Exploring the Cold: Ham Radio Challenges and Solutions

This is our weekly show where we discuss ham radio topics in New Hampshire , new England and beyond , and we're thrilled to have you here , whether you're a regular listener or tuning in for the first time , and we appreciate your thanks and for joining this episode . So let's get into the show .

I'm your host , eric call sign N1JUR , and I'm with my co-hosts of the night .

We've got our LFH sticker pack my friend man I'm a little punchy today Available in the store , and so if you haven't headed over there , you can pick up a set . It's got mine , todd's , paul's and obviously the Live Free and Hem stickers that everyone covets .

But from what I hear , he's also updated his Grouch sticker , so he's got some new ones that are available . But that means some of the original OGs are still out there and ready to be able to get in your laptop or bag or wherever you decide to stick the crap out of stuff , and so those are available . So make sure you head over and pick one up .

But I think obviously you know , once those run out we'll be able to restock those with his new ones and if you say please , we might throw in one of his new ones too . You never know , we'll see how it goes .

All right , you never know , we'll see how it goes , all right , well , so , as always , we love feedback and with that we've got a couple of ways you can reach out to us . As always , our favorite method is via SMS . This is Todd's one link to the world . He wants to hear from you and that is the best way .

You can always just head over into our show notes , if you're a podcast listener , or even on our YouTube channel , and click the link that allows you to send a quick text message to us to say hello , and we'll happily share it in our next episode . You can always leave us a voicemail , and those lines are open 24-7 .

And that number can be reached any time of the day , year-round 365 , at 978-233-1142 . And , as our slogan always says , call us for a good time . It's just simple . It's a good time .

Tell us , you know , share anything with us . We'd love to hear from you . You can always tell us how bad we are and you know , share anything with us , we'd love to hear from you . You can always , you know , tell us how bad we are and you know you can just leave a typical , you know , voicemail .

You know , whatever , you know your choice , you know I'll leave it up to you and , as always , we have the last method you can send us an email at livefreeandham at gmailcom , and we'll be glad to read it on the next show .

So , as always , we are in the month of February now , and every month we always have , in addition to our regular episodes , a live stream . You know , we never know when we're going to have it because , in essence , you know we don't . We have to just wait till the last minute . We figure out what we have and we just kind of go with it .

So you know , the best way to know and be in the know is to head over to our YouTube channel , click the subscribe and ring that bell notification bell . That way you get notified anytime we go live and you can come be part of the fun and hang out with us , and we'd love to have you there we go .

I feel like I'm on a game show , and it's also a short month .

It felt like that , and always our favorite method is that , if you love to be in the know and you want to be part of the cool club , our little secret is that head over to our Patreon page and you can uh become a subscriber and at that point you can hear all of the , the banter behind us in the , in the background .

We record all of our shows live uh , all of our shows and we post them uh in our Patreon for folks in the raw version . So you get to hear everything that we talk about even before we start up the show and you know , among a bunch of other great things that we also do , and you can pick up all of that by becoming a Patreon member .

So with that we have our usual segment , and that is , if I can key up the queue .

From the home QTH , just out of reach , I can hear it scratchy . Keep it going , sean . So thanks , sean , appreciate the little note and sorry you can't hit our repeater . We're working on that though .

At least Eric and I and I think Paul's on board too , and some of us we want to get a bigger footprint for our repeater and he's on it sometimes , not that often . Eric and I want it on . We need a bigger footprint .

Forward slash contact and we will gladly read it on our next episode . So again , thanks Sean , for you know sending us some feedback . We appreciate you and uh thanks for again for uh being a listener and a subscriber All right , can you go out ?

That'd be awesome . You heard it Todd's . Todd laid down the gauntlet there . Bring it on , my friends , bring it on All right , cool . Well , uh , everybody who has submitted us , you know some feedback . We always love it and we always love to hear from you guys .

So , like Todd said , just bring it on , my friends , bring it on , bring it on , you know always excited , so cool , All right . Well , with that , let's kick it off to the next step here .

So you know we always want to hear those types of activities when you're doing good , um , and you know we don't want to provide a platform where negative voices can overshadow all that enjoyment , you know . So I'm going to raise my fist and say bring on the good deeds .

You can share your story with us , and that story can be anything from sharing your first ham radio experience with a total stranger , maybe while you were activating a park , teaching a student , a family member or a neighbor about the joys of ham radio , or maybe you got to demonstrate to a new technician the thrills of hf at field day .

Then we want to hear about it . So we are blessed tonight to say that we got another do good from our best bud , carlos k9 , kn9 , ol . Uh , he sent another one to us , um , and this one kind of goes um . This is another local club , he says , from the Hoosier lakes radio club .

They've started a class for the boy scouts in the area to get their amateur radio merit badge , which is pretty cool . Um , I am an Eagle scout myself , so I remember getting my radio merit badge . It was never called amateur radio . It was even cooler . That's actually amateur radio .

Um , and they actually amateur radio and they hold a class on Saturday morning and follow it up by setting up their club station hunting POTA for the scouts that receive their badge . I swear there should be a POTA merit badge . That would be freaking hard .

They should work their kilo , they should have to get a thousand contacts to be able to get the POTA merit badge . And you know , as he says , since they don't have a call , the club president and vice president set up a station and act as control station operators while coaching these kids and making a live contact . So we say , carlos , good job .

