"Shackin' off" - the evolution of the Ham Radio Shack

This is our bi-weekly show during which we discuss ham radio topics in New Hampshire , new England and beyond , and , whether you're a regular listener or our first time guest , we are excited to have you here and appreciate your support and thanks for tuning in tonight's episode . So let's get into the show like we always do .

I'm your host , eric Paulsign , n1jur , and I'm with my hosts Okay , they're retired with that , all right . So before we usually get into our topic , we've got a few things we'd like to catch up on .

As always , if you haven't headed over yet , you should always check out our storefront at livefreeandhamcom forward slash shop , as we always are working towards getting more t-shirt ideas up there and improving on the ones that we have , and there's always something new to check out .

So if you haven't been up there in a while , you definitely need to get ahead over there and see if you can find something you might like to wear , because , again , we are all sporting . Live free and ham official gear . As always , I'm wearing the original og hat , paul and todd are wearing the camo version of that same hat and you know it's a great hat .

You know I don't know about you guys . I love it , I'll wear it . Every time I was going to say you took it hiking up the mountain and I'm like , oh my gosh , that hat's going to get ruined . The sweat from his brow is going to be so deep in that . But it's machine washable , dude , throw it in there , it'll survive . So we'll be good .

Throw it in there , it'll survive . So we'll be good . Flex fit , totally All right . Well , as always , if you haven't head over there , please head on over there . Check , check out some of our merch , pick some up and , like we said , you will not be disappointed . So , as always , we love feedback too .

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And one more way you can connect with us . So a lot of cool stuff's going on , we're having fun with it , and so we want you to come be part of it and check it out . All I have to say just check it out , find out , learn more Totally , yep , yep . So we're working on that .

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Let us know how we're doing , and always we appreciate it . If you have someone in the past , you know we thank you , uh , but keep them coming guys , because , uh , we we enjoy uh doing this show and we want to know that you guys do as well .

So with that , we go into our doing good , good , doing good you do , that's good , do good do good , you're doing good absolutely , I do good , good I do it , good , bob doing real good , and right now my only outlet is my ham radio that's totally the truth , man . My outlet is my ham radio .

As my wife would say , get off the damn ham radio and pay attention to me just the way it goes in this household , but anyway . So with that , you know , comes our do good episode .

It is an episode that I have something that's so near and dear to my heart and I'm sad to report , like Todd , we had nothing , no do-goods in a while and I know we've been hard on you guys .

I know we've been basically pushing and telling you you guys got to get off your asses and do something about it and tell us what's going on in your lives from a ham radio perspective . And no , it's crickets . I don't have a cricket sound , I just need to get one next .

So , you know , my advice is we're going to stay doing this because there is value with this . We all believe in this . We know there's some good stuff out there . So , you know , take a second or two , send us a quick email at livefreeandham , at gmailcom , or , if you're as lazy as it can be , you can head over to our website at livefreeandhamcom .

Forward slash , do good , fill in the form . It'll come right to us , we'll read it and we'll be rejoicing with you . We'll be excited . We'll share all of our you know tears and sorrow and joys and everything that goes with it . Just put it in digital form . Do something I don't know , before I have an aneurysm or something and keel over .

I mean , that's probably what's going to happen , is I have to reach that level . I have to reach that level , so everyone feels bad and then they have to start sending it in . So I don't , you know , have another episode , oh no , and you guys would have to carry on .

It's in the clause and the you know the insurance wave rider , they must carry on the torch . Did you know about that , paul ? Yeah , okay , take out the garbage so with that , you know , please let us share your do good episode with us .

We are going to keep pestering you until it happens , and once it does , you guys will all be better for it , I guarantee it . So , alright , well , enough beating that dead horse , let's move on to our usual productive , fun episode segment . And now for something a little extra , with Todd W1STJ .

Todd , as my wife said , I'm getting a little punchy here , so I apologize up front , but in essence , you know we are doing it again . This is just one . Sadly , this is just the one . It's a really strong one , but it's the one . Sure , you send me whatever you want , I'll fix it All right . So with that , you've heard it here .

This is where we help Todd study for his extra class license . And then the good part is is that we are way ahead of everybody on every other YouTube channel that's just starting to do extra towards April . Heck , we've been doing it all year long , man , they're just all behind the curve there with Todd here .

So my , my applaud to Todd for keeping the course here .

