From Global Contacts to Local Nets: A Ham Journey

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 , as always , and , whether you're a regular listener or tuning in for the first time , we thank you for joining us and hopefully you enjoyed tonight's episode .

So , before we get into the show , I'm your host , as always , eric call sign N1JUR , and I'm flanked with my co-hosts . Hey , it's Paul N1OG . I'm Todd W1STJ and we have two guests tonight .

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So , all right , well , with that , we have two overused segments , so we're going to kind of speed through a little bit , because we got nothing in the the inbox there , uh , so we are going to just basically uh quickly go through and say you know , uh , with our uh , mailbag , um , that's .

You know , nothing was in the mailbag this week , so sorry to hear about it , but hopefully , you know , next week we'll get more coming in . Um , and we like to say , as always , you know , you just need to use those three methods SMS , email and send us a voicemail Simple as that . We make it easy for you .

You know we want to share , uh , those messages , so , you know , keep them coming . And , as always , we got a do good episode , but this week we don't have one in either as well . So we figured what we're doing tonight when we're talking about net control operators .

There's a lot of do-good already going on here , so we're going to share some of that in depth later in the episode . But again , you can always submit your do-good episode through SMS , through using our voicemail phone number , or send us an email . Or , again , if you are one of those type A people , send us a wing link message .

You know we've had a few in the past . And if we receive it and we want to make sure you send it to N1OG , because mine does not work you can send it to N1OG and we will make sure we read it on the next episode and we will invite you and you're more than welcome to come on our next live stream .

So one way if you want to get in to hang out with the crew here on live uh , live stream shows , then that's one way to get uh in on the the action there , and so with that , we do have , however , one of our favorite segments . We love to do and and is very much a uh , a local staple here .

Hopefully it's going to start to die down eventually , but you know , for right now it seems to be taking a front row center here . And now for something a little extra with Todd W1STJ .

We'll be updating our you know little something extra intro in the future episodes . But this is where we helped Todd study for his extra class license .

In each episode we pick three questions from the extra class question pool to test his knowledge , hoping he gets his upgrade , and we are very much hoping and praying and lighting candles and doing everything possible in this world . So he continues and he's been doing an awesome job , I have to say .

You know , because he was hitting the home , runs out of the park , three for threes for the past couple of uh , three or four episodes . So keep up the great job there .

So if you'd like to follow along , you can always head over to hamstudyorg , which is a great resource to help prepare for your test and is recommended by three out of four ve volunteer examiners . Because the ARL never wants to respond to our comments . All right , so , without any further delay , take it . Ve Quizmaster Paul .

You should know this .

And , just as a bonus , we're going to remind you again we got , uh , those guys coming on from ham studyorg , so we're looking forward to having again . We got those guys coming on from hamstudyorg , so we're looking forward to having that in future episodes . So make sure , if you haven't already subscribed to our podcast , there's a good reason for it .

All right , well . So again , and if you also received your upgrade , or maybe you're a brand new technician , we want to make sure we recognize you , so send us an email , send us an SMSs text or feel free to use , uh , our uh phone , uh , voicemail and leave us a message and we'll be happy to share it .

Uh , and we'll celebrate for all the hard work and effort you put to getting your upgrade , or maybe your technician first time out yeah , and , and mr , mr trent smith , he better send us an email when he gets his technician . Yeah , he was on . We should phrase that .

He was on Paul's livestream 2000 giveaway and he's got a great radio coming his way and he's working on a general . So yeah , he's working on a general right . Yeah , I think he said he was . Oh , technician , that's right . Okay , he was going to take it so awesome . Yeah , we're definitely going to have to make sure we get him on , all right , okay .

So with that we've kind of wrapped up our usual stuff , so let's get into our usual . We're going to talk about our ham radio week . So , paul , if you want to go ahead and start us off , how was your ham radio week , bud ?

The one downside is the amplifier output is an RCA connector , and so I'm going to be removing the RCA connector and making the hole a little bit bigger so that I can put a SO239 in there .

It's quite cold this morning . I don't know if any of you guys were up bright and early , but it was 14 degrees , I think , cold .

