QSO Today Podcast - Interviews with the leaders in amateur radio

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.

Jonathan Naylor, G4KLX, pioneered the opening, to amateur radio operators, of D-Star and later other digital repeater modes including DMR and Yaesu system fusion by writing software that could be implemented on Arduino and Raspberry Pi hardware for the creation of multi-mode repeater and hot-spot controllers. G4KLX shares his ham radio story with Eric, 4Z1UG, in this QSO Today.

AMSAT, the Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation, has launched over 95 satellites into space since 1961. Keith Baker, KB1SF, former President and now treasurer of AMSAT speaks and write on amateur satellites, what is happening now, how to get started, and how to get involved. Keith shares is wealth of satellite knowledge in this episode of QSO Today.

Joel Wilhite, KD6W, who has a long history in amateur radio, telephony, and amateur radio TV. As you can imagine, amateur radio TV has advanced from the slow scan memories of the early 1970s to high quality digital television delivered by repeaters and internet linked networks. Amateur radio digital TV and microwave roving are a few of the topics discussed with Joel, KD6W, in the QSO Today.

Riki Kline, K7NJ, has a long and interesting ham radio career, from humble beginnings in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a teenage ham, to his current QTH on over 40 rural acres in Utah. Riki also lives in Israel, part time, in the village of Na'aleh, overlooking Israel's coastal plain and the Ben Gurion, Airport. K7NJ shares his perspective as an amateur radio operator who frequently works from either side of the World, likes to chase DX and operate contests in this QSO Today.

Along with a successful career in California high-tech, Paul Gacek, W6PNG, became an amateur radio operator. Finding that it challenged his mind and created opportunity to learn new things, Paul discovered SOTA, Summits on the Air, and outdoor operating. California has over 4000 SOTA peaks, and that is a good start for W6PNG, my QSO Today.

David Malin, AA6RV, spent over 20 years working for the City of Los Angeles as its Emergency Coordinator and Emergency Administrator for the Port of Los Angeles. Now retired, David a lot to say about emergency preparedness and the minimal steps that we should all take to be ready in case of disaster in this QSO Today.

Phil Sittner, KD6RM, has a ham radio story that goes back over 50 years, from childhood. Still living in Northern California, Phil builds his own radios and test equipment, operates CW on 80 and 40 meters, using antennas optimized for his city lot in an HOA neighborhood where antennas are forbidden. We harness Phil's extensive technical expertise and hear his ham radio story in this QSO Today.

Denny Berg, WB9MSM, has a fascination for old rigs, including the Swan 500 HF transceiver, ham shack software that enhances his on the air user experience, and a love for just getting on HF and operating. One of the first to get DXCC operating FT8, Denny has a positive, "can-do", attitude that brings success to both his personal, professional, and amateur radio life.

In episode 33 of the QSO Today podcast, Dr. Greg Latta, AA8V, was described as a renaissance man, a master home-brewer who designs and builds the old tube rigs and fabricates the beautiful metal enclosures that encase them. Greg is also a college physics professor who says that vacuum tubes are one of the best ways to provide to students a visual representation electrons in motion. We reprise and update this QSO with AA8V.

After running maritime mobile from his 40 foot sailboat for many years, Arnold Ziegel, W2HDI, switched to power boats and all of the challenges to amateur radio brought on by the new boat. Not deterred by these challenges, W2HDI discovered remote control operation, over the Internet, from his new boat. We dive deeper into Arnold's ham radio story and remote operation in this QSO Today.

While exposed to amateur radio at an early age, it was not until Mark Rosenberg, 4X1KS, got his first license and upgraded quickly within a few short months, in Memphis, Tennessee. In Memphis, Robert Barbee, W4AMI, became Mark's ham radio mentor driving Mark to satellite excellence. Now in Israel, Mark is active in just about every on-air activity, as well as being the consummate fixer and home-brewer. 4X1KS is my QSO today.

Ken Oelke, VE6AFO, stepped up to the plate for his local amateur radio club and ended up making leadership in local and national Canadian amateur radio organizations the major focus of his ham radio activity. Ken is now the president of the QCWA, the Quarter Century Wireless Association, when not operating both CW and SSB, or fixing one of his broken rigs. VE6AFO is my QSO Today.

