Tuning into Triumph: When Ham Radio Means the Difference

Hello and welcome to Live Free and Ham Podcast . This is our bi-weekly show where we explain Ham Radio topics for New Hampshire , new England and beyond . So whether you're a regular listener or first-time guest , we're excited to have you on here and we appreciate your support and , as always , thanks for tuning in to this week's episode .

So let's kind of get into the show . I'm your host , eric , call sign November 1 , julie at United Radio , and I'm with my co-host , paul , say hello , all right .

So we have working on schedule the one for January , since we're into the new year , so stay tuned for what we got planned for that one . As always , you can check our socials , the website and our YouTube .

So make sure you're subscribed to our channel and you'll get notified wherever you are when we go live , and this is just kind of a we'll call soft open in the words of Ocean 13 . You know , we have finally just started to get around to get our storefront launch .

So if you've been waiting impatiently to get swag and stuff like that , please head over to our website , check it out . We're still adding products as we go and tweaking it , so you know , be patient with us . But if you definitely want to go get your Liv Freenham swag there , you can definitely check out the store .

So , with a further ado , let's kind of get into what's been going on in your hammer , your world . So we'll start off with Ben . So Ben , what's been going on with you this week or so ?

We've got a great club repeater ourselves , but we're always looking to kind of expand and so we might be picking your brain a little later on that and watching you from afar as you kind of get that process going , because here's always a challenge to get going , but once you get it established it's even a longer challenge to keep it running .

So we're with you on that . Cool , all right . Well , hey , let's throw it over to Paul . How's your ham radio week been ? What's been going on ?

So yeah , so I've been just loving the new privileges and having a ton of fun in the lower parts of the band Very cool .

I've always been going through , you know , kind of the reiterations of reorganizing stuff and you know , running a YouTube channel on my own on top of some of the other stuff . I've got my toes dipped in . It gets a little challenging to kind of just have a working shack that I can get in there and start .

You know you know making contacts , and so I've , you know , the benefit of having a flex I've kind of been spoiled where I can sit in the living room and kind of use it there . But I really want to get back to being in front of a radio and and try to , you know , make more sideband contacts .

So , with the help of Paul and you know a lot of , you know , pixie dust , whatever you want to fill in the gaps with , you know I'm trying to get this thing sorted out and you know it's it's , it's a whole new world , as they say .

So once I get that under control I think I'll be in a better sorts , but that's kind of what's been going on , and I've been a little insane .

Obviously , we finally , you know , if you're from New England , you know that we've been well used by all of the newscasts saying that we're going to get the big storm of the century and blah , blah , blah , and it's always the first storm that they always kind of , you know , sheelf in the hot , the mountain tops that you know the sky is falling .

We all have been hit by snow in some form or fashion , and some of us have got to experience it firsthand , you know , and , and being able to get out there and watch football in it . We can see Todd's face as he thaws it out , because he's still smiling and he hasn't broke the smile .

But yeah , overall , you know we're we're now hunkered down in all of our shacks and I don't know about you , but I am not one to go out there and play with antennas , unless that they have been brought down by mother nature , and so , knock on wood , I have not experienced that yet and so I think I'll be good for , you know , hopefully a little bit longer

before I have to worry about you know , anything going on that . But with that . So let's kind of dive into tonight .

Anyway , ham radio stuff . Well , I was listening to Ham radio clubhouse and one . That's okay , ron .

So it was pretty funny , but yeah , so I did that . And then Eric and I on New Year's decided to go out and work on the rail trail cause . We are working on our kilo there . So that was a first of the year Get out there , activate a park . It was pretty good time and we had it . We had a when we get like 91 , he wanted to stop on 90 .

So I was just like , great , I'll probably come home with my lock and it'll be sitting on the ground , but it's still up there , so that's great .

But so with that , I'm going to say that you're obviously missing one of our other hosts here , ryan . He is unable to get to the show tonight , but he will be missed and we were looking forward to having him on board .

But he's also got a bunch of other stuff coming up , so we'll hopefully have him on the next couple of shows going forward before he has to jump in a jet and fly away again . So , you know , stay tuned for that . And you know Todd did mention about our you know Kilo that we were working on .

We're just wrapping up a few minor details on the giveaway that we talked about in episode 21 . So I'm not going to drop too much here , but definitely , you know , pay attention to our websites and socials and whatnot , because we are polishing up a lot of that information for the giveaway to pick the date that we might , you know , actually complete our Kilo .

And so , you know , stay tuned for that . It'll be fun . And yeah , exactly so . If all falls jiving in the background , the question pools changing . So maybe Todd can get his , you know extra right before we get our Kilo . You know , we'll never know , maybe it might work out that way . We'll see . So cool , all right .

Well , with enough of the shenanigans and whatnot and my apologies for the you know technical mixups there , so let's kind of dive in . So tonight we have got some great guests on tonight . Nick and Ben they are part of . If you recall , back in it was about , I'd say , almost right around a little bit more than a year ago or so .

There was a New Hampshire Chronicle video that came out that they did a story on Ham Radio and Ham Radio on a rescue kind of approach . And I know a lot of hams .

When they see stuff in the news and you know things kind of get out into the public eye , they jump all over it and it gets posted everywhere , and so that kind of cycled through my mailbox and mail list that I'm on and I was just like totally like , oh , wow , this is awesome .

I love to see , you know Ham Radio in the news and getting more people you know aware of Ham Radio and how important it can be , because obviously the only time you ever hear really Ham Radio is , you know , in the frame of , oh , did they still do that ? Or you know , hey , are those guys still wearing their tinfoil hats ?

And you know running around with these long sticks and you know pointy ends on them to try to talk to space aliens , and so it's always good to see , you know pieces like that and you know definitely good ones that end on a good note , and so both Nick and Ben are here to you know tell the tale and tell us , you know firsthand experiences what's going on .

So so that's definitely a plus in my book .

