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Every Monday Evening at 8pm Eastern Time, the W3GMS/R Crew get together on the repeater at 146.985Mhz and discuss technical questions and sometimes do lessons related to Ham Radio for newer Operators to learn from experienced Elmers. The Workbench was set up to be a safe place for any technical questions to get asked and good answers to be given.
Good evening and welcome to the 985 workbench.
I'm W3MOW, my name is Mike, and I'm happy to
be your host tonight. I'm located in the village
of Sadsburyville, here in beautiful Chester
County, Pennsylvania. We meet here every Monday
night at 8 p.m. on the W3GMS Parksburg repeater.
The frequency is 146 decimal 985 megahertz,
and the PL tone is 100 hertz. For those stations
that use a tone squelcher on receive, the repeater
used a tone squelcher of 94.8 hertz. Newcomers
are very welcome and we encourage all stations
to check in. When you get a moment, take a
look at the repeater website located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com
as it has a lot of information including technical
articles, pictures of 985 years in action,
and repeater etiquette and history. Now here
on the workbench, we focus on answering general
amateur radio questions and discussing topics
of radio theory and operation. Additionally,
we'll be asking each station to make some general
comments about what you did to amateur radio
in the past week. So when you check in, please
indicate if you have a question for the group.
And even if you don't have a question, we ask
you to check in. After all stations have checked
in, we're going to go into our general comments
portion of the workbench using a roundtable-like
forum, kind of like what we do on Thursday
nights. And then after each station gives their
general comments, we'll move on to stations
with questions. Then after the question is heard
from the station, we'll reach out to the workbench
for a station to answer the question. Once the
question is answered satisfactorily, we'll
move on to other stations with questions. Remember
the workbench is the time and place to ask
those in-depth questions, so please don't hesitate
to ask. Keep in mind the question portion of
the workbench is a directed net, so we ask you
to be, wait to be recognized by net control
before beginning a transmission. This is just
to ensure that we handle your questions efficiently
and keep the net running smoothly. However,
there may be times where our stations, where
two stations need direct communications for
additional questions, general statements, or
follow-up, and I ask you to do that if necessary
and just pass it back to net control afterwards.
We do have a few quick things to remember here
on 985, and the first one is click, wait a
second, and then talk. And that's just to ensure
we don't miss the first few syllables of your
transmission. Also, we need you to let up on
the PTT from time to time, something like this,
as the repeater has a three-minute timeout timer.
And finally, at the end of your transmission,
turn it back over to net control. Before we
begin tonight, I'd like to thank all the other
stations for volunteering as hosts for the workbench.
If you'd like to host the workbench in the
future, please reach out to one of us and we
will gladly get you on the schedule. Lastly,
I believe at this time we're looking for a
host to host this week's session of the 9-5
Thursday night roundtable as Jack K3YVQ is
unable to do it this Thursday. So if you'd
like to volunteer as a host this Thursday at
8 p.m. For the workbench, please reach out
to Jim, AF3Z, and we will gladly get you scheduled
for that. At this time, we're going to start
the check-in process. So if you could just
give your call sign and your name and just
indicate if you have a question. I have been
away from the radio, so I don't know a lot
of the newer call signs to me. So I may just
ask for some quick follow-up saying phonetically,
asking for your name, things of that nature.
And there may be some times where I'm pausing
on my end and that's just me doing things
to the list to make sure I have everything
good to go over here. So just remember to indicate
if you have a question for the group. So at
this time we're going to start the check-ins.
We're going to do digital stations only at
this time. So stations using All-Star EchoLink
wishing to check in to the 985 Monday Night
Workbench, please call now. This is W3MOW.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, no question.
All right, have CRW8CRW. Do we have any other
digital check-ins? Wishing to check in, All
Star EchoLink. Please call now and we'll give
you plenty of time. This is W3MOW.
Whiskey One Romeo Charlie in Marblehead, Massachusetts
with no questions, maybe answers.
All right, we got Mike W1RC from Massachusetts
sounding good of the All-Star, I believe. Thanks
for checking in tonight. At this time, we'll
go into our regular check-ins. So at this
time, we'll take all check-ins, all check-ins
for the 985 workbench. Please call now and
remember to indicate if you have a question
for the group.
NA-3CW, no questions.
Foxtrot 3 Zulu 1
KC30K.
C3WWC, no question.
