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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.
It's time to stump the chumps. Good evening. Welcome to the 985 workbench. I'm Chuck and my call is NA3CW, tonight's host for the workbench.
I'm located in beautiful Parksburg, Pennsylvania. We meet every Monday at 8 p.m. on the W3GMS Parksburg repeater 146.985 megahertz.
The PL tone to access the repeater is 100 hertz. For those who use tone squelch on receive, the repeater transmits a squelch tone of 94.8 hertz.
Newcomers are very welcome, and we encourage all stations to check in.
Take a look at the repeater website located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.
It has lots of information, including technical articles, pictures of 985 users, repeater etiquette, and history.
Please be aware that on occasion, the repeater experiences intermod interference.
Please run maximum power or be prepared to check in digitally through Echolink or All Star.
We want to hear you.
To be able to use Echolink or All Star on 985, you need to register with us.
Directions for doing so can be found on the website, w3gmsrepeater.com.
Also, when intermod is present, before starting a transmission, give a short call.
Am I getting in okay?
Once the host confirms that, then you can share your longer comments.
Here on the workbench, we focus on answering general questions of radio theory and operation.
Additionally, we invite each station to, briefly, comment on your amateur radio activity in the past week.
When checking in, please indicate if you have a question for the workbench.
If you don't have a question, still check in.
After all stations have checked in, we will first share what we've done this past week using the roundtable format.
Please write down the call of the station that checks in right after you.
When you have finished your comments, turn the mic over to that station.
Once we have all made our comments, we will start the question and answer portion of the workbench operating as a directed net.
I will call on a station that indicated having a question,
and then for stations who wish to respond to that question.
Please wait to be recognized by net control, 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 to pass the mic back and forth, though,
to help clarify the situation and pass information.
Feel free to do that as needed and then pass it back to net control.
Some things to remember.
Don't be too quick to talk.
Pause a couple of seconds before hitting the push-to-talk switch.
Before talking, well, pause before hitting the push-to-talk switch.
This is good repeater etiquette, and the pauses are especially useful for those at All Star and Echo Link.
Leave them a little room.
When you do click the PTT button, wait a second before starting to talk.
We don't want to miss what you say first.
It takes a moment for the repeater to process your PL tone.
Also, the repeater has a three-minute timer.
If you talk more than three minutes without letting up on your mic button,
the repeater completely shuts down until you release your push-to-talk switch,
and then nobody can get in.
So every two to three minutes, release the mic button for just a moment like this,
then you can continue.
Before we begin, I want to say thanks to all of our Workbench hosts,
and they're the ones who make this thing happen.
If you may be interested in hosting the Workbench,
please contact Jim, AF3Z, or any of us, and we'll help you get started.
Lastly, please join Ron, WA3VE, this Thursday night at 8 p.m. for the 985 Roundtable.
At this time, we're going to start the check-in process.
Remember to indicate if you have a question for the group.
Digital stations using Echo Link or All Star.
I will leave long pauses to make it easier for you to check in.
So please be patient.
Digital stations, please call in now.
This is NA3, CW, and the Workbench.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR, no question.
Not sure if you asked for RF check-ins yet. This is KD3BPI.
No, we're just waiting for digital, but apparently there aren't any more. So now we'll take RF check-ins, so that's KD3BPI. And all stations check in. Whiskey Alpha 3, Victor Echo Echo, WA3VE, no question.
KC3RFG, Jim in Malvern, no questions, Charlie.
No questions, questions.
C3SCY, no question.
Kilo Charlie 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
WA3 King Fox Tango, WA3 KFT, no question.
WA3 Fox Fox, Renee, no questions.
Kilo Delta 3, Alpha India Sierra, Tim in Malvern, no questions.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
Kilo Delta 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo, no question.
crashes there.
So I will go through the list as I now have it.
If you're not in here, then you were covered up by somebody else.
So I have WACRW.
I have KD3BPI.
I have WA3VEE.
KC3RFG.
KC3SCY.
KC3OOK.
WA3KFT.
KC3FF.
KD3AIS.
So please continue check-ins.
check-ins.
...
...
...
...
...
KD3MAI, Joe in Downingtown with a question.
Okay, the last round I got KD3AIS, I got WWL, Frank, please repeat your call.
KD3, Bravo, Whiskey, Lima.
Got it, KD3BWL, sorry.
We got KD3EE, John, got Joe, KC3MAI with a question.
Any other check-ins?
QP, no question.
Bravo Delta, name is Bob in Spring City, no question.
Okay, add another double, got W3QP, Tim, and we got Bob in Spring City with Bravo Delta.
Could I have the rest of your call, please?
KD3, Delta, Bravo Delta.
Very good, Bob.
Anyone else?
Okay, nothing further heard.
Okay, nothing further heard.
So, one more time for the nickels.
Again, please write down who follows you.
And for the round table, WHCRW, KD3BPI, WA3VEE, KC3RFG, KC3SCY, KC3OOK, and the next one is the
So, one more time for the nickels. Again, please write down who follows you. And for the roundtable, WHCRW, KD3BPI, WA3VEE, KC3RFG, KC3SCY, KC3OOK, WA3KFT, K3FF,
KD3AIS, KD3BWL, KD3EE, KC3MAI, W3QP, and finally KD, excuse me, K3DBD. One last call and then we go. KC3YSM, no questions.
Steve, no long time, no year.
Well, you're the tail gunner, KC3YSM.
So, we got you.
So, we'll now begin our roundtable session.
And so far, we haven't had any Intermod.
But if you hear a raggedy squelch tail or other such noise,
remember to, if you're not one of the power stations and you know who you are,
check to make sure that we're hearing you.
So, as we begin, CR.
We've got a long list here, and we'd like to get to the questions.
So, keep them brief.
But good.
And we'll start with CR.
W8, CRW.
How was your week in ham radio?
This is NA3CW.
Very good, Chuck.
This will be brief.
Good evening, all.
CR here.
My week in ham radio was basically 985 activities and some other local nets.
And with that, let's go to, I apologize for not knowing the name.
KD3BPI.
W8CRW.
CRW.
No problem, CR.
This is Simon over here in Westchester.
And Chuck, sorry, I jumped the gun there.
I'm coming in on the digital side.
I heard a long tale of silence and thought I should say something, I guess.
But my week in ham radio was pretty quiet.
I have my mostly listen mobile.
Listen to, you know, 985 and a couple other local repeaters.
And other than that, not too much, but glad to be here tonight.