That is awesome to hear that there are clubs out there that are doing awesome things like this . And we say , keep it going , guys . This is what we want to do to promote the hobby and just really see some cool stuff happening , both with the you know , boy scouts and youth in general , because , like we , we all know , I mean they are our future .

So if we're not helping them out , we're not encouraging them and we're not planting seeds , then we're doing a disservice to keeping the hobby alive and well for the future . All right , so with that , you know , you can always , when it comes to this stuff , do good . You can share it with three ways .

You can leave us a voicemail , as always as Paul is scrolling across the bottom of our screen here , if you're watching the live stream , or live stream if you're watching our YouTube channel , my gosh , you can always leave us a voicemail at 978-233-1442 . My gosh , I'm really punchy tonight . Or you can head over to livefreeandhamcom .

Forward slash , do good , all one word , use that form , fill it out and we will read it on our next episode . And with that , you know , if you're also one of those dedicated type A people you know and you think you can do this , you can send Paul N1OG a Winlink email and if he reads it and it has to be we want it .

You know , we don't mind if it's telnet , but in essence we want it RF to RF . Come on , you know you show your HF prowess . You know , show your , you know your ham radio skills .

Send it RF to RF and we will make sure that we invite you on one of our next live streams , um and uh , you know , we'll share your experience , um , on our next show as well as , and we'll reach out to you then . So you know , there's the challenge , there's the options . Please come , you know , bring it on . That's what we want to see .

All right , man , I feel rusty today . I don . I'm super punchy and way off course and just falling apart my friends , someone take the mic away from me , all right , well , the next one . We are going to go to our favorite little segment . That is always a blast to do here . And now , a little something extra with Todd W1STJ .

All right , well , as always , you heard it here . This is where we help Todd W1STJ study for his extra class license .

So if this is your first time watching us , you know , uh , or listening to us , in each episode we always pick three questions from the extra class question pool to test his knowledge , hoping , hoping he gets his upgrade , you know , and if you'd like to follow along , you can always head over to hamstudyorg . It's a great resource to help prepare .

This is like the best part of the show . This is why people watch the show . Oh really , so this is it , so everything else is downhill .

It's recommended by three out of four volunteer examiners Because , again , we all know the ARL is just not responding . So you know that's just the way it goes , man .

Like what can I study ? And I gave him the ham study . I said you got to go to ham study and get this . I go , I don't know how much it costs some money , I think , but just pay it and do it .

Like , come on , loser , get on this jazz . You've heard it here , my friend . So all right , without further , any day , let's put todd's toes to the fire and hand it . Hand it over to our ve quiz master . Take it away .

The term comes from an analogy with a microphone , which is intentionally designed to convert vibrations into electrical signals . In the case of oscillator frequency , this mechanical vibration can sometimes cause interference . Roger Roger .

C by switching between two Zener diode reference voltages . Or D by varying the conductivity Of a pass element ?

You are then left with a pulsating voltage , so a filter is used to smooth it out .

They are particularly useful in VHF and UHF transceivers which operate at high frequencies . So for your hint , vhf , uhf , the HF is helical filter . And so there you go . Sure , there you go . I've got to start studying again .

And so if you've also recently received your license , or maybe an upgrade , you know , we want to know . So we'd like to recognize you on the next episode for all your hard work and effort . So email us at livefreeandham at gmailcom , post it on our Discord , send us an email , send us a voicemail . Heck , why not do that ? That'd be awesome .

We'll share it on our next episode and we'll make sure we mention you , as always , because we want to , you know , make sure that all your hard work and effort pays off and it definitely will in spades , because we want to recognize you and , you know , make you welcome to the part of the hobby . It's really cool .

So , alright , we you , and make your welcome to the part of the hobby . It's really cool . All right , wow , we've made it through this far . Guys , as Todd says , it's all downhill here . For now , we're done .

Well , in our usual formats that we always do that nobody listens to what's been good on your hammered week , paul um well , so I , actually I I haven't played a lot of ham radio this week .

today , um , but so I was on the amateur radio reddit and this , uh , this person had said , hey , listen , um , I'm , I'm , I'm interested in ham radio , but I really just I don't understand the exam process . I don't understand . You know well why . Why am I seeing so many people are saying , well , you should do tech in general at the same time ?

And you know , he's like I . Just I just really don't understand . And you know he's like I , just I just really don't understand . And so I had thrown a comment on and I said , hey , I said you know , the thing is is it's a license to learn , it's a license to learn , it's a license to practice , it's a license to experiment .

Uh , as a ham radio operator , one of the things that covers us under our license is the ability to build our own and modify our own gear , right , and so there needs to be a certain level of foundational knowledge that comes with that . And so I think that's kind of you know .

Where the exams come in is they're making sure that , at the very minimum , you have a little bit of an understanding of how things work and how it's supposed to work , so that when things aren't working right , you have an idea .

Um , but he , actually , he , he , uh , he requested to send me a private message and he said hey , um , you know , I , I apologize , you know , but like , if it's okay , I'd really , I'd like , if we could talk about , you know , a couple questions that I have , and I spent probably about an hour and a half today just going back and forth with this young person

and saying you know , hey , listen , you know this is my take on things . And he was very , very apprehensive just about the exam process in itself and I said look , you know the , the tech in general . It's , it's really , it's foundational knowledge .

