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Every Monday Evening at 8pm Eastern Time, the W3GMS/R Crew get together on the repeater at 146.985Mhz and discuss technical questions and sometimes do lessons related to Ham Radio for newer Operators to learn from experienced Elmers. The Workbench was set up to be a safe place for any technical questions to get asked and good answers to be given.
Good evening, this is AF3Z, Alpha, Fox-Chart
3Z.
Anyway, AF3 is dead here and you have tuned
in to the 985 workbench. And we meet here
every Monday evening. I've got to hold on a
second here.
Got my computer on Echo Link and it seems to
be talking back to me and the delay is crazy.
So anyway, set up audio. Oh, that's crazy.
I had said.
Okay, all right, now I don't hear myself. That's
wonderful. Sorry about this. This is a workbench,
We meet here every Monday evening at 8 p.m.
and it's a time for talking about asking questions
about radio operations, setting up the station,
technical questions, antennas. I am located
out near Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, a few miles
away. And of course we meet here on the 146.985
MHz repeater, W3GMS Parkburg repeater. The PL
tone, if you want to get into it, is 100 Hz.
And if you use tone squelch on receive, the
repeater puts out a transmit. Our transmitter
is a squelched stone of 94.8 hertz. you haven't
checked in before, encourage you to try it
tonight. Newcomers are very welcome. Also,
take a look at the website for the repeater,
www.w3gmsrepeater.com. Lots of information
there, articles, pictures, repeater history,
etiquette for operating on the repeater, all
that kind of good stuff. Please be aware that
at times we have intermod interference here
on this repeater at this point. So if that
comes up in somebody, we will mention that if
it comes on tonight. And it might wipe me out,
we'll see. But it can cause some real significant
interference, especially for those of us farther
away or on lower power. So if the intermountain
interference comes in, it's good to go to
high power if you haven't already. Or you can
also check in digitally through EchoLink or
All-Star, because that is not bothered by the
interference. In any case, we do want to hear
you so we hope you can work around that. One
thing on EchoLink and All-Star... check the
website. You have to get registered, so to
speak, or on the list to use EchoLink and All-Store
and Repeater. The information is on the website.
You can check that to get that taken care
of.
Also, when the intermod is present, before
you begin a transmission, it's good to do what
I'm going to do now. Make sure you're getting
in okay. I'm kind of thinking I am, but let
me see. Ron, are you here? Am I making it in
okay at the moment? Present WA3VE like you're
here in the room, Jim. Perfect copy. Thank you,
Ron. And that's a good thing to do. Like
I say, when the intermod is present, sometimes
it wipes some of us out, sometimes others.
But it's good to just check like that. And
I will be glad to tell you if you're getting
in OK. The neck control station will always
be glad to do that. And so you just check
in quickly with that question, am I getting
in OK? And once that's confirmed, then you
can go ahead and start making your longer comments.
Here on the workbench, as I said, we focus
on kind of general questions of amateur radio
theory operation. And also, though, we start
off the workbench going around the circle,
so to speak, around the table, just to give
a brief summary of what's been up to in amateur
radio this past week. And the question session
that comes after that is really our main focus.
But we'd like to hear a little bit briefly
about what you've been up
When you are checking in, which will start in
just a couple minutes here, please indicate
if you do have a question you would like to
put to the work.
And you don't have to go into the question at
this point, but just simply say, yes, you have
a question, or no, you don't. If you don't
have a question, still check in. You don't
have to have a question to check in. And the
success of this is that there's a lot of us
in here, and we can all come in on our experiences.
You don't have to feel like you've got to
be a wise old ham radio operator. Don't think
that what you have to say isn't important.
All of us have access If and if you have something
you want share, please jump in and do so.
We can all contribute to the conversation.
We are going through the check-ins. Please write
down the call sign of the station that checks
in right after you. You can keep a list of everybody
if you want. Especially that station after
you because when you have finished your comments,
then you will turn the mic over to that station.
And once we've all made our comments and comes
back to me, then we'll start the question and
answer portion of the workbench. And during
that time, we operate as a directed net. So
I will call on the... station who said they
have a question, they'll share what their question
is and then I'll open up to the group for
responses to that question. And when you're
done, any comments during that session, you
please turn it back to me as the NIC control
helps us to keep things running smoothly here.
Sometimes it's good if you have just sort
of a clarification question or you wouldn't
need to go back and forth with somebody quickly.
Please feel free to do that without turning
it back to me. So once that interchange is
finished up, then please turn it back to me
and I will pass it along to whoever will be
next.
So a couple quick things here, don't be too
quick to talk. Pause a couple seconds before
you hit the press to talk switch. It's good
repeater etiquette because it allows people
a chance to get in and can especially be helpful
to those on all-star and echo link here during
a net like tonight. They need a little extra
time, there are delays, they don't hear things
as quickly as people on RF do and all that.
When it's your turn, don't just jump right in,
let a second or two or whatever before you
press the talk switch. And once you do, wait
another minute, or wait a minute, Wait a
second before you start to talk so the repeater
has time to process your PL tone if you're
on RF. And we don't miss the beginning of what
you have to say. And also there's a three minute
timer on the repeater as required by the FCC.
If you talk for more than three minutes, the
repeater, without letting up on your press to
talk switch, the repeater shuts down completely.
Nobody can get in. It blocks everybody out.
And also you're not getting in anymore. We
all just sit here listening to silence until
you let up on your press to talk switch. So
every two to three minutes, like to do this,
like I've done a number of times, just let
up on the button. and then click again and
keep going. You don't have to actually let
the repeater drop before you key again.
want to say thank you to everybody who operates
as a host here on the workbench. And if any
of you who haven't done it would like to give
it a try, please feel free to contact myself
or one of the other hosts here on the workbench
and we will get the information, help you make
that decision if you're not sure and then get
you started. And finally, just a reminder,
we have another net that we call the roundtable.
It's not quite a formal net as much as this
one is. But on Thursday nights also at 8 p.m.
and that's the 985 roundtable. So encourage
you to come back on Thursday night and join
that. That's more of a general reg two kind
of roundtable session. We'll start to take
check-ins now. Remember, if you have a question,
or even if you don't, let me know by saying
you have a question or you don't have any questions.
And we'll start with the digital stations, giving
them enough time in the middle so they can
get checked in. So, any digital stations on
EchoLink or All-Star wishing to check into
the 985 workbench tonight, please call now.
My call is Alpha Fox Chot 3.0. The name here
is Jim. Please call now.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR. No question.
Okay, very good. Thank you, CR, for checking
in. There was somebody before CR that said
you're a short timer tonight. Never heard any
of your call. All I heard was, uh, that's short.
Again, I don't know if you talked too soon or
what, but give it another try and leave a pause
before you start to talk. That other station,
please call again.
This is W1RC, good evening all.
