Some people say that under that hat, Mike Dell has a chip in his head. Unfortunately, it's a Dorito. Good morning. It's 9:00 AM. Local time at traverse city, Michigan time for the Sunday morning amateur social hour. This is a smash net that meets every Sunday morning at this of 39 35 and is sponsored by the cherry land amateur radio club in Trevor city, Michigan. This is an open net. Anyone is welcome to join. I'm Ken w H Q K at Trevor city. Anyone wishing join, please call out.
K O D K H K. K. LM. W HT, November Sierra kilowatt. No, we got a bunch and I one right early. Oh, we got w three K OD KF, AK, uh, K L M J w HTC NS, a K K and K R RSC. Who did that? Miss? Okay. That was, uh, the beginning of the smash net. The smash stands for Sunday morning, social hour sponsored by the cherry land amateur radio club, which is a club here locally in traverse city, Michigan, of course we're the cherry capital of the world. So, uh, we, uh,
call it cherry land or whatever. Anyway, that, that was an example of an, uh, 75 meter net, uh, 75 slash 80 meter that's one band, but, uh, the, uh, voice portion of the band is, uh,
referred to as 75 and the rest of the band. Uh, the, the lower parts of it, uh, are for digital and Morse code, otherwise known as CW continuous wave, but, uh, the upper part is, uh, called 75 and basically that denotes voice versus versus, uh, anything else, but, uh, 75 meters on a Sunday morning, we start that one at 9:00 AM, local time as, uh, Ken said there and I know all these guys cuz uh,
they're all pretty local. Uh, the 80 meter band or 75 meter band, whatever, uh, right around three point, uh, eight megahertz, something like that. Uh, this was at 38 30, no, 39 35 is the frequency. So if you're anywhere in the, uh, Northern Midwest, uh, you probably would be able to hear it on some days, not always, but uh, that band stays pretty local. And what I mean by what I mean by pretty local in UHF or, uh, high frequency, which is really actually low frequency.
I know that makes no sense but anyway, the, uh, the 80 meter band at that time of the day is somewhat local. It, uh, relies on what's known as ground wave propagation. So, uh, but local being, you know, anywhere kind of in the Northern Midwest, uh, the one guy there V E three K O D uh, his name's John and he's up on St. Joseph island in, uh, Canada, but which is actually a little bit south of sugar island, which is Michigan.
So it's in the St Mary's river and it's that part of the border where the zigzag, the, uh, the, the islands there to figure out which one went to Canada and which one went to the us. So St Joseph island ended up in Canada and sugar ended up in, uh, the us. And, uh, that's really how they did it, or that's what I was told anyway. Don't know if I believe it, but anyway,
it's pretty local. Uh, usually don't get a lot of out state and usually it's pretty local like traverse city interlock and Leland county antrum county. Uh, maybe over to Gaylord. Sometimes we get some from Southern Michigan. Uh, I know when I'm in grand Haven, I can check in. Usually if I have the mobile rig, uh, mobile HF rig, which I don't carry with me, normally we used to have it in a motor home and don't have the motor home
anymore. So, uh, yeah, don't do that from the motor home, but, uh, when we go camping pretty much anywhere, we'd go camping around Michigan. I could check in on that net. And I do a later one on 40 meters, which is around 7 0 7 0.2 megahertz, thereabouts, uh, particularly 7 1 8 5 give or take a little,
depending on how busy the band is. But, uh, we usually find a spot somewhere around 71, 85 at 10 30 local time, or 10 30 Eastern time since, uh, the 40 meter band at that little bit later hour covers, I'd say regionally. And we get check-ins from maybe Texas once in a while, maybe Florida once in a while, but it pretty much covers the Northeastern half of the country, uh, is what I can usually hear from here. Uh,
the guy that runs the net usually is in Dayton, Ohio. So, uh, he, he gets some of the further south ones, but we have normal check-ins from con uh, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, uh, let's see Illinois, Indiana, uh, Maryland, uh, you know, DC area, Connecticut area, uh, you know, just all around the, uh, Northeast, but Mo mostly Midwest. But like I said, we get the occasional check-in from Texas and we get one guy that's, uh, actually in San Diego that, uh, remotes into, uh,
a transmitter here in traverse city. So, you know, he's, he's really lo local, but, uh, he does an internet remote, uh, into it to another guy in Boston that kind of does that too, or Cambridge, not Boston , but anyway, it's pretty normal to, uh, to get people in that wider range, but, you know, there could be nuts on all different bands. I I've checked into, uh, you know, nets at, on 75 meters at night that cover the us, uh, in Canada and Mexico. Uh, but there's a lot of different nets.
