old man . Winter's coming here in the northeast and what does that bring ? That's the w word . Yep , we're going to talk about antenna wire maintenance and prepping for maybe the next outage who knows ? Um . So next on live free and ham . Well , hello and welcome to another live free and ham podcast .
This is our bi-weekly show where during we discuss ham radio topics in new hampshire , new england and beyond . So whether you're a regular listener or a first-time guest , which we hope you are , we're excited to have you here and appreciate your support . And thanks again for tuning in tonight's show . Um , so let's get in the show . I'm your host , as always .
Call sign n1j . You are with my co-hosts , are with my co-hosts . We're Shaq , all right . Well , if you get that joke , you know how to do a dad joke then All right . So before we get into our topics here , we got a few things to catch up on . As always , you can head over to our storefront at livefreeandhamcom and check out all of our cool merch .
We've been a little lax here . It's been a little busy for a little while . We haven't had a chance to update a lot of some of the shirts in there . We've got to replace Paul's Jump Someday shirt with the . I Did it . We're working on those plans and we definitely have a couple of newer ones coming .
So definitely come by , check it out , keep your eyes peeled . You know , put those little track Google trackers on and , you know , once we get our shop updated , you'll get alerted and you can be the first to grab some cool merch from us . And as always , you know we appreciate everybody who's purchased stuff from us in the past .
And thank you again for supporting our show . And you know , as always , you know , one way to support our show outside of the merch is always way through feedback .
You know you can always send us a review message through our SMS link , or , if you're an Apple podcast listener , you can do the Apple podcast reviews , and so with that , you can also head over to our website and use our comment form .
There are a few people in the past that have used that that way too , so we recommend you or , if you're so inclined to join our discord head over there , go to the show channel . Let us know what you think about the show there , and we'd love to share it on our next episode .
So , but with that , we obviously always go into ladies and gentlemen , can I please have your ?
I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story .
Everybody , we got some news . Slow down , boog , let me handle this . We've got some news . I've got bad news and bad news .
I have reviewed ship's personnel Captain . Congratulations , you've got mail .
Well , with that , I hand it over to Todd . What's up , man ? How are we doing the review bucket ? We need a sound effect for that , paul there we go . Our marketing budget's a little shallow and empty this month , so if you can help out that way , that'd be awesome . We can get better sounds , all right .
Oh well .
There we go . The budget has increased slowly but surely . All right , well , that's a bummer . You can always increased slowly but surely . All right , well , that's a bummer . You know , you can always , always head over to our website . You can email us at liveryandham at gmailcom , or you could use our SMS link .
Like I said before in the show notes , let us know what you like , what you hate , what you don't like Anything . Let us know what your favorite color is . We'll be happy to tell people in the world what your favorite color is . That's how desperate we are here , folks , just kidding . Either way , you could always send us a review .
We'd love to hear from it and we just want to know how we're doing . It'll go from there and so with that , every month we say this and every month it's always the same . We always have our live show scheduled on our youtube channel .
So make sure , if you haven't head over there and subscribe , that you do subscribe and ring that notification bell so you can get notified when we go live , because every month we go live and we always have something interesting special guests . Sometimes we just sit around and talk to each other .
You know , that's just kind of the way it goes it's simple as that . How you doing paul , I'm doing fine . You know . How are you doing todd , I'm doing great . You know , just simple as that . And then we end the show . But you know , enough of the banter there . Um , you know as uh , we do every episode and we love doing .
We're going to dive into our doing good , good , doing good you do , that's good do good , do good , absolutely I do good , good , do it real good .
My only outlet is my ham radio alright .
Well , as we all have come to know and love this episode , segment , episode stick , whatever you want to call it we want to do good , we want to hear about the good that's happening , ham radio . We want to share , spread the love , um , and so there's always 55 different reasons to complain , you know , and we don't want to be one of those 55 reasons .
We want to hear the awesome stuff that you might be doing with your buddies , um , or your club or an organization that revolves around ham radio . Come share with us , because I'm almost positive and I'm going to throw it out to the floor here guys , any do good this week ? Cool , all right . Well , that , that that's at least some good news .
Man , that's ham radio , that's what we want to share with folks . So if you haven't learned about something like that , you definitely head over flag and torch , or if you're in the military , you probably have heard about this . Get involved , get excited about ham radio and just get out there and hang out and have fun and play radio outdoors .
Man , that's what it's all about . Right With that , todd , have you heard any do good stuff at all ?
Cool yeah .
