E1103: Preparing for the Belton HAM EXPO This Weekend! - podcast episode cover

E1103: Preparing for the Belton HAM EXPO This Weekend!

Apr 29, 202350 min
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Episode description

Join today's Lunchtime Livestream where I talk about the Belton Ham Expo this weekend. We will be heading down late Thursday night, camping at the Expo Center that night and Friday night. Friday during the day is a great time to hang out, talk with people and see some used wares for sale - IF the weather is good. This weekend's forecast looks promising, so I am looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Website - https://tarc.org/hamexpo

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.

Transcript

The Ham Radio two point zero audio podcast rip. Thank you for downloading and listening to this podcast. So basically what I do is I take all the audio clips out of my videos and upload them to spreaker, and then from there they're spread out to iTunes and SoundCloud and now Amazon Audible as well. But I want to welcome you and thank you for joining the audio section of

this series on Ham Radio. I hope you enjoy it, and I would appreciate you leaving us a comment or a review on whatever podcast service you're listening from. Thank you in seventy three. I hope you enjoy it. Transition and unmute. Good afternoon, good noon show. Oh there it is this afternoon. That's twelve o one. Good noon to everybody. Good afternoon, Ham Radio two point er lunchtime livestream. It is good to be back in

the shock. It is good to be back in Texas. It is good to be back in back, just back back in a good Internet connection environment. Liberty Cave. I was back here a minute ago looking for Mike on FT eight because he is it. He's at big Ben this week. We were at big Ben last week, and I'm telling you what big Ben is far enough away. I guess where. I worked a lot of Texas, North Texas and Houston, Texas stations on twenty meter phone from Big Ben last

week. Now, if I'm activating a park around here, I can't hear anybody from Texas. So I was hoping to get Mike in the log book today, but he was. I saw his hamler come across a couple of times on twelve twenty meters yesterday, and I tuned down to that frequency. I couldn't hear. I could barely hear him in the noise. I could hear all the stations calling him. I could hear the pilot he's working, but I couldn't hear him. So I've yet to get him. And I

can't see him on seventeen meter ft eight right now either. But seventeen meters I don't know. Seventeen meters might be a little bit too. I might be too close to him on seventeen meters. So I was hoping to get him on twenty meter phone. But but yeah, here we go. Okay, So special shout out to all the folks in green Text today, all you YouTube channel members. A special welcome to W five FBG who just joined us AC three. I k Ed is in there. One. Luis Valentine

is in there. Good afternoon, racer XO seven. I saw you in there a minute ago. W A w NA don in five s K T K O four PUU Katie nine VN c oh, Hey there's Lee. What's up Lee? W five l ee. Good to see you there today. Yes, Don MTC is going to Belton. You should really sign up on their email list. He send an email yesterday and I texted him this morning and I'm like, dude, because he said something in his email about coming down on Saturday and setting up Saturday, and I'm like, dude, we're

going down Thursday night. I was like, if you want me to cording you off a spot next to us or something, let me know because I'll get there if you don't get there till Saturday. And then he texted back He's like, I'll probably be there before that. It's like, oh right,

so yeah, hopefully I'll be set up right now. Dawn. You know where we were that time that I had my big camper down there and you stayed the night with us. I'm gonna park roughly in that same area because there won't be a Thursday. Typically when I go down on Thursday evening, it's there's like five or six people in the parking lot, and they tend to be a little bit more toward towards the east than I am, so I usually park a couple of rows over, but we'll be We'll be

parked roughly about the same spot, and I hope that EMPTYC can come over there and up out next to us. Last time, I think he got there kind of late and he had to set up on the other side when you pulled in off the street. He had to set up on the left side. We're over on the right side when you pull in that first pull in off the street, so that is where that is. But yeah,

MTC will be there. He usually plays it by ear watching the weather, and the weather is supposed to be really nice this weekend, so it should be a great, great weekend. All right, A couple of things. We're gonna talk about Belton. Those of you who don't know what Belton is side boom, I'm disappointed, dude. You need to try to drive a little bit north sometimes. Man, it's not gonna hurt you to drive. It's not that cold upier it's not that cold up here, really, but

you know, drive north sometimes it's all right. You've got a Dodge, it's not a Chevy. It'll make it. You're all right, So yeah, it's good. A couple of announcements. We're going to talk about Belton. Belton's a local ham fest. It's called the Belton ham Expo. Excellent place to do swaps and used gear trading. So and take a couple of used items I have to get rid of. Maybe all right, So those of you who may have not been here before or maybe you forgot. Scott

is doing better. I invited him to come on to today's stream and I sent him a Discord message and said, hey, are you going to Belton, And I did not get an answer from him, So not sure if I'm not sure if he'll be there or not. But we are still taking donations for him on go fund me. He's doing much better. He's been home for a couple of weeks and he's recovering. But he says the medical bills are still coming in. So yeah, he was in an automobile accident.

