Are you a new ham ? Ever been at a ham expo or ham fest ? Well , we're going to take a deeper dive into the world of ham expos and festivals , so you want to stay tuned . Hello and welcome to the Livfree Ham podcast . Our bi-weekly show explores radio topics in New Hampshire , new England and beyond .
Whether you're a regular listener or first time guest , we're excited to have you and we appreciate your support . Thanks for tuning into this week's episode . So let's get into a little bit of today's show . I'm your host , eric call sign N1JUR , and I'm here with Ryan W1SNH and Todd W1STJ . Alright , cool . Well , welcome back , ryan . We're happy to have you here .
It's been a little bit of a touch and go there , but we're glad to have you back in the ranks here and we're looking forward to a great conversation today . So stay tuned . But before we get into our discussion , we always want to catch up a little bit of our listeners and let you guys know what's going on and where we might be .
So this one we're right now currently just going to be gearing up for our bi-weekly live stream . So you want to make sure you're always tuned into our YouTube channel , because there's always something fun and exciting going on and it's always a bonus episode in our regular rotation , so you don't want to miss that .
If you can't attend the live show , you can definitely pull it down from our podcast . So , as always , subscribe to our channel and hit that bell so you never miss a show . And so let's just kind of dive in . So what's been going on with you guys ?
I know there's a lot of talk on the back channels about what's been happening , but you know , ryan , let us know . I mean , you can't let the cut out of the bag there .
Well , sure it's great to be back . A lot of travel for work , so it's always nice coming back home and getting caught up with everything . I'm proud to say I worked all states with Poda so I was excited to get that Very cool .
And let's see , I was at a local estate sale and ran into a neighbor he's a fellow ham and helped him put up two towers and ten is last summer and he had just upgraded to a icon 7610 . I'm like ah , great radio , you know a big fan of it . I currently use one .
And he's like , yeah , I want to set it up for SO2R and this and that he's like , so I'm looking at buying another one . I'm like , oh , you should let me know , I'm curious to sell in mine , you know , because I just need a reason why .
And he turned around with his checkbook and he's like , well , we live right around the corner from each other , let's make this happen . So I went to the state sale just to check it out around the neighborhood and ended up selling the icon and I was without radio , came back hooked up the 7300 . That's when I accomplished the work . All states .
But with less or a , you got on the 7300 .
Yep . But then I was like all right , it's still not going to cut it , what am I going to get next ? So I went on to flexradiocom and I got a previously loved flex 6600 . Woo , it was a nice purchase .
So now we're all . Now we're all on the same team . Like you know , I come , you're all flex .
And it's tough though , because so I'm under the gun to get some house projects finished , so I have it sitting in the box in the shack here right next to me , not hooked up . It's a little motivation to get the house projects done , and then I will switch gears here and start rerouting cables and everything else required to get that on there .
So it's going to be fun .
It's going to be like twofold . You're going to hook it all up temporarily for a little while before you start the shack rebuild to that . Wow , that would be awesome , but you got something else . You can't leave that other other special gadget out of that mix too .
Well . So on the tower I got several antennas . I got a , my big beam , the JK antenna 6BA , which gives me 40 through 10 wonderful antenna . I have a six meter seven element beam . I got the infed halfway . I'm looking at putting up a big NVIS square loop , you know .
So I have a range of antennas , but right now with my antenna switch , I have to get out of the chair , go around the desk and physically switch the antenna . So I figured well , with the new flex candy coming into the shack here , I might as well get their new fancy 8 by 2 , you know , flex branded antenna switch .
So that'll allow me to control it through the software . And it's pretty slick .
I guarantee his 3.0 version will be computer point beam to heading 345 and two into six meters .
Definitely going to integrate node red and get the stream deck and just plug and play . You know , take it to the max .
That'd be awesome and we will all make sure that we all have a recap of our flex episodes . So Ryan can definitely throw his two cents in and we can dive of a lot more . So we might throw in a few other flex people that we know that have been very successful there set up . So , yeah , that'd be a big flex , a flex party , we'll call it , I guess .
How about you ? What's new this past week ?
Nothing much , not with ham radio , Just talking on the repeater . I've talked to you a few times . It's been real busy , real busy week for me , work wise , and baseball . We've got about another I think we have . This is our last week . I know we have two more games , but looks like it's going to rain again this weekend .
Big surprise , here in New England rains every weekend , so I'm going to guess that if it rains , you know the season will be over .
Well , don't you know , baseball players melt at the rain . That's why we don't play , I know .
Well , we're going to practice today and then , five o'clock , get outside and so it's pouring . I'm like , yeah , it's not going to happen , so anyway . So yeah , I haven't really done much radio and my flex has been working , but I haven't been able to hit it remote .
Today was the first I was able to get on the iPad now , so that's good , but my phone's still not connected , so I don't know what's going on . I got to do some research and find out why . I just got a new phone . I got the new iPhone 15 Pro Max , so it's probably something to do with that . But but , yeah , so I'm looking .
I'm working tomorrow night so I'm looking to get it back on the radio , make some contacts haven't done in a while and need to get on it .
Very cool . Yeah , so for me I'm , you know I've been remodeling kitchens or like doing house projects like Ryan and trying to get all of those out of the way and managed contractors and stuff .