So yeah , so that's about it for now , um , but I'll have a huge story once I get out there and do my next poda , because it'll be like brand new for me , yeah , yeah like you did your first photo all over again I'll be so enthusiastic about it . What about you ?

I've been planning a camping trip and , like Todd says , it's pretty cold and I'm going to be doing a 160-meter poda activation and it's going to be at the base of Mount Mananoc and I've been getting all my gear together and got my antenna all set up and I get all my gear together and Kim and I have been running around getting our stuff ready , filling the

propane tanks . We got our tent all ready to go and we actually went out to mount monadnock yesterday and , uh , I set up a qrp rig at the uh at the campsite and , uh , we're gonna be all have a nice fire there and , uh , it's like we got plenty of uh room to put up that hundred uh yard antenna .

It's about the size of a football field , so it's gonna be pretty exciting . Looking forward to doing that this weekend . So that's what I've been up to .

I know that same weekend we're going to probably be doing a little Pac-Man ad knock , so we're doing the mini mountain , not the big guy . So you're way leaps and bounds ahead of us there . But all good and definitely fun to hopefully .

Well , it's going to be CW , so I might have to bring out a decoder or something to see if I can make contact with you I have one .

And yeah , the other thing , I've been messing around with the fusion on the FTM500 here and I previously got some good contacts in the UK , ireland and just last night , before the net , the really large net we had last night , I talked to a couple guys in California . But yeah , pretty cool , definitely fun . A lot to learn with it . Still Good stuff .

Yeah , yes , I see I was always curious how is your experience with that fusion world digital , like you just kind of slide right into it and just you know it was kind of comfortable to you versus the analog world , or did you have to adjust to it ? Or you know what's your experience with it ?

But I like it , I think it's , um , it's , it's just the fact that you can , when you think about it being able to , um , hit a repeater over here on the mountain and be able to talk globally like that . Um , it's just , uh , pretty amazing . So I , I'm , I'm all about it .

I like it , um , but I know there's a lot of old school people out there like the analog better .

So , yeah , I support you , man , it doesn't really matter as long as you're playing radio and you got you know some form of it , whether it's application , software-based or you're on an HT , you know talking halfway around the world . Yeah , you got you know aces in my .

So if you want to go to america's net , you can change it and then , after you're done transmitting , after a certain amount of time it it defaults back to the wolf pack or the wolf den , whatever they call it right , yeah , I did notice that .

I don't remember now , it was a while ago . But I like it too , because I don't need right now to buy an HF rig to be able to . No , I understand , it's a totally different animal altogether .

You know , like I said , thumbs up for me . There's just no doubt in my mind .

So before I actually knew him , I knew of him through his YouTube channel and I was driving home from work and I was on the Golfstown repeater and it was set up to America's Net and he was on it . So him and I talked and it was the first time I was actually on America's net and it was actually the first time he was .

And then when we years later we're doing the ham radio , the , the , the podcast and stuff , he's like oh I remember that he goes yeah , that was you I was talking to . that was my first time on , so it's kind of funny . But yeah , you , yeah it's always memorable and it is cool we had one time .

I don't do you go on that net , mike um the wolfpack net at all , it's on friday nights so yeah it was getting pretty big and one time , uh , guys from yesu jumped on onto the net from japan . So that was kind of a I was on that net and it was pretty cool that they had checked .

One of the guys from yesu checked in from japan and joined the net because I guess it was getting a lot of traction and was getting pretty popular .

You know , go ahead and chime in , we'll unmute you there well , uh , how we doing there .

But I know , for the past week I've had the little Zygoo G90 down here on the dining room table and I've been doing nothing but 5 watts and having a lot of fun playing QRP . You know , 10 meters has been hot as a pistol .

So , you know , even with 5 watts , europe and the middle east has been , uh no problemo at all , uh , mid morning every day very cool .

But I get a little MFJ manual tuner with the knobs in the front and that'll tune up the 10 meter double bazooka all the way down to 40 meters . So I think I'll just stick with that for the winter not a bad idea , alright .

I know a few guys , like John KB1ICL was trying to do a couple of 10 meter activations up in the you know seacoast area and he was pretty successful on 10 meters , from what I can gather , and but uh , I couldn't reach him from the parking lot being mobile , so I was kind of bummed by that .

