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Live will be on the air shortly. Please stand
by. And good evening, everyone. This is HamTalk
Live episode number one. Dr. Scott Wright, KZeroMD,
recorded on Thursday, February 18th, 2016. And
I am the aforementioned host, Neil Rapp. My call
is WB9VPG. And I want to thank you for tuning
in to the first episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight
on the show, you'll have your chance to get to
know me a little bit better. And then my good
friend, Dr. Scott Wright, KZeroMD will join us.
Scott's a well -known contester and he's been
on several of the expeditions. So he will join
us and we'll talk about his experiences with
Ham Radio. And during the last part of the show,
we'll be taking your calls live. One of the things
we want to do with the show is hear from you,
the listener. So... Some nights we're going to
just ask some questions of our special guest
and get to know the people in our hobby and service,
but as the show grows we hope to have some nights
where we just take some calls and talk about
the latest happenings in Ham Radio. We have some
fabulous guests lined up for the next few weeks
and as we get closer to the Dayton Hamvention
we will have a preview of some of the activities
there. And I do want to mention one breaking
news item. I did see a notice that W1AW was off
the air today, so if you missed W1AW bulletins
and code practice, that kind of thing, due to
some unforeseen circumstances, they were off
the air, but they'll be back on tomorrow. So
I wanted to pass that along in case you didn't
know that. So just sit back, relax, and enjoy
this episode of HamTalk Live. Want to take a
few minutes just to let you get to know me in
case you don't already so you have an idea of
Some of the things we may be talking about on
the show I don't want to take too much time if
you listen to the demo episode on the website
That tells a whole lot more about me and how
I got into ham radio and that kind of thing it's
on ham talk live comm if you want to know more
about that, but the short version is that I became
a ham when I was five years old and at the time
was the youngest ham in the world and I upgraded
to technician class at 6, general at 7, advanced
at 9 and extra at 18 and so ham radio has been
a part of just about all of my life that I remember.
I became interested in repeaters and started
helping operate a repeater network, the years
wide area repeater network. one of the things
I've been involved with most is teaching young
people. I teach high school chemistry at Bloomington
High School South in Bloomington, Indiana. I'm
the amateur radio club sponsor there and we have
a great club thanks to some great students, great
parents, and some donors and sponsors, so if
you've helped us along the way we want to say
thanks for all of that. At the club, we do some
contesting. That's one of the things that we're
going to talk about a little bit tonight with
Scott. And we also do some fox hunting, some
project building and just learning about what
RST is and what universal time is and those kinds
of things to make people aware of ham radio.
Personally, I enjoy FM. I like some of the VHF
and UHF stuff and APRS. I also enjoy HF and DXing
and contesting and some PSK 31. I can do CW,
but it's been a long time since I've really used
it. I did pass my 20 words a minute code for
my extra and I still remember it and still teach
it a little bit. just haven't haven't made use
of it in a while so if you have any questions
about any of those things I'll do my best to
answer those but perhaps the best thing I can
do is point you to the right person to ask being
in ham radio for this long and and some of the
the fame that I had in early age anyway I've
been pretty blessed to know many knowledgeable
and helpful hams over the years Tonight's guest
is no exception. Dr. Scott Wright, K0MD from
Rochester, Minnesota is our guest this evening.
Scott works for the Mayo Clinic. He teaches cardiology
with them and that often takes him abroad where
his ham radio can go with him. Scott is an excellent
contester. He's been on some de -expeditions
and Scott and I met when we were kids. We went
to the FCC test session in Louisville, Kentucky.
