Qso Today - A Conversation For Amateur Radio Operators

One of the major players in the “top band” , or 160 meters is Bob Garrett, K3UL, who as a blind ham has never let his visual impairment get in the way of his ham radio hobby.  I first learned about Bob from an article where he was described as working on his own towers and antennas to build a first class HF ham station.  Bob is a friend and mentor to many hams, with an open door policy.  Just knock.  K3UL is my QSO Today.

On my recent trip from Israel to the USA, to attend the Dayton Hamvention,  I stopped in the Bay Area to visit with Wayne Burdick, N6KR, a long time and childhood friend, and co-founder of Elecraft, to catch up, discuss the KX2, and working HF from the field.  That evening Wayne and I attended the QSO Today Bay Area Meetup where I asked the participants their name, callsign, and the most exciting thing that they think is happening in ham radio. 

Richard Fisher, KI6SN, after a 40 year career in newspaper journalism, is now an editor and contributor to many of the most widely read amateur radio magazines including Popular Communications, WorldRadio Online, CQ, and QRP Quarterly.  As a feature writer, Richard’s digs deep into every area of amateur radio producing a prolific body of work that informs and educates us.  KI6SN is Eric’s QSO Today.

Rich Moseson, W2VU,  is the current editor of CQ Magazine.  From his vantage point as the editor of one of the oldest and prestigious amateur radio magazines, he has the opportunity to see the big picture of our ham radio hobby every month from articles published, reader feedback, and the many amateur radio conventions that he attends with his staff.  This QSO is full of his observations on amateur radio today as well as his personal ham radio history. W2VU is my QSO Today.

Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, grew up down the street from the ARRL headquarters in Newington, Connecticut and is not the Station manager and trustee of the W1AW Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial station that sits on the grass in front of the League headquarters.  Joe shares his ham radio story and details of this historic ham radio station in this episode of QSO Today.

Glen Zook, K9STH, began his elmering and mentoring by writing his first article for 73 Magazine in 1961 at the tender age of 17.  Glen has gone on to write many practical ham radio articles from modifying a Heathkit Globe Chief for six meters to installing chemical ground rods for proper shack grounding.  He has a collection of restored “boat anchors” that are copies of all of the rigs he has ever owned.  As he pays extra attention to the details, his rigs are in as new condition as possible.   I know know that will enjoy this QSO with K9STH.

John Ackermann, N8UR, is a proponent of open source, that is freely sharing both hardware and software designs in communities that work together to make it all better.  The TAPR community is where John spends much of his time.  Join us as we discuss TAPR, SDR transceivers, and the issues around open source and the maker movement.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL, approaches ham radio from an engineering and even scientific point of view.  Roy is the creator of EZNEC, the popular antenna modeling software, and the author of many articles on radio and transceiver design, baluns, antennas, and inductors.  His contributions to the amateur radio hobby and advancing the state of art puts Roy at the head of the class in amateur radio.  W7EL is my QSO Today.

George Fremin, K5TR, is a seasoned SO2R contester and DXer.  He has many years of experience building and maintaining multi operator contest stations in Texas.  This experience with both operating the contest events as well as the practical maintenance of these stations led to an important conversation about tower safety.  In addition to HF contests, George enjoys VHF and UHF contesting as well as DXpeditions. K5TR joins Eric, 4Z1UG, in this QSO Today.

Paul Stroud, AA4XX,  went from being a QRO, high power operator, to a QRP operator, testing the bottom limits of power output to distance.  Paul approaches ham radio now, as almost a meditative experience, where he operates from his solar powered ham shack deep in the woods near his house, under his wire antennas.  Paul takes us on his ham radio journey in this QSO Today.  

Richard Gillette, W9PE, is the consummate ham radio operator and mentor, IEEE speaker, and frequent contributor to our amateur radio hobby from his many articles in the ham radio magazines.  His own website, w9pe.us, is an amazing resource, including his Excel based test equipment simulator for anyone wanting to teach the fundamentals of ham radio in a one day or weekend “ham cram” course.   W9PE shares over 60 years of his ham radio experience in this QSO Today.

Don Beattie, G3BJ, is a former president of the Radio Society of Great Britain, past chairman of BARTG,  or the British Amateur Radio Teledata Group, past president of the CDXC, the British DX foundation, board member of the RSGB,  and its acting general manager for two years.  The list goes on and on.  Don is currently the President of the IARU, or the International Amateur Radio Union for  Region 1. G3BJ is a leader in British amateur radio and is my QSO Today.

When is comes to homebrewing QRP HF radios with simple parts and test equipment, then one of the go-to  guys is Tony Fishpool, G4WIF, current membership chairman of the G-QRP group in the UK, and frequent contributor to its quarterly SPRAT magazine.  Tony is also a co-author with Graham Firth, G3MFJ, of Simple Test Equipment for the QRPer, and numerous articles on equipment building with attention to detail and budget.  Tony believes, along with his co-hearts at G-QRP,  that ham radio does not have to be expensive to be fun. G4WIF is my QSO today.

Randy Hall, K7AGE, has been a ham for almost 50 years and is well known for his You-Tube channel with his hundreds of ham radio videos.  Randy is also a regular contributor to Ham Nation on the TWIT network where he works with George, W5JDX, on the Smoke and Solder segment videos.  He works just about all bands and modes.  Randy is a ham’s ham and elmer, and a popular guest on a number of the ham radio podcasts. K7AGE is my QSO Today.

In 1954, at 19 years of age, Bob Eshleman, W4DR, and two buddies decided to put Navassa Island back on the ARRL DXCC list, the first activation of Navassa since the end of World War II.  Prepared with a National Receiver, Harvey Wells transmitter, and an old generator,  the three lads pulled off their first DXpedition.  This would be the first of many DXpeditions for Bob.  W4DR is my QSO Today where he shares his amateur radio story as a DXer and now grid square chaser.

Bob Wilson, N6TV, is a bay area contester and CW operator.  Having developed his CW craft on the National Traffic System as a teenage kid, he now enjoys the North American Sprint, a four hour contest and using the latest SDR receivers to see what’s up on the bands during a contest event.  A professor at Contest University in Dayton and a member of the World Radiosport Team Championship, Bob shares what he know about this and more on this QSO Today.

Jeff Briggs, K1ZM, is the author of DXing on the Edge- The Thrill of 160 meters and he operates an amazing DX station on Canada's Atlantic shore. Eric, 4Z1UG, and Jeff discuss 160 meters, DXing, building a super station and more on this episode of QSO Today.

Paul Topolski, W1SEX, was just meters from ground zero working the communications center, when terrorists struck the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring hundreds of spectators and participants.  Paul shares with Eric, 4Z1UG, this experience, his ham radio story, and how he continues to make a difference in his community in this QSO Today.

Beginning as a scanner listener, Gary Hoffman, KB0H, discovered amateur radio shares his love of it with his wife, Nancy, N0NJ.  Gary is focused on emergency communications where he is the assistant emergency coordinator, operations for St. Louis County ARES.  He writes about amateur radio and the human condition on his blog, The Amateur’s Amateur.  KB0H is Eric, 4Z1UG’s QSO today.

My guest today, Brian Clarke, VK2GCE, has been a ham since his childhood in New Zealand, went on to get advanced degrees, built a recording studio in London for Pink Floyd, and now resides in Australia.  Brian is a collector of ex-military radios and is a promoter of amateur radio in his spare time.  VK2GCE is my QSO Today.