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or go to hamstation .com. AMTALK LIVE, episode
number 22. Tonight we have Glenn Johnson, WZeroGJ,
talking about DXpeditions and his all software
-defined Radio Shack, reported live on Thursday,
July 14th, 2016. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of AMTALK
LIVE. This evening, Glenn Johnson, W -0 -G -J,
is going to talk about his 100 % software -defined
radios in his shack, and also his DeXpedition
experiences. We will take your calls live in
just a few minutes. Last week on the show, Will
Jourdain, AA4WJ, and Jim Wilson, K5ND, were here
to talk about scouting with Ham Radio. If you
missed the show, you can listen anytime. All
you have to do is go to hamtalklive .com. You
can also catch us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google
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That phone number is 812 -NET -HAM -1. 812 -NET
-HAM -1. 812 -638 - 4261. You can also tweet
a question. Our Twitter handle is at HamTalkLive.
So get those questions all ready to go. Before
we get started with the show tonight, I do have
one last minute piece of sad news to report.
My uncle, Ed Hayes, AA9EE of Mount Vernon and
Decatur, Illinois. became a silent key earlier
this morning. Ed loved to be on HF with his 10
tech paragon and being on CW. When he became
ill a few years ago, the family gave me his venture
paddles to use and those are going to stay in
my shack in remembrance of him. Ed was one of
the kindest men I've ever met. He was a great
storyteller. He loved to tell all kinds of stories.
we will miss him greatly so AA9EE is now a silent
key. So next we are talking DX and software defined
radios with Glenn Johnson right after this word
from the HAM station right here on HAMtalk Live.
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gotta do is search for HamTalk Live. Well tonight,
Glenn Johnson is with us and Glenn grew up near
Marshalltown, Iowa. After studying forestry at
Iowa State, he received his medical degree. from
the University of Iowa after an internship in
Seattle and residency in orthopedic surgery at
the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He spent
five years in the Air Force in Anchorage, Alaska
and moved or returned rather to practice orthopedic
surgery in Minnesota and after 30 some years
he's gone full circle. He's back in Iowa working
for the Mayo Clinic. Glenn's interest in amateur
radio started As a youngster listening to his
grandfather's shortwave radio, he was licensed
at age 15 and within three months had worked
all 50 states with a homemade crystal transmitter.
He's achieved the number one honor roll, the
five band DXCC and five band worked all zone
awards. And he has co -led major de -expeditions
to places like the kingdom of Bhutan and the
Himalayas. I hope I said that right, in the Arabian
Sea, the Senchio Island and Navassa Island and
his first the expedition was to Heard Island.
He's also been to Malpello and recently Palmyra.
In 2003 Glenn was inducted into the CQ magazine
amateur radio Hall of Fame and in 2012 he was
inducted into the DX Hall of Fame. He's been
vice president of the Northern California DX
Foundation for the past four years. And he's
also an ARRL contest advisory committee member
representing the Midwest Division. Glenn, welcome
to HamTalk Live. Hi, Neil. Glad to be here. Yeah,
glad you could join us tonight. And we want to
start off first talking about your shack. You
made a decision. that may not be always the most
popular decision, but you made a decision to
turn your Shack 100 % software -defined radio.
So what led you to that decision to make that
switch? Well, several years ago, three or four
years ago, we moved from the very northwest corner
of Minnesota to the very northeast corner of
Iowa, where I live now, near Decorah, Iowa, home
of Luther College. And I spent three or four
years designing a contest station. We found a
QTH 70 acres on the hilltop with just a perfect
takeoff angle in every direction. And when the
house became available, we moved in and we put
up antennas, got everything done within a year.
And my goal was to minimize the complexity, maximize
the efficiency, and make things really flexible.
And antennas were the most important. I had some
big antennas, some full -size phase verticals
for 160, a full -size meter four square, some
model banders for 30 and 40 meters, and stack
steppers for the other bands on two rotating
towers. And I do like to contest. And when you
have good antennas, Many times you hear life
is too short for QRP, but we have good answers
in the contest. It is a lot of fun. A couple
years ago at Dayton, I bought a Flex 1500 QRP
rig. I brought that home and it sat on the desk
for a while because it was the summer and when
fall came around, I plugged it in and I could
not believe how good that little radio worked.
as far as I received those. And so then I researched
the new 6000 series, and it was almost a no -brainer
to go with the 6700 for contesting. I did a complete
rebuild of my station. I took everything out.