But the bit of radio I have done has been just kind of when , you know , I either get a hammer alert that 10 meters as seems to be wide open , or I'm looking for worked . All you know states in the photo world . I had a couple .
Actually 10 meters has been really good for the past couple of mornings that I just happened to come down early and and fired up . You know the sideband and I , you know I was making contacts with VK stations . You know New Zealand trying to think of elsewhere , a lot of Europe , you know , was coming in five , nine plus 20 .
Everyone was commenting how great the bands were and I think what the past ? This past weekend we had one of the Oceania Contests and VK stations were , like you know , shooting fish in a barrel .
They were so crazy busy and you know , looking for any you know North America station that they could and you know they were hitting every state on the East Coast and , you know , far West to from us . So that was really cool .
What time in the morning was 10 meters open for me ?
It's been right around like 730 to about nine sometimes , and if I can hit it really well , you know the sideband doesn't work well . I'm always on FTA and contact window opens quite big there for me . And then I had a couple of 10 meter openings that were late in the day , which was very odd because most of the time 10 meters is just dead .
But that was , you know , I think it was partially because contests , you know , were going on and people were just , you know , trying to get points and , you know , get as many contacts as they could , so they were throwing a lot of power behind it .
Yeah , every time 10 meters has been good during the day . At overnight it's just been dead , like it's just like there's nothing . But that's when 20 meters kind of pops back up and is working really well .
I also had a last time I was on , 40 meters was doing pretty well , you know , in the middle of the day , middle of the night , so that was kind of interesting . Normally 40 is not working too well , but the other night it was so .
So actually speaking of this is kind of when this episode airs , it'll be a little bit of a pass , but you any of you guys participate in any of the solar eclipse piece at all .
No , I had totally forgot about it . So it was interesting . I was driving up the up north with my son we're going fly fishing and I was looking back and I'm like it looks awful dim . But I just totally , it totally missed me that there was a clips that day , totally forgot about .
I'm just trying , I'm scratching my head , I'm like why does it look so dark back there ?
Yeah , we had a fellow buddy of ours was doing some whisper stuff but I kind of hopped on 10 meters just to participate in their Q-So party and it was very funny to be part of it because everybody who was chiming into these stations , the exchange was 5 , 9 and they wanted an accurate signal because they were obviously using this for measurement purposes as well
as a contest . They want an accurate signal , they wanted your state and then they wanted your grid square specifically , and I can't tell you how many times the operator who was , you know , basically calling CQ on this would have to go your grid square . Hold on a sec , let me look it up for you and everybody like , oh yeah , I remember my good square .
I'm like you're sitting in front of a computer . Hopefully you know you have this stuff written down . Like , okay , yeah , I know my grid square . And you know , the only mistake I did was I kept spinning the dial instead of just kind of . You know , remember where I last , you know , had a Q-So or whatever and my AC log was acting up .
It wasn't like pulling up stations , I was are pretty typing in . So I was like retrying to contact stations . I already did in the Q-So party . I was like he's like , yeah , I worked you about 15 minutes ago . I'm like , oh , sorry .
Well , bill said on the net the other night he had like something like 20,000 I don't know what that whisper things . So he didn't know how well that was , but he was just glad to be able to submit the data .
So we should definitely have him on to kind of talk about once he figures it all out and , you know , gets a better idea , because I think there was some real good benefit to understanding you know how that works and in the solar cycle and you know whether a partial eclipse or a full eclipse can , you know Impact radio propagation , which is , you know , kind of
an interesting thing for me to talk about , because I have absolutely zero understanding of it outside of just that . I know there's an eclipse , so Cool , all right . Well , hey , so let's not dilly-dally anymore , let's kind of dive into tonight's topic a little bit .
We were kind of , you know , in several different side conversations with people and on repeaters and nets and stuff like that and and because just has , when the show airs it's already passed .
One of our local , local ham fests that happens twice a year came in and has passed , and so you know we felt we wanted to kind of figure out as you know you're a new ham , you know you're hearing these buzzwords , like you know , ham fest and exposition and all of these kind of conferences and trade shows that we all attend , if you know there's so much
trade shows , but you know . So we wanted to kind of give the new ham a little bit of a primer on .
You know what to expect in and you know what a ham fest might be and you know if you're maybe you know We'll talk a little about with the idea of like , okay , if you're maybe in the market for a new radio because you just got your technician license , you know what to kind of be concerned with or what , what to expect when you go to these fests and you
know what not to . You know look for and so forth and so on . So let's kind of dive in . So let's , let's frame this out a little bit . What do we think ?
You know , we really kind of have like a couple different types of expositions and and yes , kind of throw in you know if I'll rattle off the ones I know and if we missed anything We'll just kind of go back around it . But we obviously have like the typical festivals , or what we call flea markets , which are usually local .
They're smaller , we could say regionals , but they're more kind of situated to the state that they're in .
And then there's more of a regional event that's a little bit bigger , may not be so Festival or flea market like , although it might have a component to that , but that's got , you know , more functions and capabilities for conferences and understanding and knowledge and , and you know , you see a lot more bigger vendors show up that .
