In the basement of dreams . We gather round the mic Talking ham and freedom . It's all we really like . Transmission waves and laughter in the air tonight . Tune in live free and ham . It's going to be a sight From the underground to your speakers way loud . Live free and ham is here . Watch us move the crowd . Live free and ham .
We're rocking the land with a signal so strong you want to understand Freedom and vibe straight from the band . It's the live free and Ham podcast man .
Yeah , woo Woo , I love that tune . Man , that is freaking awesome . It's like my anthem every morning . I'm literally going to have to make that my alarm wake-up call .
And really nice with the intro there . I love the new Patreon page .
That's awesome thank you and again thank you to all of our Patreon list subscribers there you know you guys definitely help and support the channel and we love creating this content . So you know it gives Paul the fuel to create awesome tunage like that , my gosh . I mean like it's just literally . You know we're going to be producing the top 20s .
You know , in no matter of you days , weeks maybe , but anyway , all right , Well , hey if you ever want to get back to that , we will definitely make sure we post that song there in the show notes , so you can just throw it on your CD player or tape deck if you're as old as me and listen to it anytime you want . So you know like .
I said , good evening everybody and welcome to another Live Free and Ham stream . Yes , you heard it , here we're finally live . Hopefully you got the little notification . If you are a subscriber , that you know we are going live .
Like we say , every month we do a live stream , but we don't know when we're going to do it , so sometimes it's a surprise to us and once again , this is one that does not fail . So thanks again for the 17 or so folks that are currently in the chat there , and that number keeps increasing .
So thank you , guys for joining in and participating and give us a shout out and a hello in the chat there . And so , like I said always , like you know , grouch man , you're musical wizardry that intro is always going to be one of my favorites and forever near and dear to my heart .
So with that , before we kind of get into our guests and we've got a special guest If you haven't figured out based off the thumbnail , we're going to be talking about some really cool things . First and foremost , pota . We all love POTA here .
We're big POTA guys and we all love doing that , and so we've got some real cool guests that love that as much as we do . But they're going to be talking about some really cool things and sharing some of their experiences . But before we get into that , let's kind of dive into our usual housekeeping stuff .
So , as always , if you're new to the show , you maybe want to swing over to our storefront and you can head over to livefreeandhamcom forward slash shop . We just released our sticker pack and that's got the brand new I mean literally brand new off the presses W1STJ sticker . That would be this sticker right here .
You know , if I could hold the can right that sticker right there , that there's only a limited few there . So you know , if you want to get your stickers from both N1JUR and Paul Grouch stickers that's the original OG sticker because I know he's upgraded his stickers since then and we haven't gotten those into the roster .
So you'll be getting one of the originals and once they're gone , they're gone . So you know , head over there , pick up a quick sticker pack and you know you'll definitely be able to increase your antenna gain . You know your number of contacts I mean the list kind of goes on and on it's .
You know it's like a super Viagra to you know the ham radio community I don't know the best way to describe it .
Yeah , it's the coolest factor times 10 , just for adding a sticker .
There you go , there you go . So all right . Well , and as always , as we always like to say , you know we've got our live free and ham whiskey bourbon glasses available still in the shop . There are a few left . They've been going out the door very quickly .
So if you haven't gotten one yourself , you know you can head over to the live free and ham forward slash shop and pick one up . And if you're a Patreon subscriber , then you know there's a nice little coupon in there so you can get some money off of your glasses too . So you can pick up a couple of them there , because there's no max limit on them .
So feel free , but you know , once they're gone , they are gone . So you know , make sure . If you want to get your Lip Free and Ham whiskey glass , you know , then get over there and pick one up . All right , yes , there we go .
There's one there and I'm sporting mine , here , so with that one last thing We've got our hammies .
Now if you haven't heard of what those hammies are , those are our little piglets here Now .
These have been making their rounds on the internet and I've been getting photos from folks that I've been gathering here that hopefully I'll get up on our website soon , from folks that have ordered these and put these out into the wild , and so if you have no idea what we're talking about , well , head over to Get Ham that's G-E-T-H-A-M-M-E-Dcom .
Check out that page and you can learn more about that whole Hammy project . But more so , these are sort of like we'll call the token ducks to Jeeps , and so with that , you as a ham radio operator could now tag another ham radio operator's car If you happen to catch their antennas on their car and you want to just show them .
Hey , I recognize your 55 antennas on top of your roof . Don't know what they're all for but I want to show that I know I recognize them . Then you can take one of these quick hammies , fill in your call sign and show the love so you can head over to , like I said , to gethamcom pick a few of those up .
But before we get into our guests tonight we're going to dive into our next wonderful segment that we always do because we know everybody loves it . Because we've taken surveys , we've gotten many people to give us feedback . Apparently , our show numbers fall off after we do this .
So sorry for our guests that are in the show , but after we finish doing something extra with Todd , people just check out . So I don't know how we can fix that problem . Todd , maybe get your extra .
Working on it .
So with that , we're going to kick this off . And now for something a little extra with Todd W1STJ , all right ? Well , you heard it here . This is our wonderful segment where we help Todd get his extra and help him study using hamstudyorg . So , without further ado , I'm going to pass it off to our VE Quizmaster . Go ahead , paul , take it away .
All right , let's get the proper view here . So , Todd , moving on , we are finally up to sub-element number 8 , which only leaves two more sub-elements to go before we can start doing all questions and testing your overall knowledge of your extra study .
So question number 1 for this evening why should the phase of a PSK signal be changed at the zero crossing of the RF signal ? Is it A To minimize bandwidth ? B All these choices are correct C To simplify modulation or D To improve carrier suppression .
Oh boy . I'm going to go with .
I'm not even going to let the music play through my gosh wow Music .
I'm going to go with D .
Oh yeah , let me see Space and PSK . Oh man . Oh yeah , let me see b is a p-s-k-c . Oh man , I'm going to say b . I always go with the . All the choices are correct alright , well , b is incorrect .
B is also incorrect . The correct answer is a . B is also incorrect .
The correct answer is A to minimize bandwidth .
You're going the wrong way . So for your explanation tonight . Triggering a signal at a non-zero crossing is instantaneous shift Locally similar to a square wave . From Fourier analysis we know that square waves require an infinite sum of frequencies . Long story short , larger jumps require more bandwidth . Conversely , take the opposite view .
If we want to use the minimum bandwidth , how do we achieve this With a single sine wave ? How does the sine wave begin at the zero crossing ? So your memory hint is zero equals minimize . Got it good , all right . Question number two All right .
Question number two what is described by the constellation diagram of a QAM or response of the signal stream , or D , the possible phase and amplitude states for each symbol ?
Music .
Yes , thank you .
Can I have this when I take the test ? Can I have that just in my headphones ? I will send you a WAV file . Alright , I'm going to say B how many carriers may be present at the same time . Installation diagram . Oh my gosh , I'm going to go with D sounds nice .
You're in agreement ? I'm going to go with D Sounds nice .
You're in agreement .
Is that what you're saying ? D , no , I said B , I said D .
B .
Bravo .
We are not in agreement . Okay , well , b is incorrect , yay .
Great job .
Yes , the possible phase and amplitude states for each symbol . And so your explanation . A constellation diagram is a 2D plot where each point of the plot represents a unique combination of phase and amplitude of a signal .
The phase is measured as the angle counterclockwise , from the horizontal axis to the point , while the amplitude is measured as the distance of a point from the origin .
Since digital modulation schemes most commonly distinguish signals or transmitted pieces of data with unique combinations of amplitude and phase , constellation diagrams are a useful way to visualize how the information is conveyed in a given modulation scheme . And so your hint .
Two example modulation schemes used in the question are QAM quadrature amplitude modulation and QPSK quadrature phase shift keying , which together contain both keywords in the answer . You'll have to study that one a little bit more . You're a huge embarrassing failure .
