I hope you are enjoying my continuing series of posts on Amateur Radio. Occasionally, we get to have fun and come close to touching those who we watch on TV. Well, not exactly but today there was a special event that almost never happens.
What on earth am I talking about? Well, today there was a very special Amateur Radio event. From 9am to 1pm Pacific Daylight Time there was a special event station operating under the call sign K6H from the set of Last Man Standing, and I was able to work this station via D-star on their backup reflector 30C. I also am trying to work them in the next few minutes before the station shuts down on 10m, however conditions are pretty rough in my location at this time. All hams who establish contact can send QSL cards into the studio and they will receive a special K6H QSL card that’s depicted above. A QSL card is essentially a card that hams mail to each other confirming contact. Mine is below.
Last Man Standing is Tim Allen’s new show on ABC. On Last Man Standing, Tim plays Mike Baxter, the face of a fictitious store called Outdoor Man. In this show, he has 3 daughters as opposed to 3 sons. In a similar fashion to Home Improvement, Tim’s character Mike is the king of the hill at work but constantly battles with his wife and 3 daughters at home. It’s a fun show and will be premiering its 2nd season on Friday November 2nd at 8pm EDT/7 CDT.
So what does Last Man Standing have to do with Amateur Radio? Well Mike is an amateur radio operator that goes by the tongue in cheek call sign, KA0XTT. XTT stands for X Tim Taylor. This goes even further in that there is a station in Tim’s office at Outdoor Man. Ham Nation, a ham radio netcast on Leo Laporte’s Twit network has actually recorded a show from the set of Last Man Standing and shows the station on the set as well. Also, show producer John Amodeo is also a ham whose call sign is NN6JA.
While Mike Baxter has not actually been depicted using the radios just yet, all radios on the set are actually working radios and have even been used by show runners during breaks to establish some contacts. It’s my hope, as a ham, that Mike is actually shown using the radios. This is a great way to promote the hobby, and it has already inspired many new hams … plus it was really cool establishing contact with the special event station as well.
