W3GMS Monday Night Workbench Net

chaired by Jim AF3Z, delivers the full 985 experience: lively check-ins, deep technical dives, and the kind of friendly on-air camaraderie you only get from a seasoned group of operators. The night opens with repeater housekeeping, intermod warnings, and digital-mode clarifications before rolling into a long, rich round of station updates — everything from Elecraft K3S upgrades and vintage Yaesu restorations to antenna mishaps, sweepstakes attempts, CW practice, solar observations, and mobile operating tales from the road.

A highlight of the evening is the shared trip to Scranton to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first overland wireless telegraphy transmission, complete with stories about Father Murgas, the HAMSCI research group, and the university’s impressive new shack. The net later pivots into problem-solving mode, tackling three substantial questions: how modern solar installations impact HF noise, how best to study for the General exam without falling into the “ham-cram” trap, and the mechanical realities of mounting rotors and thrust bearings for a future hex-beam install. The group answers with personal experience, practical engineering insight, and a generous helping of humor.

From DX success stories to APRS bot experiments, from antenna strategy to equipment nostalgia, and from technical know-how to pure hobby joy, this Workbench session showcases exactly why the 985 community keeps coming back — a long, engaging mix of knowledge-sharing, storytelling, troubleshooting, and good-natured ribbing that feels like spending the evening with a room full of radio friends.

What is W3GMS Monday Night Workbench Net?

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, this is Jim AF-3Z Alpha, Foxtrot 3 Zulu, and I will be the host for the 985 Workbench,

this evening. Welcome to everybody out there, and encourage anybody, all licensed amateurs,

to check in with us tonight. Newcomers are certainly welcome. The 985 Workbench meets here

on 146.985 MHz every Monday evening at 8 p.m. And to access a repeater, you want to use a

squelch, excuse me, a PL tone of 100 Hz. 100 Hz allows you to get into the repeater. And if you use squelch,

tone squelch on receive, that tone is 94.8 Hz, so they are different. PL is 100 Hz, squelch tone 94.8 Hz.

And I am located out a few miles west, near Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. And glad to be the host here tonight.

Take a look at the repeater website, located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.

Lots of information there, articles, pictures, repeater etiquette, history, all kinds of good stuff, so check that out.

Please be aware that on occasion, the repeater experiences intermod interference. Basically, you'll hear some funny things on the end of the squelch tail after somebody. And at times, those of us with weaker signals will get totally kept out of the repeater, blocked out. And it can make signals very noisy. So if that happens, we'll try to mention that, so you're sure what's going on.

And I am one that can have that interference wipe me out, since I'm so far out. So one thing that helps is be sure to be running maximum power, and/or be prepared to check in through a digital mode, echo link, or all-star. We want to be able to hear you, and those things, the digital modes get through, the intermod does not affect them.

One thing you need to know, though, is to be able to use echo link and all-star on 985, you need to register with the repeater group. So directions for doing so can be found, again, on the website, w3gmsrepeater.com.

Also when the intermod is present, before you start making a transmission, it's good to just ask quickly, especially if you know you may be farther out or running an HT or something. Just ask quickly if you're getting through okay and then I'll be glad there's net control to confirm that.

And just as a demonstration I'll make sure I'm getting through. Let me see. Ron, WA3VE, are you there and am I getting through okay?

We are hearing you very good and clear tonight.

Alright, I'm not sure what that means.

Anybody listening to the reviewer, can you hear me now? This is AF3Z.

You're doing fine Jim, NA3CW.

Thank you Chuck. I've got the computer here on the echo link and it's acting like I'm getting through.

Alright, thank you very much Chuck, appreciate it.

So that's intermod.

Or that is an IP.

There's some procedures, one of you have it.

On the workbench we focus on answering general questions of radio theory and operation.

In addition we invite each station at the beginning of the net here to briefly comment on your amateur radio activity in the past week.

So in a few minutes we will do that.

So when you're checking in, and I'll do check ins in a minute here. Sorry my mind is getting mixed up.

When checking in, if you have a question that you would like to put before the group tonight,

please just indicate during that time saying, you know, I have a question or don't have a question.

And I'll keep track of that.

