FTX1 Reality Check: Our Honest Review + SteppIR Exit

The long-awaited Yaesu FTX1 Optima has finally arrived in ham shacks across America, but does it live up to the hype? We've spent days testing Yaesu's latest flagship and share our unfiltered experiences that left us reaching for our trusty FT-891s instead. From PTT issues that drop mid-transmission to strange menu bugs and disappointing receiver performance compared to the FT-710 and FT-DX10, we dive deep into what went wrong and whether firmware updates can save this premium-priced radio.

In a surprising market development, we explore the news that SteppIR has announced their exit from the amateur radio consumer market by August 2025. Their CEO cites an aging ham population moving to stealth antennas as HOAs restrict traditional towers. Is this the beginning of a larger trend in ham radio manufacturing following MFJ's recent exit, or simply market evolution as the hobby changes?

Summer is here, and that means Field Day is just around the corner! Whether you're a newly licensed ham nervous about your first HF contact or an experienced operator looking to test emergency preparedness, we share why Field Day (June 28-29) offers something for everyone. From operating tips to overcoming microphone fright, discover why this annual event remains amateur radio's most beloved gathering.

The amateur radio landscape continues to shift, with new technologies promising innovation while established companies retreat from changing markets. Through it all, what matters most is finding the gear and activities that spark joy in your radio journey. What's working for you this summer?

Short show intro audio clip

Short outro audio clip

The Everyday Ham Podcast is hosted by James Mills (K8JKU), Jim Davis (N8JRD), and Rory Locke (W8KNX) – three friends who dive into the world of amateur radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.

Follow us at: Website: https://www.everydayham.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydayhampodcast/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, everyone, welcome to today's episode of
Everyday Ham, episode six.
It is finally summer inMichigan, so it's probably hot
where we're sitting here,especially Rory, because he had
to close all his windows forthis fine, crisp audio that
you're seeing here.
Before we begin, just a quickreminder you can find our
website at everydayhamcom, ourInstagram is everydayhampodcast

(00:24):
and our YouTube channel ifyou're interested in watching
the podcast versus listening, aswell as checking out some of
our special mic check episodes,is at everydayham.
With that, I am James K-A-J-K-U, joined here by Jim N-8-J-R-D,
as well as Rory W-8-K-N-X.
So how are you guys doing today?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Good evening.
I also want to mention did youmention the Discord?
Did we mention the Discord?
We have a growing community onDiscord.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
A lot of folks coming up there.
We're having a couple gooddiscussions.
It's a slow start but it's agood time and we want to make
sure we shout out our localfriend, shane KFABWN, who's come
on board as the pod mod mod Ithink is what I called his, his
role on the thing, because I'm adork.
That way, I think it was goodto have shane come on and he's
been good at helping foster someof the communication and and

(01:13):
conversation yes and speaking ofdiscord, real quick shout out
to jason kf8 ehx, who passed asgeneral recently.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
He's been active on the discord congratulations,
jason yep, and with that rory,what has been going on in your
ham radio life this last coupledays?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
well, today was well.
Well, let's rewind to uh dayton.
We were all at daytonhamvention and we were, and I it
was.
I was noticing something weirdwith the all-star connection
back to the home repeater thatwe were no longer hearing folks
from home.
We were hearing people on thenode, but we were not hearing
anyone actually on the repeater.
But lo and behold, we found outthat we lost the internet

(01:54):
connection at the repeater.
And our repeater is in amunicipal water tower in our
city and the only way to get theinternet there is using a
cellular connection.
So we had to figure that out.
So we have a small team offolks that comprise of the
technical committee in our cluband led by our chief engineer,
steve Nader, who is a extremelyyoung, 81-year-old fellow who's

(02:15):
smarter than anyone you'll evermeet.
We look to have him, hopefully,on here as a guest at some point
.
We might have mentioned himbefore.
He literally has electroniccomponents that are still
floating around in space fromhis time working for various
vendors as far back as the 60s.
So it's very cool stories there, but anyway.
So we had to make the time toget over to the repeater.

(02:37):
Jim met Steve and I over therethis morning and we took the
time to figure out what wasgoing on, and it basically
turned out that the antenna Okay, so you have to picture a water
tower.
It's pretty much a Faraday cageinside the water tower.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
All metal.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
All metal Signals don't come and go from there too
well.
So the cellular connection,which is our only option to get
Internet data in and out of thewater tower, the cellular
connection.
We were relying on an abandonedantenna that was on the top of
the tower to help bring thatsignal in.
Basically, what we figurehappened and did a series of

(03:14):
testing, is that that antennafailed.
Either the feed line failed orthe antenna failed or a mouse
chewed through somethingsomewhere.
It's hard to say what couldhave happened, but there was no
longer any usable transmittingor receiving on that particular
antenna.
So we were able to set up thewireless modem to have an
antenna that worked well enoughand as far as I know, as of now

(03:34):
we're still connected to Allstaron the N8SL repeater.
So that was our big thing.
We were able to also plan somefuture stuff we're thinking
about with the club and therepeater site.
That's that.
It's all been club stuff, nopersonal radio stuff for me.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Always a good time when you get the brain trust out
there to fix the repeater atthe water tower.
Since I don't have a 2-meter or70-centimeter antenna up yet
which is a future mic checkepisode coming up I depend on
that node and the Sherry and theAll-Star.
So thank you from my side so Ican continue to monitor the
repeater.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, we have surprisingly good coverage with
the repeater as far as that isconcerned, but there are still
pockets and club members that dodrive quite a distance and like
to have the access to be ableto listen.
Yep, james included.
But you know we have otherfolks that are right on the cusp
.
Steve is one of them on thetechnical committee that spends
a lot of his time listening onthe All-Star Note.
Steve also helps build the Kitsfor Hams, kits that do a lot of

(04:31):
the All-Star.
You may have seen those ifyou've ever been to the
kitsforhamscom, so definitelycheck those out.
But, yeah, the repeater has goodcoverage, but the All-Star Note
just gives you that extra wayto have folks that are remote
listen in to participate.
And Rory, do you want tomention our call in this Sunday
afternoon?

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, I was just thinking about that.
So we had our weekly net thispast Sunday and our friend Jerry
GNG was on an Alaskan cruiseand he was ready to go.
He was able to get on Allstarusing the.
I believe he uses the repeaterphone app, which I use as well,
to access Allstar directly frommy phone.
I found that to be pretty muchthe most reliable.

(05:09):
It does both Allstar andEcholink in one app, so it's
kind of convenient.
I think it is a pay app, but Ido recommend it.
Anyway, he used that to callinto the net this past Sunday.
So it was cool to hear of oneof our local hams out in Alaska
taking a minute to check into anet.
I'm sure his wife was thrilled.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, and it's exactly the same way that we
connected to it down at Daytonright.
We took the Starlink down.
We had that set up and that'sactually where we first
discovered that we werediscontented because we were
making calls back into the SouthLyon area and talking
hamvention stuff with folkswhile we were down in the
campground.
So it was just really neat.
James, what about you?
What's new going on in yourdirection?

Speaker 1 (05:49):
So I've been pretty busy with the we mentioned it
last episode but the MichiganPOTA meetup which we have coming
up here this Saturday at FortCuster State Park.
So if you're going to be in theMichigan area and you're near
Battle Creek, swing by from 11to 3 at Fort.
Custer it's going to be a goodtime.
I think the turnout is going tobe good, which is going to be
excellent for anyone interestedin learning about POTA or an

(06:10):
active POTA participant, sothere should be a lot of people
out there.
We also have two POTA tumblersif that's something that gets
you excited, that we're going togive away as a raffle Some
giveaways yes.
Donated from the vendor thatsupports poda and their
merchandise.
Actually so nice.
Never turn down some freebiesit's gonna be a good time, can I
?

Speaker 2 (06:27):
comment yeah of course I have to knock on wood
as well.
The weather looks like it'sgonna be toasty.
Oh, you did it.
I did it all.
Right, I'm knocking on my desk.
The weather does look like it'sgoing to be very warm for for
poda meetup this weekend.
So if you do add up, make sureyou bring your sunscreen and do
be ready for a warm day ofpoda-ing.
But one of the things we arehoping for is a little bit of

(06:49):
improvement from our friend thesun as far as the propagation is
concerned, because the lastcouple of days have been pretty
brutal on the HF bands.
Has anyone been out doing alittle poda?

