May 20, 2025 • 51 mins
The Dayton Hamvention 2025 delivered on every front as we explored Xenia's grounds with our South Lion Area Amateur Radio Club members in their distinctive yellow shirts. This year's highlights included the Kenwood TH-D750 triple-band mobile with its built-in D-STAR hotspot and accessibility features, Flex Radio's impressive Aurora series with integrated 500-watt amplifiers starting at $6,199, and our realization that premium ham equipment now commands significantly higher prices—sparking discussions about value, longevity, and manufacturer support.
Beyond the technology, Hamvention's true magic came through personal connections: chance encounters with podcast listeners, meeting Sebastian KI2D (developer of Ham2K Polo software), and our club's social events at Caesar Creek campground. Join us for more connections at the Michigan POTA meetup on June 7th at Fort Custer State Recreation Area, and share your experiences with TSA's new 100Wh lithium battery restrictions on our new Discord server at everydayham.com!
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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/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, everyone, welcome to a special edition of
the Everyday Ham Podcast.
Tonight we're going to talkabout our hamvention overall
impressions, feelings and whatwe saw.
That was pretty awesome.
I am James K8JKU.
I'm joined here by Rory W8KNXand Jim N8JRD, as always.
(00:21):
So how are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We're doing great.
So, Jim, first hamvention brokethe whatever you break when you
do something for the first timeBroke the seal Broke.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
The seal Broke.
The seal Broke.
The bank.
Keep it PG Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
How was your first go at hamvention?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, broke the seal, broke the bank, broke it all.
It was excellent.
And I will tell you guys, yeah,broke the seal, broke the bank,
broke it all.
It was excellent.
And I will tell you guys, weknocked on wood before the
hamvention.
About the weather, I think,honestly, we got just excellent
weather overall through thewhole weekend.
As far as I understand it, therehave been much rainier
hamventions and, despite beingthreatened by what was a pretty
(01:00):
serious band of severe storms inthe south part of Ohio and
there were also some above us,we managed to eke out a bit of
wind, a bit of heavy rain Ithink there might have been a
couple of pea-sized pieces ofhail for a minute or two in the
campground, but overall, man, itwas a nice day.
Thursday I was down in thecampground, it was beautiful, we
had the air conditioning on,that's how warm it was and I can
(01:22):
appreciate having a littleearly summer weather, living in
Michigan all year and thenFriday a little overcast, and we
spent the whole day out in theflea market, which was my mecca.
And then Saturday afternoon wehad a little bit of wind, but
another beautifully sunny dayand we got a great club picture.
So overall, guys.
I mean it was an excellentfirst Hamvention as far as it's
(01:44):
concerned.
I think it does set a bar forme that will be hard to beat in
the future, because May has suchunpredictable weather in the
Midwest.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, Hamvention as a social event for me, this was
my favorite.
As far as that's concerned I'vebeen to back in the first phase
of my ham career.
I only went to one, back atHera Arena, and this is my third
here in Xenia.
So a couple of the other oneswere always one-day trips down,
maybe one overnight crashing ata friend's camper and then
(02:15):
hurrying up and going headinghome the next day.
But this year I did the fullweekend experience, starting
with the Four Days in May vendorevent on Thursday night and
then staying all the way throughand heading home Sunday morning
.
So as far as social andnetworking and seeing all the
people that I knew and people Ididn't know and people I forgot
about, it was excellent.
(02:35):
As far as our club is concerned, our home club, the South Lion
Area Amateur Radio Club here inSouth Lion, michigan, I think we
were somewhere between 25 and30 members strong at Hamvention
and if any of you were atHamvention and saw a bunch of
weirdos in yellow shirts millingaround together, on Saturday,
which Rory would not stopcomplaining about when you wear
(02:56):
yellow.
I don't wear yellow, not anymore, at least.
Yeah, so I broke any habit ofwearing yellows, you know,
somewhere in the early 2000s.
But that's excellent experienceseeing all the people and
brainstorming with fellow hamsand thinking about the purchases
(03:31):
and talking to people.
It's just always such a goodtime.
James, what's on the top ofyour list from this one?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
No, it was a good time.
Similar to you, second time atHamvention, I really went down
there to socialize and hang outwith everyone.
The club events were awesome.
So, if anyone from the club islistening, thanks again for all
your help in making those eventspretty memorable.
We did an off-site happy hour.
We hung out at Hamventiontogether.
We had a nice barbecue back atour campsite in Caesar Creek.
(04:01):
Other than that, I just kind ofwalked around.
I didn't buy too much.
I got the FT5.
I copied Rory on that.
I got a GP3.
We talked about putting astation up on my roof, so we'll
have that video coming in thesummer.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Looking forward to that, yeah, and then also Get to
see me climbing on the roof.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
And then also got the BioNnobattery.
I got a six amp hour batterybecause I heard that the TSA
changed the requirements of whatyou're able to carry on with
you down to 100 watt hours.
So if you were to basicallycalculate that out, it's about
8.3, I believe amp hours is nowthe limit, and BioNno either
(04:41):
sells a six or nine.
So I got a six and a mobilecharger.
So if you're not aware, I knowit still depends on the airline
and approval, but it might benice to pick one up.
I always love Bioeno greatcompany to work with, and they
have a good deal set atHamvention, so I picked one of
those up as well.
That.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
TSA situation is going to be very interesting and
I'll be curious if anyone who'slistening or watching this post
in the comments, if you've hadany experience with what TSA or
the individual airlines aredoing with that, because I
personally have never flown withmy ham equipment but at some
point I will, but a lot of us,our friends, do, so I would be
(05:19):
curious if anyone has had anyexperience, both good or bad on
what's happening with that rightnow.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's also worth my 12 amp hour before.
No, sorry Jim, I've flown withmy 12 amp hour before, no
problems.
That was always my go-to andnever even took it out of the
bag.
I'm curious what happens now,though, with the changes, and
it'll take time for theregulations to kind of kick into
every airport, but I'd suspectthat they'll be pretty
aggressive on it in the future,so maybe just keep that in mind.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, I was going to say two things here.
One, the TSA experience isgenerally inconsistent between
airports.
So unfortunately, what you'llfind is you may get through on
the first go with your 12 amphour that you've been traveling
with for years and on the wayback they may decide that that
one's not coming with you on theride.
So that is what I think we haveto be mindful of is, with those
(06:07):
changes, if you want to makesure that you're going to make
it back and to, or to and back,you really should take a look
more closely.
And it makes sense.
We've seen far too many storiesnow where poorly constructed
power banks and battery packsare combusting on the airline.
And of course, we all knowlithium fires are hard to
extinguish.
They need to burn themselvesout in ways that can be very
(06:31):
detrimental to a plane travelingexperience.
The other thought I had was,since we're on the BioNno topic,
one of our club members, johnNU8M, just actually had a sort
of very positive experience withBioNno in a sort of backward
way, which is to say he's been alongtime user of the BioNno
batteries, as are many of ourclub members they have, I think.
(06:53):
James, you have one, lewisN8LEK has one.
I know that there are others inthe club that I'm sure I'm
forgetting.
Shane KF8BWN has one.
We got a lot of BioNno in theclub that I'm sure I'm
forgetting.
Shane KF8BWN has one.
We got a lot of BioNno in theclub, right?
John actually experienced afailure with one of his BioNno
packs and he went over to theHamvention booth and he said hey
(07:15):
, you know, I just wanted tohave a chat about it and he was
just curious what might be thesolution.
And they said no problem, john,here's a brand new battery.
They replaced it on the spot.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
They hand him a battery and they said Barely any
questions asked.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Nope, they said we'll send you a label when we get
back to our office and you cansend us back the failed pack,
and we just want to make surethat you are back on the air.
And I have to give them props.
Honestly, it is a real highmark for BioNno to be that
customer focused and I thinkthat's an excellent experience.
To say so, plus one to BioNno.
I think that when we have thosepositive experiences with ham
(07:54):
vendors that are smaller likethat and I'm not saying BioNno
is small by any means, but whenwe think about them in the broad
picture, we have to make surethat we call those positive
experiences out.
So plus one for.
BioNno.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Good customer service goes a long way with me.
I like hearing good stories andthat's actually makes it more
likely that I'll look at theirproduct over someone else's in
the future.
That's always good and I'll becurious, I wonder if it'll be a
situation where they'll get backwith John on what the failure
was or if it'll just kind offade away.
We'll have to ask him aboutthat when we see him in a few
(08:25):
weeks the next time.
So a couple shout-outs for sureyou thought of the BioNno thing
.
Certainly want to say hello toour friend Mark KD9UIC, a member
of the Piglet amateur radiocommunity out of Indiana.
So he reached out to us on thecomments and in our Discord.
Feel free to join our Discordserver.
(08:46):
It's a slow start but we'rethere and we're looking forward
to making a good conversationout of it.
But Mark reached out to us andlet us know that he would be
staying in Caesar Creek alongwith many of us and we happened
to run into him at the Four Daysin May vendor night.
I saw him walking by and I sawa call sign that looked familiar
(09:07):
.
So I had to quickly refer to myemail because my memory is not
as good as people think it isand I verified with myself that
it was him.
So I shouted over to him and hewas very confused and startled.
But he figured out who we wereand came back and we had a good
chat with him.
So certainly cool.
I really enjoyed looking overthe website.
I think we mentioned this inthe in one of the other things
(09:31):
we did, but the piglet amateurradio club there, their their
website and their branding is onpoint.
Looks like they have anexcellent club and if I'm ever
in Indiana I'm certainly goingto look them up, whether it's
for one of the things they doand I know I'm veering off a
hamvention, but I digress, youknow that's me.
It looks like they're prettyactive with CUSO parties and one
(09:53):
of these years I'll want to dothe Indiana CUSO party in
Indiana, so I might look them upfor that.
Also, at the Four Days in Mayevent we happened to see
Sebastian KI2D, who is, in myopinion, royalty at this point.
He is the developer of the.
(10:14):
Ham2K Polo software that many ofus are using to log POTA on our
various devices.
I have it on my iPad and on myiPhone and it was excellent to
ch to chit chat with Sebastian.
I took the opportunity to thankhim for his exceptionally
well-developed andwell-maintained platform, which
(10:35):
is free free to use and it's oneof the best it's top notch and
he's.
He's constantly tweaking andtaking people's comments,
whether they're good or bad.
He takes all feedback and putswhatever he can.
He takes that feedback and usesit however he can and I think
he does a tremendous job.
So it was excellent to sayhello to him.
(10:55):
Jim has his sticker.
He gave us a couple stickersthere.
I think he was surprised to.
He was very humble, you couldtell talking to him he was
surprised that I.
We were very excited to meethim.
I think he was surprised to.
He was very humble.
