
met Dave, actually, in Huntsville. Because he
was from the Huntsville area and you know, I
had read all his books and I had him here on
the shelf and We had a really great conversation
and we kept in touch for many years, you know
Dave passed away a few years ago We kept in touch
for many years via email and he gave his friends
as he said these wild woody keys and They were
made from a clothespin. That's kind of an unusual
usual key. I have some other Unusual keys are
one -of -a -kind keys, which I really like Jerry
McGregor kd5jh e it's on my website too. It's
like a wooden base with like almost like a hacksaw
blade for the for the lever and a like a knob
you buy in a hardware store for your bureau so
that one's pretty cool and I have It's not rare
Kent engineers makes a replica of the first key
made by Alfred Vale And a army scissors key which
looks like a scissors. So there's no end Well,
maybe now but there was no end to the even now
people make custom keys to the inventiveness
of people who make Telegraph keys, which are
really just single pole Single throw switches
or if you use a paddle to single pole double
throw switch But there's really some very ingenious,
and in some cases, very beautiful designs. Day
to day, here at my home station, I use a Begali
Simplex key, which is a dual lever paddle, which
is a great key. And I have another station, a
smaller station up at my mother -in -law's house,
which is about 40 miles from here, and there
I have a Bencher BY1 paddle that I use every
day. So, ah. I started this, I had collected
them before I worked for the league, kind of
on and off on a casual basis. But then when you
go to a lot of hamfests, they're small and they're
cheap. Rather than hauling back a receiver or
a transceiver from Iowa or something or Colorado
back to Connecticut. In my suitcase, I sort of
got in the habit of looking around for keys at
the flea markets and that's how I've accumulated
most of them, to tell you the truth. TSA doesn't
know what they are sometimes. Yeah, like a gossip
problem. Yeah, they're easily explained. All
right. Well, we do need to take a break here,
but we're going to talk about some of your telegraph
equipment besides the keys and, and we're going
to take some calls when we come back. So, uh,
we'll be back here in just a moment after this
message from the ham station right here on ham
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Now, here's more HamTalk Live. Welcome back to
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And be sure to listen here at HamTalk Live every
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.com also check out our Facebook page and Twitter
feed. Just search for HamTalk Live. Well, it's
time for your calls now. If you have a question
for Harold Kramer, WJ1B, give us a call. The
phone number is 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812
-638 -4212. 261 we will start taking calls here
in just a minute You can also Skype us at ham
talk live or you can tweet If you'd rather type
than call you can tweet us at ham talk live So
let us know but I do want to pick up Harold with
one thing we wanted to do before the break and
that's You have some telegraph equipment besides
key. So tell us a little bit about that while
we're taking some calls here. Well, you know,
before there was electronic telegraphy, when
oscillators were invented, there was landline
telegraphy that was pretty much electromechanical.
So I have a bunch of devices called sounders,
which are really the current goes in, there's
a couple as a magnet, it then pulls on the lever.
Oh, I should I should have brought one over here
so you can hear what it sounds like. Live demo
here. Let's see if you can hear this. And your
statics back. Better now? Yeah, I think you got
it now. OK. Can you hear that? Yeah. That's what
a sounder sounds like. Originally, telegraphy
the sounders punched a paper tape, and a long
strip would be a dit, a dah, and a short little
bit on the paper tape would be a dit in the office,
and then they pulled off the tape and transcribed
the message. But after a while, they were able
to hear this and copy it by ear, and they eliminated
the paper tape. But I got a bunch of sounders.
They all have magnetic coils. They have a little
bar that pulls down Some are vertical some are
horizontal. Like I said earlier a lot of them
have a story People will tell me when my father
worked in the telephone office telegraph office
or my grandfather and this was his sounder The
first one I got was from my wife's uncle Jake
who worked on the railroad he was a postal guy
on the railroad in Springfield, Massachusetts
and That was the first sounder that I was given.
I had never had any before. So sounders were
part of the electromechanical era of telegraphy.
In each office, Adam, if you ever see an old
movie or something that's authentic, you hear
a lot of sounders in the background going click,
click, click, click, click. The other things
that I have for electro. Non electronic telegraphy.
I have a bunch of ko B's which are called key
on board which is a board with a sounder and
a Telegraph key that was used either for practice
or some Telegraphers carried them around like
mechanics carry around their toolboxes today
And when they showed up in an office They just
plug it in and they had their own sounder and
their own key and they're all on wooden boards
Some of them are really nicely finished and stuff.
