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Please stand by. Good evening, everyone. This
is ham talk live episode number five Bob often
k4u ee Recorded live on Thursday, March 17th
2016. I'm your host Neil rap WB nine VPG Thanks
for tuning in to this episode of am talk live
Tonight on the show Bob often k4u ee will join
us Bob will be talking about how he's able to
organize All these big top 10 most wanted de
-expeditions and the videos that he has that
documents those trips and we'll be taking your
calls live in just a few minutes. Last week on
The Big Show, Tom Vinson NY0V was here to talk
about his trip to Myanmar to work with Boy Scouts
and Girl Guides and I hope you will support Tom
in those efforts to bring ham radio back to Myanmar.
If you missed that show or any future show you
can listen to the replay on hamtalklive .com
or it's also on Spreaker tune in iTunes SoundCloud
or YouTube and This week we've added Stitcher
and we've added everything for Google Play, but
the Google Play podcast Option is not released
yet. So it's ready to go as soon as they're ready
to go. We'll be on it We're also pending on iHeartPodcast,
so hopefully we'll be on there in the next week
or so. Tonight we want to take your calls as
always, so in just a few minutes be ready to
call in. You can call us on Skype and the username
is HamTalkLive, or you can call us by telephone.
That phone number again is 812 -NET -HAM -1.
That's 812 -638 - My guest this evening is Bob
Alford, K4UEE, and Bob's home QTH is the metro
Atlanta, Georgia area. Bob has either participated,
led, or co -led the expeditions to 11 of the
top 10 most wanted DXCC entities. Bob has 11
The Expedition of the Year awards and has participated
in 38 The Expeditions total. Since retiring,
Bob's made DXpeditions his full -time job, and
he's a member of the CQDX Hall of Fame, as well
as many, many other recognitions. So Bob, welcome
to HamTalk Live. Thank you, Neil. It's a pleasure
to be here. I appreciate the opportunity. Bob,
take us back briefly and talk about how you got
started in Ham Radio and what your uh background
is to just kind of bring us up to um the de -expeditions
okie doke well it uh it started it started in
the boy scouts um uh i was probably nine years
old and the scout master happened to be a ham
and you know we had the radio merit badge radio
merit badge back in those days so we built a
crystal set and um you know wrapped uh wrapped
the wire around that piece of cardboard that
was in toilet paper tissue. I made a coil and
I had some old World War II headphones. We had
a little detector there, a germanium diode, and
we started listening on that with an antenna
hung out the window and I could hear music. I
could hear people talking. It was coming through
the air, and I don't know. It just kind of hit
me at that age. It was magic. I just couldn't
believe that you could hear intelligence coming
through the air. And frankly, here we are some
57 years later, I guess. And it's still magic.
Yeah, it is. And you don't let the magic smoke
out. No, that's right. You let the magic smoke
out, everything stops working. So that that was
kind of the beginning now that was eight or nine
years old and and you know, it took me I Guess
I took my novice test when I was 14 so I kind
of played around with it for three to five years
as a SWL and finally found an Elmer Who said
just take my arm young man and I'll show you
what to do and I'll give you the test and I remember
waiting after taking the test. I think you knew
whether you passed or not, but you didn't know
when the license was going to come. So I would
run to the mailbox every day for about five or
six weeks. And one of my favorite stories, and
I hope your listeners haven't heard it before.
It's kind of cute. I was ready to go. I got the
license in the mail and I got KN4UE and I thought,
well, Okay, that's, that's, that's all right.
Could have been worse. Could have been ZXV or
something. So I went and called CQ. I had an
80 meter transmitter and about 20 watts out.
Called CQ for about an hour on 80 meters, 35,
14. And then somebody answered me. And I was
so excited that I got up and I ran around the
house yelling. Somebody's calling me somebody's
calling me. What do I do? And and my mom says
well, why don't you go answer him? Oh, okay And
it turned out to be a guy in I was in Birmingham
at that point My dad was in the military. We
were stationed this guy that answered me was
in Gadsden, which is about 60 miles away But
you know, I just thought that was big DX. And
of course we were We were talking to each other
at about five and a half words a minute, so I'm
sure the conversation took forever. But I think,
you know, like I said earlier, it's magic even
today. And then later on, I got my general license
three or four months later, and I continued to
work on 80 meters. And I worked Europe on 80.
And I worked New Zealand and Australia on 80.
And I worked all over South America on 80 meters.
