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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
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I guess everybody knows the intermod is strong. I am here on echo link AF3Z.
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Where have we gotten so far?
We've done nothing. We're waiting for you.
I'm so sorry, gentlemen. I'm sitting downstairs with the wife helping her out for some event she's got going tomorrow.
So I apologize. So we're just going to get our piece of paper and wing it.
This is W3MFB. Welcome to the Thursday night roundtable on 146.985.
Offset, negative offset of 600 kilohertz.
DL to 100. We meet here every Thursday night at 8 o'clock.
And we have a good time. Here we go off script here.
We usually have a starter question to start the conversation going.
You can either answer the question or not. It's up to you.
And we turn the mic around to each person.
So I suggest writing down who's before you and after you or everybody that checks in.
Sorry about that. I was tied up. I was tied up.
But happy to be here tonight. I do have a question for you guys. It's just one question.
And pretty straightforward. I was thinking how we used to do skeds before.
And I had an idea that we can maybe meet. Do you think it's a good idea? Let's start it that way.
If we run skeds again on 985. But using the repeater as well as the second mode of communication, just in case some people say we're on 6 meter, can't hear other people.
So maybe we can meet on a Tuesday, a Wednesday, or a Friday.
Or even on Saturday. But Saturdays are busy for everybody.
So how about Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday?
So that's the idea. Do you think it's a good idea to do skeds, say, on 6 meter, 10 meter, 80 meter?
I know that's kind of crowded at nighttime, but it doesn't mean we have to do it at nighttime.
We could do it, you know, that late. We could do it a little earlier.
But do you think that's a good idea that we could do that?
And then also start the net on the sked, I should say, on the repeater and have it as a backup.
And we'll just experiment to see who can hear who.
So that's the questions for tonight.
Please check out the W3GMSrepeater.com website.
Lots of information about the repeater itself and the users and projects and good information.
All right. We'll start with digital check-ins for the short-time list.
Digital or RF check-ins. Let's do it that way.
Digital or RF check-ins for the short-timers, for people that can't stick around.
Please call W3MFB. Thank you.
This is W1RC, Marblehead, Massachusetts. Good evening to all on the net.
Mr. Mike, W1RC. Any other short-timers? Digital or RF?
In East Petersburg.
Name is Eric.
Eric, I must have stepped on you. What was your call sign again, Eric?
Call sign is AC2EG. Echo Gulf.
Charlie 2 Echo Gulf. Eric, gotcha.
Any other short timers?
Short timers RF or digital from W3MFB for the Thursday night round table.
Nothing heard, nothing heard. So over to Mr. Mike, W1RC from W3MFB. Are you interested in doing skeds on 985? I know you're all the way up at Marplehead, but we could always do it on 40 meters.
So it doesn't matter the band for the skeds, but are you interested in doing that and using, and we all meet on the repeater first and then we try the other HF or VHF bands. Over to W1RC, W3MFB.
W3MFB in the Thursday night round table on the W3GMS repeater.
It's W1RC in Marblehead up in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where it's cold and there's a lot of snow and we got an ice dam on the roof and there's water dripping in on the ceiling in my radio room.
So my stuff was getting wet and I had to move it. I took a minute to check in, but I got to go back to working on that. So, uh, but skeds? Yeah, sure. Why not? You know, what the heck?
It's all fun, right? It's all fun, right? It's the whole idea is to have a good time. So, uh, yes, I, I'm for it. So back to that. And I'm going back to the shack to clean up a bit of the mess. It's not too bad, but, uh, got my wife's, uh, lasagna pan.
It's collecting the water that's dripping. And it's not a lot, but still it's, we just had the roof down a couple of years ago. So I'm going to be on the phone tomorrow talking to those roofing people and we're going to have a serious talk. So back to that W1RC.
Man, I'm sorry, Michael. Uh, yeah, I hope you get that, uh, sorted out and that's a shame. Yeah. I was thinking about that kind of stuff this, uh, this past storm. And so my thoughts and prayers for everything. And I hope everything works out well for you with that ice dam. All right. It goes over to Eric, uh, Alpha Charlie two Echo golf from W3MFB.
Um, this is Eric AC2EG. Yeah. I'm sorry to hear that too, Mike. Um, cold is one thing, but ice dams and a leaking roof. Oh, that I, I really feel bad for you. Good luck getting that cleaned up. Um, skids. Um, I think it's a great idea. I mean, I, there's, I support any and all amateur radioactivity, uh, for myself.
Um, I am barely getting on the air now, um, with a two meter, um, with a two meter, the, uh, HF bands, um, because of my HOA and the Eaton arc fault circuit interrupters. I just have not been able to do, certainly cannot do 20. I did set up a 10 meter dipole in the attic. I have not tried it out yet. Um, but, uh, I, I,
I, if nothing else, I can listen and, um, I hear how everyone else fares. So that's, that's my two cents. And I think I'm at the end of the shortlist. So back to W3MFB. This is AC2EG.
Uh, yeah, that's great. That's great. Uh, it's a 10 meter dipole, no 20. No problem. No, I hear it. Some, some folks, uh, we have what we have. And, you know, it's, we're lucky that we have what we have. But, uh, brilliant, brilliant. Uh, this is W3MFB from the Thursday night round table. Uh, taking short time check-ins. Are there any other short time check-ins? Uh, whether digital or RF? Please call W3MFB.
Okay. Nothing heard. So we will go into the long format right now. And we'll start with digital check-ins only, please. Unless you're like me and forget. Digital check-ins only for the, uh,
Digital check-ins only for the Thursday night round table. Please call.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey. CR.
We got CRW8CRW. Any other digital check-ins for the Thursday night round table? Please call.
Okay. Okay. All right. So, any check-ins for RF and or digital that wish to check into the Thursday night round table and hang out, uh, please call W3MFB.
Whiskey Alpha 3, Victor Echo Echo, WA3 VEE.
NA3CW. KC3OOK. W3KZG. KC3SQI. 3GMS.
Alpha, Foxtrot 3, Zulu.
WA3, Kentucky Fried Turkey. WA3, KFT.
November 3, Quebec, November Charlie.
Hold up for a sec. The last station after John, is it Whiskey 3, November, Quebec, Charlie? Is that correct?
