The Art of Repeater Debate and Community Connection

This is your weekly show where we discuss ham radio topics in New Hampshire , New England and beyond , and we're thrilled to have you here and , whether you're a regular listener or tuning in for the first time , we thank you for joining this episode and hanging out with us . So let's get into the show .

I'm your host , Eric call sign N1JUR , and I'm with my wonderful co-hosts .

Actually , one thing that I just recently saw that came across our storefront as an order Dave Carson . He picked up a sweet pair of our limited custom etched Live Free and Ham glasses . So good for you , Dave , to jump on that . And Paul is showcasing that for those podcast listeners who are not watching us live on video .

They are available in our store and there's only a few left . So don't be like you know anybody else and just sit around and wait . You know , and and you know I have to say , maybe if you're , as a bonus offer , if you're a Patreon member , there was a 30% coupon . You know that kind of went off there .

So if you want to save some money , that's a nice way to pick up a few glasses . That's all I'm saying . Hey , just it's there and it's available . But again , thank you everybody who have purchased on our storefront and we appreciate you all and thanks for help supporting the show .

So , as always , like I mentioned , we still have a limited supply of the custom etched live-free and ham drams .

So if you haven't gotten one , or trying to figure out when you want to get one , like I said , we've given you a couple examples what more do we have to do to physically drive down to your doorstep and hand you one in a hand and take your cash and walk home with it ?

I don't know what more we can do , but either way , like I said , you can come pick one of those up , because once they're gone , they're gone and I guarantee you're going to be pretty sorry if you don't have one in your own arsenal there .

I know I enjoy mine all the time and it's always , you know , great to have as a great token to support Live Free and Ham . So , as always , we've got the Hamlets in big supply . I just restocked all of those . So feel free to head over to Get Hammed . If you don't know what that is , you get a little story and an understanding of what it's all about .

But you can pick up there and pick up your own Get Hammed . I've been keeping an eye out myself and handing those out on a few cars and vehicles .

As I go out on the weekends errands with the wife , she's beginning to pick up on my little antenna radar that I do every time I pull into a parking lot and she'll just roll her eyes at me and just tell me go do something different . And so I've been handing a few out . It's been fun .

So that's one way we can continue to support and have some fun in the community . And so , with that , let's get into the usual stuff . We love our feedback , and so we got a couple of ways you can always reach out the community , and so , with that , let's get into the usual stuff .

We love our feedback , and so we got a couple of ways you can always reach out to us , and we actually have listeners who've been doing that . So we thank you guys . You've been hearing our cries , but , as always , you can reach out to us via SMS .

There's a link in all of our show note descriptions and that's a quick , easy way to share that latest comment or feedback from any of our episodes . We'd love to hear from you guys and we want to continue to build the community and converse with you guys .

You can always leave us a voicemail , and we have our tried-and-true Live Free in Ham voicemail and you can now send your deepest thoughts , express your devoted love to us or even remind us how you know we have to renew our HF warranties on our radios . You know we're all here to listen and we want to share your message .

And that number to call is nine , seven , eight , two , three , three , one , one , four , two , yes , one one , four , two . Oh my gosh , my brain , my , my 50 year old brain , is slowing down . Folks , you can watch it happen in real time , alright , so don't wait any longer . We have volunteers standing by to take your message .

And if you're like one of the old timers who prefer a good , old-fashioned email , you can send it to us to livefreeandham at gmailcom and we'll respond there . And , as always , we have our monthly live stream . So , in addition to all of our regular weekly episodes , you can now come be a part of monthly live stream .

So , in addition to all of our regular weekly episodes , you can now come be a part of the live stream . And we , as we always say , with all of our live streams , we never know where we're going to have it .

So , in essence , you know , the best way that we recommend is make sure you're subscribing to our live stream , make sure you ring that notification bell so you get notified when we go live and you can come be part of the craziness and madness that we call our live stream on Live Free in Ham .

So you know we love to have you there , come hang out and be part of , you know , a great community there .

So , and lastly , as we always talk about our little secret , you know if you want to be one of the cool kids , head over to our Patreon page and you know , as a subscriber , you're going to get immediate access to all our shows before they're released to the public .

So you get that bonus , you get sneak peeks , you get to listen to the uncut , unfettered , realistic babble and countdown to Todd's retirement , all wrapped up to a nice pretty bow . And you get access to other things like early discounts and early orders on merchandise and a whole slew of more stuff .

So you know you can always head over there and become a Patreon member and help support the show , because we appreciate it and it helps us continue to do what we love to do . So we thank you guys for those that have hopped over there and I don't know if Todd is rolling . Sorry , paul is rolling . Yep , there he is . He's already on the ball .

Man , I should have just waited and slowed my roll there , but he's rolling all of our Patreon members down in the scrolling thing thingamabob , whatever they call that thing at the bottom . Man . See , I'm telling you , man , the ticker , the ticker . This is what happens , todd , when you hit 50 . It just slowly starts to like a crash . That happens in real time .

You're just kind of watching slow motion .

He was flying somewhere and he was actually at a bar because he ordered a Dozecki's . I think I'm like well , enjoy those beers . He goes how do you know I'm drinking beer ? I'm like I enjoy those beers . He goes how do you know I'm drinking beer ? I'm like I can hear you ordering them . But he thought it was pretty funny .

So , yeah , so let's play that voicemail and we can find out who , where in the world , is Ryan , I know he's home now .

Hey , I got another question for you , though . On your YouTube channel it says the hosts and who you all are , but it says Ryan . Who is Ryan ? I haven't seen him yet . Talk to you all later . I look forward to your next show next month , thanks , oh , hey , I really enjoy Paul's questionnaires about questions about the extra license test .

That's one of my favorite parts of the show . Thanks Bye .

You have to listen to ryan um , yeah , so , and like I was telling the boys here here that the best part of the show and the only part of the show that people listen to is the testing of myself with Paul and Eric getting them wrong , even though he's an extra , and they didn't believe me . So you just clarified it .

So I appreciate that I love being right , excellent .

We have new subscribers come on all the time and they've never known because Ryan hasn't been on in a while . He's been flying halfway around the globe . We were talking about maybe having a little segment where we call like you know where , instead of like where in Carmen , san Diego , where is Ryan W1SNH now ?

And you know , pull up a world map and see if we can , you know , pinpoint him , or something like that . But you know , we'll , we'll , we'll put that in the works . But I think , since everyone still loves something extra with Todd , which I never thought , we would have to continue this legacy forever , even after his extra happens . We hear you , Bob .

I had to go drop something off at the car dealership and I was driving back to the Dome and I called him and it was a pretty funny conversation because I'm like , well , I must say , on the YouTube page , you know you're one of the hosts , which you are , but you haven't been on in a while , so he was looking for you .

So he got a good laugh out of it .

And this was like when we first started I said we got to get that guy on the podcast , like maybe you can kind of do it from his shack and we can be here or whatever , or I'll just all go down there just to see his towers and stuff . So I'll have to get on Ryan and see if he can get on that and uh , get that one , maybe in the in the spring .

Yeah , very cool . Well , bob , we thank you again for leaving us a voicemail and , like we say to everybody , you know our voicemail line is open 24-7 . So if the moment strikes you at 2 in the morning , feel free to call the number . It won't wake us up . Leave a message and we'll be gladly to share it on our episode next episode , like Bob did .

And you know , bob , we thanks for the shameless plug there because you know , without you , you know we can't continue to keep this going here . So you know , he is definitely a Patreon member there and we appreciate him helping us out and being part of the community and so , like he said , just for $3 a month .

I feel like it's an ESPCA commercial , like with the arms of the stranger . Where's that song in the background ? We should program or plug that in .

So , yeah , if you don't understand what we're talking about , you can head over to Paul's page , go over to the Grouch of New Hampshire and he's got a link . We'll throw the link in the description . But he posted his official track to our N1QC Winter Field Day . We'll call it Rock Anthem because it was totally awesome .

Everyone we posted call rock anthem because it was totally awesome . You know , everyone you know we posted the club and everywhere outside of it has been like dude , that's the best song in the world . So kudos , hats off . Very cool , all right . Well , with that , I think you know we all know .

You know where you can leave your messages and we'd love to hear from everybody . But let's kick into our next Do Good .

But , however , sometimes we allow those negative voices to overshadow our enjoyment , and we're going to get into a little bit of that a little later . So I raise my fist and say bring on that good deeds , my friend , and you can share your story with us . We'd love to hear it .