Yeah . Or ICOM owners , you know . Hey , you know , I got to give Paul credit for what's the software you use , Paul , okay , so if you're an RC4 user or don't know what it is , check it out . Or you know , email Paul . He can get you set up and show you how to do it and get you configured there and get more people out there .
You know helping others to . You know to play radio . When you can't play radio , you might be in an apartment and not be able to set up an antenna . That's a perfect example of that . So that's awesome , okay . Well , so with that , you know , obviously . So with that , because of the communication process seems to be broken down here .
This is what I'm going to tell you . We want to hear your do good stuff . So these are the ways you can send in your do good One email us at livefreeandham at gmailcom . Simple and easy . Everybody knows how to use their email client . Just send us a do good .
Put do good in the subject line and we will make sure we read it in the next episode , you know . Or you can head over live free and ham forward slash do good , all one word . Fill out the form , it'll come right to us and we will happily read it online and share it and spread the love .
Or , you know , if you're an overachiever like a few people , like we know Mike n2m ik is one you know use win link . Paul is all listening . He is standing by waiting a bated breath for you to send him an email on a do good in , whatever your story is .
I mean , it's simple , just do it , send it , we'll share it and if you do Winlink , we'll have you on our next live show . So you know time is coming All the time , All the time , all the time . You know he . He's got his radio on 24 7 , waiting patiently .
He's like santa claus waiting for , you know , every letter to show the north pole , okay , well , so you've heard it here . So you know the four ways that you can get a hold of us and share your do good episode . And , and so once again , please share the do good . You know , spread the love . People want to hear it .
It might spark some new ideas with some new folks in their clubs or in their places they hang out and play radio and it will just keep making ham radio that much better .
So with that we're going to dovetail into one of our favorite episodes , because you know we're we're here to support Todd , we're here to to make sure that he can join the ranks of the , the next extras in the world . And so with that you know we are . And now for A little extra , with Todd W1STJ as always Official . It's like a confession man .
It's the , the catholic , uh , diocese , hanging on the background have , you , have you have you genuflected ? have you , uh , prayed the rosary ? You know the whole nine yards , man , come on to our father ham , so go ahead . This is your , this is your warning , your final shot over the bow .
Oh , I hey , you know , at this point , if you've been listening this long , you already know my spiel . Just go right to it . Ve Quizmaster , exactly , and the ARRL is not available for comment .
Thank , you , I should pay attention to the question .
Oh my gosh , I should pay attention to the question . Oh my gosh .
Yeah , it's inductive resonance capacitance Frequency , it's not C .
Bandwidth . Yeah , I'm going to go with inductance over capacitance .
And we're both wrong . Ugh , well , yeah , it works . Suck , suck , suck .
Thank you , yeah , yeah , I'm gonna go with a . Well , we're on our way to really being bad , oh boy superb right , gotcha 100 , it's still an extra . Well , I'm a lack of sleep , so yeah , I'll use that as my excuse .
Mm-hmm .
Yeah , I definitely know it's switch mode . Well , you know because I've had experience with electric fences , so definitely no , it's not those .
And there you go .
Well then , here we go . No , two out of three ain't bad . Woohoo , you can't play that one . We got one right . Do you have one for the one right in baseball ?
One out of three in baseball ain't bad , it's almost about a thousand sometimes , all right , well , so with that , if you know , if you are in the studying for your technician , general or extra class , hopefully you're doing a hell of a lot better than I am and taught today , because that was a a not a good performance .
Yes , that was not a good performance at all , but uh , in that case , you all want to head over to hamstudyorg because it's an excellent resource , uh , to getting your ticket . And you know , it's also , uh , one of those resources that will haunt you and hunt you down if you aren't studying on a regular interval . So keep that in mind .
It'll it'll be worse than your mother uh , saying , hey , did you brush your teeth and comb your hair ? And so , as always , if you've received your license or upgraded , let us know .
We'd like to recognize you on the next episode for your hard work and effort , because we are going to do that for paul , for todd , why do I keep doing man , man , anyway , that's one of those evenings , yes , paul evenings . Yes , paul Newman , exactly To the salad dressing guy right , yeah , okay . Well , there you go .
So , with all his hard work and effort , we'll hopefully celebrate with him , and you as well . If you want to email us at livefreeandham at gmailcom , we will make sure we mention you on the next show and , as always , as we get into our usual , you know format , paul , how's your ham radio week been ?
Hmm , mm , no HF , or 2 meter , or both . Mm-hmm , mm-hmm , ooh , oh , wow , wow .
Oh , right on your back , ugh .
Right , mm-hmm .
That's cool , so okay . So a couple of things . You did go with a companion , so that made the sting of messing up even harder , I'm sure .