But you know , uh , not a bad you know day otherwise , and so uh didn't play a whole lot of radio , but just mostly . Like todd said in the past , you know I got my vhf , uhf fixed , um , and you know , with that uh , you know everything's all still good .

So you know , outside of uh that I think , uh , you know it sounds like uh , we all , we all did something uh worthwhile for . Say that that checks the ham radio category column there , so that that'll be a couple of firsts for our show for a while . I mean a lot of times todd was like I what's ham radio ?

We've got some really good guys here who run our club net for quite a while , I'd say Probably a lot longer than I think most other nets kind of run . In general for what the intended purpose was . But we really kind of wanted to talk more about the NCO experience .

So maybe if you're a new technician and you've kind of been like I don't know where to plug in , I don't know what to join , I can't become net control because I've got Mike Freight or whatever .

We're hoping that when these guys come on they can share some of their stories and their experiences and hopefully maybe encourage you to maybe start a net in your local area on a repeater or , if there's one there , kind of join in and be part of that process . So let's kind of start somewhere .

So , todd , maybe you can kind of give a little bit of a level set . What was this whole process no-transcript .

If anyone needed help , they do a nightly net check-in and just see how things were going . So it started and it was going every night , seven days a week , and John K1XF was net control and he did it probably for what ? Four years , three and a half years straight , every day , one net control .

And then I think it was me who asked him if he would let me do one and I picked up one net control and then he wanted to give me more and more and then people started joining in and now we've got like Ralph has done it , tim does it regularly , mike does it regularly and it's just been going on . It's been going on since March of 2020 .

So as of March it'll be five years and this net runs every evening , except the first Monday of the month where we do the repeater is used for an Aries net and um and when we have our club meetings and that's one that's the second Friday of every month that we don't do the net , but every other day , including holidays , christmas , thanksgiving , new year's , new

Year's Eve the net's going . We've had a lot of people check in and I think last night was probably , as far as I can remember , there was only four of us , including myself , as net control and I think by the end it was just me and Mike , because everyone was one and done . So . It was a pretty short net .

We tried to drag it on as long as we could , but it's been going on and it's pretty amazing that we've had this net and it's very simple we just say how was your day and a conversation will start going and we typically go two rounds and it's been good .

And I started listening to it before I was even a ham , even before I was licensed , I had a , a scanner , and that's how I found this club and I met all these guys .

I was listening to the net and then when I , when I got my technician , I tried to get on the net and it wasn't too successful , but I finally figured it out after Tom I mean John yelled at me .

You guys probably heard that story in an earlier net earlier podcast , but it was all good and it's been going strong ever since , and today we've invited some of the net control operators on to kind of talk about our experiences and how we run the net and what it's like .

We get questions asked like hey , is it the 10-meter net tonight , or is the meeting this Friday or next Friday ? Sometimes Bill , our past president , w1wra , would give announcements of what was going on . And now we've got Ralph , who's our new president , kc1tly , who's here . You know it's just a way to communicate . You know it's just a way to communicate .

And then a lot of times after the net , if people want to have a conversation or chat , they'll just say hey , if you're going to be around , wait until the net ends and we can catch up then , and then , like for an example , I'll close the net and then someone will just say , hey , you know , kc1toi , n1jur , are you there ?

And then him and Eric would then start our conversation . So it's just a way to stay connected and it's just been kind of good for our net and I think we've gotten it's we we always , and we think there's more people listening than actually signing into it , right Cause we've heard some stories .

So I always say hey , if you're listening , you know , come on , check it , it's fun . You know more the merrier . Um , but we all do it different . It's . It's pretty informal . I mean , everyone does it a little differently and it just works . And you know , like I do sundays and I always do it backwards , so I always start from the bottom of the list .

I leave the guys in alphabetical water and the guys at the bottom never get to go first . So on sundays I just reverse it and just something that's kind of ticked on . Even when tim covers for me , he does it in reverse .

You know a very short story of like your ham radio kind of background there , and then , like , how did you get into the net control side of stuff ? And like , because you also have a lot of other cooler things that you've been tracking in terms of the net numbers and stuff like that . But at the same time you're also branching out from there .

