Live Show - New England Fusion with Craig Bailey N1SFT

I'm doing good .

We are always making new shirts and new gear , and so , you know , without further ado , we've got our classic hoodie out . I just got one shipped from our printers just recently . Love it , great quality , awesome design on it . And one of my favorites , which actually I'm wearing right now , is our radio wave shirt .

So , you know , if you're a big photo life guy , you got to have the radio wave shirt . So head on over to our storefront there and check that stuff out and let us know . And you know , last but not least , you know , as we always been alluding to and we keep making mention to , about Paul . You know , making his hand radio makes me feel dumb .

Well , you know , now you can wear it in a shirt and wear it proudly .

So , you know , head on over there , check that out , let us know what you think and you know , if you , you know , don't know what that link is , we'll post that over there in the chat for everybody and you can feel free to , you know , peruse that when you get a chance , otherwise you know , we'll be putting more stuff in that store and looking forward to

that in the future . So , as I said before , thanks again , craig , for coming on the show tonight and , you know , maybe for all the folks in the chat , you can kind of give us a little bit more about yourself .

Craig and you know kind of share a little bit about your ham story there , and then we can kind of get into a little bit of the shenanigans after .

So a lot of things have changed , but I m glad I kept my ticket active and so I m now an amateur extra and love operating on the outside . Big field day operations , summer , winter field days . It s my jam . And let s see , professionally I m a land surveyor and also an engineer , work for the family company , and so you ve got to pull it to right .

So we were there all day and that s how we kind of met and we ve kept in touch through the radio and stuff and I knew that he had said how awesome it was that we were starting a podcast and live stream and YouTube and stuff . So I wanted to get him on and we had an opportunity and I said , hey , why don t you come on ?

And he s very big into the Wolf Pack , which is a fusion room , and they also do a net and he also does the , if I m wrong , craig just straight . He also does a net on Sundays that goes over . It s kind of like a tech info for system fusion . So it s a pretty good net . I try to get on it when I can with baseball and stuff .

I caught it on the way into baseball practice and I sent him in Texas and said , hey , remind him that we re going to be on tonight as baseball practice ended .

The net was just ending , so I heard the very beginning and the very end , but it s a really good net and there s a lot of good guys on there all around the country really that have checked in and if you got questions about fusion or that s where to go , so that s on us .

So talk a little bit about that , what I like to call the anti-club group , but you know it s a club anyway , sort of in a weird way . But talk a little bit about that and like , let us know .

We wanted something that sort of rolled off the time and we put together a small group of a band of outlaws that we all enjoy Field Day , and around the beginning of COVID the big clubs couldn t operate a normal Field Day operation .

It was just too dangerous for the big clubs with health and sure health care issues and young people , old people , and so there was a handful of us who were middle to old , who didn t care about the health risks , and so we ended up putting together a small band of folks who wanted to do Field Day , and in order to pull a club call sign , the FCC required

you to have some paperwork , and so we put together just enough paperwork , bylaws and whatnot , with just a handful of our signatures . There were six of us , just enough to go and issue a club call sign , and so we pulled any one .

Actually , we started with KC1 , mxf , which is a mouthful , and so we eventually changed that over to NE1FO , november , echo , one , fox , oscar , and so we used that call sign . When we re activating for Field Day , summer Field Day , winter , veteran s Day , like Todd was talking about , we ll go all over the place .

I want to make a shout out to Pat W1 , ytt . Pat Morrison has really taken the bull by the horns and he has really taken and given leadership to New Faro . He and I started it and he s . I ve had to back off because of family and work , but New Faro lives strong . We activated Hudson , new Hampshire , benson s Park for Winter Field Day this year .

It was fantastic . It s not a typical club , it s not a general . You know , the point was not to make new hams and teach and do classes . The point was to activate for Field Day and sometimes you just want to go out with your buddies who are not brand new . No offense , todd , but you don t get my point .

And we get out of the truck , we roll up , we get out of the truck and very few words are spoken . We know exactly what needs to happen and we meet just twice , three times a year . That s about it . That s the 30,000 foot level on that one , eric .

hanging out and , you know , and playing radio .

It s not really a contest , but we go , we see what we did last year and we want to make it better from last year , and so we re competing against ourselves , you know .