I can , I can 100 understand , if you don't want to go for your extra , because that is a whole separate can of worms . But I said you , dude , I've been in test sessions where , you know , an eight-year-old has passed their tech in general . I was in a test session where a 12-year-old did all three in one go and I mean that's phenomenal , right .

But the point that I was trying to make with this young person that was asking me questions is you don't have to understand all of the information . Right , it , it's , it's an exam and and the exam will give you the basics and once you pass , then you get to put your hands on and you get to actually do the learning . You know . I said so .

I said listen , if , if , if kids can do it , you can do it . Don't stress about it . Just , you know , learn the answers to the questions and and the terminology will start to become familiar to you . The things that you know are a little bit harder to understand , like figuring out , um , you know , dipole lengths .

Well , yeah , right , write down those frequency , uh formulas you know . Write down what the , uh , the q codes are . Write down you know what an rst is , uh , you know that way , when you write things down like that , that you're having a hard time with it .

Actually , it stores that information in a different part of your brain , which makes it a little bit easier on the recall , right , um , but so , yeah , so , for for anybody out there that is , you know , ham , curious , um , you know , but maybe you know a little bit put off by the exam process and the , the license fees and whatever , don't let that be a

deterrent , because it truly is a license to learn and experiment and and play around in this hobby , and it is a hobby of a million hobbies , so there is something for everybody to explore , um , but so you know anyways , uh , long story short , my , my ham radio week was mostly just the kind of offering advice and guidance to uh the people looking to get into

the hobby , and so that was it , that you know that scores aces in my book , as they say , and you know I'm totally psyched to hear that .

You know , keep us updated because I'd love to hear , uh you know , whether or not he actually uh or she gets uh further . All right , well , with next one . How is your ham radio week , mr Todd ? Not too exciting . How are your frozen fingers ?

And I said I froze my ass off at the frozen fingers as Paul laughed the day before he was , you're really going to be frozen . And I didn't even realize it was going to be that cold . I thought it was warming up . I was like , what's he talking about , anyway ?

Um , but yeah , a couple of guys from our club on our net , um , uh , steve , who lives down the road from me , he actually flies but he's not part of a club , so he flies over on Joppa Hill , which is a big uh sporting field , uh in Bedford , and um , I was like really .

And then another guy flew some stuff when he was a kid and uh , I think it was Mike . Uh , you , is it your G Casey , when you are G Mike , is that his call sign ? And he said he , he's flying , he wanted to get into it . So , trying to recruit the ham radio guys already got Russell in there .

He uh , he's a member of our flying club , so my goal is to get as many people flying RC planes and doing ham radio at the same time .

All we do , all I know , is like we talk about Paul jumping out of airplanes and it's every time we talk about it my , my social media just fills out with with people jumping out of airplanes . What's your man ? I'm with you , I'm telling you it's crazy . And then I saw this AI thing and I didn't at first .

I was like it was like an Army video and all these dogs are jumping out like getting pushed off this airplane and parachuting like by themselves and I just thought of Watson . I'm like there goes Watson . You know ball and Watson .

So he's a good boy , um , but yeah , so that was basically it . I've been on the repeater going to and from work talking to different people , which is always good , and Tim KC1QDK , he's been doing some cross-band repeat , yep . So I got him the other morning when he was at work . Yeah , and he left his . Did you get him too ?

I did , yeah , I was surprised and he had that . Yeah , he had the radio on in his car and he cross-band repeated it and he was sitting at his desk , which he can normally get , and we were able to talk to him . So that was kind of cool .

And then today on the way back home , he was ice fishing with his buddy in Hudson and I don't know if his buddy's a ham or not , but somehow he crossed . So he did it to his car again yeah , he did . The cross-band repeat .

So I was talking to him and he was on the ice and he caught a nice pickerel , sent me a picture of it , so he goes , I'll send you a picture . If the flag goes down , I'll send you a picture . And then , right before the net , he sent me this picture of this beautiful fish . I was like , damn , buddy , that's a nice one .

So he was on the net tonight and he was all excited that , uh , normally , kim , his wife , uh , she's also a ham uh catches always the bigger fish than him . So he says this is my day today . So he was psyched that he got a . He got the bigger fish . So so , uh , eric , what'd you do ? Hold on , I know you want to say Hold on .

But I have a third one from today , the frozen fingers and I was able to . It's a little bit longer , it's about 15 minutes , but it's editing a little bit about . Before , when I got there Once , I was there pictures , videos of helicopters and people flying and then kind of driving back , kind of down . So I'm going to touch it up just a little bit .

But I did some editing on the very basic iMovie on my phone while Zach was doing his batting practice . So once I get my MacBook it's been a long time coming , but we're glad Once I get my MacBook I'm going to be and I learned how to edit videos . I like doing it actually . So I even found out .

I went on iMovie and I was like holy , where are all these ? Like I forgot . I did these videos like from a long time ago , nothing to do with ham radio . So it was pretty cool . Yeah , dude , they were great videos . Yeah , there'll be . There'll be more coming .

Yep , um , I think I'm going to just do , uh , do , the driving thing as much , as much as I can , because that's really the only time I can talk and not be bothered .

