1 00:00:03,916 --> 00:00:10,810 at www.w3gmsrepeater.com as it has a lot of information including technical articles, pictures 2 00:00:10,810 --> 00:00:15,693 of I-95 users in action, and repeater etiquette and history. Now here on the workbench we 3 00:00:15,693 --> 00:00:20,816 focus on answering general amateur radio questions and discussing topics of radio theory and 4 00:00:20,816 --> 00:00:24,578 operation. Additionally, we'll be asking each station to make some general comments about 5 00:00:24,578 --> 00:00:28,410 what you did in amateur radio in the past week. So when you check in, please indicate if you 6 00:00:28,410 --> 00:00:31,672 have a question. And even if you don't have a question tonight, I ask you to check in. 7 00:00:32,622 --> 00:00:37,102 After all stations have checked in, we will go into our general comments portion of the 8 00:00:37,102 --> 00:00:42,182 workbench using a round table like forum, kind of like what we do on Thursday nights. Then 9 00:00:42,182 --> 00:00:46,702 after each station gives their general comments, we will then move on to stations with questions. 10 00:00:47,322 --> 00:00:50,622 After the question is heard, I'll call out to the workbench for a station to answer the question. 11 00:00:51,122 --> 00:00:55,502 Once the question is answered satisfactorily, we'll move on to other stations with questions. 12 00:00:56,042 --> 00:01:00,102 So please remember, the workbench is the time and place to ask those in-depth questions, 13 00:01:00,102 --> 00:01:04,404 so please don't hesitate to ask. Keep in mind the question portion of the workbench is a 14 00:01:04,404 --> 00:01:08,727 direct to net. So I ask that you wait to be recognized by me, the net control station, 15 00:01:08,727 --> 00:01:13,076 before beginning a transmission. And this is just to help us handle your questions efficiently 16 00:01:13,076 --> 00:01:17,104 and keep the net running smoothly. However, there may be times where two stations need 17 00:01:17,104 --> 00:01:21,858 direct communication for additional questions or general statements or just general follow-up. 18 00:01:21,858 --> 00:01:26,422 So I ask you to do that if it's necessary and just pass it back to net control afterwards. 19 00:01:27,483 --> 00:01:32,130 We do have a few quick things to remember here on 985. And the first one is to click. wait 20 00:01:32,130 --> 00:01:37,152 and then talk. This is to ensure that we don't miss the first few syllables of your transmission. 21 00:01:37,152 --> 00:01:43,213 Also, we need you to let up on your PTT from time to time, something like this. Peter has 22 00:01:43,213 --> 00:01:47,225 a three minute timeout timer. And finally, at the end of your transmission, turn it back 23 00:01:47,225 --> 00:01:52,676 to net control. Before we begin, I'd to thank all the other stations for volunteering as 24 00:01:52,676 --> 00:01:56,307 hosts for the workbench. If you'd to host the workbench in the future, please reach out to 25 00:01:56,307 --> 00:02:01,652 one of us and we will get you on the schedule. Lastly, please join Phil, KC3C, I'd be this 26 00:02:01,652 --> 00:02:07,277 Thursday at 8 p.m. as he is hosting this week's of the 985 Thursday Night Roundtable. At this 27 00:02:07,277 --> 00:02:12,881 time, we're going to start the check-in process. And as much as hate to admit, I've been away 28 00:02:12,881 --> 00:02:18,596 from the radio, so I don't know a lot of the newer call signs. So may ask you to repeat 29 00:02:18,596 --> 00:02:24,571 some call signs. Feel free to say them phonetically. I may ask for that as well. And you could 30 00:02:24,571 --> 00:02:30,080 say your name as well during the check-in process. That just helps me keep the log. nice and 31 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:35,506 smooth. There also may be some long pauses on my end as I'm just filling out the log 32 00:02:35,506 --> 00:02:41,681 here and keeping track of everything. So I'll be back shortly after my little pause there. 33 00:02:41,681 --> 00:02:46,250 We'll begin now. Remember to indicate if you have a question for the group. So we're going 34 00:02:46,250 --> 00:02:50,969 to start with our digital check-ins at this time only. So stations using All-Star or EchoLink 35 00:02:50,969 --> 00:03:00,863 wishing to check into the 985 workbench. Please call now. This is W3MOW. Whiskey 8, Charlie 36 00:03:00,863 --> 00:03:03,725 Romeo Whiskey, CR. No question. 37 00:03:07,352 --> 00:03:13,492 This is W1RC, Marblehead, Massachusetts. No questions standing by. 38 00:03:32,246 --> 00:03:39,681 All right, very good. acknowledge CRW8CRW and Mike W1RC. Do we have any other digital check-ins 39 00:03:39,681 --> 00:03:41,826 for tonight's workbench? Please call now. 40 00:04:02,018 --> 00:04:05,842 No additional digital check-ins. We'll start with regular check-ins. So all check-ins, all 41 00:04:05,842 --> 00:04:11,789 check-ins at this time for the 985 workbench. Please call now. This is W3MOW. Whiskey Alpha 42 00:04:11,789 --> 00:04:19,458 3, Victor Echo Echo, WA3ZEE Ron, Westchester. Good evening, Mike. Thanks for doing an 43 00:04:23,854 --> 00:04:30,923 3 Delta Zulu, Mexico. I'll be listening, no questions, I'm in and out. Just wanted 44 00:04:30,923 --> 00:04:32,948 to give you the payroll check-in credit. 45 00:04:43,896 --> 00:05:01,413 NAA-3CW, beautiful edge of town, Parksburg. WA3KFK, John. JZ3, OOK, the edge of somewhat 46 00:05:01,413 --> 00:05:02,304 beautiful Oxford. 47 00:05:09,676 --> 00:05:12,778 KD3AIS, Tim and Malvern. 48 00:05:18,104 --> 00:05:19,378 K3FHA. 49 00:05:28,842 --> 00:05:31,007 and three C-R-E Charlie. 50 00:05:41,710 --> 00:05:44,894 AC3SQI, no question. 51 00:06:00,908 --> 00:06:06,432 Very good. Let me run down the list here. Nice list on this beautiful Monday night. We have 52 00:06:06,432 --> 00:06:12,947 Ron, W-A-3-V-E-E. And then we have Dylan, K-3-D-Z-M with In and Out. Dylan, thanks for checking 53 00:06:12,947 --> 00:06:18,731 in tonight. Glad to hear you. And then we have Chuck, N-A-3-C-W. Then John, W-A-3-K-F-T. 54 00:06:18,731 --> 00:06:26,897 Then Bill, K-C-3-O-O-K. Then Tim, K-C-3-A-I-S. Then John, K-3-F-H-A. Then we have Charlie, 55 00:06:26,897 --> 00:06:33,348 N-3-C-R-E with a question. and Wayne is our current tail gunner, KC3, SQI. Do we have 56 00:06:33,348 --> 00:06:38,259 any other stations wishing to check in to the 985 workbench? Please call now. This is W3MOW. 57 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:02,303 Okay, great. Nothing heard at this time. So we have one question on the docket tonight, 58 00:07:02,303 --> 00:07:08,176 so that's okay. So feel free to chew the rag when you're telling us your comments for the 59 00:07:08,176 --> 00:07:13,859 week here. I'll run through the list as we have it. Feel free to write it down. Make 60 00:07:13,859 --> 00:07:19,303 note of who the station is before and after you so you can make your comments timely. 61 00:07:19,303 --> 00:07:26,470 But if you forget who either precedes you or comes after you. and there's a little bit of 62 00:07:26,470 --> 00:07:31,950 silence, I will direct it. That's my job tonight. So here's the list as we have it. We have two 63 00:07:31,950 --> 00:07:38,650 digital stations tonight. So starting at the top of the list, have CR, W8CRW, and CR will 64 00:07:38,650 --> 00:07:44,550 turn over to Mike W1RC. And then Mike, you'll turn over to Ron, W A3VE. Dylan's in and out 65 00:07:44,550 --> 00:07:52,230 tonight. So Ron, you'll turn it to Chuck, N A3CW. Then John, W A3KFT. Then Bill, K C3OOK. 66 00:07:52,430 --> 00:08:03,873 Tim, K C3AIS. and John K3 FHA, and Charlie N3 CRE, and finally Wayne R. Tailgunner KC3 SQI. 67 00:08:03,873 --> 00:08:10,045 Wayne, you can turn it over to me, W3MOW. All right, CR, good evening to you. Happy Monday, 68 00:08:10,045 --> 00:08:16,978 beautiful day, beautiful week. Over to you. Good evening, sir. W8CRW, this is W3MOW. 69 00:08:20,974 --> 00:08:27,334 Good evening, Mike. Thanks for taking the chair and good evening all. This is CR and just a 70 00:08:27,334 --> 00:08:33,634 regular normal week, nothing out of the ordinary, 985 activities and a couple other nets. With 71 00:08:33,634 --> 00:08:39,614 that, let's go to Mr. Mike up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, W1RC, WHCRW. 72 00:08:45,350 --> 00:08:56,762 Good evening to everybody on the workbench tonight. This is W1RC with a new signal, a new way 73 00:08:56,762 --> 00:09:01,106 of getting into 985. 74 00:09:05,152 --> 00:09:16,030 New way of getting in, I guess. I got my awesome. figured and set up and working and using good 75 00:09:16,030 --> 00:09:22,385 radio and good audio I hope and looking forward to providing a better signal so you guys can 76 00:09:22,385 --> 00:09:29,380 hear me without having to figure out what I'm trying to say through echo. experience getting 77 00:09:29,380 --> 00:09:36,781 this thing done and of course it's only started. fact I found an app. I gotta reset this thing. 78 00:09:36,781 --> 00:09:38,994 I got a timer here somewhere that's not very long. 79 00:09:44,684 --> 00:09:49,381 That timer may be in the node or I'm not sure where it is but I'll find it and I'll fix it. 80 00:09:49,381 --> 00:10:02,360 I found an app for my... called Node Remote and it's exactly for... type of operation. 81 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:09,476 But boy, thought getting a node set up was difficult. This thing looks like it's even 82 00:10:09,476 --> 00:10:12,402 worse. I wonder if anybody on here has any... 83 00:10:16,958 --> 00:10:24,985 any experience with an app called Node Remote. Looks like it'd be great when I get it working, 84 00:10:24,985 --> 00:10:32,534 but boy I gotta tell you it's gonna be fun. With that over the wrong, WA3VE and the Monday 85 00:10:32,534 --> 00:10:36,238 night workbench is W1RC. 86 00:10:41,550 --> 00:10:48,530 Good Mike, W1RC up in Marblehead, Massachusetts. WA3 VEE here with the group. All very good. 87 00:10:48,590 --> 00:10:52,950 First of all, Mike, it's great to hear you. We'd love to hear more of you. I know you're 88 00:10:52,950 --> 00:10:58,870 busy, but if you're still down at the base, maybe on mobile we can hear you again. If you 89 00:10:58,870 --> 00:11:03,770 need any assistance setting that up, just let us know for sure. I got plenty of help, as 90 00:11:03,770 --> 00:11:10,712 you know, on 985. So great to hear you. Thanks again. A couple things here. status and then 91 00:11:10,712 --> 00:11:19,581 also some announcements. As you know, we have field day coming up. We've had two Zoom meetings 92 00:11:19,581 --> 00:11:27,456 and hopefully we've had almost everyone attend. However, there are a few people who 93 00:11:27,456 --> 00:11:35,292 have not been able to attend or perhaps tied up with other things. if you're not either 94 00:11:35,292 --> 00:11:40,926 of those and you just kind of forget, make a note of it. We'd love to have you in the 95 00:11:40,926 --> 00:11:45,723 Zoom meeting so you kind of know what's going on for field day. The next Zoom meeting will 96 00:11:45,723 --> 00:11:53,930 be Saturday night, not Friday night, it will be Saturday night at nine, correction, at 97 00:11:53,930 --> 00:12:01,856 1900, that's seven p.m. local time, 1900, seven p.m. local time this Saturday night. If you 98 00:12:01,856 --> 00:12:08,521 are on the email list for Joe for field day, you have gotten already, you should have gotten 99 00:12:08,521 --> 00:12:13,999 a link to that. Also, you should have gotten a link to the past recording of the last meeting. 