All right, very good. Mr. Mike, good to hear
you. W1RC. You fool me these days because you
sound so much more local. I didn't recognize
who it was there. Thanks for checking in
there. So I have W1RC and then W8CRW. Anybody
else on EchoLink or All-Star who would like
to check in to the workbench tonight, please
call now.
Alright, not hearing anybody. So we will move
on anybody else other than Hickalink All-Star
stations and now also any RF stations. Anybody
wishing to check into the workbench, please
call now. This is Jim AF. Alpha 3 Victor Echo
Echo WA3 VEE. No question.
you
Let me jump in here and if I get it.
was either a perfect double or something. I
was really trying to a tone of voice or something
in there, but it was very noisy and sort of
garbled. So hopefully that was a double or
something. But whoever was just trying to call
in, please give it another try.
PC3RFG, Jim in Malvern, no questions.
3MFB. Mike with the question.
K3FHA John Nope
C3TYX, Kilo Charlie 3, Tango Yankee X-ray.
Kilo Charlie 3, Oscar Oscar Kilo. Charlie
8.
Here's who I have. Let me just go through the
whole list here. W1RC, W8CRW, WA3VE, KC3RFG,
W3MFB with a question, K3FHA. And this was
the station that was in and out. I think you
said you were parked on the air. November 3,
Quebec, November Bravo or something like that.
It was pretty noisy. and think you said you're
in and out, if you want to come back, I don't
if we'll be able to hear you little better,
but I'd like to be sure I know who you are.
So let me just pause a second. Both the men's,
yeah, the station that mentioned being Parks
on the Air, would you come back again, please?
This is AF3.
Okay, I'm sorry, my ears aren't pulling you
out of the noise there. Let me just check,
was anyone else able to copy that station?
Quebec, November Charlie as the suffix but
I still can't get the prefix. It's down in
the mud and I cannot hear him on the input.
Go ahead. November 3.
Thank you both there. Bill and Ron, November
3, Quebec November Charlie. I only missed one
letter there. Thanks for checking in. Yeah,
you are quite noisy. I'm glad you made it and
I did hear the first time you said you were
in and out. So thanks for that. tell you what,
just give us one quick try here, see if you
can tell us where you're located, where you're
located. This is AF3Z.
Thanks for trying, my ears didn't get it, but
I'll pause for a second. Anybody else copy
there?
Thank you, maybe if conditions get better here.
One point it started to sort of clear up but
didn't hear anything even in that spot. So yeah,
very, very noisy. But thanks for checking in
and hope you have a good time there wherever
you are. if you want to try again later, maybe
we'll hear you better. So after John, K3FAJ
was that N3QNC who was in and out. Then we
have Vic, KC3TYX. Bill KC3 OK and Luke KC3
SCY. And Luke, are you alright to stay in
that position as far as giving your comments
today? So you'd be, maybe not last, but after
Bill. I'm good till about 945 so TC3SC1 back
to AO3Z.
Very good, Luke, it must be getting to be summer.
That's great. All right, thank you very much.
So after all of that, any of other stations
wishing to check into the 985 workbench, please
call now. This is AF3Z. WA3KT.
Charlie checked in, Jim. C-R-E. He was right
in around Luke.
Alright, thank you, Joe. Charlie, go ahead
and say something again. Make sure I'm hearing
you this. And three, CRE, Charlie here.
Yeah, didn't hear you in there at all, so sorry
about that. Welcome aboard. Anyone else wishing
to check into the work?
WA3KFKT
did not acknowledge you, dealing with Joe's
thing there, so very good. Yeah, we have Luke
KC3SCY and John KFT and then Charlie N3CRE.
One last call, AAF3Z here, any other check-ins
for the workbench?
23SQI
AC3WWC.
Very good. We got Wayne in there, KC3SQI and
John KC3WWC.
Joe checked in again by CW that time. Just
the ID, sorry about that. All right. Quickly
W1RC, W8CRW, WA3VEE, KC3RFG, W3NFB, you had
a question, I think so far that's our only
question, K3FHA, then next is KC3TYX, KC3OOK,
KC3SKY, WA3KFT, N3CRE, KC3SQI. and KC3WWC.
So, again, go around and brief comments
on what you've been up to in amateur radio
this week. Go ahead there, Mr. Mike, W1RC,
it's up to you.
Good evening to everybody on the workbench tonight
from Marblehead, Massachusetts through All-Star.
And that's actually what I did this week is
I got my All-Star node operational. First level
only and there's a lot more to go and a lot
more to learn. I wanted to thank some of the
folks here for offering to help me. do it and
CR and Daniel, who's up here, offered to
do it for me and I'm very grateful. I'm the
kind of guy who to try to do it myself first
and that way you learn and I was able to get
it to work. only the very first level and
there's still a bunch more questions that I
need to figure out or get some help with but
we'll get it working the full capacity. Also
I figured out how to program this bell thing
that I've had for a couple years that I bought
at the MIT flea market. I'm going to reset
this for a
And that's about it. From here, I got to bail
out. I got some work to do here tonight. I
can't stick in as much as I'd like to. I'll
listen, but I don't have any questions, but
I might have some answers. So if I do and if
I hear them, if I can, I will. Otherwise,
we'll see you guys on Thursday. It's good to
be part of this group. It's a very, very fine
amateur radio community that... you all have
created here on 985. It's very impressive,
trust me. So back to, well over to CR. W8,
CRW and the workbench. This is W1RC himself.
Very good, Mr. Mike. Good hearing you, and you're
doing good. good evening all and jim thank
you for taking the chair tonight this cr and
uh... this week in ham radio i've been uh...
playing with my note i'm having trouble with
it with uh... dtmf functionality and i've
been working with rich
The other thing that I've been working on is
using my cell phone in an additional feature.
Instead of Wi-Fi, I've figured out how to use
it using Ethernet. And that has some advantages
to some people. With that, let's go to Ron.
W-A-3-V-E-E-W-H-C-R-W.
WACRW and the group WA3VE over here in Westchester.
All very, very good. Well, of course, we've
been doing the field day prep and our theme
this year for the press release is going to
be A-RRLs as radio connects. Well, I kind of
skied off of that a little bit and it's more
like radio, amateur radio works when nothing
else does. So that's kind of what, and basically
it's going to be. The public is welcome to
see how that occurs. Basically, I have better
wording for that. it's been a long day, so
I'm tired. basically, I'll be releasing that
as well. Also, you'll be seeing an invitation
for all those who are not part of the Corps
field day group. So you're still all obviously
welcome to come up. and you'll be seeing an
invitation. I still need to get that over to
Joe. And besides doing the field day stuff,
not much else going on over here in terms of
ham radio. Things have been very busy in other
areas. So with that, let me turn it over to
Jim over there in Malvern and see what he
has to say. KC3RFG to take at WA3VEE.
