W3GMS Thursday Night Roundtable

Welcome to the inaugural 2026 edition of the 985 Roundtable, a weekly amateur radio discussion hosted on the W3GMS 146.985 MHz repeater in Parksburg, Pennsylvania. This episode brings together operators from across the region and beyond for an open, informal conversation that goes well beyond radio.

The featured discussion asks a simple but powerful question: What makes you say “wow?” Participants share reflections on people, achievements, technology, history, craftsmanship, music, science, nature, and the pioneers whose ideas shaped the modern world. From Apollo-era engineering and World War II heroism to James Clerk Maxwell, Edwin Armstrong, and the beauty of national parks, the conversation highlights curiosity, ingenuity, and human achievement.

Also included are community updates, repeater announcements, upcoming VE testing, Winter Field Day planning, and a nod to the approaching 50th anniversary of the W3GMS repeater.

If you enjoy thoughtful conversation, technical curiosity, and the unique culture of amateur radio roundtables, this episode is a solid listen.

Format: Open roundtable discussion

Recorded: January 1, 2026

Net: 985 Roundtable on W3GMS

Host: Ron, WA3VE

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.

Happy New Year to everybody.

Welcome to the 985 Roundtable.

My call sign is WA3VE.

My name is Ron and I'm located in Westchester, Pennsylvania.

It is my distinct pleasure to be your host for this first roundtable of 2026.

We meet every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. here on the W3 GMS Parksburg repeater, 146.985 megahertz.

The PL tone to access the repeater, which has a negative 600 kilohertz offset, is 100 hertz.

For tone squelch on receive, use 94.8 hertz.

The repeater has a website, www.w3gmsrepeater.com.

It contains technical articles, photos, and information about the repeater, its history, users, and group events.

Besides this roundtable, we also have the 985 Workbench on Monday evenings at 8 p.m.

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

Newcomers are always very welcome on the repeater and encouraged to check in, especially on the roundtable and the workbench.

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 here are very informal, passing the mic around in the order in which stations call in.

So please 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 a question as a discussion starter.

You can answer that if you wish, and comment about other subjects also.

If you have any suggestions or questions about the roundtable, contact Phil, KC3CIB, or Jim, AF3Z.

Both are good on qrz.com.

Be aware that on occasion, the repeater experiences intramod interference.

Please run maximum power or be prepared to check in digitally through Echolank or All-Star.

We want to hear you.

To be able to use Echolank or All-Star at any time on 985, you need to register with us first.

Directions for doing so can be found on the website, W3GMSRepeater.com.

When Echolank is present during the roundtable, before starting a transmission, give a short call and ask, am I getting in okay?

Once the host confirms that you are, then you can share your longer comments.

Otherwise, we may not hear anything that you have to say.

Now, don't be too quick to talk.

Pause a couple seconds before hitting the press-to-talk switch.

This is always good repeater etiquette at all times, and the pauses are especially helpful to those on All-Star and Echolank.

Do click the PTT button.

Wait a second before starting to talk.

We don't want to miss what you have to say.

Takes a moment for the repeater to process your PL tone and turn its transmitter on.

Also, the repeater has a 3-minute FCC-required timer.

If you talk for more than 3 minutes without letting up on your mic button, the repeater completely shuts down until you release your PTT.

So, every 2 to 3 minutes, release the mic button.

If you're on RF, just like this, just for a moment, you don't need to let the repeater carrier drop, and then you can continue.

Okay, now that all that business is out of the way, a couple announcements before we get into the question tonight.

There is a VE session on Saturday morning in Claymont, Delaware, at Holy Rosary Church.

We already have 10 signed up to take their exams, or two of whom are looking to upgrade.

I think a lot of people got Balfang radios for Christmas, and it was an awfully interesting cram session during a week's time.

But we have 10 people that are signed up right now, so we're going to have a whole cadre of VEs down here to handle all this.

It should be a very interesting session.

Also, don't forget to look at your emails for Winter Field Day planning and execution.

Winter Field Day is the last full weekend in January.

That's for sure.

So, it should be a very interesting January coming up here.

Okay.

All the housekeeping announcements are out of the way.

Let's get to the question.

All right.

Tonight's question for discussion.

Tell us about the first 45 resolutions you...

Oh, wait a minute.

Hold it.

That's wrong.

Okay.

Let me grab the right piece of paper here.

Okay.

That's the right piece of paper.

All right.

Okay.

This is the real question for tonight.

Tell us about a couple things.

These could be people also that make you go, wow.

Things that extraordinarily impress you.

Make your mouth water.

Leave you in awe.

Leave you speechless.

You get the idea.

And tell us why.

This is open-ended.

It doesn't have to be radio-related.

Tell us what makes you go, wow.

We'll start with check-ins now.

And we'll start with short-time digital stations.

Digital, digital, digital only.

Short-time digital stations using Echolink or All Star.

This is WA3VE.

This is the 985 Roundtable.

Initial Roundtable for 2026.

Digital short-time check-ins.

Please call now.

N4MRW.

Whiskey 3 Juliet Alpha Mike.

W3JAM.

Thank you.

We will call for more, but so far, I acknowledge Matt, W4MRW, and Jeff.

Great to hear you, Jeff.

It's been a while.

W3JAM.

Additional digital check-ins.

All-Star or Echo Link for the short-time roundtable list.

Please call now.

Nothing heard.

Let's go to RF short-term.

RF short-term check-ins.

This is WA3VE.

Please call now.

Nothing further heard.

One more call.

Digital or RF stations for the short-time list.

Anyone, anywhere.

Short-time, digital, or RF.

Please call now.

This is WA3VE.

Okay, again, we have W4MRW, and we've got W3JAM.

So, again, tell us about a couple things that make you go, wow.

It doesn't have to be radio-related, and tell us why.

N4MRW.

Sorry, I got your call wrong there.

N4MRW, Matt.

WA3VEE.

WA3VEE in the group here's N4MRW.

Thanks for taking the chair, Ron.

First of the new year.

It was good chatting with you earlier this afternoon

while the negated community.

Well, you were mentioning about someone who,

something that may be kind of wow.

Well, lately, and Chuck, any 3CW listening,

he'll know who I'm talking about,

stumbled upon an individual named Steve Scheibner,

who, if you follow YouTube,

he analyzes different flights named Captain Steve.

So he was talking about an incident that happened a couple weeks ago

in North Carolina and said that he was a few hours away from it.

So I went to look him up, and lo and behold, he was a Navy veteran,

and also, and what made me say, wow, was he was supposed to be on one of the 9-11 flights as a pilot,

but he got bumped the last minute.

So when I read that, and I was like, okay, wow, it'd be interesting to hear his story.

Come to find out, he wrote a book about his experience and what he thought,

and his thought process going through the day, and then that night, you know, the afternoon getting bumped,

and then lo and behold, the next day, we all know what happened.

But yeah, he was supposed to be on the flight because he was based in Boston,

so he was supposed to be on one of the flights that hit the World Trade Center out of Boston.

So other than that, fairly busy day at the Gating community.

Just a lot of people still celebrating from New Year's Eve.

But it's been, overall, not too bad.

Nice and a little bit warmer down here in Raleigh than it is up LPA.

