I was a big podcast fan before I started creating the QSO Today podcast. I love “on demand” Internet audio programs that are now available as podcasts on just about any subject. The time flies by when I am stuck in traffic while listening to my favorite podcasts and I don’t really care how long I have to sit in traffic, I just go with the flow. Combined with the WAZE application, my stress from driving just melts away. What I most appreciate about these programs are the stories that people tell which help us all realize how much we have in common, how we are connected to one another and how important it is to help one another through the trial and tribulations of life.

My guest this week is Frank Donovan, W3LPL, who has a great ham radio story to tell as you will hear in episode 122. As a ham for over 50 years, Frank’s story is based on the support of his Elmers and amateur radio clubs. When a tornado went through his super station antenna field last June, a freak of nature, it was through his relationships with his ham community that he was able to quickly rebuild his broken antenna farm to be on the air before the Fall contests. This is a great story and an example of the kind of podcast stories that I like to listen to every week. What I discover from doing these interviews is that we all have stories to tell that fascinate and interest others. 

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!  

As I write this message, I am in the home office of good friends in Johannesburg, South Africa, after spending a few days of vacation in Cape Town, at the very Southern tip of the African continent.  Cape Town is a beautiful city where the Atlantic and Indian oceans converge.  In the short time that we spent in Cape Town, I went scuba diving in very cold water, we witnessed the opera, Carmen, swam in the Sea Point Pavilion pools next to the Atlantic ocean, and renewed an old friendship after 20 years.  

​Karen and I also discovered Uber taxi service on demand that merges a smart phone application and transportation. As they say here in South Africa, it was "brilliant" and made our getting around Cape Town as simple as pushing a button. With everyone driving on the opposite side of the street, British style, I was happy to be a passenger. 
 
Gerry Jurrens, N2GJ, is my QSO this week.  Like many of the QSO Today guests, Gerry is just comfortable in amateur radio and can speak on a broad range of ham radio subjects with natural authority.  He likes to try everything from the ham radio menu.  Gerry joins and participates in clubs, works in his community EMT group, does QRP and WSPRnet,  and likes to elmer and help out where he can. Gerry is a natural teacher after spending a career as a mentor and instructor at the Oracle corporation.  How many of us can say that our ham radio story started with a girl? 
 
While away from the home QTH, I have very limited access to computers, so I am behind in my emails and administration. I will be back in the groove next week.  Until then, thanks for listening and supporting the QSO Today podcast. 

Back in Episode 75, I had the great pleasure of a QSO with Paul Wade, W1GHZ.  I tried to get him much earlier, but our schedules just did not sync.  Paul operates only above VHF, mostly in the 10Ghz ham band.  His contacts are mostly point to point, arranged in advance with other hams in the same band.  Most of his equipment in the microwave range is homebrew converters and transverters that convert down to VHF to use with his Yaesu FT-817.  Paul has an article, in the January 2016 edition of QST, showing the copper pipe cap filter that he mentions in the QSO.  

What hit me after the QSO, then reviewing it again for the show notes, is that those amateur radio operators who operate in the microwave bands have to work together, locally, to design,  build, and calibrate their gear, and to make successful contacts with each other.  It is the social side of working these bands with like-minded and highly technical ham Elmers and their newbies that is the attraction.  Unlike a regular ham club that brings together hams operating all bands and modes, a 'flat club" according to Bob Allphin, K4UEE,  the microwave societies are highly focused local organizations. 

It may have been the social element that drew me into VHF and UHF repeaters and remote base stations as a kid and even to this day.  I was attracted to  technical side of these systems and hung out  with the builders of repeater control systems, converters of commercial band base stations and mobile radios, and antenna riggers on remote repeater sites.  I loved my TTL and CMOS designed control systems for my first repeater, the re-tasked telephone key system boards for decoding DTMF “touch tones”, the converted GE and Motorola mobile radios, the Motorola base stations, cabinets, and the antenna sites.  The miles of dirt roads, to the repeater sites, behind locked forest service gates was my playground, often in the company of my friend and Elmer to this day, Mike Klein, WA6VLD.  Mike and I worked together, over 30 years ago, for Spence Porter, WA6TPR,  at Communications Specialists, makers of tone encoder/decoder boards.  He was a patient teacher and is still a good friend. 