Back in those days you had to take all your exams
from an FCC examiner and so they would travel
a few times a year. They would go to different
federal buildings around the country and Louisville,
Kentucky was the closest one for me and so we
went down there quite a few times to take Tess
and Scott was down there too, and I'll let him
tell that story I was only seven at the time
so he remembers it a lot better than I do but
I wanted Scott to be the first guest on the show
because Scott's done a lot in just recent years,
especially to motivate and support the school
club efforts but also because we do have a long
history and Thought that might make it a little
easier for you to get to know where I'm coming
from with the show. So with that, Scott, welcome
to HamTalk Live. Thank you very much, Neil. It's
a pleasure to join you, and it's an honor to
be your first guest. And congratulations on launching
a new program. This is a tremendous thing, and
I'm glad to see that you've done it. And we've
both come a long way since we met at the FCC
office in Louisville, Kentucky. many years ago
taking our general class examinations. I remember
it though like it was just a few days ago and
meeting you there as well. And it was great to
reconnect at Dayton now about eight or nine years
ago and to see each other again. You know, I
remember this was the third time I had taken
the general exam. Neil, I don't know about you,
but it took me three tries and I passed it on
the third try. And I remember meeting you because
you were very friendly little guy you came up
and introduced yourself and handed me a QSL card
that introduced yourself as the world's youngest
ham and I was quite impressed that all you had
done because you got licensed at age 5 as I recall
and I got licensed right around age 12 or 13
so if you were you were 7 then I must have been
14 or 15 taking the exam that day and Always
intimidating to go to the FCC office wasn't it
that What I remember was that this really tall
guy with blonde hair that always wore this white
business shirt and never cracked a smile. Never.
And I'd taken tests in Indianapolis a couple
of times but mostly at Louisville and I too took
three tries on my general class. So we had the
exact same number. but he just didn't crack a
smile and He was pretty intimidating to be honest
and After a while which I was going with my mom
and dad they were getting upgrades and licenses
at the same time My mom got her license a year
later and and dad and I were working on upgrades
We actually ran into the guy in the basement
the federal building we would go and eat breakfast
down in the basement of this federal building
and he came down to grab something to eat real
quick and he came over and said aren't you guys
the rap family and like yeah said yeah I remember
you know giving you tests and everything so so
this really intimidating guy that we were scared
to death of uh you know was really friendly and
and we got to know him his name was jerry uh
and and we got to know him and after a while
he kind of started playing around whenever i
would pass he would hide the paperwork because
he knew i was sitting there watching waiting
for you know to see if i passed or not and so
he'd play a tick you know a trick on me and saying
well you know gee i'm really sorry but uh you
passed Yeah. And so, uh, I actually was able
to call on him for some help with some, some
QRM we had, uh, going on. And I was actually
able to call him and, and anything I needed,
man, I tell you what, I gave Jerry a call and
he was on it. He, he knew exactly what to do
and knew who he was dealing with. So we got to
see a side of Jerry that a lot of people didn't
get to see but I suspect it was the same guy
there that you had. I think that's right and
I had come up about three and a half hours from
southern Kentucky where I live to take this exam
because I've been to Knoxville, Tennessee twice
and my parents did not bring me that day. They
had taken me the previous two times but A retired
pharmacist in my hometown had decided to get
his license. His son, who was a pharmacist as
well, was licensed, had gotten me interested
in the hobby. And so Mr. Burgess was his name,
and his daughter -in -law, the wife of his son,
the pharmacist who was a ham, had driven the
both of us up to Louisville. And I distinctly
remember getting home that evening. And my mother
came to pick me up and she asked Mr. Burgess,
how did it go? And he said, well, it must not
have been too hard because Scott and another
little boy passed and I failed. And he just didn't
realize how much I guess we had studied for it,
Neil, and taken it a few times. And I don't know
if he ever upgraded his license after that. Oh,
really? I didn't know that. His son is still
on the air, W -A -4 -O -J -T, Jim Burgess, now
somewhere in Florida, southwest Florida. And
Jim and I stay in touch on email. And his father
has subsequently passed away. But that was a
memorable time. For those who don't remember
those days or never had them, we had to first
take the Morse code, and it was 13 words a minute,
and you had to pass that. And if you passed it
good, you could go on to take the written. And
if you didn't pass it, you were done. And even
if you failed the written, you did not get credit