So other than that, I'm going to call it evening since I've got shift in the morning.

So I'll send it over to W3JAM.

Here's N4MRW.

Okay, Matt, fine business.

4MRW.

W3JAM.

The rare appearance, Ron, on the Thursday night roundtable due to my singing engagements.

Hi, hi.

Church choir, in this case, for Thursday nights.

We're on a bit of a respite right now at church, so I don't have to rehearse anything or attend rehearsals or what have you.

So it's good to have a little bit of a break.

Next week, we might be in the same boat next week.

And the chair, Ron.

It's good to hear you.

And be heard.

I'm on All Star tonight just because it's convenient.

I'm multitasking on another thing.

And the RF situation.

Studio A is nonexistent, so I can't get on 985 any other way from Studio A.

So there you go.

And I'll have to think more about the question.

So just off-the-cuff response is it tends to be in the various areas that I'm involved in, various rooms, if you will, of life.

Music being one of them tends to be people that have just natural talents.

I have to work very hard at most things that I'm involved in, but there are people who don't seem to have to do that.

And those sorts of people tend to impress me and make me go, wow.

It's probably not the big wow factor, but it's my personal wow in terms of just innate abilities that certain people have.

And the same is true, you know, with respect to skills in the equestrian world, just natural ability that people have,

along with the radio world, ham radio, for example, or electronics or engineering in general.

Some of the folks I've come across in my career, there have been numerous ones that have exuded some sort of wow factor,

or at least from my perspective in terms of their abilities, their reasoning or thinking abilities,

or abilities to, you know, get the job done sometimes in creative ways, thinking outside the box.

Those are the sorts of things that have given me pause to say wow over the years.

And that's just off-the-cuff response.

I'm trying to get some dishes done after dinner and mind other things going on in the store here in Studio A.

So with that, I think I will turn it back to you.

And as I recall, there is no timeout on All Star, although I think I still have a timeout factor set on my HT here,

so I'm probably going to time myself out.

But not to worry with respect to the repeater.

Back to you, Ron.

I will listen out.

I'm multitasking here.

I'm not going to formally stick around or be on the hook to stick around,

but I will be listening for the regular check-ins that can stay longer.

WA3 VEE in the Thursday Night Roundtable from W3JAM.

Very good, Jeff.

Excellent.

Excellent all the way around.

Before I call for more check-ins for a short time, I'm going to just comment here very briefly.

Matt, I am impressed at your selecting Captain Steve.

He is one of my favorites.

And whenever there is an air accident or whatever,

he is the first one I go to on YouTube to get a really objective and professional evaluation and, I guess,

report from him about what he thinks may have happened.

He is the very first one I go to.

And it's very interesting about him being bumped.

I will look up his book because that's one thing.

I hope it's on Audible because that's one way I listen to books for sure.

But thanks for letting me know about that.

Yeah, that's definitely a great pick, no doubt about it.

And I never knew his last name either, Steve Scheibner.

That's very interesting.

He is quite the professional.

And I take any flight that he's a captain of.

There's no question in my mind, absolutely.

As many over 400 and some I've ever done in my professional.

And leisure life.

It would be just wonderful to have him up front, no doubt about it.

And, Jeff, yep, many, many.

I share your estimations also about people in engineering, science, and music.

I don't have a lot of experience in.

But I just am impressed with anyone who can handle a keyboard other than the kind that I have in front of me with letters and numbers on it instead of just white and black keys.

That's absolutely cool.

All very, very good.

This is the 985 roundtable here on the W3GMS.

I'm a Marksburg, Pennsylvania repeater.

My call sign is WA3VEE.

My name is Ron.

I'm the host for the initial edition of the roundtable here for 2026.

And I'm looking for any additional short-time check-ins.

Short-time digital or RF check-ins.

Short-time only.

Please call now.

Good evening, Ron.

This is Kevin.

N4, Sierra Echo November, Mobile.

I'll be short-time.

I've got to keep my eye on the road here getting home.

But I'll be listening.

Thanks.

N4, SEN, Mobile.

Very good, Kevin.

Would you like to comment on the question or you just want to be in and out listening?

I did not hear the question.

I just switched along.

I'm listening in London to Route 1 South.

But I'll just be listening, Ron.

Thanks.

N4, SEN.

Okay.

Very, very good, Kevin.

It's great to hear you.

Happy New Year to all you guys out there on the short-time list so far for sure.

So we've got you in the log.

N4, SEN is in and out.

One last call for short-time check-ins before we go to the regular list.

This is WA3VEE.

Any mode.

Nothing heard.

Now we'll take regular check-ins from those who have more time to stick around.

Again, this is WA3VEE.

I will take digital stations for the regular list first.

Digital stations, Echolink or All Star?

Please call now.

This is W1RC.

Good evening and Happy New Year to everybody from Marblehead, Massachusetts.

I have no questions, but maybe I have an answer.

So we'll stick around.

Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR.

So far we have W1RC, Mr. Mike, up in Marblehead, Mass.

And we've got W8CRW.

Any additional digital check-ins?

Those using Echolink or All Star?

Please call now.

Okay, now let's switch to RF stations.

Those using RF who can stick around, please call now.

W3GMS.

NA3CW.

KC300K.

WA3K.

Tango, WA3 KFT.

W3 KZG.

N3 QNZ, November 3, Quebec, November Charlie.

Okay, here's what I have so far. I've got W1RC, WHCRW, W3GMS, NA3CW, KC3OOK, WA3KFT, and W3CW.

W3KZG, and N3 Quebec, Nancy Charlie. Is that Joe over in Gap? I have you here on QRZ.

Yeah, that's right. Not too far away, just down the hill. N3 QNZ.

Very good. By the way, I hear the Intermod in the background, so if you have high power, please use it, or switch to Echolink or All Star.

Before we get started, and I get the question again, let me ask for any additional digital or RF check-ins for the 985 round table.

round table this is WA3VEE please call now.

The rotation as I have it again please note who follows you in this rotation so you can

turn your microphone over to them at the end of this I'll give the question again. W1RC,

WHCRW, W3GMS, NA3CW, KC3OOK, WA3KFT, W3KZG, and N3QNC. So the question again tonight is tell

us about a couple things these could be people also or groups that make you go wow. Things that

extraordinarily impress you make your mouth water leave you in awe leave you speechless you get the

idea and tell us why. This is open-ended doesn't have to be radio related. Tell us what makes you

go wow Mr. Mike to start us off. W1RC, WA3VEE, and the round table.

Interesting question. WA3 VEE and the Roundtable. This is W1RC in Marblehead, Massachusetts. I've got to think about that for a minute, but I'd like to mention, being 2026, that this is the 50th anniversary of the W3 GMS repeater.

And I think that is something that is quite a remarkable achievement, and I think we ought to mention that more often. 50 years of GMS. So I'm mentioning it now, January 1st, 2026, 50th anniversary, coming up probably in September. I think Joe can tell us the exact date, and I think we ought to have some celebration all year. Why not?

Let me reset.

Let's see. What makes me go wow?

Well, I would say what impresses me, I like to read a lot, and I like to read about history, and World War II is a very interesting subject for me. I've been always fascinated with it.

My father was a World War II veteran, and all his friends were too.

I'm of the age that, when I was growing up, a little kid in the 50s, the war was just over.

