All right , tonight we'll mention a four letter word that sometimes causes your blood pressure to boil . Yep , we're going to talk about the ham radio club . Hello and welcome to the free and ham podcast . It's our bi-weekly show where we explore ham radio topics around New Hampshire , new England and beyond .
Whether you're a first time listener or one of our regulars , we appreciate you guys being part of the community . So let's get into the show . We've got a little special introductions , but first I'm your host , eric call sign in 1JUR . And that special news is no , todd didn't win the lottery and he's not handing out flexes for everyone .
We've got another host to add to our ranks , so I'd like to introduce , without further ado , paul .
Hi . Yeah , it's good to be here . You know it was a pleasure to be added to the crew . You know I got to guest on a couple of you know shows , live streams , and it's a ton of fun and always like hanging out with you guys . So it's great to be here . Paul KF4 TTY .
All right . Well , hey , we appreciate your , paul , and thanks for coming to hang out with us . You know guys here and you know we're definitely looking forward to some future . You know fun stuff and antics and Paul definitely not disappoint .
All right , so before the show you know , like I said , we always like to catch up when let our listeners know what's going on and where the Lifre and Ham crew is . As always , every month , we always host a live stream on our YouTube channel .
Make sure you pay attention to our socials and our website , as the live show varies from month to month , but if you subscribe , you always get notified when we go live . So , and as always , you know you can head over to our Instagram page or our website to get more details on that and outside of that , let's kind of dive into it .
So kick it off with Ryan . Hey , what's been going on in your world of Ham radio ?
Yeah , good evening . Everyone Call signs W1SNH . And you know , before I get into my past week of Ham radio , yeah , welcome , paul , glad to have you a part of the group here and I look forward to many future recordings with you . So it's been , you know , a continual evolution with the new radio in the shack .
So I have gotten all the hardware finished , all the cables are run and now it's taking the deep dive into the software , the . My mind still hasn't wrapped around totally . All the functions of the flex are taking , some of the , the sub menus that need to be tweaked and profiles and everything .
But I'm slowly going away at chopping away at that Then mostly just doing rag chewing with it at night when in between all house projects and work duties and family duties . So it's been a slow going for right now , but looking forward to getting more comfortable with it . And the next kind of evolution on the flex integration is going to be using a node red .
So I had a new Raspberry Pi got delivered and it's sitting over here on the desk just waiting to be plugged into the network and start some basic flows creating those . And I'm probably start off with some downloaded , pre created ones off the , off the internet which other people have used .
But I don't envision well , I say this now , but I don't envision a lot of layers and integration , more just want to get you know when I switch bands , the correct profile and antenna and everything gets switched over and then the only other thing would be rotor control .
Just watch out for the squirrels then , because those will definitely come in and wreck everything and make those flows more complex than you think you ever wanted to be .
So I'm another kind of side project which definitely going to tackle this winner is documentation .
So I have this strong desire to , both written and in a graphical format , go through and document everything in the check and I'm going to separate it based on AC power , dc power , networking it might be node , red flows , how co axis setup , grounding and just put it in a picture format so that you know if something does change or I need to modify something
or I'm having some issue . I can go to the documentation and look at it and say , eric , what could possibly be the problem , what do I need to , you know , tell the troubleshooting process . So cool .
Now how do you use that to translate to from like paper to physical world ? Is it like it ? Will you lay , you label a lot of your cabling and stuff , or is it just a matter of just you're just doing it for visual representation , to kind of get you started in the troubleshooting process ?
So it's a CDO , because OCD should be alphabetical and you know it's just more of just I don't know , just making sure things just logically laid out .
So yes , I'll put some labels on the coax and you know it's just like in networking and you know I have a whole bunch of Ethernet going everywhere and over time I kind of lost track of which you know which cable goes where . So and you spend the time tone everything out and document it and kept up with it from the very beginning .
But it'll be a worthwhile project Once it's all finished .
It is a full time job for sure . I commend you on wanting to do that . I think I sort of started it myself . If I go back , I'm sure it's totally doll , like you know , upside down and left and right . But yeah , do that . That is definitely a good step to keep your sanity in the process .
I'm trying to figure out what went wrong and why it went wrong .
So now , that's , that's it for the week . I have some long term prob practically I'm not going to get to them till springtime but new antenna plans , some new wire antennas . So go box to make to . Yes , we do have to go .
I thought that I would take them over to Russell average state park .
Yeah , Okay , well , you got the easiest of all of it Anyway , so that's a good segue . Todd , what's been going on in your hand radio life ?
My hand radio life . Well , I did a trip to Mississippi and had to go two days because I had to be there for the 30th and then the first . I did an afternoon visit and then a quick morning visit and headed back home .
But while I was there I realized , since I've been going down there for so long , I never really looked on a map of how far Louisiana was . And it's not that far .
So , even though the place I had to go was in the opposite direction , I drove two hours to Louisiana and activated a park there , and so I picked that state up because I don't think I'll be going to Louisiana anytime soon . And that was good . No one was there , it was kind of raining .
I did out of the car and I set up the antenna in the parking lot and a guy comes over , does an illegal dump in the park , throws this trash , that thing . Then he's watching me and then he comes by and I was in a black rental car and he goes you , fbi , you show you're not FBI . And he's like going on .
And I'm like , listen , man , I am not FBI , I'm doing ham radio . And he goes you sure do look like your FBI . He goes . I was just dumping my stuff . I said listen , I don't think the FBI is going to be carrying if you're dumping your garbage in the dumpster .