So with that , you know , in each episode we pick three questions for the extra class pool to test his knowledge and hope he gets his upgrade , which he's making progress towards , I promise , and so if you'd like to follow along , you head over to hamstudyorg , which is a great resource to help you prepare for your test .

Well , so with that , if you're on the journey of studying your technician general or extra class , like Todd , you want to go to hamstudyorg because it's an excellent resource for getting your ticket , or studying for your ticket .

I should say , and you know again , if you've recently received your license or upgraded , which I know there are people doing because the hobby is growing , I'm seeing people pop by with technician licenses . We want to know . So we want to recognize you , we want to celebrate with you , we want to give you the kudos and we want to share in your success .

So send us an email , livefreeandham at gmailcom , or SMS , text us , whatever , or a win-lick email for all we matters . Just do something . Tell us that you've graduated , you know you've upgraded or you've gotten your ticket , and we'll share and celebrate with you and we'll make sure we mention you on the next show .

All right , well , with that , we're going to get into our usual format here . And so let me ask Paul , you know how has your hemorrhoid week been ? What's been going on ?

And in case Paul's already beating on that poor little mini computer , that liquid cooler is going to help him in the long run for sure to keep the computer from deciding to burst into flames . Well , good deal . Well , keep us updated on that progress , because , uh , I know , uh , once you do , you'll be celebrating and and .

Then on to chapter number two of uh , getting everything back to where you were from the start , of all your software . So I , uh , I applaud you and and and , uh , super excited that you're using all that hardware finally and putting it all together , and so I'm looking forward to see what you come out of it .

Hopefully that'll make you produce more videos instead of killing yourself .

Or should I say ham radio with a knot through the ham part you , thank you 30 mile an hour wind , yeah the good old F you , todd , thanks for doing your lawn until we get one , thank you . Hiding in the bushes .

So if you , if you've been watching here and you , you know , you don't know what that means , go back to our live stream and you can get the 411 of course they would be , you know , if they want to be on your good graces there . My friend , that's why you're in law enforcement . Yeah , they have the internet to make that easier for them .

We didn't have the internet . It was way easier to get in trouble without having to worry about a , you know police officer . Oh well , bummer with that , but uh , anyway , good on , uh , good on your leapfrogging exploits and good for there . Well , thanks for asking , todd , I appreciate it .

So my ham radio week Well , I spent the last couple of days just doing the last you know , we'll say touch ups to my truck for the HF setup , the last you know , we'll say touch-ups to my truck for the hf setup .

I uh finally got the coax run into the vehicle from my little um uh bulkhead connector that I have off my bumper so I can now extend or put in a , uh a mast off the , the trailer hitch and and run a wire , and I could do that all from the comfort of my vehicle through a little coax switch . So I finally got that part of that video done .

So I am now going to be slogging through editing all of that content of all my HF install on the truck , which was a fun project to do . I have to say that I took a lot of time , took a lot of effort putting that together , both on the video side and the components , and I'm super happy with it .

And I love the fact that you know my wife decides to go into a store , I can just sit there with the truck off and turn on HF and make podo contacts and hunt . I have never done more hunting in my life .

Now that I have HF in my truck , I'm a hunter more than I am a podo activator , which is sad at this point , but you know it is oh yeah , sort of I don't know , like my daughter has , like I have a couple of episodes that I my daughter had recorded for me , like I done a video that I haven't released yet because I'm just swamped in putting it together

of a matchup between the Ed Fong antenna and the Farah J that Casey let me borrow and if Casey's listening again , I will get you that antenna .

I've had it for almost seven months and I keep forgetting to give it to you because I've already recorded the video for it and I did a head-to-head matchup on that to you because I've already recorded the video for it and I did a head-to-head matchup on that , but he always razzes me . He was like , hey , how's that J-Poll doing that ?

I let you borrow eight months ago and I'm like it's doing great , it's in the package . I haven't used it once . So , yeah , she was doing my video editing for me . So , yeah , it made it easier . But it's always harder because when you have an assistant , they laugh at you , especially if they don't understand ham radio .

So that's the one thing you got to remember is that they will laugh at you , which makes it harder to be serious in your video if you're trying to be serious . So keep that in mind . Yeah , so the truck videos will be out soon .

I can't tell when , but if I'm applying the Shane schedule from Ham Radio clubhouse , uh , you know it'd be six to nine months easily , you know , in some cases . But um , oh boy .