And thanks for hosting NA3CW.
And I'll pass it over to Ron.
WA3VEE.
This is KD3BPI.
Simon, thank you so much.
KD3BPI and the group WA3VE over here in Westchester.
Yeah, I'll keep it brief, too.
I want to say good evening to Frank, KD3BWL.
I'm not sure why your signal's weak, but it's a little noisy.
And you should be full quieting from accident for sure.
Bob, great to have you on board, K3DBD.
I'm going to try to make the breakfast on Wednesday morning up there in Potton, Pantown.
So we'll see how that goes.
Steve, great to hear you.
It's been a long time.
I agree with Chuck.
KC3YSM.
So all very good.
Not much going on here.
Just some field day backstage operations and things like that.
I want to start to get people invigorated and inspired for winter field day.
It's going to be a good one.
So we're working on some things behind the scenes right now.
So you'll hear more about that.
And I will be operating up at the site aperiodically for some contests and also just at random.
Ad hoc.
Just pull up with the van, hook the antennas up, and start operating.
So I got the itch, so I've got to get it scratched.
So with that, Jim, KC3RFG, WA3VEE with the group.
Thank you, Ron, WA3VEE.
This is KC3RFG, Jim, here in Malvern.
And thanks to Chuck as well for hosting us this evening.
Also a short report, some normal nets and some 9885 activity, but nothing unusual.
Besides that, it's been a slow radio week.
With that, I will send it over to Luke, KC3SCY from KC3RFG.
It's KC3SCY.
Well, good to hear everybody on the net tonight.
Last week in ham radio, haven't been too busy.
Checked into the PMAM net.
That was pretty good.
I've been working on my CW.
I haven't worked any CW stations too much lately, but I'm going to start doing that.
I'll probably also have the Bruce Kelly 1929 Memorial event coming up here.
I think that's November.
Let me see.
I think it starts next weekend and runs to the following weekend.
So that will be pretty fun to operate.
I'll have my 1929 TNT and my 1929 Hartley, both with the Type 10 tube with my homemade power supply.
So those will both be fun to operate.
And Ron, I got your email, and I'll have you reply and everything by the end of tomorrow.
So I'll keep it moving here over to Bill KC3OOK.
This is KC3SCY.
KC3SCY, KC3OOK.
Thanks, Luke.
And thanks, Chuck, for taking the chair tonight.
It's good to hear everyone on here tonight.
I haven't done a whole lot with radio other than the 95 Nets.
I did host the Lancaster County Welfare Net last night.
And I guess I was up at Joe's on Monday making plans and making materialists to start running the hard line from where it's at now at the tower
into the building where the equipment will be.
And I worked on cable tray for the ham shack.
And finishing that up tonight, well, actually working on it tonight, we'll finish it in the morning early.
So that's about it for me.
So I'll turn it over to Bill down in Aston, Whiskey Alpha 3, Kentucky Fried Turkey, KC3OOK.
KC3OOK.
WA3, Kentucky Fried Turkey.
Okay, Bill.
Very good.
Well, I haven't been doing too much other than operating radio, especially on 10 meters.
10 meters has been open lately.
Not a contest, but just the propagation is such that once they discover the band is open, the next thing you know, the whole band is wall-to-wall stations.
But today it wasn't.
It was quiet today.
So that activity occurs from 1 o'clock to 2 o'clock.
We have a retired group that meets on 28435.
And if that frequency is busy, we try 28333.
But for some reason, 435 is very popular with DX stations.
So we find ourselves down on 28333 quite frequently.
All right.
Over to you, ready.
K3, Fox, Fox.
From WA3, King, Fox, Tango.
Thank you, John.
And good evening to everyone on the net tonight.
What I did this week is recover mostly from the worldwide DX contest, which operated quite a bit the other weekend.
And it was a lot of fun.
10 meters was well open.
And people tended to hang out there.
Maybe in preparation to the fact that next year might not be so good.
But we got a good score and we had a lot of fun.
And then spent a couple of days this week working on a 991 Alpha FT991, which someone had given me to fix.
It was from a lightning strike.
And said it wouldn't start up.
So I didn't give it much chance.
But when I tried it out, I saw a faint heartbeat.
And was able to bring it back to life.
Still had some issues, but at least it could receive and transmit.
Little side note.
If you have some good equipment, you know, insure it.
Just Skype didn't.
And he's not a happy place.
And that's about it for this week, the weekend that was.
So I think it's Tim down in Malvern, KD3AIS, K3FF.
K3FF, this is KD3AIS.
Thank you, Renee.
The only thing I did in ham radio this week was attend my first general class as passed along by Joe.
So that's greatly appreciated.
So that's greatly appreciated.
And I look forward to continuing that on a weekly basis until I achieve my general.
With that, I will turn it over to Frank, KD3BWL.
This is KD3AIS.
KD3AIS, Tim, KD3BWL.
Ron, thank you very much for the signal report.
Sorry that I am a little scratchy.
This week, I learned about Echolink.
And I used it to contact a station and a repeater down in Williamsburg, Virginia, where I had previously vacationed.
And I found that it worked very well.
I used my iPhone to do that.
So it was very interesting to see how it worked.
I was also doing some work with repeaters.
And that's about it for me.
I will pass it on.
KD3EE, KD3BWL.
Thank you, KD3BWL.
This is KD3EE.
How am I making it in?
Doing fine, John.
Just always give me a signal report.
Whenever you can, because you know I'm on the fringe.
My past week in radio, I didn't think I did too much.
But then I remembered I've been out to see a bunch of other clubs for meetings and lunches and stuff.
So I learned about the Geochron, which is this old mechanical map with Terminator lines.
And it would move the map so you could see what's in daylight.
So you could plan accordingly.
And the new digital one that has all sorts of cool visualizations, including ham radio stuff.
Another presentation was all on antennas and feed lines at a lunch in Harrisburg.
So that was good information as well.
I did get out finally to activate a park.
Local park.
Did FT8, 10 meters.
Mostly 1 and 2 watts, which is always fun to try.
I did have to turn up to 4 watts once or twice to complete a contact.
And I finished up with one CW contact before it got dark.
Last thing is that I have a weblog of my radio experiences so I can remember this stuff.
And I built a few conveniences in to easily link to parks on the POTA site and to call signs on QRZ.
So that's kind of nice.
Let's see.
Who's next?
Joe is next.
Joe is next.
KC3 MAI.
This is KD3 EE.
KD3 EE.
John, hello.
And thank you.
Hello to the rest of the group.
