WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:06.080 by Tower Electronics. For cables, connectors, 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:13.220 and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:17.260 .com and by the HamStation. Get your new radio 00:00:17.260 --> 00:00:23.300 or antenna by calling 800 -729 -4373 or go to 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:59.740 hamstation .com. This is Ham Talk Live, episode 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:04.239 number 40. Last Man Standing producer John Amadeo, 00:01:04.340 --> 00:01:10.099 NN6JA, recorded live on Thursday, November 17th, 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:15.319 2016. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:18.599 for tuning in to this episode. of HamTalk Live. 00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:22.219 Tonight, we'll be joined by John Amadeo, NN6JA, 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:26.140 the producer of the ABC television hit comedy, 00:01:26.579 --> 00:01:29.260 Last Man Standing, and we'll take your calls 00:01:29.260 --> 00:01:33.060 live in just a few minutes. Last week, we had 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:35.719 Open Lines Thursday. If you missed that show, 00:01:35.859 --> 00:01:39.200 you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:41.739 you can catch it on iTunes, Stitcher, Google 00:01:41.739 --> 00:01:45.540 Play, TuneIn, SoundCloud, or YouTube. So get 00:01:45.540 --> 00:01:48.319 your questions ready to go about last man standing. 00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:51.159 And after the introduction, you can give us a 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:54.719 call. We'll let you know when the time is right 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:57.439 to give us a call, but you'll call us on Skype 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:00.480 at HamTalk Live or you can call us by telephone 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:06.459 and that number is 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:12.159 -638 -4261. You can also go ahead and tweet questions 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:15.800 now via Twitter. Our Twitter handle is at HamTalk 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:18.819 Live and we'll be checking that throughout the 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:21.000 show. So I'll be back with John right after this. 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:25.280 from The Ham Station right here on HamTalk Live. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:27.979 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:02:27.979 --> 00:02:32.219 by The Ham Station. For over 37 years, The Ham 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:34.979 Station has sold new and used radios, antennas, 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:37.759 accessories, and equipment to hams everywhere. 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:44.819 Give Dan or Jeff a call at 800 -729 -4373 or 00:02:44.819 --> 00:02:49.400 order online at hamstation .com. HamStation carries 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:53.460 all the major brands like Icom, Yezu, and Kenwood. 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:56.599 And they have a wide selection of radio scanners, 00:02:56.939 --> 00:03:00.479 MFJ accessories, Heil sound products, amplifiers 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:03.639 by Mirage and Ameritron, Cushcraft antennas, 00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:07.039 and more. Easy online ordering is at hamstation 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:13.539 .com or call 1 -800 -729 -4373 to place an order 00:03:13.539 --> 00:03:16.719 and talk it over with the experts. The HamStation, 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:19.560 proud to sponsor. answer this episode of HamTalk 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:23.800 Live. At HamTalk Live we have a million dollar 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:26.800 request guarantee. You give us a million dollars 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:29.479 and we'll do a show about whatever ham topic 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:46.370 you request. Guaranteed. Welcome back to HamTalk 00:03:46.370 --> 00:03:50.449 Live. HamStation has you covered for both new 00:03:50.449 --> 00:03:53.770 and used equipment. Give Dan or Jeff a call at 00:03:53.770 --> 00:04:00.069 800 -729 -4373 or go to hamstation .com and tell 00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:03.909 them you heard it on HamTalk Live. HamTalk Live 00:04:03.909 --> 00:04:06.449 is on the air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. 00:04:06.770 --> 00:04:10.389 Eastern Time right here on hamtalklive .com and 00:04:10.389 --> 00:04:13.030 if you missed the show you can listen. on the 00:04:13.030 --> 00:04:16.230 archive that's on the website Amtoklive .com 00:04:16.230 --> 00:04:19.410 or you can download it from most of those podcasting 00:04:19.410 --> 00:04:24.129 websites. Originally from Long Island, John started 00:04:24.129 --> 00:04:27.029 an amateur radio as a tech plus in the early 00:04:27.029 --> 00:04:31.310 1970s quickly upgrading to general class. He 00:04:31.310 --> 00:04:34.730 moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s where 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:37.529 he ultimately upgraded to extra and changed his 00:04:37.529 --> 00:04:41.699 call to NN6JA. John has worked in the entertainment 00:04:41.699 --> 00:04:44.800 industry as an editor, director, and producer 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:48.399 for the past 30 years. He's produced familiar 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:51.899 shows like Titus, Arrested Development, Samantha 00:04:51.899 --> 00:04:56.050 Who, and Sports Night. And he's currently producing 00:04:56.050 --> 00:04:59.550 Last Man Standing, starring Tim Allen, which 00:04:59.550 --> 00:05:04.490 is now in its sixth season on ABC and is nationally 00:05:04.490 --> 00:05:07.490 syndicated. On the show, Tim Allen's character, 00:05:07.629 --> 00:05:11.029 Mike Baxter, is a ham radio operator. And all 00:05:11.029 --> 00:05:13.730 the radio equipment you see on the set is real 00:05:13.730 --> 00:05:17.050 and working. And over the show's six seasons, 00:05:17.579 --> 00:05:22.040 A number of the staff and crew have become licensed 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:26.399 and often use the show radios to get on the air. 00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:29.920 So John, thank you so much for taking time out 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:33.480 to come on HamTalk Live. Well, hi Neil. Thank 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:35.639 you for having me on HamTalk Live. It's nice 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:38.500 to be on a show that I actually listen to and 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:42.370 enjoy. Well, thank you so much for for tuning 00:05:42.370 --> 00:05:45.790 in and for joining us so tell us a little bit 00:05:45.790 --> 00:05:50.730 about how Tim Allen's character Mike Baxter Came 00:05:50.730 --> 00:05:54.769 to be a ham radio operator in the show Well, 00:05:54.870 --> 00:05:56.810 thanks for asking, you know that came about really 00:05:56.810 --> 00:05:59.990 organically in that The first time I met with 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:02.449 mr. Allen and we talked about his character Mike 00:06:02.449 --> 00:06:06.490 Baxter and then he wanted him to be a man's man, 00:06:06.589 --> 00:06:09.709 you know, a hunting, camping, fishing, backpacking 00:06:09.709 --> 00:06:13.310 kind of a guy. And of course, these days, when 00:06:13.310 --> 00:06:15.629 you do any kind of an activity, even outdoor 00:06:15.629 --> 00:06:17.769 activities, there's some amount of technology 00:06:17.769 --> 00:06:20.790 that comes along with it. Tim himself is a big 00:06:20.790 --> 00:06:23.069 believer in technology. He loves radios and he 00:06:23.069 --> 00:06:25.709 loves cell phones and computers and stuff. And 00:06:25.709 --> 00:06:28.550 he surprised me by saying, Mike Baxter is a bit 00:06:28.550 --> 00:06:31.610 of a survivalist, and he would have radio equipment. 