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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.
This is KC3SCY. Good evening. Welcome to the 985 Roundtable. I'm Lucas KC3SCY, located in Glenmore, Pennsylvania.
I'm the host for tonight's Roundtable. We meet every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. on the W3GMS Parksburg Repeater. At this frequency, 146.985 megahertz.
The PL tone is 100 hertz. For tone squelch on receive, use 94.8 hertz. Take a look at the Repeater website, located at www.w3gmsrepeater.com.
Besides the Roundtable, the 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.
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.
We'll be right back to the next session. Our discussions are informational. 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.
We usually begin with a discussion. You can answer that if you wish and comment about other subjects as well.
If you have any suggestions or questions about the Roundtable, contact Phil, KC3CIB or Jim, AF3Z. Both are good on QRZ.com.
Be aware that on occasion, the Repeater experiences intermod interference. Please run maximum power or be prepared to check in digitally through Echo Link or AllStar. We want to hear you.
To be able to use Echo Link or AllStar on 985, you need to register with us. Directions for doing so can be found on the W3GMSRepeater.com. Also, when the intermod is present, before starting a transmission, give a short call. Am I getting in okay?
Once the host confirms that you share 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.
The pause is also helpful to those on AllStar and Echo Link. When you do click the PTT button, wait a second before starting to talk. We don't want to miss what you say. It takes a moment for the repeater to process your PL tone. Also, the repeater has a three-minute timer. If you want to talk for more than three minutes without letting up on the mic button.
to process your PL tone.
Also, the repeater has a three-minute timer.
If you want to talk for more than three minutes
without letting up on the mic button,
the repeater completely shuts down
until you release your PTT switch.
So every two to three minutes,
release the mic button for a moment,
and then you continue.
So tonight's question for discussion
is what is your most memorable or exciting thing
you did this summer?
So now we will take short-time check-ins,
short-time digital check-ins.
I'll leave long pauses to make it easier for you to check-in.
Digital stations for short-time, please call now.
And this is KB3ZUV, short-timer via Echolink.
That's KB3, Zulu, Uniform, Victor, Adam, short-time,
currently in a different township.
Okay, I have Adam, KB3ZUV.
Are there any other digital short-time check-ins?
If so, please call now.
Good evening, Luke and all.
It's W3FES, Fred, in Coatesville, coming in on the All-Star.
A short-timer here.
Hope everyone has a good evening.
It's W3FES.
Go ahead, W3FEF. Now short time and RF check-ins. Now short time RF check-ins and other digital stations, please call now.
I'll take one last call for any short time stations, digital or RF check-ins. Please call now.
Okay, nothing heard. So for our short time check-ins, or well, for the stations, here's a list of the stations I have. If there's any corrections, please correct me.
So I have KB3ZUV and W3FEF. So if you need me to repeat the question, just send it back to me. And the question is, what was your most memorable or exciting thing of the summer? You did. So over to KB3ZUV.
All right, Luke, good evening. Good evening to you and everyone else on the roundtable. KC3SCY, this is KB3ZUV.
I'm going to be Adam here on Echolink tonight after two weeks in a row of trying to do my transmission on RF and getting absolutely squashed by the Intermod, including last week even doing what we asked in the preamble and saying, hey, am I getting through?
And then I was getting through. And then about 10 seconds after I started my real transmission, I got squashed anyway by the Intermod.
We'll be back on digital for a little while. And so that way we can actually, people can actually hear me talk. And I'm enjoying the sneak preview of fall this week.
We're going to be back on the weekend. We're going to be back on the weekend.
We're going to be back on the weekend. I'm a little late. And don't be fooled. It'll get hot sometime again. It's bound to summer's not over yet and won't be over for almost another month.
But I'm enjoying the brief pause. And kids are back to school. That's the other big thing this week. So we're enjoying a little bit of peace and quiet around the house, which is now both children are in school.
My younger daughter started kindergarten this week. On to the question, what is the most memorable thing I did this summer? Well, field day was a close second.
It was nice to see my kids do some pieces of field day, but probably the most memorable thing this summer was the West Coast trip, which actually we actually got back from that like two or three days before field day.
We went out to the West Coast, out to the Bay Area and also up to Seattle to spend time with my wife's family out on the West Coast. She's not from the West Coast, but part of her family moved out there some years back.
And definitely spending time in Seattle and Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula. I've never spent any appreciable amount of time. I'd only ever just done layovers in the Seattle airport. I never actually seen any of the state besides the airport until until this summer. So that was extremely memorable.
I got a lot of really good pictures from that. So with that, let's keep things moving. We'll send it over to Fred in Coatesville W3FES from KV3ZUV73.
Thank you there, Adam. Fred W3FES in Coatesville. The most memorable thing we're going to do, it's not going to happen until next week. We're going to see the new grandbaby that was born in July and celebrate the older ones, her second birthday. A nice road trip coming up. We enjoy those road trips and seeing our family down there.
We enjoy those road trips and seeing our family down there. Our daughter and her husband. So that's about it for the summer. Summer's dwindling down and I would like to hit Cape May after the vacation season for a couple of days. We have a nice hotel down there that we stay at. So that's about it. I'll pass it back to Net Control. Thanks for taking the chair. 73 all have a good evening and have a safe holiday weekend. Back to you. Back to you there, Luke. W3FES.
W3FES. Yes. W3FES. This is KC3SCY. I'll take one last call for any short time check-ins. Digital or RF. Please call now.
Okay, nothing heard. So Adam, good on the field day being the second most exciting thing and the West Coast trip you did. This sounds good. And good on getting back on Echo Link. W3FBF, good on your road trip and going down to Cape May.
My grandfather lives down the shore, so I always go down and visit him and stay down there with him. So the other week I was down there and I went to Cape May and it was super busy. I had to park a couple blocks away because we were going into the middle of town.
So anyways, there's no more short time check-ins. So now we'll take regular check-ins for those who have more.
This is KC3SCY. Remember to pause, then click and wait to talk so we don't miss the first couple syllables, which you're going to say.
So digital stations, regular digital stations. I'd leave long pauses to make it easier for you to check in. So digital stations, please call now.
KC1RC in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Good evening, Luke. I have no traffic and standing by.
Whiskey 8, Charlie Romeo Whiskey, CR.
Hey, I have W1RC and W8CRW. Do we have any more digital check-ins for the 985 round table?
Okay, nothing heard. So now I will take RS stations. Please call now.
Ski Alpha 3, Victor Echo Echo, WA3 BEE.
WA3 King Fox Tango, WA3 Kentucky Fried Turkey.
N3 CRE, Charlie.
W3 GMS, W3 Good Music Station.
W3 MFB. W3 MFB. W3 MFB.
NA3CW.
I'll try it. AF3Z, Alpha Box 3 Zulu.
Alpha, Alpha 3, Alpha Hotel.
Be under the bus, A3LH.
Charlie, N3ZRE.
Joe, W3GMS.
Thorndale, Mike, W3MFB.
Chuck, NA3CW.
And Jim, AF3Z.
Do we have any other check-ins, digital or RF for the 985 round table, if so?
Please call now.
KC3, oh, okay.
This is...
Yes.
Okay.
Alpha, Alpha 3, Lima Hotel.
Got my hands dirty under the bus.
Okay, I acknowledge Bill, KC3, OOK.
And Leon, AA3LH.
I think there is a double in there.
Um...
Any other check-ins for the 985 round table, please call now.
This is Kilo Delta 3, Bravo Papa India, Simon.
Okay, KB3, I believe it's Bravo Papa India, and your name's Simon.
Okay, so, I'll give you the order one more time.
So, it's...
Mike, W1RC, CR, WHCRW, Ron, WA3VE, John, KC3, I mean, WA3KFT, Charlie, N3ZRE, Joe, W3GMS, Mike, W3MFB, Chuck, NA3CW, Jim, AF3Z, Bill, KC3, and I'm going to be the best.
Okay, so, the check-in again is what was the most memorable or exciting thing you did this year.
Over to you, W1RC.
Now, good evening, Luke, and everybody else on the round table tonight.
This is W1RC here in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
First of all, thank you for taking the driver's seat tonight, Luke.
You're doing a fine job.
And I really didn't do much that was very memorable this summer.
I can't really think of anything that stands out.
I didn't really go on any trips or anything.
I don't know.
Hard to say.
So, I guess I'll pass on answering the question tonight.
I'll turn it over to CR, WHCRW, and the round table from W1RC.
Very good, Mr. Mike.
Well, interestingly enough, I'm another old guy, and you took the words out of my mouth.
Something significant or interesting for the summer, I've done nothing.
I've been around the house and just taking care of regular issues.
So, maybe it's for the use.
Luke, you're doing a good job.
Ron, pick it up.
W-A-3-V-E-E-W-H-C-R-W.
H-C-R-W, and the group W-A-3-V-E-E actually in the van here, but soon to be inside.
All very good.
Luke, I don't offer these kinds of compliments very often, but I'm going to offer one tonight.
Outstanding job on the script.
Just an outstanding job.
Anyone listening, hearing a youth run a net like this, has got to be impressed.
So, my hat's off to you.
Really nice job.
Indeed.
Okay, to the question.
Good question, too.
It had to be Field Day.
It had to be Field Day, ham radio-wise.
And the reason is because I was so elated to see all of the non-hams, all of the visitors, and all of the hams also operate to go to station and actually visit us up at Field Day.
That made all the hard work, which is really a labor of love as far as I'm concerned.
And I think I speak for almost, if not everybody, involved.
That made it all worth it.
And particularly, shout out to Paxton, who I didn't hear check in tonight.
I think I've seen the APR, who just totally enjoyed it.
And that lit a fire under him to get his general, which he did a couple weeks later, and then assisted at his own Boy Scout camp.
And I wanted to help the others to get assisted others, just like you, Luke, in helping them get Radio Merit Badge.
So definitely Field Day.
No question about it in my mind.
Very, very, very satisfying as far as seeing the activity and so on.
And very happy to help in all the ways that I could to do that.
Joe, you're welcome, too, for the thanks you sent earlier in an email on the links and stuff.
A little later getting that in because I took care of all the admin stuff with the van.
And that leads me to...
Non-Ham or the civilian stuff.
The other exciting thing is, of course, getting a replacement for the old Porcupine.
So, sitting in my 2020 Sienna right now, it's an opportunity for me to totally outfit it the way I want.
I've already removed the center console, which was pretty useless as far as I was concerned.
So that will all be radios.
And we'll have this thing totally tricked out electronically, no doubt about it.
So all very good.
So, John, what was your most memorable moment in the summertime here?
WA3KFT to transmit WA3VEE.
WA3KFT.
Ah!
What?
Growing rhubarb?
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Ah!
This summer...
Well, I've always planted a garden.
And...
I have a real bumper crop of...
...uh...
...summer crookneck squash.
Oh, my goodness.
And, uh...