You've already opened up that bag .

I don't think I got a chance to get a poda in this week . I was planning on , like todd uh mentioned in the last episode , uh , that , uh , you know he was about to get out and do one but he ended up testing everybody and , uh , you know , taking their test for them and never got a chance to do a poda .

I was sort of in the same boat , although I did get an email from another ham , and this is a little tip for everybody who does activations If you ever get an email from another ham asking about an activation you've done at a park you maybe have worked your keeler or whatever reply back very quickly .

Reply back with details of , like , what they're looking for . Like , be super friendly because in my experience , if you do that nine times out of ten , you're gonna get more people engaged in the hobby and more excited about the hobby and want to go do this .

And so , like , reed's ferry was a perfect , perfect example , like he was asking me , and if we've all been , you know those have been to Reed's Ferry there's only one little spot you can activate and it's on the bend of a road called Mulberry Lane and if anybody knows where it is , you know you can just pull up and activate right there on the corner , but

you really can't get into the woods . And so him , and then this guy I can't remember his call sign . I should go back and look at my emails . But bottom line is he was super ecstatic to have me reply back to him . He's like , wow , this is the , this is the fastest anybody's ever responded back to me .

And I'm like , dude , I send him pictures of locations and pin maps and everything . And and he was just like I'm so thankful , dude . And he lives in mass somewhere . And so you know , for all intents and purposes , hey , I , you , I don't care if you want to hike into that place , go right ahead , but you know that's the best spot .

That's how I got my kilo for it . So , yeah , be friendly , help people . You know , help them get , you know , that park activated , even though you've activated 9 million times and you've got two kilos or whatever you know you've done in that park . You know , be a good ambassador for POTO . That's all I have to say . Okay , shacking off .

I think we'll say Not we're saying we're shacking Greg here , but we're shacking off , and so , like we said in the beginning , we were kind of going to dive into our shacks here . You know , we we've all built our shacks up and you know number different ways and you know I wanted to kind of talk about .

It's been a topic , you know it's been on our topics list for a while . But you know , something comes up or we change course or we do something different and I was like , hey , you know , let's go back and revisit , let's , let's see what we can do . So you know , let's , let's talk .

You know a little bit about it , because I know I get a lot of questions , at least on my channel , about you know , hey , what's your shack ? Look like what ?

You know , what do you have , what don't you have , and and you know , with that I talk you know about , you know about my flex and you know all of the other stuff I have , but and and eventually I may get off my ass and and and create a video someday . You know it's on my to-do list , but you know it's way down at the bottom .

So you know why not use this forum right now to talk about our shacks . You know I mean Paul's got a really decent shack . I mean he's built it up , you know quite a time and Todd's gone , from a DX10 , you know sitting in a small little corner to now you know full rack and flex and the whole nine yards .

So you know let's kind of talk , you know so . So how did you guys start ? What was your initial shack look like ? And let's kind of go from there and we can kind of talk about the evolution of that stuff . So , paul , since you know I know Todd's already got , you know he's ready to go , let's start with you .

I mean , obviously you started started with , I think , a 706 , right .

So , yeah , but so my shack originally started a lot like you guys , I didn't have vhf and uhf , sadly , I was always contained in my truck and I had a FTM , no , an FT450D . That was my very first HF gear .

After once I got my what we'll call general COVID and um , I set that up and I had I can't remember when I ran outside I think I was running a , a wire antenna and I think it was like the mfj 1982 or 84 antenna , the worst antenna that everybody buys and says I wish I never bought it .

But you know that you just , you know you live and you learn kind of antenna and went through many iterations of getting , you know , realizing that there was just a garbage antenna , and so I , my first step was always buy a better antenna and got that up , and then that kind of started the spiral We'll say death spiral of oh , I've got to have a vertical

antenna . So I bought a DX commander classic and then I had another wire antenna so I had like a four wire antennas at this point four separate cable runs coming secretly into the my hoa , you know involvement . But at that point the basement was still , we'll say , um , a cement floor .

You know barely uh , you know uh , walls that were fully finished and painted and so forth and so on . So my goal was to originally flip it on it's what we'll call the 2.0 version and make it more of my office space and ham shack . And yeah , it kind of evolved from there .

