W3GMS Thursday Night Roundtable

Luke KC3SCY hosts a festive Halloween-themed W3GMS 146.985 Roundtable, as stations share memories, neighborhood traditions, and the ever-declining trick-or-treater headcount across Chester County. From spooky street-light stories and childhood costume nostalgia to pumpkin carving, porch-light strategies, and haunted neighborhoods, the group keeps things lively with plenty of humor and camaraderie. A few radio updates sneak into the mix—amp projects, antenna work, PCB design, and tower progress—before everyone signs off for a fun fall weekend. Another warm, community-driven night on 985.

What is W3GMS Thursday Night Roundtable?

Every Thursday evening at 8pm the Crew of 146.985 W3GMS/R get together on air to host a weekly informal net with varying hosts and topics

Thank you.

This is KC3SCY.

Good evening.

Welcome to the 985 Roundtable.

I'm Lucas KC3SCY, located in Glenmore, Pennsylvania.

I'll be the host for tonight's Roundtable.

We meet every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. on the W3GMS Parkspur repeater, 146.985 MHz.

The PL tone is 100 Hz.

For tone, squelch, and receive, use 94.8 Hz.

Take a look at the repeater website, located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.

Besides the Roundtable, this repeater also hosts the 985 Workbench on Monday night evenings at 8 p.m.

The Workbench focuses on answering technical questions, as well as exploring topics related to the sentence, related to setting up and operating your station.

The newcomers are very welcome and encouraged to check in.

If you can't stay long, feel free to call in during the short time check-ins at the beginning of the Roundtable.

Our discussions are informal, passing the mic around in the order which stations call in.

So I encourage you to note who checks in right after you, so you will be able to turn the mic over to that station when you finish your comments.

We usually begin with the question of discussion starter.

You can answer that if you wish and comment about other subjects as well.

If you have any suggestions or questions about the Roundtable, contact Phil, QC3 CIB, or Jim A-3-Z. Both are good on QRZ.com.

Thank you.

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Like I just did there.

For tonight's question, we have, I'll say it first and then after I take the check-ins.

So, do you have a lot of activity from trick-or-treaters on Halloween?

And do you have any Halloween traditions you do?

So, now I will take the short time digital or AllStar, yeah, Digital AllStar or Echolink short time check-ins.

Please call now.

Hey, good evening Luke. This is KB3ZUV Adam in West Bradford Township. That's Kilo Bravo 3, Zulu Uniform Victor, short timer via Echolink.

I have Adam, KB3ZUV. Is there any other short time digital or AllStar check-ins? If so, please call now.

Please call now.

Something heard so now I will take regular RF check-ins. Short time. Please, please call for the short time RF check-ins. Please call now.

AB3AP, Mike in Avondale.

All right, Luke, good evening again to you, and thanks for taking the chair, and good evening

to everybody else listening in at the short timers section at the 14695 round table.

This is Adam, KB3ZV here in West Bradford, and with two young children in the house, Halloween

is a very festive time of year for us, and in fact, actually, I was just at the store earlier

this week browsing Halloween costumes for my older daughter, Lexi.

She wants to be a witch this year, and there are a lot of options for that, and a lot of

stuff, a lot of different stuff out there.

So, we're going to keep it simple, see how she likes it with one of the sort of more basic

outfits out there, and then if she really likes it, we'll kick it up a notch next year.

We have a few different things here.

I guess, I don't know if you would call them traditions, but the school does stuff.

The elementary school does stuff, and so with my younger daughter in Kansas City, I'm

in kindergarten now, Vicki, she wants to be a dragon this year, which we have some existing

costumes.

Lexi was a dragon, so that's going to be a hand-me-down costume.

But the school does a Halloween trick-or-treat.

That's actually going to be tomorrow, tomorrow night, so I guess that's sort of a tradition

for us now, because there's a trick-or-treat at the school.

They always like to do it the week before Halloween.

So, we'll do that, and then we'll do neighborhood trick-or-treat next weekend.

We're at the end of a cul-de-sac, and the houses are on big one-acre lots, which is great for ham radio and my wife's gardening hobby.

It's not so good for a density of houses, and we actually don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters.

We've actually stopped putting out candy.

The last time we put out candy was two years ago, and I don't think more than five or six

kids showed up.

Which again, I know some of the people you hear, like I think it was Bill, okay.

I think he maybe never gets a trick-or-treater, or I forget who it was.

I think there was someone on 985.

It still comes on Bill Kinsletta records trip, but I think there was someone here who never

gets trick-or-treaters.

And it's not that we don't get any.

It's kind of a waste of time, especially with two kids that kind of want to do their own stuff.

So, we have a couple different neighborhoods around here where the house, the density is a

little bit better for trick-or-treating.

So, we kind of head a few blocks over to where the houses are closer together.

And they had the HOAs, and they got big buckets of candy.

So, you know, the house is on the quarter acre lots.

So, that's what we do for trick-or-treating.

And again, the traditions would be generally just stuff going on at the school.

So, with that, we'll say happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween, and I guess we'll do another one of these next week before the day itself.

But let's keep things moving and send it down to Avondale.

That's Mike, AB3AP from KB3ZUV 73.

Clear.

Thanks, Adam.

And good evening all.

Yeah, you know, I feel a little bit boring.

We don't have any particular traditions we follow.

However, there are two families where we live.

One has a big Christmas bash, and one has their annual Halloween party.

And they pull out all the stops, you know, decorations, food that's Halloween themed, and a little gory looking.

And Jell-O shots, you know, things for all tastes, we'll say.

And it's always a lot of fun.

But this year, after they've done it for many years, they said they just need a break.

So, their tradition is on pause, which means our partaking of it is also.

But the reason I'm on the short timer list tonight is I have an 8:30 family phone call to take part in.

Because our kids and daughter-in-law want to come visit.

Rumor has it their dear old dad has a birthday.

So, we're going to work out a get-together.

With that, Joe, over to you.

KC3MAI AB3AP.

Thank you.

Joe, KC3MAI.