My first day studying , I didn't do very well .
Oh , that's okay . All right , for the third and final question of the evening . What is a common cause of over-modulation of AFSK signals ? Is it A excessive frequency deviation , b excessive transmit audio levels , c bit errors in the modem , or D excessive numbers of retries ?
And we're already getting people answering things in the chat but you don't know , like if it's this question or the last question I'm not , I'm not even .
I don't even have the chat open . I think it's either A or D you have to pick one . Let's do A .
I like the B .
All right , Todd says A and A is incorrect . How ?
embarrassing .
Lying , I get all three wrong , eric you said B yes , sir B is correct , yay .
I know what I get tonight .
Excessive transmit audio levels . So your explanation AFSK audio frequency shift keying produces audio that is then sent to an FM transmitter . An FM transmitter modulates its carrier frequency with this audio . If the audio levels are too high it may deviate more than the allowed specified amount from its carrier frequency and that's over modulation .
So the effect is to create splatter across the band which is visible to the annoyed receivers on a waterfall plot and interferes with their signals . So try to avoid over modulation as much as possible .
Get off my lawn .
Your memory aid is . We're talking about audio frequency shift keying , so the correct answer is the only one that mentions audio .
Well , wow .
Suck , suck , suck .
Thanks , and for Eric Of course , two out of three it is , and I can embrace that song because I am me and still an extra .
And to answer the question in the chat . Apparently Chris Bricker came in a little late . Yes , this is something extra with Todd , where we test his knowledge as he's progressing through the extra exam question pool .
And I'm not doing very well lately .
You did fine last time . I mean last recording , you know . I know I got three out of three .
And then live , I go 0 for three . Well , this was a new section . I only studied it for like an hour .
Pressure that's why we can't live stream your extra exam , because you just crack under the pressure , yeah .
Yeah , we better not crack under the pressure . Yeah , yeah , we better not .
I'm going to take it and not even tell you , guys , that wouldn't be a surprise to us Instead of it says to show up slash AE . It'll just say now and extra . We'll put AE in place of you . Yeah , and Chris , because you're late , you're going to have to stay after with the VE teacher , all right ?
Well , as always , if you are on the journey to studying for your technician general or extra class license , like Todd is , then hamstudyorg is an awesome resource for getting your ticket , and so if you've also recently upgraded your license , or maybe you are a new licensed technician , we want to recognize you here on our show , so make sure you send us an email
or use any of our usual man wow , I just had a 50-year-old brain fart there . Communication methods , my gosh . Today . Then we'll be glad to share it with you .
Mission failed , we'll get them next time .
Yes , we will , so all right well , in our usual format , you know , let's do a little bit of a quick round here for what's going on in Ham Radio Week . How are you with Ham Radio Week , Paul ?
You know what , doing good really . So I'm putting together all the bits and pieces that I forgot to uh bring over to the rv , uh , to get the uh , the mobile grouch command center , up and running , uh . But , uh , we're , we're getting closer and closer day by day , so that's very exciting .
I'm , uh , I'm 100 , looking forward to uh doing the 75 ohm , uh , you know , testing and and and getting that all up and running very cool awesome .
Very looking forward to seeing more videos on .
I assume you're putting stuff out yeah , um , the thing is is , uh , unfortunately for the time being , I I'm unable to edit videos uh at in the rv . So , uh , I gotta make sure that I come home to the QTH and uh get my video editing in . So that's , uh , that's definitely going to be a priority .
I'm going to make sure I set aside a couple of days uh here this week and next week to uh at least , uh , you know , get some videos finalized and scheduled out . So it'll come Very cool , awesome .
Oh , okay , I don't know if I should let the cat out of the bag . Has a link gone out yet which link ? You know what link I'm talking about . I don't , you do what .
TO . Oh , so I did not see a link , but I did get a StreamYard link in the DMs . So yes , If you're not a fan of Coffee and Ham radios , go check out their YouTube channel and subscribe . I'm honored and a little nervous to be a guest on their show tomorrow night , 7 pm Central .
So thanks for making sure that everybody gets to know Coffee and Coffee and ham radios tomorrow night .
The delivery and ham guys will be there in full force . Like we said , we'll be cheering you , egging you on or whatever . Yeah , we're super excited for Paul . It'll be awesome . He's got an awesome channel . If you haven't been a subscriber , you should head over and check out his channel for sure . He's done some awesome stuff there .
You , you just hit 3,000 or just over 3,000 now , so you're now in the big boy territory .
I just want to say something which even my son said , that this is a bunch of BS . I looked up your QRZ call you have 10 million views . No , you don't . You don't have 10 million views . No , you don't . You don't have 10 million . There's no way . 10 million .
You're using QRZ as a rule .
I just started going through it . I'm like 10 million . Come on , Paul .
What'd you do Well , so all right . For those that don't know , on QRZ , the lookups number is an imaginary number . However , if you click on the detail tab , the very top number will show you the lookups and then , in parentheses , it'll show you the real number . And so , yes , so my lookup number is 582,000 .
No , I'm sorry , 5.8 million , but the real number is actually 82 000 . I'm sorry , 5.8 million , uh , but the real number is actually 8 795 .
so I'm close to 10 000 look up okay , but but where I I want to know why do they have like a , why does it say like 5 million or whatever ?
because I threw that number in there . It's an arbitrary thing , it doesn't matter , uh you made the number .
Yeah , all right , clearly you don't remember our past show I was gonna say because we we 100 went through this in a show I forgot , where I showed I'm older than both of you yeah yeah , that lookup number is an arbitrary number , but if you click on the detail tab it will show you in parentheses the actual lookup number .
Legit number , all right .
Well congratulations anyway . That's how many you have almost coming up to , because I think I've got three subscribers . So you guys , you're cruising .
You're over 3,000 now . It's whatever . Yes , yes .
That's awesome yeah , 3,070 .
Cool , all right . Well , hot on your tail there . So soon enough we actually might be able to you know by the time you decide when you're going to do your giveaway , I'll be at 3,000 and we can do a dual giveaway . I love it . I love it , let's do it there , you go , all right . Well , okay , cool , well , okay , cool .
Well , not enough of a shine of light there on a grouch there . So , uh , let's , let's throw it over to you . Uh , uh , todd , how , how was your hand radio week ? Oh well , not really happening too much .
Um , I did post , uh , a little video of my condom antenna . I don't know if you guys saw that , but uh , yeah , thank you . All right , eric attack . Thank you . Yeah , eric , thought we got hacked , but uh , you know , listen , I had to get .
My kid broke my antenna accidentally and , um , I got a new one and I decided to get the same one , but new one , bent like it comes down . So I didn't have to take the antenna off every time I went to the car wash .
And living up here in new hampshire , you know , this time of year your car is covered in salt like almost every day , so I try to get it washed as much as I can . So I was thinking like , what could I put on there ? I was thinking like a bag , a piece of cloth , and then I was like , oh , a bike tube .
So I went to my old man's house and I said , hey , you got a bike tube , I think so . Goes out of the basement , pulls up a bike tube , cut it , throw it on the antenna , bend it over . It doesn't scratch the window , goes through the car wash . I tested it , no problem , pop the thing back up , we're good to go . So I did a little short little video .
So that's basically all I did ham radio , except talking to repeater condom antenna patent pending .
Yeah , works well you . You can check that over at live free and ham uh , you our youtube Condom . Antenna patent pending . Yeah , works well , you can check that over at Live Free and Ham our YouTube channel and definitely lambaste him for creating clickbait . Yeah , no , it was a good video , man .
