W3GMS Thursday Night Roundtable

Hosted by Bill, KC3OOK

This episode of the W3GMS 985 Roundtable, hosted by Bill, KC3OOK, centers on one of the most practical and universally relevant ham radio topics: HF antennas and how operators actually use them. The discussion begins with a two-part question on band-specific HF antennas versus multiband solutions and quickly evolves into a wide-ranging exchange of real-world experiences.

Participants share hands-on insight into dipoles, fan dipoles, inverted V antennas, off-center-fed designs, end-fed wires, verticals, hamsticks, beams, and mobile HF setups. Operators discuss what works well, what compromises are unavoidable, and how space, height, feedline choice, and noise environments shape antenna performance far more than theory alone.

The Roundtable also touches on practical mobile installations, hamstick performance, ladder line versus coax, tuner use, and the realities of operating with limited space or challenging conditions. As the conversation opens up, the group moves naturally into general operating habits, station projects, winter radio activities, and the kind of informal technical wisdom that comes from years on the air.

True to the Roundtable format, the discussion is unscripted, experience-driven, and collaborative—highlighting that there is no single “perfect” antenna, only antennas that work for your situation.

Recorded live on the W3GMS Parksburg repeater (146.985 MHz)

Weekly Roundtable – Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern

Topics include: HF antennas, band-specific vs multiband designs, mobile HF operation, tuners, feedlines, and practical station setups

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.

My name is Bill, and I'm operating from the workbench here in the woodshop tonight in Oxford.

I'll be your host for tonight's roundtable.

We meet every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. on the W3GMS Parksburg repeater, 446.985 megahertz.

TL tone is 100 hertz, and for tone squelch on receive, use 94.8 hertz.

We encourage you to take a look at the repeater website, located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.

Besides the roundtable, this repeater also hosts 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.

And I don't know who will be your host for this Monday, so we'll just have to check in Monday night to find out who that is.

Newcomers are very welcome and encouraged to check in.

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

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

So I encourage you to note who checks in right after you.

So you will be able to turn the mic over to the station when you finish your comments.

We usually begin with a question as a discussion starter.

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

If you have any suggestions or questions about the roundtable, contact Phil, KC3CIP, or Jim, AF3Z.

Both are good on qrz.com.

And also, be aware that on occasion, the repeater experiences intermod interference.

Please run maximum power or be prepared to check in digitally through Echolink or AllStar.

We want to be able to hear you.

To be able to use Echolink and AllStar on 985, you need to register with us.

Directions for doing so can be found on the website, w3gmsrepeater.com.

And also, when the intermod is present, before starting a transmission, give us your call.

Am I getting in okay?

That's really very important if your station might be marginal.

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

Now, don't be too quick to talk.

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

This is good repeater etiquette, and pauses are especially helpful to those on AllStar and Echolink.

When you do click the pit button, wait a second before starting to talk.

Don't want to miss what you have to say first.

It takes a moment for the repeater to process your PL tone.

Also, the repeater has a three-minute timer.

If you talk more than three minutes without letting up on your mic button,

the repeater completely shuts down until you release your pit switch.

So every two to three minutes, release the mic button just for a moment.

Then you can continue.

So, we're going to start taking check-ins tonight.

Once we have the short-time check-ins, I will give the questions or questions for tonight.

So, we're going to start with short-time digital stations using Echolink or AllStar.

I'll leave long pauses to make it easier for you to check-in.

So, digital stations, please call now.

This is KC3OOK taking check-ins.

This is W1RC, Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Good evening to all.

November 3, India, Lima, Sierra, Maple Grove, Minnesota.

This is KV3, ZEV, Kilo Bravo 3, Zulu uniformed Victor, Adam Shorttime via Echolink.

Thank you.

Nothing heard.

Well, we'll take RF check-ins for the short-time list.

This is KC3OOK.

Melting heard.

We'll give it one last call.

Any digital or RF check-ins for the short-time list, please call now.

This is KC3SCY.

We have you, Luke, KC3SCY.

So the short-time list will be W1RC, N3ILS, KB3ZUV, and KC3SCY.

And the question tonight is, well, I'll start by saying that I have a very hard time coming up with questions.

And we had two, and so I flipped a coin and decided to go with an antenna question.

It may have been asked before in some form, but, well, anyhow, that's what we've got tonight is an antenna question.

And it kind of comes from a conversation that was on the repeater this afternoon.

So two-part question.

One, do you have any, and this is HF antennas, specifically to HF antennas, do you have any band-specific antennas?

And how do they work?

And if you don't, what HF antennas do you have and what bands do they work well on?

So that's it.

Do you have any band-specific HF antennas?

And also, what HF antennas do you have?

So, Mr. Mike, again, the orders W1RC, N3ILS, KB3ZUV, and KC3SCY.

Over to you, Mr. Mike, W1RC, KC3OOK.

KC3, KC3OOK, and the roundtable at W1RC.

Yeah, I just wanted to say good evening, everybody.

I'm kind of busy here right now doing some stuff, but I just wanted to check in, but I won't be around for too long.

So I'll turn it over to N3ILS and let him make a transmission.

There'll be a W1RC standing by.

Yeah, sounds good.

Thanks for passing it over.

This is November 3, I love Scrapple.

Out here in the freezing cold Midwest.

We're supposed to be going to do a POTA activation over in North Dakota tomorrow, or Saturday and Sunday.

But with minus 30 forecasted in Fargo, North Dakota, I'm not going.

So, yeah, instead I'll just be chilling out here.

No pun intended there.

So what do I have for HF antennas?

I have two HF antennas at home.

One is a 17-meter dipole inverted V that's hanging up inside my garage.

It works out really, really well.

I've done a lot of traffic on that, both DX and local.

And then I'm also running a random wire NFED off of the house out to a tree.

And that gets me everything 10 meters through 80 meters.

And it works really, really well.

But I have a very, very high noise floor, so I just have to deal with that.

So that being said, I'm going to go ahead and pass it over.

Looks like I lost it there.

Do I have it again?

You've got it, Travis.

Thanks.

I've got to remember that this radio gives me a transmit overtime, and that's what happened there.

So that being said, I'm going to head it over to Adam, KB3, ZUV.

This is November 3, India, Lima, Sierra.

I have been to Maple Grove, Minnesota.

I have been to Maple Grove.

I've spent quite a bit of time in Maple Grove.

Before I relicensed, in between my gap between ham radio careers, I was traveling a lot for work.

And they had me out at Target headquarters in Minneapolis doing some IT stuff for them as a subcontractor.

I didn't work for Target.

I worked at Target.

They had me doing a bunch of stuff with their networking equipment.

And they put me up at a hotel in Maple Grove, which we were mainly out there just because it was cheap, and they didn't want us to stay downtown.

Although I eventually, when that gig got a little bit longer, after a few weeks in Maple Grove, they eventually agreed to let me get a studio apartment in downtown Minneapolis near Target.

But I like that area.

But you're right.

It is very cold out there.

I was there from August to December of 2012, and it just seemed like every week it was another five degrees off the Mercury.

I think by the time I left, which would have been right around this time in 2012, I think it was about 13 or 14 my last day in Minnesota.

And I haven't been back to Minnesota since then, so it doesn't surprise me that it's negative digits in North Dakota.

And it was pretty cold when I was up in New Hampshire.

It got down to negative numbers.

It got down to like negative three the one morning that I was in New Hampshire skiing last week.

Although by the time I got to the mountain, it was seven above.

So winter is here, and I'm glad for it.

I'm enjoying it.

I know some other guys here don't like it too much, but I enjoy it.