So that was kind of a different Different era
and then I have a bunch of other stuff. I've
just sort of bumped into through the years What
I have a Western Union mechanical call box. I
don't know if you've ever heard of that, but
it's it's on my website and it's a box Where
it was mounted on the wall of a business and
you turn the handle and it would wind back like
a little clock But it would send a number a specific
number of pulses back to the telegraph office
And they'd look up where the numbers were from
and a messenger would be sent to your business
to pick up your telegraph to send. Also have
a number of buttons and pins. Telegraphy before
radio really was a startling technology. It was
the internet of its day. Before telegraphy existed,
the fastest you can move data was probably a
horse. And then a locomotive, you know, but telegraphy
electricity moves pretty much at the speed of
light and All of a sudden the world was connected
together under sea cables and lots of other things
happen So to me, it's always been an amazing
technology to kind of study and learn about and
acquire some of these devices Which are actually
pretty cheap to acquire unless you're into some
really esoteric stuff so it really was a technology
like the internet that changed the world. So
that's what some of the other... Stuff I've accumulated
through the years. Yeah, very good. Well, give
us a call now It's eight one two Nat Ham one
eight one two six three eight four two six one
Give us a call right now and we'll get you on
the air and you can ask your question or if you've
got a comment about a Key or whatever for Harold.
Why give us a call again. It's eight one two
Nat Ham one or Skype us at ham talk live and
we've mentioned your website a couple of times
Let's go ahead and give the address for that.
So you do have several of your keys up there
on the website. www .wj1b .com. Okay, so wj1b
.com. I get a lot of people asking me. Yeah,
thank you. I get a lot of people contacting me
through the website. There's a contact form there
asking me to identify keys or value keys. Probably
get a couple increase a week off that website
with questions, you know People send me a picture
of a sounder and say what is this? You know,
I found it in the attic You know, they've googled
it so Gotten I've also acquired some pieces that
way people say, you know, I found this or I had
this and are you willing to buy it? So a few
people are looking at the website, I guess if
you Google keys, it comes up somewhere in the
list I guess. Sure. You've got some great pictures
up there. So give us a call 812 -NATAM -1 812
-638 -4261 if you have a key question or anything
about Harold's operations and his... Passed it
at the league why give us a call eight one two
net ham one eight one two six three eight four
two six one or you can Tweet us at ham talk live
While you're while we're waiting for some calls
here I asked you about your favorite key, and
you said you're using the The bagala is that
is that your favorite? It's my favorite to use
yes So what's your favorite to own? I have a
beautiful McElroy 300 stream key that's chrome
which is really a beautiful key in my opinion
so that's my favorite one I have a picture of
me holding it on my QSL card and it's really
a nice looking key but you know real telegraphers
don't like chrome keys because of the reflection
That's why a lot of keys are black Because if
you're sitting in a office all day and the Sun
hits the chrome it supposedly, you know can get
in your eyes and distract you So there are an
awful lot more gray and black keys than there
are chrome So I only have two or three chrome
keys in my collection But that McElroy is a really
nice little key All the way around I've never
used it on the air I guess I should try it on
the air one day if I could remember how to send
with a straight key I'm so used to using a paddle
An iambic paddle that I'd have to remember how
to do it, you know The other the other will take
some getting used to and those bugs the bugs.
Oh, yeah That's an adjustment period on those
things. Yeah I've never been able to send well
with a bug, you know, I'm so used to using I've
used a paddle for so many years And I've got
a bunch of keyers here in the collection that
I've acquired. Again, mostly at Hamfest, people
saw them for 20 bucks, 10 bucks, you know, older
keyers. You couldn't really have a paddle. I
saw the one that I used for a long time, the
old Heath kit. Yeah. The old Heath kit keyer.
Yeah. Yeah. You couldn't really have a keyer
until someone invented the, you couldn't really
use a paddle until someone invented the electronic
keyer. I've heard different Stories about who
the first one did how our crafters had a very
early one Just think now. It's one chip in doing
in every transceiver, right? You don't need it
Pretty easy to do these days. You don't need
a big box with a power supply in a bunch of tubes
in a multi vibrator circuit Quite a change in
technology Well, what are some things, switching
over back to the league for a minute, what are
some things that you're hoping to see happen
in the next few years, now that you've left,
but maybe you got started on and handed it off,
what are some things that you hope to see go
on or continue over at the league? Okay, well
some of the things I started that I'd like to
see continue or expand I'd like to see more social
media usage. I think that's the future. I think
that's where I Used to say young people are but
I'm not so sure I think it's across the spectrum
now, you know But they have a very good Facebook
page That was started when I was there Sean cut's
go kx9x runs that now any keeps expanding and
expanding. But I'd like to see even more. They
just started a podcast, probably do more podcasts.