So maybe you have an experience that you can share your first ham radio experience with a total stranger while you were activating a park or teaching a student , a family member or neighbor about the joys of ham radio . Or maybe you got to demonstrate a new tech shit Fre or neighbor about the joys of ham radio .

Or maybe you got to demonstrate a new tech shit Neck hitting the ball , frickin' A man , fire me now . Or got to demonstrate a new technician that thrills up HF at the club's field day . My gosh man , I'm just working myself on a job today and we all want to hear about it . So you know , this week we don't actually have .

I didn't see anything in the inboxes . Any of you guys see anything come across the Discord or anything like that . All right , well , so that's okay . We totally understand . It's been a very kind of you know , at least up here in the Northeast a locked in winter A lot of us have been .

You know , got about a foot and a half , two feet of snow in our you know back backyards there . Not a lot of us have been dying to get out to do podos and stuff like that . Playing a lot of the radio has mostly been in our shack .

I can understand not having an experience like that , but hey , if you do have one , you can always share it with us in three easy ways .

You can leave us a voicemail at 978-233-1142 or you can always head over to our web form at livefreeandhamcom forward slash , do good , and you can use that form and leave your story there and we'd love to hear it and share it with everybody , because we're all about sharing the love at Ham Radio and sharing all the cool stuff that's going on and I know there's

stuff going on every day . I talk to a bunch of people on the repeaters . There's stuff going on every day . I talk to a bunch of people on the repeaters . There's always some cool stuff happening .

So you know , we'll probably have a couple coming in the future , because I know we're doing some really cool stuff in our club that I definitely want to inspire others to go do in their clubs . So , you know , hopefully we can , you know , spread the love there .

But outside of that , you know , if you are one of those adventurous types which we have a few in our midst , you know we have the option where you can send us a win link to N1OG , and only N1OG , because Todd and I are too lazy to set up our own win link accounts , but I'm going to remedy that soon . I am , I swear . This is my 2025 resolution .

It's my bucket list item . Get on win link is to send an email to N1OG and share your story that way . And because you were so amazing at doing that , mr Type A , that you know we're going to invite you on to maybe a future live stream or we're kind of planning . Maybe we invite a couple people on that . You know have all done a Do Good episode .

We'll call it the Do Good episode of you know or the Do Good Mega episode or something like that , I don't know and we can all share some cool stuff on there .

So we're we're working that out a little bit as we're , you know , kind of spitballing here , but , um , you know , we all want to share our experiences and we all want to hear all the cool things that are going on ham radio , and what better place to do it All right , without further ado , apparently the best segment out of this whole entire podcast , and nothing

else really matters .

That's so struggles and racks his brain to test his knowledge and hoping he gets his upgrade . So if you'd like to follow along , you can head over to hamstudyorg , which is a great resource to help you prepare for your test . It is recommended by three out of four volunteer examiners because , as always , the ARL doesn't want to respond to our comments .

So with that , without further delay , my wonderful VE Quizmaster , take it away , Paul , All right .

Well , question number one for this evening what is the function of taps in a digital signal processing filter ? Is it A to reduce excess signal pressure levels , B select the point at which baseband signals are generated . C provide access for debugging software ? Or is it D provide incremental signal delays or filter algorithms ?

You can immediately dismiss two of the possible answers , because regulator appears in both the question and the answer . Sweet , all right , todd , great job so far . You're two for two . Don't fuck this one up . I know this one All right . The third and final question of the evening what logical operation is performed by a two-input exclusive NOR gate ?

Is it A it produces a 1 at its output if 1 and only 1 input is 1 . B it produces a 0 at its output if 1 and only 1 of the inputs is 1 . C it produces a 0 at its output only if all inputs are 0 . Or D it produces a 1 at its output only if all inputs are 1 .

And , as we always like to say and we haven't had a few in a while correct Paul is if you've received maybe your license or maybe you got an upgrade , let us know . We want to make sure we recognize you on the next episode for your hard work and effort .

You can always email us at livefreeandham , at gmailcom , or use any of our other methods to reach out to us and let us know , because we want to celebrate with you . Cool .

I've done a lot of 2-meter , 70-centimeter stuff , you know , both in the truck and from the new mobile grouch command center . I'm in the process of building the mobile command center ham shack .

So , for those that don't know , I got a 30-foot RV and it's a bunkhouse limited edition , which the first day I brought it home I removed the bunks because that's not what I needed . But so in place of the bunks I put a very nice desk . I reused a lot of the material so it matches everything in the interior and I'm looking forward to getting that going .

One of the interesting things is I learned all these new things about 75-ohm coax , because we've got this . Well , 50 ohms is what you need for ham radio , right ?

Well , the rv has uh cable tv jacks built in on the inside and it's got a cable tv jack on the outside , so if I don't have to punch a hole through the the wall and I can just use the 75 ohm that's already built in I sweet .

So I've been doing a lot of learning in that regard , and how using 75 ohm coax will play in a factor on SWR and how everything is . It looks like all I got to do is just find the right length to bring my resonant frequencies into the bands . Uh , and it should be , should be good .

And definitely , if you haven't and actually it's just a little short , shameless plug for all of us is , we kind of took a little bit of a different approach , I think , to our usual channels in terms of posting content and stuff , but we're kind of just doing these ham diary things on our site and on our YouTube channel and we're curious to see what people

think of it , you know . So , hey , use this as a way to tell us , you know , whether you know you like the content we're producing out there . It seems to be welcomed . I I'm pretty impressed .

There've been a lot of comments and feedback to Todd's , Paul's plugs for repeaters and clubs and all the other stuff in between , and my stuff of fixing freaking antennas and all the like . So , yeah , I'm enjoying it , I'm having fun .

This is short little clips that we're putting out there amongst our regular content that we do for Liffrey and him in general , and so let us know . We're curious . Is there something you want to hear ? Let's talk about it . Let us know and we'll see if we can put something together . Alright , Well , cool , Awesome with the trailer stuff . Looking forward to that .

And so over to you , Todd . How is your ham radio week sir ?

So I went snowboarding and I was going to use my 1992 ASIM air . Um , good thing I didn't , because when I picked it up , the binding broke . The plastic just broke up , cause it's 33 years old . And and Ryan at W1SNH is like dude , you can't use that , you don't want to use that , he goes , just use mine .

So he's got a brand new uh Burton stiff board for carving , which is what I like to do , cause when I was younger I used to do the jumps and that .

I was like when snowboarding became a thing , when I was a ski instructor , they used to pay us sims burton and k2 were the three snowboard makers and they would pay us back in the 80s , late 80s um ten dollars an hour to go up on the mountain and try to snowboard . And that's how I learned .

I went up the freaking lift , strapped in and just figured it out , took me three runs and it all came to me right . So this time again , lucky number three , I get up there . I go up in the bunny hill with my son and I'm on this like little conveyor belt and I'm barely like staying on . I'm like , oh shit , you know , get up to the little bunny hill .

I strap in and couldn't get my ass up , could not get up on the fucking board . I forgot totally how to do it . I'm like what the fuck ? Could not get up . So finally got up and I start going and it's pretty flat and if you've snowboarded before you know the steeper it is , the easier it is .

So I just go down , make some turns and I'm like , all right , I'm all done . Unbuckle . Zach says let's go up again . So go up again . Same thing , get up there . Can't get freaking up off my ass , so buckle it in 10 minutes later zach's's like you want to take a break , dad ? You want to take a break ? I haven't even done the second bunny hill run .

I'm like no , I'm fine , I'm fine , get up , do the second one . I'm like dude , we're going to the chairlift . He goes . Do you know he goes , do you know how to get on the chairlift ? So we get on the chairlift and I finally get a break .

Right now I'm sitting down and I'm like , and then I'm like , oh shit , I got to get off this chairlift Right Like . So I'm asking him I've never been . I'm like how steep's the this mountain ? And he's like it's not that steep , but he goes , okay .

And it was like , all of a sudden it just snapped and I was like , oh yeah , I remember how to do this . And it was like like I'd been doing it for 33 years . And I went down and , uh , blew by Zach and he was like you're really good he goes you're really you're . You're better than me . So , uh , so I was .

I was happy , I was like cool and and let me tell you , I got to thank Ryan because that snowboard was the best snowboard I've ever ridden . It just carved and turned so easily . So then I came home and I looked up all the technology and I understand why . A lot different than my board and a lot lighter .