Anyway, let's get moving.

Aside from my usual talk about the weather, on to the questions.

So, Bill, you have a good question about band-specific HF antennas.

And I have several.

MFJ hamsticks.

Yeah, MFJ, remember those guys?

Well, I don't know who makes hamsticks now, but I have a nice little tote bag filled with the various MFJ hamsticks.

You know, one of them for 20, one of them for 40, one of them for 75 meters.

You know, it's just basically a big trap.

And then you put a whip on the end of it, and then you have to attach a, I guess you can put it on a mag mount to use as a counterpoise.

Or I have an adapter that you can, like, if I'm mounting it on, like, a tripod or, like, a buddy-pull-style mount, you can attach a wire counterpoise to it.

So I haven't used those in a while.

I have a, you know, the HF antenna that I have now is a multi-band balanced line doublet that works on several different bands.

Although it's much better on some than others.

But it's good to keep those other ones around anyway just for testing purposes.

You can, you know, calibrate your antenna analyzer, among other things, with those.

You know, just sort of do experiments and obviously operate portable with them.

So they're not going anywhere.

But, yeah, that's my collection.

Anyway, I think it was, I think it goes to Luke.

If anyone, I think I'm right there.

Luke, take it away.

KC3SCY from KB3ZED73.

Clear.

All right.

This is KC3SCY.

Bill, thanks for hosting.

So for the question, I guess, HF antenna here rotating is probably the beam we have, which is a four-element beam.

And it has vertical and horizontal.

So it's not a Yaggy.

I forget what it's called.

But you got the vertical and horizontal.

So, anyway, this week in Ham Radio, I've been working on my CW, listening to a couple stations on there.

And then I've been making one of our kitchen knife handles broke.

So I was making a handle for the kitchen knife.

So that's about it.

So I'll turn it back to Bill, because I believe I'm a tail gunner.

It's KC3SCY.

KC3SCY.

KC3O.

Okay.

Thank you, Luke.

And before we go on, we'll see if there are any other stations that would like to join us for the short time list.

So please call now.

Okay.

Well, nothing heard.

Well, Mr. Mike, W1RC, it's good to hear you tonight.

Thanks for checking in.

I know you're busy, and I'm sure you're sitting there and listening.

And Travis, N3ILS, good to hear you tonight, Travis, and Minnesota.

And minus 30.

That is tough.

I was in St. Paul once, and I thought it was a beautiful city, but I wasn't there in the winter.

So, and at minus 30, you may be able to dress for it, but you're not going to be able to operate many controls with giant mittens on.

So, good to hear you tonight, Travis.

And Adam KB3ZUV, the MFJ hamsticks.

And, you know, I actually, I'm not sure, I've actually heard of them, but I'm not sure I've seen anybody use them.

So, that's something to think about.

The reason this question came about is there was a conversation on the repeater this afternoon,

and there was a discussion of the two-meter and six-meter antennas and vertical and horizontal.

So, that's kind of what got me thinking about this question.

But, Adam, it's good to hear you tonight.

And then, Luke, KC3SCY.

Four-element, vertical and horizontal.

So, if somebody can correct me, is that basically it is cross-polarized, maybe.

And going on to CW, Luke, and I was at Woodcraft today, Luke, and I was looking at nice kits.

But I actually kind of like to make one sometime, but I've got enough projects now, so that'll be for another time.

But, and I'll mention that next week, Luke will be your host for the workbench.

And Luke will not have a co-host.

He will be hosting on his own.

With that, we'll go ahead and see who is out there that would like to check into the regular list,

for folks who can stay longer.

And again, we'll start with the, uh, Echolick and All-Star.

Digital stations only for the regular list.

This is KC3OOK.

Please call now.

Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR.

WA3 King, Fox, Tango.

WA3 KFT, John.

WA3 GLI, David.

Okay, I have WA3 CRW, WA3 KFT, and KA3 GLI.

Do we have any other Echolink or All-Star stations for the regular list?

Please call now.

We left a good long pause.

So, RF stations.

RF stations.

Or any digital stations.

If you'd like to check in, please call now and space them out.

Just a little, please.

KC3OOK.

WA3 KFT, Alpha 3, Victor Echo, Echo WA3, TEE.

NA3CW.

CA3 SQI.

Alpha, FOXdrops 3, Zulu.

Alpha, Alpha 3, Lima Hotel, or Luxury Hotel, or right now, a nice warm side of the door place, A308.

N3, CRE.

All right.

This is KC3OOK.

Your net control for host, I should say, for tonight.

I want to recognize WA3 CRW, WA3 KFT, KA3 GLI, WA3 VEE, NA3 CW, KC3 SQI, AF3 Z, AA3 LH, and N3 CRE.

Are there any others?

WSK3, Mike Fox, Straub, Bravo.

Victor 3, Julliac, Gulf, Bravo.

Across the bend.

Okay.

Very good.

I'll acknowledge the list we have for tonight.

One more time.

And just make a note of who follows you so you'll be able to pass it along.

Start with WA0W, WA3 KFT, KA3 GLI, WA3 VEE, NA3 CW, KC3 SQI, AF3 Z, AA3 LH, N3 CRE, W3 MFB, and KP3 KGB.

And our question again tonight is, it's two parts.

And the first part is, do you have any band-specific HF antennas?

And if so, how do they work?

And if you don't, what HF antennas do you have and what bands do they work well on?

So with that, we'll turn it over to you, CR, WA8 CRW, KC3 OOK.

Very good, Bill.

Thanks for taking the chair tonight.

And to answer the question, it's real easy.

I do not have any band-specific HF antennas.

I do have a band-specific 2-meter antenna.

It's a beam.

I don't use it, but it's up there.

Talking this afternoon, Barry brought up 6 meters, and I do talk on 6 meters occasionally on my wire.

And it works.

I can hit that doorbell repeater with no problem.

But I was mentioning that I would probably like to get a 6-meter vertical up in the air to see if I can improve my coverage.

With that, let's go to Mr. KFT.

W8 CRW.

WA3.

King Fox.

Okay, yeah, I got a lot of antennas. I got 14 of them. On VHF, I have a beam and a vertical for 6, a beam and a vertical for 2, a beam and a vertical for 220, and a beam and a vertical for 440.

For HF bands, I have a Solarcon A99 that I use for 10 meters, and I was talking out to the Midwest today on 10. Not a problem. It works very well.

I have a dual bander vertical for 2 meters and 440, and we're still experimenting with that one. It comes pretty close to a Ringo Ranger 2 on 2 meters.

The Ringo Ranger gives me one bar more S meter reading than the dual bander, but the difference is the dual bander is lower.

For HF, I have an 80 meter full-size dipole. It is a sloping dipole. Think of an inverted V and start to lay it down. It's the only way I can get it onto the property.

One end is anchored to the tree in the front yard. The other one is anchored to a fence post in the back. Dedicated 80-meter antenna.

The other wire antenna is 40 meters, and that's a fan dipole. It has a 20-meter and a 10-meter element on it, and that one runs between my tower and the telephone pole in the backyard.

One of the first wire antennas I put up. That one works very well. I've used it on 40, especially, and it really gets out.

I will say full-size, it's something like 63, 65 feet, and one end is about 35 feet off the ground. The other end, I think, is about 25 feet off the ground.

So, that one works very well on 40. I haven't really experimented much on 20 meters with it or 10 meters, since I use a 10-meter vertical most of the time.

I do have one combo antenna. It's manufactured. It's an MFJ product. It's 80 through 2 meters, one coax, and no tuning.