for passing the code. You had to take it each
time. So you probably remember, like I, working
to keep your code speed up and to make sure that
it was faster than the 13 words per minute. so
that you would have no trouble passing it because
as I recall in those days they didn't always
have headphones for us to use I remember one
testing session where they just played a cassette
recorder and if the speaker was loud enough you
heard it and if it wasn't you didn't yeah yeah
and some of those headphones that they did have
were were not high quality no no and of course
this is a totally different era than we are today
And those were the days. Those were tough days
to get to. But like you, and think about it,
for two young guys who had never had algebra
or physics, the general class exam was pretty
tough. And I marveled now that we were able to
pass it at that age without ever having had any
high school physics or algebra. I remember in
high school, when I took algebra that I finally
understood Ohm's law because if E equals IR then
E divided by I equals R I had never understood
why that was the case taking the exam until I
had algebra then it made total sense yeah I was
the same way and it made it made chemistry and
which I ended up going into and physics a lot
Lot easier because I knew what mega and kilo
were and you know, I'd already learned, you know
how to do equals IR just with a calculator and
So it really helped me Be more confident of what
I was doing in school The same for me the same
for me. And of course it opened the world for
me I tell people today, young physicians that
I have who are training with me, you know when
I grew up we didn't have the internet. I grew
up in Appalachia and you grew up in a very rural
part of Southwest Indiana as I recall and we
didn't have a lot of outside activities and Ham
Radio opened the world up for me and probably
did for you and I'm grateful for that. I met
some really neat people. I remember one contact
when I was a teenager. I was on the 15 meters
or 20 meters one afternoon, likely 15, talking
to a guy named Tom, who had a very funny call
sign, a Victor Papa 8, I believe. VP8TC, as I
recall. Or maybe VP6TC, I forget his call now.
It was Tom Christensen from Pitcairn Island.
And my dad passed through my bedroom and heard
me talk to him. And Tom had mentioned he was
on the Pitcairn Island. And so my dad pulled
up a chair and sat down and listened to the rest
of the contact. And then he started asking me
to ask Tom questions. And I did, and didn't really
follow the line of thought or questioning that
my dad was pursuing. And when I got off the radio,
my dad said, you don't recognize who you just
spoke to. He's a celebrity. I said, really? And
he explained to me about Mutiny on the Bounty
and Fletcher Christian, Tom's father, and all
that had happened. then all that Tom had done
and was doing in the Pitcairn Island and I'm
sure you like I found in the 70s and early 80s
that ham radio opened the world and It made the
world a much different place and of course today
I've traveled to nearly all the continents of
the world and I still find that ham radio is
one of the unifying forces that allows us to
cross cultures and backgrounds and all kinds
of demographic criteria to just have a connection
and a bond with people that we meet who otherwise
would be total strangers. It's been great for
my career and it's been great for opening doors
when I travel the world. You know, Neil, one
of the most enjoyable times I had with the hobby
was in 2007, I was invited to speak in Beijing
by the People's Republic of China as part of
a delegation from the Mayo Clinic to talk about
healthcare, the future healthcare reform, things
like that. And I had asked if I could get a radio
license, and they helped arrange for me to get
a radio license in China. And I was able to operate
with B1Z, the Beijing Amateur Radio Club, and
do the CQWPX sideband contest, not sideband,
CW contest, in May of 2007. And it was really
neat to meet the hams who had just been to Scarborough
Reef. two or three of the Chinese hams who had
been and to see them and to see their club and
to see what a station they had and I subsequently
wrote a nice article for DX magazine about that
and last year Dayton fan bin Bravo Alpha one
radio Bravo came to Dayton and I was able to
host him and two others from from China the PRC
at Dayton at the DX dinner and to return the
hospitality and it sure makes the world a much
smaller place when you're have a hobby that connects
you with people you would never have the opportunity
to meet and enjoy developing a friendship with.
Absolutely, that's some great things and I've
met a lot of great people along the way and that's
a great thing that Ham Radio has done. I want
to mention to the listeners here, we originally
had planned for a 30 minute show and just today
we switched that to 45 minutes. It looks like
that was a wise decision. So we will be here
for about another 25 minutes or so, but we need
to take a break. It's time to pay a few bills
here on the show, but we'll be back and we'll
talk some more. And then in the final segment,
we'll take your calls with Dr. Scott Wright,
K0MD, right after this word from one of our sponsors,
Tower Electronics, right here on HamTalk Live.