Stephen Hicks, N5AC, is vice president of engineering for Flex Radio, is deep in to SDR or software defined radio, likes to chase grid squares in his microwave rover, and observes the growth and trends in our amazing amateur radio hobby. From Steve's position on the cutting edge of technology, he has a lot to say in this QSO Today.

Tom Wright, NN2X, grew up in the sixties in the foster care system. Amateur radio provided a way out of the system and into the US Army and a career in satellite communications. Tom loves his family, the digital modes, especially the new FT8Call, and helping kids escape poverty by training them for careers in information technology. This QSO is packed with little jewels as NN2X shares his ham radio story.

In addition to his may hobbies and interests, Ray Poularas, VK2GRP, restores vintage military surplus radios back to new condition by carefully tearing down the chassis to the bare metal and rebuilding, sometimes remanufacturing the parts by casting, milling, or 3-D printing. Ray goes into great detail on his processes and also shares his time management tips that bring him success in all of his pursuits in this QSO Today.

Mike Bryce, WB8VGE, collects and restores the old Heathkit and Drake rigs that we remember from the 60s and 70s, works QRP on his favorite Ten-Tec transceivers, and has enough solar electric power to run everything. WB8VGE shares the background of all of these things and his current view of the state of ham radio in this QSO Today.

As an eleven year old, watching his dad put pins in a World map while working DX, Bernie McClenny, W3UR, became hooked on ham radio and working his own DX. Bernie has made working DX, not only his hobby, but his profession as well. Bernie is the publisher of The Daily DX, and author of the monthly QST Magazine column, How's DX. We will get into W3UR's ham radio story and his unusual collaboration with his neighbor this QSO Today.

Kevin Parmenter, KG5Q, caught my attention from an article that he published in QST Magazine, August 2017 about the Flightaware system. I was intrigued with the article that leverages our technical ability against a services that uses crowd sourced receivers, in private hands, Worldwide, to track commercial and military aircraft to display their location, speed, and altitude on Flightawares website. KG5Q joins be to discuss his ham radio story and the Flightaware system in this QSO Today.

Frank Brickle, AB2KT, took a professional path to music composition at Princeton. He combined his musical composition skills with his technical knowledge of computer programming and background in amateur radio to develop the first software defined radio (SDR) software used first by the US government and later by private industry. Frank AB2KT is a noted classical music and opera composer and a pioneer in SDR technology.

Justin Johnson, G0KSC, tells his ham radio story and how it led to the founding of his company, Innovantenna, and his approach to antenna designs, that maximize signal to noise rather than gain to produce amazing results. If you are re-considering your antenna system, then you will enjoy this QSO Today with G0KSC.

Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, who, from his interest in satellite communications, became an important backup communications link in South Australia for the NASA space shuttle missions, the Mir Space Station, and the International space station when crewed by amateur radio operators. Tony is a pioneer in this area of ham radio and has been recognized by NASA for his contributions. VK5ZAI is Eric's QSO Today.

Jim Forkin, WA3TFS, started contributing to QST and Ham Radio Magazine as far back as 1983 with his series on A Modular Two Band Receiver. His QRZ page is loaded with pictures of his home brew rigs along with detailed descriptions. Jim shares his ham radio story and his incorporation of old and new technology including Arduino microcontrollers into his still evolving and complex projects in this QSO Today.

Dr. Ulrich Rohde, N1UL, is a pioneer in RF oscillator and receiver design. Over the last 40 years N1UL has authored over 60 articles for QST and QEX magazines, in addition to books, academic papers, and articles. Dr. Rohde has made significant scientific contributions to his family business, the Munich based Rohde and Schwarz test equipment company, and to amateur radio manufacturers including Icom. Ulrich, N1UL tells his ham radio story in this QSO Today.

Mike Mussler, AI8Z, is one of the early pioneers in the 630 meter band experimental trials in 2007 that resulted in the band being opened for amateur radio exploration. AI8Z rebuilds old rigs, especially military surplus WW2 vintage radios that adorn his Cortez, Colorado ham shack. We start with Mike's ham radio history in this QSO Today.

David Finell, N7LRY described himself to his future wife as a mad scientist, coming from a ham radio family that encouraged deep learning of the subjects that interested him. David shares his ham radio journey, his deep dive into electronics through a career in the US Air Force, his interest in antennas that led to his helix VHF antenna design, as well as his leverage of ham radio skills to his other hobbies. N7LRY is my QSO Today.

