It's Hem Radio! Good evening, everyone. This
is HamTalk Live episode number three. Gary Pierce,
KN4AQ, recorded live on Thursday, March 3rd,
2016. And I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks
for tuning into this episode of HamTalk Live.
Tonight on the show, Gary Pierce, KN4AQ, will
join us. Gary will talk about his wildly successful
video podcast, Ham Radio, now. during the last
part of the show we will as always be taking
your calls live. Last week on The Big Show Don
Wilbanks AE5DW was our guest and Don and I really
had a blast and we will do it again soon to talk
about the Young Ham of the Year award once that
nominating period begins so we'll have that coming
up soon and if you missed that show or any future
show you can listen to the replay on HamTalkLive
.com or you can pick that up on Spreaker, TuneIn,
iTunes, SoundCloud, or YouTube. Well here we
are at episode number three and I'm learning
some things and relearning some things from my
audio past. So I'm trying to make a few adjustments
to the show and one of the adjustments we're
going to make tonight is make sure we have time
for live calls because that's kind of the main
goal of the show, and last week we did not hit
that at all. So be ready to call in. We're going
to take calls a little earlier this evening.
So in just a few minutes, be ready. You can Skype
us at HamTalk Live, that's the username, HamTalk
Live, or by telephone. The number is 812 -NET
-HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. And we're trying
out a new call system tonight and hope so we
can improve some in that area. So I'd like to
thank Nick Bauer, KC9GZY for handling the Skype
switchboard and the social media duties tonight
during the show and in weeks to come. And I'll
try not to call him snardly too often. So tonight,
Gary Pierce is my guest from Ham Radio Now. Gary
grew up in Chicago and is now in the Raleigh,
North Carolina area. And four years ago, he started
the show Ham Radio Now. So Gary, welcome to HamTalk
Live. Neil, it is nine o 'clock on the East Coast.
Normally at this time of night, I would be sitting
on the couch with my wife next to me, a cat on
my lap, probably another cat sitting on my arm,
a mug of hot chocolate perched precariously on
the arm of the sofa. We will be watching. Well
these days probably scandal So this would better
be worth it. So yeah better be worth it. And
you know, it could be one of those Anything can
happen Thursdays you were talking about but we
won't go with the with the vegetables tonight
We won't go there, but maybe we can get a bazinga
or two in there. So Actually, I should admit
this that one of the reasons for the time slot
although it's not a major reason for the time
slot but one of the reasons that it's at the
time that it is is So that it doesn't interfere
with Big Bang Theory. So That actually was was
one thing but yeah, that's what I do I DVR it
in fact, I haven't actually watched it I need
to catch up on it, but But yeah, that's one of
the many reasons I don't watch anything live
and Yeah, I find that I that I do that more and
more Is just you know, it's it's too easy to
hit that little skip button and and and go through
everything Hopefully we'll catch up back. Yep.
You're coming back. I think we're good there.
Okay. Okay. Well, like I said, we're trying out
the new Skype thing. So we'll, we'll see how
that goes. So anyway, tell us about ham radio
now. Um, tell us how, how that started and what
your goals are with the show. Well, I was hoping
you would ask me that question. Um, But the actual
start of ham radio now began in 1970 and this
is what it sounded like Gary I think we better
We better take a break here and I think we're
going to switch or Skype over Sounds like we're
having issues here. So so let me let me put you
on hold here and we'll take our first break and
Then we'll come back with more with Gary Pierce
KN4AQ right after this word from one of our sponsors
Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk Live.
This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. Tower Electronics has been
the Ham's dime store since 1978, bringing connectors,
antennas, cables and other parts to the world.
Scott and Jill travel the country bringing their
store to you at HamFest, but you can also order
online at PL -259 .com or by calling 920 -435
-2973. Stock up on those supplies like PL -259
and end connectors, audio cables, mobile antennas,
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are even in use on the International Space Station.
Tower Electronics is a dealer for MFJ, Comet,
Daiwa, OPEC, Workman and HamPro technologies.
Tower Electronics online at PL -259 .com. Proud
to sponsor this episode of HamTalk Live. Okay.