In the end, you will read and hear from me that amateur radio is best enjoyed in the company of other hams.  Our mastery of this art expands exponentially through engaging with others on the ham radio stage.  I wish for all of you a great 2016 and if you are not engaged with a ham group, that you will find your ham radio circle.  The Internet and social media make this easier for those outside of big pockets of hams in larger cities.  If you are a Facebook user, please join us in the QSO Today Facebook group.  As a large number of our QSO Today guests are on the Facebook group, I look forward to the interesting discussions that could develop out of questions.

​73,  Eric 4Z1UG

So I asked Pat Barkey, N9RV, after the podcast interview to send me a picture of his SO2R station.  This is the station that he uses during a contest where he has two transceivers operating at the same time.  He has a lot of technology that allows him to transmit and receive in different bands simultaneously. 

Bottom radio is a IC-7800, it drives the OM2500A.  The top radio is a IC-781, it drives the Alpha 87A.  The HF-2500 amp is currently a spare.

On the shelf above the 781 you see a homebrew band decoder.  It is driven by the band switch of the respective radios.  Change bands on the radio and the antennas switch to the appropriate band, and the computer follows as well.

To the left of the keyboard you see an old Ekletech remote tuning knob.  This tunes the second radio (781).  I mostly CQ on the bottom radio and tune for S&P on the top.

The software/keyboard control which radio transmits.  The receiver (top, bottom or both [one in each ear]) are accomplished from a switch on the YCCC SO2R controller, which is the low profile black box at desk height just to the left of the 7800.

All of my antennas and stubs are switched in my switch hut, which is located outside my shack.  This is where all of the coaxes from my individual antennas come in.  From my shack to my switch hut I run two heliax pieces (one for each radio) as well as all of the control cable.

The rest of the picture has various rotor controls, watt meters and homebrew switches for selecting antennas, as well as the stack controllers.  These switches all control relays either on the towers or in the switch hut.

That about it.  Hope its useful.

  - Pat

    N9RV

One of the greatest things about doing this podcast is learning new things from guests and being brought back in time by the memories that our conversations provoke.  I hear from many of you who write me, that these stories also bring back early memories. I love being transported back to the early memories that I thought I had forgotten. 

In my QSO Today with this week's guest, Bill Meara, N2CQR, of "Soldersmoke" podcasting fame, we discussed the "Manhattan" method of circuit construction that Bill uses to build his home-brew radio transceivers (see show notes).  The conversation took me back in time to my first electronics technician job, just out of high school, for a marine electronics company in Costa Mesa, California.  I shared the shop with another ham, Harry Wells, W6LYC, later NI6S (SK).   Harry was a huge fellow, rolled his own cigarettes, spoke like a sailor,  and chased everyone out of the radio shop upstairs where we worked. He some how took a liking to me, did not chase me out, and he became one of my best elmers. 

Harry liked  to "dumpster dive" at lunch time and taught me the fine points of where to dive and what to get out of the trash.  He recovered enough teak squares about 3" X 1", from the trash bin of a teak cabinet maker, over a few weeks,  to cover the entire wall of his dining room. The treasures that we found were quite remarkable, and  I admit that I still dumpster dive today, much to my wife's displeasure.  Harry taught me how to fix radios and radars, autopilots and depth sounders. When I built my first amateur remote base control system out of military surplus relays, he quickly agreed to mill and drill, in his home machine shop,  a 19" rack panel for my Western Electric 247B touch tone decoder and about forty of the surplus relays. I remember bringing back the completed project, a few weeks later, all wired with 22 gauge telephone wire and tied every inch with mono-filament fishing line to make a perfect wiring harness. He spent more than a few minutes studying every inch of it. Then he looked over the frames of  the huge black glasses that he wore in the shop and said, "beautiful job, Eric".  It was a beautiful job, on account of Harry, and the investment that he made in me. As I could never repay him for his kindness, I could only pay it forward to others in the future. 

So back to Bill - when he mentioned the Manhattan method for creating circuit pads for home-brewing, I was reminded that Harry taught me how to use the "island pad" method using a miniature drill press and a 1/4" hole saw to cut the round pads in printed circuit material. Like dumpster diving, this is the method that I use for home-brewing some 35 years later.  When the company closed, not long after I started to work with Harry, I lost touch with him. 