Speaker 1 (07:02):
I tried and I got out .
There couldn't hear a thing.
So I fiddled with my FTX One alittle bit just to try to get
comfortable with the settings.
I was like maybe today's notthe day and I went home.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Rory, how did you do this past weekend?
We went out.
Did we just meet one day, ordid we end up out there two days
?
I don't even remember.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
I was out there two days.
Two days, I don't even remember.
I was out there two days.
You and I met on the second day.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Okay, yeah, well, no, because you were out there, I
swung through and then we wentout there after Saturday morning
breakfast too.
So there was a lot of OTA.
There was a lot of crossingpaths this weekend, yeah, but
you were out there trying tofigure out life with the FTX-1,
which I know we're going to talkabout here shortly, oh gosh,
with the FTX one, which I knowwe're going to talk about here

(07:45):
shortly.
But uh, yeah, we pretty muchstruggled to to do the
activation.
I mean, conditions were well, Ithink what?
What works out so well on theweekends is enough People are
doing POTA, enough People arelooking for POTA stations.
You're probably going to getyour 10, your 10 contacts
without any problem.
But if you're out there on aweekday and some of the people
who activate a lot on theweekday I've noticed on some of

(08:06):
the Facebook groups they've beenstruggling.
It's hard to get the time whenyou don't have a ton of people
to look for.
And if you're limited to oneband if, for whatever reason,
maybe you're just running asingle hamstick, that's the only
band you can use you'restruggling.
You need to be able to moveacross the bands right now with
the conditions the way they are.
So it's been rough.
I know it'll get better, butit's not impossible.

(08:28):
I guess that's one of thethings I always think about.
I see these people post oh Istruggled to get 10.
Oh, did you try and I hate tosay it that way, but it's to get
10, you can spin the dial andpretty much find someone to talk
to that's eligible to put inyour log to get 10 contacts.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
If you have the time and the will, you'll get your 10
.
That's the two importantfactors there.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
I'll give you that.
If you're limited on time, thatcan be a concern, and I've had
some activations that have beendifficult because of time
limitations.
But if you've got an hour tospend, I feel like you can still
get 10, even with theconditions being marginal.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Or learn digital modes.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Those are a big one.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
FT8, FT4.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
I have leaned on FT8 the last couple of days more
than I have in months.
I fired it up in February.
We talked about that on aprevious podcast, but I've
leaned on FT8 here in the shacka couple evenings just to keep
my radio moving right, keep itactive, keep it listening.
And I've had some decent DX andI've actually started
collecting all of the US statesas part of my other activity on

(09:34):
digital mode, just trying to getFT8 collection.
You know, just challengeyourself to do something
different.
If the thing that you wanted todo is becoming difficult with
the bad conditions, right, gofind something else to do.
And James always says it rightHobby within a hobby.
Many ways to activate, manyways to run your radio.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
So no wrong way to do it.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Whatever brings you joy.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yep, I always appreciate that kind of aspect
of it is when these bands aretough.
There are other ways to do itand we are blessed with a number
of really very effective modes,even in these rougher
conditions.
But I think it's time to talk.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Are we ready to do it ?
Ftx1 feedback here we go.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
We have to talk.
It's time.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
It's time to talk it out.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
The elephant is in the room and I'll tell you what.
Let's start with just a briefone here.
We've been excited about thisthing for probably two months, I
think, and we've spent quite abit of time on this podcast and
also making content regardingFTX One Optima.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Some may have said we were part of the Yezu fan club
for our promotion of the radio.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Right, absolutely, and I was excited.
I talked about all the ways Iwas considering using it and I
could still be considering it.
We'll see what happens, butyou're talking about two months.
Think about everyone who senttheir deposits into the various
vendors and got on the list morethan a year ago.
So it's not short-term hype,it's a long, long hype working

(10:58):
up to this moment.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
I wanted to acknowledge, before we go into
this because this is going to bea little more critical
conversation on the FTX1 thanI've had in past that we are,
and we remain excited by theidea of the Optima and the FTX1.
But I do think that we ran intosome things that didn't
necessarily excite us as much aswe were hoping.
With that being said, I thinkthat I'll give you the summary

(11:21):
first, which is to say that theOptima did get delivered about a
week and a half ago and if youchecked out our unboxing on the
Optima, it's on here on theYouTube channel.
So if you're listening to us onYouTube, you'll probably find
our FTX One Optima unboxingTried to go through everything
that was in the box.
Talk a little bit about my firstimpressions, and I was really
hyped to get that thing.
I got it delivered onessentially what I believe was

(11:49):
one of the first days thatconsumers that were not major
ham tubers were able to gettheir hands on it.
I know that Ham Radio CrashCourse got his the day before
Hamvention started.
Jason Ham Radio 2 got his, butwe were not in that group, so we
got ours under the normalcircumstances that an early
purchaser would have gotten itand I pulled mine out of the box
, had a lot of hype around it.
That's right.
Mine's right behind me too.
Here we go.
It's all turned on waiting.

(12:12):
But you can only test so muchwhen you're in the shack.
So the first night was really alot of spin, the dial
experience, the menus.
Compare it to what I knew,which was the FT-DX10, the
FT-SEN and then the FT-DX101MPthat I have on my desk right now
as my maiden shack radio, and alot of things felt just right.
It feels good, it feels verywell constructed, it is a stout

(12:35):
unit.
I said these things all on theunboxing, so go check that out
if you're interested.
But what we found was therewere small software bugs that we
could start to feel in theinterface, and the interface is
heavily menu-driven.
We've mentioned this before.
Go ahead, james.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Pretty quickly you could start to feel there were
some bugs in the software.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
That's right.
Navigation bugs that allowedfor you to be dropped into the
wrong menu when you wereclicking on a button.
That didn't mean that All whatwe believed were very software
software approachable fixes kindof in our initial impression,
as on delivery night and Jamesand I got ours on the same night
, but I know James was busy thatnight so I think I was the
first one in there- poking thebuttons.

(13:14):
But suffice it to say I gotpretty excited about it.
A day lapsed and I was planningon getting it out on the Friday
of the end of the week to go domy first poda activation with
it.
And that's where I think thatit started to become more
evident that FTX1 maybe was alittle bit early to our consumer
hands from Yaesu, and that waswhere a number of interesting
bugs popped up for us thatreally affected our ability to

(13:37):
use it in an effective way inthe field.
And I will tell you if you'reasking well, jim, how did you
use it?
Did you take the field head out?
Did you have Optima attached?
I had Optima attached.
That was always my intention inbuying it was I was going to go
POTA with all 100 wattsattached to my battery right.
So what we found right out ofthe gate was connected up to the
BuddyPole dipole, which is apretty stalwart antenna as far
as POTA is concerned.
Many BuddyPole users out thereI know Rory runs his, I bought a

(14:01):
new one at the DaytonHamvention and there are many
others that are doingde-expeditions on BuddyPole
stuff.
So good antenna, good feedcable.
We found that there was somevery strange behavior from the
FTX1 Optima right out of thegate and the major issue that I
saw that I'll mention right outof the gate was the PTT would
unkey as I started to talk orcall POTA, right.

(14:23):
So I would say CQPOTA, cqpota,cqpota, this is N8JRD from park
number.
And before I got done withthose few words it had dropped
my voice as if I had let go ofthe PTT button.
Even though I am a big, I graspthe PTT button pretty hard.
I probably gonna break a mic atsome point.
So I knew there was somethingweird.
But I possible antennaconfiguration, we'll check
everything again.
Got out of the truck, recheckedeverything.

(14:44):
Everything is very much in lineSWRs that are very, very good,
1.2, 1.3 SWRs.
It got back in the trucks,tried to go ahead and activate
again.
Same behavior, right.
And so I knew there wassomething going on with the
radio that was not behaving theway that my other Yaesu SDR
style radios had operated.
Right, I had never had troublecalling POTA from an SDR radio

(15:06):
on sideband at 100 watts, ever,no matter where I was, with 50
foot of cable connected, I neverhad problems.
So that was really a bummer andI kind of got down about that.
But then other things started tokind of crop up and one of
those things was I'd getfeedback into my headphones same
headphones again that I hadbeen using with my other two
Yaesu SDR radios.
The monitor function seemed tobe bugged.