Reading books about World War II and reading some of the heroic exploits of some of the guys,

some of the stuff, and women, some of the things that they did in that generation,

they don't call that generation the greatest generation for nothing.

There are some incredible stories.

A lot of them are just coming out now of heroism and incredible, incredible bravery

that people have exhibited, and some of them at the cost of their lives.

Reading about Medal of Honor winners, Victoria Cross winners, medals for valor and stuff.

I guess that is after, hang on, let me just reset.

A very short period of time is about the best I can come up with,

but it does make me say, wow, this guy or this gal, unbelievable.

I'm reading a book right now about a guy who was in the British Army, and he was captured and ended up in a hospital with a bunch of German soldiers.

He's lying there in bed covered up with his blankets, and the general came in and pinned an iron cross on all the soldiers there, including him.

He had some very interesting exploits as well.

So I hope that answers the question satisfactorily, but that's the best I can do with such short notice.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you.

This is W1RC in Marblehead, Mass.

Again, wishing everybody a very happy and healthy 2026.

Thank you, Mike, for that introduction.

And, Ron, thank you for taking the chair.

Ron, this is a difficult question for me.

I'm thinking and thinking, and I'm saying, wow, most of the things that I would say would violate Joe's rule.

So I got to pass that by.

But then Mr. Mike mentioned something, and I said, you know, I heard about a guy recently.

There's a guy named Dominic Crittorelli.

I believe I'm pronouncing his name.

He's a 104-year-old World War II veteran.

And he just performed at a sports event this week playing the saxophone.

And the fans went wild.

With that, Joe, your turn.

Happy 50th for the GMS Repeater.

WHCRW.

Good. I like that.

And the intermod's in there, but it's not very bad tonight.

So, anyway, we've had worse, and it will disappear in time.

CRWW3GMS and the 985 Thursday night roundtable.

First off, Ron, thank you very much for hosting it.

You always do a great job.

I like your questions and so forth and so on.

I've just been sitting here laughing at CR when he said he really couldn't say what wowed him

because it would violate the repeater rules.

So, yeah, what do they say?

We need a side-chain conversation on that.

And, Mr. Mike, thank you for bringing the awareness that it is 50 years since the GMS machine went on the air

one cold, cold night on November of 1976.

I can't give you the exact date.

I should have it.

I may have it in the archive somewhere, but November of 1976 is when I took all the bucket of bolts,

the six-foot rack up to the little block building up on top of the 900-foot ridge and did everything.

And it was a very, very eerie feeling after sleeping almost with this repeater and building it piece by piece by piece by piece

of slamming that big steel industrial door that we had on the 985 building, which is a different building than it's in now.

So, yeah, a lot of fond memories.

And the repeater never was quiet.

That first evening, my wonderful mentor and Chuck's wonderful mentor and all the Friday nighters that he mentored,

he was on all night long, Harry.

So I said, well, this is a good test for continuous duty.

Anyway, more to the point, I think things that wow me the most, Ron, are things that people build.

I love building.

I don't have as much time to do it as I would like, but I'm hopeful that when I get some of my mega projects out of the way,

I'll have more time for building.

But I really admire craftsmanship, engineering talent, whatever it may be, either something that somebody else builds and demonstrates

or something that I build and flick the switch and it works.

Or if it doesn't work, debug it and find out why it doesn't work.

And one of the most recent examples of that is my tower.

My 60, what bill is it, what is it, 68 feet?

If the tower is, if the base is four foot tall, which I think it is with the concrete and everything.

That thing go up in the air.

That was definitely a team effort with Mr. OOK being the project manager on it.

And that was definitely a wow moment.

It's something that was crafted.

It was built and rebuilt because it had issues, a lot of issues.

And I am very, very proud and wow.

And Martha even gets up in the morning, opens the blinds from the kitchen and opens the blinds and goes,

Wow, there's that gorgeous tower.

W3GMS, NA3CW.

Well, you sort of stole my thunder, but I'll elaborate on it some more.

I just get wowed over great workmanship in any field, be it carpentry or music, acoustics, clever design, the Grand Canyon.

Great workmanship in any form.

Because I have attempted to make a few things in my life, some of which were decent.

But to look at something that was made very well at a higher standard, a higher level of competence,

a higher level of understanding of the materials, of the techniques, of the application, whatever.

That's the kind of stuff that makes me go like, wow.

Yeah.

And like I said, it can come in many forms.

But I appreciated whichever way it arrived.

Something that was a very well-recorded and mixed CD.

A great piece of furniture.

I loved going to the art museum in Philadelphia.

Formerly known as the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

And it started its life as an industrial arts museum, not a fine arts museum.

It developed into one, but it also has its feet in industrial arts.

And so they have some of the great creations from times gone by, like armor and silverware and cabinetry.

Lots of 3D physical objects, as well as painted heads on the wall.

And to me, I could just stare at that stuff and thinking, okay, this was made in 1650 or something.

How in the world did they get this finish on it?

How in the world did they get this form?

How in the world did they get this fit?

And who came up with this design?

It just, you know, Patty's tapping her foot waiting for me to go to the next thing.

But I'm staring at this thing going, wow.

So, over to somebody that knows something about that.

KC3OOK in A3CW.

KC3OOK.

Thanks, Chuck.

Ron.

Thanks for taking the chair tonight.

Yes, it is a good question.

A lot of ways to go with it.

And, yeah, I understand exactly what you're saying, Chuck, with the furniture.

It is just as stupid as it is.

The other thing that would abound you is, as you know, it was all done with hand tools, but you would think it would have taken a long time.

It was so bad.

And it was just amazing.

But anyhow, for me, I think a lot of similar sentiments that were all these things said.

It's, for me, people of exceptional talent and exceptional talent.

I'm guessing all of them has why.

It's because I'm not.

But, you know, music, Jim and I have talked before.

He has just, you know, used to many nights in the dark and listen to a very important part of the piano jazz.

The lady, at some point, she was probably good age, and just was kind of good talented piano.

So, the repertoire is extremely relevant.

It's just amazing for some of her age and talent.

She was really fine.

So, she was able to go around.

We've got another.

We've got people from the Evelsidewood family, but I stumbled across a YouTube video.

And it was a dead type talk.

It was Max Freeman's podcast.

His father named Jeffrey Stamon.

I think it was his second cousin.

He was really good at the National Evelsidewood family.

He was a little model of YouTube.

And we're like, "The Evelsidewood family."

Another one.

He was looking on to go wow.

He was looking pretty well.

He was on the annual talk when we were on radio.

He was looking at things he's doing.

I'm WA3VE your host for the 985 Thursday night round table.

Chuck thanks for jumping in.

I was about ready to do the same thing because it's very uncharacteristic for Bill not to have a very very strong signal over the intermod.

No doubt about it.

So very good.

Okay so anyway I did manage to get the gist of what you were saying Bill.

But yeah it almost took you out.

Okay let's continue.

John your turn.

WA3KFT WA3VE with the round table.

WA3VE and the round table.

WA3 King Fox Tango.

Okay.

Well one of the things that wowed me.

Well more than 50 years ago when I first got my license.

Was Alan Vincent.

W3Ocean Radio.

W3OR.