And then you've got the the larger area kind of conferences . Like you know , you may hear a word starting on like Dayton and hamvention and you know , hamcation , all of these big areas that none of us can . We can talk around , but we've never been to .
But well , we'll definitely kind of give you a frame of reference to what might you expect out of that and and you can obviously Experience some of that in the YouTube world . But so did I miss anything in terms of , you know , kind of those being the formats ?
No , I think that's accurate . You know some of them would definitely gear much more towards seminars and symposiums and having you know educational Bend to it verses .
You know other flea market style ones where there may be a few speakers , may be a ARRL , you know representative there , but the main thing there is to walk the aisles and see , you know what you can pick up Right . So it it's helpful to know what type of event it is when you're going to it .
Totally yeah , and I think that that's a big key indicator when you're , you know , starting out is that when you get into the , hey , I'm all jumping in the same car , we're all going somewhere , we're all going to go to an event . You know what in from your experiences .
So , if we'll start at the small little festival room , whatever your experience has been when you first started going to them and and what did you kind of you know , what was your kind of first take Expectation of those you know and where you are today , and how do they compare and contrast ? Well , I think it's important to .
It's kind of like going . You never want to go grocery shopping hungry , grocery shopping hungry . So when you go to these flea markets if you really need something for the shack , you know , know exactly what you need and then you can be much more specific on when you're walking the aisles looking for something .
But I mean , there's been many times I've been walking through around at near-fest and it's like , oh , that's cool , that's neat , but do I really need it ? Most of the time , no , it's . It's nice to have and and you know things , small things , let's say coax connectors . You know I'd probably spend a little bit more money .
Buy one from a known vendor and known quality , you know product , and put that in my shack versus the bag of 20 for yeah 599 at the guys booth down aisle . You know B7 , you know , so Probably wouldn't spend money for that . We do have a club member . I'd really like his approach .
He'll purposely go looking for Unmarked resistors and capacitors and this and he'll he'll just grab a big bag of them and you know he takes the approach of with his test equipment . He'll go through and test everything and , you know , try to figure out what it is .
But that's a , I think a unique approach , being a new ham and go in there looking for your first radio . I , personally , I wouldn't recommend that .
I would do the research , figure out which radio you want and then go to one of the local vendors Whether it be , you know , hro , dx , engineering Whichever one online and purchase there , versus buying a used one , thinking you're going to get a good deal and you very well may , if you know exactly what you're looking for .
Yeah , yeah , that's actually good , a good approach good , good sound advice , I mean .
So , todd , in your experience , you know what was . You know obviously you being probably a little newer than Ryan and I in terms of you know festivals and stuff like what was your experience when you went to near-fest or just in festivals in general , and you know kind of what did you take away from those things .
Well , the first time I went to near-fest I didn't know what to expect . I thought it was going to be more , like you know , vendors Of like . I thought icon was going to be a su and obviously it wasn't like that . It was more like a , like you said , a flea market .
I Didn't really buy anything the first time around , I think I just walked around and kind of absorbed it all . There's a lot of cool stuff there , a lot of stuff . I had no idea what it was .
One thing I did notice is if you're a a collector of antique or older radios and stuff , there's a lot of cool stuff that you could buy , probably for a fairly good deal . Or if you're into refurbishing stuff another good place to go to get a lot of stuff . I like it for the networking . You meet a lot of people . You talk to the vendors .
I think that's a plus . You get to meet people . I met some of the guys that I've talked on the radio , that are run nets and stuff that were there and I'd find them like that guy , brian W-O-O-1-V-E-S . I'd never met him before and then we met him there for the first time . But that's really was my thing .
Now , when we go up to Marlboro , that was a whole different experience . For me , the first time is when I actually took my general test and that's really all I got out of it . I took my general test , got my general and then we were pretty much out of there . And then this past year we had a booth and we were doing the podcast .
So we're doing some live stuff and so that was a different experience . I think at one point at some point in Marlboro I'd like to go down there and actually sit through some of the seminars and see what it's all about .
But I've only been down there twice , so I haven't seen that , and I am looking forward to going to a big ham convention with all the vendors there to see all the new stuff and get the play around and demo everything . So I think there's all different types and out of those three , I haven't any experience on the lighter one , but the other two .
I mean , near Fest is local and it's kind of cool to go to , but it is something that we have to . You have to like I agree with Ryan , like you have to know what you want to get . It's nice to browse and maybe you'll find something , but do you really need it ? The last time we were in Marlboro I was looking for what do you call it ? Dummy load .
I couldn't find one . And we were at Near Fest you got one , and I was like , oh , that's a good deal for a dummy load , so I might as well get one , cause I needed one when my YASU finals went out , so for testing . So I figured I'd get one and nope , didn't have one . So I looked .
Very interesting .
I mean , ryan's strategy was kind of like very much like I'm going in with the intention of like you gotta understand what you want , you gotta do the research , gotta do the kind of the pre-stage stuff before you even get to some of these festivals and then you can minimize a lot of the noise , we'll say , because a lot of those you know , as Ryan says , like
you know parts or trinkets or connectors , we all need them in some form of fashion and we all probably have a box full of the junk ones we got from the Ham Fest from previous years that have either fallen apart or broke or whatever , or just like their parts to parts of other parts . So you know it's good to see that .