You could tell talking to himhe was surprised that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I.
We were very excited to meethim, I think, and he was like
what, who are these guys?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And why are they so stoked about it?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
When you develop something like that, you got to
that's.
I was glad to talk to him for afew minutes.
Talk to him for a few minutesuh, a couple other locals, lewis
uh n8lek and mike w8 msc bothuh, when we were walking around
dayton, mentioned that they uhspent their drives down to
dayton listening to the podcast.
So thanks you guys forlistening and we appreciate the
(11:36):
the feedback as well.
So certainly uh good to havesome of our local friends and
and a growing network of friendsall over the place uh to find
this podcast, find the Everyday.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Ham, yeah, I'll call out one more, and it was just in
passing which I guess.
I have a sort of unique voiceand I'm also a very loud person,
even in a loud building.
A young gentleman walked up tome and he said hey, do you guys
do a podcast?
And I said, yep, that's us.
We did get hats made, by theway, they have the Everyday Ham
(12:07):
pig on them and our logo on theback, but it was not the day I
was wearing it, so I said, yeah,that was us, and James and Rory
are here too.
I pointed to you guys and hesaid oh, I've been listening to
you guys and I just wanted tocongratulations, congratulations
.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
From both James and Rory and myself.
Congratulations, my friend, andwelcome to the ham radio
experience.
I'm sure you'll quickly ascendto general at this clip, but he
was just very excited to bethere, immersed in the ham
experience, and it was reallynice to have him stop and say
that he appreciated the podcastand he had heard us talking
(12:45):
about how testing waschallenging there and he
appreciated the sort ofrecognition for those folks that
can go and test in a reallychaotic environment even though
the church is across the street.
It's a lot of excitement.
Right, it could be a reallytough place to test, but that
gentleman did it.
Good for you, my friend.
We hope to hear you on the airand if you are that person that
bumped into me I apologize, Ihave forgotten your first name
(13:08):
Throw your call, sign out in thevideo below and I would love to
make sure that we get you somerecognition.
I'll send you a QCell card tooif you'd like that, but nice to
make your acquaintance out there.
So a lot of fun recognition.
I bumped into another gentlemanout in the marketplace as well,
out on the flea market on thetrack, and he recognized me,
asked me he was from Ohio.
He said hey, are you podcastguys?
(13:29):
I said we are indeed, and hesaid well, I'm a big dog
enthusiast.
He recognized Cash, my poodle,who was out with me the second
day, and we sat and had a littlechat about dogs and poodles and
podcasts.
So good to hear some communityfeedback.
Even though this is a tinylittle podcast, if you're
listening, we really doappreciate you.
(13:49):
We love hearing you guys and,honestly, the comments below
each of these videos help drivewhat we talk about next.
So awesome to hear you guys,yep.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So I guess, moving into a little bit about and also
really quickly for me also,congratulations to anyone that
attempted to test at Hamvention,similar to Jim, and that passed
.
The attempt is awesome and thepassing is great as well, so
congratulations to all that thatwere there.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
James, you had a pass rate for Hamvention.
What was it Actually?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I think it was Rory.
Rory, what did you have?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I believe they posted 53% of people who tested at Ham
mentioned past left with, sothe amount of people that are
there.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Good job, Honestly it just goes to show it's a tough
environment.
So if you were one of those 53%, good for you, you did a hell
of a job.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And if you tried, good on you to try.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Absolutely To be fair , I'd assume, since it's there
and they do do it for free, bythe way, some people for free,
by the way, some people may justtoss their hats in Right.
And I had considered that if Iwas in the mood and had the time
I was debating, going overthere to make the attempt at the
extra.
But the day before, the daybefore the invention, I took a
online test and all my hopes anddreams went out the window.
(14:58):
I said it's time to time to dosome studying before I buckle
down, yeah, yeah, if this guycan pass the extra you can pass
the extra.
That's what you tell me, and Iknow some other folks.
I know some other folks who arenot as talented as you that
have passed it, so I don't knowif that's a positive or a
negative thing.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Thank you, question mark.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Take it however you wish.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Backhanded compliment .
Yeah, all right, let's move onto a little bit of our takes on
the actual Hamvention.
So we did a video, we shouldpoint out, while we were in the
middle of that rainstorm and ourother club member was hanging
from his canopy trying to holdit down.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Call out to WAMTV.
Poor Mike.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
He did a good job.
He survived.
We were recording an episodewith Jason KN4AL.
He got his 400th activationwhile leading up to Hamvention,
which was a big achievement.
And we also talked about ourfield day experience, so walking
around the flea market and allour shopping we did that day, so
we'll link it up here.
There'll probably be a cardwhen we get to that point.
(15:58):
But we also saw some newreleases.
So on Saturday we walked aroundthe main exhibit halls.
We saw Flex Radio have anupdate with the Aurora.
We saw the new Kenwood Radiostill in the glass bubble, so we
didn't really get a hands-on,but we were able to look at it
in detail and talk to the rep.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
That's right.
They gave us a flyer.
That was the best it could be.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
They gave us a flyer, yep and some good details.
And then we also saw the FTXone in person, hands on.
They had it on display.
So where, where do you thinkyou guys would like to start
with our overall experiences?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Let me take it.
Let me, okay, go ahead.
I was just going to say let me,let me take the FTX one, Cause
it's on tip of my tongue here.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
All right, I just want to, I just want to.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I want guys.
It is true, FTX1 landed atHamvention.
It was there for everybody topoke.
Optima was there as well.
John was there.
It was nice to see John inperson.
I even said hello, John, and hewaved back and it was very
pleasant.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Come on the podcast, John.
We'd love to have you.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
We would love to have you Open invitation.
But it was nice to see the radiothere, right, it was the first
time we were able to get handson that radio and, uh, they were
very open.
We powered it down, wedisconnected all the wires from
the back of the optima.
We saw how it connected.
We like understood it with withall the fingers.
We poked all the buttons, wepowered it back up.
But I will say there were ftxones on site, as we predicted,
(17:18):
and you were able to walk up andbuy one, not the optima, but
you could buy a on-site atHamvention, and you heard it
here.
We expected that that was goingto be the case.
The other thing that we werespeculating and I think that is
likely going to ring true aswell is that this morning
Optima's have shipped to thosewho have pre-ordered them from
the Ham Radio Outlet.
(17:39):
So call out and a shout out toHam Radio Outlet for being the
first to ship.
It seems like in the domesticarea here Looking forward to
getting mine.
It looks like Wednesday is theday for me and James is also on
the Wednesday train.
So we've got a couple ofOptima's.
They are coming now, and if youwere waiting for one and you
had heard rumors that say thatAugust was going to be the month
or June or July.
(18:00):
Unless you're way down the list,you're going to see an Optima
much sooner than that, I hope.
So really exciting news.
I don't want to spend too muchtime on that Optima, but it is
cool.
We are going to have anothermic check video coming with an
unboxing of an Optima, so keepyour ears and eyes tuned.
But over to Rory, who I thinkhas some thoughts on Kenwood
(18:24):
because those folks weregracious when we stepped into
their booth.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
We had an excellent experience at the Kenwood booth.
We basically walked up and Ialmost expected we were just
going to look at the thing andwalk off but forget our own
opinion and move on.
But the gentleman and I wouldhave loved to have gotten his
name to give him a shout out.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
He was such a nice guy.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, he came over and talked to us with no concern
.
He wasn't interested in whetherwe were buyers or not buyers,
whether we had the money for itor wouldn't have the money for
it.
He approached us with greatdetail as much as he could give
anyway and was open to all thewhatever questions we asked your
name.
Perhaps questions at some ofthem I, I wasn't going to do
(19:02):
that, but uh yeah I tried not toask those questions, but you
know that's.
That's how.
By the end of the day, they'reall inane, I'm sure.
But um, one of the things welearned there is that that will
likely not ship until the fourthquarter of the year.
Um, I think you said novemberand one of the best at best yeah
it sounds like they wereshooting for for summer.
(19:23):
I don't think it was ever goingto make dayton from the sounds
of it, but no, um, it soundslike, and I don't recall what.
Which component, if he evensaid I don't think he specified.
He didn't specify the component?
No, but there was a componentthat their supplier, kenwood
supplier, essentially vanished.
Yep, um, it was and was.
No, they were no longer able tosource.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Took them back to design.
They had to go back andre-engineer parts.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So whatever this was, it set them back.
They had to re-engineer, find,find it, find a supplier and
figure out how to do it with thenew, the new items.
So that that set them behindand that's unfortunate.
But I still expect a ahigh-quality product from
Kenwood.
So a couple things we did learn.
We knew it was going to be2-meter, 220, and 440.
(20:06):
It sounds like 220 will havesome power behind it.
He wouldn't confirm because heprobably couldn't for sure, but
he said it might be 20 watts, itmight be 50 watts, but it's not
the 1 or 2 watt that someradios put out on 220s.
So the 220 community is veryexcited to have a radio coming
(20:29):
that has some power on 220,because there seems to be some
interest in the general hamcommunity, two 20 in our
possession and people arewanting to have radios that that
work.
Two, 20 again, it's somethingI'm certainly looking to uh to
do here in the near future forsure.
Um, he also and I'm I wasreading over the flyer he gave
(20:52):
us.
He also confirmed that it willhave a D star hotspot on board.
The radio will have able to beconnected wireless, wireless
networking and be able to have ahotspot on board.
So for D star users that's abig deal.
I've been a long time D staruser and and to be able to have
(21:12):
that hotspot built in, well, itjust means I need to be put,
build a bridge, a D star bridge,from D star to all stars so I
can get on our local non-starrepeater.
So that's something I actuallyalready started reading about.
Nice Another thing to do, butdefinitely looking forward to it
Full duplex on this radio.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Which is exciting.
That's another full duplexradio on the market, which is
great.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yep, it's another full duplex radio on the market,
which is great.
Yep, that is a big deal for anumber of reasons, whether
you're a satellite or just aperson who prefers to have that
capability for whatever reason.
Usb-c for connections I don'tthink it was clear definitely
for connecting to the computer.
Yep, looked like Ethernet cable.
They were showing it with ashield, shielded ethernet cable
(22:00):
between the control head and thebody.
That's nice.
That makes it so easy.
You're not having to source aproprietary cable to do your
extension.
Another big deal, of course,the speaker um in the in the
control head, so showing on thecamera here, because this is
good, good quality video to showa picture of a picture.
But the, the speaker um in thecontrol head, eliminates the
(22:23):
need to have an external speaker.
This radio will be in my carwith kenwood audio with kenwood
audio.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Kenwood audio speaker .
It's a front.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
It's a front firing speaker in the bottom right hand
corner of the head for thefolks that are listening in the
audio here, right.