For everything out, started over from scratch.
And with the 6700, there's very few cables. I
had a big tub of cables that were left over from
all the other interconnecting radios. You could
see all the wires that are in wireless. I mean,
it's amazing how you add one thing and add another
and it just keeps building. Anyway, the flex
is really simple, very easy to set up. There's
no cables now for most things because it uses
this digital audio exchange. So everything is
digital. There's no place for RF or loops to
develop or anything like that. The nice thing
about the Fluxrader, you're immersed into the
bands with big computer monitors, and even with
the Maestro, you can see so much of the spectrum.
In fact, you can see where the MUF is. Anyway,
my desk now has one big large area of desk space,
and I have three large 4K monitors that I use
for DXing and contexting. And it is an incredible
visual experience. Now, my shack isn't all SDR.
I've been a ham for 51 years and it just happened
to be at my 50th ham birthday last year that
I came across in a state sale. And I'd always
drooled over Collins equipment as a kid. I could
never afford it. And I found at an estate sale
an S -line and I play with that almost every
day too. But that's just an aside. But anyway,
the flex radio is an amazing radio. If you Google
November 4 Hotel Yankee, November 4 Hotel Yankee
and Flex Radio, he gave a talk recently at the
Frankfurt Radio Club, and Bob McGuire tells how
the Flex works. Basically the radio is not really
a radio as we know it because it's not a superheterodyne.
All the radios that since Edwin Armstrong invented
the superheterodyne 100 years ago. It had been
variants of superheterodynes. But this is totally
different. The radio is actually more of a client
server. And it measures voltage. In fact, the
only filter that the radio has is the antenna
that inputs to the box. But the 6700 measures
voltage through the entire HF spectrum and above,
up to the HF. in what are called bins of 1 .3
Hertz at a rate of 4 gigabytes. And then initially,
all of this analog voltage is converted to numbers,
and it's manipulated with mathematics. And so
there's no oscillator for phase noise, there's
no conversions, no mixers, no filters, there's
no distortion because of that. There's an extreme
dynamic range. In fact, it's more than can be
used. It exceeds reality. And the noise blankers
work incredibly well. In fact, one of my friends
borrowed a flex radio during the recent Heard
Island De -Expedition and he could not hear them
and hence couldn't work them. He borrowed the
flex radio and he heard them and worked them.
And he didn't realize how much noise he had in
the shack until he used the flex radio. And if
you'd like to see a picture of this, we do have
one on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. If
you go to QRZ .com and search Glenn's call sign
W0GJ, you've got all kinds of pictures of all
this up there, too. And the only limitation,
the limiting factor of this radio is the imagination
of the programmers that make the software for
it. Yeah, it seems like the possibilities are
endless with this. It's just so easy to be able
to take a look at the whole spectrum and just
You know click on whatever part you want and
listen so It's a it's a great thing and becoming
more and more popular as we go so is there anything
you miss about the the old Collins gear and the
traditional super heterodyne rigs and Well, initially
there was a lot of angst because of no knobs.
I mean, really, I remember as a kid, you know,
dreaming about radios, you'd count the knobs
and the buttons and switches and you'd think
one of the most would be the bestest, you know,
but it's not always that. You know, there's really,
I have one knob for my, when I'm looking at the
computer screen, and that's just the flex control,
it's a knob, it's a VFO. and a couple other functions.
And I only have a program for volume control
and a VFO. And when you think about it, when
you play with your radio, 98 % of the time, you're
either using the VFO or the volume control, and
very rarely something else once you have it set
up. And as the compulsive surgeon that I am,
I printed out the manual, and I went through
it page by page. And I really didn't need to
do that, because it's so logical and so easy
to learn. And it's very ergonomic how things
are set up on the screen. And even with the Maestro,
the Maestro, which is the interface, is very
intuitive. There's very few knobs and buttons
on it, but just the essentials. And the platform
is anything. It will work on PCs, on Macs, iPads.