If you haven't heard, he was in an automobile accident. Totaled his car had to have surgery. He was awakened conscience before the surgery after the surgery, so I don't think it was life threatening, but at the same time, I think it was a little bit we'll be able to walk again type thing because it was something spinal. But we set up a gofund me for him, and if you haven't had a chance to donate yet, there is the link in the chat, and thank you to those who have donated.

We've raised six thousand dollars so far out of a ten thousand dollars goal. The ten thousand dollar goal is just an arbitrary number I picked out of the air, doesn't mean anything. I just said why not. And with go fund me, you can not meet your goal or meet your goal, you still get all the money. So I've already transferred all that money to him. He's made a withdrawal and that's helping him out so great. Thank you to everybody who who's helped out Scott. Yeah, people are talking about

the gun show. Yeah, there's a gun show. There's there's normally there's a gun show and a dog show inside the Expo Center the same weekend as the Beltenham Expo. I I don't know exactly how they coordinate that. This

is actually kind of late for Belton this year. Usually for a number of years they were the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October, and something got fouled up with their schedule a couple of years ago, and then they were doing like middle of March, like it was too cold, or it could have been too cold, or it might have been spring break weekend for some people. This one like middle of April. This is the latest it's been in a long time. But that's good because the weather is

a little bit warmer than it was a month ago. And I was out of town the first weekend in April, so I'm glad that glad that we're gonna have that ham Fest. So yeah, definitely make um, definitely make plans to go to belt In this weekend if you can. You had snow and ice this winter. That's why I moved to Houston area. Worm is good. I was in Galveston during the snow and ice, so blah to you. I was south of you. Uh yeah, it's please copy. What's up, Kyle? How are you today? So yeah, Tom,

you should come into town for it. Dog and gun show and ham Fest. What's what's wrong with that? All right? So here's the ham XFO web site. Put this link in the check as well. Bell County Expo Center. It is right off of Interstate thirty five you exit Interstate thirty five. I want to say it's exit number. Gosh, I can't remember. Now, there's a significant number. It's Highway one twenty one, which we have a highway one twenty we have a state Highway one twenty one appear.

I think it's like farm the Market Road one twenty one up there, or maybe it's it's something like that. But I remember the exit. I used to know the exit number. I don't remember the exit number right now.

But it is right out you exit the highway. You go a half mile west and it's right there, and it's this big, huge looking expo center that is um In fact, if you just google it, say Belton Expo Center, you can't you get You can see it easily from the highway, and that's what it looks like, right Yeah, that's what it looks like right there. You can easily see that from the highway and just look for that dome thing. So it's it's inside it's actually around the corner. They've

got like age. Our show is not in the dome. It's in the like the garage area. But it's a huge garage. You can drive a car into it. A lot of people set up inside of there for tailgating, indoor tailgating out of their cars because you can. Because he's got these huge garage doors. You can drive up to Stephen. Thank you. Exit two ninety two. Okay, yeah, I figured I knew it was somewhere around the high two hundreds, but I couldn't remember. I could remember what

it was, So exit two ninety two. Yeah, you exit two ninety two, go west, which for me, that'll be turn right because I'm combing from the north. If you're coming up from Austin, San Antonio, you'll turn left, go west for like a half mile. It's right. You can't miss it. It's right there. Look for the big parking lot with all the freaking antennas on it. You will not miss it. It's right there. So so that's happening this year. This is one of the

few ham fests I know about that happens twice a year. It happens every spring, usually around the April time frame, like I said a minute ago. Sometimes they do it in late March, usually around on the first second weekend in April, and then it will happen again, happen again this fall in October. I don't know what the dates are really. They used to have a thing up here, they used to have a thing up here for future dates, but I don't I don't see that. I'm not gonna go

dig for it right now. So you know, Robert usually makes that show done, So that's a good question. He's usually there. He's been there lest two or three times. I've been there in his big fifth wheel that he brings. So but yeah, good deal. So yeah, the show says it goes from like seven thirty to two on Saturday, but it will be done by noon. We are probably going to pack up about noon and maybe even a little bit before. We'll see how the show goes. We'll

see how the crowd's going. It does not go till two. There's one guy that showed up a couple of years ago and he's like, man, I just got off work. He got there at like twelve thirty. He's like, I just got off work. Everybody's gone like, yeah, it doesn't last long. Now Friday it'll go all day, but Friday's the unofficial show. And to me, if the weather's nice, Friday is the fun show because it's outdoors, no structure at all. It's just people set up