So the the the left hand sideof the unit is mostly screen and
it has a big sharp color screenthat is very bright, and on the
right side a nice-sized speakerthat's front-firing.
And I'll tell you what I'm only41 years old and I can
appreciate having the audio upat my head level these days?
(22:53):
Oh yeah, absolutely Becauseespecially when I'm trying to
pick out call signs.
Having it fed into my ear helpsa hell of a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, and we were all surprised by the size of the
control head Once we saw it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Oh yeah, it was a solid brick it's.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
it's larger than we expected.
So anyone familiar with the ID50, 100 it is which this radio
will replace in my car.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It is it is slightly larger and all all dimensions
from the ID5100 controller.
Yeah, and maybe, if you're nota UC5100 Nintendo Switch to put
it in, maybe you got kids oryour own Switch at home.
It was about the size of a.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Nintendo Switch Of just the tablet right, Of just
the tablet part.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I mean a little bit into the Joy-Con side as well.
So about that size it's asturdy size but it's beautiful
looking.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And one last thing on this that I read also is for
the visually impaired community.
They're excited about thisradio because it does not have
soft keys, All the buttons arereal buttons and it also does
have voice guidance on board togive voice guidance to the user
to call out what the radio isdoing and what frequency you're
(24:05):
on, and so forth.
So our blind and visuallyimpaired ham friends are
exceptionally excited abouthaving a new radio that they
should be able to operateindependently and very easily.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I think it goes without saying, then, that this
is not a touchscreen radio.
Is that right, rory?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
That is what I'm understanding.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
yes, and we did mention it's still going through
.
They mentioned type acceptanceright now and that process
they're hoping clears.
I think they said at the end ofnext month was the target.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
So, of course, price there's no price.
I'm going $1299.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
What are your thoughts?
Radio with it.
This radio looks like it'sgoing to have way more than that
, with the triple bands and theWi-Fi, the Bluetooth, all the
stuff built in, and the RASP gotrid of Bluetooth, which was
standard on the 500, and theprice went up.
So there's no doubt in my mind.
This is a thousand plus dollarradio for a mobile.
I think it's going to bepremium.
(25:14):
It's going to feel premium.
I think that it's going to beone of those radios that is
going to be extremely desirable,going to feel premium.
I think that it's going to beone of those radios that is
going to be extremely desirableand I expect it to command the
price.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
What's your?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
price I'm guessing $1099 here $1, Bob?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
No, I'm kidding $1?
.
You say $1099.
You said $1200?
$1299.
I'm going to say $1500.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Okay, golly.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I'm taking the high end, I think, with the price of
electronics by the time thisships and they say November, but
let's say 2026, I think $1,500.
Especially the fact they had togo back to drawing on a
component.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
There is some thought there.
I mean, you are paying theKenwood premium, which everyone
knows is a thing.
Anyone who's bought the D74 ord75 handheld knows that's a
thing.
You're paying for three bands,you're playing for d star, which
at this point I don't thinkshould be a premium, but it is a
premium to have um and the tnc.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
It's a tnc capable radio as well aprs capable aprs
capable.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's a lot of things.
So I I'm hoping it's not morethan $1,299.
That's how much I'll have inthe envelope ready to spend on
this radio.
But I look at it.
You know it's going to be theID5100 in my Jeep now I should
have figured this out.
It's 10 or 12 years old at thispoint and it's been riding
around in my car since thebeginning.
(26:37):
So well, two vehicles nowactually, so this one will
likely be in the car for just aslong.
So you figure the usage I'mgoing to get out of it.
There's some value in that andthat makes it feel a little
better to me for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So I want to pause real quick here and I just want
to say out loud I think that inthe last six months we've seen a
serious step change in cost forham radio brand new, uh, and I
believe that this is this iswhat we are going to expect
moving forward.
Um, yesu raised the price ontheir their top end mobile uh.
Yesu launched a multi-functionradio in the ftx that is close
to two thousand dollars if youbuy the full package.
(27:15):
Uh, you've got all kinds ofradios launching now and the
price tags are higher.
Guys.
I've seen a lot of complainingabout the price of the FTX One.
Get ready, because I do thinkthis is the new market that
we're living in with electronics, with the challenges that we
have between trade agreements,and I just want to say it out
loud we like talking about newstuff here.
(27:37):
We're not rich folks on thispodcast, but the reality of this
hobby is, when you want morethings packed in these small
units, we are going to pay forthem, and I do expect that this
is going to garner a sort ofnegative response.
But the answer is I think theD750 is going to be an expensive
mobile radio If you thoughtthat the 510 landed and 700
(27:58):
bucks was too much for your car.
Well, get ready, because Ithink Kenwood's going to be
dropping a bomb on you here.
So I just want to say it outloud.
I think that we've gotten somereally interesting commentary
around.
Yeah, it's not worth it, guys.
Radios are not getting cheaperat this point and we keep
getting more and more packedinto these radios.
Manufacturers are trying tofill every desire that our
little ham radio hearts have.
(28:18):
So I think that if we keepasking for more, we're going to
end up paying for it.
So I just want to say it outloud, because we've had some
really fun commentary on cost ofradio lately.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But I think Rory's right though.
If you're looking to upgrade aradio that you've had in your
vehicle for a lot of years, thisis at least a radio worth
investing.
Again, we haven't had hands-on,but from the specs and the
initial under the glassimpression, it's at least a
radio worth your consideration,as that one upgrade that will
last you a long time Absolutely,I mean.
(28:51):
So keep that in mind as well.
It has legs for life.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, I would say this is a five, six-year radio.
I keep a vehicle for five-plusyears.
At this point, vehicles aremore expensive as well.
When I put a mobile rig in, Iexpect it to last and I also
hope and this is something thatI think is a sidebar from this
if we see radio costs increase,I hope that we're going to see
some warranty and guaranteesupport for these radios.
(29:16):
If I'm going to pay $1,200, Ihope Kenwood's ready to stand
behind that radio for five years.
Right when they deliver thatradio I hope there's three or
five-year warranties that comealong with it.
That might be pie in the sky,but if I'm going to pay that
kind of money, I'm hoping thatwe see better support from our
manufacturers.
I've seen a lot of really goodsupport from these small
companies that are stepping upand doing the right thing.
(29:37):
It's time for the big three todo the same thing with the money
going up in these things.
So I digress a little bit onthe hamvention stuff, but I just
wanted to say that out loudbecause we've gotten a lot of
feedback in the last couple ofdeliveries of our podcasts
around cost of radio and you cando it for cheap guys If the
THD750 is not in your pricerange, there are a number of
(30:00):
other options.
Don't go get a THD750.
Maybe that'll be your secondradio or your third right.
Don't think that you have to goright to the top.
There are so many good optionsout there.
Go explore.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah, I agree.
And then the other big maybeswitching gears off Kenwood for
a moment is the new Aurora fromFlex Radio.
Flex Radio.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Flex Radio.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Which maybe is a future radio in Jim's home, and
I'll let others explain thetechnology that are on this
podcast way better than I can.
However, it offers a 500-wattSDR transmitter, so basically
the amplifier is no longer, it'sbuilt into the radio, so it's
an all-in-one unit and it kindof does away with the
(30:41):
traditional mosfet type designs,offers a more efficient package
and again all in that same 6400look and feel that we had the
new flex radio design softwareis on there.
Pretty decent price for a radiothat is.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Uh, I'd have to go back and look at the prices here
, but 6,199 for the five 10,which is going to be your base
radio for the AU five 10.
That's, that's the base radiofor the Aurora.
Um, and a couple of things here.
Yeah, a hundred percent agree.
Uh, think about puttingtogether a 500 watt base station
rig right now.
Uh, you think about what thecost of the base station is, and
(31:21):
then the amplifier to goalongside it to get to 500 Watts
.
Uh, $6,100 is a big chunk ofchange, but, uh, it's all in one
box.
Not bad for what you're getting, though, and it plugs into a
standard outlet, not requiringyou to wire up your shack for
two 40,.
Uh, with 30 amps plus, right,you're able to plug this guy
(31:41):
into a standard 15, 20 ampoutlet and get full 500 watt
output out of it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I think full duty cycle as well.
They had a demonstration thereat the convention with the keyer
down pressed and they wereinviting you to come up and put
your for hours at full power,inviting you to come up and put
your hand on it, not the dummyload.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
They had a nice little sign there.
Don't touch the dummy load.
Don't touch that.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
But you could put your hand on the unit.
They had heat guns and thermalguns and all sorts of ways for
you to test it yourself.
And I mean it was I mean it'sit was impressive stuff.
I know a lot of people haveopinions on Flex Radio, but you
know good on them.
This is definitely someinnovation and maybe also kind
of shifting the game of howradios are designed in the
future as well.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
I think the amplifier has some magic in it, and I say
magic in a sort of like I'dlike to understand it better.
I don't yet understand fullythe high efficiency transmitter.
I think there's some tricksthere that they're playing to
call it 500 watts, which is tosay we're getting three or three
or more decibels above, likethe standard 100 watts of talk
power without that distortion.
(32:47):
But I'd be curious what theymean and really understand.
You know, like when we measurepower, how does that look?
I will say this out loud to the510 and the 520, 530 range,
which are the step-ups from the510, that are going to be quite
a bit more money, I think.
As you add more features likeATU and additional slices, these
are going to map pretty muchone-to-one with the 8000 series
(33:08):
that was just released.
So James had mentioned the 6000series.
You guys, if you're Flex Radiofolks, know that 6000 was
recently replaced.
They were shipping pre-ordersearly this year and you were
probably waiting with batedbreath to get your $8,000 if you
had already put your money down.
The same thing is happeningwith the Aurora series, but
they've done a little bit, Ithink, more aggressive sort of.
(33:30):
If you're willing to put it alldown up front, you're going to
get the front of the line Ifyou're going to put part of your
pre-order money down half down,then you're going to be in the
second wave of these guys thatare pre-ordering.
So it's a really interestingapproach and I guess it goes to
show if you have some investmentin putting the money towards
(33:51):
Flex Radio, which is again asmall company making a fairly
low volume unit I don't meananything bad by that.
I think that they're doing anexcellent job here, if you're
willing to buck up.
They're claiming that by theend of the year you may have an
Aurora in your shack, whichthat's an aggressive timeline,
but we did see two of them atleast functioning at the show,
which was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, I have feelings about that three-tier
registration system.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Absolutely.
I don't know why I do.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I mean, they can do whatever they like and if people
are going to opt in, thenthey'll opt in.
Sure, it's an expensive radioand I know that one of their big
sells was two things.
One remote stations.
500 watts in a remote stationis definitely a huge benefit.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Without an extra unit , right Like 500 watts in one
box that you can plug inanywhere.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
One box, plug in anywhere, standard power and
we'll put out 500 watts with aheavy duty cycle.