W-A-3-V-E-E. This is KC-3-R-F-G, Jim here in
Malvern. Thanks a lot, Ron, for passing to
me. Thank you, the other Jim, AF-3Z, for hosting
this evening as well. Not too much to report
on the radio front, Haven't been super active
at all on the shack. However, recently I did
shift the position of all the radios in the
shack, and after doing so, I picked up an
RF noise problem. coming in on the boom mic
cable and I did I've been looking at that
for a couple of days and I came to figure out
finally this afternoon that I originally had
an extension cable on the boom mic because
it didn't reach in the old configuration there
was a lot of coiled up microphone cord and
that was picking up interference only on 40
meters. Anyhow when I got rid of the extra
extension I found out I no longer needed and
then double check the grounding on the boom
mic actual metal stand, it went away. So yay,
I got it all back in service on all the bands
now. I really do like the boom mic on HF
and the foot switch, it's so handy. So that's
about it from here. With that, I'm gonna pass
it over to W3MFB Mike. And sorry Mike, I think
I doubled with you perfectly when we went to
check in, I apologize for that. From KC3RFG,
take it Mike. We're up with all KCE3, RFG,
W3, MFP. Howdy, howdy all. Good to hear everybody.
Haven't really played too much AM radio a little
bit here and there. CR, thank you, thank you
playing with that radio in the car. That's
about it. Making some 10 meter contacts and
things like that. Band hasn't really been spectacular,
not today anyway. Was open over the weekend,
thankfully, but... I really didn't have time
to get on to too much. Do have a question tonight
and I am going to be interested on hearing
what everybody has to say. So with that, I
will pass it to women K3 FHA W3MFD. K3MFP,
K3FHA, thanks Mike and thanks to Jim for hosting
tonight. Haven't done a whole lot on the
radio, a few nets and so forth. I did do some
work in the shack. I have two HF rigs now
and so I had a bunch of antenna switches lying
on the desk and I made a little stand so I
could make them vertical and take up a lot
less space and have them not slide around.
now I have my... antenna switching between the
two HF rigs, nicely set up and that's a
big improvement. Don't have a whole lot of
time unfortunately with everything else that's
going on. But that's about it, I checking
out some test equipment that I got also. But
that's only peripherally AMRADIO related.
So anyway, on to VIC, KC3TYX, K3FHA.
Thank you, John. K3SHA, KC3TYX. A little radio
activity this week. Some of you may remember,
it's been quite a long time ago, but my first
power supply, a Samlux, always had a fan in
it. Basically, the fan would run all the time,
even when you didn't have a load on it. And
after much back and forth with the manufacturer,
months of back and forth. They agreed, I sent
them a video, they agreed it was the fan and
I was worried I was going to have to send it
to them but they were nice enough to send me
new fan which sat on my workbench for about
six months. So I finally got around, I replaced
the fan, no fan noise when I turned on the
power supply. I haven't really tested it under
load, I just left it on for several hours and
it never kicked in so hopefully it got rid of
that and now I have a spare power supply.
What else? Talking to a guy, KC3, RKW, he's
on his net sometimes, the Duke of Earl, and
he had told me he hit a patch of good six meter.
I had recently put a new six meter double
bazooka, think Ron had suggested that up in
my attic, and I tried it a little bit and
made a couple local contacts on FTA, but didn't
really hear too But a couple days ago there
was a pretty good patch going on and I was
able to have digital contacts with Connecticut,
Nebraska, several, Minnesota, Florida, Iowa.
And then about 20 minutes later I got Delaware,
Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and that was
it. So that opening must have closed up.
And just a regular net. So it's been a pretty
good week. So on that I'm going to pass it
over to Bill. KC3OOK from KC3TYX.
KC3TYX, KC3OOK, thanks Vic and Jim. Thanks
for taking the chair tonight. is tied up this
week. Yeah, and Vic, I was looking at the
DX tracker, or DX view in the morning, and
I did notice one morning, and I think we had
a temperature inversion, that yeah, the bands
were lit up all the way up and down the East
Coast. So it's great when you're able to
be home and hit it. For me this week, well,
let's see. Chuck's not here to get... tower
report so we actually worked three work sections
three and a half days up at Joe's this past
week and got a lot accomplished we just really
just one it's not a major task but just one
task left and that's to get the rotator and
the thrust bearing and the mast mounted and
ready to go and other than that it's just a
few odds and ends just hold on some appurtenances
and a little loctitey's and nuts and I really
think it's done. Which is great, looking forward
to seeing that in the air. me, I've been working.
The ham shack is pretty much done, ready to
start the operating station and the lab bench.
Today I spent 14 hours staring at a sketch
pad and a pen and I know where they're going
to go now and I know how it's going to be laid
out. Now I have to sit down and put it on paper
and work out all the details. So that's about
it for me and let's see, who do I turn it over
to here? who's in my place. I turn it over
to Luke, and it was good to talk to you today,
Luke. KC3, SCY, KC3, okay. And thanks for
turning it over to me. And Jim, like always,
thanks for hosting. This week in Ham radio,
I haven't been super busy. On Thursday, I'm
going down to North Carolina with my aunt for
a week, so that'll be good. And radio-wise,
my uncle's brother got me um, or he gave
me an AM radio, um, seven transistor, dual
audios, super head radio kit. right now and
that's coming along pretty good. So that's
an AM radio so hopefully that works out good.
on the PMAMnet there was no Joe net control
he was on and me, I was the first pre-net check-in
and then one other station checked in and...
weeks ago we had like dead so anyway my last
day of school was Friday so that was good so
now I yeah I listening to some CW. They're
not a ton of stations, but there's more than
there is on the sideband in AM. I'll keep it
moving here and turn it over to, I think, tail
gunner, 383KFT. This is KC3SCY.
W-A-3 K-C-Y W-A-3 Kentucky Fried Turkey. Okay
Luke, very good. I'm juggling two things at
once here, microphone and telephone. Anyway,
we managed to get up a Comet G9 multi-band
antenna this past week and I am using it right
now. So I get good performance. We'll keep
it up in the air. go from there. And garden
is growing well. And anybody that needs rhubarb,
let me know. I have lots of it to cut. Over
to you, Charlie. November 3, Charlie Romeo
Echo from WA-3 King Fox Tango.
Thank you. Charlie here. Haven't done much this
week. Started looking at the All-Star Echo
Link and don't really need it right now since
I don't have any rig in the car. But other
than that, I don't have much else to say. I'll
turn it over to KC3FQI and 3CRE.
This is KC3SQI, am I making it in?
And now you're making it an end. Go ahead.
It's a lot better to check in when you're talking
on the repeater frequency instead of on the
input frequency to the repeater. tried to get
in for a bunch of times, couldn't do it. So,
then I looked over at the radio and thought
that I was trying to talk on the input, so,
oh well. taking the bus driving near Jim.