I think we re using a Palomar engineers N-FED right now . It handles 500 watts and you need that big power handling when you re running three stations into that N-FED wire . We do fantastic with that N-FED . We ll launch and we ve tried everything .

We ve tried springs , we ve tried the stupid bag you know the arborist bags but we finally resolved ourselves into an air cannon and so we ll launch over a tree to haul this stuff up .

When you re on in a field and you ve got one operator on 40 on his antenna and you ve got another operator on 20 on his antenna and they re 300 feet apart , 200 feet apart , there s a distance of 300 feet , and so the waves will eventually interfere . When you re on the same antenna , the distance is zero , Right , and so the waves don t interfere .

It s amazing .

And so , yeah , we ve tried the off-center fed . We love . It s okay . The end fed works the best . You generally only need two supports , and I was telling Paul earlier we like to roll up with a truck and a trailer , and so one of the supports will be mounted on the trailer .

And so , if you looked at my , I ve got a small cargo trailer and there s a PVC mount that s been permanently attached to the trailer . So you just throw a mast right in this hole and you can run the antenna up that , the fiberglass mast , up 18 , 20 feet , and then it launches , you know , towards the tree line .

For the rest of it and you haul it up , works really good .

You know club call for Liffrey and Ham here too as well , but you know so you guys find that you know your numbers are growing . You re just kind of like this small kind of band of brothers , that kind of remain consistent and you know kind of , was that like ecosystem look like ?

So the club is doing POTA work and I just haven t personally officially done the . What do you have to do ? 10 activation 10 call cues to activate .

It's just , we'll do some planning , we'll do some pre planning , maybe a weekend before . We're not planning six months in advance . I don't think we need to anymore . We've got to the point where we know the equipment , we know the biggest thing is actually finding the permit . No , I know I've seen I think it was you guys , I don't know stinking permit .

We got lucky we've been thrown out of pretty nice places Because we didn't have a permit , for example the the white Mountain National Forest . What a beautiful place to run an auto station . We were up and the other , the West , the West side of the cank and it's route 112 . We got the antenna up in the air .

We had stations running , we were tuned up and Ranger , the armed Ranger , showed up . He says well , boys , where's your permit ? This is 10 minutes before 2 pm , so lesses have it learned the hard way , was that on ?

The Ranger wasn't able to make the district the distinguishing between commercial and hand radio . We should have done that for him by pulling the darn permit .

And he goes you can't put anything in the trees , you know I can't throw your intent in the tree . And I said , well , I got a , you know , I got a vertical mobile , you know , portable antenna . And he goes , oh , he goes . Well , if you go over there , we even got electricity . It's like I literally could have plugged in the radio .

I mean I got batteries , I'm all good , but I do know that that's . That's been one of the things I mean . That's that's why I pretty much use my , my vertical antenna , you know , and just set it up anywhere .

Because I do know that there has been some people said you can't , I especially some of these parks , they don't want anything to ruin the trees or get stuck up there , say for saying you're leaving a wire hanging from the tree or whatever .

So I totally understand that , but you think the Ranger would have been a little bit more Understanding , especially , you're up in the middle of the woods like that , like it wasn't , like you guys are , you know , erecting some huge tower or something . You're just throwing a wire in a tree .

So Todd didn't know if you're a member , but you are and I'm a lifetime memory . I was at the first one .

And then Eric took over and I was a field day and he forced me to get on the radio and I think my first yeah , you did my first contact was like to Pennsylvania and I was so psyched and now I'm like Pennsylvania , like that's , so yeah , so between the two of you , you know , you guys got me really into this .

I got into ham radio just to be legal , to fly my FPV drones . Now I do more ham radio now , I think . Then I do model airplanes . So the way it is , I guess .

It's good to see , you know , clubs thriving and people just you know finding places to fit , because , as I kind of you know , total line , I'm like it doesn't matter our club , you know , the club down the street , the big giant behemoth club , you know , across town , whatever find a place , you can plug in , you know , and you'll , you'll find your people , as

they say , and you know , like I said , I , I , I found my people between Paul and Todd and you know then many others , ryan , and we all just stick together and we just love hanging out . So you know that that definitely helps Keep you cemented in whatever scenario or whatever club you like to be part of .

So cool on that one , yeah , I totally agree , I think .