in the parking lot. The guy with the big bumper pool. UM smoker will be there, I'm sure, and it'll be smoking brisket and sausage and breakfast food tomorrow morning and whatnot, or um Friday and Saturday morning rather, and it'll be There'll be a lot of other people set up there selling used gear out of the back of their card. It's just a fun it's very laid back, very fun time to be out there on Friday, to set up in the in the nice weather. And we will have Yeah, I'll

be out there with the RV trailer. UM, we'll have um A radio set up and UM just vhf UHF radio. There's a there's a really good repeater in Eddie, Texas. Eddy Eddie, Texas. I want to say it's one forty five three ten something like that, but look up the repeater in Eddie, Texas. It's like eighteen hundred feet in the air. Has fantastic coverage. You can pretty much hit that repeater from Hillsborough driving south on

thirty five all the way to Belton. And if you're on DMR, which I'll be monitoring DMR Texas statewide, the Troy Texas repeater on the Sea Bridge has excellent coverage in that area. Troy's right next to Belton, So Troy Texas repeater for DMR Texas statewide talk Group three one eight, and then the Eddie repeater for analog two meter analog, and then there'll be probably some people on six top five two as well, I would imagine. But yeah,

that's where we'll be. Should be a really fun show. I'm really looking forward to it. I didn't get to go last March. This time last year, I was in Huntsville for the Hamside event and the Gigaparts Ham Radio Days show, so I missed the one last March. I went to the one in October of last year and it was fun. I had a good time there and so I'm looking forward to being back here this weekend. Let's

see watching the chat. Yeah yeah. Vent Bryce says approximately eighty percent of the population Texas lives within two hundred miles out of this true because it's pretty much in central Texas. Activate a Texas Tip Parks in the Air after if you get done early, we're we're going to we're going to talk about that. Uh, there is a one forty seven one forty and Eddie. But

I thought it was maybe that's it. Maybe that's it. Um. I was thinking it was like three ten one five or one six three ten something like that. It could be. It could be one seven one forty. That could be it. Um, I don't I don't remember. It is the Eddie repeater and it's the one on the tall building. So if you find out which call sign that is, look up their website and go find the very tall repeater that that might be it. That might be it.

I don't remember. I only use it twice here, so I don't remember. I can't remember it. Um. Yeah, I saw you, Evan, see you. There be the so good deal all right? So yeah. So in addition to that, the official Support your Parks weekend for Parks on the Air is the third full weekend of every three months January, April, July, and October. This is the third full weekend in isn't it

sure? It should be? Yeah? This is the third full weekend in April, because April first was a Saturday, so it's the first weekend, so this is the third full weekend in April, so we will be we are set up. I've already got a spot reserved at Cedar Hill State Park. We're gonna take the RV. We're gonna leave out of there probably about noon nish on Saturday, drive north to Cedar Hill State Park and camp there Saturday night and do parks on the air Saturday afternoon evening Saturday night. Sunday.

I'm probably go home Sunday afternoon sometime. Don't really have a pre planned time to leave yet. I think check outs at like eleven, but I can't remember. I might have reserve it for Sunday night just so we could get a late checkout. I can't recall right now. So if you are in the Cedar Hill the North Texas area, Cedar Hills, kind of south of Dallas Fort Worth, just kind of in the southern part of the metroplex. If you are in that area, come out to Cedar Hill State Park

and hang out with us. I don't remember what site number we're in. I could probably look that up here in a second, but we wanted to go to Mother neph State Park is a state park this just north of Belton on Interstate thirty five. And apparently they have a very small number of RV spots because when I checked, like three months ago, they were full.

We were totally full for this weekend, so we couldn't go there. So I checked a number of spots and the reason we landed on Cedar Hill is because it is because they had RV spots, RV hook up spots available at the time. So and I wasn't going to have my I take MARV to Belton pretty much every time anyway, so I was already going to be in Belton. So that's what that's that's why I was looking for an RV spot.

Okay, So Keith says, one five, three ten, I'm pretty sure is that the one that's on the you know what, maybe they're both on the Tall building or Tall Tower, I don't know. Three ten and five z x J and onety W five BC. It's one of those. I want to say it's the three ten repeater. I want to say the three ten repeater is the one that I'm monitor because it's pretty much available. You can stay into that repeater almost the whole drive once you get to the

Hillsboro area where thirty five E and thirty five W come together. Once you get there, you can be on that repeater all the way to Builton, which is like a two hour drive. So anyway, that is um that is that the three ten is at fifteen hundred and fifty feet Okay that yeah, I was thinking it was the three ten repeater. I was thinking that that so okay, good, good deal. So yeah, that's the one I'll be on. So yeah, state parks are support Your parks is happening

this weekend along with Belton. So it's too bad that Belton is far away from a state park. But we're gonna go up there on Saturday and we're gonna activate Saturday night, like I said, Saturday afternoon evening night Sunday, probably leave it out of there sometime Sunday afternoon. So we'll be on parks in the air from Kilo two nine ninety six, which is the Cedar Hill State Park PODA designation. So there's that right there, Cedar Hill State Park.