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to sponsor this episode of HamTalk Live. Oh,
yeah, you're talking ham radio, baby You're listening
to ham talk live with Neil rap And welcome back
to ham talk live we'd like to thank Scott and
Jill over at tower electronics for sponsoring
the show tonight and That way we can bring you
HamTalk Live each Thursday night. Be sure to
listen to every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
time right here on HamTalkLive .com. Also check
out our Facebook page and our Twitter feed to
search for HamTalk Live. Dr. Scott Wright KZeroMD
has been kind enough to join us on our first
show this evening and we were talking about some
of the DXing in China. And why don't you tell
us about some of your work in Chile and the recent
trip down to Turks and Caicos. Oh, thanks, Neil.
I'd be delighted to. In 1999, I made my first
trip to Chile, having met a cardiologist from
Chile the year before in Ecuador when I was speaking
at a conference. I'd never been to Chile. had
never really been into that part of Latin America
so to speak but it was a September day and I
went down for a week and we became quite good
friends and decided to continue to try to bring
speakers from North America including myself
down and over the last 15, 16, 17 years now I've
made about 30 trips between Minnesota and Chile
and have developed a lot of really good friendships.
In 2007 or so, I decided to really try to combine
Ham Radio with some of my business travel because
I would end up being in Chile and having some
afternoons and evenings with several hours of
free time. So I bought a vertical dipole from
Force 12. The N6 Bravo Tango has designed a number
of really compact antennas that cover 40 through
10 meters that radiate very efficiently. And
I had an ICOM 7000 radio that was fairly lightweight,
so I could pack the radio and power supply and
antenna tuner in my briefcase, put the antenna
and some coaxial cable in a golf bag, a golf
club bag, and would check it on the airline and
have operated from two hotels there. And several
years later, one of my children at that time
was doing a science fair project and he needed
an idea about a science fair project. And I said,
well, why don't you do this? Why don't you consider
doing some computer modeling to see what countries
I should be able to work during the CQ Worldwide
CW contest because I was going down for a November
meeting. And then let's get on the air and work
the contest and just see. how many countries
I can work, you know, observe to expect it, so
to speak, and whether the propagation models
are effective or not. And she said, no, that's
really not that interesting to me, Dad. I don't
want to do it, but thanks anyway. And then about
three weeks later, she said, you know, I mentioned
your idea to some guys at school, and they think
it's a pretty cool idea, and they really want
to come with you to do this as a project. So
do you mind if I come? And I'll do this as a
project. I can't think of anything else and I
said no, I don't mind We'll do it. So she and
I left one Thanksgiving day much to my wife chagrin
and we flew to Chile for this conference which
would begin on a Saturday and The hotel actually
set my antenna up on the roof. It's kind of funny
because in Chile there are no roof there are
no stairwells up to the roof of hotels you have
to actually climb from the top floor up and so
the hotel has since 2008 or 2009 has been providing
service individuals to just put my antenna up
for me and we did the contest and She did very
well the science fair with her poster. She did
a nice poster and won the regional science fair
in southern Minnesota with that idea and on the
last Day that I was there operating I met a ham
on the air from Uruguay and I said, you know,
I'm coming to Uruguay day after tomorrow I'm
gonna speak there to meeting and he said are
you So I actually went to his home on the way
from the airport to the hotel in Uruguay and
chatted and operated with him a little bit and
got to know him and we became good friends and
he's an American ex -pat, retired airline pilot
who now was living in Montevideo, Uruguay. But
since then I've had the urine to contest and
so I've done several CQ Worldwide Contests from
Chile in 2000 and... 15 I was able to operate
from North America on Friday night from the contest
I flew to Chile on Saturday night and then Sunday
afternoon I spent the last four hours of the
contest operating At CE2 AWW is QTH in Maniaca,
Chile So I had two entries Neil for CQ Worldwide
CW. Neither score was worth mentioning. They
both were pretty low But one was a single Band
entry from Chile and the other I think was a
single band entry from North America but it was
