Good evening everybody, this is the demo episode
of HamTalk Live. entitled Getting to Know Your
Host, and that's recorded on Monday, February
1st, 2016. I am the aforementioned host Neil
Rapp. My call sign is WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning
in to the demo episode of HamTalk Live. HamTalk
Live is a live call -in talk radio show on the
internet every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time. starting on February 18th. For 30 minutes
we hope to entertain and educate people with
ham radio. What makes this show a little different
from other shows is that we broadcast live, which
can be a scary thing sometimes. You can't go
back and fix the mistakes, but we're going to
give it a try. The other thing that's a little
different from a lot of podcasts is we're going
to take calls from you the listener. To get the
show started, the first few weeks we're going
to take a special guest each week to interview,
and then at the end of the show you'll be able
to Skype in or call in and ask questions. Now
again, this is live radio, so we don't know what's
going to happen. I'm a little nervous about taking
a chance with some QRM, but at least we don't
have to worry about the FCC revoking our license
or anything on the internet, right? So I hope
the callers will be courteous and supportive
of the show and if we run into trouble we'll
try to find a way to fix that. But as the show
grows we hope to have some nights where we just
take some calls and talk about whatever's happening
in Ham Radio. We've got some fabulous guests
lined up for the next few weeks and as we get
closer to Dayton, Hamvention... We're going to
do a little preview of some of the activities
there. Our first guest is going to be Dr. Scott
Wright, K0MD. Scott is a cardiologist with the
Mayo Clinic and, like me, has been a ham since
childhood. He's a well -known contester, DXer,
and he's been on several DXpeditions, so I'm
excited to have him on as my very first guest.
After that, Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, has agreed to
come on the show. Don's a professional broadcaster
and the fearless leader at Amateur Radio Newsline
and co -host of the popular video podcast Ham
Nation on Twitch TV. Don will be joining us before
too long. We have a list of other people that
we're working on. but I wanted to do a little
demo here first so that people can kind of get
an idea of the show and let you get to know me
in case you don't already. I became a ham when
I was five years old and at the time was the
youngest one in the world. That record doesn't
hold up anymore but at the time it was the record
and it all started when my dad got a code oscillator
out of the closet and decided that he would give
ham radio a try. His high school electronics
teacher in Mount Vernon, Illinois, Max Pemberton,
K4HAX, introduced him to ham radio in high school
and he never did get his license, but it planted
a seed and he went to work for Thordes and Meisner
in Mount Carmel, Illinois and then as a TV repairman
in Vincennes, Indiana and then went to work at
Good Samaritan Hospital as a biomedical electronic
technician and when he saw a flyer for a non
-credit course at the local junior college of
Vincennes University he decided that he was going
to give it a shot and he was going to get his
license so Max had planted a seed in him that
ended up growing and he decided well you know
I'll take my son along. He's only five years
old and there was a restriction on the class.
He had to be at least 13 and there was a girl
that was there that was right around 13 or so
and a little bit on the younger side and she
was just coming along and so dad asked, well,
you know, can I bring my son along? He'll sit
here and be quiet. he won't cause any disruption
and they said well yeah as long as he doesn't
cause any any disruptions you know doesn't interfere
with the class it'll it'll be fine but if he
causes any kind of you know disruption to the
class then then no you're not going to be able
to do that so um so anyway he took me and i was
i was a pretty good kid and i you know dad sat
there with his notebook copying morse code and
So I took my notebook along and I started copying
Morris code and uh, people kind of looked around
and was like, wait a sec. This five year old
is copying Morris code. Uh, maybe this kid could
actually do it. And so I went with him every
week and, um, Finally they they came time to
give the five words per minute code test and
I went ahead and took it and You had to get 25
characters solid copy 25 characters in a row
without any Mistakes and I got 23 So I didn't
pass the first time around so that was a little
Little disappointed but came back the next time
and copied a hundred and four in a row. So They
said oh well, I guess a five -year -old can do
this so they mailed off for for my test and Took
the test It was delayed a little bit because
I didn't know how to write in cursive. I didn't
know how to sign my name and I printed my name
and the 610, the Form 610 which now it's a 605
but the Form 610 from the FCC never did come
back and you know it said well you know it's
not properly filled out so we filled it out again
and dad helped me write in cursive to sign my
name and The test arrived, so I took it in the
basement of a guy down the street who was teaching
the theory part, Howard Hazelman, K9SLV, and
sent it off. Bill Sage, K9IHU, was my code instructor.