Mm-hmm , well , mm-hmm .
It's like an acre point . Yeah , I went halfway around the mountain . Wow , yeah , I've been there , you'll . You'll remember it , man . That's the funny part .
It's like I had similar , same experiences and like I sympathize with you and I was like man , but my mistake was is I ended up ended up going 10 miles out in the wrong direction and had to like backtrack that 10 miles and then the other five that I was supposed to do on the trail .
So we were in the middle of the dark where we did it and I was just like , oh , this was just a bad , bad decision and and you know we I had crappy , you know before packs got really good , like I had the big wire frame metal ones and you know it was .
Uh , yeah , it was an experience as a kid , for sure , never forgot it though . Okay , yep , yep , mm-hmm .
Although on a sidebar you forgot to mention , you did put out your jump video . Thank you , mm-hmm .
you , you , you , you you you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you , you you , you , you can put your clips out on patreon man hmm , oh yeah , did you guys see it ?
Paul , sorry , damn it , damn it . Sorry , that's wrong with me today so I won't spoil the fun , but yeah , like when it hit your Patreon page , I was just like . I turned to the wife I was on the couch . I said , hey , you want to see Paul's jump ? And she's like hell yeah , and I'm like okay . So threw up on the wife I was on the couch .
I said , hey , you want to see Paul's jump ? And she's like hell yeah , and I'm like okay . So threw it up on the big screen and streamed it via the phone and they were like , oh my gosh , his face is so like they were commenting on your face being blown , but then he's like his face looks the same , was so freaking huge . So it was definitely good .
Well , anything more , because I know you sound like you're having a really busy week . Okay , all right .
Well , with that , todd , how is your ham radio week going , you , mm-hmm ? Oh boy Nice .
Yeah , that'd be good telling you , man , it's one of those indian summers again and we're all deep freezes coming soon . Yeah , it was . It was not sweater weather , that was for sure . There was no sweater jacket and a sweater on . So , yeah , that sucks well , dude . Hey , that's okay .
You know , you're studying for your test , you know , and you're on the repeater . That's even the better part . Like I think you and I keep passing each other every once in a while in terms of hitting . You know , we usually I mean we usually have a conversation jump in .
I don't take offense to it , so , feel free , I feel worse off , like every time , like I go out and do errands and it's like every five minutes I'll get to my destination and we'll be in .
I think of like I was talking to Christian , I think , and I was like I got to the post office like Christian , dude , I gotta jump out of the truck real quick , go to check the PO box right back . So I jump out and come back in and we pick it back up and then I'm like , oh , I gotta go get dog food .
And you keep going through that list and it's like I'm like Christian . He's like yeah , I know , don't worry , just go . It's like at this point I'm like okay , whatever , so it's all good .
Oh , fro , fro .
Hampstead , that's up . Yeah , Henneker , Hampstead , that's up .
Yeah , Henneker , Hampstead . Yeah , definitely .
Mm-hmm . Well , here's the one final question , then are you going to be another statistic like KC5HWBA with your DX Commander ? So is his , but he's been going on five years , I think , last time I checked . Oh my gosh .
Did it fall off Wow ?
Yeah , car ramps .
Mm-hmm .
Mm-hmm . Uneven lawn . Worst thing . Yes , that's , I guess , the positives for me for not being on or being in an hoa , but anyway , cool sounds good to me , man , either way . All right , oh , thank you , paul , for asking . I appreciate it so much . Don't throw me a curve here . So , uh yeah , ham radio week . Uh , this week as we're recording .
Uh yeah , I was uh cq worldwide . I uh decided to do a live stream with that . Learned a lot , we'll have to say . I have a feeling I'm going to have to keep tweaking that , but overall my audio levels are great . The two or three people that I had on all enjoyed and had a lot of questions , so it was good .
But I was anticipating that I was going to probably bounce around on the bands when I was doing it , but I stuck on 10 meters , 10 meters , 10 meters . I could barely like I only streamed for an hour and I could barely get through . I started at the top of the band and worked my way down .
I was only a quarter of the way through the top of the band before the hour came up and I'm like I haven't even had a chance to get to like the middle part of 28, . You know , a middle part of 28 , you know 100 and even below that . I was like that . I was like , oh my gosh , there are so many stations out there on cq worldwide .
It was fun to get in there . I mean , I'm just a points you know giver , so I don't , you know , really spend a whole lot , you know , submitting logs or anything like that . But it was fun , you know , I got a chance to play around with the flex and learn a little bit more about , uh , you know , contesting , and so I did some of that .