100 00:12:13,999 --> 00:12:19,046 So please take a look at that if you have not. That will bring you up to date. There some 101 00:12:19,046 --> 00:12:24,602 things in there that are requested that if you express an interest in field day, stand by. 102 00:12:26,862 --> 00:12:36,049 You may be on a pseudo action list, so please try to make it to the Zoom meetings if you 103 00:12:36,049 --> 00:12:41,953 possibly can. That makes a great team effort for sure. It'd go much, much more smoothly. 104 00:12:41,953 --> 00:12:51,140 So secondly, I made it up to the site on, it was Saturday, and we did some antenna 105 00:12:51,140 --> 00:12:56,735 work up there. I checked out the... all the antennas, the antennas look pretty good, however, 106 00:12:56,735 --> 00:13:04,387 we're working here and then, now and then, on raising and repositioning a couple of 107 00:13:04,387 --> 00:13:11,839 the antennas. So that's the activity currently. I had a chance to look at an 857 Yesu radio, 108 00:13:11,839 --> 00:13:17,621 very interesting. Didn't get very far with it. I wanted to turn it over to its owner, 109 00:13:17,621 --> 00:13:24,157 and also it has full output power, so you may be hearing more about that. Also, delivered 110 00:13:24,157 --> 00:13:29,910 some radios to Chuck for the Go- one radio at least so far for the Go-To Station and I'll 111 00:13:29,910 --> 00:13:34,942 be handling the 40 meter station over there at Field Day. Looking forward for some really 112 00:13:34,942 --> 00:13:42,998 great participation. Relatedly... Just keep us to a minute, but there is so much going 113 00:13:42,998 --> 00:13:50,258 on. I'll try to be concise. This Friday night at 7 p.m. the Pottstown Area Amateur Radio 114 00:13:50,258 --> 00:13:57,918 Club is holding their meeting. We are inviting them cordially and officially to participate 115 00:13:57,918 --> 00:14:02,838 with us on our field day since they are not doing field day this year. They're a great 116 00:14:02,838 --> 00:14:08,378 bunch of folks. For some I know it's a tremendous drive, especially from the southern part of 117 00:14:08,378 --> 00:14:14,823 the county and this is not... This offer is not extended in your direction unless you 118 00:14:14,823 --> 00:14:20,128 want to take advantage of it. But if you could join us for a meeting with those folks, I'll 119 00:14:20,128 --> 00:14:25,101 be presenting what we did at last year's field day, our winter field day, and like I just 120 00:14:25,101 --> 00:14:31,516 said, officially offering them to come over and operate with us. There some good CW ops 121 00:14:31,516 --> 00:14:38,009 in that group as well, and we could certainly use the points. So. Again, you'll be hearing 122 00:14:38,009 --> 00:14:44,563 more about field day. That's been pretty much the basis or the extent of my operations over 123 00:14:44,563 --> 00:14:51,617 here at the VEEQTH and also more to come on that. So with that, sorry to take so long 124 00:14:51,617 --> 00:14:55,860 Chuck, but like I said, we get to cover some very important things here. Chuck, take it 125 00:14:55,860 --> 00:15:02,614 over. NA3CW and the group, WA3VEEO. By the way, before I do turn it over, one last thing. 126 00:15:03,662 --> 00:15:08,619 Mike, I'm going to send you a recording of what you just sounded like in your transmission 127 00:15:08,619 --> 00:15:14,247 from Marblehead, Massachusetts through All-Star, so you'll see that in your inbox. Finally, 128 00:15:14,247 --> 00:15:26,473 Chuck, finally, N-A-3C-W-A-3-V-E-E, it's all yours. Are you really sure? I see intermod 129 00:15:26,473 --> 00:15:36,768 is among us, so intermod rules apply. WA3VE, this is NA3CW. I also was up there at the field 130 00:15:36,768 --> 00:15:46,622 day site. We're playing with antennas, checking out the two tribanders and the dipoles and 131 00:15:46,622 --> 00:15:55,000 such. So we don't have any nasty surprises, at least not from them. So we're looking pretty 132 00:15:55,000 --> 00:16:03,252 good there. Ryan lent me the FT-710, which is a very interesting pile of automation, 133 00:16:03,252 --> 00:16:08,824 I can tell you. I've learned to receive it, change bands and play with filters and whatnot. 134 00:16:08,824 --> 00:16:13,625 I have not transmitted with it yet, but I have to kind of set it up in my station a little 135 00:16:13,625 --> 00:16:21,197 bit, but I'll soon be doing that. I figure I could figure out an old Kenwood, but this 136 00:16:21,197 --> 00:16:26,137 thing was a different animal. So I needed... A little bit more familiarity. If I'm going 137 00:16:26,137 --> 00:16:31,931 to be the go-to coach, the go-to coach at least ought to know the radio. So I'm working on 138 00:16:31,931 --> 00:16:41,606 that. We're making progress on Joe's tower. We're getting close. And I won't steal Bill's 139 00:16:41,606 --> 00:16:48,473 thunder because it's truly his, but we're getting really, really close to getting that thing 140 00:16:48,473 --> 00:16:58,916 ready to rock and roll and stand up. Operations, usual 985 activities, mobile operations as 141 00:16:58,916 --> 00:17:02,482 I'm driving around. 142 00:17:05,977 --> 00:17:14,537 the 75 meter PMAM pre-net and net, was just miserable yesterday because we had a major 143 00:17:14,537 --> 00:17:23,554 solar or geomagnetic event going on, so the propagation was awful, just awful. but we got 144 00:17:23,554 --> 00:17:32,980 through it with nine contacts and nine check-ins and we got through it with the help of online 145 00:17:32,980 --> 00:17:43,187 receivers. But they seem to be lining up on weekends, anyway. So over to John. WA3KFT, 146 00:17:43,187 --> 00:17:55,534 I hope you got your 100 watts cranked up warm. This is NA3CW. W-A-3-C-W, 100 watts, W-A-3-K-F-T 147 00:17:55,534 --> 00:18:02,390 here. All right, well, we're ruling around in our mind various and sundry things about 148 00:18:02,390 --> 00:18:09,276 field day. Marple Newtown has a club meeting Thursday night of this week, and the topic, 149 00:18:09,276 --> 00:18:16,112 of course, is field day. And it's gonna be a new location for the club for field day. 150 00:18:16,112 --> 00:18:25,345 They did spring field day at that. at the church, but not the June field day. So we're having 151 00:18:25,345 --> 00:18:30,688 our club meeting at the church where we're going to do field day. So we get familiar 152 00:18:30,688 --> 00:18:37,812 with the territory and so forth. And we will probably cross some T's and dots from I's 153 00:18:37,812 --> 00:18:43,785 and what have you as far as what we're going to do and where we're going to do it and so 154 00:18:43,785 --> 00:18:52,479 on and so forth. I have a couple of rigs that I should bench test before dragging them out 155 00:18:52,479 --> 00:19:03,246 to field day. One's an ICOM 120 and the other's an ICOM 7. And both of them are old, but to 156 00:19:03,246 --> 00:19:10,346 the best of my knowledge, both of them work. The 720 we used last year, and it worked flawlessly. 157 00:19:11,146 --> 00:19:19,766 So we have two possible radios there, and I don't know what category we're going to be 158 00:19:19,766 --> 00:19:29,751 in this year. I am in the process of adding another antenna to my collection here. outdoors, 159 00:19:29,871 --> 00:19:41,335 upright, and so forth. And I'm getting talented about putting PL-259s on RG-8 coax. do have 160 00:19:41,335 --> 00:19:50,112 some special tools from DX Engineering that makes life a whole lot easier. still have to 161 00:19:50,112 --> 00:19:50,642 solder them. 162 00:19:55,827 --> 00:20:04,370 on COACS PL-259. So with that, over to Bill. KC-3-O-OK. WA-3-KF- 163 00:20:08,714 --> 00:20:14,546 WA3KFT, KC3, okay. And you are making it over. 164 00:20:22,136 --> 00:20:26,140 Yeah, Bill, you sound great. Okay. 165 00:20:34,670 --> 00:20:38,994 Thank you. tower, I actually think the last time. 166 00:20:44,184 --> 00:20:46,430 did work on the triangular. 167 00:21:01,550 --> 00:21:01,906 week. 168 00:21:05,678 --> 00:21:07,058 get so close to the end. 169 00:21:10,318 --> 00:21:13,360 The ham shack is all trimmed, painted and... 170 00:21:18,862 --> 00:21:23,879 I have to bite the bullet and settle on what the operating station's going to look like, 171 00:21:23,879 --> 00:21:24,180 where it's 172 00:21:34,573 --> 00:21:40,712 in here. KC3AIS, KC3OOK. 173 00:21:44,396 --> 00:21:52,794 Thank you, Bill, KC-3, O-OK, this is KD-3, AIS, Tim and Malburn. Last week in ham radio 174 00:21:52,794 --> 00:22:01,354 I took the advice of the previous workbench I believed. You only know I couldn't look at 175 00:22:01,354 --> 00:22:06,914 10 meter on the website and know what the conditions are for me. I struggled to hear 10 meter and 176 00:22:06,914 --> 00:22:16,154 I called into 985 and two fine fellows helped me to confirm that I'm not crazy that I couldn't 177 00:22:16,154 --> 00:22:20,714 hear things on 10 meter and then they tried to connect with me on simplex on 10 meter. 178 00:22:21,486 --> 00:22:26,968 And that was also helpful because they could hear me or part of it, but it was informative 179 00:22:26,968 --> 00:22:39,518 that I was being... positive for me as I make it gives me more motivation to get my general 180 00:22:39,518 --> 00:22:44,736 and it does lead me to a question so I will add to add a question to tonight's list. 181 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,938 over to K3FHA this is KD3AIS. 182 00:23:00,046 --> 00:23:02,355 3F8 check. Thank you, Tim. 183 00:23:06,158 --> 00:23:07,890 for a take. 184 00:23:11,662 --> 00:23:14,465 I was checked into a few nabs. 185 00:23:40,844 --> 00:23:41,522 realized they didn't. 186 00:23:50,318 --> 00:23:50,802 you 187 00:24:20,270 --> 00:24:20,928 So that's 188 00:24:38,132 --> 00:24:47,547 N3CRE. My question is, I am looking to pick up a shortwave receiver, like if I can. Somebody 189 00:24:47,547 --> 00:24:53,010 I know is interested in getting into radio, and he'd to do some shortwave receiving. 