Hello and welcome to the Live Free and Ham podcast , our bi-weekly show that explores the ham radio topics in New Hampshire , New England and beyond . Whether you're a regular listener or a first time guest , we're excited to have you here and appreciate your support . So thank you for tuning in to this week's episode . So , guys , how are you doing ?
I'd like to introduce the uh , my cohorts here . So my name's Ryan W1SNH and I'm joined here with Eric N1JUR and Todd W1STJ . Excellent . How are you guys doing this week ? What's uh , what's going on in your uh ham radio world ?
Uh , well , uh , this week , I have to say , you know , not much . Uh , I haven't played a whole lot . I mean , obviously we're going to dive into some fun stuff that we did , todd and I did , last week , or was it last week or a week ago ? It's been , it's a bit of a time either way .
A couple of weeks ago , a couple of weeks ago , okay , so , um , but yeah , I've been enjoying 10 meters . I mean , I finally , uh , got everything tweaked , although I'd have to say just recently I decided to dive into a new app . Uh , I don't know if you guys heard of it , it's called free data .
It's a new ham radio app that's sort of like a company , so the JSA call um a little bit of art in in terms of file transfer stuff and it all runs on HF in the in you know kind of the digital portion of the bands .
I'm still tweaking it to try to get it to work , because it runs off a ham live and a few other things , and so I probably could have done it fine with my original like radio DX 10 , but now that I got all the flex , I've got to re-remember setting up , you know virtual ports and all of that things to to make it all work together and and still struggle
with it . But , um , I , the only reason why I'm kind of playing around with it is a K5 . Yby did a video on it a long time ago and I haven't seen much traction on it , um , but I wanted to fire it up and try it , since I kind of installed it but then forgot about it , um , and you know . So I've been playing with that .
I'm hopeful that I'll get it working and you know , when I do , maybe I'll , uh , you know , share a little bit more on it and , uh , you know , maybe , uh , you know , we'll make some contacts on it . I don't , I don't know how many people are using it or what the you know the subscriber base is on it , or you know who's out there ?
you know , but that's what I've been playing with so far . And you know , fd8's been just up and running on one of my other screens all day and , you know , making contacts into where was the last one I picked up ? Uh , africa , and off the coast of Africa , I think it was .
If I look at uh I can't look at my log right now it's too far away and uh , but uh , yeah , just , you know simple stuff , just kind of , you know , as I come by my shack and play something , but that's what I've been , that's cool .
Yeah , you'll have to keep us updated on that software and see how it uh , once you get it tweaked , how it works for you . I can go forward . Definitely will . Nice Todd . How about you ? What's new ?
Uh , nothing much , uh , just doing a little bit of ham radio stuff . I'm planning I'm going down the end of the month , uh , down to Mississippi for one last time and uh , the plan is to do I'm going to try to do not a parking . Well , I'm going to try to get Mississippi maybe .
But I'm trying to go over to Louisiana , knock off a park there and then , if I can , if I have enough time , head up to Arkansas , knock off a park there and come back and uh hit the park near the airport . Uh , in Mississippi , try to do three parks in a day . It's going to be tough . I don't get into Mississippi until 10 30 .
By the time I get done with seeing the kid , it's going to be about 12 30 . Then I probably have like an hour and a half drive to get the parks and I don't know how far the park is from Louisiana to Arkansas . But it's all on main highways .
So I'm hoping , um , I can kind of crank through them and get two more states that I don't have , because I don't see myself going down to Louise , louisiana , arkansas , anytime soon .
So do you have the flexibility ? Do you have the flexibility to extend your work day one day ?
No , cause I'm going down um Friday the 30th and then I'm going to go see the see him again on the first , because they they require us to see him in a calendar month . So I asked my boss and he's he's going to be turned into 21 . So it's going to be . This is our last time in December .
So I said , well , why don't I just get it out of the way and then we'll get it done the first of the you know right , december 1st . So yeah , it's going to be tough . I mean , worst case scenario is if I can get Arkansas on the weeds and then it gets too dark , and I want to do that , mrs . I could get up early and do it .
Uh , I think my flight leaves at like two , two in the afternoon , if I get up at like six or seven , get out to that park and you know , activate it and then , uh , go see him and then hop on the plane . So we'll see . It should be fun . But I was worried when I first looked at the weather . It looked like it was going to rain .
I was like you got to be kidding me . I'm like you know the one day I'm going to be down and it's going to be pouring down rain , but it looks like it . It looks like it's been pushed out a day . So I should be getting lucky Awesome . Well , It'll be cool .
How about you , Ryan ? What's going on ? What's up with your ?
head .
Well , so I've been actually working on a lot of hardware stuff this past week . So first big task was to just double check all the bolts and everything on the tower , make sure those are all tightened up . And uh , so had the one of the guys who helped install the tower come over with me and we uh up the tower .
The yes 2,800 rotor has rotator has four bolts on the bottom and I was a little concerned they might have loosened up a little bit . So I had found a company that specializes in cross drilled bolt heads .
So I've got some a 10 millimeter by 16 length , uh 125 bolts that had the hole drilled through the top of them , and we got those installed and we safety wired them .
So in a in the aviation world use a stainless steel wire and you do a uh a pattern on it to help tighten the bolts so that if they start to loosen up , the safety wire will keep them from backing out . And so we use that method and I'm very confident going through the winter time that all the bolts will stay very secure . So that was good .
And then uh , just been plugging away at getting the hardware set up for the new flex , so got a new switch that's going to be mounted in the rack , um DC power switch . So I got some remote connectivity for that and , uh , you know just uh , sizing up coax cables and everything else . So it's been fun .
Have not had chance too much to play radio , but um , they'll come in due time .
So when you went up on the tower to actually take the existing bolts out , were they , did you find that they were loose or they were pretty tight ?
Actually they were tight only cause uh . So when it was originally installed I rookie mistake I didn't drill the pattern as precise as I should have , and so there was some slop in there and probably about two weeks after the towers first installed the bolts actually all came out . Yep . So it's just sitting there by gravity on the uh top of the shelf .
So I went up there with some nylon washers that were the uh diameter I needed for the bolt to fill in the extra gap in the hole .
Yeah .
That , combined with the crush washer , got wedged up in there . So this time they're in there pretty secure . So what we did was we raised the hole uh in 10 up , took the uh masked off the rotator and redrolled the holes .