We have a few check-ins here, so we'll start
out with what I have. I have Chuck NA3CW, then
I have Jim with a question, AF3Z, then Bill
KC3, oh, OK. And then I have, I just heard
maybe a little bit of doubling in there. So
I heard WWC. And I should know this call sign
by now because it sounds familiar. But can you
come back with your full call and your name
for the WWC, please?
I tried to get in on RF and had to switch to
All-Star. This is John, KC3WWC.
Okay, very good, John. Got you in there. I thought
that's what your call was. Got you good, and
you're sounding really good on All-Star there.
Do we have any more check-ins? So we're taking
all check-ins at this time. RF check-ins and
digital check-ins for the 985 Monday Night
Workbench. Please call now and indicate if
you have a question for the group. This is
W3MOW.
Okay, nothing heard at this time and that's
no worries. It's a beautiful Monday night so
maybe we just have some folks out and about
enjoying the night and the weather. But we'll
get started here anyway and maybe we'll get
some folks joining us as the night continues.
So at this time I'll go over the check-in list.
If you can just write down who comes before
and after so you know when it's your turn to
give us a quick rundown of your week. Since
we do have a short check-in list, feel free
to chew the rag as you're talking to us about
what you did in amateur radio for the past week.
There's really no rush, although we do have
one question on the docket tonight. And I'm
sure we'll have plenty of time to get to that.
So let's just try to enjoy ourselves. What do
you say? All right, so here's the list as I
have it. We have W8CRWCR. Then CR, you'll turn
over to Mike, W1RC. Then it goes to Chuck,
NA3CW. Then Jim, AF3Z. Then Bill, KC3OOK. And
then Bill, you'll turn it to John, KC3WWC.
And John, you'll turn it to me. And maybe we'll
get some more check-ins, W3MOW. So CR, we'll
turn it over to you. Good evening to you, sir.
W8CRW. Good evening. This is W3MOW.
Very good, Mike, and the group. Glad to hear
you. This is CR. Let's see, I gotta stop this
thing from beeping here. The regular 985 activities
for this was, boy, I'm tongue-tied. Regular
985 activities for the week. Breakfast was
good, a lot of turnout, and I'm tongue-tied,
so I'm gonna forget about the rest and give
it to Mr. Mike. Mr. Mike in Massachusetts,
pick it up. WHCRW.
As very good see our good evening to everybody
on the net from W1RC I have no questions for
the net and I'll stick around and if I can
provide answers I'd be happy to and I'll turn
over to Chuck in a CW W1RC Thank you Mike,
W1RC. This is NA3CW. Not particularly exciting
AMRADIO WEEK. Monday and Tuesday we were traveling,
went up to Wellsboro and Pennsylvania Grand
Canyon. That was Monday. Tuesday we went to
the Corning Museum of Glass and saw part of
it, it's huge, and drove home. And Thursday
we were on the roundtable. And Friday, let's
see, various QSOs on 985, and then Sunday
afternoon, the PMAM net, 175 meters. And
the other thing is I've been tracking down a
noise. my 75 meters, S9 line noise that popped
up a few storms ago, it's about three weeks
ago now. And I've been sort of ignoring it
because most of the time when I'm on 75 I'm
using an online receiver anyway. But I tracked
it down, I'm pretty sure it's the pole at the
end of my street here along South Limestone
Road, so about to put in a request to Pico.
I didn't want to bother them after all of this.
the storms because I knew they were very busy
putting us all back together again. But think
enough time has passed that it's time for them
to get on this thing. So I think it's a bad
lightning arrestor. It's very consistent and
loud and doesn't vary by weather or anything
else. It's just S8 to S9 all the time, 24 hours
a day on 75 meters. I just took a walk down
there with my HT that can cover the aircraft
band and the highest frequency that it will
handle on AM is the, the reason I did the aircraft
band is because AM, or aircraft use AM and
you need AM to hear a noise. So the highest
frequency it will go is 136 and some time ago
I made a mox and rectangle antenna with two,
with some wire and two yard sticks. Cut for
136 megahertz. So I walked down there to the
other end of the block and did some directional
searching and I'm pretty sure it's the pole
at end of my street. it's, I guess, I don't
know if that's Hammer Radio or not, but there
you go. So over to Jim, AF3Z and A3CW.
Okay, thank you Chuck and Mike, yep, thank
you very much for being here and hosting tonight.
Good to hear you. Yeah, my ham radio activity
has been normal as far as workbench and roundtable
and the breakfast on Friday, that was good
as always. And some CW now and again. And
these days most of my CW is scheduled with Guy
Locally. A couple of QRP contests coming up
that I may dip into. That's about it for me.