That's perfect for a remotestation.
The other thing I do agree withthem on is de-expeditions.
Again, taking a standardpowered 120 watt unit radio, 500
watts on a de-expedition withhigh duty cycle for digital and
SSB and every other mode thatthey will operate, that is
(34:57):
impressive and I do think if itis again I wasn't operating it
and I'm not sure what it is butif Flex has a great reputation,
if they were pulling it off,fantastic, that's amazing and
maybe it is a shift also furtherin the technology world here.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, I'm excited by it.
It is unlikely to ever make itinto my shack.
I mean, here's the brass taxes.
I have a 101 MP sitting on mydesk right now.
It's 200 watts and I don't haveenough antenna for 500, let
alone 1,000 watts.
So I understand thatcompetition-level radios like
this belong in certain placeswhere you have much more antenna
than you do radio and yourtower is probably 20 or 30 grand
(35:34):
, your radio is probably fiveand so five is a small
proportion.
I have an inverse proportion ofradio to antenna here in the
yard and I understand that.
But I like the.
I like the premium feel the 101mp.
I'm a yesu fan boy, you guysknow that through and through.
So I like operating.
It's an awesome radio.
So with all that being said,right, I do think there's a flex
.
In my future I'm likely to be aflex 6400 atu buyer on the used
(35:57):
market.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'm looking to spend.
The prices are only going toget better.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
I'm looking to spend $1,200 or $1,500 and put a 6400
because I want to play with acouple of slices, I want to have
a little bit of remotecapability and I am very much
interested in understanding Flexradio as a company and as a
software package better before Iput the big money into an
Aurora.
So I think that's probably tworadios down the line for me, if
I'm being real honest withmyself.
(36:20):
But it was exciting and I alsowill say out loud the gentleman
that walked us through theAurora also extremely helpful he
came up.
He made no assumptions of ourlevel of operator or otherwise.
We were wearing a couple ofSouth Lion Area Amateur Radio
Club shirts.
We're no YouTube.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Wearing matching uniforms we weren't recording.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
We weren't stuffing the camera in his face and
saying, hey, we're with Everyday, ham, what can you tell us
about the Aurora?
We were just there as consumers, right?
And he was like.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
What would you like to know?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Three guys with yellow shirts and a poodle,
that's right, and Cash was thereon the second day.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Wow, we must have looked amazing, that's all.
I can say about that.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Well, they were graced with cash as presidents,
and he's an amazing dog Anyway,he was.
He was again very, very willingto let us poke the buttons.
Aurora was there, software wasoperating.
We were able to click thebuttons if we wanted to.
He talked us through some ofthe cool stuff that he thought
was neat.
We asked him some questionsabout how it compared to the
8,000 series.
So again, I think I had somereally positive vendor
(37:14):
experiences with the booths thatI stopped and talked at.
It was really nice to see thatagain with Flex Radio and I'm
excited I do believe there's aFlex Radio in my future.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I could totally see it.
Sorry, shout out to the nameaurora also my daughter's middle
name, also named after mywife's grandma.
So they got the namingconvention right and that they
all said super cool stickersthey did, I got.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I got it somewhere around me here, so like a foil
sticker that said aurora, withthe alien green on there.
It was really cool yeah, alsoshout out.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
If we're talking about the vendor experience, we
also, after we left flex, wewent overcon, that's right and
we had a good chat with thefellow there and had some
hands-on time with the Icon 7760.
That was good to see in personand the gentleman there as well
was very, very available, veryhappy to answer any questions.
Let us play.
(38:05):
I wanted to pick the thing upand somehow he knew that because
I wanted to see how heavy itwas.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
The head right, the head unit, wanted to pick the
thing up and and somehow he knewthat because I wanted to see
how heavy it was and the head,right the head, the control head
, yeah, and he invited me to, uh, to pick it up and and it was
tethered to the desk, but withenough room that you could pick
it up the, uh, the 7760, if, ifsomehow I had the station
magically to support that withantennas and infrastructure
would be very high on my list.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
I I wouldn't be surprised, j Jim, though, to get
a used Flex in your shack atsome point.
That absolutely makes sense.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah, we've gone back and forth.
They offer such a variety of asFlex does we should speak to
Flex.
Flex offers such a variety ofsingle slice, double slice, and
some of the older ones arebecoming quite affordable.
So I think it's a way to dipyour toe in that SDR, but remote
controllable SDR in a way thatperhaps was not really available
to us two years ago.
And we just said radio isgetting expensive.
(38:57):
Boy shop the used market.
There's some pretty good dealson the used stuff, so pretty
exciting.
And I agree with you, icom, Ididn't get quite as close up
with the 7760.
At that time I was showing offthe poodle to a couple of other
reps that had made their wayover from the booth and were
more interested in talking dogsthan they were radios.
I loved it and cashed it too,but I missed out on the ICOM
(39:19):
experience.
But I would have loved to seeit.
And James walked away from itand he said man, that's a slick
radio, that's a really slickradio.
He was pretty wowed by it, howit operated, how it felt.
It's really hard to tell in sucha crowded environment.
You know how does the front endreject?
How does the radio handle busyenvironments like that, because
none of these things are hookedup in any meaningful way to good
(39:41):
antennas at the show.
Right, and that, for me, isperhaps one of the things that
makes these shows really tricky.
Right, how do you show a radio,which requires a good antenna,
at a show like this?
And that's why remote is wayeasier to show at these things.
I understand I would like tosee more of that, but it was fun
to see all three of them.
I also want to say this outloud right, when you go to a
(40:04):
show like this, you're likely togravitate to the things that
are the halo products from eachvendor.
Right, we're talking abouttonight the Flex Aurora, which
is a $6,000 radio.
We're talking about the Optum,which is a $2,000 radio.
Now we're talking about the7760.
And you're like Everyday Ham,do you guys just look at the
best I almost said best shit thebest stuff?
Speaker 1 (40:23):
The answer is we look at it all.
I did Good call.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
I hope you guys are all adults out there.
I appreciate you listening.
We do look at all the beststuff, but really when you go to
these shows it's an opportunityto see the things that you're
unlikely to have a chancephysically to operate any other
way, and so it's the excitement,it's the way to allow us to see
what's coming.
Because where does thetechnology in the less expensive
radios come from, guys?
(40:47):
It trickles down from the bigtop radios, right, and when we
do the R&D on these radios andwe develop a circuit that
performs well, slowly we bringthat thing down in price, and
then suddenly it's available ata much more reasonable price
point for us to buy in a cheaperradio, a smaller radio.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
It's like race cars right, drive on Sunday, or what
is it?
Race on Sunday, drive on Monday.
Eventually, the technologytrickles down a little bit, and
who doesn't like to look at nicethings?
We're at a show.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
That's right.
I know we were trying to keepthis one quick, because this is
a sort of recap of our wholehamvention experience.
We got about five more minutes.
What do you guys have to say?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
I have one more vendor I'd like to touch on.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Let's do it Shoot Lightning round.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
That is BuddyPool.
So people talk about a productthat's also I don't want to say
controversial, but it's aproduct that not everyone likes.
But I have been a BuddySickuser for four or five years now
and I did pick up the BuddyPoolDeluxe Package new from the
(41:48):
BuddyPool table.
Jim on the other handuxepackage, new from the buddy pole
table.
Jim, on the other hand, pickedup one from the flea market
table, um, classic which somehowfeels so fitting for the two of
you right how those paths went,but yeah so I, I had been, I
had been.
This is a purchase I'd beenlooking at for for a couple
years and this year it was timeto bite, and definitely you know
(42:09):
.
Another shout out to Chris W6HFP, the owner of Buddy Bowl, I
certainly.
I went to the table and Iwasn't really asking any
questions, but he startedchatting me up on how do I use
it and what do you know, whatare, what are my objectives with
the antenna?
And I told him that I've hadthe Buddy Stick and been
(42:30):
successful with that and lookingforward to just improving on
that.
And I told him I said you know,I am the person that talks
positively about your product.
I have people tell me, oh, it's,it doesn't work for me or oh,
it's too difficult to tune.
And and my my answer to that isthe person probably two things
they didn't try and they didn'thave an antenna analyzer.
Because with the, with the, anyof the buddy pole products, you
(42:54):
pretty much need an antennaanalyzer and you have to be
willing to learn the antenna andlearn the various uh
configurations to put it in forit to do what you want it to do.
Um, I don't remember the exactname.
Last year at hamvention Ipicked up buddy pole in the
field.
It's just a small small bookand that opened my eyes to
(43:15):
different ways to set up theantenna and one of the reasons I
did make the purchase this year.
So looking forward to gettingout maybe next weekend over the
Memorial Day long weekend andplaying with the antenna.
So that was my last shout outfor sure for a vendor on
Hamvention.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Yeah plus Go ahead, James I was going to say, if
you've never been to Hamventionand you're curious, it's a very
friendly environment to come andask questions and learn about
things from the vendorsthemselves directly.
I think that's one takeaway youcan have from this podcast, and
it's also BuddyPoll in theField by Scott Anderson and
NE1RD, so it's available on theBuddy Pull website if you're
(43:55):
interested.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yep, and it's a pocket-sized book.
It's something you can take anddeploy with you.
I wish it was on the desk for along time, but I think it's
actually in the living room whenI was looking at it.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
I just looked it up because I was also curious.
I did buy the buddy pole.
I uh will tell you that rory isa a peddler of buddy pole and I
sold my chelagance uh thismorning, a jpc which is the
imported version.
I essentially a copy of it.
I sold all of my gear and Ihave switched over to buddy pole
completely.
So I am excited, I, in feelingthe gear pulling it out.
(44:29):
Uh, it all feels quality, right.
Yeah, it's solid.
I had a really positiveinteraction.
Even though I went and boughtsome of my gear from the ham
swap out in the field, I broughtit back into the Buddy Paul
booth and I said, hey, I boughtthe triple ratio ballon, can you
tell me how I might deploy thatwith my antenna?
And I had it sitting there andhe's like, yeah, no problem man.
He's like, even if you didn'tbuy it from us, we'd love to
(44:54):
chat with you about it.
So it was really cool, uh, forthem to be willing to have a
little conversation.
Uh, and I plan on ordering somemore parts.
I'm pretty much, uh, thissummer is going to be the the
buddy pull summer for me here.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Uh, I'm gonna be running that with you now, huh,
no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I'm not a wire antenna guy, so it'll be buddy
dipole most of the summer for meon tripod, and it'll be with
the FTX.
So it'll be really interestingto see how POTA does on that
combo.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Hot Girl Summer was last year, and now we're on to
Buddy Pole Summer.