(15:27):
We had strange scroll wheelbehavior where it almost had a
linear ramp.
It would go from zero to 100miles an hour when you were
trying to select something Onand on.
Just little things that keptcropping up and we thought you
know, something doesn't seemquite right about this.
So I gave up for the night.
I got my 10 contacts very, verydifficult.
I got my 10 contacts Very, verydifficult, got my 10 contacts
and I left the park because Irefused to leave without a

(15:48):
failed activation, and I thinkwe all talked about that.
That's the spirit no-transcriptthat we saw.

(16:25):
So I thought no problem, at theend of the weekend it was the
holiday weekend, by the way I'llcall up Yesu and I will report
what I found and see what theirthoughts are.
And at this time I was notnecessarily thinking that I was
ready to send it back yet, but Iwas definitely frustrated with
my first experience.
So, all this being said, ftxOptima didn't blow me away out
of the gate and James, tell me alittle bit about your first

(16:45):
impressions before I go muchfurther.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Well, no, and I think that's the most important thing
.
So you said you went toFacebook to correspond with your
thoughts and feelings and whatyou were sensing with the radio
thoughts and feelings and whatyou were sensing with the radio.
But I had a lot of the samesimilar issues.
Now I didn't have the pttdropping.
That issue I did not have whenI was out there activating with
it, uh, when I did do a poda,but I did have happening on on
jim's peaks, when that wassomething that seemed to happen,
when, when he peaked out, dotalk loud, yes and then it also

(17:13):
on my peaks.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
It was able to be duplicated.
I I don't drive the mic quiteas hard as Jim, but that's what
usually makes that happen.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
No, but the general feel, the tuning was definitely
an issue.
It was doing the linear tuningfor me as well.
I did, after you mentioned thedial wheels the dial, the dial
wheel, yep, and then I wasgetting the clicking in the
headphones as well.
So we were corresponding abouthaving the same issues.
Our device we also learned waswhat 12 serial numbers off the

(17:41):
manufacturing line from eachother.
James's came off 12 before mine,so we were right on the same
day, probably so to be clear, weweren't just depending on
social media to basically say wehave problems and they need to
be fixed.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
No, and on top of that I got out there with Jim
with my trusty 891, and weworked side by side with that.
To compare, I was very strong.
I was basically telling Jim tocalm down at first.
I'm like it can't be that bad.
It wouldn't be that bad, let meget out there with some
equipment.
I'll meet up and see.
And I took my 891 out there.

(18:16):
We set up side by side, didsome similar testing.
We were able to rule outbecause, to be fair, this was
your first time out with thebuddy pole dipole configuration
as well.
So I was very adamant that yourule that out and we did the 891
we took out there.
That worked as I'm accustomedto, and you kept on with your
testing that worked, as I'maccustomed to, and you kept on

(18:39):
with your testing.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yep, yeah, and I think that that is another thing
that I appreciate.
Rory, you brought a little bitof levity to the situation, a
little bit of chill, because itis a big purchase for me.
I did move a couple of radiosto get this radio, to bring it
to you guys that listen, becauseI was really interested in the
radio but also wanted to talkabout it on the podcast.
So I was like I got to get itand so I made some, made some
decisions to move radios aroundto get this and I was a little

(19:02):
bit, I think, emotionallyinvested in it to an extent, and
that did frustrate me thatfirst night.
So it was nice to have Rorycome out and kind of get a
second opinion on his and I kindof just handed it to him and I
said you tell me what you think,I'm going to stand back and let
you operate it for a little bit.
And we started to kind of seethat it wasn't just me that was
seeing some of this behavior andthe things that we were reading
on Facebook, corroborated withour thing.
So suffice this all to say.

(19:23):
I sent Yesu, I spoke to agentleman at Yesu.
His name is Roger Kern.
He was a really nice gentleman.
He took my phone call firstthing on Tuesday morning after
Memorial Day weekend and he's, Ibelieve, the engineering
support gentleman there thatworks out in California and he
said dang, it sounds like youare having trouble.

(19:44):
I'm paraphrasing here.
Roger is a very nice gentlemanand he took the time to sit with
me for 30 minutes and we talkedthrough each of the issues.
I said I have eight thingsdocumented here.
I have one major one that I'dlike to bring up, but I have
some other ones if you'reinterested in hearing them.
He said absolutely, this is abrand new radio.
I don't yet have a productionunit in my hands, which we
thought was interesting as well.
It's kind of troubling actually.
That's right.
Roger was waiting for hisproduction unit, I guess, to be

(20:05):
available and so he wanted tohear what we had heard, what we
had seen, what we hadexperienced, and he took notes
and he was really attentive, Ithink, to the concerns that we
had and I appreciated that.
And Roger did follow up, postour call with, I think, close to
four or five emails afterwards.
One of the major issues that wehadn't mentioned yet is that
the Bluetooth unit on the earlyon the non-firmware patched ones

(20:27):
and we're going to talk aboutfirmware in just a second here.
On the delivered unit bothJames and my FTX1, when the
Bluetooth unit, the BU6, wasinstalled, would lock up to the
point where you could not accessany of the deep menus in the
radio, and that was very strangebehavior and I'll tell you why
this is a frustrating situationand that is because to install
the Bluetooth unit you need touse VHB tape, double-sided

(20:51):
sticky tape.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
I hate it.
I hated that right away.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
And James is showing it to you on the screen if
you're watching on YouTube.
But essentially there's alittle door that covers the side
of the ftx one head, and inthere there's a little pcb board
with the bluetooth module andand to attach it there's a small
piece of double-sided tapethat's clearanced perfectly to
allow it to sit on what isbasically a ziff kind of header
right, it's like a low insertionfor that first force header and

(21:14):
that's what holds it in.
So when I installed it I had noidea that it would cause any
sort of unusual radio behavior.
So uninstalling it was a ratherdelicate procedure because I
couldn't use the radio while itwas installed, at least
initially, and so I had toundouble-sided sticky tape it
from there without damaging acouple of ground planes and
other little copper connectionsthat are very delicate on the

(21:36):
side of the head.
So it was a little bittroubling, but again I was very
happy to chalk this up toperhaps some software things
that could be resolved.
Roger did get back with me.
He suggested a hard reset ofthe radio.
Unfortunately I wasn't able toaccess the menu to reset it.
He did finally get back with meand send me some hard buttons
that I could hold to do thatfirmware reset or, I'm sorry,

(21:56):
microprocessor reset, butultimately by the time we had
gotten to that point, 528 hadrolled around.
So the 28th of last month wegot our first update for FTX and
that did end up resolving theBluetooth unit issue.
So that is kind of the saga,right, and if you're listening
you're probably thinking boy,there's a lot of things going on
there with FTX One.

(22:17):
Would you recommend buying ittoday?
And I want to give you the kindof lowdown here because we
don't want to spend too muchmore time on FTX One.
I think that the summary ofthis for me guys is Optima just
wasn't ready for primetime whenthey launched it after Dayton,
and I think that I'm going todie on this hill here.
The and I think that I'm goingto die in this hill here the
units that James and I got.
If anybody else had gotten thoseunits that was a less technical

(22:39):
person, I think they would havebeen extremely frustrated with
those and I wouldn't besurprised if some of those went
back to a ham radio outlet orwhomever they shipped them to
right.
The unit introduces a ton ofnovel ideas and Yesu has tried
some new things here.
But the performance that we'reseeing out of the radio, at
least in its initial release,and even with the subsequent

(23:01):
release of firmware, itcertainly is having me question
its higher price tag when wecompare it to some of the
stalwart units that Yaesu hasout there right now, which are
the DX10, absolutely amazingreceiver, excellent sounding
transceiver.
The 710, a super portable unitthat could be taken out into the
field and still performs justas well almost as the DX10.
Many other options out there.
So it was frustrating for us torun into that kind of early

