Puckstutty . Phil didn't see his shadow , so you know what that means . They're going to be warmer days for POTA and We'll get into more of that and more . On Live Free and Ham . Hello and welcome to Live Free and Ham podcast . It's our biweekly show where we explore Hammerio topics in New Hampshire , new England and in the Northeast .
Whether you're a regular listener or a first-time guest , we're excited to have you here and we appreciate your support and we appreciate you Thanks . Thanks for listening today's episode . All right , so let's get in today's show . I'm your host . Call sign November 1 Juliet United Radio and the gang's all here . Oh , kf4 Tpy .
Ryan W1 SNH .
Todd W1 STJ still a general .
Roger , roger , all right , well , before we get into the show discussion , we always like to catch up and let our listeners know what's going on and where the crew might be off to next , as always , every month , we will host our live stream show on our YouTube channel .
We apologize for last January's because we had across a field day and winter field day and and we just didn't get a chance because we're having so much fun . So we will make it up in the February timeframe .
But you always keep an eye on our favorite our keep updated on our socials website and if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel , make sure you do that and you'll get notified when we're live . And , as always , a road , a less traveled giveaway is still open .
So if you want to get in on the action and pick the dates when Todd and I might get our kilo now that that Poxetownie Phil gave us you know six weeks until spring you can head on over and fill out that you know Giveaway and hopefully we'll get you in there and you can win some great prizes and you'll be able to see us live .
So , all right , well , with that we now we're going to dive into our favorite segment . And now for something a little extra with Todd W1 STJ , all right . Well , we all decided to rally with Todd and , in typical , live free him and fast and live free and ham Podcast fashion man , I am tripping all over my view tongue .
Today We'll be bringing you guys along . So here's the format in each episode , our quiz master , paul . He'll read three questions from the extra pool and we'll be using ham study org . So if you want to follow along , you can head on over there and get yourself an account and , you know , come with us on this journey .
So as always , you know , we just want to let you guys know ham study org is always a great app to study For any level . Your ham radio license . You know we've all used it , we all recommend it .
We definitely aren't sponsors of this , but we want to make sure that if you are looking for To either get an upgrade or you're maybe looking to get your technician license , then you know , head over there and get going on that process . You won't be disappointed and you'll definitely be able to get closer to your goal to get in your ticket .
Alright , so before we go , we'll kick it off to the quiz master . You know he's always staged up and ready to go fire away , paul .
All right . So , todd , today we're doing questions from sub element for , and you should have gotten to this section already . So the first question what does a third order intercept level of 40 ? Dbm mean with respect to receiver performance ? A Signals less than 40 dBm will not generate audible third order inter modulation products .
B the receiver can tolerate signals up to 40 dB above the noise floor without producing third order inter modulation products . C A pair of one milliwatt input signals will produce a third order inter modulation product that is 40 dB stronger than the input signal , or is it ?
D a pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically generate a third order Intermodulation product that has the same output amplitude as either of the input signals . Say that six times fast .
And the answer is no pressure . All right , I'm gonna say the .
He is correct , a pair of 40 dBm input signals will theoretically Generate a third order inter modulation product that has the same output amplitude at either of the input signals . Great job , way to go .
All right , one we got one for three . This is good . We're off to a good start here . Go ahead . Second question quiz master .
All right . Which of the following limits the highest frequency signal that can be accurately displayed on a digital oscilloscope ? Is it a all of these choices are correct . B the amount of memory . C the sampling rate of the analog to digital converter . Or is it d the q of the circuit ?
Move the silence definitely .
I , I'm gonna say , c my final c is correct .
Brushing it tonight .
Wow .
Wow , wow , wow the audiobook , baby Totally way to go to go .
It shows that you're studying and the studying is paying off . All right , are you ready for the final question ? Yes , what is the purpose of the pre-selector in a communications receiver ? Is it a to allow selection of the optimum rf amplifier device . B to store often used frequencies . C to increase rejection of signals outside of the desired band ?
Or is it d to provide a range of agc time constants ?
The answer is All right , I don't remember seeing this question , but I'm gonna go with . Uh , I'm gonna go with b .
The correct answer is c to increase rejection of signals outside of the desired band .
Well , like meatloaf says , two out of three ain't bad two out of three ain't bad .
Well , we appreciate you playing along there and not bad . You know this is the second Session that you know our episode , that you've done two out of three .
So you know , keep up the good work .
Yeah , second one two out of three , yeah we are humming along here , making some good progress . You know , as the rule is , you can miss what five out of the extra . I think it is because that's six , six , okay , so you're lucky six , so Six out of the 50 questions .
Oh no , I'm sorry . Uh , you have to get 37 correct .
So , yeah , okay .
That's a little tough that's the technician in general . You're only allowed to miss six .
Yeah well , so what I did ? I did do the um Pre-test before I really studied after I did the first test and what did I say ? I got like 26 or 24 Out of the 50 . So I'm gonna good , I got a good base going . So We'll see we'll get there .
It's not bad for , uh , you know , this is our third episode into this , so you're doing pretty good here . You know , if we uh , you know , keep it going , We'll have to go back at the very end and review .
Yeah , well , I've done so . I've done eight hours of the book On the audio book and I've got 12 to go .
Oh , there's only 650 questions so .
Is that how many there are ?
650 , 650 questions yeah .
Well , piece of cake , right , exactly like Ryan said . Slice of pie , actually , I think Ryan likes pie instead of cake .
But yeah , hey , I do like pie .
I've seen people like one of my tests . The guy comes in , he did his technician , general and extra all in one shot . Like that's crazy .
There are some people that will I Like . I've seen once the one guy that I went to go test for my general did that and I was just like . And he was just like , yeah , sure , I'll do it , but you know he passed all three and I'm like man , I wish I could be like you .
Photographic memory , like just reads the book and he just knows it yeah .
Yeah , we all can't be like that . All right , cool . Well , hey , that was a awesome . You know , start a second , you know Attempt there , and so we'll keep plugging away at that .
And as always , uh , you know , if you are looking to get your Um ham radio license you know whether you are an existing technician or general , Please definitely head over to ham study . And if you are studying , you know there is a bigger initiative across the interwebs called you know what they're calling extra for easter .
But if you're also looking to get your general a technician , you know you can play along and you can test online if you're , you're ready to do that . So , you know , let us know . Uh , you know we'd love to hear how your progress is .
And , uh , you know , keep us Uh updated because , uh , if this is helping you , hey , you know we're all the better and we know it's definitely helping Todd get closer to get an extra . And uh , you know I'm having fun with it too as well . So I guess with that , let's kind of dovetail into our usual Uh , what's your ham radio week like ?
And uh , starting off of paul , you know what's been going on with you . What's what's your ham radio week like ?
Oh boy . Well , it has certainly been a week of uh , of learning the hard way on different things . Uh , it took me about three days of uh installing and reinstalling Um the raspberry pi desktop software and the ham clock Um in order to uh to get my ham clock up and running above my desk Um , but I did finally get it . Uh , the .
I found out that the the key is being able to ssh from Uh a different computer into the raspberry pi and changing the display Um resolution that way , um , then then it gets rid of all the uh , the black around the ham clock Um , and then uh , I , uh . I also had the exciting ability to take part in a ve session friday morning .