Put that in the chat. You can go check that out. So I will have a few things for sale out of my garage. I will not I will not be bringing mystery boxes, So no, that's not gonna happen. But have you guys ever seen these drive over standoffs that I have custom built for me. I've got two of these. This green one in the back has been sold. These two black ones are left. And I've had these for like a year and a half. I had like ten of

them, and I sold all of them except these two. And I need to get rid of these two just they're just they've just been sitting in the backyard. So I've got one that I'm keeping myself, plus these two. So I'm gonna sell these two. Actually I might have three. I might have three, but I'm gonna sell. I have those set up at the table. Those of you who saw my live stream about the Japanese version of

the Ft eight one eight, I'm gonna sell that radio. In fact, it's sitting right yeah, it's right there, right right there, because I was able to nab a US version of that radio from Gigaparts. I got I bought their display model after they sold out of all the brand new ones. So um, so I'm gonna sell the Japanese model has not been touched. I have not hacked it, Mars mouded nothing brand new in a box, never been powered up. And if you want that FT eight one eight,

I will have it on the table this weekend if you. If I don't sell it this weekend, I will probably put it on ham Radioauctions dot Com see if I can sell it over there, and last resort, I'll put it on QRS. I will also have my I think I'm gonna bring my I have an IC seventy two hundred that I haven't used in forever and I'm gonna bring it and try to get rid of it too. I need to recoup some money. So did you guys see that DX Commander sale that

Callum did over Easter weekend? Who bought a DX Commander expedition? He had a Dxander expedition for a little bit off, a little bit of money off plus free shipping, which shippings like forty bucks. So that was welcomed sale that Callum did. Well, I bought. I bought three of them at

his sale price. I bought three of them myself, and yes I'm gonna keep one so that so that you guys can ras me about not building it okay, Actually, Callum and I kind of have a plan for that, and two of them I'm gonna give away on a on a live stream up coming. I didn't have anything planned for a giveaway this month, so I'm probably gonna do a giveawey next month. We might do a we might do a Dayton pre Dayton giveaway live stream or something like that. I don't know.

So we're got a couple of things to give away. I got a couple of O'Shane radios from Better Safe Radio to giveaway. Yeah, so I bought three, gonna giveaway two, two different winners. So that's a thing. Um, I had a purpose for saying that. What was I saying? Oh so I need to recoup Yeah, so I'm selling these radios because I need to recoup some money. My FT eight one eight Japanese version that's down here. My IC seventy two hundred that I haven't used in a long

long time. I've got a Motorola XPR fifty five fifty that I haven't used in a very long time. It's got in fact, it's got old firmware on it. And um, I've got a I've got a couple of other things. At one point in time, I had a Cobweb. Well I still I have this MFJ Cobweb intendant that MFJ had sent me. I set it up at the Deer Lease. We used it at fuel Day, like two or three years ago, and it's I broke it down. It's in my garage. If someone wants that cobwayed antenna, you can have it.

Just take it because I'll bring it with me. You can pick it up and take it. You have to put it back together. I broke it down, not all the way, but I broke it down, and it'll do. I think it's the five band version. I think it's the five band version. So they've got two or three versions of that now. But it was donated to me. I did a video with it and then I'm just gonna give it. I just need it out of my out of my garage. So I might have a couple of other things for my garage in

there. Really really trying to clean out my garage get rid of some stuff. That's what the mystery box stuff is coming from. But yeah, so that'll be that'll be belt in Hamfest this weekend. So also this is gonna be the opposite wedge. It said, I am looking for. I really really really like my Icon I C seven thousand I have in my truck, but it's getting a little long in the tooth. I have a problem with the Icy seven thousand, which is not a radio related problem. Let me

explain. I have all of my radio's mounted behind the back seat in my four door pickup, okay, and I have remote cables run from behind the back seat up to the front where I have a custom mount that I built where I have all the heads all the heads of the radios on it. Currently I have the FtM three hundred, the Icy seven fifty one hundred, and the Oshane KG one thousand G Okay, I have a two twenty radio

I'm about to put in there as well. So I had a problem with my icon a while back where I would turn it on, listen just fine tune through the band, and when I keyed up the microphone, the transmit light would come on. But when you talked in the microphone, you can't see the meter moving. It's almost like the microphone is dead. I was like, okay, it was a problem with the microphone. I traded the

microphone out. Same issue, like okay, So I removed the ICE seven thousand from the back of the truck and replaced it with my second I see seven thousand, same power cable, same antenna, same remote cable, same face, same mike. Worked great for about two months, and then the same thing happened again. So I'm like, Okay, there's something either in that head or maybe in the microphone jack of that head that's causing me to

be able to key the microphone. The transmit light turns red on the face of the radio, but when you talk into the microphone, it's not producing r F there's no signal coming out. So yeah, so I need to and those radios are getting kind of old, bouncing around in the truck, blah blah blah, so I need a good The problem is that there's not a decent mobile radio out there right now. Okay, this is gonna ruffle some feathers, and I don't miss my show, so I don't really care.

