Well , hello , hello , welcome to live free in Ham , our live stream . I'm your host , eric . My call sign's Ed1JUR , and I want to thank everybody for being on the live stream and those that are in the chat tonight . We got a lot to talk about tonight .
Guys Got a huge great cast here tonight , a bunch of my great friends all hanging out here , as well as co-host Todd in the holiday cheers in full swing . But tonight , if you haven't already kind of figured out , we're going to dive into maybe talking a little bit about some of our favorite deals we might have had during Black Friday .
Or maybe we got wind of one of those special deals for the hammered-yogere that we've been eyeing for and drooling over for a while , and we're going to share a little bit of those . But maybe you're looking for some of those gifts that are hopefully be under the tree this year .
If you're not one of the types that goes out and buys stuff all year for yourself . We're going to share some of those and a bunch more tonight . So definitely grab your favorite beverage there and sit back and join in on the chat . Love to hear .
But before we go through our usual pleasantries , we always like to catch up as part of our show , let our listeners know what's been going on and where the live free in Ham crew is going to be . Well , as always , every month we have a live stream on our YouTube . We're in one right now .
Our December show is going to be one you're not going to want to miss . We crested over that 100 subscriber mark , and so we're going to be doing a couple of giveaways , so with that , we're also probably going to be doing a little bit of a game night . We're not quite sure how the format is going to look , but we might maybe do a little .
FT8 off kind of a banger night . But we're kind of working out those details . So pay attention to our website , pay attention to our live stream and make sure if you haven't already subscribe , like and share this out and come be part of that Christmas episode fun and maybe you can win a couple of great giveaways too as well .
So with that we've got a bunch of other episodes that are queued up . So if you haven't headed over to our website to subscribe to our podcast , you definitely want to get into that , as we are the number one podcast in your podcast feed . So make sure your long drives that you're in , that you're listening and being a part of that whole process .
So love to get your feedback on that as well . But before , like we said , we dive into the festivities here , as we always like to do with every episode , let's do a quick introduction here and maybe we can talk a little bit about you know what's been the latest . You know ham thing or what's in your ham life today .
So , without further ado , we're going to kind of go around or throw it over to Todd there . So , todd , go ahead and take the floor , do a little introductions and you know what's been going on .
Same old , same old . But I am going to Mississippi tomorrow . So I'm going to drive out to Louisiana activate a park first time in Louisiana , and they've been to the state .
Don't know what to expect , but I'll be out there , hopefully activating around 330 Eastern , and then after that I'm going to head back to Mississippi and try to catch a park on the way back and then maybe tomorrow , or what is it ? Tomorrow , friday morning , another park in Mississippi before I head back later on the afternoon on Friday .
That's what I've got going on , Kind of exciting , got all my gear packed up , ready to go , batteries charged , and I've never done I'm trying to get as many states as I can when I'm traveling . So I was going to try to do Louisiana and Arkansas , but it'd be like a 500 mile driving day and that's just .
That point , you better charter a plane and , just you know , fly in a private .
It's definitely doable , but it's uh yeah , it's just going to be too much so .
I'll get the one state and you don't want to be an episode of trains , planes and automobiles anyway , so that could end up in a bad , bad situation . So cool on that one . Well , you know , if you haven't already , folks , you know , get . You know , get Todd , if you want to work a couple of those stations , work him in a couple of those states .
You know , get him on your hammer . Alert , um , a call sign uh , w1 STJ . I know I'll be keeping an eye out for them and hopefully working them on side bands . So looking forward to yeah , I'm going to .
I'm going to try to start on 10 meters . So uh , we'll see how that goes . 10 meters has been good for me lately , so , uh , I think that's where I'm going to start , and if not , I'll probably jump over to 20 and go from there .
But if I can activate it on 10 and it's good .
That's where I'll stay .
Yep , it's a good band for us . I know that that's been your , your go to band for sure , so cool , all right . Well , hey , without further ado , let's swing it over to Paul there . He's one of my buddies , but go ahead and take the reins there , paul . And what's been going on with you and your ham life ?
Well , eric , thanks for having me . Paul KF4 TBY it's a kilo fishing for therapy . So I pulled out all kinds of stuff to to show off tonight , but one of the things the other day I wasn't . I wasn't really feeling well . It's kind of . You know , my back was acting up and so I was .
I was trying to see what I had on my bench that I could mess around with , and I have this little adapter for the DeWalt 20 volt batteries , and so I opened it up and , as you can see , I power pulled it and so now I can , I can connect to DeWalt , to 20 volt batteries , to my radio . Very cool , nice , and it didn't cost me anything .
You know , it was all stuff that I had .
So now , is that like a like the cast form plastic , or is that 3D printed ?
No , so this is something that came in a kit . It's got a little flashlight on the front and it's got two USB ports on the side , and so all I did was I just I opened it up and I removed the barrel connector connection that was there for charging and I used that that hole to run my wire through .
And so yeah , and then I liked it so much that I actually I ordered a second one and a buck converter so that I could , because N plus one yeah Two batteries is always better than one . So you know , I figured then I could have two 20 volt DeWalt batteries , you know , side by side running through the inverter so that it's not overpowering the radio .
Very cool , very cool , very cool , cool . Well , you know , before we head over to our one of our additional guests here , we're just going to say a little hello to a few folks in the chat there . I mean , I hit up Ryan there . Good to see you in there , ryan , and we've got . Obviously there's one other .
Dean in there .
I got Dean in there . Yeah , there we go , dean . Good to everyone , good to see you guys in there and glad you guys are part of the chat . Feel free to throw in , you know , comments along the way and you know be part of the fun activity . But so to tie , swing it over to Matt . Thanks for coming along . Show , matt .
You know , yeah , we you and I have kind of done some stuff with your antennas over on my channel , but I wanted to have you bring you on the cursors episode because I'm sure you're a lot like us and you're always looking for the next big piece of gear or you know new ways to build . You know better and you know sleeker things . So over to you .
So what's been going on ?
Doing good and you've been keeping me busy , sir , with that nice review you've done . Thanks . I couldn't buy too much , but I did grab myself a YSU FT5 VR . Yeah , and there's a guy on QRZ that makes a custom battery pack and I wanted to grab that because you could charge it via USB-C , but he's all sold out . Thanks to K6ARKs Is that Adams , k6ark or KM ?
Yeah , he did a review on that . Yep , okay , yep , so that's what's sold out fast . So that's what I've been doing and then you were just talking about in the private chat the winter field day .
Well , the leather thing I bought was a travel router so we can link two of our laptops , because we got a nice cabin that we're going to be doing at and we're going to hook up two of the surface goes and this actually runs off of USB-C right there . So we're still going to be getting extra points for being off grid . Off grid , yeah , so it's good .
So , dude , that's awesome . I mean that'd be my dream field winter field day scenario . I mean , most of mine have been like in a , you know , basically an Eskimo tent or you know . Again , I am a comfort guy and , as Paul can contest , last year , I mean he set the bar very high .
You know , his tent was a nice 70 degrees the whole entire time , so it made it very easy for shorts and T shirt .
So you know , overall , you know I'm okay with that , but a cabin man up in the middle of nowhere , low RF dude , you got to take some pictures and let me know , yeah , we're right next to a lake too , so we'll just throw that rounding line right in there , and nice , you won my heart over , so good deal on that .
Well for us look for the club on there , w3oi .
Awesome . We will definitely do that and make sure we work here for sure . Cool , all right . Well , hey , you know again a lot of awesome stuff tonight and I'm sure you guys I know Paul and a few others have come prepared with some of their Black Friday you know deals that they've picked up or stuff that they've seen come across .