Very good 6 meter operator at the time.

And when I was perousing some of my early QSTs like 1930s.

Alan was in there.

On five meters.

But he was retired from Westinghouse.

And I want to say almost a full time ham operator on six meters.

He did have two meters.

But wasn't interested in anything HF.

He had six meter beams, two meter beams.

And that was it.

Out in Glen Mills.

And if you were mobile on six meters and he happened to be in the radio room, you got an answer.

And it wasn't a weak signal.

Alan was in there.

And it wasn't a weak signal.

Alan was in there.

A marvelous loud signal.

Well, I found out why, because I visited him once, and he had a KLEG station, KLEG interceptor receiver, which had nuvisters on the front end, and we're talking late 50s, early 60s technology.

Transistors hadn't been invented for UHF low noise yet, but the nuvister was, and the transmitter was the KLEG Zeus, and that was a 100-watt plate-modulated transmitter, and the transmitter was in two parts.

The modulator power supply was one box, and the transmitter was another, and the receiver was separate also.

But he started with a six-element beam, and then he stacked them, six-element beams, with a skeleton slot, which hasn't been advertised in a long, long time.

If you go back to 1958 QSTs, you'll find it is one of the advertisements, a skeleton slot for the matching.

Basically, it's a double-link that is a full wavelength on six meters, and it looks like a figure-eight.

And in the middle, the figure-eight is the feed point.

And that also spaces the pair of beams.

Anyway,

he was...

And if you were roaming around or going back and forth to work or whatever,

in the mobile, on six meters, he would talk you from one point to the other.

And, uh...

Uh...

I did get a chance to see, uh...

his wooden tower...

that was on his house when he was in Essington.

He worked at Westinghouse.

And when he moved out to Glen Mill, he took the tower off the roof and took the tower out there.

But I did remember seeing a photograph of the tower on... on... on the roof of his house in Essington.

Made out of wood.

And it was written up in QST a number of times.

Uh...

Well...

It's a... a silent key.

But, uh... he would all...

...you... if you were on six meter mobile.

Every time.

Yeah.

There's been a lot of other inventions since then and what have you.

But, uh...

Wow.

Uh... a lot.

W-3 KZG.

Scott.

W-A-3 K-F-T.

Go ahead.

W-3 KZG.

Ron, am I getting in over the... um... noise?

beautifully like you're sitting here Scott go ahead all right I just wanted to double check I know

Bill was on his tripod antenna not the big antenna so that's why he was having a tough

time getting in so all right on on with the thing here I know I watch Captain Steve as well

I like his videos he's actually was forced into retirement due to age they have a age limit as

commercial pilots I don't know if that's already happened but I know it was going to happen this

year this past year so I think it was in November he was forced into retirement due to age that's the

only reason just a number which should be changed honestly the other things that wow me is I went

down a rabbit hole a year or two ago when it came to the Apollo missions for getting into outer space

and going to the moon with what they were able to accomplish with the the antiquated technology that

they had at the time there's a very good YouTube series where they actually get a lot of the equipment

that was in the command module and they get it working again and make it function and tear it down and show

you everything and it's very interesting what they accomplished with so little technology-wise

and that sort of thing kind of wows me. And on the same thing as space topics, SpaceX landing

their rocket boosters back to Earth, that just, when I first saw that, that was crazy

to see that this rocket booster motor can come land itself back down and be reused. That's,

to some people that were in the early NASA stuff that had to have blown their minds when

they saw that, they were probably like, "Oh my God." But then we move on to musicians and

artists. They, you know, musicians, I can't play an instrument, never learned, never had

the time to try to learn. And, yeah, just the very, very talented people out there that

can play instruments and singers. Artists, I lump artists in, not so much as painters, the painters can do very well too, but people that build things, machinists, fabricators, woodworkers, they're all artists to me. They're, the end product is a work of art.

very talented people out there that can play instruments and singers.

Artists, I lump artists in not so much as painters.

Painters can do very well too, but people that build things,

machinists, fabricators, woodworkers, they're all artists to me.

The end product is a work of art usually,

and I truly love watching that craft.

And I said builders, anybody that builds anything, houses, skyscrapers, machinery,

machineries that do jobs, very complicated jobs.

There's jobs out there that machines do now that humans couldn't even do without the machine.

So that kind of stuff makes me step back and go, wow, that's pretty neat.

And then just one of the simplest things that we take for granted, nature.

When you stand back and look at nature, there's nothing else you can really say.

You know, when it comes to storms and the damage they can create and then the life that nature creates.

And then the final thing is, I would say, just the human body.

What the human body can withstand and, you know, go through and heal from and just keep going and that sort of thing.

It's just a lot of it really wows me.

So, with that said, we'll move it on.

N3 QNC, this is W3 KZG.

All right, hey, thanks so much.

Ron, before I get too far down the hole here, am I overcoming the Intermod?

I'm limited on my wattage.

Fine, Joe.

In fact, from where you are, it's no surprise.

You're not far from the repeater.

Yeah, you're doing fine.

Go right ahead.

Okay, great.

Yeah, of course, being last on the list, I'm going to have a lot of some of the same repeats here.

Artists, musicians, I certainly appreciate those.

I can barely play the radio, so I certainly can't play a musical instrument.

So I've always appreciated those throughout time.

I'm old enough to remember my first computer, which was an XT.

It had 512 kilobytes of RAM to 360 kilobytes, five and a quarter inch floppy disks.

And I've stared at my Apple Watch, which is several hundred thousand times in magnitude,

in both storage capacity and capability.

I'm always amazed at that sort of thing.

It gets my nerd propeller spinning, for sure.

But nature, nature definitely is my thing.

You know, I can't help but go to Acadia, which Ron, I know you're familiar with, and Joe as well.

Go up there.

I just love it up there.

It's a great place.

But what takes the cake for me probably was Yosemite.

Yosemite National Park.

I went out there and had that big wow moment that you were talking about, Ron.

And just kind of sat there and said, man, this is why people sit down and write poetry.

And, yeah, it was a great place and really, really breathtaking.

So I'd have to say probably nature.

As much as I love all the gadgets and everything else, you can't beat that.

But back to you, N3QNC.

Comments are phenomenal.

Thank you so much, Joe.

It's good to meet you.

By the way, I don't see an email on QRZ.

If you would like to be on the GMS mailing list, send me, or Joe, for that matter, an email.

I'm helping Joe outmanage the list.

So if you want to send me a list, I'm good on QRZ.

You'll see my email on there, and we'll get you on the list there for sure.

Because I don't think you and I have ever talked before.

But it's great to have you here.

Welcome to 985 if you haven't been on before.

If you have, I'm sorry I missed you for sure.

But I look forward to many more QSOs and many more times you're on the workbench and the roundtable here.

So great to have you on board for sure.

All very, very good comments all the way around.

Let's see.

Captain Steve, that's interesting.

That popped up twice.

Yeah, very impressive.

And I deduced that he was working for American Airlines.

And, yeah, I know he had to retire due to age.

I'm quite sure that he would have been continuing.

I also am impressed with musicians and anyone who has talent in that regard.

I often wondered why on, you guys will laugh at this, but why on a keyboard?

Why don't they have the notes labeled?

I mean, you have a keyboard here.