Well, like I said, we're trying out the new Skype
thing. So we'll, we'll see how that goes. So
anyway, tell us about ham radio now. Um, tell
us how, how that started and what your goals
are with the show. Well, I was hoping you would
ask me that question. Um, but the actual start
of ham radio now. Begin in 1970. And this is
what it sounded like. And by all means, don't
touch the dial. That could seriously cause you
to catch what I might have. Peggy Lee. Thank
you, Scott. Thank you, brother. Yeah, okay, so
that was the beginning. 1970, WDOR, Sturgeon
Bay, Wisconsin, when I was actually a real broadcaster
because I drew a paycheck. So I wasn't totally
a wannabe, but boy was I a wannabe. And I just,
you know, I'd fallen in love with broadcast radio
as well as ham radio. throughout my teens and
really wanted to be on the air someplace. And
once I got there, I realized I had a problem.
I didn't have anything to say. So I worked on
that for a while. Yeah, you got to fix that.
Yeah, let me and did that one sound okay? Yeah,
that sounded great. Okay, good. So advance the
story to 1988. Most of my career has been in
video editing. I wanted to be in radio but I
couldn't really get work because you could tell
how good I was. I did video editing for about
12 years and then I had to try radio one more
time. So here's the one more time. Good time
to tell you that KFWJ is rated at number one.
Arbitron has just completed the Mojave County
Listener Survey. KFWJ rated number one in all
of Mojave County. The most listened to of all
AM and FM stations both sides of the Colorado
River from Blythe to Lake Mead. How about that?
Number one, thanks to you, our listeners. KFWJ,
KBBC, Lake Havasu City, the American home for
the London Bridge. So I got better. I'm not sure
when my voice changed, but I was 38 years old
then and clearly my voice changed sometime after
that. You just brought back some real memories
because I remember the I saw it on the radio
campaign. Yeah. There are a lot of radio stations
that use that to to sell advertising, which of
course is the number one thing in radio. Yeah,
in some radio. Yeah, and it was an AB promotion.
So that was that was cool. So I got better without
any practice in between somehow got better, but
still, you know, radio. That job lasted three
months. I got fired for talking too much about
the wrong things and I went back to video editing
for another dozen years or so So let me advance
the story to this Television stuff here. You
had said that ham radio now started four years
ago, which which it did but its predecessor the
first video thing that I did actually started
11 years ago in 2004 Amateur radio video news
and I I made some programs and sold DVDs, not
very fast, not very prolifically, but I made
a few. The reason I started that was in 1983,
this space shuttle Columbia, I think it was Columbia
83, right? Had disintegrated on reentry and left
pieces of itself all over East Texas. Wanted
to go there and shoot video really bad. I didn't
have good equipment. I had high -ate Camera and
stuff and I really wanted to go there and shoot
video of it. I couldn't get away I was freelancing
at the time and I had lots of work and I couldn't
quite get away but I really wanted to do that
and The reason why I really wanted to do that
is our media sucks. We're terrible at it Bill
Pasternak and I have commiserated a lot about
how badly we do media It's it's really hard to
get still pictures of hams doing important things
especially in the emergency communications in
the public safety arena We don't get really good
pictures of hams doing that we get no video at
all and Bill tried to start something called
the ham radio video core and encourage hams to
Acquire and then maybe edit video of us doing
stuff Went nowhere. We're still doing none of
that Katrina came and went almost nothing One
guy went in there with a camera and shot some
stuff, but that never became a program. It became
a short blurb that the league did So we're terrible
at it. So I really wanted to and I got started
in 2004 Video equipment was starting to get Affordable
enough now. I wouldn't call it cheap, but I I
could buy a good camera for about forty five
hundred dollars makes really good pictures and
I did that and the first story I thought I might
go do was The W3 AO field day operation. I had
been noticing that those guys did something unusual.
They had a 50 a 51 a field day operation and
we worked them from the field day I was at And
I was always thinking, that's that can't be right.
Yeah, exactly. It's got to be a scam of some
kind. So I noticed that they were they were lined
up to do another 50. And I called the guys and
said, can I come up here? And I'm starting the
same radio television show. Can I come up there
and then document? And they said, yeah, sure.