Last week was kind of punctuated with rain
and flooding and water and stuff. Now that
relates to my question, but I won't go into
that yet. So that's what's up here. And yeah,
the nice weather must have pulled everybody
out of the shack here tonight. So that's about
it here. Bill, KC-3-0-OK, AF-3-0. KC3, OK,
I hear the intermod's in and I'm running low
power, am I making it in?
Yeah, Bill, you're sounding good. You're just
a little bit over the noise, but you're very
clearly, you know, we can hear you loud and
clear. You just hear the noise a little bit
in the background.
Okay, I turned it up to high power. I don't
know how the antenna will handle that, but
we'll give it a try and I'll try to be brief.
in Ham Radio this week. gathering on Friday
at the brass eagle and
Yeah.
up.
So that's about it for me. I'll turn it over
to John and Lancaster KC3 WWC KC3.
John in Landisville.
yesterday I found a really nice state game
land for parks on the air. Usually they're
not all that nice but there was parking and
there was game commission maintenance buildings
so I could sit in the shade there so that was
pretty nice and it was quiet. I got my replacement
UV Pro back from B-Tech and it now transmits
fine on 2 meter APRS. It had kind of guess
burned out that side of the radio. because
it was putting out a quarter watt, not five
watts. I've also been playing around with another
cheap RADTEL radio that does APRS and a little
handheld, so that's always fun. It kind of
combines all the features of my favorite radios,
like spectrum graphs and stuff like that. But
the interface does make all the other radios
look a lot nicer. Today around noon I found...
six meters pretty open to Florida. And then
later in the afternoon, it distinctly shifted
that it was only open to like Wisconsin. It
was kind of neat to observe. I'm just using
my random wire in the backyard. So we were
discussing at lunch, I believe, or at the breakfast
about like, what do you need to do six meter?
And people were talking about Yagis, but my
wire was doing it. So it must've been open.
I will hand it back to Mike. and W3MOW, this
is KC3WWC.
Okay, very good, John. Thank you for your comments.
Thanks for checking in. That goes to everyone.
Thanks to everyone for your comments and thanks
for checking into the workbench tonight. Glad
to hear everyone is still doing some fun stuff
in the hobby. And Chuck, that's really cool
what you were doing to track down the noise
that you were getting in the neighborhood.
So that's always fun too. And John, you're doing
a whole bunch of stuff, which is fun, APRS
and all that jazz. I remember we did a 6 meter
sked one time on 985 and had a few people check
into that. That was kind of fun. Let's see,
I haven't really been doing much in amateur
radio per the usual. And I keep telling you
guys every time I host that I'm going to change
that. I haven't been keeping up my promises.
So I'm not going to say that again. But hopefully
I will get active again. And I really do enjoy
hosting when it comes my time every about
six weeks or so. This keeps me engaged in the
hobby and I really do enjoy it. So with that
said, we did have a really small list. I'm going
to call out one more time, see we get some
additional check-ins, maybe some additional
comments before we move into the question
portion of the NET. Otherwise, it will be a
very short workbench. So let's see, do we have
any additional check-ins or any stations at
this time who would like to check into the
985 workbench? If you do, please call now.
This is W3MOW. you
QP, no question.
Alright Tim, I heard you in there W3QP, but
I don't know if you were doubling with someone
or someone was just really low in the noise.
We do have the intermod it sounds like on
there. That's what Bill said a couple rounds
ago. I'm not really good at detecting it, but
it's there. So if you have higher power, now's
the time to use it. So go ahead and try calling
one more time the station that was either doubling
or just barely getting to the repeater. If
you want to check in, please call now. This
is W3MOW.
and three CRE, no questions.
I have N3CRE Charlie down at Westchester.
think Tim just a little bit closer to the
repeater. She may have been doubling with him
and he just beat you to it. Do we have any
more check-ins for the workbench? Please call
now. 3 Mike Foxtrot Bravo, you hear me now?
Thorndale Mike got you loud and clear W3MFB.
Any other stations please call.
Okay, nothing heard. Since we do have some time,
gentlemen, we'll let you just give us some
brief comments about what you did to Amateur
Radio in the past week. And then after your
comments, and feel free to take as long as you
need to, because we'll have plenty of time,
so feel free to chew the rag. We'll get into
the question portion of the workbench. Tim,
you're going to start us off W3QP, and then
you'll pass it over to Charlie, N3CRE, and
then Charlie, you'll pass it to Mike, W3MFB.