And then , um , I'm trying to think if I did , oh yeah , so I finished up my HF install on the truck , so that's a hundred percent done . I finally did all the bonding and grounding .
Sad to report that my truck is so RFI noisy that , no matter what I do , if the only way to get rid of it is to pull out the , you know the motor and basically , you know , run off of , you know , maybe batteries , because that's , that's literally the only way I'm going to get rid of RF coming in from the radio .
Now the saving grace is if , depending on what band I'm on , um , as long as I don't operate on 40 , I don't put the truck into a weird lip mode and send the computer into this tizzy . If I stay on 20 and 10 , I can put the noise blanker on and it gets rid of most of the alternator whine noise , but it's still not that great .
But hey , I'm not going to probably spend a whole lot of time making contacts in the truck when it's running , unless I warm up the truck , but most of the time I'm just gonna be an accessory or running off a battery . Uh , and so you know I'm happy with it .
I've got a couple of few what we'll call 2.0 add-ons to it , so I'm looking forward to kind of sharing that and I'm finishing up those videos . But like you , paul , I have a lot of video and I'm trying to squeeze out hard drive space myself too . I have a lot of video and I'm trying to squeeze out hard drive space myself too .
So , uh , yeah , I know the , the , the pains of trying to find a place to put it and then figure out how to edit it and then get rid of it and never hold onto it again . Uh , I did , sadly I do .
I have everything double wrapped in in some very thick , you know , ring ferrites , the clip-on ones , I mean everything's pretty much , including the up to the antenna , into the radio , has a ferrite clamp on it or has a couple of them and you think they'll take care of it .
And then I'm like , oh , maybe the last saving grace is grounding the radio to you know , basically the chassis of the truck . Nope , it's still , it's less but it's still there . It's like , yeah , it sadly , christian confirms . Good , yeah , I did , I ground the frame .
I grounded the frame , the tailgate , the doors , the hood , the exhaust , the uh antenna where it mounts to my back rack . I mean I have grounding straps over everywhere of the truck . I mean it's like ridiculous how many I have . And I like did overkill . So like I ground that frame , down the frame .
So it was bare metal and then you know , primered over it and you know , so everything's got some bare metal to bare metal contact . But it took it down just a little bit .
It wasn't enough and I've got to go back and review the video to see if they're like it was a really big one , but my test before and after , at least when I initially did it , didn't really make that much of a dent where I've been like totally quiet . So yeah , it is what it is . I can listen to HF . Jeep now and then operate off a battery .
Yeah , that's kind of my thought was is like I had the antenna . I went a little farther with the buy once cry , once approach and put a SO230i bulk guide connector off the back of my bumper and so I've got a coax , uh R eight X coax . It runs up on the inside of the inside of the frame , comes up into the cab and then goes into a uh coax switch .
So I can either put , um , a big 10 meter mast in the back of my hitch mount and then tie the antenna right into that coax and use the radio from that , or I can use my atas that I have on my truck . So I've got options . It's just you know what I want to do .
You know at that point if I want to run a dipole and and , like I said , I've got battery hookups so I can hook up right to the radio and I get digital . So yeah , I'm sitting pretty , I'm happy it's , and I just now have to edit all the videos and get them up on the channel . So those are coming soon .
I did , I did that and just like dude , where you run all that coax like , there's no way you can get all that coax into the vehicle and then put it into some sense of a coax switch . This is impossible , it's just impossible . That would be a perfect candidate for that . Well , we're about a third of the way there . I have a trailer .
I don't know if I want to put a big , big mask there , but we're talking field day plans though for that . Yes , okay , yeah , so one of the things that kind of I was running into and and we alluded to and talked a little bit about last episode , uh , was uh around the lines of , you know , preparing a little bit more for emergencies .
Obviously been hearing a lot in the news . We've been hearing a lot of , like you know , other podcasts and shows and youtubers talk about all of the , the things that they do to prepare for storms , and some of the radio communications and stuff . It kind of got me thinking of like , well , you know what am I doing ?
You know , just in general I'm not like a big prepper at all and I would never constitute myself one , but I've got a little bit of a kind of a process going , both ham radio and , we'll say non ham radio for like a lot of the things that you know we were going to run to .
I mean , we , we haven't , we're not due for another 500 year storm yet as far as I know . But winter around here , you know , tends to uh , you know , bite hard in some cases . So I think , talking around that , what do you guys do yourself ? I know , todd , you do probably do some stuff . That's , you know , ham radio or not . But really okay , is that ?
hmm , hmm , hmm , hmm , okay , sure Makes sense .