Like I said , it threw me off when I first saw it and I was like , oh man , we got hacked , what the hell . And then , lo and behold , I'm like , no , that's Todd , he's popping his video in there . Okay cool , all right , all good . So cool with that . Well , I'll pick it up .
I am .
Radio Week . Okay , you know , like I said , I'm working on a couple of videos . I finally got the last bit of my little tools in that I need to finish off my battery cables so I can get my battery box built . So that's coming soon . But tomorrow should be the release of my last section on my HF build for my truck .
So if you've been dying to wait to get that out there , that'll be airing and that'll go over all my cool additional gear and bags and other stuff that I got in the truck . So if you're , that'll be airing and that'll go over all of my cool , uh , additional gear and bags and , you know , other stuff that I got in the truck .
So if you're looking for that , you can check that out and that should be going out tomorrow , ah , but outside of that , uh , yeah , we've been planning for this one Been , uh , definitely , uh , sounds like it's a really cool . We're going to be talking about International Women's Day , but we're going to talk it from a POTUS kind of slant here .
And I know in our club last year I kind of got a little bit of info on this . I can't remember where I picked it up or where it came from , but we had a few ladies in our club had mentioned that they wanted to kind of do it , so we were supporting them and they got out , you know , gaining traction this year .
So we brought on a couple of really great people . So let's bring on Shannon here and Judy and Angela and these ladies Say hello , go ahead , hello , hello , hi , all right , cool , well , we're going to dive in a little tonight .
We're going to obviously want to , you know , talk to them more about POTO , because that's an area we could talk for hours on , but more so we want to bring some awareness to , obviously , something that these ladies are pioneering and starting out and doing .
That's really really cool in the hobby that I'm pretty stoked , as I know if my wife was actually a hammerhead operator . She'd be out there doing it herself too . But maybe I can convince my daughter to get out there and , you know , participate in the event , but yeah , so with that , so let's kind of we'll start there .
We'll start at the high level a little bit . So you know , maybe Shannon , you want to kind of talk a little bit . You know what the whole basis is around . You know International Women's Day and POTA and kind of where it kind of came from , and we'll start there .
Katie Robbert yeah , for sure . So it was something that I kind of thought of late in 2023 . And you know , I was really getting into POTA and I think ham radio is just more fun with friends . Maybe you guys agree with me . So you know , I wanted to do a group poda , maybe with some other ladies in the area of where I live .
And then I thought about it and I was like , hey , why don't I just try to open this up to like all ladies everywhere , get together on the same day and do some group hodas and uh , you know , especially for maybe more experienced people helping out newer people that maybe haven't tried a poda before , maybe they don't have a portable radio , uh , they would be
able to get together with some friends and kind of learn what it's all about . And it it just kind of grew from there . You know , I made like one post about it on social media and people started picking up on it and contacted me about it and they wanted to .
Desiree Backus , who's like a public relations person with the ARRL , got in touch with me and we started talking . She got it on amateur radio news line and she got it into QST . So I was really surprised how excited people were about it now was the start of this .
basically , we'll call it a party . You're calling it a party , right ? Is that the kind of the official Now ? Did it actually start last year or did it kind of build up and then the first official year was last year and then we're going into our second year ?
What's kind of the backstory to the you know getting it to really , you know , some traction under it .
Yeah , that was pretty much it . I mean , I just thought of it and you know , kind of like I said , late 2023 was sort of . When I started promoting it , I was like , well , you know , I should probably start sooner rather than later , cause if you start at the beginning of the year , it's like March is going to be here before you even know it .
So , you know , I kind of started promoting it , you know , maybe around like December so of of 2023 . And then it just gained all this traction for 2024 . And 2024 was the first year . And then , you know , people started reaching out to me , you know , late in 2024 , they were like , hey , are we going to have International Women's Day POTA party again ?
And I'm like , of course , you know you don't need my permission to do it .
But you're . You're the leader , so that's just the way it works .
You own it .
So yeah , I guess it's kind of my baby now .
So very cool . And so , judy and Angela , how did you guys kind of get involved in it ? Did you just start , you know hearing about it and just jump in , or are you guys kind of spearheaded in your group or kind of what's your backstory ? Let me start with Judy .
Okay , yeah , several of our ham group here in our community had several women in it and we picked a local park , parkerdam state park and , like I always like to say , I picked it because it has heated restrooms in the middle of winter . Um , and uh , all yl's can appreciate that , and um , I posted it on uh facebook and um , we started collecting .
So we ended up with five ladies last year and Angela's coming again . Angela comes from New York here , so that's how it happened .
That's cool , okay . So , angela , your first year was kind of share that experience a little bit . Obviously , did you also head down to Judy's Ne neck of the woods when you did it the first year , or is this your first year doing it ?
Last year was my first year with Judy and I did it with Judy . Judy and I met in other POTA events and stuff . So when she posted that she was doing it , I was like I jumped right in . It's only about three hours for us and we go down that way all the time in Pennsylvania . So I was like I'll go to this and we would now meet up all the time .
Very cool , awesome . Okay , so this year is obviously the second annual year for all you guys in doing this . What's kind of have you gotten a lot more interest , just in general , from people Like I mean , shannon , you were kind of sharing that a little bit . What's it look like this year for you guys ?
Well , you know we were talking earlier about how this year it looks like maybe we're going to have some snow on the ground .
A little .
So we'll see how it goes with that . But but you know , I'm still uh , planning on being out there , even if I have to activate from my car . Um , you know , as my most important thing is just , you know , get on the air , have fun , encourage other women to get on the air , and , uh , don't be shy . You know , that's one thing I hear a lot .
Uh , you know , as judy mentioned , we're in a lot of the same facebook groups that are sort of directed towards women in ham radio and so many women say that they have mic fright and they don't know what to say .
And , uh , poda just makes it so easy because you don't really have to worry about sitting there and rag chewing or , um , you know , talking too much about your station because maybe you don't know that much about your station yet , because maybe you're just new .
So , you know , just kind of learning to listen , give the signal reports now would you guys normally encourage you obviously first time , say yLs in general , that were you know they they may not have done podo in before to just try to find a local event to them and go , just , you know , observe and .
Or would you , you know , select the opposite and say , hey , jump in and and and try it out , and and have fun ?
Oh yeah , I would definitely say , like , you know why , observe ? You know definitely , you know , go if you hear about an event in your area , which you know I've been . You know telling people , like even telling you know men , you know , if you have wives , sisters , girlfriends , mothers , daughters , even just tell the people in your club .
You know , maybe they know other YLs that are in the club . You know , get together and you know , let that new person get on the mic for a little bit and call CQ and see what it's all about .
Now , shannon , or , sorry , Judy , or Angela , how are you guys ? Do you have something a little bit more formalized ? You're going to have more people this year at your events , or you know kind of what's that described to us a little bit of what that looks like .
Um , we had a . I thought we had a pretty good turnout last year . Um , do , um , if you can show the picture . Um , how does that work ? You're okay ?
Um , these are the ladies last year Angela's on the right , next is me , and the three ladies on the end had never activated potable , for the lady on the far left was not even a ham operator she ham now or she's interested and she is studying .
Um , I have another woman who's interested this year that I've heard from uh , and angel is coming back this year . Yep , uh , so hopefully there'll be a few more of us awesome and it sounds like it's definitely growing .
Now , have you any of you guys heard from other ladies , obviously on the Facebook groups or whatever , that they're advertising their POTA party in their neck of the woods , and do you have any areas you can kind of share that you might know of that's coming about ?
I know of some people in Mississippi and in Florida that are going to be operating that day , so they're going to be having some groups meet up and get on the radio .
Okay Now do you guys , uh , have you I mean obviously you had ARL back you a little bit in terms of helping out with the process and promoting it and whatnot have you , uh , you know , heard from you know beyond , kind of like the Northeast area in general ?