Got it, Buddy Pole Summer baby.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
That's a change.
The one thing you will miss,Jim, from the off-brand or
whatever you want to call itShelligans or whatever you want
to call it Chelegans.
Those coils have the slidingthing to choose the level of
coil you wanted to select.
The buddy pole does not, and ithas the screw-in taps that you
(45:41):
have to move somewhat manually.
That will be a change for you,but I'll tell you this.
I have, I believe, three orfour of those semi-permanently
placed on my coil now for mybuddy stick and I don't move
them.
I just select the one I wantfor whichever band I'm doing.
So you'll just pre-tune it andyou'll be used to it pretty
quickly.
(46:01):
That'll be a change, for surefor you right away.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
The funny thing with the sliders was once I had
established them in theirposition especially because I
run mostly 20 meter, of course,in the park and run it in the
dipole configuration they alwayswere clicked into the same spot
.
I had marked it with a littlepermanent marker on the coil so
they never moved.
My suspect is the first coupleof times it gets set up I'll
(46:31):
probably be fine tuning bymoving that up or down that coil
.
Just a hair and it wasoperative.
You do benefit with having agood antenna analyzer for a
buddy pole setup because it's soflexible that it affords you
the ability to set it up alittle bit incorrectly.
You could do it without, butlet me tell you it makes it way
better and you can get in somesuper excellent SWR readings
where you're putting out betterpower.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Oh, you can get it perfect.
If you have the patience withit, you can get it perfect.
I leave one of the coil tapsset for 40, one set for 20, and
then a third that I movedepending whether I want to do
10 or 15.
That's how I do mine.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
I had a lot of fun at Hamvention guys.
It was a great first year yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
I loved it and thanks , Jim, also for hosting the
barbecue again at your camperthere.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Thanks to you and Becca for having us crash your
pad Certainly hosting thebarbecue again at your camper
there.
Thanks to you and Becca forhaving us crash your pad,
certainly a shout out to the twoof you for having 30 of your
best friends over several nightsin a row, and then one note
before we do the where to findus and socials.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
So we have the Michigan POTA meetup coming up
here June 7th at Fort CusterState Recreation Area near
Augusta, michigan, from 11 to 3pm.
So if you're in the area, youwant to drive up whatever makes
you happy.
It's going to be a pretty coolmeetup.
Mike Case did mention that weare going to have some POTA
tumblers to give away.
He got some freebies from thePOTA booth at Hamvention just
for this occasion.
So if a tumblr will get youthere for the raffle, then by
(47:52):
all means.
Now is your time.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
My first attendance was last year at Sleepy Hollow
and it was the first time I metboth.
Well, first time I met JamesRory didn't make it to that one,
but it was awesome to seeeverybody, so I'm going to be
there, James is going to bethere.
James is going to be there, andRory, I believe, and we're
going to drag him out there forat least one of the evenings.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
And we may record the June episode there.
We haven't quite decided yetwhat our schedules allow, so
it'll either be on the sameThursday of that first week of
Wednesday, as we normallyrelease, or be patient with us.
There may be a slight delay, aswe were, you know, post a
couple of days after normally do, since we may be together there
.
So we'll let you know.
(48:32):
Otherwise, thanks everyone forattending.
If no one has any last beforewe do that, any last comments
from either of you before we gointo closing?
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Just a reminder.
We added Discord to our cadreof things that you can connect
with us on.
We've had a few join.
We did just get started, sofeel free to join, jump in the
conversation.
It's a friendly place.
Don't feel like.
If it's a little bit quiet therefor the first couple of weeks,
it's a big deal.
We just want you guys to jumpin there because I imagine at
some point you'll see somethingthat you have a good opinion on
(49:02):
and we would love to hear it.
There is an opportunity thereas well, under the pod chat, to
talk about these episodes, whatyou liked, what you didn't like,
give us feedback so that we cankeep building it in.
And I just wanted to plug thatDiscord, because that is brand
new this month to the EverydayHam.
I also wanted to say we'rereally close to 200 subs on
YouTube and that's awesome.
It's been a nice slow littleroll up to it.
(49:23):
We knew that with six episodesin, we would have a few of you
listening and hearing thefeedback already.
We're excited to see that.
So if you like what you'rehearing, please click the
subscribe button here on theYouTube.
If you haven't checked us outon YouTube and you're listening
to us on the pods that you'redownloading on Apple or Spotify
or otherwise awesome, do whatyou like to do.
(49:43):
We don't want you to forceanything, but we just appreciate
the community support.
It's what lets us keep doingthis thing and we're looking
forward to doing the next one.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Exactly.
So you can find us for all ofthat, the Discord link and where
to find the podcast stream anda link to our YouTube,
everydayhamcom.
Our Instagram iseverydayhampodcast, our YouTube
is at everydayham.
And again, the Discord link isthere on all the sites.
We put them in the comments anddescriptions now.
(50:13):
So wherever you go, go find it.
But we've gotten a lot of goodcomments.
We try to respond to all thecomments we can as well.
So again, please comment.
We love it.
We love seeing them.
I get excited every time I seean email that you got a new
comment.
So, thank you, like andsubscribe as well.
And with that, thank youeveryone and we'll see you in
June 73, guys 73.
Okay, everyone, welcome to a special edition of
the Everyday Ham Podcast.
Tonight we're going to talkabout our hamvention overall
impressions, feelings and whatwe saw.
That was pretty awesome.
I am James K8JKU.
I'm joined here by Rory W8KNXand Jim N8JRD, as always.
(00:21):
So how are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We're doing great.
So, Jim, first hamvention brokethe whatever you break when you
do something for the first timeBroke the seal Broke.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
The seal Broke.
The seal Broke.
The bank.
Keep it PG Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
How was your first go at hamvention?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, broke the seal, broke the bank, broke it all.
It was excellent.
And I will tell you guys, yeah,broke the seal, broke the bank,
broke it all.
It was excellent.
And I will tell you guys, weknocked on wood before the
hamvention.
About the weather, I think,honestly, we got just excellent
weather overall through thewhole weekend.
As far as I understand it, therehave been much rainier
hamventions and, despite beingthreatened by what was a pretty
(01:00):
serious band of severe storms inthe south part of Ohio and
there were also some above us,we managed to eke out a bit of
wind, a bit of heavy rain Ithink there might have been a
couple of pea-sized pieces ofhail for a minute or two in the
campground, but overall, man, itwas a nice day.
Thursday I was down in thecampground, it was beautiful, we
had the air conditioning on,that's how warm it was and I can
(01:22):
appreciate having a littleearly summer weather, living in
Michigan all year and thenFriday a little overcast, and we
spent the whole day out in theflea market, which was my mecca.
And then Saturday afternoon wehad a little bit of wind, but
another beautifully sunny dayand we got a great club picture.
So overall, guys.
I mean it was an excellentfirst Hamvention as far as it's
(01:44):
concerned.
I think it does set a bar forme that will be hard to beat in
the future, because May has suchunpredictable weather in the
Midwest.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, Hamvention as a social event for me, this was
my favorite.
As far as that's concerned I'vebeen to back in the first phase
of my ham career.
I only went to one, back atHera Arena, and this is my third
here in Xenia.
So a couple of the other oneswere always one-day trips down,
maybe one overnight crashing ata friend's camper and then
(02:15):
hurrying up and going headinghome the next day.
But this year I did the fullweekend experience, starting
with the Four Days in May vendorevent on Thursday night and
then staying all the way throughand heading home Sunday morning
.
So as far as social andnetworking and seeing all the
people that I knew and people Ididn't know and people I forgot
about, it was excellent.
(02:35):
As far as our club is concerned, our home club, the South Lion
Area Amateur Radio Club here inSouth Lion, michigan, I think we
were somewhere between 25 and30 members strong at Hamvention
and if any of you were atHamvention and saw a bunch of
weirdos in yellow shirts millingaround together, on Saturday,
which Rory would not stopcomplaining about when you wear
(02:56):
yellow.
I don't wear yellow, not anymore, at least.
Yeah, so I broke any habit ofwearing yellows, you know,
somewhere in the early 2000s.
But that's excellent experienceseeing all the people and
brainstorming with fellow hamsand thinking about the purchases
(03:31):
and talking to people.
It's just always such a goodtime.
James, what's on the top ofyour list from this one?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
No, it was a good time.
Similar to you, second time atHamvention, I really went down
there to socialize and hang outwith everyone.
The club events were awesome.
So, if anyone from the club islistening, thanks again for all
your help in making those eventspretty memorable.
We did an off-site happy hour.
We hung out at Hamventiontogether.
We had a nice barbecue back atour campsite in Caesar Creek.
(04:01):
Other than that, I just kind ofwalked around.
I didn't buy too much.
I got the FT5.
I copied Rory on that.
I got a GP3.
We talked about putting astation up on my roof, so we'll
have that video coming in thesummer.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Looking forward to that, yeah, and then also Get to
see me climbing on the roof.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
And then also got the BioNnobattery.
I got a six amp hour batterybecause I heard that the TSA
changed the requirements of whatyou're able to carry on with
you down to 100 watt hours.
So if you were to basicallycalculate that out, it's about
8.3, I believe amp hours is nowthe limit, and BioNno either
(04:41):
sells a six or nine.
So I got a six and a mobilecharger.
So if you're not aware, I knowit still depends on the airline
and approval, but it might benice to pick one up.
I always love Bioeno greatcompany to work with, and they
have a good deal set atHamvention, so I picked one of
those up as well.
That.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
TSA situation is going to be very interesting and
I'll be curious if anyone who'slistening or watching this post
in the comments, if you've hadany experience with what TSA or
the individual airlines aredoing with that, because I
personally have never flown withmy ham equipment but at some
point I will, but a lot of us,our friends, do, so I would be
(05:19):
curious if anyone has had anyexperience, both good or bad on
what's happening with that rightnow.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's also worth my 12 amp hour before.
No, sorry Jim, I've flown withmy 12 amp hour before, no
problems.
That was always my go-to andnever even took it out of the
bag.
I'm curious what happens now,though, with the changes, and
it'll take time for theregulations to kind of kick into
every airport, but I'd suspectthat they'll be pretty
aggressive on it in the future,so maybe just keep that in mind.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, I was going to say two things here.
One, the TSA experience isgenerally inconsistent between
airports.
So unfortunately, what you'llfind is you may get through on
the first go with your 12 amphour that you've been traveling
with for years and on the wayback they may decide that that
one's not coming with you on theride.
So that is what I think we haveto be mindful of is, with those
(06:07):
changes, if you want to makesure that you're going to make
it back and to, or to and back,you really should take a look
more closely.
And it makes sense.
We've seen far too many storiesnow where poorly constructed
power banks and battery packsare combusting on the airline.