I finally ripped out the plants because they were dying.
And, uh...
I cleaned up the garden, so...
Now I can find the carrots and the beets.
And...
The potatoes are buried under weeds.
Ha, ha, ha.
There are no weeds between the rows.
The weeds are in the rows.
And you...
You can't cultivate there because that's where the potatoes are.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
So...
Good summer with gardening.
Uh...
Again, this summer, uh...
Field day, uh...
It was a great event.
Uh...
It was the first time in quite a few years that I...
I was able to go out on Saturday and come home on Sunday.
Uh...
Spent the overnight there.
And, uh...
Ran up a good score on 40 meter phone.
Uh...
I think I led the pack in terms of...
Cusos on a single band.
But, uh...
Uh...
I don't...
I don't have the breakdown.
Uh...
Totally.
Uh...
I got a...
A total for the event.
But I don't have the breakdown band by band.
So...
Uh...
And we did not run any CW this year.
Uh...
I don't know where the CW operators were hiding.
But, uh...
It was a hundred percent phone.
And we were 5 Alpha plus GOTA.
So...
We gave it a good whirl this time.
And, uh...
Next year I think I'm gonna have to...
See about, uh...
Uh...
Uh...
An audio filter on the radio.
I'm using a radio that's about 30 years old or so.
Something like that.
Works fine on 40 meter phone.
Over to you, Charlie.
N3 CRE.
W-A-3 K-F-T.
N3 CRE.
Good luck.
Good evening everybody.
And good evening to you, Luke.
Running the net.
I'd like to hear young people doing things.
So they can replace us.
As old guys as we get old.
But, uh...
Not in a very inventable summer for me.
I did a little bit of gardening.
Had some success with the garden this year.
Uh...
Uh...
And, uh...
But...
More...
Going to, uh...
Going to breakfasts and meeting people and talking.
Going to breakfasts and meeting people and talking, but nothing eventful happening.
And I tend to not do stuff in the summer, but tend to spend more time doing stuff, going away and traveling through the fall.
I love fall.
During the summer, I play some golf.
During the fall, I also play golf because you can golf all the way up to Thanksgiving sometimes and even later.
But anyway, that's all I have right now.
And I guess I'll turn it over to Joe, W3GMSN3CRE.
Very good, Charlie and the entire group, W3GMSN3CRE.
W3GMSN3CRE.
W3GMSN3CRE.
W3GMSN3CRE.
And Luke, thanks for sitting in the captain's chair.
Just as Ron said, you're doing a spectacular job as host.
Every one of them gets better and better.
You follow the format well.
And you read well.
So kudos.
There's one correction for your log on W3F.
You have his call.
Fred is W3FEF.
It's W3, Whiskey 3, Foxtrot, Echo, Sierra.
That's Whiskey 3, Foxtrot, Echo, Sierra.
So I just wanted you to get that squared away in your log there.
And that's Fred, and he's in the Coatesville area.
And a great signal, and good to hear you in there, Fred.
Okay, let's see here.
And, Luke, you may want to comment.
I know your bedtime is later now that you've arrived at the ripe old age of 13.
So I don't know whether you want to stick around and do the entire roundtable tonight,
round one and two, or what you want to do.
So let me know what your intentions are.
Okay, well, as all of you know, I do not like hot weather.
Never have.
Never liked it.
So I think the biggest kudos for me this summer was having some tremendous talent help me with my tower.
That's KC3-00K Bill and Chuck NA3CW.
Without them, that thing wouldn't have stood a chance of getting vertical.
So that was really, really enjoyable.
And the other part was getting to spend not as much as I wanted to.
I thought I was going to have more mentoring time with Luke, but that didn't work out.
But we got some mentoring time in to see his riser progress.
And the riser is coming down the home stretch, as they say.
So they were that.
We didn't take any trips.
We take our trips in the late fall, winter.
We've been known to go up to Maine, the coast of Maine, in the winter, and we love it up there.
And it's just gorgeous.
So we don't really plan any trips for the summer.
And, you know, being two old folks here, we can go whenever we want to go.
But we just, Martha's the same way.
We don't like the hot weather.
So that was the main, I guess, the main pleasure that I got this summer was helping Luke with his riser,
helping Luke with some of the boat anchor acquisition,
and watching Chuck and Bill do just a fantastic job on solving a bucket load of problems on the tower.
Okay, let's see here.
A couple things.
There'll be another $355 going into the field day fund.
The estate sale that I handled for my good friend Dick, W3ORUE, a lot of wire.
So I took the wire to a scrap dealer yesterday, and Martha helped me with that.
We had the 5-foot by 10-foot trailer with sides loaded.
And we got $355.25 or something.
So, Ron, there will be a check in the mail tomorrow.
And I would like that to place in the Capital Equipment Fund.
Since we're down to $20-some in that, let's put it in there in case we have to purchase any laptops or things like that.
That will at least get it started.
The field day was good, except it wasn't good for me.
And I'm not going to repeat my song and dance about it, but you folks know why field day wasn't good for me.
But on the positive side, I really, really enjoyed seeing all the activity, all the visitors, all the QSOs made at the GOTA station.
And it was a very different kind of field day for us this year.
But a positive one and a real boost to amateur radio.
So, there you go.
W-3 MFB in the glorious metropolis of Thorndale, Pennsylvania.
This is W-3 GMS.
W-3 GMS in the group W-3 MFB.
Technically, Downingtown and Cowan Township.
But, you know, Thorndale is close enough.
Anyway, hey, Luke, doing a great job.
That's awesome.
Good to hear you out there.
And thanks for hosting.
Yeah, I'm with CR on that.
You know, field day was fun, but I haven't done much else.
I've been very happy to help the wife with her business down at Downingtown Vintage.
Autumn in the attic, upstairs, second floor.
Yeah, so we've been working on that for seven months now.
And we're starting to expand at the shop there.
We're getting a bigger area.
So, we've been doing that.
We've been doing that and getting product in and getting more shelving.
And mapping out how we want to do the layout of the space we're going to be in.
And so on and so forth.
And it's been busy, busy doing that this summer.
Prepping and bringing in merchandise.
And every Sunday night we do our live from 6 to 7 p.m. on Downingtown Vintage Facebook page.
We do a live.
So, her and I have been broadcasting live on that.
So, it's been busy, busy, busy.
But field day was fun for the weekend.
And see everybody and see the newcomers and operate and contribute averse and try to have a fun day.
But for that, that's it for me for right now.
We're just going to keep living the dream and keep on trucking.
So, over to NA3CW, W3MFB.
W3MFB, NA3CW.
Well, I've got a few things.
As we old people have said, we haven't really stuck our head up very high out of the heat this summer.
I'm dying to get down to Bob now that we're just about to get Labor Day over with here.
And people start staying home.
I'm going to get down there.
And the weather is beautiful for it.
So, I'm going to get down and do some sailing.
But as the things that have been done, memorable things.
Actually, the first one was in June.
I do sound for our church's Vacation Bible School.
And to play DJ for 125 kids wound up to the max is a hoot.
It really is.
I get to play it loud on VBS.
So, it's kind of like my annual rush.
I do sound much of the time during the year.
And we have two other people I rotate through.
But I end up with a little bit more than the others.
And you sort of have to keep things under control and keep things well balanced and not frighten the old ladies.
But, you know, all that sort of thing.
But VBS, it's all about the kids.
And I can rock.
Item two is, of course, field day.
And the Gota station.
That was very memorable.
The amount of traffic we had going through Gota.
People getting on the air the first time.
Some licensed, some not.
I think Lexi is going to be a killer contester when she grows up and gets a license.
And who knows about Victoria.
No, yeah, Victoria.
Anyway.
That was fun.
That was really good.
You know, the heat and work and all that sort of stuff.
Secondary.
But it was really fun to see all that traffic in there and young people and newbies.
Either newly licensed and never been on HF or hadn't been in a long time or whatever.
Item three is, I guess, was it two days ago?
Yeah.
We, working on Joe's tower, customizing bolts and doing all kinds of things to straighten out that corn curl of the tower.
We actually got all three sections to telescope in and out without a fight for the very first time ever.
And, yeah, there weren't any fireworks, but we were all very, very pleased at getting to that point.
So as far as the tower itself is concerned, we finally got it back up to zero.
And so now we can start putting positive things on it and get going on the final punch list.
But that was a very satisfying moment when that thing went in and out like a 66-foot drawer pull.
So, over to Jim.
A-F-3-Z, NA-3CW.
Okay.
Very good.
Thank you, Chuck.
Glad to hear that.
I don't know if anybody's calculated the value of your hours put into the project, but it's getting to be a valuable tower.
And I'm glad it's working for you.
A-F-3-Z here.
And good evening, everybody.
Thanks to Luke and Joe for co-hosting here tonight.
And to some extent, my summer has been like some others.
People ask me, well, in the beginning and now they're looking backwards, you know, what are you going to do this summer?
What did you do?
Well, nothing really.
Yes.
I want to do some camping, but I'd much rather do that in the fall and that sort of thing.
But two things that are sort of a highlight.
One is a, and some of you have heard me talk about this, a friend that I, we weren't real close growing up, but we both ended up working at Camp Horseshoe down there.
Chester County Council Camp.
He was working at the pool and pool director and stuff.
But anyway, so we, we go way back and we have connected, not just this year, but a year or so.
But this year we have started getting together, not weekly, but not too far off of that.
Matter of fact, tomorrow we're getting together and we meet at various golf courses.
He lives down near D.C. in Maryland.
And, of course, I live up here.
So we meet at various places in the middle and play golf together and done that a bunch of times this summer.
So it's been memorable.
And the other one is radio related.
Field day.
One of the things I did was to help when we were setting up Saturday morning, I guess it was.
Yeah, it wasn't there on Friday.
And we had a number of cables that had to cross the central area there.
And so I was helpful, hopefully, in getting them all together, you know, and getting them so that they were obvious.
I think we put some orange cones out to make sure people would see them.
And it worked quite well.
Nobody tripped over the cables.
That is until Sunday morning.
And I came walking by eating a dish of, I forget what it was called, but Sierra's White Pimble.
I had made it.
And I was walking by eating that and caught my foot on one of the cables.
And I took a face-first plant.
But fortunately, I caught myself.
The food didn't even spill out of the bowl.
The bowl was out of my hand, but it was still there and still edible.
So I finished that.
And a couple of scrapes.
But I was very fortunate.
But it was somewhat humbling and humorous that I, who was trying to be very careful about how we put the cables down there and how we marked them and stuff, I was the one that tripped over them.
I don't think anybody else did, but I sure did.
So it was sort of a spectacular pratfall or fall.
But I came out of it quite good.
So point of gratitude there.
So that's memorable in an embarrassing sort of way.
So, Bill, over to you.
KC-3-O-O-K-A-F-3-Z.
KC-3-O-O-K.
Thanks, Jim.