So , zach and I , yours was hewned out of one tree . His is probably a couple of boards together so Zach and I snowboarded from about 10am to about 4 4.15 and we took about , he took , he skied or he snowboarded till 9 . I stopped at 4 . My lift ticket ran out at 4 . I could have paid 20 bucks more but I couldn't move .

My legs were so hurting , my calves were like like getting Charlie horses in my thighs and he had a lesson . And his friend came up and the guy that I coached baseball with , he , he came up skiing , so him and I , I said , hey , can we go up and do like a real run ? Cause like these little side trails I need something steeper .

So we went on a diamond and it was like so awesome Cause I was able to carve down and get some speed and cause Zach's just learning . So you know you gotta go a little slower . So we did a couple of runs . Try to go back . They have this like thing where you pass a card , which last time I was skiing you had a little paper ticket .

I put you have a card like a , like a , uh , like a hotel card . I put it inside the pocket of my glove . I thought it was for hand warmers , but I guess it's for these cards .

So you walk up to the gate or right up to the thing , and right before you're about to get in line , you put your hand up there and it opens these two little gates like that . Well , it says time ran out , no more time . I'm like what you are done ? Yeah , yeah . So luckily the dude was pretty cool .

He's like yeah , I'm a chaperone , I'm supposed to be on here until like nine o'clock . He goes . Oh , you probably got the day pass . Just go talk to them and he goes , I'll let you up . So I did one more run .

We went down that thing , so we stopped and then andy and I the guy was skiing with we went up and got a , got some drinks and got some chicken wings , and then the kids came in after the thing and fed Zach and his friend and then they went off to go skiing and then Andy went with them and I was like all right , I'll meet you guys in the lodge .

So I brought the snowboard back . And talk about losing memory . I forgot where I put frickin' the snowboard Because we were always using the first one . And I'm looking and everyone I guess there's been like six sets of skis and snowboards stolen from pat's peak so I didn't take my eye off this thing .

So I'm looking at looking and then I go down and I'm like where the frick is and I couldn't find it . Well , because we went down the the diamond trail . We put it on a different thing . So I called andy . I go , dude , I can't find the snowboard . He goes yeah , I'll be down in a minute . The diamond trail we put it on a different thing .

So I called Andy . I go , dude , I can't find the snowboard . He goes yeah , I'll be down in a minute . He goes , it's right here . I'm standing next to him Like where are you ? He was like at three things .

I'm like it's been one of those days , so highest temperature was 18 degrees at the top and I was just wearing a windbreaker and a sweatshirt and I was completely comfortable . It was awesome . I didn't even need goggles , I just wore my sunglasses and helmet . I can't believe I'm still alive because I never did a helmet when I was a kid .

And if I didn't have a helmet I wouldn't be here right now because I freaking wiped out while I was trying to unbuckle because I didn't want to sit my ass down , the board slipped out from under me right on my ass and my head went back into ice so hard . And if I didn't have that helmet I would have been like unconscious . I know I would have .

And I'm like how the hell did I go through my whole life ? Because I used to like jump off huge jumps and and , uh , quarter pipes and all that kind of crap and I'm like I mean I used to jump off cliffs and shit and I'm like I cannot believe I never wore a helmet . So helmet awesome , kept my ears roaring , there's so much .

I was even like sweating in it . I mean it was like it was like wow , this thing is like fricking great . So that was my snowboarding .

So , to make to make this story finished , um , I go and sit down , I put the boards back , I go to sit down by the fire and it's like eight , 45 , nine o'clock , it's now like four degrees outside and Andy's texting me . It's so effing cold . I'm coming in , but he never came in . It's so cold , these kids won't stop .

So Zack comes up behind me , goes come on , dad , let's go . It's time to go and I couldn't get out of the seat . I seriously could not get out of the frequency I was sitting in . It was like this low kind of chairs right by the fire . I'm like , oh , this is great . I literally was like a 90-year-old man trying to get up Once I started .

Four days of recovery , my thighs for the first two days and then my calves for the last two days . Wow , and I'm like and Zach's like you want to do that again , dad ? I'm like hell . Yeah , I said we're getting new boards and we're getting a season pass next year . It was so much fun so I will be snowboarding next season with lots of that .

But I will post a little video up there . Now back to ham radio . What I did for ham radio .

So I'm working on a little bit of a ham diary post that hopefully I'll have out tomorrow for a little , we'll say spur of the moment activation over at our rail trail place and it's kind of funny , cause , like long story short , and I threw this in the video a little bit .

I used to be a little like when I used to go out and not be , as , as Todd says , famous and everybody pick up on you .

Um , I got to be there , you know , on the reciprocating side of that , with like a few other YouTubers that are , you know , activating , and I guess KB9VBR was on frequency and he was coming in like gangbusters and of course he had a huge , you know pileup going on and I'm like I'm fighting it back and forth , fighting it back and forth , thinking that I'm

just like the hunter at the park I'm at and I had this like senior moment , like all of a sudden I'm listening , like trying to get my call sign , throwing mobile out there , trying to do everything to kind of like get them to pick me up . And I just realized I'm , like I'm an idiot , park to park .

And I just like literally sat there like all I have to do is say park to park .

And for those that might not know , Todd and I have kind of been neck and neck for a little while working the National Rail Trail with the attention that we'll both get to a certain point where we're going to do a live stream . You know of us activating the park as a dual kilo and so that's coming up .

So keep your eye , you know , on that park for us , when we , when we do stuff , because we might , we'll definitely give stuff away . I think it would be cool to do something like that .

I spent a good six months kind of collecting parts and putting things together and buying all the right batteries and watching other YouTubers , you know , build their battery boxes , and so I'm building what I'm kind of work you know , created as a working title called the mega box .

I don't know why I want to call it that , but I'm going to stick with that and see whether it kind of sticks . But yeah , that'd be on my channel soon because that's actually been fun . I forgot how much it , you know .

It's funny when you build something that you never you haven't built before and then you get your hands in on it and you're like , oh , this is really not as technically complex as I made it out in my head .

And so when you start like matching positive to positive , negative , negative , and they're like , oh yeah , the circuit just has to complete , it's like stupid things like that that you don't apply when you're building the box out . So you know , I'm having fun .

It's got a solar generator in it and a lot of power poles and PD charging and a distribution block and running off at 100 amp hour , which I'm still .

If you're still interested in buying that , paul , we can talk some numbers , um and uh , you know , because I think I still might want to upgrade and buy the uh , either the bluetooth version of the uh rododo or the one that's got the heater option .

Um , but we'll , we'll kind of play around with it first to see whether or not it generates enough heat , because if it generates enough heat then I don't have to worry about , you know , it freezing in the winter , which it's never going to really be in a place that it's going to be dead cold .

So all uh , all , all said and done , that'll be built and then , um , I finally got the last of my video out for the hf build , uh on uh , all of the enhanced features . So , like all of my chair add-ons , my poda , you know , saddle pack , all the antennas , that stuff out there . So that's over on my patreon and will probably be released soon .

So if you've been waiting for that , you know , saddle pack all the antennas , that stuff out there . So that's over my patreon and probably be released soon . So if you've been waiting for that , you know it's coming , uh was that ?

And the other thing too , which I found was pretty cool If you remember , I did that video on the Bluetooth adapter for the 891 . Yeah , I , I had one of our club members , bill K1G , decide to tear into it , but what I was doing was during him was a camcation , I guess . Uh , ve2 dx , I think he's a big um reseller . He's been building a lot of stuff .

He was there at hamcation and a lot of the youtubers uh featured him . He had a box that he was building that was supposed to be like a bluetooth adapter for , like the 891 series and stuff like that , or at least he listed it like he could do cat control and serial control . And I'm like , oh , wow , someone finally came around to it .

So I emailed them saying you know , your website lists something like this on it . What's the deal with it ? Why don't you do the 891 ? Or , you know , why don't you have ? You know the capabilities for the cat control . And he like , oh , the chipset doesn't work . And I'm like , have you looked at this ?

And I sent him my video and he literally turned around and called me and was like um , where did you get that device ? I need to pick one up myself because that's exactly what I'm looking for and if it does exactly what you said , I can will it to make it . Do you know it ? On all you know platforms ?

You know , but I need to get my hands one , so send me the link to buy one . And so him and I have been bouncing emails back and forth after talking and he's been telling me that once he finally gets the prototype together , he'll be sending it our way to kind of test it .

So I've told him he's got at least three guys here that would happily test the crap out of it and make sure it all works and send you feedback on it , and we all love to feature it on our channels as kind of reviews . So he's got that stuff going on .