And of course, we all knowlithium fires are hard to
extinguish.
They need to burn themselvesout in ways that can be very
(06:31):
detrimental to a plane travelingexperience.
The other thought I had was,since we're on the BioNno topic,
one of our club members, johnNU8M, just actually had a sort
of very positive experience withBioNno in a sort of backward
way, which is to say he's been alongtime user of the BioNno
batteries, as are many of ourclub members they have, I think.
(06:53):
James, you have one, lewisN8LEK has one.
I know that there are others inthe club that I'm sure I'm
forgetting.
Shane KF8BWN has one.
We got a lot of BioNno in theclub that I'm sure I'm
forgetting.
Shane KF8BWN has one.
We got a lot of BioNno in theclub, right?
John actually experienced afailure with one of his BioNno
packs and he went over to theHamvention booth and he said hey
(07:15):
, you know, I just wanted tohave a chat about it and he was
just curious what might be thesolution.
And they said no problem, john,here's a brand new battery.
They replaced it on the spot.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
They hand him a battery and they said Barely any
questions asked.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Nope, they said we'll send you a label when we get
back to our office and you cansend us back the failed pack,
and we just want to make surethat you are back on the air.
And I have to give them props.
Honestly, it is a real highmark for BioNno to be that
customer focused and I thinkthat's an excellent experience.
To say so, plus one to BioNno.
I think that when we have thosepositive experiences with ham
(07:54):
vendors that are smaller likethat and I'm not saying BioNno
is small by any means, but whenwe think about them in the broad
picture, we have to make surethat we call those positive
experiences out.
So plus one for.
BioNno.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Good customer service goes a long way with me.
I like hearing good stories andthat's actually makes it more
likely that I'll look at theirproduct over someone else's in
the future.
That's always good and I'll becurious, I wonder if it'll be a
situation where they'll get backwith John on what the failure
was or if it'll just kind offade away.
We'll have to ask him aboutthat when we see him in a few
(08:25):
weeks the next time.
So a couple shout-outs for sureyou thought of the BioNno thing
.
Certainly want to say hello toour friend Mark KD9UIC, a member
of the Piglet amateur radiocommunity out of Indiana.
So he reached out to us on thecomments and in our Discord.
Feel free to join our Discordserver.
(08:46):
It's a slow start but we'rethere and we're looking forward
to making a good conversationout of it.
But Mark reached out to us andlet us know that he would be
staying in Caesar Creek alongwith many of us and we happened
to run into him at the Four Daysin May vendor night.
I saw him walking by and I sawa call sign that looked familiar
(09:07):
.
So I had to quickly refer to myemail because my memory is not
as good as people think it isand I verified with myself that
it was him.
So I shouted over to him and hewas very confused and startled.
But he figured out who we wereand came back and we had a good
chat with him.
So certainly cool.
I really enjoyed looking overthe website.
I think we mentioned this inthe in one of the other things
(09:31):
we did, but the piglet amateurradio club there, their their
website and their branding is onpoint.
Looks like they have anexcellent club and if I'm ever
in Indiana I'm certainly goingto look them up, whether it's
for one of the things they doand I know I'm veering off a
hamvention, but I digress, youknow that's me.
It looks like they're prettyactive with CUSO parties and one
(09:53):
of these years I'll want to dothe Indiana CUSO party in
Indiana, so I might look them upfor that.
Also, at the Four Days in Mayevent we happened to see
Sebastian KI2D, who is, in myopinion, royalty at this point.
He is the developer of the.
(10:14):
Ham2K Polo software that many ofus are using to log POTA on our
various devices.
I have it on my iPad and on myiPhone and it was excellent to
ch to chit chat with Sebastian.
I took the opportunity to thankhim for his exceptionally
well-developed andwell-maintained platform, which
(10:35):
is free free to use and it's oneof the best it's top notch and
he's.
He's constantly tweaking andtaking people's comments,
whether they're good or bad.
He takes all feedback and putswhatever he can.
He takes that feedback and usesit however he can and I think
he does a tremendous job.
So it was excellent to sayhello to him.
(10:55):
Jim has his sticker.
He gave us a couple stickersthere.
I think he was surprised to.
He was very humble, you couldtell talking to him he was
surprised that I.
We were very excited to meethim.
I think he was surprised to.
He was very humble.
You could tell talking to himhe was surprised that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I.
We were very excited to meethim, I think, and he was like
what, who are these guys?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And why are they so stoked about it?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
When you develop something like that, you got to
that's.
I was glad to talk to him for afew minutes.
Talk to him for a few minutesuh, a couple other locals, lewis
uh n8lek and mike w8 msc bothuh, when we were walking around
dayton, mentioned that they uhspent their drives down to
dayton listening to the podcast.
So thanks you guys forlistening and we appreciate the
(11:36):
the feedback as well.
So certainly uh good to havesome of our local friends and
and a growing network of friendsall over the place uh to find
this podcast, find the Everyday.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Ham, yeah, I'll call out one more, and it was just in
passing which I guess.
I have a sort of unique voiceand I'm also a very loud person,
even in a loud building.
A young gentleman walked up tome and he said hey, do you guys
do a podcast?
And I said, yep, that's us.
We did get hats made, by theway, they have the Everyday Ham
(12:07):
pig on them and our logo on theback, but it was not the day I
was wearing it, so I said, yeah,that was us, and James and Rory
are here too.
I pointed to you guys and hesaid oh, I've been listening to
you guys and I just wanted tocongratulations, congratulations
.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
From both James and Rory and myself.
Congratulations, my friend, andwelcome to the ham radio
experience.
I'm sure you'll quickly ascendto general at this clip, but he
was just very excited to bethere, immersed in the ham
experience, and it was reallynice to have him stop and say
that he appreciated the podcastand he had heard us talking
(12:45):
about how testing waschallenging there and he
appreciated the sort ofrecognition for those folks that
can go and test in a reallychaotic environment even though
the church is across the street.
It's a lot of excitement.
Right, it could be a reallytough place to test, but that
gentleman did it.
Good for you, my friend.
We hope to hear you on the airand if you are that person that
bumped into me I apologize, Ihave forgotten your first name
(13:08):
Throw your call, sign out in thevideo below and I would love to
make sure that we get you somerecognition.
I'll send you a QCell card tooif you'd like that, but nice to
make your acquaintance out there.
So a lot of fun recognition.
I bumped into another gentlemanout in the marketplace as well,
out on the flea market on thetrack, and he recognized me,
asked me he was from Ohio.
He said hey, are you podcastguys?
(13:29):
I said we are indeed, and hesaid well, I'm a big dog
enthusiast.
He recognized Cash, my poodle,who was out with me the second
day, and we sat and had a littlechat about dogs and poodles and
podcasts.
So good to hear some communityfeedback.
Even though this is a tinylittle podcast, if you're
listening, we really doappreciate you.
(13:49):
We love hearing you guys and,honestly, the comments below
each of these videos help drivewhat we talk about next.
So awesome to hear you guys,yep.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So I guess, moving into a little bit about and also
really quickly for me also,congratulations to anyone that
attempted to test at Hamvention,similar to Jim, and that passed
.
The attempt is awesome and thepassing is great as well, so
congratulations to all that thatwere there.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
James, you had a pass rate for Hamvention.
What was it Actually?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I think it was Rory.
Rory, what did you have?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I believe they posted 53% of people who tested at Ham
mentioned past left with, sothe amount of people that are
there.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Good job, Honestly it just goes to show it's a tough
environment.
So if you were one of those 53%, good for you, you did a hell
of a job.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And if you tried, good on you to try.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Absolutely To be fair , I'd assume, since it's there
and they do do it for free, bythe way, some people for free,
by the way, some people may justtoss their hats in Right.
And I had considered that if Iwas in the mood and had the time
I was debating, going overthere to make the attempt at the
extra.
But the day before, the daybefore the invention, I took a
online test and all my hopes anddreams went out the window.
(14:58):
I said it's time to time to dosome studying before I buckle
down, yeah, yeah, if this guycan pass the extra you can pass
the extra.
That's what you tell me, and Iknow some other folks.
I know some other folks who arenot as talented as you that
have passed it, so I don't knowif that's a positive or a
negative thing.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Thank you, question mark.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Take it however you wish.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Backhanded compliment .
Yeah, all right, let's move onto a little bit of our takes on
the actual Hamvention.
So we did a video, we shouldpoint out, while we were in the
middle of that rainstorm and ourother club member was hanging
from his canopy trying to holdit down.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Call out to WAMTV.
Poor Mike.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
He did a good job.
He survived.
We were recording an episodewith Jason KN4AL.
He got his 400th activationwhile leading up to Hamvention,
which was a big achievement.
And we also talked about ourfield day experience, so walking
around the flea market and allour shopping we did that day, so
we'll link it up here.
There'll probably be a cardwhen we get to that point.
(15:58):
But we also saw some newreleases.
So on Saturday we walked aroundthe main exhibit halls.
We saw Flex Radio have anupdate with the Aurora.
We saw the new Kenwood Radiostill in the glass bubble, so we
didn't really get a hands-on,but we were able to look at it
in detail and talk to the rep.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
That's right.
They gave us a flyer.
That was the best it could be.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
They gave us a flyer, yep and some good details.
And then we also saw the FTXone in person, hands on.
They had it on display.
So where, where do you thinkyou guys would like to start
with our overall experiences?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Let me take it.
Let me, okay, go ahead.
I was just going to say let me,let me take the FTX one, Cause
it's on tip of my tongue here.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
All right, I just want to, I just want to.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I want guys.
It is true, FTX1 landed atHamvention.
It was there for everybody topoke.
Optima was there as well.
John was there.
It was nice to see John inperson.
I even said hello, John, and hewaved back and it was very
pleasant.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Come on the podcast, John.
We'd love to have you.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
We would love to have you Open invitation.
But it was nice to see the radiothere, right, it was the first
time we were able to get handson that radio and, uh, they were
very open.
We powered it down, wedisconnected all the wires from
the back of the optima.
We saw how it connected.
We like understood it with withall the fingers.
We poked all the buttons, wepowered it back up.
But I will say there were ftxones on site, as we predicted,
(17:18):
and you were able to walk up andbuy one, not the optima, but
you could buy a on-site atHamvention, and you heard it
here.
We expected that that was goingto be the case.
The other thing that we werespeculating and I think that is
likely going to ring true aswell is that this morning
Optima's have shipped to thosewho have pre-ordered them from
the Ham Radio Outlet.
(17:39):
So call out and a shout out toHam Radio Outlet for being the
first to ship.
It seems like in the domesticarea here Looking forward to
getting mine.
It looks like Wednesday is theday for me and James is also on
the Wednesday train.
So we've got a couple ofOptima's.