Just kind of thinking here about traditions.

Tradition-wise, not really too much.

I know when I was a kid, many years ago, you used to have to do something.

That just kind of was standard.

So, I have a lot of memories of performing.

Either a song or a...

You name it.

But it was kind of understood that you...

You know, if you wanted to throw some candy in your bag, you were going to have to work for it.

So, I remember performing.

As far as, you know, what we get now in the neighborhood at Halloween, it's very, very little.

I just remarked to my wife this past week, you know, how it just seems to dwindle every year.

You know, the kids are growing up and leaving the neighborhood.

And we just don't get very many of them anymore, unfortunately.

So, that's sad.

But I guess that's the way it is.

So, I will turn it back to Ned Control.

KC3SCY.

KC3MAI.

This is KC3SCY.

Well, here we don't get very much because we live on the side of the road.

And our driveway, I guess you could say, is on the longer side.

So, yeah, low activity.

I think the same with you, Mike, and the same with you, Adam.

So, is there any other short time check-ins, digital or RF, for the short time check-ins?

If so, please call now.

I'm going to go now.

Alright, nothing heard.

So, I'll move on to the regular check-ins.

First, I will take the digital check-ins.

Digital check-ins for the 985 round table.

Please call now.

This is W1RC in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Good evening, Luke.

Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR.

I have W1RC and W8CRW. Is there any other digital check-ins for the 985 round table? If so, please call now.

I have nothing heard. So, now I will take the regular check-ins, er, well, all RAF check-ins for the 985 round table. Please call now.

AMBUA3, VEE Whiskey Alpha 3, Victor Echo Echo.

NA3ACW.

KD3BPI, that's K Delta 3, Bravo, Papa India.

I got Ron, Chuck, and then there was some space in there. I didn't hear it. Maybe someone else could. I'll give you. I'll call again for you. And then KD3BPI.

So, try it one more time. The station in between NA3CW and KD3BPI.

You're not hearing the GMS tonight, W3GMS.

I got you down there, Joe. I think there's some intermod or something on your signal there. So, I got you in there, Joe. Is there any other RF check-ins for the 985 round table? If so, please call now.

TV3 DCB. Do you have KC3 OOK? Luke, I may have doubled.

This is Whiskey Alpha 3 King Fox Tango. WA3 KFT.

Alright, so there I got KB3 ACB and John. WA3 KFT. Bill, yeah I think you doubled with Joe.

That's why I wasn't hearing him. That makes more sense. So Bill, I'll put you right after Joe.

So, now I'll take any digital ORF check-ins. Any check-ins for the 985 round table. Please call now.

So, Victor 3, Joliet Golf, Bravo, Maton Valley.

Alright, I got KB... I think I wrote that down wrong. KB3 JGV.

So, one last final call for any check-ins for the 985 round table. Or so, please call now.

Alpha Foxtrot 3 Zulu. Good evening, Luke.

Alright, good evening to you too, Jim. Alright, so I got you in there, Jim.

So, the order will be...

W1RC, W8CRW, WA3VEE, NA3CW, W3GMS, KC3OOK, KD3BPI, KB3ACB, WA3KFT, KB3JGB, I think I wrote down.

I need to get better handwriting.

And then, Kim, you're the tail gunner, AF3Z.

So, I'll turn it over to Mr. Mike, W1RC.

I'll restate the question.

So, the question is, do you have any Halloween traditions you do?

And do you get any trick-or-treaters?

How's the activity you all met?

So, over to you, Mr. Mike.

This is KC3SZY.

Bye.

Well, very good evening, Luke, and everyone here on the Thursday Night Roundtable.

This is W1RC.

Doing a great job of holding court over here, Luke.

Doing a bang-up job.

Well, you're talking to the right guy here about Halloween, because I live next door to Halloween capital.

And that's Salem, Massachusetts.

It started already.

You can't go over to Salem without running into crowds.

As you know, Salem had the witch trials in 1692.

And it's now become a major place for people to go on Halloween.

You can't move on the streets.

You go over there Halloween evening, and you cannot move.

So, my Halloween tradition is to stay away from Salem.

I don't want any part of that.

As far as here in Marblehead, let me just reset this.

We stopped putting candy outside, because we found that there were some kids.

They weren't such kids.

They were teenagers who come from out of town.

They come to the more affluent communities, thinking they'd get better goodies here.

And we put candy out, and kids came and just took it all.

So, it takes a few to ruin a good thing.

You don't see little kids here on Halloween anymore.

It's too bad, really, because Halloween used to be fun.

But, you know, they ruined it.

And everybody who wants to do Halloween goes to Salem, where there's all kinds of stuff to do over there.

So, if you don't go to Salem on Halloween, you're not going to do very much for Halloween.

You're going to stay home.

So, I'll turn it over to WHCRW, and maybe he can give us some good Halloween stories.

This is W1RC in Marblehead, Massachusetts, one town away from Salem.

Very good, Mr. Mike.

Thank you.

And, Luke, thanks for taking the chair tonight.

And Halloween traditions, no, they're long gone.

About 60 years ago, I stopped Halloween.

And out here in Chester County, where I live, it's dark, and the houses are far and few.

So, nobody ever comes.

So, that's how it works.

Ron, you probably get more business there in Westchester.

WA3VEE, WHCRW.

Maybe the witches got them.

I hear Ron transmitted on the input frequency.

So, let's see.

I don't know what I should do here.

I don't know.

You're on the input, but I can't hear you through the repeater.

We had a paw that hit the memory dial.

That paw has been moved.

Okay.

Let's start over.

WA3VEE.

So, we're here 38 years.

Second generation has started here.

So, we do have a fair number of young children.

And one year, we had as many as 77.

Many, many years ago, when our sons were in prime grade school age and so on.

They are now 36 and 31.

So, long, long time ago.

So, in any event, we have now, we were getting probably in the order of 23, 25 kids or so on average.

And it's a great time for, you know, the parents, of course, are with the kids.

It's a very good neighborhood.

So, there's really no traditions here.