I started listening to the net on echo link and I was very happy that there was actually people out there on the ham radio and they lived close by . So and the first time I joined the net I joined through echo link on my cell phone and that was quite an experience . And then I get a bow fang and a Magnum out in a pan and it was really bad .

No , but I felt the angst you knowst about my signal and all that and I felt the need to upgrade and I met Casey and Casey gave me a little French radio and the thing worked pretty good and then it died on me and I upgraded and I started keeping track of the net and I wrote down who checked in and what John was doing and I got to started meeting

people in the club and then I asked I met Todd and Todd had just volunteered for Sunday and John just seemed to hand it over .

But these guys , we all get together and talk about what we did for the day , you know , and that's really nice and you know , it's like we're a family and it's a little time during the day when we can , all you know , share something that happened together .

And I really liked that and I felt like , you know , it was kind of a privilege to get to do the net . And I asked John , I said , well , you know , if you want , I'll do one night , maybe a Friday night . And he said , sure , you can do it .

And I was a technician and I never did a net and I didn't have any training or anything , so but I had a list that I made of everybody who checked in and it wasn't alphabetical or anything and came to be my turn to do it . I did it and it just it seemed to go okay and nobody said anything .

So it started from there . And then every Friday , except the night we had the meeting , I was doing the net and I really enjoyed that time and I enjoyed joining the net and I continued to keep track of how many people checked in and uh , and then , and then 10 meter net , let's talk about one .

There's a slot there when you can just come and try it and , uh , it's , it's a lot of fun and a good experience . So , um , I'll give it over the microphone .

And you know , did you know what ? What was your kind of like first experiences with it ?

It's winter time , I don't do anything , I don't go outside , I don't even get the mail . Sometimes if it's too cold outside , I hate the cold . So I got that and so that's pretty cool . So I went through all that and before I even took my test , I went on Amazon . I bought the Baofeng , you know , the Bao Fang , you know , and I'll just start with that .

It's kind of funny , everybody except for Ralph .

And so , as , as , as it progressed , I , I would have to stand a certain way facing the window , a certain way with my handheld repeater , and as , as the foliage came in and the , the , everything changed and I , I , I had to where I was standing before .

I couldn't make it anymore , so I had to move actually into the front door and , for whatever reason , I couldn't open the door . If I stood between the door to paint a glass , it would work , but I couldn't move , and so my wife would get pissed for me . She goes I can't believe they can't hear you .

I'm like , well , there's other radios out there that are going to help me out a lot . But anyway , I told her , I said one of these days I think I'm going to do that , I'm going to try to do net control .

It sounds like fun , great bunch of guys , very laid back , everybody's always looking to help everybody , which I've got a lot of help , mentoring and with actual items masks .

And I'm so nervous and I like all of a sudden , like seven o'clock came and I was like like , oh , this is going to suck , this is going to suck . And then I did it . I'm like , oh , that wasn't so bad . And now it's like I got my kid telling me hey , dad , aren't you doing the net tonight ?

I'm like , oh shit , yeah , I run down to turn on the radio and whip it out .

You know short foray into ham radio and then you know some of your net experience because you kind of took the ball and ran with it just like Tim and a few others have as well .

September of , uh , september of 2023 . But uh , yeah , I've been dabbling in radio my whole life . You know I don't have a real good explanation as to why I never got into the transmitting side of things , but I've been dxing medium wave and short wave since I was a kid and that goes back about 60 years . But uh , no , I've had a ball .

Uh , enjoy , uh , enjoy , uh , running the net or being net control . Whenever I'm called upon , I'm basically a pinch hitter . I'm not on there on a weekly basis like Mike , uh or Tim , but uh , you know , if somebody needs a break , uh or has a commitment , I'm always happy to pitch in .

So elaborate a little bit in terms of your expertise in um a certain uh said uh chinese radio , because I think that would benefit and hopefully keep more people excited to know that there are others like yourself uh , you mean cheap , don't ?

And if you haven't like , when you started doing POTA , ralph like you were like everyone was trying to worry oh , ralph's on doing POTA , ralph's doing POTA , you got to get on POTA . I was like , wow , ralph's a superstar out here on the repeaters .

Yeah , that exposes me to a couple of repeaters and uh , uh , I , I just like , I just like bopping around from repeat . I mean I like hf now . But when I first got started out , uh , I was having an absolute ball , uh , you know , doing simplex and hitting repeaters down on Cape Cod and stuff .