They are coming now, and if youwere waiting for one and you
had heard rumors that say thatAugust was going to be the month
or June or July.
(18:00):
Unless you're way down the list,you're going to see an Optima
much sooner than that, I hope.
So really exciting news.
I don't want to spend too muchtime on that Optima, but it is
cool.
We are going to have anothermic check video coming with an
unboxing of an Optima, so keepyour ears and eyes tuned.
But over to Rory, who I thinkhas some thoughts on Kenwood
(18:24):
because those folks weregracious when we stepped into
their booth.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
We had an excellent experience at the Kenwood booth.
We basically walked up and Ialmost expected we were just
going to look at the thing andwalk off but forget our own
opinion and move on.
But the gentleman and I wouldhave loved to have gotten his
name to give him a shout out.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
He was such a nice guy.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, he came over and talked to us with no concern
.
He wasn't interested in whetherwe were buyers or not buyers,
whether we had the money for itor wouldn't have the money for
it.
He approached us with greatdetail as much as he could give
anyway and was open to all thewhatever questions we asked your
name.
Perhaps questions at some ofthem I, I wasn't going to do
(19:02):
that, but uh yeah I tried not toask those questions, but you
know that's.
That's how.
By the end of the day, they'reall inane, I'm sure.
But um, one of the things welearned there is that that will
likely not ship until the fourthquarter of the year.
Um, I think you said novemberand one of the best at best yeah
it sounds like they wereshooting for for summer.
(19:23):
I don't think it was ever goingto make dayton from the sounds
of it, but no, um, it soundslike, and I don't recall what.
Which component, if he evensaid I don't think he specified.
He didn't specify the component?
No, but there was a componentthat their supplier, kenwood
supplier, essentially vanished.
Yep, um, it was and was.
No, they were no longer able tosource.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Took them back to design.
They had to go back andre-engineer parts.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So whatever this was, it set them back.
They had to re-engineer, find,find it, find a supplier and
figure out how to do it with thenew, the new items.
So that that set them behindand that's unfortunate.
But I still expect a ahigh-quality product from
Kenwood.
So a couple things we did learn.
We knew it was going to be2-meter, 220, and 440.
(20:06):
It sounds like 220 will havesome power behind it.
He wouldn't confirm because heprobably couldn't for sure, but
he said it might be 20 watts, itmight be 50 watts, but it's not
the 1 or 2 watt that someradios put out on 220s.
So the 220 community is veryexcited to have a radio coming
(20:29):
that has some power on 220,because there seems to be some
interest in the general hamcommunity, two 20 in our
possession and people arewanting to have radios that that
work.
Two, 20 again, it's somethingI'm certainly looking to uh to
do here in the near future forsure.
Um, he also and I'm I wasreading over the flyer he gave
(20:52):
us.
He also confirmed that it willhave a D star hotspot on board.
The radio will have able to beconnected wireless, wireless
networking and be able to have ahotspot on board.
So for D star users that's abig deal.
I've been a long time D staruser and and to be able to have
(21:12):
that hotspot built in, well, itjust means I need to be put,
build a bridge, a D star bridge,from D star to all stars so I
can get on our local non-starrepeater.
So that's something I actuallyalready started reading about.
Nice Another thing to do, butdefinitely looking forward to it
Full duplex on this radio.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Which is exciting.
That's another full duplexradio on the market, which is
great.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yep, it's another full duplex radio on the market,
which is great.
Yep, that is a big deal for anumber of reasons, whether
you're a satellite or just aperson who prefers to have that
capability for whatever reason.
Usb-c for connections I don'tthink it was clear definitely
for connecting to the computer.
Yep, looked like Ethernet cable.
They were showing it with ashield, shielded ethernet cable
(22:00):
between the control head and thebody.
That's nice.
That makes it so easy.
You're not having to source aproprietary cable to do your
extension.
Another big deal, of course,the speaker um in the in the
control head, so showing on thecamera here, because this is
good, good quality video to showa picture of a picture.
But the, the speaker um in thecontrol head, eliminates the
(22:23):
need to have an external speaker.
This radio will be in my carwith kenwood audio with kenwood
audio.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Kenwood audio speaker .
It's a front.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
It's a front firing speaker in the bottom right hand
corner of the head for thefolks that are listening in the
audio here, right.
So the the the left hand sideof the unit is mostly screen and
it has a big sharp color screenthat is very bright, and on the
right side a nice-sized speakerthat's front-firing.
And I'll tell you what I'm only41 years old and I can
appreciate having the audio upat my head level these days?
(22:53):
Oh yeah, absolutely Becauseespecially when I'm trying to
pick out call signs.
Having it fed into my ear helpsa hell of a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, and we were all surprised by the size of the
control head Once we saw it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Oh yeah, it was a solid brick it's.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
it's larger than we expected.
So anyone familiar with the ID50, 100 it is which this radio
will replace in my car.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It is it is slightly larger and all all dimensions
from the ID5100 controller.
Yeah, and maybe, if you're nota UC5100 Nintendo Switch to put
it in, maybe you got kids oryour own Switch at home.
It was about the size of a.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Nintendo Switch Of just the tablet right, Of just
the tablet part.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I mean a little bit into the Joy-Con side as well.
So about that size it's asturdy size but it's beautiful
looking.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And one last thing on this that I read also is for
the visually impaired community.
They're excited about thisradio because it does not have
soft keys, All the buttons arereal buttons and it also does
have voice guidance on board togive voice guidance to the user
to call out what the radio isdoing and what frequency you're
(24:05):
on, and so forth.
So our blind and visuallyimpaired ham friends are
exceptionally excited abouthaving a new radio that they
should be able to operateindependently and very easily.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I think it goes without saying, then, that this
is not a touchscreen radio.
Is that right, rory?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
That is what I'm understanding.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
yes, and we did mention it's still going through
.
They mentioned type acceptanceright now and that process
they're hoping clears.
I think they said at the end ofnext month was the target.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
So, of course, price there's no price.
I'm going $1299.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
What are your thoughts?
Radio with it.
This radio looks like it'sgoing to have way more than that
, with the triple bands and theWi-Fi, the Bluetooth, all the
stuff built in, and the RASP gotrid of Bluetooth, which was
standard on the 500, and theprice went up.
So there's no doubt in my mind.
This is a thousand plus dollarradio for a mobile.
I think it's going to bepremium.
(25:14):
It's going to feel premium.
I think that it's going to beone of those radios that is
going to be extremely desirable,going to feel premium.
I think that it's going to beone of those radios that is
going to be extremely desirableand I expect it to command the
price.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
What's your?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
price I'm guessing $1099 here $1, Bob?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
No, I'm kidding $1?
.
You say $1099.
You said $1200?
$1299.
I'm going to say $1500.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Okay, golly.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I'm taking the high end, I think, with the price of
electronics by the time thisships and they say November, but
let's say 2026, I think $1,500.
Especially the fact they had togo back to drawing on a
component.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
There is some thought there.
I mean, you are paying theKenwood premium, which everyone
knows is a thing.
Anyone who's bought the D74 ord75 handheld knows that's a
thing.
You're paying for three bands,you're playing for d star, which
at this point I don't thinkshould be a premium, but it is a
premium to have um and the tnc.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
It's a tnc capable radio as well aprs capable aprs
capable.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's a lot of things.
So I I'm hoping it's not morethan $1,299.
That's how much I'll have inthe envelope ready to spend on
this radio.
But I look at it.
You know it's going to be theID5100 in my Jeep now I should
have figured this out.
It's 10 or 12 years old at thispoint and it's been riding
around in my car since thebeginning.
(26:37):
So well, two vehicles nowactually, so this one will
likely be in the car for just aslong.
So you figure the usage I'mgoing to get out of it.
There's some value in that andthat makes it feel a little
better to me for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So I want to pause real quick here and I just want
to say out loud I think that inthe last six months we've seen a
serious step change in cost forham radio brand new, uh, and I
believe that this is this iswhat we are going to expect
moving forward.
Um, yesu raised the price ontheir their top end mobile uh.
Yesu launched a multi-functionradio in the ftx that is close
to two thousand dollars if youbuy the full package.
(27:15):
Uh, you've got all kinds ofradios launching now and the
price tags are higher.
Guys.
I've seen a lot of complainingabout the price of the FTX One.
Get ready, because I do thinkthis is the new market that
we're living in with electronics, with the challenges that we
have between trade agreements,and I just want to say it out
loud we like talking about newstuff here.
(27:37):
We're not rich folks on thispodcast, but the reality of this
hobby is, when you want morethings packed in these small
units, we are going to pay forthem, and I do expect that this
is going to garner a sort ofnegative response.
But the answer is I think theD750 is going to be an expensive
mobile radio If you thoughtthat the 510 landed and 700
(27:58):
bucks was too much for your car.
Well, get ready, because Ithink Kenwood's going to be
dropping a bomb on you here.
So I just want to say it outloud.
I think that we've gotten somereally interesting commentary
around.
Yeah, it's not worth it, guys.
Radios are not getting cheaperat this point and we keep
getting more and more packedinto these radios.
Manufacturers are trying tofill every desire that our
little ham radio hearts have.
(28:18):
So I think that if we keepasking for more, we're going to
end up paying for it.
So I just want to say it outloud, because we've had some
really fun commentary on cost ofradio lately.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But I think Rory's right though.
If you're looking to upgrade aradio that you've had in your
vehicle for a lot of years, thisis at least a radio worth
investing.
Again, we haven't had hands-on,but from the specs and the
initial under the glassimpression, it's at least a
radio worth your consideration,as that one upgrade that will
last you a long time Absolutely,I mean.
(28:51):
So keep that in mind as well.
It has legs for life.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, I would say this is a five, six-year radio.
I keep a vehicle for five-plusyears.
At this point, vehicles aremore expensive as well.
When I put a mobile rig in, Iexpect it to last and I also
hope and this is something thatI think is a sidebar from this
if we see radio costs increase,I hope that we're going to see
some warranty and guaranteesupport for these radios.
(29:16):
If I'm going to pay $1,200, Ihope Kenwood's ready to stand
behind that radio for five years.
Right when they deliver thatradio I hope there's three or
five-year warranties that comealong with it.
That might be pie in the sky,but if I'm going to pay that
kind of money, I'm hoping thatwe see better support from our
manufacturers.
I've seen a lot of really goodsupport from these small
companies that are stepping upand doing the right thing.
(29:37):
It's time for the big three todo the same thing with the money
going up in these things.
So I digress a little bit onthe hamvention stuff, but I just
wanted to say that out loudbecause we've gotten a lot of
feedback in the last couple ofdeliveries of our podcasts
around cost of radio and you cando it for cheap guys If the
THD750 is not in your pricerange, there are a number of
(30:00):
other options.