Chuck, thank you for hosting.
What did I do this week?
I went down and purchased my first CW keyer.
I decided that I want to give CW a shot and did that.
And that kind of leads into my question.
Would you like me to ask that now or wait until the next round?
Until next round.
We may have other questions as well.
Very good.
So that's about it.
My next...
I'm passing it off to Tim.
I'm sorry.
Excuse me.
Tim, W3QP, KC3 MAI.
KC3 MAI and the group.
This is W3QP.
Not much to report.
Work has been stupid busy.
But I still have a job, so I am thankful for that.
I am going to be flying out to Illinois this weekend.
And I am hopeful to drive around and try to get a soda in Illinois,
southern South Dakota, southern Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Summits on the air is not quite the right word.
These are hills on the air.
But I plan on having fun.
I haven't operated in that part of the country.
So it should be interesting to make some new contacts.
Also, a real quick announcement.
I know Ron is a member of the Parksburg Amateur Radio Club.
I'm not sure if anybody else is interested.
The meeting this week has been moved from Friday to Thursday.
The meeting will be happening on Thursday because the church where they have the meetings
is hosting a funeral on Friday.
That is all for me.
So over to KD3...
Excuse me.
K3DBD.
This is W3QP.
Okay.
Okay.
We'll let the commercial get in there.
Good evening.
This is K3DBD.
And my name is Bob.
It's the first time checking the net.
I've listened to it a number of times.
And hello, Ron.
I'm not new to this repeater, but I haven't on that much lately.
My use of this repeater probably goes back to the mid-70s.
So it's been around a while.
I guess last month I celebrated 68 years in ham radio.
So I definitely got some years into this hobby.
And I'm the chairman of the technical committee up here in Pottstown, the Pottstown Radio Club,
the Pottstown Area Amateur Radio Club.
And kind of keep all the repeaters running and all that.
That's been keeping us a little busy trying to get things winterized and ready for that.
So that's always an activity.
And also, I'm preparing for the ARRL, Frequency Measuring Test, which is coming up on the 8th next week.
I've participated in it before and did quite well, but not as good as I wanted to.
And I've had, I guess, bad timing with that.
It seems when I get on, there's either an electrical storm in the area or something else that's getting in the way.
So we're going to give that a shot again.
And I've got a HT here in the background.
I turned that off.
That came alive.
What else?
A bunch of other things.
I've been fixing a broken PC board for a friend of mine who has a jukebox.
An old world.
It's here.
It's got some sort of mechanical, looks like a switch out of a washing machine.
Somehow it got broken in half and I'm putting that together for them.
And that's been a little interesting activity.
So there's lots of things that go on here other than the AM radio.
And I'm kind of glad to check in here.
It's been a while.
I've been planning on doing this for some time.
And I've lost track.
I guess it goes back to the CR, I think.
I might have gotten out of sync here.
But I'll turn it back to him.
And good evening to everyone.
Have a great day.
WACRW from K3DBD.
It goes to Steve YSM.
I got it, Chuck.
K3DBD and the group.
Good evening, everybody.
This is K3YSM.
And yes, it's been a while.
And great to hear everybody's voice tonight.
Been a quiet week this weekend.
Did a little DXing and spoke to Chile, Italy, Canada.
Not a whole lot.
But been in the car a little bit.
So I've had a little bit of mobile, mostly listening.
And Ron, certainly excited to hear what your plans are with the contest.
Interested in hearing all about that.
Been doing a little traveling.
Certainly granddaughter has been keeping me busy and all good.
But that's about it for me.
I'll turn it over to you, Chuck.
And thanks for taking the chair.
NA3CW and the group.
This is KC3YSM.
Thanks, Steve.
And I guess welcome back, Bob.
I don't believe we've spoken before.
But don't be a stranger on 985.
So far, we have one question with Joe.
KC3 MAI.
But before we get into that, do we have any late check-ins to the roundtable portion of the workbench?
Please call NA3CW.
KC3 MAI.
David, just south of New Holland.
KC3 ZIM.
Bob, East Fallowfield Township.
I don't have any questions.
But I'm working here in the office and I'm monitoring.
So, Chuck, thanks for taking the chair.
And I'll be listening.
KB3 ZIM.
Delta 3, Alpha Charlie Bravo.
Ed in Kinnick Square.
Just kind of in and out.
Okay.
Very good.
GLI, David, could you give me your full call again, please?
Yes.
Kilo Alpha 3, Gulf, Lima, India.
Thank you.
And welcome.
And Bob, in and out, but monitoring.
So, good to hear from you.
And Ed, KD3ACB.
Anybody else?
All right, then.
We'll now turn to the questions and answers.
So far, we just have the one.
If anybody comes up with another one, in the meantime, pipe up.
We encourage all stations to make comments, observations, or share experiences.
And don't assume that your level of experience and knowledge isn't enough.
We can all learn from each other and contribute to our discussion.
So, feel free to pick up the mic and have some fun.
So, Joe, it's time for you to stump the chumps.
KC3MAI, NA3CW.
NA3CW and the group, KC3MAI.
Yeah, my question for the group this evening really is one of learning CW.
Now, since I've decided that this is what I want to do, I guess I'm most curious to know from you how I should go about learning this.
I mean, I've read things and heard things from people to say, you know, you should start off with a straight key and only do so, you know, after you begin listening and learn the letters first that way.
And then first practice on the straight key.
And so, I'm curious to know from you, is that correct?
Is there a benefit to that?
And since I've purchased a set of paddles already, you know, is that the wrong thing to do, starting off on paddles?
Or is it something that I could easily start off on?
So, with that, I'll pose that to the group.
NA3CW, KC3MAI.
Very good question.
KC3MAI, NA3CW.
There is a ton of experience in this group with CW and some teachers of CW.
So, I will reserve my comments for later.
But, who would like to start with Joe's question?
Go ahead, John.
This is WA3KFT.
I'm one of those guys that taught CW.
And, with a straight key, you can practice the spacing within the character, as well as the timing for a dit and the timing for a da.
They tell you that a da, time-wise, is three dit.
So, the da is three times as long as a dit.
And, by using the straight key, you manage to learn the code and can control the spacing.
Once you start using a bug or an electronic keyer, they are usually higher speed.
At least, with a straight key, you can control the speed, slow it down, get used to the rhythm of the dit does within a character.
This is WA3KFT.
There is a machine practicing at CW.
Thank you, John.
Do we have any other comments?
I wonder where your foot switch was.