I'm looking at Q-W-E-R-T-Y right here in front of me.

Why don't they have the notes labeled on a piano?

It would make it awfully lot easier for me to use it.

But anyway, that's the level I am with instruments.

So admire anybody who can actually play an instrument for sure, especially a keyboard or a guitar for that matter, or a violin.

How do you know where to put your fingers to get the exact note you're looking for?

It is just amazing.

Absolutely all the way around.

World War II heroes, very good.

I absolutely agree.

I did see that article, CR, on the 104-year-old playing a sax.

That was just unbelievable for sure.

Joe and Chuck absolutely agree with you on the craftsmanship, engineering talent, and people who build things.

One of the first things I did when I was teaching at the college, the very first half hour of class, the very first class students, whether they're engineer candidates or whether they're technician candidates in our two-year terminal program, the first half hour of the very first course, I had them actually build something.

And for a lot of them, it was, well, I never really built anything before.

And I said, well, you're going to be doing a lot of that here in this course over the next 10 weeks.

And they just loved it.

It does so much for someone to really feel a sense of accomplishment for someone who's never done anything like that before.

And besides, I just enjoyed, I was in a wood shop this afternoon, just enjoyed building things in the shop.

I enjoyed building stations, this entire station here, built from scratch.

It was bare concrete floor in here and rafters when we got started.

My wife and I finished the whole place together years ago and just enjoyed building stuff for sure.

Absolutely.

And Joe, congratulations.

And I appreciate Mr. Mike pointing that out.

I had forgotten about the connection 1976 when you and I were both in the guards together in the 198 Signal Battalion down in Delaware.

November of 76 was the month that I took my very first business trip of many dozens, dozens of trips thereafter.

And that was out to California to learn about HP's mini computers and disk drives.

The mini computers were 32K, not megs or gigs, 32K.

And it was donut memory.

And it was quite an experience for sure.

And where I went to the trip there, that is now the Apple headquarters.

They're on Wolf Road in Cupertino, California.

My very first of over three dozen trips to Silicon Valley.

And of course, national parks.

I've been to many, many national parks, most of which out west.

I absolutely agree.

When I first saw the Grand Canyon in 1978, I actually teared up.

And that was at Mather Point when you come right up on the canyon and it just, you drive up and you pull off, you get out of the car and it's right there in front of you.

It just opens up and actually teared up.

And I'm not ashamed to admit it.

It was just magnificent.

And then that was one of the first national parks I'd been to and dozens afterwards.

Most of them in the west.

So, yep, absolutely.

I'm still a nature person.

Love being outdoors.

Love being connected with nature.

About ready to get rid of a treadmill here because I really don't use it.

I'd rather be on the bike, out in the air, in the nature, even in the cold weather.

So, yep, absolutely agree with that.

Finally, to get to the question before we start the second round, I'm going to ask for more check-ins here.

But very briefly, what or who wows me?

It has to do with what we're doing right this very moment.

The people who wowed me were the pioneers whose shoulders were standing on.

Those are people like James Clerk Maxwell.

George Simon Ohm.

Andre Ampere.

Alessandro Volta.

Heinrich Hertz, who, by the way, when he, and I discovered this, thanks to Joe, he got me up to one of the Antique Wireless Association conferences.

And there's a book there that I actually have from that conference.

I purchased it.

And in it was the discoveries of Heinrich Hertz.

And he actually said that when he discovered the transmission of some kind of electromagnetic wave, the term radio wasn't really in existence in 18, I think it was 1887 or thereabouts.

So he said that, okay, he transmitted a spark over some distance.

And his quote, if I'm not mistaken, was, I see no commercial value in this.

Let that sink in for a second.

It is absolutely profound.

Henry, Edwin Armstrong.

If it weren't for Armstrong, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing right this very minute, the inventor of FM and, of course, the super heterodyne receiver.

Finally, developers of the greatest, what I consider to be the greatest technological invention ever.

And that's the invention of the point contact transistor and later the junction transistor.

Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley, who work for Bell Labs.

So, with that, let me call for additional check-ins.

You're listening to the 985 Roundtable here on the W3GMS.

Parksburg, Pennsylvania, repeater.

Additional check-ins.

This is WA3VE.

Please call now.

Any mode.

Thank you.

Nice long pause there.

Nothing heard.

Okay.

The rotation as we still have it.

Mr. Mike, I know you do late dinners, so I don't know if you're still on board or not,

but I would welcome you to join us for the second round if you are.

It's W1RC, WHCRW, W3GMS, NA3CW, KC3OOK, WA3KFT, W3KZG, and N3QNC.

Any additions, corrections to that list before we go to round two?

Thank you.

Let's go up to Marblehead, Massachusetts and see if Mr. Mike is with us or if he's at dinner.

W1RC, if you're there, Mr. Mike.

WA3VE.

Your additional comments for round two, please.

W-A-3-V-E and the W-3-G-M-S workbench.

This is W-1-R-C.

I've heard some very interesting responses to the question.

I agree.

Some of the people like Edwin Armstrong, he's always been a very interesting individual.

To me, I've read a lot about him and what he's produced.

He had a lot of influence on radio.

As I say, we wouldn't be doing this right now if it weren't for him.

Reading about those days, the early days of radio with Armstrong and DeForest and Sarnoff, those three, boy, there's some real shenanigans, real out-nailed thievery.

Everything was patents, you know, and poor Armstrong.

He really got screwed over.

It makes me so sad to know what happened to Major Armstrong.

It even bothers me to talk about it because he could have probably produced a lot more, and he didn't.

And those who know the story about Howard Armstrong, well, it could call him Howard Armstrong or Edwin Armstrong, Edward Howard Armstrong, knows what I'm talking about.

And it's beyond the scope of the workbench tonight to go into it.

But those who are interested, all you have to do is Google, and then you'll read the story.

And it'll make you angry and sad at the same time.

So over to CR, WHCRW and the workbench.

This is W1RC.

Thank you, Mr. Mike.

Well, I'm going to be saying 73.

This is the 73 round.

And happy new year to all.

And we'll see some of you on Saturday at 1 o'clock.

Joe, pick it up.

W3GMS, WHCRW.

Okay.

Very good.

W3GMS on paper clutter control.

Enjoying everybody's comments and going through and cleaning the office desk up, which tends to accumulate things very quickly.

It was great hearing everybody's answers to your question, Ron.

And, oh, well, very interesting comments.

Great comments.

What else did I want to mention here?

Yeah, I'll see you on Saturday at 1 for the dipole fabrication.

And I will be down there with Luke.

He's going to be here Saturday.

And then we're trying to – he's been here every day this week because we've been just coming down the home stretch on his riser.

The infamous riser.

Seems like we've been working on it for a very long time.

But I'm happy to report it has its first coat of polyurethane on.

And, boy, it really, really looks good.

He was amazed, you know, going from stain to polyurethane.

Just kind of makes everything pop.

So we have some light sanding to do tomorrow to get some dust particles out.

And we will be putting the second coat of poly on and letting that dry.

And the plan of record is not this Saturday because we have the antenna job to do for winter field day.

But the following Saturday we will be transporting it to his QTH and assembling it.

We did get started this afternoon on working on the DX100 transmitter, the Heathkit DX100, the Daniel FKR.

donated to Luke some years back.