So with like no finals , I made one , like two or three contacts , I think .

They do the 710 , they do the 991 a , but nothing for the DX 10 . I couldn't find it on eBay so we went to , I got some metal and we went over to W1 , ea , a , mike , he's got a barn and that every tool known to man . If you need something done , he's probably got the tool for it .

We used a plasma cutter , cut it out and went back to Ryan's house , bent it up and it got it in actually into the go box .

So my DX 10 is mounted now I'm just waiting for a few more parts that are back ordered and we should have that all up and running and that's going to be my new local poda Slash field day radio that I'll leave in the back of the back of the Jeep and we're pulling to the parking lot . I'll be using that .

We used it on our road for a few of the parks and it worked pretty well .

So head over there and then start , you know , spamming him with you know comments saying , hey , where's that , where's your go box ?

Once I figure out how to edit videos and do all that kind of stuff , I'll get it up there . Be kind I'm just starting learning , so it's gonna be really amateur in beginning , but I figured in the next 10 years I'll be right up there with Eric . I .

Right , I'm same here .

I made that video out of three different clips , right , and so I sent the three clips to my wife I and , and , then , and then you called me and or I called you , right , however , that works , you know , because we were at the ATV park , and so the kids going around , and , and meantime I'm talking , eric and my wife's panicked Because she only saw the one

of him eating shit , and she was like , oh my god , what's wrong with them ? Is he okay ? Why aren't you answering the phone ?

Then Eric introduced me to Pota and I got my general , we went to have lunch and then on the way home he's like let's go do a park , and that was that's all it took and I've been pretty addicted to it .

It's like I haven't , I haven't gone this month and I'm like having , like I'm like having withdrawals , I'm like I gotta get out there and activate a park . So it's been a lot of fun it's been a lot of fun and you know , like I said I I really enjoy it and the mobile thing is where I , where I love hammering you the best .

I just love getting out there in a park or in the woods or on the side of the road and popping up the antenna .

Next thing , you know , I mean I was in Louisiana , I was in Mississippi and I had a all-day to kill , so I drove to Louise , louisiana , like two and a half hours To activate a park and I get there and I'm just sitting in this parking lot , I'm in this black car and the sky comes over with this big pickup truck and now down south , like pickup trucks , I

have like six , six foot lifts , not like six inches , like huge . This guy's like dumping like all kinds of crap in this dumpster and he looks over me and he comes up . He goes you FBI . I'm like no , sir , I'm not FBI . You kill you and I FBI . I'm like I'm not FBI man . I said I'm just doing here . But here I am in this black car .

I got an intent out there and I'm talking on the radio , the guys probably thinking I'm like getting him on a illegal dumping or something . But it's . It's a lot of fun and you know I've gone to places like I never would have gone to if I , if I wasn't doing this pot of stuff like a lot of parks and stuff in the areas like I never even visit .

So I'm really jealous .

You know , that's something that I actually I could take a lesson on , as far as Getting the packaged Station ready to go in the trunk of the vehicle with a decent antenna and knowing that you're gonna be in a compromised situation every time , basically , and so you guys are really Sorted all that out and I'm gonna give you props for that .

Seven parks , I think , eric , we did seven parks and we were just like what you said no one had to talk , we weren't even talking , we would just get there . I set up , he'd set up takedown , and like we were in and out of parks like one after another , we'd activate it , go to the next one and we had it down by the end .

We were doing it pretty well . We were pretty much in the zone . I would say , yeah , so , but it's a lot of fun .

He's a hiker , backpacker , soda guy , pota guy , and he's been trying to do satellites now for a couple years and and every time that he he's ready to go and try to do a satellite I would give him a shout and we'd try to do it together .

And you know it's , it's practice , practice , practice , certainly with satellites , and that's , that's a different , that's a different animal altogether . I don't know if you guys have had a whole lot experience with that .

It's not like we're a big state , so there's no place to hide . Yeah , it's , um , that's , that's new farrow , I think . In a nutshell , like I said , it's . I got another shout out to Pat W1 YTT . If you , he's been handling the Facebook post . We've got a Facebook page on the farrow I . I've been handling the website , which is new farrow , calm , but that's .