So you know , if you haven't had a chance and you may have missed it because , for whatever reason , you just you know weren't part of the new stream or whatever , we will have the actual link in our show notes so you can definitely check that out and watch that other in you know your own time , but it's a great piece there and and really you know kind of

tells the backstory a little bit and we'll and you know Nick and Ben would definitely be probably talking more about the details and and giving firsthand accounts .

And then we're kind of kind of open it up a little bit and see , you know , you know what other stuff is kind of going on and kind of what things they've learned from that and you know where it's kind of taking them in the future . So , without further ado , I assume you know , nick , you might be the guy to kind of you know , set the stage .

You know , tell us a little bit of kind of what your history is , your ham radio background , and , and Ben , you can follow up with that as well , because I think you got your ticket a little bit after this whole event , yeah , okay .

So so in essence , you know Nick kind of fills in , you know how you got in ham radio , what's the kind of your backstory with that a little bit , and then we can kind of go from there .

Yes , um , you know , I walked into him radio outlet and they're like here , take this book , let us know when you're ready to test it , we'll find a place for you . Oh , so they were really awful , yeah , I mean . But you know , it's that's kind of how they are until they , until they warm up to you . I mean . I think they got a good crew there .

Now , though , I'm in there probably once a month at least . Oh , not going , Talk on wood . I've been in now four times without spending money , so that's always a plus .

So I helped out with the MS society , the Boston marathon uh , American diabetes association , um .

You've been ragged you in the whole time with a local repeater and got my guys and guys in the afternoon I chat with and everybody's gone , going and having fun .

Now do you guys , I assume , uh , what's like the repeater coverage and stuff like that , like for you guys in that general areas that are very active , or is it like the typical New England repeaters where it's like , you know , there's a few that hang out and then there's , you know , the spotty , typical regular , you know work schedule , driving , drive out times ,

that's usually active ?

And then there's times where it's like bad weather . I'll just chime on and I'll throw my call sign and then next thing I know I'm having five minute conversations all the way home with like 80 different people , cause everybody's trying to figure out what's going on .

I'll throw my call out there so much that it annoyed one of the older guys . I'm not sure I'm a JOR again . Why do I have to hear in one JOR again ? And you know , sometimes they went through because they've got themselves going on and sometimes there's like , yeah , just let it go .

Um , you know , I can take , take what they're saying on their repeater and make it into terms that my team can understand and help coordinate a little better .

He's like I can't answer that question , so I'm still on the first one . You know what's going on , so it's kind of really crazy , but it was a great time . But I mean , I think from that , I mean we I've seen like a huge increase of , uh , you know , folks that you know got their ticket and just , you know , or use that opportunity to upgrade .

I know I was in that same boat and and I , you know , I was a no-code technician for 20 years before I kind of , you know , said , hey , when I you know my brother who's another ham short story uh , you know pulled me back in and was like , oh , you got to do ham radio .

And I was like , okay , sure , and I got in and I was like , oh , my gosh , that's changed since what it used to be when it was like you know , 300 bod packet radio and you know , the radios were size of , uh , you know , a half of a microwave , and so I was just like , okay , this is just not going to work for me .

And then so , uh , you know , finally , when I rolled back in , uh , you know , took the general test , I was like , oh cool , I don't have to do code , I mean . So it was really horrible at um . So I , you know , feel you when you said you're going back to the novice level , because that was the same way for me .

It was just like I can't do code for the save my life . And you know , especially if you , you know , in this experience that we're going to talk about now , I mean , if you had to , you know , do more code , I don't know , you still might be freezing in the middle of nowhere , because that would be a very big challenge for a lot of us .

So definitely check that out . And uh , you know , can learn a little bit about backstory . But so , uh , you know , nick , do you want to kind of you know , kind of set the stage a little bit , give us a little bit of detail on it ?

And , uh , and you know , tell us from your first day of experience , because obviously when you get into you know stories like that , I'm sure that they boil it down quite quickly for you and , and , uh , so , give us the dirty details , as they say .

Uh , I've got mapped over somewhere around 800 miles of trails up there and uh , so I'm very familiar with it . I go up there or I was going up there , year round . Um , you know , usually the snow isn't bad by that time because you know it's usually like it is down here in Southern New Hampshire they don't usually see the snow till the new year .

So we figured we were safe . Um , and when I was walking out the door I was actually heading to another event . Uh , before we were going up and I grabbed my any tone , eight , seven , eight on my way out , uh , the door , just as the last minute thing .

I just grabbed it and brought it out and I was like , oh , I probably won't need it , but at least we have it if we need it . Um , went to my event .

We got in at like 11 o'clock at night to the cabin , woke up the next morning had a great breakfast and then we traditionally , if anybody's familiar with Pittsburgh , there's a main dirt road called the Galloway Road and you can take it from New Hampshire Route three in New Hampshire to another road called Parmachini Road , which is in Maine , which then takes you

out to Route 16 in McGalloway , maine , and then you follow Route 16 down to Errol and then we we went we'd go back home through , like Barlett and all of that Um . So when we first got on the road , um , the sign said that the road was closing the next week . Um , they usually closed the road because they do logging throughout the winter .

Um , but the road looked plowed . Um , there was a little bit of snow , but I've been driving in New England my whole life , so it was good it was literally a dusting of snow , just enough to cover the road and the grass next to it .

Uh side road to pull up , and then I was going to back down and as soon as I put it , um , got it back onto the dirt . We started sliding down a hill . Um , and I corrected it three times , but I still proceeded to go around in three , three complete circles .

It wasn't like a huge river , it was just a brook , but it was moving pretty good because the snow was melting and all that throughout the day . Um , and now I thought I was hung up on a rock . Um , come to find out when we pulled it out , but the only thing that was holding the car was compressed snow . Oh , wow , um , yeah , yeah , um .

So I couldn't get out of the vehicle , um , because the vehicle was sliding and I was on the side that was impacted in the snow .

Uh , obviously , my ham radio .

Um , and so he got out and he went to secure the vehicle and while he was securing the vehicle , the cables it was rope , but I'm going to call it a cable um snapped and the hook came and hit his left knee .