Wow Now did he just guy it or did he go up there with you to do all the work uh , to get all the bolts in and out ?
Yeah , no , he did the heavy lifting . He had the , the hoist and everything . So we lifted the uh the mast up probably a foot and it was kind of . It was interesting , cause when you put it up the beam , you balance it so that it's uh for an aft , it's balanced on the on the uh mast .
Yeah , so even when it was off the rotator and it's kind of cockeyed on the top the tower at an angle , it was just kind of free , swinging in the wind and I was watching it spin around .
And so once we got it all attached , we had to , you know , realign it , find a and I don't know if this is a right or wrong , but I decided to uh to align it with true north versus magnetic north .
Oh , okay , what's the ?
result of that . Well , um , you got variation and the magnetic north , which is somewhere in north central Canada , is , uh , it's actually moving pretty rapidly in the past couple of years , so it's a continually moving and your reference point would be off .
So instead of magnetic north , I did it to true north up , where Santa Claus lives at the North Pole , and uh and there's a uh , there's a setting in , uh , the apple iOS where you can switch between true or magnetic . Okay , so I just made sure I put it on true , lined up the beam with that and then .
So whenever I turn the rotator I just think true , north .
Now , does your software able to compensate for that , or they just all degrees ? It doesn't really matter .
Well it's . I mean , you're going to a fixed location on the earth , so it's going to be the same on a , a conical projection chart . You know , with a 3D globe it's going to be , it's going to be just a fixed location . So , true , north works , yeah cool .
You don't have to worry about drift with the flex , so you know you'd definitely be dead on , no matter what .
Actually , so my , uh , that's another thing that came in the mail was a let's see what were the two ends . I don't remember . It was a BNC to a RCA connection so I could get the GPS . Uh , do right . Yeah right , the oscillator connected to the flex and plug it in , grabbed a signal right away and got that little green check mark , so that's great .
Yeah , nice . How do you do you do any of the calculations that , uh , you know they usually do , just to see how close you were offer .
No , I haven't , but maybe I'll go back .
It's a little crazy . I know one of our other buddies did it . I was like that's references really like miniscule , but sure , I guess if you want to be , you know , really really accurate as best as you can , yeah .
So , yeah , that's uh , that's been the latest this past week and uh , we'll just keep plugging away at the shack here . So there's always something to do and the big uh adventure to dive into coming up very soon will be no dread . So I know you guys need to jump on that bandwagon too .
Yeah , we're going to have to do an episode on another flex episode and just talk about all the flex ads and some of the stuff that you know we've tweaked and you know , kind of as a follow up . For sure , I mean , obviously you'll be able to jump in because you you'll have a whole , much more to add to that , so it'll be fun .
Well , we'll have to maybe invite some of the other flex guys on to you know , shoot the breeze on that one , yes .
So cool . Well , so rumor has it , guys , that some some uh in the recent past here you guys did a very fascinating uh poda rove up the uh up the coast . So I think when I heard rumors about it first , I think I heard it was going to start out as a 10 park rove , all right , and then it evolved and , kind of you know , took a life of its own .
So , uh , I don't know , give me a quick uh , first , start with like a , a big picture view . What was the original plan ? And uh , how did you guys approach this event ? And uh , you know , how did it play out ?
Well , this has been . We've been talking about doing this for a long time and we just never had the time to do it . And we said you know what ? We should just go and go right up the coast and see how many parks we can get , and you know , in a day , and just have fun with it and see what we could do . So the weather was 80 degrees , it was .
It was awesome .
A rare day .
And I looked at the . I said hey , can you cake off Friday ? And he's like yeah , I'm like , all right , I am too , we're doing it . This is the day we're doing it . This is the last day we're going to . We can't get it better than that . Was this the night ?
before that you planned it ?
No , it was probably maybe A day or two before we started talking about it . But we weren't sure that . You know , the weather was kind of messed up and I'm like , if it's nice , I'm like I'm picking it up , I'm like , if you're not coming , you know I'm going to do it , I'm going out , I'm going to hit the coast and just go up the thing .
So he wasn't sure what was going on with the schedule and it all worked out . We get there , we start down in mass and we worked our way all the way up to Maine and it was like phenomenal , it was perfect weather , it was . It was like summertime . You know , it was comfortable . There wasn't a lot of humidity . We're right on the ocean .
I thought I saw a seal , but it was actually a guy bobbing in the water and I told her I'm like is that a seal ? No , no , that's a guy . We did see a seal , though , but yeah , it was just .
It was just a perfect day , and the bands were like with us , like we started , we did 10 meters up for the first five parts and it was crazy and then , and then we ended on 20 , the last two and it was a . It was a great experience and I got an award for it . I got the the warthog , even though there's an award for it .
But I went . So what does that signify ? What was the rough ?
If you did five parks in a day , you get a . It was one of those .
Before the parks on the air did did robes in general for awards , they did radars , and when they started realizing that radars were too difficult because it didn't align with the get 10 contacts to complete a park , a radar does five contacts and you move on to the next spot , they kind of said , all right , let's scrap this and we'll .
We'll insert said Roeve now . So the awards , you know , play out of . You have to be an X number distance away , used to be have the X number distance away from park , but that doesn't really even matter . Now it says as long as you do X number of parks . Executive day .
Each level , though , awards are , you know , for completing three or five or 10 or 12 and whatnot . Yeah , so it's a , it's . It's good to see that they still had it , but yeah , that's kind of what the award was for completing the most parks .
Very cool . So , eric , what tell me about the equipment ? What antenna did you use ? Whose car did you take ? And then I got a follow up question for Todd on that . So all right .
Well , so I wholeheartedly agree with Todd . It was like a perfect storm , and when I say storm , I mean no storm , clear skies , quam ocean , you know nobody in sight . Perfect like after season stuff . So the whole event was just like it couldn't have been any more . You know , perfect outside of . You know physically planning it , you know minute by minute .
So , yeah , gear , we kind of just double teamed each other . I brought all my 891 pack and all the batteries and you know everything else . Todd brought his DX10 with as a backup and we decided we may use it we actually did and his 891 and his buddy pole pro , and so he had a pretty , you know , well oiled setup . Mine was the same way .
I had my Wilfrid recoil as a backup with me but I was kind of managing all of the recording gear and he had all of the equipment gear and so you know , from a standpoint of you know radios , it was full QRO 100 watts all sideband and we had just basically backup batteries to each other .