Negative. November 3, Quebec, November Charlie. N3QMC.
N3QC. Got it, got it. Sorry about that.
N3QMC.
N3NQC.
3 November Charlie? I'm sorry I got stuff going on in the background. Say again.
It's alright. November 3 Quebec, November Charlie, N3QNC.
Sorry about that. November 3 Quebec, November Charlie. Sorry I got dyslexia. That doesn't help me either.
Alright, any other check-ins for the Thursday night round table before I go over the list here?
Alpha 3 GLI. One more time. Alpha 3 GLI. Alpha 3 GLI. Got it. Gulf, Lima, India. Sweet. Any other check-ins?
Yep, yep. The coffee drinker. AA3OH and his luxury hotel. Swimming pool and sauna. Good place to be in a night like this. AA3OH.
I wouldn't be a round table without you, buddy. Thank you for checking in, bud. Anybody else after Leon who wants to check into Thursday night round table on 146.985?
Leon's currently the tail gunner. But, you know, you could be the tail gunner if you want to check in. So we'll see if anybody else is out there. Then we'll go over my chicken scratchable list here.
This is AC2EG again. You can throw me on the long list. Thanks.
Alright, alright, I got you a tail gunner. So you and Leon are in charge of watching our rear, okay? AC2EG is at the bottom. So let's go over the list here. We got W8CRW, WA3VEE, NA3CW, KC3OOK, W3KZG, KC3SQI, W3GMS, AF3Z, WA3KFT.
And here we go. November 3, KFT. And here we go. November 3, Quebec, November Charlie. Thanks, everyone. And KA3GLI, AA3LH, and AC2EG joining us for the long run. Any other check-ins? Last call. And then we'll go up to CR if not.
KA3DSM.
Is it Kilo Bravo 3? K3. Just a good old-fashioned K3DSM. Kilo 3DSM, Delta Sierra Mike, is that correct? That is correct. Sorry. Audio issue there. Alright. So, we got K3DSM. Sweet, sweet, sweet. We've got K3DSM. Sweet, sweet, sweet. We've got K3DSM.
K3DSM. Sweet, sweet, sweet. We like lots of people checking in. This is great. This is awesome. So, thanks for putting up with me writing it down. And, uh, thanks for being here. For sure, for sure.
Alright, CR. Uh, the question for tonight, just for people that just checked in, is, are you cool with skeds on 985? We're on an off day. That's not the round table. That's not the workbench. Like, say, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday. And we do skeds on either HF or VHF. But we start the sked here on 985. On two meter. On the two meter repeater. Uh, that way this...
The, the repeater is the coordinator. So, if people don't hear each other, we can still chit-chat on 985. But then, you know, folks that can hear each other, we're listening on the other bands. So, that's the idea. Are you down with that? Are you cool with it? What are your thoughts?
Alright, so, WHCRW, W3MFB in the group.
Good evening, all. CR here. And, Mike, thanks for taking the chair tonight. It's been a while since we've had a skid. And, uh, you know, it gets talked about every now and then. But, yeah, I'd like to see it come back.
And as far as the evening, uh, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, all work for me. So, I'm in. And with that, let's go to Ron. W-A-3-V-E-E-W-H-C-R-W.
Very good, CR. Excellent. WHCRW, WA3VE, here with the group.
All very good. Just a reminder for everybody, don't forget the intermod comes and goes,
so be prepared to run high power or go to digital.
Yeah, it has been a while since we did these.
I think to put a little finer point on them, I think it's important that when we do these,
we don't do them on digital.
Just as my personal suggestion, you want to be able to know who hears who,
especially if there's an emergency.
And that's what we kind of did before.
It's been years now, but 6 meters, 10 meters, that's probably about it.
Of course, 2 meters, of course, obviously.
I'm not sure UHF would work as well.
But nonetheless, I remember doing this on 2 meters because I know I can hear quite a few people here in Westchester,
West Ocean Township.
Mike, I know you've come booming in here.
I still have trouble hearing Bill, though, which is surprising until you run a, hey, what's that,
and see that there's a lot of stuff between us, which is surprising.
I'm quite surprised at that.
But nonetheless, that would really be the object.
So with some structure, yeah, I think it would really be worthwhile to do that again.
And, Bill, when it's your turn, if I might ask you,
comment a little bit on what you guys do on the SimplexNet on Saturday night.
I think you guys actually do record some of this stuff where you have the power.
And it's on 146.58, if I'm not mistaken, where you record the power and maybe antenna type or whatever
and how well people are hearing each other.
I think that could be very useful, very, very useful.
And, yeah, I think using the repeater kind of is essential because everybody, pretty much everybody can hit the repeater.
That's the whole idea.
So let's see what everybody else thinks here.
NA3CW and the group to transmit, WA3VEE.
Thank you, Ron.
WA3VEE.
NA3CW.
Yeah, I guess for me the question is, you know, the regularity of it.
I don't know that I'd want to be doing it, you know, more nights of the week.
But for ad hoc tests, experiments, that sort of thing, sure.
See who can do what on what with what equipment, what kind of range, who can hear who, sorting out technical difficulties, that sort of thing.
Yeah, I think it's a fine idea.
You know, we've done it before.
Last time we did one on, well, I don't know about the last time it was done, but last time I engaged in one with six meters,
I made an antenna and rounded up my mast and worked reasonably well.
I made a six meter delta loop, so it's all folded up in the garage, but I could hang it again.
I have, when I did my mast, I had two lanyards, two pulleys, two lanyards, one for experimental, and the other one to hold up my main 80 meter inverted V.
So I could hang all kinds of stuff up there.
And we've got a long list, so I'll move it on.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Thanks, Chuck.
Thanks for taking the chair tonight.
And, yeah, I think the idea of SCEDs are a good idea.
And as far as using 985 as a back channel, I think that works well.
As long as it's okay with our benevolent dictator, I think it sounds like a good idea.
So with that, I'll turn to Scott.
W3 KZG.
KC3O.
Okay.
This is W3 KZG.
Good evening, everybody.
Bill had me cracking up with that.
Yeah, that's great.
I think we should do that every so often.
Maybe once a month.
You could almost tie it into the workbench, too, if you really wanted to, since it's something
kind of technical and antenna testing and something like that.