I even have an app on my iPhone so I can use
my station for my iPhone. with the maestro you
can cat 5 cable will plug into the radio and
you don't even need a computer and you'll you
can use the maestro as a complete interface but
the maestro is wireless um you can use it all
over the house and in fact if you're in a working
dx you can take your maestro to the dinner table
while uh if your wife gets you know your mileage
may vary with your family but uh you know you
can do that if you want yeah oh that sounds great
So what are you most glad to see disappear in
this switch? Would it be all the cables or what
were you glad to see go away? So simplicity is
the word for it. It's very easy to set up. There's
very few cables and everything is software you
know like the ready decoding programs all the
contest software almost all the logging programs
now interface with the flex series and it's the
ultimate beauty of this will be toward the end
of this year fourth quarter when version two
comes out which will be complete you know remote
from anywhere in the world with your maestro
or computer when you load up the software Basically,
every computer in your house becomes a flexed
radio. Every laptop, every computer can access
the radio and be a flexed radio. And when it's
remote, right now, you can remote with VPN. You
got to jump through some hoops to do that. But
in the future, by the end of this year, when
version two comes out, it's going to be remote
from anywhere in the world. There's a company...
in Montenegro, four Oscar III Alpha products,
403A. He has a genius line of equipment. And
right now I have the antenna genius. And there's
two outputs on my 6700 that goes with the two
inputs. I can select either output for one of
16 antennas. It will also control several relays
to control things in the shack, like worst wears
and beverages and things like that. There's other
things that I don't have. There's a rotor genius,
actually a little gizmo that hits on the boom
on your antenna. So when you're remote, you know
exactly where that beam is pointing. So if you
lose power or lose calibration of your rotor,
that's not a point because you know exactly where
it's pointing with this stuff. And also there's
a new amplifier that's coming out by the end
of this year, maybe early next year, at least
by date and time next year. That will be a full
one and a half kilowatts that will follow the
flex radios. It's designed for remote and all
these radios that only besides the antennas and
the power and maybe the keen mic and headset
line is a Cat 5 cable to your router. That's
all there is for cabling. It's very, very simple
and easy to set up. Well, let's turn this to
some of the de -expeditions you've been on. You've
been on some of these big de -expeditions. What
do you think about the the SDRs on those? Do
you prefer using the SDRs or do you like everything
in in one little box? Well as far as I know in
all of history, which is one de -expedition,
that was Palmyra, we used we had two 6500s like
6500s and two Maestro's and we had some other
radios there and we actually ended up fighting
over who was going to use the flex radials when
our shift came up because the noise mitigation
and just the superior quality and ease of use,
we really like that. Just a couple weeks ago
at field day, I had a big power supply and three
flex radials. We just put them in the corner.
We stacked them on top of one another, connected
all the antennas to the back of them. And then
in the room, we had three stations, three maestros.
And they were all connected wirelessly to these
radios. The only two cables we had on our little
tables that we operated from were power supply
cables for the Maestro and for the computer.
And that was it, everything else. I mean, it
makes it so simple. And it will really simplify
the logistics of the expedition and all the wiring.
It's really going to make a difference. And I
foresee that this is going to... Something like
this if not the flex radios will be the standard
for the expeditions in the very very near future
Well, why don't you tell us about some of these
we mentioned Some of the big the expeditions
that you've been on Why don't you share a story
or two about? some of those the expeditions with
us Well, you know my very first the expedition
was the 1997 one to herd island and that was
That was an experience because it was a big de
-expedition, it was remote, and that was a challenge.
It was really a good team, and it was quite an
experience. One of my favorite ones, and I think
all of the guys that went to the Kingdom of Bhutan
in 2000 for the A5 -2A de -expedition, still
consider that one of their absolute highlights.
It was, at the time, it was number two most wanted
behind North Korea, which is still number one.
And I have worked for orthopedics overseas for
many years, which is equivalent basically like
Doctors Without Borders, but for my specialty.
