Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Every Thursday evening at 8pm the Crew of 146.985 W3GMS/R get together on air to host a weekly informal net with varying hosts and topics
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening, and welcome to the 146-985 Thursday Night Roundtable.
My name is Ron. My call sign is WA3VE, and I am located in Westchester, Pennsylvania.
I am very honored and humbled to be your host on this, the 24th solemn anniversary of 9-11.
Before we begin the official roundtable tonight, let us all take a moment and remember, this is a brief tribute entitled, We Remember, to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
We remember the nearly 2,800 who lost their lives in or around the World Trade Center that day, including 343 firefighters and first responders.
We remember the 184 who lost their lives at the Pentagon.
We remember the 40 who lost their lives in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
And because we are amateur radio operators, we especially remember seven of our own ham radio fraternity who innocently lost their lives that day as broadcast engineers and technicians,
atop the North Tower as police officers, and serving at the Pentagon.
The names and especially the call signs of these unsung heroes are often lost among the many,
but we remember them here as brothers in the amateur radio service.
We remember...
N2SJ, Steve Jacobson.
WA2ACW, Bill Steckman.
KA2KET, Rod Cupola.
KA2DRF, Winston Grant.
KA2OTD, Bob Seary.
AA1GO, Michael Jacobs.
And W3HRD, Bill Ruth.
Although it is highly unlikely any of us here knew and especially ever worked these hands,
we nonetheless remember and hold them dear for their sacrifice.
As we go forward, let us remember and honor all who innocently died in the name of our freedom and liberty.
And let us keep not only them, but their families and friends in our thoughts and prayers.
Military veteran summed it up very well, saying,
The best way for all of us Americans to honor those who lost their lives on September 11th is for us to be the way we were on September 12th.
We remember and we shall never forget.
Let's take 30 seconds of respectful and reflective dead air silence for these hands and all those who lost their lives on 9-11.
Thank you.
This is WA3VEE, and this is the 146-985 Roundtable.
The 146-985 Roundtable is conducted every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. on the W3GMS Parksburg Repeater, 146.985 MHz.
The PL tone is 100 Hz. For tone squelch on receive, use 94.8 Hz.
Take a look at the repeater website located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.
Besides the Roundtable, this repeater also hosts the 985 Workbench on Monday evenings at 8 p.m.
The Workbench focuses on answering technical questions as well as exploring topics related to setting up and operating your station.
Our newcomers are very welcome and encouraged to check in.
If you can't stay long, feel free to call in during the short-time check-ins at the beginning of the Roundtable.
Our discussions here are informal.
Passing the mic around in the order in which stations call in.
So I encourage you to note who checks in right after you so you will be able to turn the mic over to that station when you finish your comments.
Usually begin with a question.
I have two tonight.
As a discussion starter, you can answer those if you wish.
Or you can comment about other subjects as well.
If you have any suggestions or questions about the Roundtable, please contact Phil, KC3CIB, or Jim, AF3Z.
Both are good on qrz.com.
Be aware on occasion that the repeater experiences intermod interference.
Please run maximum power or be prepared to check in digitally through Echolink or AllStar.
We want to hear you.
To be able to use Echolink and AllStar on 985, you need to register with us.
Directions for that are on the website, w3gmsrepeater.com.
Also, when the air mod is present before starting a transmission, give a short call.
Am I getting in okay?
Once I'll confirm whether you are or not, then you can go ahead with your longer comments.
Now, don't be too quick to talk.
Pause a couple of seconds before hitting the press-to-talk switch.
This is good repeater etiquette at all times, and the pauses are especially helpful to those on AllStar and Echolink.
When you do, click the PTT button.
Wait a second before starting to speak.
We don't want to miss what you have to say, or we don't want to miss the prefix to your call sign.
It takes a moment for the repeater to process the PL tone.
Finally, the repeater has a three-minute timer.
If you talk more than three minutes without letting up your mic button, the repeater completely shuts down until you release your PTT.
If you're on RF, every two to three minutes, release the mic button just like this.
You don't need to let the repeater carrier drop.
Okay, two questions for tonight.
The first, what are your remembrances of 9-11?
Where were you, and what were you doing?
If you care to comment.
And what were your thoughts?
Second question, somewhat related.
Given the breakdown in cell service that day, and I definitely witnessed that myself,
if we were to conduct simplex nets among 9-8-5-ers to determine who could hear who and how well,
which bands are you able to operate?
So with that, we're going to start our check-in process, and we will start with short-time digital stations only.
Short-time digital, those only using Echolink or All-Star.
This is WA3VE.
This is the 146-985 Roundtable.
Digital short-time check-ins.
Please call now.
KB3ZUV.
Short-timer via Echolink.
That's Kilobarvo 3 Zulu Uniform Victor.
Adam in Romansville.
Whiskey 3 Foxtrot Echo Sierra.
That's W3FCS.
Coatsville.
Coming in at an All-Star.
Nothing heard.
I will take RF and digital check-ins.
Short-time for the 9-8-5 Roundtable.
This is WA3VE.
Please call now.
AB3AP.
Mike in Avondale.
Mike in Avondale.
KB3ZUV.
KB3ZUV.
Via Echolink.
Is anyone able to hear me?
Adam, you're coming in fine.
You're full copy for sure.
Yeah, you said nothing heard after the digital check-ins a minute ago, Ron.
I was wondering if I was getting through okay.
KB3ZUV.
No problem, Adam.
Yeah, it might have somehow or other you might have missed the first part.
I said nothing heard on the check-in list there after you checked in there.
Any additional check-ins, digital or RF for the short time list before we get started?
This is WA3VE.
Once again, two questions for tonight.
What are your remembrances of 9-11?
And secondly, given the breakdown in cell service on 9-11, if we were to conduct simplex nets among 9-8-5ers,
we used to do this before, to determine who could hear who and how well.
Which bands are you able to operate reliably, through the reliably in there?
So, Adam, good to hear you tonight.
KB3ZUV, kick us off.
This is WA3VE.
Okay, Ron, good evening.
WA3VE, KB3ZUV.
And good evening to everybody else listening on the roundtable.
Enjoying a lovely fall evening before the heat wave.
I will be...
I got some Phillies tickets from a neighbor for the games tomorrow night and Saturday night.
So, my daughters will be attending their first Phillies games.
There's only a pair, so I have to go to two games in a row.
So, I'll take my older daughter tomorrow and then my younger daughter on Saturday.
They've been to big league baseball games before, but not the Phillies.
So, I think they're going to have fun.
It should be nice weather for a couple days before the heat wave starts.
And yeah, Ron, solemn anniversary.
I remember the company that I used to work for, not the company that I work for now.
But my former company actually had an office in the South Tower and lost a couple employees in that company.
And we would have a memorial service for them every year.
As far as what I was doing on 9-11, that was like five jobs ago.
And yes, I know I have a reputation as one of the younger hands on 9-85.
But on 9-11, I had already been graduated from college for a year and a half.
And I was living in the area.
I was living and working in Conchahokan.
And I was at work that day when it happened.
And I had already taken a half day that morning because I was going to go to Reading to buy a used Volkswagen off of a gentleman that lived in Reading.
I found a good deal on a used car.
And everything was – so it was a mixture of absolute horror watching.
I remember all the websites were going down.
You go to all the different websites trying to see what was going on because I wasn't watching on television.
I was at my desk doing my database stuff.
I was a database programmer in those days at a human resources software firm in Conchahokan.
And my coworkers were like getting calls on their cell phones from like family and friends saying, what's going on?
Hey.
I remember trying to hit refresh to see what was going on in various news websites and just the Internet.
I didn't even try to use my cell phone because my coworkers were all like, yeah, I can't get through.
Nothing's going on.
And I was like, well, I'm not even going to bother because in those days, cell phone plans were very expensive.
I was paying something like 25 cents a minute on my cell phone plan.
And I was like, well, I'm not going to wait minutes trying to get through when even my coworkers can't call anyone.
So I hit refresh a bunch of times.
And then I got on a landline and I called the fellow in Reading.
I was like, are you still selling that Volkswagen?
And he's like, yeah.
He's like, is the tag place still open?
So he's like, yeah, they're still open.
So I drove to Reading and I bought a used car on 911 while listening to the radio trying to make sense of it all.
It was pretty terrible.
I don't think even really we even knew for like a day or two afterwards that there was terrorism involved.
People are like, well, we're pretty sure.
But, you know, I think the first day or two was really trying to find survivors.
And I don't think they found too many after the first few hours.
So that was what I remember what happened in the immediate.
I remember being pretty upset when they had the missing posters.
They had the newscast showed all the missing posters of people like, have you seen my loved one?
Have you seen my coworker?
Have you seen my friend?
And, you know, they didn't really find too many of those people afterwards, unfortunately.
So, yeah, definitely we say a prayer for everybody who lost their lives.
And, of course, the families who survived, it's been very difficult for some of those families ever since then.
As far as the second question, Ron, what can you do for Simplex?
Well, I remember I used to do Antoine K3DY.
We haven't heard him on 985 in a long time.
But I remember one time I was trying to see how far I could hit him on Simplex.
And it worked pretty well with my setup at the time.
This was like five years ago maybe.
I think nowadays if I were to do that, yeah, VHF, UHF, I have a pretty decent UHF antenna.
And then my HF antenna that I have up in the shed for HF is pretty good between 10 and 40.
I would say it's actually best on 40, believe it or not.
It's actually not that good on 10 and 20, but it's quite good on 30 digital and particularly 40 meters.
So if there was going to be a Simplex, I would want to do 40.
I think I would want to do either 2-meter VHF or UHF or 40 meters.
Eventually, I'd like to get back into 6 meters.