So then one of the guys in the club , john , he worked me on 10 meters and he needed Mississippi . And I said I'm going to Mississippi , I'll go right now . So I packed up , drove about 45 minutes across the border , went to another park and it was just it was getting dark and 10 meters was dead . So I only had 20 meters and he couldn't hear me .
But I told him . I said I'll get up in the morning and after I see this kid I'll come back to the airport . There's a park maybe about 15 minutes away . I'll go there and try to work , work you then . And of course 10 meters . There must have been like a solar flare or something . It was just nothing . I didn't hear anyone on it .
I got one contact , it was just dumb and the guy was like oh , didn't you know that ? Yeah , so I had to do 20 meters again and unfortunately he didn't get Mississippi , but so I got . I ended up doing three parks in two days and two states , so pretty good time , very cool .
Nice , cool , all right , well , so I skipped over . Well , I didn't skip over . Usually we usually go with our guests and esteemed host , but anyway , paula . So what's been going on in your hammer to your world ?
Well . So let's see , I've got the the pot of pack fairly well situated . I lightened it up a bit . We're down to 30 pounds , actually it's just under 30 pounds . And then I spent a lot of the week trying to integrate the boom mic that's here on the desk with my 7300 and the sound from the 7300 and getting all that to work together .
And I'm proud to say that I had a very good recording of me making a contact with a gentleman in South America yesterday . So it's all . It's all working very well and I do apologize to anybody from the 3916 nets that I didn't realize .
My foot switch broke the night before last and so we're having a conversation on discord and I'm unknowingly transmitting the entire conversation over three nights . Yeah , 3916 nets . So I sent I sent their their net control guy an email apologizing , but I fell awful about it .
The spring , the spring broke in the in the foot switch and so it just fell on transmit open .
It was like that for three days .
No , no , no , no , I caught it . I caught it . It was , you know , maybe only like five or so minutes , but still like when you're trying to run a net and you get somebody inadvertently transmitting on top of you . Like I felt awful about it , so I did reach out and I apologized . But yeah , these things happen .
Well then , that is that you know any of those sad hams that are listening . That is the proper way to be able to handle a lot of you know things and those issues . So , you know , take great heated advice . You know , even though it was his mistake , it was still the better way to take it . Blod you for that man .
You know I would have never noticed that and it probably would have been for quite a long time before I really ran into it . I made dumb mistakes too by playing with WSJTXZ and leaving that running in auto answer mode . And it came back two days later and went holy crap , I've got over 150 contacts . I don't know how I did that .
And , yeah , I realized I left WSJTXZ running in auto God mode , which I advise no one ever to do unless you're monitoring it . But I don't know the long story . Yeah , like walk away . Yeah , exactly , I'm not gonna apologize to 150 people for saying , hey , I did make a contact with you , but I didn't really make a contact with you . So cool , all right .
Well , good on that one . So for me , my week has been kind of a little crazy . I've been trying to get a few videos out the door and I set kind of myself a goal .
That you know if you're a subscriber of my own channel , I'm trying to do what I'm calling the seven days of my kilo and so I'm gonna be for the next seven days , you know , creating videos on trying to get close to my kilo for Reed's Ferry .
I'm tired of sitting on you know my bucket list and realize that you know , if I don't use at least this week to try to see if I can get the last 200 and some odd contacts under my belt and get that part kiloed , that you know I don't know . I don't want to call myself a cotton head and any muggins or something like that .
I don't have to figure that one out . You know whatever title I want to put on my shirt , but you know that's what I'm shooting for . So I figured if I forced myself to do videos every day and I forced myself to get out there and you know activate for at least an hour it's literally five minutes down the street there's no reason why I can't go do it .
I just find every excuse , you know , or something gets my you know time . So you know I wanted to make that a goal and so that's what I'm shooting out for , and you know , outside of that it'd been just , you know , playing .
You know more with the flexes , ryan said , and trying to , you know , get my head wrapped around some of the you know advanced features in it , and learning how to set up profiles myself to . You know , every time I think I've got it somehow , I go and screw them all up again and have to do a reset and reload from where I last slept off .
So my advice , ryan , is back up , back up , back up and then that way , if you mess anything up , you can go back to where at least you know you were at a working state .
You know , one thing I was thinking of is I need to do a manual antenna switch to bypass the flex and just go to the good old standby icon 7300 . Just so you know .
So you know exactly .
it's still working , if I need a break and I just want to play radio instead of chase down you know , issues down the rabbit hole here . You know it's a switch over to the icon and just play radio .
Yep , it's funny you say that cause like we laugh . And we , you know , we're all pretty technically savvy . I mean , if we're not , we can put our heads to the grindstone and figure it out . You know , todd , you're shaking your head , no , but I know you figured out some stuff . And you're magically said to yourself , wow , I figured it out .
You know , at least you put the effort to do that . You know I read the flex . You know Facebook chats and there are people that are talking about , like I pressed the PTT button on my remote and nothing happens and then that that's it . Like that's the extent . I can't figure it out .
So someone has kind of like spent the time setting it up and you know they spent a good you know six to eight grand on this whole setup for , for you know the lack of zero benefit , you know , because they can't get their PTT to key the radio or something . So yeah , I'm starting to feel the pain .
Well , I was able to take my computer cover off , which was a first for me , very impressed with the inside of my computer , a lot different than the last one I did , which was like 20 years ago , and I was able to add to some USB and USB-C ports in .