I think you'll like the flying one , cause it's got this , this guy I don't even know who he was he helicopter and he you know , some of these guys fly these helicopters and they're out of control and they're upside down or they're crazy and they just look like this guy flew a lot of aerobatics but very smooth , and he , he was foreign , I don't know where he

was from , but he did it sitting in a chair . He's got like one of those little beach chairs and he's just sitting there and he it was a gasser , and he actually I . It's on the video . He pulls it with a , he has a like a , like a lawnmower , and the thing starts and he , uh , he goes back , he sits in his chair , he just flies it around .

It's awesome so that's coming . Yeah , so that'll be coming this week . I uh , I just want to finish up a little bit more editing . Since it's the first one I'm editing , I figured I'd play around with it a little bit .

So just to kind of segue for those that don't know what we're talking about , over here at the Live Free and Ham channel we all decided that this year we are going to kind of put more , we'll say , personalized kind of content it could be ham or ham adjacent or not ham at all , you know .

And the idea is , you know , hey , we want you guys to know more about our lives and you know , we want to share our lives with you and all the stuff that we do and we enjoy doing . I mean , I posted a couple of videos that Todd , you know uh , is alluding to that , uh , you .

Finally , after four years , I got off my butt and I bought a signal stick and the attachments , so I'm now part of the family , and B and C , mind you , so we all can interchange our contents until the cows come home . So all good there . And I did a couple of videos I just released .

My wife and I and the dog went to Maine just after we just got hit with snow here in New England . So of course my wife's like . I gotta go to the beach , so you know we went to the beach , so you know we're sitting on the beach .

We're the only two idiots that put beach chairs out on the beach , walked the dog for , like you know , 500 yards and then came back and sat on the beach . So you know you can check that video . How cold was it . Oh , freaking cold . It's utterly like yeah , I sit there and I'm like , yeah , my wife was like , oh , we're going to spend two hours here .

And I said in the back of my head , we're going to spend 20 minutes here because you are not dressed for two hours worth of cold . And so , yeah , see , the dog sat there . The dog was so damn cold he ended up actually having to be wrapped in the blanket that I had brought for me . So that's how freaking cold it was .

We're putting them out , you know , kind of on a random uh basis . So , um , paul and I and and uh , todd are all , just , you know , showing , sharing our lives with you guys . So hopefully you guys are enjoying it and I know we're having fun doing it , um , outside of all the other stuff we do for liver and ham . So all good stuff .

So , to get back to the wait till I start coaching oh , boy , that one , that one I am going to record the , I'm going to be the spectator version and we're just going to merge it in .

I'm like I can't have every kid that I coached , like there's another team , so it's kind of a good feeling . But it's still good that these kids are coming back and they had fun in the fall , because you know the rest of the season summer and spring we didn't have that much fun . So they ended up strong and we're going to have fun this year .

And lookit , I watched some of it . I got a couple of young kids , this kid , wyatt , who he's a . Last time I coached him he was 8 . I think he's 10 now this kid is . I watched him today at the clinic and they were doing pitching . He's going to be on my team . His dad requests he goes . You have to have Wyatt on your team .

I said , oh yeah , I want Wyatt . And this kid man , he was throwing heat . I'm like , damn Wyatt . I'm like I don't think you're going to be able to pitch in the majors . And he looked at me and he goes Wyatt . I'm like , eh , you weren't . The kid was throwing as hard as Zach . He's two years younger than him .

I'm pretty excited to see what Wyatt can do . He looked a lot better than he did two years ago .

He just lives and dies , practices , watches videos and he's good and he's not even a big kid . I can't even have a catch with him anymore . It hurts , throws too hard and when he wants to do a long toss . I can't reach him anymore , I go . I taught you how to throw . God damn it . Now I can't even throw to you .

My reflected power is 120 watts , which my radio only does 100 , so there's something wrong with the antenna . I just have to go out and figure it out . So that wind gave you some some , it must it must have done something , man I don't know I'm afraid to go out there and take a look , but I'll talk tomorrow . Um , but no that wind man .

When I got to the gas station I tried to open up my Jeep door and I couldn't open it . I'm like I unlocked it . I'm like it's unlocked and the wind was blowing so hard that it was like I had to use all my strength just to get the door open . And as soon as I got out , as soon as I let go of , the thing slammed shut in the trees .

I thought they were going to crack . I was like , holy shit . I mean , this is that windiest I've ever seen it . I was like am I in a microburst or something it was . It was definitely windy that day , yeah .

If you haven't paid attention , I finally got some of my other videos released on my HF install . So the grounding , bonding stuff , the HF radio install , all those are kind of coming out . So I'm trying to get those out the door .

And on top of it I'm also you can't see it behind me because my green screen , but in essence I'm working on my ultimate battery box , you know . So that one should be pretty cool . I'm looking forward to putting that together . So a lot of good stuff . But uh , you know , work is also getting in the way , damn work .

You know , that's all I want to do is have radio .

Uh , go , fund me , go over there and help him out , because we're hoping , you know , in May was it May timeframe , May or June ? When you go in June , Okay , so in June , June , we are going to be there , uh , bated breath , watching him go through all of those , you know jumps . He needs to be able to get his class a license .

So , uh , you know , we'll , we'll . We'll hopefully even have a camera . You know , I don't know . Whatever , I'm just going to like . If Todd shows up a little late , we might have to record it anyway . So you know , all good , yeah , 25 jumps . Wow , That'll go fast , though . I did show up , though .