But, yeah.
Definitely would like to do that.
I don't have too many antennas up right now.
I have 10 through 12 and a dual bander up.
My dipole is disconnected at the moment.
But I could definitely participate in some way.
And maybe pick a band one night, try it out.
Or we could actually probably do a gambit and just see who has what and maybe go down the list.
I don't know.
So I'll move it on.
KC3SQI.
This is W3 KZG.
Thank you, Scott.
W3 KZG.
This is KC3SQI.
Yeah, that's...
I'd be willing to participate in that.
And, like's been said, maybe do one a month or, you know, a different band for...
Just pick a night and then just do a couple bands a night.
And that would give you a little bit better idea of not only who can you reach, but also the...
Parameters from the air and what they're doing to it.
So, but that would be fun, I think.
So with that, I'll turn it over to the boss.
W3 GMS.
This is KC3SQI.
I'm getting all kind of new names.
Benevolent, dictator, the boss.
Jeez.
This is W3 GMS, and welcome to all those that are new to 985.
A pleasure having you on my repeater.
And make it your watering hole, for sure.
Anyway, Mike, thanks for taking the roundtable tonight.
I know things can get busy.
Sometimes around the 8 o'clock hour, but you showed up and doing a stellar job.
Just look how many check-ins you have here.
I didn't count them.
I'm working down in the lab.
But it's pretty impressive.
Anyway, I think the concept of it is good.
I will be unable to participate in it just because I'm involved in so many nets.
I do the W3 AOA Memorial Net Saturday mornings at 845 down on 3718.
I do the Antique Wireless Association PMAM Net on 75 meters at 430 on Sunday.
And there's several other nets that I occasionally check into.
I'm not a big net person.
But I think the concept of it is very good.
And I certainly give you my support to use 985 as your back channel.
And anything that brings activity to the machine and extends amateur radio to other frequencies for testing
and see who can hear who sounds like a good concept.
So I'm still working towards putting out some test signals on the alternate 985 transmit site.
And it's just been too cold to work out there in the little building at the base of the tower.
So it will happen.
And I got the logic board done for the split site stuff.
And that's all designed and built and checked out.
And that works really good.
And I'm just working on the link transceivers right now.
Well, I'm not working on them right now.
I'm working on Luke's project right now.
So that's that on that.
I'll be in for round two.
And I'm going to run back down the lab.
I'll be listening on All Star.
But I'll run back up the stairs to check in live on Analog RF.
Let's see.
Who do I turn it to?
Oh, Jim, AF3Z.
We missed you at Winter Field Day.
I hope you guys had a good time.
We certainly had a great time, I think, score-wise.
We did very, very well.
Keith did a great job as our chairman.
I passed the baton to him, and he did a wonderful job.
And it was a lot of fun.
AF3Z and the Thursday night 146.985 roundtable.
W3 GMS.
Okay, thank you, Joe.
And, Mike, am I getting in okay?
I think the intermod's out of here at the moment.
Round and treetop tall.
I know I screwed that up, Scott.
You're probably laughing.
You're sounding great, Jim.
Thank you, Mike.
And I didn't catch that, but whatever.
Yeah, I got the message.
All right.
And, Joe, I won't go into it now.
I had a good time, but I proved that I am a lid.
You might have heard that on the workbench Monday night.
I got all messed up.
I made a contact with W3R,
but the problem was I wasn't putting out any power at the time.
So, anyway, long story.
On the skeds, it depends what kind of band you're doing.
I don't have...
I got 2-meter FM.
That's about it here.
Well, I can go simplex.
And otherwise, we're talking HF.
And I could hook a mic up to my Triton transceiver here.
I'm not sure.
It's been a long while.
I guess I have a mic that would work with it.
But, anyway, right now I'm not even set up for sideband,
so I'm kind of limited.
But depending on what you're doing, that sounds good.
So, John, WA3KFT AF3Z.
AF3Z WA3KFT.
Well, I certainly got the machinery.
And the skyhooks.
So, I can go almost any mode.
Eh.
Not very good in CW, I'll tell you that.
I let that slide.
So...
But I can talk your ear off.
There are a few people on the net that know I can do that.
But, sounds interesting.
I bounce through a number of...
A week.
Some are the same time of day.
Seven days a week.
And others are one day a week.
And so on and so forth.
So...
It's likely that I can...
Rattle a few electrons around.
I have a question.
In terms of winter field day.
I was operating 75 meter phone.
And...
On Saturday afternoon, when the contest started,
I didn't hear anybody.
It was quiet as a mouse.
And it wasn't until...
Late afternoon that I heard signals above the noise and could work them.
But, initially, at the beginning, I didn't hear anything on 75 meter phone.
I don't know whether it was just that way or propagation was like that.
So...
Someone can comment.
N3QNC.
Joe, your turn.
UA3 King Fox Tango.
Yes, good evening.
Thank you so much there, Kentucky Fried Turkey.
Yeah, first of all, I just wanted to say it was great seeing a couple of you guys.
Meet me in person on field day.
CR and Ron.
It was great for us to head on out there.
It was certainly cold enough, that's for sure.
But, my son and I were grateful to come out and meet some of the guys that we've been listening to for so long here.
So, yeah, it was great to do that.
As far as the questions are concerned, yeah, I would be interested in something like that.
As far as this gets concerned, we have the machinery and such here.
I don't know if we wanted to try to move to 6 meters and 10 meters.
To keep it open for some of the lower class folks out there.
As far as their license class are concerned.
Rather than just...
Other vans.
But, yeah, we've definitely been interested there, here.
So, uh...
Saturday night, since I don't know.
All right, I believe, uh...
I forget the prefix, but, uh, engine GLI.
Your turn.
Thanks, Joe.
K-A-3-G-L-I here.
Yeah, it definitely sounds interesting to me.
And, uh...
I'd be up for participating.
Once I finally get some, uh...
Couple HF antennas up.
Uh, I gotta crack the whip on myself.
Uh, once we...
Get the snow melted here and, uh...
Into spring.
So...
That's definitely gonna be...
On the, uh...
Priority list for sure.
I'll send it down to you, Leon.
A-A-3-L-H-K-A-3-G-L-I.
All right.
Yeah, Mike.