00:06:31.930 --> 00:06:34.449 And of course I went like radio equipment. What 00:06:34.449 --> 00:06:36.850 do you mean by that Tim? And he said, you know 00:06:36.850 --> 00:06:40.850 ham radio and I said well as it turns out I've 00:06:40.850 --> 00:06:42.949 been a ham for a really long time and if you 00:06:42.949 --> 00:06:45.209 want Mike Baxter to be a ham radio operator I 00:06:45.209 --> 00:06:47.970 can totally hook you up and make a ham radio 00:06:47.970 --> 00:06:51.290 theme for the show So we did that and as you 00:06:51.290 --> 00:06:54.430 said we didn't just do it as a prop for the show 00:06:54.430 --> 00:06:58.149 we made it real so I think you know, we can talk 00:06:58.149 --> 00:07:00.230 more about that but That's sort of an aspect 00:07:00.230 --> 00:07:03.110 of this show that I believe is the first time 00:07:03.110 --> 00:07:07.629 anyone's ever done real ham radio on a TV show. 00:07:08.589 --> 00:07:11.009 Yeah. Now we were talking a little bit before 00:07:11.009 --> 00:07:14.149 the show about there's been a ham radio done 00:07:14.149 --> 00:07:18.149 in some different shows, but it's never quite 00:07:18.149 --> 00:07:23.529 real. That's true. And I think for me, and I've 00:07:23.529 --> 00:07:25.769 seen all those shows, everything from frequency, 00:07:25.829 --> 00:07:31.350 um, To how many shows the Munsters had ham radio 00:07:31.350 --> 00:07:37.649 the new CW show frequency It goes on and on and 00:07:37.649 --> 00:07:40.829 almost always ham radio is shown first of all 00:07:40.829 --> 00:07:44.649 inaccurately It's usually an old CB radio or 00:07:44.649 --> 00:07:46.670 a big box labeled ham radio with some blinking 00:07:46.670 --> 00:07:49.389 lights on or something like that Or it's viewed 00:07:49.389 --> 00:07:53.610 negatively that is to say you know hams are guys 00:07:53.610 --> 00:07:56.040 sitting in their basement Talking to each other 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:59.180 on these old vintage radios So if we were going 00:07:59.180 --> 00:08:02.000 to do ham radio on our show I wanted it to be 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.459 accurate and I wanted it to be as positive a 00:08:04.459 --> 00:08:06.920 portrayal as possible and I especially wanted 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:09.540 the equipment to be really cool and modern and 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:11.600 Especially digital and that's kind of what we've 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:16.639 accomplished. I think so far So as a result of 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.870 doing all this Tim Allen got his ham license. 00:08:21.569 --> 00:08:24.670 So how often does he get on the air? And any 00:08:24.670 --> 00:08:28.509 any secrets about where to find him on the air 00:08:28.509 --> 00:08:31.269 every once in a while? Well, you know, he does. 00:08:32.789 --> 00:08:34.769 He's we have, of course, on the show, we have 00:08:34.769 --> 00:08:37.129 a ton of ham gear. And if anyone that watches 00:08:37.129 --> 00:08:39.929 the show, you pretty much see it every week. 00:08:40.629 --> 00:08:44.330 And personally, Tim, I know that he asked me 00:08:44.330 --> 00:08:46.309 a lot of questions, so I know when he's more 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:49.690 or less on. Of course, I'm not going to divulge 00:08:49.690 --> 00:08:52.610 the secrets of when and where he might be because 00:08:52.610 --> 00:08:54.750 my goodness, you can imagine he'd get the pileup 00:08:54.750 --> 00:08:56.950 of a lifetime and it would probably scare him 00:08:56.950 --> 00:09:00.250 away from ham radio. But because it was it was 00:09:00.250 --> 00:09:03.210 Tim that wanted ham radio on the show because 00:09:03.210 --> 00:09:06.450 I think he saw it as a good way to stay in touch 00:09:06.450 --> 00:09:08.370 with his family as he moves around the country. 00:09:08.370 --> 00:09:10.950 And of course, he's right. And the first piece 00:09:10.950 --> 00:09:15.610 of gear that we got for him was an icon D star 00:09:15.610 --> 00:09:18.750 radio because You know as you move around the 00:09:18.750 --> 00:09:20.909 country on hf you may or may not be able to make 00:09:20.909 --> 00:09:23.629 contact But for the most part with d star you 00:09:23.629 --> 00:09:25.490 can go anywhere and at least get back to your 00:09:25.490 --> 00:09:27.450 home base You know either through the radio and 00:09:27.450 --> 00:09:29.909 a repeater or through a dev app or dongle or 00:09:29.909 --> 00:09:33.250 whatever And I can tell that he does use the 00:09:33.250 --> 00:09:36.470 radio by by the conversations we have Although 00:09:36.470 --> 00:09:39.690 I have to say, you know tim works hard and long 00:09:39.690 --> 00:09:43.070 hours. So when he's with us on the show I can 00:09:43.070 --> 00:09:44.690 sort of tell what he's doing, but when he goes 00:09:44.690 --> 00:09:46.889 home, that's his personal life. So what he does 00:09:46.889 --> 00:09:49.590 on the weekends or at nights, I certainly don't 00:09:49.590 --> 00:09:52.350 monitor his activities. And that's of course 00:09:52.350 --> 00:09:54.649 when he would be playing with radios just like 00:09:54.649 --> 00:09:57.509 all of us do. And it's hard for me to report 00:09:57.509 --> 00:09:59.409 about that because I'm certainly not spying on 00:09:59.409 --> 00:10:04.529 Mr. Allen. One of the reasons we created, we 00:10:04.529 --> 00:10:06.970 could talk about later, we created the club, 00:10:07.429 --> 00:10:09.929 the Last Man Standing Amateur Radio Club, which 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:14.870 and got the call sign KA6LMS was to allow our 00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:18.570 licensed operators that didn't have general class 00:10:18.570 --> 00:10:21.870 or above privileges and or TEM the ability to 00:10:21.870 --> 00:10:26.090 go on the air using the club call. So that helps 00:10:26.090 --> 00:10:28.549 a little bit with anonymity if you want to go 00:10:28.549 --> 00:10:30.610 on the air and not be mobbed under your original 00:10:30.610 --> 00:10:33.929 call sign. So that might be some secret information, 00:10:33.929 --> 00:10:39.100 I don't know. Well, you've been able to use the 00:10:39.100 --> 00:10:42.419 rig quite a bit you guys have been able to get 00:10:42.419 --> 00:10:46.720 on every week With some of the crew and some 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:49.919 of the cast maybe tell us the best way to find 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:53.200 you on the air from the set of last man standing 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.759 and Tell us a little bit about the the setup. 