Why not? So I did. And although I shot it in
2004, I finally released the DVD in 2011. So
you can tell how fast I am. Turning things around
So but that was the beginning Yeah, take editing
is slow. Well, I released several others in between
I did a documentary on a ARDF direction finding
because it was their national championships were
just down the road from me Local and they wanted
to close out so people could see it. So I shot
that in I think in 2008 and released it only
a few months later and a couple of other things.
I did a documentary called Digital Voice for
Amateur Radio and I shot that a lot of it in
2008 and got it released within a few months.
So a lot of work there and then I finally got
around to doing that field day thing. I shot
the 10th anniversary of the W3AO operation in
2014 and I still haven't edited that. Haven't
lost my old ways entirely, but I know what you
mean We I've got a project at school that we
shot all the video and did everything and then
yeah, it's still sitting I totally get that So
so podcasting the concept of podcasting in online
stuff actually began about 2004 when I was taking
a major step into the late 1990s and doing DVDs
The people who understood what was going on,
Leo Laporte, even George Thomas in amateur logic,
not Ham Nation yet, but amateur logic. You started
back then. So guys were getting this. I just
wasn't. I was old school. And then I got invited
to be a guest host on Ham Nation when they started
down on Twitter in 2011. And I did a bunch of
those shows. I knew he was going to be on the
road. So he he was cat about for someone who
had some experience. And he said someone pointed
in my way, I guess. I haven't seen the DVDs.
And so he asked me if I would do it. And I said,
yeah, as long as you don't ask me to film because
I'd never be able to find time for that. So I
did half a dozen of those shows and he stopped
calling. He just said, he didn't say anything.
He just, he stopped calling. And about that point,
I decided I really did like doing it and thought
I could maybe do it regularly. So I started the
Ham Radio Now thing and he gave me a guest shot.
My first Ham Radio Now episodes came from the
Orlando hamcation and went down there and shot
a bunch of interviews and a tour of the place
in 2011. And, um, and he gave me a good departing
shot doing that. And then I just never heard
from him again. So I figured he didn't need me.
And he went on to Don Wilbanks and a whole bunch
of other people. So, um, I've been doing then
the ham radio now since then. And we're up at
this, this, by the way, I never introduced the
video part of the show. Um, your radio listeners
don't realize we're also making the ham radio
now probe. So let me introduce it here. Radio
now episode 246. Look I'm on ham talk live. I
mean listen. I'm on ham talk live Yeah, but we
don't get the sound effects of the the the lower
third flying in we don't Know we don't I do that
in post but but yeah, but they'll get that on
on video You guys will get it, but but but our
listeners won't Get the fly you just get me so
so That's it that's how we got started and then
I just keep keep turning them out as fast as
I can I've added Well, I was doing the Tapper
digital communications conferences on DVD from
2008 on and then just folded them into the ham
radio video and One of the things that that you
do to keep this going because like you said video
is not cheap You know this show I you know put
together pretty you know not a whole lot of cost
But it's not cheap. So tell us about Arvin Yeah
And I'm on my second generation of equipment
because I bought all the video cameras and stuff
in standard definition four by three ratio just
as high definition stuff was starting to hit
the market at at this level of production. So
I hung in with standard definition for as long
as I could, but I switched to high definition
before I started Cam Radio Now. So everything
on Cam Radio Now is hi -def. And once again,
a brand new camera down to Orlando. Arvin, the
name of Arvin comes from what people were calling
the original program, it's amateur radio video
news. ARVN, one of the world's most terrible
names for a television program. And it also turns
out that the initials ARVN stand for the Army
of the Republic of Vietnam, which people reminded
me of over and over and over again. I'm thinking,
well, you know, they're gone and I'm still here.
But I eventually changed to ham radio now. But
I adapted the ARVN name as the name of the mascot,
a little piggy bank. sitting back here over my
shoulder. Folks on the video can see that. And
he represents viewer financial contributions.
And his name is Arvin, A -R -V -I -N. I've got
a little Arvin reel -to -reel portable tape recorder
that I got to work into the deal somehow, but
I've never played with that. So from the very
beginning, I didn't... want to line up advertisers.