And I just, I said, this is really something.
And, of course, it's a lot easier on the higher
bands, but I got interested in the low bands,
and I've always been a low band enthusiast, because
I think that's where the big thrill is when you
make a QSO with a guy that's a long way away,
and, you know, he's in the noise and weak, weak,
weak. That's just kind of my thing. And, of course,
I'm a CW guy, and most of my QSOs are on CW.
So that's kind of how I got started. Shortly
after that, my dad was transferred overseas.
So I went and finished high school in Okinawa.
Back then, Okinawa was a separate DXCC entity.
It was KR -6. I was KR -6LY, KR -6 Lonesome Yankee.
And that's the first time I've been on the other
end of Pilops. And frankly, you know, I loved
it. It was addictive. I think that's probably
when the... when the bug the de -expedition bug
bit and of course it when it bit it it it bit
and is still biting today yeah it bit well so
so how did you you go from from that to something
so um treacherous i guess is the word i'm looking
for as going to peter wan island Well, that's
a great question, Neil. Peter Wan was about 10
years ago and I had done a number of expeditions.
I'd been invited on them or had an opportunity
to lead or co -lead a number. But I was always
interested in activating really the rare ones,
the ones that only come on the air every 15 or
20 years because They're really out of the way.
They're hard to get to. It costs a lot of money.
There's nobody that lives there. And so I became
fixated on Peter One, which is about 300 miles
off the western coast of Antarctica, for those
that are not quite sure where that is. We had
a couple of missteps with transportation and
that kind of thing. And it took about three years
to pull it off. And virtually, About all I did
during that three years, I had retired at that
point, and all I did was work on making that
come to happen. And finally, this time 10 years
ago, February of 2006, we got it done and made
about 80 ,000 QSOs, used helicopters to get on
and off the island. We did have some bad weather
and we were, you know, socked in a number of
times. And in fact, our departure was delayed
because of bad weather. It was my second time
down in that part of the world. And, you know,
I really love it down there, but it is, as you
said, it's very treacherous. Since then have
been a number of other expeditions. As you mentioned,
I think in your introduction that I have activated
or. I've been on a team that's activated 11 of
the top tenors. Some people have a little trouble
with that math. How can you activate 11 top tenors?
If I told you I was going to activate 12 and
13 top tenors, then you know what I've got in
my future. Anyway, they don't stay in the top
10, of course, if you do a good job when you
go there. So new ones come up. But that's kind
of what I do. I've got a spirit of adventure.
I guess has a lot of it has to do with the fact
that I traveled a lot when my dad was in the
service and You know, I don't have any trouble
getting on an airplane or getting on a boat or
getting on a train or a bus and going someplace
new I think it's a great thrill. Oh Absolutely.
Well, I have some connection and we were talking
before the show With the Peter one thing so we'll
talk about that in a little bit But that's why
I brought that particular one up, but it just
seemed so so treacherous. So how do you plan
for this? Now in the video I you know I saw you
know some footage of you guys sitting and uh
I think it was a holiday inn or something in
the conference room and and talking about those
kinds of things. How do you go about organizing
one of these trips? Well, that also is a very
good question, and that's one of the reasons
that these things take so long to pull together.
First of all, to be in the top 10 or to be rare,
you know, there's some reason for that. As I
said earlier, they're way out of the way, hard
to get to, expensive. The other thing is that
there's usually some kind of an impediment, either
a government agency that has has a say over the
island and controls access to the island or a
government that doesn't allow amateur radio.
North Korea is a good example. But so one of
the things that has to happen is you've got to
get a permit. And that can take, in the case
of the last one we activated in Nevada a year
ago, it took 13 years to get the permit from
US Fish and Wildlife. A lot of the time is spent
doing that. The other thing, of course, are having
to do with the equipment and the personnel. And,
you know, I've got a list of people that I've
been with before. And those people have a list
of, you know, I'm on a number of lists. And so
if something comes up, I usually get a call and
they know they're going to get a call. So these
are people that I've been with before and I know
I can trust them. and I know if we have a serious
situation of some kind that they're not going
to panic and I know that they've got the money
to pay their share and I know they've got the
time you know to take six or seven weeks off
because these trips particularly the Antarctic
you know it takes two weeks to get there and
you're two weeks on the island and two weeks
back I mean that's six weeks out of your life
away from away from work or home or whatever
so Once you can build a team then it's a matter,
I just delegate and kind of take the position
of the supervisor I guess and I ask people to
do different jobs that have to be done and then
they report back and we tweak it and change it
if necessary and everybody has a role to play.