As for him radio, not much with the radios.
I did finish up submitting in the base for
my new tower, my new tilt-over tower. So
by the end of this week, I should be... ready
to start transferring antennas over to the
new tower. And that'll be a little bit better
to use inch and a half rigid conduit for the
mast rather than... for Chainlakes fans,
I think it might stand up a little better
to the win.
Not much happening, so I will turn it over to
John, KC3WWC, this is KC3SQI.
This is KC3WWC. Am I getting in?
John, maybe speak up a little bit, but you're
in there solid.
I am on RF this time, so that's new. I've been
having some trouble. Doesn't seem like dinner
mode to me. So my past week in radio I got
the Bluetooth TNC on my Btech UV Pro working
a little bit better, cleared the channel, the
Bluetooth channel, and now it automatically
reconnects like it's supposed to. I'm also
testing a new to me small magnetic loop antenna
from Alpha Antenna. It's really quite small
and quick to deploy, kind of takes the fun
out of it. used it for a park activation right
before this met. So that's fun to play with.
I repaired and retuned the Yagi that I'm using
right now. I added a hairpin match, which I
got to see what it does. It lowered the SWR.
It didn't change the tuning though, but there
are the resonance. that was a good learning
experience. But when I'm listening to 985,
I get like a full extra S unit out of
So I had my All-Star node on a phone network
behind my phone tethered and it would not connect.
kept failing. But the parrot test on another
node would work. And I had some strange interference
in the car, which was really kind of interesting
because it only happened when the car was turned
off. With that, oh I do have a question or
two. With that I will hand back to Jim AF3's
Edge.
All right, very good, John. And yeah, there's
a little hiss kind of noise on your signal,
but able to copy everything there, so very
good. And let me pause quickly. Is there
anyone else out there who would like to check
into the workbench tonight? This is AF3Z. Please.
Jim, I remembered I do have a question if there's
time at the end. KC-3, okay.
Okay Bill, and that was my next question. Is
there anybody else who has a question that
didn't say so before? I've got Mike MFB, Bill
OOK, and then John WWC with questions. Anyone
else?
Very good. Just a reminder then, as we turn
to the question... everybody to make any comments,
observations, experiences you've had. Don't
assume that your level of experience and knowledge
isn't... and all learns from each other and
contribute to the discussion. So please feel
free to...
So, first one we'll go to then is Mike W3MFB.
What is your question tonight, Mike?
Hey Jim, thank you, thank you. W3MFD, you know,
it's funny right before I'm about to talk I
start thinking of something else and I'm like,
huh, I'm have to ask that another time. But
this is more of a general question and a buddy
of mine, JB, he texted me last night, I didn't
see it until this morning, reminding me of the
146-580 simplex net you guys have. Bill, you're
a host for the... area I imagine and to remind
me that it was Saturday.
My question is kind of general. Bill, I've heard
you. CR, I've heard you. Jeff, I don't know
if he's out there listening, but I've heard
Jeff. I'm assuming if I, I know I can hear
Ron, but I've never heard Ron. I don't think
on that simplex net. I don't really, besides
you guys, and I don't really hear anybody else.
So it's always hard, it's always hard to pick
or even know when to jump in. I guess the disadvantage
of being down here in the valley, and I guess
my question is, I guess for anybody that wishes
to answer, do you guys hear a bunch of people
as well or not hear a bunch of people? I know
everybody's pretty much spread out. So pretty
spread out all over this county. And then, you
know, they're doing Lancaster County too. And
then Bill, if you could tell me what zone I
am, that would be awesome. Cause I'm not even
sure. So that's the question there about the
146 580 simplex Saturday night net. Who you
hear? Do you hear a bunch of people? Do you
not? and Bill if you could tell me what zone
I'm in. Thank you, AF3Z, WF3MFP.
All right, Mike, I can tell you, you're in the
twilight zone. All right, good question. And
I forget who I was listening to somebody. But
when you're first getting on the air, sometimes
you turn on the rig and you're not hearing anybody.
You don't know whether it's your radio, it's
the antenna. We all run into that at times.
Does my antenna get disconnected or fall down
or what? So it is helpful to hear other people's
experience to get a... of what we're hearing
and is it normal or is it different or what.
So anybody want to speak to that? I don't
think I've ever checked into the Simplex Net.
If I did, I'd forgotten. So anybody like
to speak to your experience, how much you hear
when you are listening to the Simplex Net on
Saturday nights? This is the F3Z.
All right, go for it, Ron. AF3 is it. and
the workbench, we're always going to do that,
round table workbench, whatever, workbench,
WA3VE here in Westchester. I have tried to
hear, I'm on the eastern front over here, I
think the only couple people who are east of
me who are regular users of the repeater are
Harvey, Phil, and Tim AIS. So, and also
south and east of me is Tom, KC-3 TMT. So I'm
not even sure if those guys would hear. I have
tried to hear stations, very rarely do I hear
anyone. Now I do not have a beam yet aimed
towards the west. When that happens, and that
will be up in the attic, only because that's
the highest point on the property. I don't have
to worry about a tower or any of kind of stuff
in the backyard. But I very rarely ever hear
anybody. But I do hear Bill and I do hear CR
pretty clearly when they check into that net.
So not unusual not to hear stations if you're
pretty far out of Manchester County, at least
in my regard. AF3Z, W-A-3-Z-E-E.
KC3TY
Vic was in there.
And somebody else, that, I'm Dick, I'll get
to you in a second, was that somebody else
right after Ron let go?
John, you're a little noisy anywhere last time,
but we'll take Vic and then I'll get back to
you. KC3TYX, AF3Z.
Yeah, KC3TYX. Yeah, same thing when I first
started doing it, which hasn't been that long.
I turned in there at 8.30 and I would hear nothing
for quite a while and I would just kind of
give up. But one night I just left the radio
on and then all of a sudden I heard Bill OK
as a net control south and I found out I could
hear Bill and CR. Evan S.E.N. and Mike Zedovie.
And I know all those guys live, I don't know,
three to five miles away from me. But other
than those guys, I rarely hear anybody. But
once in a while, you know, someone will, all
of a sudden, they'll come in from one of the
other areas, which is really surprising. So
that's what I enjoy about it, is the kind of
the propagation's different every week. And
so... Yeah, you'll hear the regulars, but then
all of a sudden you'll hear somebody new that
you weren't expecting. KC3TYX, back to NIST.
Yeah, thank you Vic. yeah, propagation is very
interesting. attention to. Alright John, give
it a shot there. KC3WWCAF3Z.
you
John, if that was you, this time you had all
kinds of noise and stuff and didn't hear much
of anything. Very different than what you were
before. Power supply or some kind of noise
or somebody was doubling with you, I'm not sure.
John, give it another try, KC3WWC, AF3Z.
now at KC3WWP. much better. ahead.