I just stand outside and just greet the parents, greet the kids, talk to them a little bit.

But, you know, they don't want to talk.

They just want to collect candy.

So, it's kind of a fun night here.

Some of the costumes are pretty interesting.

So, some of the ones that I don't recognize, I ask who they are and so on and so forth.

I usually keep a little clicker that counts up the number of kids.

So, nothing really special over here.

But just kind of a fun, enjoyable night for the kids.

Just remember the good times we had with our boys, for sure.

I used to take them around the neighborhood.

And, yes, I know, Mr. Mike, we have some miscreants that come from other neighborhoods.

And so, when that occurs, I make sure that I'm out there supervising.

And they get the same thing as anyone else.

Nothing special, that's for sure.

And then, sooner or later, we just turn the lights out when it gets to be too late.

So, Chuck, over to you, NA3CW.

What goes on in Parksburg?

WA3VE with the group.

Thank you, Ron.

NA3CW.

We haven't had any kids in the house in a very long time.

Matter of fact, we haven't had any kids here, period.

The last kids we had in the house were in Guam.

Well, kids.

Probably that takes us back to Virginia.

A couple of houses ago.

So, we did, you know, trick-or-treating and all that kind of stuff when the kids were around.

We haven't done any since.

We don't put out any candy.

And there's kids on the street.

On Guam, it was huge.

It was people coming from all over the island because it was a closed residential neighborhood.

Well, not closed, but enclosed.

As opposed to spread out all over the roads.

And so, we'd have carloads of teenagers cruising the streets and hordes of little kids.

And everybody's families were in.

And that's a big deal over there.

But things are much quieter here.

Just have a few local kids.

And now, over a couple of blocks over, there's two neighbors that are across the street from each other.

And in their case, too much is never enough.

They have, at Halloween and Christmas, they go whole hog down to, you know, everything but the oink.

They've got everything.

They've got giant skeletons.

They've got giant spiders on the roof.

They've got a fence.

They're doing the Addams Family thing.

Just everything is just over the top.

And then the people across the street do the same thing.

And then they do the same thing at Christmas.

So, I don't know where they put all that stuff.

They have a storage unit or what.

But I think it's more than they could possibly fit into the house.

So, that would be 7, 6, either 5th or 6th Avenue.

All you've got to do is look for the lights.

But, yeah, at this house, we're kind of not doing that anymore.

So, I have, I found myself confused because after me, I heard Bill over top of Joe.

I didn't know who the other station was, but I heard Bill, I think, just because they did a perfect double.

But I think Bill outlasted them a little bit.

So, I thought it went to Bill, but Mission Control, please tell me who's next.

This is NA3CW.

I had Joe, or Bill after Joe, but if you're saying you heard Bill better than Joe, I guess, Bill, you're up next.

This is KC3SUI.

Thank you, Luke.

I'll just turn it over to Joe.

We'll keep it in order, or I will get confused.

KC3-0-OK.

Just started, Chuck.

W-3-G-MS.

The captain, sitting in the chair, had the order established.

W-3-G-MS.

Very good evening, everybody.

Luke, thanks for taking the chair.

Sounding good.

Doing a wonderful job, as usual.

And this session marks the first time, officially, that Luke will not have a sidekick, being me, picking up the round table when he departs.

He has reached the age where he's going to run the whole thing now.

So that's that.

So it was a pleasure helping you out over those years, Luke.

And you did a great job, and everyone was better and better.

So he's on his own now.

Let's see.

Question.

Halloween.

A little history, quickly.

This is the 49th year since I bought the house.

So we've been in here a while.

We first bought the house in 1976.

We had a lot of kids, both in the neighborhood here in Fallowfield Farms and outside of the neighborhood.

And some of the areas would come where they were more depressed and probably the people didn't have money for candy and stuff.

And I never really minded that.

They were still really good kids.

And we had a bunch.

One year, we had so many that I ran out of candy.

And I went to the kitchen, and I started popping popcorn.

Because I didn't have any more candy, and these kids kept ringing the bell.

So I can tell you the kids were pretty good with that.

They kind of looked at me, and they said, popcorn.

Plus, it wasn't popcorn that you'd buy at the store.

It was popcorn and Ziploc bags.

Because I had the stove gone full speed, and I was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

And so I explained to us, I'm sorry.

It's all I have.

We ran out of candy.

Next year, you've got to get here earlier.

That was years and years and years ago.

So now we get maybe, I think last year we had 10.

All the kids have grown up, married, have families of their own.

And I think a few came back and brought their grandkids.

But we only get 10 now, so it's very, very, very small.

We turn the light on at 6.

That's when it officially starts.

And we turn the light off at 8 p.m.

And it's really, really neat to see the kids and how they dress up in different costumes.

And like you, Ron, we'll generally talk to the parents a little bit and all that sort of stuff.

As far as tradition, every year, Martha and I, we carve our own pumpkins.

She has a pumpkin and I have a pumpkin.

And we carve it and we sit it out on the front porch.

And hers, I think she puts a little tea candle in it or whatever you call those things.

Tea candles.

And I have this one that uses a couple AA batteries.

And they're really, young kids really like it.

And you turn it on and all these lights flash all different colors inside the pumpkin.

So out the eyes and out the teeth and out the nose, you see all these flashing color lights.

And the little ones really like that.

I remember one year, we have, at the time it was just XM, but now it's XM Sirius.

And they had a Halloween channel.

And I had pumped outdoors through an external speaker some spooky music.

And that was really fun, watching the kids come across the yard or up the walk and hear this, you know, all the spooky music.

But we haven't done that in a while.

But I do have a speaker up in the porch, above the ceiling of our porch, right above the front door.

And I could always do that again.

So that's our tradition for Halloween.

Bill, over to you.

KC-3-O-O-K, W3-GMS.

W3-GMS, KC-3-O-O-K.

The Round Table Group tonight.

And Luke, as Joe said, doing a great job.

Thanks for taking the chair tonight.

Well, as far as traditions, no, we really don't have any.