And Luke, good evening.
And good evening to everybody here on the roundtable tonight.
Good list.
Well, for me, I'll give you a couple things, Luke, that are memorable.
And quite honestly, this weather this year is memorable.
Because I don't remember another time it's been like this with the amount of heat and the amount of rain.
And that tied right into field day.
Why couldn't we have a field day on a weekend or a week like this week?
But the heat and humidity.
So that's one.
But the big thing for me, the most memorable thing for the summer, hasn't occurred yet.
And guess what it is?
And I have faith that it's going to happen yet this summer.
And that's to sit down in the lawn chair with my cup of tea and my cigar and just look at Joe's Tower up in the air.
That is going to be my most memorable moment of the summer.
So with that, let's see.
I think I turned it over to Leon, the dude up on the hill.
Hey, A3LH, KC3O.
Okay.
KC3H, KC3O.
I'm going to check in here for a minute and say hi to everybody.
I'm sitting here doing string beans listening to you.
So it's kind of funny thinking of field day and some of the things that happened.
But it was a great time.
KC3H, TZ.
All right.
We had to put some air in the tire.
And when I do that, guess what happened?
Somebody else grabbed the mic.
So we wouldn't have any dead air time.
Been out from and under the bus.
The wheel bagels look good.
The exhaust pipe is good.
Good.
Just a shape.
Had to tighten a fitting on the one brake chamber.
In other words, it was leaking a little bit of air.
And when you have air leaks, they only get worse in a truck.
So imagine if the bus would get worse with all the air leaks that it had.
So we had to put a 9-16-inch wrench in that thing and tighten that thing down.
Now it's not leaking anymore.
We put some soap around.
There's soapy water.
There's no bubbles coming.
So we're in good shape.
Lots of fuel, Luke.
You can run this bus where it's got to go.
Anyway, this is the AA3LH.
Yeah.
Our greatest thing this summer was both civilian and amateur radio related.
Well, first of all, we have a son and his family that most of you know live out in Colorado.
We went out there.
We decided we're going to go out.
There's some guys we hang out with on 80 meters.
We're going to go out to Colorado.
We can go ahead and go past their place and meet these guys.
So we met two families, two guys, radio operators on the way out.
That was great to hang out with them for a day.
We extended our trip going out west, but that was great.
And then we got out to Colorado in July.
Middle of July, I believe it was.
And got an education on propagation.
At 9 o'clock your time is 7 o'clock.
The sun is way up in the air.
There is no gray line.
And so we had to wait until 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock.
He would even hear three calls coming in.
We couldn't hear any.
We could hear four calls, five calls, zeros.
You know, sixes, sevens.
But threes just were not.
So we had to wait until you guys had more gray lines so we could jump and write your gray line.
While our sun was way up in the sky.
I thought this was not going to work.
Usually we go out in May.
That's not a problem.
Because we have gray line.
We have gray line more closer to the gray line at 7 o'clock than we do in July.
That's true.
Hang on a second.
That was my highlight.
Went out there, talked, set up.
Talked to you folks back home.
And that was great to do that.
Heard people.
And 40 meters.
We usually run 40 meters.
At the other day, running 40 meters again.
And 40 was just like we had a gray line problem.
The sun's way up in the sky.
It didn't work.
And we came back.
We said, well, we're going to come back to home a different way coming back.
Because Kaiser's Ridge.
Those of you who are familiar with Maryland.
Out to the West Virginia line.
Kaiser's Ridge.
Way up top there.
That high hill.
You're at 9,000 feet.
7,000 feet.
9,000 feet.
I forget how high it is.
And we're going to play radio.
Yeah.
We were out there playing.
Set up there playing radio.
From the highest spot.
I believe it is the highest spot.
To be in the Eastern Continental Divide.
I think it is.
Or the highest spot you get to with the road.
And we had fun doing that.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's see here.
Who did I write down here?
Okay.
Mr. D.
Okay.
I can't read my writing here.
BPI, AA3LH.
AA3LH, KD3, BPI.
Thank you, sir.
Ah, the summer.
This summer has been something else.
Something else, I tell ya.
But before I get to that, thank you, Luke, for hosting the net tonight.
I'm always glad to be on this net.
It's a nice sort of almost end to the week to get on and listen to everyone.
I do certainly enjoy it.
But yeah, getting to the summer.
This summer has been quite busy for me.
I started in June.
I got engaged to my now fiancé, who is named Summer.
And she is such a sweetheart.
And so we've been engaged for, I guess, three months now.
Almost three months.
And that's been quite a pleasant experience.
I'm here to tell ya.
And then, of course, later in the summer, in late July, I finally got licensed for ham radio.
So perhaps that's a more pertinent achievement to the group, being that we're speaking on ham radio.
And, man, it's been so much fun.
And, man, it's been so much fun.
It's been so much fun to get into this hobby and to get to know all you guys.
But the summer is rapidly coming to an end.
And it just makes me think of going to college.
And it makes me wonder, you know, if I'm missing something.
You know, what if I forgot to sign up for classes?
You know, that was only a short four years ago for me.
2021, I graduated.
And it was just, um...
But, yeah.
Yeah, a great summer.
Certainly a great summer.
Filled with remarkable things.
And, uh...
With that, I'll send it back to the net.
So, um...
Back to you, Luke.
KC-3 SCY.
This is KD-3 at BPI.
This is KC-3 SCY.
So, I guess I'll make some...
Some comments here.
So, W1RC, um...
Nothing.
Well, I guess...
And the same with UCR.
I guess, yeah, when you're retired, it's...
Not just the summer you get to do stuff.
It's all year round.
And Ron, good on field day.
Um...
John, good on doing your garden.
Yeah, my dad also has a...
A pretty big garden doing some of the things.
But I don't think it's as big as yours.
It seems like you got a lot of stuff going on there.
Charlie, good on your, uh...
Your gardening and doing your golf.
Um...
Joe, good on working on the riser with me.
And I really appreciate the help.
And the tower.
And field day.
Well, I wouldn't say you didn't like field day.
I say you didn't like what happened yet, field day.
That you found out later.
Um...
Let's see.
Mike, good on field day.
Oh, let's see who's next.
Uh, gym.
Um...
Yeah, camping's always good.
I do a lot of camping with the...
Boy Scouts in the...
The fall and spring.
So hopefully you enjoy that and field day.
Um...
Bill, good on the...
Yeah, working on the tower with Joe.
And he had a good point about the weather.
But some people would disagree.
But I...
I thought this summer was much, much, much cooler at the peak temperature than it was last year.
Last year, I feel like June through August is all 100 degrees every day.
But this year, it's...
This morning, it's 50 degrees.
It's been like that for three or four...
Not every day, but...
I remember three or four weeks ago, it was a similar temperature out in the very morning.
So I thought the weather was much nicer.
Um...
Leon, good on your Colorado trip and field day.
And I heard Jean in there so high.
And Simon, well, congrats on getting engaged.
And I think he said you recently got your license.
So that's good.
Well, I'll take, um, any other check-ins for the 985 roundtable.
Digital or, um...
Short time...
Not short time.
Um...
Digital or RF.
Please call now.
This is KC3SEY.
W3KZG.
I had W3KZG. Are there any other check-ins for the roundtable tonight?
Right before I turn it over to you.
Um, Joe, you asked about round two.
I guess I'll start round two, but then I'm going to leave because I still got to take my shower and do a couple other things.
But I need to remember to do that before the net next time so I can do round two.
So I really should begin that.
All right, over to W3KZG.
This is KC3SCY.
W3KZG. Thanks, Luke.
And you're doing a great job on the roundtable.
You've come a long way since a few years ago when you first started.
Uh, let's see.
What was good for this year?
Well, it was a few things for me.
Uh, one was, uh, getting to Hamvention.
Uh, me and my brother took a trip out to Hamvention.
It was the first time we'd ever been there.
Um, that was, uh, that was an experience.
It was good.
Um, wasn't as, uh, spectacular as I thought it was going to be.
But I don't know what kind of, uh, build-up I had in my head for it.
But, uh, definitely go back.
I don't think we'll go back this year, but we might wait a year or two and then go back.
Um, or, uh, three.
Um, field day was a good one.
Uh, first time attending field day.
Uh, and, uh, the other thing was, uh, acquiring the, uh, enclosed trailer that I got.
I'm still working on that.
Um, I just got the, uh, front fascio on the V-nose finished tonight.
Put a new diamond plate on it to, uh, cover up all the, the construction works in and damage that they caused on the front.
So, it pretty much looks like a brand new trailer on the front now.
Uh, I'm gonna end up, uh, taking it camping here in September and October.
Got some, uh, ATV riding trips.
I'm looking forward to those, uh, in the, uh, cooler months.
So, it'll be nice to not have to climb in the back of my truck to sleep.
So, it'll be nice to have a, uh, semi, uh, camper-ish, uh, trailer to sleep in.
Uh, other than that, uh, just been working hard at the, at the house here in the shop.
Uh, that's why I was late to the round table.
I was outside in the shop and lost track of time.
So, I'll, uh, I guess it goes, I don't know if, uh, Luke's gonna be back in there,
but I'll send it over to either, uh, Joe, W3GMS, or Luke, whoever's picking it up.
This is W3KZG.
Hey, Luke, pick it up.
Why?
All right, this guy, we'll get on the handvention and the field day.
Your first field day.
So, that's good.
So, like I said, I'll, um, I'll start the round two.
So, I still have, um, W1CRW, uh, W8CRW.
I mean, W1RC, W8CRW, W83V, W83KFT, N3ZRE, W3GMS, W3MFB, NA3CW, and AF3Z.
KC3OOK, um, AA3LH, KB, KB3BIP, and W3KZG for round two.
So, I'll turn it over to, um, Mr. Mike.
This is KC3SCY.
W1RC, are you around?
But I guess not.
It's over to CR, W8CRW.
Very good, Luke.
Round two.
This is the, uh, 73 round.
I'm going to say 73 to all.
Good hearing everybody's experiences.
I'll be listening out.
And with that, Ron, pick it up.
And I'm looking forward to seeing your mount for your vehicle to check out your radio.
Maybe I can get some inspiration from that.
WA3VE, WHCRW.
WHCR here in the fixed station, finally.
Excellent.
Again, Luke, thanks for doing the net control duties tonight.
Wonderful, wonderful job.
Once again, once again.
And I don't know if everybody else thinks so, but I certainly do.
This is your best one yet.
No doubt about it, my mind.
And reading the script really, really helps.
Definitely.
So my hat's off to you.
In fact, that leads me to another fun thing that happened this summer,
and that was getting to know Luke a little bit better.
The situation was that there's an annual clam bait for friends of Bill W2DGB.
And unfortunately, I think Joe was under the weather.
Well, he was under the weather, so he was originally going to take Luke, but instead he couldn't make the event.
So Joe asked me if I would mind.