And then you know you got the social aspect and so I'm kind of like in the middle of this and so my early on , when I first started going to some of the , what we had around here was near Fest , it was horse traders way back when , and that was like when my teens and whatnot .
So when I went I was just like totally wide-eyed , I'm like , okay , I need to get an HT . And you know , the problem with when you go to these festivals is like Ryan said , you're gonna see a lot of boat anchors .
You're gonna see the motor roll of booths full of like used motor roll of gears to the coming out their ears , which , you know , if you don't know any of that stuff , it might look all shiny and nice but there's a whole like ecosystem that you have to invest in and drink the you know the Kool-Aid to be able to , you know , run a motor roll of radio .
It's not really sort of like plug and play , you know . So you got all of those and then you've got everybody's flavor of radio . You know that they all think is , you know , well worth more than what it was new , especially when you go to the Ham Fest and that was always my big turnoff when we first started .
You know I first started going was it's like you go . Then you're like I could go down to HRO , which we have the luxury , being here in New England , to drive , you know , half an hour , 45 minutes to go to a store like HRO where someone may not like you know they're from New York or Maine , that may take a little longer for them to get to it .
So you know they have to kind of use the internet to . You know kind of get the feel .
But , like Ryan suggested , I think you know if you're a new ham and that's kind of where we're focusing this a little bit is that if you're in the market for a new radio , a lot of times festivals are not the place to get them because they're going to be asking top dollar .
They're going to always say that they've been gently loved , non-smoker and have been in the box , in the original packaging since day one , which we all know . Sometimes you can get a really good deal , but I think you know you're going to walk away kind of sad because nine times out of 10 , you know they're just . You know they're passing off .
You know something that's been passed off to them that they got it , you know , for whatever reason .
So well , what's that with you , Eric ? And we were looking for , like I think we saw that repeater and you opened it up and it was like a mouse was living in it or something . It was a DR2 repeater .
Yeah , it was a DR2 repeater . Looked brand new . The box looked in mint condition . You open up the . You look at the front of the repeater , like wow , this is great Aeneal . They only wanted like 500 bucks for it . I'm like that's a steal for a repeater , especially a DR2 .
And I'm like the guy's like , yeah , it just came out of our other you know chassis . We just didn't even know in the in wherever it was . And you open the chassis and it was like rust on the inside , like it looked like it went through a flood . Literally it was that bad . And the guy's like , oh , I don't know what the condition was .
He said it was really good and it was working . When he pulled it out I'm like hopefully he didn't pull it out while it was live because he probably wouldn't get electrocuted .
Well done . In Marlboro at the Ham Expo A real nice feature they had at one booth was they had a power supply . They had test equipment so you could take that piece of equipment that you think may or may not work and you can hook it up and test it right then before you leave the show . Yeah , which is I thought that was a really nice feature .
Yeah , I wish they had that . I don't think they have that at Near Fest . Near Fest is not kind of the place for that to happen . I don't think .
Yeah , no , you'd have to walk in with a backpack and your battery and a dummy loader .
Oh God , yeah they have a bunch of people that have intent to set up . But the Near Fest is sort of like the , we'll say I'm trying to think of a good festival , like music festival .
A lot of people show up , it's like a two day event , and so if you're looking for the places to kind of go and have , like as Todd said , social interactions with folks , meet new people , talk about the hobby and stay overnight because they allow that in that type of festival , that may be attractive to you and an opportunity .
But if you're just really like , okay , I'm going for the radio . I need to get ABC radio , and you kind of have an idea of what you want , because when I first started and I went to the Near Fest for the first time , I was on the hunt for a radio HF radio . So I was in the same , similar experience . But I knew that my budget was 500 bucks .
That was where I was going to draw the line , and so I was running through the market and I was looking for a Yezu FD450 because I knew it had the . It was all solid state , it was a good radio . I did , like Ryan said , the research , so I knew what to look for and I knew what to look for physically when I was looking at the radio .
So when I wandered up to a 450 , I'd be like , oh okay , that was in good condition . Well , when we met our fellow friend and cohort at the festival he was like , oh yeah , I happen to have a 450 .
And so I think the benefit to a lot of festivals although it's great to see the stuff there , you also might want to think about networking , like Todd said , with other people and see if they have radios of their own and their own shacks that they'd be willing to sell you for a better deal .
And you know they're a little bit more loved and taken care of in some cases . So that might be a benefit to do in terms of you know thinking , you know outside the box a little bit when you're looking for your new radios as a new ham .
Yeah , and the networking is great . I mean you definitely start putting faces with call signs on the radio and it's needed to meet all the local people .
Oh , totally . And how many times when you walk by somebody , you hear their voice and you go who's that person ? You know who is , but you've never seen them . You just know by their voice . Yes , and I was just like I'm not smiling because we all know that Todd's , you know he hears their voice .
I was like , oh yeah , I know that guy , no problem , can't remember his first name .
But I know his call sign . I know his call sign . I have no idea what he looks like , but I know who that is . Yeah , so good . I was just thinking like when you were talking about , you know , buying stuff . Well , sometimes at near fest , hro is there and I was .