Yep , okay , you're one antenna . You haven't had to do any maintenance on your two meter antenna , though , but you , you , you probably have should check some of that stuff out . We're right , okay , okay , okay . So you got a little bit of a setup there , and so you thought any more about like okay , power goes out , what do you got for that ?
Mm-hmm like a power wall or whatever .
Right , okay , you heard it here . Folks , I am not advertising antenna repair services , just letting everybody know in advance . Yeah , they were huge . Canon launchers yeah , I saw those . I was like , yeah , this is too big for me . Okay , so you got a couple of things , so we're going to circle around Canon launchers yeah , I saw those .
I was like , yeah , this is too big for me . Okay , so you get , you got a couple of things , so we're going to circle around kind of in this , what I'll call the micro stuff , meaning like HTs and batteries and all that kind of stuff in a bit . But , um , they're all ready .
Okay .
Okay , so it sounds like you got some , you know , some modes of communication with you and and a kind of semi light plan of you know getting things ready . So you know , I know , once I tell paul we're gonna get like the whole plan because I know it's coming , because he's probably the most prepared on all of us , so you know where to go .
Well , okay , all right , so we'll start with Paul , because it's going to spark some questions for me , because I've got a light set up and I'm probably in the same boat as Todd . I'm not like overly we'll say prepared .
I do have some contingencies in place , but it was making me think because it's like , yeah , what do I even have for like the basics of stuff that's non-Ham radio related ? That kind of would be like essential .
That I know I got , you know , caught with my pants down when we had that huge ice storm 30 years ago , whatever it was , and and , uh , really wish I had . But so enlighten us , oh , dear Mr N1OG , yeah , exactly yeah , exactly yeah , exactly , mm-hmm . Thank you , oh god , yeah yeah , yeah , but did you steal cable do ?
Tell Thank you , mm-hmm , yep that was his company , oh , today , oh wow , I saw the flight field .
Bob , mm , hmm , mm-hmm , mm-hmm , mm-hmm , thank you , okay . Okay , a while . Yeah , mm-hmm , yeah , minimum , yep .
Okay .
Still cook Yep spam , spam , spam okay .
So , yeah , now I feel real bad and and and I'm going to go cry after this , but uh , yeah , a couple of things . So obviously you've got some good resilient backup systems around your antennas and stuff .
I know I'm trying more often in my you know kind of you know seasonal like cleanup items , like Todd was saying earlier , where he , you know he's doing some yard work and things to prep for winterization and that stuff . Are you doing that twice a year on your antennas a lot of times ?
Yeah , okay .
How often are you like ? Are you doing a lot of coax , repair or replacement all or your lines pretty decent . Are you testing any of those at all ?
okay .
Not meant for UV .
Okay .
So you apply the Calum approach of waterproofing your connectors with Vaseline , not an AlgaMated tape guy , or just don't like the dealing with the cut of the crap type stuff .
Mm-hmm Okay .
Yeah , I haven't committed myself to go that route yet . I did it to my dx commander for a bit and then I realized after the because it was so low to the ground and you know the dirt and everything that was getting into it was just like making it like really gross to pull the connector off and fix it and stuff like that .
So I ended up going the algamated and then electrical tape , but at the same time that's no better anyway , because once you get that vulcanized and it starts to stick to each other , you're literally going to cut your coax anyway in half because you're going to get so pissed off because you can't get the tape off of the connector and you're just going to cut it
anyway and put a new connector on . So I guess it's a good maintenance step because you want to test your connectors for continuity and stuff . But I haven't done that yet and that's that's kind of one of my fears that I keep hearing on other podcasts .
They're like oh yeah , there's a shelf life to coax and I'm like , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , I heard that story . But then you know , guess , what's going to happen is that shelf life is going to come back around . And you know my sw , like I'm . I was seeing it a little bit today on 10 meters , but I think it was just the band and where I was sitting .
But uh , you know I I'm always concerned that my coax is going to eventually decide that it's uh , yeah , it's time to fail , and it's going to be when everything's covered in snow . Hmm , okay , you're lucky and you just now just prove my point why I said you should put a conduit into where your dx commander is going .
But hey , we won't talk about that because once you bury it , well , uh , yeah , you tell me when you're not working . Thursday right is what it is well there you go . They all are they . That's what happens , man , and then the wife takes over , right exactly .
You just became the poster child to retirement before you retire , okay , so you can't .
I'm with you , dude . It's the circle of trust , man , no harm , no fouls . But okay , so I , I batteries . You were talking about batteries . I know , uh , todd , you've got generators and stuff and and I'm sort of the same boat . Are your batteries fully powering your shack too , paul , or no ?
Okay , okay , mm-hmm , mm-hmm .