And then Mike, just turn it back to me when
you're done with your comments and we'll get
started with the questions. So Tim, thanks
for checking in tonight. Good evening to you,
sir. W3QP, this is W3MOW. W3MOW and the group.
is W3QP. I a little late tonight. I was playing
out in the dirt, working on chopping stumps
out of the ground and got another one done,
so that was exciting. For actual radio, I
went down to Assateague Island this weekend
and spent a little time on 20 meters in the
Jeep. Only maintained 10 contacts. I just
didn't spend a lot of time on it, but I had
fun. One of the stations I contacted was November,
November... for Sierra Alpha. was the NASA
station out of the Marshall Space Center in
Huntsville. That was pretty cool. They were
doing a special event for the 56th anniversary
of the moon landing, which I didn't realize
it had been that long, but that was pretty cool.
That is all for me. So over to N3CRE. This
is W3QP.
Again, Charlie here, not much. Thank you, Jim.
Not much myself. Went to the breakfast, learned
more possible problems I have with electric
vehicles from CR. Very interesting discussion.
But other than that, I haven't been doing much
on the radio other than listening and trying
to stay cool. And likewise, I was outside, just
got done my walk. I was going to have to do
a choice. Do I go for a walk or we need the
yard? I went for a walk. do a reading some
of the time. Anyway, that's about it for this
day and I'll turn it over to Mike at W3MSB,
N3CRE. Clear.
Mike Fox Bravo. Yeah, not too much, just a little
bit of HF. Actually before the workbench, sorry,
I almost called it the roundtable. The workbench,
we had a great band opening from 10 and up.
I worked Switzerland a minute ago, or a little
while ago on 17 meters, so that was pretty
cool. Heard a lot of Spain. and Ireland on 17
as well. 10 should have been open. There was
only like one guy on there, maybe two guys.
And 11 meter was wide open, so go figure. But
one of these days, hands will get on 10 when
11's wide open. But anyway, yeah, that's what's
going on. That's what's going on. Just a great
weekend, beautiful weather, good rest today.
And Wednesday, up until Wednesday, it should
be nice and less humid. And then I'll be
back. But you know what's coming? Halloween.
And autumn is coming and Joe's favorite season
winter is coming too. So something to look
forward to. MoW, W3MFB. No question, Mike.
Okay, very good, Mike. Thanks for turning it
over and thanks for checking and thanks for
your comments. Same to you, Tim and Charlie.
Thanks for checking and thanks for your comments
tonight. Apparently these days, Mike, people
are celebrating, starting to celebrate Halloween
in the middle of July or something. I just read
on the interwebs the other day, so that's
interesting. But hey, to each their own. All
right, so with that being said, I think it's
time to move into the question portion of the
workbench. So let's see. We do have a quick
comment before the question portion. I know
we really only have one on the docket tonight
with Jim. But if any other station has a question,
just let us know and we'll be sure to get it
answered for you tonight. And if there are stations
out there listening that may have not checked
in yet or just listening on the side, if you
have a question, just let us know at any time
and we'll be glad to get to it. We do have a
quick comment here before the question portion
of workbench. And that is that the workbench
participation is most important to us here
on 985. So we encourage all stations to make
some general comments and share experiences
as knowledge level doesn't matter here on the
repeater as we can all learn from each other.
So I ask you to pick up the mic and have some
fun tonight with us. So let's see. AF3Z, good
evening to you once again. And go ahead with
your question. This is W3MOW.
All right, Mike, thank you. And first of all,
are you hearing me okay? AF3, you said.
Yes Jim, you're sounding good and again, I'm
not a really good detector of the inner mod,
maybe it has gone away. I didn't really hear
anything weird that time. But you're sounding
really good.
you didn't hear anything weird, you might not
have been hearing me. Alright, very good Mike,
thank you. This is an interesting question to
me and it's amateur radio related but it's
on the supply side as in power coming into your
house. During the flooding in Mount Joy about
a week ago, I had my shop vac set up late
at night. I propped it up so that it could
keep running. where the water at that point
was seeping in through the wall. And so it
was just sitting down there running and running
and running. And I came up and tried to catch
some sleep with my alarm set so I could get
up on the hour and go check on things. But
I heard something very interesting to me. A
lot of times when you turn on something that
draws a lot of current, the lights will dim
or something like that. So when the sump pump,
and there is a sump pump in addition to the
shop vac that was running, when the sump pump
would turn on, the sound of the shop vac
would go faster, like it was getting more
juice. All of a sudden you'd hear the shop vac
sort of rev up. And when the sump pump shut
off, the shop vac slowed down again. So then
I tried a little bit, I didn't do this at the
time, but then I plugged my little multimeter
into an outlet in the kitchen and when the
refrigerator would turn on...