And if Adam's still listening, I think you were probably correct, Adam.

That's me.

Like I said before, the first 30 years I lived out here, we did not have a trick-or-treater.

Which is kind of ironic.

I don't know if anybody remembers the commercial of those, maybe for windows and siding.

But it said, does your house only look good on Halloween?

Which was my old farmhouse.

So maybe it scared them away.

Probably would have been a good place to have a Halloween party.

But now we have one neighbor with, well, we have two neighbors.

Both have children.

The Amish don't trick-or-treat.

And the other neighbor, they do come up.

They're the only trick-or-treaters that we get.

They have five kids.

So I throw a whole bowl.

And they take it all home.

So that's what I was going to say.

Joe, you know, maybe for an airplane warning light on the top of your tower, I still like the idea of a pumpkin with a light bulb in it.

So anyhow, let's see.

Who do I turn it over to?

Simon.

KD3BPI.

This is KC3OOK.

KC3OOK.

KD3BPI.

Good evening to everyone on the net.

It is good to be here.

Good to be here indeed.

And thank you, Luke, for hosting.

You're doing a great job, despite the confusion and other, well, just the confusion.

Doubling, of course, is always confusing.

But as far as Halloween goes, we, well, I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware.

Sort of a suburb there.

The neighborhood was called Linfield.

And there were two other neighborhoods that were up the hill away from Linfield.

Linfield is kind of odd.

It was the original houses to the area, to that suburban neighborhood area, built in 1953.

And from there, they went up the hill and across the street, across Wilson Road, over to Grayling Crest and Webster Farm.

And Mayfield was at the very top of the hill.

So we never went that far.

All that to say that we never went that far.

Occasionally we would get kids from those neighborhoods, but very seldom.

Webster Farm was the most affluent of the neighborhoods.

So we liked to walk up there.

But it was kind of a far walk and up a hill.

So that was avoided, mostly.

And Linfield had about every third house would have its porch light on.

That was the signal.

Come and knock.

The more preoccupied of the homeowners would usually set a big bowl out.

And when I was a kid at least, and in that neighborhood, there was no major risk of losing that candy before about 9 p.m.

After then, that's when some of the more rebellious youth, they came out and started to wander.

Usually brought some hijinks with them.

We were all safely in bed at that point.

But I'm sorry to say that by the time I was about 12, Halloween was not much anymore.

And it sort of got rolled into all of the other fall festivities.

Which, that's alright.

Because it makes it, well, yeah, there's not much.

In the grand scheme of the fall season, the harvest season, I don't think that Halloween is a huge thing to miss out on.

But, um, all the same, it was a lot of fun as a kid.

And I hope to, I hope to give that experience to my kids.

Of course, I don't own a home.

It's an apartment here in Westchester.

So we haven't had trick-or-treating in a little bit.

At least since I moved out of my parents.

And even there, it was only one or two.

They still live in Linfield.

Same house I grew up in.

So with that, I will send it over to KB3AlphaCharlieBravo.

Over to you.

This is KD3BPI.

Good evening.

KD3ACB.

It's Ed in Canada Square.

And, uh, thank you very much, Simon.

And Luke, you're doing a great job.

Um, Halloween for me is, uh, probably my favorite holiday.

I grew up with a father who made Halloween decorations.

And I inherited those Halloween decorations.

My house looks like, uh, a horror movie outside right now.

I also am lucky enough to have a son born on November 1st.

Which meant 15 years ago, my first Halloween at this house.

I actually missed it because we were in the hospital.

Uh, my second son is actually born a few days before Halloween.

He just had his birthday.

But, uh, we get about 100, 200 trick-or-treaters here every year.

So, uh, I'm ramping up for this year.

And, uh, with that, I'll pass it on to, I believe, W3AFD.

This is KB3ACB.

KB3ACB.

This is Whiskey Alpha 3.

King Fox Tango.

Also known as Kentucky Fried Turkey.

Well, uh, we did trick-or-treating as a kid.

And my town actually had a Halloween parade.

And we wound up at the public school.

And judging, uh, the, uh, the best ghost, uh, the best witch, uh, the best boy dressed as a girl.

The best girl dressed as a boy.

Uh, I'm trying to think of some of the other categories.

And the final category was the largest family all in costume.

And I'm the oldest of five.

And one year, Mom and Dad decided all seven of us were gonna go.

And sure enough, uh, a family of seven was the largest.

But we weren't the only family.

There was another family.

The Glaziers.

They also had five kids.

And they were in costume.

The prize, uh, for the largest family in costume was a very large cake.

So Glaziers said, hey!

We're your backyard neighbor.

Come on over.

We'll eat the cake.

And that's what we did.

The other thing I learned a long, long time ago was this Halloween saying.

Halloween is coming.

The goose is getting fat.

Please put a nickel in the old man's hat.

If you don't have a nickel, a penny will do.

If you don't have a penny, well, God bless you.

With that, over to KV3JT.

UA3 King Fox Tango.

KV3JGV.

Are you still there?

Yes, here.

Sorry, just putting my son of the bed.

KV3JGV.

Uh, as for special Halloween traditions, we go to Parksburg.

My wife's friend has a friend there.

So we go meet her there.

And then my oldest, who's special needs, he goes for, like, a couple houses.

Then stays at the house handing out candy.

With my youngest, we go around and watch the houses.

Probably not that long.

Maybe 45 minutes of us.

And then he's tired.

If you don't know, Parksburg has a couple hilly areas.

She's in one of those hilly areas.

So we kind of get to the flat area.

So that's what we've been doing the past couple years.

Because the second thing, trick-or-treaters here, we get none.

We're just in a weird location.

There's not really a sidewalk.

There's not a, it's a very spread-out neighborhood.

There's not a lot of kids, I guess.

So we tried handing out candy the first year or so when we lived here, year two when we lived here.

But there was nobody here.

There was nobody coming up and down.

I think we got one person in that time.

So there's no point to staying here.

Which is kind of sad because I do enjoy handing out candy and seeing all the costumes.