Or , you know , have you heard anything international about it at all from any other ladies and groups that they've shared any of their experiences ?
Not me , I bet that's .
Shannon's area .
That's totally okay , shannon . You have you heard anything at all from other ladies , from their stories or their , their , their setups outside of , you know , say , the the northeast in general , or you find it's just mostly centered to us ?
uh , no , definitely people across the country . Um , I did remember hearing about some international stations last year as well . Um , I'm very in touch with a YL in India actually . Her name's Bharati Dabupali and she does a lot to get YLs on the air where she is in India , and she was actually just traveling in the US this past year as well .
Oh , very cool , Okay , Awesome . Now before I kind of segue a little bit guys , Paul , you got anything , Todd , you want to throw in ?
Well , so just for everybody that's joining us and everybody that's going to watch this in the future , right , so that they can reach out to you or wherever they can find information , where can we tell people to go to get signed up or get more information ?
Yeah , for sure , so they can always email me kc1oht at gmailcom Super easy to remember . T at gmailcom super easy to remember .
Um , but there is a facebook event , uh , international women's day yl poda party and uh , I can drop that link in the chat that works for you guys very cool . So well , uh , todd , you have anything you want to throw at him , or ?
no , I I think it's a great . I mean , I think it's great that you guys get together and I think it's really pretty cool that you've got someone in india that you're communicating with , who's uh kind of helping kind of spread the word , you know , worldwide .
That's , that's pretty awesome now , in terms of the whole , is it okay to call it a program ? Because in essence it's kind of like a little grassroots thing for you guys right now .
Are you kind of looking to expand it , to make it bigger in its nature , or are you just kind of like feeling it out and figuring out where you want to go with it over the next couple of years ?
yeah , I mean , I would definitely be happy if it , you know , becomes bigger over the years , for sure .
Now do you guys , how does that ? So if you know , say , a YL is listening and they want to kind of jump in , obviously it's on the 8th , what do you guys ? Have a set time you're running to , you know .
So if people wanted to work , you or you know work the stations , is there a specific like kind of you know syntax or you know , or is it just basically kind of just treat it like a regular proto activation ?
Yeah , so you know I I always said , you know , it's just any time on March 8 , from , like you know , zero local time until you know 2359 local time . But people get so stressed out about that . You know , even last year people like , well , why don't you do UTC ? Because everything in ham radio is UTC .
And you know , to me I'm like you guys are just making it way too complicated . It's not a contest . You don't have to submit your logs to me . It's just about going out there and getting on the air and having fun .
So as long as you guys got out there sometime on the 8th and as long as you made a few contacts , as long as you had fun , then that's what it's all about to me .
So you don't want to turn International Women's Day into like a field day for women , international Women's Day into a field day for women .
I mean , it could be . I'm not saying no to that All weekend .
That would be very cool . It sounds like for most in general , that weekend is obviously going to be very busy . Hopefully there's no major solar flares or anything like that to impede communications , but all the better for folks to get out there and just have some fun . How do you guys usually do your operation setup ? Are you running multiple stations ?
Like obviously , angela and Judy , you guys had a couple of ladies all show up for your event . Did you guys run multiple stations ? What's that kind of look like for you ? Because obviously I'm sure a lot of our listeners are like what are they running for gear ?
I want to know . Okay , well , in my case , because it's winter here , I have my igloo ice fishing hut that I use for poda and with my little buddy heater we didn't really need it . Four of us were in my tent and Angela has a great setup in her camper and we had a pretty good time .
You know , it's like please stand by for the next operator , please stand by .
So there were four of us and Parker Dam is a two uh with the shannon state forest and we had one gentleman the bands weren't , 20 was starting to fade and we had one gentleman that one of us got and by the time we passed the hit , the signal was lost and he came back a little bit later and he says he says there's four of you .
He says I have to get all of you . I have to get all of you . Little bit later and he says he says there's four of you . He says I have to get all of you .
I have to get all of you um and yeah , so I mean we had a really good time and and laughing , because they're not used to getting four yls at one time , no that was a blast and a twofer .
That's , that's , uh , that's , that's a pretty good contact right there .
Yeah , it was .
Now , how many contacts did you guys ? Do you remember how many you made on that day ?
I think we made 150 .
Yeah , at least .
Yeah , at least that's awesome .
And so what modes do you guys primarily use ? Just phone , or you guys mix the CW and phone ?
Well , I'm a single sideband phone and what was nice about our operation is none of the other ladies that were in the tent with me had ever done podo before .
So not only they got used to the headphones , um , although we we had the um , the mic um , and I use uh , the program I use is n3fjp um , so they got to see how that works , um , and just learning how to talk on the radio , especially if you've got a pileup , you know what's a good way to handle this , how do you do that .
So I think they learned a lot , and I know at least one of them is now doing POTA activations .
Awesome In the camper . I was also doing some um sstv .
I was sending out poda um certificates on the sstv very cool that that is a mode that is always forgotten by a lot of like , even during field days a lot of times , like sstv , you got to do that , it's a lot of .
I like doing it when you can take a picture at your event and then send it with your call sign included . That's so much fun .
That is a very cool mode . Now , do you guys do any other of the digital modes at all ? You guys FT8 users or JSA calls or any of that ?
When the bands are poor . I'll do FT8 just because it'll get me my successful Yep . Very cool .
Should Eric tell you guys what he does when the bands are bad ? Come on , Eric , tell them .
That's my tail question . I've got to follow up to that . We'll dive back into that , I promise .
I'll go back . Oh , come on .
All right , you're going to make me go to my question pool already , all right , well , so I was going to say we go to my question pool already , all right , well , so you know , I was going to say you know , we all know that .
You know in in in general , when a while gets on the air , you know their voice is always punched through the pileups all the time . My question to you guys is is what do YLs use when they're on the air , when they want to punch through ? You know a regular pileup . It's like do they , do they , you know , do they turn up the , the cuteness factor ?
I don't like . I'm curious . I do adjust the radio to give myself a higher pitch if I need it all right , you're already here .
Janet , any chicks and trips , uh tips or tricks that you might throw at that ?
no , you know . Uh , they do say that yls get like 10 db of gain . So you know , sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn't .
Um yeah but , yeah , my daughter , her first experience with field day she . She was told that and she got in front of the radio and nobody responded to her .
Oh no , all a bunch of liars and I , I'm like no , it's serious .
It's the way it works .
Yeah , but let's talk about the day that I was trying on field day and trying for 30 minutes to make eye contact Nothing , nothing . She was like you want me to try and she gets on and boom immediately . I was like what ?
me to try , and she gets on and boom .
immediately I was like what , I agree . Then she just took over the station and she was going for it .
Yeah , my husband always says that's not fair . Yeah , yeah .
Tell your husband he needs to use a recording of you and it's and it's gaining that edge because , because that is what eric does when he can't make contacts and the bands are bad .
He has a recording of his daughter .
Oh , oh , you see , angela , right , that's cheating don't you think my break glass .
I don't use it , yeah and then , and then they get the . The hunters get all mad . They're like where's the YL ? Yeah , I don't know , she's home sleeping or something . Bait and switch , they just have to auto-patch her in ?
Yeah .
Bait and switch .
All right , so cool . So let's kind of shift gears a little bit and we'll dive back to the the the poda party event in a second . I'm curious to see kind of like what you , what your poda experience has been like and and what you guys do , uh , you know , in terms of your activations .
I assume you're pretty avid and pretty active in and and making , uh , you know , activations . I saw , you know , I did a little sleuthing and checked out your POTUS stats there . So you know , I'm very impressed and very cool to see you guys are super active . So let's start with Shannon . So you know kind of what's your .
You know what's your preference when you do activations , how often do you do them , what's kind of your MO ? when you're out there , you know , doing activations .