So but the hardest thing it didn't .
it's working . And the only thing I didn't know how to get the stupid , you know . I'm like how do I , how do I get this thing off ? I didn't realize it was like soft metal and I just pushed it and it bent over . I'm like , oh , look at that Perfect .
And all it's fails .
You know like I was thinking I had to take the whole thing apart . Go on Amazon , I'm looking for a different piece that has to . And then I'm like , oh , look at that , it just pops out .
Very cool , alrighty . Well , so with all that , let's kind of dive into tonight's topic . You know it's it's a hot button for some and for others you know it's a whole new world . But what we want to do is , you know , kind of talk around ham radio clubs themselves .
You know when , depending on what walk of or what phase of life you're in , you know , or whether you're a new ham or you've been around in your season ham or you're on the sad ham scale , you know , when people mention ham radio club it brings up a lot of different emotions and both of them can be positive and both of them can negative .
But what we want to kind of do tonight is , you know , share with our audience . You know , if you're a new ham or say you're even , you know you've been in the you know ham hobby for you know 10 , 15 years maybe , tried clubs and then decided it wasn't your you know cup of tea .
You know we're hoping more kind of , you know can persuade you to kind of take another step and give a shot and you know , and get into clubs .
Because you know we have seen a big push and a big you know kind of conversation from both the ARRL perspective and you know , just in , you know the small circles and YouTube and the internet space where people you know have gravitated towards , you know , a non-standard kind of version of what you know we deem as a ham radio club , and all of them have gotten
some great you know stuff that they've learned from it . They've created , you know , creating some great relationships .
But at the same time , you know , we want to bring to the light that you know there are local clubs that are in your area , that you know that probably with just a little bit of extra help , you know , or someone who had kind of desire to make the club , you know you know , to bring some fun or functionality or , you know , activities to the club can make
the club that so much better . So we're going to kind of talk a little bit around that tonight and we're going to try to stay away from , you know , all of the pains and hurts because you know , with everything , once you get involved with it , you know , sometimes you know people can interview , but that's not where we're going with tonight .
We want to make sure that we , you know , give you some good tips and hopefully some suggestions to , you know , get back involved in your local club in your area . So let's kind of talk this through a little bit so you know , let's what for your perspective guys and who wants to take the lead with this one . You know what do we want .
You know what are we looking for . What are you looking for when we talk of like what a good club to you would be like ?
You know I'll start there . You know , I think for me a good club is one where you can go there and ask a lot of questions . There's a you know there's always in any group there's going to be a range of talents and experience .
But you know , for me , going in as a new ham , you know there's some concepts or some things I don't understand and just being able to ask that question , I mean you can always yes , youtube's great and Googling everything , and you know , going online for stuff .
But to have someone who you know has the work experience and the education and the background of you know everything electronic , you know RF and circuits and HF theory , you know having them sit down with you over a cup of coffee during your weekly club meeting and say here's , you know , here's the , explain it to me like I'm five and they just break it down
for you , it makes a world of a difference . So for me , having a club that has people like that who are engaging and want to help , I mean that's huge . So that's one aspect . I got a couple other things , but I'll let the others jump in here .
So , Paul Todd , you guys have any input on what you think makes a good club in that sense .
Well , I guess you got to kind of differentiate in a way , right , because you you get in person local clubs and then you've got online clubs and they both have their own pros and cons .
I think , for myself , one of the the biggest benefits for having a local club is getting to meet no people like you guys , you know , like I mean Eric , yeah , you've helped me get my , my , my dipole up three times , I know , right , like if it wasn't for the little club though , you know , I mean , you and I might not have ever met , but we , you know ,
we wouldn't have had that opportunity to be able to help each other and your dipole would still probably be on the ground , but yeah . Be as high , that's for sure .
Cool .
I think for me , I think it's a club that's very welcoming , club that wants to expand . Treat you like when I , when I first came to our club and I met everyone who's very hey , welcome , we have any questions I mean everyone was very personal , upfront , genuine .
I've been in other hobbies , I've been the clubs and Very clicky , if you know , like where you know they've got their crew and then everyone , just that's just them . Our club , our club , is very non clicky .
We have a lot of a good guy , a lot of people with different interests and stuff , but we always all get together and you know , some of us break out and do things that we're more More into than others . But I think really , our club getting together and meeting and hanging out with everyone , we you get a little bit of everything .
And I thought that this club out of all the ones I joined because when I was a technician I Joined everyone like I was like , oh , I gotta join this club , I gotta join this club like any repeater I was ever on oh , there's a club , okay , I'll join .
And I just found our club to be just the most , the most friendly and the most almost like I want to I guess the word would be real , like they were just real . You know . They're like hey , welcome , we're glad you're here . You know , welcome , there's so much to learn . You're gonna have a blast , you're gonna love this , and and that's kind of how I .
I got in there and then I met all you guys , so it was all good .
Oh , it sounds like , you know , based off of you know , all your Different viewpoints , did you find like what I'll call the first contact of most people Engaging and you know , meeting you Fry it from time to time .
Do you feel like it's , you know , that was what you know Brought you or led you at least in the door to , you know , starting to get involved with the club ? Or was it like multiple kind of people just beating you and saying hello and introducing you ? You know kind of what was that experience for you guys on an individual level , how about you Ryan ?
Actually one of the things that started with is , you know , I think , a good club that has multi , multi-layered media and points of contact for the different members .
