Live Show - 5? What does it Mean?

I'm sure you're wondering what the heck is all this hubbub about the number five . Is it some Illuminati thing ? What's the deal with that behind ? So we'll get into that in a little bit there . But before we start , we always like to say hello and it looks like the chat is just starting to get in there .

So , uh , hello everybody who's uh eventually joining and coming on board , um , and so you know , if you are new , you know we'll check in , uh a little bit to see , uh , to say hello to a few folks . But , um , you know , before we do that , you know we've got some regulars on our show Again . We've got Mike joining us tonight N2MAK .

Hey , mike , thanks for coming on board and hanging out with us . So you know , let's kind of start off with you . What's been going on with you ? What's up , what's the latest ?

It's a , it's a . I guess you call it a solder burn , cause it was the uh , the ring terminal . Um , yeah , it's , and it's like a perfect circle . It's fantastic , but uh , so that's what .

That's what the newest is uh with me , but , um , I I've been real busy with uh , working the kids , but , but I did sneak out yesterday after work to do a quick poda and had a lot of fun , and hopefully I'll be on the air this weekend as well , so looking forward to that .

So he's just above the noise floor . So just a little tip , start at 40 and we'll hit you up . Yep , cool , all right . Well , with that we're going to dive in a little bit more because Mike's on here obviously just to hang out with us , but we brought him on for a special segment here . But at the same time , how are my compadres guys ?

Paul , todd , how are you doing ? Paul , what's your ham radio week ? What you been doing ?

I definitely want to try and maybe sneak out tomorrow and get a little bit of park activation going . But yeah , I tried to get Rob and N1NUG the other day and I just couldn't hear them . And then I tried to get Mike the other day and I just couldn't hear him .

And then I've got Jeremy on Hamillard as well and he's been fairly active this week and I keep trying to get him and I just can't hear him .

I didn't get out . I was going to get out and I was all set , I had my gear , I was ready to go and then something came up at work and it kind of put a wrench into it so it didn't happen . Yeah , so that's about it . I haven't really been doing much . I've been .

Oh , I did get a new microphone for my , my car , because people were complaining , saying I was coming in and out and the thing didn't always work . I'd have to bang it to get it to like scan or just was . I took it apart , I I looked normal to me , just it just was . Something happened to it . So it's 75 for a yesu mic .

I was like , what , 75 bucks ? Like I'm not paying that kind of money for a microphone , like forget that . So then someone said , well , go check it out on eBay . So I find , like this , it looks like a Chinese knockoff , right Like . But it looked exactly the same and I zoomed in on it . I had the mic .

I'm like yeah , I'm just kidding , I mean it was $16 . So I got in the day and it is a Yesu mic . Everything is exactly the same the numbers , the engraving , the everything . And the picture didn't show it say Yesu on it , it was like black . So I figured that was like the big difference . But now this one came in .

I can't tell the difference between the two .

So I plugged it in and , yeah , I went on the net today at seven and , uh , they said I sounded great and I didn't get any more complaints that I was fading in and out and the scan works , the mute works and all the little buttons that I normally use when I'm driving work , and so now the other one's gone 16 bucks . I was psyched .

So if you need a new mic , uh , check ebay out .

randomly , it's not made by the uh , the israeli intelligence .

I've actually been using ebay on a lot of stuff that I have to replace because , uh , it actually works and you can kind of get good deals on stuff .

I was just like I just got to get out and so I'm like , all right , I'm gonna make thursday my opportunity . And lo and behold , the weather just basically went and we got rain and I'm just like I don't want to go out and put in rain . You know , I'm not like I'm a wuss .

I'll be the first to admit it , although we did our , you know , russell abbott , and that was , you know that was a good one , but we were under tree cover . You know that was a good one , but we were under tree cover , and you know we , you know that that that was just you know .

Uh , we'll just say a fluke for me , you know , normally it would be pouring rain , which it was on Thursday , so it's like , forget it .

So I snuck out Friday and I uh , today which actually is today , I should point that out maybe , um and uh , we , uh , we activated , uh , uh , you know , um , reeds ferry , because if you guys have been following along , todd , and I have been neck and neck for a little while it's very not respect the rail trail .

I've got to come up with a way and I'm always looking for recommendations . So if you've got one , put it in the chat , you know , send me an email . Whatever , I got to figure out a way to be able to bundle my antenna with my my bag , which includes all my media , like recording equipment .

So I've got all these bags I can quickly grab , but I always forget to grab that second piece which is the antenna .

And that said , you know they're cheap and I've got some different sizes and I recently got one that I keep a lot of my mic and tripod stuff for , like audio , video and stuff , and I always just grab that and go .

But I keep um one of those little tripod bags in my car that has the 213 inch whip from Wolf River coil , so you could swap that out If you have the chameleon one , the MFJ or one of the Chinese ones , whatever , but um , I keep that in there with a sporty 40 coil um some radio wires and I also keep , like the um the , the Wolf River tripod , the Wolf

River tripod and a mag mount . Now , the mag mount doesn't fit in the back . The mag mount is in the truck , right .

I didn't go that route , you know , but I was looking at some bigger and better ones recently where I could consolidate a lot of stuff into one of those and just keep it in .

But there's my tip right there for you or anyone listening or watching is some of those tripod bags actually work really well , especially for vertical stuff , like like one of those 17-foot whips 100% .

It's like all my antenna equipment's in my back storage room , so I just grab that that and I never remember to just grab the antenna bag because the antenna is complete , like you you know . You just described your whole entire kit .

Um , but um , mike k8mrd , like his last video was him just driving around tuning up random things with a g90 , like in a walmart parking lot , trying to tune up a shopping cart to going like to a costco or somewhere else and tuning up a chain link fence and um that video .

Yeah , yeah so , yeah , maybe that's it . I just got a calorie carry , an alligator clip and , uh , you know the , the double poles with a you know one foot of wire and a bnc connector on the end of it . We're good to go .

