Qso Today - A Conversation For Amateur Radio Operators

Exploration of the edge of space, first by astronaut Jordan Kittinger in Project Man-High, began Bill Brown’s, WB8ELK’s, fascination with, adaptation of amateur radio to high altitude weather balloons and later to smaller pico balloons that Bill tracks around the world using amateur radio beacons that he fabricates for his balloon launches.  With over 600 launches to his credit, it easy to say that WB8ELK is an expert in high altitude ballooning and amateur radio.

Vi Barrett, W6CBA, celebrates 70 years as a radio amateur.  Vi’s love for radio began with an uncle getting back on their air after the Second World War.  Growing up in Southern California, W6CBA became the first female radio dispatcher for the FBI, raised a family, operated phone patches for US servicemen during the Vietnam War. Still active on the air on both CW and SSB, W6CBA is my QSO Today.

Jerry Lewine, K6QU, began his career in radio as a young ham in 1959, that led to a career as a broadcast engineer, first as a teenager in his native Pennsylvania, through the Air Force, and later to markets in Hawaii and California.  While Jerry’s broadcast radio career sidelined his ham radio adventure for a number of years, Jerry is back with a passion for CW and FT-8 while the current solar cycle is at its low. K6QU is my QSO Today.

George Misic, KE8RN, is an RF and analog engineer by training, a collector of vintage American amateur radio equipment, and an early pioneer in the development of MRI or magnetic resonance imaging machines and whose name is on 38 patents around this technology.  George is a frequent author of articles for QST and Electric Radio Magazines, and is my QSO Today.

Jack Worth, WA0QZK, is a retired pastor with over 50 years of amateur radio operating experience who likes to QSO on CW from the Warsaw Telegraph Office.  Jack collects and restores antique Morse code telegraph keys and bugs and uses them to work the World and ragchew on QRP and a modified G5RV antenna. WA0QZK is my QSO Today.

Joe Everhart, N2CX, is well known is QRP circles for his technical contributions and articles in the ham radio magazines.  Along with George Heron, N2APB, my guest in Episode 151, of the QSO Today podcast, they produce a live talk show called Chat with the Designers, as well as present at the QRP Event, four days in May, that precedes the opening of the Dayton Hamvention in May.  Joe is a builder and ham radio designer, and share some of his insight into homebrewing while enjoying amateur radio in this QSO Today.

Howard Bernstein is the co-founder of the Long Island CW Club along with Rich Collins K2UPS,  where they train amateurs of every age to be CW operators over Zoom video conferencing. Howard has a long history in ham radio extending back over 50 years.  WB2UZE still has his first Drake line and is a collector of vintage things including old radios and automobiles. Howard is my QSO Today.

Bob Sumption, W9RAS, was raised on Popular Electronics and Popular Mechanics magazines, learned how to fix anything from his father, and became a ham radio operator in the 1950s.  Bob was an electronics technician at Heathkit who assembled the prototype SS9000 synthesized HF amateur radio transceiver. Now a collector of everything Heathkit, he has restored one of the three original Heathkit SS8000 HF transceivers that never made it to market. Bob is a consummate long term, big project builder and radio restorer, who shares his success, knowledge, expertise, and history in this QSO Today.

Neil King, VA7DX, shares his ham radio story that began as a kid when is father introduced him to the Morse code.  Now after almost 40 years, Neil has over 16 DXpeditions under his belt and continues to enjoy traveling and operating CW from some of the most remote locations in the World.  When he his not traveling as an international IT consultant, VA7DX resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, is active in his radio club and club station. We also discuss the BCWARN amateur radio microwave backbone in this QSO Today.

Joe Lynch, N6CL, began his ham radio story over 50 years ago in Bonita, California. After a stint in Vietnam,  an amateur radio journalist for CQ Magazine focused on VHF and above, and a career as minister, Joe, is now the director of religious education at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.  Both he and his wife, Carol, are active ham radio operators. N6CL has always been active in amateur radio emergency services, including at the site of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.  N6CL is my QSO Today.

Sputnik and an uncle inspired George Allison, K1IG, to become a radio amateur. George had a long and successful US Navy career where radio was always the center of his activity including MARS stations, a visit to the South Pole, and the operation of very high powered VLF and ELF stations around the World. George promotes the Wordsworth method of raising CW speed above 40 words per minute.  K1IG is my QSO Today.

Jay Slough, K4ZLE, has over 60 years in the amateur radio hobby and still enjoys CW as his primary operating mode. An accomplished DXpeditioner, having operated in over 40 DX entities including South Sandwich Island. Always ready to extend the hand of friendship, either by knocking on the doors of houses with amateur antennas or sharing his own station through RemoteHams. K4ZLE is my QSO Today.

Andre Hansen, K6AH, and his team of open source developers have taken amateur radio mesh networking to a new level with AREDN, that allows commercial low cost WIFI routers and access points to be used to build out local and regional broadband networks in the amateur bands above 2 GHz. Andre and I discuss this technology and its possibilities for the amateur radio community in this QSO Today.

Kristen McIntyre, K6WX, is the president of the Palo Alto Amateur Radio Club, in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley,  and an ARRL Pacific Division Vice Director. Trained as an MIT electronic engineer, she was an entrepreneur for many years in Japan.  Kristen is a much sought after speaker at amateur radio conventions and forums. Antenna design, digital modes, and just getting on the air is key to Kristen’s amateur radio success.   K6WX, is my QSO Today.

Richard Dillman, W6AWO, is the founding member of the Maritime Radio Historical Society, where they preserve the skills, traditions, and folklore of maritime telegraph operators, from the California Bay Area coastal station, KSM. The “Summer of Love” brought Richard to California, in the Sixties, to pursue broadcast engineering and a 30 year career with Greenpeace.  W6AWO is my QSO Today.

Dan Gravereaux, N1ZZ, began his ham radio story as a kid leading to a career in electronics, a stint at the CBS Labs working on quadraphonic sound, and later founding West Mountain Radio creators of the Rigblaster interfaces for HF digital modes.  West Mountain Radio also popularized the ubiquitous Anderson Power Poles that we all use now and love. N1ZZ shares his ham radio story and expertise in this QSO Today.

Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, is the creator of perhaps the Internet’s oldest ham radio resource, QRZ.com. With over 700 thousand subscribers, QRZ.com is the goto place for hams wanting to look up other hams in its call sign database.  It does however, have a large number of other resources available to amateurs that Fred and Eric, 4Z1UG, discuss in this QSO Today.

Ray Waldemar, WA6NVL, was an early adopter of electronic technology that found its way into amateur radio including the first Apple 1 computer, first instances of D-Star, and now DMR.  Active on HF, VHF, UHF, and Microwave, from SSB to satellites. Ray just likes it all to the technical challenge and the social connections made from almost 50 years in the hobby. WA6NVL is my QSO Today.

George Zafiropoulos, KJ6VU, is the the co-host of the Ham Radio Workbench Podcast, one of the more popular ham radio podcasts.  George has a long and interesting ham radio history as well as he is accomplished home-brewer, builder, operator, and high tech executive. We touch on a few of my favorite subjects that include repeaters and repeater controllers, the Cactus Intertie, DMR, and building with Arduino micro-controllers.  KJ6VU is my QSO Today.

John Raifsnider, W8JER, shares his ham shack with this wife, Micky, KE8ASK, and likes to rag-chew on DX. His signal is boosted by a new 70 ft tower and Mosley beam antenna, allowing him to extend his amateur radio circle that he has built up through the years.  Consistent attention to building his amateur radio skills combined with the hobby’s social dimension, has made W8JER a successful ham.