Well , I tightened the back one , went to tighten the front one , got it pretty good and I was on my way back over to him to tell him to , to give it a little gas to try and get it out . Well , I added an extra little crank as I was walking and that extra little crank caused the line to over tension and snap .

Oh , wow , okay , so the lines snapped so you hear boom , the line snapping . And then I dropped because the shackle that I had struck the inner side of my left knee , dislocating my leg instantly . Oh , holy crap , Whilst it was dislocated , I proceeded to loosen the snatch . The uh come along . I had re-hook everything back up to the vehicle re-tension .

It told him to get out and that's how he was able to get out of the vehicle Right .

So I got him off the road and then he said well , try , you know , try to use the GPS . Uh , the satellite communicator . We had a spot , um , it wouldn't connect . Um , and this , it's designed to work with satellites ? Yeah , it's , just would not connect .

I wasn't able to hear it , and that means they weren't really able to hear me . But I but I know that when I have my mobile in my truck that I was able to hit it no problem . Obviously 50 Watts versus five Watts . So I knew that if I could get to higher ground I'd be okay . But I didn't want to leave Ben .

So I got Ben settled and he told me I gotta go . Um , so he proceeded to , uh , get off the road . He built a little bit of a shelter with some pine bows . Um , he re readjusted his knee , put it back into place and then proceeded to strap six .

Yeah , and then he proceeded to strap his leg and secure it himself while I was hiking up the hill to get to higher ground . So finally I got through um to somebody and Derek uh Casey won QXL who's from Vermont .

So now I'm talking through the Mount Washington repeater to like I think he said , barry Vermont , you know , it's like way far away , um , and it must have just been a small point of clarity , cause he heard me calling . Now he thought I was trying to because Mount Washington repeater is so high .

He thought I was just trying to get a freak contact , because people do that . They're like how far can I make a contact ?

You know I was saying everything I could think of emergency , emergency , uh , 911 , cause I knew they weren't getting everything , but if they recognized a piece of it they might do something .

I did try two Canadian repeaters , cause you're right on the Canadian border and sometimes those are pretty active . But where I was in the valley , canada was on the other side of like a mountain , so you already had it .

The satellite thing I'm kind of shocked about , but uh , but uh , you know , I was thinking like if you were in a , I guess , if we were in a less remote area and you weren't sitting in between two mountains , I guess you could have tried the national call .

You know frequencies , but there's not a lot of people up there either , so that you know I don't get a lot of action on that down here anyway . You know , down in the southern so probably not . So so you got this repeater and you got this guy in Vermont and uh , he's only here and you think part of what you're saying , correct ?

It's a pretty impressive setup , although now I I think he's rebuilding now , so it might not be there anymore .

Sometimes , when we get on the edge of our events , we have to go to simplex and it works , um , but yes , so so once , once he knew it was an emergency , he called by one one and actually I heard this story from uh from the dispatch at the hospital .

The hospital was listening to it and they were telling us that the call came in and they said there's some guy from Vermont saying that there's two guys stranded up here , um , and they actually they sent out , um , uh , they had to . They said everybody , yeah , they . When they got out there .

Yes , so when the first responders got to the end of the road they realized that I've been the whole road flash froze . I mean it was sheet of sheer ice , yeah , okay , um , we actually bought crampons that that morning , uh , at the local store , so I was happy I had those two to walk up the ice . That'd be great .

We're just like oh , it's an overnight , we're seeing some bodies at . Whatever , we'll take the small little kit . Luckily we didn't need the kit . Sadly the kit had the better fire starter in it . I only had a lighter that was almost out of fuel . Okay , but we managed to get a fire going for like two hours .

I had the Simplex calling frequency , I had the 440 calling frequency and I think there's like three or four others in there too , because I kind of use that for the general whole area all the way down through Erel . So there's a couple over near there that I have in there as well .

So I do have a lot of them in there and we tried , I tried every single one until I realized the only one that could hear me was Mount Washington . Okay , yeah .

So just kind of , you know , in general , you've tried everything , you've gotten everything established , like so how did ? How did the process and maybe I might be jumping a little ahead how did they triangulate where you were ? Did they just kind of work up ?

Did they have a rough idea that road system you were in to , to where you were , or did you get that communicated somehow ?

We were on with an actual fire tower with a lookout on it and we use that intersection as a reference for EMS fire and everybody to get to us easier . So they knew okay , they're roughly within this area .

It's like you know you can't translate that and he doesn't talk about him being good with more proficient in worse code . So you know , I was like . I was like , well , maybe you know there's going to be some other way . So , all right , cool .

So a moment of clarity happened and , you know , the repeaters were able to get your , your folks voice out and so , okay , all right , cool , good .

I'm curious , if we were at full power and full height , if this would have gone a lot easier because they called 911 because they didn't know how severe it was . Realistically , if we had perfect communications , I would have just said , hey , we need a tow truck out here .

There's no classics and I would have brought Ben in for medical evaluation after getting out . Just so everybody knows , AAA does not cover anything on dirt .

I got out and got in the tow truck , ben went to get evaluated at the hospital and then , when we got down there , the tow truck guy , he said something along the lines of you know , you realize that this is a brand new truck . And I'm like yep , and he goes do you know why this is a brand new truck ?

And I go nope , because the same thing happened to me last year .

So obviously you're able to walk and everything's all good . At this point that you know amputations or anything and whatnot , you obviously had to . I don't want to get too boring into the details because we're not that type of podcast , but you know obviously , yeah , exactly so , we're . You know new demographic guys here . You know I attract a whole new audience .

Yeah , we're the Hammered out podcast talks about blood and guts and if you're not , if you're not into that , then don't bother . So yeah , it's kind of talk a little bit about that . So obviously you know it happened and you mentioned popping your knee back in . So kind of talk us through that a little bit .