And run through . Now , how often are you doing that cycle wise ? Oh , wow , that's committed . I'm barely lucky if I can remember to haul my generator out and start it up . Yeah , now do you . All of that is still kind of a manual process . Yeah , now do you . All of that's still kind of a manual process .
So when the power goes out , you're cutting over , but it's probably what like 10 minutes worth of work . Okay , now are you power ? Are you back feeding your panel kind of thing to your batteries , or no ? Okay , so it's just the heat , not water oh , okay interesting .
All right , yeah , because that's kind of what I thought was like I've got the we'll call my generate the convenience factor , because it's more , because it's more of the fact that I'm tired of sitting in the living room with candles on and entertaining the family and they all need to charge their cell phone , so the generator suffices .
That you know whole house power back fed kind of scenario . But it caught me thinking it's like I don't't have any back battery backup at all for my shack area . I mean , obviously it would all come up when I fire up the generator , but I've never run the shack with the generator at the same time .
So I don't know what the radio would do if I wanted to go send 80 watts down the wire . It doesn't wimp , yeah huh right yeah , right , it's the same with , like the dryer too , like a 240 type thing . Yeah , hmm , kill the mains .
That's a photo park in your bedroom you , it's a photo park in your bedroom .
Okay , yep , okay , yep now , when you say stabilize , you're talking about you're adding an additive to keep it balanced and actual gas so it doesn't turn to whatever .
Yeah , exactly yeah to whatever , yeah , exactly , stay beal , yep , yep , yep , right , yeah , yeah , yeah .
It's like manually shutting off the pet cock , yeah . So you're basically drain the lines and don't keep gas on the line , because we'll eat through the law , hmm , so yeah . So I'm kind of in the same boat as you guys , I mean literally .
Just my only problem is I don't have lawnmowers and stuff , because I'm an hoa , so like I have to figure out how to get rid of that gas once a year , because it just sits there . If I don't throw it in the gas , I don't run it in the generator . Well , that's one thing .
Or I'll bring it to field day and I'll run it at field day , you know , for the whole entire weekend and I'll probably go through the whole . You know , at least whatever I pour into the tank , because you know power in a camper or something like that .
But yeah , that's kind of one of those things that you know I have like okay , and here's a little tip that I learned , and I learned this kind of on the battery side .
I don't know if you guys do this your own batteries , but every battery either I build or that I buy , I write the date on it of the month and the day of when I got it , and so what ? I do that with my gas can is I've got the date you know written on it .
It's like on one side of the tank it literally looks like , uh , you know , kind of a hit , a punch list of like you know how they used to use the stamps on the side of planes , because it's just got the date keep rolling and you know it's all for the purposes of you know how long is the gas been sitting there , even though I'm putting stable in it .
I've always , my dad always told me it's like , oh , don't let it sit too long , it'll , you know , just turn to whatever . And uh , in sulfur , and I'm like , yeah , yeah , but they've got you know , all the additives in them . I didn't think about that . I'm sure my neighbor at the HOA would love that . I'm not allowed to do that either .
So strike two , todd . Any other suggestions ? Just bring it to you and Paul and you guys can burn it . Okay . Any other suggestions ? Just bring it to you and Paul and you guys can burn it . Okay , okay .
Yep , yep , hmm , yeah , the charge right , yep , yeah .
Cause I don't know about you , but I suffer from camera over shit , so that's always one of those things . I'm never gonna remember what the battery was . Those are good yeah oh , and if you're not exercising them , they're going to .
Just , you know , like paul did , was it you did with a set of batteries you had recently , where you just powered them all the way down to nothing , or was that you , todd ? That you were saying you brought them all the way down to zero , right ? Yes , that's it yeah yeah , you got the little bms in them .
Nice , nice , cool Cool . Yeah , I would say yeah , I would say Catch fire , wow , wow , hmm , hmm .
Hmm , the self-contained . Yeah , I've seen them , yeah .
Throw it . Oh yeah , his ass right .
Building a bomb with a bomb , so , um , so , shift gears , I guess obviously we could go into battery technology for hours , I'm sure . Um , what are you guys doing for like regular kind of other we'll call secondary stuff ? So , uh , one of the things . A couple things come to mind .
Like you guys have stores for spare , like batteries , are you all on rechargeables only for like all the , the flashlights and that type of stuff for the non prepared folks in the family that need them ?
And you know , are you using any other kind of things like that or around that to kind of be prepared for , like even the small , like you know , blips or storms that happen where we knock out power ? yeah , yeah bright light , yeah , yeah .
Yeah , our central spot .