It was uh , it was very early here , but it was noon in romania , uh and uh . So there's a uh , there's a unit out of fort camble that is currently in romania and uh , 18 uh soldiers were in a ?
Uh , a special class , and at the end of their class , as part of their their final exam , they took the Um technician test , and those that wanted to and and passed the technician test Could also take the general , and so , out of the 18 soldiers who tested and uh , we had 14 who passed the technician test and , uh , two out of the 14 also got their generals
. Wow , yeah , so that's pretty good . You did it . That was , uh , that's awesome . That was a ton of fun , uh and it was . It was very rewarding to uh to take part in a ve session with uh with active duty troops , dude , isn't that like ?
that's I like the ? I think so much of the biggest rewarding feeling for me . I know you know Well more . So I enjoyed , you know , and we'll talk a little bit about winter field day later .
But I , having new technicians get in front of radio and just watch their eyes light up and they're grinning the interyear , and you know , like you know you got them hooked when they walk away and then they come back like 10 minutes later and they just want more and you're like , oh , this is perfect , you know they're all for it .
So you know I love to see that stuff and people test and then get you know in pass . But more so I like the longer part of the journey to as well . So , yeah , that's very cool , no Cool , all right . Well , yeah , sorry , your ham clock was a little bit of a struggle there , but glad you got that sorted out .
So , ryan , what's what's been going on with your hem week ?
I Got a couple different projects cooking right now . So first one is integrating the OHIS headset standard into the go box and yeah , mark Mark had come out with a new product , that is , he calls it the contest module . Well , I was two operators to plug in independent volume control , headset control , radio control , and it's really slick .
But the form factor he's offering in it , as is it , just sits flat like a mixing board , sits flat on the desk , and I'm contemplating taking it apart and kind of reengineering it into a 1u Plate so it can go into the go box on the front of the radio . Yeah , I think that would be a real nice .
The ergonomics I think would be better and it all be self-contained and I don't need to pull it in or out and plug it in , it just be all wired up in the within the box .
No , I just curious the design in the ergonomics . Are all the ports on one side of the box itself , or is it ? Will they all be just like Plugable ? Or is that just the radio side of stuff that you're hooking up it into ?
So the radios would be all side , would be all internal , and then it'd be whatever each person plugs into on the front of the go box .
Oh nice .
Yeah yeah , wow . So yeah , it's . Uh , I Haven't started cutting anything apart yet , but I'm just right in the planning stages . So it's , it'll be neat . It'll kind of be version 2.0 .
Well and then share with us on that one , just us , you know , and in your Process of that , because I think you know our club could benefit . But I love , I'm sure like a ton of our viewers would like love to know more about that stuff , and you get an old totally involved in you know the whole process .
I know that's relatively new , but yeah , cool on that . So , yeah , yeah , what else ?
and then so the other one is . So I've had . Last Christmas so a month and a year and month ago I had bought a 3d printer and it's been collecting dust because it's . I got one of the cheaper ones . I needed a lot of help and so I'm finally getting around to starting to work on that .
And I figured , well , I got a dedicated computer to it and so I started moving computers around in the shack and it's been a headache . So I got a video card to upgrade the one that I want to use for the shack , but then power supplies and connectors and Mollux plugs . It's just , you know , I don't do it often enough .
So it's , it's a guessing game right now . But yeah , go ahead .
No that's what happened with me . I got the video card and I need to get a new power supply . And then I I really needed to get a new board and I ended up getting basically a new computer . Yes , just wanted one upgrade . Look what happened .
Oh yeah so , but it'll be . It'll be nice when it's done . I'll hopefully get it wrapped up this week and get everything moved around . So that is what's been going on this week .
So so your 2.0 version of the Shack conversion hasn't really occurred . You're like on 1.6 or 1.7 right now .
I the big conversion will be when I I take everything out and I insulate the floor and insulate the walls and run you know 220 for a future amp and , you know , do the sub panel and Get that all wired up . So that'll be a very nice transition . So I'm not cold in the basement anymore .
Warm warmth by the amplifier .
That's right .
Yes , well , although what amplifier do you have ? Because a lot of the solid-state ones I hear are pretty , you know they cool better than the , you know the old tube style , so you might not get the warmth you might really , really need .
Yes , so currently you don't have any amp , I'm just running barefoot , so , but it'll be , the shack will be wired up for a 220 .
You didn't pull the string on the the old .
Now , once I get your ex off , it'll come back . Yeah , once I have so we're talking about the flex amp and Once the shack is rebuilt and everything's ready to go and it'll be plug-and-play so I can just order it then yeah .
Well , right , but so then you're still missing that little integral piece that you need , the , the tuner in between the TG XL , right , so you need a TG XL , which is another , I don't know what number it's , it's in the yeah , exactly four or five figures . And then , and then you got the PG XL . So , yeah , that's pretty sweet , come over and rule .
Yeah , I mean when it's ready , oh , pull that trigger , but not right now all the affordable flex stuff right .
Cool , all right . Well , Sounds like a little few struggles there , but nothing you can't overcome and get closer . So good to hear on the go box there . I'm looking forward to seeing some of the new you know interconnect standards and you know , hopefully you know we can do an episode on that and so Question for you guys .
One of the decisions I have to make is what do you think would be the most predominant type of headset people use at field day ? Would it be a electric microphone , a dynamic or a gaming PC His mark on his website , you know he has or an XLR not gonna be using that XLR , but there's four different types of microphones that can accommodate .
But I have to buy based on what I own . Not , I own both , you know , dynamic and electric , but so why don't you use the headset ? Well , what type ? It depends on what each person has , or what they own . Do you have a high , all you know , yeah , regular headset ? Do you have to do switch it over to dynamic or using a regular gaming PC ?
Is dynamic . I know that's yeah , yeah , yeah , the icon only makes one specific Hile , six pro six or seven , seven , electric , yeah , so the seven has the electric component , which is the you know the , what you need to interface with that weird connector or whatever icon uses for connectors and so on .
On mine , I bought my microphone . I can do either one , so I have both . Okay , and I'm drawing a blank on the brand name . What is it ? Radio city or radio , radio , radio .
Oxity no radio sport no radio sport .
So radio sport , you know that's . I'm not sure what type of microphone they have , but so I need to accommodate for whoever is gonna be sitting next to the go box on their specific microphone .
I thought the , the interconnect standard at least the box that Smitty was providing was supposed to be able to handle Well any headset type , and it was only the radio part that you had to be concerned with .
Still have to configure it so it can handle it whichever one you purchase . Yeah , so Basically have to purchase four different .
We , we got to have him on because I think you know him explaining the standard a little bit . I always thought there was just like a two box setup .
One was for the radio side , that was specific to the radio , and then one was the what we'll call client side , which it didn't matter what type of headphone or mic input or you know whatever you know Interface you were interfacing to . That box was then supposed to be able to talk to that other box that was supposed to interface with the radio .
But yeah , that's how I interpreted , but you know I could be wrong .
Picture schematics come in handy here . So that's when I would be doing some arts and craft with some Drafting program here to sketch it out . But it'll be neat when it's all connected .
Well as as a proud member of team Icom I got to say electorate .
Yeah , so yeah , we joke tongue in it . You know tongue-in-cheek here , but we all love radios , every radios love by all of us , doesn't matter whether you're yeah , that's so PC that's so PC . Big friends here and , you know , not enemies . We know Icoms are 20 year old technology and still superior to what you can put out in the market today .