And one, the net is basically is it's a scheduled gathering of ham radio operators on a particular frequency for a particular purpose. Uh, the purpose of the Sunday morning social hour, the smash net that I get on locally here is, uh, basically just to, uh, you know, just have a, a discussion and it's a semi directed net, uh, directed nets are where the net control in this case with Ken w at Q KP, uh, he takes the, the check-ins at the beginning there.
And then, uh, later on, he'll ask for more check-ins as we go, and we'll usually make two rounds. So he'll, you know, call the first guy on the list and, and he'll make a transmission and then he'll call the next person on the list and he'll make a transmission. And then, you know, it always goes back to the net control. So the net control directs where it goes next. The, uh, I O K the international order of crazies net that I get on a little bit later in 40 meters is a round table net.
So once we establish all the check-ins, uh, you know, Keith w a eight Z WJ down in Dayton, Ohio will, uh, take check-ins and then he'll make a, a order, and then he'll tell the order. And then he'll, uh, say, okay, you know, the first station on the list, and you gotta remember who you're getting it from and who you're giving it to. So really you just have to write down two call signs, who you're getting it from and who you're getting it to,
or who you're gonna give it to. And that's how it works. So, you know, say, you know, I'm, I'm first on the list and I do my transmission and, and it's a social thing. It's just, you know, the weather, the, this, or that, the whatever whatever's going on in the world, you know, it's a, it's a, uh, you know, all of us know, know each other or know of each other. So it's not a, a bunch of strangers on Ann net on that particular one, and we call it a skid. So that's another,
another thing you can call Annette as a skid or a schedule. And, uh, but, uh, so I would get the first transmission and then I'd pass it to the guy that Keith told me that I sent it to. And then he'd send to the next guy. And, and, and I, I say guy, but there's gals that get on there, spa net, especially, we got a couple of women that check in on that. So it's not just guys, but on the, I O K it's generally just men. So I can say he,
but, uh, not, not to be sexist or anything. Uh, there's plenty of female hams, not, not nearly as many as, uh, as there are guys, of course, and there's not, you know, I, I'm 55 years old when I walk into a ham gathering of any sort, I am almost always the youngest person in the room. So, you know,
kind of skews a little older, not saying that's true all the time. In fact, on this net, uh, that I played the clip from, uh, two or three of the guys are much younger than a couple of 'em are college kids. So, you know, it, it, there are some young, younger people getting into it. Uh, Ken, uh, is a semi-retired ophthalmologist and he's in his eighties, early eighties, but, you know, so it's a, it it's, it's a gamut of ages. My dad was one of 'em that checked in w eight TVC. So that was my dad.
we, uh, we both get on that, that, and the I K net, uh, every, uh, Sunday that's kinda ham radio morning is, uh, is Sunday mornings. And by the way, I'm doing this on Monday, I should have done it on Sunday. So you're gonna get two episodes today. but anyway, so nets could be all kinds of things. So we have local ones here on the, on local repeater on VHF. So that's why HF being the lowest frequencies that we're on as high frequency, and then there's VHF, which very high frequency,
and then there's UHF ultra high frequency . So, yeah, the lowest is high frequency, but, uh, and I guess, tactically, if you wanna think about it, uh, the 160 meter band of ham radio is, is technically middle wave, which would be the same as am radio, not same frequencies, but the same band segment be middle wave. Uh, but, uh, for the most part, it's either HF or VHF U HF.
Um, but there are some VHF and UHF nets or some digital nets, uh, you know, there's all kinds of, of things, uh, on, uh, Wednesday nights, locally here, we've got the, uh, the barf net I know lots of fun acronyms around here, but, uh, that's the benze amateur radio friends net, and that's a combined net with the, uh, barf group and the, uh, local, uh, emergency communications group, uh, which around here is called a R P S C for amateur radio public service core.