I forget what I was looking for , but they didn't have it there , but they had at the store . So as soon as I left near fest I just kept going down 93 . All the way down there , I'm like oh , just at near fest , you didn't have this , but I want to buy it here , so that was the . That was kind of cool .
And one thing I always look for . But on the smaller local ham fest , you know they just don't have the manpower to . You know , go to all the smaller events and get the booths going and have a presence right . So I've not been to a large , you know date and type ham fest , but I'm excited about going .
I think it'd be great because all the big vendors are there . You see the latest product releases , they have seminars , they have huge flea markets and you know you can make a full .
I'd say two , maybe three days out of the event multiple buildings so you end up having to like kind of do it like a disney world tour where you do a section , you know a day or whatever . So there's definitely a lot more that . So funny thing is , has any guys like ?
So all most of the vessels we talk about , they usually tend to have some form of like a seminar or they're talking about you know a class , not so much training class , but they have a forum you know they call their form . So any you guys ever attend any of those at all at a local level or regional one ?
I have . Yes , so it's a . You know it's informed , if you get . See , it was a say going on two years ago when we had the regional voting for air are l and it was . You know , it was good to see the different candidates before you vote for him , and so , okay , how about you talk ?
No , I actually haven't . That's what I said in the beginning . I wanted to . You know , maybe the next marble ham convention , I'm gonna go and fix see what , which one I'm interested in maybe go to it . So yeah , I haven't . But I'm the only seminar I was really in the rooms there was when I was taking that test test .
I went in , took the test and walked out with a big smile on my face .
Yeah , I haven't done it at the local level . I know tim , you know one of our cohorts was on the previous episodes . You can go check him out . He , he very much takes in a lot of that . That whole will call ambiance and experience and so I'm sure he did it .
This , you know , this year fest that was in october and you know took a lot of the forms and I really only did it at the regional level because I had the same similar , you know feel like you taught that .
You know I wanted to kind of experience that part because last time I went to it I just kind of did the typical flea market walk around the vendor , for you know the vendor , you know area and and then we were off to lunch , you know kind of deal and more doing the social aspect . But I think this year we did .
I went over to watch the , the , the , the forum on radio craft . We had , you know lucas , early on , if you haven't got that episode , he's did a great live show with us and talked about radio craft and you know . So I want to go see that and see it in action and Got to meet him and really cool guy and you know he was .
Just it was interesting to be part of something that was a little , you know , kind of absorbing more than I was like kind of just giving or just trying to get .
So you know , I would , I would strongly say you know doing that is definitely something you probably want to put on your bucket list if you were definitely a new ham and you're looking for Trying to figure out what you want to do .
I know One of the things that you know we all struggle , especially trying to figure out what we want to do in the hobby , especially as a new ham .
You know where we go , what do we play with , and those forms might be a good you know place for you to kind of Pull some new information or a gleam bit of something that you didn't know about for the hobby and you know , and they would be the experts to talk to . You know in terms of how to get started , so you know that .
So , in terms of it , like you guys have a strategy . Let's talk just a little bit about the nuts and bolts in terms of finding stuff .
Now we kind of taught and mentioned when he didn't you know and and I'm the same way and right , I'm sure you're that when you know you have some of the vendor large vendors like hro or quick silver or any of those big guys there that you know sell all the mainstream parts and power supplies and stuff , you know , that usually tends to be the last ditch
effort of you know , okay , I can't find it anywhere else at a used you know table or whatever . I'm just gonna go buy brand new type thing and and bite the bullet because that's you know what you want to have . Instant gratification wall minute . It's really why we , you know , do it .
We don't want to walk out of there empty handed and that's kind of what's your strategy . When you're looking for certain things at a you know flea market or ham fest , you , you have a you know a process . You go scan everything . Are you just kind of walk around and you just kind of like let fate you know find its way , or what did ?
I'll want to two ways . Either I'll do a quick walk through and kind of scan everything quickly , but if something does catch my eye and I truly want to get it , I don't wait , because if I really it catches my attention of park , at someone else's attention and it's gone . If I come back 30 minutes later , okay .
So if I see something and if I have the cash in my pocket I'll start haggling with them . So you are a little bit , you know I'll be . I mean I'm not super aggressive about it , but If I really want it I'll present the cash and walk away with it .
So I would say the strategy is if it's caught your attention and something you really want , then make it happen , because it will probably be bought by someone else pretty quickly okay , well , how was your take on that one thought ?
Yeah , I mean I would probably say the same thing . I haven't bought much From , you know , flea markets , whatever . I did buy some hamsticks one year , so I was . But I was in the market for them , so they were . I knew they were a little bit cheaper at a near fast so I knew what I was looking for .
But I agree with right like if you see something catches your eye and you just have to have it , might as well , just get it or your best friend next to you says , hey , you need to have this one like the jenka pot , because remember that guy we were over like , oh hey , poters stickers and let's buy five of those .
And then , wait a minute , you got the jenka pot . Is that you know him ? Radio 2.0 and everybody else has been talking about blah , blah , blah . Oh yeah , someone's over 60 bucks will buy both of them for 120 , no problem yeah , no problem .