You know , even though the radios are less than five years old .
But Not the age . True story , true story .
So , all right , cool . Well , we will . I'll have to make sure I make a note here to circle back around see if we can get smitty on to have them chitchat about that stuff .
I think we have a blast talking about some of those things and he definitely would geek out and and go way over our heads in terms of the talk you know conversation , but it might be a very good one at that . So we'll have to get that on the plan there . So cool , yeah , looking forward to your go box there and see where we go .
And you know We'll definitely have to , you know , dive deeper into that rat hole , because we all know that once you know Ryan does something , we're all gonna follow suit just shortly after it's all good . So with that , well over to our esteemed general , you know what's going on .
Your Henry a week well , speaking of go boxes Friday , everything works out . I'll be starting that over with Ryan Took the day off and I think we have . I think he's off , so we're gonna Start that off .
But what I've done and I was very psyched about is I had to bring my mother on Wednesday to the airport Down in Logan and on the way back I stopped at Constitution Beach State Park , which is Right at the end of the Logan runway . Planes are taken off and leaving . There's a train station , trains going by , it's quite noisy and and noisy for sure .
I was told that it's a tough part to To activate just because there's a lot of interference and of course . I get there at four o'clock and there's a big sign says this park closes at five o'clock . Now I'm like hmm , I , I'm like I'm doing it . I went there over the summer , didn't do it .
It was buggy , it was hot , there's a lot of people playing music . I'm like , nope , I'm doing it . So I set up just hoping to just maybe just get 10 . Well , 38 minutes , it's a new record for me 64 contacts Woo , how many years . Nice job , damn .
It was .
Damn it was I called CB , it was , I called CQ three times and on the third time it was just a pile up and I could have kept going .
But the park ranger pulled up next to me because I was in my car , in the 810 it was out the passenger side window , and I'm in my car and I'm doing a thing and he just looks at me , doesn't say a word , doesn't roll down his I go , I gotta go . He's like yep , so I had to go . And someone's like can I just get , I go , I gotta go .
And the ranger goes , just one more , one more . So I worked one last station . I know I'm always guilty of it and packed everything up . I didn't even get to put the stuff down . I had to throw it all in the back of the Jeep . My antenna's not even like half taken down .
I drove out of the park , he locked the gate and I was parked on the side in East Boston putting all my stuff back together . And I didn't even I , really honestly , I didn't even know until I , I mean , I kind of had an idea , but then when I actually looked at it and I looked at the times , I was like that's amazing .
I mean , I was getting two or three a minute , wow , you know , nonstop . Well done , it was crazy . Yeah , it was a lot of fun , it was a good activation and it was on that .
How was the propagation ? Was it healthy ?
Yeah , I was on 20 meters and it was . I had no noise and it was pretty good . There was a guy who probably slowed me down a little bit because I probably could have had a few more .
He was given only the suffix of a call sign and he was coming in like 5'9" and every time I tried to get the other guy that I was working he'd throw at this thing and I told him I said listen , spd or whatever you were . I said if you interrupt me again , I'm never answering you , so just I'll get you next .
So then I worked the guy and then I said okay , the station ended in SPD and I get nothing . And then the next guy I got , he said he goes , yeah , he goes . That guy's not a legit ham , he's just on there . He was doing that to us the other day . He just interrupts you as you're doing it , but he's not like that .
He doesn't have a call sign , he just makes up the letters or whatever . So I was kind of that was the only little flutter , but besides that it was great . I mean , this was the first time I actually had to call out K's only , w's only , n's only , because I couldn't . There's just too many just turned into blur .
So that's pretty cool . Yeah , so next time you have a rogue operator there jumping on you should throw some , come back to them and say , hey , we know how to locate you . We're going to do a DF steer and pinpoint your location . I don't know .
It was fun , though I wasn't expecting that . I was expecting maybe , hopefully , just to activate the park and it was much better . So it was good . I hadn't been out since New Year's Day , so I was kind of itching .
If I don't get out , do a polter at least once or twice a month , I start getting so I think I forget how to do ham radio , but that wasn't the case . And then field day winter field day . I worked the overnight and what I say ? I got like 84 contacts working my flex through my iPad while I was at work as a home user .
As a home user and most of the people I got were home users in the middle of the night , three , four in the morning . So I did like an hour or so and then I took a break and then I did 80 and 40 . And I kind of what do you call it ? Like hunted . Like I went after the stations that were calling CQ and then I decided to call CQ .
It's more fun calling CQ once you get people to answer you .
You know , todd , I was down in the hotel during field day winter field day on the iPad using my flex and I had a blast . You know it was the first time using it . I have not set up . I need to either get some Apple ear pods or something . So aside from the audio issue of just having to talk through the iPad , it was really neat .
So I worked this one guy who's down in Florida here and I was talking to him and he thought I was up in New Hampshire and so I'm looking him up on QRZ as I was talking to him and he was literally like two blocks down the road for me my hotel is right at the road from him .
Oh , so you were working him from New Hampshire , but he was like literally out .
Right down the road from the hotel .
He should have gone down and knocked on his door . Hey , thanks for the call . He was in Florida .
Yeah .
Yeah , he had quite the setup so it wouldn't have been difficult to find in the neighborhood .
So I got Brian . When I use that work . I got this blue parrot headset Right , and this thing is designed for iPhones and iPads . It's , it says it right on it . It works awesome . I like it . It only has one you know headset , but it's kind of good for me because I got to hear if the kids wake up or whatever . So , and then I got this Bluetooth .
Yeah , it's Bluetooth , there's no delay or anything . It works really well in the battery last forever . And then I forget what this thing is called , but it's a little button and it , if you go on to the flex radio on in the middle , there's that thing that has all the things . It has this button on it . I get on Amazon .
It's like 20 bucks , but this is the push to talk , so I leave it on my fingers . I go check the kids that are sleeping every 15 minutes I'm waiting to pile up and then I have the headset on its Bluetooth .
I could just call it right in there and and it was kind of like ironic like every time I'm trying to make the contact , I go check the kids and then I'm halfway across the room and I call . The guy calls me back . I got to run back to log away . But but yeah , this thing is really . I mean it's definitely .
I love it for the iPad , because when I started using my iPad , I was just using um phone conducting my headphones or the I , and people were complaining about the audio and saying that I just was , it wasn't , it wasn't working right . So I ended up getting these , I did some research on it and now everyone's like , yeah , your audio is great . So cool .
Yeah , we'll have to post that link on there .
Yeah , and I think I don't know if this one has no , I think it might have noise canceling too . I'm not sure .
Just for one year right .
Yeah , for one year . Well , what I mean ? I think more for the mic , like it . It muffles out the , you know , the external sound , such as , you know , phones . Yeah , there's a couple of .
I just needed to bring something with me so I can plug in .
So it's , it's all I tell you . It's awesome , especially when the bands are going and I got nothing to do . And then if you get , if you're up , if you're ever like out or up like me and you're bored , you just put on 80 meters and you'll be very entertained . I think I'm going to make some , some videos of that .
You'd be surprised of what people are fighting about on 80 meters at three o'clock in the morning . I'm like why aren't you people sleeping ?
I've heard it . It's crazy . So hey , eric , I got a question for you .