Probably the most valuable thing I could tell
you right now, Neo, is that what you have to
do is you have to envision every possible situation
that you can find yourself in. For example, the
easy things are we want to have how many stations?
that will require how many radios, how many amps,
how many generators, how many antennas, and how
many operators. That's kind of easy. We've got
to feed the operators. We've got to house the
operators. So now how are we going to do that?
How much food does it take? Who's going to handle
that? Who's going to find the shelters? Who's
going to erect the shelters? And then that's
all kind of straightforward. And we've done it
enough that we've got Got it pretty well down
pat. But when it comes to envisioning circumstances
that are unlikely, but could be disastrous, that's
a whole different deal because you've got to
really think outside the box. You've got to say,
well, what if this happens? What do we do? How
are we prepared for that? How do we react to
it? How do we recover from it? How do we get
off the island? And that's also something you
just kind of learn. And if you surround yourself
with good people, like I try to do, you know,
we've got a lot of, I got a good brain power.
So we're very fortunate to be able to say that
we've never had any serious accidents or, you
know, anything that has not gone pretty much
as we planned it. And... That's you know, I need
to knock on wood and I'll do that right now So
I hope that's helpful yeah, and we do try to
capture that as much as we can in the videos
Yeah, now speaking of the videos One of the things
that that you know, I don't think you knew about
until today was that There was a little connection
with the video and some of the things that I
do that I teach high school and I sponsor a high
school amateur radio club and and one day I decided
that I was going to show the video from the Peter
Wan the expedition and So we watched it and and
there was a little drama there at the end because
Storm moved in and we're like, okay now how are
we going to get everybody off the island? And
we've got a couple people still over there and
some stuff still over there and how are we going
to do that and and so that actually inspired
one of my students to turn his family vacation
that summer to Cyprus into a de -expedition and
so he took a radio and a battery and an antenna
and a buddy pole and and set up at different
places Around Cyprus and he ended up writing
an article for QST that one of his pictures ended
up being the cover photo on QST and he got the
cover plaque award and One thing leads to another
and he's speaking at Dayton about it. He's speaking
at other clubs about it and Dr. Scott Wright
and I nominate him for the young ham of the year
award. He gets the young ham of the year award
He gets the Hiram Percy maxim award. He gets
the goldfarb scholarship it just sweeps everything
and it all comes back to that one video showing
that one video of that d expedition sparked that
whole chain of events wow i just i just heard
this story uh you know before we went on the
air and i was really touched by it um I always
think that these videos are gonna play a role
somehow in getting somebody interested in the
hobby. I hope that they have that role. And now
you've given me evidence of that. I think it's
a great story. And when I see you in Dayton,
Neil, this year, if that young man is there,
I'd love to meet him. Well, I know his sister's
gonna be there and his mother I'm not sure if
he will he's a Actually at Cornell right now
and his final exams are usually at that point
But if there's a way to make that work, I will
I will certainly make that happen. Yeah Great
story makes me feel all good. Yeah, so those
videos do play a wonderful role and if you haven't
seen any of those videos they They make a great
club meeting. You know, you can pop it in and
let it go. And they're quite interesting. And
so talk about just briefly how people can get
a hold of those videos and what the money goes
toward and which ones are out there. Yeah. Okay.
I guess this is the commercial. Yes, this is
the commercial part. On my website, k4ue .com,
there is a section that you can click on that
shows you the DVDs. We've done 10 of them over
the years, and they're all good. They're all
interesting and different expeditions all over
the world. In fact, I had an opportunity to look
at some that we did almost 10 years ago recently,
and I was amazed. I thought, what a good job
we did. But the really big ones, Peter Wan and
Amsterdam Island and Desacheo and Malpello and
last year Navassa, they are all well chronicled
in those DVDs and they run anywhere from about...
35 or 40 minutes to as much as an hour. So you're
getting your money's worth. And I do most of
the filming. I'm not much of an editor. In fact,
I'm not an editor at all. So I hire professional
editors to do the work. And I'm just real pleased
with the outcome. We sell them for 25 bucks a
piece and include shipping worldwide. And our
expenses are... when you figure in the cost of
the editor and duplicating and postage and all
of that kind of stuff, we probably make about
four or five bucks on each one. And then we just
kind of divide that up. And I take my portion
and I put it in the de -expedition pot for the
next adventure. So if you have an interest in
that, as Neil said, they're great for club meetings.