I have better control on my situation at that point . I take the leather sheath off of my axe , stuff it in my mouth and go one to gung ho , rip and pop my knee almost all the way back in . I then proceed , which I do have a photo . It is not graphic to take ropes and two sticks and self splint my leg to the point .

It's no longer mobile , and from there I was then able to stand up , get up to where we had a fire , to start a fire , and we were able to get out . Now this is the photo and I'll show you , guys , if you can see it .

By the time we got the fire going and they got there , my leg was numb in the good way , because I could not feel it anymore , which is good .

I can't bend my leg , so they get me to the back of the truck and , me being me , I got like a belt on so I can have extra gear on me for when I get out of the vehicles to walk . So they grab me by the belt , this heavy duty belt , and they proceed to one two high hold , lift me into the bed of the truck and then slide me to the front .

I climbed on the other side into the bed and we went out . The entire time on the way out . The paramedic is looking at me going I should give you meds . Do you want meds ? I can make you nice and happy . You want some meds ? And I'm like , no , no , I'm good , I don't want them . Get to the back of the ambulance . So we drop .

Well , we dropped Nick off . He gets back in the tow truck , heads back to get the car . They pull me out to the main road . I get out of the bed of the truck , get on a gurney , get in the ambulance . The cop the one of the two that was- there Chief . They only have two cops Chief . The chief jumps in the back of the truck and goes .

You guys are getting $30,000 fines for this . What You're going to jail , this is BS You're getting . We're throwing the book at you . Are you blowing his top ?

I look at your deadpan in the face and I go I'm happy , like I just finished a bottle of whiskey . I don't want to warm up You're probably dead Shut off the heat and turn on the air conditioning .

Turns around and I hear over the PI Call doctors and nurses to ER room and it conveniently was my room . Everybody walks in and goes oh , you're the guy that got hurt and I go yeah , that was most likely me . And they go did . Did you relocate that and splinted on your own ?

I go yeah , the only rope I care about in this entire splint is this orange one . That's it . You can have the rest of it . So they go and they proceed to cut the ropes off . I take the one orange rope . I wanted to keep put that in my pocket . We do X-rays and everything .

Doctor walks in and goes and just pokes my kneecap and it pops back into position .

So everybody was there , was shocked that this bearded guy that looks like a city slicker just rolled into their ER on an EMS bed and has his leg splinted and says he did it on his own . And relocated his own knee in the field , with no pain meds .

But I'd say , overall , you know it's not like . You know you definitely all the training Boy Scouts , like as you're all talking , my all my Boy Scout training is all flooding back up in my head and everything else like that I'm totally like , okay , yeah , that makes sense . I remember that . Okay , I remember that .

So , yeah , it sounded like you definitely showed them up or two and they were , you know , definitely so fast .

I look at deadpan in the face , straight faced , and I go . You can burn them at effigy for all I care . Good luck , and we left , wow .

And I'm on my way home from work and I get a call from this New Hampshire number and I answer it and he says you know , don't worry about , don't worry about anything . He says you guys were so prepared . If we find the people that are prepared , people are never going to want to be prepared . So so you know just . You know we're happy or safe .

He says just pay the bill for the logging company . So that's what we did .

So when things happen and people do stupid things , they get very agitated because they can lose that with a stab at their finger and once it's gone it's really hard to get it back and this is their primary route .

It wasn't like you were like racing down the road . I mean , it was everything was just an unfortunate event . But I'm glad it just worked out . All you had to do was pay the login fee , I mean that's , and the towing fee that was very expensive .

And what was it ? A park ranger .

The only physical burnable stuff in that spot was me and the timber we had gathered off the ground there was nothing else .

So we actually utilized more of my training and I did the SOS with my pistol . It's a redistinct gunshot simultaneously . So it's bang , bang , bang all about a second to two seconds apart and because I knew , if I could hear them , that they're going to hear that and that might make them realize they got further to go .

And the other thing we did is once that fire was going we put all kinds of pine . Once it was really going , we put all kinds of pine boughs on it to get the smoke going and they said they could see the smoke , but they said they'd never heard the gunshots .

But during hunting season and normal seasons , when it's not hunting , if you hear three distinct gunshots , any normal outdoorsman , hunter , hiker , off-roader , anybody that knows those signs , is going to go and investigate . Well , so much money . I don't care who you are .

Yeah , right , I mean , you're going to go , you're going to check it out , you're going to see why somebody shot three rounds . Yeah .

Well sure , and in addition to medical skills being able to stay calm

It's really on my society and I was chatting with some people there , avid Hikers up in the King of Mangus and he says , yeah , I got this , I got a GRMIS radio and I used it to talk to my wife and I'm like , yeah , how well does that work ?

And she goes oh , you know , it works a little bit and you know , as long as I'm on high ground and stuff , and I was like they get about half a mile to a mile out of it .

The first thing is you can always learn how to drive better in the snow , yes , and we're doing the proper tires . So I had the tires that came from the dealership on the car and I mean it would have been better if I had snow tires , but I think even with studded snow tires I probably would have had the same situation . I would have gotten no .

The second thing is and we did this actually the place that we stay , because we stay there all the time . The owner knows us well , so before we leave we always tell her hey , today we're going on these trails . You know , this is when we expect it .

If you don't hear from us , like if we're leaving and we'll say , hey , we'll call you when we get into Aral . If you don't hear from us , from this time , you know , make sure you , you know follow up , and if you can't get hold of us , you know generally where we are . So that's a big thing .

But the biggest thing for me is you know , keep a base station in my car , yeah , and now I keep a G90 in the car too whenever I go off-roading . So I got an HF with an N-Fed Half-Wave . So I that definitely having more reliable communications was the biggest takeaway for me . I feel like we were well-prepared otherwise .

So that's really what I kind of took away from it .

Shout out to the TV show , iconically Survivorman , Come back to you , Okay Cool . Shout out to them . I grew up watching that and practicing skills from that show and from that show I've learned how to start fire that three-shot signal through Hunter Safety Course .

