QSO Today Podcast - Interviews with the leaders in amateur radio

Bob Sumption, W9RAS, 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. 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.

Not many hams retire at West Point, but that is what Joe Lynch, N6CL, did exactly. He tells his ham radio story leading to his current position at West Point in this 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.