So for Like elaborate , like more like email , that type of stuff or well .
So on one end , One end of the discussion could be discord , which you know there's always good conversations going on there or the other end would be the weekly breakfast at the local cafe up the road . You know , both are unique and they have their strengths and weak weaknesses , but I think having more you know it's hobbies about people .
So having more Points of contact for everyone to connect and ask questions and integrate and , just you know , talk with one another , the better .
So okay that's definitely good , you know . So that sounds like it's a core , like core requirement for most people in general .
We just say yes okay , no , an interesting thing though is so , for example , my brother , he's interested in hammer-a-do and I had a friend that just moved out of town in into the Midwest and the driving distance between Towns and everything is just so much bigger . You know , we're very blessed here in New England to have there's a lot of clubs local to us .
There's a lot of repeaters local to us . The the density of hammer-a-do Activity around us is pretty high . I mean , we have a candy store within , you know , a 30-minute drive . That's yeah . Which is you ? This guys ? Yes , you know , but how do you get into the hobby and have all these benefits of a club when you're , you know , much further out .
But you know , one thing I think of is and I had done it in the past , I need to renew it but Long Island CW club . You know they do a great program of promoting CW and it's 100% on online , on zoom .
But I mean they're super active and they have two or three zoom meetings a day and if you can't make one you can do another , and if you miss Monday night you could get on Tuesday night , and it's , they make it work . So Just because clubs not totally local to you , you know it's not . It's not the end of the world .
So Definitely good point there . I mean , especially , like you know , if you're a new ham , like you said , if your brother's ham curious or getting into that sense , that is like critical , obviously to be able to get answers .
But you know , obviously don't , don't shy away from turning away from , like you know , internet resources or things like Brian said , like CW and this Long Island CW club , or you know , I know , paul , you're part of a discord crew . That's Was that flag and torch . I think it was similar , that same thing .
You .
You're muted . We love you , paul , but we want to hear you .
All right , so didn't realize I hit the mute button . But yeah , so flag and torch society is up there . It's a fantastic group . It's it's mostly military guys . There are some supporters , but many of the the board are still active duty and and they're they're spread out across the country and so we were heavily reliant on things like discord and the website .
You know we're talking about . You know , starting to put together like Rolling HF nets where you know like we'll , we'll get everybody on and we'll do realize and whatever , just so that we can start Practicing communication amongst ourselves as well . You know , being military guys , we're all about preparedness and the more you practice , the better prepared you are .
But yeah , you know , and you definitely don't want to discount the , the ability even for local clubs to interact online , you know like I use our , our local club discord and one key to the error .
Shameless plug .
Yeah , I use this word for our local club all the time because , you know , whenever I want to ask a technical question , I know that you know w one WRA is usually around to fill in that gap and answer my technical questions and and sometimes I'll ask a question that's just kind of silly and dumb and I just want to get some feedback , you know , and , yeah ,
it's great for that .
Very cool . How about you , todd ? So I know you kind of have you know , an interesting past of you know club involvement and stuff , and so you know what's what's that kind of look like for you .
You know , I , you know I learned about our club this when I was studying . I was listening on a scanner . We are daily , that's 7pm , that's that we are club does every night . And so I heard them all and I said , oh , I'm going to check this club out .
And I figured out through the nets that they were in Bedford and I'm like , okay , they're very local and yeah , let's try it out . So I , they were the first one I signed up for and , like I said , I went to the first meeting and people were very , very it just felt like it was smaller than some of the other clubs .
I did join a bigger club but I felt like I was just like another paying member of like thousands , where it was more personal . I think with our club and I haven't I would go to the meetings . I think it was like during , I think I started . It was like during COVID , so a lot of it was on zoom , so I didn't recognize anyone .
But I remember when I saw the first person I talked to on the repeater outside of the net and I saw what they looked like , I was like , oh , that's not what I thought he looked like , but but you know that was , but it was just really good and then it's just kind of grown from there .
So you know I that's just me personally I mean some people like the bigger nets . I mean I mean the bigger clubs . One of the one of the local clubs around here . It's very big , it's got an unbelievable website , a lot of resources that I used a lot . They actually have a net once a week and it's almost like a net where it's .
They teach you how to be good on it , like how to what the net rules are , how do you resupply , how do you ? You know how does it go and every net's different . But so I did them for a while and then I did a repeater that was on the interstate repeater society and they don't have meetings , they're all on the repeater all the time .
So I've talked to and know a lot of those guys but I've never met them . But you know I get on that , I get on that repeater and I call back hey , what's going on ? Yeah . So you know I find that all ham hands out there , you know , even on each F , and they're all very friendly and you know everyone's willing to help .
But our club , I think , is really cool because we do do things and people are genuine , you know , and we're very into helping everyone out , and also people seem to care , like what's going on in your life .
So yeah , yeah , that's a really good you know points there . I mean , in essence , you know club can be many things to many people . I think one of the big things is where you kind of fit in and where the reciprocation process kind of comes from .
Like if you find you go into a club and I've been to a few clubs that you know you feel like you go into and you're like you're the only one sitting off the side and no one's really come to say hello to you .
There's not as a welcoming kind of you're like the new kid at the cafeteria You're sitting by yourself and no one's talking to you , or if we're going to go to old times .
The guy has leprosy , you know you don't want to deal with him . So you know we kind of move along with that process and so you know , those are kind of key indicators for me .