Go.
3CW, WA3VE.
Yeah, it's under my left foot right now.
What I can do is, I have fallen very, very rusty in CW, but I used to, at one point, be up to 18 words a minute.
Hard to believe.
But, nonetheless, yes.
Almost got good enough to qualify for extra when you needed 20 words a minute.
Way back, way back, way back when.
Like, way back burgers.
One thing that I might recommend that you take a look at, Joe, is two methods.
One's called the Koch method, and the other is called the Farnsworth method.
And others can correct me if I have those two names wrong.
And I don't know which one is which, but I found it very helpful when, about six months ago, I started to get reinterested again in CW, and I started to practice.
And what one of them does is, they send the characters with a defined spacing between the characters.
What I mean is, you can choose to have characters sent as though they're being sent at 20 words a minute, but have five words per minute spacing between the characters.
And as you get better at identifying the characters when you're receiving, then you can shorten up that spacing to like seven words a minute, ten words a minute, and so on and so forth.
The object, of course, is to be able to get to the point to where you don't need, you can use, you can be receiving characters sent with the 20 word per minute rhythm with 20 word per minute spacing.
That's the objective.
I don't know which one of those two it is, but it's either the Koch method, K-O-C-H, or the Farnsworth method.
I believe those are the names.
And I found that I was starting to really improve, but then I got hung up with a lot of different family projects and everything, and I had to give that up for a while.
Also, about 10, 15 minutes a day really, really, really helps.
23CW, WA3VEE.
Did you copy my transmission when I turned it over? Ron was talking, Chuck.
W3GMS.
W3GMS.
Didn't hear a peep out of you. Go ahead, Joe.
When I broke in, you acknowledged me, and then I picked it up after you dropped it.
But maybe I was wrong, and hi to everybody.
Okay. Joe, I want to give you my phone number, and like Wednesday or something, I will call you, or you call me when it's convenient, and we can talk at great length.
When I was in the Army, I was stationed in Fort Gordon, Georgia, and I was one of the CW instructors down there.
So that's that on that. I love CW, and there's a way to learn it, and there's a way not to learn it.
Do not, do not try any sending until you get up to at least 10 words a minute.
People develop horrendously poor fists when they're sending before they know what the characters are supposed to sound like.
So just focus on the recognition of the sound.
Do not count dits. Do not count da's.
Recognition of sound.
Didah sounds a heck of a lot different than da, da, da, da.
Don't count them.
And then when you get to 10 words a minute, then you know what a character should sound like, and you can go ahead and send it.
So anyway, but I don't want to drag it on past that.
But again, I emphasize do not.
Do not start sending until you can copy 10 words a minute.
Over to you, Chuck.
And I'm going to be just listening.
W3GMS now clear.
Yeah, what he said.
ZNA3CW.
Any other comments?
AF3Z lead to check in.
Okay, good.
AF3Z.
Did you hear what Joe MAI's question was?
Yeah, actually, I got it before you did.
I sent him a little information, or we chatted about it briefly by email.
But one thing I echo is what Ron was saying about learn to hear with the faster character speed, is what I would call it.
And yeah, there's some great CW programs that will do that.
But that way you learn to hear the rhythm at the faster speed where you want to be able to copy the code, rather than hearing it at real slow speed, which is a whole different animal.
And also going to faster speed helps you avoid counting the dits and dits and stuff like Joe was just talking about.
The faster speed, you just learn the rhythm of it, and you're good to go.
And you can increase the spacing between those letters as you go.
So that's about it for now.
But I thought I'd jump in.
Just left the camera club meeting.
Currently on Route 30 around Lancaster, AF3Z.
Yeah, very good, Jim.
I'll throw in one comment, and then I'll turn it back to Joe, MAI.
A really, really, really basic one, and trust me on this, is don't ever, ever look at a chart of dots and dashes with your eyeballs.
It's about sound.
Never, ever look at it.
Don't ever look at dots and dashes on a page.
Do not go there.
Do not ever go there.
It's all by sound.
Sound, sound, sound.
And what they said, absolutely true.
Learn how to receive first.
Learn how to receive well first.
But all by sound.
Never, ever look at dots and dashes.
And you might ask me how I know that's so bad.
Well, take a guess.
So back to you, Joe.
W-A-C-3-MAI.
This is NA3CW.
I-C-3-MAI and the group.
Thank you all.
Great advice.
Just trying to understand this concept of, you know, being able to listen to, you know, a faster speed with a slower spacing in between.
I'm just trying to understand that concept.
But, no, I will do as you all ask.
And I appreciate your input.
And I appreciate it greatly.
NA3CW, KC-3-MAI.
Very good.
Very good.
Um.
Do I have a volume?
Yep.
Nope, that's speed.
Okay.
Okay.
Here's an example.
Here's my call at normal speed.
Okay.
Here's my call with big spacing.
Same character speed.
Or even more spacing.
That's what they're talking about.
Back to you, Joe.
3CW, KC-3-MAI.
I understand it completely now.
Yeah, that when you hear it, you know exactly what you mean.
So I appreciate that.
And I'll take that to heart.
And that's what I'll do.
Back to you, Joe.
Very good.
Does anybody have any more comments on this?
Or any new questions?
Or something to throw in here to the discussion?
This is NA3CW.
NA3CW again.
Go ahead, Jim.
Joe, if you grab, and there's a number of programs.
G4FON, Gulf 4, Fox, Oscar, November.
That's one program.
But there are a number of them that will teach you.
And they'll give you the characters, you know, a few at a time to learn them.
All by sound.
And you can set on there.
And you can set on there the character speed versus the words per minute.
So you can set it for 20 words per minute.
So you hear da-da at 20 words per minute rather than dit-da at 5 words per minute or something.
But you hear the characters the way you're going to be hearing them later on.
And it just gives you more time for that to process in your brain.
But some of the software will do that for you.
So getting a hold of that and playing with it, you'll understand that whole process even better.
KB3Z.
Very good, Jim.
Any other comments or questions?
KB3Z.
I am with a comment.
Bob.
I'm hardly one to offer any sage advice because everybody on here I can't hold a candle to when it comes to CW.
But I have been making an effort and, as a matter of fact, the first amateur radio equipment I ever bought was a key.
Actually, a VibraFlex paddle.
But before I had a transceiver or anything, that was my, from the get-go, intention to operate CW, which I learned when I was 12 years old.
But, Chuck, you are absolutely right.
What a disaster ever seeing a dot and a dash printed on a page.