So when you know , yeah , when the the stuff falls apart , I still have something to fall back on . But you know it's one more project , yeah , so that was kind of what my you know week's been , kind of ham radio wise and and so all good , all fun and , uh , always a blast for sure .

And once , uh , you know , and actually on the sidebar , paul and I , we did russell Abbott and I have to say that the Reliance antenna was phenomenal . We had such a pile up . I went back and looked at some of the video . I mean , it was like nonstop . It was like you couldn't find an opportunity to take a breath , sip of water , whatever .

I activated the rail trail before that and I knew they were going out , but I couldn't get out that far . I was at work , I did on my lunch break and I got like 25 contacts and I was kind of I would have gotten more but I could decide to go hunt because I could hear a lot of people .

So , uh , but there's huge pileups and they couldn't hear me as well . So it kind of like was a thing . But the bands are pretty good . That day definitely , uh , definitely a good day . And I heard on the net tonight . I heard that the bands were pretty hopping today too . Everyone was on 40 and everything . So good conditions , yeah it was .

We have seen people sporting all of the ham radio , live free and ham radio gear . But we've got some favorites ourselves . We've got obviously the camo hats . But we've got some favorites ourselves . We've got obviously the camo hats . The ham radio makes me feel dumb shirt , which is an homage to Paul there .

The Polter Life shirt is my big favorite and Todd's big favorite is always ham radio found me and we have all those tees , stickers and beer mugs . But I'm going to tease a little bit here and say you know we're working in the background on a little bit of a project here and the guys haven't been prepped on this at all .

But you know we're working on for our bourbon and whiskey drinkers we're looking to launch a limited special order of a Gunkaran whiskey glass with the LF branded logo on it . So we're working on that design . We're getting those ready .

We'll have them all preordered and ready to go , but it's going to be a short , limited run because of the way the company that sells them , so we'll have only a bunch of them and then after that they're all gone .

So keep an eye on our storefront , keep an eye on our podcast , listen and check out our website , because we'll , uh , have more details coming in the future so you can scoop up one of those , um , because once they're gone , they're gone , all right .

And so now we get into our favorite segments here , guys , as always , you know , our first one is doing good , good , doing good , you Good , doing good you do . That's good , do good , do good . You're doing good .

But I want to back the train up a little bit to kind of explain why he's here to tell us about his little uh you know story and his club and they're I'm doing good . Is that a while back ?

If you've been on a regular listener to our podcast or our YouTube channel , you know you knew that a while that Todd and Paul and I were all just getting a little frustrated going . Why is nobody sending this stuff ? There's gotta be people doing good well . So I threw out the challenge .

You know , or you know , that we'll take it in any which way , form , shape , whatever , just send us . You know you're doing good , and and so paul basically said well , let's just one up that we're going to throw in some bonus points here and say if anybody decides to send something as a win link message . He'll be like I'll give you bonus points .

And I'm like whoa , wait a minute , no , we gotta do one better . And so we said we're gonna invite you . If you send us a message via Winlink about a do good story , then we want you to come on to our next live stream or you can come in to one of our recordings . But Mike decided , you know , hey , hey , the recording of the live stream was way better .

Um , so we are happy to say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel . Mike brings good , he brings a great story , you know there . So with that , you know , we want to say you know you're the most amazing guy . Yes thank you .

So you know we want to give mike the floor and have him share some of his uh , great , awesome goodness that his club's doing and things he's been a part of , and you know , maybe it might inspire you to do it . So , mike floor is yours , sir . Proceed awesome .

But I've been kind of waiting to like if there's something I'm doing with my club that I'm like directly involved in with right , and finally that last episode , my brain starts spinning . I'm like you know what Screw this . I'm going to send something in . I'll send something that you know , cause I know my club's been volunteering at a lot of events .

I haven't been able to , um , but uh , I'm like I'll send something in that my club's doing and I'm going to do it by wind link and then , like seconds later you start talking about , if someone throws , send us something you know via win link and then , uh , bonus points we're bringing you on whatever , and I'm like , all right , this has got to happen now and

so and it was early in the week , I feel , because , like it was like the next day , it was win , like wednesday , and I I check in regularly I'm like , all right , I'm gonna send the guys a message and and , uh , you know , kind of do a copy paste job on the public service report from my club .

But but nonetheless , so I rode in and I'm in , I'm in the Rochester area , western New York , and the club that I belong to I'm actually on the board is the Rochester Amateur Radio Association , rara , and we're one of the larger clubs in the US .

We got over 500 members and you know Rochester , if you know a little bit about it , rochester is is home to L3 , harris , harris , rf , um , so you have that that radio DNA baked right in here . But also there's a lot of companies like , um , xerox , johnson and Johnson .

There's you got schools like university of Rochester , where I work , rit , um , a lot of engineers , a lot of smart people , um , somehow I managed to be out here too .

But uh , um , there's a lot of hams , a lot of interest in amateur radio , and we regularly volunteer for a number of events and the one that I sent in , you know , for the do good section , um took place . We actually did . My club and a couple other clubs managed to do two , two events the same day , um in in different parts of the state .

And , uh , the one I wrote in about was was called the mammoth March , which is in Letchworth state park and anyone who's watching on live stream that's where this photo behind me . It was taken at letchworth state park and I've been there to do a photo one time , um , that's why you see the photo behind me if you're watching .

But it's absolutely gorgeous and I use the word , you know , gorgeous intentionally because , like the gorgeous , and I I hate that people make the comparison like , oh , it's the Grand Canyon of New York and things like that , because it doesn't compare to the Grand Canyon .

I'm sure I haven't even been there , but Letchworth is absolutely beautiful and there is hardly any cell service in parts of that park .

You know , to other stations , um , you know and and just kind of basically pass traffic , help , provide support .

