All right, it's time to get your trunks, your one pieces, your rash guards, your boardies out, as it's ham fest season. Well, ok, maybe swimsuit season, I don't know Whatever. Well, next on the free ham. All right, hello and welcome to the free ham podcast. This is our weekly show where we discuss ham radio topics in New Hampshire, new England and beyond. I'm more thrilled to have you here, whether you're a regular listener or tuning in for the first time, and we always enjoy you guys joining us for this episode. So let's get into the show. I'm your host, eric call sign N1JUR, and I'm with one of my co-hosts and a special guest tonight. But we'll pass it over to our co-host first.
Speaker 2:I'm Todd W1STJ and we've got Good evening this is Mike N3MFL Twitterter silverman.
Speaker 1:There we go. Nice, he is stepping in so graciously for paul who's uh feverishly prepping for his uh journey across the united states. I would say, if you are listening to this podcast about a week later, you know, look him up on aprs. We're going to be tracking him on Discord and on the website and stuff like that via him. He said he's going to have APRS on so we'll be able to see Paul's little car move across the United States. You know, hopefully he'll have a little trailer icon, otherwise Tim Casey1QDK will be a little annoyed that he won't see the correct icon resembling what he should be while traveling. But with that, yeah, we wish him well and safe journey man. And With that, yeah, we wish him well and safe journey man. And, hey, he's going to be hanging out with Mike on Monday. So I'm looking forward to seeing that and, you know, hopefully making contact with those guys, because I struggle to hit Mike from New York. I don't know what it is, it's just not. The skip does not work in my favor every time he's activating. So either way, ok, well, like we always do, we get into our topic.
Speaker 1:We've got a few things to catch you guys up on, as always, head over to our storefront at live free and hamcom forward slash shop, check out all the merch, maybe pick up a bacon pack of our hammies, cause I gave out a bunch of those at near fest last week, and so you know, a few people, you know definitely love to see those things. And you know, hey, if you want to connect with our community, you know you can do it a number of different ways. You can always hit us up on our SMS link in our description. You can send us an email or, if you're so inclined, you can use our voicemail number, which is 978-233-1142. And I won't put Todd over the barrel with this one, because I am not on the ball with the scrolling at the bottom of the screen here, don't worry about it. So, all right, well, um, with that, we also have a live stream. So if you missed our live stream at near fest, which was, uh, technically for, uh, the April time frame, we'll be having one in May. So, uh, keep your eyes out, and the easiest way to do that is make sure you're subscribed to live free and ham. As I know, we got a couple of new subscribers that just joined, uh, over the past couple of days. So make sure you ring that bell so you get notified.
Speaker 1:All right, and, as always, if you'd like to support the show, we always in. Uh, appreciate everybody who does. Uh, you can become a patreon member and you get a ton of free stuff. If you're a patreon member, you can head over to patreoncom live free and ham. Uh, and some of those patreon members get early access to show releases uncut, unedited, unfettered conversation, like we just are doing tonight. Um, and you know, as bob koff always says and I am not on the ball, what the heck here? Um, bob koss always says that I can't find it. Where the hell is it? I'm so off, all right, well, anyway, just for three dollars a month you could join for live free and ham. I'm sorry, bob yeah exactly all right.
Speaker 1:Well, with that, we have nothing in the mailbag and we definitely don't have paul here tonight with win link, so we are gonna just uh blow by those and doing good. We haven't seen anything come by. So you know, make sure you send us something. If you've got a do good story, we want to hear about it, and so with that we're gonna dive right into. And now a little something extra with todd w1stj still a general.
Speaker 2:A little something extra with Todd W1STJ.
Speaker 1:Still a general, like that little blurb there I did. I have got a lot more of those, you suck. I have gone back in the archives there and pulled out the little segments when Todd just puts a little dig out there says I'm a general, poor me. So, uh, yeah, we, here we go. Well, I am uh the ve tonight.
Speaker 1:So I am going to forgo the formalities of uh getting us into a little something extra, because you know, if you've been on the show for a little while, you know what we do here. We test todd on, uh, the extra class question pool. Uh, hopefully you guys got a chance to catch the video that we did at Nearfest, testing people on the street. That was a blast and very interesting to see. We are definitely going to have to ramp that up next time in the fall and, you know, really turn up the heat on that one and see what we can do. So, yes, good stuff going on there.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, I'm going to kick this off. So are you ready? I've got my button on the tension. You know 30 second tension song there. So if you are ready, I will happily read the question to you. W1 to CJ. Are you ready? I am ready. Okay, all right, we are dipping into the random pool questions here. So this question is is what is the far field of an antenna? Is it a the region where the shape of the radiation pattern no longer varies with distance? B the region where radiated power dissipates over a specified time period. C the region where radiated field strengths are constant. Or. D the region of the ionosphere where radiative power is not?
Speaker 2:refracted. Are you sure this is an extra question? It is. I don't think I've ever seen this one. It hasn't been any on any of the exams that I've done, but let me see. All right, that I've done, but let me see.
Speaker 1:All right, the top of my window says Amateur Extra.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, let's see.
Speaker 1:Feel free to jump in there, Mike.
Speaker 2:Oh, I already know the answer. All right, the region where I need a second. You have plenty of time, my friend, yeah.
Speaker 1:I can run the music again.
Speaker 3:No, come on.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say B, b, all right, mike what's your answer?
Speaker 3:I'm going to say B, b. All right, mike, what's your answer? I'm going to say it's either B or A. It's definitely not B. Yeah, that's the other one. You're going to go with B?
Speaker 1:You can only pick one, Mike. We're going B.
Speaker 3:All right, yeah, we'll go B.
Speaker 1:All right and you are both wrong. It is. The correct answer is A.
Speaker 1:The region where the shape of the radiation pattern no longer varies with distance, and so let's go back and read the question here, or the answer to the question, or description I don't even know what they call this. Paul does this so much better than I do? All right, as the RF energy leaves the antenna, it's generally expands into the full beam. However, this expansion only continues for a specific distance. At a certain distance from the antenna, the beam pattern no longer changes, but remains relatively constant, and this distance is referred to as the far field distance. The far field radiation pattern is typically what we are most concerned with in radio communication, as practically every receiving antenna is going to be in the far field under real conditions. All right, and they give you a hint in the antenna pattern usually have a proverbial shape only, answer with shape, and then the silly hint is FFS means far field shape. All right, well, we got 0 for 3 today, so let's go to the next one 0 for 1.
Speaker 1:Well, we have three total questions, friends. All right, so fine, if you're over one, we're only doing one at a time here, all right. So question number two what is the approximate bandwidth of a 13 words per minute international international morse code transmission? Is it a 52 hertz, b 26 hertz, c 13 hertz or d 104 hertz? I don't need to know mor code.
Speaker 2:I think it's A.
Speaker 1:And Mike. Your final answer, b, all right, okay. So, todd, you say A and you are correct, all right, okay. So the answer to this one is CW, words per minute is WPMCW equals 13. What's the necessary bandwidth for this transmission? For a CW transmission, remember, bandwidth equals 4 hertz. Blah, blah, blah. So in this case, bwcw equals 4 hertz times 13 words per minute BWCW. My gosh, is anybody going to remember this test tip To remind yourself that you must multiply by 4 to calculate bandwidth in hertz from words per minute of CW. Just think four-letter word hurts. It also may help to remember that in a deck of cards there are 13 cards in each suit and four suits for a total of 52 cards. Really, you got that one, paul and Todd. Keep doing that man.
