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.