Thanks to the hot cup of coffee we got.
This is A-A-3-L-H-N-S-A-K-U-G-L-I.
My goodness gracious.
Hot cup of coffee.
Weather like it tastes good.
Mmm, good.
That's what Mike's coffee is.
Mmm, good.
M-F-B.
Mighty fine beverage.
Thanks for doing the sketch.
Sure, I like to do that.
I have equipment here.
We could...
I could certainly talk to somebody over this particular time.
I'm not sure I would be able to...
Oh, I'd be able to hit.
But...
When Joe was down at the ocean,
I talked to him from here.
And his, uh...
Whatever kind of antenna he had that he was using,
it worked.
And I could hear him well.
So I'd be in favor of doing that.
Okay, this goes over to the real...
Uh...
Tailgarner.
Go ahead.
A-A-3-L-H.
Go ahead.
This is Alpha Charlie 2 Echo Golf.
Thank you, Leon.
Um...
I'll just revise my earlier answer
when I...
when I...
responded to the question on the, uh...
short-term list.
And I heard that, uh...
Joe expressed
that he's got too many nets to support.
And someone prior to that
suggested that maybe this would be a, uh...
technical roundtable workbench
kind of activity.
And maybe there's a little...
a little room there
to kind of merge the two.
Anyway.
Um...
That's my revised comment.
I'll pass it off to K3DSM.
This is AC2EG.
ESM, you still there, Gene?
Delta Sierra, Mike, Gene.
Are you still there?
Uh...
Uh...
Gene, if you're...
if you're out there
maybe getting a beverage or, uh...
or...
839 snack, uh...
we'll be here.
We'll, uh...
we'll let you pop in.
Uh...
So for right now, I guess I'll just do my comments.
Yeah, I was, uh...
the reason I came up with this idea
because we've done it before, A,
but the whole point
and...
the whole point
and thanks for the terminology, uh...
Bill and Joe for saying it again, the backchannel idea
of starting it here on 985
where everybody can check in.
We know exactly who's participating
and I like the ideas that folks have
that...
I think it was Wayne.
He said maybe, like, one or...
once a month
and then, uh...
one or two bands...
or Scott said that
but started off with that.
One or two bands a night.
I like what Wayne was saying there.
Does that make sense?
because if we can't hear you
on, say, 10 meter...
say, like, only...
say...
all right, oh, and there's 16 of us, Joe.
There's 16 at this moment,
including myself.
So say we can't hear...
say half the guys only see...
hear each other on 10 meter,
then we can go...
run back to 985.
We're still on it.
We're still listening on the backchannel.
And we'd be like, all right,
so we tested this.
This is what happened.
We only heard so many people.
All right, now we're going to go to 40 meter,
which I know is going to work real well for us,
especially in the evening hours and day hours.
W3MFB.
Now, a lot of folks are local,
and I hear...
even down here in this hole that I live in,
I hear a lot of folks,
especially on Bill's Lancaster Net,
on 146 580,
I hear a lot of folks locally.
Within, like, a 3 to 15 mile radius,
I hear people on 2 meter simplex.
I would like to do this on HF if we can.
That's my idea.
I think Harvey, if he was here,
he would agree with me on that.
It would be a great place to start.
Of course, in the general portion,
because some of us are just generals.
And I know there's extras,
but you guys can have your other net on, say, Friday night.
But yeah, I think it's a great idea to start on 985,
get the crowd together,
decide what bands we're going to work,
and then maybe here on the second round,
I like the idea.
I forget who put it.
I can't read my notes.
Sorry.
Somebody said,
let's go around on this second round if you can.
You can talk about whatever the heck you want,
but please tell me what you're capable of working,
HF or 6 meter,
because we all know we've got 2 meter here,
so no big deal.
But yeah, so go around the next time
and see what we all can do.
And I'll write it down on my list here
so we have a general idea.
And I like the idea of maybe doing this in the spring and summer
because, yeah, there's too much snow out there
to be out there rigging antennas, Chuck and Joe.
So, you know, it's just, I think it's a good idea for the spring.
That was a great idea, GLI said.
So, Mike, Thorndale Mike, Mighty Fine Beverage.
Thank you, Leon.
With the 985 crew for the Thursday night round table,
146, 985, negative offset, PL is 100.
Are there any other folks that wish to check in
to this round table tonight?
Please call before I go back to the top of the list.
It's worth a try.
All right, to the man himself, WHCRW, W3MFB.
Very good, Mike, in the group.
Well, for HF, I have a wire out the window up in a tree.
And with the tuner, I can probably tune 80 through 6.
So I'll try anything that's available.
Ron, your turn.
W-A-3-D-E-E-W-H-C-R-W.
W-A-3-D-E-E over here in Westchester.
Very good.
Well, a couple thoughts here.
I would hesitate to tie this with the workbench.
And the reason I'm saying that is because, first of all,
it deserves its own amount of time to do it right.
And the other thing is that, because I know we were on for a while when we did this several years back,
especially if you're going to try multiple bands.
And we really want to make sure that the questions on, this is just my own, obviously my own opinion,
especially as one of the hosts on the workbench.
We really want to make sure that we don't rush to workbench if they're really, really, well, regardless.
We really want to make sure we don't rush to workbench.
That's a great forum.
We have a great number of check-ins.
People listen to us.
And as they are here, there's five check-ins right now on Broadcastify.
And to give a shout-out to those folks as well, by the way.
And if you're out there and you're a ham, please check in.
We'd love to have you join us, digital or RF, for sure.
Don't be bashful.
But I'd really like to keep the workbench pretty pristine, personally.
Of course, you know, just throwing that out there.
And the other thing is that, like I said, we definitely don't want to be doing this every week,
maybe once, at most, maybe once a quarter, maybe.
But that's about it.
So when you say SCED, SCED has the implication of being a pretty regular thing.
So I agree with Chuck.
I wouldn't want to be doing this all the time.
Over here, I've got full HF capabilities, everything except 160.
I do have six meters as well.
And I've got, of course, obviously, two meters, 220, and 440.
So all that stuff is quite possible over here at this point.
So all very good.
Again, those on Broadcastify, don't just lurk.
Go ahead and check in, that's for sure.
I know Mike's going to call for additional check-ins.