Speaker 1:Sorry, you got it right, I don't think it was because of the hint. Yet another way to remember is the Morse code is just two symbols, a dot and a dash, and a good rule of thumb from the general exam is to stay at least an extra bandwidth away from the edge of the band. Two doubled is four. All right, here we go. We are one for one. Last question here. All right, here we go. How can an unwanted ringing and audio instability be prevented in an op amp audio filter? Is it a? Restrict gain but increase Q? Is it B? Increase both gain and Q? Is it C restrict both gain and Q? Or D, restrict Q and increase gain?
Speaker 2:I'm going to go with C.
Speaker 1:Your answer? Mike A, okay, all right. Todd says C, mike says A and Todd is correct. Woohoo the mic is still.
Speaker 3:What are you?
Speaker 1:Are you a general class or are you an extra, mike?
Speaker 3:I'm a general, but I have a. Okay, you have a. What Roll, oh, general, radio operator's license. Radio's license Yep, yeah, all right, general but I have a roll.
Speaker 1:So you have a. What roll? Oh, general radio operators license. Yeah, all right. To prevent unwanted ringing and audio instability in a multi-section op amp rc audio filter circuit, restrict both gain and q. In order to keep an op amp from going into oscillation, both the gain and the q are restricted and set by the feedback circuit. So here's the hint to prevent you, you restrict and the jingle is to keep audio true. Restrict gain and the cue I don't. That doesn't quite work for me and eric said at the live stream.
Speaker 1:He doesn't sing but we know he does. I was just gonna say that is the only time you're gonna hear me me sing Mike. No no, all right. Well. So, todd, you know what that brings. I know, and I actually have the button for that, of course. Yes, it is All right. Well, we are going to shut this system down.
Speaker 2:I have to get all three right. Cause, if I get two out of three, then I don't feel like such a loser. If I get one out of three or no out of three, I feel like a loser. So it's like I get that song no matter what.
Speaker 1:No, well, I get that song on purpose, just because I'm always the extra, just because, whether you get none right or all of them right, I just do it on purpose. I right, I just do it on purpose. I love it. Bring on the meatloaf, all right, cool. Well, there we go with a little something extra, all right, so we always roll into this. Next step is this section here. So, in our usual format, let's uh, throw it over to mike first. So you know, we usually ask everybody hey, how's your ham radio week? You know whether it's ham radio, jason, no ham radio, or ham radio all the above. How was your hammer your week, man?
Speaker 3:long and eventful should I pull up a blanket, yeah exactly, and a beer and a drink, and I already got that this weekend. Uh, well, the last three weeks just been prepping for Neerfest and work, obviously Hung out with Todd and Eric and Paul and what was the other gentleman's name I can't remember Matt. Yes, I owe him a sticker, by the way. I've got to get his information. Yeah, it was good. The Hamfest was good. We had a blast. Uh, friday night, um, and well, you know, did really good selling, did really good buying first time for the for the new to me camper setting up. It was, it was fun, you know. Um, it was a good, it was a good weekend, good week. And now it's back to the grind tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for reminding us. Yeah, question with that.
Speaker 3:So like, how many years have you been going to near fest? I've been going to near fest since we moved up to Massachusetts, so what? That's's Deerfield at least three years, and that's been both times per year.
Speaker 1:Okay. So you're pretty familiar with the Nearpest format and how the control chaos is with it. It's kind of you know if you're very unaccustomed to it. You kind of look around and go like how do they keep everything in order?
Speaker 3:It's herding cats. But I miss Deerfield. I will say that Really. Yes, I everybody's like. Oh, I don't mean I. I missed Deerfield because there was room to move around, you weren't on top of everybody and you could get out and walk and see everything. You know, not everybody's wasn't just crammed and on top of each other. I don't like New Austin, I really don't. I like Deerfield, I like to be down in the field and then we have people set up all around the big field, down there at the base, down by the main gate. I was always set up by the main gate, nice, because everybody had to walk past me to get up the hill to go see everybody else. So you know, it's just, it's uh. The bathrooms were right there. I didn't have to walk 15 miles to go find a bathroom.
Speaker 1:You know they had porta potties, the trash, the one thing I hated about deerfield the most was every time you went there you had to walk the hill, like that was a guarantee like you always had to walk the hill.
Speaker 1:You know, and the this format for me is like I like every seller being in that general area, because at least it feels like it's busy, like where you go to deerfield, that you go to near fest at deerfield, like you could walk between sellers and they could be like 20 to 30 yards apart from each other and like hidden off in a corner and it's like like, oh, I missed out on an opportunity for a radio that was over there that I could have just walked by with. You know what you had, like where we have it in in in new Boston now. So I don't I like the closer comfort. I really wish we had a lot more. You know, we'll say a space for Barnes and you know commercial vendors to show up.
Speaker 3:But I don't think that's kind of what near fest has ever been since I was a kid, when I was doing it in high school so, and there was more. There was more commercial dealers at Deerfield too, because we had obviously the more buildings. But you know, it's the commercial guys. Like Matt commercial guy I mean, he had a beautiful setup, nice tables, he was right by the door. Yes, it makes perusing easier as you walk around. But you know, because I do the power walk, I just sit there and I literally walk down and look and I'm scanning both rows as I walk. Oh, that looks interesting Head over there. I do like that aspect of it, but I just don't like everybody being on top of each other and it was mad chaos trying to get people parked in a spot. I had to, I almost had to move. So you know it's just like eh, what do you want?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they could definitely do a lot better in terms of organization, but we'll. We'll get into that a little bit later, cause I I'm curious to see your view on it, cause I've got a different take on it. But I've been on both sides of the deer field and then, before they were, they weren't a deer field, they were up in off of 89. Where the heck was that? I can't remember that location. That was a long time ago, but anyway, we'll talk more about that. So, uh, over to you, todd, how was your hammer week bud?
Speaker 2:well, I did, uh, eventually get to near fest. Uh, it was there friday, but I had to work, had a busy week last week, uh, with work so, uh, I got there around four o'clock and, um, to my surprise, there was no, no, uh no gate personnel. I stopped, I looked around, you know, I did waited, figured someone might come out of the woods or something. No one came. So I'd been there last year. So I just went in the park and, uh, I walked around real quick looking for, uh, eric and paul couldn't find him. So I, uh I gave eric a call and he was in the barn. So I went over over there and got the keys because I had some cold.
Speaker 2:I needed to put some stuff in Paul's fridge, so I went up to his camper up on top of the hill and I walked down and everyone was packing up when I got there and more people were even gone when I put the stuff in the fridge and Eric and I were like, well, let's go make some dinner. So we went up and started cooking and next thing, you know, we were in a live stream and uh, I was having a blast and uh started pouring and thunder. It was sunny when we went in there and we come out, it's like frigging storm going on. So, uh, yeah, so it was, it was fun though.
Speaker 2:I'm glad it was. You know we had a. I had a good time, I thought it was great, but I couldn't come back Saturday. I had a I kid at baseball and um, so I just wasn't going to be back there. So I was glad I was able to get there for the live stream and and everyone, and you know, meet you, mike, in person, and it was fun. So and I didn't buy anything. Like I said, everyone was packing up. I did see. The one thing I wanted to buy was this guy had this like what do you call that? It was a 3D printed kind of wheel, but it was for the thin coax that I use for POTA and it was, you know, like the I used for poda and it was, you know, like the wheels that you would like run up like if it was a larger size wire yeah, like, or you would do like a wheel for like your um long extension cords or something.