Why not an FT eight ninety one. You want to know the real reason I don't want it. I have an FT eight in n aney one. You want to know the real reason I don't want to put the FT eight in ninety one in the truck because that's what everybody else has. I told my wife that. She just gave me that smirk. She's like, yeah, that sounds like you. That's what everyone has. You know why everyone has that freaking radio right now because it's the only in production, truly

mobile one hundred radio that's out that's available right now. Okay, Now, you might argue that the seventy one hundred is and I might end up going to a seventy one hundred. I might end up going to a seventy one hundred, but the funky buzzled screen on the seventy one hundred is cumbersome to mount. But I did recently learn that the seventy one hundred screen does have a tripod mount screw on the bottom of it, and I can work with that with the custom mount that I build. So I might end up with

a seventy one hundred. I might if I find a good deal on the seventy one hundred at Belton this weekend, I might go ahead and grab that and switch that out for my mobile radio. But what I'm really looking for, what I'm really looking for is a Kinwood TS four a DHX. I would really like to find the two hundred WAT, not the hundred watt model,

the HX, the two hundred watt model. If anyone has or wants to get rid of or knows where to get a Kinwood TS four a DHS and and that's a little that radio is kind of old two, just like the seven thousand, but it's a two hundred watt radio, and Kinwoods have excellent receivers. And I don't care about the freaking d star that's in the seventy one hundred. That's another reason I was like, ah, but you can get you can get sometimes, well sometimes sometimes you can get decent used

prices on seventy one hundreds. So yeah, so maybe seventy one hundred. I kind of think I'll be able to find a seventy one hundred before I'll be able to find a four X, so I might just go with the seventy one hundred. But here's what's going to happen. This is this is how my life works, this is this is my luck. I'll find this every one hundred for good price and buy it, put it in the truck, and about a week later I'll find a TS for ADHX for a good

price. So that's that's that's what that's what's going to happen probably, you know, yeah, yeah, Ed, you want to sell it, dude? Ka nine ees, He says he's using a for a d h X. You want to sell it, let me know, send me an email. K C five HWB at gmail dot com tc fits. Thank you for the super chat, buddy. Good to see you here today. I don't know if you're I can't remember if you're in Texas or not, dude, but go to Belton if you can, so, yes, let me look

at the chat here. The seventy one h six meter two meter for forty all mode in Mars moud it'll do CD whatever CD is, Citizens band, not compact disc, GMRS, Marine, VHF, etc. Yes, it will, and then and so will the seven thousand I have in the truck right now, which is already marsmoded. Yeah, so yeah, yeah, seventy one hundred is it's touchscreen. It's black and white, seven thousands of color screen. But the seventy one hundreds and black and white screen. It's

um seventy one hundreds of decent radio, don't be wrong. And it has a built in soundcard. Sevente hundred is built in sound card, so I could do FT eight while I'm driving. That's safe, but uh, hardy dirks, I have it likes talk? I think you mean let's talk. It's okay. Send an email KC five HWB at gmail dot com. Send the defective unit up to me. I'll troubleshoot it for practice. I might

do that. I don't think it's the unit though. That's the thing because it happened with two radio bodies on the same control cable, same control head, and same microphone. So I really, really, really really don't think that it's the body. It's not the radio. I need to put the radio on my bench here. I just haven't done that yet. So does four meter? I have two for remote? Oh that's good. Not that. I not that I need four meters Keith TS four ad x F nine

hundred dollars on qth depending on the condition. That's probably not a bad price. That's probably not a bad price. I have one Jason Z five ZPM Z five Are you a Z five? Wow? Where the heck is that Z five q R Z oh? Gosh, I gotta log back in hold on Z five ZPM. I assume that your call sign. It looks like a call sign Z five ZPM. Uh, I'm gonna guess you mistyped that. So is that a KZY five in Z five? I don't know, Hardy, I don't know what your call sign is, but but yeah,

send me an email either way. I don't I don't care what your call sign is. Let's send me an email. Currently, do not have a car amount, card amount or a field tech? What are you talking about, dude? Um in five ZPM? Gotcha? Gotcha? Okay, so you are in the US. Good deal, dude, thank you? Yeah, email me or a field tech. I'm not sure where you're talking about with the currently do not have a card amount? What? D Yeah? I got it done. Thanks, So yeah, let's go do a poda.