So he's interested in partnering with some of us at Live Free and Ham and he's got some really cool products .

So if you don't know who I'm talking about , you head over to VE2DX and check out all the stuff he's got , that he's been building real cool stuff related to a lot of portable and you know SO2R type stuff , and you know he wanted me to throw out real quick that I should allude to as I'm spreading rumors , because he wanted me to spread rumors which is the

weirdest thing that I should refer to a code project called Project Mounted Police . No idea what that means . All I have to say is make it all up once we find out more about it , but spread the rumors about Project Mounted Police and pay attention to his website so we'll see where he's going with that and what that all means .

But it sounds like he's got some good stuff and I'm looking forward to the Bluetooth project with the 891 . So pay attention to all that and listen here first , because we'll be the ones to release it . So , all good , I'm excited about that . Yeah , I would love , I would so love to have Bluetooth control on that 891 . That would make things so slick .

Yep , yep , all right . Well , after all of that and you know good stories , good stuff around let's get into our topic . So you know , we kind of alluded at the very beginning . You know the repeaters and we all know it's an interesting topic and kind of one that's kind of fueled me a little bit and why we kind of dove into this .

So I was talking to the guys offline a little bit , as I was watching through my YouTube videos , the nice , lovely , pretty YouTube algorithm threw something at me from another YouTuber .

The title kind of felt a little like we'll say clickbaity a little bit , and it kind of made me thought like I'll look at it later and so , long story short , it was about repeaters and it was always about the death of the repeater kind of thing and I always kind of just brush through that stuff because I live in new England and , yes , we have repeaters

that can be , you know , for a certain audience and not for the masses or the vice versa , where they're just not being used or the other decisions that we've had .

Very active repeaters and people all from all walks of life and all areas , call , come together , share information , talk about literally anything under the sun , and you know it's a very lively , very active you know um area and that doesn't matter whether it's dmr or digital or you analog , it's all kind of good stuff here in New England .

So maybe you know we get the benefits of you know , from the good stuff , but so , anyway , so I watched the video . I said to the guys I said , here , watch this video and let's talk a little bit about it . But it kind of got me thinking . I'm like , alright , guys , we've all heard the bad stuff .

And two videos , or one video that I recommend that you may have seen , is over on HRCC's channel . Josh had George KJ6VU on to talk about repeaters in the after show and it was a really good conversation . I thought George shared some of his thoughts and Josh talked a little bit about his feelings on some of the repeaters .

Um , and I kind of walked away from that going , yeah , okay , I kind of buy into some of the stuff that they said . And you know , and I know you know some of the examples they cited with , you know , hotspots and all of the other things that might be causing the deterioration of , you know , active repeaters .

But it kind of got me going that once I dove into watching this video , I just got more and more angry and then by the time I got to the end of it I was like , all right , guys , we need to talk about this , but we need to talk about it in a way that you know that we can , you know , one carry this conversation on in our discord with our audience ,

because New England's pretty big and you know there's a lot of repeaters out there and there's a lot of great networks that are being built , both digital and analog , that you know we all get to benefit from in one way or another . So let's kind of dive in . So I guess , from a standpoint , let's first share your experiences .

I want to share , you know , all three of us what's your rough experience with repeaters and when you first became a ham and up to today , and if you can kind of boil that down into something really quick . Is it good , bad ?

Um , people are on it all day long . Uh , the interstate repeater batter . Uh , interstate , what is it ? The interstate repeater society ? Uh , out in dairy , that's another strong one . A lot , a lot of , uh , a lot of daytime activity . Um , I love them . Um , I talk to people on my way to work , on the way back to work , when I get in the car .

I talk to Eric a lot . Sometimes I get Paul on there , get other guys in our club and then sometimes I get just random people who are just doing radio checks or whatever . So I think they're , I don't think they're dying or anything .

I think for people who have hams and once you get a mobile rig in your car it opens up the world , because I used to just do an HT and then I had an HT with a mag mount . It still didn't work that well , but then once I got the mobile rig in there and I got some power . It was a world of difference .

I think I disagreed with that whole video that they're dying . I mean I don't know what the rest of the country is like , but they're sure as hell not dying around here .

Well , you know , digital modes are killing ham radio and , and you know repeaters are dying and nobody wants to use repeaters anymore because everybody's just curmudgeony and old bogeys . You know you can't talk how you want to talk . That is the biggest crock of shit I have ever heard in my life .

Because now , okay , all right , you take the n1 IMO repeater system . Okay , now , that is a a series of network repeaters in our area . Uh , and the owners of that repeater system , they , they have strict rules , right .

And so if you're a person that wants to run a five o'clock drive home net on that repeater system , well , you're going to make some people mad and they're not going to like it and it's their repeater . So you know what ? It's theirs , I what , what ? We can't complain about it , it's theirs and they control it , they pay for it . You know , it's just it's .

You've got to play by their rules . And so there are other options and if there , if the other options don't work for you . Well , guess what ? You can set up your own goddamn repeater , right , fund it yourself , install a tower and put your own goddamn repeater up and then you could talk about whatever you want to talk about .

You control who can say what on it , who can be on it , who cannot be on it because it's yours right . But repeaters are not dead . Repeaters are not dying like just because you can't be edgy on a repeater . Isn't something about repeaters ? That is radio etiquette . Okay , it's no different than if you're listening to an am radio station .

There are certain things that they're just not going to say . There are certain things , certain words , certain phrases , certain you know political things . They're just not going to get into it because it's going to alienate the the bulk of the crowd .

Right , most of the time , if you're talking on radio , you you are , you are literally talking on an open airway , so anybody that's on that frequency can hear what you're saying and you may offend some people and you may get some people that come back to you and say , hey , listen , I disagree .

Okay , fine , let's have a conversation about it , you know , but I think being edgy for the sake of being edgy and , you know wanting to .

You know swear and talk about religion and politics and the things that piss people off and you want to get upset because some repeater owner says hey , listen , like I want to keep this repeater , uh in , in a good standing for the bulk majority of the people who use it .

I don't want to alienate people because you're the one jackass that wants to be a rebel on the freaking repeater . No , and so honestly , this video royally pissed me off because the the kid was doing nothing but trolling yeah all right now he's got 1300 subscribers and and he's he's taking a clip now .

it's just a clip of Josh's video , so let me put a pin in that .

No one's talking on repeaters or you know , there's too much control by the owners and so forth and so on . So I think you know , in terms of like those areas , I want to break them down a little bit because in essence , I mean you , you kind of hit it on the head and I subscribe to this as well as like it's a pay to play kind of approach .

When you come approach , when you come to dealing with the repeaters , the people are those that build those systems offer it as a free service in most cases , because it's not really locked down . They can't . I mean they can sort of hide some of that stuff if they try .

But for the majority of the use of repeaters out there in general they're pretty wide open and most of those and I kind of wanted to because there was was one point that he talked about that I want to touch on the digital side a little bit , but I felt that in the conversation and we'll all refer back to kind of josh and and and josh's live stream with

george is that there has been a shift . I mean , I've been a ham for 30 plus years and you guys have been somewhere in between that Um , and so your experience and my experience are going to be very different . When I grew up as a ham , all I had was analog . That was all it was what was available .

So it was sort of like before cable came on the scene , you had your antenna ears on the TV and you got what you got and that was what it was .

That is how ham radio was for a good 20 plus years for me , like I just had analog repeaters and that's what you use because that's what was available and you were lucky if you were , you know , a high school kid who had barely a you know , a paper route to afford to buy an HT to be able to talk on said repeaters , unless you were given donated equipment

or something . So I feel like for the 20 years or so before digital kind of and the internet kind of became the thing , that was all that's what it was .

And so those people that created those networks did some amazing cool electronic stuff to be able to bridge those together , to make those happen , both using RF and electronics kind of wizardry in the backgrounds to make those happen , both using RF and , you know , electronics kind of wizardry in the backgrounds to build those networks to be able to get us connected

and talking beyond our small little local communities . But for the most part repeaters , before cell phones came on the scene , were always the place to go hang out and talk to people on the way home from your commutes , on the way into your commutes , you know , when you go out , to get , you know , pizza for the family or something like that .

You know that was just kind of those modes of communication . It wasn't more from than just a conversation party , you know , per se for folks . So I think , you know , now that we get in the dawn of the you know 21st century and you know , in 2020 and beyond that digital has been pretty popular . So digital has kind of replaced that .