I said, absolutely not.
I love it.
So Luke and I got a chance to have a good one-on-one time chatting, and I want to thank Jim, his dad, for allowing me to do that,
to take him up there and to bring him home.
And I thank Jim in person, of course.
But that was fun.
So the best part of that whole adventure, and Luke, I don't know if you feel this way, but we had fun.
Luke and I had fun kind of sneaking away from the crowd and rummaging through some of Bill W2DGB's old stuff.
That he had stored in his barn and in the workshop that was there.
We missed two other buildings, but we'll hit those the next time.
But in any event, they were open, so we didn't do anything out of school on this.
But those were areas that were open.
In fact, Bill's son, John, had invited us to take a look in those areas.
So I know Luke was thrilled.
I could tell.
He was looking at some of this stuff goes back to the early 1900s easily.
He had seen things that I knew nothing about.
For example, Grebe, G-R-E-B-E receivers and things like that.
Loose couplers.
I think we ran across at least one of those, Luke, if I'm not mistaken.
And all kinds of neat stuff.
So that was kind of a really interesting thing to do there.
And I kind of felt like I was back with my own boys.
We used to do some of the neat things when we used to explore around like that.
So that was just a lot of fun for me.
So, of course, I had a milkshake on the way back.
And I joked with Luke the other day when he was with Joe.
And Joe had bought him a milkshake.
I asked Luke on the air.
I said, well, which was better?
This is funny.
I said, which is better?
The milkshake that I bought you on the way back home from the countryside ice cream stand up there at 29 and 100 in Trexler Town?
Or the one that Joe bought you?
And Luke very astutely answered, they're about the same.
That's a good answer.
John, go ahead and pick it up.
And I'm around here for the duration.
WA3KFT to transmit.
WA3VEE.
WA3VEE.
This is WA3KFT.
Ah, very diplomatic answer there, Ron.
Yeah.
Otherwise, it's called foot in the mouth disease.
Oh, my, oh, my.
Before I forget it, I'm trying to send a QSL card to Simon, Kilowatt Delta 3, Boston, Papa, India.
And when I looked it up on QRZ.com, it said Westchester Pike, and there was no number.
So I have no idea of how to get my QSL card to him.
The post office sent it back to me.
So, Simon, give me a good mailing address when it's your turn.
Yeah.
This is the first time in a long time that I was able to stay at field day for the whole 24 hours.
My XYL died the first week of April this year.
So I didn't have homemaking chores to do in the middle of field day and so on like I did for the last couple of years.
So we got a chance to spend the whole 24-hour operating event at the event.
And I didn't forget to bring anything.
And that in and of itself is a real blessing.
And I did have a few other extra things that didn't get used.
But you never know.
But we did have a good time.
As I said before, I was a 40-meter phone operator and close to 100 QSOs.
So we really hammered them out, even though the radio was 30 or 40 years old.
I might have to use a newer radio next year.
I don't know.
With that, over to Charlie.
November 3, Charlie Romeo Echo from WA3, Kentucky Fried Turkey.
Go ahead.
Okay.
Well, I don't have anything more to add.
I'm getting ready to.
I've been playing some golf.
And it's getting time.
I need to take a nap.
So I'm going to say 73s and I'll turn it over to Joe.
WA3, GMS.
It's me, W3, GMS.
Excellent.
Enjoyed all the comments, Luke.
As everybody said, you did a superb job.
Very nice managing the group here.
And your brief summary on what they talked about.
All good.
I agree with Ron.
I think this was Luke's best roundtable session.
I mean, he's done some really good ones before.
But I think this was a shade above them.
Let's see here.
I had some comments.
I had some comments.
Luke commented on a lot of stuff.
First of all, Simon, KD3BPI.
Congratulations on your engagement to summer.
So that is fantastic news.
We wish you all the best and a wonderful, wonderful life together.
And also, kudos on getting your ham license back in July.
And I'm not sure.
I think I'm trying to remember the Ron stories.
But you may be the double lead that went to Delaware Tech for the first two years.
And you had Ron as an instructor.
And then you finished up the last two years at University of Delaware.
I may have you confused with somebody else.
But regardless, anyway, super on getting your ticket.
Keep upgrading.
And there's a lot to offer within the amateur radio big pie, as I call it.
Lots of slices.
And Scott, good to hear you tonight.
And it's a gorgeous trailer you've done.
You really did a nice job.
I remember the first day you got that trailer.
It was in our driveway.
I was looking at it.
And it looked good at field day.
And now I'm sure it looks even better.
So you have a blast for that.
It's nice, easy to pull.
You've got air conditioning.
You've got your generator.
So what's not to like?
And I'm sure you're going to find it much more comfortable when you go on your ATV riding trip.
coming up.
So cool.
Let's see here.
Do I have any?
Oh, I wanted to thank.
I wanted to thank.
Let's see here.
Gene and Leon for Cooking for Field Day, if I didn't say that earlier.
And I don't think I did.
And I wanted to really acknowledge how much we appreciated both of you, together with mainly Gene, I think, behind the stove up there at the field day site.
So very, very good.
And I think this year, due to scheduling on my part, Leon, I never got to work here when you were out in Colorado.
Of course, this time of year, I would have had to have been up.
What is there?
Two-hour time difference.
So I'd have to be up at 11 o'clock if there is a two-hour difference between here in the East Coast and Colorado.
I think California is three hours.
But that would have been a little bit late.
So you'll have to adjust your trip dates so it works out that we can have some nice QSOs.
Because we've certainly had them in past years.
There's no question about that.
Let's see here.
I guess Mr. Mike bailed.
Luke pretty much commented on everything else.
Oh, I know what I wanted to mention.
Joe, KC3MAI, is planning a trip for the group.
And you're going to be hearing more about it, if not tonight, tomorrow night.
But he's going to rent a van or something that will hold lots of people.
And I think it's in Pennsylvania.
But there's a Marconi celebration that's going to be happening.
And he gave me a lot of information on it.
I've just been busy.
I received his email yesterday.
So on the next day or so, you'll be hearing that.
And if you'd like to go, just sign up on the sheet.
And you won't have to drive.
You can just get on the happy bus and see this wonderful Marconi celebration that they're going to have.
I can't give you any more info, but the information will follow.
Let's see.
I was trying to think if there's any other high points of the road of something that I needed to comment on.
Oh, when you were talking about antennas and stuff, Chuck and I had a friend.
He's a silent key now, but he used to, up at the repeater site, he used to put balloon antennas up.
So he used to get these big weather balloons and put these monster vertical antennas up with these big weather balloons.
And they were a real treat.
So maybe when you go out to Colorado, you need to, Leon, maybe you need to look into getting some weather balloons and filling them up.
And you can set up some verticals.
Talk about balloons.
Another friend of mine is into hobbyist, amateur, radio-related balloon tracking.
And he just put up a balloon that's 60 inches in diameter.
And the last I heard a few days ago, he launched it from Maine, the coast of Maine.
And it was over China at 43,000 feet.
And he sent me all the telemetry rigs that they use on the balloon to track where it is.
And it's very, very impressive.
So if anybody's interested in that, send me an email, and I'll send you some of the details that Gary, W2INR, sent to me.
Okay.
Way too much for me.
So it goes down to Downingtown.
Yeah, I always thought where you were.
I always thought that was Thorndale, but I stand corrected on that.
I wonder where the line is as you head west on Business 30, Mike.
Curious of that, but we made a correction.
Downingtown.
W3MFB.
Everybody have a good evening.
W3 GMS.
W3 GMS, W3 MFB.
I think it has something to do with the school district zoning.
Because it's weird, because where I live on 340, off of 340, that's considered Downingtown address.
I have a Downingtown address.
But I pay Coastville taxes, so go figure.
But Cowan Township was pretty much where I am.
It's line for the school district.
The school district is eastbound is drawn all the way, like, let's put it this way.
St. Martha's is Cowan Township.
St. Martha's is Cowan Township.
St. Joe's is Cowan Township.
Even, like, up to 322 there at the edge of Edge Road is Cowan Township.
It's crazy.
So anybody in that area is paying Coastville taxes, which is really malarkey.
I mean, I could literally fire a BB gun at a nice angle and probably hit the top roof of the elementary school.
Not that I would.
I'm just saying it's that far away.
I mean, it's so close.
If I had kids, I would expect to go to Downingtown.
But it's not the case.
I don't have kids, so don't worry about it.
But, yeah, it's really weird.
I think it's school district based.
And why that's considered Downingtown, I'm not really sure either.
Either or.
But, anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just weird.
Hey, but where I used to live, at my mom's place, we had a Downingtown address.
Technically, Lionville.
Exit and phone number.
So, go figure.
I don't know who figures those out.
Yeah, yeah.
So, interesting, fun little roundtable tonight.
And I'll be listening out.
I'll be here.
Should have a nice Labor Day weekend.
Dry, they said.
I don't see any rain coming in until next Friday, probably.
But I can't trust it that far.
I know Chester County is still in a mild drought.
So, if you have a well, I'm sure you're all right.
But, you know, it's good to check into that.
Chesco website, they do, every month, they do their well testing for anybody that's on city water.
But, where they get the water from is from wells and reservoirs and all that.
So, they do their hike testing.
So, that's on the Chesco website.
So, not that we're that bad.
But, just so you know, a little information.
So, that's it for me.
I'll be listening out.
This is W3MFB.
Over to Chuck, NA3CW.
7-3.
Very good, Mike.
NA3CW.
Hey, I kind of gave up on keeping track of townships.
Not to mention school districts.
Yeah, anything just east of the Parksburg border is Coatesville.
But, I am in Octorera.
And, I believe we're more expensive than Coatesville.
And, this is for a product I have never used.
Other than just general, being around general public.
But, once in a while, they haven't done it lately.
But, a while back, they had a, the football team was going around selling loyalty cards or discount cards or something for some restaurants we don't use.
And, I was thinking, kid, we pay $6,000 a year to educate you guys.
I think we've done our bit.
So, crabby me and the football players.
Yes, I don't know if Luke is still within earshot.
But, great job tonight.
Great job tonight.
And, you know, definitely coming into his own.
He stepped away from that period of time when he never knew who was next in the list.
But, now he does.
So, great.
And, you know, running a net like that is a big deal.
So, what Ron said.
Let's see.
Other than Joe's work, we haven't had much time to work on ham radio.
Yesterday, I discovered the windshield washer on my car crapped out.
And, the pump is located right behind the bumper cover.
So, I have to take the whole nose off to get to this little pump that's the size of my, you know, fits in the palm of my hand for, you know, $20.
And, I was trying to do some electrical troubleshooting on it.
And, I thought, okay, I have a subscription to All Data DIY.
They have schematics.
So, look up the schematics.
And, when you push the button on the stick on the steering wheel, it tells the body control module to activate the washer relay.