00:10:55.940 --> 00:10:58.159 Of course, we see the the rig and everything 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:02.580 But what's the antenna setup? Well, you know, 00:11:02.580 --> 00:11:05.860 I've gone through many many antennas Currently, 00:11:05.860 --> 00:11:08.960 I've got two inverted V's on the roof of the 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:12.379 stage. So now the quick backstory We are a 20th 00:11:12.379 --> 00:11:14.919 Century Fox television show and we air on ABC 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:17.980 and we produce the show at CBS in Studio City, 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:21.879 California So we're in stage 9, which is the 00:11:21.879 --> 00:11:24.539 Seinfeld stage. So it's a really good karma stage 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:26.960 We have a lot of luck there and it's about 60 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:29.840 feet high. So on the roof of that stage I've 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.820 got a 40 meter inverted V and a 20 meter inverted 00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:36.919 V and they are radio waves dipoles and I'm using 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:39.139 LMR 400 all the way up there because I like to 00:11:39.139 --> 00:11:41.279 keep as much power going up there as possible 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:45.120 and those those cables come down to our ICOM 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:50.840 IC 7700 in the Mike Baxter office in the fictitious 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:53.779 Outdoor Man store, and that's the basics of it 00:11:53.779 --> 00:11:56.700 I can't run any power because I am about a thousand 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:59.460 feet away from the West Coast Broadcast Center 00:11:59.460 --> 00:12:02.820 for CBS And they would probably frown on our 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:05.059 operation. If we took their nightly news off 00:12:05.059 --> 00:12:09.940 the air, that might cause a ruffle or two. Absolutely. 00:12:10.259 --> 00:12:12.259 Um, and they've been amazing. When you think 00:12:12.259 --> 00:12:15.679 about where I am physically and the ability to 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:18.659 run a ham radio, it's, uh, it's pretty wonderful. 00:12:18.659 --> 00:12:21.340 And it's, it's mostly due to, uh, Tim Holly, 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:24.039 who's one of the engineers at CBS, who's an extra 00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:26.720 class and an old friend of mine who kind of helped 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.539 us, uh, get permission to do all this stuff. 00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:32.179 but it's really worked great. We go on the air 00:12:32.179 --> 00:12:35.039 usually on Tuesday nights during our dinner breaks. 00:12:36.220 --> 00:12:39.399 The crew plays ping pong and listens to music, 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:41.580 and we go over to the Mike Baxter radio, flip 00:12:41.580 --> 00:12:44.580 on the radio, and we work 20 or 40 meters. And 00:12:44.580 --> 00:12:47.940 we've also worked D -Star. And we only have about 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:50.200 an hour, an hour and a half, and we'll, on average, 00:12:50.340 --> 00:12:53.360 make about 100 contacts. And I don't know of 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:57.679 any other TV show that ever had a real live ham 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:01.639 radio station. transmitting from the set, minutes 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.299 before the actors take positions. I mean, when 00:13:04.299 --> 00:13:06.580 we're in Mike Baxter's office and we're transmitting, 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:10.059 within about let's say 30 minutes after we go 00:13:10.059 --> 00:13:13.200 QRT, the actors are standing right in front of 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:15.159 those radios that you see on the air every week. 00:13:15.179 --> 00:13:19.399 So it's pretty exciting. Yeah, absolutely. And 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:23.480 it sounds just like a grand time and a great 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:27.649 place. to come visit and you've had several guests, 00:13:27.649 --> 00:13:31.110 uh, able to come out and visit the station and 00:13:31.110 --> 00:13:33.330 you've got some people that I know real well, 00:13:33.330 --> 00:13:38.009 uh, that, uh, that I've seen, uh, growing up, 00:13:38.289 --> 00:13:42.950 uh, tell us about, uh, your, your next, uh, guest 00:13:42.950 --> 00:13:49.250 family that's coming out to, uh, to. December 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:52.389 on December 6 now we shoot our show on Tuesday 00:13:52.389 --> 00:13:54.789 nights and we shoot in front of a live audience 00:13:54.789 --> 00:13:59.110 of about 200 guests and on December 6th the Lee 00:13:59.110 --> 00:14:02.590 family is coming out now as if your listeners 00:14:02.590 --> 00:14:04.750 are not familiar the Lee family is an entire 00:14:04.750 --> 00:14:08.269 family of ham radio operators starting from mom 00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:11.129 and dad all the way down to I believe eight years 00:14:11.129 --> 00:14:15.830 old is it Hannah or or faith faith. That's a 00:14:15.830 --> 00:14:20.370 she's the youngest extra in the country and we're 00:14:20.370 --> 00:14:23.009 gonna carve out some time to put the family on 00:14:23.009 --> 00:14:27.210 the radio and Hoping we'll get our biggest pile 00:14:27.210 --> 00:14:32.610 up ever on that night. So the way to track with 00:14:32.610 --> 00:14:35.649 whatever we're doing on the air is to go to our 00:14:35.649 --> 00:14:40.509 K a zero X TT Facebook page and I will always 00:14:40.509 --> 00:14:43.669 post Information about our operations on that 00:14:43.669 --> 00:14:47.009 Facebook page We generally don't know whether 00:14:47.009 --> 00:14:50.629 we'll be on 40 or 20 Until we kind of get a sense 00:14:50.629 --> 00:14:52.970 of the propagation for that night Then we'll 00:14:52.970 --> 00:14:55.950 fish around for a clear frequency and once we 00:14:55.950 --> 00:14:58.889 find one I posted on the Facebook page And then 00:14:58.889 --> 00:15:01.789 oftentimes we'll spot ourselves on one of the 00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:06.659 spotting networks Always have a big pilot And 00:15:06.659 --> 00:15:09.860 it's just a lot of fun for us. In fact, we had 00:15:09.860 --> 00:15:13.759 operations last Tuesday of one of our club members, 00:15:14.100 --> 00:15:21.419 Rob, who's AA6RA, and he was one of the VE for 00:15:21.419 --> 00:15:25.460 the Tim Allen test. So he's a friend of the show 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:30.059 and a great ham. And we had tough propagation 00:15:30.059 --> 00:15:33.279 last week, but he pulled out about 60 or 70 people. 00:15:33.860 --> 00:15:38.159 So my hat's off to Rob. Yeah, I saw the video 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:43.960 from that. He was having a fight. It was worth 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:48.440 it. We had some great ... The trick is it's easy 00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:50.879 to just go with the biggest signals, but he really 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:52.960 worked at it and he pulled out some real noisy 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:55.879 signals. That's really what you're supposed to 00:15:55.879 --> 00:15:58.940 do, I think. We really enjoy it. Oftentimes, 00:15:59.019 --> 00:16:01.340 we record it so other people can enjoy hearing 00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:04.279 themselves on the radio. Seeing themselves coming 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.940 into the Mike Baxter radios on the set Now I 00:16:07.940 --> 00:16:10.340 know James is gonna love that trip too because 00:16:10.340 --> 00:16:15.519 he does a lot of Film work too. So mm -hmm. Oh, 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.720 yeah, I mean, you know ham radio is not our primary 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:21.779 thing as I'm sure you know We are a family comedy. 