But digital increased this reach . You know we went from our local communities being tied like by you know , general geographic areas to now I can go fricking anywhere in the world . Now I can talk to whoever I want in Japan or China and whatever . So it opened the door for a lot of people that might've , you know , always just been technicians .

So I don't think analog is , you know , a bad thing , and I don't think digital is a bad thing .

I do kind of agree that repeaters there was , in its heyday , a lot of them out there and so , like Iowa could be a part of one and then there'd be five others in the same neighborhood and you know , depending on you know whether you liked George's repeater or you like Paul's repeater you'd go hang out with them or and talk in that sense .

So that is kind of gotten less . And so you guys , I mean , do you find yourself hanging on one or two repeaters in general , do you have like have a set list that you always defer to and talk on or listen to ?

I've talked to them before . So it's cool when you have people that you're familiar with or that you've had conversations before you can continue on a conversation .

But I have a lot of the stronger repeaters , the active repeaters , programmed in my radio and you know , Eric , you and I have done this before where we've started getting a bad signal or whatever and we've gone to the Westford repeater . You know , or we've gone to Fort Mountain or we've just switched to a better repeater .

What I don't understand is there's some really awesome repeaters , like the ones up in Mount Vernon , and they're super strong . Mount Vernon is a town that's up on a hill , like up , you know it's , it's got some elevation wherever that repeaters , but no one ever uses it ever .

So like I use it , like if you want to have a private conversation well , not private , but like you don't want to take up the repeater because you know a net might be coming on or whatever I just go to those because they're . They're way stronger than than our local one , our club one . So there are a lot of repeaters out there .

Some of them just don't have activity , but the ones that do , you know they got tons of activity and when they , when they get a following , they get a group going on it . They're on it all the time .

I think it's like if you throw up a repeater , you got to get on there , you got to get people talking on it and you got to kind of spread the word and that's basically you know .

That's how I learned about it , because the Fort Mountain repeater I didn't know anything about it and then Ralph told me about it and then I programmed it in and boom , you know it worked everywhere and I actually I like to go when I travel throughout the state . I've gone up to , like Lincoln , new Hampshire , and it works .

Warren , new Hampshire , which is far . I've heard people on Mount Washington reaching it . I've heard I was out in Hillsboro , peterborough , you know all these places that I was in Portland , maine . I mean that's a huge area . If you're not from New England , that's a big footprint and that thing kicks in .

So it's pretty awesome and it got popular just because people that were on a popular repeater started talking about it and it just happened . But there's tons of repeaters . If you go in the repeater book , if you go on the digital one and you just like repeaters near me , you'll see tons of them , but they're not all . I've listened to them . They're not active .

I don't even think anyone uses them . But the ones that are popular , people do use and they use them quite often .

Or you know , like the one thing I was kind of thinking was like when people say repeaters are dying , I'm thinking like usually it's a younger crowd and the younger crowd is more accustomed to say something like discord , where it's like immediate , like I ping you direct message or I post something on there and someone responds back quickly .

Repeaters aren't sort of like that . I mean , I don't know about you , but like I'll throw my call out five or six times and I may miss somebody .

Like because here's an example I know some hams they fricking put all of their memories in and then they press scan and you scan through all of the channels over and over again and every once in a while if I happen to yell out N1JUR , listening , you could have missed me in your scan and so you'll never like there's no way to identify me .

You know in your you know searching to try to find people , which I find almost kind of funny because it's like you find nobody really in those massive scans unless you just want to create background music . But like what did you find yourself , paul ? Like that statement's just debunked and stupid , or you know what's your take on it ?

I mean , obviously All right .

The issue is that everybody's just listening , yeah , and every now and again you know people will kerchunk it and go , oh , yeah , okay , I can hit it and I'm getting the tone back , so I know I'm making it , but then they're not throwing their call sign out . You have to throw your call sign out in order for somebody to freaking respond to you .

If you're just going to sit there and you're going to bitch and you're going to go , well , nobody's there . Well , did you say anything ? Because if you didn't say anything , then you're part of the problem . Let me tell you all right .

So I in my , in my , in my hts , in , in , in my uh mobile rig , the , the vhf , uhf , I have , uh , almost all of the active repeaters in new england and , and some of them might not even be active , but I , just I went into repeater book and I said what are the repeaters around me that that I can hit ?

And I programmed all those repeaters and so I've got , I've also got Aries channels , I've got , you know , dpw channels and you know the the highway department . Because I will , I will do that , I will , I will call out a couple of times and I'll say , hey , n1og mobile , n1og mobile .

You know , if I don't get an answer back in like five minutes or so , well then I'll try another repeater . You know I'll go , I'll go from the Bedford repeater to , you know , the Epson repeater and I'll , I'll do the same thing . I'll call out again a couple times If I don't get an answer .

All right , well then I'm just going to hit scan and I'm going to listen for where the activity is while I'm driving and 99% of the time , one of those repeaters it'll stop and it'll go all right now and these people are talking , and so I'll stop scanning and I'll listen and I'll go oh , all right , yeah , I know what these guys are talking about , it's

something that's interesting or whatever , and I'll , I'll throw my call sign out . They'll be like oh yeah , all right , and what og ? Come on in and what's up ? Man and and and that's it . And so , in no way , shape or form , are fucking repeaters dead . Yep , just do like Jason 2.0 said Call out on the repeater at least once a day .

Pick any repeater and if you're not getting anything on that repeater , try another one and call out , call out , call out , call out . Because if you're not calling out , then how the hell is anybody supposed to know you're there ? Yep .

And you know a lot of hams and I find this with the I don't know whether it's a generational thing or whatever , but like a lot of hams , like you said , they'll be like uh , n1jur mobile , uh radio check and dead . Nobody , like nobody , responds to the radio check . And that's like the universal , like , hey , I'm looking for a conversation .

It's not that they're looking for a radio check because they know their radio works . They didn't build it by hand , they didn't assemble the parts and didn't solder something incorrectly . Nine times out of ten . They bought it at the store , plugged it in and it works out of the box .

But they're testing it because they want to have a conversation to see if it actually plays out . So use those things like an invite to have a conversation with somebody . And if they decide to get shy or whatever and they cut 7-3 and go quick , okay , fine , don't take it as an insult and move on . You're dead right . The activity is both on you as the .

It's kind of funny because when repeaters started to come out they were great , like everybody's , like oh , I gotta jump on them . It's so real cool and everything's awesome and it was just like really super . You know active . Now it's not the repeater's owner repeater owner's job to like get out there and advertise .

They just don't , they aren't going to , they just putting a service out there . It's your job as a ham to use your capabilities that you've been granted by the FCC from your license to go talk . You know , do what you're supposed to do with the . You know the hobby . That's why you got it . Maybe that's why you got into it , I don't know .

That's why I did . I mean I wanted to talk on a microphone , I mean think of this too .

You get to check in , you're working the radio and then um , and then that that can move on into non-nets .

But getting on the repeater , that maybe the net was on um , you know , when I first became a ham , um , I was just , you know , like everyone else , I was just a technician , so I was just doing everything on vhf and I I went through and listened to like every repeater from here to there , as far as I could write them down , and if I heard something I'd

make a note and just try to figure out which ones were more popular than the others . But I found a net called the Phantom Net . It's out of North , I think it's out of Andover , massachusetts , and they've got another one up in Pembroke and then I'm not a .

They've got another one up in Pembroke and then I'm not sure they used to have one maybe in Pepperell . I'm not sure if they still do , but anyway , that was a cool repeater because for me , because , um , I could reach it . I couldn't reach it on my HT , but I could reach it for my shack and I was able to , um , listen to these guys .

And every every day there was a guy who was on a pilot . And then there's a bunch of guys that talk RC planes . So I was like , wow , this is awesome , this is like all day long , this is what these guys talk about .

And I started joining in on the conversation and they knew some of the guys I knew and you know I had gone down to their club and we were going to try to make an official thing where we'd have their guys come up and our guys go down for a day and fly .

But it was just cool because I never met them , but I got to know them and the RC stuff so we could talk about another hobby that I had that I liked to talk about . It wasn't just ham radio and I thought that was kind of cool that I found the Phantom . Now , one of the things I heard what the owner of the Fort Mountain repeater W1ASS .

What he wants to do is add another repeater up north , because north if you go into the dips and do's of the mountains you kind of lose the repeater here and there . So he wants to put one up there , but he wants to make it the same frequency in the same tone .

So basically his idea is to get the whole state under one umbrella and just have one frequency and you would just connect to whatever repeater you're closest to .