At least get on the log for us, for sure.
Love to have you.
Oh, one other thing.
John, you had mentioned 75 meters on Monday or Saturday.
I'm not sure about 75 meters.
I was on 40, but I wouldn't expect to hear much during the day on 75 to begin with, for sure.
But, of course, you know, contest weekend.
But I don't even know if we were on 75 meters.
If anybody else was at the...
Scott, I don't know if you remember, we were on...
Well, you were with me logging at 40 meters.
So I don't think we even consider getting on 75 meters at the daytime.
So you might comment on that.
NA3CW and the group, WA3VE.
Thank you, Ron.
NA3CW.
Yeah, I guess I'm pretty much...
Ron and I are of the same mind.
Yeah, 75 meters is pretty much dead during the day, especially midday.
There's guys on early in the morning and obviously at night, but midday, not so much.
Mike, MSB, just for giggles, I flipped over to reverse.
And you're dead full quieting from me to you in your quote-unquote hole.
Even stronger than Ron.
Ron blasted in here pretty well, but you got him beat.
You're a little closer, too.
I agree.
I would not want to take over workbench on that.
It seems like even when nobody shows up with a question, we end up with questions arising
or a discussion that ends up going all over the place and can be very educational.
And sometimes somebody...
You've heard me harp on this a number of times, and that is sometimes the quote-unquote simple question
or the dumb question or whatever ends up being or requiring the most elegant explanation
because it's not nearly as simple as you think it is.
So, yeah, I like the...
The workbench is my favorite.
And, yeah, I really wouldn't want to interfere with that one.
But I think it's a cool idea to do these various tests and surveys and such whatnot.
I can get on 80 through 10 on sideband, CW, or AM.
I have an old TS-140S that can also do FM.
I don't have an FM board in my 920, but because of the AM mods I put in, I put in that space.
But my old TS-140 will do FM on 10 meters.
My 920 will do 6 meters, but only on AM, CW, and sideband.
I don't have an FM board in it.
And, of course, 2 meters FM, FM only.
I have one plain old half-wave Ringo as my antenna up at 40 feet.
I don't have any beams or anything like that.
And I have no permanent 6-meter antenna, although, like I said, I could, you know, run one up the flagpole, as it were,
on, you know, 10 minutes' notice.
If we're going to do that sort of testing again.
So, yeah, I have a Johnson Kilowatt matchbox with my 80-meter dipole, so it'll tune any of the HF bands.
Open wire lines set.
So it's not necessarily the best antenna for the high bands, but it gets out.
And I have a receiving loop antenna that's broadband and can listen to just about anything.
About 6 feet off the ground.
So, I guess that's all the news that's fit to print.
And over to Mr. Bill.
KC-3-0-O-K, NA3CW.
NA3CW, KC-3-0-O-K.
Well, I don't have too much more to add.
I kind of go along with the consensus.
I think they all sound like good ideas.
And I think it's a, anytime we're more active, that's a great thing.
I do have to add, I'm looking forward to maybe in the spring doing a 2-meter simplex sked.
After we get the coax run into Joe's Christmas building, I'd really like to try that.
Maybe this spring we could have a 2-meter one as well, Mike.
I don't have much more here.
I am out in the ham shack tonight, and it's toasty with the new little propane heater.
And I'm going to turn it over to Scott, W3KZG, KC-3-0-O-K.
KC-3-0-O-K is W3KZG.
Yeah, I would be all for it.
Pick a night, like I said, maybe, like Ron said, quarterly would be good.
Maybe start it, maybe sometime in March, do the first one, something like that.
Hopefully the weather's a little nicer.
Like I said, my dipole's not hooked up right now.
It kind of got, my ladder line got wasted in the storm we had back in the summer.
When it ripped the electrical service off the side of my house, it also pulled that down and it's on my coax as well.
So maybe I'll get that back up by then.
But for right now, all I have, Mike, if you're writing it down, is 10, 11, and 12 on a vertical, which, if I hook my tuner up, I have tuned that antenna to do six meters with the tuner.
But it's, you know, highly compromised at that point.
But it will work.
And then I just have the dual-band antenna.
But in the springtime, I have plans to get the new tower up.
And I have all the antennas.
I just got to get them mounted on the new tower.
And I'll have a two-meter, 70-centimeter, six-meter.
It's a tri-band antenna I bought to go on the top.
And what else will I have?
I'm hoping to get the beam up there.
It might not be up there initially, but it's going to be a 20 through 10 beam.
And the dipole as well.
But that'll all come in time.
Let's see.
We'll just keep it moving.
SQI.
It's W3KZG.
Okay.
Thank you.
And thank you, Mike, for taking the chair.
W3 Mighty Fine Buckets.
And for equipment here, I can cover 80 through 6, all bands.
Got to wait until we get a little closer to spring.
Or at least I get rid of this ice in the back yard to put the 10-meter vertical dipole back together.
I now have two monopoles, but only one of them has any drive to it.
The other one's just hanging there in free space.
And then I've got a 6-meter hula hoop.
two-meter and 70 centimeters.
So, you can do all of that.
For the...
Maybe throw this in for somebody to throw into the workbench.
But I've been listening and reading about now they have properly identified that there is an electromagnetic band between the troposphere and the ionosphere.
And they're now thinking that that may...
Due to solar...
solar issues and radiation and things, that that is probably more detrimental to our radio communications than the solar flares and things.
And that's what's happening. But that one is still, you know, out there a little bit. But, okay, with that, I will turn it over to Joe, W3GMS. This is KC3SQI.
Very good, Wayne. KC3SQI, W3GMS on All-Star from the laboratory. Yeah, I got engrossed in what I was doing here and listening to the comments. I forgot to meander and go up into Studio B. But anyway, all good comments. And I certainly concur. I think it was Ron who initially brought it up.
I don't think this should be dovetailed into the workbench. The workbench is a good standalone thing. And I think last week or early this week on Monday, I think it went till 930 or so.
So I think your initial proposal, Mike, of having it on, I mean, there's nothing on Tuesday on 985. There's nothing on Wednesday on 985. So they would probably be the two best bands. Weekends get busy. Friday night gets busy. So Tuesday or Wednesday. And as I said, no problem.