I haven't done 6 meters in many years.
Even since I got back on the HF with help from Corbin last year, I have not been back on 6 meters.
So I think if I expand my capabilities, I think I would like to try that.
I would like to try that next would be to try 6 meters.
So in that order, 2 meters, 40 meters, and 6 meters.
That's my answer to the second question, Ron.
With that, let's keep things moving.
I believe it goes to W3FES from KB3ZUV.
7-3, question.
W3FES from KB3ZUV.com.
Yes, I'm here.
Sorry for the delay.
I was across the room and making a mad dash for the mic.
So good evening, all.
When 9-11 happened, I was working at University of Delaware.
And I remember we had a TV on watching it, which was a very rare event to have a TV on.
And maybe more memorable, my wife was speaking to friends of ours.
The husband works on, to this day, works on Wall Street.
And they were chatting on the phone.
And all of a sudden, the line went dead.
And it turns out that their connection, apparently, was through the antenna on top of the tower.
And she only realized that as she glanced at the TV and saw the tower coming down.
And two of the calls you mentioned, Ron, N2SJ and KA2 OTD, are now memorial stations.
In the names of those hams, of course.
As far as bands, I can work the additional ham bands, with the exception of 17 meters.
I can receive it just fine.
But I have a very long feed line with my somewhat new dipole.
And I can't tune up on it.
So I need to work that out before the weather gets icy cold.
I've been procrastinating.
With that, oh, yeah, I'm the last of the short timers, aren't I?
So back to you, Ron, WA3VE, AB3AP.
Very good, Mike.
Thank you so much.
And, Adam, thanks also very much.
And just very quickly, two of those call signs also, I don't remember which ones,
but they were good friends of a friend of mine, Rich Pileski,
who was the fellow who got me and my students into the political convention in 2016,
and also the one that redesigned Channel 3, good friend of mine.
And he ended up knowing these guys through his company, CBS.
And also he ended up having transmitters at one World Trade later on when he got promoted to be the chief engineer at WCBS-TV in Manhattan.
Rich has since retired from broadcast engineering.
And I do keep in touch with him.
So the stuff is closer than we realize for sure.
This is WA3VE, and you're listening to the 146-985-Roundtable.
One last call for any short-time check-ins, digital or RF.
Please call now.
Okay, nothing heard.
We will move to the regular check-in list, the regular check-in list,
and we will again start with digital check-ins for those who can stick around for the duration.
Digital check-ins, regular check-in list, digital only.
Please call now.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey.
W3DIB.
W3DIB.
W3DIB.
Acknowledge CR and Greg, W3DIB.
Any additional digital check-ins for the regular round of the roundtable here?
This is WA3VE.
W3DIB.
Okay, nothing heard on that.
Let's go to RF check-ins.
This is WA3VE.
Please call now.
This is KC3SC1, Kilo Charlie 3, Sierra Charlie Yankee.
WA3.
W3GMS.
W3Good Music Station.
WA3KingFoxTago.
WA3KFT.
NA3CW.
NA3CW.
KC3OOK.
KC3SQI.
KC3SQI.
KC3SQI.
KC3OOK. KC3SQI. 3MFB, Whiskey3, Mike Foxtrot, Bravo.
Hold for a second. There was a double with Mike. Other station besides W3MFB who just tried to check in. Please call now.
KC3ZLI.
Thank you, Sean. Continuing the check in list after Sean there. Additional RF or digital check ins for the regular check in list for the 985 round table. Please continue to call in.
I don't know if I made it. AF3ZI doubled with Mike.
We'll stop there and let's go down a list. We'll call for additional check ins once we get rolling.
We have WACRW, W3DIB, KC3SCY, W3GMS, WA3KFT, NA3CW, KC3OOK, KC3SQI, W3MFB, KC3ZLI, and AF3Z.
One last call before we get started. Any additional check ins? Any mode? This is WA3VE. Please call now.
This is...
This is...
KC3HQZ. This is...
Now for Alpha 3 Lima Hotel with a juicy story then.
Very good. So following Jim, AF3Z, we've got W1RC, KC3HQZ, and AA3LH.
One last call for additional check-ins. This is WA3VE.
Nothing heard. Two questions again for tonight. The first, what are your remembrances of 9/11? What were you doing that day?
Where were you? Any stories you care to relate? You don't have to comment on that if you don't care to.
And somewhat related, this is the second question.
Given the breakdown of cell service on that day, if we were to conduct simplex nets again among 985-ers to determine who could hear who and how well, which bands would you be able to operate reliably?
W8CRW kick us off. WA3VE.
Very good, Ron. Thanks for taking the chair tonight. And thank you for the memorial remembrance.
Back in 2001, I was working down at Ridley Park. And I was up in the 331 building. And I do remember, because the news spread, I don't have any specific things other than it sort of, you know, disrupted work.
But, you know, work continued. I didn't have anyone specifically related to that situation in New York.
As far as the bands, let's see, 2 meters, 70 centimeters, 6 meters, 40 and 80. Now, 2 meters and 70 are most popular, I would suppose. But I can use the other ones on HF.
With that, let's go to Greg. W3DIB, WHCRW.
Thank you. W3DIB, WHCRW.
Thank you. W3DIB, WHCRW.
Thank you. W3DIB. Let's see. September 11th. I would have been in college and I would have been working at the same time.
I remember I got a late start that day. And unfortunately, it had happened before we had been with the world for that day.
But I remember waking up to it and just being in complete shock. We went into work and everybody was just watching the news.
I mean, nothing was getting done. Everything kind of... I just remember everything kind of stopping.
It's still surreal. It's still... It's still hard to believe it happened. Like, just... It's like, my gosh. You know, you just didn't make...
Somebody in my lifetime, you know, I grew up in peacetime my whole life.
So, seeing something like that happen for the first time was a real shock and a real eye-opener.
And... Let's see.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I lost Greg, but I have it noted.
I'm going to come back to Greg when we finish the list here for sure.
I want to hear what else he has to say there.
I'm sure it didn't sound like he was anywhere near finish.
So we'll put him at the bottom of the list here and see if we can get back to him.
Luke, KC3SCY, your comments on the questions.
Hey, Ron.
Well, thanks for hosting the net tonight.
This is KC3SCY.
Well, it wasn't live during 9-11, so don't have any stories about that.
Um, simplex mode, or simplex bands I can operate.
Um, I think this radio has 440 in it, and I know my antenna works for that.
And I don't know about 220, but about all HF bands I can operate simplex on 10 through 160.
So, anyways, over to Joe, W3GMS, KC3SCY.
Hey, very good, Luke and all.
KC3SCY.
And the 146-985 Thursday night roundtable.
This is W3GMS with an altered voice here tonight.
I got a really bad cold.
Uh, let's see what day is it.
On Tuesday, I woke up.
The really bad cold and a little sore throat.
Uh, woke up Wednesday, and the sore throat was gone, and the nasal passages filled up.
And, um, and today, a little bit better.
But, uh, still have a bad, uh, a bad cold.
So, I'm sure you can hear it.
It was kind of so bad this morning that I called off the workday with, uh, Bill O.
Okay.
Because, uh, without another helper here and him by himself, it wasn't fair to bring him here.
And I just wasn't feeling up to it.
So, sleep a little bit more, but make a progress.
Making good progress.
Okay, um, I really currently, um, don't have any simplex capability here.
I have, um, one small antenna that's mounted to the gutter of the house.
And that's to get myself into the repeater.
And that's, uh, that's pretty much it.
So, it's not, although Thorndale Mike and others says they can hear me on that, but, uh, I don't really have good simplex capability here.
However, uh, when the split site gets done, if the split site is not being utilized, I'll be able to patch into the, uh, the big antenna up at 90 feet above the ground.
And that's a Diamond X700 antenna.
And, uh, I guarantee you I'll have a, uh, pretty good, pretty good, uh, signal on VHF, UHF on simplex.
Um, okay, let's see, so, 2440, uh, simplex coming up, uh, HF 160 meters through 10.
The higher bands aren't stellar because the antenna's so long.
But when the new tower gets up, I'm not going to put it up in the fall.
But, uh, the spring we'll be putting up a, um, a Mosley TA-33 Classic, which is the wide-spaced TA-33.
And that'll give me great capability on 10, 15, and 20.
I think I have a 40-meter, uh, element to put on it, but I'm not going to do that.
I'll just leave it the way it is.
So, let's see, uh, 9-11.
Boy, do I remember that well.
I was sitting in my, uh, my office at work.
And I forget, I forget how I heard the news.
I'm not sure if I had, uh, a split screen set up and, uh, a news channel on or what.
But somehow I found out, like, right when it was announced.
And, of course, everybody is, uh, congregating around and things like that.
And then very shortly thereafter, they opened all the conference rooms and the cafeteria, which all had televisions.
And we had a TV studio as well.
And that was open.
So we were, um, everybody was watching it, uh, from the news media at that point.
And, um, it was just devastating.
I mean, there's no way to really describe, uh, the tragedy that occurred on that day.
And, um, you know, you, you, you look back and it's no point in saying, well, how could we have, uh, uh, kept it from happening?
And there were signs.
Uh, there were some clues.
But I think we, uh, at that point in time, had become kind of complacent.
And some of the leads and some of the clues that were happening, um, were not followed up on.
And bingo, we got, uh, we got stung.
So that's the deal.
Terrible, terrible time.
WA3 KFT.
Good seeing you at Mulligan Hill.
Uh, uh, John, hopefully you sold a few, a few stuff.
Uh, W3 GMS.
WA3 KFT.
W3 GMS in the net.
WA3 KFT.
Yes.