190 00:24:53,010 --> 00:24:57,673 And I said, well, there's things out there, there's receivers that you can scan through 191 00:24:57,673 --> 00:25:03,596 like all the bands and find things. And I was just looking what kind of model number 192 00:25:03,596 --> 00:25:09,974 people know of that does that type of work. N3CRE. And I guess that's my question. And 193 00:25:09,974 --> 00:25:21,890 I guess I'll turn it over to Wayne, KC3, SQ. Kilo on three, Delta Zulu Mike, I have a quick 194 00:25:21,890 --> 00:25:23,890 interjection if that's alright. 195 00:25:30,326 --> 00:25:40,296 with the station that was coming through. K3DZM, I was listening here and I heard that kind 196 00:25:40,296 --> 00:25:44,969 of question about a shortwave radio. There's a lot of good options, but I'm going to give 197 00:25:44,969 --> 00:25:53,631 you my personal favorite recommendation. Go pick up an RTL SDR-V4 on Amazon. They're 198 00:25:53,631 --> 00:25:59,163 like 40 bucks. You plug them into your computer, them up to a nice long wire, and you will 199 00:25:59,163 --> 00:26:06,460 hear everything in the world. jump in and mention that. I've mentioned it before on other 200 00:26:06,460 --> 00:26:11,282 nets, but those little things for 40 bucks are amazing. I have like five of them. 201 00:26:14,670 --> 00:26:18,585 Uh, entry CRE. What was that model number? 202 00:26:31,918 --> 00:26:36,258 All right, we're going to stand by real quick there, Charlie. So we got your question, we 203 00:26:36,258 --> 00:26:40,338 got the recommendation, we'll hit on it here in a second. I just want to finish out the 204 00:26:40,338 --> 00:26:43,918 general comments portion of the net real quick. We only have Wayne left and then we'll get 205 00:26:43,918 --> 00:26:48,658 right into the question portion. So no big deal, but we're just going to move through this real 206 00:26:48,658 --> 00:26:52,758 quick and then we'll get back to the question. So Wayne, go ahead and give your comments for 207 00:26:52,758 --> 00:26:55,118 the week. KC3SQI, this is W3MOW. 208 00:27:02,412 --> 00:27:06,450 Okay, am I making it over the internet or intermod? 209 00:27:10,210 --> 00:27:13,871 Yeah, Wayne, you're doing pretty good. did hear noise on a few signals, but I don't know if 210 00:27:13,871 --> 00:27:17,471 just, the intermod stopped. I'm not a good detector of it, but you're sounding good right now. 211 00:27:17,471 --> 00:27:32,402 Okay, thank you very much. Yeah, got a new tunable, 80 to 6 meter. 212 00:27:35,566 --> 00:27:47,154 antenna that I'm going to be setting up and trying. to probably going to be doing some 213 00:27:47,154 --> 00:27:58,074 testing here in the near future as to which one gets out better and which one works better, 214 00:27:59,154 --> 00:28:13,054 the tunable antenna or the random wave and fit dipole or and fit vertical. So that's about 215 00:28:13,054 --> 00:28:23,420 all of The radio I've been doing, other than that, I put new battery cable connectors on 216 00:28:23,420 --> 00:28:30,744 the pickup because the ones that I had on there kept working loose and I don't have to jump 217 00:28:30,744 --> 00:28:36,577 out of the truck and go up to the front of it and wiggle those cables and jump back in 218 00:28:36,577 --> 00:28:46,038 hope it started. So hopefully that's done. And we'll turn it back over to you Mike, 219 00:28:46,038 --> 00:28:52,306 M3MOW, I mean W3MOW, this is KC3SQI. 220 00:29:00,022 --> 00:29:07,136 Okay, very good Wayne, thank you. Good evening. KC3SQI and the workbench is W3MOW. I don't 221 00:29:07,136 --> 00:29:11,138 really have much to add for general comments. Obviously I've been off the radio for a little 222 00:29:11,138 --> 00:29:15,541 bit and I got a new vehicle and I don't have a mobile set up yet but maybe that'll change 223 00:29:15,541 --> 00:29:22,605 in the future. I might do what W1RC did and make myself a little all-star note because 224 00:29:22,605 --> 00:29:28,498 I do have a Pi 3B somewhere around here that I could probably make one. So that would be... 225 00:29:29,014 --> 00:29:34,689 what I would be working on in the future as far as ham radio goes. I would also like to 226 00:29:34,689 --> 00:29:41,704 maybe pop by the field day event on field day and bring my oldest son and just hang out 227 00:29:41,704 --> 00:29:47,869 with the folks on 9-8-5 for a few hours. I think that would be really fun. So I may do 228 00:29:47,869 --> 00:29:52,843 that as well. But that's all I really have to add. I want to thank all the stations for 229 00:29:52,843 --> 00:29:57,077 checking in tonight and giving your general comments. It's always nice to hear how busy 230 00:29:57,077 --> 00:30:04,101 we are here on 9-8-5 and kind of see how expansive the hobby is and it just goes to show that 231 00:30:04,101 --> 00:30:11,535 there's a lot of knowledge here on 985. So with that said, heard Charlie, we heard your 232 00:30:11,535 --> 00:30:17,108 question there about the shortwave receiver. I know Dylan popped in and said the RTL-SDR, 233 00:30:17,508 --> 00:30:24,592 which is a little USB dongle that you plug into your computer. And they are very popular. 234 00:30:24,592 --> 00:30:30,025 So that was a go-to from Dylan. I don't know if he backed out again, but I could definitely 235 00:30:30,025 --> 00:30:34,797 get you a model number or something like that and send it your way via email if you're good 236 00:30:34,797 --> 00:30:41,309 on QRZ. But with that said, do we have any other stations with comments for Charlie about 237 00:30:41,309 --> 00:30:46,841 a shortwave receiver, maybe the digital versions or analog versions? Please call now. This is 238 00:30:46,841 --> 00:30:50,002 W3MOW. 239 00:30:53,102 --> 00:31:00,559 Chuck, good evening to you. Good evening Mike and thanks for driving the bus. I have a question, 240 00:31:00,559 --> 00:31:10,842 a question for a question. This person that's interested in listening to shortwave, is 241 00:31:10,842 --> 00:31:21,655 he computer savvy? How comfortable is he working with computers? The little RTL SDRs, they 242 00:31:21,655 --> 00:31:29,951 work pretty well, but you have to do it through a computer. That said, there's a plethora, 243 00:31:30,191 --> 00:31:36,613 I love that word, plethora, makes your tongue fall out, of online shortwave receivers 244 00:31:36,613 --> 00:31:43,355 that you're all set up with a radio, with antenna, with a whole ball of wax, and you can listen 245 00:31:43,355 --> 00:31:51,367 to it through a browser without buying anything at all. Or, is he just looking for his very 246 00:31:51,367 --> 00:31:56,607 own shortwave radio, self-contained kind of radio. End of my questions, back to net. 247 00:32:01,678 --> 00:32:07,518 Very good questions as always Chuck. Go ahead Charlie, you can pick it up and pass it back 248 00:32:07,518 --> 00:32:08,502 to Chuck if you need to. 249 00:32:11,982 --> 00:32:21,787 I don't believe he's computer savage. I think it'd be more of a standalone with a antenna 250 00:32:22,147 --> 00:32:31,442 type of thing. I don't think, I'm not even sure he has a computer. If he can sit on this, 251 00:32:31,442 --> 00:32:34,794 he can sit on his cell phone. N3CRE back to net. 252 00:32:42,638 --> 00:32:46,433 Alright Chuck, I'll send it back to you and you and Charlie can go back and forth and then 253 00:32:46,433 --> 00:32:48,466 I'll pick it up afterwards. 254 00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:57,786 Yeah, very good. That's an important distinction because that takes out the RTL-SDRs or any 255 00:32:57,786 --> 00:33:07,526 of the SDRs. Yeah. if he... The other thing is, I don't know if you've done much listening 256 00:33:07,526 --> 00:33:12,120 on shortwave and the shortwave bands other than Ham's, and maybe he wants to listen to Ham 257 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:19,686 radio. If he wants to listen to Ham radio... he will probably need a radio that has ability 258 00:33:19,686 --> 00:33:27,166 to receive single sideband. A lot of the cheaper ones don't. The other thing is the location 259 00:33:27,166 --> 00:33:36,486 and the matter of an antenna. If you have just a little self-contained radio with a whip antenna 260 00:33:36,486 --> 00:33:43,266 on the HF bands, you're not really going to hear that much. The shortwave world is not 261 00:33:43,266 --> 00:33:49,588 what it used to be. And I can say that because I used to work in it. There used to be national 262 00:33:49,588 --> 00:33:57,315 broadcasters from everywhere beaming English into the United States, and it was a whole 263 00:33:57,315 --> 00:34:05,211 different world. But they don't do it anymore. Very few shortwave stations are beaming international 264 00:34:05,211 --> 00:34:10,168 broadcasting to the United States because they're all doing it on the internet, of course. And 265 00:34:10,168 --> 00:34:16,121 it's very expensive proposition to maintain a shortwave station or pay somebody else to 266 00:34:16,121 --> 00:34:21,914 maintain one, you know, buying time on somebody else's transmitter. So pretty much the only 267 00:34:21,914 --> 00:34:26,146 thing you're going to hear in the shortwave bands these days, hang on a second. 