Um , there was a lot of we would refer to as , uh , I think it's SAG , it's um support and gear , uh vehicles which you know would go out , and um , you know if there's an issue with you know uh , vehicles which you know would go out , and um , you know if there's an issue with you know somebody , whether it's a medical emergency or something just minor , um ,

you know somebody needs some water or or whatever , and uh , you know events like this and I volunteered it to myself . Now on the live stream you're showing a photo from last year . This is the Boilermaker um road race , which is a race in Utica , where I'm from , in central New York , and I volunteered there .

I was at one of the last stations at the end and I was stationed there with some first responders , and you know that race . There's over 20,000 participants in the Boilermaker . It's one of the largest races in the Northeast . I think it's the largest 15K in the Boilermaker . It's one of the largest races in the Northeast .

I think it's the largest 15K in the Northeast and it's important to have , you know , support for these type of events . Utica , there's no problem with the cell service Letchworth State Park . That's an entirely different thing . And you know I don't have any , any special training other than my amateur radio license and stuff .

Um , you know , I did a CPR class years and years ago . But , uh , but I'm , you know I can go out and what it takes , you know , for those listening , um , who are wondering , you know what , what does it take to volunteer at these events ? Usually like , as long as you've got an HT or if you've got a mobile radio , you're good to go .

And events , usually like , as long as you've got an HT or if you've got a mobile radio , you're good to go . And events that I've gone to , if you don't have them , they're going to give them to you , um , and they'll give you mag mounts to put on your car or your vehicle or something else , um , if necessary .

But uh , but ultimately , you know the amateur radio volunteers at these races , um are , are stationed at locations throughout the race .

I've been in a sweep vehicle where I've just constantly gone through in a in a cycle race One of the photos was up on the screen earlier from one of the MS rides and and I just constantly kept going on the race circuit and I'm reporting the position of where some of the last cyclists are .

And in the Boilermaker race we were obviously , you know , passing radio traffic if there were emergencies . But also we were keeping track of the participants , especially the wheelchair race participants when they pass each point . And you know it's nice because at the end of the day I've done a lot of 5Ks and races . These things don't happen without volunteers .

I did it with my kids last , this , this year , this this summer , um , because I missed it being a volunteer , it was weird to be on the sidelines , um , you know , and running is you know that I use that term loosely technically I have both feet in the air at the same time , so it constantly it passes as running well , it's like like vince says round is a

shape , yep , yeah , yeah . If they gave out , you know , participation awards for weight class instead of age , like I'd have the thing down . Like I've said , I'm best in weight class for like the last 20 years . But anyway , these things , you know , they don't happen without volunteers and people chipping in .

Chipping in , whether they're on a large size like a Boilermaker race , or where you've got 20,000 plus participants , or even some of these smaller Tour de Cure , ms rides , where they are , you know , maybe just a couple hundred or so participants .

You need volunteers , whether they're amateur radio people , they're first responders , they're those that are organizing the race and the events . And it was a great feeling after when I volunteered and I'm standing around and people are coming up like thank you , thank you , thank you . It's good to hear that .

Um , you know I , at the end of the day , I'm not saving any lives . I get to use a tactical call sign for like an hour or so . You feel kind of cool and stuff , but it's , it's nice to give back and there's these opportunities . I'm sure , wherever you are , you know , in the U S ?

Um , there's opportunities to volunteer and help out in some of these events . Races are are one that we do regularly my club and not that . Those are the things that I've done with other foot races , um , uh , bike races , um , wheelchair races , things like that . But look for those opportunities .

It's nice to give back and it was a different vantage point for me being on the sidelines that one year , a year ago and watching it and you see how much fun people are having . And if you've been there and you know it can be a lot of fun , then you feel good to kind of give up a couple hours of your day .

So if , if , if you got that bull thing , if you got a few hours , then you're in a position where you can help out and you're not going to have to be a general , you're not going to have to be an extra um , you know usually for these things , just you know basic .

If you get , if you got a radio , um and uh , you got the time , then then you can , you can pitch in and , like I said , my club does these regularly . We did two . There was an MS ride and there was a the Letchworth , uh mammoth March , um , both on was August 10th and uh , we had volunteers at both .

Has did some of the other clubs and the Finger Lakes and Western New York region and it was good .

I'd vote for you and you know you're definitely one of those dude , you know not to say not to to mike's horn , but in essence , mike , I , I , I I can sympathize and understand and relate very much , you know , with that whole , you know when you give , you get back a whole lot more kind of approach , and so that that's exactly what the whole , I think my

you know , kind of spin on the the do good aspect of it . It doesn't really matter , like if you do it with your club or you do it with a group of guys and gals getting together to do a POTA event , whatever . You're just out there helping the public , showing them , educating them on ham radio and just having fun with it .

Just because I connected with somebody through POTA who is activating regularly and hunting from my hometown , and when I first worked him you know it pops up in Hammers , he's in New Hartford , which is a suburb of Utica I'm like , hey , I'm from New Hartford and so , and I work him a couple of times we got to know each other and uh and and Ed , um , he's

uh , you know he , he volunteers regularly for the race , he's done it for decades . Um and uh , he reached out and he's like , hey , we could use some help , you want to help out ? And I said you know what this would be fun , could use some help , you want to help out ? And I said you know what this would be fun ? And uh , why not ? And so I did it .

Um , but , but there's opportunities out there , you just got to look for them yeah , and , and you're finding a club you know that's pretty active .

I am , uh , applaud you and I thank you for sharing such a fricking awesome story and I , you know , encourage everybody else . We're throwing the gauntlet down again . You know , this is not just a one and done thing for us . We want to keep hearing those stories . We want to keep hearing people stories .

We want to keep hearing people share the do-good aspects of it , because , heck , we can tune the dial and hear all the lids and we can hear all the complainers on 80 meters , the whole gamut . We're all used to it . We all participate in some form of it or ignore it in some form .