So as his you know 20 amp hour battery started to wane , I'd flip over to mine and you know vice versa . So we never , really ever , had any power issues or any difficulty in that area From a driving standpoint all me . I'm one of those guys that you know . I can't sit in the passenger seat , no matter what , without you know feeling like I've got .
I offered to drive , he said I turned him down . I was going to complain . I'm like all right so , but then Okay go ahead . No , it was . It was , um , we were like a well oiled machine , like the first park .
Once we got it set up and stuff , we just we didn't need enough to talk We'd pull in , I'd set up the antenna , the rate he'd get the radios and the video equipment going . We basically finished around the same time .
Then we would do the thing and then we'd pack up and , like , I'd pack up the antenna , he'd get the radios or whatever and we'd be onto the next one . So we were definitely you could tell that we had done this before , we had done parks before . We knew how to do the equipment and we knew what needed to be done and how to get it done .
And it just as we move through the parks , we just were getting faster and faster at it , like we were just- and that was actually my question .
So , compared to the first park , to the last park , what would you say was the improvement in time on setup and break-in ?
I wouldn't say improvement , I'd say it's because of our old age . We just got tired faster by the time we got to the 7th park .
Oh , really so by park 7 , we were pretty beat .
Yeah . So I've got a bunch of tips we can talk about after , about things that I kind of pre-planned and Todd managed kind of like all of the like let's get the gear ready , let's get on the air , let's get going . I kind of did all of the back stuff , planning so bringing snacks and water and all that other stuff .
I just left in a truck because it was like you're not going to stop because you're on a roll and you don't want to like miss your pace . And from my standpoint I had kind of done some of that route before .
I had a radar that I did a while back on my own and when I learned from it I was like I didn't have enough water , I didn't have spare batteries , I spent a little too much time at certain parks . So I really kind of kept us on clock .
So like first park was like promptly 8.15 , we were on the air 8.30 , we were up to 10 contacts wrapping up a quarter or nine , pack it all up off to the next park and kind of kept that pace because the way , the course , and if I had a map I should have posted one up , but it was pretty much .
The parks were good 10 minutes away from each other , so we could easily get through off to the next park and set up time was great because everybody was at the beach , so we had the pavilions wide open if they had one or the spaces were wide open for us to be able to just plop down and get going .
And were you operating at any of the parks ? From the parking lot Did you walk into the park area ? What was kind of the layout there ?
So , depending on where we were . So the first park we went , we walked out to the beach and we were up against the water on the sand . We had a little fold up table and just our fold up chairs . So that was part of the way .
And then if they had , if the park had picnic benches , then we'd use them and leave the chairs and the table and the truck and we kind of went like that depending . And then we were at one of the parks , or was it two of the parks ? We did it out of the parking lot , out of the back of his truck . That's , when we use it , the extent .
Oh yeah , that was Constitution and the ordinal point because we literally put in the park a lot yeah .
So we just like , let's just , we just use the tail , the tailgate . The truck dropped the tailgate down and set up right there , and you know , that was , that was our three options , really . So we were prepared for either , you know , any situation we were , whether there was a place to sit or not . We had options .
So yeah , I mean we packed pretty much , I think , our usual coach amount of like chairs and you know , obviously you had that great table when we needed it .
I mean , I think the only time we ever really used the DX10 was when we were operating out of the back of the truck , because it was just , you know , drop it out of the back of the you know the cab and put it out and you know we're off to the races .
And that I think we we had very good luck with that DX10 when we operated both those times on the tailgate . I mean those we could have sat at both of those parks and I think banged out way more than the 15 or 16 contacts that we kind of just held ourselves for a little bit on because it was just so good .
And Constitution , and we'll circle back out of a Constitution and also apparently is an islands on the air . Oh yeah , we didn't know that , so that attracted a bunch more people too .
And you know so it's a Newcastle Island . So the guy we were finishing up and we had a , we had a little pile up going and we stayed like that one . I think we had like 20 , 25 or so , yeah , 25 . We could have stayed longer , but we wanted to hit main before the place closed .
So we kind of called in but at the end the guy was like , hey , can you give me the name of the island you're on or something . And I'm like huh , like what are you talking about ? He's like the island you're on . I'm like , oh , I'm like , oh , yeah , newcastle Island . He goes yeah , I'm doing islands on the air . That's one of the islands .
So it was just some points , but yeah , I haven't gotten around to it yet . Yeah .
So that was , that was kind of cool that we , that we helped that guy out , but it was good and we had a guy from Italy . Was he from Italy the guy that kind of followed us through ?
Yeah , they followed us through the day and we're curious Do you have any hunters that were kind of following you up the coast ?
Oh , yeah , yeah , I did . You know , I did a little kind of cross reference to the logs Spain , italy , england , those are the three big ones that were like , and I think we kind of tipped them off early on when we were like , hey , we're going to be doing a 10 park road and you know we're going to the next park .
And they'd be like , all right , we're waiting for you . And so , and they were definitely waiting for us , there was no doubt every time we got there .
That's cool . We also tried to stay in the same frequency , so we said we'll be on . Hopefully we'll be on this frequency if no one's using it , and I think it was only like once that someone was on it and we had to just change it a little bit , but try to stay in the same area , so talk to me about the , the band conditions .
What were they like ?
This is your baby .
Yeah , they were , they were awesome . So the last , the last park that I had done with my antenna , I did on 10 meters and that was up in Vermont . It was my two for and actually it should have been a three for , because I found out there's a park that from Iso that ranges all of New England , but I didn't know what time .
So it was , I did it as a two for and I did it on 10 meters . So my antenna was set up for 10 meters . That was the last time I used it . So I said , well , let's just start with 10 meters and see , you know what we get . And we had like a direct line , Like it was like a hard line to Europe , and it was like clear as day , Just awesome .
So we did 10 meters and we were just like it was crazy and we're like , well , let's just stay on 10 . And we just kept going around until 10 died . And when we're getting like like later , like almost early evening , later later in the afternoon , and we weren't hearing anything , so we were just like , all right , let's just switch to 20 .
And then that's when you know there was like newings of people on 20 .
We held 10 meters till about three o'clock in the afternoon , which is totally unheard of . In most you know scenarios 10 usually dies off by like by noon time , from my experience , you know and trying to make contacts and you're lucky if the openings are there after in the afternoon until the gray line kind of crosses .