kind of fun to actually be able to do both contests
and I enjoy it because operating from Chile because
from my hotel room it's a nice way to spend part
of the evening and you can work Europe across
North America into Asia as the sun sets and I
can follow the Terminator line from Central Russia
and Eastern Europe and then follow it essentially
North and West as it crosses into Northern Europe
and then Northwestern Europe, and then it crosses
into North America, the US stations become quite
powerful. This is all without a beam. It's all
with a vertical dipole, which is a very efficient
antenna, weighs about five or eight pounds that
I take in a golf club case, and a little radio
running 100 watts of power. I've probably worked,
I want to say 70 countries now, confirmed in
logbook from Chile, just doing it in evenings
and occasionally on weekends. And in fact, I've
now left my antenna that I took down. I've left
that in Chile. And I just bring a radio with
me when I want to operate. And it's just a lot
of fun. And you can really do this if you have
any work travel, whether it's in the US or Central
America, the Caribbean, Hawaii, or Chile, or
South America, Europe. Do it. It's so easy to
get a license. And I've also started contesting
now in the Caribbean with WZero, GJ, Glenn Johnson,
and others. from Minnesota. You know we have
pretty tough winters in the northern Midwest
so we need a little break from the minus 20 degree
weather and the 20 plus inches of snow a month
it seems. So I've enjoyed going to Jody's place
in Turks and Caicos and I was supposed to be
there this weekend but this year I couldn't make
the contest there so I'll be on from here. But
some of my teammates are down right now operating
and will be Victor Papa 5 Kilo in the contest.
I've had a contest call of Victor Papa 5 Sierra
BP5S, S picked for Scott. And I've also operated
with Glenn at Victor Papa 5 Hotel, BP5H. And
with Glenn and Mark Indorf, a few years ago,
we placed number one in the world as a multi
-single station high power from the Caribbean.
And it's really a hoot to place in the top one
or two worldwide in a contest. You can't imagine
the pileups and the runs from the Caribbean.
We frequently have QSO rates of 200 to 400 QSOs
an hour on sideband and 100 to 200 an hour on
CW. for the entire 48 hours of the contest, Neil.
You can get a lot of ham radio activity in 48
hours. I'd say. It's a lot of fun, you know?
It's just a lot of fun. And I have a little shout
out to ICOM North America. Ray Novak in the past
has been very nice about letting us use some
loader equipment at times. We had the 7600 when
it was relatively new and tested it in the contest.
Glenn and I subsequently bought 7600s after using
them in the contest. And so we appreciate all
the support that we've gotten from some of the
manufacturers to help us with contesting activity
and to really take it to the next level. Yeah,
that always helps when you have good equipment
and some support on those kinds of things. And
so we want to... Get a shout out there to Ray.
I know he does a lot with youth and the Boy Scouts
and a lot there for ICOM So thanks for for all
you do and as well as some of the other manufacturers
that help out with those things Let's talk a
little bit about Contest University at Dayton
and and we got together you you gave us a an
inspiration to get involved there and so tell
us a little bit about What happened there with
with the contest University last year? Well,
I have been going to contest University for several
years. I find it to be really one of the best
things happening at the Dayton hand -vention
Tim Duffy and his team of Premier contest operators
put on a fabulous one -day workshop on how to
be a better HF operator and contestor. And I
learned more about propagation, antenna design,
operating tactics, station management, ergonomics
from the day I spend there than almost anything
else I do. And you have been the mentor and advisor,
probably the premier school radio club in North
America. You haven't mentioned that on the show,
but I will. Your club is one school club round
up more than any other club that I've ever heard
of. Your students have written QST articles about
DXing. They've led DXing activities. And so last
year I wrote and said, Neil, why don't you bring
a few students to Contest University? And let's
see if we can't find some scholarships so that
it doesn't cost them anything to come. Because
like you, if we don't see more younger people
in the hobby, This hobby is going to die off.
You and I are relatively young among active DXers
and contesters, Neil. The average age is unfortunately
for the DX community in the mid to late 60s.
And so we need to revitalize the hobby a bit.