I will always be grateful to my elmers, like Harry, who taught me so much about electronics, ham radio, and other "skills" that I carry with me to this day.  And because many of them are gone now, and wanted nothing from me in return, I attempt to pay it forward as an elmer to others. That his why amateur radio is a great hobby, because it is the perfect vehicle for mentoring and being mentored. This podcast, I hope, is a weekly reminder that we have amazing elmers in our hobby who help us to be better from their contributions, and in turn allow us to learn, then teach.  How cool is that? 

In episode 18, of the QSO Today podcast, with Jim Kinter, K5KTF, on the creation of mesh networks to interconnect local hams into a broadband network, it occurred to me that the greatest resource that we have as ham radio operators is the vast amounts of radio spectrum that have been allocated to us by our country's governments. In other parts of the world, where the number of hams is less, then perhaps we have vast reserves of spectrum below one GHz that is also under utilized.

Our frequencies above 1 GHz, Worldwide, are prime targets for business telecoms who want to expand their broadband wireless offerings as more and more wireless devices including smart phones and tablet computers. The United States FCC has made this a very profitable process by selling off blocks of spectrum for billions of dollars to cellular and wireless providers.

Building a mesh network node, using a converted Linksys router or Ubiquiti Networks devices, seems to me to be the best way to utilize the frequencies in the 900 MHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz bands. As Jim demonstrated in his discussion, these nodes have great utility as base station radio that allows the wide band transmission of voice, video, and data, but also can be used mobile and portable to provide links to areas not serviced by broadband services. With the Ubiquiti Networks equipment the cost of entry for most hams is minimal - and the utility is great.

A mesh network in your community also has the benefit of building a community of local hams for a very low cost, and it has the Internet digital flair to attract the next generation of hams to our community as it combines computers, networking, and radio into a nice low cost package. In Austin, they added a telephone like system so that each ham can call another on the network using a unique call sign telephone number entered into a voice over IP telephone using an Asterisk open source phone system built on a computer like the Beaglebone Black or the Raspberry Pi.

I am not suggesting that we replace the other operating modes in amateur radio that we love. I am suggesting that even if you are an old time CW buff, a mesh network node at your house, is cheap,  has great utility, even if its only purpose is to relay signals to other hams in the network thereby extending the network's range. If we use our microwave channels by low cost mesh networking, then we will save our bands for future generations of hams. This seems like a very reasonable long term and low cost investment for hams to make.

73,  Eric  4Z1UG

One of the most interesting things that I discovered from my QSO in Episode 22, with April Moell, WA6OPS, was the real public safety value that amateur radio operators could provide to their local communities by providing backup communications to hospitals.  I guess I was caught in the mind set that our role, if we are permitted, is to supply this kind of service in major disasters such as forest fires, hurricanes, and floods. How often do these types of emergencies happen to most of us where our skills are tested?  

So here are the take aways and conclusions that I draw from my QSO with April: 

• There must be an organization and it must have a plan
  
• Breaking down the ham volunteers to areas around the hospital, and for time of day, allows for a real and timely response and not a "no one was available" response. 
  
• All members need to be trained before they arrive on the scene - and hams who are not trained should stay home
  
• Regular and consistent training and drill are keys to success.
  
• Simple communications, on VHF and UHF, where all members share the same technology is key to communications success. Not everyone has digital modes or is computer literate, even in 2015.
  
• If you are serving a hospital or another professional institution, the dress code is "casual professional". A low profile during business hours will keep the emergency from becoming common knowledge among the patients and their families. Blinking call sign badges and call sign hats are better left in the car. 
  
• The "Go Kit" should contain not only radios, connectors, antennas, and feedline, but it should also contain food, water, medicine, and any other supplies to keep the ham up and operational for at least six hours.
  
• Hospital emergency communications is highly valuable. The barriers to entry for hams does not have the red tape that other agencies may impose.  Outages are frequent enough that those hams who are active get a lot of on the job training at least a few times a year.  They are ready for even larger emergencies and disasters and already have the training and mechanisms to be called out when needed. 
  

If you are public safety minded, and I guess most of us should be, then explore volunteering for a hospital emergency group near you, or contact April if you want to form one. The HDSCS website is packed with enough informaton to get a group started in your area.  

Finally, be sure to add your own take-aways in the comments section below. 