So you know , when the weather's a little nicer . So you know , kind of in the fall and uh spring , while my son's at school , I have a little bit of time so I'll uh drive down to my closest poda park , which I'm very lucky , is only about five minutes away from my house , um Lynn beach reservation .
That's why I have a kilo there and you know , I'll usually park and set up , depending on if I'm going to activate from in the car or , you know , from outside the car . I used to only have a G90 . That's what I had last year for the POTA party . Now I've kind of upgraded . I have a Yaesu FT ft710 .
So it'll be exciting this year to have that 100 watts and see , uh how much better I do now . But uh , that's pretty much it .
I'll usually go and you know , operate for you know a couple hours and uh you , depending on the band conditions , like last year at the POTA party , I had 135 contacts within about two or three hours I think , and that was with the G90 , 20 watts doing SSB .
There you go . You know , see , there's the magic mix right there . That's the perfect storm . You know YL , you know 20 watts and a great antenna . You're pulling in that many contacts . I struggle sometimes , when I'm out doing my one or two hour activations , to maybe even pull 70 in some cases , very jealous of the numbers there , just alone .
So , yeah , angela , we'll start with you . Angela , so kind of what's your , you know , mo , and when you activate , what do you prefer and what do you run ? Kind of what's your , you know , mo , and when you activate , what do you what do you prefer and you know what do you run .
I run a Yesu 450D and it depends on where the location is . It depends on what kind of antenna we are setting up . Matt's asking me to send him a recording . That's my husband there . He's listening in . So we run multiple different types of antennas and he's usually running CW as I'm running voice .
So we are trying to not compete with each other , but we're out every weekend so we do lots of podo in lots of different places . But I'm not a big person to sit down and call CQ a lot . I do a lot more hunting than I do uh , so call cq . But I did do some cq this uh past a week , a week ago , and I did do quite well .
I got like 70 contacts in an hour so it was really kind of cool .
Um , that's more than one a minute oh yeah , it was crazy .
I like this is crazy . It was 20 meters , so 20 meters is always a really good time of day , so it was really nice . But yeah , we go out camping all winter long and just we have a lot of fun out there and we'd like to go a lot of different parks . So that's what one of our things . Now do you guys fight over ?
the radio time or no ?
no , we each have our own race setups because we found we can't share our own 450d and we just we have our own size of the camper and everything there we go , there we go .
That's a perfect marriage . Very cool , awesome . Well , 450d was my very first radio , so I have a very close affinity for that radio . Love it , love it um . I passed it on to a ham ham down in florida , ham down in florida , ham down in north carolina , and he's having a ball with it .
So you know it's in a good home , but it's a great radio it was awesome to learn on . So yeah , you're . You've got a special place in my heart with that one Cool . So , judy , how are you with your setup ? Where do you play ? What's your MO ?
Okay , I typically have a Kenwood radio , and I have it in a really nice case along with an amplifier radio , and I have it in a really nice case along with an amplifier . I have a little bit of problem hearing , so that really helps , especially when I use headphones . My husband always drives .
He doesn't like the idea of me going into the parks by myself , even though I have a concealed carry permit . So I call him my antenna guy .
Assisted yeah .
I typically operate a 100-watt single sideband and my antenna is an alpha hex antenna , which I absolutely love . Antenna is an alpha hex tenna , which I absolutely love . Um , I will operate always single sideband , typically starting on 20 meters , switching over to 40 . I like to try some of the other bands uh 10 , uh 17 , 12 .
Um , and then uh , I like to get a lot under my belt like typical activation . I want to at least get 150 if I'm going to be out . Sometimes I get 200 , 300 , depending , 70 in an hour , kind of like Angela , I think my POTA QSOs are over 44,000 . We're in the royalty here .
My friend , you guys are putting me to shame . I was looking at my stats I was like oh , I feel comfortable with that . No , I am a newbie POTA person and I've been doing POTA for four years . You know a newbie POTA person and I've been doing POTA for four years Well , the actual POTA .
I think it really helped me with the other things that I do , like the Pennsylvania QSO party in my class . I have won it four years . One year I came in second , and then I also do Groundhog day , which just passed , and , um , I'm also helped with , uh , fire safety week .
uh , so that all you know , keeps my mouth working now , have you tried any other modes , or you just primarily just sideband oiling and that's kind of where you go ?
I can do fta , uh oh , but it drives me nuts . It's so slow , I don't know how people do it yes , when you're 70 contacts in an hour ?
Yeah , of course it's slow , it's slow and it's boring oh yeah , so the only time I do FT8 is when I'm working from home and I'm doing paperwork . I can kind of do it on the side and make contacts . Besides that , it's like staring . I mean , we did do . What was that , the FT8 , what was that game we played ? Oh , ft8 , bingo .
No , oh no , FTA Off .
FTA Off , which was I think it was on Thursday . It was a lot of fun , just because we were all guys in our club would chat on that , so that made it kind of more fun . But yeah , regularly it's just like . I never really understood it . It's like the computer does all the things and now with some of the versions it'll just do it by itself .
So it's kind of cheating in my mind . I like doing sideband . I think at some point , once I get my extra and my kids grow up and I get bored , I'll try to learn CW . But right now it's just extra studying and so these guys will stop harassing me . It's the only reason I'm doing it , because they just won't let me . They just make fun of me .
That's my goal this year too , is get my extra .
Well , there you go . It's a lot harder than your general , at least study report . There's a lot of information , so it's been taking me a long time and I've been like slack I get too busy and I forget to study .
So I'm really trying to crack down now and I did an hour today and obviously I didn't do long enough because I got them all you get cracked under pressure .
Yeah , I agree . Hamstudyorg is how I got my extra . It's an awesome study tool .
You know , what I love about about is that you can have the the question mark , so if you get it wrong it'll pull up like right away and you can see , or if you don't know , you can hit the question mark .
But it works really well and I like it that it keeps throwing back if you put them all in at once , like so I started with section one and then you add two and it'll do all two and then it'll go back to some section one and then you add three , it'll go through the threes and then go back . So you kind of get that .
But my problem is is I take the whole test and I do terrible . So I've I've got a 80 plus percent on each level and then I take the whole test and I'm not even close .
So but we'll get there someday . I gotta ask , right ? So I know that the three of us on the top all have our own respective favorite photo park , and it is the park that we absolutely hands down love to go to . For me it's Russell Abbott State Forest . It's in Mason . You need four-wheel drive to get there . It's an absolutely beautiful spot .
It is so , angela , favorite photo park . Where do you love to go ?
oh , um , I'm gonna have to say allegheny national forest . It's , uh , just over the pa border from me and and it's , it's , it's a very it's one of the largest forests in Eastern New York , eastern Pennsylvania or Eastern United States and I absolutely love it . It's my , it's my backyard from growing up , so I'm from that area .
But it just so many opportunities out there , so much beauty .
I I just I like hiking and biking out there too shannon I'm gonna have to say the uh , the park that I've activated the most , us2445 , which is uh lynn beach and the hot state reservation , that one I like a lot .
I just can't . I can't get down that far all the time . I don't have clients that allow me to get into Lynn . But I've done that park and I'm a great park , especially in good weather .
Yeah , I mean , you know , like I said , it's five minutes from my house , so you know where else can I leave ? You know , 20 minutes before I have to pick my son up from school and still make it in time to grab them .
So squeeze a poda in , in , in , in . You know exactly . You know , as long as you know , that you can actually like balance your watch , the time and the drive time and you can say last call and mean last call , Todd .
All right , Judy , what about you ?
I would probably have to say I'm very fortunate . Where we live in north central Pennsylvania , I am surrounded by parks . I have one about 10 minutes away and three within 15 minutes .