According to my meter, the line voltage was
around 125 volts at the time. And when the
refrigerator turned on, it went up to like 127
or 128, a couple volts higher. I did this twice,
just did it right before the round table. Yeah,
what is this, workbench? And the microwave,
the line voltage was reading 126 volts in an
outlet in the kitchen. And microwave is on
a separate circuit, by the way, from those outlets.
And anyway, this was kind of interesting. When
the microwave would go to cooking on high, it
went, the line voltage went from 126 volts
up to about 139. That's 13 volts higher. And
so there's my question. You know, normally,
like I said, I would think when you start drawing
current, if anything, the voltage is going
to drop because you're losing more. along the
way somewhere because of the resistances and
stuff. But in number of cases, it seems like
the line voltage around here is going up when
something is running. Very interesting to me.
So I was thinking this was a good time for
Jim, RFG, to be in here. He's the electrician.
But anyway, that's my question. Why would
those voltages be going up when something else
turns on? Back to you, Mike, AF3Z.
AS4CK
All right, very good. Jim, that's a very interesting
question, especially since they're on different
circuits like you mentioned. So I'm interested
to see what we have here. But I did hear a
station come through here. But I didn't get
your full call sign. So if you could, please
come back with your call. And then we'll get
to the question. This is W3MOW. W3MOW, KS4CK,
Kilo, Sierra 4, Charlie Kilo. last name is Bruce.
I'm breaking in here. I'm a little late to
the party so I didn't check in. I have had this
happen to my house and I have a full explanation
if you'd like.
Okay, Bruce, I got your call sign there. It's
Kilo Sierra 4, Charlie Kilo. Thanks for checking
in tonight. And yeah, absolutely, go ahead and
get us started on the question. Over to you.
is W3MOW.
So the power coming to your house is 220. And
with a function that ground is down the middle.
And so it gets split into two halves in your
panel. One side is 110 on the left leg, and
one is 110 on the right leg. And if your ground
isn't working right and the load pulls too
much current on one side, the voltage goes up
on the other side. So if you check other outlets
in your house, bet some of them are going down.
And what it really means is that you have
a grounding issue. For me, it happened in my
meter panel itself. So, and if it's as
much as 13 volts, call Pico, get them out there
right away. They'll hatch something and or
get a line electrician out there to fix your
ground. But the explanation for why it goes
up on one side is... is lower in the other side
of the panel.
Bruce, you're still there. It seemed like you
were still talking and you just cut out there.
I don't know if you were done there. But if
you had anything else, go ahead.
you
Okay, very good. Yeah, I did hear it then.
Your signal just got a little bit noisy, so
maybe that's why I thought you just cut out
right away. very good. Thank you for your
comment, for sure. Do we have any other stations
with comments for Jim? Please call now. This
is W3MOW. WA3VEE Michael A. Check-in, but also
a couple comments for Jim. W?
Okay, very good, Ron. Thanks for checking in
tonight. I did see your email, so I you'd
be coming in. Hopefully your phone call with
your son went well. So glad to have you in
here. And yeah, absolutely get to your comments.
Ron, and feel free to ask Jim some questions.
I know you may have not heard his full question
there, but if you did, that's fine. But feel
free to dig in if you need to. And then Chuck
will get to you as well. So we'll turn it over
to Ron first, W-A-3-V-E. This is W-3. Good
Mike and yeah again, oh it was a great phone
call. just that he and I have not caught up
in a long time so thanks for the indulgence
of me getting in here late and if you don't
mind with your permission I'll turn it right
over to Chuck. Yeah to put a finer point on
what Bruce said, Bruce it's good to hear you.
Great to have you here on the workbench and
I'm glad you came to our field day. That's
really tremendous and glad you got a chance
to operate. Yeah, to put a finer point on what
you're saying, 240 comes in and it does split
and it sounds like Jim, you have a bad neutral.
A bad neutral. What do you think about that,
Chuck, if I might pass it right over to you?
NA3CW WA3VE. Yes, yes, yes, NA3CW. You've
got a bad neutral, which probably means
a loose connection. And this is potentially
dangerous, especially to your appliances.