Do you ever , at any one given time , have anybody get on the ? You know the repeater owner get on and go . You can't talk about RC stuff or anybody complain about the topic of discussion . Or have you , either both of you , ever been on a repeater where someone's tried to chase you off ?

Just , I mean I just like to talk about either ham radio or stuff going on , or you know like , like for one , here's an example I was talking to Ralph , we were going , I was driving into work and he was on and we were talking about fishing . And he says , you know , he goes , a lot of club members like to go fishing .

I said , yeah , and I said it again , I did it when I was a kid , but my kids getting into it . So , yeah , you know , I did a lot of fishing this summer .

He's like , well , I was thinking he goes , maybe we should get all these guys together , maybe just go , uh , pick a weekend and do , or a day and go deep sea fishing , like rent a boat , you know , charter a boat and go out , right , and I'm like , oh , I'm in . I'm like , no , no doubt in my mind I'm in zach will come .

But we didn't talk about ham radio , we were talking about fishing . You know the whole community and so I don't think you , I don't think there's a rule that says you have to talk ham radio . I think you can talk about whatever you want , but I think if you start getting into topics that might , you know , can get people mad .

Like politics is like the root of all evil , or religion . If you're not religious , if you're an atheist or you're the wrong religion , you know it can get . People can get offended or whatever .

I mean I personally don't , I could care less what you talk about , and if you don't like what people are talking about on the repeater , you can turn the thing off , go to another frequency . You don't have to listen to . It's like watching tv . Oh , this show sucks , I'm not watching this . You switch to the next channel .

There's more than one repeater out there , so go to the other one .

Something's going on geopolitically and it's got me fired up and I happen to get somebody on the repeater that you know we're having a conversation and yeah , I'll , I'll . I'll talk about Trump , I'll talk about the administration , I'll talk about Biden , I'll talk about his administration .

It doesn't matter to me , like the , these are things that affect our daily lives and so if you're going to get offended by it , uh , you can have a differing opinion and we can have a conversation . But if you're , if you're looking to just be edgy , uh , you know , you , you .

But if you're looking to just be edgy , you know you , just you want to be able to swear or whatever , like it's not that you can't right ? I don't think there's a hard fast rule anywhere in the FCC that says , well , you can't say these seven words on the radio . It's , you know , george Carlin , god bless him .

It's , you know , george Carlin , god bless him , you know . But the thing is there is inevitably going to be topics that are going to make some people uncomfortable , and you , as the person on the radio , have to understand that not everybody's going to think the same way you do .

Not everybody's going to agree with what you're saying , but if you're at least open to hearing somebody else's point of view , then you're not going to get an old , curmudgeon-y person that's going to be like get off my repeater . You know they're going to be like well , all right , I don't agree with you , and here's why .

And you can actually have an intelligent conversation , and I , and I think , and you can actually have an intelligent conversation , and I think , in so many ways , society is to blame for that particular fault , because it has gotten to the point where nobody wants to hear anybody's differing opinion .

Everybody wants to be in a little echo chamber where everybody is like-minded and not in any disagreement in any way , shape or form . But that's fucking boring . You know , I want to have an intelligent conversation with somebody and in order to do that , I have to be open-minded enough to hear their point of view and to and to consider it .

And so there , there are more than enough times where I've been on a repeater and because of the way that I speak , naturally , um , you know I'm , I'm a little bit crass and I , I talk like a sailor , and you know I'm , I'm brutally honest and I just I don't , I don't sugarcoat things . I don't do any of the niceties Like it , just is what it is .

This is how I feel , blah blah , blah , but only silence . I'm going to yes , I will start kicking balls , but so no , I don't . I don't think that the issue is that you know repeater owners are . Are you know gatekeeping , as , as this person , you know , this brick and troll uh said so many times that , oh , these repeater owners are gatekeeping .

No , they're not gatekeeping , it's just you have to have an open mind to hearing other people's opinions . If you're going to be edgy , right , and that's that's my take on it and that's actually really good .

I mean , I could sit in a room with a bunch of people and they all argue over which capacitor type is better for this type of scenario , this circuit , and I'm like I don't care , but in essence I know you're passionate about it . So it's the same goes for , like when you have conversations on the repeater .

Like I'm sure , like I talk about Yaesu all the time and I give you crap about Team IOM all the time , but like dude , I don't hate you for being a team ICOM and you don't hate me for being Yezu . It's like we both do HF , we both play in ham radio and you know that's that can be the same .

You know whether church or politics or religion kind of play in the game . It's just that when and I think we all kind of agree that you know if , if you come into an environment or you come into a repeater owner's place that set this up , created this environment for you .

There has to be a level of respect for that owner and what he's given to the ham radio community as a resource to use . So don't treat it like you know it's your own little kick . You know , kick the can or whatever you want in your own home . That how you treat something that's your own personal stuff . Treat it with respect .

Treat it with the idea that hey .

An example that I cite is I've seen a few people they get excited and they want to attach other devices to these repeaters and they don't realize that hey , there's somebody that you're connecting to their infrastructure and their place , you know , from your remote site , and you could be a problem for them if you end up , you know , not monitoring your connection

and you don't have a relationship with them . Those things you know . Obviously you have to ask for permission . You have to be able to like say , hey , I'm interested in doing it . A lot of repeater owners , if you give them or you treat them with the respect that you know , hey , I'd be interested in doing X , y , z , we , you know .

Do you have this capability ? And if not , that's the benefit of repeaters and why we have so many fucking repeaters out there is because someone decided to hey , I want to do digital effusion modes and I want to be able to have a backbone to the fusion . You know room , you know network and and all that stuff . And so they went off and did that .

So go play in that space if that's where you want to go . Don't try to always force the people that set up that repeater . Our club's a perfect example of that . I remember coming in and I remember sharing and having a conversation of like why aren't we using Fusion ? Why aren't we tying to the back end of the room ? We're just using digital .

Oh , we don't like digital , so we're just using digital . Oh , we don't like digital , so we don't . You know , digital is like it just sounds so crappy and yeah , whatever . That's just ear preference in my mind .

But at the same time there were so many people that were so adamant about like you can't do this over that and it's like okay , well then I just had to look up that . You know , down the street there's a freaking machine down there and I can go play on Mount Uconunic and connect to a fusion room and get whatever I want out of it .

Now that's changed again because people have abused that . But that's a repeater's owner's job to be able to manage that and keep that up and running . So I think that respect , like Paul was saying and , todd , I think you definitely said that too is just be kind , realize that it takes time to get this stuff working and reliably all the time .

can treat it as your own personal thing , you're wrong , like you're , you're , you're just , you're just being an arrogant ass at that point , sure .

It's not like it's a 20 years ago , 30 years ago maybe it was very straight-laced and if you didn't say please and thank you , and you know yes sir and no sir , and all that stuff , then yeah , it would be a different story .

But today's day and age is a more casual conversation and so that might be tougher for someone who's a lot older , who's been a repeater owner , to deal with . But you know , be cognizant of that and be okay with the fact that . You know , okay , don't be dropping F-bombs every five seconds because there might be kids listening or there might be like .

You know , that's the fear is like my kids were younger . I wouldn't want them hearing that on the radio . You know , in just general conversation of that , you know fuck this . And blah , blah , blah . And you know , oh , I just , you know , whatever , and you know you fill in the blanks .

It's like I don't really care , it's like it doesn't affect me , and so my daughter's the same way . So you know , it doesn't .

It's almost comical because I remember when my daughter showed up at one of our field days , one of the older guys dropped an F-bomb by accident and my gosh , you think he was literally like saying penitence to a priest because she was to Emma who was there . She's like I don't care , I didn't even phase me .

They were like I'm so sorry for swearing in front of you . She's like , what are you talking about ? So yeah , I get the whole generational difference , but , dude , just , you know , feel it out before you just storm the castle and decide to .

You know , fuck everything up for everybody because you just want to talk one way Be cognizant and open to trying something new .

I mean , when I watched that video I was like and I know that there can be clicks on repeaters , I've listened to repeaters where it's a group of people and if you're the new guy coming in , it's like you kind of have you know a group of people and you know if you're the new guy coming in , it's like you kind of have you know they , kind of you know ,

like , for an example , you hear a conversation going on and one of the guys is like all right , I got to go .

And then you call your call sign and you know the guy's right there and he doesn't want to talk to you you know , and then the other guy calls back and he goes back in like the other guy calls back and he goes back in like they want to just talk to them . So it was just for me , it's fine . I , I , I think that it's uh , it's useful .