Speaker 2:But it was mini size and it fit. He wanted like 35 bucks and I didn't need the coax, I just needed. I said, hey, do you just sell the plastic things? Because they were selling them like. The other plastic things were like five bucks or ten bucks. And he goes, no, I might bring them next time. They might be on etsy. So I was like, oh, that's too bad. Like I, the guy should have just taken the coax off and sold me the one that was there for 10 bucks and I would have boxed if I'm done. Yeah, but so I gotta go find out. Uh, either. He said like, next week you'll have it on etsy because I want to use it for my photo bag, because it just fits flat and it just saves some space and it'll probably keep the wire in better shape.
Speaker 1:If you can't find one and you're going to have to force yourself to buy it at $35, just go to Messi and Pelloni. They sell a whole bag and the reel together. Oh yeah, but you're going to pay for their name and the shipping over from Italy.
Speaker 2:I'm going to I'm going to look on and I'm going to get Ryan a 3d print, me one. I just got to find the. I'm sure I can find it on Etsy or something or something similar, but yeah, so that was the only thing I was going to buy that I liked. You know, it's the same stuff. I mean, in that barn it's like the same vendors pretty much every year. So that was it.
Speaker 1:So it was good, awesome, well, yeah, so we won't rag you tonight, todd. Yeah, my, my week was, I was getting ragged a lot.
Speaker 2:I was, I was, I was taking a beating in the live stream, but you know, it comes around, goes around.
Speaker 1:Well, you know now that Mike's an official near, near guy here with us.
Speaker 2:You know it comes around, goes around. Well, you know now that Mike's an official near guy here with us. You know it's just going to get worse If I don't get this, if Kim beats me on this extra man oh dude please, I'm never going to hear the end of it. And you know she studies all the time and she's like oh, I studied for four hours today and then I got the pressure. I gotta. What do I have to get my extra Before Paul licenses or whatever, before I get my?
Speaker 1:VE.
Speaker 2:That's easy. You just gotta fill out the form.
Speaker 1:I haven't even taken the test.
Speaker 2:It's an open book test.
Speaker 1:I know, but dude, what's the excuse with the extra? You've been studying for a year? It's 500 questions and I keep getting.
Speaker 2:I know I took it, no, but, dude, that's like okay, what's the excuse with the extra? You've been studying for a year? It's 500 questions and I keep getting.
Speaker 3:I know I took it. It's only a 50 question test, though.
Speaker 2:Have you taken the test? No, it sucks. There's a lot of. They take like one or two from, it's just, and it's always. What gets me is like I'm like like today, right, I'm in the right ballpark and it's like normally. It's one word and I'm like, oh, was it reactance or or resistance? It's the same sentence. This is where I'm like I can't remember and I'm like I studied that like three months ago, but I remembered it and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:As Todd says, I think you should give it to me. Yeah, that's literally it. Let's give it to him. That's all he wants. Just give him his extra. He's done, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, like you guys, I mean I was at near fest. So, uh, yeah, it was a blast. I, I, I literally stupidly woke up earlier than I should have. Um, I don't know why, but I uh got to our early breakfast club breakfast. It was supposed to be at 6 30. I showed up at 6 for should have. Um, I don't know why, but I got to our early breakfast club breakfast. It was supposed to be at 6 30. I showed up at 6 for some reason.
Speaker 1:So I had like a half an hour to kill and I was just like what the kick is wrong with me. So, like I was on four cups of coffee by the time I got to near fest, which is way over my usual limit. And then you know I was, you know I had a couple other, you know sodas and stuff like that. So by the time, like we got to, you know, hanging out with the guys during our live stream, I was just like buzzing totally hard on sugar everywhere. I was like holy crap. Yeah, it does? I'm sure it does, you know. And then you you fuel that with a little bit of alcohol and a, you know, smart ass mouth, and you know, you know, you never know where that's gonna go, um, but uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, all in all, I was sort of like you guys, I was didn't not disappointed, but maybe underwhelmed by like all of the crap that was out there. Like there wasn't like a whole lot of great stuff and I and paul walked the whole entire thing and literally like 20 minutes and it wasn't like you know, we were like, oh, wow, here's a stop, let's take a look. It was like, oh, here's a bunch of, like you know, overpriced. You know, like I saw your eight. Now you, uh, it wasn't. No, there was a 817 set up with the atas and all that. I saw all that. I'm just like, uh, yeah, no, that's way outrageous. I mean, come on, you know, nobody's gonna pay that much, and you know, lo and behold, you proved that.
Speaker 1:So you know, outside of that, you know, there's some things. I didn't see a lot of the typical people from our club that we're usually there, although they did show up a lot later. So those are the guys that, like you know they love to collect radios or the tube guys. You know all of the old, you know boat anchors and that type of stuff. So you know it's kind of all their thing. But that's just not my flavor man. I'm not like. I just don't want to have the old equipments, you know sitting in my house or in my shack, you know sitting in the corner. I just don't have that connection to it.
Speaker 2:See, eric and I are just waiting for like another decade, and then we're going to be one of those guys selling all our shit that we have now and be like, yeah, take this stuff off my hands.
Speaker 1:Actually, I'm doing that way beforehand, man, I am doing a Marie Kwan, I'm going through my boxes and if, like, I can't use it and I haven't used it in a year, I'm finding another ham. Yeah, or you can buy it, or whatever. Like in essence, you know, I was even thinking like when I was driving on the way home, uh from, uh, after our live stream from year fest, I'm like I got a dx10 sitting in a box. When am I gonna? When's the next time I'm gonna use that? Because everybody else in our club has a dx10 and you know it's just sitting there.
Speaker 1:So I'm like, yeah, yeah, maybe I should, just you know, sell it, and then I saw it was for 800, but then I was like, yeah, I should get it for at least a grand was that one of the first guys in the club to get the dx10? Yeah, I think I was, yep yeah, yeah, you bought one, and then I was like I gotta have one. And then you bought a flex yeah, you played with it.
Speaker 2:you came over right and you're, and you were like, oh, I got to get one of these, yep.
Speaker 3:I thought was it last year? I bought an FTDX 3000? Oh nice, and I did not like it. I really didn't like it.
Speaker 1:No, it has some interesting filtering add-ons that you have to get to make it worth as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was like okay, it's a big chonking radio, you know, it's just like the 756 I have sitting here, but I just I didn't like it, you know, and I turned around to the next.
Speaker 2:TAMFest and off.
Speaker 3:Saw that off.
Speaker 2:Yep, I was hoping that there was going to be that couple there that does the hats and stuff, because I wanted to get this hat. And when they were in Marlboro, I brought this hat and I said, hey, can you put? Oh no, we're not doing personal this this year? I'm like, seriously, I'm like why I just want my collars on the back and they're like, nope, nope, we're not doing anything personal, it's like we're just doing our stuff. And I was like I'll pay for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm not asking for free I think I'm just gonna have to go down to the mall. At what? Is it lids or something where they can.