So I have to get that at Parksburg and welcome my son around.

So I think that's it for me.

And I think I'll hand it over to Jim.

AF-3Z, KV-3JGB.

All right, very good, Matt.

And Luke, are you hearing me okay?

I'm on RF.

Yeah, you're full quiet and go ahead, Jim.

Thank you.

Yeah, I hadn't heard much signs of Intermod.

Thank you.

Good evening, everybody.

AF-3Z here.

And first of all, Mike, I appreciated your...

I get a kick out of expressions and where they come from.

And you said about pulling out all the stops.

And having been interested in pipe organs, and still am, but not actively,

I think that's where that one comes from,

because when you pull out the knobs on the old organs,

pulling out, that would be pulling out one of the stops.

So anyway, I appreciated that, Mike.

Expressions are kind of fun.

Halloween.

First of all, I grew up on, some of you guys knew this, on Low Bridge Lane.

It was a dirt road.

There was a low railroad bridge that the rail trail goes over.

No, the bridge is gone, but the rail trail goes through there.

And it was dark.

There were no street lights whatsoever.

And there were a few houses down there, but all past the railroad tracks.

And so it was a dark, dead-end dirt road.

And I don't think anybody ever ventured down there to come to our houses.

It was too scary, I guess.

So that was my initial, or my early experiences.

But we would go up to down east.

That was the development up at the end of the road.

And my tradition as a kid was to be as greedy and get as much as I could.

And I remember coming back with a shopping bag with an awful lot of candy in it.

But in recent history, both where I live now and where we lived, well, back ten years ago and more,

we didn't get kids coming to the house anymore.

So no traditions now.

My only Halloween tradition now is to make it obvious that I'm not ready for them.

Because the last thing I want to do is have a kid show up at the door, and I don't have anything to give them.

And so I make it obvious with the outside lights off, and things are pretty dark.

I can also turn off all the lights in the house and hide in my shack.

And the only light that would be coming outside would be out the back of the house.

So that's it for me on traditions.

That's my tradition now is hide in one way or another.

Not literally, but give them the message that don't bother coming to the door.

So there you go.

And I am the last on the list, at least so far.

So back to you, Luke KC3ScyAF3Z.

Jim, this is KC3SCY.

First, I guess I'll make a couple quick short comments here.

So, Mr. Mike, good old staying away from Salem.

Yeah, I can imagine they'd be pretty busy with the witch trials back from the 1600s.

I'm sure they get a lot of stuff, like you were saying.

CR, 0.0 trick-or-treaters or traditions.

We have about the same here.

We have zero trick-or-treaters come by, like I said.

And when I go, usually, I don't anymore.

Because I like to stay home and watch a movie.

Well, that's my tradition.

I watch a movie.

But there's a street down the road, and there's probably, I'd say the average house there gets maybe 40 people.

And then, Joe, when you first bought the house, scoot on tons of people.

And I think you said, now you're down.

Oh, skipped a bunch of people.

Sorry there.

What next is wrong.

So, I think you said you had 23 people come by last year.

So, that's a fair amount, I would say.

Chuck, you have no more trick-or-treaters at your house, but a ton over in Guam.

I guess, I think you said you were in a community, so that makes a lot of sense.

Now, Joe, so, like I said, you had a ton back then.

And, yeah, 10, I know.

Yeah, 10, it's more than I get.

Um, who's next?

Bill?

Yeah, I know the Amish don't do trick-or-treat in there.

There's a ton of people I don't think that live around you.

So, you're getting one more person than we do.

Um, let's see, KD3BPI.

So, it sounds like you, there was a lot of places you went when you were younger, going trick-or-treating there.

And, KB3ACB.

I think you're the winner there.

I think you said 100 to 200.

Maybe you didn't miss her, but that's, that's a lot.

Um, John, KFT.

He had, seems like, yeah, you had a lot of fun growing up with, seems like there was a lot of competitions back then.

So, that seemed pretty fun.

Um, KB3JGolfVictor, I think it is.

Um, no trick-or-treaters.

Okay.

And, Jim, what did I write down here?

Oh, you turn off the lights so you can hide in your shack.

So, they know when, so they know you don't have stuff.

Yeah, that's what we do.

We just turn off all the lights usually.

So, if someone were to come by, they saw the lights were off.

So, well, I'll take, um, let's see.

I guess we'll take one final call for check-ins for the 985 round table here for the first round.

This is KC3SCY.

If there's any other check-ins, please call now.

Nothing heard.

So, I guess we'll go in and start round two.

So, before we close down the round table for, um, yeah, so round two.

So, the order's the same.

W1RC, W8CRW, WA3VE, NA3CW, Joe, W3GMS, Bill, KC3OOK, KD3BPI, then over to KB3ACB, and then over to John, WA3KFT, then to KB3ACB.

And then over to the tail gunner AF3Z.

So, you guys can make your final comments.

So, I'll turn it over to Mr. Mike.

Mr. Mike, it seems like he's not around, so, C.R., if you're still around, go ahead.

Very good, Luke.

I'm still here.

You know, just looking outside right now, while some people were commenting, the street is dark.

There are no lights, streetlights, I mean.

And, uh, my brother, who lives in Philadelphia still, when he comes out here, he's, uh, he's always on his way before night dark.

Because he says he can't stand being out here with no streetlights.

But that's just the way it is in some parts of Chester County.

Ron, pick it up.

WA3VEE, WHCRW.

WCRW, WHCRW, and a group, WA3VEE.

All very good, interesting comments tonight, for sure.

Sitting here looking at an Ameritron 80B amplifier schizomatic,

and seeing if I need to do a special adaptation on the keying circuit to put this thing into service.

Long story for another time.

But nonetheless, yeah, we don't have any streetlights here either.

However, this is a real development.

So, um, kind of like Joe's neighborhood.

Um, it's a little more, yeah, it's about the same.

Um, so there's, there's ambient lighting.

Uh, there's enough.

And we have, um, lights on the front of the house.

We have up lights on the front of the house.

We have a brick front.