Check in this past week, and I only kind of
barely heard like two or three people and
they weren't always
and see who you hear because then you do know
who you can preach if you had to. But yeah,
I really tried to go for the nearest. Maybe
you can move around. There was a west.
Thank you John, you've heard all of that. Yeah,
it's very interesting stuff. Anyone else with
comments on what you can hear, especially with
the Simplex Net on Saturday evenings, but
maybe there's some other Simplex experience
you want to share? AF3Z. Whiskey 8, Charlie
Romeo whiskey.
Okay, we'll take the Romeo Whiskey after Bill.
Bill was in there first. KC-300K, AF-3Z.
Thanks Jim, AS3Z, KC30K, sorry about the double
CR. Well, Mike, as you know, subject...
keep it brief because I actually...
in, really doesn't matter. You check in with
any zone you hear. When it started out, was
originally just
The zones only refer to how they had divided
up. south of Route 30 was... north of Route
30.
from, geez, Dalton.
York down into.
is now, we actually changed the name to the
Langstrom Simplex Net to the...
here. It really varies per night for me and
I do find propagation and terrain interesting
because Vic and I are only a few miles apart
and Mike, Casey Five, ZOB is also close to
Vic and we hear very different stations
during the To your question, Mike, if we have
35 to 40, I probably hear all but about five
or six. Sometimes some in the West, and some
people are only working HDs and working low
power, so don't always get them all. But when
I started my first couple weeks, I got one check-in.
So I was running a J-Pole with the Kenwood
mobile radio and the antenna at about 23 feet.
really lets you find out what your rig's doing.
And I saw market improvements each time. When
I went to the Diamond X50, huge jump. When
I went to this 300, huge jump. And when I got
up to 50 feet on the 510, another huge jump.
So, sorry talking along here about that. that's
the deal. And the other thing about listening,
mentioned... We do try in the first round to
just take only five check-ins because we recognize
that some people are only going to hear a few.
So we want to get through all three neck controls
to make sure everybody that's out there listening
hears someone within about the first 10 minutes.
So I think that answers everything. So back
to you, Jim. AS3Z, KC3O, OK.
Thank you Bill, that's interesting, that's a
good way to do it. CR, over to you, W8CRWAF3Z.
Very good, Jim. My comment is propagation makes
all the difference. know, some weeks I can
hear central and east and I never hear west.
But central and east, some weeks I can check
in with either one of those. Then other weeks,
like last week, I couldn't hear Kevin. And
Kevin is just skipping a jump away. And I
know he was there, but he was very noisy.
So that's how it works. Good nights and bad
nights. back to net, W8CRW.
I heard another repeater coming in there. All
right, very good. Thank you, CR. One last
try here. Anybody else with experience you had
trying to listen to the Simplex Net on Saturday
nights? How much you hear or don't hear? This
is AF3Z.
KC30K, one last comment.
I should have the Swellton receive set.
Mike, you asked about when do you call out?
If you hear anyone else calling, if you hear
someone else calling into NET Control after
they call, throw out your call sign because
relays are important part of it as well. And
you don't have to worry about doubling with
anyone because with simplex... you can wait
and listen and never hear the other stations.
So we get doubles that the other two stations
would never know they're doubling. So just
put your call out there and see if somebody
hears it and relays it in. So that's the other
point. Back to net control, KC-3, okay.
Alright thank you, Bill, let me get over to
you Mike. Any follow up or whatever? W3MSB
AF3Z.
AA308 is checking and it woke up from under
the bus AA308.
Okay, Mike, I don't know what was going on there.
Leon, heard you. I didn't hear anything and
I couldn't bring up the repeater. Then Leon
called in on the digital side. So I fired
up EchoLink here and went into transmit and
then I could hear you down there weak when
I was supposedly transmitting. I was hearing
you through the radio. So let me check with
somebody else. Maybe I was... I don't know
what's going on. want to speak to what just
happened there? I'm confused. Jim, this is
WA3VE. Very, very, very low audio, Mike, and
you know I can copy on the input on RF. you're
using RF, I can certainly check on your next
transmission. But very low audio. Back to you,
Jim, AF3Z, WA3VE.
Yeah, I was mystified. Mike, do you want to
try it again there? Because, I didn't hear
anything until the very end of AF-3Z.
He doesn't have his PL on. I hear him beautifully
on the input.
explains it, W3MFB, this is AF3Z. See if you've
got propagation now. Talk about amateur hour
over in the MFB shack. Sorry, keep, my, all
right, so I have the 991 alpha and I got the
soft menu button open. And Ron, you'll know,
you have the radio. The reverse button is right
over the tone and the CS button. So, fat finger
must have hit that while I hitting the reverse,
trying to listen to people like I like to do
on the net or any of these nets. And that's
probably what happened. So what I was trying
to say was thank you, thank you all. And Bill,
thanks for making that second point about if
I hear somebody call and wait until they're
done and then call right after. So that's good
point. And I'm glad you guys have the relay
system going on there as well. So, brilliant,
brilliant. So thank you all for all your information
and your tidbits and knowledge and all that.
I'm going to stay away from that button for
a little while. AF3ZW3MFB.
I got a good laugh out of this anyway. Thank
you. Interesting conversation. Good question.
Alright John, KC3WWC, say something not too
long and we'll make sure we're hearing you
okay. This is AF3Z.
I don't know if you can change anything, but
you're quite noisy. I'm sort of hearing everything,
but it's not comfortable to...
That was you, John. That was worse. Let me go
to Bill here, he had a question and then we'll
come back to you John and if we can work that
out. KC300K, what's your question tonight?
AF3Z? It's a simple one and a brief one, hopefully.
I have two questions.
for this.
is I know that standard rack cabinets are 19
inch.
would be a standard depth design.
What are their recommendations for a good?
18 and 20 inches. So I'm just curious what other
people have. And that's it Jim, back to you,
AS3Z, KC3, oh okay.
Alright Bill, so you want the Boadanker answer,
not the ICOM 7300 answer, right? is correct.
guess the boat anchor answer drives it. Although
I have to say, just looking at the one scope
I got from Ron, that looks like about 18 inches
it needs by the time you get the plug in the
back. Back to you Jim, AM3Z, KC30, okay.
I couldn't resist. Anybody with experience
on rack and shelves, what kind of depth is
good. variety of
John, you should have some experience here.
Go ahead, this is AF-36. two of my racks.
One rack is one foot five inches. One foot
five inches and the other one is one foot six.
You're looking at 17, 18 inches.
as a depth. I'm sure there are... And that's
what mine are. Call it a foot and a half.
And you try not to have too many things protruding
out the back of a chassis when you mount
things on a panel. So if you use 12-inch chassis
or 14-inch chassis, you're okay. But as you're
approaching 16 or 17 inches, if it's an open
rack, no back in it, then it doesn't matter.