I've learned multiple very good things from that , but my biggest thing would be always have multiple ways of communication . 10 plus one . Like Nick said , we tried our phones , we tried our spot , we tried other means . We finally had to resort to ham .

So when we got back we immediately went into her office and let her know , because we were going in an area we hadn't really explored yet and the roads weren't in the best of conditions . They hadn't gotten out to fixing some of them yet either , and it's always good to let somebody know where you're going , have multiple communications , have a bait .

I'm not saying go out and buy like a survival kit or something like that , but have in your car a couple days worth of food , water and some way to stay warm and stuff like that . I mean during the winter myself I have in the truck , I put a small case in there food , water , ways to stay warm and everything . And it's New England .

I mean you can be driving down the highway one minute and it's sunny . Next thing you know , because you didn't pay attention to the weather man , you're in a blizzard . So I mean , just look at last year up in Northern New York , northern New York they had five or six foot of snow in a couple hours . Yeah , that was crazy .

Or people stranded in their cars .

But then I'm thinking you guys , if you hadn't just say you just had your HT but you didn't really put in the repeaters right , you wouldn't know what the tones were , what repeaters were out there . So that would be something that now I'm like oh , that repeater , you know physical book , you could look it up .

And then the other thing that people who are listening probably should think of is to know how to manual program your radio . Yeah , Instead of your grade because it's very easy to go on a computer and put it in there . But if you're out , you know you just got an accident and you have an HT and you're trying to find .

Oh , I brought my repeater book and this is the frequency I think I need but I don't know how to get it in there .

Knowing what times maybe people are usually on that specific repeater is also another thing to maybe note , because having those three things together you can now program your radio as you need or see fit .

You have a repeater book that gives you the frequencies and tones of repeaters maybe in that area and on top of that , if you're in a low time where maybe no one's on , just wait a few minutes to a time where maybe people are on .

I'm not saying wait five hours trying to listen to that repeater and pray without throwing your call sign out , or a Mayday out for somebody to chime on no , no , no , no , no , no , because there could be somebody that's already on and listening that you didn't hear put their call sign out .

So just throwing a call sign which I do all the time on the Terry repeater and I'll admit it , someone's gonna hear you . And if they don't do it every 10 minutes , at some point somebody will hear you and will reach out .

And if you you like an emergency , you say your emergency signs and give you proper things that you're supposed to , and somebody will reach out and see and make sure you're okay .

And I think there's a lot of people , especially I think I think in New Hampshire there's a lot of people that will listen and scan channels . So maybe they're not licensed or anything , but maybe if you're putting out there hey , emergency , we had a car accident , we're stuck , we have no service . If anyone's hearing this , please call 911 .

This is our , you know , as you're broadcasting out there , maybe someone might hear that and then they could , you know , follow the thing . Maybe you don't make the exact connection , but someone might be listening , because anyone can listen to any frequency , right , you just can't broadcast on it .

So that that was another thing that , just when you were saying that kind of made came into my mind . Like that might be a good idea too , Cause I know that we have our we do a daily or , yeah , daily net and there's a lot of people that listened that never check into the net , but we know that there's a ton of people who listen to it .

They just don't participate in it .

It is so important that we get this out there to everybody watching or listening right that you guys got very , very lucky because you were prepared in as many aspects as you could be . But if you're not practiced and you're not utilizing those skills on a regular basis , you're not going to be there when you need them .

We just focused on what our task was keeping a level head and getting through it . You know , because when you panic , that's when mistakes happen especially . I mean , everything was ice . If we weren't focused on what we were doing , I could have ended up hurt . He could have ended up hurt worse , and I definitely agree .

And there was one thing I wanted to touch upon and you bring up a good point , paul is practice .

And I think that if I wasn't volunteering with the MS Society , the Boston Marathon , all these public safety events , getting on the air , getting used to talking on the radio , being comfortable and confident in what I'm doing , I feel like if I wasn't doing that , I probably wouldn't have known , you know , if I was even getting through .

I mean , there are people , there are technicians that don't even know like they keep up the radio , they say their call sign and they don't know to listen for that kerchunk on the repeater , that tail , tail , tail thing . You know and I feel like you know . I wish more people would help out with these public safety events , Because this is good practice .

I mean a lot of ham radio operators . Every ham radio operator has a reason to be here , be in ham radio . But I think that at the core , a lot of ham radio operators got into ham radio just to use it .

I mean , there are so many technician operators I know that they got their technician and then it sits on a shelf , they don't use it and then they think that one day , when you know SHTF , you know we ended up they're going to be able to pick it up and it's going to work , but they're not using it . They're not . Yeah , exactly yeah exactly , so yeah .

Most of these charity organizations that do the bike rides , they do the walks , they do all that stuff , they're always looking for ham radio operators to help and I've seen a huge decline in people wanting to help . We used to have 30 or 40 people helping out with the MS Society . Now we have six . Yeah , and it's just . You know , do your part .

Ham radio is a great hobby . I love it . It's the best thing . Now , after this whole thing happened and I went on Chronicle , I actually got some nasty hate . I got a lot of sad hams reaching out to me .

They probably had some sort of food and they probably starting the car for 15 minutes every so many hours could have stayed in it safely .

I did get some great letters of encouragement as well , but that video really kind of affected me . And the thing that bothered me the most is like they heard the three minute summary that the news put out there under Hampshire Chronicle . You know , you guys got the whole story . Now . I was prepared . We had everything we needed . I'm an Eagle Scout .

I've been trained . We've already gone over that .

But what's funny is when I knew you guys were coming on the podcast I , you know guys at work . They know I do ham radio and you know you get the typical jokes and stuff and you know whatever . But then when they see me doing it , they're all interested .

You know , when I bring up my , my iPad , and I'm on the flex and I'm all of a sudden talking to Italy , they're like whoa , you know , but you would be surprised how many people like how many people you think watch Chronicle Like I don't know , maybe a lot , maybe not , but three quarters of the people in my office watch Chronicle and watch your thing and

they remembered it . Like I remember that one . Yeah , those guys that got rescued and they used the ham radio , I remember that .

