Dear Friend,

Last night I sent out a message to you about the Home Brew opportunities at the Expo. Here is the message link.

You may have gotten a 404 message that says that the links are broken. The reason is that we were updating our systems to add the schedules and downloadable collateral material for the presentations next Saturday, and took our server off line for a few minutes.

So your next question must be: "Eric, after all that has happened in the evolution of the Expo, why make these changes in the last week of the Expo. Haven't you learned anything?"

This is a good question, and it requires an answer.

The success of the last 3 Expos, even with the problems that we had last year with the technology, created an opportunity for me to create a team around the Expo, especially in this time when people were losing their jobs do to Covid 19 shutdowns. Brad, Emanuela, Rachel, Colleen, AB, and Vlad are all team members, living mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere in time proximity to Israel, where I live and work.

Your $10.00 ticket allowed me to help support at least six families during this period of time, and in one case to help to rescue an entire family from a regime that tortured our team member for working with an Israeli - me. Thanks G-d, he and his family are now living in a new country, and he is back helping write the code that displays what we are doing at the Expo. His story is unbelievable and I am grateful to G-d that he is alive and well.

Unfortunately, Vlad, is in the Ukraine, and is under attack. He is a very talented programmer, and his work has been to create the presentation, speakers, and moderators sections of our website. While we hope and pray for Vlad and his family's health and safety, we had to move his tasks to AB, who has now resurfaced to fix what needs fixing, and he did it last night.

If you know me, then you know that I love amateur radio. I love to share what I know about it and have the blessings of the many amazing guests and speakers who contribute their expertise to the Expo and to the QSO Today Podcast. I am grateful to the Expo Sponsors who have stayed with the Expo because they believe in its vision for the long term viability of our hobby. The QSO Today "enterprise" is my attempt to bring history and knowledge to hams all over the world, in English, as a way to build amateur radio expertise, and at a higher level than what is available now. While live events are coming back (I will be in Dayton at FDIM and Hamvention), I still see a need for great amateur radio content to folks who want to enjoy it from their ham shack.

Just this week, I received a "job description" from the Israel Amateur Radio Club, looking for volunteer hams to maintain our network of DMR and Analog repeaters, that run the entire length of the country. From my estimation, there are very few hams with this expertise these days, in Israel, to keep these systems alive and thriving. I am volunteering to not only help, but to also teach other, younger hams, what needs to be done to keep these systems operational. This is just an example of the challenges we face and how I think we should meet these challenges. We have to create opportunities for learning, experimenting, building, and fixing.

You will see and hear in Courtney Duncan's, N5BF, Keynote Address, that amateurs have played an incredible role in human history, in BIG PROJECTS at NASA, in the last 100 years. This is because as amateurs, we have to manage multiple skill sets to be successful. We are unique. We need to continue to create knowledgeable hams with "hands on" knowledge and opportunities to learn.

The team is working long hours this week in the run up to the Expo to make it a success. Our "lounges" are open now for you to try. I am assigning volunteers to tasks today and have some training that has to be done before we open. We will have our stumbles and gaffs because our Expo has lots of moving parts. We will beg your forgiveness in advance and ask you to go with the flow.

We will have a successful event and we hope that you will share it with us, knowing that your participation means so much more than watching a few sessions and visiting with your friends.

PS - if you would like to reply to this message, I will only be able to reply after the Expo. You can also visit me in my QSO Today lounge in the Expo.

73,

Eric Guth, 4Z1UG

QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo

QSO Today Podcast