Yeah, that's what we're doing on Saturday. Philip, you're a KI five. Are you in Texas? Are you planning on coming to Bell? Plan to go to Cedar Hill State Park on Saturday afternoon? Everyone's invited. I mean I only have I have my RV with three beds in it, one for me, one for Frank, went for Mike. So my my RV spot is spoken for. But anybody can come hang out with this. I picked an RV spot that had a little bit of a kind of a yard next to it, so we'll be able to set up a nintenna or

two there and just do some PODA. So um. I did not rent a pavilion or anything like that. I didn't even look and see if they had those. They probably do, but I just wanted to hang at the RV spot. But anybody's welcome to come by. Y'all can go find a parking spot somewhere and walk over or ride your e bike over something like that. Hardy had that radio out at one of your support your part weekend events. Really Oh yes, it was in a go box. Right, it was in a go box, I think. Okay, yeah, man,

cool? Even better the radio already been in Texas then that, you know, that's just extra win. What bands is MFJ, Cobweb have Hey Wayne, what's up buddy? How are you? Oh? I have to look. I want to say it's six, ten, fifteen, seventeen and twenty. I think I think something like that. I think it's five bands. I think that's it. I think it's it's either six and ten or it's ten and twelve, ten through twenty it's either six through twenty skipping twelve meters,

or it's ten through twenty including twelve meters something like. It's there. If you go look up the MFJ cobweb, they have like three versions. The one that's the oldest one, that's the one I have. They sent it to me when it was brand new. It's basically a copy of the radio waves cobweb. Yeah, so it's a little bit hard to tune, but once you get there, it's it works well. So twenty to seven,

I think you're right done. I think it skips twelve meeting. I think it's twenty to six and it skips twelve meters if I remember correctly. So yeah it does. It has all the contest bands but not all the work bands. So there you go. Well blow twenty meters anyway above twenty meters Chriss's Belt and Friday also, so unofficially yes, in fact, you know what, there will be people there in the parking lot tomorrow afternoon tomorrow

around midday. I will get there tomorrow evening. They have an unofficial tailgate that happens on Friday just because people show up early. The show doesn't officially start until Saturday morning, but load in is on Friday. That's why a lot of people get there on Friday to load it who are going to load in to the to the indoor area. Load end starts at like ten or ten thirty in the morning, I think Friday morning. So will people be

people there in the parking lot. A few people there in the parking lot tomorrow night. Most people will get there on Friday day and either camp in the parking lot or grab a hotel nearby and load in on Friday for the show on for the official indoor show on Saturday. So the unofficial outdoor show is Friday. That's the part that I like. If the weather's nice, which it's supposed to be, and then the then they'll be outdoor tailgating on

Saturday as well. And more people will show up on Friday night late on Friday night because they have to work Friday, so they'll be outdoor tailgating on Friday, and there will be indoor festivet indoor swap fest on Saturday only. So has anyone been doing APRS Thursday HF new No not on h not on h I did not have I was in Big Ben this time last week so I did not try it from there because I couldn't find a nearby iGATE. But I'm planning on trying it tomorrow. Bring your own chameleon bag if you

want to sell it. Maybe I don't know that chameleon antenna is long enough. It doesn't fit in the gigaparts bag very well. So I thought about putting that old antenna back in that old bag because I don't know. I haven't decided yet, but we will see, we will see. So I'll have a few things out there. Oh hambone, dad, I use a seventy one hundred molds nice to have one sixty seven meter in one box. That is what my C seven thousand does. But you know what, I

don't even have an intentna plugged into the vhfuh port. I never use my VHFUHF side of the seven thousand. Now it's there if ever need it. If I'm out in the field and um it just uh, you know, my fifty one hundred dies, then I can to the back and plug in and use VHF so great, But I never have I never have. I thought it would be cool to have that in the truck, but I never use it, not even and what my hope was to always put up some sort of squat, small squalo on the top of the truck and use it

sideband. But I never did get around to that. I might do that one of these days. If I end up with a seventy one hundred, that might be what I do. Do some two meters side band. That'd be fun. Frank Um, No, she did not make me shave my beard. I got tired of it, and that's why I shaved off. You're the first one in notice that. Thank you. I actually did that more than a week ago. But I haven't been live for a while,

so yeah, I'll grow it back. I like to change it up every now and then, So yeah, you can say I haven't shaved since I did shave it, since I cut it all off, I haven't shaved it all. Can the seventy one hundred seven thousand except GPS input like the seventy one hund I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't think so. I mean the seventy one hundreds a newer and more advanced radio. Don't get me wrong, But everyone's talking about, oh, well it does