The antenna has various and sundry length elements to it. It's a real erector set to put together.

And I think it's a product that's still available.

From those dealers that had MFJ products, since MFJ has gone out of business, anything MFJ, I will say when the stock is gone, the stock is gone.

That kind of thing. But it's a vertical antenna that takes up very little space as far as the yard is concerned.

But it has some serious heights to it. I don't know exactly how tall.

Over to you, David. Ka3 GLI. Wa3 King Fox Tango.

I have to try to squeeze in a couple of antennas I recently had. I just recently got rid of them.

But I had two hamstick antennas for HF Mobile. One for 40 meters and one for 20 meters.

And they seem to do pretty well for that application.

And as far as at the QTH, I have zero HF antennas in the air.

Currently, I have parts for an NFED half-wave dipole.

And I just can't seem to find the time to wind the transformer. So that's on the docket.

Anyway, I'll turn it over to you, Ron. Wa3VEEKA3GLI.

Good, Dave. Ka3 GLI WA3 VEE. Thank you.

And, Bill, great to hear you tonight, for sure. And thanks for running the net.

Over here, very simple. I have two wire antennas on HF.

One is a fan dipole. And it works very, very well. It's 40 through 10.

And I have an 80-meter dipole.

They are orthogonal to one another.

The 80-meter dipole points basically west-northwest.

And the fan dipole points northeast.

A broadside. These are broadside.

And so, worked over well over 100 countries on those antennas here.

The dream, of course, is to get a hex beam up at some point.

And also to have, I'm hoping, I'm talking about this for years,

but we just had the trees done here on the property.

And what I mean by done is they thinned them out and got rid of the ice-loading,

liable branches and some of the dead stuff.

Since I've thinned some things out.

So, my dream is to be able to put up an inverted L for 160, which I could do here on the property.

And thank goodness we have no HOA.

I'd be able to do this at my pleasure.

So, a lot of VHF stuff.

We'll have more of the 6-meter stuff going on as well.

Many antennas will be in the attic also.

That's another dream.

Get some of these other projects out of the way so I could actually work on some of that stuff.

So, that's kind of the rundown here.

The 80-meter dipole works wonderfully.

It's fed by crappy brown stuff, which works fine for me.

It's also fairly convenient.

So, you can get it into the house without a problem.

And it goes right to the back of the tuner.

It comes right here in the shack.

It goes right to the back of the tuner, which is a Dentron MP3000.

So, it works very well over here.

Not much else to say.

I would like to have a hex beam and maybe a vertical.

If I did a vertical, it would be a Hustler 5B TV, which I had back in Wilmington at the original,

vintage, vintage, vintage VEE station there in southwestern Wilmington.

So, with that, let me turn it over to Chuck.

NA3CW.

WA3VEE.

NA3CW.

Just leaving a little room in case somebody wanted to yell in there.

First, Bill, thanks for driving the bus tonight.

And a great job, as always.

I have one HF antenna.

It's an 80-meter inverted V fed with homemade open wire line, which comes in through the wall

and then it's coaxed from there across the room into the operating position.

And the tuner is remotely operated by motors, which I can control from the operating position.

So, I can tune that on all frequencies on any band.

I mean, well, 80 through 10.

The tuner won't go to 160 or 2, or I mean 6.

But, if I choose, I can put a ballon on it and run a piece of coax over to the, well, from

the shack to the ballon, I have a piece of coax already strung.

And I can use the FT920's internal tuner to get on whatever.

It's a very good antenna on 80 and 40.

But, when you start getting up into the higher bands, being that it's an inverted V, it has

a lot of vertical component.

So, while I can hear them, I don't think I'm probably getting the best performance on the

higher bands.

Once in a while, I ran out of weather, but once in a while, I have the mad idea of putting a

multiband vertical out in the backyard someplace, maybe near my shed.

I don't have a huge backyard.

But, I have a remote tuner I can even use there.

And, you know, use that for maybe 10, 15, and 20, comparing it with the inverted V, the

anti-meter inverted V.

But, that ain't going to happen until things warm up.

Also, I have a very non-band specific receiving loop that'll pretty much read from, you know,

DC to light.

It hears on 20, 15, and 10, and mostly 40, actually.

It puts in as much signal as the big inverted V does.

It doesn't, it's not as strong on 80, since it's small.

But, it has good signal to noise ratio.

And, it's rotatable, so I can do stuff like nulling out the solar panels diagonally across the hedge into my neighbor.

And, so, the, uh...

I got the 40-foot mast, the inverted V, and on top is sitting a plain old, uh...

base grade, uh...

Ringo, two-meter, and fed half-wave vertical.

Which, uh...

does everything I need it to do, which is basically talk to 985, which I could do probably with a wet, you know, soda pop bottle.

But, uh...

I can, uh...

I can hit a bunch of repeaters with it in the area.

I just don't.

Again, if I have time to operate, I get on 985.

So, there's my story.

I'm sticking to it.

Over to you, Wayne.

KC3SQI.

This is NA3CW.

Oh, thank you, Chuck.

NA3CW.

This is KC3SQI.

And, thank you, Bill, for taking the bus tonight.

And, okay, uh...

Antennas.

Well, specific antennas right now, I have...

Uh...

40, 20, 17, 20...

12 and 10 for the truck for mobile. Then here at the Hacienda I have a vertical 10 meter

dipole and a loop horizontal hula hoop for 6 meters. And let me see, that's all of the specific frequency antennas. Then for POTA I have a

random wire 40 through 6 vertical that I'm going to be using. Also have a 40, 20 and 10 tunable vertical dipole,

or vertical antenna not dipole. And I have the 80 meter Windham off center fed dipole here for the house. And I also use a, uh,

a, uh, uh, just a ham sticks for the, um, mobile. So that's what I have right now. I'm trying to work in an inverted V, um, 160, but we'll see where that's going.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Jim, AF3Z, this is KC3SQI. Thank you.

Okay, this is AF3Z, uh, I don't know if that was another repeater or what, uh, let me just check, uh, did you hear that other signal in there, uh, Bill? AF3Z?

I heard that, but I have no idea what it was, Jim.

Thank you.

And they didn't come back, so all right, we'll let it go. Uh, very good. Good evening, everybody. AF3Z here. And thank you, Wayne, as well. And, uh, thank you for hosting here tonight, Bill. Great question. That's sort of a, uh, inside joke. I apologize. We, uh, conversed today by evening.

Um, so anyway, um, so anyway, um, I, in all of my history as a ham, have operated almost entirely, maybe 99.9% with wire antennas for HF. And when I was a kid, I had a vertical inside.

But, uh, there were no radials on it, and I think it was more of a dummy load than a vertical. But anyway, I don't count that one.

So, uh, I'll start at the top and work down. Uh, my main HF antenna, which I use, I can use anywhere. Well, with the right tuner, I can put on a 160 as well, but I haven't recently. Um, but, uh, 80 through 10 meters, including the work bands, it's a, an inverted V doublet, dipole, whatever you want to call it. Um, approximately 80 meter length, but it's not tuned for any special spot.

And, uh, it's fed with open wire lines. So I have it set up that way to use as a, uh, yeah, multi-band, uh, antenna. So that's my main HF antenna. Uh, and it seems to do quite well. I don't have any data on where it does best and what directions. It's hanging roughly, uh, northeast to southwest. So, uh, anyway, it does me quite well. And, uh, the other antenna I have a few years ago, I probably had a lot of, uh,

put it up. Primarily, it's a dipole, but I hung it vertically in the tree out here. And I did that mainly for some CW work we do locally here. Uh, and on 10 meters, ground wave, having, uh, the same polarization as the other people helps. So that's why I hung it up there was for the local stuff. But it does do, uh, well, otherwise. And today, as an example, I did my local CW here on 28-128.