So, I thought, okay, if I can get to the washer relay, I can tell, am I getting a signal from the body control module?
Am I getting voltage?
The fuse is good.
I found that.
And, you know, am I feeding voltage to the washer motor?
Well, something's awry because the washer relay ain't in the fuse box that they say it's in.
So, I don't know what to do on that one.
So, I guess what I finally did was I just decided to just order the part and hope that the other pump is bad.
And, someday when I get in the mood, I'll take the nose off the car to get in there.
What a pain.
So, I guess that's it for now.
Looking forward to getting that tower in a vertical position.
We have a number of things to do on our list.
But, again, just getting that thing to pull in and out like a kitchen drawer, that was a very big deal.
So, looking forward to it.
I know we're going to get plenty of help when the time comes to put it up.
So, we carry on.
So, 7-3 to everybody, and I shall listen out.
And over to Jim, AF3Z and A3CW.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Chuck.
AF3Z here.
I don't have too much more to add tonight.
And it's been good listening.
I've been sort of tinkering with an external hard drive here while I've been listening.
No guitar tonight.
And so, anyway, good to hear everybody.
And that's about it.
My mind's kind of blank.
So, Bill, down to you.
KC-3-O-O-K, AF3Z.
KC-3-O-O-K.
Luke, if you're still listening, I echo what everyone else said.
Although, you know, Joe, I think Luke's first one was pretty super as well.
And I have to bet that you have a recording of that.
But that'll be interesting to listen to over time.
I don't have much else going on here.
Actually, didn't really get much done here today at all.
One of those days where I wasn't in control of my schedule.
But we did get the lab bench finished, set up in place, and got all the equipment up on it.
And I actually found I had a few more things than I thought.
And thanks to Ron, I'm going to have at least one more thing to put on the bench.
So I'm kind of excited about that.
And the great thing is I got all that stuff moved out of the shop.
And that is the goal.
Get this room done and get all this stuff out of here.
But I guess that's about it for me.
So everybody have a great night and a great day tomorrow.
And I'll be listening out, and I'll say 7-3.
And I'll turn it over to the turkey up there on the hill.
Gobbler's knob.
A-A-3-L-H.
K-C-3-O-O-K.
Roger, roger, Mr. O-O-K.
You are okay, all right?
The big, fat gobbler on the knob.
The king of gobbler's knob.
Yeah.
All right.
I want to say this.
So we need to understand.
And most of the time when we go to Colorado, we go out in about the middle of May.
But this year, the middle of May, they had bad weather.
It had high winds, lots of rain.
And so we kept putting it off and filing in July.
They said, well, come on out.
Now it's nice and hot.
The rain is over.
Things are drying up.
Come on out.
So that's one of the reasons we went out in July this year.
The other reason is they had a rodeo out there where they invited us to go see it.
Real rodeo.
Real cowboys.
And the real deal.
I just wanted to say that.
But usually we go out in May.
But because the traveling is nicer.
It's cooler to travel.
Of course, the AC and the van work wonders.
You know, the AC kept the van in decent shape as long as the engine ran.
Turn the key off.
It became an oven.
But we don't want to go out in July or August because of the hot weather.
But this year, it had inclement weather.
Really bad weather.
The snows were late.
And they had heavy rain.
And so we didn't go out until July.
And I was not aware of the fact that I should have taken 20 meters along out because we ran hamsticks.
And did it before and it worked fine.
But usually we call in at 8 o'clock or so or 7.30 or 8 o'clock.
We can hit real good with 40 meters.
So we went out prepared to run 40 unaware of the fact that in July, that sun is way up.
And the sky at 9 o'clock our time here.
Yeah, 7 o'clock airtime, that sun is up.
At 10 o'clock this time, the sun's still up.
But we can jump in your gray line then.
That's what we were doing.
But that's what that was all about.
It was the weather that we went out late.
All right.
It goes over to Mr. Simon.
Your turn.
This is AA3LH.
AA3LH, KD3BPI.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Really cool to hear about those trips.
I tell you.
And thank you to you, Joe, W3GMS, for your congratulations.
That means a lot.
We are really, like Summer and I, we're looking forward to starting, you know, trying to figure out what we want to do long term.
And alongside that is buying a house.
And so it's really interesting to hear about the different tax levels throughout the townships here in PA.
I have heard that they vary widely.
But, of course, you don't think of the variance too hard until you hear a dollar sign behind it or in front of it, as the case is.
It makes me really want to look closely at what school district the houses are in.
I can't remember who it was.
I should have written it down.
But I remember a couple people before me in this great discussion.
We're talking about the school taxes.
And, you know, you don't really use them.
But you've got to pay them anyway.
And unfortunate in a way.
But I guess it's the price.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I won't say one way or the other.
Because I haven't paid them yet.
But, and yeah.
Yeah, Joe, to answer your question.
I had two years with Ron as an instructor at Dell Tech.
And he was really my first exposure to amateur radio with a K3 DTS at Dell Tech.
And it was, I mean, life changing sounds dramatic.
But it was amazing to see a fun hobby alongside electronics.
You know, I grew up with cars.
Cars were the hobby of choice of both my dad and his brothers.
So I became very well versed in that.
But then Ron is like, oh, hey.
Here's something cool you can do with electronics.
And, well, the more I thought about it, the more attractive it became.
And here I am now.
Happy to say.
I did work with, I believe you would know this fellow, a very accomplished fellow, Daniel DeSantis.
I had the privilege of working with him for about a year at a company in Newark called Phase Sensitive Innovations.
But it was this really cool crossover when I started talking to him.
And we both realized we knew the great medic heavy-
Standby.
And so there it was.
And it made me really think long and hard.
Now I had to get some motorcycling out of my system.
And had to have a couple of project cars.
But here I am now.
And I'm sad that I waited this long.
But I'm glad to be here now.
That's for sure.
And, but yeah.
And KFT, are you still listening with NetControl's permission?
I'll just see if you're still out there.
WA3 KFT.
I'm still here.
Go ahead.
All right.
If you have a pen and paper handy,
I am happy to give my address out.
My fiancee, Summer, requested that I hide it from QIZ.
Not out of not trusting people.
Because, of course, if you look me up on the FCC, you can still find it.
And that's just a fact.
Until I convert to a P.O. box.
But, yeah.
If you have a pen and paper ready, I'll give it out real quick.
So, let me know.
Come back when you're ready.
Ready to copy.
All right.
Here we go.
191 Melissa Lane, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 19382.
Copy that.
Okay.
Okay.
Spell the name of the lane.
Over.
All right.
Let me brush up on my phonetics here.
I can't think of M.
So I'll just start with M, Echo, Lima, India.
What's S?
Well, S, S, Alpha.
I think that's it.
I really should have a chart of these phonetic letters in my car.
I could make them up, as I've heard you do sometimes.
But basically, I'll just go through it again.
M-E-L-I-S-S-A.
You copy?
Got it.
Got it.
Very good.
Mike, Echo, Lima, India, sugar, sugar, alpha.
Come on.
That may not be an official alphabet, but it works.
K-3-B-P-I, WA-3, King, Fox, Tango.
West Chester, I believe, right?
WA3-KFT, that is correct.
West Chester, PA, 19382.
Technically, East Goshen.
If you look at those pesky township lines.
But here I am in West Chester.
And thank you to everyone on the net for bearing with me for that.
I just wanted to make sure John got it.
You know, I'm eager to get my QSO card collection going.
With that, I will pass it back to net control.
If I'm not mistaken, it would be Joe, W3, GMS.
This is KD3, BPI.
I'll pick it up, and then I want to turn it over to Scott and see if Scott's still in there.
W3KZG, Small World Simon.
Daniel DeSantis was the first kid that I mentored in electronics and engineering and stuff like that.
He had just gotten his license, his tech license, and got on the repeater.
And we are very, very good friends.
And I spent a lot of time with Daniel.
including helping him and giving him all the parts to build a kilowatt AM transmitter,
which he had as a senior project at his high school.
And, yeah, I'm familiar with Dr. Prather and the company that he has and Daniel's work there.
And I was just talking to Daniel a few days ago on the phone,
but he's now up at MIT getting his PhD, still doing a lot of work in photonics and stuff like that.
They're collaborating with Caltech on a big project.
So we keep really, really a fairly close contact with Daniel.
He's doing great now.
He switched groups at MIT, and that's really worked out very, very well for him.
And I retired at 56, retired electrical engineer from Burroughs and then Unisys Corporation.
So that's my give back at retirement.
So I've been doing it.
In fact, Luke is my youngest one that I'm currently mentoring, and there was a bunch of them in between.
So that's just a little bit of the background on that.
And, Scott, you still with us?
W-3 KZG.
You're the tail gunner.
W-3 G-MS and the 985 Roundtable.
I'm still here.
W-3 KZG.
The other thing I wanted to, big thing that happened this summer was the gift of the tower from the Silent Key.
I can't remember his call sign.
But everybody that helped take that down on that Saturday, that was a good time.
I really enjoy doing stuff like that.
Mechanical stuff, tearing, you know, the logistics and the mechanics of taking things apart and transporting them.
It's something I enjoy doing.
And if you're still listening, Bill, I know what you're saying.
I, the other day I had the welder out and I welded two pieces of channel together and made an extended boom for my little, my crane, my little cherry picker crane.
That we'll use to set the base of the tower in place whenever you guys are ready for that.
So that's all ready.
On my end, I just need to know a day and I can load up and we'll get that thing in the sky probably within an hour or two.
I don't see it taking too long with the crew that we have to get that thing at least standing vertical.
But that's all I'm going to say.
I'm going to say 7-3.
I got a four-day weekend.
I took tomorrow off and I'm off Monday.
So I'm going to enjoy the weather and get some stuff done around here.
And on Monday, I think me and my brother, Dylan, are going to go riding ATVs up in Shemokin, Pennsylvania.
And just make a day trip out of it.
Leave early in the morning.
Come back.
So everybody enjoy the weekend coming up and the holiday.
And I'll say 7-3.
Have a good night.
Over to you, Joe.
W-3 GMS.
This is W-3 KZG.
7-3.
I've been in Shemokin.
Yeah.
I know you.
I remember seeing pictures before.
You've got a great fraternity of friends that really enjoy doing that.
So I think the weather is going to be really, really great on Monday.
So that's that.
I've got to tell you guys, I was handling this estate sale and the situation was that the family would take no money for anything.
So I had the very difficult job of picking who got what.
No flippers in the picture or anything like that.
So Scott, W-3 KZG has been so good with donations to the 985 family that we have here that there was no question in my mind who was going to get that tower.
And it was a blast going over to W-3 ORU, Windsor Drive, and taking it down.
And, of course, the master was there as well, Bill KC-3-0-OK.
And, Bill, when that tower stands vertical, you know those relaxation chairs that we sit in that you say that you can't sit too long in?
I'm going to take one of those, and I'm going to get some gold spray paint, and I'm going to spray one of those bad boys gold.