And I've been to Bukhan many times. My family
has lived over there. We homeschool our kids
and we did homeschooling over there. So it was
a good time. But anyway, in 2000, The Ministry
of Communication changed the regulations and
they invited us for the expedition. We were there
for 12 days and we made 82 ,000 contacts with
only 100 watts. I think that's the expedition
record that still stands today because we weren't
allowed to use amplifiers. But Bhutan is a very
remote place. We've heard of chamber law. That's
really the description of It's up in the Himalayas,
beautiful people, beautiful culture, and it's
an amazing place. I've kept in contact with many
hams there. In fact, one family sent a son over
to live with us for a year as an exchange student,
and I'm looking forward to going back again.
Another interesting story was Navassa Island.
12 or 13 years to get permission to go. So we
spent a lot of time getting there, just like
we did this at Chao. But when we were there,
it's near Haiti, and the Haitian fishermen are
there just trying to eke out an existence. It's
a very dangerous life. I'm sure many of them
never get home if there's a storm. And just trying
to feed their families and to survive is heartbreaking.
When we left, We gave them all of our surplus
food and water and all of our supplies. We literally
gave them the shirts and hats off our backs.
And we really made their day. And it was really
a very good feeling to do something positive
for these guys. They really appreciate it. Even
though we had a total language barrier, you could
tell they were just in tears with appreciation.
Yeah, that sounds like some some great adventures
and we can talk about those a little bit more
when we come back. We're going to take some time
to pay a couple of bills right now. We'll be
back to take your calls with Glenn Johnson right
after this word from Tower Electronics here on
HamTalk Live. This episode of HamTalk Live is
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Now here's more HamTalk Live. Thanks again to
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-2973 and don't miss HamTalk Live every Thursday
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.com and if you missed the show you can download
the podcast from the website or most popular
podcasting It's time now for your calls if you
have a question for Glen. Give us an audio call
at HamTalk Live on Skype or you can call us by
telephone of course. That number is 812 -NET
-HAM -1 812 -638 -4261. Give us a call and we
will pass this question over to Glen and then
if you want to ask him about the flex radios,
the software -defined radios, or some of the
de -expeditions, why give us a call or you can
tweet us at HamTalk Live and ask about those.
So while we're waiting for the calls to come
in here, Glenn, why don't you tell us about your
exciting plans coming up for a future de -expedition?
Well, the big one is at least a year and a half
uh... short two years away that's uh... uh...
number two on the most one of those which is
currently will be uh... ralph keys are are announced
the last month a major the expedition is going
to take place uh... at that time and then they
told jolly the captain owner of the great heart
in fact you just got uh... like to do the dex
hall of fame at the end of in the main has a
bigger ship and with that ship We're going to
take a helicopter and crew. It'll be 20 of us.
We'll be gone away from home a couple months.
Bouvet is not too far away from South Sandwich
Island. It's to the east of South Sandwich, which
has the most miserable weather on the planet.
You can ask any of the recent BP8 guys who are
there, and they will tell you that they actually
had to evacuate from the bad weather because
of the bad weather. But Bouvet is surrounded
by cliffs. It takes a helicopter landing. We
set up on a glacier, just kind of like what was
done on Peter 1. Landing permission has been
granted. A call sign has been issued. The website
is just about done. It will be released here
just in the next week or two. This is going to
be a very challenging operation. And it's probably
going to be one of the most expensive ones in
a long time, just because of the logistics, its
remoteness. Bouvet is said to be one of the most
remote locations on the face of the earth. And
just with the helicopter and the cost, it's going
to be a challenge, not just logistically, but
financially too. And so I'm sure you'll have
some links on there to help donate toward that
once the website is up. Well, you can count on
that. death taxes and and and donate to our cause
is that the sure things well that sounds like
an adventurous adventurous expedition coming
up so we'll have to stay tuned for that one eight
one two net ham one is the number eight one two
net ham one if you have a question and glenn
go ahead i'm sorry and the bouvet is going to
be an all flex operation We've already been working
on the logistics of that, and that's going to
be an all flex radio operation. So we won't have
to fight over who gets to use it? We won't have
to fight over the radios. All right. 812 net
ham1 or tweet us at hamtalklive or give us a
call on Skype at hamtalklive. What advice would
you give for people on the other end, the people
who are trying to work you on these de -expeditions?
What advice would you give them to get through?