Uh, I covered all my expenses and came home with a little extra cash.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Uh, so far that has happened, uh, on, on the three ham fests I've gone to so far this year.
And I plan on going to Red Rose.
So I'll be out there in, uh, Leon's neighborhood.
Anyway, uh, I, I was sitting in the living room with a TV on.
I was grading papers.
Uh, my job at the time was teaching in college.
Uh, uh, uh, probably Penn State University, I think.
And, uh, you know, the, the program got interrupted and the next thing you know it was, uh, focused on New York City.
So, uh, I, I managed to get through all, all of the grading of the papers.
Uh, it was something that, uh, you could watch it for a half an hour and you could probably ignore the next half hour because they kept repeating everything over and over and over and over and over again.
But, uh, uh, uh, like I said, I was, I was sitting in the living room grading papers.
Uh, I was teaching three days a week.
So, uh, I was, it was one of the two days I wasn't teaching.
I was grading papers and so on.
In terms of, uh, uh, emergency communications, my station, the one I am using right now, is running on a 12-volt battery.
And I have a power supply running on 120 AC, Philly electric power, that float charges that battery.
So, if I lose AC power, I still have, I still have the battery.
And I am well equipped, uh, uh, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2, 220, and 432.
So, I could, I could go on all of those bands.
And I think I could get on the the Wark bands because I do have a, a, uh, ICOM 7300.
But I haven't, I haven't played on any of the Wark bands to, to know, uh, what kind of results I have.
So, I could, I could meet you on almost any frequency kind of thing.
Uh, I have wire antennas for HF.
But I have verticals for 10 meters and higher.
And beams for 6, 2, 220, and 440.
So, uh, yes, anybody that is...
Anyone that has been at my QTH knows that I have quite an antenna farm.
Okay, Chuck, your turn.
NA3CW.
WA3KFT.
Leave a little pause in case anybody needs to pop in.
This is NA3CW.
Well, at the time, I was in Guam with my family, working at KTWR.
And so, we were 15 hours ahead of the East Coast.
So, when this thing happened, we were in bed.
And our first inkling of it was, it got up and went out to the computer, turned it on, brought up the CNN page, and we are greeted with,
America under attack.
In great big black letters.
And then, um, you know, showing video clips over and over and over again of what happened and what little was done at the time.
And, uh, needless to say, that was a pretty shocking way to wake up in the morning.
Um, so we had, you know...
At a radio station, life goes on, so life went on.
But we, you know, we kept internet news up all day.
And, uh, just trying to, like, uh, Adam said, trying to make sense of what was going on.
Um, sort of on a side note to that, afterwards, uh, after it was digested and fingers were pointed and blames were blamed and all that sort of thing,
um, they, you know, they were making noises of war.
And at that particular time, um, I was in Singapore visiting.
I hadn't transferred there yet.
I didn't do that until 2005.
I was in Singapore for a meeting, and I was staying with one of our Singapore staff.
It was a couple from Nigeria.
Uh, Nigel and Dali Onomade.
Onomade, yes.
Wonderful, beautiful people.
Um, he was our IT and, uh, otherwise tech guy in our Singapore office and studios.
And a musician himself.
And his wife, uh, beautiful wife, two beautiful daughters.
So I stayed with them, and we were watching TV.
And so they, being Nigerian, were not really up on American culture that well.
Um, they spoke flawless English, by the way, better than mine.
They, uh, they were kind of like, well, you know, they're, they're thinking what's going to happen now.
And, uh, their opinion was, well, they're just going to, you know, shoot off a few cruise missiles like they did at Libya, and it'll blow over.
And I said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I, I, I acquainted them with the concept of, this is personal.
There, there are, you know, there are, you know, there are acts of war, and there are, like, acts of political whatever.
But this was in New York City.
This was our people, thousands of them.
I said, this is what, in the U.S. we call, this is personal.
And I said, it's going, there's going to be, there's going to be health pay.
There's going to be war.
It's going to be bad.
And, uh, sure enough, it was, with, uh, all the sandbox things that happened, Desert Storm and, and all that.
But, um, yeah, it was a, uh, it was a shocking way to wake up, I'll tell you that.
So, over to Mr. Bill in, uh, Oxford.
KC3OOK, NA3CW.
NA3CW, KC3OOK.
Thanks, Chuck.
And, Ron, good questions.
And, uh, there's been a lot of discussion about that today on various media and things.
So, I have thought about it a lot.
And, um, people have a lot of good comments.
Uh, at the time, I was in Center City, Philadelphia, at, uh, 16th Street.
Right, at basically 16th and Arch, a couple blocks from City Hall.
And, uh, about three blocks up, 16th from 2 Liberty, the Cigna Building, 57-story building, which I had all the construction in there.
So, I got a call right after it happened saying that they were emptying the building.
They sent everyone home.
And they emptied Center City.
And got to actually see people who kind of at, I won't say their worst, but definitely, uh, only out for themselves.
The city was blocked for hours and hours.
You just couldn't move.
People were ignoring the lights.
Uh, they'd sit there and, uh, and, uh, basically block the intersections.
And it was just chaos for hours.
And, um, as far as cell phones, uh, and I'll have more about the traffic later.
As far as cell phones, in the city, I think I have the answer, uh, the landlines went down almost immediately afterwards.
Uh, but the cell phones continued to work for, I'd say, at least an hour and a half.
And then they went down.
And then landlines came back up in the afternoon.
And I think the reason is, because in all the high-rise buildings, you can hardly get any cell service unless you're over at certain corners of the windows.
So, I think probably everybody was on their landlines calling home right away.
Uh, because I know most places the cell went down first.
Uh, a couple other thoughts on it.
Uh, people talked a lot about, you know, a lot of different, uh, results and causes.
Uh, because we were in construction.
We were actually really, really busy that day.
There was a lot going on.
And, um, I continued to work until, I think, about 7.30 at night.
And, um, I actually never have seen any of the video.
We just worked right through it.
I knew what happened.
I didn't know, really, to the extent until I got home very late.
Uh, but the day ensuing, there was a lot of, uh, discussion about the structure.
And, uh, on the news, they were saying that the building failed, that the way the plates were constructed,
that they collapsed on one another.
And it was actually a building design failure.
And, uh, the reality was it, the building didn't fail at all.
It worked exactly as it was designed.
The building had a two-hour fire rating.
And it stood for two hours.
Uh, the sprinkler system, everything worked, continued to work.
Uh, the problem is that steel, once it's heated, especially with that kind of heat,
uh, it, it, it relaxes and has the property of a well-cooked spaghetti noodle.
Uh, so, uh, that was, it was interesting.
The days afterwards, I had a good friend who was an engineer, a principal, uh, Thornton Tomasetti.
And they were brought in, uh, right after that to, uh, start doing analysis.
So, we did get to hear a lot about that over time.
The last thing I was going to say is that it was also kind of weird.
Uh, while people were really out for themselves when it first happened,
the days after driving to the city, people were just, like, overly polite.
I thought I was driving in the Midwest.
But the, the one weird thing was going home.
I didn't leave until about 7:30.
And, uh, I don't think I saw three vehicles on 95, uh, all the way from Philly to 322.
It was just a really eerie, strange evening.
So, that's about all I can remember.
And, uh, I'll answer the, uh, other question, Ron, on the next round, because I've rambled on.
So, over to Wayne, KC3SQI, KC3OOK.
Uh, thank you, Bill. KC3OOK. This is KC3SQI. Uh, yeah, on 9-11, uh, I was setting in a staff meeting in Agilent Technologies.
And, at that time, we were still HP.
And, we kind of, uh, made it through the staff meeting, and then everybody went to, uh, different rooms that had TVs and stuff to watch what was happening.
Um, as for phones, uh, I had, uh, I was working on projects that really didn't need phones at that time.
So, I really don't know. And I didn't, uh, have cell phones. Um, that was my own personal choice.
When I get off work, I didn't want them talking to me and, uh, catching up to me. So, I didn't take one of their cell phones.
Uh, with that, we'll turn it over to Thorndale Mike.
Uh, W3MFB, this is KC3SQI.
Thanks, Wayne. Uh, hey, Ron, real quick, who do I turn it to?
Turn it to. KC3ZLI, Zululima, India. That would be Sean. Uh, go ahead, Mike.
Ron, thank you, Sean. Alright, thank you. Yeah, I heard his call, but I didn't hear it all the way. And, uh, I just wanted to, to know, to write it down. Um, okay. I think I heard the, uh, the gist and people are answering the 9-11 question. Uh, so I'm gonna go with the first question. I think CR answered about having simplex. Who can hear who? I love that idea. I hope we do that.
Um, real quick, I guess. Yeah, 2 and 70 centimeter. I don't have my 6 meter dipole up right now. Um, but I need to figure out a place to keep it out there permanently or just figure something out. But anyway, uh, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20. I don't do 10. Uh, yeah, 40 and 80.
Uh, uh, and 60 meters for me is not that good. So, uh, but I think, uh, 80 meters in the middle of the day, afternoon, I mean, afternoon. Wait until the morning crew's gone.
And the gap in between the evening and night crew, uh, afternoon time. If everybody, not that everybody can, but I think a lot of us can work each other on 80 and you'll be surprised how well it works.
Um, hold up for a second.
Getting a froggy throat. W3MFB. Uh, 9-11, I was at work. Uh, just started my job. I was five months into my current job, which I'm in right now.
Uh, uh, uh, was on a machine, uh, hydraulic press.
Uh, and, uh, we, we had radios at work. Uh, there were no TVs. I don't think there was a TV in the whole building.
There were two shops manufacturing, gasket side, valve side on the other. Um, yeah, everybody had radios on, so we heard it on the radio.