But you know it's , it's , it was , it was I turned to Todd , I'm like dude , you know , and it's funny thing is , I'll mention , is that I put together a video of it , so if you head over to my channel I'll post it in the show notes too as well . You can go check it out .
It was a blast to go through all those parks , but in it I was , like I mentioned , I'm like Todd , apparently we just have like a direct pipeline to Europe with your antenna and we were like we got to play around with the , the elevated radio , just to see if we can like zero in , say let's go Northern Europe or let's go Southern Europe and see if we can
pick up anybody in Italy and you know , over we were moving .
we were moving , we were starting to experiment . We were moving the , the counter boys in different directions and we're also setting up the antenna differently . So on the , on the , on the antenna , you can move the coil . You can have it at the bottom , you can put it in the middle , depending on how you configure it .
I'm like I didn't even really , I didn't even even thought of it . You know , I just put it together and it didn't make a difference . So , whichever way the coil was , it didn't matter . And it didn't seem to matter which way we had the counter boys , because we were hitting Europe like like there was no tomorrow yeah .
That's very cool , awesome . And so what about the uh ? Uh , just draw to blank the uh . What was your favorite park ? If you had to check ? Uh , just choose one .
Probably the main one .
Yeah , yeah . Yeah , that's my baby . That's one of my favorites . I usually activate , uh , fort McCleary , like anytime I've been main , just because the views are just , you know to dive .
It's really pretty , it's , it's , it's . You're kind of like in this old , ruined fort and you're kind of just like you're above the water but you're kind of overlooking the bay and it was pretty , uh , and you see the boats coming and going .
So it was like I said , it was 80 degrees , so like all the boaters were out there for like one last harass , so there were a lot of boats going around and yeah , yeah , yeah , you yeah .
Yeah , there's definitely like we got . We were trying to hit at least eight parks . There was one park on the way up through as you go through Portsmouth , called Fort Stark .
That's actually like kind of the sister fort , because you can be at Fort Stark and see Fort McLeary and vice versa , you know , when you're in those two parks but they're both great views and just you know rolling greens and you know kind of just you know rubble of , you know previous supported fort , one being on New Hampshire side , what , the other one being
on the main side , but yeah , those we couldn't activate that one and that was kind of a bummer because it was under construction and you know they weren't allowing me on it . But yeah , I had to , I had to confer , I mean from the clear east , you know near and dear to my heart for sure .
What was the park that we that we were right on the water . We almost had the antenna in the water .
That was North Hampton . Yeah , that was . It was a great park , but that one also . How many times do we have to go ? Can I get your call again ? Can I use the waves or just like louder than the radio could ever be , and it was ? Can I get your call again ?
You probably could have used headphones for that one , but Maybe a headphones ? Yes , but it was , that was cool because I mean we're like literally like that . There wasn't much beach and I mean the water was getting , and that's where we saw the Woman in a bikini wearing a witch's hat .
Oh yes , I'm like . I'm like weirdo is coming out , Is that ?
a woman in a bikini wearing a witch's hat , because it was around Halloween , so oh yeah , you're just north of Salem mass right after .
Okay , let's just keep going . The witches are out . Yeah , you have any of the other . Any public come up to chat with you .
Yeah , we did . Actually it's kind of funny because we had a very first park , which was the my my drawing back Salisbury , yeah , salisbury , the state park , that one we were literally setting up and getting the radios and a guy walked up and he's like hey , you guys , ham radio operator . So we're like yeah , and he's like what's going on ?
And we started explaining . Then come to find out . He's , you know , I got his own YouTube channel . He's a I should dig it up . But he's a great tinkerer . He's like kind of with those guys that likes to take Things and repurpose them from an electronic standpoint . So he'll , he'll , he's got it on his channel .
He wanted to take an old Mercedes-Benz diesel and turn it into an electric car by , you know , allowing the motor , turn the generator , and he just , you know , he reprises a lot of stuff . He's kind of like one of those junk you know junk guys that likes to to do that type of stuff , tinkering .
But he's like , yeah , yeah , I used to do ham radio and on and on . So you know he was kind of one of those guys . And then we had a few other people that you know we're interested but just didn't make anything . And then we had that last guy at North Hampton . You know he was like oh yeah , you know I have a buddy .
You know he's got a bunch of telephone poles and started to describe his whole entire antenna field and where he was . And you know he was , you know pretty , you know cordial to kind of talk to and you know definitely like to see what we were doing . And then you know it was a little curious .
Hmm , that's very cool . Then at Fort McClary we had a guy come up and he was just wearing shorts and a t-shirt kind of looked like a beach bomb and found out he was the park ranger . He's basically coming over and I thought he was gonna ask us what we were doing . He's like you guys get to get out of here , I'm gonna leave , yeah .
Was that was around five five , five o'clock , five thirty hours . So they were closing the park . So he's like , yeah , you're parked inside the , you know the , the park , so if you want to move your car outside , you can stay here .
But you see , you know , I'm like , yeah , we're wrapping up , and at that point I think we were starting to lose gas , you know , and any steam that we had .
Yeah , that was that was . It was a long day . Well , it was a great photo day . I mean it was just a lot of fun and we had perfect weather and it wasn't crowded like if we had done that in the summer we would have never gotten that far because no you to deal with the crowds , it didn't cost us anything to go into any of these parks .
I don't like there's no how to season . B the season . So that would have cost us some money if we were paying for each park . So it was , it was really nice , it was cool . I mean I like to do it again .
I like to maybe even start earlier and try to get to 10 , you know , I try to get , try to keep moving and up go seven , eight , nine , ten , whatever .
Yeah , absolutely so . That same day that you guys were doing the park road , I was at work and I was in the corporate aircraft . We forgot about this , yeah , so we had a reposition between Belfast up to Stockholm . And as we're taking off , I look at my phone and I see the reverse beacon and I see your guys , that call signs pop up .
So I'm like , oh , how about that ? So I dial in the frequency and At first , the first , I don't know five , ten minutes . It must have been in the skip zone or something , because I could just barely hear you . So I'm just kind of monitoring , monitoring , and then I threw my call sign out .
You guys heard me , but there's a lot of noise and I couldn't hear you and I got busy and so I don't know , it must have been 10 , 15 minutes later . Yeah , so we were getting ready to start the descent and land and you guys were coming in like five , nine plus thirty .