Yeah , what you got .
What do you have cooking for 2024 ? There's a lot of things going on , and what do you have cooking on your calendar ? What are you looking forward to ?
Well , I guess , before we dive into the topic , I think the host should figure out what's with my ham radio week . But we had this discussion when George is on . He felt my pain and understood that . You know . Just skip like you know , right over the host no big deal . Yeah , just quick summary , since Ryan's hot to trot there to get into the topic tonight .
So you know I've been struggling with my FTM 300 , you know audio receive woes . You know audio is totally cut out , disappear , and I've been beating my head against . You know my dash , constantly trying to figure out whether it was just the radio , a switch panel . You know the whole in yards .
Long story short , I dug out my old , my another 300 I bought for satellite work and threw it in place and magically the speakers working a hundred percent . So all of the undoing of wires and everything you know .
So I emailed the you know , you know the radio with the against , using Todd's suggestion , and they got back to me and so that unit's going to be shipped off tomorrow . So I'm hoping to get that fixed , hopefully maybe under warranty , I don't know . It's like really close . So we'll see how that one goes .
But I sadly have bad news because in all of that big craziness of trying to get my 300 to work , my all star clear node zero and that I have in the truck , the SD card basically hooked itself from too many reboots . So the problem with the clear nodes that may people that have them might know , is that it's a custom .
You know firmware flash and the only place that can do it is the guy who creates a crew node . So I got an email out to him . Hopefully you can flash my card again and or send me on another one . I can send them back , this one , or you know something you know in the process to get that back up and running .
So you know , I was kind of bummed about that because I was looking for , you know , to get contacts back onto the all star . You know network again . And you know mentioned earlier about the whole winter field day stuff that Todd kind of touched on . I am super , I was super psyched with our winter field thing .
Now we did , you know it's probably kind of the most rag tag kind of put together , whatever you know scenario we did , but we had a blast . I know Paul was there and he you know he did the whole overnight did a video on it . You can go check that one out .
You know Paul made the intro there but you know , for his three seconds of fame , as they say . But the big highlights that I love the fact that we had two brand new technicians show up a whole family actually , and they spent the whole entire Saturday there playing radio , hanging out having a blast .
And you know the wife Christine and I don't we don't have her call sign yet . She's still waiting for that to come in . She was on HF making contacts left and right . You know dealing pile ups , you know she was . I mean , she was phenomenal in the whole process and and what go ahead ? Ryan , you had a question .
Well , I was just going to comment . So Paul was with Christina and they were , you know , working 10 meters , 10 meters . Yeah , it wasn't 10 meters , yeah , it was 10 meters . So I was in the hotel on the flex through the iPad and I was working them back and forth .
So , oh , no , way , I didn't know that . I just made a contact with them , yeah , and you came through fantastic , by the way , like it was crystal clear .
I was only , you know , 20 miles away .
Who , uh did I work , you , paul Uh , at night ? Who did I work at night ? I worked , I worked the club . I don't know who it was , though .
Uh well , it would have been either probably me or John . Um , yeah up up過 40 .
No , so it might have been . I don't know . It might have been you , probably , paul . I'll have to go back and look at logs , but yeah , it could have been Paul , I'm just curious .
But yeah , that , um , yeah , that's pretty cool . I saw your , I saw Eric , I saw your uh video on your YouTube page and uh , yeah , that is that the wife , I'm guessing and Paul's like wow , she's even worked a small pile . Yeah , like she was cruising , like like no fear , like right into it . That was awesome .
Yeah , and then I think it was .
It was so amazing , right Cause you know , like I walked her through the kind of the script of field day and how to call CQ , and uh , so you know , after , after she called for about a half an hour , you know she kind of had a down pat , uh , but then her 10 year old daughter came in and she was kind of looking over her shoulder and and , and you know
, interested . So Christina says to her , she says , well , do you want to try it ? And I said , well , here , let me , let me write out a new script , cause we had , you know , crossed out things and wrote over things on on the , the script that Christina was using .
So I wrote it nice and clear on a on a fresh sheet of paper and , um , yeah , I mean , it took her , uh , it took her a little bit , but man , it was something special to see a 10 year old girl . It's so excited to to start making contacts on HF and so I think she'll be the next newest technician .
Awesome yeah .
She and I wish I caught it on video . She had that one contact .
I kind of walked in on the last minute where she was talking to another guy and the other guy on the other end noted it , really realized that she was just new to this whole process and he , like , if I could figure out what his call sign was or the club call sign , I want to just send him an email and tell him thank you , because he was so gracious ,
so like encouraging , so like , you know , glad this is your first contact , was really super patient through the whole process and she like didn't have to feel like she was messing up or screwing up and you know , she was just like grinning ear to ear when she finally got off that whole thing . I was just like , oh yes , this is exactly what I like to see .
Yeah , no , it was great For the most part , um , the , the stations that , uh , that she was answering or the stations that were answering her CQ , uh were were very patient and and understanding that you know it was clearly a young voice on the air , um , and and you could tell that you know there was a bit of an experience there and everybody was very , very
patient with her and , um , very encouraging .
Cool yeah , and I don't want to like I can't dive into too much about the CW stuff , but I know Tim , who is our . You know he's been on a camera what episode it was for us . But he's been on other times too as well , on our live streams .
He , um finally dived into the CW foray and him and another club member , um , took it on and and ran our club call doing CW and they did phenomenal and they were like they were having a blast over in their tent . So it was just , you know , fun all around and great memories . So I was like that that's exactly what I wanted out of field day .
Um , you know I'm not a big points guy . I don't really care where our score is . You know I enjoy setting up antennas and hanging out and socializing , but more so playing radio with that . That just makes it so much better for me . So , yeah , that that was what my hammer deal week was like and so , uh , that that was it in a nutshell .
So , yeah , shout out to Tim .
I shout out to Tim , and he was the one who did the QDK . He , uh , he took my son Zach and , uh , he made him , he taught him how to do his name in . Uh , CW , oh there . And he had , uh , he had like a . He had a key set up where you could actually hear it . It was , it wasn't broadcasting , so he worked at his act , was talking about it .
He came home and told everyone oh , I did my name and Very cool . Oh , he was pretty psyched about that .
Cool , all right , so to dive into tonight's topic . So , ryan , what was your question about 2024 and whatnot ?
And I can try to Well , so what are you guys looking forward to in 2024 ? Are there any highlights you want to make sure you absolutely uh uh accomplish and kind of , what's your big picture viewpoint looking forward ?
Wow , okay , well , that's loaded , but I'll try to give it in small snippets and then we can kind of dive around and add to it . My biggest thing I guess for 2024 for me is , um , you know and I'm going to have to draw a poll , todd into this one with me is I want to get our dual kilo .
I think there that's going to be the biggest target that I'm going to be shooting for , um , and it's short term and you know , I mean I would assume before field day we should have our dual kilo .
But uh , you know , uh , if uh , everything goes well and the weather turns to better you know spring , you know like weather , uh , I'm definitely going to be out there working .
You know , um , uh , the rail trail , and and try and my hardest to get that , and I know I can do it pretty quickly because I did uh one for my reads , very one and and that one uh worked , uh , you know , I got that done in literally three days .
So I think , once we kind of spread the word a little bit more and , you know , people start hearing us more , todd , as we get closer , we'll , uh , you know , all of a sudden , it'll in short term , we'll , we'll be there . So that's the biggest thing for me .