And one of my racks is like that. There's no
door on the back. But I have another one that
does have a door, so you're limited there.
This is WA-3KFT.
Thank you John and welcome back Joe. Good to
hear you. Go ahead Joe. This is AF3Z. Yeah,
I'm getting ready for Luke. We have mentoring
tomorrow and Wednesday.
There's no standard depth to a rack. I have
racks up at the repeater site that are 30 inches.
I have some in the basement that are 26. I have
some that are 14. The only thing standard about
the rack is the rack panel width, which is 19
inches. Now the rack will be wider than 19
inches because things like 21 and a half or
something. I forget. the screw that you screw
into... in a bit from the edge of the rack.
But racks can vary all over the place for
depth. Back to you, Jim.
Okay, thank you Joe. Anybody else have any
comments on this? V3 VEE. Good run. Very
good. Have a sleep over here, but I think Bill
you also asked about shelving. And of course
the ideal is to be able to get to the back of
your equipment. However, here things slide
out pretty readily. And I have no way to not
use shelving. The radio is in front of me here
and the shelving that holds all the monitors.
That is a full 24 inch depth. And that is quite
adequate. Let's put it this way. Everything
fits. So the radios on the left, those are
on 16-inch shelves. And the system I have
over here that I highly recommend, it's pricey,
but it works. And you never have to worry about
things caving in. And that's the dual channel.
I think their one name brand is Closetmade,
but these things are dual channel standards
and the brackets are very, very robust. So
16 inch and 24 inch if that's what you were
asking about shelving at least. And yes, on
a rack, I would recommend using a rack that
has as much depth as you have reasonable room
for. here that houses all my amplifiers is
a full 24 inch depth. Back to you Jim, AF3ZWA3VEA.
Okay, very good. We're having a real in-depth
conversation here tonight. Bill, how are we
doing? I think you probably have a good bit
of information, though it didn't answer the
question completely. I mean, you have to make
up your mind. KC-3-0-K-A-F-3-Z. KC3Z? KC3,
oh okay. Yes, it did answer the question completely.
And it just put me comfortable with the kind
of numbers I was seeing. appreciate that the
information on the racks and I am going to
try and build one myself, kind of make it look
like an old rack.
do know that sometimes the plugs and cords
be nice if all the power clubs come with a
90 degree connector.
at I guess between 18 and 20 inches for the
shelves and then the actual size of the risers
are going to be 24 inches wide. radios will
sit on them, but there'll be a space between
them and the back of the riser and there'll
be panels that come off. So I'll have a wiring
rack behind that. So I'll have a total of 24.
So I appreciate it. That is... KC-3, okay,
back to neck control.
Thank you Bill and congratulations on all the
progress you're making down there. Still looking
forward to seeing it someday. And I've got
this mental picture but who knows what it looks
like for real. Alright John, hopefully we can
get through to you this time and hear you well.
KC3WWCAF3Z. Trying our best. How's this?
Don't whisper but speak up at hearing everything.
So last week All Star was giving me trouble.
I had it on my phone hotspot for the first
to a parent node, so it wasn't working, but
I could not get into 985. It just kept saying
connection failed. Does anybody else have this
experience? Is it something with 985? Is it
something that I should do differently? Thank
you. Back to you, KC3WW.
John, first of all, did you send a message to
N3QBE to Martha to get on the 985 list AF3Z?
All star node works fine.
So you are on the list, so that's good. Anybody
have some response for John there on the, I
missed a little bit at the beginning, Al, if
you're talking All-Star or what? Anybody else
have a comment? AF3 is it?
W3GMS. Joe. There's a report in the end, I'll
tell you.
Hey John, I haven't gotten any complaints from
anybody else. We have probably 15 different
All-Star check-ins over a given 24 hour period
signing on and off and things like that.
And I haven't received any issue. You're still
on the permission list. The permission list
goes by node number. So if you have a dash one
or a dash two or something, I think Martha
has to put that, that's a new... on the permission
list. But if the node is the same inside and
it works and it doesn't work outside, that's
can't think of a thing that would call for
that on 985. And as I mentioned, there's no
other reports of an issue. Go ahead.
Okay, that's good to know. I didn't know if
there was a network, if there had to be a
certain network or something, and I could get
other nodes to work and other stuff. So it's
something I'll continue to debug, but on my
side. Thank you. wish I could help you more,
we just haven't had that issue. So turn the
crank, watch the checklist drop, and I'm sure
you'll figure it out. 73GMS. 73GMS. How many
checked in tonight?
I can't talk while I'm thinking here. I'll
count you as a chicken. A chicken. Chicken.
Oh, I'm in bad shape tonight. One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, I think 16.
And thanks for jumping in, Joe. and it's always
good to hear you. So let me just drop it here.
I think we're done with that. Any other questions
or comments? Call now. is AFL.
Hopefully nobody's falling asleep during that
nice long pause. All right, very good. Let's
see if one more call here. Anybody, any questions
that popped up since the last call or anybody
else out there who's been listening, we'd like
to let us know you're listening. We'd like
to hear that you're there. so if anybody wants
to check in here as we're wrapping it up,
again, we'd like to hear from you if you've
been listening. So any other check-ins here?
This is AF3.
Echo Mike Sierra.
Jerry, Echo Mike Sierra, electric motive,
no that's an F on the end, electromotive force.
Mike Sierra, but I know your call. Good evening,
Jerry. Any comments you'd like to make to the
group? This is AF3Z. Nope, this is Chris. KD3
echo Mike Sierra, Emergency Medical Services.
So, new user, I talked to Joe a couple times,
but this is my first time listening to the
Money Night.
Good Chris, sorry about that. Your voice even
sounded kind of like Jerry and the beginning
of your call got cut off. So I only heard the
EMS and I thought it EMS. So welcome aboard.
For my own curiosity, where are you located
Chris?
Right now I'm in my house on the MHT in Whitehorse,
right on 340 if you know where the Whitehorse
Fire Company is or the Whitehorse Luncheonette,
the little diner there. We're right there.
I'm usually on mobile. I do a lot of work in
the area, so I'm usually on mobile throughout
the day. But as of right now, we're just here
in the town of Whitehorse.
And you are doing very well with an HT. There's
a little bit of hiss in the background. Your
audio's good and coming in very nicely there
with the HT. Well, thanks for calling in here.
And I'm glad I got your call and everything
right. Welcome aboard. Anybody else who would
like to call in, check in with us here before
we close the door on the round, or the workbench
tonight, AF3Z?
you
Just trying to check in earlier during my parks
on the air. I have a quick question with anyone
who has any experience on six meters. The only
portable rig that I have that borderlines on
HF and I've had some varied luck with that.
Just out of curiosity, what wattage is everyone
transmitting for those of you who have experience
on six meters? Most of my experience has been
on two meters so far, a little bit on 10. And
I'm just trying to get an idea of what people
are using.