But it's a combination of a R E S lots of acronyms, sorry, uh, amateur emergency service. So it's a combined, uh, it's an E emergency service net plus a social net. Uh, but it's on the repeaters around here and it's on a couple of 'em cuz they link
'em together. But, uh, that's very local, uh, you know, people on walkie talkies and stuff, uh, talking through a repeater station, which, uh, uh, I won't go into the explanation, but think of, of cellular towers for ham radio, it's kind of that, but backwards cuz they existed way longer than cellular towers ever existed, but it's the same basic concept, a low powered device going to a high powered antenna up high and then retransmit it out to where all the low powered devices can get it.
So tho that net, uh, you know, it's a little round TA, it's not a round table net, it's a directed net, but uh, you know, that's, it's a local one VHF and you probably, if you have a police scanner, you could probably tune into the local hand radio repeaters in the evenings and there'll be at least a one net a week somewhere around your area. And that's probably all you'll ever hear on the repeaters anymore.
A lot of people don't, uh, use them anymore. It's not, uh, I mean they use them, but not, not nearly what they used to, uh, used to be very busy on the repeaters, but not so much anymore. But yeah, it's, uh, it's a fun hobby. Uh, you know, this is, this is just one part of the hobby. This is for the, uh, fellowship brotherhood sort of, uh,
thing that goes on with ham radio. They, you know, we all sort of, you know, meet up on certain times and you know, sometimes, you know, with the emergency communications nets sits to test out your gear and make sure that, uh, what you're using is working, but uh, even the social nets do the same thing, but there's other, uh, highly directed nets. Uh, I check into one every once in a while called the buzzards roost net.
And it's a, uh, it's a regional 75 meter net that, you know, covers more of the Midwest cuz it's later in the day, uh, that propagation changes depending on time of day and where the sun is and all kinds of factors, but uh, it's suffice it to say, you know,
it starts at 5:00 PM. So it, uh, it, it's pretty regional and I'll check into that once in a while, but it's highly directed and you only get one transmission and you could, you check in and it could be 45 minutes before they call on you to make the next transmission. So, you know, it's not something that, uh, is fast paced. Uh, it's interesting, but it's not fast paced and there's, uh, cool nets, uh, that I, I call,
I think they're kind of cool, uh, county hunters. Uh, there's a thing in, uh, am radio, at least in the us where, uh, we collect counties, you know, so you want to contact as many counties as you can. And what what'll happen on a county Hunter's net is they'll, uh, call a roll call. You know, they'll not a roll call, but uh, call up for checkins. And when you check in, you tell 'em what county and state you're in or province. And I don't know how they do that in Canada, but uh,
mostly it's gonna be us and you tell 'em where you're at. And then, uh, then when you, it comes back around to you, you, you, you listen to the checkins and where they're at and you, uh, when it's your turn to check, you would to, to make a transmission, you will call that other county that, that station in the other county. And if you two can talk to each other, then you can count that as a contact and you can, uh, send QSL cards.
That's the old way of doing it, or you can, uh, do it on logbook of the world or one of those other online, things like that and, uh, verify the contact and that way you can collect over many states, uh, or cont well, there's other there's state hunters as well. But, uh, those that's easy. I've, I've worked all the states, uh, couple times at least.
And what used to be real fun when I was in Idaho, Idaho's pretty uncommon on the state Hunter's net and the county Hunter's nets, uh, where I'd get just about every person trying to call me. when I would get on there. So I'd be pretty busy, but you know, when you're in a say, you're in Wayne county in Detroit and you get on a county Hunter's net, uh, you know, you're, you're gonna be making contacts, but you're not gonna be somebody's contact for, oh, I need Wayne county.
It's just, you know, there's a ton of hams in Wayne county or Kent county in, uh, grand rapids area or cook county in Chicago or whatever, you know, it's the same, but there's those kind of nets. Uh, there's also hurricane nets, they call and that's like when a hurricane starting to come in, they'll call up a, a hurricane net. And that could last for days.
