My guest this week is Dale Green, VE7SV /CE2AWW, who divides his time between British Columbia, Canada and the coast of Chile, where he and his wife chase endless summer. It’s a great strategy to stay warm when the snow falls in Canada. As you will hear in this episode, Dale was always a World traveler during his adult life, due to his job with an airline that ultimately became Air Canada. As an airline employee, Dale could fly just about any place and in the early days take a rather large and heavy rig with him. His love of travel and ham radio opened the doors to meeting many hams across the World. 
 
Until this QSO, I had never thought too much about the opportunities that airlines might have for radio technical people. So I “googled” these jobs and found that there are lots of jobs with airlines, cruise lines, international cargo ships for technical people. As amateur radio operators, we have an amazing knowledge base that makes us unique in our understanding of electronics and radio.

I am consulting for a large international company that found me because they thought that an English speaking amateur radio operator in Israel might be able to solve some unique problems they were having with their project here. Fortunately, for me, they found me on QRZ.com and I did have the skills and general technical knowledge that they needed. As amateur radio operators, we do have a large potential depth of knowledge, an international network, and access to the smartest people in the World. That makes us hams a valuable resource wherever we are. 

​The title on this episode email is "How to Bring Your Ham Club Back to Life".  This is what Jim Stafford, W4QO, did, along with a dedicated team, with the North Fulton Amateur Radio League beginning in 2005.  The club was dying a slow death with only a handful of members. Over the next few years, the club changed by aggressively going after new members and supporting them. One of the things that struck me, from the club's website, was the use of Elmers to provide one- on- one assistance to hams who needed help. The NFARL has" antenna build-a-thons" and "mid-month madness activities" on a regular basis to keep their membership engaged with each other.  Jim describes in this episode how important it is to connect and keep connecting with other hams to keep membership growing and vibrant in our amateur radio clubs. 
 
As a new ham, over forty years ago, my ham radio clubs, first the El Cajon Amateur Radio Club, then later the Newport Amateur Radio Society, were key to building my ham radio foundation. I could not have had better mentors as a teenager. My QSO Today with Jim, W4QO, caused me to reminisce about my great ham radio club experiences. Be sure to check out the NFARL website as a possible template to revive or create a local club near you! 

​I discovered in my website manager that more than a few of your comments to episodes didn't get published because of my aggressive SPAM filter.  Some of your comments go back to last year.  I am now more aware of how this filter works and if your comment did not get published, it got published tonight. I am using a lot of technology to build the website and host the podcast audio. After almost 120 weekly episodes, I can say that I am still learning to use my tools. 
 
At the suggestion of Scott Wright, K0MD, from Episode 116, I invited Dino Besomi, CE3PG, to be my guest this week. It was great to get the perspective of a ham from South America; Chile to be exact. I called Dino's cell phone to make the recording and I guess that the distance from Israel to Chile is about as far as you can go.  So the audio quality is not the usual standard.  However, Dino was a fine guest and gave me some new understanding of what amateur radio operators in Chile face, every day, in a country were 70% of all earthquakes in the World are centered. Also, pay attention to his advice for new or returning hams.  Great stuff!

​I am back home in Israel after a magnificent trip to South Africa.  During the trip, Karen and I stayed with friends in Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as went on a safari in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.  I have a new appreciation for wild animals. Unless you are a lion, you are some other animal's dinner. Our safari guides were great and gave me a new perspective on how to enjoy sitting for an hour and a half looking at a leopard waking from his afternoon nap. 
 
Karen's graduation was Tuesday night, She was one of the three doctorates awarded from UNISA that evening. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance.  It was a proud moment for both of us as she worked hard for five years to get it. Her professors were grateful that we made the trip to South Africa to attend the graduation.  
 
Towards the end of our trip, Eddie, ZS6BNE, from Episode 28, drove 250 km to visit me at our friend's home in Johannesburg for a great afternoon of amateur radio conversation, lunch, and a demonstration of his tiny RaDAR (rapid deployment amateur radio) rig. We set it up, end-fed long wire across the patio, for a SSB conversation with another South African ham on 40 meters some 600 km from Johannesburg.  I recorded some of our conversation with my new Zoom H5 digital recorder.  I will create a special episode for you with the recording and pictures of Eddie's rig. 
 
Bill Murray, W9VC, is my guest this week.  Bill likes to build vacuum tube transmitters in his spare time and has several operating desks in his ham shack with different kinds of tube rigs. He has great advice for hams who want to pursue building tube equipment, either to build new, or to refurbish. Be sure to check out the link to a YouTube video of Bill doing his CW warm up.
 
So here I am, now, back in the saddle again, just like the Gene Autry song. My list of tasks is in front of me that include the "honey dos", building a new business, and creating more QSO Today podcasts for you. No rest for the wicked!