Uh, I walked by my buddy, uh, John Genovese, and, uh, he had Oldies 98 on, and, man, that guy would sing to all those songs.
Uh, and at the time, they were just playing 60s, 70s, and 80s. Now, Oldies 98 is playing stuff I listened to in high school or below, which is crazy.
But whatever. We all get a turn. But yeah, John, Johnny had it on, and he's like, hey, Mike, listen to this.
And we heard what was going on, and we were kind of confused, because a day prior, there was an incident with a paraglider that got caught on, I think it was the, I don't know if it was the Statue of Liberty or something like that.
I can't really remember. Uh, so we thought it was something to do with that.
And then, you know, more briefs came, and all the radios stopped playing music, and all the, it was just nonstop news from the DJs.
Uh, I didn't really see what was going on until I drove home to my folks' house.
And, uh, I would stop and have lunch with my father, and, uh, he was telling me what was going on, and then he said, go ahead and watch the news, but do it upstairs, he said, because, you know, he was retired.
He's like, I turned up, he said he turned up the TV and, uh, the news radio, because he didn't want to hear it anymore.
He was just upset.
So I got to see a little bit of it, and then had to go back to work.
Uh, because, uh, but it was weird, because after, I guess, the Pentagon strike, I remember, uh, bugging out a little bit.
So I was like, I'm going to go to the bathroom, to the locker room, the men's locker room.
And I walk in there, just, I figured I'd go wash my hands, splash my face, whatever, just take a breather.
And, uh, I walk in there, there's like 40 guys in there, and half of them are smoking.
It was just, and then talking amongst themselves, but not loud, very peacefully, you know, shoulder to shoulder.
And, uh, it was interesting.
But, uh, hold up.
I'm going to go to the MFB with a word from our sponsor.
Um, I have a cousin, uh, he was a New York City cop, our detective at the time.
So he was there on scene.
Got hit by a little bit of concrete, but he was all right.
Uh, my cousin Joseph, he had a construction company.
Uh, the next, that night, actually, uh, him and his guys loaded up the trucks.
And they were in Jersey, so they, they drove, drove to the site to help, you know, look for people and clean up and whatnot.
He spent a week down there.
He won't talk about it to this day.
Um, he wouldn't talk about it when he got home.
So, I'm sure he told his dad, but that was probably about it.
And, uh, yeah.
Um, but that's what I remember.
Um, yeah, it's just, it's just crazy.
My dad has pictures.
He's landed on top of there, uh, for, uh, business conferences on a helicopter.
You know, he took my daughter, or my sister, uh, to the top when she was a little girl.
So we have pictures from inside the elevator.
Um, I wasn't there, but, uh, I never made it to the top of that one.
Um, Empire State Building, yes.
Wish I had an HT, yes.
But I was 11, so it doesn't matter.
Um, but yeah.
That's, that's what I remembered.
Um, but, uh, I really, uh, totally for having a simplex sked, uh, thing.
We should do that, definitely.
Especially for all the new crew here.
Uh, KC3ZLI, W3MFB.
Uh, KC3ZLI, W3MFB.
W3MFB.
Um, yeah.
I, uh, I was 19 when 9-11 happened.
Um, and, uh, I remember that day, honestly, like it was yesterday.
Um, I was taking college courses at Bucks County Community College.
Um, and I did not have classes on Tuesday.
So, I went to a movie the night before.
And I still have my movie stub, uh, from 9-10.
Um, and, uh, my, I slept in, because I, I didn't have school that day.
And I was working at a gas, a gas station in Newtown.
Um, Newtown, not Square, but Newtown in Bucks County.
And, um, my dad, uh, woke me up about 9.
Right after, uh, basically the second tower, 170, uh, United 175 went into the tower, the second tower.
And he woke me up and he said, two planes just ran into the World Trade Center.
And I was like, what?
And, um, you know, he was watching, he was working from home that day.
Um, one of the, I mean, he, he, his office was in California.
So, he was ahead of the curve working from home.
But, um, yeah.
And it was just, it was, it was just, it was, it was crazy.
And I went downstairs and I was watching the news.
And I'll never forget, I was watching, uh, CBS, um, when the Pentagon got hit.
And I was like, wow, this is, this is, this is really bad.
And, um, I went to work, uh, a couple hours later.
At, uh, just a, I was just pumping gas.
And, uh, it was, it was surreal.
Um, um, I still have a, uh, I, I, I worked, there was a 7-Eleven right across the street from where I worked.
And I, they had like a late edition newspaper.
And I still have the paper.
Um, because I knew that I was just in the middle of something, you know, that was history.
And it was really big.
And, uh, yeah, I don't know.
I was, I was mad.
I was just kind of like, I can't, you know, it's, it's still unbelievable that this actually happened.
Um, there are people that weren't alive during it, obviously.
Um, that, you know, they're like, I can't believe this actually happened.
And I never got into the World Trade Center either.
Um, I saw it a million times when I was going up to visit my grandma.
But I never went and visited it.
But, um, yeah, it was, it was just, it was, it's still unbelievable that it actually happened.
But it did.
And, uh, the one thing I remember is I closed the gas station at about 10 p.m.
And I got home and they had shut down the, you know, the airlines.
Like, there was no planes in the sky.
And I just got home and parked.
And it was nighttime and there was nothing in the sky.
It was very quiet.
And it was very, it was surreal.
Um, but yeah, it was, it was wild.
I, I, I, it's still hard to believe that something like that actually happened.
But, you know, and it's getting so, uh,
distant in time almost that it's almost like becoming, you know, history that no one,
like eventually no one will be alive that was around during when that happened.
But, um, yeah, it's, it's, I've been to, um, not the memorial, like the museum,
but I've been to the, to the, um, I've been to the, uh, the fountains and stuff.
And it's, it's, it's just crazy.
I mean, it's just, you know, it's, it's humbling.
And it's, it's, yeah, I don't know.
I just remember that day like it was yesterday, honestly.
So, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it weighs heavy in my mind still.
I'll be honest with you.
Um, that said, I don't know, uh, I don't have, I don't know who I'd reach, be able to reach
by Simplex, um, because I've never actually tried.
Uh, so, yeah, take that for what it's worth.
But that being said also, uh, I was cleaning the garage and listening to everybody on Echo Link
when I, uh, when you guys were talking.
So I don't know who comes next or after me.
So, uh, if Ron can give me a little heads up on who is after me, WA3VE, I'm going to give it back to you.
Pleasure, Sean.
And absolutely no issue at all.
Very, very interesting.
Um, thanks for your comments.
It goes over to Jim, out on the Western Front.
AF3Z, uh, WA3VE with the 146-985 Roundtable.
Go ahead, Jim.
All right, very good.
Thank you, Ron, and thank you, Sean.
Uh, and everybody, good evening.
Uh, at that point in my life, I lived down near Conestoga, was still working, of course.
And, uh, my office was in the home.
My wife was off doing her job teaching.
My daughter was in college at E-Town, and my son was off to high school.
Um, by the way, my son was born on 9-11.
Uh, so one of the things of that day was when he got home from school, he was upset that we weren't going to get his driver's permit.
Uh, but he got over that.
Um, but I was at home working, and I had no kind of stuff turned on.
Uh, but I got a call from my daughter at E-Town College.
She's the one that let me know what was going on, so put the TV on.
And, uh, I remember, well, we checked in with each other, family-wise, but, you know, a lot of that was going on, calling to check on each other.
Uh, and some of what went on for me, I mean, a lot of similar reactions to everybody else.
But, uh, the one thing I remember is just wondering, hoping and praying that our country would respond with some wisdom and some reasonable restraint or whatever.
Uh, obviously a very volatile situation, so I remember that running through my mind, hoping we would respond well to the situation.
And, uh, also thinking, you know, everybody's saying, I couldn't believe it happened here sort of thing, but I, my thought was, well, we've got a taste now of somewhere it's like to live in other areas of the world.
And, uh, hopefully we gained some wisdom through experiencing that.
Uh, it was, well, somebody said, you know, they grew up all the time here in peacetime.
Of course, the world hasn't been at peace all that time.
And, uh, so that was running through my mind, too, that, uh, some people are dealing with this kind of stress on a much more regular basis.
Uh, that's humbling as well.
So that's kind of what was going on for me that day.
Uh, the other thing I noticed was a beautiful clear blue sky that day.
And, uh, you know, we talk about out of the clear blue sky.
Well, that, that's one of the things that came out of the clear blue.
And, uh, as far as my bands right now, my HF rigs are down to my old, uh, Triton 4, Tentec Triton 4.
So it has the old 80 through 10 meters, no work bands.
And also, um, it, I think it takes a quarter inch jack for a microphone, something like that.
I forget.
But I don't have a microphone wired up for it.
I haven't used it on sideband in many, many, many, many moons.
So right now my 80 through 10 capabilities are there, but only CW.
And I have a 2 meter and 440.
Now, right now I don't have a 440 antenna up in the air.
But I've got a little vertical, like vertical, tool, dual band vertical that I used to use that I could easily throw up in a tree and, uh, and get it up in the air and be able to get on 440 as well.
But that's my, what I've got, 80 through 10, the old bands, just CW, and then 2 meter FM.
Uh, so, let me see.
Mr. Mike, up there in beautiful Marblehead, Massachusetts.
This is AF3Z.
Go ahead, Mike.
Thank you very much, Chip.
Good evening to everybody on the net.
Ron, uh, thanks for taking the, uh, um, the control, uh, position tonight.
Uh, great questions.
Uh, I was in Burlington, Vermont on 9-11.
And, uh, in fact, I was on the air.
I was on 75 meters talking to the usual gang of suspects.
Uh, my wife had the TV on, and, uh, we were there.