I mean , repeaters are also awesome for , like traffic reports . I mean seriously , because you're stuck in weather .

And so I'm on the , I'm on the back roads going , you know , through hollis and brookline , and uh , ralph was on the repeater and he was like , hey , listen , you know , I'm in francistown and yep , the snow's coming down hard and it's coming your way , it's coming . Like don't , don't delay , like get ready , because it's coming and it's coming hard .

And so I knew , knew , and so , like I mean , dude , I got , I got , I got to the trailer , I got my stuff and I stopped the gas station , I filled up and , sure enough , the skies just opened up and it was snowing like fat out of hell . And I was like , man , I I'm glad that I knew .

You know , now I got to , I got to hustle ass back home , you know . So , yeah , 100% , it's great for that .

I said just a heads up , route three is like backed up up like a parking lot and he wasn't there , he was north , but it's just good to do that . And then if there's an accident or you're like stopped , you start putting on the repeater . You can see if anyone else is out there . The other thing AA1W .

He's like the main guy on the interstate repeater but his job is he like delivers shit everywhere , so he's all over the place , he's in mass . So on snowstorms or any kind of bad weather , this guy's giving a report like every time he gets in that truck and it's awesome because you know exactly what's good , what the traffic is like , you know . So it's funny .

But you know when he is off that repeater , like he goes I'm going on vacation for a week it's like fricking dead , like seriously .

Everybody knows when you put something on 5'2" , dale will come back every time , no matter where you freaking are in the East Coast , your contact in terms of the Interstate Repeater Society . There's always somebody out there that just they never give up .

They're always the voice for the machine and that's awesome , but it doesn't preclude you from not participating either . That's , I think , the thing that we all need to take away as hams , that we have back to that whole frequency fight that the arl does for us .

If we're not using the damn frequencies when they do their scans and they do their checks to see what the activity is in a band space , and we're not using it because we're not just throwing our calls out there and causing noise on the airwaves , then you're doing an injustice for us in the future .

People down the road that want to , you know , know , maybe get into ham radio because , um , you know it's just you're not causing enough of a . You know , uh , you know a noise out there and we all know that . You know , sadly , radio is not like the internet where you can see the message come across to you really quickly and then respond .

Nine times out of 10 , I'll throw my call out . Like I mentioned before , nobody's going to hear me and I like , if I wait two and a half minutes more again and do it , I feel embarrassed after a while and I've gotten over that hill because it's like I know people just oh , they forgot to hear me and I've done it . It's kind of funny .

So I'll throw my call and it'll be in the middle of the day and then , like you know , right around 12 o'clock , like there's always somebody listening , you just have to be the noise to be able to get the interest you know , to have people come back to you and they will .

But , um , but you know , like for me , like when you're making your calls out , I might've just gotten in my car and turned on the radio and heard you . You know like that's happened with time , like you've been driving and called and maybe not talking to anyone . Um , you know , that happens all the time too .

Like you just got to keep putting your call sign out there . And you know , sometimes I hear , I might hear you or someone on the repeater , but I'm on the phone or you know I'm , I'm talking to someone else and then I'll get down , I'll put the call out again and then it's like either you're there or you're not .

But you know , I'll try to call it , call back if it's going to be a couple of minutes .

This is , bob , at KB4 ABC in Delaware , nevada , or something like that . And after a while you get the admins going on there going yeah , we can see you checking into the node there . It's like just use the parrot mode so you can hear yourself , come back , kind of thing , because they want people to have activity .

And that's actually an interesting segue , because although on the analog side we all complain that the repeaters are quiet , but digital modes aren't much different . I can scan half of my nodes on fusion or all star , and some of them , uh , more , most of them , unless I run across a net . Uh , most of them are just like people , like they , and this .

This pisses me off . And ham radio operators stop doing this . Hey Bob , uh , you know this is a Charlie from you know , uh , uh , you know Colorado here and uh , you here and the weather .

Or I'm running on this radio or this is my antenna , and then they converse a little bit and they share each other's equipment and then it's like , yeah , we got to get off this , we got to clear the frequency here . We leave it open and available . I'm like what the fuck ? Use the frequency , dude .

Have a conversation , get other people to maybe jump in because you might be talking about something they have an interest to like . Don't end the conversation like , come up with other things to talk about to keep the conversation going , and then I'll make repeaters . You know both active and the digital world active .

Like I know they were worried about that , but I think that's just cool that you can drive , you can connect to anyone in the whole state , basically the whole West Coast , most of the West coast , it's called .

You know that you can talk to anyone in New England because you've got repeaters everywhere that are all connected and we have some that do that . You know that give you more range and stuff . But it would be cool if there was just like like a New England connected repeater system all the way from , like , connecticut through Maine and Vermont .

Just making sure Can anybody hear me , eric , like just making sure Can anybody hear me .

And they were like like oh well , welcome to the east coast reflector system and in like somehow like an admin from the east coast reflector system monitors and anybody that's new , like they take your call sign and they send you an email welcoming you to the east they are phenomenal and everything dude .

There's nothing in New Hampshire , but the closest one is Vermont and this is an actual repeater in Vermont . Not to say that you can't take your digital node and connect it to the East Coast Reflector , like I have an All-Star node .

I can connect to an All-Star connection for the East Coast Reflector and be able to get connected to the East Coast reflector , like I have an all-star node . I can connect to an all-star connection for the East Coast reflector and be able to get connected to the large network .

All right , so let's , let's kind of put some positive spin on it , because I know we can beat the tar out of this . Uh , you know , post and and we'll , I don't know , we'll decide at the very end whether or not we will put this , uh , you know the , the uh Schmo's uh link in the description below . You probably Google it if you want to .

You know , for whatever reason , but I think some of the cool stuff and we alluded to it a little bit of it . It's like okay , how can we cause some noise ? How can we get repeaters back to being active ? And I think we all touched on some of that . Obviously , you freaking pick up your mic .

First and foremost , put your call out there three , four , five times a day , as much as you're in your car or your HT , if you can get to a local node .

And the other part is what , basically , if someone puts something out there , call back , talk to the person , introduce yourself , share your favorite hobby , have a conversation , but keep the conversation going with the purpose that it might encourage others to join in and jump in , and , and and .

Here's the one thing that I think a lot of us ham struggle with and I do this myself , um is leave some space in between your conversations for let somebody jump in , because we're not duplex so we can't just , you know , jump in and it sounds garbly on analog a lot of times , digital not so much .

So invite in , don't , you know , don't exclude , I think is a good , you know way to keep activity going on .

You know any suggestions on how we can get more people chit-chatting on that ?

But the N1LT repeater had just been redone that day and I was like , well , you know , I'm going to see from my HT and all the repeaters that I have programmed in , right , well , what can I , kerr chunk ? Okay . And so I Kerr chunk , okay , okay , I can hit it all . Right , n1og monitoring is anybody there ?

And they came back and they were like , hey , yeah , uh , so we actually just got this repeater up and running again .

We , you know , just replaced all the guts and everything and put a new antenna up , and you're the first person that's called out on it , and it's like cool right but so now , like that , that repeater is one that I will frequently check because I know it's a good repeater system , because I tried all of the local repeaters and I'll call my call sign .

I won't just kerchunk like , yeah sure , kerchunk it , make sure you can get through . But then , throw your fricking call sign out there , so that somebody knows that , yeah , you're actually there , right , right .

And then I'm like all right , fine , I got to put my call out there to be the first to kind of start listener , throw your fricking call , sign out . Yep , how about you Todd ?

Well , if you can get a net going , if you have a couple guys that can reach and say , hey , let's get on this repeater , you talk to their repeater owner and say , hey , we'd like to do a net here .

Or if you're the owner of the repeater , you might start getting a following , because if people are starting to hear it and there's a net and you can use net logger , that would notify people and then someone might be looking at NetLogger and say , oh , look at that , it's a repeater . I didn't know about that . So there's a lot of ways to do it .

But , like I said , I mean I'm a big fan of repeaters that work really well but have no use on them , because if I want to have an in-depth conversation and I want to have a good signal , um , you know , those Mount Vernon repeaters are great . No one uses them .

I think I'm the only one that used them , because I've monitored them forever and I've never I've called out and I've never I've only had it with like , let's go to this repeater , and then you know , it's just , it's like your private repeater , I guess you know , it's just , it's like your private repeater I guess . But I mean it would be a great .