So , like when I I got the benefit very early on , when I was , you know , getting my ticket way back in 93 , I had a chance to had some Boy Scout leaders who brought me into the Hammer Yo Club in town and they were like , you know , instead of like looking at youth and saying , you know , they should remain quiet , they were like oh , dude , come , come ,
be loud , come play radio , come play with whatever you can , you know , let me see what we can do to help you .
I think our club and one thing we might have not mentioned is that a good club , you know asks questions more than they just give answers a lot of times and I think Ryan kind of touched upon that a little bit like there's space for us to always ask questions and always ask either the really dumb , insane , you know , kind of like , you know , why does one
plus one equal to ? You know ? Hey , how do I , you know , you know , take the green wire and make it ground , you know , all of those things in between , and that's really like a critical kind of thing to both your growth as a , you know , in the hobby and , you know , hopefully maybe an inspiration for you to want to kind of get better .
So you know what's ?
Is there anything in like a club format that we , you know , as we kind of dive into a little bit , because let's kind of talk a little bit about just for like our experiences of like what we've dealt with on a local level from a club perspective , like do you , you know , are you familiar , you mind , like the formats that they , they , they fall into , because
a traditional club for me and let me kind of frame it out a little bit traditional and the club kind of follows like the typical . You know , if you go in hybrid or you go in person , you meet people for a couple minutes and then you sit down , you go through a pleasure lesions , you do that , the typical standard .
You know club type format old news , old news , new news , new business , that type of stuff , and then you get into the guest speaker and then , if you're , you know , there's some time after , there's usually some conversation and introductions and people kind of commingle and that tends to turn some folks off , at least maybe some of the younger generation .
Do you , do you find that for yourself when you guys went into these clubs and were part of these clubs , or was it just , like you know , it was just a whole new experience and you were okay with , you know kind of the format ?
I think you know pretty much every meeting I've been in has followed . You know they use the Roberts rules of you know a meeting , so you know that's that's . That's typical . I think it's the all the extracurricular activities . You know it's like , hey , we're having , you know , a holiday party in two weeks . You know , bring your significant other .
Or we're having a what's on your workbench , you know , on a zoom meeting once a month through the wintertime . You know these different range of activities I think is what keeps it interesting . So for me I think , more the better .
So super , you know . So from your standpoint , you know , turn it up to 11 . If the club is super active , it doesn't really matter what's going on . As long as there's a lot of stuff going on , that you know , you find that that that's a plus in your plus category .
Then Sure , yeah , I mean it's all hamper , ham radio related and if my schedule allows , I'm going to participate .
So yeah , I agree , I think . I think it's important that the more activities and it's not like everyone in the club has to do every activity right . Like there might be a CW day and if people don't do CW , obviously they're not going to be interested in that .
But I do think , like our club we've , you know , the last couple of years that I've been with the club , you know we've had field day and I think that brings people together . But there are guys in our club that don't operate on field day but they do come and hang out and check out and say hi and maybe just observe .
But I think that's that's really good too . And the guys that want to play radio and get on there and participate and make contacts Great . Those that want to not do that and just hang out and say hi and see what everyone's doing , I mean that's great too . So , but I agree , I think , doing things as a club , that pertains to whatever the service .
So for us , ham radio , like yeah , we should be doing ham radio stuff . I also like the idea of like going to the events , getting a group of people together . When we go to near fest , typically the club meets and gets breakfast and then we all kind of split up but then run into each other , you know , while we're at near fest .
So that's kind of another kind of cool thing , where we kind of get together , split off in our own ways and then come back together and then and talk about it . So it's all good .
Well , I mean so , I would , I would echo , you know , a lot of the things that have been said and even add to that , like you know , I mean . So this hobby , like many hobbies you know , can very much be an individual thing where you know it's just you and it's your radio and you're , you know , doing your own thing , making contacts .
However , however you choose to do so , there are so many different facets to this hobby but it's so much more enjoyable when you can do it with other people that share in those joys . Right , and so you know , and it's , and it's okay to you know , just like , go to a field day and take it all in , right , like my first field day . That's what I did .
I was my first experience with the club , other than I think I had gone to a Saturday morning at the barn , you know . But it was that first like real experience .
Get my feelers , you know I wanted to be , and where was more responsive on th , the people that I had inter our clubs repeater , were more friendly and much mo me to spend field , my firs , it all in , you know I d , you know , until the next , okay , and now you know , contesting .
I've only be three years , almost three , was a thing that scared m , but you know I mean you do on unity mountain , you contesting all the time . Part of my first , my first , was exciting , so that's a . So the moral of the story to get to is just enjoy w other people that want to .
I mean my my thing is I to be a technician and tha met , I met Eric and he li really .
I'm glad he did .
I'm glad he did . He what work with kids , you know was bullied Anyway . But w know , I didn't know , I mean we're coming back . We went , I was nervous but I kept real pile up and I just g had my first real pile up into this groove and it wa he had taught me and told me you're doing great K .
I'm looking at my text bes kind of crazy , but anyway think I can do this . And m showed up I wasn't there , like showed up , I wasn't , and he was working at sta . Sit down , you got to do t , kind of said . You got to m . I did , thought it was pretty , I was pretty psyched .
I'm so uh , but yeah , but it w kind of like you know g , kind of like you know g . Then , once I got my genera doing parks , I really got the New Hampshire what w the one we do like a QS , get this thing in the ma . I won something , remember second or third .
I was l surprised .