You know for those that live in an actual state that sees snow and cold and we're not finger pointing to anybody specific , you know . So if you're a listener in those states we won't say who it is , but you know their 30 degree weather is that they complain about . Please come on . You know it's nothing here , it's the old here . Hold my beer .

You know routine , but you know we all run into the pitfalls . I mean , if you just kind of came out of Winterfield Day a couple of weeks now into it , you've kind of been rethinking about you know all the great things that happened , all the bad things you know you need to work on and improve on .

But you know we all , you know , have to deal with this weather . We have to deal with the cold , we have to deal with , you know , the , the , the chilly temperatures . You know , and it affects a lot of our antennas , our radios , our , you know , equipment , all of that type of stuff .

I mean Paul and I were talking offline here , even like if you got a chance to check out Kevin's video , kl7ec's Winter Field Day video . The freaking snow toppled his hex beam , his buddy pole hex beam Bent the damn thing in half . I mean I went back and watched that and cried the whole mast . Cried . I mean that was painful From the snow . Yep yeah .

And so , you know , after shedding a few tears , it kind of got me thinking . I'm like I'm not putting my X-beam out in the middle of winter ever . But you know , like I said , we kind of talked a little bit left and right about the idea of like hey , what have we been struggling with ?

I know Paul's obviously he's got a new camper in his life and so he's thinking batteries and all that other stuff , and and Paul and I , uh , and Todd and I have been just kind of , like you know , doing a little bit activations here and there and and we , like I said , just came off a winter field day , and so we all know , and it's fresh in our minds ,

you know , what those things can do , that weather that can affect all of our equipment . So we want to kind of share some of the stuff that we deal with and we combat and come up with , maybe some solutions that help you guys . Where do we want to start guys ?

This is one of those things that we could start from the top down , maybe work from antennas down to the radios , or is there an area that we want to focus on first that just really pisses you off the most , that you've maybe solved or still need to solve ?

Right when I left my house to head to the Winterfield Day location , I think it was , I think it was nine degrees or or or around there , and then and then , as I'm driving , you know , I , I , I I'm filming myself and it's like all right , well , we warmed up as 12 degrees now , degrees now , but like , so I keep the this side of the radio 7300 , in an

Apache case , and when I took it out of the Apache case in the tent it was covered in ice . What ? Wow ? Like the radio was so cold that the screen literally had ice crystals on it and like the top of the radio had ice crystals on it . So obviously , my first concern was moisture .

Yeah , right , because the you know , I mean I had the buddy heater going in the tent and so , you know , I'm like wow , this is not going to be good because this moisture from the ice is going to melt and go down in the radio . But I keep microfiber cloths in my like camping gear . So I gave it a good wipe down with microfiber cloths .

And you know , once I powered it up , things warmed up . The radio performed fine , but you know , it's just . It's one of those things that we have to constantly be hypervigilant in these cold temperatures about how you know the ice is going to affect our radios , our you know microphones , our you know a tuner .

If you're using a tuner , like I mean , everything becomes so much harder in these cold temperatures .

It releases condensation , it puts moisture in the air , and so then that moisture builds up on whatever you're inside and it freezes , and then you've got ice crystals that you know will flake off if you rub the walls too hard . Then you've got ice crystals all over all of your equipment , your laptop and everything else .

So , yeah , I mean you really really have to be hyper vigilant in these cold temperatures about making sure that your gear stays dry so what you're saying is grandma should knit you a nice warm , you know ? sweater for your radio yes , yes , a crocheted sweater would be great . Uh , preferably with a australian route on it .

But I noticed if you opened up your little vents and you got a little bit of that cold air in there , it took some of that humidity out . Right , and it still kept you hot even though you're losing heat . But it at least dried . It didn't feel as moisture-y , like humidity yeah , not humid , it took the humidity out .

So I think that's a good way to do it too . It's kind of like , you know , driving in a car .

You know , sometimes you drive in a car and it , you know , just the condensation comes up in the cold and then , or if you got the AC on in the summertime and it gets too hot outside , and it's kind of like the same way , if you open up the windows to neutralize it a little bit , it'll work . So that seemed to work because I was getting hot .

But I started seeing like I could tell like it was getting a little on the computer . It was getting a little moist right , so I opened up that little there's a little like triangle window and I opened it up just to get some cool air in and it dried it right up . And I opened it up just to get some cool air in and it dried it right up .

So cause that's all dry air coming in here , so it offsets it .

If , uh , you know , we go back to the old world well , well , tim was in a .

I mean , tim , had you know , his propane tanks were literally like the ones you see that like are like full , like you know fuel stations that are three-quarter tall , like I mean , it was insane how much propane he had in his tent .

It was more than and his , his buddy heater is double the size I know right , he was putting out a lot of btus that I would not want to be sitting there . Yeah , so , yeah , I mean so radios .

It's just crazy like you're always told don't use propane heaters indoor or whatever . So I looked in the box and the very fine print it says safe for indoors , except California and Massachusetts . So cause there's an exception there , and even though those two States a little out there , I'm like , all right , I better get one of these things .

So I had it and it didn't go off . But it did go off when I transmitted . Put it right next to his radio and it went off . Yeah , like radio . And it went off , yeah , like literally , and it started beeping and it's and you'd watch it Like you transmit on my HT , and all of a sudden it'd be like like red , but all next thing you know it's beeping .