How about you , Paul ? What do you got ?
Yeah , mm-hmm , all right .
Now are you .
Go ahead Now . Are you good ? $20 .
Never . It's always going to be APRS . Yes , you AB folks , you Casey and everybody suffer from that . Stop doing that . You're killing . We're not multitaskers . One channel at a time , friends . One channel , or put it on scan . That's my advice . That'll solve your problem . Go back to aprs anyway . I . Why , what ? What is it done to hurt you ? I ?
I happen to like to know that when I saw Todd Beacon , that he was actually on the air and I could actually reach out to him , and so when I called and he didn't respond , I could be like texting him hey , idiot , I know you're out driving , why aren't you responding to me ? All right ? So yeah , let's , let's kind of .
I mean , this is a topic that I know is probably way over . You know longer than an hour or so we do in our show here . So , yeah , let's , let's kind of . I mean , this is a topic that I know is probably way over . You know , longer than an hour or so we do in our show here .
So we , if it's interesting to folks , we might break this down a little bit in some certain areas , because I I I'm learning more that I'm not prepared enough to get like the basics together that I think I should and you know , being the Eagle Scout , I that's the most embarrassing to say out loud and on the air and and have a recorded record of it .
But hey , it is what it is , I like and I like . Todd , you and I suffered really hard when we were at near fest and we couldn't program a stupid simplex frequency on our FT three . That was what I was like oh , okay , on our FT3 . That was when I was like , okay , I'm horrible , we did , we did , but it required both of us being in the same place .
So imagine if you were alone and you were trying to figure it out and you couldn't call me to say , hey , how do we fix this ? That's what I'm looking at . I was like thinking Paul's going to have to know how to do this , and he admitted the same thing .
You know Paul's going to have to know how to do this and you know he , he admitted the same thing . He was like I think it was this and I figured out where it was . No , but would you like ? Like ? Here's the question . Well , yeah , but okay , so say so . Here's a scenario . So we're in an ice storm and you have no .
You need comms because your cell phone's dead and you want to like say we have a welfare check on the repeater . Okay , yeah , the 300 , great . But what happens if your wife , like you know , like she has to use a radio ? You heard it here , folks .
So so here's my question to you , paul , like is any of your family prepared for that kind of radio side of things ? Or you got radios for them to use if you needed to ?
okay , okay , okay , not cool , yep , mm-hmm .
Mm-hmm , you violator , I don't care . In case of emergency , use any frequency available . Okay , so you have some mode there . So todd's , basically , you know , told the family sink or swim . I have a feeling I don't I have .
Oh okay , sorry , sorry you so yeah , okay , so so , yeah , okay so no they won't care heck , the government didn't even come after half of the folks that were using their radios when Hurricane Helene rolled through and they popped open on a repeater going I don't have a call sign , but can I have help ?
And uh , thank god , uh , there's some smart hams to say , sure , we'll help you out , but uh , yeah , I .
So ultimately , you know , kind of just in um , you know just transfer of , you know ownership , like you know , even though your wife won't have radio , todd , your son will play with the radio , so therefore he's not gonna let mom , just you know , fade away , so he'll have to be the translator between you and the radio just to let you know .
But and you , the end of the world I see , well , you heard it here , I dare you .
Yes , they won't understand the benefits . Okay , so yes , they won't understand the benefits okay , so maybe brought like . So here's an example like broadcast was totally down when it was in South Carolina . They lost like four or five of their broadcast AM FM stations and they had no way of like reaching those folks in the middle of , like you know , neverland .
And so , yeah , they realized that you know oh yeah , yeah , oh yeah , yeah , oh yeah Agreed , oh yeah agreed yep , I'd be on 14 300 talking to everybody and not checking in the damn net , so all right .
well , so , so we can kind of put a little little close to this , what one thing would you tell somebody who might be listening to , like who's not done any of this whatsoever , is not like considering themselves in that prepper kind of approach , but wants to , like , have some level of security , what one thing would you say they could start in or get towards or
move in a direction to , when it comes to like kind of getting a little bit more prepared for the stuff ham radio or non-ham radio that you kind of learned or you gleaned from , you know , doing what you guys built already .
Hmm , mm-hmm .
Nope , that 706 Mark II G does the same thing as a Flex 6400 , just way cheaper .
How about you Todd Yep ? Good point , yep , yep , thank you .
Wow , just don't drive your Tesla . That's all I have to say so alright , all right .
Hmm , yep , yep , yeah , though .