So we're going to kind of keep the show a little light and in a sense , you know if you brought stuff and you're or you've been drooling over a few things , you know the idea is just kind of share , peak the thoughts of a few folks and you know we'd love to hear folks in the chat .
You know what you might have picked up on Black Fridays to share and at the same time you know we're going to if you know we're not talking about the Black Friday deals well , you know what might happen . You know maybe something might show up under the Christmas tree this year you know your , I infer .
You know maybe a new rig or you know new antenna analyzer , you know kind of talk a little bit about that , and then you know we'll kind of go from there . So you know . So who wants to kind of pick it up ? So you know what Black Fridays will start there , well , so what Black Friday deals ? You know you've been eyeing anybody you know .
Pick up the like the golden Black Friday deal . I think . They think you know they got a really good deal on All right .
I got . I think I got a good deal . It's hard to tell because I didn't know what it was . Before Black Friday I got a new antenna arm . Just came in the mail today Avermedia live streamer arm . What I liked about it is I can kind of have it curve around instead of just going up and down . It can go sideways .
I can put on the side of my desk and curve it around sideways . So it's the one that , yeah , it's the one that Ryan recommended . So it's normally like 175 bucks At least that's what the one place is at . Black Friday was $99 and I did the reviews and people were like , yeah , it's great arm , but it's kind of pricey . 175 bucks it's kind of high .
I was like 99 bucks , Like that's probably a good deal , so nice .
I went and bought it .
And the other thing I got was a new webcam , because my webcam is terrible , so hopefully that comes by the next time we air . I'll be in a what do you ? I'll be on like 4k , yeah .
I'll be 4k yeah .
Well you got something else too . I mean you got a flex component there . I mean you paid , you know , pretty it doesn't work . Yeah , I know you're working on it . I can't let the cat out of the bag with that one .
I got this and for some reason I can't . I it's sitting here and I play with it , but it it doesn't work . Well , I can't get it to , I can't get my computer to recognize it . So I went online , I went on the flex thing . I read all the articles , I did all the things it said to do and it still doesn't do it .
So I think this weekend Eric's going to come over , bring his . See if my computer reads , and then , if I do , I can tell flex hey , something's wrong with the , with the product and not my computer . But yeah , well .
So for those that know or don't know what that is , that's the basically a flex control knob , and really all that is is it's like in the . In the flex world everything's software based , and so you know you use your mouse wheel to , you know , move up and down the VFO .
But you know , for those that like the old knob and you know being able to deal with the flex control , that that knob basically gives you that capability from a desktop perspective .
So I literally have that like sitting right next to my you know stream deck and you know , anytime I don't want to spend a little mouse wheel of my finger , I can now just grab the VFO knob , like I was on my DX 10 , just spinning up and down the dial and you know it gives a great feel up and down and it's got a couple of great cool programmable
buttons in there so you can kind of use the you know functionality of the radio , you know , at a kind of a button press and whatnot . So it's , it's , it's pretty cool . What's we get to go in ? It's a fidget spinner for a flex radio .
That's exactly what they should do , but it's the fidget spinner of flex radios .
Dude , I think you're on a marketing play we're going to have to call Mike there .
Let him know . I'm like , hey , how do you download the drivers ? It's like it should just read it . I'm like , yeah , it's not reading nothing . So I tried all the different USB ports on my computer , mixing things around , and it just I don't know what , what I'm doing , so it doesn't work . If yours doesn't work then it's obviously my computer .
Off the column and put a ticket . Maybe they know how to do it . But if it's not , it might be just the device itself . Who knows ? But I'm looking forward to using it Very cool .
Well , I guess for me I didn't snag any Black Friday day . I think it's one of the biggest deals because most of the stuff I kind of purchased throughout the year .
I'm like one of those guys and it drives my wife nuts that if I want something using most of the time I'll just go out and get it and I'll buy it throughout the year , versus like waiting for a birthday or anniversary or Christmas type thing . But this year I didn't see there were a ton of deals .
My email inbox is cluttered to the brim with every other sale and every other deal and even like for me , the one thing . I mean , obviously , being a flex owner , I was very much into wanting to maybe somehow see if I could mortgage the house a second time to maybe get a PGXL or a tuner .
But those prices are still way out of my price range , especially in that Christmas set . But they definitely came down . They had a couple of really good deals . So if you're in the market for the flex and whatnot , I would say jump on board and you might be able to still get a couple of good Christmas deals .
I know they had Black Friday ones were really amazing for $300 off in some cases with free shipping and whatever else . So that would be my Black Friday deal , but nothing like Luster . I'm sure , paul or Matt , you guys get some other better ones that you could throw your way .
They can weigh Paul , all right . Well , so how ?
much time we got .
Money is tight this year , but I will say that there's been a bunch of stuff on the chameleon website that I've been watching for a while . I really really liked the quality . Thanks , robert . I really like the quality of chameleon products , so I took advantage of the 25% off . I got myself some high vis winders .
I also picked up their 17 foot whip because it's so much nicer . Then Then the MFJ , like if you just , if you just look , I mean it's just , it's so much better quality than the MFJ , and I've been , I've been eyeing it for a while .
So with 25% off I said , yeah , I'll drop a couple hundred bucks on chameleon Couple of the other things that that I picked up recently . This , this just went on sale . This is a nice solar , portable solar panel . It's dude . It's small , like when this is all folded up . It's small .
It's only about Maybe a foot by 10 inches and maybe three and a half inches thick . How many watts it's it's . It's a full hundred watt panel , wow .
There you go , Todd . You know that this is . We were having this conversation earlier about solar panels and Todd was like what do I need ? I'm like , well , he's a solar guy , Go talk to him .
Well , so and if you remember , if you remember , I had the Renegi briefcase panel last year at field day and that's nice , but it's just , it is not ideal for POTA and I wanted something that you know . I could take a smaller battery , so I'm packing lighter , but you know I'm not gonna run the battery down .
I can , I can throw the panel up and I can charge the panel as I'm operating and I can get , you know , twice the longevity out of it . So so that that's definitely really cool . I Want to say I think I paid 170 and it was just on sale for like 150 .
So is that an all cloth like ? Is that basically just all cloth like ?
it's not no , no , it's , it's semi-rigid , so if you here , I'll open it up right . So , as you can see , like it does have some flexibility to it , but yeah it's .
It's almost like a like a cloth style . Okay , the panels themselves are are fairly rigid , okay , but yeah , they're not like stiff as a like a full , like Like a Harbor freight one or like those right , yeah , exactly .
And then for ports , it it comes . Oh , there we go . It comes with a nice . Usb and and a plug . And the plug has Several different connections on it , one of which being an Anderson power pole , so there's no need to repower , pull it . You know it comes already ready to go .
They , paul , they . There's a question in the chat from Jeff . Is that with the charge controller without ?
it comes with the charge controller built right on .
Yeah oh . Wow dude , that's . That's a deal for that much yeah that's .
That's just . You just plug it into the , you just hook it up to the battery and you're good to go .
Yeah , that's the charge controller right there . Wow , dude , that's awesome .
That is a good photo , that's awesome .
Yep , so it's called , it's called nice solar and it's the the hundred watt .
What we'll do is for those folks that are in the chat and just watch a live stream after on Team replay will . We'll make sure the links are in the description below for some of this stuff so you can seek it out yourself and hopefully you get some good deals yeah .
Have you used it yet ? I did , yeah , I used it out at Russell Abbott State Forest and Work well , fantastic . It was putting out to 21 volts the the whole entire time and it was in the shade .
Wow , dude that's a good that dude . Yeah , if I ever need to get into , you know , but my battery , a lot of my photo events , I'm no more than like an hour or two , so by the time I get home I'm just recharging the battery .
So I'm an hour . We're an hour photo guy yeah .