I was like wha like I had no idea so was really like I was re watch . I mean , you guys t geeked out , but I used to . I still do Right , and I gonna do that . How am I e ? And when I did it it was time I did it I said , oh , that's pretty awesome . This did his video when we did . And she goes how do you and do all that ?
She goes another language . How did it's easy practice , right . That's what used to tell m think that was a really g , a club where you have a c , make friends and then they you don't want to know A ideas that you're going t , as long as it's not C , w , I want to learn that you , we're at near fest . I went the things . I'm like , oh , I can .
It's like a fidget , always fidgeting stuff .
I have to tell Bill that an .
I'm just , I'm all I know . Like another language and new languages , I struggled and just trying to learn . Like it's ridiculous .
So also for you , ryan . So lik to add to that experience , experiences with , obviously with you , because apparel you as well .
I'm still s C W , so I'm right there , so I'm probably on my fifth to focus and learn the la know . Practice makes per eventually Um , I don't kn it's . It's . It comes down pe interaction and I think you make of it so for m , helpful having the uh t answer this questions .
Th that's the the important guys , obviously , and so to like I didn't come up w skill or this process to in by you know their ear and getting them do stuff Todd you know , professes basically ruined his life .
Maybe my wallet , not my l can you know Paul is th .
He's relatively new to th . Sure , eventually over time it's gonna . You know , yo wallet to him too as well . We you've got a lot of pro with Ryan , so you know with that . But you know , and I , you know this is happy with the club .
That of things that I really p I've been in , I've been a clubs , you know especially , I had a lot of people and all touched upon it in a little facet , is that it' people when they come alo were like , hey , we're gla glad you're here , not beca , or you're just another n increasing our club . You , you know , hey , you're in , you like to do .
And a lot like when I got my license had no code technician co to save my life and so a chance to do H F until field day and so I would out , or one weekend out of it was always during field , my like shining moment be .
I felt that like if I di get in there and start m doing , you know those th world that I was just goi , I only really had repeat and it was always fun , Bu kind of like as a 19 year . They weren't really talki , they didn't really know w , they were still helpful .
An invited me in a conversat , kind of the same dynamic , and that's kind of what I and those are the people find are like the ones th about the you know the inviting you in and they' giving you . You know the to your questions .
But mor know like , come , take this really kind of what I think does is that it realizes you're on your journey th get to some of those thin . You know play in FTA or ticket , you know , but all all build into this great get to play in . And you kn field days and places lik .
You know drag those peop , be a technician or have l give it a shot and try an . You get your first contact . You just can't sit back . A got my first contact . I'm can't do any more than yo go on to my next . You kn basket weaving , you know that . And you know leave . You know is there . I think in one we kind of touched upon it .
It's really really , you know , a good kind of segue is . You know , do you feel like you know , in terms of the club as a whole and whether you're an online club or you're in a physical local club , you know , is there anything that you'd like to kind of see or improve upon that . You know that you would like to .
You know , like to do more of or have more of . Is there , you know , an area that you're you have a desire that you're seeing starting to grow , or you know what are those areas . I should maybe step back .
So what are those areas like you see in a club that you know either are absent or you know maybe you're starting to , you know , get planted and grow in that area ? Do you want to ? Do you feel like you know , yeah , maybe I don't know . It's kind of one of those things I'm trying to think of .
Like , if you're looking at a club , what is the best approach , you know , for you , for you and yourself , to get into when it comes to , you know , just building those long term relationships ? Because there is , you know , we all know , the Hamm radio hobby and this is , I guess , where I was getting to is that we have an age gap .
You know we all agree that . You know the older generation that's in there is a little older , and you know the younger guys that are coming up .
Do you , you know , do you find that as a contention or an issue there , or do you find that you want to embrace something like that more often and you feel like that , if you embrace it , it's a better approach than just , you know , kind of ignoring it and hoping they go away .
You know , I think I'm thinking back 10 plus years ago where I'd been a ham , curious and looking into the hobby . You know you heard a lot of sentiments and comments online and art magazine articles that the hobbies are dying . You know we're fading away and you know the old timers and the old Elmer's are .
You know silent keys and it's just not as popular with the young kids anymore .
And you know we have everything's digital and you know IP based and I think with the big boom it's kind of like a Renaissance time right now of we it's kind of all happening at one time with the whole YouTube phenomena , the whole digital modes , FTA , the access to , you know , cheap , lightweight , really cool , efficient , affordable radios , kind of the past .
You know , I don't know I'll say even 10 plus years it's . I think we've turned a corner in the hobby and it's actually , you know it's coming more and more popular and I think we are getting a lot more young people in it . I think having you know if a club has just one age bracket of members , I mean that's fine . You know , that's okay . I can .
In my , my life I have a wide range of age aged friends , you know . But I think a club that has a wider range of membership . I think it's better . So I don't think that's right or wrong . I think it's just just the fact of demographics and the population around your area and your club .
Yeah , that's like my other hobby , the flying the model airplanes and stuff . We're always trying to get younger people involved Because you know , if you just if you don't , the club will eventually die right , like they won't be around anymore and there won't be a club . You know , I always like to try to get kids involved .
You know , younger kids , kids that are interested , teenagers in both the clubs that I'm in . One of the things I'm planning on doing this year is is I work . I'm assigned to a school in Hudson , new Hampshire and they have a CTE program and there's a couple of people in there that are hams and I want to . I want to go out there and let kids try it .