And then when we get to the question portion, I will call on you to state your question.

And we'll see if other stations here want to speak to that question.

So as you're checking in, please write down the call of the station that checks in right after you.

You might want to make a list of everybody that works well.

But at least write down the station that checks in right after you.

Because during the opening section where we ask for everybody's comments, you'll be able to turn it over then to the next station that follows you up.

So a few moments we will start with that.

And again, just asking for brief comments on what you've been doing in the past week.

Then following that round table section, then we will go to the question part.

And I will call on the stations that indicated they had a question.

And one thing during that section, we will operate as a directed net, which means, please wait to be recognized by me before beginning a transmission.

This helps us handle the questions efficiently and keep the net running smoothly.

At times it helps for two stations when we're talking about a question to sort of go back and forth between each other to help clarify the situation or pass information that will help us answer the question.

So feel free to do that as needed.

And then once you've finished that exchange, please do pass it back to me as net control.

Something else, don't be too quick to talk.

It doesn't mean, I can't think of the right word.

It doesn't mean that you need to not say things.

What it means is when you're going to speak, pause a couple seconds before hitting the press-to-talk switch, PTT.

It's good repeater etiquette, leave some space for people to break in when they need to.

And also, those on Echo Link and All Star have added delays involved in what they hear.

And it gives them especially a better chance of being able to break when they need to do so.

So, when you click the press-to-talk button, wait a couple seconds before you do that.

And once you do press the press-to-talk switch, wait a second before it's talking because the repeater needs a moment to process your PLL.

I am really messing up here tonight.

Yes. So there's a three minute timer on the repeater. So as I just did, from time to time, just let it up on the mic button and then you can click again. That just helps reset the timer on the repeater so it doesn't time out on you. When it does time out, you don't get in anymore and none of else can break in. So we just have to wait until you like it was a press to talk switch.

So every two to three minutes, I'll let up on the air. So thanks to everybody who does function as a host. And if anybody else out there would be interested, want to learn more, hopefully you try hosting the workbench, contact myself, Jim, AlphaFoxTrump3Zulu, or any of us here of the net controls and we'll help you get started. There's information to help you do it.

And just a reminder, on Thursday at 8 p.m. here on the repeater is the 985 round table, which is kind of a rag chew net. So I hope you can join us for that sometime. Like this, it's at 8 p.m. and that one is on Thursday evenings.

So we will get to finally taking check-ins here. And remember, when you are checking in, if you have a question for the group, please just state that you do have a question when you check in.

So I'm going to begin with digital stations. And I will try to leave plenty of spaces in between for you all to get checked in.

So digital stations using Echolink or All Star. I'm going to check into the 985 workbench tonight. Please call now. This is Jim, AlphaFoxTrump3Zulu.

This is KM3I1RC, Marblehead, Massachusetts, checking in. I do not have any questions for the workbench, but if I can answer anything, I will be here.

This is KM3I, no questions.

Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR, no question.

Alright, let me break in here. This is AF3Z.

I got three stations and then we had a good bit of noise. I don't know if somebody was...

What was going on there, I'll just say that.

W1RC, Mr. Mike, welcome aboard. Thank you.

John KN3I and CRW8CRW.

If there was a station after those three checking in, I want to try again, but we just heard a good bit of noise. No audio as far as a voice.

So, uh, go ahead and try again if you're trying to get in here.

I think they're transmitting digitally.

Hey Jim, this is Ron, WA3VE. Agree with John. That sounds like it might be there on system fusion instead of on analog FM. Go ahead.

Alright, thank you. Yes, it does sound like digital something.

Although I can't copy that in my head. Alright, thank you guys. If you are trying to check in on digital, we are not set up for digital here. So you need to use good old FM or Echo Link or All Star.

So, uh, pause again for that station or any other stations wishing to check in on the digital side of things, but not, not fusion. Uh, this is AF3Z. Call now.

Okay, not fusion. Okay, not fusion. I never thought about that side of saying digital stations before. Something new for my brain to remember.

Alright, any other stations now? RF stations coming in by RF and/or other digital stations.

wishing to check in to the 985 workbench. Please call now.