And to break that visual connection is horrendous.
So you're absolutely right there.
All I wanted to add was this.
Oh, but I have been working on it.
And somebody here on this workbench last week or the week before, I don't know who it was, mentioned a website, a web program called Morsele.fun.com.
Well, I have been using that, visiting that, darn near daily since somebody here on this workbench mentioned it.
And I've got to tell you, I have started to become proficient at a rate I didn't even expect.
And so I'm just throwing that out there.
That's not coming from me.
I'm regurgitating or repeating something that somebody here offered.
They mentioned that site a week or two ago.
And boy, oh, boy, it is nifty.
So you have to visit it to understand what it does or how it works.
But it's much different than any of the other online training sites or the G4FON, which is very good.
Jim was right, AF3Z.
But anyway, give that a look.
M-O-R-S-L-E dot F-U-N.
It's pretty darn cool.
That's all I have to offer there, Chuck.
Back to you.
KB-3 is that I am.
Thanks, Bob.
I wrote that down.
I remember it had been brought up in the past, but I failed to write it down before.
Any other comments or any questions?
I'll take that as a no.
So before we close down the workbench for the evening, let's see if anyone else has been working out there in the wings, just listening.
And we'd like to get you on the list.
Please call N-A-3-C-W.
KC-3-NZT lurking.
KD-3-EMS.
Very good, Harvey.
Well lurked.
KC-3-NZT and Chris.
KD-3-EMS.
And good evening to you.
So, thanks to all stations for checking into the 985 workbench.
And big thank you to Joe, W3-GMS, for making the repeater available to us for the workbench.
And you are invited to use the repeater often.
It's a great way to show that you appreciate the gift of 985 to the amateur radio community.
And Joe just loves to get bigger electric bills from the repeater.
So bankrupting.
Finally, we hope to hear you again Thursday night at 8 p.m.
When Ron hosts the 985 roundtable.
So this concludes the workbench for tonight.
Thanks, everybody, for checking in.
Had a nice group.
And feel free to stick around and continue to carry on the discussion on 985.
Have a good night and a good week ahead.
7-3.
This is NA3CW.
Clear.
Hey, Chuck.
Just out of curiosity, AF3Z here.
Did you talk over that question from Alex?
Okay.
There was an email I sent.
And maybe you knew what it was about and didn't look at it.
The question, and we can talk about it here briefly.
I gave him a little bit of a hint.
He has a 2-meter 440 antenna.
And he was wondering.
The question was basically, can you have an antenna like that?
That seems to work well with one band.
But the other band isn't working so well.
And it was 440, I think, that was working.
And 2 meters, it was not.
And so I was, I don't know what kind of antenna.
But I was saying, my guess is something to do with the, like, loading coil or trap or whatever in the middle of the antenna.
And it could be a disconnect completely or whatever going wrong with it.
But he was having high SWR on one band and not on the other.
So he was wondering about what to check on that.
When did you send this email?
I don't remember any email from you for ages.
I don't remember.
Probably yesterday.
Usually it's Saturday or Sunday I do it.
I'll have to see if I sent it.
Sometimes I write them and forget to send them.
It was my normal reminder email with that tacked on.
Hmm, okay. I'll have to look back. I guess I missed it, but I certainly didn't ignore it.
Yeah, you can certainly have high SWR on one band and not another.
Again, as you said, it depends on how the thing's constructed.
And I assume that was this an antenna that previously did work well?
I'm not sure. It was a pretty brief thing. He mentioned a number. I assume it was an HT or something. He just said on the one band it sort of shut off because the SWR was too high and on the other band it worked fine.
But he didn't tell you whether it worked before or not.
There's all kinds of information that we could have like what antenna is it and did it ever work and all that kind of good stuff.
So yeah, if you can grill in for more data that would be a really good thing.
Very good. I'm getting into a rough spot I think. It was Alex K3CIM.
But I'll get back to Alex and we can go.
Very good. You had a real chop out there for a while but I got the gist and I got the end of the transmission. So good, yeah.
You know, we need to dig up some information and pass it along. We can discuss it more.
So drive safe out there.
And look out for Bambi.
AF3Z NA3CW.
Thanks Chuck from downtown Melville.
I didn't get much of that but I got the gist.
AF3Z.
73.
WA3BPR.
WA3BPR.
WA3BPR.
You're out there Ron.
You're out there Ron.
I'm Simon. I'm just trying to find an electrolytic capacitor from Mouse and Rat Electronics.
I'm just basing on that. I don't know about it. Seems a little much too space. Too much space.
But anyway.
What kind of capacitor are you looking for and what is it for? I am intrigued.
KD3BPR. WA3BEE.
I'm just asking me about an old piece of equipment. They said they couldn't find the right capacitor. So I've had pretty good luck with Mouser. They have a great search engine overall. And that's just kind of what I was looking at. So how was the car repair over the weekend with the broken bolt and the water pump?
Oh son of a gun. That was a job. So I decided that I didn't have the facilities to remove the radiator. I didn't want to drain the whole radiator. So that limited how much room I had to get a drill in there to drill out those bolts. And by the way I have my 3D printer in the background. I hope it's not too distracting. Let me know if it is and I can pause it.
But anyway. I had to use a 90 degree drill attachment. And what I ended up doing was zip tying the trigger on the drill so that it spun at just the right speed. And then I could use both hands to push against that drill bit. And I had my brother with the can of WC.
Just he would spray the drill bit now and then and I managed to drill out both bolts just fine. And I tapped one of them. But then when I went to tap the next one I was a little bit gung ho. And I didn't clean out the chips well enough.
Number one. Number two. I neglected to use enough WD in that step. And so the tap broke. And I was beside myself. I was just so frustrated. But good news is that I was just fine. And I tapped one of them. And I tapped one of them. And I tapped one of them. But then when I went to tap the next one I was a little bit gung ho. And I didn't clean out the chips well enough. Number one. And number two. I neglected to use enough WD in that step. And so the tap broke. And I was beside myself. I was just so frustrated. But good news is that I was just so frustrated.
is we got one of them tapped and drilled nice so I think we're okay we used some really thick
Permatex it's a it's a black sealant and I used an extra helping of it and managed and I we did
the fuel curing process 24-hour cure and so I think I feel pretty good about it but remains to
be seen but yeah thanks for asking that's a something I tell you it was one of those things
I was glad to get it done but it was a tough job so but yeah yeah back to you
I'll tell you what my hats off to you and anyone else who works on car
who patients is taking it down down the street from you to the Meineke yours a lock so it's
mine a key but it's yours a lock which is the opposite so I take it down there and they they
have kept our vehicles on the road uh oh collectively oh my goodness the two siennas we had and now this
sienna well the four siennas uh cumulative almost 700,000 miles so and I trust them and I mean what
they what they say give you a report they show you they'll say hey this this needs replacement and why okay or for example one time I needed shocks oh why
why is a shock need and replace oh here's a picture of it leaking oh okay so I have no problem trusting them and like I said they've um
they've done a great job so I I just have my time I think my time is better spent uh it's just not this just not one of my interests so I admire and I mean this in total admiration not not in any criticism whatsoever but I admire people like you who really get into working on cars because that's something I just I just don't want to do go ahead.