Again , I like Parker Dam , which is a twofer with Mushanan State Forest , and there's also SB Elliott Park , which is only about 15 , not even that 10 minutes away , which of course , is a twofer .
There's several state game lands around me , but because Mushanan State Forest is a twofer with both SB Elliott and Parker Dam , I have over 8,000 contacts at that park . And again , the heated restroom is a winner . For me . There's nothing worse than tracing to an outhouse in the snow . So I would say both Parker .
The only thing I don't like about Parker Dam is there is no signal there , so you can't spot yourself . It's the only thing I don't like about it , but it's a nice park .
But you know you already have the advantage . So once you just get on the air and start calling , it's like you know it's already in the bag . It's like you'll get on the RBN in a matter of a couple of seconds . So cool , all right . Yeah , so I got to go ahead . You got one fire .
Okay , I . So one more is is it it ? It tails off of what Judy was just saying , right , so now I know you said you use a AC log when , when you did the international women's day . But when you go out to your parks , are you on polo , are you using hammers , are you using n3fjp , what , what are you using ?
We'll just we'll start with judy and go backwards I use n3fjp .
I love it all the time all the time okay , shannon you guys are gonna think I'm crazy , I log'm crazy , I log on paper . Oh , I log on paper and then I come home and I transfer it into Hammers .
Wow , you have a friend that we need to connect you up with , tim Tim Casey1QDK I don't know if he's in the chat there at all , but him and his wife go out and do podo parks and stuff like that . They're in manchester and and he , he will not . He has yet used a logger yet that I've , you know , seen him go to first .
He always goes to paper you know , honestly , I I've heard so many people when they're doing poda and then they're like , oh , wait a minute , my logging program is frozen , I can't log anything . Or , you know , people lose their whole podaologue because Hammers messes up .
I feel like I can write faster with a pen and paper than I can type people's call signs in to Hammers when you're getting those 70 contacts an hour .
Like Angela said , I've definitely experienced that where I've counted up my number of contacts and I'm like , oh my gosh , I had more than one contact a minute here yeah , which is very impressive , yeah , my handwriting I am .
Uh , I have been using hammers for a while until I just recently got into polo . I met the Marcus yeah .
Marcus .
I met Marcus at Hamcation . The last two years he's really got me into the polo . It's an awesome app . The ease of use and the interconnectivity with poda and how it spots and everything I just really enjoy it .
That's what I use . I love it .
I used him but I switched . Yep . So Eric just sort of touched on something that he said very quietly that I don't think anybody else heard , but about his handwriting . So even though I do log on pen and paper , sometimes I do do go back and I look at it and I'm like wait a minute , what was that call sign again .
All of my call signs would be horribly I have had to- .
I have had to learn to make sure that I mark my V's and my U's very carefully , my O's and my zeros , and sometimes I'll even write next to it if the person tells me where they were from , so that when I do go back and look it up I make sure that it matches up .
I went to Catholic school and my handwriting was bad because the nuns would whack me on the wrist all the time .
That's part of the reason I like N3FJP is I have it set up . As soon as you enter the call sign , it pulls up their first name and it also tells me what state they're from . So I like being real personal with it and I'll say hi , Gary , personal with it , and I'll you know .
I'll say Hi , Gary , call them by their first name , and if they tell me what state , they give me their QTH , and if what I'm seeing on my screen does not equal what they have told me , then I will question them . Maybe I heard them wrong and I have a wrong call sign in there , and so that method keeps me from entering an incorrect call sign too .
So that's the other plus of using it . Same with Polo .
Yeah , polo's got a nice notes section . So , like Polo feature I really love a lot is that if you keep adding logs to Polo , it actually pulls into the old log .
So if you worked the previous contact in another log , you , when you type in in again , they're like , oh , you've worked this person before and I'm like , oh , okay , cool then , and my remember , my memory is just garbage .
So I can never remember who I worked , unless it happens to be someone that has like a call sign that like , kind of like has a melodic rhythm to it or something like that that I remember and they say it in a funny way that you remember like , oh , yeah , like I have one guy , bruce k .
Uh , I can't remember his call sign now , uh , but anyway , the way he says it every time yes , paul's looking at me like it's pretty bad .
Uh , every time he says it it's like I know it's him and it's like , oh , I can pick it back up again , but yeah , I , I have to rely on those tools and I like the the part that it's what , even when you don't have any signals to pull from qrz or anything , if it's in your previous logs it'll even you work them .
They'll pull up the all their information from your previous logs .
So it's really good that it interconnects that way too I , I like on , I like on polo , how , if you're , what I like to do is sometimes um , either , when I start I'll start hunting , so I'll go through the logs and see who I can hear and where the best part is , and and I normally do that at the beginning and then I call cq and then maybe at the end
I do it . But what's cool about polo is you can go on the on their site , and then once you find one and you hear them and you , you start , you know , trying to get a hunting contact with them . You click it . It all comes up on there , it's all done on your log and you're ready to go . You don't have to worry about the park or anything .
So it's pretty cool and I also like that . You just if you're , if it's a us park , all you got to do is type in the number you . You don't have to do it in the US , which is huge . Especially when you have multiple parks , that always slows you down . It goes a lot quicker .
Yep .
Go ahead .
I was going to say I was going to switch gears a little bit because I'm curious to see what you guys have for favorite antennas . But if you want to finish your thought , go ahead , paul .
Todd with antennas , but , um , if you want to finish your thought , go ahead , paul . Uh , todd , I keep doing that . No , that's fine . No , I was just . I think all the logs , I mean they all have . I mean everyone has their preferences .
You know , I use the , the one judy uses as my log , for my main log at home , you know , at the qth , and I import everything into that one . So , um , I just use the um . You know the other one , just when doing plodo or if I'm away from my .
You know , whatever I'm doing , if I'm not at the QTH , I use that and then I just import everything into the main one .
All right . So I got to ask what's the favorite antenna , because everyone's got one and I know you have probably many , but what's your favorite go-to ? What do you guys use to when you're doing your activations ? Start ?
with .
Angela .
I'd say probably my most used one is my chameleon and fed random wire .
Okay , my most used in . Oh sorry , why I'm curious ?
because I can use it on any band . I can be switching around and doing it . I'd like to use , like some of the more obscure bands , like 1512 , and so I like to go some of those smaller bands and I get some more overseas . That way I get the europe and asia and stuff like that . So I like the versatility a lot quieter . Yes , that too okay , go ahead .
What's your favorite ?
um , so mine is really weird , I use um hustler antenna coils . Actually that uh I got from a swap . A guy sold me uh like Like I think it was 10 , 15 , 20 , 40 , 75 and the triple , the triple mast for like 40 bucks . Oh and so , yeah , exactly that's what I'm saying . So I use that with , like the MFJ triple magnet mount on the roof of my car .
I usually put the 10 , the 15 and the 20 coil on there and , uh , with the g90 I was able to tune up , you know , 12 and 17 with that .
It doesn't do quite as well on the ft710 , but most of my antennas , uh , most of my contacts that I get , uh , I start at 10 , 10 meters in the technician portion of 10 meters and sometimes I don't even get off of that .
Wow , good place to start .
Yeah , that , that's , my favorite miles , I'm still on .
We got it , we got a future , you know ? Youtuber .
Yeah .
I .
I .
I love 10 meters , especially like doing poda , it's just . I've I've always thought that's always been my favorite and with it being so good lately , I used to always start with 20 , but now I just start off with 10 and hopefully I can make the contacts , and if I'm not , he can always go to 20 , but yeah , 10 , 10s always .
I've made some cool contacts on 10 meters , including alaska , which I I need alaska for worked all . No , not a park , but work all parks . I need hawaii and alaska right . So I , uh , I I go you guys at a park and guys like no , I'm like , oh man , come on , can you go in the same way . It's like I got everything else .