I wanted individual contributions from viewers
and they've been surprisingly good. It hasn't
made a living. I would really like for this to
be a full -time deal and it's not even close,
but it has averaged since Hammerdia now started
about $7 ,000 to $8 ,000 a year, plus a few very
successful Kickstarters for the Tapper stuff.
Which brought in twelve thousand dollars one
year and a little over eight thousand the next
but last year The kickstarter didn't work goose
egg, but people have been contributing individually
to the program I also started a patreon when
that stuff got started so people can contribute
on a ongoing basis with the patreon so Probably
most people doing podcasts would say you're making
$10 ,000 a year off your podcast. You were doing
awesome, boy. But like I say, and people always
say, well, don't try to monetize your podcast.
You're going down the wrong road. Do it for fun.
But I kind of want this to be a deal. And it
is expensive to do. Yeah. I'm lucky that my expenses
are low. And so I just, you know, do a couple
of very inexpensive ads. That pretty much takes
care of it, you know, a few months down the road.
Anyway, it will. Is it like a dollar a holler
radio? Yeah. It's not quite a dollar a holler,
but it's not too far off of that. So, um, you
know, hopefully that'll go, but, um, what. You
do them wrong. I do them wrong. You do your ads
wrong. Oh, here in the podcast land, um, the
ads are effective when the host. does them live.
Live, yes. And you produce yours and almost no
podcasters produce their ads. Yeah. You get that
native advertising feel to them. Oh, Cindy, come
over here. My lovely wife Cindy. She's come on.
Come on, get over. I have no makeup. She's got
no makeup on. Well, it's radio. It doesn't matter.
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's just radio. She's
wandering through the studio. But she's not she's
not She says she's not going to come in front
of the camera. Well, I don't have a microphone
for you over there. So holler Yes, holler. Hi
everybody. Hello everybody. Okay, that's cindy
katie. Where are you? I see in the people do
see her but people do see her on on the show
they I always get a lot of email that says how
did an ugly old guy like you get a young beautiful
wife like that and I've got pictures. That's
the thing. It's blackmail Now I'm lucky now occasionally
The mouse shows up on the show. Yeah, I'm surprised.
I don't have a cat Bug is yes, Cindy's gonna
go get me a cat. So yeah, we have a one of the
other things that we do is Rest cat rescue or
big into cat rescue, especially Cindy, but I
help her out as much as I can and We have a feral
colony with two cats in her right now because
we've been very successful in the trap neuter
return or trap neuter adopt Where you get feral
cats and if they're young enough you You bring
them in and domesticate them and get them adopted
at a shelter. So we're pretty good at that We've
got three of our own right now and then in the
house. There's two more Cats that we are Fostering
until they're ready for being adopted so five
cats going on. I'm hoping to do a podcast On
cat rescue because I've surveyed the market a
lot more people out there into cats and there
aren't a ham radio and no one's serving that
mark So I've got the domain rescue cat dot TV
Yeah, maybe maybe maybe some Jackson Galaxy Well,
the other thing about it is ham radio media,
ham radio online media tops out at about what
we're doing here in twit. Cats, they get real
big time TV, you know, on cable and Jackson Galaxy.
So we won't hit that level. But it's I don't
think anyone is talking to the to the folks that
do this, this animal rescue, cat rescue. We'll
focus on cats. The people will say why don't
you do dogs, too? And it's just it's not because
we don't like dogs just You know cats are our
thing and we'll talk about dogs, but sure I want
I want to get that ginned up and well Alec now
that I've let the let the world know I guess
I better get to it. There you go Well, Ali's
been running around here, but since it's radio
You don't hear Ali. So we won't get into that.
