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.