So I was like the hell . My radio is giving off carbon dioxide when you transmit . So I went over to Tim's uh . The next day I went over to tim and I watched him do uh cw and he had it like sitting there on the table and he starts doing the cw and it thing starts going off again .

So I don't know what that sensor does , but it sure as hell isn't doing carbon monoxide , it's doing like rf or something only maybe they set the wrong one , so anyway . But uh , yeah , I got to test it , I got to go . Uh , I think I'm going to go out and do my uh next time .

I use my grill and stick it like near the grill , Cause that thing gives off a lot of . If it doesn't do anything , I'll be like things junk .

But yeah , I mean I see it a lot like in server rooms where , like you know the the , someone screws around with the AC unit and the AC units like putting out like negative , you know way below , like 32 , almost at the freezing level , and you know servers are like what the hell's going on because they're also running water through you know their , their complex

uh systems and yeah , it can get uh very hairy fast when , when stuff like that doesn't have like simple glycol in it to keep the water from freezing and and whatever .

So yeah , uh , not surprising , but good that uh , you know you were able to fight a way on that , so like , so , I guess , from a standpoint of like any of your other electronics I mean , you said you mentioned your laptop too , right , that's had the same , similar issue .

But , um , yeah , it's just one of those things Like , I mean , just a microfiber cloth is what saved the day . Just throw a microfiber cloth in your gear , Like you know . Yeah , be proactive about it . That's my point .

And it's always tough , especially when you're doing ham radio , because you want to get on the fricking air as fast as you possibly can , so you know you're never going to be like , okay , I've got 45 minutes to let this case warm up to the room your current , you know tent temperature .

And then the quick , easy fix Just make sure you have a microfiber and wipe the damn thing down before you even power it on so you don't cause any issues for yourself . Which is always people a lot of forget . It's like oh , I got a micro tire , I'll wipe it down while it's powering up . It'll heat up and it'll melt the water away .

I'm like electronics will behave fine in water , but they're not great for water a lot of times . So think about that , especially radios . Okay , well , so condensation's a big thing , and so your tent ? I mean just from an outside standpoint . You were operating what around like 70 , 75 usually . Did you think around give or take ?

But I keep an inside-outside thermometer anytime that we do any winter field days or any of those things , and so it's just a cheapie and I keep this next to the radio so that way I know all right what's my indoor temperature , what's my humidity , and then what's the outside temperature .

Uh , the other side to that coin is , if you're not in a hot tent , or you're not in a tent that's got a lot of heat , don't just immediately , you know kind of expect your gear to just start up because it's already in a cold kind of state . You know you're , you know it'll , it'll maintain the same temperature that it is outside ambient wise .

But in terms of getting your equipment up , you know still spend a little bit of time making sure you know you put the efforts forth to , you know letting it's , you know , warm up to its environment that , whatever it is , even if it's cold , you know you get better life out of the device because capacitors and all that stuff have a , you know , a comfortable

operating temp . But at the same time , you know extremes on either side will basically shorten the life of that stuff and you know we'll touch base of batteries in a second on all that stuff .

So you know , don't , don't , expect . I wonder , do , uh , you know the gap , so you know , don't , don't expect .

Even when it's like I leave the jeep outside and it's like freezing , you know , it still works well , a lot of those like smaller displays .

But yeah , cold , cold can screw a lot of those screens . And so you know , be careful because in essence you know , oh , the lcd screen to get replaced ain't cheap . So you know you do not want to be losing your . You know your radio there , especially if you got a , like us . You know a good hf radio that has a lot of touchscreen functionality .

You don't want to be screwed . Uh , you know , in the long run when you bring it back home .

And and actually that's a good point is that when you bring your gear home , let it sit out in the house for a like couple of days just to like , get used to the temperature before you even start touching it , because a lot of times you can add , you know , problems and issues to the that equipment because you know it hasn't adjusted to the air hasn't dried

out , you out all of that kind of stuff . The other thing we didn't mention that I was thinking of and we all have it is the Desk-It . Anybody get any of the little Desk-It packets . I usually throw one or two of those in my go boxes and just let them stay in there .

A lot of times people throw them away because they're like , oh , you forgot to take this out and chuck it . But in essence those are really good for being able to , like you know , clear up a lot of that moisture stuff and , and you know , stop , uh , you know any of that from forming from the beginning .

Cool , and so , yeah , just request an extra set and then throw the desiccant packs and all your stuff .

Any uh tips or tricks around you know that to get your your coax back in in line what works for you guys guys .

Um , like when we did pac-man adnock , I had I had a ton of snow in the bnc connector and like I blew it out , but I mean there was still a ton of moisture in there when I connected it .

Obviously , let your antenna wire warm up up , let your coax warm up , uh , but as far as like moisture in your connections , I wouldn't sweat .

That's where you start to like , really start to worry , like , okay , at this point I cut the end off and put a new one on . But yeah , you're right , I mean , the most of that stuff's pretty well , that's where the vaseline comes in handy , really .

In that point , okay , I'll take your word for it vaseline so , hey , any tips there , todd , for you , you're pretty much on the same page . Yeah , I'm on the same page , all right . Well , now now our antennas . I mean , obviously we didn't have the problems with our winter field day or just in general .

I mean , I I don't usually go out and activate if there's a impending snowstorm coming , um , but uh , we we've , uh , you know , alluded to jeremy kl7EC's Winter Field Day video that he ended up setting up a very expensive antenna out there and it toppled . So , paul , we mostly ran wires on Winter Field Day , in general , or when you're outdoors , correct ?