Well , although you're going to go into Mississippi , you might be a couple hours now , so you know you bring your battery fast , cool . So you know those are two big steals there . You know we'll kind of go around again , but yeah , so , matt , what you got .
Yeah , I can't talk that . That was good . Well , what I got was I got the yesu FT FT5 dr and I was researching a little bit on how to charge it . Let's see . I'm not sure how the phone will work and they have , it's a little blurry weird connector yeah . Yeah , has . Like what is it a 7.7 for ? Let's see it's yeah , 4.0 by 1.7 , but it goes to USB .
See , it's a 12 volt connection so we can actually charge it on the side here with the barrel connector once I open it up . And I had just ordered that and it should be coming in soon . So I'm gonna try it with a battery pack and say , can I charge it's on the road or , you know , hiking in the woods for a day or two and see how it works .
So I'm really stoked to try that out . So got that radio . I just programmed it not too long ago , like literally an hour before here , so I haven't got a chance really to use it . So but you guys know how well it works . And then I got myself a Digi rig .
Yeah or the .
I haven't labeled it for my TX 500 , which is the lab 599 . So , yeah , one of those . So that's gonna go in the go bag . So that's pretty much my haul for the or black Friday and they're both great deals on both of those , you know .
Oh .
I had a great deal on the a suit .
So with the , the battery pack in the , the five , you are you running the special belt clip ? Will that actually work with their special belt clip that they include , or no ?
This is just a stock one , but the other one that I see that I want to buy that's unfortunately out of stock . It will work with a belt clip . Oh , nice Okay so you'll be able to use it I wish that was .
That's the one thing with the three that I really wish somebody would just 3d print in a better way . But I'm sure there's some complications . The reason why has come out , but you know that was always the drawback with the clip on the three .
You know I broke I've literally broken two clips already just because I keep leaving on the hip and I'm the guy that I never put myself on on my hip because I can go through a doorframe and you know , break that Consistently so I am like a little like a , like a strap on a pouch .
I just throw it over my you know shoulder , oh .
I got it like on .
I think I got it like on Amazon or something , something like M-Box . Oh nice , but it fits right in there and then it's like you know , you can tie it to something or just leave it over your shoulder . You don't have to worry about the clip . Cool , very cool .
So Grant's asking maybe elaborate , grandpa , you talk about the ? Which money you referring to as you terms of the ? Fd5 or or the the battery there , so leave that in the chat there . So cool , all right . Well , it's awesome . So the did you . Rigged though I have , you haven't played with the 599 with it yet , or have you ?
I have not . I've used it radios and worked great . Like I mainly use it for the 891 , which I used to always go out with , and that was like carrying a big brick behind you and now I'm running a lot more efficient and lighter weight radios .
I don't know , the 599 is just a thinner , longer brick . You know you pay in the price of wattage , but you know , hey , that's just kind of the . So yeah , very cool . So a nice job . On the digi rig I I'm a big digi rig follower and I know Todd's got one . I know Paul's definitely got one too as well .
I don't have one yet .
Oh , I thought you did . Yeah , and my mistake if Ryan's , actually I don't see him in the chat , but I have to apologize . We , I always keep forgetting when Ryan , when he's flying , that you know he is part of this crew , you know , and he is part of the , you know everything . So he is missed .
So hopefully we'll see him soon and he'll be back to our normal schedule . But didn't ? Yeah , doesn't he have something for you ? Yeah , well , that was a well , it was a kind of a long story short . I he needed , he had bought a bio-inno battery and he didn't buy the charger .
The charger didn't come in , and so I had , like , two of them for my bio-inno batteries , because I'm , you know , one of those people that's impatient . I can't wait for one battery to charge over the other . So just bought two chargers and With that , you know , he's like , oh , can I borrow one ?
And I , you know , I totally forgot that he had had it for a while . And then he just , you know , said , hey , I bought you one . And I'm like what'd you buy me one for ? I just give me one back . He's like , oh , I had it tucked away somewhere . I , you know , I'm not gonna take it out . I'm like , okay , fine , what's it as is .
And so , yeah , I got a free bio-inno charger and you know .
Well , he hinted to me is like you know , like buy him some four pack of some whatever bearded .
Oh , the spyglass . Yeah , it's my glass .
It sounds like he'll come over and Help me do something . I got so many projects to do .
I'm like what am I gonna get ? You know that that actually might . You got a bunch of ground , or I mean you got so many projects Case of spyglass or whatever he wants at least it's not to . Yeah , you might want to get him just a keg and solve that problem altogether . But you know , cool , so all right , cool , so anybody else want to throw ?
I mean , oh , paul , you got a bunch more , so you know , keep the . You know the tap flowing there and you know we can keep going around . I've got one , but it's not really a bet . You know a , you know Black Friday deal , but you know , go ahead , paul , since you got , you know you obviously , you know , knitted the most out of this .
So you know , keep going Well all right .
So , like you , I don't typically wait for Black Friday , right ? I just I watch , I watch and I watch and I watch and I watch , and when things go on sale then I grab them . One of the issues that I've been having with pota is my laptop does not maintain a charge , so I can't take the laptop out in the field unless I've got mains power .
So that leaves my , my kindle fire tablet as my hammer's logger , and it was getting to be a pain , you know , touching the screen all the time . And so I found this , this proto arc Bluetooth keyboard . And so there it is , it's it's very small and it's very thin , it's very compact .
But then you open it up and it's get the , it's get the trackpad which connects to the tablet so you can use it like a mouse , and then you've got the full keyboard . So this is dramatically made logging easier for me . And it was . It was only 30 something dollars , I think . I think they're 40 right now on Amazon . That's a good deal . Well worth it .
Well worth it all day . It takes up hardly any space . It comes in a nice little case and it comes a little a little kickstand for your phone or whatever you're using to , you know , log on the . The tablet that I use , the case , you know , holds the tablet upright , so I don't need the little stand . But yeah , that's .
That's definitely an awesome , awesome find that I've Picked up that you put .
You put stuff in like an Amazon , like I have a ham radio Amazon list of things that I want and Amazon will tell you like when it's been the lowest price in 30 days . I'll get an alert like something in my list is that lowest has been in six months or whatever and you blame me for buying .
You know making you buy all this ham radio gear . You're doing it to yourself .
It's like a wish list . It's like I really want that , but I don't need it now . You know I got a bunch of solar panels in there . Now you know he's got the . What is it called ?
nice solar , nice solar . Well , the thing is like then I want the official title of your fairy godmother .
If I'm granting wishes every time , yeah , my list keeps getting bigger and bigger and it's like wow , and then , and then something else comes up . I find something . Better than I delete what I . I'm gonna get this one instead .
But I find that black , like this black Friday , cyber Monday deal those are when the prices drop the most and then they , they kind of scam .
You like this oh , great deal cyber week , but it's not as low as it is on Friday or Monday , like that whole weekend is when I've noticed everything is like Big , bigger discounts , but on the other hand , some of the stuff is just a scam . It's like it says oh it's 20% off , but it's been the same price like all year , right ?
Yeah , yeah , you definitely got to watch that stuff . You know what I ? What I tend to do is you know like Stuff that I'm I'm looking at , but I'm not Going to buy in the in the immediate future . I put it on list Anything that I'm thinking of buying in the immediate future , I add to the cart and then I go into my cart and I save it for later .
That way , every time I go into my cart it tells me the price changes .
Ah , very cool , there you go . Tip on professional tip right there , my friend , there you go .
There's a , there's a better way to actually track prices and everything on Amazon . It's called camel camel , camel calm and it's like a stock chart and it shows you the lowest price for three-piece sellers like non Amazon or even Amazon , and you can also create a free account and put products in there and have a price alert .