And it could be anywhere from your service
entrance, the meter box, your main panel,
a bus, either into your neutral bus. in the
panel, et cetera. But yeah, you've got an
unstable neutral. And so as Bruce said, voltage,
if it's going up on one side of the line, it's
being pulled down on the other side of the line.
And the neutral is supposed to take up that
difference, but it's not. excuse me. And Bruce,
very glad to hear you on here, as well as
Ron. This is not something to put off. yeah,
you need an electrician in there that can
check out from end to end because it could
be in any one of those places or more actually.
So, yeah, that's just my comment. Everything
that has been said is absolutely correct and
been there, done that, and it can be anywhere
in the chain back into your service. So...
definitely something to get checked out pronto.
Back to Mike. W3MOW NA3CW.
Okay, very good. Well, we have three concurrences,
so I'll take that as complete. We'll send it
back to Jim for follow-up if you have anything.
Jim, AF3Z, this is W3MOW.
Okay, AAF3Z, thank you all very much, Bruce
and Ron and Chuck and Mike. Yeah, and there
were a couple of appliances, a clothes dryer
and a microwave and various things behaving
sort of strangely. And so I was starting to
wonder about this could be a service issue
of some sort, but I didn't know what. But very
good, thank you all, that is very, very helpful
and I will get on it. to get you split, I don't
think I'll call him out tonight. Thanks back
to you Mike, AF3Z. from Bruce.
All right, very good, Jim. Thanks for checking
in tonight, and thanks for your question, of
course. And go ahead, Bruce, with your follow-up.
Yeah, it may also be all the way back to the
transformer. My brother had this happen in
South Carolina and his neighbor was having
problems too. So one other action for you
is to just check with the neighbor if you've
got a shared transformer on the pole and find
out if it's happening to them. It could be
the neutral coming off the transformer. So
good luck to you, KS4CK.
Very good Bruce, thanks for your follow up and
again thanks for checking in and getting us
started on that question tonight. And for all
those listening out there, see, you asked a
question on the workbench and it could save
your bacon. So don't hesitate to ask questions.
With that being said, that was our only question
on the docket so let's see if we can call it
to the airwaves if we have any additional check-ins
for the workbench or if you have any questions
out there, if you're kind of listening out there,
haven't checked in before, now's a good time
to do it. We'd love to chat with you, love to
get your questions. So if you'd like to check
into the 985 workbenches for all check-ins,
RF and digital check-ins, All Star EchoLink,
if you'd like to check into the workbench,
please call now. This is W3MOW.
Mike, WA3V.
Absolutely, Ron, go ahead.
just to leave a little bit of pause there just
in case somebody didn't need to check in or
wanted to check in. But this is WA3VE. Folks,
check your email from Joe. There was, I just
learned about this this afternoon, but there
is a commercial space firm, AST Space Mobile,
that I think they are affiliated with Starlink.
but they want to, they are petitioning the
Federal Communications Commission to use a portion
of the 70 centimeter band for their communications,
their commercial communications for satellite
and particularly in the 430, 440 region. As
you, I'm sure know, the 70 centimeter band is
not only repeaters and simplex, but it's also.
satellite communications for us and it's also
most importantly things like links and frequencies
that we use for things like All-Star. They're
already using five satellites out there on
that band and causing interference in Europe
to 70 centimeter operations over there. I don't
know the allocation. Evidently they want to
be a secondary allocation on 70 centimeters
secondary to us. However, that still could cause
some interference and it's a step in the wrong
direction. On your email, you will see some
verbiage about how you can respond to this.
Unfortunately, today is the last day, so if
you can get in, several people have already
done this. I have verbiage out there. You're
welcome to use it, absolutely. Cut and paste
the link at the bottom to the FCC. and consider
trying to protect our spectrum. Like I said,
this could be a very slippery slope. I don't
remember seeing anything from the ARRL on this,
but I just wanted to make people aware of this
as a QST to get out there and actually try
to respond to this. If anybody has any questions,
I'll be around after the workbench, not to
tie things up here, but basically I wanted to
make sure that got out there. Back to you Mike.
W3MOWWA3VE.
Very good, Ron, and yeah, thank you for talking
about it. It's obviously very important for
our hobby to ensure that we get to keep what
little we have. So yeah, Ron, I appreciate
you standing by afterwards for questions as
well. Good to have you as a resource when
it comes to that kind of stuff. Switching gears
back to the workbench. We did just call out
for some check-ins. We didn't get any, so.