So we've had those for 20-some years out there.

Almost all the time we've been here, actually.

Over 30 years.

And so, uh, that lights up the front of the house.

We also have, have, uh, regular lantern lights by the front door.

That are on all the time.

They're LEDs.

So they take very little electricity.

There's no sense in turning them on and off or putting them on a photoelectric thing.

So there's, there's ambient light, at least.

But, yeah, some of the roads can be very, some of the, uh, streets and roads can be very, very dark in Chester County.

No doubt about it.

So, uh, we're looking forward to Halloween.

Uh, it's a great neighborhood.

Uh, everybody's friendly up here.

Uh, there's no HOA.

They, they all know I'm a ham.

So, uh, I mean, you can't help it with, I mean, a porcupine.

It's pretty obvious.

And these funny, uh, letter number combination license plate on the back.

So that usually kind of gives something away anyway.

So, um, it's all very nice.

It's good to, good to run into the neighbors and, hey, how you doing?

It's good to see you.

And, you know, we'll see you next year.

That kind of thing.

So, uh, let's see.

Uh, it goes over to Chuck.

And I'll say 73, but I'll be listening here for sure.

NA3CW.

And the group.

WA3VEE.

Thank you, Ron.

WA3VEE.

NA3CW.

Yeah, our street, uh, doesn't have any street lights other than, uh, when people volunteer to turn their front lights on.

And a few, a few homes do.

Um, for a long time it seems like we were the only ones that did.

But, uh, several others have picked it up.

But, uh, this street gets very dark in the night.

Um, at the end of my block, it starts farmland.

Um, and there's, uh, very close to town here is Victory Brewing.

And that place is usually lit up like Broadway.

Which reminds me of a Guam story after, uh, one of the typhoons.

Or any of the typhoons, actually.

There's no power anywhere on the island except the Navy base.

And it was sort of like, um, and I assume the Air Force base as well.

But that was way up island and never went there.

But the, uh, our house was, was, uh, only a couple of miles from the Navy base.

And so coming up the island from the darkest southern tip of Guam.

Um, after a, uh, a night shift at the radio station.

We're running on a big, uh, uh, diesel generator.

Uh, just winding my way up the road.

Uh, dodging Black Carabao.

Which are like water buffaloes.

That kind of stand around and look at you funny in the dark.

Um, but even from Marizo.

Which was a half hour away from the Navy base.

The Navy base was lit up like Broadway.

It was almost like they turned on extra lights just to rub it in.

Because the rest of the island was black.

And, uh, and I mean dark.

And man, you could see some stars then.

There was no light pollution.

Because there was no light.

Except way up at the, uh, toward the Navy base.

It was just annoying.

And, uh, one of them, the, it just, it just totally decimated the, uh, the entire utility

system of the island.

So it took weeks and weeks to get power back.

Took a couple of weeks to get some water back.

And, and many weeks to get, uh, and many weeks to get power back.

And months to get, uh, internet service back.

Uh, the category typhoon is a force to be reckoned with.

Um, many times, um, you know, we heard about, you know, somebody says, well, man, conquer is

nature.

Nah, I don't think so.

But in any event, here we can conquer the darkness with our, uh, with our garage light

out front.

And we do that every night.

And, uh, leave it on all night.

So at least there's a little bit of light out there.

So, um, yeah.

If you want to see over the top Halloween decorations, just, you know, go, go to the western side

of Parksburg and look around.

You can't miss them.

I think they even have recordings.

They have, they have like six foot giant spiders on the roof.

I mean, there's just nothing they didn't do.

But, uh, yeah, that's, that's a bit much.

So, um, anything, any other news except Halloween?

Um, nothing much.

I'm kind of in a spade of, uh, doing computer work for people.

But, uh, my, my trailer is painted.

It's all shiny black.

And, uh, not rusting anymore.

So I'm, the next step on that project is, uh, working on sides.

But, uh, at least it's not going to sit out there and rust away like it was before.

Because it was, it was getting pretty bad.

So it's, uh, it'll rust again someday.

And it took 17 years to get this far.

But, um, it's looking pretty good now.

So I'm happy about that.

So, now that I've been thoroughly straightened out, over to Joe.

W3 GMS.

NA3 CW.

You always listen to the guy sitting in the captain chair.

That's Luke.

NA3 CW.

And the, uh, 985 round table.

W3 GMS.

Excellent questions, Luke.

They're really good.

Very pertinent.

You guys talking about, uh, lights.

Uh, every night, from dusk to dawn, we have nine lights on.

Um, and they're on a, um, X10 system.

They really, really work well.

And, uh, since we've gone to LED lighting, it's not as expensive to run.

We have nine lights, so we, we keep it well lit outside.

Uh, let's see.

Uh, Luke, a business thing for you.

I will be at your place at 8 a.m. on Saturday for mentoring and working on your, um, riser.

Looks like it's going to be good weather, so we'll be able to, uh, move the wood over to the old garage where we have a flat, flat floor.

And you know what we're going to do from that point out.

So, uh, I think we should make, uh, we're getting near the end.

Getting near the end.

But I, I want to get you at 8 because I have to run the W3 AOA Memorial Net at 845 on 3718.

And I haven't ran it for like three weeks.

Uh, one because the tower was down and another time because we were at AWA and this, that, the other.

So I really want to, want to run it.

Got to hurt, got to hurt up the cattle.

Uh, been working a little bit on your, uh, on your, uh, Hartley.

Uh, today I got the two new capacitors and the right capacitance and that thing still does not oscillate.

So I have a theory that the, uh, the old 1920, uh, capacitors

that were used from 1920.

One of them is leaky and it's providing DC.

You know, capacitors should block DC and only allow AC to pass.

Well, this is allowing a little bit of DC and I think it's biasing the oscillator tube

up to the point where it's in full conduction.

It just can't oscillate.

So tomorrow I will be looking at leakage current, uh, through the capacitors.

And the way you do that, you just put DC voltage across it and a milliamp meter or micramp meter

and series with it.

And you can see what it is.