So let's say , I'm looking at the proto arc which I put up on my screen over here because that's a really cool keyboard . You as , yeah , I saw , and it's right now 39 99 and they say , oh , 33% less than what their retail is , but I'll put one in for like maybe $25 or $30 mark and then it'll email me or even text me .
It can even text me that that price drop . So if someone does a price mistake , like Amazon , which you know they have all the little AI bots it's most likely not gonna happen , but I can jump on there and do that and that's what's great about camel camel , camel calm it's .
I love that , just for looking for Amazon items just through a link in the description there .
So you know those that that just knew to me . So , dude , I'm gonna have to head over there after this and start really using that to my advantage .
The other thing too if you ever go to a store like I hate going to Wally world , but sometimes you have to be there and if you get something , I always check it on Amazon and if it's cheaper , just count it , they'll match the price . So it's sometimes like oh , I could get this for ten dollars cheaper on amazon . I'll be here tomorrow .
It'll be here by midnight Come on , I'd be here before I get out of this line .
Yeah right .
Very cool , very cool , all right . Well , I've got one here that I totally forgot that I ended up getting before black friday , although I am , you know , jealous because two things it's not , it's the second best coax , I think in my mind . Obviously I'm very much a you know coax knob , a little bit sort of like a murder .
But I ended up picking up a BRs Two , I think it's two third , no , it's RG 8x . So basically , they're also like me can't see it with the back here , if I could put it against my chest here . So I got a 50 feet of this with the , basically the , the integrated choke . Oh yeah , thank you there . And I got it with their shield , although .
So , messi and Poloni , will you pay more for their seven , but the sevens thinner than this and they actually have the whole entire jacket actually in the color versus actually having a sheath on it . Now , both the great coaxes , but you know , from a standpoint of having you know this orange in messy and poloni in my bag , you know I'm all over that .
So you know that'll be eventually , hopefully , under the tree item , but that was kind of a little bit before black friday because I couldn't wait , because I was , you know , trying to put my beach Together and I was trying to put a review to you know , go over that on my channel . But you know , all in all , it's a great piece of coax .
I'm pretty happy with it . Nice , so cool , all right . Well , who's got another one ? Throw it up .
Paul's digging . Paul's digging all right .
So Not , it's like santa . He's got like a whole bag .
I know you change your background to the sleigh . Yeah , don't , don't take any offense to this matt , but my , my latest and greatest pota antenna Is the x-tena . Oh , that's nice , and so I got . If you enter , uh , I got uh , 15 feet of rg3 , 16 with bnc's , uh , from chameleon , with the built-in choke , uh , and with the bongo tie .
It keeps it all nice and neat . It takes , dude , I love it .
It's hardly any space awesome , awesome , awesome , awesome and the x-tena .
I think that's a selector on there , it does , yeah , and that selector , uh , it comes in handy . Um , mainly what I've noticed is oh , so wait a minute .
That's the antenna that flips from the 9 to 1 to 49 to 1 .
Yeah well , so it's got three different options , oh wow , Okay yeah so you can go 49 . I can't even see it , it's all covered up , but it's 49 , 50 something and 64 , I think yeah all in fed half waves , like a 56 to 1 I think , and then um a 64 to 1 . Yeah wow . Yeah and and uh .
So where that really comes in handy is , um , um , when I trimmed the antenna line , I did it with the feed point about 15 feet off the ground , and if the feed point changes , it changes the antenna resonance and so , uh , it's . It's real easy .
You just flip the switch , you double check it , you're back in good , where you should be Connected to the radio , and you're off . Wow , nice .
That's a pretty good deal . You know , would you get it like a good deal on that , a black friday deal or just uh , something you ordered a little earlier and just came ?
uh , I , I I've been watching it . Um , it was . I bought it off at etsy . Uh , it was 65 bucks and I think I had it within a week . Very cool .
Nice that that can't be , I really like the wire but go ahead .
So I don't . I don't know if this counts as a black friday , but it's close . It's close , I got one of those reliance bug out menus right here . Looking forward to using this on my .
Good suggestion from I don't know who . So yeah , I don't know .
This guy and he's like , yeah , you should buy this yeah , who makes it ? So , uh , do I grab one of them at a good price .
But my uh , what was that good ?
price . I don't know what it was share with us . Was it you ? There was some kind of a deal . It was on . Where were you man ? What were you ? Were you on with us ? And there was a deal I might have been yeah or you're in somewhere I don't . I saw like something like put a code in .
Oh yeah , the n1 , uh n1 . J u r some some hand .
I remember my call there .
I was watching out on eric's thing . I'm like , oh , I'm gonna get one of those things , um . And then what I ended up getting is um , because I need a beam for this and I got this On sale the soda beams carbon six . This thing is pretty sweet . This was recommended by eric , as always , and uh , look how tiny it is . What does it go like ?
19 feet , it's huge . Uh , yeah , it's about seven meters , so it's just a just shy of that , but yeah and it's it's pretty awesome and it's it's uh .
I mean this is perfect for poda . I mean look at that now the bag Todd .
How long is that fully collapsed ?
Not even this is 15 inches . It's like less than 50 . It's about 15 16 inches , okay .
With the my shoulders , so um , because I was debating I . I really wanted that , don't flex there , todd . No , I really wanted that , but , um , the the price was more than getting a , uh , a tinkara , uh Japanese fly rod . Yeah , right , and so that's what I ended up getting was the tinkara Japanese fly rod . Um , and it's 27 feet fully extended .
Okay , um . So yeah , you got a little bit more on yours . Yeah , for sure .
There's a fly rod that's 27 feet , oh yeah .
I know right where you're fishing with that thing .
Do you fly fish ? Because I want to see you use that .
Well , so my my primary fly rod actually is hanging above my head and it's a 10 footer , um , but uh yeah that's a little bit different than 27 feet . Yeah .
I mean they do things different in japan .
I .
You feel the compensate somewhere , I guess but yeah right .
But it doesn't . It doesn't have uh , it doesn't have guides on it like a regular fly rod . You know , it's just , you'd just tie the the line to the end . It's weird , but it works great for ham , you know .
Yeah , that was , uh , I think , um , I can't remember where I saw similar to that one , but yeah , that was one versus the the carbon six and I I the carbon six deal actually kind of worked out good for me , because I that's where I ended up picking it up , and I think that's taught it actually pinged me and was like , oh , where'd you get your carbon sick
or would you get your Mass ? And I was like , oh , just go over the soda beams , and every you know guy's a soda guy . You know that's the , the go-to antenna .
Now , the only problem with it , though , is that you know it is a very flimsy and like , when you get up to the very far point , it's a very thin antenna when you know or masters should say no antenna .
So if you don't have a guide , really well , you know you the thing will fall over or get pulled or whatever , and so you know , it's kind of one of those things that you got to kind of come up with a better solution .
So , if anybody's got a good solution , either 3d printed or you know some commercial version for building a , you know a massed mount or a stake mount , or you know something like that for the bottom of that carbon six .
You know you put it in the chat or you know , let me know because I've been trying to find one and I can't find one that you know looks good enough , that you know can give it some . You know easy drop in but girth .
But you know what you , if you can get that thing wedged in , you know tree really well It'll , it'll do well , but you know , on its own it's , it's pretty . You know it's pretty flimsy .
Well , so here here's the thing , though , eric right , because that tinkara setup Right is super , super thin and flimsy at the top as well . Um , and it and it , and it just wants to fold right over if you put some tension on it . Um , but what I've done is with my invisible line .
Yeah , you see that , that's the line you got to get mad . That's the next None of this poly stealth stuff .
That's no , no , that's the invisible invisible line .
Uh , so it's , it's high vis , green , um it shows up invisible on the camera . But what I do is I just do a little loop and I wrap the loop and and you know , go around the the , the top of the rod and then guy it , um , and and that that's nice and easy .