Hey, CR, how you doing? KD3BPI. Yeah, cars, I tell you what, I tell you what, I'm sure you have some stories, CR. I'll pass it over to you. This is KD3BPI.
Good, Simon. You've piqued my curiosity. You said you had a couple of broken bolts and you got one out, but then you used a thick coating of sealer since you couldn't get the other bolt out. So the question is, how is that going to work in the long term? Because without that other bolt twerking down your, whatever, you had a gasket of some sort, it's going to fail.
Now, you are exactly right, CR. And the thing is, we took the car to a mechanic to replace the water pump. Because I was, that was my brother, he recently moved up here. He used to live down in Delaware. And so his water pump failed and I didn't have the time to get down there.
So I said, take it to this mechanic. You know, we know him. He's done a good job. But he rushed this job replacing the water pump. It's an old car. It's a 1994 Dodge Intrepid with a 3.3 liter V6.
Yeah, the fellow, the mechanic, he broke two bolts on this thing, this water pump. And then he sealed it up real good. But then in about two weeks, it started leaking real bad. So, you know, I just was like, my goal was to get at least one bolt drilled out so we could have at least one. There's only five bolts that hold this water pump in place.
And then there's an O-ring. It's not actually a gasket. It's an O-ring seal for this water pump. And so you know, one bolt gone, arguably it is bound to fail. And I fully expect it to fail.
But, you know, I mean, the thing is, the car is old. And I pretty much just told my brother, Louie, I'm like, hey, I did my best. It's probably going to leak a little bit. But hopefully it's better than how it was leaking. It was going through, he was leaking out a gallon of coolant every three to five days.
And it's not that bad of a leak. So we figured anything was better than that. And he's going to look for a new front cover for the car. And, um, and, uh, yeah, that's the, hopefully we can put a new front cover on it or at least take the front cover off and drill out the bolts properly. But, um, anyway, that's the whole kit and complete, the whole story for you.
So, um, I'll send it back to you. I know Ron's still there, but I'll send it back to you for some comments. Here you are. This is KD3BPR.
Good. Well, I have, uh, a bit of experience getting out broken studs and broken taps. Taps are the challenge because they're harder than about anything else.
So if you have room to manipulate, you can maybe get them out. There are tools that they have to try to get out broken taps.
And the last resort is burn them out. And you probably can't do that. So, uh, you know, depending on how much room you have, uh, it's a tough, tough decision.
Ron, pick it up. W-A-3-V-E-E-W-H-C-R-W.
Good, C-R. And, um, I know, I know at the check-in tonight you didn't recognize Simon's call.
Simon's one of my former students down at Delaware Tech. He's a double E now and he can tell you more about his bio.
But, Simon and I go back, uh, quite a ways. I'm very happy that he's a ham. And, and triply happy that he's here with us on 985. For sure. So, uh, all very, very good.
So, um, yeah, my goodness gracious. What kind of vehicle is this, Simon? KD-3 BPI in the group. W-A-3 V-E-E-E.
W-A-3 Victor Echo Echo KD-3 BPI in the group. It's a, uh, this is an oldie, this car. Um, and it's kind of a story. My brother, Louie, had a 2006 Toyota Prius. And, uh, he had that for about a year. Bought it used. And the high voltage hybrid battery went dead on it. And we elected to not try to replace that. The car had a close-up.
The car had a close to 200,000 miles on a new hybrid battery would have been, ooh, somewhere around $2,500. It's a bunch of nickel metal hydride cells. All in parallel. Well, no, they're in series. They're actually in series. And you get hundreds of volts DC.
It's very dangerous to work on them. That was another thing I was kind of leery of. Anyway, he had the high voltage battery fail. Couldn't get the car to go above 30 miles an hour. So we went out to, we were living in Coatesville at the time. And so there was this dealer in Gap, Pennsylvania. And so there was this dealer in Gap, Pennsylvania. And so there was this dealer in Gap, Pennsylvania.
Good fellow. And he had this 1994 Dodge Intrepid, which is the car in question for this past weekend's repairs. 1994 Intrepid with about 170,000 miles. And, um, boy, I tell you, we couldn't believe it. It runs great. Drives great. A little worn out. But, um, obviously a little worn out. But it's pretty easy to work on compared to the Prius. I will say that for sure.
And, um, you know, I'll say that for sure. And, um, you know, if we, if it needs to be drilled out, I'm taking it off and putting it in a drill press. That whole big piece, the front cover there. Um, I'll send it over to you, CR. Uh, okay.
If you're good on QRZ, I'll send you some information about the tools needed to give it an attempt.
Not a guarantee, but one of the tools is shaped like a... how can I describe this thing?
It's depending on the tap. Taps are either two flute, three flute, four flute, whatever.
And this thing has fingers, and they go down in the tap flutes, and you use a wrench,
and you try to manipulate it with the hope that when the tap broke, it's not jammed in there solid.
And there's a couple different styles.
So I'll send you some information so you can give it a shot.
And good luck. Back to you.
Thank you.
W-8-CR-W-KD-3-BPI.
Thank you for that, CR. Thank you very much.
I hope that it's a small tap. It's a number 8 screw size, 32 threads per inch. So a little less than a quarter inch, about a tenth of an inch less than a quarter inch diameter.
So I don't even know if it has proper flutes. I think I know what you're talking about there, I think.
And, um... It really... The threads... If I'm remembering the tap, it might be considered too flute initially, but when you go... As you go up, it gets pretty even, kind of like a screw.
And I think the only difference between this particular tap that broke and the proper screw is, um... Well, the tap, of course, is hardened.
I think it's designed for aluminum, primarily, and sheet metal, if I'm perfectly honest. I really didn't have much business using it in the steel front cover of this engine. But, um... You know, you run what you brung, I guess.