Speaker 1:I think they'll do it that's what I did with uh, I I ended up, uh, I couldn't get a hat that I wanted, so I got my call sign and I got ham harder and, uh, you know, uh, a hashtag on the back of the hat. So I actually actually I gotta figure out where I put that hat, but anyway, yeah, so outside of that, I really enjoyed hanging out in mass booths. I mean, I know he teased us and ragged us about being booth babes and employees, which, hey, dude, I was perfectly fine with it, it was fun. You know, matt and I in between were hanging out and having conversations and just talking shop and you know all the other stuff. And and then it was kind of ironic because, literally, when, I think, uh, mike n2mak realized that, uh, we were doing our live stream at like 6 30, he texts me in a fever.
Speaker 1:He's like, dude, can I release a video before they do? And I'm like, yeah, what I don't care when you do. It's like it's not gonna stop me from like you know, I'm not gonna yell at you for you deciding to put a premiere before it. And so he sent me the copy of the premiere and it was, you know, his 56 to 1. You know, uh, antenna, pseudo antenna test that he was doing in his backyard and I was like now I know why he wanted to release it because we're hanging out with matt, and so he wanted to give him kudos for it so we're always promoting those antenna, those reliance antennas are the.
Speaker 2:I mean, they're the mom yeah, you can't, you can't buy a better poda antenna? I mean seriously portable antennas.
Speaker 1:That's where you got to go so here's the thing like what else is on the market today, that's like in that same genre you've got, you know, the, the pack tana, which most of the time is unobtaining unless you're on a list, and that's anywhere double or even sometimes a little bit higher than the price. Actually, it's a lot more higher than the price than what Matt sells, even like his end fed at the 40 through 10 or his 80 through 10. And I'm like I could buy two of Matt's for one pack Tena. And I was like not to say George's antenna is a bad antenna, it's a great antenna, but if he can get it like, then for me it's just no antenna because you're not able to use an antenna. So matt's always been, you know, one of those guys that's like, hey, I'll make any antenna for you, but at the same time, like I always have stock, which is, like you know, everybody's always surprised. So that's definitely, you know, one of his good things and he's everywhere.
Speaker 3:Now yeah, I bought the base camp um the nfed halfway base camp and and he sat there. No lie, as as we're talking he's sitting there assembling. I said I want that wire with that spool and he's do, do, do, do, do. I said I don't want the Chinese wire, I want the good wire.
Speaker 3:And he just literally he had it together in like 30 seconds and I was like, let's see, now this is quality. The guy who owns the company will sit here and build you your antenna and all you have to do is walk out the door, plug it in and go you know he's the other type of guy.
Speaker 1:It's like you go over to his like little, like parts the espiner boxes and say I've got like 10 of these, here's 20. No, no, no, dude, here's, here's five, I want five dollars for them. I'm like dude, how are you supposed to make money? I know you bought these are like mass quantity. You know paul did it, I did it. I was like I don't need these extra beaners but I still want them. So you know, here's 20 bucks and you know. So he's like okay, fine. So you know I had to, like you know, force him to take money a lot of times, but you know that that's his product, it's just good period he, and he's also a good person too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and funny as hell given Ribbon Todd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nevertheless, I went back and listened to the live stream and I missed the part where Paul was like where he had the Lip Free and Ham whiskey glass and Paul's like oh, it's empty. And he's like, yeah, I know Watson was drinking out of it and and like I totally missed that altogether. He's like why are you drinking whiskey? He's like well, dad, I don't have to drive, so why not? Just like I totally blew over that part.
Speaker 2:I felt better. He was sleeping in his car for like the two days. I said, dude, I lived like 20 minutes from here. You want to come over to my house and crash.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like in an RV or something.
Speaker 2:No, and I told him. I said, dude, come to my house. I got an extra bed and room he didn't even have to he could Paul.
Speaker 1:Paul was like you know, dude, why aren't you sleeping in my camper? I mean, you obviously have to sleep next to Watson, but you know plenty of space.
Speaker 3:I would have known I had. I had access to a cot, I could have just thrown it out and he could have snoozed his. You know, man, if I would have known that, I would have dragged him by his ears a Friday night and say come on now, you know, next year he's in trouble.
Speaker 1:Well, actually in the fall he's in the trouble, but yeah, I'm sure he'll be back up again too as well.
Speaker 2:So how come, how come Chris didn't come by. I thought he was coming by he had.
Speaker 1:Uh, chris is a funny guy because like he, when he goes to near fest all the time, I find that he catches back up with a lot of his contesting buddies that are there and they go like, oh, let's go out to dinner or let's do this and whatever, and so like he just kind of gets looped back into that and I'm just like, yeah, dude, I get it.
Speaker 2:You know you're a contesting guy, I can't take contesting I'm just, I'm just glad I got to talk to I. I mean, I I talked to I, he was talking to some guy and I totally like said hi to him and then interrupted. I apologize, I'm like being sorry to take over your conversation, but I'm on the move and and that's when he told me about his, uh, his new toy oh yeah, oh, you're talking about his radio, the motorola well, that, and also the new van that he yeah, yeah, that one.
Speaker 1:He's still working on it. He's calling the twins. We'll see how that goes.
Speaker 2:I said dude, I go. You know, you should, really should leave one of those in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1:He will just wait. Soon enough, man, soon enough, it'll become our club.
Speaker 2:I think that's what near fest, like. One of the things I like about it is that you know that you get to see like I agree, like last year, or was it the fall, was it the last one? We were at the fall one. Yeah, that was, you know, like all the guys from the club were there so we were running in and out of into people and stuff and it's just good to you know, the more you go, you just meet more people and you get to see them again and shoot the shit and talk about what's going on.
Speaker 1:So it's all good, yeah you find like you spent more between both of you, since we're kind of getting into it. So like we're going to just kind of cover a little bit of what we thought of near fest and we've already been tabling in a little bit here and there and in this conversation but I kind of want to dive a little bit more and then kind of expand that a little bit more because you know we we've got hammocks and a bunch of other like usual. You know this is the season for ham fest and you know a lot of us tend to do a lot of traveling to and from those, at least in the new England area, and so you know anything with near fest that you guys really love, that you know whether you know outside of the location that we're at, that you that keeps always drawing you back Because Nearfest is always the same. They don't change their MO, is always the same. They have the structure Of all of the sellers and then they have the typical raffles. They do everything. A typical Hamfest is.
Speaker 2:It's a glorified flea market. It's a ham radio flea market. It's what it is.
Speaker 1:Well, mike, you're moaning. What's going on?
Speaker 3:You know because, like with most ham fest, you know you have things going on other than just the people selling the bone yards, etc. Etc. The, the commercial vendors. But a lot of ham fests have other things, like multi um ve testing, um what else uh, program things, yeah well, programs um learn this, oh like all the forums, yeah, yeah, all the forums and stuff have you been?
Speaker 1:to any of those forums speaking of that. They had near fest does have them right. I remember they did they did a lot.
Speaker 3:they did when they were in um deer field, but they this year, this past fall and this spring, not really I didn't see anything that was at least remotely interesting. You know, I like the M17 guys. They always have stuff and this year they weren't here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a bummer and they're local. I mean, it's not like they have to travel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, they're local. So you know it is what it is. It's pretty. It's pretty much what Todd said it is a Boneyard flea market, you know, with a little bit of interesting things going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Did you guys get a chance to head over the go box challenge or the go box?
Speaker 1:uh, judging, I didn't no, I didn't either I, I saw it and I was like huh, that should be interesting. And then I that's the one thing I think this ham fest needs to improve on and, if they're listening, get better ways to announce, like you know, when things are going on, because I would love, like I hear the, the muffled go. That's like all I hear and I'm like what was that? Ah, whatever, I'm just gonna go back to what I was doing.