I don't have any words to say except that I need help , because I literally went above and beyond , because I'm like I'm not going to tear into another wall , I'm not going to redo this , I'm not going to rerun this . So everything that I implemented was like okay , how can I make this modular ?

Okay , I'm going to run four separate coax lines to a nice wall plate on the wall that's going to look finished , and those will run to a breakup box on the side of the house and that'll all have lightning arresters and you know on and on and on . And then that just basically unfurled me into another stuff . But I started with the 450 .

And so all of that was my home gear and I had fun with that 450 . I have to say that from my original shack it was a great radio . I learned a lot and I kept it . But a certain individual , we'll say Todd , he bought a DX10 . And I saw how much fun he was having with his DX10 . And I said I need a DX10 .

So I told the wife I'm like , okay , well , birthday's coming up , I need to upgrade to get an HF radio . So the DX10 became my 1.1 radio and so I had that at my desk and tied into the computer and did digital modes and everything else like that and I was having fun . But that , that , that was my shack initially .

Um , and I'll get into the , the 2.0 , you know what it is now today , but that took me a long time to get to . Um , so I guess we're to go from here .

Yeah , obviously , you know , we obviously all did our own little , like you know , initial , and we always had the VHF and UHF as kind of the base , which I didn't get a chance to , but that was in my truck . What did you guys do to like what was ? Like Todd , you obviously mentioned you started with the DX10 .

Like , did you just decide that that was the radio you're going to go to because it was a flagship , or was it , like you know , because someone said you should buy it , or what was your thought process on it and why did you go that route ?

But may I remind you site item number one skydiving . Let's just stop right there . Ham radio is cheap in comparison to skydiving . Ham radio is cheap in comparison to skydiving .

I can only have so many part of radios in the stable so that FX four CR could go for a really , really good price . You know , and be in your hot little hands sooner than later . You know that's 20 Watts , so you know that would be way better on your back , especially in that 891 20 watts . Yep , yep , yeah , beautiful beautiful design , great little radio .

Um , I'll probably oh , dude , I would love you would be the one person I would sell it to you know , good price , get it to you and then after that I'd be like I need to buy another one because I just like I feel like mike does with his g90 and walt and the whole thing .

So , you know , I , you know , I'm already feeling sort of a little bit like I haven't even released it yet and I'm like already feeling like the you know , the little kids being torn away from my heart . Um , so , all right , yeah , so it sounds like .

You know , with the flex , you you definitely went through an iteration of what we call rack and stack , kind of you know making everything modular in your shack there a little bit . We'll talk about that in a bit , so we'll hold that thought for a little bit .

So , paul , you've obviously grown from your shack and so your we'll say 1.5 iteration has definitely multiplied . You've changed some radios out , you know what . Where did you go with that second phase of life ? And and what does it kind of look like ? Because I know you surprised us at one time with a hey , I got one . I'm like , wait a minute .

You said you were going to stay with a 705 , 706 forever . So do tell . Talk about that whole process .

We literally pulled it out of the back of the bed , took the lid up and then pulled it out just of like four inches above the lid so we could see the display . That's how far it got out of the case it did . I'm not saying those radios work and if that's all you have , then go do POTA , don't stop .

Let that stop you that's the problem and then you ask Ryan , which was your big second mistake there ? At that point he was like let's just start the go box you must buy .

You've got the power behind you , you and Grayskull . True , that is Yep , true that that is yeah , yeah you just start showing up at funerals going , hey , is this guy into ham radio ? That's so wrong . You heard it here . Folks , we give you suggestions and strategies for a new equipment .

We got an in with Feuderholms , excuse me , do you know what a ham radio operator is ? Oh good , you do , okay , cool . Does he happen to have any gear I can take a look at now ? Excuse me , do you know what a ham radio operator is ? Oh good , you do , okay , cool . Then does he happen to have any gear I can take a look at ?

Like now , the body isn't even cold yet . Yep , all right . Well , so we're not ambulance chasers any longer . So , all right . So it sounds like you've gotten to we'll say the clean version of your install , and so have you changed much of that at all since you've had it ?

um , so was like my Geocron wasn't getting any love , so I moved it to a smaller screen in the back . I kind of walked by it like Paul does now with his ham clock of like it's a good at a glance . If you find somebody with a Geocron who wants to get rid of it , you're probably better off getting it that way than paying full price for one .