Yeah , yeah , another tree and over to another tree . Yes , that's it . Yeah , the MCOM Yep , that's what he was using .

Don't pull all very hard on any of those wires because you might snap or you know a wire more easily than you would say in something warmer where it might be a little bit of a give there .

Okay , do yourself a favor and and don't wrap it around the winder , just ball it up and throw it on the floor of your truck and let it sit there under the heat . Good point . Once it's warm and all the ice is melted off it , then take it out and wrap it around your winder . Yeah , good idea , because otherwise you're just going to ruin the freaking wire .

So all right , well , so yeah , if you run a verticals like I mean , if you were unfortunate like kevin did uh , sorry , what jeremy did with his uh you know hex , where it snapped it um , it also destroyed , I guess , a couple of his elements , so that you know that kind of stinks in terms of plastic .

But plastic antennas in general , no matter what type of plastic you're running , it gets brittle after a while , and so you got to pay attention to kind of that stuff . Um , don't always overextend your masks as a big thing , like I . I I'm a big offender of that .

Like when I have a , you know my 10 meter mast and I'm like using it outdoors If the weather's pretty cold , I'm not throwing it up , you know , at full strength and full extension , because you know the cold weather is just going to eventually just make that plastic or the , the material brittle enough that , uh , one good , uh , you know smack on the ground , or

know smack on the ground , or you know a topple accidentally or whatever , just basically snap the thing in half and you'll break a section of it or whatever . So you know , always , uh always treat uh some of that stuff uh in very cold temperatures . That uh you know uh very delicately for sure . So uh , have you had any ?

You know , and that's a huge thing , especially if you're doing a field day and you've got you know if you start off real cold and it might get real warm , et cetera . You know it can . Things can change rapidly around here . So I think you just got to be just be wary of the weather .

And I like your idea , paul , of having the indoor outdoor temperature and the humidity that way . You know . You know , if you've been in there a long time , you may not realize how humid it's getting in there , especially if you've been in there for a while long time .

You may not realize how humid it's getting in there , especially if you've been in there for a while .

So having that , having that there would would actually give you a little heads up , like hey , it's getting a little too humid in here and open up those uh windows or even the door to get some cool air in , and it's not like it doesn't take long to heat that place up either . I mean you crank that heat up . It heats up pretty quickly quickly .

So , like , like I , I've got vents in the top of the ice house and and you could , literally you could feel the wind blow up , blasting through those vents .

Um , but uh , I think I think the big thing with antennas anyways is making sure that you're not stowing them , You're not putting them away cold , Right , Because that wire , it does not like to be cold . And you know , like Jeremy the KL7EC , right , when his antenna broke , what was it that saved his skin ? Oh , it was that old redundancy factor .

Oh , yeah , Because two is one and one is none . So you always have at least one back of antenna , if not a couple . And yeah , that's how I am . You know , anybody that goes out with me knows like , yeah , I'm gonna have my go-to antenna , but I'm also gonna have my antenna bag . My antenna bag is gonna have my full wolfer recoil .

It's gonna have the full mpass 2.0 . It's got numerous different options for configurations and whatnot , Because , yeah , you never know what happens if your antenna fails and you only need one time in your life to realize that the one antenna you bring it fails , then you get no play radio .

I mean , uh , when it comes to you know , the typical , I mean I don't think we really need to mention in terms of , like your , your cold weather gear and I know a lot of the folks in texas don't have anything except a sweater um , but , uh , you know we , uh , you , you got to learn to layer and just like you know you layer your radio gear , you layer

all your backups to your backups .

I have two of them and when I go out on single-digit kind of days ice fish or whatever I'll fill them and you light it , you let it burn out and it's a little tiny piece of char cloth on the top that continues to burn and produce heat and it'll go for like eight hours .

Yeah , and now I mean , obviously you don't want to overfill it , because if you overfill it it's just going to be a giant flame on you . You just , you just want the center part to burn . And once it's burning , hey , you put the top on and you put it in a little bag and you stick it in your pocket and and you're good , for eight hours It'll .

It'll have red embers on it , right , and that's what . That's what produces your heat . It'll slowly wick the fluid up and it'll continuously burn for , you know , about eight hours wow , that's awesome when they last forever , like I said .

I had them in my pockets on high and I put my hands in the pockets . I'm like , oh shit , did they turn off ? And I looked at them nope , they're on high well , that's a good segue .

I put it on the plane full throttled up , had power I take off . I got no power . I mean the thing is literally like barely getting off the ground and I got it above the trees , barely turned around and um and I , uh , I landed and I said , all right , I'll get another battery .

I got another battery which was newer , and I thought better and it was actually worse and I took off and I , as soon as I took off , I said , oh , this is fucked up . So I tried to land and my ski got stuck in a rut and the snow was like ice because it's so freaking cold and it ripped the whole landing gear right off the balsa .

The whole thing just ripped right off . I was like you've got to be shitting me . So it cut my day short . But yeah , those are LiPo batteries , but I mean Life-E's LiPo batteries , but I mean LifeEase LiPo batteries . If they get cold , they just don't like the cold , especially when it gets like zero , 10 degrees , even like 20 degrees .