Go out there and set up in the field . You know , hang out there all day and have kids come out there and try to introduce them to to the hobby and hopefully we'll have good band conditions and they'll be making contacts around the world and it might get . It might be a good you know , a good way to get people in .
And again , the hobby is changing and , like you said , I was a kid . I used to listen to it . I had no idea what it was . I didn't even know what a ham was . I knew there was ham radio channels and I used to listen to them on the scanner .
But now I think with some of these programs like POTA you know , pota is a huge way it's like field day every time you come out , because field days about introducing people to the hobby . Well , every time I go on a POTA I probably talk to at least someone like what are you doing and what's this all about ?
I'm passing out my flyers and explaining to them , letting them listen , offer them to try it out , and I think that's where where you're going to start getting more and more things . And I think for clubs , they need to recognize that and they need to change with the times .
So as the times change , as the hobby changes , your club really needs to adapt to that . I think for our club , one of the best things we have is the is the repeater . So we have a repeater and we also have that daily net . You know , sometimes it's 15 minutes , sometimes it's an hour .
Average time is probably a half an hour , 20 minutes , but it's very informal and it keeps everyone connected . Our net started because of COVID and COVID is obviously done and it just keeps going and we have more and more people doing that controls , and it's just a good way to do it .
It's a good way to get people interested , because you never know if some kids sitting on an old scanner and he hears that he might get interested .
Or someone younger For me , I would have probably gotten into ham radio a lot younger I just didn't know anyone , and no one in my family did it , so I didn't even know where to go , and back then there was no internet and YouTube or anything , so I couldn't look anything up .
I think , though , nowadays , kids are very into digital stuff , and you know you Google something or you type into the search engine and YouTube , and you know there's all kinds of stuff going on . So , again , times are changing .
Club should change with it , but I think they should also keep to their , their basics and why they were founded , and our club is just about getting together and playing radio is the way I look at it .
Yeah .
So Todd kind of touched on like other hobbies , and I want to get to that in a second . But one of the things that I wanted to comment on in regards to the question was that I do think that there are aspects of ham radio that are that are dying . Right , I think that in a lot of ways , the modern ham is is what's called an appliance operator .
Right , we may not fully understand how to build a radio , but we can . We can use it , we can understand the antenna theory and and a lot of the other aspects , right , but for all intents and purposes , we're not building radios anymore .
Yeah , so , but I think I think we need to value and respect the knowledge that those that came before us have and all of the hardship that they went through . I mean , radio is fairly easy these days , you know it didn't use to be that way .
I mean , it's not that bad in some cases to my voltage .
You know I was talking with a guy on 40 meters last night about building a 12 meter specific amplifier and he's like , yeah , it's no big deal , you could , you could build it at home and and you know you probably have most of the stuff already .
And I'm like could you imagine just , you know , just messing around with that kind of voltage on my desk , intimidating , you know .
Yes , be fair . Be fair , careful of crossing the wrong wire and boom .
You know it's funny . You say that , paul , because the flying hobby , the RC flying hobby , the old days , like you had to , you got like a kid with a bunch of sticks in it and you had to glue everything in , build it , cover it .
I mean it took you months to build your plane and then you had to learn how to do it and you didn't have what we have now like where you can buddy box and have a guy fly it for you and then you try it and if you start crashing they take over and when they crash they have to build it all over again .
Nowadays you go down to the store and for like 200 bucks you get the whole kit and you're up and running in 10 minutes .
So that's how I taught myself a fly . I was eight years old . I'd spent the entire winter building . The boss would model and I'd bring it to the ball field . I'd fly it for about three seconds , crash it and spend another three months fixing it .
Then the next flight it'd be about 10 seconds and over a period of literally about four years , crashing , flying , crashing , flying . I had kind of multiple airplanes going at various stages . That that's how I taught myself a fly . And when I saw that buddy box and having a mentor and a flight instructor to help you , I'm like they're cheating .
That's like that's fair .
Well , right , I'm telling you it's even crazier now . They have planes now that will fly , basically land and take off by themselves . We have a guy in the club that learned based on the technology . He learned by going through the stages of what he couldn't , can't do .
So , like , one of the things that they have on the planes is they limit the bank in the role Right now . The stability , yes , right , all on the computer . So when you bank left right , like if I , the way I fly , if I bank left , I'm rolling , like I'm going all the way around , but they have it called safe mode and it will stop .
And then you can't flip it over or you push down and you're not going to nose dive in and it'll stop , right .
So fun in that .
Well , exactly . So what happened when I'm teaching someone and I got this little kid coming up there and he's got his whole plane up and I'll forget to check and we'll go up in the air and all of a sudden I find it's in this safe mode , I can't fly it , I can't get the thing down , it won't go down , it won't bank left .
But when you're starting , that's a very cool way to do it and I can see how that was . That's newer even from when I did it . But I know that the old , the guys that have been around a while , like that's how they did it , like Ryan did . They built , crashed , built , crashed , built , crashed . And it wasn't like a .
You know , nowadays everything's foam or they mean they sell planes , but they come in . They're called ARFs , where they're already pre built . You just screw in the electronics , you don't even have to glue anything , so it's . And then they have the foam planes . And now they got this stuff . Where you can , you know , you crash your plane , it snaps in half .
You put some glue on it , with together , it dries in two minutes and you're up and flying again . So again .
And there we sort of feel that way with my . You know , when I'm in front of a rig and it's settled in CW mode , I just can't figure it all out . I have to like do a factory reset to be able to go back to the outside band .