00:16:21.779 --> 00:16:24.720 We're a multi -camera sitcom. So we shoot for 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:27.179 camera high -definition television It's basically 00:16:27.179 --> 00:16:30.340 like a play like a stage play shot in front of 00:16:30.340 --> 00:16:33.210 a live audience. So it's a real fun place to 00:16:33.210 --> 00:16:36.610 be and you know it's especially if you can snake 00:16:36.610 --> 00:16:38.509 your way down onto the stage and you know the 00:16:38.509 --> 00:16:40.629 hams have a little bit of an edge because oftentimes 00:16:40.629 --> 00:16:43.009 if you're coming to the show and you and you 00:16:43.009 --> 00:16:46.009 let me know ahead of time and my uh my email 00:16:46.009 --> 00:16:49.149 address is easy to find and i will oftentimes 00:16:49.149 --> 00:16:51.549 bring hams down on the stage and let them take 00:16:51.549 --> 00:16:54.049 a picture with the gear and all that stuff so 00:16:54.049 --> 00:16:55.950 you know we've had just so much fun with this 00:16:55.950 --> 00:16:58.389 whole concept of having ham radio on the show 00:16:58.389 --> 00:17:02.419 that i don't know hopefully keep going for a 00:17:02.419 --> 00:17:06.980 few more years. Yeah you've got six in and you 00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:09.480 know on a show that's that's pretty good and 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:13.039 you're still going strong so hopefully that will 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:17.220 continue. Well it's time to pay some of the bills 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:19.980 but I'll be back and we will start taking your 00:17:19.980 --> 00:17:24.079 calls right after this message from Tower Electronics 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:27.890 right here on HamTalk Live. This episode of HamTalk 00:17:27.890 --> 00:17:31.049 Live is brought to you in part by Tower Electronics. 00:17:31.369 --> 00:17:33.609 Tower Electronics has been the Ham's dime store 00:17:33.609 --> 00:17:36.990 since 1978. When you need connectors, mobile 00:17:36.990 --> 00:17:40.269 and handheld antennas, cables, or adapters, visit 00:17:40.269 --> 00:17:43.849 Scott or Jill at a HamFest near you. Or you can 00:17:43.849 --> 00:17:50.049 order online at PL -259 .com or call 920 -435 00:17:50.049 --> 00:17:55.029 -2973. Stock up on those supplies like PL -259 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:58.349 and in connector. SMA adapters, audio cables, 00:17:58.670 --> 00:18:01.789 soldering supplies, mobile antennas, and hamsticks. 00:18:02.049 --> 00:18:04.190 Their silver -plated in -connectors are even 00:18:04.190 --> 00:18:06.849 used on the International Space Station. Tower 00:18:06.849 --> 00:18:10.630 Electronics carries MFJ, Comet, Daiwa, OPEC, 00:18:10.930 --> 00:18:14.190 Workman, and HamPro products. And don't miss 00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:18.230 their 0 % off sale going on now. Tower Electronics 00:18:18.230 --> 00:18:22.490 online at PL -259 .com. Proud to sponsor this 00:18:22.490 --> 00:18:27.089 episode of HamTalk Live. You're listening to 00:18:27.089 --> 00:18:32.430 HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp. You get a 5 -9. 00:18:32.829 --> 00:18:40.900 You get a 5 -9. Everybody gets a 5 -9. Join the 00:18:40.900 --> 00:18:44.119 conversation. Call us on voice with Skype at 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:48.140 HamTalk Live or give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM 00:18:48.140 --> 00:18:54.299 -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now, here's more HamTalk 00:18:54.299 --> 00:18:58.339 Live! We'd like to thank Scott and Jill at Tower 00:18:58.339 --> 00:19:00.660 Electronics for sponsoring the show tonight to 00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:02.960 help bring you HamTalk Live. They'll be at the 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:07.200 Montgomery, Alabama HamFest on Saturday and Okeechobee, 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:13.819 Florida on November 26th. Call 920 -435 -2973 00:19:13.819 --> 00:19:16.380 if you can't make it to one of those or visit 00:19:16.380 --> 00:19:20.680 their website at pl -259 .com and tell them you 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:24.119 heard it on HamTalk Live. Be sure to listen to 00:19:24.119 --> 00:19:26.579 HamTalk Live every Thursday night. at 9 p .m. 00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:29.920 Eastern Time right here on HamTalkLive .com. 00:19:30.619 --> 00:19:32.480 Also, check out our Facebook page and Twitter 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:36.019 feed. Just search for HamTalk Live. Well, it's 00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:39.420 time for your calls now. So if you have a question 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:42.500 for John about the Last Man Standing show or 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:47.660 the setup. give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1 00:19:47.660 --> 00:19:56.240 that's 812 -638 -4261 812 -NET -HAM -1 give us 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:00.339 a call or you can Skype us at HamTalk Live or 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:04.700 you can tweet at HamTalk Live and you can also 00:20:04.700 --> 00:20:06.859 post on the comments there if you're listening 00:20:06.859 --> 00:20:12.140 on a speaker But if you have any questions or 00:20:12.140 --> 00:20:15.339 comments for John, why go ahead and give us a 00:20:15.339 --> 00:20:19.680 call again. The phone number is 812 -NET -HAM 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:23.559 -1. While we're waiting on the calls to come 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:27.359 in, John, I want you to talk a little bit about 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:31.660 how you feel the media deals with ham radio and 00:20:31.660 --> 00:20:35.759 what as hams we should be learning from that. 00:20:38.849 --> 00:20:40.789 Well, you know, I'm glad you asked that it's 00:20:40.789 --> 00:20:44.430 like it's important for us to keep ham radio 00:20:44.430 --> 00:20:48.230 alive and That means we need to attract young 00:20:48.230 --> 00:20:51.970 people or people in general to the hobby But 00:20:51.970 --> 00:20:54.250 you know for the most part the media has not 00:20:54.250 --> 00:20:59.329 been kind to us they do tend to see us as Old 00:20:59.329 --> 00:21:01.470 people sitting in basements talking on radios. 00:21:01.470 --> 00:21:03.609 And of course, there's so much more to ham radio 00:21:03.609 --> 00:21:11.140 than that I'd like to see a little bit less coverage 00:21:11.140 --> 00:21:14.119 of emergency operations only, and maybe a little 00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:16.500 bit more coverage of how much fun ham radio is, 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:19.099 and how much one can learn from it. I know for 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:21.859 me, I just delighted in everything I could learn 00:21:21.859 --> 00:21:24.720 about electronics and radio propagation from 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:27.259 playing with ham radios, and a little bit less 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:29.519 about emergencies, but you know, on field day, 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:32.420 you get a lot of coverage on local news, and 00:21:32.420 --> 00:21:34.359 all they talk about is how hams are preparing 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:37.789 for the ultimate disaster. And although we certainly 00:21:37.789 --> 00:21:40.049 are capable of handling disasters and certainly 00:21:40.049 --> 00:21:42.230 do participate in that, what I think they're 00:21:42.230 --> 00:21:44.349 missing is just how much fun it is and how much 00:21:44.349 --> 00:21:50.130 one can learn from it. I would agree that, you 00:21:50.130 --> 00:21:53.750 know, there needs to be some balance there of 00:21:53.750 --> 00:21:57.849 those kinds of things and hopefully we can work 00:21:57.849 --> 00:22:01.509 on that and make it a little more... balance. 