In Episode 461, Glam Ham Natalie Gray NW6S revealed that she was one of the writers for the upcoming blockbuster video game Hogwarts Legacy. Gary K4AAQ jumped on the idea of introducing Ham Radio into the Harry Potter inspired project, because that’s what we always do.

Later, Gary felt the need to hammer the point home by creating a scene we wish we’d seen in the movies, and we present it for your consideration (but probably not Natalie’s 🙄).

Hogwarts Legacy, it turns out, won’t have any Harry Potter or Lord Voldemort in it anyway. Or BaoFeng radios. The game is set in the late 1800’s. So it could have some Spark Gap. Maybe Marconi can turn out to be a Wizard.

Our little play is audio only because we don’t have a movie set. And it’s ‘vertical’ because we produced it for our new TIK TOK channel. Yep, we have one of those now. What else might go there? Who knows.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act (don’t call it ‘Parity Act 2.0) is about to be introduced in the new Congress. What is it? How did we get here? Where will it go and how will it get there?

John Robert Stratton N5AUS and Fred Hopengarten K1VR were two members of the ARRL Legislative Advocacy Committee that drafted the bill from the ashes of the Parity Act, starting in 2019. They found a sponsor in Congressman Bill Johnson (R-OH), and worked with his staff to refine the language of the Bill (it didn’t need much). It was introduced at the end of the previous Congress just last December so the Committee could start rounding up co-sponsors. Sometime soon after the new Congress gets itself organized, the Bill will be reintroduced. And then begins the process that any Bill faces to work its way though Subcommittees, the full Committee (House Energy and Commerce), the House, and then the Senate. We have two years to get it done. The clock is ticking.

At some point soon, the League will start asking you to contact your Representatives, and maybe donate some cash to offset the lobbying expenses. That’s coming up, but not yet. We’ll be back. Watch this space.

This is the PROMO for Sunday’s live episode 459. Gary’s clever title is (Almost) In the Zoom Where It Happened, ‘It’ is the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act, the new iteration of legislation to require HOAs to permit Amateur Radio antennas. We reviewed the version of the Act that was introduced in December in our last episode. This time, our guests will be two of the hams who were on the ARRL committee that drafted the new bill.

Tune in to the LIVE stream on Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 7 pm Pacific, 10 pm Eastern, 0300Z (Monday morning). Or watch the replay later.

Our fearless pundits review the verbiage of last years HR9670- Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act with the hopes that it’s going to be introduced this year (2023). This bill looks to be much more favorable to hams that want a small workable antenna… Audio starts at 3:45.

This is just a Promo(re), but it’s here in the feed by itself because the show hasn’t been scheduled yet… and this gets the audio podcast out there, too.

There’s a new Bill in Congress: H.R.9670, the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act. We’ve been told “Don’t call it the Parity Act 2.0 because branding. But yeah, it kinda is.

If you want all the background, listen to the ProMore. Then do the homework, which is watching an old episode of HamRadioNow: HRN 342: It Ain't Parity Until We Say It's Parity. Taking notes is optional. Yes, this will be on the ‘final’.

Our guest is Karin Thompson KD4DXX, owner and General Manager of RT Systems Inc., the radio programming people. We only spent about 2½ hours talking to Karin, then the post-show with David and Marty. So one, we were making up for no show last week. And two, most of your favorite shows are doing reruns or ‘best ofs’ or ‘Year in Reviews’. Here we are with enough show to keep you entertained all week.

This is one of those titles that we never talked about. It wasn’t designed to describe any of the show content. Gary had been to three Christmas parties in two days, and just wasn’t feeling it, so…

The rest of the show was just a bunch of stuff thrown together at the last minute, but if we didn’t admit that, you’d never know. So this was a meticulously crafted and executed example of ham radio media at its finest. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

LINKS:

ChatGPT. Give’er a spin (if you can get in)

Montana PBS Documentary: HAM

KR7Q’s ‘Behind the Scenes’

N4POD’s HamRadioRejects channel

K1N Navassa DVD

K1N Trailer (yes, Gary’s voice)

A Ham’s Night Before Christmas

GlamHam TikTok

The DXpedition crew that attempted an operation on Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic back in 2018 reached the island, only to be thwarted by bad weather and a failed engine. They limped back to port in South Africa. Bob Allphin K4UEE told their story in this video.

A new team, with hams from Norway and around the globe, planned to try again. They contracted The Braveheart - a ship that had transported many DXpeditions to difficult locations (but wasn’t available to the 2018 crew). Then, the Braveheart was sold, and the DXpedition was cancelled.

And then it wasn’t. They found a new ship… a sailboat ???… to get them there (and back). Hmmm. ‘Sailboat’ and ‘Antarctic’ don’t seem to go together, do they? Well, the MARAMA isn’t your ‘catch the rays while lying on deck’ type of sailboat. It leads expeditions to the frozen south Atlantic all the time.

The re-started 3Y0J crew leaves to Bouvet in January 2023, with operation stretching into February. And we have crew member Adrian Ciuperca KO8SCA on the show tonight to fill us in.