You know , I've seen people use you know zip ties and and whatnot , and I don't know , I think that's just a waste .
Of zip ties like just just have a , a loop on the end of your 550 cord and Throw , you know , a couple of guy lines On before you put your antenna and you're good If you can figure out , if you , if matt , can divulge where he gets the .
You know , these carabiners , these things have like phenomenal little like holes in there , and so if you've got that mast you can just slide it over the top of that . That . I can't claim to that . This is a k-murderer kind of the deal .
So I just bought a whole bunch of those yeah .
I just slide mine right over the carbon six at the very highest point and it , you know , it holds it well there and it works great . And so , you know , I was like , oh cool , I don't know if they're drilling a hole or whatever , and it just works . You know , get out of the bag , so all good stuff , but yeah , cool , yeah .
So you have to do a little bit of a follow through on . Uh , you know what you have you used the tachata yet or no ?
you just picked it up . Yeah , no , I love it . That's , um , that's what I use of my Xtana , because I can . I can take that little carabiner and I drill the hole in the center , and so I can .
I can put the center of the mast through the center of the carabiner and run it like an inverted V Right , where the the , the internal line , goes through one side of the carabiner and down the other side .
Or I just use the carabiner on the end , uh , like that there , yep , right , right , and then I just clip the carabiner to my ground , snake and run it like a slope .
Yeah , that's true .
Nice .
It's all over it , man . He's all over it .
That's why I go to him , you know it's all , uh , experimenting and you know , just having fun figuring out what works and what works best .
That's totally it , man . Yeah , yeah , yeah , any anybody else has any different ? Uh , come see me , I'll straighten you out . Cool , all right , so any other ? Before we kind of dive into what's on the Christmas tree , you know , any other kind of black fridays or ?
I got one more . I totally forgot . Uh , you guys do one winter field day up there .
Yeah , yeah , we have a big one field day I got these um from , was it dan k9 dp ?
Well , let's see if I got them . These are um broadcast interference filters , bci's and um . One is they're not labeled but the color differential . So I took a Sharpie and put 40 meters on one and 20 meters on the other . So since we're running , at least two rigs up at the cabin or down at the cabins were going south .
Those are filters real nice .
And then , if you guys actually know it , those are , these are traps , actually , not that broadcast interference . I got the broadcast in a PCI filters right here actually , and this is , if you're running like the Zegu , and I just actually made this , I got tossed it up on my channel , so I put this baby together . Okay , that's the .
QRP . Is that the one , the AM filter to fix the the latest bug or whatever ? Yeah , okay .
Yes , oh , yeah .
Dude to put that up in your link . Actually , I know a guy who is very much interested . It's funny you some mentioned that because we I had gone to our Breakfast at our club this morning and I was just mentioning to him .
He's like yeah , I just upgraded , do you know , my Shegu G90 to the latest firmware and I tried to apply the , I guess , the drop-in board or whatever it was . Oh , yeah , and it , you know , he said it didn't fix the problem and he's literally , like you know , pretty close to an AM , you know broadcast station .
So you know , yeah , that , that's all this problem .
He might actually like it if he's hasn't already picked it up , but you'll have to do that . But cool , all right , the links there in the chat there if you're interested in that , very cool . So so there's other two of those , actually just bandpass filters or what I ask , filters .
Yeah , okay , that's what they are . Like , brad , I think they're already pre-made . He makes them and the only difference is , you know , if I handed the bag to someone , they're not gonna know which one . It is based on color and they might forget . So I just threw a little sharpie on the back , so when we're at a field .
Max power for those 100 or less .
He says , tested up to 20 watts on with both wall , all three SSB , cw and digital FTA .
Very cool , we can't do .
FTA during field day ?
Yeah , we could do a whole entire you know A whole entire episode on why and you know , discuss the merits and I won't get into it .
So so , yeah , yeah , so , all right , cool . So I , I got one last thing . I , you know , maybe alluded to it , I think , on my live stream before , but you know it's not so much a black Friday deal , but you know I got to bring it up because I love it . I'll dig here I , I , as a sort of my beach kitten .
Again , this is gonna be a problem , since I should just , you know , realize I should just pop to another camera . I bought a 511 bag and so I bought the a quart 511 .
My beach .
I love this bag if you're ever looking for just something that's like simple and easy . And the reason why I bought it was primarily I'm building a beach kind of go bag . My wife loves to go to the beach , my daughter's a big beach goer . I can't stand being at the beach for four hours straight .
I need to do something and so , hey , I'm gonna be doing either beaches on the air or just working CW or FT8 . So I , coupled with that , you know , built out some of my kit here and you know some of them . I've alluded in some other episodes to it , but I ended up finally getting my FX4 CR . So let me bring that out to the ground .
I love this little rig great , 20 watts , full FT8 , blue over Bluetooth , I mean , the list goes on and on by BG2 FX . If you ever get a chance to get on one of his deals when he launches , you know , make sure you're signed up for that , because when you lay down the 500 bucks it's well , well worth .
You know , for a , you know , basically a 20 watt or less QR , you know what I call a QRP type style radio and it's built like a tank and it's , you know , just a phenomenal little radio .
So that's only five .
That's gonna be one of them . Yeah , 500 bucks . I mean it's 100 watt , you know , 891 or just about shy of that . So you know I can't complain on it . It's pretty cool . It's got a waterfall built into it's pretty awesome waterfall .
Yeah , it really isn't , how tiny it is .
Mm-hmm , I I've been .
I've been watching the the true SDX , so I know you've got both right , eric . So how ?
do they ?
compare . I mean obviously , well , I can't say I , I can't say I have .
I have the true SDX kit .
I gave it to one of my buddies who you know .
I had the high aspirations and I know apes in in the chat there and you know he probably would laugh at me because I had the soldering iron , everything else set up ready to solder the damn kit together .
It just sat there and sat there and sat there and I finally said to Tim , who's been on our show , casey , one QT guy I said , hey , dude , you're looking for a project here . Here's my true SDX . You build it . Show me up . You know , show me how to build this the right way . And he built it all out .
You know , did a phenomenal job putting it together , worked it all out . He hasn't field tested it fully yet but you know I'm hoping to kind of see so we , so he says he hasn't . True , yeah , okay , he will .
I mean guarantee , I'm sure he's gonna be using it like every day , just not telling you yeah , very much , all your radios .
He's close , yeah , yeah , hey , yeah , I gotta have somebody do field test . Hopefully I'll have him do my . He's like kind of my consumer reports for me , but yeah , so , yeah , all in all , he's started , he built it , you know . He's , you know , almost got to the point where I think he's done like at least one or two CW contacts on it .
So you know , he's pretty happy with it and I'm glad that you know it's getting used because I , you know I'm , I'm a , I'll admit it , I'm an appliance operator .
You know everyone say I'm an appliance operator Either way , so that I mean that's my , you know my impetus to why I bought the , you know the FX4 CR because literally it was exactly everything I wanted and it was like , hey , I get it and I can operate and go after it . So you know , I will eventually get down that road when I get a little older .
But you know , hey , that's another time , another story . So anyway , so all right , well , hey , so you know , let's , let's keep plugging around here just to kind of wrap it up . So , all right , christmas is obviously coming up and you know Everyone's doing their Christmas episodes and and talking a little bit around .
You know , those things in the latest buzzes on . You know radios that are out there , like you know the FT 710 , you know Field radio , so forth and so on .
Anybody got you know anything like that , or you know what , to see something under the tree going forward and , and you know , for Christmas this year , or they're just eyeing or drooling over that one thing .
So I pretty much buy my own Christmas gifts .