So it was a , it was positive , at least in an office that has nothing to do with ham radio , and I thought when I watched it that it was really interesting , like I thought it was the coolest thing ever that you guys actually use the hobby in a real life situation .

That got you the help you needed and I think anyone that gives you hate on that is just you know . Maybe they need to go see a psychiatrist .

And I mean it was like like four or five months later and we're having old home day and there were people that we never met , don't know the names , don't even know them . We're coming up going , aren't you guys on New Hampshire Chronicle , the ham radio thingy that saved your life , or something like that ?

Or like , yes , we used ham radio to get us out of the woods . And they're like where do I go to learn ham radio ? Good , and I mean we had a 10 year old .

We had kids from the Boy Scouts wondering how to do it , and we had some older gentlemen that had retired asking where to go to to learn the hobby , because otherwise they're sad at home watching TV or sleeping , sure , and they want to learn something , so they get out .

Nevertheless , you know , having a voice to , you know basically criticize something for that they've never been involved in . But what I want to shed some light , as Todd did already . A positive note is that when the New Hampshire Chronicle thing came out , we as a club were starting to kind of get into some of the schools to be able to talk to them .

So we went to like a trade show for the school , at the high school , and we had that video and I didn't know we were bringing it and they had that just on reef over and over again and we're like I saw that video and , like Todd was saying , I saw that video . I like that was just so amazing . I'm like those guys , like I do other .

You know those guys and like , no , we don't know them personally but you know that we know they're in the area and they , they came out safe and you know a lot of great positive stuff came out of there , like well then , you know , how do you , how do you do this ham radio ?

And , like Todd said , it's like they just kind of like all these young kids are just like what's this mode like ?

I mean , you know we don't understand like and we're used to cell phones , we're used to like instant communications , but I can talk and use this in a way for both my safety and , you know , for a fun and hobby and it just kind of opened the door for , you know , more conversation , for a lot of like again .

And we have a lot of older people in our club that don't always they're not always , we'll say extroverts and going out and having those conversations and asking those people , but it allowed them to be able to go . Oh yeah , this is how I experience ham radio and this is how what I do in the hobby and what I love .

And hey , this is the worst code over here , and so it just it was like a total igniter and so I thank you guys for stepping out and doing all that , because it's , it's awesome to see ham radio in .

You know the limelight and you know I say , you know , excuse the F word , but you know F those haters because they just , you know they're just sad hams and they don't really care .

But you know I'm , we're all about and , as we've said in this , you know , in this , you know , in our podcast , over and over again , we're all about promoting the amateur radio hobby and we want specifically to promote it in New Hampshire as much as we can , or even in New England and beyond .

But you know , that is just some one thing , you know , because we all got into it for different reasons , like you said , nick , and you know all of those could be , for you know , whatever it is , but all of us come together because we all like to communicate , we all like to , you know play in this space and you know , whether it's VHF , uhf or HF or CW

or whatever , you know everyone's welcome and everyone's , you know , got their own little you know place that they can play in and we can all , you know , be happily , you know , coexisting in those spots . So you know my heart goes out to you . When those you know , those crack you know , came across at the same time .

I'm glad you know there's some good stuff out of it and I'm glad we're able to help . You know kind of , you know tell your story again , which is awesome , sorry put it on the record straight , right , like you know , chronicle wasn't .

It , helped bring awareness to the hobby that it's not just some old man's thing that is dying , because what I tell people is I said listen , ham radio is the backup unit . You need a cage for everything the space , airplanes , everything . If all shit breaks loose , you go right to the ham radio , right , and it always works right .

I think I have a shirt that says that , like when all else fails and radio works , or something like that but it's still cool enough to say , hi , I think it's . I think it's , you know , I think your stories is pretty amazing it's . It's kind of like it's a story that could be passed on and say , listen , you know ?

Now I can say actually , hey , I know two guys that use their lives like so I don't want to hear it and it's a stupid hobby , or why do you do it and that's exactly why we did the interview .

I , I don't like to be the face of anything , but you don't like going out , unless I drag you half the time , and I don't want to go half that time so you know , it's one of those things where I made the decision that I was gonna reach out to them , because I wanted people to realize that this , this is still alive and well .

I mean , you mentioned cell phones and the thing about ham radio is it's actually faster to get somebody on ham radio than it is talking a cell phone . It's almost instant communication , especially on HF . I mean you can literally have a conversation around the world and they're hearing you live . There's no delay .

Well , sometimes there's delay , but you know it's , it's moving the speed of light . You're not relying on the internet , you're not relying on anything . So the other thing I wanted to mention is that Mount Washington , since this , put up an APRS beacon .

So now , if this happens again , I can use by FTM 400 , which is now in the car all the time , thank God 400 , another 300 because the 300s .

You know , hey , you did get hung up and you haven't been where you said you were gonna be and so far . So it's an added level of you know security and communication , so it's awesome yeah .

And actually I'm gonna be teaching a technician class for my Masonic group , so I'm gonna be a hoping to get a couple more people to help , because I'm still pretty new , but we're hoping to get a bunch of guys in and get that and actually maybe start up a net for a Masonic net for New England .

If we could get , I don't care if it was just one , one new ham out of it that joined the hobby because they went oh I go into an area where there's typically not cell phone service , there's no GPS , there's nothing .

I cannot rely on anything that could now have a ham radio , have a call sign , even as a technician , and be able to go off-roading hunting , motorcycling , hiking , however they want to do it , trail riding and whatnot and know in their head that as long as they can hit a repeater they can .

Most likely I'm not saying every single time , just most likely they can get help without having to call anybody and get somebody to their location . That was the biggest goal of it all you know you're getting more .

But then the other other kind of hobby or activity is like out west , I guess , like there's a lot of off-roading and they were used the GMRS stuff . Now a lot of them are moving to ham radio because of the . You know , yeah , so it's . I think it has . I think you know ham radio is not . If anyone says ham radio is dead , I don't buy it .