And it's like , hey , if I really enjoy talking to the Cape on 5 watts , I've got to get into HF because I'm really going to have a ball talking to Europe and the Middle East , and that's what I've done , of course . But yeah , I love my Quan Cheng , I get a couple of them .

You know that I just string from the ceiling , it's like the Ed Flonk thing and you know that gives me a little extra punch . But you know , nine times out of ten I just use the rubber duck .

But uh , to the north and east and south , I get about a 50 mile unobstructed view . So uh know , that gives me a little bit of punch when I want to play around with the HD , as I'm sitting here at 277 feet above sea level .

So that just proves , once again ham radio comes to the rescue because all else fails , yep .

And now there's such an insurgence of Quan Chengs Like Mike was just saying in the private chat in the background he's been absorbed into the Quan Cheng world too . He's got two of them . It's a good thing because in essence it gets radios in people's hands and it's great , and they've cleaned up their act a little bit .

You know there are still a few out there that fall in the spirits and emissions kind of category , but it's it's a good thing . That's the way I kind of look at it .

Then it's like you know , I'm going to get a couple of Spear batteries and it's like wait a second , the radios are cheaper than the batteries . Why don't I ?

And we sort of touched upon it a little bit and we'll start with Ralph first . When you started to kind of dive in the net , were there like , did you feel like you had to do any preparation when they said , hey , ralph , would you do it ? Or were you just kind of like we'll just , we'll wing it ?

You know kind of what you're feeling on you know to communicate to somebody new , on you know in the club or you know wanted to join a net . What was your experience , first time experience with you know doing that ?

Uh , they're business cards . I , you know , I recorded hold on , I may have it here . No , I don't , I've got these little cards . They're business cards that you know , for every repeater that I get on , I record the call sign and the first name of the people that are on that repeater .

I , you know , I just think it's important that when somebody you know calls out their call sign , that you can greet them by their first name . I know it always makes me feel good .

So , yeah , I mean , you know what I did when I first started the net is aside from the written script I made sure that I had a list of all of the frequent check-ins and their first name so that you know when they checked in I could say you know , hey , how you doing Eric , how you doing Tim , and you know , I still think that's important .

I actually have like a dozen cards , one card for each repeater that I'm on , and whenever I get on that repeater I put the little card in front of me so that when somebody calls out their call sign , I can , you know , I can greet them with their first name .

So four years now and I'm up to 1,383 nets that I've either run or been on and I put down the name of the net , the frequency and who was net control , and then if there's any other kind of crazy thing that happened , I'd put a little note into it . But , like you said , I have a net control sheet that I keep track of .

It has everyone's names on it and I adjust it as like , if people don't come on , I'll delete them , but it has like their call sign and their name , and then I just check the boxes and then I have a little note section that if they say in and out and that's how I stay organized , but I agree with you Normally I call out the call sign and then I I

say hey , you know like hey . If I say a Casey , you know like hey . If I say KC1URG and Mike comes and goes KC1URG , I'm like hey , mike , thanks for checking in , I'll get to you in a minute or something like that .

It just kind of makes it a little bit more personal and I think with our net it's so laid back and there's not like you could do it any way you want . Some nets are very structured . Where ours is , we all kind of do it the same way .

But you can do it any way you want and we normally just go through our list and then ask if there's anyone else that wants to check in . So it's been a kind of good .

But I agree with you , I think getting especially if you're a regular and getting the names and you know , I ended up knowing people's names and call signs before the faces and then I meet them in like a club meeting or at the barn or or press like oh you're so-and-so Right . You don't know , but you've been talking to him for probably weeks or months .

It's all good .

So , yeah , okay , how , what you're kind of feeling on it , you know , were you able to just kind of just jump in with both feet , or would you just kind of like , well , what do I need to do ?

So I told my wife like I think I'm gonna do it , you know , and I got the radio now , so , um , actually get out there and and , uh , not to worry about standing in one spot , um , so , uh , I was supposed to do it on mondays and then so I had , I paced myself , I had all weekend to get ready .