(23:22):
behavior.
That just didn't feel quiteready for primetime.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Go ahead, Jamie.
I found right away that I'msorry.
Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
No, I was going to say just to kind of second what
Jim was saying.
I knew there was a problem whenI had this bad boy with the
Optima sitting on the seat nextto me in my car.
I swung in for a quick poda andI had my backpack in the back
with the 891 and all my podagear and this little pretty
sitting right next to me.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Brand new.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
And I did not want to use it.
Yep, and it's great when itworks, but I couldn't trust it.
I didn't want to fiddle with it.
I was frustrated with it.
I didn't want to fiddle with it, I was frustrated with it.
It didn't bring me joy and tome that is so disappointing.
And I got out my 891, and I hada great time.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
I could tune up my ATOS.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
I could get everything done.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
That was essentially going to be my comment, what you
just said.
When we had the 891 and the FTXone side by side, my comment
was that I don't get any morejoy using the FTX one than I do
my 891, the, the receive, thisreceive quality on the 891 was
just fine, just a similar fine.
I was getting out, fine, Ididn't.
I don't get shut down when I,when I peak with my, with my

(24:31):
audio, with the 891.
You know that my experience, um, my experience, having them
side by side, I was stillperfectly content with my 891.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
So 100, I get where you're, where you're at there h9
891 891 is still my recommendedbuy if I was gonna go buy I
love my 891, so this isn't acrap on yezu moment here I love
my 891.
It's my go-to podo radio forpretty much everything.
Again, I own two 891s and I'mproud to say that because I have
one in my mobile and I have onein my podo bag and I love that

(25:03):
radio.
It's my go-to buy.
I was hoping this would replaceone of those.
Not even close.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
Not yet, not even close.
Seriously, I'm not even sureI'm going to give it the time.
Yeah, seriously not a crap onYezu thing.
I guess we do want to make thatclear.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
No, not at all no.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
On was it Saturday, jim?
We were out there with ChrisKTHCAT.
He was doing his first podactivation and he had his very
nice 710 out there Brand new.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
He just got it at Dayton 2.
His brand new 710.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
And I think that was another moment.
Jim, you kind of had arealization with the 710 next to
the FTX1 what you were dealingwith yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah.
There's two more things I'mgoing to say, but Rory just led
into one that was veryinteresting for me.
So the waterfall, which is muchhyped on all of these SDR
radios right, we get a big colorscreen and so we want to see on
the band scope what is going onaround us, right, and what I've
generally learned 891.
Doesn't get this.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
I I have no use for a waterfall, but I'm I'm a
different type of person.
Sorry, go ahead I got it.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
But those folks that do appreciate the big color
screen, the waterfall, right,when we, when we get used to how
that works and write the mp,the dx10, the 710 I've got three
radios, I've used them all alot and I have a very fine
understanding of how you cantune up the waterfall.
You can adjust the waterfalllevels or the band scope levels
so that you can start to seejust a little bit of signal

(26:27):
grass on the bottom of thedisplay and that's when you
start to pick out those otherimportant signals like POTA call
outs or CQs or SSTV, anythingthat's across the band.
Right, that's how we pull thoseout.
And what we noticed was even onthe 710, sitting right next to
it in the same park on acomparable buddy pole antenna
right, we were jacking theFTX1's level gain up on the

(26:50):
receiver, well over 20 plus,when we only needed plus four,
plus five on the 710.
So it was really reallyinteresting for me to see them
sitting next to one another andsee that the band scope was not
showing me the same kind ofinformation and that I felt like
I was missing information onthe brand new FTX, one that cost

(27:10):
double the money as the 710,right, that for me was a damning
moment.
That for me, that does not makeme feel very strongly about the
receive capability of the FTX1.
Now we have to put a littleperspective on this right.
When we talk about receivecapability and we're talking
about seeing things on the bandscope, that does not necessarily

(27:31):
translate into your experiencetalking sideband, working FT8 or
sending CW, right, there's agood chance that those minute
differences in the way that thedata gets displayed are not
going to affect your ability torun the radio when I actually am
calling out and listening withmy ear.
But if I want to see and takeadvantage of the tools that are

(27:53):
being given to me on an SDR,including the band scope, it
does need to work and it doesneed to be sensitive.
And so I do wonder if we'regoing to see some additional
tuning that happens around thatband scope, if it is a bug issue
or if there's something elsegoing on.
But it lands me on a veryinteresting point, which is
today, late in the afternoon,sherwing released their first

(28:13):
score for the FTX-1 Optima.
They have the serial numberposted and the rank was 34 on
the list.
If you're familiar with theDX10, it is ranked number two.
If you're familiar with theFT710, it is ranked number three
, and when we were hearing aboutFTX1 for the first time Optima
we were being told that this wasthe same receiver or the same

(28:34):
design as the DX10 and that weshould expect comparable receive
results.
Just think that whatevercompromises needed to be made to
allow for VHF and UHF in thiscombined radio situation, it has
affected it in a way that issort of disappointing to see.
Now I don't think that we needto hinge on Sherwing as the one
and only, but it is aninteresting data point that

(28:57):
supports again something that Isaw in the park, with two radios
sitting next to one another.
So a lot of interesting stuffthat we've learned and we wanted
to take some time tonight tobasically say we know we hyped
this thing up, we were excitedabout it.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
We were fanboys, we both put our money where our
mouths were right.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
I got 2000 bucks into this.
Put our money where our mouthswere right.
I got $2,000 into this, jamesgot $2,000 into his.
I bought all the accessories togo on top of it because I
wanted to get the fullexperience.
And the answer is at the end ofthe day, optima didn't deliver
what we were expecting at thisprice point.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
So let me ask you both a question Do you feel it
is salvageable Meaning?
Are we talking about problemsthat can be solved through
software updates and firmware inthe future, or are we talking
about catastrophic hardwareissues that make this a do not
buy ever?

Speaker 3 (29:46):
I would guess that there's.
I would guess there's going tobe a hardware improvement and
probably a second.
How do they do it?
Add a D at the end of it A Gen2.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
A Gen 2 of some, sorry, you know, add a letter.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Add a.
They do it.
Add a D at the end of it A Gen2?
.
A Gen 2 of some sort, you knowadd a letter to it, make
something, something you know.
And I was ready.
You guys know I didn't buy itbecause you know it is a
significant purchase.
I don't quite have a need forit right now, but it was going
to be the purchase.
I was happy about the size, Iwas happy about the flexibility,
I was happy about all thethings that it offered.
I was happy that it wassupposed to be in the class of

(30:16):
the DX10.
So, you know, I did startfilling an envelope of a little
bit of savings to startpreparing to buy that probably,
you know, maybe within a couplemonths, but you know that I
don't believe will be the answer.
So we'll see what they do.
I mean, they did the firstfirmware release, did put a
Band-Aid on a lot of things,made it more functional, and I

(30:40):
think they have so muchdevelopment time and hours in it
that I'm sure that they'relooking to make it be what they
were hoping it was going to be,because to have a huge flop with
that much development well, Ishouldn't even say that because
I don't want to declare it ahuge flop.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah, it's not a flop yet.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
That's probably not wise To have such a struggle.
Be on the struggle bus, okay.
I don't know what to call it.
I'm not coming up with it.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
It felt like a beta product, that's right, they put
out a product that's beta thatwas not ready for production.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
We are beta testers for this product, and I'm not
also making fun of Shagoo orYegoo or however you pronounce
the manufacturer's name.
Sorry for mispronouncing it.
But they put out You're talkingabout like the X6100 or the G90
or they're kind of known to putout products that are maybe
immature into the market andthen they refine it over time.
That tends to be one of theirstrategies Felt like that

(31:37):
strategy when I got this in myhands and I started to work on
it.
And the fact that they alsoreleased this is pure
speculation.
The fact that they're able torelease firmware updates that
quickly.
Either they have engineersworking overtime to resolve a
lot of these issues and theyhave units that they're testing
and they're doing revisions andall those things that have to
happen, or they maybe knew someof these issues were there and
that they were working on themto get a release out there and

(31:58):
get them fixed, because some ofthese issues I find it hard to
believe that they didn't find itin quality testing, to be dead
honest.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Like the Bluetooth module.
That was a big conversation wehad with a lot of our friends is
where was the true QA?
You know, we happened to have ait was good weather on the
Saturday of release, I think anda few of us went and grabbed a
beer in town here and kind oftold stories and shared our
experiences.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Again share the experiences, as hams do.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
That was the big question.
Where was the quality assurancewith this?
And it feels like it wasn'tthere, which that to me from
Yezu was a bummer.
For sure that totally notnormally yezu no, no, because I
mean looking here.
I have just in my line of sight.
I have six yezu products andI'm very happy with them.
You know, it's, it's not I loveyou not not hating on yezu.