It's kind of basic . It's just a Google site , whatever it's . It's . Again , we're not really out there looking for , we're not doing public service , we're not trying to do fundraising , it's just a . We're doing the bare minimum enough to legally keep the FCC club call sign . I'm not gonna lie .

I say in , you know fusion area a little bit . So you know kind of talk a little bit around that and you know what . What led you to the digital side or the dark side sometimes and and you know , we're where they kind of put you today .

The YSF systems that are also used the same C4 FM . So it's not C4 FM , isn't Yezu . Fusion is what the Yezu guys are doing . It's the third , it's the third communications out there . First we had D star . That was initiated with the Japan League and then it was adopted , of course , by ICOM .

The next one that was really kind of mainstream for ham radio was DMR , and and then and then Yezu showed up late to the party . Fusion didn't roll from from the Yezu group until 2013 , and so by then D star was mature , it was , it was well placed , people knew what it was and the DMR stuff was also well understood .

It by 2013 for two In fact , new Hampshire , I think well , was part of the D mark system had what ? Up to 96 repeaters all connected at one point , and so the the difference between those three few flavors of digital comms is , I Think and this is personal personal opinion , I think the , the , the Yezu Approach , was the most hammy , most amateur .

It was the . It's the . I think it's the easiest to implement for an amateur operator . There is no . There's no heavy-duty motor roller style Programming of a radio necessary . There's no heavy DMR talk group programming necessary for it and it's literally take the radio out of the package .

The first thing the radio does from from a Factory reset is it boots up and ask for your call sign . That's all it needs . And so once you hit the button that says put me into deep digital transit mode , it then includes your call sign and that's it . You're working .

It's different than the DMR groups the DMR because the DMR came from a commercial world , and the DMR , the D yeah , I think it's D DMR mark . It's literally has motor role in the world in the name . Okay , so you've got to be a very keen operator when it comes to computing , when it comes to code plugs . This is not for the faint of heart .

I am a fairly technical person and I had a really hard time putting together a code plug with my first entry into the DMR world . They saw I tried for six months to get DMR to work like I then I just quit , I Sold it and I'm all set .

So I decided to , and then at that point I had already chosen my Yezu and I was telling , I think Paul , earlier tonight I I had settled on the Yezu ecosystem , not because it's the greatest radio of the world , but because the terminology between radio to radio to radio , the men in the menu driven structures were similar enough .

Whether it's a VHF mobile or the 891 , the 991 , they're all similar enough to me as a dumb engineer . So Then of course fusion showed up in insert in in the Yezu line . So I jumped into the end of the fusion stuff head head first , tried to do the hotspot stuff .

The hotspot , I finally realized , of the hotspot stuff where you can buy those hundred dollar units from James on . It isn't real fusion that's . That's kind of the , the other side of stuff . And so this will this . Once you start to get complicated with it , you can , any engineer can make it more complicated . Oh yeah , so yeah , but yeah I've .

We decided there was four of us at one point that decided that there should be a structured group of like-minded hams around this this New England fusion thing , and and so the idea was floated that we should put together a digital club , and and because it's digital , we don't need to have it based in Bill ricka , or it doesn't need to be based in Hudson , or

a kid doesn't need to be based in stonem , it can be literally digital . And then , of course , it was the dead dark times of COVID anyway , so no one was having physical meetings anyways . So a digital online club was was born , the four of us originally of the four that that chartered that first meeting .

Two of us are still on the club and it's Sorry , it literally I was literally laid up with a with a knee injury , and I was really on some good stuff at that point and I said how hard could it be ?

It was the first large-scale connected digital network here in New England , based in stonemass , and it's hosted by whiskey Oscar one , victor , echo Sierra . That's W01 VES Brian out of stonem , and so he's he .

He started all this back in 2013 , 2014 , and At one point we had well , he had at that at that point , before the club was in existence , goffstone , new Hampshire , was tied in , pepperone massages was tied in . Ossopie , new Hampshire , was tied in , and a handful of backyard repeaters were tied in .

Like mine , I've got a small backyard repeater at my house too , so at the time I think we had eight , I think we're not . We're up to 13 or so connected , all full-time networked repeaters . Like I said , the Wolfpack is no longer the only Fusion group here in New England UFB .

There are another fusion group that also has a system of network repeaters , but the , the , the question was asked what happens if one of these node operators and we're all just volunteers and we're all just using our own money to To build these little connections . What if our house burns down ? What if we lose our job ?