Well, there's two principles. Number one, the
de -expedition is trying to work as many stations
as possible. They want to get as many people
in the log as possible. And on the other end,
the de -excer... is trying to get into the dExpeditions
log. And so being efficient and learning how
to get into the log is the challenge. And my
advice is to listen, listen, listen. When you
get tired of listening, listen some more. Listen
to the rhythm of the operator, the timing, the
pattern. How does he come back to people? How
does he tune? Does he always move up? Does he
move down? Does he go up and then down? Is it
random? How does he tune? The more time you can
spend listening to hear his pattern, you'll figure
it out. And you can, if you figure his pattern
out, you know exactly where you can plant yourself
and be heard. And we get notes, a lot of feedback
after the expeditions, and it's amazing the number
of QRP signals, QRP stations, indoor antennas
who say, I found your pattern and I was there
when you tuned and you heard me. Or I was just
off the edge of the pileup and you heard me.
And if we say listing up five to 10, 70 % of
the pileup is going to be five up and 30 % is
going to be 10 up. So go in between. where there's
nobody else. That's the easiest way to get into
the dExpeditions log. Some great tips there for
working those dExpeditions. And if you have a
question about that, give us a call, 812 -NAT
-HAM -1, or you can tweet us or give us a call
on Skype. It's HamTalk Live on either one of
those. Your most recent trip was to Palmyra and
We had Craig Thompson on the show earlier and
We heard that the accommodations were better
than most so tell us a little bit about your
experiences with Palmyra Paradise that's the
easiest way to describe what I got off the plane
It was like I've landed And the closest thing
to heaven. I mean it was it was just paradise
I mean it was really oh yeah, I can rain pretty
hard You know sometimes several inches a day,
but when it's not raining it is paradise The
problem is that everybody can go there. It's
very restricted and we were there because it
was the off season they have three quarters of
intense research activity and then one quarter
in this case, December, January, February, is
their maintenance season. They have a maintenance
crew there of about a half a dozen guys. We were
there during the lull for two weeks. We helped
out with the chores and helped with some of their
work. I've been to Antarctica. I've been to Malpelo,
which is probably the hottest place on the planet.
Hard places really challenging places and now
I've been to paradise so I can say I've been
everywhere Now if you had to choose between the
hot and the cold Which one for the expedition
I could live in I could live in Palmyra so But
that's not an option, but if I had a choice that
would be my favorite favorite place to do with
the expedition again Very good 812 net ham one
if you have questions for W zero gj 812 net ham
one or tweet us at ham talk live So as you Plan
out this this nudie expedition and you're going
to go all all flex do you anticipate that they'll
be Anyone that will say, Oh, wait a minute. Why
aren't we using this brand or that brand? I think
most of us, um, at least have played with it.
And, um, there were some guys that were on. Oh,
Myra that are going to Blu Bay, but it is, you
know, and I go on, I've been on various expeditions
and we've used all different brands of radios
and you know, When we're on a de -expedition,
we just put our nose to the grindstone and work
the X. And we make the best of whatever radio
that is there. And sometimes there's some quirks
to some of them. Sometimes some are prone to
interstation interference. The nice thing about
the Flex, even with high power, you can work
three modes on one band at the same time. There's
no interference or descents like there is with
superheterodyne radios. The mathematics see the
strong nearby signals as noise and eliminate
it before it's even decoded as a signal. So you
can even do high power SO2R on one band if you
have two different antennas for the same band
and enough separation. It's it is not your father's
super hit a dying radio Very good, very good.
Well, we wish you well on this the expedition
coming up especially the one you mentioned here,
but all of those and and we thank you so much
for coming on the show to talk about the SDRs
and all your experiences and congratulations
on all your work and best of luck in the adventures
coming up. Thank you very much, Neil. I've really
enjoyed chatting with you. All right. Well, thank
you everybody. That is a wrap for this week's
edition of Amtok Live. I'd like to thank my guest,
Glenn Johnson, W -0 -G -J, and all the callers
and listeners out there in cyberspace, and invite
you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time when Nathan Nixon, N -7 -N -A -N, will be
here to talk about the National Tribal Amateur
Radio Association, which promotes ham radio with
Native American tribes. 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.