(32:51):
I'm just just surprised withwith some of the outcomes of
this one I.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
I will say out loud here's a little plug If you
haven't found a local club, godo it right now.
What Rory said was actuallyreally important.
So, coming off of our testing,what we did is we took our
feedback back, met with some ofour club members One of the
gentlemen is an RF engineer, onethat worked in the RF space for
a long time, in fact close toretiring at this point, I
believe yeah, if not already andwe kind of gave him some

(33:19):
details and he said boy, I dothink that it sounds like it was
rushed Right and that there areissues that may be hardware
related, that need smoothingwith software, but may long-term
need hardware resolutions.
And that for me is a scarycomment to hear.
When we have a radio that weknow can be hardware or software
updated right, firmware can doa lot to make this radio a

(33:40):
better radio.
But if there are intrinsicdesign problems with some of the
things that we've found andwe're simply smoothing them by
changing the way the softwarebehaves, that for me is a bit
more worrisome.
And let's not fearmonger here,but to simply say that some of
the feedback we gave had thatsort of reply, that that was
worrisome for me and I will tellyou out of the gate.

(34:01):
Like I said, there is a newfirmware out.
James and I both have flashedit.
There are folks that havereceived this that are still
running on the original firmware.
We absolutely encourage you toput the 52825 firmware on your
FTX1 Optima.
If you have it in your hands,it is a better firmware.
There are better behaviorsaround many of the things that
we've talked about tonight andyou are holding your Optima back

(34:22):
if you don't run that firmware.
So definitely encourage you todo that.
I've already heard a couple offolks that have bought them that
have said I'm not comfortabledoing firmware updates myself.
I would like somebody to helpme through it, and that worries
me too.
Right, you've got brand newunits out in the field running
the beta firmware essentially,and those folks may not feel
comfortable with the extendedfirmware update process.

(34:43):
And this one was a little moreinvolved because you did need to
update the bootloader beforeyou updated the main and the
disk firmware.
So very, very tumultuous firsttwo weeks with my FTX Optima.
It right now for me is a waitand see.
So if you have been listeningand you were waiting for us to
say, go out and get it.
It's a wait and see for us guys.

(35:03):
I think that I'm stuck withmine for the time being.
There is a future where perhapsI go back to a DX10 because I
just find that radio to be asuper excellent radio, even in
the field, if it's a littleheavier.
But we are going to continue toresearch and feel out what it
does, what those firmwares do.
We'll bring that information toyou.
But we had to take some time tofollow up on FTX One and it is

(35:26):
a wait and see, I think from allthree of us here on the
Everyday Ham podcast.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
I would say that's pretty agreed from my side, Yep
absolutely, jim.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
before we move on any glaring positives, what were
some surprises I know we hadwhen we were playing with it on
Saturday.
Your battery consumption was adefinite plus.
It was very low 100%, 100%.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
She sips power, I could tell you that.
So, especially listening,you're getting maybe three
quarters of an amp listeningwith the big color display on
and running.
If I compare that to my DX10,for example, that we have to
keep in the back of our head.
Right, it does not tune ATOS120 through the Optima yet.

(36:22):
There has been acknowledgementvia Yaesu that that was not
intended, at least initially,but they do plan on adding it in
the future.
And the interesting part aboutthat again is Optima can be
tuned manually with the buttonsthrough the Optima, but you
can't find the right SWRautomatically yet through Optima
, which is very strange.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Same with the APRS.
That one made no sense to me.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Same with APRS, right , I'm a big APRS nut, you guys
know it.
I bought the FGPS5 simply toplay with APRS and we heard
initially that there was no wayto send messages back.
Right, and somebody I believeit was K4MAC that gentleman did
a video on it and got a replyfrom the VP of Yaesu saying that
they should have acknowledgedthat APRS was not fully

(37:03):
developed in the initial release.
And that kind of answer fromYaesu at a high level is exactly
what we're saying.
Right, If we're going to put itin the marketing material and
we're going to sell you guys avery expensive product, we need
to be clear on what's coming,what's partially done and what
is going to be done in thefuture, like WiresX, right?

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Just be transparent.
That's really all we ask.
It's understand that maybeyou're going to put out a
product that has some featurescoming in the future.
Qmx was maybe one where theywere talking about.
Maybe you'll have SSB in thefuture.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
That's right.
Do talking about maybe I'llhave SSB in the future and do
some voice operation.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
People loved it, though they were still buying it
.
At least there was the hope ofthe future that you're being
honest.
I'm still going to buy it forits core function.
This is maybe a nice to have inthe future, just be honest.
But I will say maybe before wetransition here as well.
Yezu, if for some reason youare listening to this podcast,
we'd love to have you on thepodcast to talk more about it
and maybe what your developmentplans are for the FTX.

(37:57):
One Absolutely or a phone call,an email Again, Roger was, was
it?
Roger was the name of the tech.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Roger, fantastic gentleman.
Yeah, he was very responsive.
I was reading the email train.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, very nice guy, but let us know we're more than
welcome to have you on thepodcast.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
I think that, yeah, there's always an opportunity to
hear directly from Yesu what isgoing on here, what their
thoughts are and whether or notsome of the things that we saw
are in the process of beingresolved.
But FTX One guys, appreciateyou all following us on this
sort of journey with FTX One.
If you have had an experiencewith one that was delivered
early, put it down in thecomments or let us know at our

(38:33):
Everyday Ham podcast email ifyou're listening on one of the
podcasts.
We would love to hear what yourexperiences are good or bad
because we would like to takesome of that information and
continue to compile a list ofthose experiences and things
that corroborate our ownexperiences so that we can
understand this radio muchbetter than we do right now.
But with that being said, James,I think you have one more.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
I have maybe sad news .
I think you have one more.
I have maybe sad news.
This is a company I onlyrecently learned how to
pronounce the name of, butStepper is announcing that they
are going to be leaving theamateur radio consumer market.
And I think, rory, I learnedfrom you.
I always, I'll fully admit Icalled it StepIR.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
I also did so does everybody else Yep.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
This is why you need a Rory in your lives.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
I don't know that anyone really needs that, but it
comes with a lot of cost.
It's just one of those thingsthat caught my attention some
years ago that I hear peoplecalling it by two different
pronunciations, and I don't likethings like that, so I like to
get to the bottom of it.
You simply you pick up thephone and you call the company
and you find out what they'recalled.

(39:36):
Are you calling them now?
Yeah, but I'm not good atthings, so we have to do it
again.
So I'm calling them now.
Let's see what this is.
Thank you for calling steppercommunication system.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
So imagine you're standing at a uh, a ham fest
next to rory talking about stepir and what are they?

Speaker 3 (39:54):
because I I personally have never used a
step ir and rory goes just callthe hotline you'll learn how to
pronounce it properly.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
And talking about StepIR, and what are they?
Because I personally have neverused a.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
StepIR, I've never used one.
And Rory goes, just call thehotline, you'll learn how to
pronounce it properly.
And there he goes, just dialingit up.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
They do have a couple videos up on their website with
a very nice representative andhe refers to it as Stepper.
So you know what Do what youwant.
It's called Stepper, All right.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
What, what you want, it's called Stepper.
All right, what's the newsabout Stepper?
They will be leaving theamateur radio consumer market
effective August 31st 2025.
So they are leaving the marketpretty quickly Now they are, and
I didn't know this as well.
They do have a enterprise sideof their business.
They actually develop radio andequipment that assists.
One of their main products thatlook like was the day trading,
the radio frequency day tradingthat we also saw some of the

(40:40):
focus recently on that relatedto the band plans and maybe
taking some spectrum.
But they are a company thatproduces radio equipment for
that.
That's one of their maindrivers, let's say, of their
profits.
But for those that don't knowStepIR and again I don't own a
StepIR I have to look it up up.
I know they're known for theirstepper motors, which is one
part.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
When, what are you doing?
This is my step motor.
Yeah, but you just lapsed intosaying step ir oh my god, did
you accidentally?

Speaker 1 (41:07):
there you go, stepper .
So the stepper motors whichadjust inside a length of their
antenna elements, so they have acopper beryllium tape inside
and the stepper motor willbasically just create increments
until you get your fine tuneand that's what they do.
So a lot of people I've heardlove stepper.
There I go.
I had to focus when I was goingto say it there.
But yeah, they are leaving theamateur radio world.