We can no longer fund the internet connection or we blow up the little modem box that connects the computer to the radio . Who was around to help that node operator put this thing back on the air ?

So the idea of a legitimate club , traditional club , was born with the mission of to support those node operators when needed and to help expand the understanding of fusion . Like Todd was saying , we've got a great little technet on Sundays to do just that , to try to teach folks about fusion .

So that's why the club was started to try to support it all , the node operators . Now there's a handful of clubs that actually own repeaters , like , for example , the Lakes Region Repeater Association . I think they're up out of officially , I think he's out of Ossopy , but the LRA .

They have a repeater 442-100 in Ossopy , new Hampshire , tied into the Wolf Den , the node that feeds . That is actually N1EUN's node out of and he's in New Durham , new Hampshire . So it takes two to tango for the most part because a lot of these locations do not have internet . At the tower on the top of the mountain .

So what we generally have is the repeater up on the mountain with power and then someone's home station , their home QTH is feeding the network to the repeater . So it's a very unique way of running things because it's a cooperative thing . There's no money being exchanged except for out of our own wallets to the power company .

So it became such a thing that people really enjoyed it and it really depended on it for fun and enjoyment that the club was deemed a necessary thing .

That's on a very tall tower in Pepperyl and there's no mountains down there , but that's at Harry's house . It's a legit tower but it's not on a mountain . Then there's Hudson New Hampshire mine . That just fills in around Hudson and Nashua . It gets out about 13 , 14 miles . But yeah , it's a good mix of both .

For example , my repeater has an HRI 200 . I have a nice static IP address . I've got Fiverr Optic here at the house . I'm really lucky . So my HRI 200 box is talking directly to Stonem's box W-O-1-V-E -S . It's getting over the direct IP from mother ship to my box and then it comes out my repeater Direct , no router involved . This is no longer necessary .

That was intended for repeaters , really only Since about 2018, . There is a new way of connecting , called the PDN . It stands for portable digital node . What that allows you to do with your FT2 or FT3 or FT5 , those are your handhelds or the FTM 100 , the FTM 400 , and the FTM 200 . Those are the mobiles that are available .

They're not all in production , but these radios now have the ability to connect to your PC and connect through a router . Situation over in Japan it quickly bounces out of Japan and comes back . Japan acts as a , not a central server , but Japan acts as a central switch . The traffic is not running from New Hampshire to Japan and then back to the other node .

It does that just once . Once the PDN knows the path to get from one node to the next , it can handle it quickly . You no longer need the HRI 200 if you just want to get on to the WIRR's X system . It just requires the PDN capable radio .

But for the repeater aspect that all of your club members have , where you're actually sending the signal back and forth with the actual repeaters , do you guys all have to have that HRI ?

The Goffstown one is connected to the WolfPack so I can get into the WolfPack and everything that goes on there just by putting in the Goffstown repeater digital boom . I'm there and I'm in like anyone else and I'm just going with . The only thing that I'm doing is I have to rely on that . That repeater is going to be up and running .

So sometimes , like I've been on nets and some repeaters have died for some reason or they've lost contact or signals and sometimes happening that controls and they're switching to different repeaters or they're getting on their nodes or whatever they're doing . But you technically don't need it , all you need . I mean I started on the 70D .

I think that was the first . Well , I could hit that .

But I think to get back to Paul's question , if you want to host a node and provide a traffic path for everybody coming out of the repeater , full throttle , full time , 24 hours a day , yes , hri 200 box . Yes , please , because you're going to , you need that , that , that good IP address which is stable .

The PDN is going to be going through your Wi-Fi laptop , which is garbage in comparison . Yes , the HRI 200, . If you're going to host a node like , for example , bob N1E-Eun , right , he hosts the node for the Ossipede New Hampshire repeater .

He's 10 miles away , 15 miles away , and when the Wolfpack transmits over the network it goes to his computer IP address , the HRI 200 , then PTTs hits the transmit on his radio . His radio then bursts it off to the repeater and then the repeater then spreads it out . Okay , so you need that HRI 200 if you want to fully provide traffic for everybody .

Right , yeah , for sure .

So I thought I was like , oh wow , I got this YouTuber on and but then I found out that it was America's link , because after we were done , it then switched back to the Wolfpack .