Fortunately, I think there's, well, there's only one that goes back to the grid circuit.

So I think when I get that, that problem, uh, fixed, uh, I think that, that baby's going to oscillate

and you're going to, you're going to have a nice 40 meter, uh, 40 meter rig.

So I have been working on that.

Uh, let's see what else.

Bill, okay.

I had this box come.

It's about three and a half foot tall, huge box.

And it's all those, uh, pass through junction boxes.

Uh, one four inch, uh, one three inch and two, two inches.

So, um, uh, I'm really happy.

It's a commercial place where I've ordered from.

And boy, I'll tell you, they, they just give super, super service.

So, uh, that's that.

So I can go out and play and put those.

And I have a few questions for you about installing them.

I've installed them before.

And basically I wanted to know whether I could go ahead and install them and then do the conduit

work going to them.

Or would it be better to do the conduit work first and then install them?

And I kind of think the latter would be better.

Uh, but, uh, that's just my, my, uh, my thinking.

So you can let me know on that.

Uh, let's see what else is happening here.

There must be other things.

Uh, everybody knows the tower's up.

So that's a done deal.

And, uh, we've been busy.

We've been very, very busy, uh, getting a lot of, a lot of projects done.

Which is good.

So again, Luke, uh, thank you for running the, uh, 146-985 Thursday night round table.

Doing a great job.

And a correction on one of the calls for you.

Uh, it's Matt, uh, right before Jim AF3Z.

Uh, Mike Alpha, Tango, Tango, Matt.

And his call is a little different.

It's Kilowatt Victor 3.

Um, Juliet, Goff, Bravo.

Kilowatt Victor 3.

Juliet, Goff, Bravo.

And I meant to say hi to my good friend Joe, KC3MAI, who's on the short time list.

Fantastic to hear you check it in, Joe.

So, uh, hopefully, uh, well, I know you're busy with work and everything, but, uh, hopefully

your schedule will work out one of these times so we can, uh, ratchet you all a little bit

at the, uh, 985 breakfast.

I did talk to, uh, Bob, who's, uh, moved out of the area, W3RJP, and he made a commitment

to be at the next breakfast.

I think he's out in, well, I'm not sure.

I want to say Marietta, but that could be totally wrong.

And any other comments?

Nope, that's it.

Have a good evening, and, uh, sleep well and all that good stuff.

Luke, hope school is going good.

And remember, 15, 20 minutes a day on the Charlie Whiskey.

Uh, KC3OOK.

And maybe you want to make an announcement, Bill, or maybe you don't want to make an announcement

about your project.

I'll just leave it go at that because I don't want to, I don't want to cross any, uh, any

lines on that without, uh, without your permission.

KC3OOK.

W3GMS.

I'll be listening, but no more transmitting, believe it or not.

W3GMS.

KC3OOK.

Well, thanks, Joe.

And, yeah, I will say something about the project here before I get done.

And, yeah, you're correct.

The latter.

You definitely want to get your conduit all run over, turned up, and then, um, that LB conduit

body will go on last.

Too many variables.

You could fit everything together and think you know exactly where it's going to be.

When you glue it up, it might be just a little different.

So, that's the last thing you want to do.

That way you can mark your hole through and it's accurate.

So, and on that.

And that's great that that stuff all came.

I was, the only thing I, other thing I was going to say about the, uh, Halloween subject

is that I did live in Westchester for eight years, and that is a different experience.

Uh, we did have a lot of young kids right around us, and they seemed to, you know, they trick-or-treated

while it was still light, and, uh, so we would, uh, you know, put out candy for them, and then

after the first year, I learned to, uh, there were kids that were costumes.

I'd give them candy, but otherwise we would literally have 50 kids and a mob around the

door, and, uh, none of them would be in costumes, just have a, you know, an acne bag.

So, uh, most of the neighbors on my end of town, it was pretty much, you turned out your lights,

and I didn't worry too much about, uh, retaliation because we had an enclosed porch and a Rottweiler

was on it, but, uh, it was a different experience.

It definitely was.

I don't know what it's like today in town.

But it was just a lot of kids.

So, that, that on that.

Uh, the only thing I've been doing this week, of any note, maybe only to, uh, Joe, but yesterday

I sat down and read the, uh, all the manuals, not the assembly, but, you know, the basis of

design, the calibration, and the operation procedures.

For the RX-1, the TX-1, the HA-10, and what I could of the SB-10.

Uh, and, uh, my head is, uh, spinning right now, but I'm going to sit down and read them again.

And also, last night, the Dentron manual.

So, uh, that's, that's what's on my mind right now.

And I have to say, Joe, you said you aren't going to transmit again, so you don't need to come back.

The question for you sometime in your collection, if you happen to have the instruction manual

for the SB-10, pull two different online sources, and both of them are incomplete, because they're

just copies of other people's that have shared them to the library. So that's about it here

for me. I got a good list here tonight, Luke, and I'm going to turn it over to Simon, KD3BPI,

KC3OOK.

KC3OOK, KD3BPI.

I don't think I really have any more comments. I haven't been working on much, just work.

Just work the old grind, which is fun. It's its own reward. We did send out a circuit board

today to PCBWay, which is a... I don't know what you would call them. They're overseas.

They're headquartered in Shenzhen.

And if I'm not mistaken, they have sort of a farm of circuit board fabrication houses.

And today we had a board that had gold fingers.

It's going on a test station for an aircraft computer.

And it was a collection of 15 relays.

And we didn't have schematics for the board, so I went ahead and rang everything out.

And it turns out those 15 relays, they're dual pull, dual throw.

Those relays were configured to act as an A2 parallel 8 to 1 multiplexers.

Turns out, which was really cool to see.

I had always suspected that such relay logic was possible, but it was cool to see it in action.

I'm not sure what it's doing in the test station, to be perfectly honest.

I decided not to get that deep.

But, yeah, we sent it off to get fabricated with hard gold.

It's 10 micro inches of gold over 120 micro inches of nickel on the edge connector pads for this board.

So, very fun.