268 00:34:29,293 --> 00:34:32,824 Pretty much all you're gonna hear in the shortwave bands these days are some creaky preachers 269 00:34:32,824 --> 00:34:41,847 from some mountain state somewhere doing questionable theology. Ham radio operators, most of which 270 00:34:41,847 --> 00:34:50,861 are on sideband and a few odds and ends, but I listen around from time to time and... 271 00:34:50,861 --> 00:34:56,768 For English language, I also assume you're looking for English language. There's a fair 272 00:34:56,768 --> 00:35:04,714 bit of Spanish on there, but not much English. So just trying to, again, put some boundaries 273 00:35:04,714 --> 00:35:11,519 on expectations. That's why I was thinking about it would be good for no commitment 274 00:35:11,519 --> 00:35:19,725 to do it online, listen to some of the online receivers. There are many of them. But if... 275 00:35:19,725 --> 00:35:26,247 Like if I lived in the middle of Parksburg with a handheld receiver and a whip antenna, 276 00:35:26,247 --> 00:35:31,170 pretty much all I'm going to hear is all the noise of Parksburg. Back to you Charlie, if 277 00:35:31,170 --> 00:35:34,162 that's alright. Entry CRE and A3CW. 278 00:35:38,030 --> 00:35:47,004 Okay Chuck, answer, okay. Yeah, well, okay. So, it looks like I gotta learn more about 279 00:35:47,004 --> 00:35:57,588 this RTL-SDRs and look into that and then see if that's something that I may want to 280 00:35:57,588 --> 00:36:03,480 suggest to him. I can see what you're saying about, know, in today's age, you know, it's 281 00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:08,755 like you're gonna receive locally and you don't have a lot of stuff going on. around the world, 282 00:36:08,755 --> 00:36:15,801 it may not be interesting. But I'll look into this, what's been suggested, and I'll see 283 00:36:15,801 --> 00:36:24,034 if that's something that will work. All right, well thank you Chuck, N3CRE. Just one more 284 00:36:24,034 --> 00:36:29,313 comment. The RTLSDR is something that plugs into a computer, so it's got to start with 285 00:36:29,313 --> 00:36:30,066 a computer. 286 00:36:34,190 --> 00:36:35,123 Okay, I understand. 287 00:36:44,226 --> 00:36:47,731 All right, I do want to just call out to the workbench to see we have any other comments 288 00:36:47,731 --> 00:36:58,145 for Charlie before we move on. If you do, please call now. This is W3MOW. WA3VEV Mike? 289 00:37:01,614 --> 00:37:08,154 Go ahead, Ron. Good. Charlie, I might, Mike, if I might indulge also, if I can go back and 290 00:37:08,154 --> 00:37:14,734 forth with Charlie here for a second. What price range is your friend looking at? N3CRE. Also 291 00:37:14,734 --> 00:37:17,514 great to hear you, Charlie. W-A-3-V-E-E. 292 00:37:22,509 --> 00:37:27,510 I don't know if that's an issue. You know, he's not going to go out and spend a thousand bucks, 293 00:37:28,030 --> 00:37:34,879 but you know... think he's interested enough to pursue it a little bit. 294 00:37:37,998 --> 00:37:46,407 Well, alternative to the RTL-SDR and that is a great, great possibility. I've got a couple 295 00:37:46,427 --> 00:37:56,782 similar ones here right in the shack. There are a couple regular shortwave radios on the 296 00:37:56,782 --> 00:38:06,086 market that he can find. You can generally get these for the low 100s for sure. One 297 00:38:06,086 --> 00:38:15,340 particular brand is an Eton, E-T-O-N, Echo, Tango, Oscar, November. And there are similar 298 00:38:15,340 --> 00:38:22,525 radios above and below in price point. If this is a passing interest... Obviously, maybe 299 00:38:22,525 --> 00:38:27,317 on the lower side. If it looks like it's a serious interest, then an Eton might be one 300 00:38:27,317 --> 00:38:33,699 particular radio he may look at. I have one here as a backup radio for emergency communications 301 00:38:33,699 --> 00:38:41,973 here in the shack. It's a general coverage receiver. And it is, as I mentioned, a general 302 00:38:41,973 --> 00:38:47,876 coverage shortwave receiver. So that's another possibility. No computer involved, but it's 303 00:38:47,876 --> 00:38:54,128 just a regular... tabletop shortwave radio. There are a couple others that split my mind 304 00:38:54,128 --> 00:39:02,774 right now. I would think one is called a TechSun. T-E-C-H-S-U-N. That may be another one to 305 00:39:02,774 --> 00:39:07,547 consider. And there are others. I'm good on QRZ. If you want to send me an email, I could 306 00:39:07,547 --> 00:39:13,111 probably go back and forth with you. They are more at length for regular tabletop. Not 307 00:39:13,111 --> 00:39:21,099 very expensive, but relatively good value. Good. to maybe very good, not excellent, but 308 00:39:21,099 --> 00:39:27,562 good to very good reception and coverage. Anyway, that's my input. Back to you, Mike. 309 00:39:27,562 --> 00:39:30,258 W3MOW WA3VE. 310 00:39:37,078 --> 00:39:43,431 Okay, very good, Ron. Do we have any other stations for comments regarding Charlie's question, 311 00:39:43,431 --> 00:39:43,712 please? 312 00:39:48,447 --> 00:39:49,458 3FHI 313 00:39:52,814 --> 00:40:03,954 Go ahead, John. Mike, I have a small Texan and a handheld unit and with the whip antenna on 314 00:40:03,954 --> 00:40:10,654 it, you gotta have somebody pretty darn close to get much, at least most of the times. I 315 00:40:10,654 --> 00:40:16,434 haven't tried it in the middle of the night, might work better then. The problem with a 316 00:40:16,434 --> 00:40:22,514 lot of those things is the antenna, so your friend really has to be willing to put up, 317 00:40:22,514 --> 00:40:27,997 you know, 50, 100 feet of wire. trees in order to get anything almost no matter what you 318 00:40:27,997 --> 00:40:37,065 have. Also, I wanted to mention that eBay has used communications receivers on there 319 00:40:37,065 --> 00:40:43,130 that are general coverage and they have ones that are made by ICOM and other name brand 320 00:40:43,350 --> 00:40:47,904 manufacturers that are used and typically it seems like they're three or four hundred dollars. 321 00:40:50,830 --> 00:40:56,830 to get a really first rate communications receiver, but they gotta be invested in putting up an 322 00:40:56,830 --> 00:41:01,669 antenna or else they're not gonna get anything no matter how good the radio is. Back to you 323 00:41:01,669 --> 00:41:04,594 Mike, W3MWK3FHX. 324 00:41:12,014 --> 00:41:14,335 Okay, very good, John. Thanks for your comments. Any other stations? 325 00:41:20,574 --> 00:41:22,165 MOW real quick, mic again. 326 00:41:26,350 --> 00:41:35,078 Go ahead, Rod. One last comment here. I'm looking right now, Charlie, on eBay. And the filter 327 00:41:35,078 --> 00:41:42,790 I put in here very quickly is a shortwave, all one word, shortwave receivers. And one, 328 00:41:42,790 --> 00:41:51,023 two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The ninth one down is one that I have personal 329 00:41:51,023 --> 00:41:59,114 experience with. It's a Kenwood R1000 shortwave. AM single side band and CW radio with power 330 00:41:59,114 --> 00:42:06,737 cord. I have one in my lab, I had one in my initial radio shack down in Delaware when 331 00:42:06,737 --> 00:42:15,567 I was still living with my folks back in the 1800s. a good radio. $218 bucks buy it now. 332 00:42:15,567 --> 00:42:22,271 $39 delivery, but that's a good radio. it looks like it works. That's an example. That's 333 00:42:22,271 --> 00:42:27,394 one example. You could take a look at others out there, but that's a very good, that's 334 00:42:27,394 --> 00:42:33,558 one very good radio. No computer involved indeed. This came out long before computers were a 335 00:42:33,698 --> 00:42:43,218 household name and item and aggravation as well. Mike, back to you. W3MOW. WA3VE. 336 00:42:50,208 --> 00:42:54,879 Okay, very good Ron, thanks for your comments. yeah, Charlie, I'd have to echo what Chuck 337 00:42:54,879 --> 00:42:59,321 said about the online SDRs. I just remembered the one, and I know it's a very common one 338 00:42:59,321 --> 00:43:05,942 that everyone uses. It's if you just Google K3FEF, it's a gentleman up in northeast Pennsylvania 339 00:43:05,942 --> 00:43:11,114 that runs an SDR receiver online, and it works really good. You could get it on your cell 340 00:43:11,114 --> 00:43:15,935 phone, you could get it on a computer. And yeah, if your friend is really interested 341 00:43:15,935 --> 00:43:21,530 in listening, that would be the first step before... getting their own setup, I would say. So check 342 00:43:21,530 --> 00:43:27,835 that out. K3FEF is the call of that gentleman who runs that Web SDR service. And you could 343 00:43:27,835 --> 00:43:33,780 just Google also Northern PA SDR, and it's the first one that pops up. So there we go. Thank 344 00:43:33,780 --> 00:43:38,475 you, Charlie, for checking in. Thanks for your question. And I do think we have a question 345 00:43:38,475 --> 00:43:44,450 from Tim, so we'll get that going here. Tim, if you're still with us, KD3AIS, good evening 346 00:43:44,450 --> 00:43:55,775 to you. This is W3MOW. Thank you, Mike. This is Tim, KD3AIS. My question comes from what 347 00:43:55,775 --> 00:44:00,498 I did in the last week, which was trying to listen to 10 meter and having a very, very 348 00:44:00,498 --> 00:44:07,912 faint signal, although I could barely realize there was a signal. And from speaking to 349 00:44:07,912 --> 00:44:14,415 some different people, understand FT8 might be used to listen to a weak signal on 10 meter, 350 00:44:14,415 --> 00:44:22,816 and it looks like on other bands as well. So my question is, is FT8 appropriate for what 351 00:44:22,816 --> 00:44:30,029 I'm thinking? And then I can see online a whole bunch of things about best guide to FT8, FT8 352 00:44:30,029 --> 00:44:36,103 for beginners, but hoping to leverage the knowledge of the group. Does anyone have suggestions 353 00:44:36,543 --> 00:44:42,066 for me if I want to start trying FT8? Thank you. 354 00:44:48,792 --> 00:44:56,218 Okay, very good question there, Tim. Let's see if we got any stations wanting to get 355 00:44:56,218 --> 00:45:00,722 us started here on FTA. Please call now. This is W3MOW. 356 00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:11,378 AC3SQI 357 00:45:22,604 --> 00:45:31,786 Okay Wayne, good evening to you. Go ahead and take it away. One of the things that you can 358 00:45:31,786 --> 00:45:48,027 do is go to the W3GMS repeater website and look down through there you'll find a primer 359 00:45:48,027 --> 00:46:02,875 for how to set up and run FT8 with your computer and your radio. on there by Harvey. 360 00:46:02,875 --> 00:46:17,854 I saw a lot of them on YouTube, but a lot of those left me going scratching my head 361 00:46:17,854 --> 00:46:26,031 more than I thought I should. But the one from Harvey, he watched it through it very 362 00:46:26,031 --> 00:46:37,410 well. So that's one thing that you can do to you know, get started and yes you do pick up 363 00:46:37,410 --> 00:46:53,790 a lot more low level signals because it is a low level type of digital signal. So with that 364 00:46:53,790 --> 00:46:59,410 I'll turn it back over to you Mike, W3MOW, this is KC3SQI. 365 00:47:05,454 --> 00:47:10,126 Okay, very good, Wayne. Thanks for your comments. Do we have any other stations with comments 366 00:47:10,147 --> 00:47:11,500 for Tim? Please call now. 367 00:47:17,629 --> 00:47:19,346 T3, okay, comment. 368 00:47:24,130 --> 00:47:26,130 Go ahead, Bill, with your comments. 369 00:47:29,326 --> 00:47:35,698 question for Tim. Yeah, the... 370 00:47:42,478 --> 00:47:46,178 5300 and then 9700, not sure which radio. 