So so that was another thing that I learned that you can do that through your radio , but that it's set up that after you're done using it for so many minutes or something , it automatically reverts back to the , to the main , you know , whatever the original one was for .

In early spring the club put together a campaign to to fundraise and get that repeater put back on the air . And so , yes , who has this great program of that where clubs can purchase the repeater ? And here we are , finally we're doing our mission right .

A legit club is going to make the order for this repeater , put it back on the air , in cooperation with the , the operator , paul , but on top of Mount Uncanonok . It's , it's , it's just synergy , it's , it's , it just works , and we're really proud of how it works . Yeah , so yeah , the go ahead .

So when you're connected , say , to the wolves , or you're connected to a local repeater , you're transmitting across multiple states , multiple spans what's that ? Kind of geographic area look like in general .

And fusion was chosen because at the time , to remember 2013 , we're trying to fuse the analog operators with the digital operators and some of the DR two machines .

Well , actually , back in the day , the DR one X machines would be running analog with a pat , with an audio path and those repeaters , when an analog operator would get on with their two meter repeater , the two meter mobile the repeater connected to the HR 200 , injected the audio path , transformed it into ones and zeros and that fused the digital ops to the

analog operators . And right now is one of the only ones that I know that's left , that's still analog . None of the New Hampshire repeaters , none of the mass issues as repeaters . Gloucester is one of them , peperal stonem .

We're trying to put up , trying to stand up one in Salem , New Hampshire as well , and we were actually thinking about going to the USS Salem and putting and we were offered a spot on the USS Salem for the antenna and because you don't need the internet there .

You can beam the internet across the bay onto the repeater and then off the ship , and we've got some guys in the South Shore who can do just that . They can run the note for their club members and beam it right across the bay to the North Shore , and so that's one of the things we're thinking about . Yeah , it's very , very vast .

Now we mentioned very briefly the YSF and , Paul , your hotspot is using the YSF system . It's not wires X . Wires X is the proprietary voice network that connects all these HRI 200s , all the PDNs , and there's a room number . For example , here , the Wolfpack , the Wolf Den , is room number 28941 . On wires X . The YSF system is totally different .

The way we connect the YSF system , which is using you can use equipment that can get into the brandmeister system , the DMR system . Okay , those hotspots are not wires X , they're not . You don't . You didn't buy that from Yezu , it has nothing to do with Yezu , it just uses C4 FM , which is what makes these things compatible with the Yezu radios .

Those YSF systems are bridged to the wires X system and the way we do that is literally with a tiny hotspot down in Stonem and it transmits directly over the air , the 30 feet into the repeater and there's a RF bridge that bridges the YSF and the wires X .

This is why when we have the Friday night nets , which is Friday night at 8 pm on wires X from number 28941 or YSF from US Dash Wolf Den . That's why , when the bridge goes down or the wires X repeaters goes down , the folks on the YSF system can still talk to each other and they can't .

They can't hear net control sometimes , Because these are two different computer networks , two different think of it as two different lands and the switch that goes between them just got severed briefly , and so that's one of the things , that . That it's the distinction , but it's an important one .

You guys have a couple of nets , or at least a very strong net that I know kind of reaches beyond New England in general , and maybe you could talk a little about that and then kind of dovetail into your technet , which I really kind of want to dive into nuts and bolts on , because I think it's really valuable for a lot of folks and and you've had some you

know guest , you know royalty on a couple of times too as well , and with your technet , so kind of talk a little about wolves and you know how the span you know and and and and back goes and go from there .

I'm just one of the on the team and Brian , he's one of the team members W01BES , w1tat , chris is a net control operator , jerry Al Rosa , minnesota , is one of our net control operators , kf0auv , which is gets to the point of digital being all everywhere . And so the , the we have . We have check-ins .

We have frequent check-ins from Washington state , we have check-ins from Michigan , we have check-ins from California that we can almost guarantee that they're going to be there every Friday night . We've got a couple guys over in Japan , masa , he checks in frequently from Japan and of course it's 8 am for him , but it's , it's a lot of fun .

The , the reach , is global and that's not an exaggeration at all . It is . It is global and when you have a good connection at where you're at maybe you're at the campground and you're using a YSF hotspot or through your cell phone tether , sometimes that's a great connection . Sometimes it's pretty choppy .