But why not do something that shows something really cool , like what your club's doing , and get people thinking about hey , maybe I should go try something different . Or maybe I should go try running radio comms on a radio race or volunteer at a POTA event .

So , like I said , we have easy ways that you could share your story and again , it doesn't have to be in New Hampshire , it doesn't have to be in New England , it can be anywhere in the world . We want to hear the story . So that's not an excuse for anybody , especially if you're in the chat or you're listening to this after on the pod .

You have three ways to be able to send us your story , and the first one , obviously simple , easy email . I hate it , but we live with it . Send us an email . The other option we've created something so simple Point your browser to livefreeandhamcom , forward slash , do good , fill in the form . Tell us a story . We'll happily share it with you .

But if you're ambitious , like Mike is , we still have the WinLink option . If you are so felt to WinLink us an email , do so and we will be glad we will invite you on . You can come hang out with us on our next live stream . You can come hang out with us at a recording that we do for our show regularly . Your choice Either way .

But if you're going to go through the effort of sending a Winlink email , like Mike did , even though it was Winlink Wednesday and he was already ready for it- he started before we even announced it . You can come be part of it and hang out with us . We'd love to have you .

We want to hear your story , we want to share it , and so with that that's do good . Simple as that .

And now for something a little extra , with Todd W1STJ Guys , this is one of our favorite segments going so far . You know , you've heard it here . This is where we help Todd study for his extra class license .

And now we're doing it on the live stream , which is going to be a big train wreck , I'm sure , but in each episode we take three questions from the extra class pool to test Todd's knowledge and hope he gets his upgrade . You know , and if you'd like to follow along , we've got two ways to do it .

One is , obviously , you can always head over to hamstudyorg , which is a great resource and it helps you prepare for your test , especially if you like to cram . I did it that way , everybody here , in some form or fashion , has done it that way and , as we all have noted in every episode , three out of four volunteers examiners approve of it .

Arl was unavailable for comment at the time of survey . But without further delay , we are going to spin this a little differently and I'm going to hand it over to the VE Quizmaster . Paul , take it away and let them know how they play .

But in all fairness to Todd , he hasn't fully studied , so we don't want to give him something he hasn't seen yet .

So the way this is going to work is we're going to do three random questions from sub element three , and I'm going to get Todd's answer first , and then we'll get Eric and Mike to chime in , and then everybody in the chat will throw in the letter that they think is the correct answer and we'll see who is right .

And maybe Todd can do better than two out of three .

Or is it D Around the solstices , especially the winter solstice ?

The returning echo is several hertz lower in frequency than the transmitted signal ?

Didn't catch fire , you know , didn't explode , so hey , you know , two out of three ain't bad , my friend , you can play it now . Go ahead , I got three out of three Come on . I know but I got two out of three . Oh , you can play it now . Go ahead . I got three out of three . Come on , I know , but I got two out of three .

Yes , it is all right , well , because you gotta play it twice , it's better there's two out of three bad so all right . Well , thank you again for uh . You know everybody in the chat hanging out and playing uh with our I gotta admit .

Well , now for our last bit of uh , uh , you know a little bit of news I think we want to touch on because , if you obviously have been paying attention to the channel for a while , you know we had released a live stream update on a person we'll say that is very near and dear to us as a host of the Live Free and Ham crew .

But we all know , if you've been listening to our show for a while , paul has had a deep desire to want to jump out of a perfectly good working airplane . Why , I don't know , but he's got the desire and Carlos just helped him just a little bit more to get him motivated in that direction .

So we know we've been bouncing around and it's kind of almost been comical , because I think at this point , if you , if sunday doesn't happen and we're going to get into this , sunday doesn't happen the , the tagline and we're going to put it on our shirt is hey , paul is , is eventually going to jump someday , and so we'll go from there .

But now that we got your ear , we're going to give Paul the floor here , talk a little bit about what his plan is and what's going on , because we are going to be live streaming this weekend with Paul's jump , and so we want all you guys to tune in and hang out and watch all the action and fun , because Todd and I are going to sit back and commentate

while he's going up on the plane .

Know , there's no parachute involved and it's only 75 feet . So , um , you know , it was just kind of in the back of my brain at some point , someday I'm gonna do this . And then , uh , yeah , I don't know . I think , eric , you had the brilliant idea to invite carlos to one of our live streams .

Yeah , and we we started talking about yeah , I absolutely love carlos . Um , we started talking about , yeah , absolutely love Carlos . We started talking about how he started and how he had always said someday he was going to do it and his wife had bought tickets for him .

And that really got me thinking and I said , well , you know , I'm trying to cross some things off my list this year . Trying to cross some things off my list this year like this this is the first year in at least 10 plus years that physically , um , I've felt really good .

Um , you know , I've been , I've been battling a lot of , uh , you know , spinal issues and stuff . Um , I finally got my neck fixed in 21 . Uh , I got , I got cadaver bone in there . Now it's great . But , um , but yeah . So I said this is it , I'm going to do it . And so the plan was for my birthday , which is October 23rd .

I was going to make the first jump and the more I thought about it I was like fuck , it's going to be really cold and I don't know that . I want my first experience being really cold , being really cold . So I said , well , let's , let's book my birthday , but let's also book September 25th , which happened to be a Wednesday .

I figured Wednesday would be great because there wouldn't be a lot of people , everybody'd be working . Well , lo and behold , we had a lot of rain come in on Thursday and so , because of the cloud cover , they said it wasn't safe and they were canceling all the jumps .

So I had a heart-to-heart with my son about disappointments in life and how you just got to persevere and keep going , because no matter what life will let you down . And so we pushed it to October 2nd , which is next Wednesday .

And lo and behold , they emailed me last night and they said yeah , something happened with their pilot and their pilot's gone for the week , and so they're canceling all jumps for the whole week , they're like .