And we're going to sit you out in the middle of the backyard.
And I know you never take any drinks that I offer you, so make sure you have plenty of iced tea.
And you sit in the gold chair, and you just ponder that tower in the vertical position between 89.9 degrees and 90.1 degrees of vertical.
So, anyway, that's that.
Any other final comments before we shut this number down?
W-3 G-M-S.
KFT.
John.
You mentioned ORU.
Is he a silent key or what?
Dick's been a silent key for probably six months now.
It was in QST and everything.
Dick and I worked for the same company.
We both worked for Burroughs before Burroughs bought Sperry, and it became Unisys.
I go way back to the early 70s with W-3 ORU.
He was an engineering technician there.
And when Building 3, which had the post office job, automated post office sorters and readers and all that kind of stuff,
when they got slow or they missed the contract, we picked Dick up in one of our engineering groups in Building 8.
And I got to know Dick, an outstanding individual.
So, and he was also one of the Frog Radio Club members.
So, limited to 12 members in total.
So, yeah, he became a silent key.
And I don't have his obituary in front of me.
But I would say, oh boy, I don't know, I'm going to guess maybe four months ago or something like that, John.
Go ahead.
Because Dick was very active in our 10-meter group, 28435.
And I want to say, he just disappeared.
I know that his, I had visited his house a number of years ago.
And his shack was in the basement.
And I understood that he was having trouble going up and down stairs and so forth.
So, that kind of put him off the air for a while.
But I did not know that he had passed away.
Thank you very much.
WA3KFT.
And I had the pleasure of finding homes for all his radio gear, including tower and everything.
And that's where that big hunk of wire came from that we took down to the scrap deal.
And that money will be donated to the field day fund, the 985 field day fund.
So, yeah, great guy.
Lived a very long life, very good life.
And Barb, his widow, she's now living out in Carmel, Indiana, close to their son, Paul, and all the grandkids and things like that.
So, it so happens I'm going to give her a call tomorrow just to find out.
But a very, very nice home that she got out there.
And she's close with family.
The hardest thing was leaving her church group here, which both she and Dick were very, very involved in so many aspects of their church.
And I'm trying to think their denomination.
It doesn't matter.
So, anyway, that's the deal.
But, boy, did he have wire.
We filled, as I said, a 5-foot by 10-foot trailer up with sides of wire.
Sheesh.
And all the rest of the equipment's been dispersed.
It's all in good homes.
And I think everybody's happy.
Last call.
Any additional comments?
W3BPR.
Go ahead, Simon.
W3GMS.
Yeah, thank you, Joe, for the update on Dan.
I knew he had gone up to MIT to study under the Ph.D. program.
But I've lost touch with him a little bit, unfortunately.
I still see him on Facebook, Once in a Blue Moon.
But that's really cool to hear that he's doing a lot of cool stuff.
And that makes perfect sense.
I remember working with him once, and it was just, wow, what a guy.
And it's really cool that you had a part in, you know, working with him and teaching him and mentoring him.
That's really cool.
That's really cool.
But anyway, just wanted to say that back to you.
KD3 BPI.
He's a very capable individual.
And it's been really, really fun and personally very satisfying to be, to watch him grow so rapidly.
And he's just amazing.
We're going to be reading about Mr. DeSantis someday.
I have no doubt in my mind.
So anyway, I'll mention your name to him the next time I'm talking to him on the phone.
He's really busy at MIT.
He doesn't have a lot of, like, free time.
Because at MIT, he gets a stipend there.
And the stipend is quite a lot of money.
And that pays for his housing.
And it pays for the tuition.
It pays for everything.
But at MIT, you not only do the academia work, but you also do research work for companies that come to MIT to want to have research work done that they don't have the capability of doing in their own organization.
So he's, like, double-hitting.
I think he has all his Ph.D. courses out of the way.
But he is heavily involved in research now.
And a lot of the research that he's doing, companies give MIT lots and lots of money for that research.
So it's a very long graduate program there.
You know, but it's done for a reason.
And it also helps financially, too, when everything is being picked up.
Okay.
Well, thank you all.
Sorry for the dangling participles at the end.
But it's nice to have closure on some of these things and have some one-on-one.
And, Simon, if I didn't already say it, certainly welcome to 985.
So let's see here.
Thanks to all the stations for checking in to the 985 roundtable.
Finally, we hope to hear you again on Monday evening at 8 p.m. during the 985 workbench.
This concludes the roundtable for tonight.
Feel free to stick around and keep the conversation going.
Have a good night and a great weekend.
7-3.
This is W3GMS.
Now clear.
KD3BPI.
You still on here, Ron?
Simon, I was actually expecting a call from you.
KD3BPI.
WA3VE.
How was West Virginia?
Oh, goodness gracious.
What a time.
What a time.
You will not believe it.
They allow ham radio repeaters in West Virginia.
I did not believe it.
But before I left, I thought, all right, I'm going to check repeater book and to see around the surrounding area, right?
You know, so Pocahontas County is where Durban.
So it's Durban going from north to south, Durban, Green Bank, and then Cass.
Cass.
And I looked up, you know, Durban and Pocahontas County.
And there were a couple repeaters, so I thought, all right, they must be pretty far away.
And I hit them up as I was driving in, and I got a couple replies.
And apparently, they have an agreement with the Green Bank telescope such that these repeaters are allowed because the contingency is you must turn it off if the telescope asks you to.
If the staff there say, we need you to turn your repeater off, you must turn it off.
And then additionally, the other thing they said, which I thought was very interesting, cell phone towers are not allowed because of the, like, frequency spread, whereas, like, the amateur radio is easier to filter.
Something like that.
Now, it made sense to me, but I wasn't sure, you know.
I don't know if, I mean, I've heard it said that cell phones use a frequency spectrum.
So it made sense.
But, yeah, so I made a couple of contacts on a couple of repeaters on two meters.
Not much, no 70 centimeters.
It's two meters and, like, 220.
So 1.25 meters.
And then there was the railroad.
And, man, that was really cool.
But I'll send it back to you.
KD3 BPI.
Very good, Simon.
KD3 BPI.
W A3 V E E E.
Oh, very good.
Well, that's an education for me.
I thought it was a 24-7 thing.
But evidently, when they want to look at something or they want to take some measure, some RF measurements, radio astronomy, basically, whatever their activities are,
they must have certain targeted things and times.
from what you're saying.
That's very interesting.
And cells start generally around the 800 megahertz region.
And then there's also generally 1.9 gigahertz.
And now with 5G, there are a whole slew of very high in the EHF and SHF regions.
I think the highest allocated is 70-some gigs.
I don't know how in the world that would actually work with any kind of propagation.
That isn't any kind of line of sight or reflective.
But in any event, that's how they get the speed is it's the, of course, you probably know it's what's called M-I-M-O, multiple input, multiple output.
So they stream things in parallel on different bands.
So, yeah, that's kind of the implied spectrum thing, too.
They're using multiple bands to get data across to a particular site or a particular customer.
So what they probably do is, with the radio astronomy, this is all speculation.
And I'm just surmising what they're doing there.
The stuff they're interested in is much, much higher frequency than what we're doing.
So, and that, of course, would be in the cell area.
And they can't control the transmissions at all with cell, obviously.
They can't do it with ham radio either.
But, again, the higher frequency stuff certainly seems like what they're more interested in there.
That's why they're probably limiting the cell stuff.
But that is really cool.
I've been to that part.
I've been north of there to Blackwater Falls.
Blackwater Falls Lodge, oh, back in the 70s, way, way back when.
And that was pretty spectacular in itself.
Been to, I think, Spruce Knob.
I think that's the highest mountain in West Virginia.
And I think that's 4,300 or 4,400 feet.
But I've never been near the radio astronomy area down there.
But tell me about the Cass Scenic Railroad, because that would appeal to you as a mechanical enthusiast because of the engine design.
Go ahead.
You are exactly right, Ron.
I had always, I remember as a child, my parents had a VHS tape of a couple of scenic railroads on the West Coast.
And one of those was an old logging railroad, which used these so-called Shea locomotives.
They named that for the inventor.
And he was looking to design a locomotive that could function well on crudely built logging railways.
And he came up with the Shea locomotive, which is a marvel of late 19th century mechanical engineering.
It's not like a normal steam train, I think.
I think I put this in the text, but I'll sort of reiterate it because I wasn't really sure if I explained it well.
Because, you know, on a normal steam train, your pistons are towards the front.
And they drive the big traction rods, which then, you know, turn the big drive wheels.
It's all at the front.
And your two front wheels, your front trucks, they sort of idle there and just bear weight.
But they don't drive.
And you just have your main drive wheels.
They usually call it, like, a 2622 or a 2642.
And that's, you know, you have your two idler trucks on the front, six driven, and then four behind, and then four for your tender, what have you.
For the Shea locomotives, it's all of the wheels are driven, every single wheel.
And the way they accomplish that is with vertical pistons, vertical steam pistons, and this large axle that runs the whole, well, it doesn't run the whole side of the locomotive.
It's in four pieces.
And they have these large square shafts, which act like splines on an axle.
Or, you know, like a volume knob on a potentiometer.
You know, same principle.
And so it's all driven, but it's flexible.
So, you know, it can still go around pretty tight turns.
And it's able to maintain that power transmission.
And, man, what a crude way of doing things.
Every gear is exposed.
Every bearing is open.
Nothing is sealed.
They have to oil it.
They had to oil it twice in the eight-mile ride.
They had to oil it at the start, and then they stopped halfway through, oiled it again.
Because it's just all open.
You know, none of the, no sealed bearings, no oil bath, lubrication.
Just a guy walks up and down with an oil can.
And, man, oh, man, what a really cool, it was so cool to see it still in operation.
And, um, but yeah, yeah, but back to you.
KD3B.
That is phenomenal.
That is phenomenal.
I'd forgotten the name, but thanks for reminding me.
Shea.
Mm-hmm.
That is, that is pretty cool.
Excellent.
I, I, uh, had videos when, uh, when my sons were, uh, when you met Chris at Valley Forge,
at the Ham Fest of Valley Forge, at Kimberton.
Um, but when both of them were growing up, we had videos of, of, uh, scenic railroads and
things like that.
And one of them was indeed the KS Scenic Railroad.
And that's something I'd never got down to see yet, but that's, that's definitely pretty
cool.
Well, I'm glad you got your, uh, mechanical fix, too, on the, uh, trip down there.
That's great.
That is really great.
And good explanation on how that worked.
I never really understood how that really worked.
And, and, uh, had forgotten the difference.
It's been years, it's been decades now.
I looked at that stuff, like I said, with the boys, um, were boys then, uh, I didn't realize
the, uh, didn't remember the difference.
Um, the piston in the front with the, with the classic and then these, uh, individual pistons,
but interesting with the articulation.