You know , tim sent me over some the um , the general um script , and uh , and the , the typical call which I already had my own , because , uh , when I was listening , before I could even talk on on the radio , I was writing down everybody's name , everybody's call sign , and uh , so that was keeping my own , my own sheet together .

It's kind of funny , um , and I wasn't even , I wasn't even able to transmit yet .

I try to write legibly the call signs , especially , you know , the new ones that come in after , and I find myself spending too much time making a number one look like a number one as opposed to an I , and by the time I'm done doing that , I've already forgot the last part of their call line . I didn't get that you have to . Can you retransmit ?

So good for you , you sound good on it and you run a good net .

So , tim , obviously you've been , you know , we've had you on before and so , as we all can contest you , we've always treated you as like the superstar , rock star of technician world , doing everything and anything under the sun , and the net's not any exception to that world , doing everything and anything under the sun , and the net's not any exception to that .

You kind of just jumped in and and took the bull by the horns and and was just doing some really cool stuff . But , like , what was your like first experience ? I mean , it's been a while , I'm sure , but you know , if you can dig back a little bit and you know , remember what that was , you know how did you feel , like what was it ?

Uh , you know in general and you know anything that you wish you could kind of you know , or you did adjust to going forward .

And you know we're all friends . And I say this with almost everything I do .

You know , I say and I say this to the , to anybody who's new doing the net I'll say , listen , if you make a mistake , it doesn't matter , because you know the people that you're around are your friends and if you make a mistake around your friends , they might tease you a little bit or whatever , but we're just going to laugh it off and keep going .

And I said , don't be too nervous . I said to myself , I said to myself , but I still sat there , you know , 10 minutes before the net , and I was looking at my unalphabetized list and I didn't really have anything prepared , you know , in writing , and I was just , you know , doing some deep breathing and Yoga . Yeah , I was just like .

And then you know I did the old you know me , me , me , me , me . you know I'm like , ok , well , you know , john does this every night .

So , and you know he set a really good example , really good example for me as a technician , because he always came in and was just straightforward , did it and set his call sign when he was supposed to and read everybody's name and brought us through through it .

And you know , I figured , you know I would , I would talk a little bit about you know , um , what it was a little more maybe , like do an introduction and uh , then just call everybody off . And that's the only thing I really changed . I just said , uh , you know , this is the granite state amateur radio association nightly net .

And I introduced myself and I said I'm the host , uh , tonight , and , uh , your , your net control . I didn't want to sound like I was the , the bossy pants of the net or whatever .

I was , just I'm your , I'm your friend and I'm your host and I'm just here to help you , uh , join in and and share what you did today and uh , and , and I just wanted it to be like that .

I just wanted it to be like all of us friends getting together at the end of the day and talking about what we did and maybe sharing some ham radio business or maybe something exciting that's going to happen down the road or something that happened , like . I've learned a lot of stuff on the net and you know I come from a big family .

You know I have six sisters and three brothers and you know we used to have dinner together when we were growing up and this and that , and you know it's nice to hear what everybody did all day and I feel like you know the net's kind of like that , because I get to hear what everybody did , like you know , otherwise we wouldn't know , I wouldn't know what

you know Mike did all day . You know , I don't know . It's kind of interesting because it's not what I did . I know what I did all day , but I don't know what Ralph did . Well , I kind of have an idea what Ralph did , you know , with his Quan Ching ? It's not like I hear about it , you know I like that .

It's a privilege to be on the net and to have a net and be a net controller and it's nice to have friends to share all this stuff with and I consider us just very lucky to have that time together and I think it makes us all closer .

You know , we'll talk about something that happened on the garbage removal day . You know , like there's the chinese guy who drives around the block and he collects cans and he has , like he carries more cans on his bicycle , like he must be building a house of cans because he has , like , so many cans on his bicycle .

I don't think I could ride my bike if there were that many cans . You know , or whatever it is , during the political season , they're at the dump and they're campaigning at the dump and Tom's trying to get to the dump to get rid of the whatever it is . Yeah , and he's driving around all the people with the . You know they're picketing at the dump .

Things happen at the dump and they find things and there's a lot of exciting stuff going on at the dump . So you'd be surprised what we've learned about the dump from .