Hmm , Nice well , geochron is a complete like turnkey solution that you pay for , plus a subscription service to be able to get all the ham functionality and features . Ham clock is what open source . So you just need the hardware . Yeah , you just need the hardware . Yeah , you just need the hardware .

Or yeah , which is cheap and easy , might as well hmm well let's , let's put a pin in that for a second , because that's like the . We're talking enhancements here now . So so let's kind of shift gear so you go back to your . You know your base of where you're at . So 2.0 is you got a nice rack set up and everything seems to be working well for you .

But , paul , so where are you at with your shack ? I mean , obviously you sound like you when you were talking about getting your 7300 , pick it up from , kind of , where you're there and what you've added to . To get to the current state , no problem .

do you think that's going to lead to ? and we kind of tie it in a bow at that point at the end of this , because I know we could go for hours . Uh , because we're good like that . So I guess my iteration of my shack . So I started , like I said , on a table and then went after .

I finally built out my shack and , you know , carpeted it and made it my you know kind of home base and office . I designated basically a kind of I bought Ikea desktop and a butcher block and I made a nice long desk that literally wraps around half of my basement , literally wraps around half of my basement .

So there's a lot of counter space , a lot of openings for , you know , opportunities to be able to do stuff if I want to , and then throw it we'll put it in a box or get rid of it .

But my shack itself I bought as a kind of a we'll say , gift to once I finished the basement , was a 50 inch , you know 4k screen because my wife had bought me a um . The screen because my wife had bought me a um , the start of it , a geocron , because , as anybody knows , the geocrons only run at 4k .

They won't , you know , you can't see all the advanced features without the 4k capability . So I had this big giant monitor which literally sits above my head right now and I don't have pictures on my qrz , but I'm sure I'd be happy to post them a link in the show notes so people can see it .

And that was running my ge GeoChrome for a while and then I had a 43-inch wraparound curved screen and then a vertical screen here that I could use for FT8 .

Well , since I've gotten into streaming and my own YouTube channel , ft8 has now moved up and it's on the main screen and it sits with my Flex , because I had a DX10 tucked underneath and , like Todd said , in the whole evolution , I was like I had it and I was just like when I bought the Flex .

I was like , well , now I have to buy a rack Because I can't just let this thing sit in a closet , because it's got to be displayed nicely . And of course , ryan , who's not here on the show but is represented by pictures for those that are on the podcast , ryan is here in spirit behind Paul . He said , hey , you really should start thinking about a rack .

And so in my brain because I'm in IT , when we build out racks we don't half-ass it . I run cabling , nice , I run management and I run power and connectors , and so I at that point was like , well then I need to go out and buy a new PC .

Because at that point I was sort of in that same boat Paul is , and where Todd kind of got to was like that PC is just not going to hack it , it's not editing , I can't edit videos , I'm putting a lot of pressure on it to run all my ham apps . And I was like I just want something that's racked .

And so I went down to my pc shop that todd went to do as well , and they built me a pc the way I want it spec wise , and it's in a rack , mounted three you know , for you case . So it slides right into the rack . And so I've got that .

And then I was like , well , I have the flex , I need to have power management , and so I don't have a linear power supply , because I just couldn't fit that into the budget at the time because they're expensive , as Todd's realized . But he got his for a good deal .

So I bought two SamillX 30 amps , so they're on separate sides of the power option , so one powers my flex and then I've got on the backside side . I bolted to the back of the rack a power distribution block , so it's all power poles . So one of those samalex feeds that , and then I just plug power poles in the back there .

And then I was like well , I'm tired of trying to manage all of my usb devices , so I bought all of the modular connectors and stuff like that and so all the cables that are plugged into my pc all feed to a panel in the back , which then allows me to plug in my usb devices into that .

So if I switch stuff around , I know which port goes into where , because I was always crawling in the back and because I was crawling back I needed lighting because I didn't have lighting in my rack . So now my rack has lighting in the back that I can turn on and off . That's all led based .

And so then I have my flex on the bottom and I have a pull up . I mean it just kind of evolved . And so I've got this nice rack all well situated . I've got a web control switch that I can power it on and off whenever I want to , which my next phase to that is Node-RED and integration and all that stuff , so I can do everything remotely .

With the intention down the road , like all that stuff , so I could do everything remotely . Um , with the intention down the road , like todd said , if I ever hit the lottery then I might get a good power amp , because I really want to get the power genius , you know , power amp .