And what better place to start than with contesting,
which fits the interest, the gaming interest,
and the social interest of today's young people,
teenagers and college students. And you brought
along several high school students. to Contest
University and they were the talk of the Contest
U, the hit of the Contest U, and they really
sparked a lot of enthusiasm. I was really amazed
to see the adults like us who were just excited
to see some young people there. And of course
we need to thank Tim Duffy and the Northern California
DX Foundation for providing the scholarships
to allow you and the team to come. I said, you
know, why don't you guys go home and see if you
can't get DXCC with either the CQ Worldwide Rudy
or Sideband Contest? Because I think you can
do it after Contest University. And I'll be darned.
I remember I was operating at VP5S in the Caribbean
for CQ Worldwide Sideband. And K9SOU works me
on several bands. And the next thing I know,
your club has achieved DXCC in one weekend. I
know before the show you were telling me that
you worked Shanghai China So you've got a lot
you you covered a lot of distance from Bloomington,
Indiana off a hundred watts and a little radio
and a two -element Yagi you guys did a phenomenal
job and Your students who did that Ryan and his
team teammates are to be commended for all that
they did to achieve DX CC in a weekend For some
of us it takes decades to get DXCC in your club
did it and what about 24 hours? Yeah, yeah, not
quite. I think it was ended up being 17 hours
That we we got that so We got our logs back yesterday
and and had three mistakes So it's very Very
proud of those kids for especially Ryan Ryan
did almost all of it by himself really proud
of them for doing that. And that was right after
School Club Roundup. We had a one -minute break
between School Club Roundup all week and CQ Worldwide.
So that was a long week, but very productive.
That is amazing. So that should be an inspiration
to almost anybody listening to the show, either
now or on replay. Contesting is a great way to
get your DXCC totals up and to really finish
off the countries you need for the basic AWRL
awards. Absolutely, and we're trying to finish
up all of our confirmations. We hit 85 today,
so we're just about there on the confirmations.
Well, Scott had talked to his His agent earlier
about extending the time here and his agent cleared
him for 45 minutes It looks like we're gonna
use all of it. So We're going to take one last
break and then we'll come back and then we are
going to try the the the part that I'm scared
about We're gonna take live calls. We're gonna
see how this works We haven't overloaded the
system yet, so I'm a little nervous about what's
going to happen if it overloads, but here's how
you can join us, how you can talk, and you can
be doing this while we hear from one of our sponsors.
You can Skype us. That's the best way to connect
with us is Skype. It sounds a whole lot better,
and that's how Scott's joining us this evening.
The name is HamTalkLive, just HamTalkLive, all
one word on Skype. We also have a phone number,
and that is 812, the area code 812, NetHam1.
Again, it's 812, NetHam1. If you don't have all
the letters in front of you, that's 812 -638.
4261 and that will call into Skype as well and
get you on the show. So if you have a question
for me or for Scott, get ready to give us a call
on one of those two things and HamTalk Live will
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And welcome back to Ham Talk Live. I'd like to
thank the Ham Station for sponsoring the show
tonight so we can bring you Ham Talk Live. Be
sure to... listen every Thursday night at 9 p
.m. Eastern Time right here on HamTalkLive .com
and if you missed the show we do have a podcast
that will be available shortly after that's on
the website HamTalkLive .com it's also on Spreaker
which is our hosting service and then we'll also
have it uploaded to iTunes, SoundCloud, YouTube
and it's available on TuneIn. So all kinds of
ways to get a hold of the show. So if you have
a chance and you can't catch us live, you can
catch us on one of those. I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
joined this evening by Dr. Scott Wright, KZeroMD.
So right now we're going to give this live call
thing a try. We're going to give you the listener
a chance to participate in the show if you have
a question for Scott or myself You can join us
on Skype by connecting to ham talk live or you
can join us by telephone again a number is eight
one two net ham one eight one two net ham one
Or Skype at ham talk live. Keep in mind. This
is live radio. So If something happens and I
can't stop it, we're just going to have to live
with it. So we'll do the best we can to keep
things family friendly and appropriate, but we
can't guarantee what people will do because it's
live. So this is kind of the scary part and hopefully
we won't get any intentional QRM here. But anyway,
give us a call right now. If the line is busy,
try again. whenever our current caller is finished
and we'll see if we can get you on here. So we'll
see if we have any any callers here. Let me open
this up and see if we have anybody. Being the
first show, don't know how many people are aware
of it and ready to call in. So we'll see how
that goes. I'm not seeing anything just yet.