You know , if you leave anything big out there , you just leave a little money or some beer and they take it . You know it's just a recycle program , it . You know it's a recycle program , you know a couple of questions here .

Would you give him or her an advice , you know to say in terms of , like they're sitting on the edge of the fence there and and then maybe they struggle with Mike shyness and whatnot . What would you give them as a bit of advice to kind of get over , you know that , to be able to participate , maybe running a net or even participate in a net ?

It's nerve-wracking , especially the first couple times a little bit , but um , that being said , you know , we , we are kind of our own family and , um , if anything , everybody out there is looking to help , not not poke fun , or you , you know , and it's , it's , it's , it's just pretty much what it is , it's .

You don't have to be nervous about anything and just just do it . It'll flow , and especially , it flows better If you start writing everybody's names down and call signs before you even have your license .

That's done really good and and it's kept longevity around , because you guys take the time to like learn something about somebody and then use it as a way to be able to get them out of their shell to talk a little bit . I think that's that's pretty critical . I mean , all you guys are a testament of that um , and you know I'm happy to to see that .

You know you guys take that time and invest back in others , because that just makes the net that much better .

They lost signal , ran out of battery or something , and remember I picked it up and I'm like I'll finish it , I'll get it going and I just grabbed my go , give me a second .

You know it's and I I remember , you know , I remember when we first installed the , the ham shack hotline , and uh , and there was one time the the net didn't start right at seven o'clock and uh , you know I , I forgot who it was , but I think it was you , because everyone was calling you on Hamshack hotline on your cell phone everywhere and we're like where's

Tim ?

I , I watched the clock go to seven and then , right at seven , I just start it right there at seven , and uh , you know , if it doesn't start at seven , I start to think , oh , maybe , uh , it's not going to happen , or you know , it's just uh , well , I saw that and then , when John was doing that , I started using the clock on my radio , and that's not .

Sundays I'm off doing like a tournament or I'm not around and Tim's my go-to , but I get to pay him back on Friday . I get to cover for him , so yeah .

Anything you would want to give some advice to for folks that are looking to get into it .

Next to everybody's call sign and next to everybody's name , you know , I put a little description that would help me remember things . Like , you know , like Frank works for NASA , you know , tim was a former chef , mike commutes down to Massachusetts every day . I mean , just something that would help me break the ice with everybody and help me remember them .

But yeah , I put everything down on paper the first couple times I did it and , as everybody checks in with a pencil , you just simply check them off . It's not rocket science .

I'm not sure if you coached or not , but I knew you liked to go fishing with your son . You know , followed his sports a lot . Tim , I knew , was a former chef . Eric Eric , eric Eric . Eric , I basically had you down as the membership guy .

You know , how do you guys ? What's your secret that we could pass on to somebody else , let's say , is maybe struggling to do their own nets on their repeaters and they've got a bunch of people but it's a small like it's starting to dwindle . How do you guys deal with that burnout like ?

Are you supporting each other as kind of a net control group ?

And even if there's only one other person who wants to do the net , I'll still do it and I'll feel happy that . You know , hey , there was one other guy there to tell me what he did and you know , maybe we get to share that one thing together and that was it , and that's all . That was all good .

And you know , I was there for them and they were there for me and we , we did our net and and that was it for the night . But it was still there . And even if I just get on there and said this is the Granite State Amateur Radio Association Nightly Net , anybody here to check in ?

And it was quiet and like I've thought about that before , Would you still tell everybody who's not there about your day . I'd be like . Well , I got on the net and nobody was there . And I'll return the repeater back to regular amateur use , and I'll just be a sad ham for the rest of the night .

And there are people who are studying for their test and becoming hams , who who are looking forward to joining the net , I'm sure , who listen and and don't join in , and there's people like um , who were listening before they got their license , like mike and todd and and ralph , you know , and yeah and uh , paul , you , you know who was listening before .

I was listening , you know I went to the meetings before I got my license and they want to join in . So once they get their license . If we give up , then the net won't be there for them to join in when they get their license , and I think it's .

But I also think if you're going to do it , it can take a lot of time . And if you want to do it like us , we do it every day or if you're going to do it every week , once a week , you might want to get a bunch of guys that you can rely on , that you can switch on and off .