You run what you're doing, as they say. But now I'm curious, CR. I guess you have a pretty extensive background in this sort of repair. You seem to be quite knowledgeable. I'll send it back to you for your comments. I know Ron is still there. But, um... W8CRW, KD3BPI.
I'm an old guy. Back in 1966, I got hired to be an apprentice machinist. So, for the next 25 years, I worked in a machine shop. So, like I said, I've had my, uh...
Baptism with broken things. So, that's where I come from. And, uh... I try not to break taps today. I still fool around with metal. And, uh...
When you're tapping things, it's one of those times where you have to be cautious and patient, and you learn. It's like when you're tapping something, you learn how much force and pressure to give it, and then you back off. And if you don't, well, you pay the price.
Ron, your turn. W-A-3-V-E-E-W-H-C-R-W.
I'm enjoying listening to you guys here, because I'm finding one last component here.
This person who I was talking to this afternoon on this project they're working on.
So, this is what I do on my bench.
I just want to replace two 50 microfarad capacitors.
And I say, okay, we'll replace the 50 microfarad capacitors.
Uh... totally different from taps and cars and busted...
...studs and leaks and all kinds of stuff like that. It's totally different. But it's what we do over here. Um...
...in the VEE realm. So, uh... looking at, um...
...of power resistors now. And so, uh...
...find those that have got the capacitors found. And usually I put in a higher value...
I mean, we talked about this way back in class,
but a higher value capacitor than the one that's in there,
as long as you don't draw a lot of current from the ESR, from a lower ESR,
and basically higher voltage.
And that way you build in the margin.
So it's the old HP engineer trick for reliability for sure.
So anyway, I'm going to listen to you guys for sure.
I always have this one part to find yet.
This one might be a little more of a challenge.
Why a round resistor, a 450-ohm resistor?
So I'll just be listening to you.
Why don't you guys banter back and forth?
I am on the side here, but very happy to be.
It's not a problem at all.
So why don't you guys continue, and once you get all the world remachined,
I will be back in here for sure.
So Simon, let me turn it over to you.
I'm going to continue looking here on this, on Mauser Electronics for this part,
which has been very successful so far with the other ones.
So over to you, KD3BPI in the group.
WA3VE.
3GMS.
KD3BPI.com.
I'm unfortunately stuck with a car bug more than I'm stuck with a radio bug.
But I'll look on eBay.
There's a couple of them up there right now for like less than $100.
KD3BPI.
Sorry, I didn't quite catch your call.
I think there was an A in there.
But if you could come back one more time, I'll write it down.
Back to you real quick.
KB3ACB.
Ed.
W3GMS.
Hey, we got a party here.
This is fun.
Well, thank you, Ed.
KB3ACB.
This is KD3BPI.
And, yeah, I'll have to look those up on eBay.
I'm on QRZ, so if you happen to have a moment to send those listings through there,
because I know my brother and I, we were going to go around a few junkyards,
see if we could find this part and pull it off and, you know, get it.
Because we found on eBay, the one we found on eBay was $300-something plus shipping.
So not quite as economical.
But thank you for that, KB3ACB.
Thank you, Ed.
And I suppose we'll give Joe a turn.
So I'll send it over to you, Joe, at W3GMS.
This is KB3BPI.
Yeah, challenging to break in on All-Star.
That's for sure.
That's what I'm on.
I'm down here in the lab right now.
And I'm going to make this done.
I just wanted to let you know, like you, Simon, Martha and I, we do almost all of our automotive work.
We have a lift in one of the garages, and we don't crawl under the cars anymore.
But for jobs that maybe you don't want to do, Scott W3KZG on the repeater down in Nottingham,
he has an excellent job.
And he does this on a part-time basis to help people out in charges of them, you know.
But his work is excellent.
And he's very, very knowledgeable from A to Z.
So to get to the point where you don't want to mention or you don't want to do it, you may want to check with Scott and explain the issue to him and let him see if that would be something that he would want to do.
And I probably would guess that he would take on the job without a problem.
Back to you, Simon.
W3GMS, clear.
W3GMS, KD3BPI.
7-3 to you, Joe.
And thanks for that bit of info.
I'll go ahead and find him on the old QRZ.
Send him a message.
See what he says.
That would be great.
You know, that's Louie.
So my brother bought this car.
This 94 Dodge Intrepid.
And, you know, I will admit, we have an easier time getting people to work on this as opposed to his Toyota Prius.
Not even the Toyota dealership would touch that thing.
2008, you know, it was too old to them.
And in fairness, I mean, it is almost a 20-year-old car with an almost 20-year-old battery.
I'm not surprised that they weren't willing to try to get parts for that.
But the thing with the Intrepid is it's just old enough.
And it's also not, it was like, you know, all of you likely remember the Intrepid.
It's kind of just, they seem to be cheaply made, you know, made to a price, made for the masses.
So they're all kind of gone.
And they don't have the longevity of a Camry or the attraction of, say, a Camaro or even a Convictoria.
And so it turns out it's a little bit difficult to get parts for them.
And also a little bit difficult to find someone who's willing to work on them and do it right.
As we found out, this mechanic we went to in Wilmington, he's been great.
Works on all of our Hondas.
My parents all have Hondas.
And this fellow TJ loves working on them and he does it great.
But then this Dodge, unfortunately, broke the two bolts.
And man, oh man, quite unfortunate, the result of that.
Especially since it's an O-ring.
If it was a gasket, maybe.
But as CR rightly noted, you lose a bolt.
The gasket's just going to fail.
It's just going to fail.
But anyway, thank you for that, Joe.
And yeah, yeah.
And I do love working on cars, I will admit.
But times like that, where I'm, you know, leaning over the end and pushing against the bolt trying to drill it.
Well, it's not quite as fun.
But it's part of the experience, you know.
If you're going to work with metal, if you're going to work with your hands,
I feel like you have to be okay with a little bit of a callus.
A few scratches, some dirt under your fingernails.
As I'm sure you know, CR.
I'm curious, did you, where was the first machine shop you worked at?
My dad worked at a few in the area as an operator.
If you're still out there, CR, I'd be curious to know where you cut your teeth.
On the broken taps, broken bolts.
I'll send it over to you.
KD-3-B-P-R.
W-8-C-R-W.
I worked at the 31 shop at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard down in Philadelphia.
And like I said, I worked there between 66 and 1993, something like that.
A couple years out for the Army.
But that was my first career.
And, yep, broken this, broken that.