They're great for getting young people interested
in the hobby as we just heard a good example
of that. So it's k4ue .com and then click on
the DVD section and any orders that you place
would be greatly appreciated and we'll get the
DVDs out to you right away. And those are also
available at a few assorted places. I know I
picked mine up at the Huntsville Hamfest. And
a Dayton I believe yeah DX engineering handles
them a double RL handles them Gigaparts handles
them MFJs handles them That's not their main
business, but they've got them available So that's
another that's another way you could get a hold
of them I guess I should mention also that if
you if you order three at a time I discount the
price from 75 down to 60. So you can get them,
three of them for an average of 20 bucks a piece.
And if you order the whole set of 10, and a number
of people have done that, it's $175. So your
per DVD price is down to about 17 .50. So that's
all on the website and it's something to think
about. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about
this. It's it's fun. It's great stuff. Oh, absolutely
Well speaking of ads, it's time for us to take
a break and get an ad in here And I know we've
got at least one caller who's been trying to
get through and it's dr. Scott, right? He sent
me a tweet a while ago. So I know he's gonna
gonna ask you some questions and we'll take some
other Callers here. Oh, yeah. Oh Scott. Oh you
didn't hear that Uh, but it questions. Yeah.
Yeah. You'll ask the tough ones. So anyway, we'll,
we'll take your calls here. Uh, when we come
back from the break, but right now, uh, let's
hear a word from one of our sponsors, tower electronics
right here on ham talk live. This episode of
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you're talking ham radio, baby. You're listening
to Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp. Welcome back
to Ham Talk Live. Thanks to the sport of tower
electronics to help bring Ham Talk Live to you
each week. Some of their upcoming shows are the
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Alabama on April 9th. Be sure to listen to the
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Time right here on HamTalkLive .com. Also check
out our Facebook page and our Twitter feed. Just
search for HamTalk Live. Bob Alfen, K4UEE is
our guest this evening and we're going to start
taking some calls now. So feel free to give us
a call. The best way to do that is with Skype.
Give us an audio call on Skype at HamTalk Live
or if Skype isn't your thing you can call us
on telephone. At eight one two net ham one that's
eight one two six three eight four two six one
so Bob I Went ahead and took the call during
the the break here. We are joined by K zero MD.
Dr. Scott right and and so I know you said you
didn't want to talk to him, but but hopefully
that was just sarcasm uh... scott how you doing
tonight i'm great thank you and bob good evening
i look forward to seeing you in the near future
in the dayton and uh... you know i just first
one of the state of bob on behalf of so many
of us who uh... or dexers thank you for all the
work in time over the last fifteen or twenty
years that you've put in activating the rarest
of the rare i've had a glimpse into some of your
dexpeditions not having been able to go, but
having been invited. And I know the leadership
and time and the 100 hours a week that you and
other co -leaders put in. So I just want to publicly
say thank you for all your hard work and look
forward to you leading another one in the near
future. I wondered, Bob, if you could share with
the listeners just a little bit about Mary, your
wonderful wife, who is so generous to give us
so much of your time in the hobby. And secondly,
if you had any thoughts about... how we can get
more young people involved in ham radio today's
a r r l newsletter has a picture of a teenager
who just at the x t c and worked all states uh...
thank you fourteen or fifteen in the news eight
of a r l c e o added took a picture with him
at lee giving him the certificates and we need
more people like that and like uh... neil's students
deals doing it right in bloomington but most
of us can't seem to get as many young people
involved in d xing and contesting so i'm gonna
those are the only questions i have uh... Bob
and I, I'm wondering if you have some answers.
No, I don't, Scott. I'm just kidding. There's
nothing I'd like more than to talk about my wife,
Mary, because she's an integral part of all of
this. We've been married 49 years now, and it's
looking pretty good for 50. happy about that.