And it's working very, very nicely.

It would not read the grid current.

And before diving into it, I figured, well, let me ask Daniel.

I said, Daniel, this thing doesn't read grid current.

I could set it through an indirect method.

So it wasn't really a problem, but the meter wouldn't read it.

And he says, yeah, he says it's a flaky meter switch.

So he says, you may try to clean it.

And that may help it, but it was kind of intermittent before.

So I just put a one ad on QTH classified.

A lot of people have these old boat anchor parts rigs, and somebody may have a meter function switch laying around.

If not, we can cobble up something.

A lot of these switches are kind of specialized.

And I have lots of rotary switches, but whether I have one of the exact contact configuration of that one has yet to be determined.

But it's putting out about, ranking up to about 120 watts output into a dummy load.

50-ohm dummy load, bird watt meter.

And it's really doing the job.

So currently, I'm helping him rebuild the D104 microphone.

We're putting better cable into it and really doing something that makes it less susceptible to RF pickup.

It's a very, very high impedance source and very susceptible to hum fields and things like that.

Hum pickup.

So we're doing the GMS mod on that.

So things are moving along.

He's back at school on Monday.

So timing is pretty good.

The riser will be done.

Really, we'll finish it tomorrow.

It has to cure for a few days.

No sanding on the final coat.

And delivered the following Saturday after everything really, really sets up nicely.

So it's been keeping me very, very, very busy this week.

Let's see.

That's it for me.

Everybody have a good evening.

And we'll chat with you all a little bit later and see some of you on Saturday.

NA3CW at W3GMS.

Thank you, Joe.

7-3.

This is NA3CW.

Yeah, I've read about Armstrong's plight.

He was definitely screwed over.

Yeah, our boy at RCA was a pirate.

Absolute pirate.

Sarnoff.

Anyway, of the aforementioned pioneers, the one that impressed me the most was James Clerk Maxwell.

And, you know, this is coming from somebody who enjoyed the fields and theory course so much I took it twice.

I'm no mathematician, but I got through it a second time.

The taking the bits and pieces of equations and relationships and capacitance and inductance, everything that was known up to that point, that was a long time ago.

And mathematically cooking that down and coming up with the conclusion that there has to be a, not just a field,

but a free-traveling wave, electromagnetic wave that is produced, that can be produced, long before anybody could ever prove any of it.

Now, his math was so ornate that Oliver Heaviside came through and did lots of nut cracking and bolt bending on the equations and came out with the four famous Maxwell equations of electromagnetics.

But again, this was years before anybody could prove it.

And mathematically, he determined the speed of light long before anybody could measure it, just by going through all these equations and figuring things out.

And the guy was a genius.

Absolute genius.

And most people have never heard of him.

But to have concluded what he did, to put the pieces together and conclude what he did, to figure mathematically, the math told him,

that this vector wave is a product of electricity and magnetism, and it travels on its own, and it does not need to be sustained once it's created.

And to figure out how fast it goes.

And to figure it out that this wave is light and radio, all at once, the guy was, you know, talk about a wow factor.

So that's me ranting and raving.

But, you know, he just blew my mind.

Absolutely blew my mind.

The more I read into it, the more impressed I was.

Talking about, you know, doing things prior to available technology.

There was nothing there.

And he pulled this out of the sky.

I don't know if literally it was, you know, divine inspiration or what, but the conclusions that he reached, based strictly on math, were just mind-boggling.

So, there, my mind is all boggled.

Speaking of boggling things, Joe, I'm just putting the last connector on the test cables for piecing together the eternal tuner job.

So, once I get that done, then I can open up some boxes and start ringing things out to make sure I didn't get anything violently backwards or cross-wired, and then start bringing it up.

So, there you go.

So, 73 for everybody, and, again, welcome, Joe, in GAP, in 3QNC.

We're practically neighbors.

I live in Parksburg.

And, yeah, we'll hope to hear you and not be a stranger on 985.

So, welcome.

Over to Bill.

No doubt with a much stronger signal.

KC-3-0-OK.

This is NA3CW-73.

Just going to break in here real quick.

Joe, I have added you onto the 985 user list.

So, you're now on there.

Go ahead, Bill.

W3-GMS clear.

Very good.

Before I go on, am I coming in okay now?

Sitting right here in the room with me, Bill.

Please proceed.

Okay.

Well, that's the beam pointed right at the tower with some fire in the wire.

So, if I'm not making it in, I'm in trouble.

So, well, I don't have too much more to add.

I don't know how much of my last one got through.

I'm not going to repeat it.

But, yeah, it is basically people with exceptional talent, exceptional minds.

And there are so many of them out there working in so many agencies and in labs, you know, MIT.

There's so many places doing things that we really don't know what they're doing.

But we really should thank them because it has a profound effect on our life and those in the future.

I'm not one of them.

So, I am impressed by that, whether it's science or music or even shooting anyone with a talent.

But that's about all I have.

Looking forward to seeing folks on Saturday.

I was having a good day until about two hours ago when I went to fill the stove

and the shaker grate broke.

So, I'm going to be off, hopefully, to get a part from DS machine tomorrow.

I think, I'm not sure where they're at, somewhere in Lancaster County.

So that we have heat for Saturday.

I was getting this place nice and warm.

And if I can't shake the grates down, I can only let it burn once.

And I have to let it go out and start over.

So, that was a bummer, but that's the way it goes.

So, that's it for me.

I'll turn it over to John, KFT.

This is KC3OOK.

And 73, I'll be listening now.

WA3OOK and the group.

WA3KFT.

So, I have to blame Maxwell for my senior physics course.

All right.

One of the courses, senior year.

I was a physics major in college.

It was electricity and magnetism.

And, oh, man.

Yes.

Our friend Maxwell.

Yeah.

The story we told everybody was,

we went to physics classes to do math,

and we went to math class to learn how to do the physics.

Oh, man.

After calculus, it was ordinary differential equations

and partial differential equations.

And senior physics, electricity and magnetism,

raked us over the coals.

Yikes.

And when the dust settled, yes, I was a physics major.

You needed 30 credits.

I had 42 when the dust settled.

And I missed a dual major in math.

I needed one more credit,

and I couldn't fit another math course in my schedule.

But looking back on it,

I think I had more math than any of the math majors did

with 42 credits of physics.

And the other thing was,

and what kept me afloat especially,

I didn't have straight A's in the lectures,

but I did in the labs.

I could nail a lab.

Not a problem.

And that got me through.

In my very last semester of five years,

I made it to the dean's list.

You know, hey,

it's easy to do the dean's list in the beginning

because a lot of it was repetition from high school.

But man,

to pull that off in your fifth year of physics,

that's something else.

Over to Scott.

W3, KZG,

WA3, KFT.

W3, KFT, W3, KZG.

Yeah, the other thing I just realized that wows me

is probably not wowing to most people,

but how fast you can lose knowledge that you had

when you don't use it all the time.

there's things that I've done 20 years ago

in electronics and different things like that

that I use on a daily basis.

But being out of those workplaces and jobs

and not using it every day and doing it,

you sit down to do something

and you're like,

your brain just kind of shuts off

and you're like,

man, I don't remember how to do this.