Speaker 2:Why don't? Why didn't they? I mean, I don't, yeah, I, I didn't. They had a. So I went online to see what the deal was, you know the day of, to see, okay, what's going on. What am I missing? I was listening to the Epson repeater all the way up in Campton because I had to go up north, so I could hear Ralph and all the guys talking and updating about what's going on. So I was getting a flair for it. But they had on the website you won a prize and there was a time limit to claim it. Did you guys know about that? No, yeah, yeah, yeah. It had like one guy's name and he had like 14 minutes to claim it, and then another guy your time is out, like it was like you didn't get your prize. Wow.
Speaker 3:That was for the door prize stuff.
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, so it was like you had the claim and it was on the website, but I'm like who's checking web. Exactly, they didn't tell you that. Who's checking websites? I mean, I don't know, maybe that's a good point.
Speaker 1:I mean like there's not a lot of coordination, but again it's a ham fest. So we're communicators, but we're More communicators everywhere.
Speaker 2:Maybe, I mean, they were using that repeater, right, the whatever the repeater that they're using for the communications. Like, why wasn't there just someone like running a ham fest net and kind of talking through it and say, oh, and this is W1STJ net control and we've got our first door prize winner. You know, please go to blah, blah, blah and uh, is there any more check-ins or anyone want to check in? And you know, like, just keep it going. And that would be something that would be five or something.
Speaker 3:You can put on one 46, five, five. I know they were using the radio to the speakers. Set up that they always do and you you can never hear it because literally it's like you know, exactly, and I heard ernie and uh was casey one b o o.
Speaker 3:He's down from my area, really, uh, really good dude, contracts with the air force, but he's a ham radio operator. I heard his call sign barely and I'm like, dude, they just called your call sign. You might want to go check that. I know you might have won a radio. Yeah, you might have gotten something, but put it out on five, five. Everybody was testing and checking on five, two, but say, hey, look for the door prizes when they're called. We're gonna put it out five or give us the stupid frequency though, so we can listen to the the wireless system.
Speaker 1:Not just you know, or and and like. If you're already posting it on your website, why don't you create a small little mobile applet Like that? You tell everybody when they come in to put that on their phone, and then it just, you know, they push out automatic. You know, no, like I mean, it wouldn't make a big deal. Everyone's carrying their fricking cell phone around and I know like 12 people all were like, oh, I'm going to pay, you know, when they had, you know, debit or ATM or credit card payments, and so it was like it's already there, so get them to add their cell phone number and then you just text them when shit comes in and they'll probably be way better.
Speaker 2:I think, if we're going to do Neerfest again, I think we should get down where the tables are, get in the middle of it and set up, get a banner, live free and ham and just run it live the whole time, just be like we're live. Here we are, you want to get on and just give away shit.
Speaker 1:Trust me, dude. That was the first thing Paul and I said yesterday. I was like dude when you left. We were just chit chat a little bit. I was like dude next year you got to drop the camper down in the pit and we're just going to stay for it down there.
Speaker 3:He thought he was going to get. He's like they're like you have to park up there and he's like look at all the people that are parked down there. You know there, you know right. I mean I set up, yeah, it is like rv parking.
Speaker 1:I'm like I was waiting for them to hit me with the rv because I have a tent in a trailer, right, yeah, dude, there were full-size rvs up and around, right by the fire trucks and and chris's van, so like to draw, like so that you're todd, you're speaking the same thing that paul I just discussed. It's like dude, we're going to just drop his camper there. We're going to do a 9 to 10 stream, we'll do a 12 to 1 stream, live stream and then we'll do a later night stream and we'll just invite people to come by. We'll do men on the street, like you know, extra questions even after you're an extra.
Speaker 1:Hopefully hopefully, by the time next spring rolls around or even fall, you're still not studying for your extra dude. Come on, I hope so, because you got all summer of 2026. So you know, yeah, we want to start doing more like. You know being like, because it would be awesome just to have like a booth of just the giveaway stuff and, you know, being able to just kind of like do fun, some fun stuff.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, both youtube related- plus, it would be good marketing too, because the people that don't know about us would get to know about us because they'd say, the podcast, the northeast ham radio podcast, you know you might get more subscribers. Um, you know we can do a thing like subscribe now and have the you know, have one of those codes that you can scan with your phone and then it goes and then just pop it up. I mean, so yeah, there's. I just think that would be fun. I mean, we tried to do that at marlboro the first year, remember we had the little booth and it was like a challenge that that was our first foray, you know, into the whole live streaming stuff.
Speaker 1:And then nevertheless, marlboro had like the worst internet. It was like dial up, and trying to like do a live stream on dial up is like just suicide mission, but you know it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2:The other thing you know you could do too is you could like be sitting there and then, like someone walks up, like either someone we know or a listener, and then they could just join in. You know, hey, have a seat. You know, let's talk, get the mic set up and then do it. Uh, do it legit, and you know you might get a crowd who knows. I mean it could be fun and it might bring a little bit of uh, more attention to uh, make your so here's a perfect example.
Speaker 1:It's not even a ham fest, like how many of you guys watch josh's uh camp out stream? The hrcc one where they did the HRC camp out. He literally he said like I watched it I didn't watch it live, but I watched the replay and he literally had like four cameras set up and he was giving away prizes from a icon and everything else in terms of radios and give away, yeah, a lot of stuff. And nevertheless, if you went to that like Chuck K six, and nevertheless, if you went to that like chuck k6, uh, k6, uh, uh usy is that his call sign chuck from uh coffee and ham radios.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he, he showed up for the weekend and he gave away to poseidon and uh the ribokov antenna. So you know, you know, it's all of those kind of things and I know, like you had talked, you were you were thinking about giving away radios and I don't think we had enough time to to do that after we got rained out, so we'll have to circle back around and do that again. But yeah, dude, it's.
Speaker 3:I gave a uh uh before I left I had five radios down in the truck and I completely forgot about them too. And I'm like, uh, there was two girls and their dad walking by. I said are you guys, do hams? And the littlest one said I just passed my test yesterday. I said there you go, nice, her dual band radio. And the sister was like well, I just I, recently, I don't remember exactly he go oh, hair, dad, have one too, you know.
Speaker 2:Nice. Remember that kid in the fall. He was like this 12-year-old kid and he's like, yeah, I'm an extra and his dad got him in the hand radio and he passed his dad. He goes, he's got more privileges than me.
Speaker 3:They can talk to the old people at the bottom of the band.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how fun is that? Yeah, right, yeah, dude. You know it's kind of funny because like I look at ham fasts and I look at like like we have that big one. Have you been to hammocks at all, mike?
Speaker 3:No, hammocks, it's now called hammocks.
Speaker 1:They've changed their name so they're hammocks abbreviated, because everyone is running around last year going hammocks, hammocks and like Chicago hammocks.
Speaker 3:So anyway, yeah, that's another Another sore subject, but okay.
Speaker 1:Not that I'm Probably with you, because I feel like the Place that they're in sucks like it should Be, like they should be. They Should be more like. Near fest is in the sense of like trying to, you know, foster like, hang out and camping and all of that kind of atmosphere, instead of being in a hotel, like the hotel just totally like, takes any great coolness out of the whole aspect of it.