Keep an eye on Skype here again. It's eight one
two net ham one or ham talk live on Skype So
I've been impressed at the social media promotion
of the show Neil I've probably gotten a dozen
emails about that people promoting the show on
Twitter. So congratulations on on all of that
yeah, the the social media promotions gone really
well and Hopefully, as people kind of catch on,
we'll have some more. And we do have a call right
now, so we'll go ahead and give this a try. Hello,
you're live on the air with HamTalk Live. Hi
Neil, it's Matt, W1MST. I had a great time listening
to your show tonight and having a real good time
hearing Scott's story. Oh, thank you very much.
You have a question for us? I sure do. Tell me
a little bit about how you've been able to pique
the interest of the high school kids that you're
serving at Bloomington. Well, it's a little easier
for me because I see those kids every day and
so I can work that into the chemistry curriculum
and so I demonstrate with a handheld watt. They
can listen to and so they can listen to drive
-up windows. They can listen to You know all
kinds of things and and that seems to to really
spark their interest and One of the things that
I've always said and and Scott can has done some
of this too. He can chime in here Is that you
really want to get them involved in radio? not
necessarily study for the license test at the
beginning. You want to get them into radio and
get them interested in it first and then they
want to do it by themselves. Scott, you're the
trustee there at an academy there in Minnesota.
Is that your take on things? I agree, Neil. I
think that's a great way to do it. The last thing
I think high school students or middle school
students want to do is pass an exam, right? Study
for an exam. But if you give them a way to have
some fun with the hobby, they really do. And
I've got the situation now among some seventh
graders. My youngest child is a seventh grader.
We're one of the classmates wants to learn Morris
code. And I think now I have three young men
interested in perhaps learning Morris code, not
necessarily getting a radio license, but they're
intrigued by Morris code. So I'm going to spend
the summer session with them doing it's a way
to pass secret messages. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
That may be a good thing or a bad thing. I don't
know. But yeah, it's a way to do that. So Matt
does that answer your question? It sure does.
Thanks guys so much and really enjoying the show
look forward to To many more to come. All right.
Thank you, man Thanks for thanks for calling
in I've got about two minutes here. So we got
to wrap things up, but we'll see if we've got
one more If we have another another call We'll
see if we get anyone else And if not, we will
finish things up because we are just about out
of time here They give us 45 minutes on the Spreaker
here and 45 minutes sure went by quickly rather
than glad you upgraded from 30 minutes Yeah,
yeah 30 minutes would have would have been way
too short. So Well, I don't see any other calls
coming in. So maybe we better go ahead and and
finish this up. Scott, I want to thank you for
coming on and being the first one and giving
a test. The call went well, so that was good.
We didn't have any technical issues. I'm just
honored to be among a group of hams that you're
interviewing who really have accomplished a lot.
I'm not sure why you asked me to be on the show,
but I'm delighted to be on it with you. And again,
my congratulations to you, the Bloomington South
Amateur Radio School Club, for all it has done.
And I really hope to see you and a number of
your school members at Contest University and
the Dayton Hamvention in May. Yep, we are looking
forward to it and appreciate you being on here
to to kind of put some perspective on things
with the show and and get us started on the right
foot So thank you so much for doing that That'll
wrap up this week's edition of ham talk live
be sure to join us Every Thursday night at 9
p .m Eastern time next week. My guest will be
Don Wilbanks a e5dw from amateur radio news line
and ham nation and Don and I on the same show
at the same time should be interesting if you
know Don Yeah, it's, it's going to be interesting.
So be sure to tune in. So for now with Scott
Wright, KZeroMD, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG saying
seven three, seven five, and may the good DX
be yours.