(41:29):
But I think the one mostimportant piece I thought about
before maybe I get your opinionon stepper and where you see the
market going I did find inApril 1st 2024, a Groupsio post
from their CEO, john Myrtle, andI think the most interesting
part was in there.
He had a quote that said In ashrinking ham radio antenna

(41:49):
market where hams are gettingolder and leaving their towers
and yagis and opting instead forstealthtenas that they can
sneak by, hoa committeesPre-owned Stepper Atenas are
flooding the market as theresult and we're reluctantly
saying goodbye to some folksthat we have known and
appreciated for a very long time.
So my thought on this isStepper and the question to you

(42:11):
is going to be do you see thisas a larger trend?
Potentially in the marketplace.
They're going to go back andfocus on their consumer.
But I think they're seeing acouple of things.
Hams are getting older, there'sa flood of used equipment that
is entering the marketplace andon top of that for the consumer
market you are seeing more costpressure related to
manufacturing tariffs again notmaking political statements, but

(42:34):
tariffs increased competition.
We saw MFJ recently in the lastcouple of years, also announced
that they're exiting themarketplace.
So I just find it fascinatingbecause Stepper was, for those
that had it, a beloved brand.
It was definitely a premiumbrand.
Also, doing the research, I sawa few people point out that
this was going to be theirretirement gift to themselves.

(42:55):
They were excited to maybe evengo purchase a stepper antenna
and put it up at their home anduse that as their base station.
So again, I'm curious what youguys are feeling about this.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah, I think that the stepper product itself was
actually an extremely novelconcept, right, when we think
about how they employed thecopper tape as an adjustable
length antenna in a sort ofautomated way, right it?
was a different approach toessentially what we do with kind
of like a screwdriver antenna.
Right, you could make a muchlonger element and that allowed
you to resonate more signaloutward.
So it seems like a really novelconcept.

(43:33):
But we can acknowledge againand we've said this before in
our last get-together expensiveproduct.
Go and look at some of thehigher-end stepper products and
you're looking at $3,000 or inthe neighborhood for an antenna.
In some cases more properlyspecced right.
So significant amount of moneyto spend on an antenna.

(43:57):
And if we boil it down, it endsup being, in the case of some
of those stealth antennas thatthey were talking about, their
market on essentially aground-mounted vertical right
which doesn't offer some of thebenefits of a higher-end
multi-element beam with theStepper technology in it, and I
know that they offer those aswell.
So Stepper for me, afascinating product.

(44:19):
I love the idea of it.
I'll be sad to see it go andthe honest-to-goodness answer is
, if I ever stumble across onefor the right money, I could be
tempted to stand one up in thebackyard just out of sheer
curiosity, because I do live ina place where I wouldn't get
away with a tower.
But I could certainly sneak astepper in the backyard and I
think that it has enough noveltythat it would entertain me for

(44:39):
at least a little while.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
But I know Rory has some additional thoughts on this
I do and you know it was aproduct that I had my eyes on
for a long time.
People noticed they were not atDayton this year and I remember
I was walking through thebuildings one day and I don't
remember if I was with you guysor if I was walking around with
someone else and I made thecomment did anyone see Stepper?

(45:01):
They're not here.
So they were not at DaytonHamvention this year and that
was interesting.
That caught my attention.
But I always liked their sothat was a good tell that
something was coming.
I always liked their product.
Some of it seemed, you knowfrom the concept, exceptionally
interesting to me.
I watched a number of videos onit, watched a number of people
who were very pleased with it.

(45:22):
The performance was there.
Their Stepper Urban Beamproduct was something.
A ham on the east side ofDetroit here that I know he
loves it, he had it.
He moved from a large house,large property he had for years.
He downsized into hisretirement home and that's what
he put up.
Works great for him.
But what I have read andthere's a gentleman out east who
does tower installations allover the country for ham radio

(45:44):
operators.
It's his business.
He would not install one.
He refused if someone ordered asupper because he at some point
in his career was removing orhaving to go and try to do
maintenance on them Troubleshootand he was not interested in
doing that.
At that point he found that hegave the flat-out recommendation
go buy yourself a regularold-fashioned beam and put it up

(46:06):
on your tower.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Where were they failing?
Did he say what element would?

Speaker 2 (46:11):
tend to break.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Be curious was the step motor, or was it?

Speaker 3 (46:14):
if he did, if he said I didn't read it, I can.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
I can try to source that and we can, just we can
circle back at that I don't.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
I'd have to look at it again.
It was a fairly lengthy postactually, so I wouldn't be
surprised if he, if he went intodetail.
But uh, you know that's, that'san interesting take on it for
sure.
And and at that price point, ifthere were failures, and that
that's not a good thing.
So certainly a bummer because,like I said, it had hurt a lot
of people.
I'm sure not putting one uphere at the condominium.

(46:41):
But you know, if I end up onacreage and whatever it was on
my list of things that wouldprobably be on my property
before I learned some of thetroubles that some people had.
We'll see.
There's another differentproduct out there, I suppose.
Who knows, maybe someone willtake it over for the ham
community.
You never know.
Someone might have a new,bigger and better stepper-type

(47:03):
antenna, you never know.
So you had to think about howto say it there for a second.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
I was trying to make a joke, but I'm not that quick.
Second, I was trying to make ajoke, but I'm not that quick.
So I'm also curious, though arewe going to see this as a
larger trend in the market?
Again, we hams are an agingpopulation by some regards, so
I'm curious if there's going tobe more companies that are
traditionally also sellingamateur radio products that say

(47:29):
now the margins just aren't init for us anymore.
You know we're going to go backand focus on our enterprise
business.
Only A Chameleon might beanother one, however.
They do a lot of milling andother things for their antenna
products, but I'm just curiouswhat your thoughts on that are,
especially with the usedproducts flooding the market.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Yeah, and Jim just had a crash so he'll be back in
in a second.
He reports a windows problem,so he's turning things off
screen of death.
I think that happened, I don'tknow.
Yes, okay, so this is my takeon that.
I think it's an evolution ofeverything.
Amateur radio, what people aredoing with amateur radio,
continues to change what, thewhat, the younger, because we're

(48:06):
not the young young guysanymore and we're younger in
general.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
But we're not the young guys anymore.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
We're younger in general, but we're not the young
guys anymore.
What the younger folks aredoing, I think, is going to
evolve.
I mean, you can look at theevolution that Parks on the Air
has done to amateur radio.
There's different needs,different wants.
There's a lot of people who are, I think in general more people
are living in urban or densehousing to where some of these

(48:30):
things aren't an option for them.
So I think it's more of anevolution or a change in the
hobby in general, more than justa change in the products.
I think it's the needs.
The needs and the wants havechanged in time.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
That's kind of my take on that I mean looking at
the Reddit posts and of courseyou know all good facts come
from Reddit, but looking at whatcomments people were making,
there was a lot of well, youjust can't beat a wire antenna.
Looks like I'll just go put upmy wire antenna and I'll be fine
, and maybe that does speak alittle bit to your saying about
how people are in more urbanenvironments and parks on the

(49:03):
air and good, trusty NFEDhalf-wave is just a good
alternative and a changing trend.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
That's all right.
The whole thing goes 100 wattsand a wire, you can work the
world.
There is truth to that.
Yeah, I will say.
Going back to the stepper for asecond, some of the videos
where people took the time tocompare the directionality, the
gain, the receive quality, allthe things, when they had the
stepper pointed the rightdirection and tuned properly, it

(49:29):
beat other antennas.
So you get what you pay for,but you can work the.
You can work the world on 100watts and a wire.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
So I've still got my nfed strung up, even though I've
got the dx commander standingright next to it yeah, so good
luck, stepper.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
We barely knew, ye, at least myself and I just got
your name correct and now you're.
You're leaving me.
Yeah, I was looking.
I'll put put a link in thewebsite if anyone's interested
in looking at StepIR productsand you may see StepIR.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Did you do that on purpose?