The Alpha 3 Victor Echo Echo. I do have a question. That station was very strong on the input over here in Westchester.

in Westchester.

PC3RFG Jim in Malvern, no questions.

No questions.

PC3RFG, WA3KFT.

Kilo Delta 3, Bravo Papa India, that's KD3 PPR, Simon with a question.

NA3CW, no questions.

Kilo Charlie 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no questions.

Kilo Charlie 3, Sierra Corpac India, question.

Kilo Delta 3, Echo Echo, hopefully this worked this time, on All Star.

This is...

This is Alpha Alpha 3, Lima Hotel, Jim the Turquian Goblin's knob, no questions.

All right, I will break in again. This is AF3Z.

Hey, thank you all very much. There was one time where we had the carrier, no speech or any audio. It almost sounded like an open mic. But anyway, didn't hear any audio. So if we missed you, I'll give you another chance to get in. But here's who I have now.

Going back through the top of the list.

W1RC, W1RC, KN3I, W8CRW, WA3VEE with a question.

KC3RFG, K3FF, WA3KFT, KD3BPI with a question.

NA3CW, KC3OOK, KC3SQI with a question.

KC3MAI, and AA3LH.

Is there anyone else checking in that I missed, or didn't get a chance yet? Call now.

KC3MAI, and AA3LH.

Hey, Bob.

Is Ron correct?

Are you in there?

KB3ZIM, AA3Z.

Am I in the Twilight Zone, or what?

Well, I've got Bob written down here.

Is there anybody else wishing to check into the workbench tonight?

Please call now.

This is Jim, AA3Z.

WF3, FES Fred.

No questions.

Good evening, old.

Good evening, Jim.

Thanks for taking the round table.

KD3EE, John in Landisville.

KB3ZIM, Bob in East Battlefield Township.

My bad, before Ron was hearing me on the input.

I did not have...

I noticed I had changed some things with the transceiver and noticed that I had failed to activate the PL tone.

I'm here, no questions, just listening on the side.

KB3ZIM.

Let me break in here.

Hey, Bob.

I wrote you down when Ron mentioned it, so you'll be right after Leon, AA3LH.

KB3OH, you give it to KB3ZIM.

And then Bob, you turn it to Fred W3FES.

Ox, Echo, Sierra.

And then John KD3EE is the last one.

I have one last call, then we'll get going here.

Any other stations wishing to check in, please call now.

All right, very good.

I'm not going to go over the whole list, but after Joe, KC3MAI.

Then we had Leon, AA3LH.

Then Bob, KB3ZIM.

Fred W3FES.

And John KD3EE.

So, we will go down for the brief comments.

We like to emphasize the question period, the question time.

So, just some brief comments about what you've been up to in ham radio this week.

So, back up to the top there, Mr. Mike.

Welcome aboard from Massachusetts.

And you'll turn it over then to KN3I.

Mr. Mike, it's your turn.

This is AF3Z.

Thank you very much, Jim.

This is W1RC.

And, well, I got new radios this week.

I got a Nellcraft K3S.

An estate sale.

And, boy, that's quite a jump forward.

What a radio that is.

I spent today fooling around with it a bit.

And I had a K3 that I never used.

I picked that up at some flea market.

And it had a bunch of accessories in it that I transferred into the K3S.

And that was a lot of fun learning how to do that.

But, boy, I'll tell you, this is like a computer with an RF section.

That's what it is.

But these are the radios that all the big shot contesters were using.

And today they use the K4, which is even more expensive.

The invoice was in the manual.

It's $4,600 bucks.

That's a lot of dough.

And, you know, he had a fair number of accessories in it.

But anyway, now that we put everything in from the K3, still lots in the K3, which I'm going to be putting up for sale at a reasonable price.

I guess we don't have a swap shop on here.

Maybe we should have one.

Don't know.

Anyways, turn it over to Jim, to John, KM3I, and the Monday Night Workbench from W1RC.

Okay, very good, Mr. Mike.

This is KN3I.

And thanks to Jim for doing the net tonight.

And also Joe Stuccio for encouraging me to sign in tonight.

So a lot of activity this week for me.

I, Joe had an activity.