Pota is taken off at all . You know and and you hear more and more stores and more and more people . And then you know Eric and I were just doing the activation in on New Year's and the guy company sees all he's doing and he goes . What did he say ? Like CQ , cq or something , when he walked by and he goes . I was a ham 20 years ago .

I haven't touched it since , but I can't tell you how many people have come up to me when I've been activating parks that come and say that and then I show them what Pota is . I said check out this gear now . 20 years ago I said I got my whole thing in this backpack . They're like what you're like ? Oh yeah , you gotta check out the new stuff thing .

God speaking of backpacks .

Yep , a lot of people think when you're at like events helping out , like let's I'm gonna use the Boston Marathon for an example here they think a lot of the time a lot of them go , a lot of hands go , and it's , it's work , work , work , work , work , work , work .

Yes , that's involved , but most likely , yeah , then you're , you're , you're just gonna chat with somebody and explain to them why you're there . You're more like that's how a lot of people that I know that have gotten into ham have gotten into ham . I'm gonna use KC one TF , no KC one . I can't remember his call sign now . Okay , jared , he's out of epping .

He's another ham . I chat with him every morning on my way to work and I chat with him in the afternoon on my way home . I talked to another guy , dan . His call sign is AK one X and we'll set and we'll be chatting all the time . And they got into it because they met guys doing potas and sodas and at events , helping out and stuff like that .

All it takes is somebody literally looking at you going why do you have that radio and why are you saying like two letters a number and then three more letters , what's going on ? Why are you doing that ? And that's how people find out about ham and get into the hobby .

Then at that point it's as simple as that all it takes is that one question of curiosity and we get another ham well .

But you know you guys are just like pressing in so hard to be able to just like say , yeah , you kind of subscribe to the same stuff that a lot of us do on the podcast here is that you know we're very much , we're passionate about ham radio and we know the value of it , we know what it can , you know , provide for benefits , but at the same time we're

just super , you know , excited about like wanting to share that stuff . So , like Todd shared with being able to , you know , go through the , the process of you know just sharing what a pod activation is , or talking to people that might not know about ham radio or whatever . And you know it's just it's , it's , it's what's the word that I'm thinking of .

It's very I can't think of the word I'm trying to think of you're just super over excited about the process .

And so you know I I love the fact that you guys are just starting technician classes in your local area and just , you know , drawing people from your you know , your churches and your places of worship and all of the other places just to bring them in and and just , you know , give them the experience you know and you know , hopefully you know if there's other

stuff that you know we can help out as a you know community and and you know , get you know you guys , whatever you might need to be able to keep those people going because I think that's the biggest thing is like once you get into ham radio , you get your ticket .

You're the biggest thing always happens like what do I do now that you just sit there and go ? You know , okay , I , I could get a radio or what are you on , what radio I get .

And so you know , having those opportunities and you know , being able to just plug people in is definitely what keeps this hobby going and , you know , gets people interested and and allows them to explore . You know exactly all the stuff you kind of talked about . We just a sidebar .

We had a Tim Casey went QTK on a long long time ago when it was like episode three was , and he talked about his technician , you know kind of process of how he started and he's , you know , funny because he literally did everything he possibly could to do as a technician , like .

I mean down to like I'm gonna try CW , I'm gonna try FTA , I'm gonna try everything that he had privileges for . He did it before he decided to say okay , I'm gonna just leap to general and that's , you know , kind of what we all do is that . You know what we realize that we know technicians limited to somewhat . It's the entry point .

And then we're like oh , just go get your general . And everyone's like oh , go get your general . And it's like you don't really have to , because there's places out there . You just have to seek them a little harder . And you know , so we can open that up in New England more . I'm all game for it and we'll help out yeah struggling , struggling .

Jared he was my first contact ever so I've talked to him a bunch of times , yeah yeah , he was my first , he was my first contact and and you know , when you do that backpack and you get that thing all finished out , you know you should come back on the podcast and we can do a , even a short one and just kind of show it .

I mean , who knows , by the time you get it done we might be bigger than we are now and you might get something . You know you could start selling them or something that's .

Like , everybody has their favorite brand , their favorite model , everything . Some people like the FTM 400 , some people like the 300 , some people like the 500 , somebody want a completely different brand and go on that . So we'll probably just build the base and go from there .

So I'm taking probably gonna be taking my TYT 9800 and throwing it on that , just so I can have something to bebop around with and blast the airwaves with my stupid rag chewing that I never seem to stop doing . It's never so as somebody that's sitting in front of me .

So get out there , start using those repeaters , start , you know , conversing . Eventually you'll have someone come back and one of you know , you know , long-term , ragged you with you . So you know , don't give up , keep going . But anyway , paul , you had a couple questions , go ahead .

But then I started seeing these DX stations that were just outside of where I could get them and you know I said well , you know , in addition to the extra band privileges , you know , one of the first things I did as a general was I signed up to be a VE . And being a VE , as an extra , you get to do it all right .

So you know , find what interests you , find what makes you happy .

I used to go on it all the time . But yeah , he's on there a lot . He runs it , I'd say 50% of the time .

So I ended up down . I was working in an event the same day as field day down for the MS society . Well , the event got rained out because , if you remember , it was rainy this field day .

We're going to set up , we're going to use our club call sign , we're going to set up camp , get a couple of camp campers or whatever , and we're going to try to run a 24 hour activation , kind of like a field day but park , and we're going to have different people . Like you know , anyone wants to come can get on there .

And you know , ben , if you're still a technician , you'll have it's our call sign . So as long as one of us is sitting in an area , you're good to go Right .

I mean , I I'm a ham studyorg kind of guy , but I needed for the tech , I needed a little more of an explanation , because it's a little bit out there , especially the theories on the antennas and stuff .

I'm also got one of the um how to get your extra but it's like a audio book , so I know it's kind of crazy . Like , yeah , fast track , right . So I listened to that , right . I listened to that all the time in the car I'm driving and my kids like , can we listen to something else ?