And then we got the antennas and everything else . So , like that , that was a yeah , that was like impulse buy , but it was like things that I wanted but Didn't have . You know , I didn't expect it to be there , like I had him .
So I was like sweet yeah , yeah , I think for me , like all all I tend to , and it's probably just because of my conditioning but I usually will put together a list of , like the night before , a couple nights before , like all the things I need around the shack or you know , have on my to do list that I could run out of hr or you know , buy on the x
engineer or something like that , and if I haven't bought it before then you know , that's kind of the list and I usually tend to just go in and I'm more about the social stuff , initially because I like to be able to just meet up with people and , you know , take in the whole experience and walk through and and I find , you know , when I , when I actually
last year I did recording of my video for near fest and on my channel and it was I was very surprised because I didn't know what to expect with people and how they would interpret . You know , video camera kind of around they were very , very welcoming and very like , excited to be part of the process .
So Walking around having conversation , you know I got to meet a lot more people than I'm gonna . You just kind of do the kicking tire walking by stuff . When they see you got a camera in your hand in your video recording , they're like oh , yeah , yeah , hey , come on over .
And like I talked to jay , who's the new england ardent contact for most of new england and he was , you know , getting into how he's setting up all of his ardent stuff and you know , but all of those booths that we normally just kind of go by and and just you know kind of cursory glance at , you know it opened up the doors to have more conversations , so
that once I got through that I think I did the second round again , like okay , I got my list . You know these are the top five things I gotta be looking for . I remember sort of where they were in what areas .
And then you know , like , if I went a couple years ago in the fall time , there was very little and was raining , or one of those days , which one was fall or spring and was raining , so it wasn't really like super , like hey , I'm gonna come out with anything .
And I think I you know I was like I'll go over to quicksilver by a couple connectors because I know I need a couple of ninety degree elbows or something like that for my potabag . And then that's when you know , we were hanging out and we stumbled upon what we I don't think you were selling those laptops or anything like .
He was just selling other stuff , or no , he was actually selling us in tennis , right ?
Yeah , you're selling those antennas and no , that was another thing I was I was looking for .
You know , I wanted to pack tenor and you know they're never in stock and then this guy has them and I'm like seriously , like that's it goes and you can pick this , and I was like done , and then we ended up getting the two radios and stickers and you know I don't we got a good deal on it because he's like , yeah , just give me like a hundred bucks ,
yeah .
Whatever you want to get out of there fast , that was for sure . So that's a back to Ryan's point . It's like if you can get a guy who wants to just get out of the stuff fast and they don't want to bring it home , you know , it's okay to haggle a little bit if you can , or maybe you can just bundle stuff because he was like from .
he was from like yeah , but I think he was like from like Western New York , so I think he had a drive , oh yeah so he's not bringing anything home if he doesn't have to .
So yeah , I think I ended up . It's that's jenka potamus laptop and if you don't know what we're talking about , you can go over to him radio crash course and look up jenka potamus and you'll find that that's . That's cheap $60 Lenovo laptop or not Lenovo , I can't remember who makes it , but it's very a big popular hit because it runs on 12 volts .
So you know I'm charging it , everything . That's the benefit . But yeah , I ended up buying that as an impulse because I'm just like , oh yeah , I have it . But I brought it home . I'm like I'll put two stickers on it and then I was like it's a sat there . All right , I'm gonna give this to Tim because I know he can use it .
Mine's still in the box worse than me . Well actually sitting here on my desk .
I'm like hmm , you might , you might want to Paul because he was actually interested eggs I mentioned to him when we were a poet I use like yeah , I got the old iPad . It doesn't really work cell wise and I was like . Well , I think a potas might be good for that .
Well , I got it because really is for when I decide to do FDA on Poda . That's the whole reason I bought it . So , but when I ever do , I don't know what I'm gonna do .
I haven't feeling you'd be doing FDA from your go box , but yeah , and I hope you're from this laptop , yep , so alright .
So we've talked a little bit about some of the traditional festivals that are local and a little bit of the regional stuff , and we obviously mentioned and tease the fact that there's you know , obviously , the regional ones , well , area ones that we all have not been to .
But you know one , youtube , and you know live the lives of the , the rich and famous youtubers who get a chance to go to , like Hamvention and all that like .
But it's it's not much different in the sense that the , the type and format are , is the same as a local festival , but it's on a larger scale , I mean literally larger scale , like they are at like fairgrounds , that they have livestock and 4-H fair , you know , kind of regional things .
So if you ever get a chance to go there , and if you do and you get a free ticket , just ping us , will love to come with you .
You know , definitely take it all in , because what we found and what we've seen and we talk a little bit about it Is that a lot of the big vendors , like icon , yezu , flex , all those guys show up and they show up big . It's like a big you know , hey , what are gonna release .
And I think , like the last one , a Dayton like Ken would finally showed up on the floor and , you know , showed their latest rehash of the D 74 which you know it's kind of their duplex HT , and so you know those things are definitely worth , you know , catching and you're bound to always get , you know , the latest and greatest hardware if you want it , because
the vendors are really hot , you know , to sell that stuff and they'll have it in . You know big supply , whereas you know you might not see that at a local festival or or whatnot , which you know it is tough and , like Ryan mentioned , it's definitely one of those things that they have to make a decision .