Speaker 1 (49:59):
No, I wish I could say I did, but I did not.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
It is way too tempting as a ham to say those
last two letters separately, theway they've got them
capitalized.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
It is, it's like, ingrained in my soul at this
point.
If you do have a stepperproduct, they will continue to
have support for warranty andtechnical inquiries, as well as
spare parts while they last, ohgosh Okay.
So August 31st is their lastday of consumer sales.
So if you're in the market oryou just want to see what's
going to happen on the usedmarket for one, go get your

(50:29):
stepper now.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
I guess it's your last chance.
I want to ask one question and Iapologize, I had a little
technical hiccup here and youguys were talking reliability of
stepper and in learning a bitmore about them before we talked
tonight, I was looking at theirmechanisms, right, and it is a
very novel mechanism, right.
It's a spool with that wind ofantenna tape on it.
It's a stepper motor which weknow it has a reproducible

(50:54):
distance traveled when we pulseit a number of times.
So, like, does anybody hereknow how we actually get
feedback to the stepper control?
Is there an SWR reading thatgets fed back into that stepper
control?
Or is it simply like an oldtime preset radio where we say,
at number of steps, extension oftape equals 33 feet and
therefore resonant on?

(51:16):
So do we know any more aboutthat?
I would just be curious.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
At risk of not knowing anything.
I believe there's a wholecomputer-controlled module.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Okay, so the unit is a fairly smart unit in both its
probably driving.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
From again looking at the website.
Yeah, okay, go ahead, roy no,go ahead I was gonna say, from
looking at the website there isa two control units that they
sell.
Okay, that are swr and controlhead readers.
So okay, it looks like thecontrol head or the controller,
is what's really doing thereading and then the adjustments
to match.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Okay, Like I said, right when we started talking
about Stepper I said I thoughtit was a novel product and.
I love Stepper.
When we started talking aboutit I thought it was a novel
product, so it just makes memore interested in it, and
that'll be definitely one ofthose things that I think,
because they've said itthemselves these are going to

(52:11):
continue to pop up, even on theused market, and if you look at
some of the components insidethe drive box there, they look
very reproducible if you were afairly handy person with a 3D
printer.
So I do wonder if it won'tcontinue on in its own little
format, by the way of the usersright, folks that have them,
that love them, and that kind ofexpand on the idea using their

(52:31):
own product replacements.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Now I will say this their optimizer 2.0 controller
tagline is it's not a controller, it's an optimizer.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Oh so there's your answer.
Would it ever make sense to say, oh, I have an optimized IR.
What is that?
What is that?
That doesn't even make sense.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
You have an optimizer .

Speaker 3 (52:51):
You have an optimizer .
Just say it like it's the word.
Maybe it was their brandingthat caused their demise.
I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
The I-R is capitalized, sir, I'm doing
exactly as it's telling me to do.
It's true, it's true, see.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
So is everyone else, but it's not what it is.
So here we are.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
So with that, we're going to have our last topic for
the day.
We've all mentioned before, weare members of the South Lyon
Area Amateur Radio Club here inbeautiful South Lyon, michigan,
and we have field day coming upand it's going to be a big event
.
So, jim, what's going on withSlark and our field day
activities?

Speaker 2 (53:29):
This is a really interesting little tidbit here.
So when we talked about Step IRand exiting the market because
of the aging ham population, Ifeel like we're on a sort of
opposite trajectory here.
In South Lyon we have a ton ofyounger, newer hams joining our
club and there's a certain levelof vibrance that we've seen
lately and we're in a lucky spotright now, I think, as

(53:52):
individuals in this particularclub that are experiencing a
sort of like I said, burgeoningkind of refresh of interest in
it in this particular metro area.
So that's awesome, and whatthat means is Field Day is an
opportunity for many of thosefolks who have just gotten their
tech licenses to come out andrun the HF Radio for the first
time, and I'm speaking fromexperience.
Last year about this time itwas probably the first week of

(54:15):
June was when I really startedto look up ham radio for the
first time.
This is my first year back in.
Literally it's like my birthday, because this first month was
when I started talking to Roryon the repeater, getting to know
all of the folks in the cluband then making my first visit
to one of our club meetings andgoing out to dinner with you
guys and starting to really runinto you, right?

(54:35):
And so, yeah, field Day is thatopportunity.
The new hams can get out thereand run.
Field Day is also an informalcontest.
It's also a picnic.
It's also a way to know ifyou're ready to operate your
radio in an emergency situation.
It is many things and it's notjust one thing to any one person
, right?
So when we think about fieldday, think about what you're
going out to get from field day,and there are going to be many

(54:57):
activities that you canparticipate in.
Some of them revolve aroundoperating the radio, right, and
being involved in the informalcontest.
Some of them might just be togo out and pick the brain of
another ham radio tech that youare curious about, like how do
they get into it.
Or maybe you want to sit thereand have a picnic lunch with
everybody out there in the cluband just get to know people
before you dive headfirst intooperating radio.

(55:18):
So I encourage folks that arethinking about going out to
field day.
If you've never done it, go outand do it for your first time.
Everybody at the field day, atyour local field day, is likely
going to be happy to see a newface.
Oh yeah, and you'll probably beoverwhelmed by the friendliness
, with love and support I wasgoing to say the friendliness
and also the amount ofinformation that those folks
want to share.

(55:39):
Right, all of our clubs, all ofour clubs, no matter where
you're at in the United Statesor otherwise right, are looking
for fresh folks to come out andparticipate in these events.
And I am the event chair forthe South Lion Area Amateur
Radio Club, so I can tell you awell-attended event.
It warms my heart.
Right, we want folks to show upto these things.
There's a lot of planning thatgoes into them.

(55:59):
There's a lot of equipment thatgets moved to a place for a
field day type operation.
So go out and check them out,guys, and you don't have to
spend overnight there.
Go out for a couple of hours,take a look at the field day
schedule.
If there's no field dayschedule posted, look around on
the web and find an email andemail somebody and ask them some
questions.
But I just want to encourageeverybody to go check out Field

(56:20):
Day.
South Lyon Area Amateur RadioClub is doing their Field Day
this year.
Again, same place as last year.
We do it in the Brighton StateRecreation Area, which is also a
POTA park.
So you get double credit youcan get a POTA activation while
you're doing your informal fieldday activations and we are
going to be running four radiosout there.
We're going to be running a 4Asite station out there at the

(56:41):
McGizzy Cabin M-I-G-I-Z-I, andyou can find more information if
you're interested, and in thelocal area on our website S-L so
you can go check that out.
If you are interested, feelfree to email either the podcast
or email the club if you'renearby and come out and check
out our field day, because it'sgoing to be a blast.
Guys.
There will be many of us outthere running radio.

(57:02):
If it's as warm as last year, Iencourage you to dress
appropriately for it, but therewill be an opportunity for a
potluck.
There might be some folks therethat are happy to help you
shepherd a new learning stationso you can sit down and learn
how to use the radio if you'venever done it before as a tech,
and we're running the club call.
So you don't have to be ageneral operator.
You don't need to be an extraclass operator to get on all of

(57:23):
the HF bands on field day.
We're going to be running aclub call to do that and many of
these field day sites are doingthe same thing.
That means that somebody at theclub is allowing you, on the
behalf of the club, to use thatclub call to have extra
privileges.
Let me get those words out ofmy mouth on the radio, and that
lets you run it like you were afull class operator of the ham

(57:43):
radio.
So really cool experience,james.
What are your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (57:46):
No, I was just about to say that may have been the
best description of field dayI've ever heard, nice, and to
say that may have been the bestdescription of field day I've
ever heard, nice and that is whyyou're the best event
coordinator in the business.
Well there we go blushing.
You went through it, but no,field day is a great time.
I I love field day and this maybe a little bit I.
I actually may leave our fieldday a little bit and drive
around and check out a coupleother field days as well, just

(58:06):
to see how they do it.
So, as jim said, there's nowrong way to field day.
Come and get your taste, forwhatever you'd like to do.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
So I don't remember the year, it was probably 04, 05
, somewhere in that time frame.
I did just that.
I went and visited, I think,four or five field days on field
day Saturday.
And it was a nice way to do it.
I did it so that my day endedand I ended up at South Lion up
on the hill where we were doingit by the end of the day and I
stayed there overnight.
But I think I went to theMilford Amateur Radio Club was

(58:35):
still there.
I think the Oakland CountyRaces group had one up in
Pontiac, something out in HowellAnyway.
So that was a good time to getaround and see different setups,
see the way different people doit.
I think that's a good plan,james, if that's what you're
looking to do.
I had a couple other thoughtson field day.
Certainly, if you show up onthere and you have any sort of
apprehension towards gettingbehind the mic, don't have

(58:57):
someone.
There'll be someone that'll sitright next to you, help you
with the logging tell you whatto say walk you right through it
.
If you've never been on the mic,or you've never been on HF for
that matter, sit down next tosomeone who's playing.
They're going to give you themic eventually.
It's just how it works.
At field day, everyone is thereto help everybody learn.
And I will also mention if wehave any disabled or homebound

(59:21):
listeners who aren't able to getout and about, I don't know
without looking, and that'sbecause of bad planning.
You'll have to look it up.
You can play field day fromhome and you can run.
I think it's a one echo or onegolf or one.
It's a one.
There's run.
I think it's a one echo or onegolf or one, it's a one.
There's a designator for astation running at home on
commercial power.
You can look that up.
Arrlorg will give you theinformation.
Jim's typing away.
I can hear his keyboard.
He's going to let us know whatit is.