And I remember it was, I think, in 93 when they tried to take down the World Trade Center by, uh, blowing up a van in the basement.
They didn't bring the thing down.
It did minimal damage.
And I thought at the time, you know, these guys aren't all clowns.
Uh, uh, one day they, they may figure it out.
And boy, did they ever.
It was a very well-planned and very well-executed, uh, attack.
And it was.
And I remember at the time saying to my wife, you know, this is our generation's Pearl Harbor.
This, this must be what people felt on Pearl Harbor.
And, uh, I better reset this.
I also remember saying one thing about the Americans, boy, you take them on, you know, they think are among themselves disagreeing.
But boy, you take them on as a country and they're all on one side and you're in big trouble.
And I remember, you know, that worrying what was going to happen and then of course all the aircraft were grounded.
And I remember hearing about what happened up in Gander, Newfoundland.
All these planes that were flying across the Atlantic, they were all told to land in Gander.
And I'd been up to Newfoundland and there's not a lot going on up there.
All these planes full of people all of a sudden descended out of nowhere and they were grounded for several days.
The people were stuck and the people of Gander and the surrounding communities were wonderful.
They opened up their homes and everything to all these travelers that were there.
And they had thousands of people that had descended upon them and they took them into their homes and they made sure that they had everything they needed.
People were made to feel like family.
And I knew one instance, a town called Lewisport, Newfoundland, where people from one of the planes went to that town and the townspeople went all out.
And after, you know, when they left, let me just reset again.
People were all on the plane.
One of the passengers asked the flight attendant if he could use the PA system.
They normally wouldn't let them do it, but of course they did.
And he announced as soon as he gets back to New York, he's going to be setting up a fund to raise money to provide scholarships for kids from Lewisport, Newfoundland.
And that still goes on today.
Can you imagine that?
Anyways, the second question doesn't apply to me because I can't work anybody up here on Simplex.
It would have to be one heck of an inversion of me to do that.
So, no, I don't think I could do that.
I'm sorry.
I don't know who it goes to for me.
I'm very poor on that piece of it.
So, you'll have to forgive me.
I'll turn it back to Ron and let him direct traffic as net control for the C-V.
WA3VEE and the Thursday night roundtable on the WA3GMS repeater.
W1RC.
Mr. Michael, thanks for checking in from Marblehead, Massachusetts.
All very, very interesting comments tonight.
It goes over to Jean and Leon.
Jean, KC3HQZ.
This is WA3VEE with the 146-985 roundtable.
Go ahead, Jean.
Okay, thanks, Ron.
KC3HQZ.
And WA3VEE.
Yeah, I think I have you there.
I can say some things about 9-11.
We had children at home yet, and I was making packing lunches to get the boys off to work.
And our oldest one, Connie, I think, called and said, Mom, did you see the news that this morning do you have your TV on?
I said, no, I don't.
She said, well, you turned it on.
You need to see this.
And I turned it on, and I thought, well, my word.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
So I stood there, and the boys came out then to get their lunches and go.
I said, look at this.
So they took a couple minutes, but they had to go.
They were drivers to an Amish group, and they had a couple they had to pick up before work, so they couldn't fool around long.
But it was on for the next couple days, so they learned about it anyways.
But it was a rude awakening as to what that was the first thing you heard that morning on the news.
And the other part of the question, I don't have anything for.
She had to go to Leon.
A-A-3-L-H-K-C-3-H-Q-Z.
Roger on that.
Leon, the storyteller.
All right.
Thank you, KC-3-H-Q-Z.
This is A-A-3-L-H.
Well, I tell you what.
There wasn't much more to say about what was said.
I can run anywhere from 80 meters to 220.
I've got the radios for that.
I have a generator so we can run if the need be.
The other thing is I was running southbound, the northeast extension of the turnpike.
I was past Lansdale, the Ivali exit, heading south to Philadelphia with a loaded.
The truck was empty that time, believe it or not.
I just unloaded it, come down through.
There was a radio station in Philadelphia, I just, right off the bat, I can't think which one it was,
that played every three minutes, traffic reports.
They had a chopper in the air and they were watching traffic and they were,
and I was listening to that to see if I could get on the east-west turnpike.
The east-west turnpike to make it home where I had to get off and run a long way around.
And I was listening to that because in that area of the road,
a lot of accidents and backups and what have you, which lanes were open.
So I listened to that.
And all of a sudden, you know, just listening, driving along,
all of a sudden they played a gospel song.
Oh, wow, this place is playing gospel.
They played part of the gospel song and they said,
America is under attack.
I thought, no.
But anyway, yeah, we know the rest of the story.
I don't need to repeat it.
But that is what happened.
They got home and, oh, my goodness.
But anyway, I like to tell stories.
Do you all know I like to tell stories of being under the bus and, you know,
checking out things and making sure this is right and that is good.
Let's change the story this evening and do it different.
Before I start my story, I want to reset the repeater.
And if it's not, this is a story.
If you want a chest weighter that's on, you may need it.
Definitely, if you have shoes on, at least stay in the top of a chair because you're going to need to be up there.
Since Ron is driving the bus, I'm going to pick on him a little bit.
And let's have some fun.
Let's go for a bus ride.
You know, by law, when you crawl under a truck to check it out, you must, by DOT law, have the keys to that vehicle in your pocket so nobody can drive it.
That is DOT law.
It was when I drove a truck and I sure don't think they changed it any.
But anyway, but since I was too lazy to pull the keys, Ron hops in the bus.
I'm under the bus on a Creeper, checking the springs out, making sure there's no broken plies and everything is looking good.
Ron kicks the brakes off.
I hear the air level go, phew, uh-oh.
And I grabbed the whole of the back axle and I went a long way ride on the Creeper.
You should have heard the wheels.
As he went out the road, the Creeper would go ding, ding, ding, ding.
I thought Bob, the grease the wheels on that thing.
But he got to the stop sign.
He stopped that car off from under the bus.
Just wanted to change it.
But I did it just a little different.
Just wanted to have some fun tonight.
No offense to anybody.
Just change it.
All right.
I guess I'm the tailbone.
It goes back to WA3VE.
Take it away, Ron.
WA3VE.
WA3VE.
Very good, Leon.
Excellent.
Well, first of all, it's great to hear you.
And you sound fantastic.
So hopefully, and good to talk to you on the phone today, too, by the way.
Hopefully, all the medical issues are behind you.
And keep us posted for sure, you and Gene both.
Good to have you on board tonight.
Let's go back to Greg.
WA3VE.
WA3VE.
Are you back with us, Greg?
I know we had a text exchange there, so it sounds like you're back with us.
Let's see how this goes.
WA3VE.
WA3VE.
VEE with the 146-985 round table.
Go ahead, Greg, if you're with us.
WA3 VEE, W3DIB here.
Hopefully, I am making it in and getting in.
I'm going to just drop off and just let me know if I'm making it in okay.
Perfect copy.
Go ahead, Greg.
Perfect.
All right, W3DIB here.
So I don't know what you heard on the first transmission, but I'll just say very briefly,
9-11 was definitely a surreal thing for me.
And Jim, I think you might have been hearing what I said if you heard me saying that I lived
through most peacetime.
And you're right.
While I grew up through peacetime, peace wasn't all over the world.
And that's definitely something to appreciate and realize, one, how lucky we had it.
I realized how lucky I had it growing up, where I did, when I did.
But as everyone else has said, I mean, it's humbling.
It's just, it's one of the most crazy things that's ever happened in my lifetime, that's for sure.
And I will say, so let me go over to the other part of the question about the simplex capability.
So I don't have a ton of simplex capability.
I'm limited right now to just FM modes on 2 meter and 440.
And I have the same rain gutter set up, the good music station that Joe mentioned that he has.
But I will say, I do like to play around on this net and flip over to the input frequency
and just listen to see who I can hear on the input when you're transmitting.
I can say, Ron, I can definitely hear you.
Mighty fine buckets.
So Mike, MF3, W3MFB, Thorndale Mike, I can hear you on the input pretty clear as well.
I'm trying to think who else I have switched over and heard on the input.
I believe I may have, I don't know, maybe I probably haven't heard Chuck.
I can't remember if I've switched over to the input and actually heard Chuck.
It's probably a little bit far at Parksburg.
Maybe not.
I mean, that's where the repeater is, but it's got quite a bit of height.
So I don't know what kind of height you have, Chuck.
But I am definitely game for doing some simplex.
And I believe I may, I think I've heard Bill, KC3-00K, I think I've definitely heard you pretty clear on the input frequency,
probably almost as clear as what I hear you out on the repeater.
It's funny because I always notice everybody's a little bit brighter on the input frequency versus the output.
Things are a little bit shinier and a little bit more sparkly on the top end.
But that's to be expected, I guess, when you receive and then demodulate and remodulate.
So, yeah, that's where I am.
So thanks for letting me get back in here at the end.
I'll listen on for round two.
So back over to NetControl, WA3VEE and the group.
This is W3DIB on the Thursday Night Roundtable.
That's great, Greg.
Well, wonderful.
I'm glad we got you back in here.
I wanted to make sure I put, I did write you down here at the very end here so I didn't forget.
So all very good.
That's why I sent you a text message.
All very, very good.
This is WA3VEE.
You're listening to the 146-985-W3-GMS repeater Thursday Night Roundtable.
Let me put a call out for additional check-ins.
Any mode, digital or RF.
We'd like to get on the logbook and like to offer comments on our questions, which I'll go over here in a second.
Any additional check-ins, please call now.
This is KD3BPI.
We have you on board tonight, and we're discussing 9-11, of course, and the question is, any thoughts?
I'm not sure you were around at that point.