Very fun.

A lot of fun doing this PCB work.

I do enjoy it.

And other than that, thank you again, Luke, for running the net.

And with that, I'll send it over to Ed, KB3ACB.

This is Simon, KD3BPI, 73 to all.

And I'll be listening afterward.

Over to you, Ed, KB3ACB.

Thank you, Simon.

This is KB3ACB.

You know, you're talking about streetlights.

I grew up with no streetlights.

When I purchased my house, there's a streetlight out in front of my bedroom window, and it drove me nuts.

I couldn't go to sleep for weeks.

And then it broke.

And I couldn't go to sleep for weeks because I no longer had that streetlight.

I don't know why, but it bothered me so much, and I actually called and had it fixed.

Now it's an LED.

It's actually super bright.

As for radio stuff, I have developed a new obsession.

I am collecting Kenwood stuff from the late 80s, early 90s, specifically PS440 HF radios.

I have three of them right now.

I've got Bruce, Dave, and Henry.

Yes, I named my HF radios for some reason.

But, yeah, that's pretty much what I've been up to lately.

So, I'm going to pass it on over to...

Now I've lost my list here.

I believe it was John.

WA3KFT.

All right, thanks, guys.

Okay, Ed.

Very good.

This is WA3KFT.com.

And, yeah, as a kid, my hometown in Ohio was very active at Halloween time and so forth.

We didn't see too many soap windows and what have you.

But...

Where I live now, it's almost void of Halloweeners.

I'll say the kids all grew up.

And half of them have moved away.

So, it's a street full of grandparents now.

And nobody bothers to truck the little kids in or anything like that.

So, don't really have to put up with soap windows or little darlings ringing the doorbell or anything like that at this location.

So, I thought you would enjoy the little ditty of Halloween is coming.

The goose is getting fat.

That, I learned as a kid.

And instead of just getting somebody to come to the door and say, trick-or-treat, you know, you said that, did he?

And, boy, you know, they really like that.

And, haven't heard that said in years.

Like I said, not many trick-or-treaters around here anymore.

So, Matt, over to you.

KB3 JGB.

WA3 King Fox Tango.

Thank you, KB3 JGB.

And, not a lot here for me.

It is interesting to hear a lot of people also don't get trick-or-treaters.

And, yes, thanks, Joe, W3GMS for the call and the call sign correction.

And, also, good to hear KC3MAI.

And, also, RonWA3EE got your email reply back, so I'll get back to you here soon.

That's it for me, I think.

I'm going to sign off for the night and say 73 to everybody.

And, I'll hand it over to Jim, AF3Z, KB3JGB.

All right.

Thank you, Matt.

And, have a good evening there.

Yeah, not much more on Halloween.

I don't need the candy for myself, that's for sure.

Anyway, the news here, some of you will remember, it could be a couple months ago now, I had electrical problems, meaning electric service to the house problems.

And, I think it was on the workbench, yeah.

Folks on our workbench here diagnosed it very well.

The electric service to the house was buried underground.

The house was built in 1969.

And, they just did direct bury with the cable.

But, the ground, or the common, excuse me, the common part of the line opened up or whatever happened to it.

It was not functioning properly.

And, that created some crazy voltage swings and stuff.

And, so, PPL came out and tested it and said, sure enough.

And, they put a temporary transformer thing out back to keep my service working.

And, the guy said, in a month or two, they'll be out to bury a new line.

So, this past week, they finally did that.

Unfortunately, I wasn't home to enjoy watching and talking to them.

But, they had some kind of a drill arrangement.

So, they didn't have to dig a trench all the way.

Didn't have to dig a trench.

They dug a hole here and there.

But, this drill thing, which I didn't get to see, as I said, you know, drilled long underground.

So, they just had a few holes they had to fill in.

But, anyway, the new line is now in.

And, I put it in conduit now.

It's not direct bury anymore.

And, the conduit looked like the inside diameter was an inch and a half or two inches or something.

Pretty good sized conduit.

So, that was good, anyway.

That's my update.

And, as I am talking to you now, it's on that power coming through the new electric service.

And, yeah, we, I grew up down that dead-end dark, dead-end dark road.

Well, that's true, too.

Dead-end dirt road.

It was dark at night.

And, you know, thought nothing of it back in those good old days.

But, it was kind of funny because nobody else, you know, it was a scary place to come down into.

I didn't have many friends that came down that way.

I usually went to them or, anyway, that was the scoop.

Good old Lowbridge Lane.

It doesn't exist anymore.

It was obliterated some time ago.

So, that's about it for me.

And, thanks again, Luke.

And, I guess it feels to me like there's something else I should say.

But, I'm not sure what.

My brain is only half here.

Back to you, Luke.

KC-3-S-C-Y-A-F-3-Z.

Jim, sounds good.

And, Joe, if you're still listening, sounds good for 8 o'clock.

And, good on the Hartley with the leaky cab.

So, before we close down the round table for the evening, let's see if anyone else wants to check in.

If you've been listening or just tuned in, we would like to hear from you.

If there's anybody else wishing to check in, please call now.

This is KC-3-S-C-Y.

Nobody heard.

So, thanks to all stations for checking in to the 985 round table tonight.

And, a big thank you to Joe, W3GMS, for making the 985 repeater available for the round table.

You are invited to use the repeater often.

That's a great way to show your appreciation gift.

Your appreciation, the gift of 985 to the amateur radio community.

Finally, we hope to hear you again on Monday night evenings at 8 p.m. during the 985 workbench.

This concludes the 985 round table for tonight.

Feel free to stick around and keep the conversation going.

Have a good night and have a great weekend, everybody.

7-3.

This is KC-3-S-C-Y.

Clear.

Good job, Luke.

Very good.

W3GMS.

Clear.

I'll talk to you tomorrow.

7-3.

KC-3-S-C-Y.

Clear.

And QRT.

Very good.

7-3.

W3GMS.

Clear.

And QRT.

W3GMS.

KD3-EMX.

W3GMS.

KD3-EMX.

Thank you.

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