Monday, August 17, 2020

Review of the 2020 QSO Today Online Expo

In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, there are no Hamfests or Amateur Radio expeditions being held anywhere in 2020. As an alternative, there was an online QSO TODAY EXPO held on the weekend of the 8th & 9th of August 2020.

Some 26,000 people registered for the event with 14,000 attending online over the weekend.

My own interest in the event was the online talks and a full list is shown below. Each one was about 30 minutes in duration and covered a wide variety of topics. Over the EXPO weekend and the following week, I've probably watched about two-thirds of the videos on offer.

When the videos were streamed live, I found the feed would fail and I'd have to re-enter the talk again. This problem didn't happen when I looked at the recordings later so I presume it was a bandwidth issue during the EXPO weekend.

The videos could be described as useful primers on subjects that you might be interested in. They certainly weren't as detailed as say some videos on YouTube but many were entertaining and interesting all the same.

Many of the talks had the slides available as a downloadable PDF which is useful to refer to after the event.

There was a Q&A session after each talk although I had no idea how to access this and I really didn't take the effort to find out.

There were commercial booths with products online as well although I didn't bother looking at these. Still, with 14,000 plus visiting the site, I'm sure plenty probably did.

I suspect that in future, we're going to see a lot more online events like this even when the COVID-19 pandemic is over. It removes the need and expense of having to travel long distances.

Maybe these online EXPO's may not have everything that a real physical EXPO has but there's a lot to be said for being able to attend from the comfort of your own home.

The videos can be viewed until the 9th of September 2020. 

Visit https://qsotoday.vfairs.com/

List of talks...

Keynote Address: COVID-19: Amateur Radio’s Impact On Problem Solving To Create A Global Response To The Pandemic

How to Solder - Steve Johnston, WD8DAS

The History of Heath Company, the G.I. Bill, and Economics of Restoration - Paul Topolski, W1SEX

Get Active! Get On The Air! - Don Keith, N4KC

Getting On the Air For Beginners, Having Fun With VHF - Bob Witte, K0NR

RigExpert Stick 230 - the most innovative antenna & cable analyzer” by Jason Johnston, KC5HWB

The Search For Amelia Earhart's L10E - Tom Vinson, NY0V

Building A New Shack - Vance Martin, N3VEM

Grounding And Bonding: The Essentials - Ward Silver, N0AX

Fully-Remote Amateur Radio Exam Administration- Marcel Stieber, AI6MS

CWOps CW Academy - Learning CW - Eric Silverthorn NM5M

HamSCI: Science With Your Ham Radio - Phil Erickson, W1PJE

Kit Building Techniques For Success - Joseph Eisenberg, K0NEB

Mountain Goats and Shack Sloths & Marconi and me A QRP adventure in Italy -Don Minkoff NK6A

Building The Future -David Cripe, NM0S

VP6R 160 Meters: Mutiny on the Bands! - Glenn Johnson, W0GJ

RFinder BT1 HT Radio

FT8 & FT4 An Introduction - Anthony Luscre, K8ZT

FlexRadio: An Introduction To Remote HF Operating - Michael Walker, VA3MW

Portable HF Operating - Mike Dahlhofer, K8MRD

Salt Water Amplifier: Key To QRP SSB DX - Thomas Robinson, G0SBW

The 630-Meter Band: Is It Practical For Amateur Use? - Steve Johnston, WD8DAS

DXing With Modern Software Defined Radios - Ria Jairam, N2RJ

Getting Started In HF - Michael Burnette, AF7KB

Portable Operating - John Jacobs, W7DBO

Having Fun With Morse - Anthony Luscre, K8ZT

Saltwater Effect: Fact Or Myth - Greg Lane, N4KGL

Cycle 24, Solar Minimum and Cycle 25 - Carl Luetzelschwab K9LA

PackTenna Portable HF Antennas: Think Like A Backpacker - George Zafaropoulos, KJ6VU

EME On a 40 Meter Dish - Dennis Kidder, W6DQ

FT8 DXpedition Mode: Will DXing Ever Be The Same? - Ned Stearns, AA7A

Tips for Being A Better Single Op Contester - Randy Thompson, K5ZD

GPS Today - John Ackermann, N8UR

The Slot Antenna: Undiscovered Country for Most Hams - John Portune, W6NBC

Getting Started On EME (Moon Bounce) With A Basic Station - Howard Sherer, AE3T

Remotely Controlling A Solar Station - Robert Norman, VK5SW

Is 3 dB Worth A Divorce? - Glenn Johnson, W0GJ

Building And Contesting On 10 GHz - Wayne Yoshida, KH6WZ

Simple HF Antennas - Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA

A 100W HF-6M Amplifier Project -Jim Veatch, WA2EUJ

Youth In Ham Radio - Carole Perry, WB2MGP

Youngsters On The Air - Introduction - YOTA Region 1

ARKnet Wireless Emergency Intranet - Marcel Stieber, AI6MS

From Rotators to Baluns, What's New At DX Engineering - Tim Duffy K3LR

21st Century Transceiver Design: The K4 High Performance Direct Sampling SDR - Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ

Audio Building Block for Hams - Mark Smith, KR6ZY

Send An Amateur Radio Balloon Around The World - Bill Brown, WB8ELK

FlexRadio Product Talk - Michael Walker VA3MW

Digging Dirt On Inductors: Experiments With Custom Magnetics Made From “Black Sand”- H.P. Pete Friedrichs, AC7ZL

3D Printing Microwave Antennas - Karen Rucker, KG5GAK

QSL Confidential - Jeff Murray, K1NSS

Qatar Oscar-100 Satellite - Zvi Segal, 4Z1ZV

Summits On The Air: Taking Ham Radio to New Heights - Keith Schlottman, KR7RK

Welcome to the Arduino - Glen Popiel, KW5GP

Hollow-State Homebrewing - Grayson Evans, KJ7UM

Everything you need to know about Lithium Batteries- Marcel Stieber, AI6MS

Everything You Need To Know About USB And Serial interfaces -Bob Wilson, N6TV

Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellites - Tom Schuessler N5HYP


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