If you were, you were very, very, very, very young.
But any thoughts on 9-11 and also what simplex capabilities?
We used to run nets, and we had a lot of fun with these several years back,
where a lot of 9-8-5ers would get together on the air.
We would use the repeater to coordinate, but then what we would do is we would go off to a simplex frequency,
and we would see who could hear who.
So the two questions, again, your reflections or any remembrances from 9-11, if that's possible, due to age,
and also what simplex capabilities do you have?
I know I can hear you on simplex over here.
So KD3BPI to transmit WA3VEE with the roundtable.
WA3VEE, KD3BPI.
Thanks for letting me in, Ron.
I was on a little bit earlier, but I think I had the PL turn wrong in my bench rig here.
But yeah, I've been having a good time listening to everyone's remembrances.
To answer your question, I was not old enough.
I was about two years old at the time of 9-11.
But my mom and dad have done a good job remembering.
Remembering the solemn event and the unprecedented attack that it was.
But I won't add anything.
I don't really have anything to add.
But yeah, thanks to everyone for sharing.
I love hearing about it.
And then to answer your question about bands,
I can do 2 meters and 70 centimeters reliably.
And that's it currently.
I have to get some better.
I have to figure out what to do about HF.
I'm sure we'll talk about that sometime.
But with that, I'll send it back to you, Ron.
This is KD3BPI.
Very good, Simon.
Well, thanks very much.
And I'm glad you could join us tonight.
That's wonderful.
Glad to have you on board.
And like I said, we'll get together
and we'll go through the entire system over there
and tune it up and make sure everything's working
the way it's supposed to be.
So one last call before we do round two here
and for additional check-ins,
all for a few brief comments of my own.
Last call for check-ins before we start round two.
This is WA3VE.
Please call.
Nothing hurt.
All right, a couple really brief comments here.
I was working in manufacturing engineering at, let's see, 2001.
That would have been brand new Agilent.
HP had just spun us off as NuCo, if you remember that, Wayne.
They just spun us off as NuCo, and then they just rebranded.
They actually branded us as Agilent Technology.
So that was a pretty brand-new company.
Analytical instruments.
So, of course, you worked in test and measurement and all that.
Working in procurement engineering and manufacturing engineering, basically.
As a manufacturing engineer, I should say.
And I hadn't left for work yet.
I was on the later side that day.
I was listening to CNBC, and when the first tower got hit at 8.45 a.m.,
and I just couldn't believe it.
And I was just spellbound.
It took me an hour to get out of the house, oh, more than that, a couple hours to get out of the house to get to work,
because I just glued to the TV in total disbelief that this really happened.
And, yes, it really was surreal.
And then about 10.45, or rather 10.30, I think the second tower got hit,
I was actually right in downtown Westchester at Market Street and High Street,
right there heading south to go down through, down into Delaware to get to the plant.
And so I remember when that was on FM, I got to work, cell service completely disrupted, couldn't get through.
And so I tried to reach my XYL, Deb, at Lockheed Martin,
and they were all gathered in the cafeteria up there to just watch what was going on.
So things kind of stopped there.
Things kind of stopped at HP, and we were dismissed early for sure.
So to be home with our families and stuff like that.
I do remember is because of the grounded air traffic and so on,
I think it was Jim who mentioned a clear blue sky.
It was remarkable how clear the sky was with absolutely considerably less pollution.
It was just unbelievable in the week that followed.
That's not a very, that's a sad positive benefit for a very poor reason, a very bad reason.
But still to this day, it's very hard to believe that that actually occurred.
Simplex-wise, full capability here, not 160, not yet anyway.
80 through 70 centimeters, including 220, all modes.
So we can do everything here.
Do need to brush up on CW.
I almost used it today to actually check in to a special event station, believe it or not.
Absolutely.
Long story there for another time, but managed to get them on sloppy sideband.
But nonetheless, just about frustrated enough trying to get through to them.
Almost plugged a key into the 7610, which will happen for sure.
Just a matter of getting the time to do it.
Okay, this is the 146-985 roundtable.
This is your host, Ron, WA3-VEE in Westchester.
One last call for check-ins.
This is WA3-VEE.
One last call for check-ins.
Please call now.
Kilo Adoptor 3, Echo Mike here.
Great, Chris.
Thanks for joining us tonight.
KD3-EMS, WA3-VEE with the roundtable.
Questions for tonight.
Your remembrances of 9-11, and also what Simplex capability do you have?
We'll probably somewhere in the future here be getting together some Simplex activities here amongst the 985 group.
So your comments for the roundtable tonight.
KD3-EMS, WA3-VEE.
Glad you could join us.
KD3-VEE, KD3-EMS.
Yes, thanks for letting me in.
I apologize for late check-in.
This is always the time I come in by getting the kids ready for bed and everything.
So this is kind of my time to jump in.
So real quick, Simplex capabilities.
Two meters, 70 centimeters.
So with my technician, basically that's the two Simplex bands that I'm on.
And as far as 9-11.
I, some of you may know, I have a business in fire protection.
Doing like fire inspections and fire extinguishers and stuff like that.
So even back in 2001, that's what I was doing.
So I was at the Home Depot in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Checking the sprinkler systems, the fire sprinklers and the fire extinguishers.
And we were actually in the break room, checking the fire extinguishers in the break room,
when they had their first airplane hit the tower.
So, and really Scranton is kind of across from New York City, if you think about it,
as far as going north latitude.
So a lot of people had family in New York and stuff, so there were people leaving to head to New York and that area.
But yeah, and then we were just kind of walking around the store a little more.
Because at that point, if you remember, they thought it was still an accident.
When the first plane hit, there was still some skepticism, but for the most part, it was an accident.
And then, of course, the second tower hit, or the second plane hit the tower.
At which point, actually, Home Depot started going into lockdown mode.
I think a lot of people did.
So, yeah, but that was my experience at the Home Depot in Scranton when all that went down.
K3 EMS.
Very good, Chris.
Thank you so very much.
Very, very interesting.
Yeah, I might have a couple questions for you sometime when we get together.
Excellent.
All very, very good.
Excellent.
Well, let's start our second round here.
And for the list right now, let's start our roster for the second round roundtable.
WACRW.
W3 DIB.
We'll put you back in the rotation here, Greg.
WACRW.
WACRW.
W3 DIB.
KC3 SCY.
I think you should still be around.
I think you were able to get to bed a little bit later, Luke.
So we'll see.
I should have put you at the very top.
Any additions, corrections, or revisions to that list before we get started with our second round.
This is WA3VE.
Nothing heard.
CR, kick us off for the second round here.
Additional comments.
WACRW.
To transmit with the group WA3VE.
Thanks, Ron.
And Greg.
Can you hear me now?
Let's run.
Can Greg respond?
I have got you, CR.
I can hear you good.
8CRW.
W3 DIB.
I'm back in the house now.
I'm back in the house now off of the node back on RF.
So good.
You can't hear me.
Anyway, I don't have much more to talk about.
You know, you have these situations that occur occasionally in the country, and they're not good.
So, you know, what can you say?
You just have to be strong.
With that, I'm going to say 73.
I'll be listening out.
And Greg, it's your turn.
W3 DIB.
W8CRW.
W3 DIB.
W3 DIB.
W3 DIB.
Hopefully, I'm still making it in.
I'm on a portion of the cellular network that is not strong.
I say that from the dark side, the digital dark side.
But I'm definitely interested in doing some simplex with you guys.
If you want to do a net, that sounds like a lot of fun.
I also beat myself over the head.
I've got to get that general class so I can get some HF capability.
So with that, I'll turn it over.
I think it's going to Luke.
So KC3, before I do, I'll say 73 as well, but I'm going to listen out.
KC3 FCY, if you're there, this is W3 DIB on the Thursday night roundtable.
Doesn't sound like Luke is there, although I will check later for him.
I think he's probably going to bed.
Go ahead and pick it up.
W3 GMS, WA3 VEE.
Yeah, very good.
Stand by a second, Ron.
I'll be right back.
What?
Okay.
Martha's looking for Honey, the kitty cat.
She came down in the laboratory with me.
And I'm going to make this one short because I just remembered I have to make a phone call
to my friend, Stu, W2AO.
He's in a rehab facility.
And I want to find out how things are going with him.
And I don't think he goes, hits the rock at the rehab place until 10 o'clock.
So I'm going to make this one a short one.
Good hearing, everybody.
A great check-in list today, this evening.
Wonderful questions.
Wonderful tribute.
Remembrance of the 9-11, what can I call it, catastrophe.
And we will chat with you all a little bit later.
So over to you, John.
WA3 KFT.
WA3 GMS.
Now clear in QRT.
WA3 GMS.
And the net.
WA3 KFT.
Oh, my.
What an education.
I want to say we kind of reside in our own little world and so forth.
And something like this.
9-11 happens.
Hey, oh, my goodness.
But as I said, I was sitting in the living room with the TV on.
I was grading papers.
I was teaching math at Penn State, I think it was.
And had grading to do and so on.
So it just went on and on and on and on and on.
I'll say, not only did we lose the towers, but there were write-ups in some other publications that I get.
And they talked about the antennas that were on top of the twin towers.
And there were TV stations that went off the air because not only was there antenna on the top of the building,
their transmitters were on the top floors.
So they lost equipment as well as their antenna systems and so on.
Most of the time in broadcasting, depending on how large the station is,
they'll have a backup transmitter and sometimes a backup antenna system.
Well, something about putting all the stuff in one pot doesn't work very well in a situation like this.
if you have a remote site as a backup so that if you lose the primary site, you can use the backup.
I don't know.
It's been so long ago that I don't remember reading any of those kind of details.