I'd love to see how you guys make out with this additional soiree on 985 as a back channel.
Let's see. Anything else? Nope. I guess not. I'm just mounting a 2.5 millihenry RF choke with a little standoff, porcelain standoff insulator next to it to act as a good termination point.
And now I have to get my spade terminal. And we'll be able to get this thing done and wrapped up here in a very short period of time.
So 730all and Mike, thanks very much for hosting the work, the roundtable, almost at workbench. It was on my mind. And thanks for raising the suggestion. And I think it's a good one.
I tend to think definitely once a week is too much. And it might be even a bit much once a month. But you guys can hash that out whether you have a once a month or every other month or on a quarterly basis.
You know, just whatever the gang wants and to get the most precipitation. That's rain. Participation in it will work nicely.
Okay. Thank you, Joe. And you also reminded me of chemistry class. Remember doing those things? You mix a couple things together and a solid will precipitate out of the liquid.
There's another use of that word. All right. Yeah, I am at a minimum state here at the moment with what equipment I have. It's the only HF. Well, I got my little QRP rig, but it's a little bit more.
a P-Rig, but it does less bands. Well, it does some work stuff, I guess, that my other one doesn't.
But all I have is 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10, really. And like I say, I'd have to get a mic hooked up,
and I can probably do that. But currently, I don't have a mic that'll plug into the Triton 4.
But it does do side bands. So anyway, and I don't have 6 meters or 160. And I have 2 meters FM.
And also, technically, I have 440 as well. I'd have to run a little ground plane. The beam I have is
not for a 440, so I'd have to run out my little ground plane to get on 440.
So I am rather limited. My Omni 6 had the work bands and stuff, but it's still currently among the unoperating.
And so anyway, I've been living with my Triton 4. And I like that little rig, and it's been doing me quite well.
So there you go. So I will be limited. And also, electricity nights are bad for me, and time is a big issue. So we'll see.
John, over to you once again. WA3KFT AF3Z.
WA3KFT. Okay. Very good, Jim. I can cover all the bands from 80 meters all the way up to 432.
Not necessarily with one radio, but I've got a collection of them here in front of me.
And I'm not partial to brands. I've got National and Swan and Hallecrafters and Johnson and ICOM and
Yesu and Kenwood and so on. So I can play most bands.
The lowest frequency is 80 meters.
And I have an 80 meter dipole for that.
And a fan dipole on 40 meters. It works on 40, 20, and so on.
I have beams for 6, 2, 220, and 432.
And I have verticals for 6, 2, 220, and 432.
Also have a vertical for 10 meters.
So, and in some cases, I have more than one radio for the same band.
But not necessarily too many radios on one band.
I have been a collector playing ham radio for more than half a century.
I've had my fingers on a lot of different knobs and a lot of different brands.
And still do.
So, I kind of like the idea maybe once a month or maybe twice a month.
You know, like second and fourth week or something like that.
Kind of do it on a regular basis.
But not interfering with Monday or Thursday.
N3 QNC.
Joe, your turn.
WA3 King Fox Tango.
All right.
Hey, thanks so much.
Glad to take it here this evening.
Yeah, I don't have a whole lot to elaborate on.
But I definitely would agree with some of the statements that were made.
Definitely love the idea of waiting for the warmer weather.
If for no other reason than I can experiment a little bit with different antennas outside.
It's quite easy to throw an NFED half wave or a simple dipole that made up and string it up into a tree.
When it's March, April, May than it is as I'm standing outside talking on my HT right now.
And I think it's about four degrees outside.
So, yeah, I would definitely favor that.
I would also say I think 10 meters is good.
10 meters would be good.
It would keep it open for the technicians.
And it sounds like it's a real common band that everyone seems to have access to, which is good.
You could also modify a couple radios relatively easily to get on 10.
And there's some good offerings now for some pretty cheap radios that are just 10 meters only.
So I think that's probably a good idea.
And lastly, I definitely would concur with the idea of not taking away from the workbench.
As a longtime listener of 985, I think I've learned a whole lot just by listening to the workbench over the last couple years.
Some of you guys have forgotten more about radio than I could ever hope to learn.
So I want to, as the relatively new guy who's been listening for a while, I just want to kind of remind everyone there's a lot of people out there that learn from it.
So I definitely wouldn't want to take away from that.
All right.
GLI to take it.
N3 QNC.
All right.
N3 QNC K through GLI.
Well, let's see.
I'll be on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10.
And to the best of my recollection, I don't even have a rig for six.
Although I could dig around some and who knows what I might find, I guess.
Let's see what Leon thinks on the second round.
A-A-3-L-H, K-A-3-G-L-I.
All right, Mr. GLI, what do I think?
All right.
A-A-3-L-H.
A-A-3-L-H was thinking this.
We should make it a, when we're going to do this a week on ahead, make an announcement on the workbench and on the roundtable
and send out emails to make sure everybody that hears it knows we're going to do this.
I think that is important.
I also feel it's important that we recognize that we have a lot of technicians on here.
And, you know, we want to use bands also that they can use.
I don't say we can't use HF bands, but we need to think of our techs.
Yeah, that's what I'm concerned about.
I can work 80 through 440.
Right now I'm talking, you guys, on a bail fang.
It's a bail fang that's got two meters, 440 on it.
I would have one that has two meters on it.
I can even run, I mean, 220 on it.
I have it.
So I can do all that if we want to go that route and do play with 220 sometimes.
But, you know, we've got to think of those guys.
If we want to run HF, we should have the techs head to something that they can run, too,
because we don't want them to opt out of that.
That's what I'm concerned about.
I mean, just because I'm an extra and can go anywhere doesn't mean I can say, well, if you can't go there tough.
Because I don't feel that way at all.
I don't think anybody here does.
But we need to think of them and what we finally do decide to do.
But I do think it would be a great thing to do.
Once a quarter would do good.
If we do it oftener, okay, that'd be all right.
Well, I can make it.
I can do it.
That's what I'm saying.
Anyway, this is the old Bale Fang talking to you tonight.
There's no intermarch, so you all hear me?
All right.
It goes to AC3EG.
This is what I have wrote down.
So it goes over to him.
A30H.
I'm enjoying the luxury hotel, the sun here, and the hot swimming pool.