And when we got done, uh, and when we got done, I just tuned down as I often do to see what was happening on the band. And the first CQ I came across was, uh, in St. Martin, an island, uh, sort of southwest, I guess, from Haiti and the Dominican Republic out there in the ocean. And, uh, worked that guy. Uh, all, there's three stations here on all three of them. Uh, had a good many people calling. And I worked all three of them.

I think on my first call with my whopping 70 watts or whatever I threw at the antenna. So that was St. Martin. Then the next station I heard was in Mali. Mali, Mali, over in, uh, Western Africa. And, uh, worked them again. First call, got them.

And then I worked Western Sahara, the Sahara Desert. Boy, when you look on QRZ, it looks like desert around there. Uh, and I worked that guy, uh, first call. So that was all on my vertical dipole. I use it only on 10 meters. I guess that's the, uh, HFs.

Uh, HFs. Band-specific antenna. But actually it's fed with, uh, crappy brown stuff. It's fed with the, uh, balanced line. So I could use it other places, but I have not done that much at all. I tried it a time or two. It was nothing special. So there you go.

And also, slightly off the question, when I was trying to look up a little information on some things here, I learned something I didn't know. And, uh, just shows, because you're around all the time doesn't mean you know much.

Um, and I don't know if this changed in my history or not, but I didn't realize it. I was looking at, uh, band charts and stuff like that. And I assumed that the bottom of 10 meters was an extra portion, the last 25 kilohertz going down.

Uh, I assumed that was for extra, like it is on 80, 40, 20, and 15. Lo and lo and behold, I learned that technicians, everybody can do such CW all the way to the bottom of the band, all the way down to 28 megahertz. That's pretty cool. That's some pretty good, uh, territory, especially now with the bands open. And I didn't realize technicians had that much, uh, uh, CW room on 10 meters. So pretty cool.

But I never knew that before, so I learned something today. So, from here goes to Leon, AA-3LH, AF-3Z.

Well, thank you, Mr. Jim there with the crappy brown antenna wire. That's okay, I got crappy brown stuff up too right now. Anyway, this is AA-3LH.

So, like, what for HF antennas I have? Well, I have, uh, Lakeland hamsticks. Before MFJ bought Lakeland, I have some old hamsticks made by Lakeland. I have them. I have, what, 10 meters? Uh, that probably is an MFJ. But I have some 220 meter hamsticks. I have 240 meters.

I have 280 meter hamsticks to start out with them.

And so then we have an Eagle One antenna that I have in my backyard set up right now

that I want to play with and do more with when the weather warms up

and as cold weather Florida like to be, people would be able to go outside and do more.

I have a Mosley TA-33 beam up. Does it work? Yes, it works rather well.

I have that up. Do I have a 6 meter up? A rotatable dipole I have up?

And does that work? It doesn't work the way I like it.

But I have to drop it to work on it, and that's just a little like it is at times right now.

What else do I have up? My goodness gracious, I have a 120 foot, 130 foot, 80 meter open,

I don't know, crappy brown stuff fed, and dipole I have up.

What else is up there? My goodness, to go around my house, I have up.

They have a 2 meter vertical high gain antenna up for that.

Do they work? They do work.

The other week I was told to put a 1 to 1 balance that I have up right now is a G5 RV.

I have that up, and the 1 to 1 balance didn't make a difference.

When I talk to the people that I talked to before I had it on, I have up about 2 dBs,

sometimes 3 dBs more than what I was.

So that choke balance was a good thing to put on at the end of my crappy brown,

whatever it is, a 450 ohm brown ladder line fed to my coax.

There I have a ladder, there I have a 1 to 1 balance in.

I did not work and put on my Eagle 1, I did not put a 1 to 1 there yet either.

I didn't get to that due to the weather conditions that we have.

I just don't care to do that.

Don't care to be out and do that.

I have become a softie since I am older.

Don't care to freeze like I one time did.

I believe that's about all the antennas that I have out right now that work.

I don't have my hamsticks.

I don't have my hamsticks. I take them when I travel.

I want to talk about hamsticks.

I mentioned Lakeland.

Lakeland made the hamsticks way back before MFJ did.

And with those hamsticks, I have talked this summer.

I have talked with a 40-meter hamstick.

Talked to Mr. W.A.3, Victor Echo Echo.

I have talked to him from Colorado.

Down near Oklahoma, way out there.

And he talked to me. We held a conversation.

We did it more than once.

So yes, hamsticks do work.

If you want to get one, tune it upright.

And shove it 100 watts and see what it'll do.

It will talk.

But it needs some plane.

We have a van.

And I put wires out.

Stretch wires out.

Grounding wires out.

And yeah, it works.

So I like them.

All right.

Let's see who I got to give this to here.

I give this to N3CRE.

This is A3OH.

N3CRE.

Well, I don't have any HF antennas.

All I've got are two-meter antenna right now.

That's on my roof.

And that's all I'm transmitting out right now.

So I don't have a lot to say on HF antennas at this time.

So I'll pass it over to W3MFB.

N3CRE.

Clear.

N3CRE in the group.

W3MFB.

Howdy, howdy.

Ah, cool.

Cool, cool question.

Let's see here.

Band specific.

All right.

Well, yeah.

Two of them, right?

So I have my IMAX Solarcom IMAX 2000.

It's the older version before the redo.

So they can ship a UPS.

That's out there in the yard.

So that's technically a 10-meter antenna, 5-8th wave, 24-foot vertical.

I just have some Proax RD-8X hooked up to it.

It's coming into the shack, running into my MFJ VersaTuner 2 manual tuner.

And I could use that to tune it up on, well, it works band specifically on 10-meter flat.

It's perfect on 10, but it will give me good results on 10, obviously, 12-meter and 11-meter.

I can use it on 15 with the tuner.

And I can use it on 17-meter with the tuner.

It works quite well on 17-meter with the tuner.

But band specific, 10, 11, and 12 on the IMAX 2000.

Do have a 6-meter dipole.

Horizontal.

Mount horizontal.

It's horizontal currently.

And I use that for AM and I use it to get into the doorbell and then also sideband.

So that's specific.

That, I guess, if we're going that route.

I've stolen running since I got, I bought it five, six years ago.

The MFJ 1982.

Medium power MP 49 to 1, 80 through 10 meters.

It's about 130-foot wire.

Don't have a big backyard like Chuck said.

And she's going from about four feet off the ground and then up to a tree limb and the silver maple.

Pretty high up.

And then back down again.

Tied off from the insulator with some paracord to the fence.

Also have a bungee cord on that insulator.

And a bungee cord down by the transformer 49 to 1 to keep when the tree starts to swing and dance and have fun.

Then the wire is not going to be strained.

Other than that, just a tram 1480.

Tram 1480, but that's a dual band.

And it works really well.

So far, so good.

So, band specific, though, the Icom.

Excuse me, the IMAX 2000 and the six-meter dipole.

So, that's what we got going on here.

Over to KV3KGB.

Did I get that right?

I think that's who followed me as tail gunner.

W3MFB.

I had to shut off the music here.

Yes, thanks.

Thanks, Mike W3MFB.

This is KV3JGB.

I have two HF antennas.

I do have a dedicated...

Actually, I have three HF antennas, I should say.

I do have a dedicated six-meter antenna, although I've only set it up once.

It's just an inset half-wave.