But even in broadcasting today, AM stations especially, have a backup location and a backup transmitter and so forth.
And not necessarily where the primary station is.
Because if something happens there, they're off the air.
So they have some kind of a backup plan.
The radio station I worked at, we didn't have a backup plan.
We had a backup transmitter, but that was it.
If something happened to our towers or whatever, we were just playing off the air.
So, and I know that there were amateur radio repeaters on the top floors as well as broadcast stations.
So, they got unplugged in a hurry.
Over to you, Chuck.
NA3CW.
WA3KFT.
WA3KFT.
NA3CW.
Our friend Bob N2HM, he has a backup transmitter at the site of another local radio station there in Long Beach Island or on the mainland or Manahawk or whichever.
So, they can cross over like that.
And I think his form of payment is he does transmitter maintenance for the other stations.
So, it works out.
As far as working simplex, yeah, if we're going to do a simplex test, I would run at full power.
Ordinarily, I run about four watts to the coax so it's that much less up at the antenna.
And I do that so I don't overload the TV antenna preamp that Patty may be watching.
Because if I go up to the full 50 watts, it just kills it.
So, it's, you know, not that far away.
So, I can run quite a bit more power.
Just ordinarily, I don't.
But I can, that's on two meters.
So, I can do two meter FM.
I have a handheld that can do 220 and 440, but of course, it's very low power.
I only have a two meter antenna up on the mast.
And then, I have a 80 meter inverted V that I can drive on all bands.
So, I can do sideband AM or CW on 80 through 10, all inclusive.
And I can do, I have a six meter delta loop that I made a few years back when we were doing some tests.
And I can hook that onto a pulley and run that up the mast at 40 feet.
And I get on six meter AM, CW, or sideband.
So, pretty much if, you know, we can't talk to each other, somebody's not interested.
And one of the, just thinking of backup transmitters for broadcast stations,
one of the things that Bob likes to maintain to his backup site is an RF link.
Even though he has internet connections to several other transponders,
what they call them, translators, around New Jersey.
Of course, one of the first things that goes down at a big emergency,
like a hurricane or something, is internet connections.
So, having a backup with internet connections to, like, local emergency information,
that sort of thing is kind of fragile if your backbone is internet.
And Bob has tried to get that across to the local emergency, you know,
county and township emergency people, that you cannot, you cannot rely on internet after a hurricane.
And so, he's had a very difficult time getting him to understand that,
whereas if they get a hold of, you know, give him information,
he can put it out because he's not internet-based.
So, he can get it out one way or the other.
But, you know, when you get him set up with these emergency situations,
it's often a lot more complex.
You have to look at every single link in the chain to see if you have any weak links in the system.
So, Joe, if you give me a cold tomorrow, I'm going to be very unhappy with you.
So, there you go.
Over to Bill.
KC3-0-OK, NA3CW.
NA3CW, KC3-0-OK.
Yes.
I think we'll keep Joe resting in his chair tomorrow and get better,
not get this over with quickly.
Ron, for the second question, as far as simplex, yeah.
No doubt about it, I'm always up for simplex.
It would be fun to do another skid on the 985 output.
I have 2-meter, 440, and 1.2 gig.
Quite honestly, from the simplex net, we've done a few, maybe three or four nights where we've tried 440.
For our terrain and where we live, it's really not going to be an effective way to communicate unless you're really talking to people relatively close to you.
The hills and valleys we have here, the numbers go down really, really low compared to 2 meters.
I mean, drastically low.
But for 2 meters, like Joe, I can get out pretty well on the beam this fall here, be set back up,
and we'll have a non-compromised omni-directional antenna.
And I can hit most of the 985 folks.
I can hear most of them just with the omni.
And I can work Jim.
Excuse me.
Sorry about that.
I can work Jim.
The only place I have a problem is getting out.
I can get to Ron, but your direction, Ron, that northeast is a ridge there, so I have trouble getting to Jeff, Pottstown, and up that way.
But other than that, pretty good coverage for simplex, and I do think that it will be important.
And, yeah, reliance on the Internet.
Just forget about it, because like cell phones, everybody will be on it.
So I'm going to turn it away, and everybody have a great night, and we'll be up bright and, well, we'll be up and ready to rock and roll.
I don't know if I'll be bright and bushy tail, but we'll be ready to go tomorrow morning.
So KC3SQI, KC3OOK.
Oh, thank you, Bill.
KC3OOK.
This is KC3SQI.
Yeah.
Yeah, one other thing that I remember after 9-11 was walking out from my house, and everything was quiet.
It reminded me of growing up in the mountains of Colorado, where we didn't have a whole bunch of airline traffic over top of your house.
And so you could actually hear yourself think.
So that's the other thing that I remember about doing that.
As for bands, that I could do simplex.
80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6, 2, and 440.
But like Bill, 440, it would be pretty tough to do for my location,
because I have hills higher than I am almost all the way around me.
So, okay.
Ron, I do have that antenna.
I found it again tonight, so if you want to borrow it for the antenna class, just let me know, and we'll get it to you.
With that, I'll turn it over to Mike.
Mike periodically steps away.
Okay, we'll come back to Mike.
Sean, KC3ZLI, WA3VE.
KC3ZLI.
I stepped away for a minute, but I'm not sure if we're still talking about the initial questions.
So if somebody can fill me in, let me know.
Do you have anything else to add or final comments, additional comments?
That's kind of where we are.
Go ahead.
Sure, sure.
I don't think I have any final comments.
I think I said what I have, you know, especially about 9-11.
It sticks with me a lot, actually.
And, yeah, I don't know.
It's just one of those things where it's like, you know, it's, as I said before, it's becoming one of those things that's getting, you know, the further and further away we get from it, the more it seems like it was, you know, kind of not real.
But it was real, and it was a thing.
It was a hell of a thing.
And it was just like, you know, I mean, the next generation.
That's why I love that they have all the museum stuff.
You know, I don't know.
I'm a fan of history and, like, knowing your history and stuff.
And it's just, you know, you've got to know that stuff like this happened.
And it was, you know, it was one of the most frightening things because no one knew what was going on.
And it was just, you know, something that, I don't know.
I'm not saying, like, I hope no one has to go through anything like that in their lifetime.
But it was just a wild, wild day.
And it was horrible and crazy.
And, you know, it happened.
So, yeah, that's all I got.
It still sticks with me, I'll say that.
So I'll pass it back to AF3Z.
Sorry, my thoughts were running away with me.
So I didn't give it to anyone else.
But I'll say 73.
I'm going to stick around, you know, down by the radio.
But if nothing else, that's all I got to say about that, as Forrest Gump said.
So I'll pass it back to AF3Z.
Okay, thank you, Sean, very much.
AF3Z here.
And I don't have too much more to add.
It's crazy, too, to realize how many years ago that was now.
My son, as I said, turned 16 on 9-11 back then.
And today he turned 40.
So that says something.
And, by the way, if that makes you think I'm getting old, no, not yet.
I decided a while ago, you know you're getting old when your kids are retiring.
So, anyway, I've got a ways to go yet.
Up to you, Mr. Mike.
W1RC, AF3Z.
AF3Z and the Thursday night roundtable, W1RC.
I don't have a heck of a lot.
That's been a very interesting evening.
I've seen what people were doing and their recollections from 24 years ago.
And it's a day we'll all remember where we were.
There are certain days in our lifetime that we remember exactly where we were.
The other one was November 22, 1963.
We all know where we were that day, those of us who were here.
I remember that one very well.
And not too many people were around on December 7, 1941.
But there are a few people left, I guess.
Very memorable days.
And September 11th.
I went up to Montreal on the 15th of September, which was only Friday.
It was a few days after 9-11.
And all the border was, ugh.
The Army there.
And coming in, I remember driving through the border, coming home.
How many reset this?
And as was my custom, I went grocery shopping up there because it was a very strange situation.
You could buy Florida oranges, for example, for less money up there than you could in the U.S.
But you have to declare citrus.
Certain things you have to tell the border people about.
And I mentioned, I forget what it was that I bought.
I bought some tomatoes.
And that's one of them.
So they told me to pull over and wait for the agricultural inspector to come out to talk to me.
And I was sitting there waiting for this person to come out.
And I remember they were three Sikhs with turbans.
And they were marching these guys into the building.
And they pulled them over from the car with their hands on top of their turbans.
And I thought, these aren't the right guys, boy.
These aren't the guys you've got to worry about.
But they didn't know.
Or they did, whatever.
But I remember that scene, too, at the border coming back four days after 9-11.
And the agricultural guy inspector came out.
And he said, what's your problem?
I said, I don't have a problem.
The customs officer told me to talk to you.
He said, what do you got?
I said, tomatoes.
He said, Canadian produce?
I said, yeah.
He said, okay, no problem.
You may go.
And I got in my car and drove home.
So that was another post-9-11 memory that I have that I thought I would share.
So I'll turn it back to Nat and let him pass it around again.
WA3VE and the Nat W1RC.
Good, Mr. Michael.
Thanks so much.
Very, very interesting story about the customs at the border.
I think I know that border crossing well.
It's been through there several times.
over the years.
But none recent, that's for sure.
Gene, over to you.
KC3HQZ.
WA3VE and the 146-985 roundtable.
KC3HQZ stepped away for the moment.
So this A3OH guy, the storyteller, will step in.
The reason I was under the bus would run and kick the brakes off,
you all know I had a hospital experience.
At least everybody does.
The man was a little slow at inspecting them under the bus today.
That's why he got to kick the brakes off an attic for a creeper ride.
I just wanted to explain that, what the problem is.
I'm feeling great.
Today was a day I didn't feel quite as good as yesterday.
But all along I'm starting to feel real good.