You got to keep them warm to work and they do lose their capacity , because in the warm weather I'll fly a plane , say , eight minutes , and in the cold weather they'll last four . Yeah , yeah , like almost 50% difference , even though they're fully charged . So , and they also don't like heat , so you can't get them too hot , you can't let them bake in the sun .

They don't work either , so they're very sensitive , these batteries .

If it was that cold out and you kept the thing wrapped and you had that heat going in , it might keep it warmer . But like your situation I mean you had the batteries and everything in your tent , you didn't need to worry about that .

But like if you were like outside trying to do ham radio and it's 10 degrees for some reason you didn't have , like you're in a lean tomb or something and you didn't have . You know you're getting a cold air and you didn't have a lot of heat I think those batteries are seriously going to die on you if you keep them cold , even like an HT .

I bet you , if you leave an ht out in the cold , it's going to start draining battery quicker than uh than you're using it . So yeah , I agree . Well , I'll tell you .

Right now , we , we layer very , very well , right , you get a good base layer then , and then you know several other layers and then you've got your , you know your bear suit on the outside .

Uh , you take your batteries and you put your batteries in under your armpits or your stomach to keep your batteries warm , because if your batteries are in tight to your body , you'll keep your batteries warm and they're not going to deplete your core temperature enough to make a difference .

But then , when you need them for like your night vision or whatever it is that you're using , you're taking it out .

is I got a hundred amp hour , that I bought uh Redodo and got a freaking sweet deal on it , but of course , the just as I bought the battery , the next one came out with another offer which had the heating element in it . I was like , oh man , do I want the heating element ? And so kind of got me down the research yes , I you do the long run .

Yes , I do you do . But so it got me thinking , because there's actually some components out there that I can include in my design for my battery box that allows me to manipulate the actual temperature inside the battery box , because the battery canister that I have is not thin plastic , it's actually got pretty thick , you know , walled plastic .

So in essence there's a little bit of an insulating barrier in there , but it's not like super . You know it's not going to maintain or keep the maintain . Well , although you should have insulated the inside before you started building yeah , well , the problem with that is I lose a lot of , you know , actual space to . You know put components in .

But you know so . There are actually like thin blankets that you can get that will allow you to mount to your batteries that'll maintain at least the battery temperature above freezing . That's really what it is . The batteries themselves .

If they go below 32 , then they start to lose any of their voltage , like you already found out , todd half of the voltage automatically . It's always harder to charge those batteries back up to get them up to the full voltage again in the same temperature .

So having that little battery blanket , or whatever they call it you know , is something I'm thinking about as an option to add .

But uh , yeah , I really think you know battery circuitry is going to start to see more and more of the you know the inside heating components built in you know , as a , as a need , especially up in this you know , kind of neck of the woods if there's a way to insulate the battery , because the batteries produce heat , like like sometimes if I'm flying hard with

the lipos , those things come out .

So that would be an interesting thing to come up with inside of a battery box . Is the ability to have , like a battery heater right that you could turn on or turn off ?

It's almost like kind of looking at the same stuff that we've seen , that we create the magic carpet for when we're looking for , uh , you know , the , not what am I thinking of ? the stuff yeah , it's kind of the same thing , but the copper elements are a little thicker in them , um , but you know it's kind of that . You know that premise and that model .

But yeah , I , I prefer to have it inside the battery now more than having it on . You know one more thing on thing on the outside , because you know , when we get to summer it's like now I have to take it out of that because I don't want to generate more fricking heat in the thing .

You know not that it would kick in , but you know it's just one more thing now that I have to create a circuit for .

So , uh , yeah , it's you know , whatever you you you build in , a nice part about the way I built it is that I can pull that battery out , sell it off and then go buy the one I want and put it back in there , and all I have to do is hook up two wires and I'm off to the races .

So you know , I think I probably will be doing that after I field test it next winter field day , whenever that .

I mean , we , we don't have the benefits of the luxuries , the folks that have temperatures that stay between 30 and and 55 , which is is comfortable , but , um , you know , when you get up this way , it's always a challenge for sure to be able to deal with it and and hopefully , I think you know , as we uh get better with both its battery technology and that

you know we , we get better in terms of how we build our stuff , that'll become less and less of a problem , right ? Anything else we kind of missed ?

I always hated cold weather and it took me a long time to get around to liking . Field day , winter field day again . So , all good , cool , change your socks . Pretty much . Yeah , now , that's all I ever do , all right , well , sounds like . Uh , you know , there are definitely some good stuff .

I'm sure everybody who's lived in new England has faced this at some form or fashion . So you know , we'll throw it out to you . We'll post this up on the discord , you know . Check out our Joe's channel . We want to hear from you guys . What things did we miss ? What things can we improve upon ? What have you learned out there ?

While you're operating out in the field , whether it's Winterfield Day or just you're doing a podo or you're doing an activation ? You could always post it on the Discord , but , as Paul's flashing down at the bottom of our screen there , please send us an SMS text , send us a voicemail . We'll share it on the next episode .

We'll do a little follow up there , as we can all learn from this , especially if you live up in the mighty New England area . We're all battling these temperatures and we're all dealing with the coldness , so let's all have continue to have some great fun in ham radio . But do it dry , do it warm , do it warm , you know , do it , you know safely .

And uh , you know all the above . So , uh , anything you guys want to throw in the last , uh , you know that I might have missed , or uh , we can wrap things up tonight no , I think we're good .

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