Well , remember that one field day and my radio was , they were doing CW on it and I was like what is wrong with me ? I couldn't figure anything out . I was like that's it , I'm just reset , reset .
Or I remember , you know , conversation during breakfast one morning and two club members One was , you know , experienced Elmer was helping the other guy and the new ham was trying to learn CW . And just the way he has fist and using the two paddles he was tapping it out versus using just a press and squeeze technique .
And this Elmer , I mean , he straightened them out in about two minutes and over the next couple of weeks he kind of got rid of his bad habit and his CW just took off . So it was . It was neat to see .
And he didn't ridicule him either . That was the good part , but that's actually that . You know , we kind of touched upon it a lot . I mean that's really kind of what a great club looks like . I mean , it's hard to find , yeah , and I understand that . You know there's definitely an age gap that we deal with and struggle with .
But I think as a younger generation and you know we're older , you know , in comparison to younger generation but as a younger generation of them , you know the best thing we can do is to maybe give them a different approach , because a lot of them did it a lot on their own and you can't just credit them for that , because that was part of how great the
hobby was , but at the same time you can't . You know you can learn a lot from them . You just got to kind of help them understand that . You know , hey , you don't know a whole lot . You know , as Paul says , you know I feel dumber every time I'm , every day I'm in this hobby , you know , until I do ham radio .
So you know it's that same kind of approach . It's like we , as you know , we can be mentors to to the younger generation or other people that are in the same age group and you know , be that , you know better , you know light . We'll say to you know , encouraging people and saying , hey , dude , go ahead , make mistakes . We all made mistakes , we all .
You know , we're all appliance operators , as Paul says , and you know , let's just do it together . So very cool , cool . Well , how do we wrap this all up ? So I guess I guess the let's , what three things ?
What's like if we were going to give a new ham and opportunity to you know , start looking for clubs , you know whether they're online or , you know , in a local environment . You know , what three things do we want to kind of give them as takeaways to look for you know one thing over my head , I have a lot of hobbies and some of the other hobbies .
You know I built a entire you know custom car based on help from the form , and you know you had all these experts in this specific subject given advice and recommendations and everything .
So one thing I would recommend to someone is go onto the forums , whether it be a discord channel or you know , find a YouTube channel or something where you can interact with the people and ask the question . Hey , I'm in this location . Based on your experience , are there any clubs you can recommend ? So looking for specific advice , you know , for your area .
Okay , so and so , searching for that stuff , and you know I would throw into the ring . You know , hey , there's always all the big resources like a RL . Those can be sort of a crapshoot sometimes but they're definitely going to be a good list of active clubs for sure to be able to find and get in touch with .
What do you guys want to throw into the ring ? Yeah , I would go ahead .
Paul .
All right , all right . So I would say , look at a lot of clubs , right , there's enough of them out there . Look at a lot of clubs , find your people right . Ham radio is such a diverse hobby . There are so many different facets and so many niches .
Find what you like and what really truly drives you and then find those people because they're out there , right . So I mean , if you're into satellite , you're into FTH , you're into whatever , digital you know , single side band , there are groups and groups and groups and groups of just people in all these niche things .
And the biggest thing is , you know , have fun . If you don't feel dumb every day , then you're not learning , and so it's okay to feel dumb , it's okay to ask questions . Have fun doing it .
Yeah , I would say to you , know , get on your local nets , especially at the 2 meter or 440 nets , and you know , just hear what's going on with the clubs , See what people are doing , make connections that way . Get on the repeater , throw your call sign out there .
I know , you know , when I was new , first time I got on , I was so nervous just to put my call sign out there . I was like , well , what's going to happen when I ? Of course , you know you put it out there and it's silent . But I was like , oh , what if everyone calls me ?
Yeah , but you know , I talk about .
Yeah , but you know , I mean that was easy , I just am new and then people will just start throwing all kinds of stuff at you . But I guess that that would be like a point is like , you know , don't be afraid , and like you said , a lot of these , a lot of the clubs , if you're a brand new ham and you got your technician , the first year is free .
So you might as well join them and interact with them and then , like you said , find your people , find the club that makes you feel the most comfortable , the most welcomed and what works for you , and then just stick with it , then get involved .
If I think , if you're , if you're out somewhere and there's not a lot of clubs around you and you're thinking of starting a club , I would definitely say one of the things I would recommend is get a repeater and have a net and and use the repeater and talk during the day .
I mean , we , our club , does a lot of talking , especially during the community hours and , you know , before work and after work .
So All right . Well , hey , you heard it here . I mean , those sound like three great good . You know points to kind of consider .
And you know , definitely , you know , don't be afraid to get in there and , like we said , find your people , because they're definitely out there and whether they're online or both online and local , you know they're definitely something out there for you and so don't give up hope .
And you know , so we'd like to kind of hear , you know , if you've had some experiences with clubs . You know , let us know . You know , head over to our website , feel free to comment there and let us know . Or you know , we would love to hear from you . And you know , if you're interested in the club .
You know we have a lot of great people out there that are interested in the club , and so you know we have a lot of great people out there that are interested in the club and so you kind of came in and helped , you know , revive it a little bit .
Or you know you're in a club that was , you know , very active and doing a lot of activities , and what you did to kind of get involved or what you got , you know we'll say , todd roped in to get involved , and so you know , with that , it was kind of wrap things up here . As always , thank you for joining the Liffrey and Ham podcast community .
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