And I thank the Lord for his healing, the blessings of healing, the blessings of being on the radio, the blessings that I could do that again.
That's so good to do that.
I just want to say that.
I don't have more to say about 911.
Well, yeah, I live on top of the hill, pretty much up top.
If I go in my house roof, I think I believe with the leaves rough and trees I can see clean across the hill.
So I'm just about on the top of the hill where I'm at.
And I can do pretty good on 440, 220, and there's other frequencies I could do.
Two meters, of course, is good.
I've talked down there in Richmond, Virginia on two meters already on simplex.
And so that's all I have to say.
I guess that goes to up now.
Let's see what I write down here.
B-P-I, I believe.
It's over to you, A-A-3-L-H.
Hey, thank you.
Leon, A-A-3-L-H, K-D-3-B-P-I.
Yeah, not much to add here.
Nothing on 911, to be honest.
But, yeah, thanks again to everyone for sharing their remembrances.
As for simplex communication, I've been pushing the swap button on my radio to monitor.
the repeater input.
And I'm sorry to say the only one I've gotten anything out of is a Vaughan, which is expected.
I don't think he's more than five miles from my apartment here.
But yeah, I'm certainly interested in any simplex stuff.
I commute up to Exton every day, so I think that's a little bit closer to the repeater than I am down here in Westchester.
So, probably get some better performance up there.
Anyway, with that said, I think the guy after me, K-D-3-EMS.
So, I'll send it over to you.
This is K-D-3-B-P-I. And 7-3 to everyone.
K-D-3-B-P-I. Great story. This is K-D-3-EMS.
Not a whole lot more to add to it.
The only thing I did remember was the cell phones were completely locked down.
The towers were completely just overwhelmed.
Obviously, we didn't have the bandwidth and stuff that we have now.
But I do clearly remember that every Nextel 2A was working just fine.
The chirp-chirp, if you know what I'm talking about.
So, but the...
I remember communicating through that.
We could not make a phone call, but we could definitely communicate through the Nextels.
And my son actually just reminded me, if anybody gets a chance,
it is really impressive to see what they call the forks of the towers.
Maybe this was brought up before, but the forks of the towers are at the museum.
At the... Well, they call it the Luke and Steel Museum.
But down at the mill in Coatesville.
So, it's pretty impressive to see.
It's pretty impressive that the steel from Coatesville
was basically the only thing that was left standing in those pictures.
So, that's my two things.
The steel and the Nextels were getting through just fine.
So, Ron, I believe we're turning it over to you.
KD3 EMS.
Well, thank you so very much.
That's an interesting tidbit.
I had forgotten that, so thanks for reminding me.
That's not a long ride out there at all from Westchester.
That's very, very, very much worth seeing.
And to pay actual tribute to the victims right in front of that.
That's impressive.
Well, very good, folks, I'm going to put out, before I close this roundtable down,
I want to put out one final call.
Anybody who's been working out there or listening on Broadcastify,
we do have a couple stations out there listening to us.
A couple listeners, rather.
Anyone out there who still wants to try to get in on Get On The Log
and join the 19 rest of us here on The Log.
Please call now.
This is WA3VEE looking for anyone else who would like to join us.
This is KN3I for number 20.
Very good, John.
Good to have you on board tonight.
Let me just pause for a second, see if there's anybody else besides you.
One final call, WA3VEE, please call now.
Nothing heard.
The questions tonight, John, you probably haven't heard them,
but I'll repeat them right here.
We had a 911 remembrance tonight,
especially of the seven amateur radio operators who lost their lives that day
due to that event.
And also the questions are, what are your remembrances of that day, 9-11, 2001?
And what simplex capabilities do you have reliably that we could,
you could participate in a 9-8-5-ers simplex net?
KN3I and the group WA3VEE.
Your comments, John.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for the commercial there.
Well, I remember I was working at Unisys in the computer lab with a bunch of other people
working on a new system that we were going to, we were trying to get shipped,
large computer system, debugging it, running tests.
And somebody said, hey, some idiot just flew a plane into one of the towers.
And we had internet ability we could get, you know, right there in the lab.
So somebody brought it up on the screen, the news.
And we didn't know what had happened.
We just, it looked like maybe a small aircraft.
And the news was saying that occasionally small aircraft will crash into skyscrapers or something.
So nobody thought too much of it.
You know, it wasn't, didn't look pretty.
They didn't have, they weren't really showing the catastrophic effects.
And so then after a while, you know, we just kept watching it because we didn't want to work.
No, I'm kidding.
But we would get back to it and check it because it just seemed weird to us.
And it just kept getting worse and worse, the news reports.
So we couldn't believe, you know, what was going on.
And I don't remember how quickly things unfolded and all those details.
But I think by the end of the day, everybody knew it was insane what had happened.
And we probably still didn't know the full extent.
So luckily for me, I didn't know anyone who had, you know, that was close to me who had passed away or even that I knew as a result of this.
But things kept unfolding and there were a lot of people affected that weren't even in the building or in the neighborhood.
And it was just horrific to watch some of the kind of home videos or whatever you want to call it that people took.
And I'm not going to recount it all, but it was stomach churning.
Anyway, that's my... Hang on a second. I'll let it go.
So anyway, that was my experience with it.
And of course, many, many ramifications coming off of this.
You know, a year or two later, as we entered into multiple invasions and protracted war and a lot of people being killed as a result of that.
We had probably people that were just slaves of the maniacs that did this stuff.
And other totalitarians.
So I think everybody knows the whole story pretty much.
You know, Iraq and Afghanistan and Al-Qaeda and blah, blah, blah.
I don't know if I got everything, but the simplex capabilities here should be good.
I think I've checked into the simplex net down there.
I don't know what it's called.
But I think Bill OOK runs it.
And it's like there's a east, west, north, south, something like that control.
And so I think I've been able to get into both those from this location way up here in Phoenixville area.
Somehow I'm able to look over the ridge.
So with 50 watts, with a vertical beam, four-ohm vertical beam.
So that's about it.
I'll turn it to nobody to turn it to.
I'm the last guy, so I'll turn it back to WA3VEE.
And if I forgot something, let me know.
KN3I.
Have a good evening, everybody.
John, no, it's a very, very fine, fine business all the way around.
Let's see if Mike's back, and then we'll commence to close the net down here.
W3MFB, did you make it back to the rig?
WA3VEE with the round table.
Doesn't sound like it.
Anyway, I just want to say thanks to all stations tonight, all 20 stations here, for checking into the 985 round table.
That's a pretty good showing, which is really good.
And a big thank you to Joe, W3GMS, for making the 985 repeater available for the round table and the work batch.
You're invited to use the repeater often.
That's a great way to show that you appreciate, truly appreciate, the gift of 985 to the amateur radio community.
Finally, we hope to hear you again on Monday evening at 8 p.m. for the 985 workbench.
This concludes the 146-985 round table for tonight.
Feel free to stick around and keep the conversation going.
Have a good night.
Great weekend.
This is WA3VEE saying 73, and I will be clear.
Have a good night.
Thanks, Ron.
Thanks for the creeper ride.
I just had to do something different at 8308.
Very good, Leon.
You're quite welcome.
WA3VEE.
Hey, Leon.
This is KN3I.
You gave us a scare there.
You sound a lot better, though.
Go ahead.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, well, I feel better.
We're coming up.
It was a piece.
A piece of plaque that broke loose somewhere and got up to somewhere in my brain.
I think medicated it away.
I don't have any paralysis.
I did have some memory problems, you know.
But I'm doing good.
Thank you, 8308.
Okay.
Yeah, that's interesting.
So I hope, you know, that I guess they give you some kind of, I don't know, what they do.
Would they do an operator give you drugs to break it up or what?
I got two stents in my heart.
When they did all these tests, they thought, well, I have some arteries in my heart.
Or ports in my heart that they put two stents in.
And, yeah, I medicated it.
I medicated it so it would go.
It was not a big piece of plaque.
They don't feel it was, according to the tests.
And it was given some medication.
It's supposed to be gone.
They let me go home Wednesday with the idea that it was already dissolved.
I would not cause a problem again.
Yeah, so I took it.
So I'm a clavik, baby aspirin, addos, some other stuff that I'm on.
So hopefully it doesn't happen again.
Go ahead.
Okay, very good.
Well, you know, hope you continue to enjoy the good health and everything.
We'll see you at the breakfast coming up there.
And hopefully you'll be well enough to do that.
So I guess that's it.
And have a good one.
This is KN3I.
Well, John, I tell you what, I'm feeling pretty good.
I feel it's good next Friday.
I believe breakfast is next Friday.
We do plan to be in there, that's for sure.
Definitely have the camaraderie and all the fun that we have there.
We plan to be in there for breakfast.
AA3LH.
I didn't hear your simplex comment, but I hope that you mentioned that beautiful Clegg 76 is part of your arsenal there to do simplex.
It was hard to give that back to you.
Go ahead.
John, thank you for not keeping it, but yeah, I have that.
They want to run simplex sometime.
Some kind of a simplex net on an evening other than Mondays or Thursdays.
They want to run a separate one.
I'd be willing to try that.
That'd be a great idea.
Yeah, that would be good.
I don't know how much power you need to get out of your location and whether it would work for that, but I think you wanted to use it as a mobile as you're traveling around.
Anyway, it could be a hassle to hook it up, whatever.
I won't be disappointed, but I'll just throw it out there.
And that's about it.
So I'm getting pretty toasty here.
I think it's time for Johnny to go to bed.
And we had enough fun for one day.
This is KN3I73.
KN3IA30H73.
WA3VEE.
KD3BPR.
KD3BPR.
Thank you.
Thank you.