00:22:01.630 --> 00:22:04.150 There's so many different aspects of ham radio. 00:22:04.430 --> 00:22:06.390 And it's like, you know, somebody asks you, well, 00:22:06.490 --> 00:22:09.430 just what is ham radio? And, and it's kind of 00:22:09.430 --> 00:22:12.230 hard because there, there's so many different 00:22:12.230 --> 00:22:14.789 modes and so many different things that you can 00:22:14.789 --> 00:22:18.549 do with it, that, um, it, it's hard to sum it 00:22:18.549 --> 00:22:21.549 all up. Yeah, it's almost an obstacle. I have 00:22:21.549 --> 00:22:24.089 to tell you, because we've now licensed something 00:22:24.089 --> 00:22:26.730 in the neighborhood of 30, 30 some odd people 00:22:26.730 --> 00:22:31.079 on the show. Um, And they'll they'll pass their 00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:35.299 test and then the VEs are so exuberant about 00:22:35.299 --> 00:22:37.660 ham radio and they start filling them with Oh 00:22:37.660 --> 00:22:40.500 and you can repeaters and satellites and you 00:22:40.500 --> 00:22:42.299 know all in they and like you see their eyes 00:22:42.299 --> 00:22:45.900 start to glaze over. Oh my god It's like it's 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:48.779 too much information because ham radio is a massive 00:22:48.779 --> 00:22:52.140 hobby There are so many little subdivisions of 00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:54.599 things you can do that. You don't want to scare 00:22:54.599 --> 00:22:58.829 someone away and I've heard The term people use 00:22:58.829 --> 00:23:01.210 on the elevator speech, which is to say the very 00:23:01.210 --> 00:23:04.130 short concise explanation of what ham radio is 00:23:04.130 --> 00:23:06.289 and we all need to have that in our back pocket 00:23:06.289 --> 00:23:10.910 because honestly on the show the one thing I 00:23:10.910 --> 00:23:13.230 could hope for would be that someone might see 00:23:13.230 --> 00:23:16.109 all that equipment on my show and ask their neighbor 00:23:16.109 --> 00:23:18.890 who has a ham radio antenna Hey, what is that 00:23:18.890 --> 00:23:20.650 stuff and what is ham radio and how does that 00:23:20.650 --> 00:23:23.470 work? And then hopefully that person that one 00:23:23.470 --> 00:23:26.700 of my viewers could say in a very simple and 00:23:26.700 --> 00:23:29.759 concise way, here's what Ham Radio is and what 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:32.460 it could do for you in a way that might entice 00:23:32.460 --> 00:23:36.700 somebody to check it out a little bit more. Very 00:23:36.700 --> 00:23:40.359 good. 812 -NET -HAM -1 is the phone number. Give 00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:46.640 us a call. 812 -638 -4261 or you can tweet us 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:50.200 at HamTalk Live if you're mic shy or... You can 00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:53.380 also Skype us at HamTalk Live, so give us a call 00:23:53.380 --> 00:23:56.680 with any questions or comments about The Last 00:23:56.680 --> 00:24:01.259 Man Standing and John's role in that with both 00:24:01.259 --> 00:24:05.859 the Ham Station and producing the show. Now you've 00:24:05.859 --> 00:24:09.819 had several guests. We talked about the Leah 00:24:09.819 --> 00:24:14.240 family coming soon. What are some of the other 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:17.380 guests that you've had and any others coming 00:24:17.380 --> 00:24:21.589 up soon that we should... take note of? Well, 00:24:21.670 --> 00:24:23.769 you know, over the years, I've had some wonderful 00:24:23.769 --> 00:24:26.049 people, you know, Gordon West came to our show 00:24:26.049 --> 00:24:30.630 very early on, and did an entire episode of ham 00:24:30.630 --> 00:24:34.450 nation live from the set, which was real fun 00:24:34.450 --> 00:24:38.210 for us. And, and Bob Hile came by and they both 00:24:38.210 --> 00:24:41.390 got to meet Tim Allen. And that was a fun night. 00:24:41.549 --> 00:24:44.250 And then of course, I've had Katie Allen and 00:24:44.250 --> 00:24:48.789 Katie Allen came down to the show with With Dwayne 00:24:48.789 --> 00:24:53.789 her husband and also at that same time Chip more 00:24:53.789 --> 00:24:56.430 jelly and Janet more jelly came down and all 00:24:56.430 --> 00:24:58.690 of them worked the station and got got their 00:24:58.690 --> 00:25:01.829 each their own Huge pileup, but of course none 00:25:01.829 --> 00:25:05.109 bigger than Katie's because Katie was you know 00:25:05.109 --> 00:25:07.609 She's a fairly known commodity as a ham radio 00:25:07.609 --> 00:25:09.970 celebrity and also coming from the stage was 00:25:09.970 --> 00:25:13.160 was a good way to go I've had Michael Corey Who's 00:25:13.160 --> 00:25:16.019 the I believe the emergency manager coordinator 00:25:16.019 --> 00:25:19.319 for the a double RL came and work CW. In fact, 00:25:19.339 --> 00:25:24.960 there's a a C a QSL card on my QSL wall of fame 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:31.220 from Japan from a contact that Mike made We regularly 00:25:31.220 --> 00:25:35.299 have guest operators I will say that it's a it's 00:25:35.299 --> 00:25:37.240 a little hard for the crew. The crew loves the 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:39.670 radio stuff and wants to play with it But when 00:25:39.670 --> 00:25:42.809 we're on the radio, we're minutes away from shooting 00:25:42.809 --> 00:25:46.089 the show so it it can sort of be distracting 00:25:46.089 --> 00:25:48.269 too So it is it is helpful for me to have guest 00:25:48.269 --> 00:25:50.990 operators and I've had a number of skilled guest 00:25:50.990 --> 00:25:54.509 operators Not the least of which is Rob a six. 00:25:54.609 --> 00:25:56.029 All right, who was there last week? And in fact, 00:25:56.069 --> 00:25:59.849 you can see a video of Rob on our K a zero XTT 00:25:59.849 --> 00:26:04.109 Facebook page kind of a fun night so, you know 00:26:04.109 --> 00:26:07.500 we We use it as best we can and we get as many 00:26:07.500 --> 00:26:09.380 people on the air and as many contacts as we 00:26:09.380 --> 00:26:13.140 can possibly make Unfortunately, we can only 00:26:13.140 --> 00:26:16.059 do it during our dinner break. So it's a it's 00:26:16.059 --> 00:26:19.400 only an hour to an hour and a half And we are 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:22.160 as as our all hams. We're at the mercy of the 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:25.740 propagation of each individual night So we do 00:26:25.740 --> 00:26:28.640 the best we can We've worked 20 meters. We were 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:32.019 40 meters. We had a couple of weeks ago we had 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:40.039 Ed and Amy who are part of the D star info? organization 00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:44.099 working D star and I wanted to do that so that 00:26:44.099 --> 00:26:46.839 you know, there are technicians that cannot cannot 00:26:46.839 --> 00:26:50.640 context on 20 or 40 and Ten's not such a good 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:53.660 band for us at night on the stage as you can 00:26:53.660 --> 00:26:56.819 imagine So that gave the technicians a way in 00:26:56.819 --> 00:26:59.680 And I think our goal is to work as many modes 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:01.839 and as many bands as we can. So everybody has 00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:05.480 a shot at us Well, that's great. I appreciate 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:09.400 you doing that. I'm sure speak for a lot of others 00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:13.380 that appreciate you. taking the