And Jim and I took advantage of it.

He drove us up to Scranton for the Father Murgas, I guess it is.

But it's spelled M-U-R-G-A-S if you want to look it up on the internet.

And unknown to me, but a radio pioneer.

So you want to learn about him.

We had a great time.

Also signed up for N3FJP, log file of the world, whatever it's called.

I'm very retrograde here.

So I'm just getting my logging thing.

Did a little sweepstakes operation.

Worked on an ICOM 746 Pro.

I have a third one now that I'm fixing up.

Did some AM operation on 80 meters, 40 meters.

Started with a Viking 2 CDC.

I have a Valiant.

I started working on T368 modifications.

So I dragged out of the, onto the table and started looking at.

And what else?

That's it.

So let's, no questions.

Let me turn it over to CR.

W8CRW.

This is KN3I.

Thanks, John.

And yeah, very good.

Jim, thanks for taking the chair tonight.

And this week in ham radio is pretty normal.

The only thing out of the ordinary is I was getting ready to tear my clear note apart.

And I plugged it in and booted it up and did all the stuff you have to do to get it working.

And discovered it's working.

So that's what I'm using tonight.

So the clear note is back on the air.

With that, Ron, pick it up.

W8CRW.

Excellent.

W8CRW and the net.

W83VE over here in Westchester.

Not much in ham radio this week.

My goodness gracious.

A lot of traveling around.

Had a wedding in the family.

My younger son got married middle of, middle of November.

Well, it wasn't middle of November.

But middle of New Jersey.

And my wife and I will be heading up to Bar Harbor, too.

To Bar Harbor tomorrow for a family trip.

So, be back on Sunday.

But the rest of the family will be here at the house.

But in any event, not much opportunity to do much in radio this week.

Hopefully, next week will be a lot more settled.

And we'll see how that all goes.

Especially longing to get up to the site to do some operating.

Some nice quiet time operating, believe it or not.

Just the noise of a radio and band noise.

Even QRM will be welcome.

That's for sure.

Let's see.

All very good.

KC3RFG WA3VE.

We're on WA3VE.

This is Jim here in Malvern, the KC3RFG.

I'd like to pause and thank Jim AF3Z for hosting us this evening.

And there's nothing too much going on in the shack this week here as well.

Just the daily nets and normal 985 activities.

About the only thing exciting was I got to get out that first night of the strong aurora

and got some nice pictures of that.

So it was good to -- that doesn't happen very often down at this latitude.

So that was pretty cool to see.

Not quite as defined through the woods here as it was earlier this year.

But still a really large red and orange glow in the sky was pretty neat to look at.

That's about it from here.

So I think I will be sending it over to Rene K3FF from KC3RFG.

Thank you and good evening to everyone on the -- and that this evening, my week in radio, well,

I have worked on and finished an old Yezu FT1.

I guess it was a flagship type radio back in 1982.

I've got that up and running.

I replaced the files.

I did a lot of alignment.

And I was able to get that -- got quite a few QSOs on it to verify my work.

That radio was $2,800 back in 1982.

And that translates to about $9,000 now.

So FT1 took a good stab at it -- the Yezu took a good stab at it back then to -- as I recall -- as I read -- to compete with the Collins KWM 38 -- I think it's 380 -- KWM 380.

Anyway, I've got a story, a quick one, which has been very windy today.

It was windy a couple of weeks ago.

And in the evening, I fired up my rig and my solid-state amp on 40.

And tuned, as I do, at low power for -- on a tuner for best SWR.

And then I turned the amp on and immediately cut out with high SWR.

Of course, I repeated it.

Sure enough, it topped out.

So I ended up using another antenna.

But in the morning, I tried to -- down, I looked at the base, the vertical -- the 40-meter vertical.

I looked at the base.

Nothing seems wrong.

Everything is connected.

And then I looked at the top and I found that in the wind, the top of the 40-meter vertical,

I'm 5 feet or 6, 7 feet away, clipped underneath the wire to my off-center fed.

And that being the high-voltage part of the antenna, it apparently was fine at low SWR, since it's insulated wire.

But at high voltage, high power, it arced over into the wire and tripped out in high SWR.