It can get pretty choppy sometimes , but you know , if you have the right guy in the hot seat running the net control , they can generally work through that .

But then , you know , somewhere along the line you started having a couple of people , oh you know , from the West coast showing up and and at that point the net was getting really really long . I mean , as we were commenting on Todd's , like 18 people , you were up like 35 people on the net and that's pretty huge from a net standpoint .

to coast and and we just nobody can . No one could do it . The other part that you have to run into is the personalities on net control . If you're , if you're , a drag chur , you're going to want to talk to this check-in person for more than 17 seconds and you want to know where he's from and what he had for dinner .

You can't do that if you've got 30 check-ins . And so it comes to time management . Sometimes , um , some , some most will tell me will tell me that I go too fast , but you know , I don't know .

That's why I'm really really proud to be part of the team .

But we had our one guy , uh , k1xf John , he did it every day , every single day , and I don't know he . He had asked me if I wanted to do a day and then I started asking other people . So now I think he only what does he do ? Like two or three times a week ? Yeah , maybe three times a week , but it's , it's definitely gotten a .

He's appreciated it because it can , it can be very it's a commitment , and then you're doing it every day . Like I find it hard just to do it even once a week . I mean , we do our podcast recordings after the net and it's hard because sometimes if we have a guest on , if the net's got 15 , 18 people versus five , it makes a difference .

So one of the activities was somebody says you know , we're Ham radio club , why don't we do Ham radio ? And so we decided yeah , right , why not ? So we decided to do a net , and we we didn't want to do just another rag rag net . There's plenty of those , there's nothing wrong with that .

But we wanted to do something a little more geeky , a little more technical . And so the the concept of the tech net came up , came about , and not only is it technically oriented , we also broke the mold when it claims , when it comes to the format , you know , typically , you've , you've got a net control . Who's looking for check-ins ?

We , we add it to the list , ding , ding , ding linearly , and then we , once we were done check-ins , we go back to number one . We asked a question and bang , bang , bang linearly , we go down through it , pass one , and then we do a pass two , and then we do a 73 round , right , if we're lucky .

We didn't want , we wanted to dispel of that , we wanted to get to the meat and potatoes of of a topic , and so we decided to go with a round robin approach . And so we do a real super quick check-in .

We will take check-ins quickly over the air or over the net logger , and we actually recommend folks to have net logger and I'll get to that in a minute but with with having the net logger on on their computer screen or their iPhone . They know who's next in line . And so we asked once we run through the quick checks .

We asked them to do a quick introduction and then pass it off to the next station . Next station , next station , next station . We do this lickety split super fast . We're not going to talk about what you're eight for dinner . We don't want to know what the weather is , or the temperature , or whether you had a doctor's watch , yeah , yeah .

And the subject matter expert is sometimes also in the net control , but not always . Sometimes we have . We've got a . Like I said , even on the TechNet we have another four or five different operators for net control . Many of them are also Friday night nets , but not we're all members of the club at that point .

The subject matter expert then presents a topic , and whether it's how do you program your PDN , how do you register your PDN with the wires X , what's SWR , how do you get an antenna on your car ? Whether it you know it's we try to stick to fusion topics , but you run out of topics pretty quick .

Then we will move over to VHF , uhf and we'll start to talk about HF . There's a handful of guys like Jim AC1MT . He's a huge POTA operator and one of our net controllers . He will often do a . We'll do a talk on POTA and the way this works . You start , you talk about your discussion . Think of this as like a seminar or training for work .

You have an hour lunch and learn you've got an hour so you don't want to mess around . He starts in on the topic and he waits every three or four minutes and then , if someone has a question or a comment , they'll they'll he up and they'll say net comment .

One of the cool things about fusion is net control then sees their call sign come across the screen of the radio . We know who that was . Okay , we'll add we'll have , we'll , we'll stop the SMA , We'll ask for the comment and the SMA will then process the comment , either say I don't know or they'll go into it .

And this goes on and on for about 15 to 20 minutes . And it's not lecture , but it's not just a linear rag , true either . The way we set it up originally was not everybody wants to talk for three minutes , some people just want to get on and say my name is and then , oh my God , I don't want to talk anything .