And yes, uh, the first exposure I ever got to the, uh, numerical description of the wheelbase,
if I'm getting that right, was from the old electric locomotives to GG1s.
I was, I've always been a fan and, uh, a warm spot in my heart for railroads.
Probably because when I was born in Wilmington, down in the Polish section of Wilmington, that
was within three blocks of the Northeast Corridor.
And I still remember to this day what it was like.
And this is, oh, heavens, we're looking 70 years now.
That's how long ago I remember this.
Uh, watching the trains there with, with my mom.
Um, you know, she'd walk me down to the park and, uh, you know, we would, it's only a couple
blocks away and we'd watch the trains for hours.
And, um, uh, I still remember it's probably a, probably another reason why I'm an engineer
today because I was so fascinated at a very early age and seeing these massive, massive
locomotives.
And they made a lot of noise and they, they arced and they sparked.
And that's why they blow the horn as they were coming into Wilmington station down the road
a ways there and so on and so forth.
Just, just spellbound watching these things.
Uh, still fascinated to this day that that, that locomotive, I think it weighed 32 tons.
That could actually in itself, move itself besides the whole train, uh, behind it.
So, still, I'll still maintain that fascination, no doubt about it.
KD3 BPI WA3 VEE.
What a good memory.
I'm just looking at the GG1 right now and I've only ever seen it in pictures and in a couple
of old black and white, uh, well, no.
I've seen it in both black and white and color compilations.
It was at that, well, let me see, let me see right now.
I'm looking at the picture.
It says 1934 to 1943 constructed.
And I'm sure that they used it for a number of years after that.
Man, it just looks like such a, oh, it's 1983 was the last the GG1 was retired by New Jersey
Transit.
Wow.
Isn't that awesome?
That's just, I can see why that would put you towards engineering.
Seeing those going up and down the tracks.
Oh, man, it's nothing like the diesels nowadays.
So sterile.
The diesel electrics.
I understand from an engineering perspective why they're used, but, but the, those old electric
ones.
And then that, the steam trains.
They say nothing of the steam trains.
Stinky.
A good stinky, though.
If you ask me.
It's that, that sulfur coal and the, the, the gear oil that just smells so terrible, but
you know what it is.
And it, it warms my heart.
I will admit.
I don't know if it would warm anyone else's, but there it is.
But yeah, good memory.
I had forgotten that you were born in Wilmington in the Polish section.
So that must have been, if I'm not mistaken, on Maryland Avenue?
Maryland Avenue, 4th Street region?
Now, I, it's been a while since I've talked to my uncles about the old divisions of Wilmington.
But, but is that right?
Like Maryland Avenue, 4th Street?
Come back.
Close.
Uh, yes.
Maryland Avenue.
Um, what, what, it's funny because the, uh, how you can tell the difference between someone
like myself, um, who was born and raised in Wilmington back in the, was born in 1951, Christmas time.
Uh, so someone who was, there goes my side controller, right?
Cat's up on a console here.
Anyway, um, someone who was born in the 50s, 60s, lived in Wilmington, 70s, and so on.
And someone who was not necessarily from Delaware because they will refer to the streets, some
of the main routes in, uh, in Delaware by route numbers.
And we original, uh, purebred, if you will, uh, Delawareans know them by the name.
Route 4 is Maryland Avenue, and that goes all the way through down, uh, down Route 7, uh,
down Stanton and then continues past Christiana Hospital and all.
That was Stanton-Ogletown Road.
That's what we remember it as, rather.
They didn't have the route numbers back then.
That's a relatively recent thing.
Kirkwood Highway Route 2 was another one.
We always knew it as Kirkwood Highway, not Route 2.
So in any event, um, yes, Maryland Avenue, if you looked at, Maryland Avenue kind of runs
northeast, northeast, southwest, if you looked at the southern portion of it, that was Browntown.
That's the section I was born.
That's between Maryland Avenue and the railroad, the northeast corridor.
Beyond the northeast corridor today is where the, um, uh, what is it called?
The city, uh, commercial center, the Blue Rock Stadium and all that.
That used to be where Delmarva Power had their gas works and Dravo shipyards in World War II, uh, Riverfront.
That's what I'm thinking.
Uh, Christina Riverfront.
Uh, that's where Dravo, uh, shipyard used to be.
And they still have a couple cranes that they kept down there.
They restored that are actually on the, uh, on the, uh, part of the, uh, uh, notable restaurants
and everything else down there on, on the riverfront.
Uh, but that, that's what that's all about.
That's actually where I learned to drive three on a column and a 49 Chevy.
So my dad used to take me down there, even though we were living in Ashley Heights at the time,
not in Browntown any longer, but we would go down to Dravo's because there was no traffic.
And plenty of stop signs.
So I got, I got to learn how to drive a, drive a stick at 15 and a half.
Go ahead.
Another great memory.
Wow.
That's so cool that drive a three on the column.
I've only heard of those in legend.
And seen, uh, seen some pictures, never had the pleasure of driving one.
It seemed like an innovative solution, to be honest.
Um, I had my 1983 F-250.
Uh, that thing had the four on the floor and it had a bench seat, but you couldn't really use
the middle seat for obvious reasons.
You had to be very close with that person in the middle seat.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Um, and the four on the floor, uh, but the three on the column.
Um, yeah.
What a cool, what a cool memory.
And Dravo's shipyard.
I'll have to remember that name.
I always, I knew that there was some shipyards down there.
What I remember my dad talking about was, um, the old train yards down there.
I think it was Amtrak and probably Pennsylvania Railroad had a yard there and it's at its heyday.
What a large railroad that was.
Um, but, um, he talks about that and the leather tannery.
Um, now my dad never lived in Wilmington per se.
Um, but he, he worked in the city for a number of years and his dad before him worked for the Atlas Chemical Company.
Um, so they were very familiar with the city and, uh, and the industry there.
Which it's very sad that that industry is gone.
I think it's a great loss to the city.
But, um, what can you do?
Times change.
Times change.
But, um, yeah.
Very cool.
Very cool indeed.
And I guess, uh, Ashley Heights.
Whereabouts is that?
I've never heard that neighborhood before.
Bigging up some really good memories here, Simon.
Leather tannery.
Leather tannery.
Leather tannery.
Oh, yes.
Uh, there was one at 4th and Monroe.
It was called the Allied Kid Company.
You're going to freak when I tell you this.
Uh, Allied Kid Company.
As in goat, uh, the offspring of a goat, a kid.
And also, they had a sister plant in, at 5th and Church on the east side of Wilmington.
You go down 4th Street to the east when you cross over to Christina River.
Uh, just before you get to what was called the 3rd Street Bridge, that would have been, uh, and you go up a block.
You run to Church Street, you turn left there, and 5th and Church was the other plant.
Well, my father spent 40 years working at the 4th and Monroe Leather tannery.
And, um, he used to take the bus every, every once in a while to, to work.
And when he, the place was so smelly, he never had a, never had a problem getting a seat on the bus because everybody would move away from him, as he said.
And, um, closer to home, in 1969, I graduated from Slazianum and I was ready to go to, to college.
Actually, 1970, the summer of 1970, a year after I graduated from Slazianum, I ended up going to, uh, to work at the, uh, the, uh, 11th, 11th and Poplar plants.
So, Allied Kid had three plants in Wilmington.
And I worked two summers there for a buck 75 an hour.
And that's how, in those days, you could actually pay.
It was, college was cheap enough.
Deltech was cheap enough.
I was getting my two-year degree in electronics.
Um, little did I know at the time I would be doing full circle and be teaching there many, many, many decades later.
But in any event, um, yeah, I actually worked there.
It was a horrific place to work, but it, uh, I learned a lot because I worked in the maintenance department.
So, it got me very exposed to a lot of the mechanical stuff.
Very interesting.
And we'll come back to the Chevy thing here in a second.
W3KZG.
W3BPI.
W-A-3-V-E-E.
Good conversation.
Uh.
Scott, come on in.
Oh, yeah, you're going to love this.
Um, let me, let me introduce you guys for a second.
Let me see if I have it.
Simon Scott.
W3KZG.
That's another interesting story.
His brother is Dylan, um, K3DZM.
I worked with their grandfather at HP.
And Scott is a great car guy.
So, Scott, W3KZG, meets Simon, one of my former students at Dell Tech, now at Double E.
K3BPI.
Scott, go ahead and pick it up.
I've been listening to you guys talk here.
Uh, nice to meet you, Simon.
Uh, can't wait to meet you in person sometime.
Maybe at the next breakfast.
But, uh, I don't know, the dog wants attention as soon as I start talking.
Ha, ha, ha.
Isn't that how it goes?
I know, Ron, you know the same thing with the cats.
Settle down.
Anyway, um, Ron, I wanted to ask you quick, uh, what's your plans this weekend?
I know Monday we're going to go up to Shemokin and we'll be coming back through in the afternoon down through Morgantown.
And I can detour over to Westchester to grab that coax.
Or I'm off tomorrow.
I was thinking of going for a ride and maybe swinging by and getting it tomorrow.
Um, all, all, uh, all depends on you if you're, if you're going to be around.
If not, no big deal.
I just, uh, had the time and just wanted to pick your brain.
Uh, this is W3KZG.
Good, Scott.
Well, tomorrow and Saturday are, are not good for me.
I'm, I'm in, I'm in Newark tomorrow and also in Bear.
I have, uh, breakfast, sort of a brunch with the folks at First State Amateur Radio Club down there.
Again, heavy ties to Delaware.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
I used to do it all the time when I worked at college because it was right down the road.
But now I have to come down from here.
But then after that, I'm going to stop by, uh, my brother-in-law's place, take some measurements for a cabinet and also a soffit.
So that's tomorrow.
Saturday, I'm at the Polish Festival up in Doylestown.
So Sunday or Monday would work fine.
I don't expect to be going very far.
I'm probably going to be working on this console for, uh, for my van.
So, Simon, bear, bear with us one second.
Let's get this arrangement squared away here.
But, yeah, we'd love to have you stop by.
And, uh, uh, yeah, you could, uh, the coax is in the garage.
I moved it off to the side so it doesn't get damaged in any way, shape, or form.
It's well in, well away from any arm.
But I need to, uh, I will be needing to get that out of there.
So, yeah, if you want to swing by either Sunday or Monday, uh, I think you said Monday is better.
That, that would work.
Uh, let me turn it back to you for that, uh, for that arrangement.
W3KZG, end the group.
WA3VEE.
Like I said, we'll be coming down through Morgantown and coming down that way.
And I can, uh, instead of coming down Route 10, I can shoot over to Westchester that way maybe.
Uh, we'll see what happens.
I'll play it by ear.
Um, uh, but if it happens, I end up being up that way maybe Sunday or Monday.
Or Sunday, I'll, uh, I'll send you a text or call you.
But, uh, I'm not sure what times Monday.
We'll be coming home.