371 00:47:56,142 --> 00:48:03,568 Thank you Bill, that's a good question. My radio is a Yesu FT-991A. So maybe those instructions 372 00:48:03,568 --> 00:48:09,236 from Harvey will give me the concept, but maybe not the particulars. that 373 00:48:18,094 --> 00:48:25,676 Alright Bill, thanks for your comments. yeah Tim, I do have an FT-991A as well. And I 374 00:48:25,676 --> 00:48:32,048 think I found my instructions on YouTube or actually there's a website. if you just, I'm 375 00:48:32,048 --> 00:48:39,940 sure I can look it up for you, but if you Google FT-991A FT-8 there's a pretty good website 376 00:48:39,940 --> 00:48:44,512 on how you have to configure the radio and your computer system and all that fun stuff. 377 00:48:44,512 --> 00:48:49,199 It's pretty extensive but... think there's a lot of good resources online to get you started 378 00:48:49,199 --> 00:48:55,582 in it. Just a question for you. Is this your first time kind of experiencing FTE? Do you 379 00:48:55,582 --> 00:49:01,835 know what FTE is? And is that like the first digital mode you're kind of experiencing or 380 00:49:01,835 --> 00:49:04,946 looking to get into? Back to you. 381 00:49:08,056 --> 00:49:16,124 Thank you, Mike. Yes, it is the first digital aspect that I've been looking into. I'm just 382 00:49:16,124 --> 00:49:22,242 a technician, and so I have limits, and that's why I was looking into it. 383 00:49:25,870 --> 00:49:32,253 I guess I would say I originally got into ham radio thinking that I wouldn't want to use 384 00:49:32,253 --> 00:49:38,727 the computer or kind of like with a purist mentality. But I'm sitting right next to a computer that's 385 00:49:38,727 --> 00:49:44,840 easily connected and I'm, I don't know if I'm a tech expert, but I'm certainly tech capable. 386 00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:51,454 So even just mentioning here that the instructions are specific to the radio are helpful because 387 00:49:51,454 --> 00:49:55,328 I wouldn't have understood that had I not heard this tonight. Back to you. 388 00:50:03,190 --> 00:50:08,885 Okay, very good. mean, the basic thing is once you get your radio set up for your computer 389 00:50:08,885 --> 00:50:14,359 and vice versa and you get all the settings situated, then your world of digital radio 390 00:50:14,359 --> 00:50:20,484 kind of opens up, I would say, because you can use the, you can use FTA, which is kind of, 391 00:50:20,744 --> 00:50:25,098 in my opinion, very boring because it's just a handshake that happens, you know, in a minute's 392 00:50:25,098 --> 00:50:30,612 time. Then there's, you know, JS8 call, which is kind of like FTA, but you can actually have 393 00:50:30,612 --> 00:50:38,170 a keyboard conversation with someone else. And then there's the whole other suite. know some 394 00:50:38,170 --> 00:50:44,070 others can help me out with it. But the local Chester County Ares Races uses it for their 395 00:50:44,070 --> 00:50:49,450 digital communications. So basically, once you have your radio set up, you can kind of dip 396 00:50:49,450 --> 00:50:56,590 your toes in all the other aspects of digital radio. But I did look up, I think, the resource 397 00:50:56,590 --> 00:51:04,328 that I use for the FT-991. And I will. send it your way if your email is good on QRZ. 398 00:51:04,328 --> 00:51:05,874 Back to you. 399 00:51:09,326 --> 00:51:15,862 Thank you, Mike. My email is good on QRZ. it's interesting that you mentioned JSA Call because 400 00:51:15,862 --> 00:51:24,309 I also watch some videos from the tech prepper who's some guy out in Arizona and he's working 401 00:51:24,309 --> 00:51:31,025 on JSA Call and all kinds of things like that. So I think I will go ahead and learn the 402 00:51:31,025 --> 00:51:36,149 FTA at least to start and dip my toe into that and would appreciate you emailing what you 403 00:51:36,149 --> 00:51:40,338 have when you have time. uh... and again i thought that on toward it 404 00:51:46,124 --> 00:51:49,968 Very good. have the website up here and I'll log into my email and shoot it your way. Do 405 00:51:49,968 --> 00:51:55,985 we have any other comments for Tim regarding the 10 meter digital stuff? Please call. 406 00:51:55,985 --> 00:52:00,946 WA3VE. 407 00:52:07,957 --> 00:52:20,307 Go ahead, Ron. good Mike W3MOW and KV3AIS WA3VE just to clarify a couple things the 408 00:52:20,307 --> 00:52:27,428 CKAR group and most MCOM use NBEMS for the digital communications they they don't use 409 00:52:27,428 --> 00:52:35,401 the the WJTX suite to my knowledge at least not the local local guys here in Chester County 410 00:52:35,401 --> 00:52:42,171 they also use what's called Farah FM and they also use wind length. So those are the 411 00:52:42,171 --> 00:52:54,444 digital modes that they use. Totally different from the FT8 and the Joe Taylor suite of 412 00:52:54,444 --> 00:53:02,896 programs. On a broader basis, Tim, you mentioned something at the very beginning. And I think 413 00:53:02,896 --> 00:53:11,414 this kind of overrides or I guess... goes over everything about whether or not to use 414 00:53:11,414 --> 00:53:17,409 digital or not or whatever. And you mentioned that you're having a tough time hearing signals 415 00:53:17,409 --> 00:53:26,445 on 10 meters. Well, most may know, but there is repeating, we're at the end of a very severe 416 00:53:26,445 --> 00:53:33,671 geomagnetic storm. And what I would suggest is a website called spaceweather.com. Yes, 417 00:53:33,671 --> 00:53:39,045 there is weather in space. Not the kind we have here on Earth, but there's weather in space, 418 00:53:39,045 --> 00:53:45,518 mostly geomagnetic from the sun. And what's happened is that we have had some pretty 419 00:53:45,518 --> 00:53:53,882 bad ejections, geomagnetic ejections, emissions from the sun that have completely disrupted 420 00:53:53,882 --> 00:54:02,656 radio communications. And so if you're having trouble hearing signals on the low bands... 421 00:54:04,504 --> 00:54:10,397 Check spaceweather.com. They have a bunch of metrics on there that I have yet to learn 422 00:54:10,397 --> 00:54:15,389 about because I've got to do a presentation in October for the Pottstown group that I mentioned 423 00:54:15,389 --> 00:54:21,741 earlier. That's how I learn stuff. I learn it to teach it and then I know it for sure. 424 00:54:21,741 --> 00:54:30,125 But in any event, they explain all these metrics on there. check first if the bands are dead, 425 00:54:30,125 --> 00:54:35,934 check first to see what's going on. coming from Mr. Sun because there's been a lot of 426 00:54:35,934 --> 00:54:41,636 activity recently, namely in the past week. It's one of the most severe that we've had 427 00:54:41,636 --> 00:54:48,421 in a long time and it definitely will kill communications. So just an FYI there. Back to you Mike, W3MOW 428 00:54:48,421 --> 00:54:50,834 in the group, WA3VEA. 429 00:54:57,046 --> 00:55:00,700 Yeah, very good Ron, that's a very interesting point. guess another good thing to mention 430 00:55:00,700 --> 00:55:07,856 to Tim is obviously the time of day could dictate how great you're receiving signals on 10 meters 431 00:55:07,997 --> 00:55:13,642 as well. So that's also something to think about. We'll send it back to you Tim for any follow 432 00:55:13,642 --> 00:55:17,586 up you have. KD3AS, this is W3MOW. 433 00:55:21,806 --> 00:55:27,306 Thank you Ron and Mike. Yet another good resource, Ron, from the spaceweather.com, which I had 434 00:55:27,306 --> 00:55:31,406 never heard of before. Certainly I found that to be true that when you teach something you 435 00:55:31,406 --> 00:55:33,726 learn it more solidly than just learning it yourself. 436 00:55:37,206 --> 00:55:41,170 To be honest with you, I don't know the best time of day to talk on 10 meter other than... 437 00:55:44,334 --> 00:55:49,474 think it's better during the day, but I have no idea. Can somebody please help me and tell 438 00:55:49,474 --> 00:55:50,368 me when the best time is? 439 00:55:53,902 --> 00:55:55,925 I can get it started on... 440 00:56:03,662 --> 00:56:08,062 Yes, Rala, that sounds good to get a start on that. And Ron, would you be able to also go 441 00:56:08,062 --> 00:56:14,522 over, let me see here, like, and this I think is good for the group, it's good for me, it's 442 00:56:14,522 --> 00:56:19,122 a good refresher. But like let's say you go on QRZ and the first thing that pops up is 443 00:56:19,122 --> 00:56:28,042 that little terrestrial data, the solar terrestrial data that comes up. And can you kind of explain 444 00:56:28,042 --> 00:56:35,651 maybe what you would want to look at there? on that little pop-up to tell you if the bands 445 00:56:35,651 --> 00:56:42,434 are good at that given time. Over to you, Ron. W3VE, this is W3MOW. 446 00:56:45,550 --> 00:56:50,250 good, Mike. I'll do my best. This is the kind of stuff I'm still learning myself and I'll 447 00:56:50,250 --> 00:56:55,970 admittedly being very humble here but very honest at the same time. As I just mentioned I'm just 448 00:56:55,970 --> 00:57:00,410 learning this stuff myself because I find it fascinating enough to be able to do a presentation 449 00:57:00,410 --> 00:57:08,130 on it. So yes, when you go to QRZ, one of the first things you do that I do down here when 450 00:57:08,130 --> 00:57:13,496 I come down and operate any kind of HF I get a couple things going. I get some of the DX 451 00:57:13,496 --> 00:57:17,719 sites going. Another reason why I have all these monitors here, because there's something on 452 00:57:17,719 --> 00:57:24,333 every one when I'm operating usually that is HF, and especially doing any kind of contesting 453 00:57:24,333 --> 00:57:30,598 or serious HF work. I get DX Summit going, DX Heat, a couple of these other websites 454 00:57:30,598 --> 00:57:35,051 where I can actually see what the propagation looks like in real time. I have something 455 00:57:35,051 --> 00:57:41,810 called HamClock also, which is a really good resource for... seeing, well, where are the 456 00:57:41,810 --> 00:57:53,850 paths right now? What's hot on 14? What's hot on 10? Well, is 20? Is 10? Is 15 hot? And to 457 00:57:53,850 --> 00:58:01,470 where, and so on and so forth. And another resource, as Mike pointed out, is the little panel that 458 00:58:01,470 --> 00:58:10,947 comes up. Usually it's in the very first row of feature sites on QRZ. and that is the solar 459 00:58:10,947 --> 00:58:20,023 terrestrial data. Now keep in mind that that is a general indicator from someplace. I 460 00:58:20,023 --> 00:58:24,035 don't know where it's from. I don't know where URZ is based. I should know because I've talked 461 00:58:24,035 --> 00:58:29,278 to the administrators before, but I it might be California. Don't know. But in any event, 462 00:58:29,278 --> 00:58:37,976 that will give you an idea of what the propagation is good. during the day and night again, I 463 00:58:37,976 --> 00:58:44,181 don't know where their day and night is. I mean, there's, the continental United States, 464 00:58:44,181 --> 00:58:49,906 we know there's four time zones. So, worldwide there's 24, I don't know where that's based. 