I've got some smaller stuff that we can touch upon , but uh , you know , I'm curious to see you know where you guys got it . So , you know , passing the baton , uh , you know where you at Ryan with your 23 more .
I've picked my days .
Yeah , excellent . So you know , it's kind of three different categories or a couple of different categories . You know one is , uh the expose . So there's many options we have in the U S here , big and small , local and uh national . And then you know there's the uh the shack projects .
What do you want to do around the shack and get built and assembled and all that ? And then the third one is things , yeah , things like uh you know , the photo events and the soda and uh the club field day and those uh fun social activities .
So , um , you know , for me at around the shack I definitely I have a big interest in getting a big square loop , uh NBIS antenna setup .
So I've been cracking the uh the league radio book and kind of doing some more research and poking around on websites and seeing what other people have done and what's worked well for them , and so I'm uh putting some thought into that . But , uh , for me the big thing is actually starting and getting the momentum going for some POTA .
So yeah , that'd be awesome .
Yep , I definitely want to start with some uh sodas . There's a bunch of .
You know we live in New Hampshire , we've got some great mountains , so , uh , todd , I took your advice and I got the uh , uh , that tactical backpack so I can pack the uh 705 and the buddy stick and all the accessories into that one bag and it's not super lightweight but it's a portable .
Which bag 511 . Yeah , the 511 .
It's 37 liters , it's sturdy , it's one size up larger than Todd's .
All right , and uh , we had talked and I had said that everything fits Like . I don't have any room for really anything else if I bring it all . So I said if I was going to do it again I'd probably get a little bit bigger one .
Yep , yeah . We'll throw the show notes and the show notes links there too , as well , so if you're looking for that , so for me is uh actually pulling the trigger and getting some soda and POTA accomplished , so that'll be the big thing .
Let me ask you a soda . So , pota , yeah , I can get it . I mean , like between the three of us here and you know , uh , I would say Paul is a big proponent of Russell Abbott . Uh , you know , that's a great place to start , uh , and that's literally probably right down the street from you , um , and I know Todd and I could throw in . You know everything .
But so back to soda . I'm curious because I wanted start to do soda , but I know I got to work my hiking legs first before I start thinking about actually doing a point you know , or something similar . So are you looking to do something more smaller or are you like really going big guns ?
Well , I'd probably start off first . Mountain will be a Menatnok , because that's it .
I mean , you can run up Menatnok and under an hour and uh we'll meet you up there , we'll start the POTA activation and you can hike up and do the soda .
And then you know , once you know so that'll be a trial run and then start hitting the white mountains . You know there's 48 peaks , so a lot .
So those , those are those of you that don't know Pac Menatnok , you can actually drive up there . I've been to the park and I've gone up there a few times too , but I know on soda you can't drive .
No , so I'm not Pac Menatnok .
Oh , the bigger one . Oh , okay , I'm sorry .
My bad .
Might have to helicopter , and I'm not Menatnok , but you know I hate whatever .
So , yeah to answer your question Eric some uh , you know , do you hamper white mountains , so okay .
Cool . Now that means I have to redefine my whole backpack scenario now . Well , so the question was like Paul , you've got a backpack , you boiled yours down , right ? I think you said you got it down to less than 30 pounds .
Uh , yeah , so the , the original bag is is now my , uh , my 7,300 bag . So if I'm going to , if I'm going to pack the 7,300 instead of the 891 , uh , I have a , the bigger bag which , uh , I'll throw the link in . It's the same bag that a lot of the guys are using . Uh , it was a , uh , an HRO bag , uh , the expedition something .
It's a really nice bag . It's tall but , uh , the wife got me a , um , it's almost like a , a swimming bag , uh , so the outside is is all waterproof and in the bottom opens up and if you've got anything that's wet you can put it in the bottom and it keeps it completely separate from everything else .
But it's got a lot of , uh , smaller compartments and things , which is what I wanted for organization . So now the , the 891 Poda bag is , uh , is about 20 to 25 pounds and it's uh , it's it's very minimalist , Uh , and , yeah , it's a , just a 12 amp hour battery . The , uh , the reliance bug out and fed halfway of , um , no , no tuner needed or anything .
So it's just , uh , my little tablet for logging on hammers and , yeah , I plan to , uh , I plan to maybe rope Ryan in this year because , uh , since we're talking about , you know , 20 , 24 goals .
Uh , one of the things that's been on my bucket list for several years , uh , and my body hasn't cooperated is to hike Tuckerman's and then uh , set up on the top of Mount Washington and uh and transmit and that's that's so . That's going to be my first soda .
Well , you guys can hike , I'll drive that one .
Yeah , that's awesome .
Yeah , okay , well , you know , remember , well , you know , this is all recorded , guys , so we got to make sure that you know people do listen to the W like so what's your 20 28 thing ?
I'm going to go up to talk .
So , Ryan , we'll , we'll put it in the books for for July .
Okay , yeah , that works Sounds great . Yeah , I'm making note of it . All right , all right .
July . I'm not watching , so July Mount Washington .
You make my year there , put 2024 , so you like oh that was that 2030 .
Hey , getting in shape this year yeah .
So my , I got a few things I want to do , like one for us or the club is I want to do the 24-hour Poda activation , I think at Greenfield State Park . I think that would be fun , kind of be like an extra little field day .
Just start calling CQ , use club call sign or if we get a call sign you said , eric , we might be able to get a call sign for the . Yeah , I'm working on that for our club .
So eventually the Liffrey and Ham podcast will be a not an AR affiliated club , but a ARL , you know , acknowledged a club . So we'll have our own club call sign . So stay tuned for some of that Then .
Well , jim , or once we get there either one and just kind of see if we can activate the park For 24 hours and maybe spread the word . And I've spread it a little bit . But I got a call the Ranger and they're a little slow this time of year because you know we do . I've dealt with it with the Float fly there .
So I think by next month they start answering calls and making decisions and see what they say . And then , as for the shack , I've got a few things I got to do . I pretty much got my computer and everything all set . My radio is working well , but I do need to do the grounding and the the line input , you know with the box .
And then the other big thing is my DX commander . That's still sitting in the box . That is going up Okay .
Mr Hammer here to point out Huh , we'll call you Ham radio Jason 2.0 .
Oh , he's in the box , yeah .
I was supposed to box . What are you talking about ? He's got the first version and then , like the latest one that you know , lord Callum sent him .
Yeah , well , it's sitting here and it's , I think it mines the newer one . I just , I mean I got it in the spring last year , so it's only a year old , but just just real quickly .
I haven't followed . What did he change ? What's new on it ? Is it minor changes or major ?
Three things he's changed the spreader plates they're different . The what he calls the doinkies are now actually different . And then the collar connectors where you separate and twist the mass , there's now like a collar lock to each of the mass collapsing . So and he did that cross , I think , all of the models , including the expedition too .
So you know , okay , cool , definitely gets . And the plates are black , so they blend in with the , the antenna , which is nice .
Hmm .
I really want to get a vertical . I mean , I've had a lot of luck on my vertical , on my , for my poda , so what it's ?
gonna say your wife . I don't know .