I just haven't had a chance to actually kind of properly set it up.

So, I didn't do much when I set it up, but again, I'm sure I just need to be set up higher, of course, and all that stuff.

So, that's my only dedicated one.

I do want to do that at some point.

I just got to figure out when exactly to do that.

My other HF is the one that I put a couple people here to help me put up.

My 55-foot off-center halfway, something like that.

I forget exactly what it is at this moment, but it does 40 through 10.

And then I do have another one that's in full.

And actually, it ends that halfway.

It's kind of my portable one.

That also does 40 through 10.

So, that's it.

A lot of success with the Palomar Engineer off-center one.

A lot of success with that one, but it's the one that's high up in the trees right now.

So, that's it.

And I think I'm the Tail Gunner, or we may have missed one in there.

But I'll send it back to you, Bill.

KV3JGB.

KC3OOK.

Thank you, Matt.

And before we go on, I'll make a call and say,

is there anyone else who would like to join us on the roundtable tonight?

Please go ahead and call now.

Well, nothing heard.

Well, that is a...

I've got a great list and a lot of detail.

I am not going to go through and make comments on each one.

We all heard what people said.

But it is interesting, and there's a lot of common things there.

And I've learned a few things tonight.

I don't know why I don't have any experience with hamsticks.

I thought they were just a kind of a poor, or I don't know.

I don't want to say poor, but I didn't know how effective they were.

But, Leon, you answered that question for me.

So, for myself, the only antenna I have, which we took down when we put up the new X700,

is a 135-foot dipole with open wire line.

That's going to go back up.

But there was discussion about some of the bands specific.

And I have been thinking about not going to great extremes or worried about it performing super well,

but just side mounting maybe a 6 and a 10-meter small antenna on the tower somewhere just to play with,

because they also aren't all that expensive.

So, that's kind of what prompted the question for tonight.

So, with that, we'll go ahead and start our second round.

And we'll just open it up.

You can talk about whatever you want.

I have to say that one of the things I like about 985 is that with the round table, the workbench,

we get to know each other quite well.

We're just on name and call sign.

So, for the second round, I'll just put it out there.

On the workbench, we say, how is your weekend amateur radio?

I'm just going to put it out there.

How are you doing?

What are you up to?

And we'll take a second round, and I'll make the list again.

CRW, WA3KFT, KA3GLI, WA3VEE, NA3CW, KC3SQI, AF3Z, AA3LH, N3CRE, W3MFB, and KP3JGB.

Are there any other stations out there before we start the second round?

Please call now.

Station key up.

You want to try again?

All right.

Well, nothing heard.

Well, CR, I'll turn it over to you.

And before I start, I do have a second specific question for Jim.

And when you get to your turn, Jim, your question is, what's your favorite cheese?

It's another inside joke.

So, over to you, CR, WA3KFT, KA3OK.

Very good, Bill.

Now, after listening to some of the comments, I have to report that I do have some hamsticks.

I've never been really successful with them.

So, they're stored away.

And that's the end of that.

With that, I'm going to say 73, and I'll be listening out.

John, pick it up.

W3KFT, WHCRW.

WA3KFT.

Okay.

Very good, CR.

I have, as I said, two wire antennas.

One is a 40-meter dipole with a 20-meter element and a 10-meter element.

40 meters, double it, that's 20 meters.

Triple it, that's 21 megahertz, that's 15 meters.

Quadruple it, 4 times 7 is 28, so that's 10 meters.

And if you multiply it by 7, that comes out 49, which means that you could use it, if you

had to, on 6 meters.

So, a 40-meter dipole works quite well.

I've had a 40-meter dipole up as my first wire antenna for many, many years.

And it has worked just great.

Whether I run barefoot or whether I run an amplifier, it doesn't make any difference.

And like I said, one end is tied to my tower and the other end is tied to the utility pole.

Above the telephone and TV cable, but below the electric.

And I've had the various utility companies climb in that pole and nobody has said boo about my antenna.

So, yeah.

They look around and they see other antennas in the backyard and so on and so forth.

So, it was a convenient anchor point.

I would say, right according to the book, you know, calculate it out, measure it, cut it.

And, but when you cut the wire, make it about 12 inches longer than it should be.

And the reason for that is, guess what?

You loop it through the insulator and then you twist it back on itself.

So, you just lost anything from 2 to 5 inches on that end.

So, yeah.

Measure it out.

Add an extra 12 inches or an extra 8 inches or so.

And that's for bending it back and twisting it and so forth.

It's been quite some time.

I have an MFJ antenna analyzer.

And it has been some time since I stuck it on that 40 meter dipole to make any measurements.

Years ago, I did use an antenna tuner.

The capability was 80 through 10.

And most of the time, I was an 80 and 40.

That just made the transmitter happy.

Because I could tune it up and have a minimum SWR on the transmitter.

And, well, back then it was also a vacuum tube transmitter.

So, they weren't as touchy on SWR as the solid state rigs are.

But, if you have a high SWR, there's something too long or too short.

Or a bad connection somewhere.

And ruling out the bad connection.

Resonant frequency isn't where you wanted it.

Find somebody with an antenna analyzer and make some measurements and find out.

Sometimes you can correct it.

Other times, hey, you put an antenna tuner in there and you make do.

So, we go from there.

Over to you, David.

Ka3 GLI.

Over to you, David.

Ka3 GLI.

WA3 KFT.

Thanks, John.

Uh...

WA3 KFT.

Ka3 GLI.

Yeah, I forgot to mention the bands that NFED half-wave dipole is meant for. And it would be 80, 40... No, sorry. Sorry. 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. I've read about some people trying to...

and it would be 80, 40, no, sorry, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters.

I've read about some people trying to make that work with 80,

and it doesn't seem to do well with 80,

and people end up having to add a trap on some more wire or some such thing as that.

Anyway, I guess it's your turn again, Ron.

WA3VEE, KA3GLI.

David, thank you so much.

KA3GLI and the group WA3VEE.

Yeah, okay, so talked about antennas.

One last comment on antennas, then what's going on over here?

Non-radio related.

On the van, of course, you guys know, or most of you probably know,

I would affectionately call my van the porcupine.

So on the van, I've got mag-mount antennas, and I use mag-mounts.

I don't drill holes in things because I can move things around, or I can add antennas and so on and so forth.

Things change quite a bit, or things change from time to time, I should say, quite a bit.

But it gives me the flexibility of being able to do that.

I use a thin piece of vinyl that is very, it doesn't affect the magnetism, even at speed.

And it works, and it doesn't mar the surface on the top.

And so I have a screwdriver antenna called an ATAS-120, which on the old van, I didn't have much luck getting that to work.

I had one contact, that's about it.

And the antenna tuned one time.

So I need to experiment with that a little bit more.

I think on this van, which actually may have body panels that are actually bonded together, not corroded,

I might be able to have better luck.

So we'll see what happens with that.

Okay, what's going on over at the VEE Lab, Woodshop, Shack, General Environment over here?

Got to get what's called Smoke and Joe started tomorrow.

Smoke and Joe, I almost charge admission for people to watch this.

It is a regular gasoline snowblower.

And it takes, it smokes up the whole end of my cul-de-sac when I first get it started for the season.

It's actually quite fun to get that thing started because it's just, just like a kid, I really enjoy all that smoke.

So I get that ready in anticipation for Sunday.

So just thinking about it right now makes me laugh.

But anyway, that's going to be probably tomorrow.

Also, I've got to get the tractor supply and get a couple of reflectors for our driveway.

It also tells me where to, in case it does have, in case you do get some significant snow.