But we got a backup pilot for this weekend only , and so if you want to jump this weekend , you jump saturday afternoon , or you could jump sunday morning . So I said well , how many people are going to jump at 8 am on a sunday ? Sign me up for that one . So here we are , and sunday is predicted to be absolutely beautiful .

So it should be nice , clear skies , and it should be , uh , a very memorable experience and not a lot of wind . I checked no , not a lot of wind , so you're gonna have terminal velocity straight down well , from what I understand , uh , the free fall only lasts for like 15 to 30 seconds , it's .

It's gonna be like thick clouds , unless they jump through the clouds , which I highly doubt . So we get the thing . And then the next wednesday , I'm like all right , I can probably do that . Nothing's going on yet make sure I don't schedule anything . And then we get the notice . Sunday I'm like I can definitely do Sunday . That works good .

You know , play by play , as much as we can see from the comfort of our ground station , and so if Paul's got a second or two he can throw that link in there of the actual live stream . So if you haven't headed over to our channel , it's actually in all of our channels , so you're bound to find it somewhere .

But , in essence , head on over there , click that link , get notified , because it's going to be cold Sunday morning around 8 o'clock the sun just will be starting to warm things up . So we'll be bringing coffee and donuts . We'll be hanging out watching paul .

We'll be eating in front of him because we know he's not going to eat on the way up for fear of something going back down .

on five two .

There definitely will be many more videos and we're actually hoping fingers crossed , you know this will inspire a certain uh , you know , life of terminal velocity folks to book a flight , to head this way and , uh , you know , maybe , uh , you know , we'll be able to get them to do a tandem jump together and , uh , you know , make a lot of contacts .

The future . Let's just get to the first base at this point and try to get them up in the air and out in a parachute . So awesome , okay . Well , so with that , now we can finally talk about what this mysterious five is all about . You know , like I said , we're not the luminati . We're not into , uh , q , anon or any of that other stuff .

You know we're just a bunch of crazy hams . But you know , if you've been around and been listening to us for about a year now I mean , we've been doing shows for on and off for a year We've been all having fun hanging out . Paul's been with us for about half of the ride there and he's going to be in there for the long haul .

But you know , we started kind of this podcast it as just a way to just share about our ham radio experiences , have fun with it and see where it took us .

And so the funny thing was , as we started to be on that journey and as we were planning for some of the stuff in the future , I got wind of like okay , where we were in terms of our show numbers and a bunch of other numbers kind of popped up in the background that were like oh , they all kind of had five as a reference in it .

And so I was just like , well , we got to bring reference so we can bring light to this . And so , as I said , we've been doing some stuff as a show for about a year now . We've brought Paul on .

Ryan is still with us , um , you know , as he's uh flying and doing all of his things , so he pops in from time to time and but we love having hanging out with ryan . Mike has definitely been a part of our crew here as an honorary uh live free and ham guy here . So you know , if you haven't gotten your certificate in the mail , we'll be sending .

Yes , he's wearing his shirt , man , so he knows it . Um , and you know . So with that you know we had hit like , within our first 10 months , like 2500 downloads which blew us all away . We're like people love listening to us . Like this is like we're not at all at home clicking the button to download our podcast .

We just don't have the time to put that much effort into downloading that many episodes . So so it shows that you know you guys love what we're talking about , what we're doing , love being a part of our community .

And so , first and foremost , I want to say it out loud , and I'm sure everyone else resounds it as well , that we all appreciate you guys supporting us and being part of this and we're looking forward to another year and many years forward .

But it kind of got us thinking that once we hit this episode and and this episode tonight , this live stream is our 50th episode . We've been doing 50 episodes , which is totally mind-blowing in my mind . Like you know , 50 episodes , you know we have enough material to talk about . We joke around some .

You know great stuff , we have some awesome people on , but with that . You know , one thing that just really like threw the the wrench in the whole entire system is that we are getting to 5,000 downloads after this episode goes into the podcast bin . So we are . We have now crossed over a huge milestone for us .

So we've already done 50 shows , we've done 5,000 downloads . You know , the sky's the limit . Things are going crazy . You know the wagon wheels are falling off the train here , off the wagon itself and off the train . That'd be a different analogy . But all that being said is that you know it kind of got us thinking .

You know what we want to share a little bit more about us so you guys can get to know more us and why we do Live Free in Ham and who we are . We obviously all have our own channels and we all do our own little , you know , ham radio thing or ham radio Jason thing .

But we want to just talk a little bit about and share some of our experiences tonight about , you know , live free and ham kind of .

Some of the things that you know we were going to touch on tonight is that you know we really , you know , want to share some of the stuff and the pains and the struggles we , you know , we deal with when we're growing in this channel .

Um , and you know , one thing that I really want to get into is , like , you know , what was the one thing you love the most about the show ? You know , we all have our own little thing and then , uh , you know , we'll talk about a few other things in between and we'll just throw a little humor , uh , and sprinkle it all over the top .

But so you know , to kind of kick it off a little bit , paul , what's your take on it ? Obviously you're the newer guy of the crew here . You obviously came in . You came in , but you came in like gangbusters and we loved having you here and you've been a blast . So , kind of , what's your take on it ?

When you came in to the show , what was your expectation ? Did you have one ?

And I remember commenting back in June when the podcast hit the one-year anniversary . You know that I was amazed at how quickly those six months had gone by . It really it goes quick , you know .

I mean we record almost every Sunday quick , uh , you know , uh , we , I mean we record almost every sunday , um , and I , I really I think that the highlight for me of the , the last bit that I've been a part of this uh , was the mike fright episode when , when I was up in pittsburgh , uh , for the eclipse back in april , um , it was such a great

conversation , it was such a great topic . It was such a great topic and it was , you know , one of those things where I truly hope that new hams were able to kind of Take our honest feedback about our experiences and just know that what they're going through is the same that we've all gone through .