effort to to 00:27:13.380 --> 00:27:17.339 make all that happen and so if you have or if 00:27:17.339 --> 00:27:20.220 you have a question give us a call at 812 net 00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:25.220 ham one that's 812 -638 -4261 give us a call 00:27:25.220 --> 00:27:27.759 we've still got a little time left here in the 00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:32.160 show so give us a call and chime in here on last 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:38.980 man standing 812 net ham one so how many of the 00:27:38.980 --> 00:27:44.670 crew And the the cast Have ended up becoming 00:27:44.670 --> 00:27:50.750 hams as a result of all this Well, you know, 00:27:50.750 --> 00:27:52.970 I don't actually have an exact number I I think 00:27:52.970 --> 00:27:57.430 we're in the middle 30s of a licensed ham members 00:27:57.430 --> 00:28:01.089 and of course what happens on a TV show is from 00:28:01.089 --> 00:28:05.410 season to season people come and go so People 00:28:05.410 --> 00:28:07.769 that I might have licensed in the first season 00:28:08.039 --> 00:28:10.440 Might have left in the third and then some new 00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:14.339 people took tests So, you know overall probably 00:28:14.339 --> 00:28:18.960 30 35 On the show currently probably in the 20s. 00:28:19.019 --> 00:28:21.720 I have a couple of people that are studying right 00:28:21.720 --> 00:28:23.680 now Probably three people that are studying right 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:26.859 now that will level test in the next few weeks 00:28:26.859 --> 00:28:31.779 Generally when a crew member takes and passes 00:28:31.779 --> 00:28:36.599 a test we give them a free handheld radio and 00:28:36.990 --> 00:28:40.230 Some other incentives to to do it, but I think 00:28:40.230 --> 00:28:44.009 it started for me when I realized many of my 00:28:44.009 --> 00:28:48.549 young crew members You know the TV show is you 00:28:48.549 --> 00:28:51.309 know, they say about war It's like hours of nothing 00:28:51.309 --> 00:28:54.349 followed by moments of terror and a TV shows 00:28:54.349 --> 00:28:56.930 like that Well, we have we have a pretty much 00:28:56.930 --> 00:29:01.089 hard days or tend to be ten hour days And you 00:29:01.089 --> 00:29:03.450 sit around a lot and then suddenly you're like 00:29:03.450 --> 00:29:06.009 involved in the production, which is very intense 00:29:06.380 --> 00:29:08.660 So it occurred to me that rather than having 00:29:08.660 --> 00:29:11.380 my production assistants and writers assistants 00:29:11.380 --> 00:29:14.400 Sitting around Facebooking and texting each other 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:17.339 they could they could learn something so I proposed 00:29:17.339 --> 00:29:21.579 in season one that if if the kids wanted to you 00:29:21.579 --> 00:29:23.640 know pick up the question pool and start reading 00:29:23.640 --> 00:29:26.440 and talking about the Questions that we would 00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:28.599 do it and provide them with a radio if they pass 00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:31.000 the test and and we had quite a lot of takers 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:34.779 and It's funny Hear them going from downloading 00:29:34.779 --> 00:29:37.759 music illegally one day to talking about SWR 00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:41.680 the next I Thought that was just so much fun. 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:44.740 I the first time I heard somebody talking about 00:29:44.740 --> 00:29:47.380 Wavelength wavelength versus frequency outside 00:29:47.380 --> 00:29:49.519 my office. I'm like, oh we may be on to something 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:55.579 here Yeah, and then You know and it's not I would 00:29:55.579 --> 00:29:57.079 think that people think like well, we've made 00:29:57.079 --> 00:29:58.920 a whole lot of technicians but that's not true 00:29:58.920 --> 00:30:01.980 either because We've got a number of people that 00:30:01.980 --> 00:30:05.440 have since upgraded to both general and extra. 00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:10.519 And I'll tell you that our video engineer, Doug, 00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:13.680 he's an extra class. And one of my favorite success 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:16.980 stories is our mixer, Laura. Now Laura came to 00:30:16.980 --> 00:30:20.640 us with no idea about ham radio. And most people 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:23.839 on the show had no idea what ham radio was. And 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:26.400 Laura got excited about it. She studied, passed 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:28.740 the technician with us. past the general in the 00:30:28.740 --> 00:30:31.440 next year and past the extra third year. And 00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:37.180 she's now K6MIX, which is a perfect call sign 00:30:37.180 --> 00:30:40.680 if you're a sound mixer. Oh, yeah. That's beautiful. 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:43.880 She's really enjoying it. She got on the air 00:30:43.880 --> 00:30:49.640 last season and first time ever on HF created 00:30:49.640 --> 00:30:53.359 a big pile up and worked it pretty flawlessly 00:30:53.359 --> 00:30:55.660 when you consider, you know, you know what a 00:30:55.660 --> 00:30:57.930 pile up is like and my goodness. When we get 00:30:57.930 --> 00:31:00.029 a pile up, it could be 1 ,000 people calling 00:31:00.029 --> 00:31:03.730 your name. So she did great, and it was a real 00:31:03.730 --> 00:31:07.589 fun thing to watch. But of course, when we turn 00:31:07.589 --> 00:31:09.970 the radio off, we've got to go shoot a show. 00:31:10.589 --> 00:31:12.809 So we have to be careful about how much stress 00:31:12.809 --> 00:31:17.269 we put the crew through before the show. Usually 00:31:17.269 --> 00:31:20.069 while we're operating, if anyone's ever watched 00:31:20.069 --> 00:31:22.829 any of the videos I've posted on the KA6 LMS 00:31:22.829 --> 00:31:26.710 Facebook page, can hear the noise level slowly 00:31:26.710 --> 00:31:29.950 growing and while we're operating at a certain 00:31:29.950 --> 00:31:32.690 point it becomes impossible to operate because 00:31:32.690 --> 00:31:36.450 the audience loads into the to the audience to 00:31:36.450 --> 00:31:39.130 the bleachers the warm -up we have a warm -up 00:31:39.130 --> 00:31:40.869 comedian who entertains them while we're waiting 00:31:40.869 --> 00:31:43.069 for the show to start and there's a DJ playing 00:31:43.069 --> 00:31:46.549 music so you're the operator trying to make trying 00:31:46.549 --> 00:31:49.609 to bust pileups and at the same time you're listening 00:31:49.609 --> 00:31:54.000 to loud music coming from the DJ Jokes coming 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:56.700 from the warm -up guy and also the crews playing 00:31:56.700 --> 00:31:59.660 ping -pong in the background You know, it's just 00:31:59.660 --> 00:32:02.440 that you know moments before the show starts 00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:05.839 before we all sort of take our places so it's 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:08.819 a it's a challenging place to work for radio, 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:11.299 but it's it's it's sort of I think it adds to 00:32:11.299 --> 00:32:17.039 the fun and the immediacy of being on the radio 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:20.720 moments before the show starts that reminds me 00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:26.819 of some of the CW, uh, training, uh, videos, 00:32:26.839 --> 00:32:30.759 uh, that Gordon West made, uh, because he would, 00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:33.099 