Some don't want to say anything at all , and so by having this round Robin approach and neck and this whole net comment , there's the pause and then allows the net controls and to go after the net comment . That allows those folks who have comments that are drained of the conversation to get him in , and then you can have a back and forth .

And this discord between the SME and the commenter is part of the lesson Everyone learns from everything , and so the format of the of our tech nets is unique , I think , in that manner and I think I think people get a lot out of it that way .

And and I have to say I , you know , I enjoy just listening to it because you know it's one of those things that you know , if you , you know want to get into it .

And so , you know , I applaud you guys for doing something like that , because it's definitely a much needed space and it's great for new people and people that have had a you know a fusion radio for who knows how long and never , ever press that button on their you know radio that says wires X you know , the club has a nice resource on wwwNEFGUS .

We've had to get away from that because we just didn't have enough people in the leadership of the board , which I think , if you guys ever want me on ever again I don't know if you would , but I think that's a topic all of itself and board dynamics on a club , but yeah , I will definitely take you up on that offer , because we did touch on one of our

previous episodes on clubs and whatnot , but I think we just really barely only talked about the very high level surface of that , and I'm sure there's definitely a need for something like that going forward .

But the if you were trying to do it and we were just trying to zoom and Camtasia and , of course , youtube , getting both sides of the conversation out of that radio into the audio impacts on the PC to record it . That was the trouble .

I'm an AutoCAD instructor as well , and so I use YouTube for AutoCAD and I have I have what ? 10 years , 16 weeks every every year , I have thousands of hours of AutoCAD instruction on the on the YouTube personally , and I didn't , I didn't , I haven't made it all public , because I tried it , I thought I could make money from it .

But so , whatever the problem with that I've found with the YouTube and I wanted to do some training on nets . I have one , or I have a couple of net YouTube's out there on my personal page and it works okay because it's mostly screen share .

But again , getting to the point where the YouTube video was capturing the incoming radio audio from over the air and also the operator , me , that was beyond me . I've , I've tried everything .

I've tried voice meter , I've tried soft mixers on the PC , I've tried hard hardware mixers and I always , I always end up getting YouTube sorry ground loops and it's just garbage audio . So I've been struggling with on that a little bit We'll be happy to help you .

Well , so let's kind of put a bow on this , so you know what one or two things you'd kind of want to throw at people . Just , you know , encourage them either to , you know , participate in . You know if they're in the New England area , maybe in Nefaro , or you know if you're , you know , interested in fusion or that sort of things .

You know , you know where would you like to point them in terms of you know whether the wolves , you know net is better or the tech net or both , or you know you tell me what last thing .

My name is . I've been a fusion operator for zero days or 100 days . You know , some of the greatest ones we've got are we've got some 80-year-olds who have been hams for 60 years and they're active with our group .

And then , of course , you have the brand new guys who walk out of the candy store with a brand new FT3 or FT5 now and the guys down there will tune it up to the Goffstown repeater just to show them how it goes . And it takes all types and we love working with everybody on that stuff because it's fun and it's easy .

The fusion , the wireless X , is easy .

Obviously , the Wolf's network and the tech net and all the things you do with your anti-group , which I'm going to have to become a member because you know , heck , I love doing the field day myself .

But you know , as always it's a pleasure , and so you know , if people want to reach out to you to either talk to you about Nafaro or any of the fusion stuff or whatever , what's the best way to get a hold of you ?

And , as always , you know if you haven't liked or subscribed to Live Free and Ham and I'm going to just have to say to you you know , you know I ain't got time for that , exactly so you know I ain't got time for that and you know for what it's worth bring myself back into the mix here .

That's really all I got to say , you know , and I got time for that , but anyway . So , as always , thank you guys for listening and watching . And just one last thing is tomorrow is our regular weekly bi-weekly drop , and that one is going to be a fun one . That's got Mark from Halibut Electronics talking about OHS .

So if you're into contesting consoles and the open headset standard , you're going to want to make sure you listen to that . So run over to our website at livefreeandhamcom and make sure you're subscribed to the podcast .

And , as always , you know , make sure you check out all the links that we'll have in our show notes tonight for this show and 24 hours later this will actually be recorded to our podcast as well , just in case you're listening . So with that , thank you guys for being part of this and Craig , again thank you for coming on .