Don't we all ?
yeah , I just . I just gave my wife a box and I said she goes what's this ? I said , oh , this is all the stuff you get me for Christmas . I said you can wrap it down under the tree , you can wrap it .
She does the same thing .
Well , what was bad is I got she's been wanting a pizza oven , right super forever and we got a for my birthday . She got me a solo stove and that thing is awesome . I don't know if you guys have don't have one you like . You've got to get a solo , so that thing is just worth every penny it's . So you have to get the deflector . Yeah , I do .
I got the deflector and I think it works . It's a dream . I mean , I can have fires on my deck wherever I want to go and bring it out to my driveway . I can throw it in the Jeep , bring it out . It's just awesome .
We official staple of the field day , summer field day for us , I know great .
So I got . So they make a gas pizza oven Right now . I don't know if you guys looked in the pizza . Some of them are like ridiculous , like thousands of dollars . This thing was like on sale no , the black Friday deal . So I'm like , oh , I'm gonna surprise her and get her the pizza oven . So what is solo stove ?
Do they deliver it with a big picture on the box ? Oh my god , that's awesome . That's the best gift ever I'm like that's supposed to be for Christmas . Send it back . Yeah , that's it , it's going back .
What you do is you take the pizza oven out of the box and then you basically say if she misbehaves , you just toss it out on the side of the road . Let somebody run it over .
It's a short , pretty good deal . But you know like everything comes like in a brown . This thing it was , the thing was in the box , but the brown box had like a black drawing on it and it said solo stove , give it away and I was like come on , like don't you guys know it's like Christmas , like just drop this shit in the front of the driveway .
Give me a call . Okay , throw the box in the road and I'll run it over really hard .
Back and over , all right , so , so all right . You gave her a box of stuff what , what , what consisted of the , the ham radio gear that you are ?
Nothing , I'm really just stupid . I am radio stuff . I know I get the ham radio stuff and I just put it in like you know she goes oh , what is this ? I'm like oh , this is the arm for my shack , you know , for my microphone , and oh , that's the speaker I got . So you know , this new streaming stuff it's all new to me so I didn't have anything .
So I've been slowly learning about what to buy and stuff , yeah , and amassing stuff and getting it to work and I watch a lot of YouTube and so that's what I've been doing . So that's been really what I've been focusing on , because I really want to get my shack set up where I can .
You know , I got a stream deck trying to learn that , which I'll tell you . If someone out there knows of a stream deck video for idiots or dummies . I need that one . I see it like oh , let me see , and these guys go through . I have no idea what they're talking about . They're pulling files or making different things different , and I'm like what ?
I'm like no , no , no , no , I'm like I got to stop it , go back . I just want to know how to do the basics and I'm just kind of getting it .
I think I think Bill's saying that you need an Amazon for dummies book as well , you know , because this box that says this contains a gift .
There , you go .
So I have like an account , like I have you know like how you can have it shipped to , but I'll normally put like my name and then Christmas after it , and then that way everyone knows don't open that because it's a Christmas gift , right , okay , nice . And then kids , you know , they like they jump all over what's in the box .
What's in the box , is that for me ? Is that for me , like I don't know , I haven't opened it yet .
Oh yeah , my kid had a field day today because Amazon dropped like 20 different packages and he's like , oh , what are all these ? I'm like it's fall Christmas , like it doesn't matter , yeah , yeah .
My indicators . I just know Christmas is happening and you know things are getting ordered by my wife by the stacks of boxes that show up on the front step . I mean at least that you know we're not waiting the last minute , which is always my pet pee , so you say that , eric .
So I watched a video on on on YouTube about Amazon and their future and their , their , their robots and people , and that their goal is to be able to have things delivered within hours . So that means you can order your Christmas gift on Christmas Eve and by Christmas morning it'll all be there . Good stuff , man , yeah .
Which I can only you know . Literally you could play to like the very last minute . I'm a huge procrastinator .
I mean , my wife hates me for that and I'd be like oh Christmas , oh , I have to get you stocking stuffers .
I always forget stocking stuffers for the wife .
Yeah .
Well , it's like the last minute thing , man . It's like fun , please . Okay , I'll throw Deodorant in there . Awesome Candy yeah .
Some , some birds , beas , chastic , you know , offside , offside of ham radio . This is the time of year to buy tools and like Home Depot or Lowe's , like they have ridiculous deals on like hand tools , like stuff like 10 wrenches for like 1499 , where normally one wrenches 1499 and it's some good stuff .
Like I was at Lowe's the other day and I couldn't believe like they had just rows and rows of unbelievable deals . So I was picking up some , some wrenches and stuff for what I always don't have in my toolbox .
So I've been creating a toolbox or actually a wrap , a tool wrap kind of thing that I'm leaving in my Jeep that has all the possible tools I could possibly need , because every time I come over , eric and I were switching a tire or putting a tire mount on and I couldn't find .
Sorry , but if it's in my , if it's in my Jeep , no one's touching it , it's always going to be there .
So well , so Todd in your Jeep , then you should also have a DeWalt half inch impact gun . Yup Cause , let me tell you , I didn't take that up , but yeah , I have one of my . I keep , I keep a half inch DeWalt cordless impact gun under the passenger seat of my truck with a half inch socket set .
And the number of times where , like , I've been somewhere and somebody's like , oh , I'm trying to change my tire and I can't get the lug nuts off , all right , well , let me just get my socket set and my half inch impact gun . I'll just blast that off for you , real ?
quick , pretty quick for you .
Yup , totally great . Well , eric and I had to . I have a , I had a , I got a bigger . I got bigger tires on my Jeep . So we had to buy a kit to raise the rear tire . The spare tire had to push it up a little bit . Yeah , welcome to the lifted world . Yeah . So I didn't get a lift on , I just needed to get , I guess , a lift for the spare tire .
So we so we got that thing , all we got the thing squared away . So I go to the place and the place is booked until like December 20th . So the guy's like , we'll just drop the tire off and then we'll , we'll mount and give you a call . So they called me and they just get it back . So I get there and I'm like I had court that day .
I'm going to a shirt and tie and the guy's like , yeah , you have to be here at two 45 or we can't mount the tire on the back . I'm like , seriously , so I'm like , screw it . So I go in there and I'm all ready to like you know , I get all the tools . I'm ready to go to guys like oh yeah , we had a cancellation , we can mount it for you .
Oh thanks , I thought I was going to be like mountain , mountain the tire , and like a shirt and like all my nice clothes , and as soon as the tire touches you , you're covered in black .
So All right .
Well , so to steer this back , because you know we are , we are not a four by four you know , podcast here , but you know , or YouTube channel , although you know when things get better we might not do hand radio and four by four , four willing and hand radio hand in hand . They just they can't deny that .
Okay , so all right , fine . So , anybody wishing for the you know the next rig or the ultimate , you know under the tree gift this year that they either have bought or they're looking to buy , or they want to buy or they , you know , they're kind of I want .
I want a Yesu 705 . Yes , exactly . When is it coming out , yassu ?
705 .
Put killer after , please , yeah , Totally after . I really I mean , what is ? I really want that ?
I mean it's going to be , it's got to be coming out soon . I mean they're going to be coming out soon . I mean they , they can't just see the F T 705 .
Dude . I made a short a while back which annoyed me to no end . Yesu , with their lovely hey , let's release the seven 10 . Good radio , nice SDR , you know cutting edge , you know in terms of technology and stuff . And then they go and they release this AESS version and then the field radio , which is basically just a speaker , removed .
A hundred dollar speaker defines a field radio . Come on , please , I have marketing gimmick . That drives me up the wall .
Yeah .