VHF. Well, so did my seven thousand, and I never use it. It's my point. So um yeah, yeah, yeah, um. I don't know if it accepts GPS input or not. Don't know. Uh, let's see easy on the bud light, you'll grow moves. I haven't drink, but I haven't had a bud light in three years. Drinks that stuff. Everybody's all everybody's all upset about bud light for their new uh sponsor. I'm not gonna get into that right now. I'm not going to talk about it, but I'm like, who the hell cares? Who drinks that

crap? Anyway, I don't know. There you go, We're prior to you, buddy. H FT eight on two meters is a whot. Yeah, Wayne, I have done FT eight on two meters. It is fun. You are correct that that's true. That's that's true. So so the seventy one does have a ton sound car and now talking about it ft eight a minute, so it'll do f tight on two meters. That is a good point. That is a good point. Seven thousand won't do that well, not natively. Uh A digi rag fixes all that. But yeah,

yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. So and quite Frank. I mean, you know, if if N five zpm hits me up and he has one, he has a good price on that eight four a d h X, I might I might use it because, let's face it, I want to do the main reason I want to do the major reason I want mobile HF is to do mobile HF. Okay, so two hundred wat's mobile HF with my tar heel of four hundred. Yeah, yeah, that's uh, that's that's what I want to do. So yeah,

I see one scans fast on the Okay, that's good to know. It's good to know. I'm just reading, uh reading the chat here guys. So yeah, let's look at this over here. Okay, cool, I got some more people watching, So welcome to the stream if you just joined us. Talk about Belton ham Expo this weekend, which is in Belton,

Texas. It's about two and a half hours south of Fort Worth, well about two hours south of downtown Fort Worth and about an hour or so north of Austin, just south of Temple in Waco, and it is the funnest ham Fest in Texas twice a year every year in my opinion, if the weather is nice, which it's supposed to be this weekend, So drive up or down Interstate thirty five exit two nine two, go west for a quarter to a half mile. It's right there behind the Hotel Big Dome building.

You can't miss it. So go to Bell County Expo Center Friday if you can, Saturday if you can't, and meet us there and hang out and have some fun. And then after the festivities are about about noontime when everything starts to wind down on Saturday, we're gonna head to Cedar Hill State Park and work the support your Parks weekend for Parks on the air. So you want to see something that's really kind of sad but sad, But I also am a little bit proud, a little bit proud because I caused this to

happen. That's a bean the bee in like an actual bean. No, I think that's a yellow jacket. What is that? Hold on? Come here, freaking go away. I keep the door open during the day because it's nice outside. Shut it when I live stream it. Okay, all right, So uh let's see bump. So you want to see something that's really kind of unique. F is number five on the activator's board for Cedar

Hill State Park KG five HJ has activated twelve times. And you know why he's done that because I gave him a G ninety, So that's my fault. Yeah, Yeah, that's good though. That's good though. That's that's that's that's fun. It's fun to see that. It's fun to see that Frank's been down there. He did that. He did the smartest thing I've seen him doing a long time, which he went down there last Saturday Sunday whenever it was Frank, and he activated right before the day change, the

late he activated late shift. So if you look over here on the right, he's got one hundred and forty five phone contacts on April ninth and one hundred and seven more on April tenth, and that was for one trip. The clock rolled over and he worked everybody again, which is a smart way to do it if you want to get a bunch of contacts in your log

in a short period of time. So yeah, so everyone congratulate Frank that he's on the leaderboard somewhere, and look at his last two act Yeah I know, yeah, that's what I'm talking about, his last two activations. But yeah, he has the FTDX ten now. But he didn't. He hadn't activated that park twelve times with the FTDX ten. He started doing that park after I gave him the G ninety, which is good, which is why I game the G ninety. It was given to me my MFJ,

so I gave it to him. There we go parks in the air, baby, That is all it's about. So we're gonna activate that park again this weekend. So I think I've activated that park twice. So it's about a thirty minute drive from my house. You should have come to Mother Nef State Park for PODA. It's like thirty minutes. Yeah, I'm a minx of the Black Veil cool name. I mentioned that a minute ago. I have I'm taking my RV to Belton, be camping there Thursday and Friday night.