Rick Tavan, N6XI, is a Silicon Valley high-tech veteran who loves to contest from his two Northern California contest stations, one in the "valley" and the other in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe. Rick shares his early beginnings in ham radio from 1961 to the present, his love of contesting, some tips on getting started, operating remotely over the Internet, and the challenges of setting up a proper station and antenna on volcanic soil.

One of the best kept secrets of amateur radio is the amazing QEX Magazine published by the ARRL and edited by my guest today, Kai Shiwiak, KE4PT. If you are a home brewer and want a more indepth amateur radio technology understanding, then QEX should be on your desk every month. Kai provides a fascinating look at home-brewing, the digital modes, and modest antennas for the antenna challenged ham in this episode of QSO Today.

Mike Marsh, G1IAR, is in love with mastering sound and owes his interest in ham radio to enhancing his professional career in the recording industry. Mike is also the co-host of the TX-Factor video podcast, one of my favorite topical amateur radio shows on the internet. Mike will confirm that his involvement in TX-Factor opens wide the most interesting aspects of the amateur radio hobby. Mike shares his ham radio story, TX- Factor, and an insiders look at a mastering studio in this QSO Today.

Bad ass and blind is how my guest on QSO Today describes himself on his website and the release of his new jazz music album of the same name. Raul Midon, AE3RM, is also a long time and dedicated amateur radio operator, who takes his ham radio operation on his musical tours around the World. For those of us who think we are too busy to get on the air, Raul provides an answer to a busy schedule.

My QSO Today is with John Stanley, K4ERO, a frequent contributor of articles about antenna design and performance to QST, QEX, the ARRL Antenna Book, and the ARRL Handbook. An MIT graduate, John and his wife Ruth, WB4LUA, spent many years abroad working as engineers for Christian Broadcast stations in India and South America. John shares his ham radio story and his antenna expertise in this QSO Today.

In this, the 200th edition of the QSO Today podcast, the QSO Today is with Eric Guth, 4Z1UG, creator of the QSO Today Podcast as the guest and is hosted by Jim Wilson, K5ND. In this interview, Eric tells his ham radio story, about his early exposure to electronics,his elmers, and how his amateur radio interest evolved to the QSO Today podcast. Eric answers listener questions at the end of the interview with Jim.

Adam Farson, VA7OJ and AB4OJ, began his ham radio journey over 60 years ago as a youngster inspired by electronics and eventually ham radio in his native South Africa. Pursuing a career in the broad science that surrounds telephony World wide, Adam has adapted telephony methods and test equipment to evaluate amateur radio transceiver performance. Adam shares his ham radio and professional journey in this QSO Today.

Dr. Jack Mandelman is on the short list for holding the most patents, over 700 Worldwide, in the area of semiconductor physics, while at the same time a successful ham radio operator working DX and CW. Now in the middle of a QTH move, Jack is exploring satellite communications and DMR. K1VT shares his ham radio story and the period during the space race to the moon that led to the technology that we all enjoy in our QSO today.

From his QTH in Rio De Janeiro, Alex Grimberg, PY1AHD, has mastered the art of the portable magnetic loop antennas for QRP use in the field. This interest, generated from his need for a light and portable antenna, has blossomed into the Alexloop antenna business. Now Alex travels the ham radio World showing off his Alex Loops and other accessories that make portable QRP field operations that much more enjoyable. PY1AHD is my QSO Today.

Jim Millner, WB2REM, has traveled and operated amateur radio in 72 countries including Cuba and Guantanamo Bay. He also operates his station by remote control, taking advantage of his prime Florida location with his excellent antenna arrays. Jim shares his amateur radio story and his remote control insight in this QSO Today.

Roberto Ramirez, CE3CT, from Chile, is a well known South American DXer and Contester who began his ham radio story as a short wave listener. Now an electronic engineer responsible for the local cell phone company microwave links, CE3CT chases DX across with World from his contest station using beverage receive antennas pointed into the Northern hemisphere. CE3CT is my QSO Today.

Dr. Ryhor "Greg" Harbacheuski, W3NW, began his ham radio story in Belarus, a republic of the former Soviet Union. After immigrating to the United States to pursue his career, Greg is a successful orthopedic surgeon by day, and he enjoys melting solder, refurbishing Soviet receivers, and kit building by night. W3NW tells his ham radio story in this QSO Today.