And you ch you know, if you're a station that's helping out with a hurricane, either you're in it, or you're gonna be in it, or you've just gone through it and you're back on the air and can give reports and, and, and all that you check in with net control and the net control can change, you know, over time, of course, you know, you don't want somebody sitting there for, for, uh, days and hours and whatever, you know, you probably pull a three hour shift or four hour shift,
and then they switches to a another station. And, you know, when you hear on the news that, you know, hurricane went through somewhere in Texas and, uh, ham radio reports say, you don't hear it as much anymore, cuz uh, everybody's got satellite phones and cell phones and stuff. And those things are pretty reliable. But uh, you know, when all it's fails, ham radio, you know, uh, let's see another interesting kind of net.
I, I, I would call it a net, but uh, maybe not. Uh, well geez, I'm trying to think I had it right on the tip of my tongue. Oh well, but you know, there's all kinds of interesting things. Oh, at maritime nets. That's what I was talking about. So a lot of times, uh, at least in the summer around the great lakes, there's a great lakes, maritime net or a, you know, they call it a maritime. Net's a Marine net, but they call the maritime net. Cause the Maritimes are a particular place,
not the great lakes, but they'll be the great lakes, maritime net. And it's, you know, I think it goes for a couple hours every day and it switches frequencies. So one, one time it'll be on 40 another time, it'll be on 20 meters. Another time it'll be on 75 meters, depends on the conditions and, and time of day. And it's several times a day sometimes just depending.
And it's where people that are living on their boats or traveling the great lakes on their, uh, sailboats or their boat yachts or whatever can, uh, make contact with the world. But again, with cell phones, it's not quite as bad because, you know, unless you're out in the middle of the lake, uh, you're usually within cell range, uh, along the shorelines, uh, if you're doing a lake crossing, there might be, uh, you know,
a couple hours where you're not, not in communication, but you never know. So, you know, it's kind of a, a Marine safety net sort of thing. I always found that interesting to listen to. There's also aviation nets. Uh, you'll hear that, uh, not as much anymore, but you used to hear it a lot. Uh, airplanes flying over the Atlantic. All those airplanes have HF radios in them. And those HF radios are capable of hand radio frequencies.
And sometimes between their check-ins with their air traffic controller, if the pilots are hams , they'll, uh, get on an aviation net frequency and, and uh, you know, talk their way across the, the Atlantic. And I'm sure it's the same on the Pacific. There's also VHF frequencies, uh, for, you know, aviation VHF frequencies. Uh, famous one is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So 123 point, uh, four, five, uh, megahertz, uh, on VHF am, uh, aviation radios. That's kind of the, uh, universal air to air frequency.
So if you have a police scanner that does aviation put, uh, 1, 2, 3 0.45 in, uh, one of the memories and every once in a while, you're hear a couple of jets, uh, way up high talking to each other, uh, even going across the us. So it's kinda the unofficial air to air frequency. And speaking of, of, uh, air to air frequency, you might might wanna put in your, uh, scanner is, uh, 1 21 0.51 21.5. That's the, uh, it's called guard, but it's a, it's also a beacon frequency.
So if an airplane crashes, a lot of times you'll hear a beep leave, leave, leave leap on that frequency, cuz that's how they find the plane crash. If it's close to you, that's uh, uh, you know, the ELT emergency location transponder, but uh, a other times you'll hear the air traffic control trying to get a, a hold of an airplane that they aren't really in contact with cuz uh, everybody's supposed to be monitoring guard all the time, flying around.
That's why, uh, airplanes have more than one radio usually. So you're supposed to be listening on guard just in case, uh, you get on the wrong frequency, uh, if you're in air traffic control, but that totally not related to this, but uh, let's see what else about nets and schedules? Uh, yeah, I participate in a few, you know, uh, pretty regular on the smash net and the ilk nets on Sunday. Uh, I get on the statewide emergency net probably once a month.
Uh that's either on, on uh, 75 meters or 40 meters, depending on the time of year, it switches to 40 meters in the winter time and, and uh, 75 meters the rest of the year cuz uh, a probation that time of day or whatever. But uh, anyway, that's uh, really about it. So I'm, I'm gonna call this a podcast. Uh, this is making up for yesterday Sunday. So, uh, this one will go out and then shortly thereafter the next episode.
So, uh, make sure if you, if you thought I was done for the day that you, uh, go back and uh, snag the next one, uh, which will be out shortly, I'm gonna be talking about podcast index, catch me later.