He was a lifelong Elmer and mentor and someone
very, very near to my heart. but they helped
me through and The license came so It came on
a Saturday morning and my dad had been called
to the hospital to work overtime and When the
when the license came I turned on the radio and
got on the air I didn't wait for dad to get home
and mom was just think in total shock because
I had gone ahead and got on the radio and lo
and behold my first contact was Jim Cobb K3DIF
who worked at the Associated Press in Washington
DC and so I you know sent age five you know during
the the exchange and he said oh wait a second
you're you're a ham and you're five years old
and so he investigated that a little bit and
started doing a little digging and and decided
that this was a news story and so word spread
from there and So I ended up on TV and in a lot
of magazines and things like that Upgraded to
technician at age six General at 7, advanced
at 9, and then that 20 words a minute code. I
just didn't want to do it and along came the
volunteer examining program and I wanted to help
out with that and so at 18 I took the 20 words
per minute. I had to take it several times. It
wasn't so much copying the code as much as it
was writing at 20 words a minute. I just didn't
do well with that, but I finally got it and passed
it and got my extra at age 18. So Ham Radio's
been a part of most of my life. In fact, it'll
be 40 years this coming July. I became interested
in repeaters. I've spent a lot of time playing
around with repeaters and new bells and whistles
and trying out things that... interested me.
That was a lot of fun and helped start operating
the years wide area repeater network and one
of the things I've been involved with most especially
in recent years is teaching young people. Max
planted that seed and Dad, Dad planted that seed
in me and now I'm planting that seed at Bloomington
High School South here in Bloomington, Indiana
where I teach chemistry. but I also sponsor the
ham radio club and you'll be hearing some more
about that and I've been on ham nation recently
about that so great club they're great students
great parents many donors and sponsors have helped
and it's just great that we can do that we do
some contesting we do fox hunting little project
building Personally, I enjoy FM. I still like
FM and APRS and of course some HF, some DXing
and PSK -31. I haven't branched out too much
into a lot of digital modes. I used to do a lot
of Ritty and ASCII and even some Amtor back when
I was a kid, but PSK -31 seems to be about the
only one that I That I do on a regular basis
I can do some CW, but I haven't done it in a
long time. It's usually in the classroom to show
the kids I haven't made a live CW contact in
a long time But if you have any questions about
any of those things along the way, I'll do my
best to answer those But maybe the best thing
I can do is point you to the right person to
ask. I've been very blessed to meet many knowledgeable
and helpful hams over the years and we're going
to invite those people on and we can point you
in the right direction. So that's my story and
hopefully as the show gets going we'll learn
some of your stories. But right now it's time
to take a quick break but I'll be back to take
a call and then We'll wrap things up for the
demo episode of HamTalk Live. This is Neil Rapp
coming to you live on the internet at HamTalkLive
.com. 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 and hamsticks. Their silver plated end
connectors are even in use on the International
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technologies. Tower Electronics online at PL
-259 .com. Proud to sponsor this episode of HamTalk
Live. Oh yeah, you're talking ham radio, baby.
You're listening to Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp.
And welcome back to the demo episode of Ham Talk
Live. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, and we'd
like to thank Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics
for sponsoring the show. So we can bring you
HamTalk Live every week. Be sure to listen every
Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time starting
on February 18th right here on HamTalkLive .com.