I mean it gets huge cover . I mean I've called in and I've reached it , like pretty far away , it's got a good coverage and I'm like that would be a good repeater for people to use in this area , you know , for our club area , because it's got great coverage but no , so good points .

Go consult the repeater owner , go talk to him or her , because I guarantee any repeater owner worth their grain of salt would kill to find somebody who had an interest to want to start a repeater , you know a net , for whatever reason , because they know that their repeaters get an exercise .

They know that you're doing something and whether or not you're like the only one that runs a net for a couple of weeks , don't give up . Start spreading it around a little bit , you know . Go on to other repeaters and say , hey , I've got a net going on at five o'clock or five 30 .

And like we do it a lot with our repeater , I mean I think that's kind of how I we got so much of an interest is because people would just be like , hey , you know , I know you're not normal If you're new to this repeater , we have a seven 30 net or a seven o'clock net at this .

People in because a lot I think long gone are the days of you know , especially if you're talking to new ham radio operators , of telling them to go fricking , consult the manual or go look up a webpage .

If you know a fricking , you know repeater nets at seven o'clock every night on this repeater , share that information with them , let them know , let them make the decision to jump on . But give them the information and guess what you might actually get them to participate . They'd be like oh , I didn't know . I mean , that's how I found GSAR's net .

I randomly had talked to somebody on another appeal . They said oh , there's another health and well-being net on this net During COVID , you should go over that one . I'm like , okay . So I was able to , like Paul said , chunk it , and I throw my call out there and talk to somebody and , lo and behold , guess what .

Somebody was like oh , we have a 7 o'clock net , we meet on there , you should try checking in . And in fact actually that's in five minutes . So you know , kind of thing , and so you know they were welcoming in that sense . So I think that's a good thing .

One of the things I think we didn't like I just learned about recently was there are a couple other YouTubers , specifically HR2O .

That's kind of doing a repeater challenge and I think it's kind of a cool thing and we should talk offline a little bit how we can kind of help participate in that and maybe generate some interest to kind of further this on a little bit to get repeaters more active , we'll say in the United States in general .

But he's doing what he's called his 2.0 repeater challenge and with that he's asking people to keep logs and all you have to do is basically every day in your car on the HT whatever , key up the repeater several times , throw out you know M1JUR listening , and if someone comes back , you know , jot it down in a log and he's , you know , asking people to kind

of collect that information . So if you maybe talk to like five people throughout the day on one day , log all that stuff , just do a general log . Hams are awesome at logs . They all like to make sure their logs are together and up to date .

So build a log and I guarantee you might actually benefit from it , because I think he's throwing a lot of good prizes out there . So head over to his channel and find out more on that one .

But we'll talk a little bit more amongst ourselves and see how we can kind of , you know , build that a little bit here , just to kind of move that needle forward , because I think you know , if we can help out and we can get people active , and you know , maybe we'll have a segment on it , I don't know .

So we're gonna pick this conversation up , drop it over in the discord , in the show section , and so when this episode episode releases , uh , you know , let us know . I mean , have you checked ? Well , the video will be there . Let us know what your thoughts are . You know , let us know what you're doing .

You know , maybe share some stuff , experiences , in that sense . But let's kind of keep the conversation going , cause I think , you know , I want to learn more from you guys , because you know that's the only way I'm going to get better as a ham , but more so , you know , there might be some interesting stories that we can all share and learn from .

So , you know , let , let let's all communicate and talk on the discord there , and if you haven't , you know , been on our discord , then you know what the heck are you doing . Come on , you know , head over to our show notes . It's the links got it . There should be no problem . We have a bunch of people that jump in there all the time .

We'll keep this going there and have that conversation . I guess any final thoughts that we want to throw in the hat so we can put a bow on this and wrap it up .

Just go on the , just go on the app , that repeater book thing , and you'll see tons of them , just wherever you go . I mean I travel , I go down and I just hit that and say , oh , what repeaters around here . And there's tons of them . So it's . You know , they wouldn't be listed there if they weren't working .

And and yeah , and , just use the damn repeaters . And if there's , if there's a repeater that you're calling out on , you know , say that you're calling every hour , all day for a week . This is , you know , obviously the extreme , uh , and you're not getting any responses . Well , guess what ?

But I would say , you know , hey , if you're on a repeater and it's new to you and nobody's responding back , find a buddy that is in the same general area and go over that repeater and just have conversations , because no one's going to really bother you for a long time and maybe you might inspire others to jump in and have a conversation .

So you know , and be polite , especially if there are people that have been on that machine for whatever reason and you know we've all been on 5.2 in local areas a lot of times and you get chased off by sometimes saying , oh , it's 5.2 , it's an emergency channel . Yeah , it is Just be polite .

If you're going to carry a conversation , move up two kilohertz or something like that to continue on the conversation and leave that clear for the inevitable , the inevitable end of the world emergency that might happen for this person that's been waiting forever to finally say I finally had an emergency .

I could respond , you know because funny stories I came from a club that had signs on the side of the highway that had , if an emergency dial one for you know , call up one , 4652 . And they had a HT or not .

They had actual mobile based radio in the police dispatch unit that they were trained on how to use to be able to talk to other ham radios reporting in . So I understand why people are like well , just use it for emergencies , because that's kind of how it was toted when that's all we had . Now it's not so much of an emergency .

People call from their cell phones 90% of the time and then the other piece . And then the other piece is just be a voice . Just be a voice in your own neighborhoods in terms of repeaters and stuff like that . Get people interested , have conversations , ask questions of folks to get more you know , more of the conversation going .

Because the more you ask , you know and do what every ham does when we're on HF hey , what are you running for an antenna ? Hey , what do you run for a mobile rig Start ? Hey , what are you running for an antenna ? Hey , what do you run for a mobile rig ? Start there . And those are the easiest answers for people a lot of times to be able to say .

And then maybe you can listen and they may say hey , when I was blah , blah , blah and you can ask a little bit more of that and just have a conversation and , you know , go from there . But don't be afraid . Help , practice , you know , mic fright , mike Fright , by getting over that stuff .

But at the same time , if you're not Mike shy , then what are you waiting for , dude ? Get on the freaking repeater and just have conversations , have fun with it , make it whatever you want it to make it and go from there . Good stuff , all right . Well , like we said , you can always head over to our Discord .

We're going to pick that conversation up and I'm sure the Grouch is going to be in his rare form again , sharing .

The grouch is going to be in his rare form again , you know , sharing all the awesome stuff that we kind of left off , which you know I we could have got it , we would have been in four hours , you know timeframe , if we kept going , because I I've got notes of all the points that I want to talk about .

But you know , with that , you know we always appreciate everybody and thank you again for joining Live Free and Ham in our podcast community . We truly appreciate everybody here and everyone who else supports us . We all can't thank you enough because every time we get feedback from you folks , every time we bump into new people .

They always say they love the show and we appreciate because we put a lot of time and energy and effort in this and we love doing it . We're going to continue to do it as long as you guys are here listening , even after Todd gets his extra . If we have to replace that with another segment , I don't know . We'll figure that out later .

We'll maybe do a poll . So if you want to connect with us , you can always head over to our Discord server . That link is in our description and you can join in on the conversation . Again , this is going to be posted there , so we'd love to hear your thoughts . You can always subscribe to our YouTube channel .

You can always catch all of our excellent content over there and plus we're doing all the Ham Diaries stuff , so you'll never know what will come out of our mouths and what we want to talk about . It's always going to be some fun stuff . We're just going to do off-the-cuff .

It's not going to be well-developed content , it's Just our thoughts , random thoughts , whatever . All good stuff . And you can always leave us a review with our SMS link , with our phone number , and all of those are located in our show notes .

Or , if you want to go one time , you can buy us a beer , and you can always head over to Live Free in Ham to check out everything about the show . All of our show information , notes , swag and all of our host contact information is there , including Ryan .

So if you want to learn about Ryan , you can always reach out to him and we'll definitely make sure we have him back on . I'm really liking the idea about where in the world is Ryan , kind of episode , so we'll have to figure that one out . And so , as always , thanks again for listening from all of us at Live Free and Ham 7-3 .

We're rocking the land With a signal so strong you want to understand Freedom and vibe straight from the band . It's the Live Free and Ham Podcast man .

Oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , oh , live free and ham .

We're rocking the land With a signal so strong you want to understand Freedom and vibe straight from the band . It's the Live Free and Ham Podcast man . Live free and ham . We're rocking the land With a signal so strong you want to understand Freedom and vibe straight from the van . It's the live free and ham podcast man .