But, you know, the bottom line is I couldn't
do what I do without her blessing. I think in
the old days, Scott, we used to refer to that
as a kitchen pass. You know, I've got to get
a kitchen pass, but most people don't get them
for six and seven weeks at a time. So we often
joke about the fact that, you know, maybe she
wants to get rid of me. When I come back, you
know, there's a great reunion and she says, how's
it going, so on and so forth, where, you know,
everything's fine for a couple of weeks. Then
suddenly one night she'll say, so when are you
going again? Sort of like, gosh, you've been
home a long time, two weeks. I'm just kidding,
of course. She's a great gal. And, you know,
that's, again, I couldn't, none of us could do
what we do without that kind of support. As far
as getting some of the young people involved
in this hobby, I've got a couple of thoughts
there. Again, Neil was telling me earlier about
what he's doing in the high school there and
sponsoring the ham club, and apparently he's
been very successful. But there's a big wide
world full of young kids that are bright and
interested in really cool things. And I've always
thought that maybe one of the ways we might approach
this is to point out to them that amateur radio
is really the first wireless. You know, there's
all this talk about wireless technology. Well,
we've been doing it for 100 years. And are you
all hearing me okay? Yeah, I think there's just
a little echo coming back through Scott's phone
there. So, I mean, maybe that's one way to break
the ice, but I think the aspects of the hobby
that are probably would be of most interest to
today's generation would be contesting and DXing.
My understanding is that there's an awful lot
of gaming that's going on, and it's a very, very
popular, well... There's no better gaming than
what we do on weekend contests on the radio.
And that's a good way to get them interested,
I think. And de -axing, of course, I think the
idea is to combine the amateur radio aspect of
de -axing with the adventure of de -axing because...
These kids are no different than we were when
we were young. They've got a spirit of adventure
and they want to see the world and they want
to meet new people and climb mountains and swim
oceans and that kind of stuff. You can do that
through the radio sitting in your den or in your
bedroom, but you can also do that by getting
on an airplane or getting on a boat. with some
other guys that would go someplace really interesting
and do a de -expedition. I just think that that
would be something that would attract these young
folks to the hobby. What do you think, Scott?
I have to agree, Bob. I think we have to engage
the culture that they have. of travel adventure
and I think many of them do like gaming and I
also think we need to figure out a way that adults
like the three of us who have knowledge and extra
equipment can help youngsters and teenagers out
who don't have much of a budget or parents who
see a need for investment in a hobby and to help
them get started and just spend some time mentoring
them as well. I think that's important but...
I'll tell you, if we could have a school club
station like what Neil Rapp has in Bloomington
and every town in America, Ham Radio with the
double its membership in 10 years. Neil, my congratulations
to all you do at Bloomington South. Bob, I don't
know if you're aware of this, but Neil brought
three students to Contest University last May,
and they took up a challenge. And they got, they
worked DXCC by the time, in one contest weekend,
CQ World Wide Sideband. Very impressive club
station. What he did with with a two element
stepper Yagi and that's about it. I think right
Neil. Yeah. Yeah, that's about it Well, thank
you Scott. I appreciate your kind words Alright,
thank you Scott and I will throw out to there
is a group and I don't have it in front of me
but there is a group that organizes a youth the
expedition trip where they take a parent along
and a child along and do go I know they did Costa
Rica here not long ago then that's been available
most years I think last year they weren't able
to pull it off but they have one and the RSGB
has one also they have a youth the expedition
where they go out to a remote area and and then
set up and in fact one of my students was planning
on going to that and wasn't able to get it worked
out but There are some trips set up just for
youth to go on these two expeditions. Yeah, Neil,
I know a little bit about that program here in
the States. It's run by a fellow that was on
the Peter One expedition, actually. Don Dubon
and 6JRL, who lives in Dayton, as a matter of
fact. And I know that this year they're going
to the island of Saba down in the Caribbean.
I was just down there about three weeks ago for
an international contest. The owner of the station
down there is really, really excited about having
these young hams come in with their parents.
It's going to be a great experience. This is
a beautiful island. It doesn't have the big glitzy
hotels. casinos in fact it doesn't even have
a beach but but if you like to scuba dive or
snorkel or or climb mountains or do ham radio
it's a it's a really interesting place and i
know the kids that are going to participate in
that will have a ball oh absolutely yeah so there
are there are some limited trips out there you
know for youth so uh that is one option Well,
it's time to take our final break, but we'll
be back with more with Bob often right after
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Ulf and K4UEE is our guest this evening and we
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at 812 -NET -HAM -1. Okay, Bob we're back with
you now and Tell us what a typical day would
be for an operator on one of those the expeditions
What would a typical day look like? That's a
good question as well Obviously at the very beginning
when we first get to our our location We basically
have to build what I like to call the radio city.
Because these places were usually not in a hotel
and we usually did not fly in. We, at least on
commercial airlines, we had helicopters or we
had icebreakers or somehow or other we got there.