Although Ali did try to get in Um, on ham nation,
she jumped up on the desk right behind me and
George says, there's a tail coming out of your
head and like, um, Alley down. So she tried,
but my favorite cat ham radio video was when
I was like, probably either five or six years
old and I'm copying code and The cat jumps up
on top of the HF rig and starts batting around
my pencil while I'm trying to copy CW Got an
old home movie of that. Yep. They're good at
that. Yeah, they are There's tons of tons of
pictures on Facebook of cats sleeping on radios
amplifiers Tube stuff particularly because oh,
yeah, it's warm Oh, yeah Well speaking of get
any live live calls here. Yeah We do need to
do one more ad and and I do want to take since
we kind of had to do things abruptly because
Skype was being Skype I do want to thank Scott
and Jill from tower electronics and this is that
live thing you're talking about because they
have sponsored the show for the first few months
and I've used their products in repeater installations
and at work and at home and they've been really
supportive over the years with our repeaters
and with the school and they've got great stuff
so give them a call or order at PL -259 .com
and right now we're going to listen to a little
spot about our other sponsor tonight and that's
the Ham Station and we'll be back with Gary Pierce
KN4AQ right after this. This episode of Ham Talk
Live is brought to you by The Ham Station. For
35 years, The Ham Station has brought new and
used radios, antennas, accessories, and equipment
to the amateur radio community. Give Jeff or
Dan a call at 1 -800 -729 -4373. or order online
at hamstation .com. Hamstation carries all the
major brands like Icom, Yezu and Kenwood. Shop
from a wide selection of radio scanners, MFGA
accessories, Pilesound products, Mirage and Ameritron
amplifiers, Cushcraft antennas and more. Easy
online shopping and fast shipping are waiting
for you at hamstation .com. or call 1 -800 -729
-4373. The Ham Station, proud to sponsor this
episode of HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk
Live. We also want to mention our logo contest
that's wrapping up. If you want to make a logo
for the show, send it to logo at hamtalklive
.com. Between now and Monday, that's logo at
hamtalklive .com, and we're going to announce
the winner on next week's show, so be sure to
tune in for that. And we do want to thank the
HamStation for sponsoring the show tonight so
we can bring you HamTalk Live. I've been shopping
at the HamStation since the first day they opened
37 years ago. Dan and Jeff can give you a hand,
give them a call, or go to HamStation .com. I'm
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, joined this evening by Gary
Pearce, KN4AQ, and if you have a question for
Gary, give us a call on Skype. Our username is
HamTalkLive, or you can join us by telephone
at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 638 -4261. Again,
area code 812, 638 -4261. And if the line's busy,
try again after we finish up on a caller and
we'll try to get you in here. We have nine minutes
left, so hopefully we can get a couple of calls
in this evening since our technical difficulties
took away a little time with us. While we're
waiting, Well, and there's Allie in the background.
I don't think microphone picked her up but I
recently watched your All parody all the time
episode and I I was I had it on YouTube you were
talking about different ways, you know to catch
the show and and I had it on YouTube but I had
it playing through the car so I had the audio
and the video but I Didn't watch the video. I
was listening as I was driving and You had a
lot of clips there from the actual Subcommittee
discussions and everything and really like how
you how you took that and dug into everything
and and You know kind of picked that apart that
was that was very interesting and It'll be it'll
be interesting to see where this goes It's going
way better than I ever expected once we hit a
Senate version of the bill I thought well, there's
a chance Of course, I screwed it up because I
thought it was only a one -year deal and if I
to put you know at the end of last year I thought
it was dead and had to be restarted, but I Really
need to go back and watch the schoolhouse rock
I'm just a bill on capital and see if they can
explain that to me. The sessions are two years
long. So the Parity Act has got another year
to go and it's picking up more co -sponsors and
made it out of the original committee in the
House that was in. It already made it out of
the first committee it was in in the Senate.
The next step for that is the full Senate. And
now it's going to be at the Energy and Commerce
Committee. It made it out of the Telecommunications
and I think Electric Toasters Committee. So as
opposed to the non -electors toasters committee.
Well, yeah fire So, uh, so, you know, we're still
in very much the contact your congress people
and let them know this exists and that you would
like them to support it become co -sponsors or
Whatever, especially if they're now in the energy
and commerce committee. So that's the place to
go. I thought it was cool that In congress, they
were talking about us, you know every often Yeah,
I was very encouraged by a lot of things that
that they did say that they recognized Just what
we do and and then it was nice to hear yeah,
it was mostly boilerplate stuff, you know the
usual pat on the back, but I Like that better
than nothing. Yeah. Yeah absolutely Okay, give
us a call at on Skype net ham talk live Or 812
Net Ham 1 if you have a question for Gary 812
-638 -4261 we have a few minutes left and and
the The amendments I remember you talking about
those a little bit and yeah those amendments
Scare me a little but we'll see where it goes
That's going on right now somewhere in the background.