There's no meter on the radio in the airplane , but it was crystal clear like we were standing right here on with headphones and I threw the call sign out . But then I just started getting a real busy and I couldn't check , I didn't have time .
We didn't . I didn't know you were first . We did . I heard you were coming in a lot clearer than I think you could hear us . We heard you the first time , a lot clearer and I didn't really put it together that you were flying . And then the second time I'm like I think he's flying . I said I think he's , that's why he's busy .
He's got keys either landed or you know , something's going on like that's why he can't talk to us , cuz there's Well , you know hold , and I'm like how long does he want us to hold for ?
Okay , let's just move on . Come back .
So I think officially we did not establish a contact , but I got you know .
There's no signal report doesn't matter , but you know it's funny cuz like like .
This is probably this is like now the second time that I've gotten you in that you know heading over there , you know on the on the air .
It's kind of cool that you know you and I have talked while you've been , like what , at 45,000 feet flying around and 45,000 yeah and this is where you know the first time I did it , when you , I think you texted me and you said hey , I'm on 10 meters , and I heard you . And then this time you know we're just doing a pod .
Activation was pretty , it was pretty awesome .
So you don't get a lot of people you get from airplanes Check it in with you . It's cool , you know it's , it's unique , that's for sure . So Excellent . What other highlights about the the Roeve that you remember ?
Well , I got a laundry list , but you can dive in , todd , if you want to chime in .
Go ahead .
I I mean there's yeah , I think we touched on some of them . I , you know , if you're ever planning kind of something like this , it does take a little bit of time to kind of think it out through . I mean , obviously we mentioned the beginning . We just like called each other up 48 hours before and said , hey , let's just go do this .
And I would say , you know , even if you don't even complete the , you know three of the , you know 15 or whatever number you have as a goal . You know you still had fun and you know you're out doing it and you learned a lot .
But I think you like it's Todd touched on we , we really did , you know , even without kind of saying stuff , and we've done parks before .
You know he talked about where we worked together , where you know he had his kind of roles and responsibilities and you know I had my setup and we just kind of met in the middle and and then tear down was kind of the same thing . It just went , you know , like clockwork and and we didn't even have to kind of you know say hey , did you remember this ?
Because it was just like everything went back in the bag . We all did a cursory look back at the bench and then we were off to the next thing because we just knew you know what , where everything went and everything had a place and and whatnot .
So that kind of helped our schedule overall , which you know is kind of important when you want to do a row , because you know we ten meters , as we , you know we were talking about , just really kind of took off and we could have stayed at each park for a good hour , no problem , and netted like 50 , 60 contacts each park without even batting an eyelash .
But you know we were really set on , we kind of just , you know , achieving the maximum goal , which was ten when we set out , but you know , seven is still , I think , in my mind , admirable and a great you know way to end the day .
And so you know it's about like planning your schedule a little bit , but knowing that you know everything else around the world is probably gonna , you know , try to knock that off course a little , you know , and you know , keep you down .
But we benefited a lot in that sense and you know it's kind of some other small little tips that you know you might see in the video that you know I've gotten questions on from a bunch of people that really worked well . I , I thought it having that dual mic set up , todd , was awesome . I mean that saves so much time .
In the past , the mic approach , I mean it was hard enough for us to , like , you know , remind the operator or the hunter on the other end , hey , we have another con , you know , we have another operator , you know . But we didn't have to like , try to , you know , snatch the mic or worry out .
So you know , setting that up was saved us minutes , you know , per content .
So what ? So , basically we had a splitter into the , into the radio , so we each had our own hand mic , which which is it's good when you're like like . So Eric and I have done a couple of Parks together and you know , normally in the beginning we were just passing it back and forth , back and forth , and that can get kind of like .
Now we each have one and you know , when you're saying second operator , he can , I don't have to pass the mic , he can instantly , you know go in because a lot of these people will forget we have two operators , even though we tell them , and then they disappear .
So we're trying to make sure we they got both operators and then you know , having that it just it's a lot smoother .
The other thing that we did , I think prep wise , is we had the list of parks that we were thinking of doing and then we went on hammers and we Wrote up the reset , up the logs so that way , and then we had a list of what lot , what what the park number was , and then we'd go through and you find it on a log , and then we would , we would just go
from there . So we are . So we didn't have to sit there and wait and set up the logs and get everything . It was already done . So that was a little pre prep stuff that made things a lot easier and that's a nice step .
I like that .
Yeah , it was , it was good and , like I said , it was like we talked about doing it for I mean , probably since I started right like we've been talking about this for a while and it just , you know , I was like I was tired of working , I wanted a long weekend .
It was gonna be beautiful and I'm like I am not going to work when it's 80 degrees because it's not gonna be 80 for much longer .
We came off that .
I totally yeah , yeah , and I was like we're , I'm like I'm doing this , and then , yep , that's what we did and it was . It was really nice and it was , it was a lot of fun and , like I said , it was , uh , I'd love to do it again . I want to do it again . I want to see if we can get more and even do some of the different parks .
But , being in that strip along the coast , the parks are so close to each other . You know what's the farthest we drove before park was like maybe four miles , four miles .
Yeah .
And so you can do it because they're right there . It's like you're not wasting your time driving . You know , an hour here , a half hour here , so it's just like one . I mean , before I could even like , sit down , take a breath , get a drink of water .
We're pulling the X park , so it was um , so that was that was you know something that when we talked with uh , when we talked with uh , kyle and Jason , they were saying you know , like you know , we're fortunate because we have so many parks in such a dense area where , like in Missouri and Texas , they're like they got to drive , you know , an hour or two
hours away to get to the next park , and all our parks are like on top of each other . So it was pretty cool .
Yeah , the knowing the route is a totally important thing , like you know , because I knew that in the back of my head so we didn't have to think about , like okay , where's the next park destination ? Wise , so if you can map that stuff out in advance , it's going to save you , you know , a more time on the .
You know the , the opportunity to be able to finally figure out , once you get to the park if you've never been there before where you want to set up . You know , I already kind of knew where the best spots kind of were to plop down the gear , and it was just a matter of whether or not there were people there in . You know those spots .
Or you know we had it wide open and because I think we did it at the time , we did it totally , you know , gave us a lot of advantage to be able to just , you know , get set up , go and not be interrupted or not have to , you know , wander around trying to find an open picnic table or whatever . Very cool .