It's not easy to get in front of a microphone or to get in front of people , and so the more that you can practice speaking and the more that you can get on the radio and practice , the easier it becomes that you can get on the radio and practice , the easier it becomes .

You know , um , it's been , it's been a lot of fun and and I I gotta say congratulations .

So you know we always hear from you in some form or fashion , either in Discord when you know we make a sidebar or something like that in the last episode . But so Todd you know , and when , yeah , and when they're right , exactly Right , yeah , we'll never live that one down .

So , um , todd , so with you , you know what , what kind of you know your take is on it . You've been in here from day one when we first had that crazy meeting with uh being the ham and potato podcast , which I didn't really care about that title , but you know , something came to my head .

Like we all met through ham radio , like I wouldn't , I wouldn't have known Eric , paul or Ryan or even Mike . I've never even met Mike in person , but I feel like if I ran into him in the street , like we'd be like hey man , what's going on ? let's go get a beer . Yep , um , but anyway .

But uh , yeah , I , I think it's uh , I've been just really enjoying it . I think the first couple ones I was real nervous and stuff . And now it's like it's kind of like when I did net control for our net , like the first time I was so nervous .

I like an hour before I prepped everything and now it's like , oh crap , I gotta my kid will tell me , dad , you're running the net . Tonight . It's like five of seven , I gotta turn on the radio . And it's just become kind of really natural and kind of fun .

And I find that sometimes pre-recording or even like we just start talking that could be a part of the show , like we should just hit record because we start talking about it , like , oh , let's hold this for the show . So I think we all click really well . I think the . You know I do miss Ryan being here . Ryan is he's .

You know he is definitely busy , but he's still part of the show . He has a lot of input and all that kind of stuff and you know he'll be back . You know , on and off when he uh , when he has the time .

But it's just been a cool experience and , and you know , when you told me we were like 50 shows and like even that we've been doing this for over a year , I was shocked .

I'm like , really it's been that long , like it doesn't seem like it was that long and um , and then like just every topic and the guests that are coming on , and we've been invited to like the clubhouse a couple times and I don't think we're going back though what we are . We'll go back though oh no , you know , I mean it's and it's .

It's just kind of opened up the uh , you know the hammer . And the whole idea of this whole podcast wasn't to be like , oh , we're gonna get all these contacts and be monetized .

It was really about just getting ham radio out there , because it's been a positive experience for me and all of us I think I can speak for all , but it's just a positive experience all around and , um , it's what it is . It's just spreading the , getting the hobby going and getting people to join in and be a part of it .

So that's that's what I got out of it and I still get out and I do enjoy doing it and it's , uh , you know it's uh , you know it's like you know it's . Sometimes it's a lot like you got to make the time to to , you know , cut it out and say , okay , I gotta do this tonight , we gotta get an episode recorded .

But every time you get on , no matter how busy or even if you're tired you don't want to do it it always seems like it's a good time and you're glad you did it . So and thanks everyone for listening to us . I mean , I've met some people , uh , that have told me that they listen to us all the time and I just find that unreal .

Like you were talking to him , like about the club stuff in general , and you're like I can't figure out where I'm putting my name to a face and , like your , your voice sounds so familiar I don't understand where I'm hearing it from .

You know I'm like people really listen to me . And then like people at work , they're like , yeah , you have a podcast , like do people really listen to you ? And I'm like , apparently , so I go , we've got 5 000 downloads . They look at me like what I said ? Well , maybe we should start listening . I said you probably wouldn't understand what we're talking about .

But yeah , go ahead check it out .

You're kind of from the outside looking in , describe kind of what you know why you decided to listen to us . Besides that , you were , you know , maybe being nice and saying , hey , I want to download yeah , and I can't .

I can't recall exactly you know , like the exact order of events and stuff , but , like you said , you know you reached out early on and and , uh , you know , talked about what you're trying to do and uh , you know , get some more content creators collaborating in the Northeast region , and and uh , and whatnot , but um , but no , the my app , the episode that that

resonated the most , one of the first ones I listened to was the um , the one with on the logging road , and oh , yes , the guys from new hampshire and I .

That was like , and my wife and and I don't know if this is the thing with wives or not , but like they , they love podcasts , especially like these murder crime ones or this or that , and I felt like I'm listening to one of these things that I'm hearing her listen to in the shower or something about .

You know , they're trapped on the logging road and they're trying to get a signal out and it was great and I mean it . It totally drew me in and um and stuff .

But at the end of the day , you know , like , when you're talking about the podcast or some of the content creation stuff , when you're doing stuff as a group , you know you need , you know you need , like , good people and good chemistry , and you guys have totally , totally nailed that . It's fantastic .

And the other podcast stuff I'll just share is it's funny I end up listening to a lot . I do it depends on the time of the year but up listening to a lot , uh , I , I do . It's depends on the time of the year , but I , I can do a lot of travel with work and uh , and so I'm usually listening to a podcast when I'm on the road .

But , uh , my son and I , my oldest son who has his general , and him and I were driving out to utica to run in the Boilermaker and we drove separately from my wife and my other son because he had a soccer scrimmage or something going on , and so we drove out and I'm listening to the podcast .

He's digesting some of it , but a lot of Gen Alpha is born with like an earbud in their ear . So I don't know how much he's hearing , but I'm hearing like eric and todd throughout the whole thing . And we get in and there's , there's a park we've never activated , like a couple miles from the hotel .

So we get there and it's one of the relatively new poda parks in the last um year but it had been activated before . And we get on , I'm looking for a frequency and who do I see spotted w1 stj on 20 meters , like there's no way I'm gonna get you .

I listen , but , um , I at least figured like I'm gonna spot ben and I we're just gonna spot ourselves three kilohertz away from you and hopefully maybe you'll see that in hammers or maybe someone else will see . Like I'm right there just saying , hey , you know a little poke check from New York . Like hey , we're right here .