(59:41):
But even if you can't get outto field day, you can play from
home.
Spin the dial, the bands willbe packed.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
You will find people on top of people and all sorts
of qsb and all sorts of stuffand and I was gonna say, I
recognize mike as someone thathad mike fright at one point as
well.
It is real and field day wasone of the best, as everything
rory just said is 100 true yousit next to someone.
You eventually say you knowwhat, I'm gonna try it.
You close your eyes, yousqueeze, you squeeze the hand
mic, maybe not as hard as jimwho is gonna break a mic one day

(01:00:14):
, but we, we know they'redurable and they can take it.
And you just do it for a coupletimes and and it's a thrill,
once you get once.
You just do a couple cycles andyou get a.
You get a, you get hooked.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
So the best thing you can do is get out there and
just give it a try good yeah,you'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Field Day.
Did you find the exchange?
I didn't.
The rulebook is thick for ARLField Day if you have never
looked at it before, so I didnot make it through far enough
to get you the exact one.
The home station rules.
But you can run a home station.
That is in the rules.
It is allowed, and oftentimeswhen we're sitting out at Field
Day loud, and oftentimes whenwe're sitting out at field day

(01:00:52):
we're talking to those homestations, right, and those guys
are having just as much funcalling back, and really field
day doesn't work unless we'reboth on either ends of the radio
, right?
That's the whole part aboutfield day.
It's similar to POTA, but on amuch larger scale.
Every band is going to bepacked, probably closer to 1 or
2K between our separationinstead of 3K on sideband in
many cases.
Right, you're gonna be talkingwith sideband chaos, yeah but

(01:01:13):
like james said don't worry, Imessed up.
The first couple calls.
The person next to you is gonnasay, hey, not that way, let's
stop, let's think, let's go backand try it again.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Not a big deal I still mess up, sometimes when
I'm even doing poda exchanges,it's okay absolutely totally,
yeah, it just just go out thereand have fun and don't stress
about it.
And at the end of the day, it'slater on in the evening when
those folks on side band aretuckered out and they just want
to run, save their voice for alittle bit and run through the

(01:01:55):
night.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
There was some really interesting DX late into the
evening.
Last year on field day I talkedto Hawaii on six meter, which
was insane, so that was prettycool.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
That's cool.
Yeah, the bands can do.
Our friend, jason Canforale,who was a guest on one of our
previous episodes.
He had his first I don't knowif it was first overall
experience with FT8, but atfield day last year he sat into
the wee hours of the morninghanging away at FT8 for what I
think was his first time ever.
But for the record okay, if youare running by yourself at home

(01:02:26):
on commercial power, you areone delta.
And if you're running at homeon backup power, you are one
echo.
So, just so that we can clearthe air on that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
So if you're new to field day, you don't need to
read the rule book.
Someone will be there to helpyou out.
If you're the ham nerd like weare, we just want to make sure
it's correct.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Absolutely.
And one more thing on the fieldday.
There I liked what you guyssaid about exploring field days.
If you're in an area that hasmore than one, this is a great
way to go get your firstexperience with a club.
And if you haven't picked oneyet, field day is going to be a
really nice place to see in abusy situation, like how are
they planning their event?
How are they welcoming new hams?

(01:03:08):
Right, and you can bop aroundto a couple of these if you're
in a local area like ours andyou can find the one that fits
your speed, your operating styleand the people that you would
like to hang out with.
Right, some clubs are going tobe different than others.
Some clubs are more social,some clubs are more technical,
some clubs kind of walk a sortof balance between those.
So find a club that meets yourrequirements, and not every club

(01:03:28):
.
Like not everybody wants tojoin south lion area amateur
radio club right, that's okay.
There's an arrow club.
Down the road, there's a larkclub to the west of us.
Right, there's all kinds of.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
There's a larp club east and west of us for that.
That's right yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
So there's go, go check out a couple of them, and
I like that suggestion as as afinal kind of thought on field
day.
But get out there and checkfield day out.
It is the last weekend of juneand it is going to be a fairly
exciting little event.
It starts on saturday the 28that two and it runs to sunday at
the same time and on the arowebsite there is a spot to find

(01:04:04):
where clubs are hosting fieldday.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
So you can go out there and check out the map and
find it and maybe you can meetyour jim and rory as well, your,
your fellow ham companions onthis journey.
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
They can even start a podcast.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Yeah, we'll love it.
We'll love the competitionthere.
So with that, though, we are attime.
So any closing remarks, Jim andRory, from your side before we
go through our spiel.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Always a pleasure talking with you guys.
I'll be completely nerdy.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
Let me always a pleasure talking with you guys.
Be completely nerdy, let me becompletely nerdy for a second.
It is summer, it is going to bewarmer.
You're going out for your podactivation.
Make sure you have your water.
Make sure you have everythingyou need to stay safe out in the
sun.
Sunburns bad, even if it'scloudy.
I sound like I'm nagging, butyou know that's life.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Take water and tick repellent, tick repellent, as
Ticks are bad.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
This year, especially in our neck of the woods.
So I'll leave you with that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
I want to call out just a couple of folks that we
dealt with between the lastconversation we had with you
guys and now Sebastian, again atHam2K.
Sebastian, there we go,sebastian.
We reached out to Sebastian,asked him to spiff up our polo
usernames with the Everyday Hampodcast.
So if you see us on the poloair, certainly say hello to us.

(01:05:17):
We do have the Everyday Ham pigand Sebastian, we can give him
some credit there.
I am repping.
Thank you, sebastian.
Yeah, I'm repping Sebastian'sHam 2K polo sticker again.
Still the top pick for us forParks on the Air activating and
general logging at this point.
But for us for Parks on the Airactivating and general logging
at this point.
But just an excellent thing,and I did want to say that out
loud.
And we have been invited to aguest podcast here next week.

(01:05:38):
So we're not going to let toomuch on about that yet, but do
keep your eyes out.
I guess there was a podcasthere to the east of us who liked
what they had seen and weappreciated them reaching out
and asking us if we'd like tohave a little conversation.
So we're making friends.
There we go, look at us.
So we're looking forward tothat.
We have gotten some other emailsfrom folks interested in us
talking about things on thepodcast.

(01:06:00):
If that's you, if you have athing that you think would be
interesting to share on thepodcast, you would like us to
consider that, feel free to sendus an email.
We are trying to be selectiveright now with the things that
we do talk about so that it doesengage you guys, the audience
that are listening, but webelieve that that will continue
to expand.
So we're keeping our eyes andour ears and our minds open on

(01:06:20):
those propositions whenever theycome in.
So I just wanted to thank allthe folks that had taken some
time to listen through thesepodcasts and save my 73s.
Guys, james, back to you forthe yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
So if you like talking about the FTX One, the
stepper field day, please leaveyour comments either in the Send
us an email.
If you're listening in theaudio version, give us a comment
and feedback there.
Definitely Like and subscribe,of course, the standard saying
you can find us ateverydayhamcom.
All our links to everything arelocated there the audio version

(01:06:54):
, the YouTube, the Discord, theInstagram.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
Join the Discord.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Join the Discord.
We are active and we are outthere.
So everydayhamcom Go out andfind us.
And thanks again everyone.
It's always a pleasure beingwith you, absolutely so with
that 73, guys have a goodevening 73.