And I'd like to see some more online courses,
which were started stumbling along for a while
because they're so difficult to do. But we used
to have an online technician course. And one
of the things I was trying to work on before
I left was getting another one back up and running.
That was a pretty popular course, but when the
question pool changed, it became obsolete. So
that's one area I'd like to work on. The other
one is we talked about a little bit earlier,
the more digital publications. You know, why
isn't there some kind of digital version of the
handbook? You know, maybe it's three or four
blue books, but right now you've got to buy that
big heavy book and it's got so much information
in it. But digital books and Leak publishes QEX
and NCJ as periodicals. To me, QEX would be great
in digital. You could add a lot more stuff to
it, schematics and software programming and all
kinds of things. The business model has to be
figured out and the technology, and I didn't
think it was there when I left, but I think it's
gonna get there. Very good, yeah. Oh, I've got
a call. We got a call here. All right. We have
a call. It is Marty Salloway. Mr. Chicken with
fries. Good evening, Marty. Good evening, Neil.
Yeah. What's what's your question here for Harold?
Yeah, I've been listening to the conversation
all evening and it's been absolutely terrific.
And I just had actually have a lot of questions,
but I'll keep it too short ones here. And I guess
what I wanted to really ask was This is purely
opinion, but I wanted your opinion on the way
in which licensing is regulated in the U .S.
I'm intrigued, by the way, how other countries
have created things like the foundation license
and other more simple licenses than what the
U .S. has that allows low -power HF licensing,
etc. What you think as far as the way in which
we are licensed in the US compared to other countries?
How effective do you think that is? Are we doing
it right? Hmm, that's a question and on top of
that I can give you two minutes. Oh boy That's
a hard question to answer I Don't think our license
classes are are optimized now. I think the technician
license is not a good entry license You know,
you really just get a little bit of HF. You get
some VHF, some UHF. You can do public service.
I don't think it's great. I'm not sure more HF
is the answer. I mean, right now with the technician
license, you can run a lot of power on two meters,
but you can't do 25 watt JT65 or PSK31 very easily.
So, you know, I'm not... Really sure where it's
gonna go. I know the aro board right before I
left put together. There are a committee to study
that so Some they'd probably appreciate some
input. I don't think there's an easy answer To
that question. I know Australia has that foundation
license that you mentioned and I don't know if
it's been all that successful I know some countries
have more stringent a lot more stringent requirements
than we do they require people to actually Get
on the air or part have a certain amount of participation
and activity before they can upgrade So I don't
have a good answer to that, but I don't think
it's a hundred percent right quite yet Yeah,
yeah, I think that that's terrific and I'm interested
to see as far as I think you hit the nail on
the head and I know we're running out of time
here, but I'm just Intrigued to see where it
goes and I think you raise a very good point
as far as the way in which kind of the licenses
as much information as they may have, how little
they actually apply to what we do in ham radio,
actually. And the other thing I wanted your opinion
on is you kind of briefly hinted at it. You can't
run 25 watts on JT65 with a technician license
on 20 meters, but it's completely legal to run
1500 watts on 10 gigahertz. I find that mildly
concerning. Yeah, it doesn't quite make sense,
does it? No, thank you. I think that technician
license was put in when those upper bands were
not considered as worth as much and before digital
modes existed. So I think the whole thing needs
a good looking hat, you know? And I know they
put, right when I was leaving, they put together
that board committee at the last board meeting
I attended. Tom Frenet, the New England director,
put a motion in. K1KI, yep. Yeah, the study.
the whole situation. I'm going to have to, I'm
going to have to end it there, Errol, but thank
you. And Marty, thank you for calling in and,
uh, and a shout out to the phasing line podcast.
Episode two just came out. So. So check out Marty
on that. And that's a wrap for this week's edition
of HamTalk Live. I'd like to thank my guest,
Harold Kramer, WJ1B, and everyone out there for
listening and calling in, and invite you back
next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern time when
Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, will be here to talk about
MCOM and the Hurricane WatchNet. For a list of
all of our upcoming guests, visit hamtalklive
.com. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying 7 -3. 7 -5 and may the good DX be yours!