So , on round two , when you guys go do it again , are you going to do the same parts again and kind of remap it , or are you going to do something totally different ?
Oh , todd , you tell me we got to do it in reverse order this time .
Yeah , maybe we do it in reverse order . The thing is with with those parks . They're right , they're all in a line right . So trying to get as many parks I mean , like I said , we missed Fort Stark , so that one is another one we could get , we could add to it .
And then there was a couple of imports that we just kind of bypassed just because there were two in land . We wanted to get to Maine because I hadn't activated Maine yet . So I wanted to do Maine . That's what I told them . I said , whatever we do , we have to hit Maine Like that's . You know , we got to that's got to be our final destination .
So , and that was the far like to get from where we at constitute for constitution to Fort McCleary . That's the longest drive part . I mean , that was like 20 minutes maybe , that's that 20 minute drive , yeah , so we're kind of farthest distance . But there are there are some parks that were a little inland that we could have . We could have picked up .
So yeah , I mean maybe we'd do different ones , but I think that's to get the quantity of them . I think that's the best route , at least around here on the coast , because , like I said , they're all in a line so you're just basically knocking them off every couple of miles .
Very cool .
Yeah .
What are the organizational tips ? Do you have Eric ?
Oh God , yeah , I mean we didn't . That didn't go well , that I should have remembered . Just because I'm getting older , I didn't pack sunscreen and by the time I think I was done I was like pretty red lobster . I had a sunburn , but it wasn't , you know , anything that I wasn't expecting because we were totally out there .
But the only other thing that I missed is , you know , we got lucky where a couple of the parks still had open restroom facilities . But when you're busting butt between beach locations and stuff , and especially if it's after season , you know a lot of that stuff is already closed .
So you got to kind of you know , map out okay , where's it going to be , the quick bathroom breaks , that type of stuff , because you know you're going to , you know you're going to get to the last park and you going to be like , oh my gosh , I can't have , I can't do 10 contacts , go find Mother Nature or something .
But you know it's a little bit insane there . And so you know that was the only thing I learned there . And then , just knowing you know , like we said , when you know , when you park at these parks , know when they close . So if you get late you can still kind of stay and you know , make your quarter if you can't get to it .
Okay , very cool , so it looks fascinating . Hopefully schedules align and I can join in on this adventure .
That would be fun , I think three , three activators would . I have not yet done a park where I've had three activators , unless it was like been a meetup or something like that . But even then , three activators all at one , yeah , that that would be a challenge for sure . I'd love to try that one , you know the other .
what I was thinking when we were doing it was having a having like like two teams one starting in mass , one starting in Maine and Chris Cross . You know , come down , come up , see which park we end up meeting in together and and going that way . But yeah , I mean it was , it was fun .
I mean I think it's just , it's just a good time and just hanging out . You know it's like you know if you like doing parks in the air , and you know the gear . You know the eight 91 is such a good photo radio it really is . It does its job , it's it's it's so easy , it's compact , you get a hundred Watts out of it . And then you know the antenna .
You know , once you learn your antenna and how to set it up and you've done it enough times , you're not even thinking about it . Right , like I think when we went to 20 meters I even knew my guy . It's the blue one , it's the blue mark and it's 13 down .
But knowing your antenna , knowing your gear and knowing how to set it up and all that stuff helps because it shortens the time , because you're basically a race against time and you know we would have never if the bands weren't as good , you know , we would have never even probably gotten seven .
But because the bands were so well and then we were getting so much on 10 meters , it was just I mean we just kind of cruise through it , I was . So I mean we did like , weren't we like at one park You're like I can't ? We've only been doing this like 45 minutes . We're already done with our second park .
We were , we were , it was crazy , we had plenty of time . This is no , this is going to be a walk in the park , no problem . And I like , yeah , we're going to get bitten in the butt somewhere along the line and we didn't think God knock on wood . But yeah , there there were those moments of like okay , we're just shaving time off here a little bit .
And I think the 10 meters was actually a godsend , because 20 meters was like there were so many people on 20 . I mean , it was like as soon as they heard you , it was like a pile up right . So it's hard to leave a pile up , at least for me Sure . Absolutely .
With the 10 meters we were able to get the 10 , 15 , and then it would kind of slow down a little bit and then it gives us an easy way to get out of there . When we got to the 20 meters like , I think , at Fort Constitution we were there for a while just because we just kept getting .
Finally we had to say , all right , we got to go , we have to go to the next park , even though we had a ton of people that we could have sat there and worked . So I think that made it easier too .
I think we had . The 10 meters was definitely great . You mentioned obviously we were stuck to one frequency . That was , I think , our blessing in disguise there , because we how long lucky , especially if you try on 20 meters to keep the same frequency .
If you're doing a multi-rove , do you think you're going to get that same frequency when you get to the next park ? Probably highly unlikely .
So it was made it really easy for the hunters just to sit there , camp out and wait like a half an hour or whatever the timeframe was , and boom , they were back on top of us and they were like yeah , we worked again , no problem , and off to the next one . So they were very much lockstep with us the whole entire way .
And we were telling them our next park is 20 minutes away . Give us a half an hour we should be back on and we're going to try to keep around this frequency and stuff and some of the they'd hung out with us like the whole day .
So that was great . Well , that's very cool . I mean the continual practice of doing it over and over . That's how you get better . You know the repetition , so I'm sure the second row of here will be that much better .
And a little bit more challenging , I'm sure , especially if we bring on more and we try to do something a little bit .
I'd like to throw the you know monkey wrench system and say one team should be QRP , only just to see who does that and see how it pans out and see who makes it quicker , because that would be a very interesting heads up you know kind of challenge to see or different mode . Yeah , totally that was .
I brought my FTA stuff but I knew like once 10 meters started getting hot for us , I was not going to crack out the computer and waste time because we were just given like they were just like pouring and handing contacts to us and it was like you know why ? Why ? Why mess things up is too good .
Very cool . Well , I love the idea , and we'll have to kind of look at a map and throw some pins on some locations in addition to the route you guys chose .
So I'm sure I'm sure there's a . I'm sure we could probably do like South Shore . You know , along going down Plymouth Sure , there's a ton of parks that way too .
Down there a little bit . They are a little bit more spaced out . So we had to be a little bit more careful with planning and strategy . But yeah , it could be done , especially like if you play down like the inside of the like .