I think I would like to talk to some of the guys
at the league and see if they're In the middle
of it, I hope that they are. What happened at
the communications and technology subcommittee
hearing was people were recognized that there
is opposition. There's somewhat organized opposition
from what we call the CAI, the Community Associations
Institute. It's an association of homeowners
associations. And they filed Comments with the
committee so to the ARL and in their filing they
had seven specific points That they would like
to see changed some of them fairly innocuous
some of them kind of deal -breakers, but that's
their opening gambit Negotiating position and
I go through all that in the program All parody
all the time on ham radio now TV So if you missed
that stop by there you had mentioned that you
were Watching the YouTube while you were driving
and I do have an audio version of the show. It's
a little hard to get to I'm not I'm a bad podcaster.
I Haven't taken advantage of all the tools you
immediately got on iTunes and are discoverable
on the podcast apps and all that stuff, but you're
you're on my podcast public podcast app. And
I haven't done that. Really, I should. I've just
been scrolling my audio versions away on my internet
service providers site on the Ham Radio Now website.
And that's not a good idea. That's not where
media should live. So I've got to move it. I've
had a fellow offering to provide free hosting
for my audio and video for over a year. And I
haven't got around to doing that. I'm late. Well,
one of the advantages to starting up the show
is I took two months to get ready. So I had all
the social media stuff set up. I had all the
accounts set up. I had everything all set up.
In those two months ahead of time. And so I didn't
know what any of that was. Yeah. And the the
spreaker thing just has all this stuff integrated
and so it makes it really easy and honestly I
found out about it listening to an AM talk radio
ad over the holidays actually and decided here's
my chance I've always wanted to do talk radio
instead of just playing music and here's your
weather watch forecast for today and you know
traffic on the eights don't yes oh yes and and
we're on your side um but anyway traffic and
weather together yeah yeah exactly traffic and
weather together on the eights and um you know
i heard it and i'm like okay here's here's the
chance to do it and it's it's really worked out
pretty well um there's there's been a few hangouts
but we're getting there There's some latent wannabe
broadcaster in you too because I mean you've
done professional broadcasting I did I did it
was part -time but you know it beat flipping
burgers It was a lot of you and you wanted Yeah,
so we're we're fulfilling our childhood dreams
here where no one can tell us what to do. Exactly
Exactly, and one of the things and I know you
do a lot with repeaters and I don't know if this
has been your experience or not but the experience
we had with our repeater system was that we did
the IDs the way we wanted to do them, we linked
to whatever we wanted to do and we did all that
and then we asked for support if you liked it
and it worked so much better than a club of 60
people all trying to figure out how to run the
repeater. My committee. Yeah, it's not too good.
Yeah, it didn't work. So that's what I say about
my show and the support. Yeah. That's what I
say about my show and the support is you can
make suggestions. I appreciate your support,
really, but I'm going to do the show I want to
do and come along for the ride. Absolutely. Well,
thanks for coming along for the ride with us
tonight. It's it's that time. Once again, my
timer is telling me it's time to go So so I have
thanks for coming along my pun. Yeah to make
my pun Yeah, that's a wrap. Oh, you beat me to
it. I was just getting ready to do it In fact,
Nick said now you always did that in class. Why
didn't you do that on the air? So So yeah a rap
star. Yes. That's it. That's a wrap For this
week's edition of HamTalk Live, I'd like to thank
my guest Gary Pierce, KN4AQ, and all the callers
and listeners out there in cyberspace. And I
invite you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m.
Eastern. My guest will be Tom Vinson, NY0V. And
Tom recently took a trip to Myanmar or Burma,
depending on your politics, to help some Boy
Scouts earn their Radio Merit badge. And you'll
hear about it right here on HamTalk Live. So
for now... With Gary Pierce KN4AQ saying over
and out. This is Neil Rapp WB9VPG saying seven
three seven five and may the good DX be yours