No , no , I mean when we're doing poda I'm always on the vertical right , or most of the time . So I wonder if , getting a vertical , if I'm gonna be able to maybe pull out more West Coast Stations I don't know , we'll see during field day when I set up my crank , I are .
it's a vertical , it's awesome , it performs really well . Yeah , routinely , we'll get you know California On the mighty 7,300 hundred watts at field day .
It's great . Well , the flex was on a wire , was getting New Zealand and stuff on 20 meters which was there , nowhere to be found anymore . It's like Depressive . I look for I'm like , oh , maybe I'll hear about here , I'm his . Over the summer it was like every station was Australia , new Zealand , like you got your pick there . I was getting bored with them .
Now I'm like , oh , I'd be great to work one of them again , but They'll be back .
No , yeah .
So , yeah , that's basically those are the two things really I want to do .
I'm hoping I don't have baseball and even if I do have baseball , I might just tell them I'm away that weekend and I really want to just enjoy field day , do the whole thing and Stay there , hang out and not have to be back and forth , back and forth like I have been , and you'll get to be a next day .
What'd you say ? You'll get to be an extra on field day . Yeah , we'll hope well maybe we'll see all . The club calls an extra .
So you know at least oh yeah , someone have to be sitting with me that no one's . No one stays up at four in the morning and remember that one year I I get in the tent . I come out and like what hell is everyone ? There's no fire going on , like nowhere . It's like black . I don't love my flashlight . There's no one around .
We're all getting our seats . We work the whole entire day .
So , guys , what about some expos there , any you want to visit again there , any of the bigger national ones you want to attend ?
I'd love to go to one of the big ones . Both of them are just what I want . Ideally I'd like to go to all of them , but I Would just come enjoy one would be , I think , a good start , and I just think it'd be awesome , like at least where there's all the vendors are .
They're coming up right around the corner with . February 9th to the 11th is hamcation down in Orlando , florida . Then the next big one is a hamvention May 17th and 19th . That's out in a Dayton , ohio . Then there's the CPAC all the way over on the left coast in Oregon . May 31st to June 2nd we have the ham exposition in a mass .
August 22nd to the 25th there is a Pacific on Santa Ramon , california . October 18th to the 20th . I tried looking on the website . There's the , which I attended Two times in the past , the QSO today Academy , the virtual expo , and that was really cool .
They didn't have a date posted for this year yet , so I'm hoping they do change the format around they aren't doing that .
I don't know now , it's just kind of a sign-on , you know gated , you know kind of all year round type thing .
Really I must have missed that . Yep , I enjoyed it in the past . I thought that was a great idea . Is that the one ? Obviously ? Yeah , it's all virtual online is kind of zoom .
And they had all the different classes or whatever the presentations .
And obviously I was geared towards . You know the whole COVID experience . But and then you know there's the smaller near-fest in for New England , april 25th and 26th . The spring one is only going to be Thursday and Friday . I think they're going to expand it out again on the fall version , and then June 22nd and 23rd is the the weekend for field day .
So that's kind of what's on the calendar in . You know , I don't know if , based on my work schedule and everything , if have time , I hit some of the big ones , but definitely Hamac's position . The Near-fest and obviously field day are on the calendar for me . But , paul , what do you think ? What ?
so all right . So I had a question right now , for for those of us like myself who have never been to a hamvention of any sort shape or form , like what , what should we expect when we , when we go to these events for the first time ? I Mean , is it like like going to the Hollis-Flee market ?
Is like that . Yes , near-fest is a ham radio . Flea market is the best way to describe it .
Versus in if you drive the other direction , similar a distance down to en masse to the ham exposition . They have a lot more seminars and talks and it's much more educational . So that one that one's fascinating , but it's not until you get to the big ones .
You know the hamcation , the hamvention , where all the big manufacturers show up and are showing the latest and greatest of what they're pushing to the public .
So there's a size thing to like . A ham Expo up by us is growing , I'll say , but like on terms of scale it's really just like a couple of conference rooms and a few small side places and then a small flea market or you know kind of Ham , you know trade , you know kind of thing in the parking lot .
You go to like Dayton , and this is only what I see online but you go to Dayton or you go to Hamcation and it's like acres and acres of like a flea market but then like they have five outbuildings and five manufacturers and everybody's like doing their like latest and greatest of like you know new toys and you know all the guys like flex and Ella craft and
everybody shows up . It's like almost mandatory if you want to , you know make up yourself known to show up to either of those events and the other one too , that do we mention . What was the other one down in Mississippi ? It's a .
I did not mention that . I saw it listed , I didn't write it down .
Yeah , I'm just forgetting . A lot of the youtubers go to that one and they do a poda activation out there . But that's kind of the thing is , you know , when you go to these events you walk around the expose and then you , you know , you kind of hit the flea markets and then maybe hit a few you know kind of symposiums or talks .
So the really the really big ones are Set up kind of like a like a shot show , kind of exposition , where you've got all the different vendors and they're showing their latest and greatest , yep . But then the smaller ones are more flea market style , okay so there's a , there's a .
In Marlboro there's a smaller flea market like maybe two rows of people selling stuff where Near Fest it's like the whole thing is . I mean they might have one or two classes , but it's all . Everyone's selling everything and anything .
So if you're like a collector of old stuff like there's some really cool stuff in there there's , you know you could probably find anything . You need a lot of people . You do a lot of networking . You know local people , knew England you talked to and see what's going on .
So , but you have to go in there and know and what you want , because there's just so much stuff . So if you're looking for like I was looking for what it was , I looking for a dummy load and I just never got one when I went to Marlboro because yeah . I finally got one , but I think I got one from you , right , you got .
I got it when I bought that antennae , didn't I ? I didn't get my get from the candy store . No , where did I get it from ?
He must have or buy it from Bill , maybe no .
I don't know , somehow I got it done . We won't . I don't know . I got it from that guy , the guy that I bought the Antenna for , the one where I'm actually selling you stuff on the back alley . No , the guy you gave it to me in the box , remember he was selling it .
Oh yeah , yeah , yeah .
So the other ham that was selling stuff on our disc , yeah , yeah , yeah , so I he got , I got that , I got the antenna and I got a keyer that he threw in there . So I was like sweet , but yeah , I mean it's yeah . So I mean we did at Marlboro , we did a live podcast when we first started last year .
Yeah , and I was funny there this year too as well .
We'll do it again . So that was kind of cool . We were kind of going live and then we were interviewing some people and stuff . So that was that was kind of fun and and , yeah , I want to go to one of the big ones .
And then I though what I was talking about is I don't know if it was Jason from you know , ham radio 2.0 , but you know how he does that overlander stuff . I guess there is a big show in like Arizona or New Mexico or something , quartz vessel . But he said there's a lot of hams there and it's like it's it's almost like a combination of two .
It's like the overlander and the hams together and there's a lot of ham radios . You know stuff going on there too .
So there's plenty of reasons , then , for somebody who's never gone to a a hamvention type of event To attend for the first time , I mean yeah , so like near-fest for us .
you know the club gets together , we go get breakfast . Where is that ? Mary Ann's , or is that what it's called ? Eric , a local cafe nearby ?
Yeah , so you go get , you go get . Oh , is it , joe ?
You go get breakfast . You go get a breakfast , is it Mary Ann's ?
Mary Ann's is in Paris .