Yeah , and that's how it is , like where I am , in New York , um Maine , I can work on 20 and 40 , um Virginia , and like North Carolina , I can work on 20 and 40 , but you get in closer than than those States and it's strictly 40 and uh there's that .

I'm like , oh , it is what it is , but uh , but no , it's I , I . I love the podcast . You guys do a great job . And then congratulations on all the milestones .

Um , but the , the we , we want to make sure , obviously you know , to show our love to obviously everybody like we said , that you know is a podcast listener and part of our show . We listener and part of our show . We're gonna do a giveaway tonight . You know this is a surprise to most folks because we didn't announce it any which way .

Um , so we're gonna do a giveaway tonight of , uh , one of the one of our shirts here , and if I was actually on the ball here , let me go grab uh that link here and we can show you it . Um , this is the uh , our infamous shirt , uh , that we created in paul's honor here , called , uh , ham radio makes me feel dumb .

So we're going to give this one away here . And this one is one of our favorite shirts , because Paul has always said this in every podcast and it really didn't sink in into my thick gray matter what he really meant by it .

But then , now that we're doing more of the podcast and we just we're playing more radio and I'm hanging out with him and we're doing more radio stuff , yeah , totally , ham radio makes me feel dumb sometimes and that is okay . So it's not a shirt to say that we're dumb , ham radio operas . It's just saying , hey , we fail and we fail hard and we fail fast .

Let's just move on and keep growing in the hobby . So we are going to , you know , give this shirt away , and so we have . We have a code there , my friend .

Uh , you know the winner , um , whoever that is , uh , we will have to have you email us and we'll get that shirt out to you and we want to thank you for uh , yeah , a little van hailing yeah , all right , well , I'll let that run . Go ahead and hit the . It's already running there , cool , all right .

So , uh , to kind of segue back , so you know some of the things for me , I think one of my favorite episodes and we were talking a little bit about this , um , you know , offline was , uh , I have a lot of them , but the one thing that really kind of like hit me close was , um , the one we did with tim kc1 qdk , the one that's called episode six says

I'm not slow , I'm deliberate . That was when we were bringing on some of our close friends and we were just sharing about some of the , you know , their ham radio experiences and all the cool things that they were doing . And Tim , every day man , he is one of those guys , like Paul and Todd and Mike do for me . They all surprise me with how much .

You give them a bottle cap and a wire and they're off working 40 meters . How they do it , I don't know . They're just doing it , and so that's the way I look at Tim . And so when Tim came on to do the episode , that's kind of like the way I look at Tim . And so when Tim came on to do the episode .

Um , he shared all of his experience as a technician and if you ever wanted a good example of someone who goes through every aspect of being a technician , tim is that guy . Tim has did you know , if it was CW , he did it . If it was , I want to do um . You know , uh , aries races . He went out his balfang radio with him and went down and did the .

Uh , the boston marathon yeah , and so you know , if you know he was to study for his general , he was busting his butt . He , he took our club , uh , our loner club radio , which was a I don't know the thing was a dinosaur and he made it work on digital modes .

I mean , like I've been like , okay , I'm done with this , put it over the corner and go out and spend the money on a brand new rig . You know , he . You know the one thing I love and we always share and we always joke about this , because we have a team icon , team yezu .

You know , uh , head-to-head grudge here , um , paul being team uh icon , and todd and I , team yezu , and ryan is team yes , and I , yeah , team icon . So it's a balance there . And I know mike's an icon guy , so you know he kind of falls in that boat just by .

Uh , you know , right of passage , um , you know , tim took both my dx10 and ryan 7 300 and he spent two weeks head to head and ran those things through every test under the sun . I'm sure he did better testing than the sherwood report does with their radios .

You know , that's the way I got to look at it , but you know and he made that he made the right choice oh yeah , totally 100 , but he , he , he had good , good and bad things .

You know , right around the same time I met Ericic and paul and everyone else . I think we all kind of in the general area , joined the club at the same time and we all just hit it off and we do pretty much , uh , and then we've just been kind of taking the club in a new direction .

You know we're actually promoting ham radio and trying to get something . He is , he is always doing ham radio stuff , like he did . What did he do ? The last thing was awesome .

He went to a non-park park , yeah , and he set up a station and he did and he did hunting in cw and like a whole bunch of our members showed up there and made their numbers too , and non-members , and made cw contacts .

And then when we do things for the schools or or fair you know we did the uh 4-H fair and we did what did they call it when we went to Milford yeah , the STEM thing . He teaches the kids how to do the names in CW and just awesome stuff .

He's like a huge ambassador for ham radio , which is really what I think this podcast and what we're just trying to do is just get the word out there , get people interested and and uh and just enjoy the hobby and have fun with it , and I think you know we all do and I think we show it here on the podcast , you know , with the people we interact with

yeah , so , uh , we're well , we're right .

Just because I think we had to record that twice , because the first time Tim had some audio issues and then the second one actually turned out to be even better than the first recording , so we just scrapped that recording and went with the second one . So , yeah , it was a blast to do and it's always fun to hang out with Tim .

And then it's funny because when you're out doing parks you sometimes work . These people that you've had on your podcast , who , like I physically don't know , but it seems like I know them because we spent an hour or two , you know , doing the podcast together and hey , todd , I just wanted to let you know and I'll get emails and stuff like that .

It's kind of funny , but it's , it's , it's all fun and it's uh , it's a great way to get people , uh , involved in the , in the hobby . And I've met a lot of people over the few years that I've been a ham , that are actually . They see me doing poda and they're hams but they don't , they're not active .

And I just last weekend a guy in my flying club who I didn't know . He heard the repeater go off in my car . He heard people talking on the repeater and he goes is that the Bedford repeater ? I'm like yeah , and he told me his call sign and he was leaving and he's like he goes , we got to talk , he goes .

