QSO Today Podcast - Interviews with the leaders in amateur radio

Gordon West, "Gordo"WB6NOA, may be one of ham radio's most well known ambassadors and promoters of our amateur radio hobby today.  Through his books and courses over the years, Gordo, has licensed thousands of individuals to become amateur radio operators. Gordo tells me that this is the first time that he has told his ham radio story from the beginning in this episode of QSO Today.

John Nowacki, W3NA, was a teenager in the early sixties when we won a contest to name a popular amateur radio line of antennas that are still sold today.  John shares his ham radio story that began with a friendship more that sixty years ago that continues to this day. Now a retired physics teacher, W3NA, chases DX shares his ham radio activities with his fellow NERDS.

Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, is the 2019 Dayton Ham of the Year because of this contribution to the amateur radio art though his combined professional interest in ionospheric physics and the amateur radio modes, such WSPRnet and FT-8,  that build big data bases of propagation data. HamSCI is an organization founded by Nathaniel on this concept. Nathaniel tells his ham radio story leading through...

Philip Lazar, K9PL, is the editor of the K9YA Telegraph monthly newsletter, a wonderful journal of technical articles and ham radio history.  Like many budding amateurs, Philip's story began with the gift of a shortwave radio receiver and listening to the shortwave bands. A ham operator for over 40 years, Philip likes CW, vintage equipment, QRP, and kit building.  Getting on the air is key to Phil...

Jeanne Socrates, VE0JS, who, once her current voyage ends hopefully at the end of August,  will have the distinction of being the oldest person to sail solo around the World without touching land or getting any help of any kind while underway. This interview conducted by satellite phone to Jeanne somewhere in the South Pacific near Tahiti. Ham radio has been key to Jeanne's voyages and this one es...

Phil Erickson, W1PJE, sits on a million watt UHF transmitter at the MIT Haystack Observatory, where he studies the atmosphere and radio propagation.  Phil is a long time radio guy but a newcomer to amateur radio. As you will hear in this QSO Today, the tools, modes, and technology of amateur radio are complimenting the research achievements of scientists like Phil, W1PJE.

Dino Papas, KL0S, leads the Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club in Williamsburg, Virginia, using the leadership skills that he acquired after 26 years in the US Army.  Dino is a frequent contributor to amateur radio magazines, including QST, offering his unique and needed perspective on our ham radio hobby. Along with his wife Toby, KL0SS, Dino provides a ham radio maker space in his garage to sh...

Ray Heffer, G4NSJ, commandeered the family shortwave radio, as a kid,  to further his interest in shortwave listening and ultimately amateur radio. Ray made his career as a television, radio, and audio visual equipment repairman, and now specializes in the repair and restoration of 1940's vintage AM radio sets.  I found this endeavor to be fascinating and Ray has created some clever and novel solu...

Steven Bible, N7HPR, made a career in the US Navy, spending almost two years under water on the Trident submarine.  Steve is a long time contributor to TAPR, the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Corporation, perhaps amateur radio's "Bell Labs".  Steve and I discuss his ham radio storym the developments of TAPR, and TAPRs contributions to advancing the state of the art in amateur radio.

Rod Moag, W5NDS, interests in radio and electronics paralleled an interest in American Folk and country music leading to advanced degrees in Linguistics and South Asian languages.  Ham radio plays a solid role throughout this story as it weaves it way in and out of Rod's professional career. Rod's musical career and performances are one of the diamonds in this episode of QSO Today.

Rich Zwirko, K1HTV, was quickly bitten by the DX bug in the late fifties and has gone on to log just about every DX entity on every band. Rich made a career of radio serving as a teenage broadcast engineer in his hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, and later ended his career at the Voice of America in Washington DC.  Getting on the air is Rich's mantra that he shares with us in this QSO Today

Glenn Johnson, W0GJ, began his ham radio journey as a teenager and from his love for chasing DX, has since been to many DX entities around the world including Heard Island, an attempt last year to land on Bouvet Island, and an upcoming DXpedition later this year to Pitcairn Island.  Glenn's interest and determination to provide these rare DX entities along with this DXpedition group, is worth the...

David Reed, W5SV, began his ham radio story in Mexico at the age of 6, and was undoubtedly one of Mexico's youngest hams at age 7.  W5SV has a rich and interesting story that includes stints in electronics technology, advanced education, as a US Marine Corps pilot, and as homicide detective. The twists and turns in this story makes this QSO Today an interesting ride.

Mark Ziegler's ham radio story began as a  youngster that moved him into a career as an electronics engineer with the famous Bell Laboratories.  Now retired, Mark enjoys operating from an RF quiet QTH in rural New Hampshire. Wind power is WA2ILB's alternative power source of choice and is one of the subjects that we discuss in this QSO Today.

Exploration of the edge of space, first by astronaut Jordan Kittinger in Project Man-High, began Bill Brown's, WB8ELK's, fascination with, adaptation of amateur radio to high altitude weather balloons and later to smaller pico balloons that Bill tracks around the world using amateur radio beacons that he fabricates for his balloon launches.  With over 600 launches to his credit, it easy to say tha...

Vi Barrett, W6CBA, celebrates 70 years as a radio amateur.  Vi's love for radio began with an uncle getting back on their air after the Second World War.  Growing up in Southern California, W6CBA became the first female radio dispatcher for the FBI, raised a family, operated phone patches for US servicemen during the Vietnam War. Still active on the air on both CW and SSB, W6CBA is my QSO Today.

Jerry Lewine, K6QU, began his career in radio as a young ham in 1959, that led to a career as a broadcast engineer, first as a teenager in his native Pennsylvania, through the Air Force, and later to markets in Hawaii and California.  While Jerry's broadcast radio career sidelined his ham radio adventure for a number of years, Jerry is back with a passion for CW and FT-8 while the current solar cy...

George Misic, KE8RN, is an RF and analog engineer by training, a collector of vintage American amateur radio equipment, and an early pioneer in the development of MRI or magnetic resonance imaging machines and whose name is on 38 patents around this technology.  George is a frequent author of articles for QST and Electric Radio Magazines, and is my QSO Today.

Jack Worth, WA0QZK, is a retired pastor with over 50 years of amateur radio operating experience who likes to QSO on CW from the Warsaw Telegraph Office.  Jack collects and restores antique Morse code telegraph keys and bugs and uses them to work the World and ragchew on QRP and a modified G5RV antenna. WA0QZK is my QSO Today.

Joe Everhart, N2CX, is well known is QRP circles for his technical contributions and articles in the ham radio magazines.  Along with George Heron, N2APB, my guest in Episode 151, of the QSO Today podcast, they produce a live talk show called Chat with the Designers, as well as present at the QRP Event, four days in May, that precedes the opening of the Dayton Hamvention in May.  Joe is a builder...

Howard Bernstein is the co-founder of the Long Island CW Club along with Rich Collins K2UPS,  where they train amateurs of every age to be CW operators over Zoom video conferencing. Howard has a long history in ham radio extending back over 50 years.  WB2UZE still has his first Drake line and is a collector of vintage things including old radios and automobiles. Howard is my QSO Today.

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...

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...

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...

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...