3QNC. Yeah, that's right.
back, you're a little stronger now. Good to
hear ya. Anybody have a response there on
six meters and what kind of power you're running?
This is AF3Z. Mango.
You can turn it right over to John W.E.3.K.A.F.T.
This is A.F.3.Z. I usually just do sideband
and then occasionally that FM repeater in Honeybrook.
for sideband I'm usually running anywhere between,
I mean the rig will do 100, but I usually run
about 70 watts depending, I mean it depends
if there's an opening. or as I like to say,
when people, when there's a contest, you know,
like the January and summer, I forget what it
is, UHF, VHF contest, everybody out of the
woodwork and it seems like you end up working
the same people over and over again during
those contests. But yeah, around 70 watts or
so, only because like I only have a hundred.
And if somebody asked me to turn it up and
I'm always running 100 watts, it's just kind
of silly. I can't turn it up any higher. So
not that that much 30 watts or so is not
going to really do anything, but you never know.
So yeah, that's right in the middle of the
road there, sort of, is how much I run. Sometimes
less. Honestly, I like running less for some
reason. I always get yelled at by Barry, KD3X
about that. Uh, you know, whatever you need
to do to make the contact, I guess. Uh, I always
feel like it's like, uh, manhunt or hide and
seek. Uh, you can hear them pretty well. You
have a pretty darn chance of them hearing you.
So, uh, you know, I just kind of take it easy
on the, on the power. Uh, put over to John,
uh, Oh God, just lack KFT. Sorry. Just,
uh, I just lost. KFTW3MFB, sorry.
W-A-3-K-F-T. The best I can do is a radio
that has, that claims to have 100 watts, let's
put it that way. Typically I'm running 80 to
90 watts. And I do have a six element beam.
that, and most of my activity on six meters
is single sideband. But... A few decades
ago, my go-to six-meter rig was a little 5-watt
AM rig. And a lot of it depends on the antenna.
And in my case, having the antenna at 50 feet
in the air, 45, 50 feet in the air, certainly
helped when I was running low power. The beam
isn't that high off the ground anymore. I
had a squalo up at 52 feet, but it's a great
antenna, omnidirectional and you hear everything
in any direction. But my beams have never
been that high. I want to say 35 feet is where
my 6-meter beam is. So we go from there. This
is WA-3KFT.
Thank you, John. Also thank you, Mike. Joe,
think it is entry Q &C. Over to you. Any follow-up
there?
I the feedback. I've been doing six meters
on parks on the air, so looking for portable
rigs to take out. I do have a six meter rig.
It's pretty old. I think it's older than
me, actually. And weighs a ton, so trekking
that through the woods is always fun, along
with a big battery. So I do have a couple smaller
units.
I'm if everyone's running 100, I'm guessing
that's probably my issue. I'm probably just
not pushing out enough power, which is good
to know. And I appreciate everyone's feedback.
Longtime listener to the club here, so I appreciate
everyone's feedback this evening. 73 and 3
QSC.
Thanks for joining in here. looked you up on
QRZ and it says GAP. So yeah, you're into
the repeater very, very well. I didn't put
out another call, but any other feedback there
on six meters, I didn't check around again.
So any other comments there? AF3Z. WA3VE.
energetic elf. Go ahead, Ron. Very good. Yeah,
I'm kind of bouncing between the shop and the
shack, so I'm on All-Star right now. But anyway,
also there are a number of on 6 meters. I know
John is familiar with those, KFT. But the guys
up in Pottstown have nets on Wednesday night.
And I think if you just go on the A-R-R-L site,
or in Google in general, and you just put it
in the search engine, amateur radio 6 meter
nets. southeastern pennsylvania you should
be able to uh... find something there's also
one of our uh... repeater group uh... users
uh... stephanie coals i don't remember her call
right off but she's uh... going to be joining
us for that on sunday night on six meters and
she is located up in wind gap pennsylvania
and that's the actual gap that uh... you go
through uh... on route thirty three north from
allentown that after you get through that gap
you're officially in the polka dot mountains
that gives you some geographic stuff that's
an input on six meters from this end they have
three set w a three v e
Thank you, Ron. All right. Anybody else who
wanted to add a comment on anything at this
point? And then we will wrap it up. AF3Z.
The caulk, the woodwork, they keep coming out.
W3MFB and then KFT again, AF3Z here. I'm going
to let John go, WA3KFT, go ahead. And then I'll
go.
Some frequencies on six meters that are busy.
I run a net nine o'clock Sunday night, 50
decimal 550, single side. Monday night, 730,
50 decimal 150. That's 50 decimal 150. That's
a pack rat net.
Wednesday night, 50 decimal 130, 50 decimal
130 is the Pottstown sideband net, and 50
decimal 400, 50 decimal 400 at 9 p.m. is the
Pottstown AM amplitude modulation net. And
nine at, no, eight o'clock Friday night, fifth.
50 decimal 160, 50 decimal 160 is Delaware
Valley Friends. So if you need a repeat, ask
me, WA3KF.
And yeah, Joe, do you need a repeat on any
of that?
I appreciate all that feedback. I mean I was
driving so I had to whip out my phone real
quick and start writing that down. But yeah,
that's perfect. I appreciate that so much.
You'll definitely start hearing me on the six
meters then once I get everything up and running.
And I appreciate it. N3, QNC.
Very good Joe. Mike, you have a comment still.
He nailed them. John got them all. Yeah, I
only knew of the Wednesday ones, but yeah,
he got the rest of them, so that's brilliant.
Yeah, I had a different question, but it's
off topic, I guess.
Okay, and it's 2124 according to my little clock
here. Any other final comments or anything
for the workbench this evening? This is AF3Z.
sounding quiet and of course everybody can go
to bed if they want but Mike if you want to
air your question those of us who are still
here can listen AF3Z. appreciate it. I'm
just having fun and had a question. For days
back, back in the day, like when the space
shuttle was going up and down and all that,
were you guys listening to any of that traffic
from, I guess, Florida and Houston and to the
shuttle and whatnot? And where the radio is
able to, did you have radios that were able
to listen to, I guess? I guess you had the
Mars Modem at that point. be able to hear some
of that traffic, because I know they used like
around 120 megahertz, and they used a lot of
frequencies, but I was just curious if anybody
back in the day of your, or your, or whatever.
able to listen to any of that traffic with
the space shuttle and NASA and all that or even
before that AF3Z W3MFP.
Mike, and you're obviously not talking amateur
radio traffic, NASA space shuttle traffic
or whatever. Anybody able to listen to that
AF3Z?
W W
Good, go ahead, John. As a kid back in the early
90s, I remember playing with the scanner and
listening to these things that I understood
to be like space station or shuttle or whatever.