Yeah , I haven't been active , I'm still licensed , I still . Oh , there's been a lot of stuff that's changed . It's getting even better . I told him about the podcast and I said , yeah , we'll talk this weekend when I come back to the field . There's a lot of people out there that used to do ham radio that don't anymore .

You know we got a bunch of different stuff , so head over to our website , obviously , and check all those links out . We got our discords . We've got many ways you can connect with us . We uh , we'll talk a little bit later .

You know some of our patreon stuff that we're pushing , uh , you know , a little bit further ahead on the needle there and so , yeah , outside of that , uh , you know we got a lot of great stuff coming up at the end of the year and even in the new year . So awesome , all right . Well , so let's kind of put a little bow on this one .

So we're not going to get to 15 . I run the machine . We'll do it at 14 , it's not too bad at 19 .

Even though I've got my flex running , I'll drop it down to one watt and I'll . You know , I love it because we literally have a line of sight between each other . I have no problem hearing kevin . I can't hear his compadre . Uh , in north carolina , I don't know what it is .

I can hit north carolina any other day of the week , but every time I check into that net I'm always hitting right in Kevin and and it's always a blast to test the equipment out there and see how good propagation is .

It's a great way to try out new antennas and different things , see how low you can go and stuff and whatnot , and just learn about propagation and what you can do with low power . Very much so .

my , my extra yeah , I'm still a general , but yeah , I mean , look at I , I have it on ham . What is it ? Ham alerts and every single time those alaskan guys get out there I run , turn , stop what I'm doing to see and I can never hear them , ever . I got them .

So you should be so lucky that , uh , you know you can actually listen to us in a car ride in traffic and be able to get through the whole episode most of the time and nobody wants to see my workbench right now . Yeah , true , very true , all right , so let's kind of wrap this up . So let's just go around real quick . Everybody can update .

So , mike , you're obviously our guest honor here , so how can people reach out to you ? And you've got a couple of other links that you want to share and talk about .

Um , so that's my handle on twitter and instagram and uh and whatnot , but um , but yeah , mike N2MK on YouTube .

And the last thing I'll just plug real quick is hopefully and this is not so much for the podcast but for anyone watching live I'm hoping to head down tomorrow to the Antique Wireless Museum , which is kind of in my backyard about a half hour south in Bloomfield , new York , and I've done a couple of videos there .

If you're not familiar with it , go to my channel . You'll see some videos on the Antique Wireless Museum . It's absolutely amazing .

I think I shared the link in the private chat .

They , they're going to be operating am on 80 meters , 40 meters for some reason they're skipping 15 , but they're doing 20 and 10 and they're also going to try 160 too . Um . So , um , you know , listen for W2AN . Um , listen for some AM traffic . Most of your radios are going to do it .

You just got to push a button , um and uh , and maybe I'll get you in the log . And , regardless , you know how things work out with the museum .

I'm going to be out and doing some poda this weekend and definitely , knowing that there's going to be some am in my backyard , I'll certainly do some am very cool , looking forward to it , man totally yeah well , paul , how about you ?

I keep trying , I keep trying , I keep trying , and every time it just doesn't pan out . One of these days I'll get the both of you on AM , because I definitely want to get some AM in the log . But yeah , and of course , sunday morning , you guys are kind enough to do the live stream uh of of me . Uh , it's going to be a ton of fun .

Um , uh , you'll probably see some softball videos and some poda videos coming out soon , so stay tuned for that too and car repair too .

I'm looking forward to it . It looks like it's gonna be good uh weather and uh , I'm gonna try to do a poda this week , at least one . Uh , that's the goal . And uh , my son is gonna try to solo sunday after the jump . Uh , his for model airplanes . He's gotten really good at it , he's . It's scary how good he got at it .

So we're hoping to do that Sunday afternoon and yeah , it'll be awesome .

I've got a bunch in an area over there with some of the paid members , but those videos I've got a review on the res antenna 80 , ranger 80 , and so you know I that's there for you if you're interested in that antenna . And then then I've got my W1AW walkthrough .

I went down to hang out with Marvin , thank you , yes , I went down to meet Marvin W0MET down at ARL . He works for the Learning Institute and he gave me a walkthrough of uh era headquarters . And I got to operate on wnaw , although that was a flop because the bands had a g4 storm .

So you can imagine , no matter how much power you have , no one's still going to hear you . So you know all that's being said . That was a blast . It was always good , I you know . It was always on my bucket list so what better excuse than to just , you know , head down there and do a video .

So those will be up on my channel soon and , uh , you know as always you can always find any one of us here at live free and ham um , and we appreciate everybody in the chat just to kind of uh say hello to folks again . Thank you , kevin , for uh winning the uh ham radio Me Feel Dumb T-shirt . We saw Vermont Radio in there .

Gray man Pota , it's always good to hear you and see you in there . Walt Walt was in there a little bit Coastal Waves and Wires . He's always a blast to hang out with . We got Brian , tim and Bob as a few , to name a few . But thank you guys for all supporting the channel and being part of tonight's live stream .

And , as always , you can like and subscribe and be part of our conversation . You can always head over to our discord links at the bottom of our page at livefreeandhamcom , you know you can always leave us a review on Apple podcasts or , if you like me and you like the simpler way , you can leave a review good , bad and ugly .

We'll read all of them , because Paul really likes the ugly ones Using our SMS link below in all of our show notes and in our YouTube descriptions . So , as always , please head over , check out the merch at livefreeandhamcom . We are always creating new stuff . Don't forget to keep an eye out and watch for our limited release on our whiskey glasses .

Those are coming soon and you can always support our show . We finally got our Patreon sorted out and working .

So if you want to catch the early episodes you know , if you are a diehard fan and you want to , you know , listen to some of the episodes before they're actually released you can come , be part of the Patreon membership and hear all that with a bunch of other great awesome discounts and meetups .

So with that , I want to say thank you again for listening and from all of us at live green ham seven , three , seven three , seven three .