So anyway, the bottom line is I never connect more than one antenna at a time on my patch panel.

And if I had another rig on the other antenna, I might be having some problems.

So that's it.

And let me see.

I'll turn it over to KC3RFG, K3FF.

KC K3FF.

This is WA3, King Fox, Tango.

Okay, Rene.

Very good.

Well, I've --

I can't say I've been chasing DX, but it's been falling in my lap very nicely.

I operate 10 meters almost on a daily basis.

And we wound up getting a couple stations in Texas on the 13th.

And then on the 16th, we had North Carolina, New Jersey, Massachusetts.

So not doing bad.

And I'll say just showing up and not doing anything.

And we wind up landing some nice DX stations and so forth.

And we have a regular net called the Retired Group.

It meets every day of the week at 1:00 in the afternoon on 28435.

And if that one is busy with DX and so forth, for some reason DX stations love 28435.

We go down band to 28333 and carry on down there.

And sometimes we even get DX on that frequency.

So, over to Simon.

KD3BPI.

And the net.

WA3KFT.

KD3BPI.

Thank you, John.

Very good.

On my end, not much in ham radio.

Sorry to report.

I always have my mobile rig going in my car.

But as of late, I've been using my commute up and down Route 100 to kind of just decompress.

And it would take a few minutes.

And I'm going to go down.

And it would take a few minutes.

I've been working on automatic direction finders at work.

I work with airplane avionics, for those who don't know.

And we had some problems with a test setup.

And that was a puzzler.

Because another engineer had worked through it.

And said he had all kinds of problems.

And I'm almost sorry to say that I did not have the same problems working through it.

I didn't have any problems.

So I'm a little nervous.

Because they want to put it back into service.

And I had to say that I couldn't find anything wrong with it.

But not ham radios, but airplane radios.

Very different.

Not as interactive.

Because of course I don't fly airplanes.

I just mess with the radios in the lab.

Still interesting though.

And I'll send it over to Chuck.

NA3CW.

This is KD3BPI.

KD3BPI NA3CW.

Good evening everybody.

And Jim, thanks for driving the circus here tonight.

The usual 985 activities.

Some mobile operation.

Had some nice chats with TJ.

And some others.

Nothing monumental.

The PMAM net.

And we had abysmal conditions for that on Sunday.

With geomagnetic instability and all that kind of good stuff.

But we got through it.

It's definitely one of those things.

You never know what you're going to get.

Otherwise I've been doing a lot of computer work.

And this afternoon it was putting in data entry for the annual interchurch Thanksgiving meal

distribution that happens in the Parksburg area.

And I'm doing the labels for the various meal bags in the database for who gets what and where they are.

And all that kind of good stuff.

So finally got some information for those that are signing up.

So enough from that.

Over to Bill.

KC3OOK in beautiful Oxford.

This is NA3CW.

NA3CW.

KC3OOK.

Thank you Chuck.

Good evening everyone.

And Jim.

Thank you for taking the chair tonight.

Well.

Not super radioactive here.

But doing things radio related I guess.

Did do the usual 985 nets.

And was not a net control for the simplex net.

But it was kind of an impromptu one.

And the net controls couldn't hear each other.

So I used the beam and worked as the relay.

It was interesting how well the beam and the SDR radio worked.

Because the west control was running 5 watts from Elizabeth town.

And the east control was running 8 watts from Livids on a HT into a J pole.

So it was an interesting test of the beam and the SDR radio.

And it definitely made a difference.

So that's about it for operating.

Working in here in the shop.

Just finishing up the rack cabinet.

Chuck will appreciate this.

I have say 28 biscuits to glue up all at once.

And set in that panel and it's all done.

So.

I'm going to do that tonight.

But it's not happening.

But that's about it here.

So I'll turn it over to Wayne.

KC3SQI.

KC3OOK.

Well thank you Bill.

KC3OOK.

This is KC3SQI.

Not a whole bunch in the operating.

Uh.

Just uh.

Mainly trying to get things put back together.

And running again on uh.

All of my uh.

New antennas on the new mast.

And looking at future antennas that I'm uh.

Looking at or thinking about.

So.