It wasn't fun.
So that's how it goes.
And I still do a little machine work here and there.
But I gave up working on cars for a long time ago.
I had a Volkswagen Rabbit.
And the engine gave out.
And I bought a junk Volkswagen Rabbit with a good engine and swapped them out.
And I said, well, I've done it once.
I won't do it again.
So that was my automotive achievement.
You know, brakes and other things like that I've done.
But I've gotten too old for that.
So now when you need it, you just take it to the shop.
So, Simon, I will send you some information.
And I'll say good luck.
And I hope there's enough room in there to get to work it and get out the broken tap.
So, KD3BPI, WHCRW.
I'm going to say 73.
And I'll send you some information.
WHCRW, KD3BPI.
Thank you much, CR.
Much appreciated.
Much appreciated indeed.
That is funny.
About, you know, one and done with the engine swap.
I did the same thing just a couple years ago.
I had a 1983 F-250 diesel.
First year they put the diesel in there.
And they had some casting flaws in the engine block and the cylinder heads.
And there were cracks in both places.
Had a nasty misfire, a nasty coolant leak.
So, I put a new engine in there, a 1993 engine.
Diesel.
And that thing was a wrecking ball of an engine.
1,200 pounds with nothing in it.
7.3 liters.
Little turbo.
But, um, I sold the truck soon after that.
I ran out of steam.
As you can imagine.
Ha, ha, ha.
So, uh, know how you feel.
And, uh, I admire the, uh, decision there.
I feel like I'm not, I haven't decided quite yet what to, what to let be and what to send to other people.
But I'm sure I'll get there before too long.
Thank you again, CR.
And, um, well, I suppose I'll just, I'll say 7.3 to you.
And, uh, Ron, if you're out there and, uh, you have a moment to break from, uh, from the, uh, the great attraction of Mauser.
I don't know.
That's not the right way to put it.
They do have a great parts catalog, I will admit.
I look at them almost every day.
I'm in obsolescence support right now for these old Honeywell avionic instruments.
And, oh man, oh man.
It's tough to find parts that you can't, that haven't been made for 20 years.
10 years, perhaps.
There was this one that was a divide by 32, divide by 33 PLL double modulus divider.
Pain in the neck that was, I didn't even find a replacement for it.
I don't think I can.
Uh, but, um, I'll send it over to you if you're out there.
W-A-3-V-E-E-K-D-3-B-P-I.
Very good.
I had Joe in there too.
Joe, uh, are you still there?
Uh, Simon, I got some suggestions for you.
Uh, W-3-G-M-S, uh, with W-H-E-R-W signed.
Also, uh, Ed was in there.
I know Ed also, uh, Simon from Scouts.
So, uh, we go way, way back as well.
So, one big happy family here.
We all know each other from somewhere, somehow.
Um, maybe with me, checkered backgrounds, but still nonetheless.
Joe, are you still there?
W-3-G-M-S and the group W-A-3-V-E-E.
Yeah, hi, Ron.
Thanks.
I'm moving around stuff here, getting ready for Luke tomorrow.
So, uh, I was one and done.
I just wanted to make Simon aware that, uh, Scott is really, really good with all that kind of stuff.
And he gets to the point where he just doesn't want to mess with it anymore.
And you can trust Scott 100, 100, 150%.
So, uh, and he, he loves working on cars.
He's, uh, one of the best mechanics that I know.
So, anyway, there you go.
Uh, good luck with the project.
Yeah, I've done the engine swaps.
And all that stuff.
It's been a long time.
Now we're just into kind of maintenance.
Brakes, exhaust systems, struts.
Um, you know, the engines today in our vehicles are relatively new.
They don't need a lot, you know.
It's not like the old days where you had points.
Uh, you probably don't even remember points, uh, Simon.
Another note while I have it here.
I'm, I will make this my final final.
But, Ron, I got your email about the, uh, the laptop and the HP swap.
And that sounds fantastic.
So, thanks again for doing that.
Over to you.
W83, W83, VEE, W83, GMS.
Now clear.
Yeah, um, I, uh, doing, uh, cat maintenance this afternoon.
We put another box upstairs, litter box.
And, uh, probably put one down here, too.
And so I had to get those ready and all GI'd and everything else.
And, uh, did the litter robot.
And I said, it took me a good couple hours.
So I didn't get a chance to get the emails.
But your question was well-placed and well-timed.
So I just thought I'd respond to everybody, uh, involved on that.
And it's absolutely my pleasure to do that.
That way it gets it done.
It's out of the way.
I am talking to those folks over there about a, um, a personal laptop myself.
For me, that'll be about, uh, two, three hundred dollars for a 17-inch.
17-inch backlit keyboard.
They replaced the one on the, on the island upstairs.
And, I mean, the one on the island is a Dell Latitude.
I paid a couple, a couple grand for that.
So I said to the lady in the store, I said, this is, this is, you know, she says, you know,
is, is three hundred too much?
I said, no, that's fine.
Absolutely fine.
I did tell her I wouldn't negotiate.
It is, it is the price.
Paying three hundred bucks for their, their, their price for a laptop that is in just about
almost mint condition is, I, I just.
do it.
It's fine.
So, uh, I'll put those guys through a ringer enough.
That's for sure for us.
But anyway, um, yeah, they're very interested in coming to field day, winter field day, to
see what we do and see the, uh, the laptops in action.
That's for sure.
So I'll take care of that end of it with them too as well.
And also tomorrow morning I'll work out the, uh, and guys, forgive me for a second here,
a little, little side business, uh, with Joe.
But anyway, uh, I will, uh, work out.
I'll send, I'll send you and Chuck and George the information on the, uh, and, uh, CC Keith
on this.
Uh, I know, I know he's very busy with work, but just keep him in the loop and informed.
Uh, the, the Dacron rope.
There is, there are cheap alternatives on Amazon, but I'm a little reluctant to go with them, although
I have used them before and it seems to work well.
But for 40 cents, for 40 bucks more for a thousand foot roll, I think Davis is the way to go.
I'll send you that information tomorrow if we all concur.
I can get that on order.
130 bucks for a thousand feet of 316 inch Dacron.
And I think, I think that's, that's, that's a fair price.
No question about it.
And that's their brake price.
Anyway, Joe, I'll let you get going.
I'm going to turn it over here and see if Ed's still around.
Um, 83 ACB.
Good to hear you, Ed.
It's been a long time.
Uh, we're just about ready to get Roger O'Kane over here for the model cars, by the way.