So they may not go one year and they may go another year . You know they may have to go , you know ship hardware and stuff to a larger event . So something to keep in the back of your mind .
But is there anything else at the local festivals that you guys you know have seen or been a part of , that you Want to , you know , kind of bring to light , to let people know that it's not just a bunch of people showing their boat anchors that there is more than outside just the forums and stuff .
What one thing that always catches in my attention that thinks really cool , I'd never own one , just based on space or , I guess , practicality . But a lot of people know several people show up with totally decked out All-purpose vehicles .
Oh yes , or there , you know , they have the multiple antennas and the four-wheel drive and the spare fuel tank and tires and Five different radios hooked up and solar panels and out car . Yeah , yeah , exactly , some of them are . They're pretty crazy . I mean it's impressive how much thought and work that goes into . Oh my gosh , it's the home .
I guess a whole lot of sleepless nights with those things . But , yes , not great on gas mileage and definitely not , you know , versatile for like a grocery getter .
No , not so it would not be my daily driver , but it's neat to see him .
Yeah , yeah . So I kind of got that one experience the the EOC van . Well , it wasn't , he is it emergency communications Vehicle . We kind of stumbled upon it .
We were just walking around and we bumped into a guy who had a and again , because I was , you know , taping for the channel he was recognizing he was like , oh , you know , willing to chitchat about it .
But they had a converted TV vehicle with the full master , expanding master , everything else like that , and they have everything HF , vhf , uhf , set up , all in the rack , all you know Tailored . And they were like , oh yeah , our club got this , you know , for free .
And he went into the whole dissertation of how they acquired the vehicle and how the clubs you know , kind of wasn't a movie or something .
Yeah , I was in . Some was in the movie about the Boston . Oh the bomber . It was one of the news vehicles that was a prop , but it was a functioning , you know , and had like the , the tower or whatever built into it . But the one thing that I noted , because we were talking about like why we should get one of these for like art .
You know , we always joke around . We found a . What was ? How much ? Was that fire truck ? 20 grand or 200 ?
200? . Oh it's cheaper .
2000 yeah , it was very , very affordable , yeah but so there's a fire truck that had a big ladder on and we're like , oh , we got to get this for field day . But the guy was telling me he's like you know , he goes , you know the problem is you have to ensure it and maintenance and all that kind of stuff he goes .
It's actually costing the club more money than we can afford . So they didn't know what they were gonna do with it . But it was pretty cool . It was all they had all kinds of radios and antennas , basically , drive it anywhere and start going .
So yeah , it's a kind of a dream of mine of our club eventually will , you know , get into that stage . It'd be fun to have , for sure , even just even pull a trailer around for that you know purposes , because you know we could use it in many ways .
But yeah , yeah , at these local fests you can compare notes with these people who have them and you can say huh . That's , that's neat , that's a cool idea . You know nice to have , yeah .
It's a dream , but you guys , like you , want to buy it like yeah , 20 bucks . Yeah , yeah , and then so , okay . So we Usually , when you're going to these fests , you know obviously you're looking for something a little bit modern a lot of times .
But we did touch upon a little bit about the , the old boating or crew , and I don't think any of us really collect any of that stuff here today Yet . Not that we won't fall into that trap later , but that tends to be .
You know the draw a lot , although the one draw that it's been surprising for me for last couple of festivals was that there was a lot of used Motorola gear in the sense that it was tailored for the public service bands and they were still active in the digital realm , so DR , dmr and so a couple of the booths that I wanted upon .
The guy was like , oh yeah , well , we kit Technically use these bands , and I'm like , okay , well , I'm walking this other way because I don't want to be anywhere in the secret .
Remember that one guy . You had it in my back of his car . Oh yeah , it was crazy and it was like a whole and it was like a total , like get a full DMR , p22 or whatever interface , all of it digital , all of it tied into the public service .
You know environment , and I'm like , so you can't use this on the handbands . He's like , well , yeah , we sort of , but right now it's just set up for public service . I'm like , okay , excellent , thank you for the demo . Let's move along here just for the purposes of I don't want to be tied to anything you're doing right now .
But yeah , so the boat anchors , I mean there are some fun stuff with it . But you know what's your experience ? You tend to walk by a lot of that stuff . You just kind of , you know , have no idea what you're looking at .
What I mean I wouldn't have the space or the knowledge on how to work on it and how to fix it up . So it's , it's a novelty for me . You know , several times over the wintertime you listen to the guys on the 75 meters on . You know they're broadcasting AM and you know they're very proud of their AM gear and it's cool stuff .
But to get the full setup and to do it properly , like these guys are doing , I mean they have rooms full of just old gear and there's you see some of those guys at the Fs and you talk to them and it's fascinating . It's just I just don't have the space for it . Yeah .
I don't have the technical understanding of it either . I mean , if I ever got into these tubes , I just know that you don't want to cross the certain cathode or anode if you don't want to get a nice little shock or something . But you know it's , it's a part of you , know I .
I could just imagine , like you know , if you're in your final years and you're looking for like your first radio or something that you don't have anymore and that you would want , you know , that might be a good place to go , you might find it .