And at that point I'm like also thinking , well , if I get that , I have to go get a power genius 8x2 switch , like ryan picked up , because I want to be able to control all my antennas software wise and you know , that's kind of one of those things .

But my rack is in a good spot where it's all clean , it's all , like you know , labeled well and I know exactly what everything's hooked up to and it's all documented well . So , yeah , thank you , I appreciate it .

And it seems to be a highlight because I've always invited people over to come take a look and I always think that they're going to look at the big screen and go , oh , wow the big screen . They all go to the rack and go , wow , that's a beautiful rack , that's well organized .

You know how do you have that and like , oh , so I have to explain the whole process . So you know pretty much . You know we're shacking off and we're talking about racks . So you know let's uh , you know let's really make it bad . So that's where my statewide is .

So everything's well organized , but , unlike you guys , I always want something more to add to it or something to change . That just really bothers and pisses me off . But so let's start with you , todd . What few things that you want to take care of initially , and then what's your long-term goal for your setup ?

Do you want more software-driven stuff , or is it more hardware ? Where do you want to go with it ? Well , your computer can drive it now . Your computer can now drive it , so you can support up to four monitors .

More time means less ham radio , yep , nope . So yeah , I , I highly advise grounding is well worth it .

I , I kind of I never dove deep into the grounding books , but I talked with many people that it was like , okay , if I'm in the state I'm at and like you know , like I said , I was building out my office space , shack space , so it was like if I didn't do it then I was going to , you know , kick myself in the butt and , you know , decide that it was

a dumb idea and have to tear into walls and stuff like that , and I just didn't want to do that . So I did the grounding part very early on and I'm glad I did , because I've got a nice bus bar grounding copper bar down by my feet over here .

That's got like 22 lugs on it and all my rack and my equipment are all tied to that with short runs and my flex is tied there . So all of it's grounded . And then I got one ground right out to the grounding rod because I'm at the basement level . So it goes right out the backside and right to the grounding rod that the electrical panels in .

So , yeah , it's dropped my noise floor a little bit . I couldn't tell you how much it was before that , but in essence I'm in a hoa .

But the one thing that I'm frustrated with is that my I I'm a big proponent about automation . I like to have , you know , automation in place as much as possible with the purpose that I'm leveraging all of the time that I created , all of the , let's say , processes to make cable management look easy and software and all that stuff working well .

So my stopgap that's been a problem for me since a year ago was I was going to implement Node-RED a year ago because I got the Flex about a year and a half ago . Actually it's been two years now . So I was going to implement node red a year ago because I got the flex about a year and a half ago , or it's actually been two years now .

So I was going to leverage all of those things you see on the internet because that's once I started shopping for a flex with todd and then I was like , oh well , this node red stuff . I've got to do node red dashboards and I did a node red dashboard for field day , which was awesome because it worked great .

Um , and my my field day go box is , well , oil machine and that's literally just a plug and play and Node-RED fires up and I spend 10 minutes updating software and everything's ready for field day and I'm gonna go . My shack is not like that .

So that's my biggest thing is I want to automate that and at the same time I want to be able to automate a lot of the stuff I do with lighting and stuff like that , because I don't mind the green screen effect but at the same time it drives me bonkers .

I really want to like do better lighting in the office , but I don't want to go around and flip 19 switches so I could get ready for a live stream .

I just want to be able to hit something on my stream deck that tells node red to go do something , fire up my flex , you know do all these really cool whiz bang things and so , but that is just alone its own . You know nut to crack .

And so I haven't come up with a smaller , more bite size approach of how I'm going to do that , but I know I need to do that and that's going to be mostly software .

You know , driven , which at the same time I bought a whole bunch of stuff for the flex , like right around Todd , you know , when he built his rack for all of the hey , how do you do remote power on and off ? All that stuff is sitting in a box on top of the Flex and it's been there for a year and a half . You think I have to .

You know , knock on wood , so far I haven't had to reboot the Flex remotely in some form or fashion or ask any family members to do it . So I've been good on that part . But I know there's gonna be one of those days I'm gonna be like in maine or something like that .

I want to use my flex and it's like I can't get to it because I have to remote reboot it or something . So so all right , okay , so we're all the same boat then . You know we were yeah .