Also be sure to check out our Facebook page and
our Twitter feed. Just search for HamTalk Live
and if you missed the show you can download the
podcast from the website or from Spreaker which
is where we host the show and we'll have it on
iTunes. soon and possibly SoundCloud and iHeart
podcasts will have to get going a little bit
before we get into those but you can definitely
find us online. So the idea of the show is to
take your calls so we're going to take one right
now and once the show is going the best way to
join us is on Skype at HamTalk Live so if you
just get on Skype and add HamTalk Live. You can
give us a call that way. And if you can't Skype
us, you can call us. We have a phone number that's
tied in Skype. It's 812 -NET -HAM -1. Again,
that's 812 -NET -HAM -1. So you'll be able to
give us a call. So right now we're going to take
a call. And joining us this evening... Eric Bonham
in 9KDB. He's one of the net controls with Central
Indiana Skywarn and he's my best friend and helps
out with the Ears Repeater organization. So Eric,
welcome to the show. Well, thanks for having
me. So one of the things that I wanted to talk
about a little bit on this demo episode, so we
have something to talk about. is the repeater
network. We've done some work with the ears system
and trying to get linked into Indianapolis and
that was a little far to be linking from Vincennes
to Indianapolis and so we were able to work out
a system through Terre Haute. So why don't you
explain how the Central Indiana Skywarn link
system works and what that's used for and what
needs to be on that system and what shouldn't
be on that system. Okay, well the linking originates
from up here in Indianapolis. The W9IC group,
they allow us to use their system. They have
a network of different repeaters that they link
in. They've got an complex repeater of Freetown.
Yeah, I believe they're linking into us Lafayette
there's a repeater up there UHF another UHF machine
I believe in northern Boone County There's also
a two meter machine up there That's new this
year or this past year. I should say There's
some talk about Muncie, I believe down the road
or somewhere around area and we link into Terre
Haute. Over there the 44435 machine which in
turns passed the traffic from VINCEMS on the
Pierce repeater down there through Terre Haute
then up to us. Okay, so during those nets what
is the purpose of linking all these systems together?
Well, to pass traffic as quickly as we can from
especially farther out through the system to
the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.
We have a radio at the warning coordinators desk
there and they monitor it. Whenever there's a
net up, a few of those guys are hands out there
or one of us will go out there. And we just pass
traffic on and If we do have ham out there, we
write down reports on these little forms that
the Weather Service has and that gets passed
along to their person taking those and then they
log them and get them in the system for various
reasons. Confirm warnings or pass along damage
reports to local media and law enforcement, stuff
like that. Okay, so you're collecting all this
information from all the severe weather that's
happening in the area. Does anybody call in on
this network or is that restricted to certain
people? Well, what we like for it to be is it's
called it's in the incident command structure
of reporting. So there's a net control And what
ideally happens is each county or area of counties
will have a separate weather net locally that
they're doing. And what they would do is have
liaisons from their particular local net calling
reports to us rather than just have 100 hams
on trying to call in stuff at the same time.
We'll just do it in an orderly fashion by just
one liaison from one net. So all the nets are
basically checking into a bigger net Exactly
to get everything accomplished. Okay. Yes. Yeah
That seems like a a good system and Thank you
for all that you do and mark and John and all
the guys up there to to make all that work It
can be fun. We get a lot going on sometimes.
It can be in the middle of the night, too. We
do our best to try to be there for everybody.
Yeah, I know you've had a lot of late nights
with that, so thanks for helping keep us safe.
My pleasure. Okay, that's Eric Bonham, N9KDB
of Indianapolis, Indiana, talking a little bit
about Central Indiana Skywar, and since this
is a demo version, we're gonna go ahead and cut
this off tonight. But I want to thank Eric for
being my guest, and that wraps up episode number
zero of HamTalk Live. Thanks to all you listeners
out there in cyberspace. and we invite you all
back for the first real episode. It's going to
be Thursday night, February 18th at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying 73, 75, and may the good DX be yours.