You know , one of the longest nets going I think it's been going since the 50s on HF is the New England Weather Net and it's on like God , I want to say . It starts at like four in the morning , goes to like four to six I think , and it's been going on for like seriously like since the 1950s , and they've got different net controls that pick .

You know they do one day a month or one day , yeah , something like that , and they all do it , and then they and basically what ? All they all do it , and then they and basically what all they , those guys , do is they have this is the weather net .

And then people call in and report the weather and they , they log it and um , and sometimes like if you're listening to it , like no one's calling in , and then the guy would just be like , oh , this is new england weather .

If we have any check-ins , uh , please call now , and then he'll wait and he may not hear anything and like three minutes later he'll do it again or someone might call in and it's . It's kind of a cool thing . Our net is kind of like everyone just waits to go . It's like just meeting and checking in seeing what we're doing .

If you don't make it no big deal . But if you don't hear , I've noticed , like if we haven't heard someone for a long time , like hey , you know , like where'd paul go ? We haven't heard from Paul . Has anyone heard from Paul ?

Like if you dropped dead at your house busy playing softball , if you drop dead you know there's a good chance that someone on the net might be stopping by If you haven't been on in a week and you're a regular . but you know I think it's good for for all and like I like for me .

You know , I've been doing it for so long , like if there was someone that was a new ham and said hey , I'd like to try that they can always come and take my dad , I don't mind having given it up or letting people use it , or or filling in . I mean it's .

So if you go to the , the website , the club website , gsaraorg , and you want to be a a controller , you just sign up there and you know , even if you don't want to make a commitment to do it all the time , you just fill out the form and and you can , you can try it out . You know , and why not just try it ?

Even if , see , if you like being a net controller ? You know , and if and if you do , you know you could pick up a regular day to do it .

And you know , there's that Wednesday slot and originally , when John said , you know , he didn't want to do the net anymore and Bob and I took those two days net anymore , and uh , bob and I took those two days , uh , the idea behind that wednesday was to have one day open where people could come and try it if they wanted to .

That's awesome and um , and so far , you know , we've had a few people come in and try it , you know , and uh had a few special guests , uh , net controllers and um , ral Ralph was actually the first special guest neck controller that came in he was Look at him now .

You know , it's literally a half hour , maybe 45 minutes , to just say hi to everybody and see how everybody was doing , and that's it .

Well , so with that , like you know , I've got a couple other really good questions , but I think just to kind of keep to your guys' time and I appreciate you guys all coming on and coordinating with us because this is a really fun experience to share with , obviously , our people in the New England area , because we all know that for some areas that you can hit

repeaters that the repeaters are kind of dead , areas that you can hit repeaters that the repeaters are kind of dead , we've actually kind of got the benefit as a club to have a very active repeater with a consistent nightly net .

It's a way that we as club members and people in the area can invite people in to say , hey , come be part of this and just be part of sharing what your day was like . It's as simple as that .

A lot of times we kind of extend that and Tim alluded to it to a little bit where we were talking about the six meter nets , that we kind of expanded that upon and and we've done other things like our 10 meter net , which is a once a month thing .

I think that says , you know , we've got a great group of guys and girls that all like love the hobby and just love to be , you know , participants in this and so you know from from us here at live for him . We thank you guys for doing the job you guys do and having an awesome passion to , to just do .

You know that stuff week in it in a way that you love doing it . We thank you guys for doing that . Eddie , you guys got anything you want to add .

And you know I've talked to all of you guys on the repeater outside the net . Our repeater's pretty active and it's not the strongest repeater around but I think it gets a lot of activity and I think it comes to us doing net control and the club as a whole keeping the repeater up and just using it and getting the word out there .

And we've gotten a lot of members just from , I think , our net alone . I think we've gotten a lot of them . You got me because I wouldn't have known anything about the club unless I found you on my scanner . So if you didn't have me you probably wouldn't have this podcast now , would you ?

But if you check out some of the area repeaters in southern New Hampshire and even north of Boston , it's amazing how much GSARA gets talked about on repeaters outside of our own repeaters .

So it was pretty cool that the word gets around and people of and you know that's how we met Keith . You know you brought Keith in , didn't you Right ? Ralph Yep .

I mean , he's pretty much you know there .

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