I'll be able to know where the driveway is.

Also, from this end, woodwork-wise, woodworking just as much of an interest as radio and electronics.

And so I just finished making a Yule log.

Took basically a piece of firewood, spruce firewood, and cut out the center of it.

And now it's a planter.

Made that for my new daughter-in-law.

And I just got some birch wood.

I was talking to Joe, CR, and Barry today, KD3X, about that.

That's another project in the woodshop.

It's really nice to work on that stuff, especially when it's cold outside.

Woodshops, for me, are a really good place to be when it's cold outside.

It just seems to fit.

And then, of course, the ongoing, got to get my bench continually straightened out.

Do I have one antenna piece to put out?

And that is to restore the antenna for my lap bench.

When we did the deck, had the deck redone last year, I had to take the antenna that was on the railing there for my bench,

take that down, and I haven't put it back since.

So that will give me radio in the shack, or correction, in the shop, and in the lab, of course, right on the bench.

So I'll be able to operate from Studio L or lab again.

So those are the kinds of some of the things going on over here at the VEE shack.

One thing, too, is it's Christmastime, and tomorrow I will be taking a trip down to Sunday Breakfast Mission in Wilmington

to deliver a whole bunch of 25 sets of beanies and gloves for the homeless down there.

So it's my favorite charity I like to give to.

Just about everything you give goes to the homeless, and they have a good Christian mission, which is what I really like.

No doubt about it.

Anyway, with that, I'm going to say 73.

Chuck, let me turn it over to you.

NA3CW, WA3VE.

Thank you, Ron.

WA3VE.

NA3CW.

Well, as far as antennas go, I haven't had a lot of need for them at the moment.

I've been doing a fair bit of computer work lately, mostly on one machine.

It has run me through the wringer, not to any fault of its own, but just my ignorance.

It's an old computer that was born with Windows 7 and later was converted to Windows 10.

It's been used for controlling spotlights and such over in our church through an interface.

And we decided, okay, it's Windows 10.

It's old.

It's always been quirky.

It's slow.

And I suggested, let's put it on Linux and found out that the software that they need to use to run the lights is available on Linux.

So, okay, I took it home, put in Linux Mint, 20 minutes done, and put in the software that was supposedly a Linux package, but it's not a very well-packaged Linux package.

So, I went around and around with that, couldn't get it to work, found out that it was one of the script files that's in it.

It was written for straight Debian and not something like Linux Mint or Ubuntu.

So, I found that out after some investigation and finally got a hold of the people that wrote it.

And they said, well, we tested it on straight Debian 13.

Okay, so Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian.

So, I thought, okay, how bad could it be?

So, I loaded Debian and I found out why Linux Mint was written, because Debian is very sparse as far as its user interface,

and you have to do just about everything using the command line with all of its fun and games.

Well, I got it working and went back and forth with the developers, and they found it.

They said, oh, if you wanted to run a Linux Mint, we could fix that.

And they fixed it, fixed the offending file.

So, after all that work of getting it working with a bunch of other software that needed to be on that machine,

taking it through Debian, today I brought it back and nuked it again, put Linux Mint on it again,

and everything was done, as my mother used to say, saucered and cooled in less than an hour.

After the two and a half day struggle, messing with Debian 13.

So, it's sitting here on my bench, all nice and friendly, does everything it's supposed to do.

It goes from cold start to through, log in to ready to go in 26 seconds, and everything works just PG.

So, I'm happy with that, but it's been tying up a fair bit of time.

But, in between when it was there and when I brought it back, I have been working on Joe's tuner project again.

So, I've got a lot of time.

And so, it's basically just a control relay and a power feed to the system.

So, I've got to send for some relays or a relay.

I've got a party pack of them for cheap.

So, I will have that done soon.

And then start finishing up some interface cables.

And I'll do some smoke testing on this thing.

I can hardly wait.

But my recent time has been spent doing computers.

So, on that happy note, 7-3 to everybody.

Glad everybody tuned in that did.

And again, Bill, thanks for driving the bus.

And over to Wayne, KC3SQI, NA3CW.

Thank you, Chuck, NA3CW.

This is KC3SQI.

Yeah.

On the horizon, after I do my taxes and get my tax return back, is a 4-band or 5-band.

Uh...

Hex beam.

Rotor.

And controller.

And, uh...

Hopefully, that will, uh...

Take care of some problems that I've got here, uh...

With some of the upper bands.

So...

That's about all for me tonight.

Uh...

I do hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

I hope everyone has...

A good night.

And we will...

Uh...

Turn it over to Jim.

AF3Z.

This is KC3SQI73.

Okay.

Thank you, Wayne.

And the answer is Pepper Jack.

Speaking of cheese.

Sorry about that, folks.

Uh...

I'll just give you a clue.

It had to do with possible questions.

So anyway.

Pepper Jack.

That's my favorite.

I like a lot of cheeses, though.

Uh...

I like cheeses that have...

Um...

Yeah.

What am I trying to think of?

Horseradish in them.

That's good, too.

As long as it's not too overpowering.

But not speaking about cheese, but speaking about antennas.

I think antennas are a lot like surfboards.

And some of you can probably get ahead of me here.

But, uh...

When there are good waves, it probably doesn't take a super fancy...

A fancy surfboard to get you moving.

But when there's no waves, uh...

Even the fancy surfboard isn't gonna do you much good.

And antennas are similar.

And, uh...

Getting good data that's comparable with something else.

You know, you gotta get the same conditions, the same...

A lot of stuff to, uh...

To really be able to compare one against another.

So, over time you get a sense, I think.

But not so much.

Uh...

One...

One day, one contact or something.

I don't know if I ever told this story.

But, uh...

Long, long ago.

Uh...

Maybe...

Uh...

Maybe...

Hmm...

Years ago.

Fifteen.

Anyway.

Uh...

Just for kicks.

I had a bunch of wire.

I, uh...

Threw a wire out the second story window and took it out and stretched it way out through the

trees that were off to the side of the house.

So, I had a long, end fed wire.

And I just hooked it up to a single wire port on whatever tuner I was using.

Probably an MFJ.

And, uh...

When I first hooked it up to the rig and everything, I thought, boy, this thing really works.

Uh...

You know, noise and everything just came in loud.

This could be much more than normal.

But then when I started trying to operate, I found out the signals weren't much louder, but the noise was majorly loud.

And, uh...

Very noticeably louder.

Uh...

So, uh...

That one I, I discarded very quickly.

But it was one of those little learnings along the way that, uh...

Anyway.

Surfboards.

Uh...

A good surfboard is not to be sneezed at, but, uh...

Good waves are a little more important, I guess.

And let's see what else.

I don't have a whole lot new here.

Still doing my normal local CW.

Our schedules haven't worked as well, but, uh...

Having a good time with that.

But otherwise, not much going on here radio-wise.

So there you go.

And, uh...

So, Leon, back to you there on the knob.

A-F-3-Z.

Thank you, Jim.

Thank you, AF-3-Z.

This is not any knob.

This is Gobbler's knob.

Where them turkeys hide out.

And do all that good stuff when it's cold out.

All right.

Anyway, this is AA-3-LH.

So, Jim, so tell the teacher we're surfing.

Surfing USA.

We'll all be gone for the summer.

We're on safari to stay.

Tell the teacher we're surfing.

Surfing USA.

This is not any knob.

This is Gobbler's Knob.

Where them turkeys hide out and do all that good stuff when it's cold out.

All right.

Anyway, this is AA3OH.

So, Jim, so tell the teacher we're surfing.

Surfing USA.