465 00:58:49,906 --> 00:58:57,222 So, generally speaking, I use HamClock and some of the DX sites to find out what's going 466 00:58:57,222 --> 00:59:02,137 on. And the thing, the other metrics in there, they will give you the solar flux index, which 467 00:59:02,137 --> 00:59:09,235 right now is 140. signal and noise and so on. There is another site that escapes me right 468 00:59:09,235 --> 00:59:17,898 now. I think it's the Kent County Standby. County amateur radio group in Delaware. And 469 00:59:17,898 --> 00:59:24,680 they have a very good explanation of what these numbers mean. If I can find that location 470 00:59:24,680 --> 00:59:32,152 and site, I will send it over to you, Tim, but it's all very good. But basically how 471 00:59:32,152 --> 00:59:41,026 it works, On 40 meters, for instance, 7 megahertz, you can talk to somebody anywhere, any time, 472 00:59:41,026 --> 00:59:48,969 day or night. That where happens to determine is determined by time of day and basically 473 00:59:48,969 --> 00:59:57,851 the RF ceiling, which is the DEF1 and F2 layers of the ionosphere. During the day, that ceiling 474 00:59:57,851 --> 01:00:06,365 is fairly low, especially recently. with the geomagnetic activity that's been going on, 475 01:00:06,505 --> 01:00:14,400 there's a lot of ionospheric absorption of signals. So signals just don't get repropagated when 476 01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:19,614 they hit the ionosphere. They get absorbed. And that's what's going on. There's so much 477 01:00:19,654 --> 01:00:25,587 ionization in the ionosphere. And Chuck, please correct me on any of this stuff. I welcome 478 01:00:25,587 --> 01:00:30,926 it for sure. This is my understanding and recollection. It's been a while since I looked in the books 479 01:00:30,926 --> 01:00:36,746 at this stuff. But anyway, during the day on 40 meters, you're talking pretty regionally. 480 01:00:36,806 --> 01:00:41,566 You're talking up and down the East Coast. You're talking to almost any county in Pennsylvania, 481 01:00:42,845 --> 01:00:49,986 lower New York, Maryland, Virginia, in that area. At night, this time of night, don't be 482 01:00:49,986 --> 01:00:55,782 surprised if you're talking to Europe, because the band goes what's called long. During the 483 01:00:55,782 --> 01:01:02,562 day, 20 meters is pretty much your DX band, same with 10 meters, and also 24 megahertz, 484 01:01:02,642 --> 01:01:15,290 18 megahertz. 75 meters, stand by again. 75 meters, 3.5 to 4 megahertz. That's 80 meters 485 01:01:15,290 --> 01:01:22,730 and then 75, of course. During the day it's pretty useless. It's just like AM radio pretty 486 01:01:22,730 --> 01:01:30,910 much. You know, you're not going to hear a lot long distance because the ceiling is, the skip 487 01:01:30,910 --> 01:01:38,886 just isn't there. At night you can talk great distances on 75 and 80. So there's also something 488 01:01:38,886 --> 01:01:45,326 you want to check out called maximum, and this is the stuff that we forget when we do our 489 01:01:45,326 --> 01:01:53,126 licenses, and admittedly, a lot of us old timers, I'm speaking of myself primarily, forget this 490 01:01:53,126 --> 01:02:01,206 stuff also, but maximum and usable frequency and minimum usable frequency for communications. 491 01:02:02,006 --> 01:02:07,377 One last thought on that, I hope this is not too much, but basically. When I explain ham 492 01:02:07,377 --> 01:02:15,534 radio to people, I say we can talk to almost anyone, anywhere in the world using a particular 493 01:02:15,534 --> 01:02:22,260 mode of communications. It might be as simple as Morse code. It might be as complicated as 494 01:02:22,260 --> 01:02:32,459 slow scan TV. Any time of the day on a particular frequency. So that's very specific words, 495 01:02:32,459 --> 01:02:37,696 but that pretty much explains it. Again, I hope this isn't too much, but Mike, you asked a 496 01:02:37,696 --> 01:02:43,631 dangerous question, so you got a long answer. You got a VEE answer. Sorry about that. And 497 01:02:43,631 --> 01:02:51,026 again, Chuck, correct anything I said. Absolutely. Back to you, Mike. W3MOW, WA3VE. 498 01:02:56,034 --> 01:03:00,055 No, Ron, it was very good. just wanted to start the conversation because it's always a nice 499 01:03:00,055 --> 01:03:05,747 little refresher, kind of like a back to the basics type deal for myself. I can't speak 500 01:03:05,747 --> 01:03:11,499 for everyone, but for myself, it's always interesting to learn that kind of stuff. So that's really 501 01:03:11,499 --> 01:03:17,601 all I wanted you to get into there. Did we have any other comments there regarding anything 502 01:03:17,601 --> 01:03:19,392 we talked about? Please call. 503 01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:24,632 F3 is checking in too. 504 01:03:30,510 --> 01:03:34,546 Okay Jim, very good. I'll add you to the log and go ahead with your comments. 505 01:03:39,662 --> 01:03:43,402 Yeah, very good. And good evening everybody. I've been listening for a while here. I'm on 506 01:03:43,402 --> 01:03:49,222 my way home from a camera club meeting. But anyway, the one thing, and I don't know if 507 01:03:49,222 --> 01:03:54,662 you covered this Ron, but you are right Tim, that 10 meters generally, and all this stuff 508 01:03:54,662 --> 01:03:59,982 is generally, 10 meters generally is gonna be better during the day and maybe not even good 509 01:03:59,982 --> 01:04:06,179 at all at night. Matter of fact, 20, 15 and 10, that range of frequencies. All tend to 510 01:04:06,179 --> 01:04:10,103 be a little better during the day than at night, so when things are really good, sometimes 20 511 01:04:10,103 --> 01:04:16,938 meters will stay open all night long and that kind of thing. And, oh, there's something 512 01:04:16,938 --> 01:04:26,585 else. We're sitting here waiting. Oh, and of course right now, know, Ron's comment about 513 01:04:26,585 --> 01:04:31,072 any time of day there's usually some frequency or whatever you can use to get across. 514 01:04:37,464 --> 01:04:43,519 navigation was pretty well shut down. Oh, I know what I was going to comment. This morning 515 01:04:43,519 --> 01:04:49,818 I get on CW locally on 10 meters so we're only going 10 miles ground wave and we have no problems 516 01:04:49,818 --> 01:04:57,280 almost no matter what. I'll often tune around and one place to check to see if a band open 517 01:04:57,280 --> 01:04:57,771 is about... 518 01:05:02,254 --> 01:05:02,642 Good. 519 01:05:06,082 --> 01:05:13,973 digital frequencies and there I almost hear something near hear anything even 520 01:05:29,070 --> 01:05:33,906 Very good at all. Back to you there, Mike, and thanks for hosting tonight. AF3Z. 521 01:05:41,294 --> 01:05:47,029 Absolutely, Jim, glad to do it and thanks for checking in on your way home from your camera 522 01:05:47,029 --> 01:05:52,244 function tonight. Let's see, Tim, I don't know if I asked you for follow-up yet, so I'll 523 01:05:52,244 --> 01:05:58,320 send it back to you to see if you have any follow-up regarding everything we talked about. So 524 01:05:58,320 --> 01:06:02,354 back to you, KD3AIS, this is W3MOW. 525 01:06:05,358 --> 01:06:15,101 Thank you Mike, W3MOW, this is KD3AIS Tim. Yes, that is tremendously helpful. Ron, Jim, 526 01:06:15,681 --> 01:06:24,893 Mike for asking the question, everything. I realized that that chart, that little square 527 01:06:24,893 --> 01:06:32,686 on QRZ is a similar one to the one that's on the 1010.org that I was looking at also. So 528 01:06:32,686 --> 01:06:39,962 it comes from somewhere. And this is all extraordinarily helpful. I have a little piece of paper that 529 01:06:39,962 --> 01:06:45,236 I've been taking notes on and I ran out of room on it. So that just tells you how helpful it 530 01:06:45,236 --> 01:06:51,842 was. So I have no more questions. This was helpful to me. And I will turn it back to W3MOW. This 531 01:06:51,842 --> 01:06:54,994 is KD3AIS. 532 01:07:02,178 --> 01:07:06,699 Okay, very good, Tim. Thanks for checking in tonight. Thanks for your question. Glad we 533 01:07:06,699 --> 01:07:11,721 could help you out. And of course, everyone on 985 is resource, so don't hesitate to ask 534 01:07:11,721 --> 01:07:18,683 anytime you're on the repeater for any assistance. And of course, keep us updated on your progress. 535 01:07:18,683 --> 01:07:25,125 Let's see. Before we close down the net for the evening, do we have any questions that 536 01:07:25,125 --> 01:07:30,176 we didn't hit tonight that we could get answered before we close down the net? If you have one. 537 01:07:30,606 --> 01:07:34,006 Please let us know and give us a call, W3MOW. 538 01:07:48,142 --> 01:07:52,004 All right, nothing heard. Let's see, we're going to call all stations now at this time, 539 01:07:52,004 --> 01:07:56,837 see if we can get a couple more call signs on the check-in list. So if you've been listening 540 01:07:56,837 --> 01:08:01,730 to the net and you haven't had a chance to check in and you want to be added to the MOW list 541 01:08:01,730 --> 01:08:08,114 for June 2nd, I'd love to have you on the list, so please call now. This is W3MOW. 542 01:08:12,888 --> 01:08:14,738 KC3YTD. 543 01:08:30,158 --> 01:08:36,688 All right, I got the KC3 YTD Steve. think that's right. Thanks for checking in tonight. 544 01:08:36,688 --> 01:08:40,274 Do we have any other stations wishing to check into the workbench? 545 01:08:58,057 --> 01:09:02,019 Okay, nothing heard. think at this time we're going to shut down the workbench. I want to 546 01:09:02,019 --> 01:09:05,872 thank all stations for checking in tonight and giving your general comments about amateur 547 01:09:05,872 --> 01:09:11,145 radio. Again, it just showcases how active we are here on 9-8-5 and all the knowledge 548 01:09:11,145 --> 01:09:15,437 that we have and all the interest in the hobby. So it's good for stations that are out there 549 01:09:15,437 --> 01:09:22,442 listening to show that we are a neat little family and a smart family at that in amateur 550 01:09:22,442 --> 01:09:27,537 radio. So again, thanks for that. Thank you for asking the questions tonight. We only had 551 01:09:27,537 --> 01:09:33,900 two on the docket, but they're very good questions that had a lot of good dialogue back and forth. 