Just don't clone the clone , it would be just dumber , alright exactly okay you know I I gave away my cw key to someone else who could use it and I feel better for it because it wasn't sitting there collecting dust and I and I check in with them every time and they make me feel good that I gave them the key . So it's getting used .

So that's kind of the way I look at it . You know the stuff I give away .

Well , know that , you know , hey , you will go through an evolution . I can't tell you how many people and we've all said it and we all heard it we laugh , especially if we've been in ham radio for a while . They're like I only need one radio . And anytime someone says that , we all laugh on the inside .

And then the process goes through their you know their life and they realize , oh , they have an hf radio here . Or you know , now they've got five hts , or they've got 25 hts , and now they've got a radio that someone gave them . That's a mobile radio and and you know .

So the list goes on and on and it's like it starts with radios and then it expands to antennas and then the things that connect antennas . And you know , it's just the hobby . I I mean , yeah , you collect it , but I think the one thing I will , you know , and I think we kind of shared a little bit of this here , is that we all take the time here to .

If we have stuff that we no longer use , we pay it for it , we give it to the new hams , we give it to people that we know that can use it and get it in their hands so they get excited about the hobby and they share the same passions that we all like to do and have done and continually , you know , strive for and want to be , you know , in our

lives consistently . So that's my advice Don't harbor all your equipment . Don't be like that guy that you know dies with the most toys , because he's still dead man and none of those toys got a chance to get another home or another life out of them .

So you know , oh , trust me , by the time it happens , the flex will be up to version 20,000 and , you know , series 20,000 . So , yeah , that that thing will probably be worth $150 , because everything will be just like here it's in the air , just touching the air or speak into , you know , two into 14 , two , 50 , and add this filter .

Yeah , so I and and and funny thing is , we should talk about those plans for our features , where does our equipment go and who do we want to pass it on to ? When we get older , when this podcast is five years old , then we'll start to have those conversations and share what's our exit strategy for our ham radio equipment .

So , any last bit you guys want to add to . Uh around the stuff . Paul , knowing our luck , we'll all get into an accident and we'll all go down and we'll all die at the same time . So then really , the quirk goes nowhere , but we'll be doing ham radio . That's where it really counts , yeah I know right cool , all right .

Well , anything you guys want to throw for , uh , yes , I know , take it back up , yeah I don't know how some of those YouTubers do this . Like they sit down with their wives and go , hey well , how much do you think we paid for this ? I'm like are you dumb ? Like , do you like stepping in front of the train ?

Like , does that make you feel good when you do that ? Like , do you think that's going to be your wallet ? Yep .

I know how much you paid for that . Let's go out and buy the bag I want Anyway . So with that , any last bit of advice ? Yeah , go .

It's for a reason , and it's a good reason , because they're trying to Escape some pressure that's being directed at them oh yes , yep , yeah , or that , that you know that collapsible trailer tower that he bought , that he's trying to sell for what he paid retail for .

And you , you know that if you just wait them out , eventually you'll be able to get it for a real good deal , because he ain't going home with it . Okay , well , you know . So there you have it . There's our hopefully our shacks and a little , a little bit of our evolution there about how we got to where we are .

And you know , hey , let's pick this conversation back up on our Discord . You know , go over to our show's channel . If you are on our Discord , let's continue the conversation . Always curious to see how your Shacks have kind of evolved . And if you've got your own Shack and you want to post it , we've got a channel out there on our Discord .

I think it's called Show your Shack . Yeah , it actually is called um , show your shack . You know , post your shack out there , share some photos of your shack . I'm gonna take a couple of minutes and post photos of my shack there as well . Hopefully the guys will do the same . And just , you know , you can get some ideas .

That's kind of how I built what I have and how todd kind of evolved his and and I'm sure paul's got you know plenty of youtube stuff that he's picked up on , that he's added to his shack . So it keeps all of us thinking and all of us iterating and improving our skills and our mind and all of our technical expertise as we kind of grow in the hobby .

So it's all good , it's all fun and , like I said , we're all in it at the same time . We all talk RF , so it doesn't really matter how you do that or who you do it with . It's still rf . So , all right with that , let's wrap things up here . So you know there are many ways you can connect to us .

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So we all want you guys to be a part of that and aware of things that are going on . And you can always connect with our show by heading over to livefreeandhamcom . There's plenty of contact , phone information , our podcast , our YouTube channel .

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