I'm not the popular dad when I'm , when I'm cranking that but you know , it's like I just need to have stuff like I'm a hands-on learner , so like I always suck at tests , but if , if I hear it over and over again and I see it , I use it , I'll remember it . So I haven't really dived into it .

Like Eric gave me like literally like three weeks and he goes you're getting your general .

Two weeks Nick , at home after after work and I crunched through it and I passed with 26 out of the 30 , whatever , I can't remember .

Oh boy , and I'm like waiting for that green , that red , just to appear on the screen of failure . And I'm looking at the screen , still looking at the screen . Now it's populated to green , to pass , and I'm like still waiting for the red , like it's a joke . And they're like you passed and I'm just like I passed . I swear I didn't pass .

Yeah , and I'm in the other room because I told him to get out and he hears you passed , and he goes and did you pass ? I went ? I think so , and everybody on there's like congratulations , it's not clicking yet and he comes out and goes . Oh my God , you passed and they go , I passed .

Okay , and so we're up there and we're just having a fun time . Iconically , another ham had just gotten their extra . I am KC1 .

Obviously , you got in Dessert and doing a lot of that , more kind of from this whole story and whatnot , so kind of what's going on with that , and you know you share a little bit about that . I mean it sounds like some interesting stuff . That kind of led you down that road .

So when I heard about the CERT team , I figured it was right up my alley and so we joined it , and it took a little while to get things through . Then , when I got my Ham Radio license , I jumped in headfirst , like I do everything , and I ended up becoming the appointed communications director for our team , and so I proceeded to redevelop our whole thing .

You know , we're set up with FL Digi . Now we're set up with APRS . We're really kind of full force into it . I'm utilizing a lot of tools that I'm learning through Aries , and one of the big things is that where we are we have a lot of two meter repeaters , but the coverage is really big .

I mean , the K1CA repeater covers such a huge area and so if there was an actual emergency that we had to activate statewide , the amount of people that are going to try to be on that repeater , it's going to be just clogged up .

So I decided on my own accord to set up an antenna up on my chimney with some half inch hardline coax down to a little mobile duplexer , hoping to upgrade the duplexer eventually so I can give a little more power . But with the AZ repeater I run it on . It runs mostly FM , but it's able to run Fusion if needed , and so I really got that going .

The other thing is that I'm actually helping out the cert at a state level now . So there's going to be an exercise . I can't get into it a whole lot , but I'm going to be helping out with the communications aspect of that exercise . Very cool , and so it's a really big thing for me . I've enjoyed it . And yeah , the yeah , that's 13 .

And you know , as I hear from our trustee that currently manages our repeater , that you know tuning cans and that whole ordeal is a , you know , a creative art and skill that you have to have and the right , you know , equipment .

So I , I , I guarantee that you know whatever bench you have now , just add an extra 10 more feet because you're going to need a lot more equipment down the road to get where you want to be . Have that space Well , yeah , or will you ever have that space ? Well ?

Like I can't hear repeaters , can hear machines , they all DM , like they all regular straight FM repeaters or what's with the network .

There's people that I've known for a long time that I didn't know was a ham , that showed up to field day and I was like , oh wow .

But at the same point in time you may get interested in maybe try and join and be even a technician , yep , and then your butt up to general and then extra to be like Eric and what Nick wants to be and always want to do more with everything and go deeper down the rabbit hole .

But yeah , I , I second , and we probably all second , because I mean that's kind of how we all met through our field days and and just you know , getting together and we love our field days in our club because we're much , very much used as a way to just hang out , and Paul and I love doing it because , like we'll , we'll camp out on that Friday night when

most people are like , oh , I've done set up and they'll go home , we'll be there hanging out and we'll just be having a couple of beers playing with the HF radio , having stakes , you know , just shooting the breeze , enjoying each other's company and hanging out and and that's , you know , that's just as important as making contacts on , you know , hf and playing

with radios and whatnot , because that , just you know , cements , you know , the hobby that much better and you build some really great relationships . So you know , I'm all for stuff like that and , you know , including as many people as you can in the process . So it was very cool , cool , all right .

Well , you know any last kind of final things you guys want to throw in there to add , because I think we covered a definitely a lot and awesome stuff and I'm glad we really get to your story out there and and and educate more people on that and and whatnot , but any last kind of things you want to throw into the ring there ?

You guys do a great job and I'm really honored that you asked me to be on the show and thank you so much . I had a lot of fun and it was funny because we ran it like nice and long and I wasn't expecting that and it's been a lot of fun . I have enjoyed chatting with you guys .

You know , you , you beat the record , although you will be forever , and you know , encased as the the first podcast for us that went over our usual hour . So you have that honor .

So you know , if anything , we're probably not ever touched that , but I still had fun and I'm glad you guys definitely came on and thank you for you know reaching back out to us and then , you know , sharing your story , cause I learned a lot and it filled in a lot of the blanks and you know it just made it very clear that we've got some really great ,

you know faces for ham radio and that they're promoting the hobby and just making it , you know , available for everybody to get involved that wants to get involved . So you know , with that , todd Paul , do you want to throw anything in the ring ?

I had a better perspective of from the Chronicle to you know talking with you guys tonight on what really happened and some of the ins and outs that you didn't get really in Chronicle . So it was , it was . This was good for me . I actually like it . I appreciate it even more than I did when I saw it on Chronicle .

So thanks for joining us tonight and it's much appreciated . It's cool .

It's truly a remarkable story and I and I hope that you know other people that are that are taking some some positive advice and and learning you know how to better be prepared themselves . So , absolutely , and when you guys do eventually figure out your man packs , I'm definitely interested in that . So I look forward to talking to you guys in the future .

So make sure you subscribe or smash that like button and subscribe to our podcast if you haven't already and always head over to our YouTube , because we always like the live stream and we're going to start putting out a lot more content that way , so you can catch us in any method that you have or you prefer to listen to .

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And , as always , thanks for listening to livefree and ham and from all of us seven , three and three live free .