We'll all be gone for the summer.

We're on safari to stay.

Tell the teacher we're surfing.

Surfing USA.

Yeah, I like that.

This time of year, talk about surfing.

Nice beach weather.

That's up my alley.

I do want to say, Bill, about the hamstick.

That was mounted on a mirror mount.

Like the mount that you would put on a tractor trailer mirror.

We had it mounted on our van mirror.

That hamstick.

We talked back here to Mr. Victor Echo Echo on.

Mr. Ron.

We talked to him on that.

And it worked rather well.

Just a straight vertical rod hamstick.

Yeah, don't underestimate them.

If they're set up, what they can do.

That's one thing I wanted to say.

I also have another vertical I have here at the house.

I have a huge 20 through 10.

20, 15, 10 meter vertical I have up here.

I have antennas out.

Oh my goodness.

I have too many antennas there to keep track of right now.

Too cold to go outside.

Take a quick look around.

Even with the flashlight.

Too cold for that.

We just enjoy the warm side of the door.

Like as I just said, surfing USA.

I like that.

Alright, that's all I have there. I gotta go with that N3CRE at A3LH.

Hey, John. Charlie here. N3CRE. I don't have any antenna questions, but I have a problem also.

I have an American Flyer train set. 1953. I got an engine that doesn't run.

And I'm not sure. I guess it probably needs a good cleaning. Probably maybe new brushes. And I was wondering where I could send this thing to get it done. Fixed.

This is KC3OOK. See if I have it.

I'll just go ahead and put that out to the group here. See if anybody has any suggestions before we go on.

Anybody have any suggestions for Charlie on the American Flyer engine repair?

Bill W3MFB. I forget the... Alright, so there's this guy. He's a ham. And I forget what his call is right off the top of my cone. But he's...

He's popped in here a couple times. But he has a net on the 195, the 147-195 machine.

On Sundays, it's a train net. It's all about model trains and real life big ones and everything else. So...

He's got a big collection. Fred... I don't know. Yeah, Fred might know who he is. W3FES. But I forget. But anyway, sorry that that's not helped. But...

There is a train net on Sundays on the 147-195 machine. That's all I know.

That's all I know. Back to Bill. KC3-0-OK.

Break. N3YH. Will in Delaware is the train guy. November 3 Yankee Hotel. And he goes by Will on the air. 147-195. Railroaders net. 9 o'clock. No. 930. 930 on Sunday night.

On 147-195. This is WA3-KFT.

Well, thank you. I think that answers my question. I will definitely look that up on Sunday nights on the 147-195. And that's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm nice to... I should be able to find out if this thing's worthwhile or just throw it in the junkie. Thank you very much. And I'll turn it back to the net. N3-CRE.

W3-KC3-0-OK. Well, thank you, Charlie. Yeah. And I think you'll definitely get your answers there on that. And I can tell you it is not junk. It is definitely not junk. So with that, Mike, we'll turn it over to you. W3-MFD-KC3-0-OK.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you, John, for remembering that. I appreciate that. Yeah, Will's a cool guy.

So, I'm doing okay. To answer your question. Busy with mom's stuff and sister's stuff and taking care of them and whatnot back and forth up and down the hill.

Hey, Bill, the hamsticks. Leon's right, man. I forgot to mention that. So, I have 10-meter all the way up to 80-meter all hamsticks.

I just gave, I had some doubles, so I gave Fred, W3-FES, my buddy down there in Coastville, my 20, an extra 20 and an extra 40 for when he's out mobiling.

But, yeah, they work great. I use a mag mount. I drop them on the car and usually use them when the weather's nice or when we're camping or if I'm camping.

or just whenever the weather's nice or whatever. But, like, I usually use them on my Zygu, which is a 20-watt, 1-20-watt radio.

And, you know, you try to tune them, the antenna, as best you can for the portion of the band that you want to work.

And they work great. They work great on my end. I just mag mount on the car.

And, yeah, you gotta swap out antennas for whatever band you want to work, you know, which is fine.

But, I mostly use them on 15 and, I use the 15, the 10, the 20, and the 40 the most.

But, yeah, they work great. I picked them up. I picked up, I have, well, MFJ sent me a bunch, so I have a bunch of those.

I did pick up a couple from the Radio Shack in New Holland.

They sell them. You can mount them like Leon did, mirror mount or mag mount, or you can mount them on a pole, you know, with some radials or whatever.

So, you know, don't discount them. They have certain ratings for wattages and all that, but they work fairly well.

And it's great if you're in a tight spot. Say you're in a, I don't know, third floor apartment and you got a balcony.

Well, if that railing's metal, strap them too, you know.

So, yeah, that's my idea of the hamsticks, anyway. I think they're worth the while.

You can make, MFJ made a, MFJ 347, I think it is, or 374.

You can make a dipole out of your hamsticks, you know, two of the same band.

Hook them together and you can use a dipole and make it a little directional if you want as well.

So, yeah, they're fun to play with, for sure.

And easy, you know, just slap them on the car, porcupine it like Ron, and you're good to go.

So, yeah, sometimes I go up to Immaculata University, got a lot of past history with that place,

and kept up in the parking lot, opened the hatch, and ham radio hatch, ham radio hatchback.

And sit up there and play radio.

So, that's a nice spot for me to go to.

And plus, if I need a bathroom, I can go into school or use the cafeteria and get a bite to eat.

So, but yeah, the hamsticks work well.

So, over to KB3JGB, W3MFB.

W3MFB, KB3JGB.

I really don't have anything else to add, actually.

So, I've been enjoying listening.

But I will say, 7773, and I think I'll head it back over to you, Bill.

KB3JGB.

KC3OOK.

Well, thank you, Matt.

Before we close down the round table, I'm going to ask if there's anyone else out there that's been listening.

Maybe you're new, just been listening, or just coming in on the tail end.

But if you'd like to just check in and say hello, please go ahead and call now.

Good evening, K3OU.

Could we get your name and where you're located?

I think that's the first time I've heard your call sign.

Thank you.

Yes, I'm the ham, formerly known as AC3NW.

My name is Manny, and I'm located in Bel Air, Maryland.

Good evening, Manny.

It's good to hear you on tonight, and you sound great coming in from Bel Air, Maryland.

But I can't tell you may be on digital.

I'm not sure.

But in either case, you sound good coming in here tonight.

And it's great to add you to the list.

Well, I thought it was really, really interesting information tonight on the radios and on the Pepper Jack and horseradish cheese.

So I want to thank everybody for checking in tonight.

We had quite a list.

I think there's 15 here.

And it's good to hear you on here.

I hope to hear people on the air during the week.

And, of course, don't forget, Monday night we'll have the workbench.

And, again, next Thursday night we'll have Luke as your host for the roundtable.

So I want to say thanks to all the spaces for checking in to the 985 roundtable.

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

You're invited to use the repeater often, as I was just talking about.

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

Finally, we hope to hear you again on Monday evening, repeating myself, I know, at 8 p.m. during the 985 workbench.

This concludes the roundtable for tonight.

Feel free to stick around and keep the conversation going for sure.

So, everyone, have a good night.

Great weekend.

This is KC3OOK, and I'm clear.

KC3OOK, W3MFB.

KC3OOK, and I'm clear.

Hey, good job, man.

Good job.

Great question.

Hey, you were talking about putting a 6 and a 10 on your tower.

I texted you a bit ago, but I think an Antron 99 will work perfect, man.

That's great for 10, 10 and 12 and 11, obviously.

Not that you'll get on there, but you never know.

You might.

Hi, hi.