But then it also wows me

how fast it can all come back to you

in a rush.

And you're just like,

oh, I know how to do this.

And it just kind of,

I don't know,

it just,

it's like your brain needs buffer time.

And it's just sitting there

and you're like,

I don't really understand what I'm looking at.

And then you're like,

I've done this hundreds of times years ago.

Why can't I recall it now?

And then it's almost like someone

just bops you upside the head

and then bam,

there it is.

And you're like,

oh, that's it.

And I don't know,

that kind of wows me too

when that thing,

when that kind of happens.

You almost have like an epiphany

and you're like,

that's right.

I remember how to do this now.

I don't know if that happens to other people,

but it happens to me

a lot with different things.

Joe,

I think N3QNC up in Gap,

it's your turn.

This is W3KZG saying 7-3

and happy new year, everyone.

I'll see most of you guys on Saturday.

7-3.

All right, thank you so much.

Hey, this is Joe N3QNC from Gap here.

Yeah, a couple things

which I thought were absolutely amazing.

Great comments this evening.

First, thanks to you so much

for all the welcomes.

I'm a long-time listener of the 985,

so I know a lot more about you guys

than you do about me,

which probably makes me seem

like some kind of a stalker or something.

So we'll see how that goes

as I talk to each person

as time goes on.

And Joe, thank you very much

for adding me to the list.

I appreciate that.

I am local.

I've been local for a long time.

so I'd definitely like to get involved

with some more things.

I'm about a 35-second drive

from the Brass Eagle,

so I've not been up for a Friday before,

but maybe I'll stop up there

for one of the breakfasts.

That would be great.

Regarding Armstrong,

I have read also about him,

and yeah, he definitely had a rough go of it.

I thought that was amazing

and quite frustrating.

It's one of those things

where you look back and think,

oh my gosh,

I felt similar to the Tucker automobile

when he was trying to invent a vehicle

and had some good safety features and such,

but he wasn't one of the big three

for automobile manufacturers at the time

and basically was trying to get shut out of it.

And they made a great movie of it.

I can't remember the name of it.

It's probably called Tucker or something.

I thought that was amazing.

And I also just want to comment about math.

I was always amazed to find out

how many people could discover things

just using math.

I thought that was amazing.

And they, of course,

also have to have the vision

to be able to do that outward thinking,

to be able to think outside the box

and continue to persevere

and all without the Internet

to bounce it off of,

or even the computer

to do the arithmetic

and the other calculations.

That's just amazing to me.

So yeah, I've always appreciated that.

And I wonder if we've lost something along the way.

We hear people who always discover stuff,

but it's always with the aid

of all this technological stuff.

no one is laying under the apple tree

and waiting for the apple

to hit them on the head

and think, hey, what caused that?

So we'll wait and see

what the next generation comes up with.

Hopefully something's done.

All right.

N3QNC.

Happy New Year to everyone.

I'll be listening for quite a bit.

Make a quick comment, Ron.

This is Joe, W3GMS.

Please go ahead, Joe.

Thank you, Ron.

I appreciate it very much.

Hey, Joe.

Great.

We do hope to see you

at one of the 985 breakfasts.

And I went to add you to the user list.

And I had the new list up and everything.

And I went to QRZ.

And your email is not on QRZ.

So I would have put mine is.

So if you look up my call, W3GMS,

you'll see the email address.

If you could email me your email address,

I will rapidly put you on the 985 user list.

So that would be appreciated.

Did you copy that okay?

Yeah, that's perfect.

And I really appreciate that.

Actually, when Ron mentioned

that it wasn't on there,

I hopped on QRZ real quick

and realized I never put a public email in there.

So I went ahead and updated that.

But I will make sure I do that.

Last time I contacted you

was about Giselle,

her amateur and advanced down in Delaware.

But that was through Facebook, I think.

So yeah, I will absolutely send you an email also

just in case QRZ didn't quite update yet.

And I appreciate the welcome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I just want to let you know

in that way when I know your email,

I'll be able to put you on there.

Thank you, Ron.

Over to you, W3GMS.

Thanks so much.

I see it on here right here in front of me.

Entry QNC.

I see the email address in there now.

Beautiful, Joe.

Wonderful.

Joe K., let's just say.

Stand by.

Fireball, as Chuck would say.

All very good.

Well, I look forward to shaking your hand also, Joe.

I've had misfortunes getting to the 985 breakfast.

Well, some planned, and the last one was a misfortune

because we got sick over here.

And I did not want to contaminate people.

So it was a real hard one for me to miss

because the Christmas one is the best one of the year.

They're all great.

But the Christmas one, I think we broke records.

This year we had over 52, 53 people attend,

which is just amazing.

And our server, Jen, really appreciates that.

I'm sure I need to catch up with her at the next one.

So I will make sure that she is well taken care of at the next event.

And while we're on the topic, Joe,

please, as you'll hopefully roll up the road and up the hill there

and join us at the Brass Eagle on the 16th for the breakfast, as Joe says.

And also, you'll find out about our winter field day at that point.

And hopefully before that, that's the last full weekend in January, always.

We'll be operating as Whiskey 3 Romeo, a call sign we've had now for a good couple years.

I happened to find that one for us.

So we'll be using that.

It's a great CW, call it short.

And it's great for contesting.

It's not really a contest, but that's what it technically is in the end.

So it's real quick for rapid-fire stuff.

But we have quite an operation there.

Now that I have your email, and what I'll do, Joe GMS,

we have a lot of Joes on the machine.

Not many Rob's, a lot of Joes.

What I'll do, Joe GMS, is I will send Joe QNC a couple links for our past field days.

And I think one thing for sure, these guys will tell you, I take a lot of photographs.

So if you have trouble sleeping, just start clicking, and I'll put you to sleep in no time.

After looking at my photos, you'll sleep for weeks.

So I'll be delighted to share those with you so you get an idea of at least one thing that we do, among many others.

So all very good.

Again, this is WA3VE.

This is the 985 Roundtable.

Looking for additional final call for check-ins.

Any mode, anywhere.

Anyone who wants to get on the log.

WA3VE.

Please call now.

You heard a couple final comments from me.

Over here, I agree wholeheartedly with Chuck on James Clerk Maxwell.

He's quite a fellow.

He and Faraday were family men.

And they were just very outstanding individuals as well as, of course, brilliant.

And I forgot to mention Michael Faraday.

Very fine gentleman also.

And it's interesting when you look at him and his helper.

There's some interesting stories, some interesting personal dynamics that went on there as well.

Of course, Oliver Heaviside, I have the works of Oliver Heaviside upstairs in the upstairs library.

Our converted family room is a library now.

It has been for years.

He was actually the initial inventor of the concept of coaxial cable, which was refined by gentlemen at Bell Labs many years later on.

But he is the one that took the very arcane quaternion.

And Chuck mentioned this.

It's funny, Chuck.

When you mentioned it, I was typing the comment here.

Just when you mentioned this, that Oliver Heaviside took what was known as quaternion algebra, that very, very odd and very unique, hard-to-understand algebra,

that Maxwell used to predict the existence of electromagnetic waves, which later on we found out that Heinrich Hertz proved.

Heaviside developed, along with another gentleman, developed vector calculus with Willard Gibbs.