I would love to start the Cape Run like start right over the Bourne Bridge , start that very first park and wrap all the way out to the very far point , because you can literally hit a park everywhere down route six and you're just traveling the length of route six and I can't remember how many parks total would be , but by the time you get to the very last
park , which is out on the race point , that's like a big grid square for everybody . So that would be the best of the best because no matter what time you got there , whether it be late shift or not , people will be like I got to work that park because it's not what does that ?
FN 53 .
Yeah , I'd have to pull it up on the podium .
How many parks are on Cape Cod ? Um no , I will that could be . That could be another thing . We could just work Cape Cod , oh sure Okay .
While you're talking to you'd have a continually good ground plane right next to the ocean .
Oh , I love the ocean . That's like . It's so awesome .
You know , did you have any issues with sand getting in the gear ?
A little bit , not much , I mean , it was more . You know if I picked something up and put it over , but you know we blew it off . I guess if I was going to do it again , I'd maybe brought like , uh , maybe one of those air cans . You know that spray air just to get it , but it wasn't too bad and we weren't always on the .
I think there's like one , two or like three that we were actually like on the beach beach , like I was saying . The other ones we were on picnic tables or we were on the grass or the back of his truck . So , yeah , it wasn't too bad .
So the Cape run . If we count the two right before you cross over the bridge into official Cape , that'd be a total of 10 parks . There's a big gap from sandwich to the mash P side , but you know that could definitely be the Cape Cod rail trail .
It was like the whole you can go anywhere .
Oh true , that's right . You can always play that you could hop in the gap .
You can hit the ground . Figure out where to do the rail trail .
However , the big wild card on the Cape , as everyone knows , is traffic . Yeah , but not if you do it in October . Yeah , but I mean , why wait till October ?
Yeah .
We could do it in April or May .
It's a consideration . You got to think of the traffic . They can get really good luck down there .
Oh yeah , especially trying to get in or out . But yeah , that's definitely one of those things that I would try . I mean , the last one on the destination list would be the National Seashore One , which is pretty much kind of the race point area , because that National Seashore wraps all the way down into Providence Town .
So that's one where you could either activate before you get into Turro that area , or you could just drive all the way down to Providence Town and activate down on those edge of those beaches and really get the grid square , like you said , Ryan .
Cool , very cool , nice . So your top three not even top three , maybe your top favorite thing of the day , of that event , which are most memorable .
I think just hanging out it was fun . I mean we hadn't hung out and just done radio . We've all been pretty busy . I've been busy , Ryan , You've been busy , Eric's been busy , he's been and it was just kind of cool hanging out and just playing radio . So I mean I thought that was the , it was a good day . It was just a good day .
It didn't seem too long , it didn't seem too short , it was like we didn't have anything planned . So there wasn't like we had to rush home and there was a time limit and we just kind of played it by ears and like by five o'clock we were both pretty much like , yeah , we're done , Like we could have probably gone and found another part .
It was like why ruin a good time ? We were kind of hurt we're like you know , this is getting a little tiring . So , it was , it was , it was a I just I hadn't worked those , those parks . So for me it was even better for than Eric because he had worked them all . So I got all these new parks , you know , in my log and that was kind of cool .
But I had wanted to work them and I love going out to the beach and you know just the smell of the ocean and it was just nice . And the weather . I mean here it is like it was almost Halloween and you know we're sitting there with we should have brought shorts .
I mean I changed the shirt , it was that hot , but but we were looking for shade , which is kind of crazy . Like normally in October we'd be looking for the sun . We're like , oh , is there a shelter ? And we , what was the park that they ? We were going to sit under the thing and they were having like a party or something .
Oh , that was um . I am I drawing up like I remember which one .
There's a , you know , there was like a picnic tables and like a , you know , a roof over it .
That was perfect . That was . Was that Hampton ? No , which one was that ? That was the one right after North .
Hampton maybe .
North Hampton was the beach one where it was just the the shores right there in front of us .
It was after that one .
Oh no , it was right , it was right . Right , harbor , that's what it was . That area and whatnot . Yeah , that one was . Yeah , go ahead , I was going to say that one that one had . That was the only rest area that was available .
Thank God they had the restrooms open , but I think because of the party you probably would have been , you know , saved our butts because it was like , okay , cool , we're a third away there , let's just uh , refuel , refresh , kind of get going . And I know Todd was already out to try it because he was just like on the pick , the bench ready to go .
I was like , let's get this going .
No but that was , uh , you know . So that I mean that was like you know who would have thought that they would have had like the whole , they took over the whole thing . But there was another bench down there and we had like right on the water and it was , it was perfect .
And we set it up and as soon as we turn on the I mean actually the first we turned on the radio you plug in , you check the SWR , you're good . You turn on the radio and then boom , we're hearing . You know , that was in mass . We were here and like , oh , this is going to be good . And it was the same way .
As soon as we got in there , we start calling out your right back in . And it was just like wow , Like this is just crazy .
That's awesome , Eric . What was your most memorable part of the day ?
Most memorable park , um would have to be oh , I'm trying to think of , for me it was . I , like Todd said , it's about the relationship side of thing . That's important . I think I like to be able to like interact when people come by who are curious a lot , so I try to spend some time having conversation with those folks .
So that happened kind of in two places , obviously being Salisbury and then the other one was Northampton . Um , they , you know , just , I like to share the hobby and I like to spread kind of the , the radio cheers . I say and and I answer people's questions , you know , and they could be as far-fetched as like , are you , you know , doing bird migratory ?
You know monitoring , or you know the worst of like , where's your tinfoil hat type thing .
But , um , you know most of the people that I bump into when I tell them about ham radio , they're like what , and that's kind of my cue of like , oh , okay , well , let me explain what ham radio is , and you know , and and start to kind of make their curiosity peak a little bit .
And you know , we actually the last I think the most memorable one was the last , you know , at McCleary , where we had a bunch of teenagers , that no , they were teenagers , they were the 20-somethings and they looked like you know , they just rode in on their bicycles , kind of thing .
And you know they all come stumbling down with like these big , like you know wide open eyes and they're all like what are you doing ? And we're like we're doing ham radio . They're like what's ham radio ? And we're like , oh , okay , here's the opening .
And so they're like you just talk to people , you know we're like , yeah , we just finished talking to people over in Europe . Like Europe you talk , like you know , like it wasn't , like oh , why didn't you pick up your cell phone ? It was like , no , you talked to somebody in Europe , you know , just two seconds ago .