you know, be going along and then all of a sudden 00:32:33.099 --> 00:32:37.539 the vacuum cleaner starts up and you got a copy 00:32:37.539 --> 00:32:40.799 code or the vacuum cleaner, you know? And, and 00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:45.579 so it is distracting. It's tough to, uh, to be 00:32:45.579 --> 00:32:49.569 able to focus on that while you've got, uh, all 00:32:49.569 --> 00:32:52.450 the music blaring and everything, so that is 00:32:52.450 --> 00:32:56.690 difficult. It's like real world training. I did 00:32:56.690 --> 00:32:59.990 a few weeks ago, I tried something I think is 00:32:59.990 --> 00:33:03.910 fun, and that is because people are very disappointed 00:33:03.910 --> 00:33:05.890 when you have to pull the plug, and there's a 00:33:05.890 --> 00:33:07.690 point where you just really need to get off the 00:33:07.690 --> 00:33:11.509 stage because we need to make that set ready 00:33:11.509 --> 00:33:14.589 to go for the actors. So I had a camera pointed 00:33:14.589 --> 00:33:18.400 at the audience in real time. I posted it as 00:33:18.400 --> 00:33:21.259 a little tile in the bottom of the image so you 00:33:21.259 --> 00:33:24.740 could see the operator working on the main part 00:33:24.740 --> 00:33:26.740 of the screen and in the bottom corner you can 00:33:26.740 --> 00:33:29.900 see the audience slowly loading in and you can 00:33:29.900 --> 00:33:32.519 hear the noise level increase and I thought it 00:33:32.519 --> 00:33:34.579 was really kind of cool because you can kind 00:33:34.579 --> 00:33:36.599 of see why oh they have to get off the air now 00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:39.359 because now there's 200 people talking and clapping 00:33:39.359 --> 00:33:41.480 and yelling and screaming and the music is playing 00:33:41.480 --> 00:33:46.579 so it at least gave our ham fans a sense of what's 00:33:46.579 --> 00:33:49.740 really happening while we're on the radio. Um, 00:33:50.039 --> 00:33:51.759 you know, now if you're on CW with headphones, 00:33:51.819 --> 00:33:53.619 it's not so bad, but if you're, if you're on 00:33:53.619 --> 00:33:56.059 SSB, it's kind of hard to keep talking once you're 00:33:56.059 --> 00:33:58.440 hearing, uh, loud music playing in the background 00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:01.859 with audiences cheering. Yeah, that, that would 00:34:01.859 --> 00:34:07.380 be a bit of a distraction. So it sounds like 00:34:07.380 --> 00:34:11.360 a lot of fun and a great thing that, uh, that 00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:15.639 this all come together. And so I'm so glad you 00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:19.639 stopped in here and gave us a chance to get a 00:34:19.639 --> 00:34:24.039 little insight on how the whole production works 00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:28.699 and how you're able to. get the the rig going 00:34:28.699 --> 00:34:32.719 and get it the station operated so give us a 00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:35.639 call we're going to run out of time here shortly 00:34:35.639 --> 00:34:38.860 but give us a call if you have any comments about 00:34:38.860 --> 00:34:42.239 the show or questions about the show or anything 00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:46.719 for John to give us a call at 812 net ham one 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:50.219 that's eight one two six three eight four two 00:34:50.219 --> 00:34:53.599 six one we have just a few minutes remaining 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:56.820 so I want to give everybody a chance to to call 00:34:56.820 --> 00:35:05.360 in and say hello or ask anything about the operation 00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:09.719 there. Now here's something I need to do, because 00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:12.000 I worked you guys a couple of weeks ago with 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:15.000 some students of mine at school. What do you 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:21.960 do with QSLs? What's your QSL? Well, we are absolutely 00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:26.519 well we are we're ka6 LMS for last man standing 00:35:26.519 --> 00:35:30.039 and What we ask is that you simply send us We 00:35:30.039 --> 00:35:32.380 like to have your qsl card if you have one and 00:35:32.380 --> 00:35:34.760 if you don't it's not essential maybe just a 00:35:34.760 --> 00:35:37.219 note on a piece of paper and a self -addressed 00:35:37.219 --> 00:35:41.340 stamped envelope to the address on our QRZ so 00:35:41.340 --> 00:35:45.800 our QRZ page is good for ka6 LMS and We will 00:35:45.800 --> 00:35:50.389 respond with this special ka6 LMS To SL card 00:35:50.389 --> 00:35:52.650 that we had made and it's it's a it's a very 00:35:52.650 --> 00:35:56.570 cool card. I mean We have a number of QSL cards 00:35:56.570 --> 00:35:58.409 that we've created over the time again. We've 00:35:58.409 --> 00:36:01.150 been on for six years now So certainly the first 00:36:01.150 --> 00:36:05.690 one was Mike Baxter's card k a zero X TT Which 00:36:05.690 --> 00:36:08.329 is a fictitious call sign, although it sounds 00:36:08.329 --> 00:36:10.889 real pretty real and we've been giving those 00:36:10.889 --> 00:36:13.750 cards away for years We've given probably eight 00:36:13.750 --> 00:36:18.309 thousand k a zero X TT cards away Then the next 00:36:18.309 --> 00:36:21.789 one we had created was Mike's daughter Mandy 00:36:21.789 --> 00:36:25.170 the middle daughter Mandy who is seen on our 00:36:25.170 --> 00:36:34.389 episode 217 on the radio and she became Kf0 Xie 00:36:34.389 --> 00:36:36.409 which if you kind of write that on a piece of 00:36:36.409 --> 00:36:40.050 paper spells foxy because she is foxy and we 00:36:40.050 --> 00:36:42.929 had a special call special QSL card made for 00:36:42.929 --> 00:36:45.730 her and we've given many thousands of those away 00:36:46.090 --> 00:36:49.590 And then we decided at a certain point, let's 00:36:49.590 --> 00:36:52.369 have a club. So we created the Last Man Standing 00:36:52.369 --> 00:36:56.630 Amateur Radio Club and got KA6LMS, which I like 00:36:56.630 --> 00:36:59.170 that call sign quite a lot. And we don't really 00:36:59.170 --> 00:37:02.210 ID as Last Man Standing because there are some 00:37:02.210 --> 00:37:05.369 rules and regulations, as you imagine, with the 00:37:05.369 --> 00:37:07.969 FCC. We're not specifically promoting the show. 00:37:08.190 --> 00:37:10.630 We can't really talk too much about. You know 00:37:10.630 --> 00:37:12.550 if you if you call me on the radio I'm not going 00:37:12.550 --> 00:37:14.630 to tell you to tune in on Friday nights at 8 00:37:14.630 --> 00:37:18.369 o 'clock on ABC because that would be wrong Right, 00:37:18.369 --> 00:37:21.230 but we can do that on the internet. Well we can 00:37:21.230 --> 00:37:26.889 And I always say that Most important thing that 00:37:26.889 --> 00:37:29.710 any ham can do for ham radio really is to watch 00:37:29.710 --> 00:37:33.289 Lesman standing on Friday nights on ABC But we 00:37:33.289 --> 00:37:35.150 would never do that on the air, but so we're 00:37:35.150 --> 00:37:38.539 a little vague about that But I think that you 00:37:38.539 --> 00:37:40.179 know the hams know where we are and who they 00:37:40.179 --> 00:37:42.659 are I think they delight in seeing the radio 00:37:42.659 --> 00:37:46.539 equipment on the set and Just knowing that it's 00:37:46.539 --> 00:37:50.800 real and that it all works It's kind of an unusual 00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:52.820 thing. I don't know anybody that's done it But 00:37:52.820 --> 00:37:55.199 it was a lot of fun for me to do personally. 