They were discussing the experiments that they
were conducting and that sort of thing. I
thought it was amateur radio, but I didn't know
back then. What confused me is that it would
hang on for a little while. It's not like eight
minutes as it's... the ISS does now. So maybe
it was, yeah, maybe they were kind of holding
their position or maybe I was listening to
something else, but I think I did. That's you.
Three GMS, back in again.
Joe, I just started to click on top of you.
Go ahead, Joe. Yeah, answer Mike's question,
years ago Fort Meade in Maryland used to take
all the space station traffic and put it
out on HF on amateur radio. And I forget the
exact frequencies. I remember 75 meters they
would put
just listen to myself here. It's a little bit
delayed on the couch here relaxing for a few
minutes. So Fort Meade, Maryland would get it
off of whatever frequency the original transmissions
were on and replay it. We can't call it broadcast,
but essentially it was rebroadcasting it on
the 75 meter amateur radio band and was all,
the rebroadcast was in single sideband. W3GMS
or Mike, whoever wants to get it.
if I got it. Okay, and going back to John.
Very good, Joe. I sort of remember hearing
that, I don't think I ever listened. Back to
you, John. don't know if any, all right. First
of all, anybody else have information for John's
AF3Z here?
Maybe it was Mike. Now I'm really confused.
It was Mike. W3MFBAF3Z. Thank you, W3MFP.
Yeah, I was just curious. I was curious and
thank you, Joe, and thank you, John, for your
information there. Yeah, I just, you know,
I wasn't into radio back in the day and I didn't
know if some of you folks may have heard some
of that stuff. Everything's digital now and
the space bands that they use are up into the
high end that some of us play with, I guess.
Not me, but I was just curious if anybody was
listening to that traffic. So now I know we
have the ISS repeater and sometimes if we're
fortunate we can talk to the astronauts on
two meter and whatnot. But we do have our amateur
satellites. thought it would be interesting
to be able to catch some of that in the flesh
on the analog, you know, if somebody had. So
I appreciate it. Thanks for indulging me at
the late hour of the workbench. AF3Z, W3MFB.
That you again, Jim. All I heard was something,
Jim. do is I start transmitting. on All-Star
and I start transmitting right before Mike
is done and that kicks care of the delay and
Alicia can hear me. If I would transmit right
when he was done you'd never hear me because
of the latency. An interesting thing, my good
friend Doug Wilkins who passed away maybe
three years ago now, he was a partner in a company
that got a contract from NASA to build a audio
processing unit that was used on all the communication
back and forth. And I have a brand new one
of those in the box that will be displayed in
the museum. I, Doug had pancreatic cancer and
he would come over and kind of give me a few
things as his runway was getting shorter. I
remember this box? He says, open this. He says,
I wager to say you're probably the only person
that has one of those. I've never put audio
throughout to see what it sounds. I may do
that at some point in time, but I have the
actual audio processing that they used on those
early flights. AF3ZW3GMS.
Cool, Joe. Very interesting. So this was processing
the audio before it went into the transmitter,
I assume. That's correct, it was used at headquarters.
were talking and that was used there. I don't
know whether it was used...
in the spacecraft or not, but I know it was
used at mission control. That's what I was
trying to think of because it's a 19-inch rack
mount unit. Although, you know, maybe they
had 19-inch rack mount gear on some of the spaceships.
But yeah, that's what it was used. So the audio
went through that before it went to the transmitter
to give it enhanced intelligibility, and it
was all analog. Go ahead.
Very interesting. Who knows what's tucked away
in your basement there on the way to the
museum. All right, thank you, Joe. We have
pulled you in a lot tonight. We might get an
award for that. All right. One more time.
Any other comments out there? This is AF3Z.
Well, before we close down here, just appreciate
everybody checking in. And a big thank you
to Joe for making the repeater here available
for us for the workbench. And you're very welcome
to stay on, keep on, get on here often. It's
great way to show that we really do appreciate
the gift of this repeater to the amateur community.
We hope to hear you again on Thursday evening
at 8 for the 985 round table. So this is it
for the workbench tonight. Have a good night.
Great week ahead. 73 and keep pounding that
brass. This is AF3Z. Good night.
Stellar job Jim, you really rounded them out
and got them out of the woodwork tonight. W3GMS,
portable.
Thank you Joe, you gotta watch that woodwork.
I was out spraying for bugs here today. A
number of years ago, we got an invasion of earwigs.
And I mean, I was using a vacuum cleaner to
try to get them as they were coming in the house.
It was crazy. Since then, I spray a little
around some key spots and they only come in
in ones and twos. 233, Joe, AF36.
Well, I can tell you Martha does not like earwigs.
We've had years, especially when we had the
swimming pool, in-ground pool, I think it was
because all the water out there and the moisture.
Man, we would have airwakes. They would get
into the acrylic towel bars and they'd run
back and forth. you know, me being an old country
bumpkin never really bothered me that much.
They were just having fun, but it's not like
airwakes. I think we've maybe seen five or
six this year so far. Is that accurate? But
more than that, you wager a guess? She says
she's seen 25 this year. Were they all in sight?
She says yes. So anyway, we have more than
we had last year, that's for sure. W3GMS.
Hello Martha, good to hear you there. I'm not
crazy about them either. They're sort of strange
little bugs, that one year it was crazy and
I don't know what happened or why. We had lived
here a number of years before that. yeah, they
are interesting critters. I see them most often
like in the kitchen around the sink and in the
bathroom, like around the tub. I'm not sure
what the plumbing or whatever has to do with
it, if anything. I see them a few other places.
Usually maybe one or two or three a day. But
it was at night and if had the lights on,
they seemed to come rushing in to get into the
light. Oh yeah, that was a mess that year.
So I have faithfully sprayed some kind of
fairly harmless spray, but it seems to keep
them down to a minimum. All right, good night
to both of you. Good to talk to you. I've
got my early morning. dishwashing to do and
a couple things to get done before I hit the
sack. So good to hear you. Thanks very much
73 and AF3Z over and out. That way I'm in.
Yeah, we both have to get up at 6 a.m.
get a down.
get by with seven. A lot of nights I have six,
sometimes five hours and five hours is really
not enough. So there you go. Maybe we need to
start an ear wake net on 9-8-5. And we can
have Martha's the net control station of the
ear wake net. 7-3-8-W-3-G-M-S clear.
That's a good suggestion. And the funny thing
that ran through my mind when you said that
is you hear schools, football teams and stuff
named after all kinds of stuff. Imagine your
school. I can't even say it. The Arcelton
E-Wigs are taking the field. Good night, AFCZ.
Yeah, probably a good time to sign. But you're
right, they have all kinds of crazy names.
But I am tardy on handing them a time.
I've just been incredibly, incredibly busy,
but it'll happen. So all the YLs out there,
be patient. It's in the works. 73, sleep well.
W3GMS, now clear.