All right , no , never mind . Well , there's one here in Amherst not to . They took over another diner . But anyway , yeah , you go do that . And then Eric and I went up . Everyone skies their own way . Then you run into everyone when you're up there , and so it's fun , it's definitely a good time . It's .
If you want to sell stuff , you can sell stuff there too , if you want . Yeah , I got my general , I got my general Marlboro .
So that was yeah , that's larger ham fests usually tend to have like the actual testing yeah , cool . Yeah , I think for my vantage point , like Dayton would be great .
I know we kind of tossed around the idea of you know , maybe doing a Private fly to set Dayton as a , you know , maybe as a Liffrey and Ham will not plan for this year but the year after maybe some day on the bucket list . But Right is the Gulf Stream .
We are space limited .
Well , for right . So there is for hosts , correct ?
Well , in order make it non-stop to carry the fuel would be two adults , and that's it so .
I don't have to lose a ton of weight because yeah .
Alright , we're doing a road trip then .
There you go , road trip .
I'll drive . Okay , sounds good to me . Yeah , so Dayton would definitely be . You know everyone always says go to at least once . You know , and I'm sure I probably , you know , put it on my bucket list someday . Hamcation , probably the same thing there . You know I'm more of a Social guy .
I like to be able to , like you know , hang out and , you know , do stuff at those types of events and you can usually , but a lot of times it's just , you know there's a mob of people and you know most people are there for , like , like Todd said , you gotta get a radio , you got to get a you know part or whatever , and you just kind of like Fight and
struggle to , you know , find the right stuff at the right timing . And then you know you get to see all the great toys . But you know I can . You know this is the 21st century , they do all that online now . So you know , that's just kind of so . I'd go for the social aspect of anything .
Well , I could see you know , especially for someone like myself who likes to try and do everything on a shoestring budget and and get you know as much Used equipment as possible and make it still work , you know you could save a few dollars by by attending an event like that and being patient and kind of taking a look at everything .
Right . Yeah , it could probably backfire on you and be like , wow , look at all this cool stuff . I'm totally broken .
The norm . But yeah , who was that guy at our club meeting that or it was at Dennis and he was saying that how he buys the stuff , he wants one thing , he buys the whole thing and then he sells the other stuff and he ends up getting it Right , wasn't he talking ? Was that what he goes to ?
He's a big fan of the new estate sales and he buys like a gazillion pieces of radio gear , takes what he wants , parts it out and sells it off again . And you know he did a great video on G-Series website if you ever want to check it called the life of a horse trader .
Smart , yeah , yeah , that was actually a very good presentation .
I enjoyed it yeah .
So have you been to any like of those , like large events at all , paul ?
Any of those events ? Okay , yeah .
You're definitely . I guess you're coming in near fest at Marlboro this year .
Well , so I will say this I avoid Massachusetts like the plague , so I'm happy to ride with somebody else .
I hope you're right .
I'm born and raised in mass , so I can handle it .
I don't mind driving in mass , I just , really it , just it does something to my anxiety . For whatever reason , my anxiety level goes through the roof as soon as I cross the border . I can go to Maine and feel comfortable and fine .
I can go to Vermont and feel comfortable and fine , but I cross that southern border and it just gives me all kinds of anxiety .
We'll keep that in mind . But yeah , I remember horse traders is kind of funny and we should maybe touch upon this one . I keep calling it horse traders , not horse traders near fest . This year they ended up having a snafu and I was kind of surprised by it , but at the same time it's always been kind of a small venue .
So they are shifting their usual dates .
It's usually like a Friday , saturday and the big thing with near fest is that everybody comes on Friday , sets up and then sleeps overnight because it's basically kind of a force of four seasons or four yeah , four seasons , not four seasons , four square , but whatever that horse , you know animal kind of program is for each Four eight . Four eight .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , I mean four seasons , I mean four seasons .
You know that's a hotel . So you know , in all of that , they they've been doing it for a while there , For what I recall , and they always would set up on Friday and the big , the big , the big intrigue was , you know , you go set up and you set up inside and you camp there overnight all day Saturday , and then you leave late Saturday .
Well , they ended up having a problem with scheduling and so now they're sliding into Thursday , Friday , and , like I don't know about you , dude , I work . You know I don't think I'm going to be going this year , which is kind of a bummer . Anybody planning on 10 , and you know .
Well , that's just for the spring one . I'm hoping they get it sorted out for the fall event and I've found over the years the fall near fest tends to be a little bit more well visited by everyone . So yeah , interesting . So I'm hoping the fall one will be the one we're used to .
Yeah , I'm hoping to . On the other side too is like , with this in surge of new hams and people , you know , starting to really get into the hobby and seeing more of it , we'll see more people . You know the draw will be , you know , a little bit bigger . But yeah , well , we'll have to wait and see .
I guess , I don't know , thursday for me , like Thursday , friday thing , you know , it's going to be really tough because it's like I enjoyed like having Friday , because I schedule everything pre in the week and then Friday I'd be like , oh , I got the hamfest and you know everybody's all good . But you know Thursday , friday is going to be a bummer .
Well , sure , definitely be a smaller draw . And we'll have to , like you said , ryan , shoot , for you know the fall .
But so , speaking of new hams , I was . I was at our , my flying club , had the frozen fingers , which is an event that we put on every February , and one of the guys that I've been friends with for a while since I joined the club .
He had taken a break and he's now back , but he was one of the guys that taught me how to fly and I was telling him about how I got into ham rating goes oh how am I ham ? Like you are You're . So yeah , I've never done anything with it . I got my technician license and he's still active . He's got a call set .
I'm like well , you should come hang out with me . I'm like I can show you some . There's a lot of fun stuff going on now . So it's funny , like a lot of I couldn't believe it Like there's a lot of people out there that get their license . They don't do anything with it .
So but and I saw and I also saw Bob Krishman from he used to own Krishcraft in tennis . He's still . He's still kicking around and you know he's , I've known him . He's friends with my parents . They have old cars together . Bob's got an amazing car collection and his other hobby is flying model airplanes .
So I've flown a lot of planes with him and he was there so it was good to see him . And he asked how the ham radio stuff was going . I said , yep , it's going good . Technology is getting better and yeah , so it's all good . Why aren't you on the air more ? Well , it's on time . I try , I'm on the repeater , a lot Like Bob Krishman himself .
Yeah , yeah , he's , he's got his light . He just he's done with it . I mean , he's , he's just like he brings his chair down to fly the plane , cause he's like , he's like I can't stand up and look up . I get too dizzy . He's in his 80s , but he's a good guy . He's got a lot of stories and his father created that company when he was a kid .
And when he was a kid like when , you know , you and I were probably , you know , playing in the sandbox he was making antennas and he took it over from his father and then I think he ended up selling it to like MFJ or something . Yeah , I don't know who who he sold it to , but you know , you know the .
You go over by the airport where there's a St Mary's bank . That was the Krishcraft plant right there in the Manchester airport . It's now a bank , but I drove over there when I took him to the airport once . He was going to see his daughter out in Colorado or something , and he was oh , let's go over to the bank , I'll show you where everything was .
And so he's got some cool stories .
Cool , well , so what you know , we got the last topic . I guess we want to talk briefly because we could get really down a rabbit hole faster , would be , you know , the shacks Like what . What big thing do we all want to move on this year 2024 with shacks ? Okay , moving on , yes , yes sir .