552 01:09:33,900 --> 01:09:39,153 Got some folks hitting the PTT, and that's what this night is all about, is asking questions, 553 01:09:39,153 --> 01:09:44,365 learning, refreshing memories, and all that fun stuff. So thank you to all stations that 554 01:09:44,365 --> 01:09:52,352 participated in that as well. Also, we have a very big thank you to Joe, W3GMS. for 555 01:09:52,352 --> 01:09:56,644 allowing us to use the repeater for the workbench. And of course, even though the workbench is 556 01:09:56,644 --> 01:10:01,306 closing down, feel free to use the repeater at any time, including after the conclusion 557 01:10:01,306 --> 01:10:08,889 of this net. Keep the old hut up there on the hill, nice and warm. Keep it going. Keep 558 01:10:08,889 --> 01:10:13,881 the electricity bill up. I know PECOs get more expensive, so Joe likes the bill going up for 559 01:10:13,881 --> 01:10:19,574 sure. So keep it active and keep it fun. And then remember to join us this Thursday at 560 01:10:19,574 --> 01:10:26,690 8 p.m. for the 985 Thursday night roundtable. That's a very good time and Phil will be hosting 561 01:10:26,690 --> 01:10:31,590 on Thursday. So that'll be it for tonight. We're going to close down the workbench. Again, thank 562 01:10:31,590 --> 01:10:36,890 you all for checking in and having fun tonight. I wish everyone a great week ahead. 7-3 for 563 01:10:36,890 --> 01:10:41,190 now. Good night. This is W3MOW, now clear for the evening. 7-3 all. 564 01:10:46,638 --> 01:10:59,762 WA3ZEW1, what is she calling? One RC, WA3ZEE. Sounding good on All-Star, Mr. Mike. 565 01:11:03,822 --> 01:11:13,754 Thank you. I'm using my Motorola XPR7550. That's digital radio. It's got a thousand memories. 566 01:11:13,754 --> 01:11:16,428 It's a great radio. 567 01:11:19,598 --> 01:11:26,273 keep that, which I'm going to need, so I can't use the SL300 on a can, not if I want to be 568 01:11:26,273 --> 01:11:30,302 agile. Did you get those links that I sent you to those two videos? 569 01:11:33,386 --> 01:11:38,751 and thank you for that. I really do appreciate that. I have not had a chance yet to look 570 01:11:38,751 --> 01:11:45,797 at them. We added three new furry friends this weekend to our house and we've been very busy 571 01:11:45,797 --> 01:11:52,062 with them. They're very energetic. We are experienced cat people so we know what to do 572 01:11:52,062 --> 01:11:58,138 but basically we're enjoying them. But they've taken me away from everything radio for a little 573 01:11:58,138 --> 01:12:05,609 bit except for this. So I've also had some other activities for field day I had to address 574 01:12:05,609 --> 01:12:11,583 today. thanks for sending those things. I will probably take a look at them in the morning 575 01:12:11,583 --> 01:12:19,579 first thing once I get my coffee. So yes, thanks for sending those over. And I think I mentioned 576 01:12:19,579 --> 01:12:27,194 to you earlier this morning when we first talked on Joe's machine this morning that between 577 01:12:27,194 --> 01:12:37,843 what you just sent, and what you went through to set up your node and what Dylan, K3DZM 578 01:12:37,843 --> 01:12:45,257 who I think you heard earlier on the radio here, he was responding to Charlie N3CRE's question 579 01:12:45,257 --> 01:12:51,584 about shortwave dongles and things like that and listening to shortwave and all. But anyway, 580 01:12:51,584 --> 01:12:58,914 between what you guys did and also what Rich has put together as well, WA2ZPX. I think 581 01:12:58,914 --> 01:13:05,556 we can piece together all this stuff and we can actually come up with a real single point 582 01:13:05,556 --> 01:13:11,498 solution for setting up an all-star node, which is what I'm after. So always something to 583 01:13:11,498 --> 01:13:18,340 do in amateur radio. I've never had an activity in my entire life of almost 74 years where 584 01:13:18,340 --> 01:13:26,350 it's been so every day I'm learning something. I'm junior in this with respect to you and 585 01:13:26,350 --> 01:13:31,890 Joe and everybody else. I'm only in this 52 years, but every day it's learning something. 586 01:13:32,550 --> 01:13:37,190 And I will learn something watching the videos. So thanks for sending those over once again. 587 01:13:37,190 --> 01:13:37,630 Go ahead. 588 01:13:41,550 --> 01:13:44,820 You're nobody's junior. Don't don't give me that 589 01:13:49,134 --> 01:13:54,734 That's one of the best laughs I had this evening. Excellent. Well, thanks very much for those 590 01:13:54,734 --> 01:14:01,094 kind words, Mr. Mike, indeed. Well, I'll tell you, one of these days I'm hoping to get freed 591 01:14:01,094 --> 01:14:07,634 up enough to get up to Nearfest. I'm not one of those idle guys like Joe, W3GMS, and Joe, 592 01:14:07,674 --> 01:14:14,034 know you're listening. But nonetheless, hope to get up there and actually shake your hand 593 01:14:14,034 --> 01:14:19,727 in person for sure. sounding good and I think I wrote to you or I mentioned to you that 594 01:14:19,727 --> 01:14:24,982 I sent that. Let me just make sure it went. Bear with me one second. So I check here right 595 01:14:24,982 --> 01:14:34,690 on my shack computer and yes, I did send you, yes, I sent you the clip of what you sounded 596 01:14:34,690 --> 01:14:40,104 like for that entire transmission. Now, the thing, the qualifier here is that the repeater 597 01:14:40,104 --> 01:14:46,839 to me is dead full quieting. I've got a very good shot to the west. The repeater is 17 miles 598 01:14:46,839 --> 01:14:53,303 away, like I mentioned, it is dead full quieting to me here. So it's almost a clear shot over 599 01:14:53,303 --> 01:15:01,098 that 17 miles. And so when I listen on RF, it's a pretty good report. And of course, 600 01:15:01,098 --> 01:15:07,371 that was digital, so I could receive that very, very well here as well. So hope you got that 601 01:15:07,371 --> 01:15:13,681 clip. That's what you sound like through Joe's machine. And that's a... Again, it is not 602 01:15:13,681 --> 01:15:19,890 directly offline like Joe would do, but it's a pretty good representation. Go ahead. 603 01:15:23,746 --> 01:15:31,912 You haven't checked my email since you mentioned that you sent it. I will check it later and 604 01:15:31,912 --> 01:15:37,926 I'll listen to it. Thank you for doing that. Yeah, I think that between a few of us over 605 01:15:37,926 --> 01:15:44,941 here, we could put together a really nice little resource that we could then put on the website 606 01:15:44,981 --> 01:15:50,704 and then send a link out. Don't send the material out, send a link out and make people come 607 01:15:50,925 --> 01:15:57,523 to the WF3 GMS. repeater website. Let's get a little bit of publicity for the website. 608 01:15:57,523 --> 01:16:09,333 We have something good. I did a... I these guide to writing Motorola code plugs for 609 01:16:09,333 --> 01:16:17,857 DMR radios, the Moto Turbo radios. And I didn't know anything about it when I started, but 610 01:16:17,857 --> 01:16:19,028 the guy worked. 611 01:16:23,790 --> 01:16:31,150 I gotta fix this timer, it's a pain in the butt. As a retired Motorola engineer, Bill, anyone 612 01:16:31,150 --> 01:16:38,350 be. And it's a step by step, you know, your number one sit down, you know, this what you 613 01:16:38,350 --> 01:16:43,010 gotta have, this is what you gotta do, and you start here, and this is how you do it. And 614 01:16:43,010 --> 01:16:50,217 you know, step by step. been through a million of those when I was working and I know Joe 615 01:16:50,217 --> 01:16:56,554 and Chuck also have as well in our design engineering and my procurement manufacturing engineering 616 01:16:56,554 --> 01:17:04,411 past, past lives. Boy, yes, procedures. Oh, yeah, very familiar with those. In fact, 617 01:17:04,411 --> 01:17:09,985 as a tech writer for HP for six years while I was getting my engineering degree at Drexel 618 01:17:09,985 --> 01:17:19,345 University in Philadelphia, yeah, I remember writing those. So yes, no stranger to that 619 01:17:19,345 --> 01:17:25,790 at all, Mr. Mike. So very good. Well, it's great to hear you. Like I said, it's a pleasure 620 01:17:25,790 --> 01:17:32,485 to hear you with the fidelity as you'll hear here. So it's all very good. I looked up that 621 01:17:32,485 --> 01:17:38,200 radio also. That's a very interesting piece that you have there. And as we mentioned, 622 01:17:38,200 --> 01:17:44,956 I think Joe mentioned also, I think I heard him after I got to where I needed to be this 623 01:17:44,956 --> 01:17:53,251 morning. I think I heard him talking to you as well. if you have an extra bunch of change 624 01:17:53,251 --> 01:17:59,566 in your pocket, which is almost all that you need to buy one of these Balfangs, like this 625 01:17:59,566 --> 01:18:06,893 UV-21, I think is like, you can get two for like 60 bucks or like a $30 radio. And like 626 01:18:06,893 --> 01:18:10,676 Chuck would say, I think I mentioned this to you earlier, they're brought as a barn door 627 01:18:10,676 --> 01:18:16,335 as far as receive is concerned. It's not a high performance radio, but it does the job. 628 01:18:16,335 --> 01:18:22,277 The beauty is you're only talking to your node right there. So if you have a radio node, like 629 01:18:22,277 --> 01:18:29,659 I have a Shari PiHat, mine's a Shari PiHat 3. It's out in the van. I can hit it, of course, 630 01:18:29,659 --> 01:18:36,521 from down here in the station down in the basement. But nonetheless, from probably almost a half 631 01:18:36,521 --> 01:18:44,374 a mile away. But it... The touch-tone capability right on the front can't be beat. as I mentioned 632 01:18:44,374 --> 01:18:48,394 to you, and I remember saying this to you, once you get the touch-tone capability, you will 633 01:18:48,394 --> 01:18:56,254 never look back. So you can get one of those radios for 30 bucks or less, even if you do 634 01:18:56,254 --> 01:19:02,914 a radio like Joe's got, think his UV-5R is, I think, 20 bucks. So it'll be probably one 635 01:19:02,914 --> 01:19:08,406 of the best 20 bucks you ever spent. You drop it in water or you know. You drop it in what 636 01:19:08,406 --> 01:19:16,730 Joe calls a porcelain insulator. And we all know what that is. You know, won't cry over 637 01:19:16,730 --> 01:19:24,253 a spilt milk or a ruined HD because it's not that expensive. in any event, I never thought 638 01:19:24,253 --> 01:19:30,256 I'd see the day in amateur radio when that would be the case, but it is. So in any event, 639 01:19:30,256 --> 01:19:35,349 the keypad is the main thing there. So that's all very good. So sounding good, Mike. That's 640 01:19:35,349 --> 01:19:38,610 all I gotta say, W1RCWA3VE. 641 01:19:44,366 --> 01:19:51,146 Yeah, I've got two of them. I picked them up at the MIT flea market and I think they were 642 01:19:51,146 --> 01:19:57,126 10 bucks with the chargers and everything. I just brought them home. They were cheap. I 643 01:19:57,126 --> 01:20:03,866 thought, well, maybe I can get them. My wife used one and she's got her license. And my 644 01:20:03,866 --> 01:20:16,344 daughter, my daughter's K1TG, 10 bucks. But I never figured out how to program them. Very 645 01:20:16,344 --> 01:20:27,047 good. Go on the website, Chirp My Radio. Chirp like a bird chirp. C-H-I-R-P. Chirp My Radio. 