So there's no hotel. We've got to set up our
own shelters. We've got to set up our kitchen.
We've got to get everything organized before
we ever put up the first antenna. So we've got
to build that city that's going to support anywhere
from 15 to 20 men for the next couple of weeks.
Then once that infrastructure is built, then
you begin putting the stations together and you
begin putting up the antennas and you begin going
on the air. The bulk of the time, let's say it's
a two -week expedition, the bulk of the time,
maybe 12 of those days, is pretty routine, frankly.
You just basically operate, you sleep, you fix
things that break, and you eat. And you just
do that over and over and over again for 12 days.
Typically, you will operate on three or four
hour shifts, and you will usually have three
or four shifts in each 24 -hour period. So, for
example, in Navassa, the last expedition this
time last year, we used three -hour shifts, and
most of us were running four shifts a day. So
we were on the air 12 hours a day for 11 days.
And the rest of the time, as you might imagine,
we're in our bunks or having something to eat
or there was time to do some exploring and there's
a very interesting island. But you settle into
a routine. I call it the expedition mode. And
then when you get near the end and you shut things
down and everything comes down, the good news
is it comes down about three times faster than
it went up. you pack it on the helicopter or
you get it to the boat or whatever and you're
on your way again. And that's when the celebration
begins because usually we've been fortunate enough
to make an awful lot of QSOs. I don't think we've
let anybody down in terms of the number of contacts
that we make. And so we're proud of that. We're
happy that we were able to do it. And, you know,
it's another adventure. that we've successfully
completed. And there's usually talk about where
do we go next? Talk about the next one. So if
you had to choose between warm or cold, you've
done both extremes. Which one would you pick?
Oh, my. It's really not quite that simple, Neil.
There are bugs If you're cold the challenge is
to stay warm and if you're warm the challenge
is to cool off So there's nothing that's particularly
comfortable about either of those alternatives,
but I can say that The Antarctic region I've
been down there three times heard island in 1997
and then Peter, well actually, South Sandwich
in South Georgia in 2002, and then Peter won
in 2006. It is like, in that area of the world,
it's like leaving planet Earth and going to Mars.
It is so different. The animals, the weather,
the wind, the rain, the snow, the sleet, the
volcanoes, the glaciers. It's it's it's like
another world and that it's it's addictive and
You know, I want to go back on the other hand
I've never been so cold in my life As I was Yeah,
you know down there particularly Peter one. There's
quick story if we've got time I think the cold
minutes. Okay, the coldest I've ever been was
on Peter one Typically, temperatures were in
the teens, but the wind was the problem blowing
30, 40, 50, 60 miles an hour. But we wore four
or five layers, so you weren't really cold. But
when it was time to undress and take off all
those layers and get into your sleeping bag,
there was a period of about 30 or 40 seconds
there where you didn't have any clothing on or
you had one layer on. Of course, in the tent,
if it's 18 outside, it's 19 in the tent. Then
you spend the next 30 minutes trying to warm
up. That is the coldest point. It's very awkward
when you're changing from fully closed to hardly
closed and trying to climb into that sleeping
bag. Yeah, I'm sure that's quite an adventure.
Glad to follow along with that with you know
the video and then one of my other former students
his uncle was was on that trip and so I had a
little connection there and I heard a lot about
it and It just doesn't get much colder than that
no no No, I think it's a the temperature wasn't
that bad, but the wind chill was was deadly Yeah,
I'm sure well we thank you for doing that and
all these other the expeditions and we look forward
to the next one Well, I I think that there are
probably two that I'm aware of in the next couple
of years and they also will be the top tenors
of course, I can't let the cat out of the bag
right now, but You know they're most likely gonna
happen and And at some point I got to hang up
my spurs, but not yet Well, we we thank you for
doing that and we'll Anxiously wait to to hear
where those are So that that's a wrap for this
week's edition of ham talk live I'd like to thank
my guest Bob Alford K4 UEE and all the callers
and listeners out there in cyberspace And I invite
you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m Eastern
time when my guest will be Gary West K8 DEV He's
from the Westchester Amateur Radio Association
and the Voice of America Museum near Westchester,
Ohio. Gary and some of the officers will be here
to talk about the museum, the club station at
the museum, and a special opportunity coming
up soon for you to visit. And for a complete
list, visit our website. So for now with Bob
Alfen and technical assistant Nick Bauer. This
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7375, and may the
good DX be yours.