But, yeah, 10 and 12 works good.

And I even talked to a gentleman on the doorbell, like CR was saying, the 6-meter repeater.

He, I think he's in the Harrisburg area.

He's actually tuned his Antron on 6-meter.

So, but anyway, for 10 meters, it'll work like a charm.

And you won't even, even if you just stick to the half wave up, you know, or, you know,

you could put it as high as you want.

But I think the happy spot is around 26 feet or more.

So, yeah, that's, it's a great antenna.

It works well.

Back to you.

Thank you, Mike.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, I would like to eventually be able to do that.

It's probably not something I'm doing right away.

But I know it's not super expensive as well.

So it would be something nice to have here and play with.

And working on this switch panel, so I'm just, we've got a lot of spaces allocated.

So I'm just trying to think, what will I put in these, these antenna locations I have on the switch.

Back to you, Mike.

No problem, no problem at all.

Just a lot of folks have been using them.

Like John, you know, he uses one.

Aaron's got one.

And, you know, all my 11-meter crew people have them.

I went with the IMAX because my buddy, John, a.k.a. Renegade, he gave me a deal on that when I was getting back into the 11-meter back in 2017.

So I've had it up ever since.

They are fiberglass, mind you.

And, you know, they'll last a while.

But, like, if you ever have to take it down for reasons of deterioration, please wear gloves.

As you may know or may not know.

But, yeah, they work like a charm.

And my buddy, Mike, he's an electrician.

He's an 11-meter guy.

He lives up in West Bradford.

He's got one on his roof.

And he runs, he's got two radios in the shack there.

It's one that President Lincoln 2-plus, which is 10, 11, and 12-meter.

And then he's got the Striker 955, which is great for techs as well to get an HF radio.

And it sounds awesome on AM and FM and sideband as well.

But, anyway, that Striker does 10, 11, and 12 as well.

And I've been at his house, and he's like, yeah, go play with the ham stuff.

And we just, it's fine.

He's got a tune for 11, but it's fine on 10 and 12.

And we make contacts together and stuff like that, play ham radio, even though he's an avid 11-meter operator.

So, yeah, it's a great antenna.

But, yeah, you did a great job today.

Thanks for pulling folks out of the woodwork and keep up the good work.

KC-3-O-O-K-W-3-M-F-B.

I'm going to say 7-3 and good night.

Thank you, Mike.

And I saw the email come in, but I was just, you know, I can't chew gum and walk at the same time.

So I was focusing on this, but I was going to check it out afterwards.

So you have a great night.

Good day tomorrow as well.

And I sometime have to find out exactly where you were, because I was over at Woodcraft today.

And I know I must have been on boot roads.

So I must have been close.

So have a great day tomorrow.

7-3-KC-3-O-K.

I've been playing with Linux Mint.

And I just had a general question.

When you recommend Mint to someone, what do you do about the terminal?

What about the terminal?

I'm not a complete novice.

And I've had to go into the terminal to make some changes.

And I'm halfway there.

I can now go from the Windows computer into the Linux computer by making some changes in the SMB file.

SMB.C-O-N-F.

So I was able to figure that out.

Now, going the other way from Mint to Windows, it's still a dead horse.

But anyway, I can't imagine a person who's a computer really novice dealing with this terminal thing.

It's like it's so painful when you don't use this code all the time.

I have to agree.

If you're not trying to network with Windows machines or with other computers,

you just sit down at your computer and you go online and you do stuff with it

and you print documents and everything, you never, ever have to look at the terminal.

As far as that goes, the Linux file manager can look at a Windows machine.

Well, excuse me, I'm thinking a dual boot, not network.

Sorry.

The network business is what, and yeah, the network business is your problem.

If you were just a single user, total novice, my mother-in-law, my wife, my sister, all kinds of people,

they don't do networks.

They just get online with it.

And they never, ever have to look at the terminal.

NA3CW.

I understand.

That's my only complaint right now.

Just using it standalone, it works fine.

I have no issue with it.

It's just changing.

And the problem was, Samba is the protocol used for networking.

Windows uses it.

Linux uses it.

But sometime in the past, it was depreciated in both Windows and Linux.

And the three lines that made it work going from Linux, going from Windows to Linux, I had to add.

And now it works going one way.

But anyway, so it's been fun.

I've had to do my computer stuff like I haven't had to do in a long time.

But anyway, I was just looking for your two cents worth, Chuck.

So thank you very much.

Back to you.

You had a conversation with Bob.

Negative.

I sent him a message.

And I was hoping to catch up with him tomorrow.

Tomorrow I have a free time.

So I will call him tomorrow.

And maybe he'll be free and we can talk.

Okay, and just from my knowledge, what is it that you want to do between and among these computers?

Just share files or something more than that?

Share files.

I have a house full of computers.

And it's nice to be able to go in and do what you need to do by just going to your main computer,

pull up the network, go where you want to go and do what you want to do.

So that's what I've been used to doing.

And this one is a strange animal.

And the issue apparently is when I look at the folder that appears on the Windows computer from the Linux computer,

there's a folder there.

I share the desktop.

And then I look at the permissions on the folder, and there are none.

There's no owner.

There's nothing.

It's just a folder.

And I'm saying, why aren't there permissions?

And that's the problem I'm trying to solve right now.

Okay.

I have not looked at it, but Bob mentioned, he seemed to be working about this program called Sync Thing.

Have you looked into that?

Not.

So that's another way of handling it, where you use a program to do what you want to do instead of just raw networking.

So no, I haven't gone down that road yet.

The other approach is just remote operation, like with any desk or rust desk.

I know rust desk seems to work on anything.

And, you know, you can do it across your network or across the Internet.

And I use it.

I use any desk or rust desk for tech support for a number of novices.

They get themselves wrapped around the ringer, and I can get into their machine and do what I need to do with them, of course, in attendance,

with the exception of my mother-in-law.

She just wants me to go in and do whatever needs to be done.

Don't bother her with it.

So I can go into her machine at will and do whatever I want.

I can move files, send email, do anything that she can do, plus transfer files.

So that's another approach.

You just reminded me.

There used to be another program, and I haven't used it in many years, but it was the same thing.

You could, a person would send you an invite, and you'd go into their machine, and I'm trying to remember the name of that program.

It was not any desk or rust desk.

It was something else.

Remini?

No.

I'll think about it, but no.

But that's another way.

Yeah, so thank you.

That's another way of trying to skin this cat.

I used to use TeamViewer, but they get very fussy very fast about, oh, you're using it commercially, and you aren't.

You know, I'm dealing with my mother-in-law, and all of a sudden, you know, we detected commercial activity, and they cut you off.

So any desk was easier going on that regard, and rust desk doesn't care whatsoever.

So I've had a computer where I could get one-way vision with any desk, but I couldn't get two-way.

But with rust desk, I could get, you know, any computer I've ever thrown at it works just fine.

So that's another approach.

NA3CW.

TeamViewer is what I used to use.

That's it.

So I will look in the rust desk, and maybe that'll just make it go away.

Thank you very much.

I'll let you go, and we will catch up with you later.

NA3CW.

W-8CRW.

Very good.

What Bob has to do to run his radio station is he has, you know, satellite downfeeds and various other things that he has to pull from this computer and that computer

and run them into his program automation and all that kind of stuff.

But I don't imagine you're doing anything that fancy.

So, you know, true networking may not be the issue.

You just need to reach into a different computer and get what you need.

So that's where the, you know, a remote operator could come in as a possibility.

So, have a good night, and I'm going to go upstairs.

W-8CRW, NA3CW.

Thank you.

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