You know , if you know , if I found my , my first HT , you know like , oh , I mean , I used to love that thing . I wish I had that back . You know , it's kind of like you always want your first car again . Like you look , oh , my first car was this and I wish I had it again . Well , not my first car .
My first car was a .
Dutch car man . Oh , I drove that when I was a kid .
Yeah , good on that one . Yeah , I think boat anchors for me . I get the nostalgia to them . I understand . You know how great they can be and the sounds that come from them because of the construction and the original . You know old , you know solid , not solid , say tube and wire technology and stuff like that , and I just yeah , they're good .
And so you know , I think overall it's one of those things that you know you got to have a flavor for it . If you like those types of electronics then you'll be drawn to more of that . But I think you know my generation . When I get farther down into my older years I might be complaining about the old solid state stuff .
And you know how my waterfall isn't as fast as it used to be , or you know how many , you know total , how many frequency bands it can or can not cover , and you know how I used to have this DMR and digital back in our day .
Yep , yeah , sorry , I'll be interesting times .
Sorry about that , guys . I accidentally unplugged my mic . No problem , I'm walking into my hat going .
I thought I had a tube malfunction . Sorry , yeah , it happens . All right , so cool . So let's kind of wrap this up a little bit , and you know so from a standpoint of a new ham .
What last bit of advice do we want to give he or she that if they go to one of these festivals , what would be the thing that they want to take away from , you know , going into it ?
I would say enjoy the event , walk around , meet people , talk to people and soak it all in . But for my personal opinion , I wouldn't be going there to shop for a new equipment for a new ham shack . Okay , how ?
about you .
Todd .
Yeah , I'd just say , absorb it and you know , just enjoy and take it all in and see , you know , everyone might have a different experience . Some people like it more than others . You know , I enjoy it but I couldn't go this spring or I couldn't go in the fall . I had a work issue I had to do . I was planning on going , but it's not like I go .
I missed it like the end of my life . But yeah , it is definitely . It's good experience and , like I said , I sometimes like to listen to people like you'll be , you know , a vendor . They'll be talking and sometimes you can just sit there and listen about what they're talking about . You pick up a lot of stuff .
I know that when we were the guy that was on the Ed Fong antennas he was talking about , he was talking to a customer or potential customer about how they worked and stuff , and I was picking up some things because I owned two Ed Fong antennas and it was kind of I like , oh , I didn't know , it was like that , I got it .
So okay .
So yeah , just yeah , just enjoy it and you know , don't expect too much , but don't you know , just just go feel what it's like . And , like I said , you know it's a good time .
I mean I , you know , we , I've always , I think I've always if I always go with you , eric , I know we go like sometimes there's a group or whatever , but it's it's just good to kind of walk around and you know , hang out and talk and see stuff , and then you get ideas and oh , I want to do that , or so I mean , you never know what you're going to get
. But , like I said , I just like walking around and talking to people and hearing their ham stories and where they're from and stuff .
Cool , all right . So I think kind of three things from that is one , obviously , you know , get out there , hang out with people , socialize , just enjoy the experience overall . The one thing we didn't touch upon that our club kind of does , then maybe you might be able to find a club that does it A lot of these like local festivals .
They , you know , the clubs , like to get together earlier for breakfast before they go over . That's a great time to just , you know , start the social aspect with a cup of coffee , get the day going .
And then when you get to the festival , then you get a couple of guys and gals that are already there with you and you can kind of go in and you know , let them kind of lead . Those that are , you know , that are seasoned fests guys , ham fest guys are going to know where to go and what , to what direction to kind of go in .
And they may end up , you know , being nice and ask questions like hey , what are you in the market for or what you're looking for . And you know , and it's go with , the expectation I think we all clarified is that you don't want to go in to buy your first radio , you know , if you happen to stumble into a good deal .
Make sure you got some guys with you , gals with you , that understand how to look at the radio , examine it , maybe test it , ask the questions . You know that type of stuff . That'll at least give you that better assurance that you know what you're buying . But don't go with the idea that you're going to buy the radio there .
That very rarely happens and we all kind of come from that same circle that you know . It tends to be the stepping stone to getting to the radio you really wanted in the end . So just skip over it . You know , work towards getting the goal of your radio that you want to start with and go from there .
And then you know , take it , taken everything you possibly can on every festival , because it comes around at least maybe once a year , if not twice . So make sure you get out there as much as you can and go check it out .
You never know what you'll experience and you never know what you'll get out of it and if anything you'll walk away with some great memories .
So you know , bring your HT .
Yeah , there's a lot of there's a whole discussion we can have on . What frequency do we use when we go to the festival ?
Yeah , bring your HT . There's a lot going on on those .
Yep , yeah , or scanner , if you just want to listen to how many other people are there ? Yep , every channel . Because actually that's a good tip . That's a good tip we should have talked with or led with is that bring your HT and listen for the good deals , because there's a bunch of guys that are always relaying each other on either side .
Hey , I got this deal over here . Blah , blah , blah , looking for this , and you might actually be able to get , you know , a score or something you know , way before you get over to that side of the .
Yeah , be the man in the middle , exactly right , so smooth for the tack .
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