73, 
Eric Guth, 4Z1UG

After recording over 20 QSOs for the podcast, I am always left with the amazing feeling that what makes my guest amateur radio operators successful is the commitment to moving forward in their area of the hobby. In Episode 12 with Wayne and Sharon Spring, I was struck by the daily steps that were, and still are taken, by Wayne, to master the restoration of radio gear, that has allowed him to accumulate expertise and skill.  Wayne's secret,  has been to take daily steps to incrementally move his ball forward. As a result, he is number one in the World for the restoration of Collins radio gear. 

This dedication to taking a single step every day, to becoming better and more successful, is the theme of many of the entrepreneural blogs and podcasts that are now on the Internet. Success in business as in life is made through taking daily steps towards our goal or goals.  Our ham radio hobby is so vast, that it may be a good place to start in one direction for a while to develop skills and expertise, before changing direction to some other area of the hobby. 

As hams, we have made major contributions to communications, technology, computing, and advancing the state of the art. However, all of these hams did not make these break throughs with short sprints every once in a while. They were made with a single minded pursuit of a solution to a problem left to be solved.

One of the hams here in Israel told me that the best advice he was given from another ham was to make one QSO per day.  Just one.  Over time these will add up to over 300 per year.  How many of us make 300 QSOs a year?  

73, 
Eric Guth, 4Z1UG

In Episode 11 of the QSO Today Podcast, with Wayne Burdick, N6KR, CTO and Co-Founder of Elecraft, we discussed Elecrafts business policy of producing a minimum viable product.  In other words, a product that is a basic product that relies on the community around the product to suggest and develop improvements, both in firmware and hardware. The minimum viable product is an idea that is floating around the web business arena, especially in the development of SAAS products, or software as a service.  As a marketing idea, it means, solve one problem and let the client who buys the solution tell you what features need to be added to enhance the value of the solution.  

Elecraft's application of minimum viable product has created a strong fan base of hams who have personal ownership in Elecraft's products though their modifications, changes, and upgrades, both to software and hardware.  Isn't that what ham radio is all about?  My kudos to Wayne and Eric for applying this concept to their product line. It allows them to make a World class hands on amateur radio product that continues to evolve from its user community. 

73, 
Eric, 4Z1UG

I just finished an interview with a future podcast guest and was on the phone with my long time ham radio buddy, Wayne, N6KR.  We were friends, teenagers, and members of the El Cajon Amateur Radio Club, over 40 years ago. It occured to me that one of the most important aspects of amateur radio that was experienced by all of us who entered the hobby as kids, was that the ham radio license made us kids equal to the adult hams in our ham club, and with our Elmers.  I asked Wayne about this, and he agreed.  The license demonstrated a level of knowledge and commitment to exploring and learning the art of radio. This had an amazing effect on our ability to communicate as young people with folks of all ages, and it focused us on a path out of adolescence and into adulthood.  Wayne reminded me of our (mostly his) teenage exploits, but we were still focused on ham radio.  This provided us with tools, skills, and expertise that we carry with us throughout of our lives. Wayne went on to build the Elecraft company, where he designs some of the most popular ham rigs in the market today.  Listen to this theme that keeps recurring in all of the ham radio stories that we hear. It was a life changer. 

What can we do to get more kids into the hobby where it can serve as a foundation for their lives? 

73, 
Eric 4Z1UG

While our podcast is in English, I want to change the venue every once in a while to give a different perspective from hams in other countries.  My next QSOs will be with hams in Israel, where I now live, work and play ham radio.  I hope that you find these conversations interesting.  I want to put some context around the people and the places that you will hear discussed with both Yehuda, 4X1TQ, and Amnon, 4X1DF.  

I was recently asked by a listener how I record and post the podcast.  I am, at the moment, limited to the tools that I have in my home office that include my Dell I3 desktop computer and my USB headset.  I know that at some point, I will want a better microphone, perhaps a mixer and recorder to reduce my risk of a lost recording. A mixer would also reduce the post production time where I have to equalize the audio rather than just follow the mixer at the time of recording. 

So here is my process: 

Ron, W6OM mentioned in his interview about his open garage door and that Donnie and David found him and his ham radio station as they passed by his house.  This became their destination where they excelled in ham radio to Extra Class licenses.  The open garages of my childhood have a special place in my memory that led to some of my most exciting opportunities.