646 01:20:27,047 --> 01:20:32,449 And let me make sure I'm giving you the right info here. Let me just verify that. Oh, I 647 01:20:32,449 --> 01:20:36,760 know I was going to send that over to Charlie. I have another website here. I need to send 648 01:20:36,760 --> 01:20:42,932 that over to SCRE. Let me see here. Chirp My Radio. 649 01:20:45,942 --> 01:20:53,326 Yeah, it's, if you just do a Google of Chirp, Chirp My Radio, what you'll have is you'll 650 01:20:53,326 --> 01:21:03,042 have that website, chirpmyradio.com. It's a free download software program. And what 651 01:21:03,042 --> 01:21:10,086 you do is there's a cable you need for your radio, which is fairly inexpensive. You'd 652 01:21:10,086 --> 01:21:14,872 probably pay more for the cable than you'd do for the radio. That's a deal, I'm telling 653 01:21:14,872 --> 01:21:21,547 you, that's great. But bottom line is that you hook it up to your computer, you put this 654 01:21:21,547 --> 01:21:29,053 stuff in like a spreadsheet in SHRP. You put in like your Boston repeaters. And I even 655 01:21:29,053 --> 01:21:33,886 have some of the CAPE repeaters programmed into my radios because of course, as you know, 656 01:21:33,886 --> 01:21:39,751 I go to the CAPE every once in a while, not often, but I have the CAPE repeaters programmed 657 01:21:39,751 --> 01:21:47,850 and the repeaters along the way. Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York State, New Jersey, PA, 658 01:21:47,850 --> 01:21:54,255 etc. And I just go put those in. But I have a different program called RT Systems. That's 659 01:21:54,255 --> 01:22:00,000 actually, you have to pay for that. It's about 49 bucks for the software and the cable. But 660 01:22:00,000 --> 01:22:05,594 the chirp all you need to do is download the program, fill in the spreadsheet for the repeaters 661 01:22:05,594 --> 01:22:11,869 of interest, buy the cable. and then be able to download it from your computer and the JIRP 662 01:22:11,869 --> 01:22:15,090 program right into your into your Balfang guide. 663 01:22:19,326 --> 01:22:30,095 I got cables too. got lots of Baufeng cables. We bought a bunch of the 16 channel UHF 664 01:22:30,095 --> 01:22:35,339 radios for Deerfield Fair. We use them up there. They were cheap. What did I pay for them? 665 01:22:35,339 --> 01:22:42,494 We got 20 of them for under 200 bucks from Amazon. Brand new in the box. And they work fine up 666 01:22:42,494 --> 01:22:50,190 there. And if they don't work, you toss them in the garbage. Exactly. We just used a bunch 667 01:22:50,190 --> 01:22:59,750 of UV-21s for an event down here called the Mud Mozi. And it's basically a run-walk through 668 01:22:59,750 --> 01:23:07,110 a partial marshland in northern Chester County. And a good friend of mine, Tom, KC3TMT and 669 01:23:07,110 --> 01:23:18,911 I have a treasure chest of Balfang radios that we lend out to the to the folks doing the radio 670 01:23:18,911 --> 01:23:27,626 communications for that, it's a 5K race basically is what I want to get to. And it seems work 671 01:23:27,626 --> 01:23:34,880 flawlessly. I mean, like I said, you're getting $25 radio performance or $30 radio performance, 672 01:23:34,880 --> 01:23:40,153 whatever it is. I've never seen a radio cost more than 30. Well, yes, I have actually. I've 673 01:23:40,153 --> 01:23:46,954 seen some for 60 bucks. But these Balfangs have really increased in quality. since the 674 01:23:46,954 --> 01:23:52,782 very first ones that came out. There used to be a joke, and you probably heard this, that, 675 01:23:52,782 --> 01:24:00,012 what band does a Balfang UV-5R operate on? And the answer used to be, the punchline used 676 01:24:00,012 --> 01:24:01,484 to be all of them. Go ahead. 677 01:24:06,174 --> 01:24:13,149 I heard that one before too. Well, I don't know, I always like good quality stuff. Like 678 01:24:13,149 --> 01:24:19,443 Collins Radio stuff. I always like Collins Radio. I just like quality. I hate cheap 679 01:24:19,443 --> 01:24:27,659 garbage. But, you know, they work and they serve a purpose. even I have a couple of them. 680 01:24:27,659 --> 01:24:33,423 The price was right. think it was 10 bucks. Might have been less, because I might have 681 01:24:33,423 --> 01:24:40,654 beat the guy down. I don't know, it's sure when I have a lot of fun doing that. But they're 682 01:24:40,654 --> 01:24:45,254 here and I don't think I've ever used them, but they're here. I dig them out and play around 683 01:24:45,254 --> 01:24:53,114 with them. But I like this Motorola XPR 7550. This radio, somebody paid about 1200 bucks 684 01:24:53,114 --> 01:24:54,914 for this radio, but it wasn't me. 685 01:24:58,222 --> 01:25:04,525 I almost radio in here that I ever pay this price for. And a lot of my test equipment 686 01:25:04,525 --> 01:25:09,296 people say, oh my goodness, you must have a lot of money. I said, well, I know about that. 687 01:25:09,296 --> 01:25:13,348 But they said, they look at the bench and they say, boy, you got all this HP equipment and 688 01:25:13,348 --> 01:25:18,650 everything. And I say, yeah, but most of it when I got it didn't work. So I had to fix 689 01:25:18,650 --> 01:25:25,453 it to get it to work. And that was part of my technician at heart forever type mentality. 690 01:25:25,453 --> 01:25:30,267 I think I'm almost over fixing a lot of. things right now. just want to enjoy it now at this 691 01:25:30,267 --> 01:25:40,289 point, but yeah, I know exactly what you mean. yeah, it's the Sharp program should work 692 01:25:40,289 --> 01:25:47,466 very, very well for you. Like I said, it is a, I think it's an open source program. 693 01:25:47,466 --> 01:25:52,383 And those kind of bother me a little bit always because, okay, somebody's tweaking this somewhere. 694 01:25:52,383 --> 01:25:56,854 Is the program, next program going to be the same as the last one? And what control is 695 01:25:56,854 --> 01:26:02,538 there? somebody that tweaks it totally didn't screw it up, know, that kind of thing. I don't 696 01:26:02,538 --> 01:26:08,438 know, but in any event, it seems to work for a lot of people. I must have, over here, I 697 01:26:08,438 --> 01:26:16,058 must have, all the radios I have, I must have about 25 different RT systems programs for 698 01:26:16,058 --> 01:26:22,338 the various radios. I'm in the same vein, the same vein of thinking as you. I really like 699 01:26:22,338 --> 01:26:30,347 a good quality radio. when I'm doing serious work, but if you're just like the other day 700 01:26:30,347 --> 01:26:36,641 we were doing some antenna work up at the field day site and just for communications You 701 01:26:36,641 --> 01:26:41,834 know if you're just point-to-point communications. you know can you turn the beam this way and 702 01:26:41,834 --> 01:26:46,967 I'll look at the SWR and we're separated I'm in a trailer and the guy at the beam is at 703 01:26:46,967 --> 01:26:55,267 the beam and so on and we can't hear each other by voice of yelling, even if that's effective. 704 01:26:55,267 --> 01:27:02,550 So we're using an HD and a discrete frequency. And I mean, it just works. You're right. 705 01:27:02,550 --> 01:27:09,443 For the purposes like that, for something casual like that, these things can't be beat for 706 01:27:09,443 --> 01:27:15,006 the value. No question about it. One last question. Do you know what model radios that you actually 707 01:27:15,006 --> 01:27:20,818 got for 10 bucks? Were those the UV5Rs? W1RC, WA3, VEE. 708 01:27:27,086 --> 01:27:29,227 SW1R, yeah, I believe they are. 709 01:27:32,270 --> 01:27:37,453 These are workhorses. Like I said, they've got a lot of emissions, but if you're just 710 01:27:37,453 --> 01:27:42,716 using them for a particular purpose, you're in good shape. So very good, Mr. Mike. It's 711 01:27:42,716 --> 01:27:46,688 good to hear you. Great to have a conversation. I was just about ready to fire off a message 712 01:27:46,688 --> 01:27:51,500 to Joe, and it will be pretty much entitled. It'll be very short because I'm getting tired 713 01:27:51,500 --> 01:27:58,394 and I need to go horizontally polarized with no emissions. I'm going to say, Mr. Mike sounds 714 01:27:58,394 --> 01:28:09,259 great on 985. So all very good. anyway, enjoy All-Star like I said this morning when we talked 715 01:28:09,259 --> 01:28:15,275 on the radio on Joe's machine here. It's probably one of the best features, if not the best feature 716 01:28:15,275 --> 01:28:22,002 that we have that is not part of the core operating portion of the repeater. Go ahead. 717 01:28:31,086 --> 01:28:39,546 Yeah, very good. I gotta go see my wife's calling me for something in the other room. So, but 718 01:28:39,546 --> 01:28:46,086 yeah, we'll talk more about this. But I do like All-Star very much. I like the audio quality. 719 01:28:46,086 --> 01:28:50,486 That's very important and it's good. It's great. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with 720 01:28:50,486 --> 01:29:00,106 it. 73 for now. WA3VEE signed W1RC and Marvel head mass now clear. Mr. Michael let you run 721 01:29:00,106 --> 01:29:04,386 I'm going to shut it down here too pretty soon since I get this message off to Joe. So you 722 01:29:04,386 --> 01:29:11,846 have a good night great talking to you as always enjoy it always and I know I know now with 723 01:29:11,846 --> 01:29:19,406 the connectivity you will not be a stranger on 985 for sure. W1RC WA3 VEE73 have a good 724 01:29:19,406 --> 01:29:19,826 night.