Yep , okay , well , I would say , all good stuff . I think one thing that I've kind of learned is just all of that that you guys talked about definitely are all , like we'll say , for , like the bigger kind of events , I'm in my mind , I'm thinking like , okay , micro events , like you know , hey , we get an ice storm , we're out for two weeks or whatever .
Um , I'm thinking like , okay , yeah , the , the bare necessities batteries , water , all that stuff you guys mentioned , which is definitely all the things that I've got kind of stocked up just in general for everyday use , and it gets cycled through .
But , like , even the unmentionables that we always hear on the news the toilet paper , the paper towels , all of like those things we all want to make sure that we have them available and and , um , you know , and and even though I give my wife a hard time a lot of things like towels and extra blankets and things like that , because I'm tired of figuring out ,
trying to come up creative places to store them , but having them available there and all of that , those are important .
And one thing I learned , you know , obviously , when we had that huge ice storm about 30 years ago , that we you , you know having me more prepared for whatever situations might happen , even just on an everyday perspective , um , but more so thinking like , okay , well , if I got that small little thing that I'm carrying around with me , what more can I do in my
vehicles to have a radio there and that prepared and and extra fuel and extra batteries and all of those things you know are all starting to kind of whirl my head because you head , because if the end times happen , I want to be able to be able to at least function .
But , like Todd said , my family's first and foremost , the important thing to have all back circled and my kids are older , so they're out doing their own thing . They're not thinking about end times , they're like hey , I'm going to stay out till two in the morning and I'm like , do I have to get up for work ?
The next day is on their you know , top 10 list . And so , you know , getting them prepared .
Like I was thinking like putting simple , like frs or gmrs radios in their cars to , just , you know , I even my daughter's a ham and I'm trying to get her to get a , you know a , a mobile rig in her car , in her jeep , because I'm like , if you have it , it's great . She's like I don't want it , it's like I'm not going to use it .
I'm like , yeah , I get it , you won't use it . So the HT is the other option . So I'm thinking kind of along those lines .
But those are kind of the small things I'm just starting with and then just adding to it along the way , because it and like you had mentioned , todd , with your family down in Maryland , they sound like they've been building for a long time and that's the thing that I you know what I stress to anybody is like it doesn't happen overnight .
You know , don't go mortgaging the house , like Paul said , to get prepared , like getting in a panic mode .
Do it like gradually , over time , and you'll get there because you know emergencies might happen , but they aren't going to be as bad as the end times , unless we all miss the signs and we're all busy head down playing ham radio the whole entire time and forget about the rest of the world and what's going on . But I highly doubt we're in that scenario .
So , yeah , good stuff . It's a good topic to talk about . I like it . I think we should definitely elaborate more on as we kind of go on , and I'd love to have . I was thinking we should talk to BioAnno and see if we can get them on to talk battery stuff .
That'd be really cool to kind of just dive into all of the geekiness there , because I know we've got some setups and we could benefit some really good , you know . Knowledge , truth transfer , yep yeah well , okay , well , so here's okay I just keep pulling this trailer with me all the time . It's got everything I needed . I'm good .
So here's a guy , todd , I was going to say so here's the thing . We'll throw it out to you guys , our listeners . So is this something that's interesting to you ? If it is , we're going to create a channel over on our Discord . We're going to open it up . We're going to talk more .
We're going to see if we can share and , hey , if there's some stuff that comes out of it and you want us to , like , do a little deeper dive on everyday carries and , you know , hear what we're kind of going through and share some stories , then let us know . We'll include it in . You know , our next episode or a couple episodes in the future , you know .
But you know , head over to our discord , check that out . You know . If you haven't joined it , the link is on our website . So head over to livefreeandhamcom and click the discord link down in the bottom of the footer and you can join and be part of that conversation .
We want to hear , you know , what you guys do for your everyday carries and and your preparedness for , you know disasters in and around . You know your family and home and and job and work and stuff . So yeah , we'll throw that out there . So hopefully we'll hear more and we'll have more conversation around that . It'll be cool , okay , all right .
Well , with that , we are getting a little longer . Every time Our episodes keep creeping up on that two-hour time mark . It's almost like we're getting into the scary spots . We might become a ham radio clubhouse or HRCC or something I don't know . This is a little news , weird , true , true , very true .
Okay , well , two .
Wow , you don't drive far enough , I guess All right , good , good feel . Well , we're just yeah . Hrcc was like that at one time . Okay , well , any last tidbits before I dive in and close out the show .
Cool .
Just go there , dude . I think we're better off going to your neighborhood , based off of what you're just telling us oh boy alright , well , you heard it here and hopefully , yeah . Well , yeah , that'll go no further , but anyway , all right . So , as always , thank you again for listening to live free at ham .
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