This type of weather feels good.
A30H.
Okay.
Thank you, Leon.
A3LH.
This is AC2EG.
A lot of good points by everyone.
A lot of good points by everyone.
And I think keeping what works alone, not messing with it, making sure that everyone can access the bands.
Those are all excellent ideas.
To answer the question specifically, I have the rigs to do 80 through 10.
When I don't have antennas and the HOA in the attic, I could probably get down to 20.
But the real problem is going to be the breakers and everyone's on the side of the street.
So I may just have to listen and, you know, otherwise sit out.
But a great discussion.
So I'll pass it on to K3DSM.
This is AC2EG.
W3MFB there.
Had something to do.
So I still have minutes of check-in.
So that's great.
That's great.
This is W3MFB, host of the Thursday Night Roundtable.
It's been a pleasure.
It's awesome.
I'm going to make some key points here that I wrote down from everybody's comments.
And that was the whole point of the question.
The whole point was A.
And these are the key points.
And when we figure this out in spring or whatever, and I like we're once a quarter or whatever,
we can figure it out then.
But key points is one, start on 985.
The net starts here.
And I love, I love, I love what Leon just said.
Make sure it's.
technician available. In that point, we could have a tech once a quarter, right, Ron? So we could have a technician, we could have two technician nights, and we could have two general or above nights. Hey, make it good for everybody, because we want to experiment, and that's the whole point.
So choosing like 10 meters or 6 meters for tech, I think 10 meters would be a good shot, especially in nighttime. I think that would be good, because it starts to quiet down. I know there's some nets around, I know John, he hosts a net, but it gets pretty quiet, so the banter will be quieter, and I think that's a great place for techs to start, and everybody.
So we have that signal reports, like Bill does and the crew in Lancaster with the signal report and the power you're running. I think that's another good thing to have in there as like a bullet point during it.
And I see here everybody, for the most part, has HF capability.
Some do, some don't.
Some can get stuff up when the ice melts.
And Eric, maybe if you're still out there listening, but maybe this Monday night at 8 o'clock, if you check into the workbench, please,
and you can pose your HOA stuff, questions of what's going on there, and maybe we can get you figured out.
Up there.
And give you some ideas, because there's a, like somebody said, it's like we got a lot of information here.
And we could definitely help you out.
And HOAs, they're a pain in the butt, but there's ways to be sneaky, my friend.
So maybe we can help you out with that.
3MFB, host of the Thursday Night Roundtable.
Yeah, so there's some key things.
We could work it out, write it down.
I do agree not, oh, yeah, that was the third point, not having it on the workbench.
Every single, the roundtable, I love the roundtable.
Let's keep it that.
Let's keep it unique.
Let's keep the workbench.
So, Jim, AF3Z, did I wake you up?
No Tuesdays for him.
Sorry, we'll do it on a Wednesday, a wacky Wednesday.
Wacky Wednesday will be test day.
Sure, why not?
So, yeah, it has to have its unique things.
So Wednesday sounds good.
Meet at 985, and then we'll go from there and have it as the back channel in case there's technical difficulties.
Those are the bullet points I have.
I'm really glad for everybody checking in tonight.
That's awesome.
Thank you, Scott, W3KZG, for waking me out of my stupor.
And I wouldn't miss this for the world.
Hosting is so much fun.
And I encourage anybody listening or on the workbench that is not a host to, you know, give it a try.
If I can do it, you can do it a lot better.
So I'm going to call one more time.
Any other check-ins for folks that just want to get on the list or want to make a comment, say hello to a friend, whatever.
Any other check-ins, digital or RF, for the Thursday night roundtable?
Kilo Charlie 3, Lima Alpha Victor.
Charlie 3, Lima Alpha Victor.
What's your name, sir?
Sir, this is KC3LAV.
This is Mike in Warwick Township, Lancaster County, at the bottom of the hill.
And I'm glad that I ran into this.
I'm trying to learn stuff around, and you guys are killing me.
Even just keeping track of who's in here doing roundtable stuff is awesome.
Thank you very much.
I enjoy everything I'm hearing.
I intend to participate as much as possible.
I'm going to give this a break.
All right.
No, great to hear you.
Great to hear you.
Mike from Lancaster.
Awesome.
KC3LAV.
Great to have you on 985.
I want to welcome you.
I don't think I've talked to you before yet.
This is the 146-985 repeater.
We're located in Parksburg, as you know.
Monday night at 8 o'clock.
Every Monday night, we have a workbench, which is a technical discussion where people can bring up their qualms if they have questions about setting up their rigs, antennas, anything amateur radio-related or other,
because we have a wealth of knowledge on the machine, and we like to help each other out.
And then Thursday night, here we are.
We have our Rag 2 roundtable, where we ask either serious questions about the hobby or what we feel like doing or even just what's your favorite rock band when you were a kid.
I don't know.
But that's always my question.
But great to have you.
Mike, do you have any HF capabilities, 10-meter or 6-meter?
Or what do you have there at your station in Lancaster?
KC3 LAV W3MFB.
I will please ask you to make sure my location is listed as Warwick Township in Lancaster County.
And let's see.
I have 10, 11.
I have 2, 6, 10, 11.
That's probably enough.
I'm a technician.
I have stuff here.
I have a lot of stuff here that probably doesn't even work right.
I have an IMAX 2000 that I'm on now, right?
With you.
No, I'm on the J-Pole now.
On 2-meter.
I'm on the J-Pole out front.
I have an inverted V-dipole on the roof.
I have a slinky 40-meter on the roof.
It's not connected.
I have 6-meter antennas.
I have tons of stuff going on around here.
Half of it don't work.
In spring, I lay down the IMAX and rewire it.
Get it up another 15 foot so I can do some talking.
Yeah, I love it.
And I'm glad that I found you guys.
KC-3 LAB, I know half of you already.
We're just hanging out.
Thank you very much, Mike.
We're here.
One mic to another.
I'm glad you're here.
And thanks for coming in and checking it out.
Yeah, I just pulled up your QRZ page.
And I'm jealous.
I'm jealous.
You got your technician license on March 17th.
That's St. Patrick's Day.
That is awesome.
That is awesome.
And kudos to what you're able to do.
And that's great.