With the check-ins that we do have, now's your
last time. If you have a question before we
close down the workbench tonight, if you have
a question, we can get an answer. We've got
plenty of time. based on all the check-ins
we have tonight, if you have a question, if
you want to ask it tonight, now's your time.
Go. This is W3MOW. 3MFB with a comment.
Go ahead, Mike. Taking up what Ron said and
Joe blasts us with an email about the petition
there and thanks Ron for letting us copy and
paste, hi-high. But, which I did do, but just
so you know the length that in Joe's email from
the UK, the FCC filing number is 25-201. 25-201.
Make sure you go to the link or just write down
what I just said because when you go to the
bottom of Joe's email and it takes you right
to the FCC petition area, by reading the email
and you don't click the first link, you don't
know what the heck to put in there. So it's
25-201. So that was my comment. So yeah, I
suggest everybody should do that in our group
here. W3MOWW3MFP, thank you.
All right, very good, Mike. Yeah, thanks for
that comment there. I'm going to go on here
and do that here after we close down the workbench.
All right, so with that being said, it looks
like we did not have any additional check-ins
or additional questions, which is fine. It's
a beautiful Monday evening here in Chester County,
in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, so I don't
blame people for being away from the radio tonight.
But this is one of my shorter workbenches,
so I'm a little upset. So I have a redemption
in about six weeks from now to have the workbench
go longer But that'll be the futures problem
but anyway We're going to close the workbench
at this time since we already asked for additional
check-ins and questions So I do want to thank
all stations for checking into the workbench
tonight. It was great to hear all your comments
about amateur radio and It just goes to show
everyone listening who did not check in tonight
how active we are here on 985 And just the
knowledge level that's here on 985 when it
comes to radio, electrical stuff, car stuff,
woodworking stuff, there's a resource here
on 985 for you. So it's good to hear all that
stuff, even if it's not amateur radio related.
So thank you all for sharing your comments tonight.
Also, a very big thank you to Joe, W3GMS, for
allowing us to use the repeater for the workbench.
And then also, please remember to join us this
Thursday at 8 p.m. for the 985 Thursday night
roundtable. And I believe at this time we're
still looking for a host since Jack was not
able to do it due to a scheduling conflict.
So if you'd like to host the workbench this
Thursday, and maybe it's your first time hosting,
we'd still love to have you. We could give
you a quick little tutorial. any mistakes
you make along the way will just be for fun
and for learning. And no one will. will know
the wiser. So if you're interested in doing
that, just reach out to Jim, AF3Z, and he will
get you on the schedule for this Thursday. Or
if you're a first timer, he'll help you out,
give you all the stuff you need to make a good
host session for the roundtable. I'm sorry
if I said workbench. So that being said, I wish
everyone a great week ahead, 7-3 for now. And
again, continue to use the repeater tonight
if you have questions for Ron regarding the
70 centimeter deal with that company. Or if
you just want to the rag and keep Joe's PICO
bill nice and high, that would be great. So
feel free to continue the conversation once
we close up the net here. So 7-3 all, it was
a pleasure hosting tonight and have a great
week. This is W3MOW and I'll be clear for the
evening. Good job Mike. I just have one quick
statement about the link that I sent around.
W3GMS, let me see if I have it.
that you want to focus on is the link to the
FCC site at the bottom of the email right near
Ron's Cut and Paste Burbage. The UK link was
just for general information. That was sent
to me with some other verbiage and I just passed
that along. But do not let that UK link trip
you up. It's very, very simple. If you click
the link at the bottom to the FCC site, It
automatically has the docket number and everything
filled in. You just got to put your particulars.
So it's very, very, very simple. 738W3GMS
and a great job, Mike.
WA3VEKC30K
First of all, Joe, thank you very, very much
for putting that out there. Like I said, I
wish I had more notice, but I had just gotten
that in an email. And I said, holy smokes,
you got to be kidding me. I don't know why we
didn't know about this sooner. So my thanks
to you, Joe, very sincerely. KC3OOKWA3VEE.
Good evening, Bill.
Good evening Ron and good evening Joe. Yeah
Ron, just wanted to mention, I don't know if
you saw, I know you've been busy, I sent you
an email. email I sent to the ARRL and I
can tell you that there's
email. see where we get a response and I had
the same thought you did. Why the last day
of standing out. Very interesting. Other thing
I did look up...
to respond to your email. did see it and I
think that's a brilliant idea to send that
to the advocacy and regulatory section. And
it's like, hey guys, this is a major, this
could be a major big deal. It might be a bite
out of the 70 centimeter band, but there's
probably more bites and there's a heavy appetite
for those bites out there, to use a metaphor.