And that's where the four equations came from.

And that's where the concepts of divergence curl and all that stuff, which boggled my mind.

That wowed me at Drexel University when I took that course and said, wow, this is just amazing how this stuff all works.

One final comment.

Scott, absolutely agree on the knowledge loss, quickness, and the knowledge regained.

Happens all the time.

Even happened with simple things like making a bowl of cream of wheat for breakfast, believe it or not.

Used to do it all the time here.

And the wife, when she was recovering from her COVID a couple weeks ago, said, hey, I'd really like to get some cream of wheat.

Can you make some?

It's like, uh, I think so.

So it's like, oh, yeah, how about that?

I just follow the directions.

Oh, it works every time.

Okay.

So anyway, one last call for check-ins before we close down here on this inaugural edition in 2026 of the 985 Roundtable.

Last call for check-ins.

This is WA3VE.

KC3FKR.

All the check-ins to have.

My goodness gracious.

Daniel, absolutely.

KC3FKR.

WA3VE.

What really wows you in your life?

What really inspires you?

What makes you drop your jaw?

What wows you?

Your comments, sir.

I don't know.

I feel like you're put on the spot at the moment.

Hello, anyone who's left.

I think this has been the case for a very long time.

I think this has been the fact that we put people on the moon reliably several times.

With only minor catastrophe.

And we'll probably never be able to do it again.

I think that's my response.

Go ahead, Ron.

W3VE.

KC3FKR.

First of all, it is a pleasure to hear you.

For those who don't know Daniel and Joe, you can elaborate on this.

Of all people, you can elaborate.

Joe used to mentor, started mentoring Daniel from a very young age, just like he's doing with Luke, KC3SCY.

And Daniel is now a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He's very delighted, delighted to talk to you, Daniel.

It has been way too long.

And I really, it sounds like I'm not going to have a chance to really have a face-to-face with you.

But it is really great to hear you.

I'm sorry to put you on the spot there.

That was the question for the roundtable tonight.

I appreciate your inputs.

And, yep, absolutely agree.

I don't know if we're ever going to be able to do that again.

So in case I don't get a chance to talk to you, all the very best up at MIT.

And absolutely, for sure, very, very, very happy new year.

And I know it's going to be a good one for you.

All very good.

Any additional comments, Daniel, before I close down the roundtable?

KC3FKR, WA3VEE with the 985 roundtable.

No, I don't think I have any very large additional comments, other than I just wanted to wish everyone here a happy new year.

Ron did a bang-up job of introducing me there, I suppose.

So no need to elaborate on who I am and why I appeared out of nowhere.

Yeah, I'm just glad to be back in town for a short stint and say hello to some people.

And I got to sit on here and talk with Bob, Bob, and Chuck, CW.

Was that yesterday?

It was yesterday.

And I hope everyone has a very fruitful and enjoyable 2026.

One of these years will be better than the last, I hope.

Anyway, we'll say 73 at least for now and stick it back in the bucket for me.

I'll pass it over to Ron, WA3VEE for the 985 roundtable.

This is KC3FKR Mobile.

WACRW, comment.

Absolutely.

WACRW, WA3VEE.

Go ahead.

I don't know if Dale's going to be around on Saturday, but is he aware of the meetup at Bills?

Chuck told me yesterday, but unfortunately I'm heading out, hitting the road at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning.

So I will not be able to make the winter field day prep, unfortunately.

Good, Daniel.

Well, hopefully I'll keep in touch with Joe, who I know keeps in touch with you.

So we'll find out when you're down here the next time, maybe Easter time.

And definitely want to catch up with you for sure and find out what you've been up to.

It's been way too long.

Thanks for the indulgence of the rest of the net here, but definitely had to recognize Daniel and get him in here.

He's been a mainstay on 985 for sure.

Daniel, we hope to work you guys for winter field day.

If you guys are going to, oh, that's right, you got your conference, I think you heard.

I think I heard you guys saying, but in any event, if any of your MIT station compadres are going to be operating winter field day,

we'd love to operate you guys.

Again, we'll be using Whiskey 3 Romeo.

Okay, one last call for check-ins.

That was a good one.

One last call for check-ins.

This is WA3VEE.

KB4 Lima Mike.

Goodness gracious.

KB4 Lima Mike.

WA3VEE.

Please go ahead.

Well, hello, Ron and group.

And my name is Gene, G-E-N-E, KB4 LM.

And I've listened to just about the whole thing, but I never seized the opportunity properly to jump in.

There was a lot of, early on, there seemed to be a lot of dropouts, just real short dropout bursts.

For example, Chuck's CW part of his call did not make the record.

That's all.

Just sign me up for signing in.

Ron, I know that what Ned has done.

And Joe, I want to apologize for doing what I did last time, jumping in too late.

I understood what you said.

And I just didn't get here in time to do it on a more timely basis tonight.

Happy New Year, everybody.

See you.

KB4 Lima Mike listening out.

Hey, good, Gene.

By the way, Gene, you may want to check your connection there.

I've got a pretty good of a pipeline to the repeater from where I am here in Westchester.

And Chuck was pretty solid.

So sometimes the dropout's not on the input.

It could very well be on the echolink or whatever you're using there,

especially if you're band sharing that with a bunch of other services that are using that same resource.

So I found that to be the case.

So just check out.

Before I shut down, Gene, let me definitely give you the opportunity to make any additional comments here

with respect to the question we have of things that really impress you.

So absolutely, the mic is yours if you want to make any additional comments.

KB4LM, WA3VE with the roundtable.

Okay, Ron, KB4LM.

I want to make one comment.

I won't be long.

It never ceases to amaze me how this net grows.

And I listen intermittently, don't jump much.

But it's amazing.

Again, 14, 15 guys and on.

It seems like more than that.

And I admire that interest and dedication to the hobby.

You guys keep it up.

And, again, Happy New Year.

Be talking to you during the year, I hope.

Have a good one.

7-3, KB4LM, the Lima mic.

Going to big plug.

Great, Gene.

Yeah, you had a couple dropouts here.

So that's probably what you're experiencing.

That's sometimes a connection with your Wi-Fi, and especially if you're using the Echo Link.

But we're certainly full copy.

There's no question about it.

If there's any way you can make it to the breakfast, we'd love to shake your hand again.

And especially, too, if you can get up to the – you and your wife really enjoyed talking with her the last time.

If you can make it up to the Winter Field Day site, that'd be really great.

And make sure we have a warm place for you up there, that's for sure.

KB4LM, WA3VE, with the net.

And at this time, I want to say thanks to all the stations tonight for checking in to the 985 Roundtable.

And, of course, a very big thank you to Joe, W3GMS, for making the 985 repeater available for the Roundtable, the workbench, and for us in general.

It's a great, great, great contribution.

You are invited to use the repeater often.

It's a great way to show that you appreciate the gift of 985 to the amateur radio community.

I say those words lightly, either.

Finally, we hope to hear you again on Monday evening at 8 p.m. for the 985 workbench.

This concludes the Roundtable for tonight.

Again, very happy to do this.

Feel free to stick around and keep the conversation going.

Have a good night, a very happy and healthy New Year, and a great weekend.

This is WA3VE saying 73, and I will be clear.

Thank you.

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