00:37:55.199 --> 00:37:57.960 I installed it all myself Climbed onto the roof 00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:00.039 of the stage put up the antennas bounce them 00:38:00.039 --> 00:38:05.559 with my Comet ca 500 antenna analyzer and made 00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:08.460 them mean, I don't know that I've tuned any antennas 00:38:08.460 --> 00:38:10.219 in my life any better than those they're they're 00:38:10.219 --> 00:38:14.880 completely flat SWR and with the IC 7700 we're 00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:17.760 putting at about 200 watts, so I think we're 00:38:17.760 --> 00:38:21.079 ahead of the game and We make a lot of contacts 00:38:21.079 --> 00:38:24.679 I'm happy for everyone that tries to contact 00:38:24.679 --> 00:38:26.739 us and we do the best we can to dig everyone 00:38:26.739 --> 00:38:29.440 out Even if you're not a strong signal call us 00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:32.239 and we will try our best to contact you Send 00:38:32.239 --> 00:38:36.269 us a sazy get our QSLs. It's You know, we do 00:38:36.269 --> 00:38:38.429 it for a reason. We do it because we enjoy it 00:38:38.429 --> 00:38:40.250 and because we have a love of hammer radio and 00:38:40.250 --> 00:38:42.989 we want to try to keep this great hobby going 00:38:42.989 --> 00:38:46.110 as long as possible before, before the cellular 00:38:46.110 --> 00:38:49.070 companies try to horn in on our spectrum. Take 00:38:49.070 --> 00:38:52.329 it, take all the spectrum away. Absolutely. Well, 00:38:52.489 --> 00:38:56.949 um, we do have a picture of the, um, KASIX LMS, 00:38:57.170 --> 00:39:01.239 um, QSL card on our Facebook page and a Twitter 00:39:01.239 --> 00:39:03.760 feed. So you can check that out. We do have a 00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:07.440 tweet here, um, for Mike would, uh, he was, uh, 00:39:07.679 --> 00:39:09.960 talking, uh, referring to the, uh, working the 00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:13.139 pileups, uh, with all the stage noises that my 00:39:13.139 --> 00:39:16.139 dad learned CW and the British army with instructors 00:39:16.139 --> 00:39:20.500 that were whacking canes on tables to distract 00:39:20.500 --> 00:39:27.219 them. Yeah. It's it's reality. You got to deal 00:39:27.219 --> 00:39:30.320 with, uh, with all that noise around. And so, 00:39:31.179 --> 00:39:33.340 uh, so it's true. It's like that. You know, there's 00:39:33.340 --> 00:39:36.300 a point where I'm, I'm usually on, on the stage 00:39:36.300 --> 00:39:39.320 with whoever's operating and you know, we feel 00:39:39.320 --> 00:39:41.320 bad about having to pull a plug at some point, 00:39:41.320 --> 00:39:43.139 but you could just, we just look at each other 00:39:43.139 --> 00:39:45.940 and go, okay, well at this point that crowd is 00:39:45.940 --> 00:39:49.880 cheering and the, you know, the warmup guy is 00:39:49.880 --> 00:39:52.260 telling jokes and all this stuff is happening. 00:39:53.019 --> 00:39:55.079 I'm going to have to kill that. How do I do that? 00:39:55.559 --> 00:39:58.619 Just like this. Like this, as a matter of fact, 00:39:58.800 --> 00:40:00.820 speaking of take the battery out of a phone and 00:40:00.820 --> 00:40:03.760 it stops ringing. And it's exactly like whacking 00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:07.219 a cane on a table because as I say, you know, 00:40:07.219 --> 00:40:09.639 I have had comments from people. It's like, I 00:40:09.639 --> 00:40:12.360 love your show, but I hate your fake laugh track. 00:40:12.659 --> 00:40:15.099 And to them, I challenge them and say, come to 00:40:15.099 --> 00:40:17.719 our show and be become a part of our quote unquote 00:40:17.719 --> 00:40:20.159 fake laugh track. Because the laugh track is 00:40:20.159 --> 00:40:22.699 200 people that love the show and love Tim Allen. 00:40:23.210 --> 00:40:26.329 They laugh their heads off and applaud and that's 00:40:26.329 --> 00:40:28.250 great for the show But of course, it's bad for 00:40:28.250 --> 00:40:30.929 ham radio operation because it's pretty distracting 00:40:30.929 --> 00:40:36.610 Well, it sounds like a lot of fun just you know, 00:40:36.610 --> 00:40:38.429 you may have to fight through that a little bit 00:40:38.429 --> 00:40:41.610 but that's it, but it sounds like a lot of fun 00:40:41.610 --> 00:40:45.130 Yeah, always a challenge and you know, that's 00:40:45.130 --> 00:40:47.449 that's a lot of what a ham radio is all about 00:40:47.449 --> 00:40:50.179 is trying to figure out how to work the place 00:40:50.179 --> 00:40:52.639 you want to work with with the conditions that 00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:56.079 you're dealt on a given day and of course we 00:40:56.079 --> 00:40:59.340 know conditions these next few years are not 00:40:59.340 --> 00:41:03.559 going to be great so you got to accept the challenge 00:41:03.559 --> 00:41:06.539 and fight your way through it. I agree and I 00:41:06.539 --> 00:41:09.539 think what we're going to try to do is use all 00:41:09.539 --> 00:41:12.380 of the modes and all of the bands that we can 00:41:12.380 --> 00:41:15.579 to try to extend that so we have not at this 00:41:15.579 --> 00:41:19.329 point done anything like Any of the digital voice 00:41:19.329 --> 00:41:21.670 formats, but I'd like to try to do that and we 00:41:21.670 --> 00:41:24.949 probably at some point We'll do some ready. We'll 00:41:24.949 --> 00:41:28.510 do some You know some of the digital text formats 00:41:28.510 --> 00:41:31.190 and everything we can do and I just want to try 00:41:31.190 --> 00:41:34.289 to include everybody We've done a number of CW 00:41:34.289 --> 00:41:37.469 sessions already, but beyond that I want to do 00:41:37.469 --> 00:41:40.269 whatever I can to get more people to contact 00:41:40.269 --> 00:41:41.989 us who want I know the technicians have a tough 00:41:41.989 --> 00:41:45.820 time because Ten meters would not really be that 00:41:45.820 --> 00:41:50.340 fruitful for us at four o 'clock at night Especially 00:41:50.340 --> 00:41:54.500 this time as we approach solar minimums So that's 00:41:54.500 --> 00:41:57.340 why we did a D star night and I think we'll do 00:41:57.340 --> 00:42:01.099 other digital voice formats as time goes on and 00:42:01.099 --> 00:42:04.360 other Text like formats. So we're gonna try to 00:42:04.360 --> 00:42:06.380 cover all the bases and include as many people 00:42:06.380 --> 00:42:10.219 as we can That's wonderful, John. Thank you. 00:42:10.219 --> 00:42:13.840 And speaking of running out of time, we've run 00:42:13.840 --> 00:42:17.320 out of time. So thank you so much for coming 00:42:17.320 --> 00:42:22.280 on and we'll be listening for you. My pleasure. 00:42:23.219 --> 00:42:26.039 All right. Well, that is a wrap for this week's 00:42:26.039 --> 00:42:28.840 edition of HamTalk Live. I'd like to thank my 00:42:28.840 --> 00:42:32.159 guest, John Amadeo, NN6JA and everyone out there 00:42:32.159 --> 00:42:35.400 in cyberspace for listening and our tweeter tonight 00:42:35.400 --> 00:42:39.719 and invite you all back in two weeks. We are 00:42:39.719 --> 00:42:41.980 going to take next week off for Thanksgiving. 00:42:42.719 --> 00:42:45.579 So give thanks next week and then we'll be back 00:42:45.579 --> 00:42:49.780 the following Thursday. And our guest that following 00:42:49.780 --> 00:42:52.579 Thursday at 9 p .m. Eastern Time will be Harold 00:42:52.579 --> 00:42:56.440 Kramer, WJ1B. He's going to be here to talk about 00:42:56.440 --> 00:43:00.519 his key collection and his experiences as the 00:43:00.519 --> 00:43:04.119 former COO at the American Radio Relay League. 00:43:04.440 --> 00:43:06.579 For a list of all of our upcoming guests, visit 00:43:06.579 --> 00:43:10.239 HamTalk .com. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, 00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:15.139 WB9 VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5, and may the good 00:43:15.139 --> 00:44:00.369 DX be yours. 7 -3 and good luck from ham talk 00:44:00.369 --> 00:44:00.989 live