Well , like I said , I need to get my grounding done and I need some help with that . So Ryan's going to hopefully we'll find some time and get that done and I've been working on my shack pretty much , you know , last six months and I think I've got it where I need it to be .
And , like I said , I'm uh get that done and then I should uh I'll have to find something else to do to it . How about you ?
Ryan , my big thing . You know I've Shack's gone through a whole bunch of changes past several months new radios and just layout and everything . I need to get to the state of just being comfortable operating everything , getting profile set up on the flex .
I still want to get node red configured and I don't want to be super automated , I just it'd be more of a helper and an aid for you know , profiles , tuning , spin the tower and I don't know just kind of get a lot of the bigger bugs worked out and I can get back to just rag chewing and contesting and plain FTA and everything else that's associated with
sitting in the shack . So , um , so I just need to spend more time down here and focused on this instead of , uh , rest of life .
Tell the family to put it on pause .
I was just going to say that's the big picture for this year .
Nice , well , yeah , the all of those check my boxes too , but not at your scale . Just a little different . How about you , paul ?
Well , so I share , uh , I share Ryan's sentiment , right , and uh , the desk is in a constant state of evolution and I feel like I I'm not able to truly enjoy sitting here and playing radio lately . Um , you know , I'm working on several different projects all at once .
As far as the shack goes , um , I'm I'm trying to get the icon 7300 set up so that I can remote in and , and not only could I remote in , but I can also give access to soldiers who are deployed , that are ham radio operators , that want access to a radio and say I could then send them , you know , the IP and and the login , and then they could access
my radio from wherever they're deployed .
So I want to , I want to do that and and I want to get uh , I just want to get things a little bit smoother , you know get to get to where you know video editing uh , which right now I'm very much in the infant stage of of learning , uh , you know , it's a little bit more comfortable , so it's not so time consuming and and I'm not sitting here wasting
time trying to learn things , and I'm able to actually just sit here and enjoy the radio .
Yes . So basically , what you're really saying is that you want a QA , you know Hamshack , where you could do all the mess ups too , and then you just want it to automatically forklift itself right into production , so you could just pull right up and you know . Okay , I'm ready to operate .
Yeah , and , and even you know , I mean , I was thinking about it and it's like you know , is it , is it a matter of , you know , getting an additional computer to interface with the radio in a in a different way ? And you know how do I , how do I figure all this that , but I digress .
Anyways , uh , it's just , it's a never ending evolution and uh , and it's all all a ton of fun . So I think , uh , I'm right , I'm right there with Ryan and I just want to get things set so that I can sit here and I can enjoy a rag chew .
Yeah , yeah , that is , yeah , just being just preaching to the choir because I was like sitting here going , like I feel like I'm in not a comfortable sweater , I'm in , like you know , my dress up clothes . Every time I sit in front of this , you know , computer , because there's always something that I'm a little bit off . It's not really right .
Or , you know , the radio is just not like fully you know what I'll call baked in and yeah , you're preaching . Both of you guys are preaching my oh where , matt , I guess you know it's sort of okay , but it's not right . It just just doesn't feel like comfortable and that's you know what I think .
I , you know I'd like to shoot for , but I think for me , I really want to start to set up more um , I personally , you know , outside of you know , my shack , I think the automation piece is a big thing for me .
I , I finally , um , I spent like this entire weekend just doing a rip out of other , you know , or not , a rip out , a reorganization of a lot of my stuff and cabling and went through all of my inventory and relabeled stuff because I was tired of finding , you know , that I would go into my hand boxes and spend 25 minutes rifling through stuff , going , oh I
forgot I had this , or , uh , I don't know . You know where the heck this cable is . I know I bought this one cable and then you know what , you go and buy the cable again and you have the cable pop up randomly somewhere .
So I went through like a whole inventory this whole entire weekend and and finally I think like a breath of fresh air is , like you know , I guess the best way to describe it for me because now I can sit there and go oh , now I know I have a POTA box and all my POTA gear and anything I would do for POTA or SOTA is in there and I can go in and
grab it and it's not like the radios , and I've got like actual space where I can drop my gear , versus like just placing it down anywhere and and hoping that you know it's still going to continue to stay where it's going to be until you know I get a chance to reorganize it . So there's that .
And then I just I want to set up a little bit more like automation , more so for being able to charge batteries Like there's . I don't have a good solution for being able to charge batteries in a , in a station where I can just like take my battery out , plop it down and it's all ready to be plugged in and go , because I don't know about you .
Like you know , todd said he forgot his transmitter to his radio for his planes . I , you know I've walked out the door with not remembering to bring a battery with me , and you know , lo and behold , it's just like you know , kind of just , you know , ruins the whole entire thing , but you just remember next time .
So , or worse off , though , my bigger problem is the battery just does not fully charge . So I , instead of doing a 45 minute POTA , I'm doing a 10 minute POTA because the radio shuts off .
Yeah , all of you end up like me on Friday of field day , winter field day . Right , I didn't realize that I didn't charge my POTA battery after the last POTA and so my other batteries are charged . But I grabbed the POTA battery first and as I , as I go to call , the guy was in Serbia and and he answers me back and I go , oh sweet , no batteries .
Dad shuts the radio off , it shuts off .
We've all lived that story over and over again .
Yes , he just , he just needed a spot where you can have your no-co battery charger with your power pole connector and you can just plug it in and go yeah .
My biggest snafu in ham radio , I think , is when I drove all the way to Vermont to activate my first Vermont park and I get all set up and then I go for the coax and I didn't bring any .
That's great . You were pretty profitable at that point I was far .
I was like , oh my God , are you serious ? I did it . Like two weeks later I'm like , I'm , that's , that's actually . That is what motivated me to get the bag to put everything in for POTA . So now everything fits in that bag . Like I want to do POTA , I grabbed that . It's always ready .
I never leave it not ready to go , so everything I need is in there . Yeah .
And the one thing I really loved doing , and just kind of to wrap this up , was like bought those like Harbor Freight , like storage boxes , the yellow ones with the clear top . I just was like tired of having all of my elbows and you know , gender changers and connectors everywhere in a smaller boxes .
So I said , screw this , we're just going to buy a bunch of them . And I filled them all up and now it's like I'm like , okay , I know I have X number of these and I have X number of these . I know what I'm actually missing now . So you know , versus , like every time you go , oh , this BNC is going to go to female , is that female or male ?
And you're just like kind of like pulling your hair out and you're always into bringing the wrong connector . I mean , paul knows exactly . He's like when I bought my hex beam , it's a BNC female , right , yeah , it's , or whatever . It's the opposite . I can remember what it is and of course I brought the opposite of the wrong connector .
So I'm ready to set this beam up and everything , ready to play with it Guess what Can't play with the antenna because I don't have the right connector . Of course Paul was like I mean , it's away . So , you know , came to my rescue so saved the day , but anyway . So all right . Well , that was kind of good conversation . You know .
It's definitely got a lot of some fun stuff coming up on the 2024 .
And I know , as Todd talked about , with the 24 hour quota , we're going to be talking more about that because I think we're all psyched that we want to kind of do something together as Liffrey and Ham and rope a bunch of other people in to come and maybe camp out for the weekend and have fun with it . But stay tuned for that .
But outside of that , you know , we always thank you guys for joining Liffrey and Ham podcast .
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