So this is the thing. And I know I'm fighting
a one-person battle here when I say this, but...
it may not necessarily help, but it could hurt.
We keep referring to this as a hobby. And
it is the amateur radio service. Welcome to
amateur radio, not welcome to the hobby. Please.
I mean, as these people hear this, they see
this, like I said, that in itself is not
going to prevent them from doing this. But if
we keep referring to it as a hobby, and I'm
just evangelizing myself here, and I'm sorry
to do that. But the thing is, it cringe every
time I hear that because they hear it too.
And oh, these guys, man, these are like car
guys. It's like they each have a Daytona 500
in their backyard. They've got all these frequencies
that we want. My goodness gracious, it's just
a hobby. OK. Yes, the amateur radio service.
And we all know that it's more than a hobby,
anyway, enough said on that. you very rarely
ever hear me mention that, at least in my regard.
But good idea on getting that up to the regulatory
guy. It's interesting. I'll keep it as positive
as I can. But it's interesting that we have
to tell them about this. instead of us hearing
from them about this. But in many ways I'm
not surprised, sadly. But yeah, very good.
I thought that was my goodness. I didn't think
of that. That was a great idea for you to do
that. KC3OOKWA3VE.
see how it goes. One of the things that I'm
curious about is who formed...
In either case, we'll see how it goes.
Yeah.
I was trying to get into the shack today, but
we had an animal day here, a good animal day.
I took the kiddies to the vet this morning
for their final shots at their age. So they're
rabies and their final vaccine shots. So they
don't go back to the vet unless there are
issues for another year, which is great. And
then we ended up picking up a Pomeranian.
for my sister-in-law. So she is back to having
two dogs, which is what she's always wanted,
which is what she had back in Ohio. And so
now we are outnumbered here. We humans in
the house are outnumbered with animals, which
is just wonderful. I've got three of them
right here, right on the console. So it was
a very busy day, so I did not get a chance
to go back and look back on the email myself.
But as soon as I saw this, said, you know,
we got to this out to the 985 group. And like
I said, Joe was very, very gracious in getting
it out there and really appreciate that. May
not do any good, but let's put it this way.
It's certainly, what's that saying? All things
go wrong when good men do nothing. let's see
what happens. But thanks again, Bill. I really
appreciate it. KC3OOKWA3.
Yeah, I guess we'll have to hurry up and wait.
ATC 3-0. I know I wish I got a discount, but
I do have pet insurance, so that does help
some. There's no doubt about that. So, I wouldn't
do this without that, that's for sure. These
guys, I was joking with them at the vet. I said,
you know, I have to take a second mortgage
out. Well, I don't have any mortgage anymore,
but I have to take a loan out to be able to
feed these guys. Especially Kitten and Sarah
are just really, really ravenous right now,
but... They're growing like leaps and bounds
and it just it really really makes a house
a home There's no doubt about it and if that
said wow gee Oh, there's a ham radio connection
here, too By the way, believe it or not believe
it or not, you know me there's always some
you'll be talking about Knitting and there's
a ham radio connection. Well, there's there's
one here, Anyway, the vet tech said well three
three cats. I is that too much I said no, it's
just right So it turns out, and she says, well,
I have three cats too. So anyway, that's cool.
Anyway, it turns out that my vet has a 10-year-old
just like Jack Costello. And so he is very
interested in communication and STEM and everything
else. So when the weather gets cooler, I will
be getting together not only with Eric from
County Commissioner's office and his daughter
up at the site. but also with Katie McIntyre,
our vet, and her son. So I will recr- you
gotta laugh at this. We had the guy from the
hardware store, and we have, you know, the
vet up there, we got the commissioners, we got
all kinds of people in off the street and everything.
I will recruit anybody and anyone I can, no
doubt about it, for Ham Radio. No question
about it, so that was pretty cool. They didn't
make it to field day because they had a lot
of other family stuff going on, but they expressed
regrets and she will have a... She will definitely
have the link to the photographs. And I said
focus on the videos for sure because that's
where the action is. Be able to see some of
our youth actually operating. KC3OOKWA3VE.
Oh, that's great, Maybe you missed your calling,
you should have been a recruiter in the service.
You're doing a great job now, I'll have to get
you a badge. Radio recruiter.
Have a always a pleasure and again thanks
for all your help with all the field day stuff
really tremendous. True team, team effort.
WA3VE.