Speaker 2:But I mean but you know, in that hotel, though, again, if we want to do live like we did the last time, if there's a way we could get real internet, we could do it in that court, that in that lobby, right, oh, we could do. We could do a lot of stuff, right, that would be cool too. But that's, who knows, when does that one come up? Is that in the fall?
Speaker 3:august, august, august or september, that's right, it's august.
Speaker 1:and the reason why it's in august is they refuse to move it because it sits right on top of the same week that uh, the japanese uh ham convention is and one other big event. And they keep saying, oh, we're never going to change it, because you know, if we change it we're just going to bump up against something else and it's like, dude, have it in the fall.
Speaker 2:Stop having it in the middle of August. That's when I got my general, so maybe I'll have to get my extra there.
Speaker 1:Well, dude, come on, get your extra before that Dude come on, get your extra before that.
Speaker 3:The two or three times I've been to Marlboro Literally completely washed out. On Saturday With the giant thunderstorms that came through, I felt sorry for some of the small vendors. Their stuff was gone.
Speaker 1:Dude, you know the building as you come into that parking lot, that convention center building that remains vacant. It pisses me off. I drove by it when I was there last year and I drove in and looked in. It's empty. It's a big, giant warehouse from front to back, literally you can move the whole entire event in that building and, you know, basically put in porta potties because it probably doesn't have any. You know plumbing or whatever it.
Speaker 3:Maybe it does, I don't know but whatever be the case, arl convention too. Why wouldn't they put that in there? Oh no, it is, I think it is so why don't they move it in there?
Speaker 1:because the club that has been supporting this has been doing it this way, for and it's that old adage of like, oh, we've done it this way, so we're not changing. You know, I I participated a little bit, helping out, and I felt like there's a lot of pushback Sometimes with, you know, coming up with new or creative ideas. But that's just my own Opinion. But, yeah, we'll leave it at that.
Speaker 2:I mean it's you know, we, I would, I, I want to go to like Huntsville or what is the Other one, dayton, like I want to see a real Like where all the vendors are there, all the New shits there. Like that's, that's what I want to see, a real like where all the vendors are there, all the new shits there. Like that's, that's what I want to see. Like I want to go to like the big one because, like, even if you're not interested in hammering, like, to me that would be like I've gone to, you know, down at the seaport what do they call that?
Speaker 2:down in Boston, and I went to a boat show down there and I was like I'm afraid to buy a boat just because it was so awesome they had all the coolest shit there, right, and you know I don't even have a boating license, yeah, but but you know what I mean. Like that's what I really want to see, because those are the ones that I think and it's too bad we can't get something like that in this part of the country. You know there's a lot of a lot of people do ham radio in the Northeast and it would be nice to have like a big where you got all the vendors come in the yes, use that. You know all their new stuff, like, have it be one of the big ones, cause for us, I mean, it's an airplane ride or a long ass drive to get to one of those. You know it's not like you can do it in a weekend.
Speaker 1:Right, but like, like, how many of the like just in our youtube community? Like how many of the youtubers come up this way? None of them have it on their radar, none of them like. Any of them are like, oh, we're only going to come up here and do a poda, and I get it like, in essence, like, why would you come to ham x? It's a small like venue, even though it's an arl section event. It's nothing in comparison to even huntville, which, I mean, is things. It's. It's an actual ham fest and a separate park. You know where they're camping out and everything.
Speaker 2:You know, and I, I went last year. I went Marlboro, I did, um, I did some of the classes or the speaking forums, yeah. So I was like all right, I want to see it. So I did the POTA one and I was like shit, I could have done this. I like shit, I could have done this. I probably could have done it better. I got more experience than this guy.
Speaker 1:I was very disappointed with the Polito.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought it was going to be like I don't know what I was thinking, but I mean, I mean, if someone was brand new it probably would have been good to go to and stuff, but I don't know, I think that people around here would be more. It'd be better if you had like a place where you could buy new and new stuff. You know, have have like you know just demos and you know like almost like I always think like how come none of these places ever have like radio set up for use like to go work, dx or something Like I would think like a booth like that, like that one like oh, they do like where near fest doesn't, but like Ham x has a get on the air station.
Speaker 1:Where did they have it last year? You know where it was. It was tucked in a. It was tucked in a conference room off the beaten path, so you wouldn't be able to find out where it was yeah, like why didn't they have it in that main room?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, there was. What was that? Got that company there that you can rent? You can rent um airtime they had they were there. It's like you can rent like, uh, per minute you can go and do use their radios that are all around the country, like yeah, that was uh, that was right next to halbert's booth.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, yeah, um. But the guy who owns uh all of the flex radios does uh. And two, he puts up all the antenna towers. What's the big uh remote radio, uh program I can't remember but that's but that was pretty cool, like you know.
Speaker 2:You could, you know you could demo that and say, oh, you want to like log on to you know what's called remote ham radio?
Speaker 1:yeah, you'll figure, you do it anyway, all right.
Speaker 3:Yep, gentlemen, I've got a scoot. I've got to go over to another live stream. Believe it or not, I was invited.
Speaker 2:You were Mr Popularity today I haven't figured it out yet. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1:It was great hanging out with you.
Speaker 2:This weekend. I had to finally meet you in person. I hope you come back on again soon.
Speaker 3:Definitely, as long as Eric lets me in.
Speaker 1:Dude, open invitation all the time. Just hit me up on discord anytime, I'll let you know. We're doing it later, buddy. Good luck, yeah yeah, bye and then there were two, two I know this is, this is your prophecy. All of a sudden, if I hop off now it's just gonna be.
Speaker 2:You left, I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:The end of the show. Yeah, so yeah, I mean Hamfest man, have a tough. It's a tough sell, because I'm sure they don't want to change anything to make things newer or more inviting, because that's just the way they do it.
Speaker 2:So hear me out on this. So like Ham Radio is. Like ham radio is, you know, it's yeah Group of people that too many people do it. And then you got like the overland guys, right, like I think that stuff's cool but it's not really big here, like it's big out west in the desert and all that kind of stuff. But like I'm telling you, if you had a combination of ham Radio, overland and a big thing at a Dude, Mike's an overlander.
Speaker 1:He loves overland.
Speaker 2:I know, but I'm just saying, like he's like the one, like that, there's not a couple, yeah, but it's not like it is at west. But wouldn't it be cool to get the vendors From ham radio and overland and like Take over, you know, the Boston Sign to have a huge Thing?
Speaker 1:well, what you got to do is Exactly what, like the folks like Digital Rancher and HR 20 and all those guys that go to more expo. They literally go there and they've got now they've worked with the program coordinator for more expo, which is all a big overlanding thing, and they have a little uh, what they call the ham radio uh pavilion and so like they just do ham radio specific and people come up to them. So they're starting to do more of that. I do. Do we even know, like, if there's like anything like more expo up here and then I mean, then there's gotta be, I'm sure?
Speaker 2:Well, where are we going to go? What was that thing that we were going to go to? It was like that electric, electronic. It was like last year we were going to, we were going to rent the space or we were asked to do a space, and then I forget what it was. It was like last year or the year before it was out in like Western Mass, oh, it was a big thing, and that the club was going to go and we got like a free booth. What the heck was that I couldn't go.
Speaker 2:I think I had baseball or something. But you go, no, I didn't, probably wouldn't ring a bell. There was something it was like it was a big, like every year is a big electronics kind of thing, and they asked us to come and they gave us a table or a booth but we had the, we had to man it 24, seven or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, are you talking about the?