We'll be riding, uh, ATVs.
And whether we'll even feel like wanting to take a detour, we might be falling asleep at the wheel, if you know what I mean.
But it'll be me and Dylan in my truck with the trailer and the quads on the back.
So, um, we'll play it by ear.
Uh, if we're gonna swing by, I'll definitely text you ahead of time, uh, before we leave up there.
Um, it just all depends how the day goes.
Um, so, uh, we'll just, so.
But I'm gonna jump off here.
I gotta deal with this dog.
So, um, but Simon, it was good, uh, good to meet you on the radio.
And, uh, be good to meet you in person.
Uh, definitely a good conversation listening to you guys talk for a little while.
And, uh, yeah, I'm, uh, I'm definitely into cars.
I'm more into cars than I am, I think, anything else.
But, uh, let, I'll let, uh, Ron take it back over.
This is W3KZG.
Good, uh, Scott.
And, uh, Simon, thanks for the indulgence here.
I'll turn it right back over to you here shortly.
But all very good.
Uh, if Monday doesn't work, that's perfectly fine, too, because here's the alternative.
Uh, I'm going to be dropping off a spectrum analyzer.
Um, that does need some work, but the beam in it is phenomenal.
Um, so, I think with a little cleaning, um, Bill OOK should get that working pretty well.
And that's the addition he was referring to on his bench.
So if I make a trip down to his place next week, uh, I will let you know.
And I can drop this off and probably leave it in front of your garage door there, uh, in a, in a garbage bag in case there's any weather.
And then, you know, we can go from there.
I don't think it's going to hurt to coax any, but still, you know, we'll keep it dry.
I mean, it's meant to be buried, for crying out loud.
But anyway, uh, here on Monday, if you guys are too tired and you don't feel like making a detour, you're going to be beat, I'm sure.
Don't worry about it.
But I'll be available just in case.
So either way, yes or no, we'll, we'll see how it works.
And, uh, it'd be good to, uh, be good to see anyway.
If not, probably sometime next week when I drop this, uh, spectrum analyzer off at, uh, Bill's place.
Obviously, you know, he's right up the road from you.
So it's a general, let's just say general neighborhood.
So all very good.
I'll let you run, Scott, and take care.
Yeah, speaking of animals, I've got three furry ones right here.
But they're, uh, probably a little more behaved than your dog because they're about ready to, two out of three of them are sacked.
And the other's taking a bath, ready to be sacked.
So they're sitting right here alongside me at the console.
Take care, Scott, and we'll catch you later.
I'm going to turn it over to Simon here.
He's kind of hanging out there.
KD3BPI, uh, and the group to transmit, WA3VE.
Scott73, and we'll catch up.
Just, just text me.
WA3VE, KD3BPI.
And, uh, good to meet you, Scott.
Good to meet you indeed, W3KZG.
I hope to see you someday.
I'm sure I'll see you, if not before, the winter field day.
I'll certainly be at the winter field day.
Already planning on it.
I've been hearing, when I was hearing on the round table tonight, just how great, great a time it was.
And I wish I was there.
Man, oh man.
Um, but yeah.
And I, and, uh, I do consider myself a dormant car guy.
Um, if you're still listening, I can, uh, get into it a little bit more.
Um, but, but I'll let you go.
I'll let you go.
We'll have to, we'll have to talk sometime.
And, uh, yeah, Ron, I saw that picture you sent.
The, uh, the Chevrolet Deluxe.
Man, oh man.
What a good car.
What a good car indeed.
Those, man, I, I almost want one of those someday.
I mean, it would be interesting to work on.
And I'm sure the challenge would be finding one that has decent body panels at this point in history.
You know, almost, what, 80 years after they were made.
Now it can't be 80 years.
19, I'm, I'm off.
70 years.
My apologies.
My, my slate of arithmetic error.
I learned calculus, but sucks.
I still need my times tables.
Anyway, what a good, what a good memory.
And, um, but yeah, and you'll have to, uh, at the Delaware Repeaters Association, I just programmed the, um, the, uh, Ebright Road Repeater.
And let me scroll over to this, uh, yeah, 448-375.
I programmed it in, but it seems like it's pretty dormant these days.
Sorry to say.
Sorry to say.
I'm curious.
What do you think about that?
Back to you.
GD3 BPI, WA3 VEE, oh yeah.
It is, it is, it's pretty quiet.
The one that really works, uh, we can't get it too well up here.
I can get it here on the X300.
In fact, I, I check into the net regularly.
It's the Newark Windy Hills Repeater.
If you remember going down Kirkwood Highway from Wilmington, you get into Newark.
Just before you get, um, go under the, uh, uh, you guys at CSX now in Norfolk.
So there's CSX.
It's the railroad bridge.
It used to be the old Baltimore, Ohio railroad, B&O railroad.
Uh, before you go under that bridge, there is a big water tower there at the section called,
development called Windy Hills.
That's the 146.70 machine.
And, um, that's a good machine, but it doesn't have the coverage because it's down low.
Newark, from what I learned in my going down to my brother-in-law's place, Newark really sits low.
I mean, there's parts of it that are like 80 feet above sea level.
And it's like, holy smokes, that's lower than Del Tech.
When I was doing the antenna work for the station at Del Tech, I mean, we're looking at, at, at about 90 feet at some points on that campus.
You know, you go into the parking lot up, up, up, up in front.
That's about 90, 95 feet.
And Newark's lower than that.
It's like, holy smokes.
So that explains why also it's tough to get 985 on Main Street in Newark RF-wise.
So, um, that Windy Hills repeater is only up on the tower.
It's only up on the water tank there.
And there's a UHF machine also.
You'll see it all on, it's all on repeater book.
And, in fact, that's one thing we need to talk about.
We'll make it very brief here.
But, nonetheless, um, we'll get to that in a second.
With regard to programming frequencies and things.
But, in any event, um, that, uh, that's a good one.
The 7-3 machine is on the tower on Ebright Road.
And, uh, there's also a 220 machine up there, which is a linked repeater system.
Uh, there's, like, four repeaters that that is linked to.
And that all goes up and down, I think, the state of Delaware and into Maryland and New Jersey, I believe.
Um, and, uh, there's, of course, UHF stuff there.
The other one that's very active down there, I think, as you know, is a Delaware City machine.
I check into that on Tuesday nights.
There's a CARES net at 8 o'clock.
I can kind of get that here, but I generally drive to the southern part of Westchester standby.
To, uh, over by Starkweather Elementary.
And it's a nice little rise in there.
And I said, how do you guys have, they always get questioned, how do you have such a good signal from, uh, from Westchester?
And I said, well, it's magic.
You know.
I just pull them in there, and it, there's a little elevation in there.
It's almost 500 feet above sea level.
And that's a straight shot right down the hill into, into Delaware.
So, those, those are the repeaters there.
And then you get down further.
But, anyway, um, I do have a list, uh, an FTM 100, uh, 300, and a, I don't know, I don't think I have a 500, an FTM 500 up here.
But, uh, I'll take a look and, and see.
But I have all those frequencies available for sure.
and they're all programmed into my Asus up here.
KD-3-B-P-I-W-A-3-V-E-E.
KD-3-B-P-I.
Yeah, I'll have to get that list from you whenever you get a chance.
I did end up getting that program, which I cannot recall the name of it now,
but it worked like a charm.
I was able to program 50, 60.
I mean, it's a small number, but I was able to look up all the counties along my route to West Virginia,
and I was able to populate them.
Now, I will say less than 50% success rate hitting active repeaters.
You know, to say nothing of people actually talking on them, I count myself lucky.
I made, what, three or four contacts out of, you know, looking at so many repeaters,
you know, keying them up, seeing if I could key them up.
But yeah, yeah.
So whenever you get a chance, it would be cool to see your list.
Because, I mean, I have mine, you know, I add to it.
And the original list I made up for my Baofang, it had, I think, half the repeaters in there were dead.
And then a quarter, and then a quarter of them, the half that were good, were inactive.
And then a quarter of them, which included 985, were good ones.
Man, I'll never forget hearing the workbench the first time.
I was just scrolling through, and I'm like, whoa, that's Ron.
I found him.
I knew I'd find you eventually, but it was still, nothing could have prepared me for that moment.
It was really cool.
But anyway, I think I'm going to get ready to turn in.
I'm actually down in my car because my good radio is here now.
I'm getting another one tomorrow, an ICOM.
I'll have to send you a picture.
I found it on Facebook Marketplace and got a good price on it.
But I'll send you a picture.
I'm sure you'll be able to tell me better.
Anyway, I'll send it back to you for your final.
KD3BPIWA3VEE.
You're noisy on the input to me.
You're noisy on 385, but you have a tremendous signal getting into the repeater.
Joe has this tuned very, very well.
And sometime when you get a chance, he'll take you up to the repeater site, I'm sure,
and show you what the repeater is.
And he'll give you a full story about how it's actually tuned and balanced for reception and transmission.
He's really done a superb job.
This repeater's been on since 1976, when he and I were both still in the military over the Delaware Army National Guard,
the Signal Corps.
So that's how long it's been on the air.
And save for some power issues here and there that are out of our control,
and a couple short failures here and there, it's been literally on the air continuously.
99 and many decimal places, percentage uptime.
So all very good.
Yeah, we'll work out the details.
What probably I'm going to have to do is load my program onto your computer where you have your RT system stuff.
So you can cut and paste from my file into yours because I don't have a FTM 500 program.
So that's what we'll do.
We'll work out the details for that.
That's no problem.
I also want to make sure that, well, if you want, we can put an antenna analyzer on your car system there
and make sure that the antenna is tuned to where it is actually resonant.
It's good to know.
If it's resonant right at 5-2, if it's resonant at 3-8-5, or it's resonant at 1-47, who knows?
And then you can make any adjustments.
That's right.
You said it's fixed, but at least you'll know where it's resonant.
Anyway, I'll let you go.
I'm running out of steam myself.
And I've got a busy day tomorrow.
But enjoy the beach.
Great to have you on 9-8-5.
Great to be hooked up.
And it's just the only beginning.
I could tell you that for sure.
And I have to meet a lovely lady sometime.
Definitely.
Definitely.
No question about it.
Take care, Simon.
You have a good night.
And glad you had a good trip down to West Virginia.
KD3BPI.
WA3VEE73.
Have a good night.
I really enjoyed the chat.
7-3 to you too, Ron.
Always a pleasure.
Reminiscing and some good memories.
Good memories indeed.
We will catch up for sure.
I haven't forgot about the dinner date invitation.
We'll have to get that on the calendar sometime in September.
But anyway, 7-3 to you.
And you have a good night.
Good weekend.
And I'll catch up with you.
This is KD3BPI.
Now clear.
Great.
It'll be the best hot dog stand we can find.
Take care.
A lot of fun.
W-A-3-V-E-E-Q-R-T.
Thank you.
Thank you.