Or you know Italy , or you know you named the place that you know was on our list and you know we made contact with them and they were like , oh , that's just so awesome .
So , like you know whether or not they'll ever , like you know , make that connection down the road , for me it's like , at least , you know , plant the seed and people are , you know , interested and hopefully , you know , down the road they'll bump it to somebody else who you know does ham radio on emergency communications level or something and you know , it might
spark more of an interest .
Well , that's very cool , and that's that's one of the main reasons why we started the podcast is to help promote ham radio in New Hampshire , New England and beyond .
Yeah , I think if we went to one of those parks that people visit and we went there in the morning , set up and had a flyers and , you know , maybe like a little shelter or whatever , and had someone operate and then someone to be able to talk , I think you'd get a lot of .
You see a lot of people come up and talk about it , and I think that would be another cool thing to do is like , maybe go to Fort McLeary for the day , set up and you know , and prepare to like kind of pass things out for you know , the POTA flyers , what ham radio is all about .
But before we , before we end , I just want to say we also had a wedding that we felt like we were in because they were .
They were like way down down the coast and out on this pier and this guy's mic was just I don't know what it was , echoing or bouncing off , but I mean it literally sounded like we were sitting there listening to him through the ceremony and the party and everything else .
I'm sure it came across in the video . I just didn't , you know , really really look to see if I did . But Right .
I mean , I was like well , how can we hear this so well ?
Oh , that was crazy . I was like , I was like at one time I was thinking like maybe our intent is feeding back in their system and their heroes call it five , nine , five , nine .
Yeah , fort , blah , blah , blah , and they're like what ?
But fairly not . So you know , oh well .
Oh , that's awesome , Very cool . Well , I'm sure to definitely be a great bouncing off point to plan for the next year and , you know , go from there . It's a sounds like a great event .
Yep .
So wrapping up , any any last parting comments from either of you guys .
Oh well , for me I would say , if you're going to do any of this , you know , find a buddy , that's the biggest thing . Don't try to do them on your own . I mean , you can and you could be successful with it with some really good planning .
But the like as we all , I think , kind of touched upon the adventures all about just hanging out with somebody else who does the same thing that you like to do , and you know you're doing it together and you're just like dude . It just makes that so much sweeter .
I think you know , as I said , todd and I probably came off that with like a big high and were like , okay , when's the next one ? What other radio stuff do we want to do ? You know like , come on , come on , there's going to have more .
It's like I get in the truck and it's like I got to turn on the two meter radio and talk to more people and tell them all of which I love doing radio and you know . So you kind of just come off this . You know total like , you know experience , and you know I love the fact that we could crack out our DX10 . That that , I think , was my .
You know , I was like I forgot how much I love that radio . I forgot how much it's awesome for , like poda events , especially if you don't have to truck it like in you know if you're hiking into a spot . But yeah , that made a lot of our you know contacts and probably a lot of our contacts you know , when we operated with it .
But it just made you know the that whole experience sweeter and , and you know , really cool .
Which also motivated me to get my go box done .
I just had it .
I just had it in one of those things where you kind of pulled it out , but it'd be nice to have it in the in the go box . So definitely going to build that over the that would have been way easier .
But then flip the switch , plug in , go .
Well , until you get it built , you're happy to borrow team icon . So we might . We might have always ready to go .
We should be in our two team row . We'll have team icon and team Yezi and see how the you know they meet in the middle , because at that point we could both do QRP . So every we'll have to set it up .
Every other park is like you do either your QRO or your QRP and you have to alternate through and see how quickly you get to meeting them in the middle , or something that would make it a little challenge ?
Yeah , that'd be cool . Yeah , get in your go box . Finish . That'll be short on the list here . Yeah , awesome .
Yeah , it was a I think it was definitely better to do like you said , eric . It wouldn't have been as fun doing it by yourself . I probably wouldn't have been motivated to do all seven or 10 or whatever . I think it was just more of like we were doing it together and we're going to get this done .
We're going to go as far as we could and you know it was , it was , it was a good time and , like I said , I I think we should do it again . I think we should do , I think we should at some point maybe do the Cape .
I think that would be a lot of fun , you know , and , like I said , it's just , it's just about getting out there and I love best part for me with Ham radio was going out there and I and activating parks and just being out and you know , being out there , because the one thing that you get is you don't get any noise .
At least most of the time it's just super quiet and you can just really pick up these stations and I just think it's . It amazes me that I got to stick up this , you know this , basically stick in the ground and my radio and we're talking to like people and I can't tell you that the antenna is just phenomenal .
That antenna for Polter is got to be in all aspects , it's got to be the ultimate Polter antenna because it is , it's compact , it's easy to set up and it just works . And you know we , you know if we had a , if we just had like an N fed , you know we'd have to be like looking for places to string it up .
I mean you can plop that thing anywhere and , like I said , that one park I think it was North Hampton we were basically on the water . I mean , the thing was the tripod was like almost like getting wet yeah . Yeah , we're almost in the water , you know , but so it was .
It was just a , it was a really cool thing and like the gear was just perfect and like I think if you're going to attempt to do this , you just need to know your gear and know how to set things up . If you want to get that many parks Now , you can go out and do a few parks and try it like that way and just have fun with it .
But if you're really going to try to push the limit , make sure you know and you know and make sure your partner knows what they're doing too .
And Eric did all the setting up with the filming and the mics and all that stuff , and I did the antennas and we both cranked the radios up and got it set up and , like I said , we didn't even have to talk , we just knew what we were doing and we just seemed to get better and better at it .
And that's , that's how it all worked and , like I said , we couldn't ask for a better day . Probably my favorite day doing parks on the air so far .
No , that's awesome , Very cool , so well , excellent , like I thank everyone for joining us on this live free and ham podcast . If you have not already subscribed , encourage you to do so . You can leave us a review on iTunes or a website and you can contact us on our social media for the latest information , shows and content .
So the and one thing I should look into more I have to a little honest . I need to look into this Patreon thing . Looks interesting . I'm sure we can get a few more . Buy us a beer links and every little bit helps . So that definitely be a little nice addition .
If you want to contact any of us , you can contact us on the live free and hamcom website and once again , appreciate everyone tuning in and listening . And from W1SNH I'll say seven , three .
Seven three .
Seven three .