Speaker 2:And we decided not to do it because it was like we couldn't get enough people to man the why am I thinking of it?
Speaker 1:It's the stupid fair that occurs all the time. Yeah, fair in Mass, the Big E.
Speaker 2:The Big E right. We never did that right Because we didn't have enough people to. They wanted us to be like man.
Speaker 1:It like 24, 7 for like four days or something and actually, from what I understand, the the club that was doing it basically is backed out just because they couldn't get enough people and arl didn't really help continue to support it going on. So I'm sure it's probably super expensive to you know, get in that event, because it's like 19 buildings and 100 acres.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, yeah so I, I think you know, I think that's how you, I think if you team up with something that is uses ham radio, like the overland stuff that could use ham radio, that ham radios might ham radio operators might be interested in that, like that's kind of you know, people building mobile, mobile shacks and that kind of stuff in the overlay, the whole nine yards, I mean, the biggest thing I got out of, the best thing, I think, besides, you know, doing the thing is I saw that guy's jeep that I parked next to with those uh molly things on the windows with the antenna on it. I'm like dude, that's awesome, I took pictures of it. I'm like I'm getting myself one of those I was.
Speaker 1:Uh, I was watching some YouTube videos on overlanding and stuff and looking for Molly panels for the back of the bed of the truck and yeah, yeah, that's exactly how it starts. You look at like small little things and you're like, oh, I got to get ball mounts for my dash, for cameras, and yeah, the list goes on and on and on. So, yeah, it's only a matter of time my friend will be overlanding on top of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, it's a.
Speaker 2:You know it's. You know I, I I'm not a like I put it this way for near fast, like if I missed near fast, like I wouldn't be like, oh, I missed near fast. Like it's like a bummer. But you know, if we, I think if we do it like in the fall or next spring and we get down there and the main thing and we get a table and the camper and we just stay there and have people coming in, you know, all day long, all weekend long, I think it could be fun, as long as we keep the live stream going. You know, maybe do like, like you said, an hour or two and take a break and another hour or two and just kind of get people on and get people on the on the air and see what it's like.
Speaker 1:And like you could drag, like we could basically work towards like getting some of the vendors like to come do interviews and then like say, hey, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll put somebody at your booth to man it in terms of, you know, keeping the sales going, but at the same time, you know you can come promote or or whatever, and like cause, like I would have loved to, you know, give Matt. I didn't think about recording Matt's uh, you know updates, but you know not that he really needs a lot of the updates. He does an awesome job and we all use his antennas and you know, profess him often. So it's not like you know.
Speaker 2:I wonder, can you do? Could you do live stream where you went, like I could be, say like a man on the street, yeah, and like I'd be on one screen, like at the table or wherever at our area, and then you go and go into the barn, say maybe an interview uh technical challenges I'm sure.
Speaker 2:But yeah, we could probably figure it out. But if that's something like that would be cool, because then we could be doing it live, we could get a big, you know, we could actually get like a screen, a computer screen or something, and have the youtube channel going like on ipads or whatever, so people can see. You know, I think it would just be kind of yeah, I think I think it would be cool, I think people would enjoy it, I think we'd get a crowd of people at least watching it it's inspired me to want to, like you know, see how we can turn up the gas on the 24-hour poda, like I really want to aim for, like the fall, to do that.
Speaker 1:Like I know our bigger picture is to like, maybe do it at arcadia, like doing arcadia things separate but I think we need to do that 24-hour poda on the like sometime in the fall and work towards, like you know, getting that locked in and getting people to go do a camp out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna need people to sign up for that Cause 24 hours is a long. It's a long time to be activating the same park.
Speaker 1:And I'm thinking, you know, at the same time, if we play our cards right, we could probably get a lot of vendors to like do giveaways along that. You know that 24 hour period. So we'd be like hey, we're gonna be live streaming for 24 hours. Do you want to like give away some stuff of your products? And, you know, maybe icon will do a goodie bag. You know, you never know. I mean, we're not a huge channel, but we could always say, hey, you're gonna see us for 24 hours. You, we're gonna get our worth, yeah, but yeah, we gotta work on that. So those are some of the things.
Speaker 2:And yeah, just don't a freaking time I know, maybe you know I'll find out when the uh, the float fly is and maybe I could talk to the guy and see if we could do it the week after that, because they're gonna, because they take over the, the thing, the float fly, but the next week, like I think the park is, I think it's pretty much closed. I, I would assume it's closed for the float fly but they open it back up because people like to camp and watch the planes fly off the water and stuff. So I'm thinking maybe the week after they extend it one more time, yeah, like, yeah, and I don't think, I don't know, I don't think they'd like they would let us camp there. I don't think it'd be open for like all kind of campers because they're kind of winding down. But if we had the same spot, you know you'd be in that parking lot. We can put a. When's the flow fly? It's like september.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like the week after one or two weeks after labor day, okay so well, we definitely could do it like labor day, but we could probably do it like the weekend after. If they do like two weeks after, we could probably do the week before flow fly, but we should so here's.
Speaker 1:Here's our invite to our, you know, membership and listener base. You know, would you guys want to come do a weekend and be part of hanging out for, you know, friday, saturday or saturday, sunday, depending on what it works out for 24 hours? We set up at greenfield state park. We do a live stream 24 hours.
Speaker 2:We'll set up one Greenfield state park. We do a live stream 24 hours. We'll set up one station. With you we could use your uh, whatever, the hex beam and one station, one tent, whatever set up for the radio and just run it 24 seven.
Speaker 1:Yep, we would need the people. We'll, you know we'd have food. You know, we, we, we, we could coordinate getting people there. So if you wanted to be an exclusive, and you know, drop your camper there for the weekend to hang out, you know we can make it a special event, sort of like how HRCC does their weekend camping. We'll do a 24-hour poda, you know, camping event for the free ham. So if you're interested in something like that, we'll post up on Discord. You know, give us a listen, give us an update. If you'd be interested, let us know and we'll keep a, you know, a tag on that. Tally on that and we'll see. You know we can get this going who knows, it could become a.
Speaker 2:It could become a yearly event, oh boy let's get it off the ground first 24-hour park new hampshire. We'd have to rotate parks, yeah I know year.
Speaker 1:It's year five now and we've been doing 24 hour Potas for five years straight.
Speaker 2:In the next 50 years We'll be going for We'll do a different state each year. I'll be 103. I gotta stay alive for the last pota.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Paul Is trying to get all of his you know bucket listed Before that. So I don't know. It just might be you and I, anyway, at the 103. I don't know, it just might be you and I, anyway, at the hundred and three.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I won't be there around that long, but but yeah, that would be, that would be kind of cool and it would support the hobby and it would be kind of fun and who knows, I mean, we probably have a lot of cool contacts and especially if we were announcing it on the radio and telling people, hey, spread the word, we're doing a 24 hour poda, uh park, I think it'd be awesome. How does that work? How does it work? If so, if I was, if I'm doing a, let's say we had our live free and ham call and that's what we were using for our 24 hour poda, but I was. Can you do?
Speaker 1:you do. Can you as your personal poeta stuff? Can you log those as as like wmcj? But the contacts you make you would put your call sign in the operator field. So when we're logging it you would anytime we have a new operator set and they would just change the operator call operator field to their call sign and then they would get credit for all of those contacts that they made.
Speaker 2:But what about them? But does it doesn't count as a twofer right? Well, it doesn't count as two operators.