I only need Alaska .
So I'm actually I'm going out to California next month to see my brother's turning 50 . So going out for his birthday party for a long weekend . So I figured , if I'm out in California , even if I can set it up in his backyard , I have a really good shot at making Hawaii or Alaska . So that's my goal , hopefully , hopefully , we or Alaska .
So that's my goal , hopefully , hopefully We'll see .
So , judy what's your go-to ?
My Alpha , hex Tena , and because it covers pretty much all the bands except six meters , I get fantastic coverage with it . And just like everyone else , I also like doing 10 meters , but I do it in the technicians van , like giving you know , helping them make contacts . So yeah , so it's my alpha very cool so .
So I got a question . I'm curious to see , kind of , obviously , your starts in POTA . Obviously you guys have been doing it for a little while now . Was there a person specific , maybe an Elmer , in your life that kind of led you towards maybe getting into POTA , or was it just something you just kind of saw and you just wanted to get in and do it ?
You know what's kind of , you know what was the impetus or what's the , what was the driving force to , to , to move you guys uh , to , to get into POTA and do it so much that you guys uh , you know obviously , uh , it bleeds and oozes from every area in your life .
I'm sure you're probably like me and you're like I got time on my hands , I can go do a poda , so we'll start with you . Shannon , did you have a mentor or something in your life that kind of dragged you there or just jump right in ?
Yeah , so my mentor is actually in the chat right now , if he's still in there . Mike Zero , juliet , echo , oscar , over in the UK he pretty much is the person that when I first started out wanting to get my ham radio license , he really helped me and encouraged me .
And then once I did get my license and I was thinking about what radio to get first you know I live in the city so he was like don't spend , you know , $1,500 on a super expensive home base station when you don't even know you could have an S9 noise floor at your house and you won't be able to hear anything .
He was like get the G90 , get like 70 feet of wire and go out into the woods somewhere and just see what you can hear , see who you can talk to and see what you can do . So that was pretty much how I started .
And unfortunately , you know , lynn woods is not a state park or national park so it doesn't count as poda , um , but it was still a great place to go and play radio . And then , you know , once I kind of got more used to that and I found out more about , you know , actual poda .
I started looking up you where there were different POTA parks around here and I found you know the Lynn Heritage State Park there and I actually the part of it that was included in POTA was really small , it used to be just the Lynn Heritage State Park .
But I got in touch with the mapping coordinator and I said , hey , if you look at you know the map DCR actually controls all this beach here , so can we get that added to you know the actual park ?
And they said yes , so they literally added it within like two seconds after I talked to them and part another part of the reason why I kind of got involved with it was I wanted to be one of the people for the 13 colonies .
You know , and so when I got in touch with the coordinator for that , they were like , well , do you have any experience running a pileup ? And I was like , not really . So you know they were like , well , why don't you go try to like do some POTUS get some more experience running pileups and then come back and talk to us ?
So that's definitely one of my goals maybe for this this July is to be one of the activators for the 13 colonies events for Massachusetts .
Very cool . That'd be awesome . Yeah , we have a few friends that do that . It's a good event to be part of . How about you , Angela ?
Actually , the person I run my YouTube channel with is Hammon Quackers as JunieN1DUC . She did a presentation in our YL group on LICW about POTA and that got me started . Then , of course , she reached out to me to help her with the channel also , so she's my mentor for POTA and now we do all kinds of stuff together . Awesome .
That's very cool . I always love to see those stories . You know , todd's a , you know direct him and I , that's how we can , actually all three of us . I mean we fall in that same boat . You know , todd got and I , that's how we can , actually all three of us . I mean we , we fall in that same boat . You know we , todd got his general .
I took him out to a poda . We bumped into paul and on the you know repeater and said , hey , come do poda with us and you know , we , we haven't stopped . So yeah , it's good to see that yeah it was like that .
First , that first poda we did at the rail trail , paul and I showed up and we're like , you know what you're doing . I said I only did this once . He's like , no , not really . And then eric came and that was the start and look where we are now we're , we do a podcast and do quote activations and it's just been awesome cool , all right .
Well , hey , judy , how about you ? What's your kind of ? Uh , you know how did you get into the hobby Back in ?
2019, . A friend took us out to Machanan State Forest just to do ham radio and I made contact with someone I was still a technician on 10 meters and they said they were doing poda and I'm like what is that ? And they , you know , they , they told me I looked it up and that was kind of it .
That was the emphasis for me to get my general um and uh , yeah , so that's what it was .
Very cool . Awesome Sounds like the natives are getting a little restless there , Shannon Mama .
Put him in front of a radio , he'll be good . So do you guys ? Do you do most of your ham radio out in the field doing podo stuff ? Or do you guys do ? Do you do any of it in your shack or do you even have a shack ?
I do have a shack but I um basically just do two meter nets and stuff like that on in here . But I do have an hf radio . I just never get on it here at the house .
We're out every weekend so I don't need to get on it here yeah yeah , yeah , my shack is my living room so you know , as you can hear with the little voice in the background , it's a little hard to , you know , sit down and have time to get on the air .
But every morning , usually Monday through Friday , I do join a local two meter net on the New Hampshire N1 HSY repeater , the Poki Net , if I'm allowed to plug that on here .
Actually , I met the guys when I was on my way to a podo one morning after I dropped my son off at school and I had the radio scanning and I heard them come on and they were just the friendliest bunch of guys . I think it was right before International Women's Day last year actually .
I think it was right before International Women's Day last year actually , and they were super welcoming to me to join in and chat with them .
So time out . You were scanning repeaters and you found activity , so the repeaters aren't dead .
No , that episode hasn't been released yet . You guys will get that after it gets released that episode hasn't been released yet you guys will get that after it gets released .
We just did a recording on repeaters and whether or not they're alive or dead or not , it's kind of an inside joke for now .
Cool . All right , let's kind of circle back around , because I know how kids are having my own and whatnot , that they definitely want your attention as much as you can .
So let's kind of circle back around a little bit and talk a little bit about wrapping up International Women's Day and obviously , for those that are in the chat that may not know , it's coming up , it's on March 8th and , as Shannon said , it's basically , you know , utc 002-2359 pretty much all day Saturday , she said local time she said whatever your local time
is .
See , I've already screwed up .
Local time all day .
So from a standpoint of say , someone , maybe a club , or a few ladies , or just in general , you know they , they want to , you know , promote this in their club , you know what , what , what can they pass on for information , you know , in a quick kind of summary , to get them to , you know , maybe start to , you know , get other ladies in their club active
and involved in it . What , what can they , you know , pass on for information , just kind of in a quick bullet .
Well , I can definitely . I think I already sent you guys the flyer , so we'll put that . Um , you know , if you guys uh want to post that or , like I said , people can email me , I can send them the flyer .
But I mean , basically , just get out there , get on the air and , uh , let your voices be heard and , like I said , you know more experienced YLs , get together with you know , maybe less experienced YLs and just help each other out .
Very cool . Yeah , definitely , I would say , if you can , you know , definitely , you know find other people that are maybe experienced , like Shannon said , and get them out there and do activations .
And if not , would you still , you know , consider , you know them if they can hunt from their own shacks to be , you know , involved in that process too yes , definitely , that actually is on the flyer too .
Because you know , some women even say , like you know , I don't have time to go out and do an activation or I don't have a portable radio , like even just getting on the air and hunting from home either .
You know , not just hunting YLs either , but just hunting any HOTA stations that you hear on the air , and you know , just let people know that hey , women are out there and we're on the radio and we are active .
It's a . It's an awesome thing to see . I know we have a lot of ladies in our club that we try to make sure that they get a voice and they're a part of all of the stuff going on and they can do some .