So yeah , so you know , Ryan saying , yeah , the QRO model , I'm up with you a hundred percent , dude , they , they make that eight , 91 , you know , into a waterfall and you know . I don't care if it's got the guts of the seven , 10 , but it has to have a QRO . I mean no doubt my mind .
I want to be able to learn to you know , work towards a QRP , not to be . All right , so you know . So anybody got a . You know , you know the thing they're looking for . You know you know interested , or you will be upgrading or you know possible .
Well , I want to add that FX four CR to my QRP collection . That's ever growing . That's a beautiful radio , did you update the firmware . Recently there's a new , I heard .
Oh , that's a . That's a rough source subject for me . I I'm an IT , so I hate upgrading firmware at all possible because I have bricks , so many things in the eighties that I just , you know I , I've swore that unless there's a physical reason that it , you know , compels me to do this , I am never going to upgrade . So my 81 has original factory firmware .
All of my radios in my truck , everywhere else , have factory firmware . The only thing that kind of gets away with the you know the upgrades , is the , the flex there , because that's all really kind of software . But yeah , I have not upgraded unless you know I . But again , I haven't gone fully out in the field with this radio yet .
I've done a little test here and there and whatnot . But I'm hoping that , you know I'm sure once I get out there everything will be great . But you know I might have to upgrade the firmware on that , although it's really easy from what I understand .
Yeah , I saw a few videos because I was looking to buy that once it's available again . But looks rather simplistic and built really well . That radio Very nice , and it also the new update makes CW so much better . It makes that radio the best CW radio out there .
What's CW again ?
I've never heard of it .
I know the bill Bill . Who's in the chat there is ?
rolling his eyes at me .
That's a tradition . That's at the post I have over here on the wall . It tells me all of the letters . I will to CW , I promise Bill . Oh , okay , all right , well , so the FX four CR is on the list . Now I was like when I first originally had the option , I was looking at the FX four , is it ? Is it not the CR ? It's the C .
Is it the FX four L ? I think it's the other one . It's a lower wattage , is like 10 Watts , but so pretty much all the same radio . So I don't know if he's producing both of those , but I knew he was fixing a firmware fix in that one , so I got to go back up to his website and see .
But the both of those radios are really nice radio , so you can't go wrong either way , bob says he's hoping for a flex under the tree .
Sorry , bob , you weren't good . Santa knows you're on the naughty list .
Yeah , that's a tall order , for sure . Oh no , now here we go .
That's true , though it's true so now for myself .
I love QRO . I absolutely , 100% love QRO . Now , granted , when you're playing Poda , it really doesn't do you any benefit to run more than 80% because you're just you're wasting power at that point . However , right , I've been looking at possibly going QRP . That's where I've been looking at the true SDRs and the U SDRs and all that .
You know the Chinese knockoffs and all that stuff . But I just I'm not sure you know , like , where do I put my money ? You know .
You can have all the radio calls and now until eternity , until you die , and then at that point you can put in your will that I want them all buried with me .
You know listen they slowly grow around . See , they slowly grow around , if I was getting divorced tomorrow and I was moving to a cabin in the middle of the woods somewhere , 100% like . Yes , I could have every radio that I ever wanted , but unfortunately , having a wife and a 13 year old son still at home , I can't do it . A happy wife .
A happy wife . A happy wife .
Well , yeah , I don't subscribe to that industry but you know that's becoming an industry in the zone .
So Arnold's looking for a KH1 , which I you know . I would love that radio if it had side band . But you know in essence that some of the reviews I've already seen with the you know the early release adopters it's a great radio , I mean for sure . It's portability and just functionality .
But you know , once they work out the bugs I think it'll be a really phenomenal radio and compete with the . You know the KX3s and you know twos and everything else in between .
Eric , what's that new radio you got again ?
The FX4CR FX4CR All right yeah . By BG2FX . If you go up to his website , he has a mail list you can get on for when he actually does the next run he usually doesn't in short supply or when he gets parts in and stuff like that but he definitely , you know he'll get you on there and you know , make sure . Here's a little tip with this .
Is that a screwed me over ? Make sure you have his email address in your address book because nine times out of 10 , he'll end up in the spam filter . Coming from Japan , or , sorry , from China .
So you know , if you want to make sure you get on the list and you're getting notifications from him , make sure you're on that , you know clear white list Well you know , if Robert has an extra 500 bucks getting around , he wants to buy me a radio .
Well , Bill loves KS4SWI .
I love Thomas too as well . You know you can actually just a sidebar If you're not a ham radio workbench listener . They're actually doing a what am I the contest sort of . You can hunt the you know the ham radio workbench guys .
So head over to their website , check them out and , you know , make sure you get a chance to hunt Thomas in that whole list and so , oh cool , all right . So smoke and apes .
Oh go ahead .
Make sure you get the amp and you know for sure the best amp I well , that's where you know . This is one of those things where , especially when you're doing low power , you know and you want to get the amp . This is where you're going to spend the money . So you know . Any suggestions or recommendations ?
I know Zygoo makes a good , you know , cheap , 100 watt or 50 , was it 50 watt or 100 watt amp ? I can't remember . Do you know , matt ?
It's a hundred watt . I got that actually in the other room , yeah , so a great little amp works perfectly well with both the Zygoo and the , you know 705 .
So I know a lot of folks and there's a lot of reviews out there for that . So good on that one . And apparently Roberts , you know , selling his organs to get Paul in your area . You know there are easier ways . I just can't recommend all of them to . You know , get Paul's . You know , go fund me going there . We'll make sure that links in the .
You know the show notes . After the show Cool , all right . Well , any other interesting , you know . You know hopeful wish list items you want to , you know , add to your under the tree this year .
I want my go box built , I want my grounding done and I want my . I want my antenna off .
You hear that , ryan , that's a tall order .
So you know you better deliver . Yeah , I'm just going to show up with my case , with the case of beer that he wants , and I'm going to bring all my go box . I'm saying let's go , we're doing this .
So you totally off topic , just for one second right . But with regarding Ryan , right Now would it be inappropriate because he offered me a flight right Would it be inappropriate to show up with a 12 pack and be like hey Ryan , here you go , here's a , here's a 12 pack of your favorite beer . Let's go for a flight To entice him .
You know I . You know he's a professional pilot , so you know those that might not know his backstory a little bit . So yeah , I would say a hundred percent . You know I do , if he gives you the option to fly , go for it .
You know he offered , you know , and I'm not going to hold him to it , but he offered to do a , you know , double date with him and his wife and my wife to go down to the you know shoot , where's I forget the island off the lower part of the Cape , yes , nantucket , to go for dinner . You know he was going to .
You know , take one of his private planes , fly down with us . You know , go to Nantucket . I'm like , yeah , I'm all for it . My wife's like I don't want to get into a private plane , like this is a lifetime deal , he's a perfect , he flies , you know , people around all the time .
I want to ride on the Gulf Stream . I'm like come on , buddy , you can't like sneak me on that one of these days , or don't you have to like get it repaired or fly it down somewhere to pick someone up ? I'd be happy with that though . That is a sweet , I don't know if you guys are in the plane .
But that Gulf Stream and he tells me , like that thing is like they don't cut back on anything at any time . It gets like he says the new one , that order in a new one , it's going to have a Elon Musk internet on it . What is that ? Starling , starling space internet heads up display . You know , it's pretty , you know we've been toy with .
The idea and this is just a sidebar is that you know the Liferian ham crew wants to , you know , head out to Dayton this year or just coming year and whatnot . So if you want to , you know help . You know definitely go to the Patreon and the bios beer link . And you know Cal fund . You know Ryan , I and Todd's .
You know flight out to Dayton and the whole entire weekend .
Oh , yeah , Sorry .
Matt , I apologize .
No worries , it's close to me , that's got his own business .
He could pay for his own ticket .