Speaker 1:No, because you're operating as an activator under the club call. Okay, so the club calls the primary, but you get all of the contact points for the contacts made under your call Right Under W1LFfh, or, yeah, when we get it, actually whenever you get fun. But no, we are actually funny stories. I'm just waiting for the fcc. Apparently there's a, a timer, an 18-day timer, that I have to sit and wait for, so we're literally six more days left before I finally get it, so we will have an official announcement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why are they?
Speaker 1:what is wrong? I don't. It's the fcc, in essence, because I think, and so here's the catch if you go look up on qrz, if you look at w1 lfh, you'll see that my name and live free and ham is under that, but it shows is terminated and it shows is terminated back in in october. So I still own the call, but it's terminated. I have to let the paperwork go through and they have to wait. Like it's an 18 day period, a window, so like if anybody else decides to come back to claim the call again or whatever. Like, instead of them looking at it and going, oh hey, the person who's requesting it is also the person who owns the call, I should just give it to them and you know. So I have to wait the 18 days. So that's what we're waiting for.
Speaker 2:All right, we'll get it though, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We own it. So it's like, until they realize they, you know, made their errors, all right, well, that'll be cool, yeah. So I guess, outside of this, I mean, I, you know, for ham fest near fest is a good, you know, overall, you know, fast, to get together and meet people that we haven't seen in a while. I wish it would, you know, improve and grow, like we've talked about a little bit, but I, you know, it's new England, we're, we're, we're stubborn, we don't do anything fast.
Speaker 2:Well, it's kind of like our. It's kind of like our club too. You know we have to. You know there's things that we could like. I really want to get, I really want to buy a trailer for the club and build and build a portable station. At least use it for field day and then maybe use it for the poda activation or whatever the support your parks or when the club goes out and does the poda thing. I mean, and it would be fun to build it and the guys that don't know, like I don't know how to build a shack from a mobile, but there's guys in our club that do and it would just be fun to to build it and have your input and then just have a club trailer. You could bring it to near fest.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that is a that was on my bucket list to make sure we get done for 2025 or at least get to that that part rolling forward. And we've got some other stuff we're working on, but yeah, I would love to see that happen, for sure it would be fun. But yeah, I mean in terms of HamFest, because we don't want to get our hands involved there but Live Free in Ham. I think we're going to have to move forward on some of the stuff we talked about just getting actual sight there and making more of ourself present and, you know, getting more involved in the you know, the general public down at the ground level.
Speaker 2:So I think we'll probably try to see if we can target that for the fall. I'm not. I'm done coaching after this year. So baseball will just be going to my kids' games and it won't. And even if I had to miss a game to do like it wouldn't be a big deal. You know, I plays so much baseball. It's like like if we were going to do yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, if we were going to do like near fest, from whatever Friday when it opens till Saturday when it ends, you know I could be there and I think it would be, I think it would be a good, but we'd have to prepare and we'd have to figure out, make sure everything worked right and have a schedule. This is what we're planning on doing. I mean, obviously things will change.
Speaker 1:We're going to have to do a bunch of giveaways too. We just can't sit there and not give anything out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here's a hammy. Oh, here's a sticker pad. It's funny, I'll go away. I'll sticker pad. It's funny, so I'll go away. I'll start going away and buying crap. At near today, we're giving away uh lead weight. We don't know if it works.
Speaker 1:But here's a first gen ipad. It's a relic. Funny, funny story with the little pigs. I left one on uh reliance's uh booth out in the open, like by the rest of his antennas. I can't tell you how many people picked it up and looked at it kind of puzzled and then put it back down. I'm like, dude, flip the damn thing over and read the bottom, it's all you have to do. But you know well, we'll have to spread more of that love a little bit. I know Paul did a couple of you know handouts. I did a few here and there scattered about. So hopefully people will catch on and and go visit the website and, you know, want to be like hey, this is a cool idea.
Speaker 2:We'll say I think, I think it would. It would take on a lot better if it was trackable. Yeah, Well, that's going to get expensive, but yeah but like you know how, like, like the geocaches do it like with their little things. I mean I think people would be cool with it would be more how far will a hammy go?
Speaker 1:yeah, cool, all right. Well, let's put a bow on this one because I you know, I'm sure you're pretty much all spent from the weekend and you know, dreading getting into Mondays. But we definitely thank Mike for hopping on. He had to jump off because apparently he's on Jason's channel talking about overland and so, you know, obviously, once this airs well, actually you know, either way you have to go back to the replay and check him out on that. But he's being a man of the town and hanging out with a couple of different YouTubers, so good for him. And you know Paul, who is not here present with us, he's uh currently packing. I just saw a quick uh post from Mike on discord uh, giving them the parks and stuff like that that they'll be activating. So if you're a patron member you might get lucky. Uh, this might be your uh future Intel. Uh, he'll be activating Monday when he's in New York with Mike. So if you want to, a couple of contacts with him and Mike, uh, they'll be over at. Uh, what is it? Park us five, three, a five, two, five, three. That's Pittstown state forest. So, uh, they're going to be uh activating together plenty of trees. So, uh, paul can throw up his reliance and uh antenna and Mike can maybe activate his uh, you know, 56 to one uh reliance reliance antenna there and they can, you know, hold hands and and skip off into the distance. You know, singing reliance is their favorite song. So, either way, we'll definitely keep an eye out for them to hopefully make contacts and get the them in the log there for me. And, yeah, he'll.
Speaker 1:If you want to track Paul, he's on APRS. I didn't actually, actually I was going to look up real quick, uh, if aprsfi, and see what his call number is. Uh, n1 og star. Let's see what he is. He is running. Uh, what number are you, paul? Uh, looks like a dash nine. If you do n1og star, you could probably find him a couple different ones, but it looks like he's on 146.52, uh n1og-9. So if you want to follow him along, we'll be doing a little bit of that on our own website and discord, uh. So, uh, looking forward to his travels, how far would the radio?
Speaker 1:pick him up for well, it depends on whether there's a digipeter around in the area that can hear him. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. I mean I'm sure I have no problem going through, like most of massachusetts and uh, you know, in and through the the main corridors, but once he starts getting up to vermont, you know it's it's going to be tough to pick up. I know I was hard to pick up in those areas when I was up in you. You know, kind of Troy in that area. Yeah, but we'll see. Either way, we're looking forward to seeing his progress. You can always check him out on his channel because, again, this is his month he's away skydiving, getting his class a license. So we're looking forward to getting some updates from him on that. And so pay attention to his channel, pay attention to live free and ham for all of those great things. And so, to wrap things up, again, you know, thanks, mike, for hanging out with us tonight on such short notice there and, as always, you know, thanks again for joining live free and ham. We truly appreciate hanging out with all you guys and for all the folks that we saw at near fest and recognized us, and we say thank you and appreciate, uh, everybody who's part of our community. We can't thank you guys enough, and so you can always head over to our discord server if you want to connect with us. Uh, join in the conversation. Um, this uh show will be posted soon.
Speaker 1:Uh, you can also subscribe to our youtube channel to make sure you catch up on all of the excellent content over there. And, as always, you can leave us a comment using our SMS link. Those are located in our show notes as well as our email address. Or, if you prefer, you can leave us a quick voicemail at 978-233-1142. And, like we always say, if you want to help support the show, you can always buy us a beer link, and we thank Shannon and the Hillbilly Ham Radio Club for throwing us a few.
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