And Mother Neff didn't have any available RV spots for that weekend. I checked like three months ago, maybe maybe two months ago, like in February. I checked that, and I'm like that they don't have any available RV spots. So yeah, I would rather have gone to Mother Neph because I've never activated Mother Neph, never even been to that part before. But I

couldn't take I couldn't camp there that night. So I found the closest one to us, closest one between Belton and Home that had some available RV spots. And that's why we're going to UM. That's why we're going to uh Cedar Hill State Park, PoTA On. So there we go. Yeah, you didn't even notice that, did you? For I bet you didn't even notice that you just uploaded your log Hey, congrats on uploading your logs, by the way, But you just stopped, loaded your logs and went to

work, didn't you. You probably he probably even know. Yeah, go look at the website sometimes, Frank, it's all good. It's all good. I have watched this. Nope, Nope, that's not right. Uh I can't. Yeah, there it is. Okay. So Galveston Island State Park, I am number four with twenty three activations. I don't even live there. That's a fun. That's a fun. I've got eighteen hundred. I'm number four on the QSOs as well, almost have a double kilo on

it. Not quite, but we're going back there in late April, and I'll be back at UM. I'll be back. I get some more activations under my belt. Okay, don K three h five zero Is that the one in Richardson Purtis Creek State Park? Where is that? I don't know where that is. Purtis Cree east of gun Barrel City. Okay, you said three oh five, Oh right, Dawn, let's Purtis Creek State Park. Um, same usual suspects out there, K five dgr top of the

leaderboard for activations and QSO's cryptic patriot. Yes, very true. I was near some soda spots last week at Big Ben, but we didn't. We didn't. We did two hikes last weekend, but neither one of them were soda spots. I don't find the same thrill in soda, although I do want to do soda. I've done soda twice. So one of these things. Next time we go back to Big Ben, I might try to plan a soda trip. Oh you're you're Oh you're the newest. You're the newest

activator on that, Dawn, I see you're there. Yeah, Well, the first activator is in for CD, the newest activator since for eight Yeah, the latest, the latest activator. Yeah, I see you there, don cool. I've never even heard of that park. I have to get out there, one of these days. I haven't heard of that one, so you'll be at K thirty ten. Okay, let's look that one up. Ok I like looking at these stats. Fort Parker State Park. This

guy K seven SCN. I talked to him all the time. He used to be top hunter QSO at Galveston Island, so every time I reckon, I was like, hey, man, what's going on. I've got him in my log half a dozen or more times. I worked him at Big Bend a couple of times last week as well, So he's a he's a nice guy to talk to. But the check kine two and who got the first activation? Ah, let me guess Steven two Henderson Wildlife Management Area. Yeah, there you go, AFL, there you go. I don't see

that you've done that recently though I did. Um Candy Kane Abshire Wildlife Management I have first activator on that. It's just north of Galveston Bay and I I'm number three on the leaderboard with one activation. One guy has eleven activations. The rest of us all have one. I should go back over there. I should go back over there. Yeah, zero nine seven five Okay, Frank five Waco Mammoth National Monument oh yeah, okay, yeah, you're

on there with two number five with two cool. You need to put a freaking of avatar on your on your Poto account, Frank, that's fail sauce using that bass avatar. See k K five DGR's he's got a real he's got a real avatar on his You want to see what a real avatar looks like, I'll show you. There you go, that's a real avatar, Frank, And none of this. I don't like gravatar because you can only speak and C plus plus crap, you know, just go update it for

crying out loud. So Frank's got thirty two parks fifty one activations. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. I've got sixty one parks and ninety eight activations. Yep three nine h six okay, K three nine h six three is it? Three? Yeah? Three nine h six. This is one old Island Heritage Preserve. Yeah, everybody's everybody's activated that once and left. Oh gosh, that's funny. I've been activated seven times. You have to take a boat to get there. It looks like it's just kind of a

pain to get to. No one should do C plus plus very true. Very true. K sixty five seventy four Lower Netche's Wildlife Management. Oh yeah, you're top on that one, aren't you, Philip Wow one hundred and thirteen. You must live close by one hundred thirteen activations. Oh I know where that is? Well, I know the area. I don't. I've never been to that Wildlife Management park. But yeah, cool, nice, very cool? All right? One in Done Island, no Kiden? Oh

okay, well anyway, that was? That was where that is? So poda this weekend after the Beltenham Expo, which we will be there tomorrow night and we will be staying through Saturday midday, driving up to Cedar Hill State Park and activating Saturday and Sunday for Parks on the Air. So hope to work you guys at some time during Parks in the Air. Please do come by the parking lot on Friday. We're on Saturday. We walk around with a camera on Saturday. Probably on Friday too, but more on Saturday.

Let's get the indoor part on Saturday and come by Belton if you are in the area, if it's not too far of a drive, come there. It's a fun show to just hang out and chill out. And be around and have fun outdoors before it gets too darn hout in Texas. So all right, guys, I'm gonna shut it down. Everybody, have a good afternoon, and we will see you this weekend, hopefully at the Beltenham Expo, or on the air at Parks in the Air, or maybe even at

Cedar Hill State Park seventy three. All y'all have fun,

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