It's great to hear techs have, you know, for the most part, all their privilege for antenna and stuff.
So that's great.
I hope to hear you on Monday and also throughout the week.
If you have time, just pop in.
Usually there's somebody out there listening.
So this is awesome.
So you're number 17 in the new tail gunner.
So there you go.
So, yeah, this is W3MFB.
I guess we'll, well, you know what, one more time.
Why not?
Joe loves a good electric bill.
Any other check-ins to the Thursday night roundtable?
I keep every time I'm on key, I say it's worth a try because I'm fishing.
I'm fishing for check-ins.
So, yeah, so I guess that's about it.
I guess I'll conclude the roundtable here.
And turn the repeater back to normal amateur radio use.
Feel free to stick around if you want.
I know your retirees there don't really have to go to bed right now.
But I'm going to have to here shortly.
So have fun.
Keep playing radio.
Learn from each other.
Be there for each other.
And that's what Ham Radio is all about.
7-3 off from W3MFB.
Thanks Mike for taking the net, A3OH.
Be on.
Hey, LAV, how's your dog Watson like his cold weather? Ours don't like it.
The person does not like the snow. He's very, he's picking his steps very closely. I dug him a path. I have to make a bigger path. But anyway, no, he hates it. He don't like it at all. I have a sweater on him all day long and I put a snow coat on him to go outside. Loving it, loving it. Every minute of it. 65 pound lap dog.
Yeah, okay. Ours, yeah, he just does like, be careful, be late. He'll be trying not to run. He'll go a little too fast. He'll be four legs stretched out and belly flat on the snow. He does not, does not appreciate that at all. What do you think?
See that. I can see that and it's horrible. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I gotta press down. I'm gonna take a box out tomorrow and lay it down and walk him out a path a little further than I have already. I gotta make it bigger now. That's a fact.
Yeah, I might, cause I don't think this, this stuff is gonna disappear in the next two weeks. I don't think so. But it's nasty out here. I can almost walk out. Next thing you'll break through with the one foot. This stuff is nasty. It's ice. I don't care to take a flopper or my whole body will fall, will break through it. Over.
Yeah, that's why I take a box in the basement and open it up and then lay it down on the snow and I'll step on the box a couple times and move the box and step on it again. Yeah, I'll make it, I'm not gonna dig anything anymore. I'll just walk it out.
Till it gets to the yard, give them some, break it down some. It's a mess.
But anyway, I'm ready for, for, for July. That is for sure. July. Oh, beautiful July. You know, that's, that's what we, uh, that's what we were looking for. That type of weather. But because we got a long way to go to July. We should, well, we should get a break in probably a week or two. We should get some nice, nicer weather and then maybe just off a wall melt and go away and the dogs will be happy. AA3LH.
One time camcation this year.
No, I'm not, we didn't plan on going down. It just didn't quite work out due to some health issues that I have going right now. We're going to skip this year. We're going to look, look at going down next year.
Yeah, that makes sense. KC3 LAV. Smart man. Did you hear, did you hear Sam talking about the dog ripping up the, ripped up the blankets and stuff? He's so...
Yeah, I heard W3IHM talk about his dog tearing blankets up.
I don't know.
It's kind of, I don't know what to say.
We don't put none on our dog, but we don't let him out real long.
And he doesn't want to be out in this type of weather real long.
You know, give him about five minutes, and he's ready to come back in where it's nice and warm.
That's what he wants to do.
That's how it works.
We don't go out back where the antennas are or nothing.
I hope none come down on me, because this type of weather, I can't put them up.
They're done.
They're staying down until the weather breaks.
That's the way it is.
But, you know, so far everything's holding at A3OH.
Roger that.
Roger that.
I got a 10-meter center-fit dipole that's hung up wrong, and that's not even connected now.
And then I got the IMAX 2000 up there.
I got to lay that down and put it up another 10, 12 foot, and then put the tower back up again.
That's the most important one, so I can do 10 and 11 better.
Yeah, but we're doing all right, all in all.
There's a lot of stuff around here.
The whole wall is going to fall down on me if I don't pay attention to it here soon.
I got to break it all down and rebuild it.
That's all.
Roger, roger on that, Yale.
Well, I want to drop my one vertical that I have and lay it down and redo it and try to redesign the ground plane that I have for it.
Try something different and just see how it works.
I mean, we're hands.
We're playing.
This is something we play with.
That's what I want to do, is play with it and see how we end up with that.
That's the main thing.
Roger, roger.
Boy, I wish I had the space.
I needed a footprint to put up the SPL 500.
I need, I need like 22 foot for radials and I can't deal with that.
So that antenna stayed in the box.
Anyway, we're having a good time.
I'm glad to hear you.
I'm glad I found this net tonight and keeping the list so I can get in the rotation proper.
That's going to be the learning curve for me.
That's why I don't do round tables well because I don't keep track right.
Copy.
Well, maybe if we don't forget to do so, we can send you a text for Monday night.
Oh, by the way, this group has a breakfast every third Friday of every month.
A third Friday of every month.
They have a breakfast.
Maybe it hits your eye, but they have three.
They tell me you want to ride along with him to come to the breakfast.
You have a lot of fun there.
Meeting all these hams.
Three Zed.
I get a ride with Three Zed.
I'd take a ride with anybody.
Yeah, sure.
I'll do that third Friday.
We'll talk about that some more.
Copy.
Yeah, A.M. Three Zed.
Yeah, he comes to the breakfast.
Hopper.
He don't live real far from you.
He can hop on there and bring you along to the brass eagle.
And you get to meet about 40 or sometimes 50 hams show up.
Get to meet a lot of people.
Dang, I'd have to get cleaned up and everything now.
You're putting me on the spot.
I'm going to have to pay attention.
Let me mark down these numbers and stuff and carry on about this.
We'll put it on the book and see what happens.
You're a rascal.
Give your sweetie a hug for me, copy.
I can sure do that.
She's about 15 feet from me right now.
I can sneak over there and give her a hug.
And then if that's from LAV, she'll know who it is.
Joe, buddy.
We'll catch you later on.
Thanks again for letting me be a part of this tonight.
Learned a lot just hanging with you.
KC3LAV will be clear with you for now.
KC3LAV73 at A3OH.
Thank you.