We have a lot of ladies that are very good CW and they put me to shame and I just sit there and go , yeah , all I hear is bleep , bleep , bleep , bleep , bleep , blah , blah , blah and they're like , yeah , they can do 20 words a minute and it's like they're just , you know , phenomenal in that sense . But they're very active .
They love doing , uh , you know , poda and and , just in general , playing radio . So it's always awesome to see and and always makes the hobby that much better to have you guys , obviously , in it , but , uh , you know , instead of a whole bunch of old white guys . You know , I'm sorry , it's not a big thing for me anymore longer .
I've been , you know , I've been in the hobby a long time . So , all right , cool , so let's wrap this up .
I usually like to do , uh , you know , like to like tie this up a little bit , but I thought we should do a little bit of a speed round , and so what I'm going to ask you , ladies , and we're just going to throw five kind of quick questions at you and it's basically a speed round . So you know I'll give you a this or that kind of scenario .
And you got to answer very quickly off the cuff , no reason , no explanation needed , and it's all around POTA . So you know we don't have to worry about going too far off the beaten path there . But so you know we'll start with you , know Judy , and we'll work across to Shannon and then with Angela and see kind of where we go .
So these this will hopefully be a little eye-opening . I'm curious , all right . So first question we'll start here for a speed round is you prefer , when you're doing poda , winter , spring or summer ? Spring or summer is kind of the same thing , but yeah , Fall . You missed fall ? No , I didn't .
Okay , then spring , If you're not going to take fall spring .
Because every woman likes fall . I don't like fall , it's just guaranteed Okay . So , judy , you said spring Okay . What about you , shannon ? Spring Spring Okay . Angela .
I'm going to have to say summer . Oh , okay , good .
Yeah , I'm going to have to say summer , oh , okay , good . Yeah , I'm a summer person too . I'm born in January , so I hate the cold . Alright , next one . If you could only do one , would it be an activator or hunter ?
Oh activator .
Activator .
Okay .
I'm going to say hunter Wow .
Okay .
But from a park . So it's park to park oh okay , that's good .
Okay , yeah , so I can tell by Judy and Shannon you probably love the pileup . Yeah , that's definitely a thing of an activator , all right , so next one's antenna related . If you could have only one vertical or wire .
Wire .
Wire , wire .
We're all in the same boat there , all right . Next one is if you could only operate in one mode , would it be operating the car or on a park bench ? Park bench , shannon's in New England , so she knows .
I'm going to have to say car , just in case if the weather's bad you got the AC right .
You can run on the AC . Okay , cool , the last one , as I always ask QRP or QRO .
QRP .
Yeah , QRP Okay .
Wow .
It depends on what you're calling QRP though .
QRP is 20 watts or less . 20 watts or less is my book . Qro is 100 watts or more . I'll say QRP . Yeah , you know it takes . Well , I mean , you guys do have the benefit of you know , when you call out there , you're guaranteed to get somebody to pick you up when I run 20 watts . It's like I suffer badly for a long time before it happens .
I rely heavily on the spotting page , so cool .
I did one whole activation without realizing it was on 10 watts .
Wow .
That's awesome . And how many ?
contacts did you net .
Probably about 50 . Jeez .
That works .
Oh man , I should turn my Hapota gear and get new gear .
I think we should start hanging out with them and go to parks . I do not Get some more contacts in there .
Shannon's in . Massachusetts , which you know you come up to in New Hampshire . You know we've got a POTA meetup coming up in the spring . We'll have to . You know . I'll send you the invite .
Oh really , Because I haven't activated a park in New Hampshire yet Me either hampshire .
Oh yeah , either I , I , I'm just not that far from new york , so you know you especially and angela you're I keep forgetting you're in new york and I'm a buffalo on the west side , but I can do it .
So hey , just uh . I got one other question have you guys ever done like a , um , a rove ?
I did a nine park rove last year . Where'd you do it ? At North central Pennsylvania around state college Including state game lands . Once Pennsylvania , once Pennsylvania brought all the state game lands . There are over 330 state game lands . We only had like a 100 and was it 56 state parks and and that was our total .
So achieving all the state parks in pennsylvania used to be a reasonable goal , but then they brought all 330 plus state game lands into the poda system and now no way there you go Hold my beer , I'm going to show you better .
Is a Grove considered only in ?
one day ?
Yes , it's a full 24-hour Zulu day .
I did a two-week trip to Florida and we did a different park every day .
Oh , dude , that would have been awesome . I did that on the way to South Carolina and I hit parks in every state except pennsylvania , which I had a bum dad , but very cool , have you done one ?
I have not done a road well , you , you live close enough , that eric and I did one , I think it was two years ago now has it been that long about two years , yep , but you start working up the coast from massachusetts to maine .
There's parks like every 10 minutes and you're right on the beach and we , we worked 10 meters all day and we're booming into europe . We had a guy follow us every part . I think he was from italy . Right was , was he Italy ?
Oh , I believe it , so it was it's really fun If you can get .
We did it in either October , November . It was a rare day . It was like going to be 80 degrees , so we both took off work . It said , screw it , we're doing this and we we were planning on what nine or 10 , One of them was closed off because they were doing something right .
You're going to blame that one that was closed off . You couldn't say QRT Every time we got to 10 , I was like we got to go on and you couldn't say QRT to move on to the next park .
We had to wait until you clean up the 15 or so people that were asking to make contact with us .
Yeah , all right . And then one more thing , because it's Women's Day , I was almost late to this live stream because I was out with my ladies , and what that means is I used to work in an office where I worked with a prosecutor because I do juvenile probation .
So I worked with our prosecutor and then three other women in my office and we just all hit it off , worked really well together and uh , we all left and went to different offices . So we try to get together as maybe once a year , twice a year . So I was out to dinner with them so I wanted to give them a shout out .
So it's Steph , krista , vanessa and Candace and I'm the only guy . So when we go out to dinner , I uh I look like a stud , cause I got all these beautiful women hanging out with me and I asked my wife . I said you want to come with me this time ? She's like , no , you'll just talk about work crap , which is true . But uh , I told them .
I said I got to leave cause I got to get on this live stream and they wanted me to just give them a shout out .
So I don't know if they're on here watching or not , but wanted to do that Since it's Women's Day , I figured it's appropriate , very cool , all right , well .
So to kind of wrap things up here a little bit , if any of our listeners wanted to reach out to any of you guys about either activating a park , learning more about POTA , maybe meeting up with you , what's the best way they can reach out to you ? And we'll start with Judy .
My best way is probably on QRZ . My email is there . It's a very long email so I'm not going to give it to you here , but it's on QRZ . Just email me .
Awesome , all right , how about you , shannon ?
Yeah , I mean , I'm good on QRZ too and my email address is on there . Like I said , it's just KC1OHT at gmailcom Really easy to remember . So anyone is welcome to reach out to me , get more information about Women's Day , and if they're in the area and they want to meet up for a poda , then we can definitely try to make that happen .
Oh yeah , that'd be awesome . All right , how about you , andrew ?
Same thing Q or Z or N3 or N3 or B at gmailcom they're both .
And we also have your YouTube channel that you do with and when do you see that we'll throw there in the link there too . So go check out some of that content with Angela and Junie there and yep , and you know all the ducks . Everyone knows the ducks . They're very famous , so I don't have to say anything more than that .
So , yeah , it was great to have you guys on . It was so awesome to talk about POTA and Shannon , you know , and even Angela , we are going to have to have you guys up to Norton , new Hampshire , and have you experience our parks up here .
But when we have that podo meetup , we'll we'll send it your guys way and and we'd love to have you guys come and hang out and and , uh , you know , play some , uh , you know M radio up in uh , new Hampshire .
Sounds good , definitely .
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