Yeah , so we'll fly out that way and you know we'll do the whole video , you know whole video weekend . So you know , if you want to see that happen , you know , head over the Patreon , head over the bios , beer links and they let's get this going . So , anyway , all right , cool . Well , hey , I don't want to go too long here .
We're a little bit over past the hour , but you know , any last final things you might want to see under the tree , or you know , you , you know , you think , you know you might buy even after Christmas .
You know that you want to round out as you kind of prepare , maybe going into springtime or with a hopeful of springtime , and , and you know , put in your , your current go-kits .
I want to work all states . And just I was watching the clubhouse and those guys are going to be out this weekend in Alaska and I'm going to be all over them .
Nice , so they , they're trying to and I've been trying to read that guy .
I've been trying to get that guy for the for at least six months , if not longer , and sometimes I can hear him , but it's so weak and I know he can't hear me . I'm just hoping that the band he said he's going to they might do like 10 meters and that's a good shot I might be able to get Alaska 10 meters , but I guess they're doing a .
I guess they're like snowmobiling out , like driving out and hitting snowmobiles and they're going into this park that's in the middle of nowhere and they're going to be the wrong ones . No , Todd , you got many of them Are you talking ?
are you talking to work all states POTA or are you talking to work all its phone ?
No , he only knows POTA .
Well , well , I've worked Alaska before . I worked Alaska . Why was activating the park from the natural rail trail ? But they weren't in a park , so it doesn't count Right , I worked a park in the state and the only two I have left is Hawaii and Alaska .
Okay , yeah , so you're talking about POTA , because I just , I just got my work .
I worked the park in New Zealand but I can't get Hawaii or Alaska .
Well , you might , from Missouri , if you're going to be working . Yeah , louisiana , yeah , maybe I'll shoot at the antenna . Like West , North and West , You're almost in the middle of the country , so you might have a little bit more of a disadvantage . Maybe I'll set up a little parking lot . Anybody else have any of those deals ?
I mean , obviously Taz is asking for a tall order there with all of his antennas and grounding and WAZ and you know whatever else . But anybody got more realistic goals , if anybody is looking to buy me gifts there's .
There's a lot on the chameleon website where you can . You can piece little bits together . I currently own the MPASS 2.0 . Right , so you know , I just need another mill whip and the and the loop connector and I could do a loop . You know , the great thing about chameleon is it's all super versatile .
So anybody wants to buy me some chameleon stuff , feel free to send it to me .
You want to give card to chameleon for ?
Or if chameleon is , you know , listening and they want to , you know , have someone do field testing . Paul is fully available for all of those options .
More of the willing . Yeah , eric's going to teach me how to edit videos so that I can start recording myself , but yeah .
Nice yeah . So you know , eric , I'm going to go , I'm going to go head down the pet smart or pet go and buy him a chameleon and drop it off .
You're a Christmas .
Listen , todd , I already got a beard of dragon , I don't need that shit Cool .
All right , Well , all right . So either Todd , or you know , Matt , any you guys got any wishes or desires to see under the tree this year , or maybe in the going to the new year ?
I just want the forex cr once that ever comes available . So I'll either get it for me or I'll be buying it myself . Very cool , very cool .
Todd .
I'm just , you know , I'm just really glad . You know I got all you guys as friends and we've been doing ham radio . I've really gotten in . I mean , I never thought I'd get this far in the ham radio .
I thought I'd just be a repeater guy and you know , now I'm doing podcasts , youtube and live stuff going on YouTube's and parks in the air and so , yeah , I just hope it just continues and I hope we , we all , get the key playing radio and just gets better and better .
Come a long way from activating mines . Falls there on Todd yeah .
It's a parking Nash for those of you guys that don't know .
Well , and you know it is actually just kind of a good tickler . Therefore , you know staying , you know in the podcast there Todd and I talk about our kilo going into that one in mine not mine falls , but the rail trail kind of similar area and and you know all good stuff .
But I guess for me the only one thing , like Todd did for his we worked all states I want to get my kilo . I've got two parks that I'm very close to you , know , and I just going to get my butt out and , you know , get those activated .
And so I'm hoping , you know , I can get that before the end of the year to kind of start the new year off in a good you know , good , you know foot . But you know , I got most of my radios . The only thing I would really love to see under the tree and based off of Paul's , like you know , hey , let's do a group , go fund me .
I'm looking to get a , you know , transverter . I want to get on , you know , do some two meter EME or , you know , two meter satellite stuff from the flex . So , you know , need a few other pieces there . But those , you know , as everybody knows , when you get in transversions stuff they get pricey and expensive , especially if you need some good stuff .
So that's on the , you know , hopefully going into the new year maybe . But we'll , you know , we'll kind of sit back .
Don't you want your kitchen done ? Oh the kitchen is done , dude , I'm happy . Oh , it is , you know .
I will hopefully not have to have this . You know , grease green screen behind me . In a while you actually be able to see what the shack looks like I got your dining room table sitting in my dining room .
Roger , that Get that out of my house for Christmas .
Very cool , all right . Well , cool guys . So let's wrap things up here . So you know , any last parting words , anything obviously you guys want to throw out there , you know , obviously . You know it's been great conversation and I've been enjoying it . And thanks all the guys in the chat there . You know Ryan actually mentioned some really quickly .
That I wanted to just bring to attention is a 10 meter contest is coming up . So you know , definitely get involved in that . 10 meters is hopping , like Todd said earlier . So you don't want to miss out on that . And you know , as always , thanks for all those guys and gals that joined in the chat there .
Appreciate you guys there and , you know , love to see you guys . You know , continue to support us and , as always , you know , as I said , thanks for joining and live free and hand podcast community . You know , remember if you haven't subscribed . You know you need to subscribe .
You know , pay attention , we're going to be doing our hundred subscriber giveaway soon , during the Christmas episode . That our live stream . If you haven't been part of the podcast , make sure you go and check that out and subscribe as well .
So you've got some really great episodes coming up and you don't want to miss out on those and , as always , we love your reviews and so if you want to head over to our iTunes page , you can definitely leave us a review there and if you do , we will make sure we read it on our next , you know episode and you can go visit our website .
As always , you can get all of our contact information , social media , any of the other , you know , events that we might be doing going forward , as well as any of the content going forward and , like I mentioned before , you know , if you want to see us go to Dayton , you know , make sure you subscribe to that Patreon there and buy us a Bear Links and we'll
make sure that . You know , we're bringing along for the ride and , you know , make it an in-person type thing and it always helps us continue to grow the channel and , you know , continue to offer great content and other giveaways and a bunch of other stuff . So , as always , if you know .
Last thing around , if you want to contact any one of us in the show obviously for Todd and I you can go to lifferyandhamcom . Matt , how can they get a hold of you If you are ?
that email , good , or jump on Reliance antennas and you can contact me there . Some guy was actually asking questions about a hand , just a handheld radio . I'm like , well , I don't do anything for that , but I'll help you out . So I got him all set up with his Bayofang , the little Chinese radio . He had a question on it , just out of the blue .
Bow .
Fang .
You've been bowing the Gateway drug to the ham radio hobby . All right , our Paul . So thank you again for Matt for being on , and Paul , how about you ? How can they ? Get a hold of you .
So I guess I'm easy right , qrz . I don't have a custom web page or a YouTube channel or any of that nonsense . So for now I'm super tech and savvy . Hit me up on QRZ . Send me an email , I'll gladly reply or hopefully , I'll catch you out here .
Awesome . Well , hey again . Thanks again for listening and watching us on the live stream and being part of all the fun tonight , and we'll look forward to seeing you guys in our next month's live stream . And with that from all of us tonight , 7-3 . 7-3 , guys , thanks for coming . 7-3 , everyone .