Don't go get a THD750.
Maybe that'll be your secondradio or your third right.
Don't think that you have to goright to the top.
There are so many good optionsout there.
Go explore.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah, I agree.
And then the other big maybeswitching gears off Kenwood for
a moment is the new Aurora fromFlex Radio.
Flex Radio.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Flex Radio.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Which maybe is a future radio in Jim's home, and
I'll let others explain thetechnology that are on this
podcast way better than I can.
However, it offers a 500-wattSDR transmitter, so basically
the amplifier is no longer, it'sbuilt into the radio, so it's
an all-in-one unit and it kindof does away with the
(30:41):
traditional mosfet type designs,offers a more efficient package
and again all in that same 6400look and feel that we had the
new flex radio design softwareis on there.
Pretty decent price for a radiothat is.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Uh, I'd have to go back and look at the prices here
, but 6,199 for the five 10,which is going to be your base
radio for the AU five 10.
That's, that's the base radiofor the Aurora.
Um, and a couple of things here.
Yeah, a hundred percent agree.
Uh, think about puttingtogether a 500 watt base station
rig right now.
Uh, you think about what thecost of the base station is, and
(31:21):
then the amplifier to goalongside it to get to 500 Watts
.
Uh, $6,100 is a big chunk ofchange, but, uh, it's all in one
box.
Not bad for what you're getting, though, and it plugs into a
standard outlet, not requiringyou to wire up your shack for
two 40,.
Uh, with 30 amps plus, right,you're able to plug this guy
(31:41):
into a standard 15, 20 ampoutlet and get full 500 watt
output out of it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I think full duty cycle as well.
They had a demonstration thereat the convention with the keyer
down pressed and they wereinviting you to come up and put
your for hours at full power,inviting you to come up and put
your hand on it, not the dummyload.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
They had a nice little sign there.
Don't touch the dummy load.
Don't touch that.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
But you could put your hand on the unit.
They had heat guns and thermalguns and all sorts of ways for
you to test it yourself.
And I mean it was I mean it'sit was impressive stuff.
I know a lot of people haveopinions on Flex Radio, but you
know good on them.
This is definitely someinnovation and maybe also kind
of shifting the game of howradios are designed in the
future as well.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
I think the amplifier has some magic in it, and I say
magic in a sort of like I'dlike to understand it better.
I don't yet understand fullythe high efficiency transmitter.
I think there's some tricksthere that they're playing to
call it 500 watts, which is tosay we're getting three or three
or more decibels above, likethe standard 100 watts of talk
power without that distortion.
(32:47):
But I'd be curious what theymean and really understand.
You know, like when we measurepower, how does that look?
I will say this out loud to the510 and the 520, 530 range,
which are the step-ups from the510, that are going to be quite
a bit more money, I think.
As you add more features likeATU and additional slices, these
are going to map pretty muchone-to-one with the 8000 series
(33:08):
that was just released.
So James had mentioned the 6000series.
You guys, if you're Flex Radiofolks, know that 6000 was
recently replaced.
They were shipping pre-ordersearly this year and you were
probably waiting with batedbreath to get your $8,000 if you
had already put your money down.
The same thing is happeningwith the Aurora series, but
they've done a little bit, Ithink, more aggressive sort of.
(33:30):
If you're willing to put it alldown up front, you're going to
get the front of the line Ifyou're going to put part of your
pre-order money down half down,then you're going to be in the
second wave of these guys thatare pre-ordering.
So it's a really interestingapproach and I guess it goes to
show if you have some investmentin putting the money towards
(33:51):
Flex Radio, which is again asmall company making a fairly
low volume unit I don't meananything bad by that.
I think that they're doing anexcellent job here, if you're
willing to buck up.
They're claiming that by theend of the year you may have an
Aurora in your shack, whichthat's an aggressive timeline,
but we did see two of them atleast functioning at the show,
which was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, I have feelings about that three-tier
registration system.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Absolutely.
I don't know why I do.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I mean, they can do whatever they like and if people
are going to opt in, thenthey'll opt in.
Sure, it's an expensive radioand I know that one of their big
sells was two things.
One remote stations.
500 watts in a remote stationis definitely a huge benefit.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Without an extra unit , right Like 500 watts in one
box that you can plug inanywhere.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
One box, plug in anywhere, standard power and
we'll put out 500 watts with aheavy duty cycle.
That's perfect for a remotestation.
The other thing I do agree withthem on is de-expeditions.
Again, taking a standardpowered 120 watt unit radio, 500
watts on a de-expedition withhigh duty cycle for digital and
SSB and every other mode thatthey will operate, that is
(34:57):
impressive and I do think if itis again I wasn't operating it
and I'm not sure what it is butif Flex has a great reputation,
if they were pulling it off,fantastic, that's amazing and
maybe it is a shift also furtherin the technology world here.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, I'm excited by it.
It is unlikely to ever make itinto my shack.
I mean, here's the brass taxes.
I have a 101 MP sitting on mydesk right now.
It's 200 watts and I don't haveenough antenna for 500, let
alone 1,000 watts.
So I understand thatcompetition-level radios like
this belong in certain placeswhere you have much more antenna
than you do radio and yourtower is probably 20 or 30 grand
(35:34):
, your radio is probably fiveand so five is a small
proportion.
I have an inverse proportion ofradio to antenna here in the
yard and I understand that.
But I like the.
I like the premium feel the 101mp.
I'm a yesu fan boy, you guysknow that through and through.
So I like operating.
It's an awesome radio.
So with all that being said,right, I do think there's a flex
.
In my future I'm likely to be aflex 6400 atu buyer on the used
(35:57):
market.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'm looking to spend.
The prices are only going toget better.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
I'm looking to spend $1,200 or $1,500 and put a 6400
because I want to play with acouple of slices, I want to have
a little bit of remotecapability and I am very much
interested in understanding Flexradio as a company and as a
software package better before Iput the big money into an
Aurora.
So I think that's probably tworadios down the line for me, if
I'm being real honest withmyself.
(36:20):
But it was exciting and I alsowill say out loud the gentleman
that walked us through theAurora also extremely helpful he
came up.
He made no assumptions of ourlevel of operator or otherwise.
We were wearing a couple ofSouth Lion Area Amateur Radio
Club shirts.
We're no YouTube.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Wearing matching uniforms we weren't recording.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
We weren't stuffing the camera in his face and
saying, hey, we're with Everyday, ham, what can you tell us
about the Aurora?
We were just there as consumers, right?
And he was like.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
What would you like to know?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Three guys with yellow shirts and a poodle,
that's right, and Cash was thereon the second day.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Wow, we must have looked amazing, that's all.
I can say about that.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Well, they were graced with cash as presidents,
and he's an amazing dog Anyway,he was.
He was again very, very willingto let us poke the buttons.
Aurora was there, software wasoperating.
We were able to click thebuttons if we wanted to.
He talked us through some ofthe cool stuff that he thought
was neat.
We asked him some questionsabout how it compared to the
8,000 series.
So again, I think I had somereally positive vendor
(37:14):
experiences with the booths thatI stopped and talked at.
It was really nice to see thatagain with Flex Radio and I'm
excited I do believe there's aFlex Radio in my future.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I could totally see it.
Sorry, shout out to the nameaurora also my daughter's middle
name, also named after mywife's grandma.
So they got the namingconvention right and that they
all said super cool stickersthey did, I got.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
I got it somewhere around me here, so like a foil
sticker that said aurora, withthe alien green on there.
It was really cool yeah, alsoshout out.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
If we're talking about the vendor experience, we
also, after we left flex, wewent overcon, that's right and
we had a good chat with thefellow there and had some
hands-on time with the Icon 7760.
That was good to see in personand the gentleman there as well
was very, very available, veryhappy to answer any questions.
Let us play.
(38:05):
I wanted to pick the thing upand somehow he knew that because
I wanted to see how heavy itwas.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
The head right, the head unit, wanted to pick the
thing up and and somehow he knewthat because I wanted to see
how heavy it was and the head,right the head, the control head
, yeah, and he invited me to, uh, to pick it up and and it was
tethered to the desk, but withenough room that you could pick
it up the, uh, the 7760, if, ifsomehow I had the station
magically to support that withantennas and infrastructure
would be very high on my list.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
I I wouldn't be surprised, j Jim, though, to get
a used Flex in your shack atsome point.
That absolutely makes sense.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah, we've gone back and forth.
They offer such a variety of asFlex does we should speak to
Flex.
Flex offers such a variety ofsingle slice, double slice, and
some of the older ones arebecoming quite affordable.
So I think it's a way to dipyour toe in that SDR, but remote
controllable SDR in a way thatperhaps was not really available
to us two years ago.
And we just said radio isgetting expensive.
(38:57):
Boy shop the used market.
There's some pretty good dealson the used stuff, so pretty
exciting.
And I agree with you, icom, Ididn't get quite as close up
with the 7760.
At that time I was showing offthe poodle to a couple of other
reps that had made their wayover from the booth and were
more interested in talking dogsthan they were radios.
I loved it and cashed it too,but I missed out on the ICOM
(39:19):
experience.
But I would have loved to seeit.
And James walked away from itand he said man, that's a slick
radio, that's a really slickradio.
He was pretty wowed by it, howit operated, how it felt.
It's really hard to tell in sucha crowded environment.
You know how does the front endreject?
How does the radio handle busyenvironments like that, because
none of these things are hookedup in any meaningful way to good
(39:41):
antennas at the show.
Right, and that, for me, isperhaps one of the things that
makes these shows really tricky.
Right, how do you show a radio,which requires a good antenna,
at a show like this?
And that's why remote is wayeasier to show at these things.
I understand I would like tosee more of that, but it was fun
to see all three of them.
I also want to say this outloud right, when you go to a
(40:04):
show like this, you're likely togravitate to the things that
are the halo products from eachvendor.
Right, we're talking abouttonight the Flex Aurora, which
is a $6,000 radio.
We're talking about the Optum,which is a $2,000 radio.
Now we're talking about the7760.
And you're like Everyday Ham,do you guys just look at the
best I almost said best shit thebest stuff?
Speaker 1 (40:23):
The answer is we look at it all.
I did Good call.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
I hope you guys are all adults out there.
I appreciate you listening.
We do look at all the beststuff, but really when you go to
these shows it's an opportunityto see the things that you're
unlikely to have a chancephysically to operate any other
way, and so it's the excitement,it's the way to allow us to see
what's coming.
Because where does thetechnology in the less expensive
radios come from, guys?
(40:47):
It trickles down from the bigtop radios, right, and when we
do the R&D on these radios andwe develop a circuit that
performs well, slowly we bringthat thing down in price, and
then suddenly it's available ata much more reasonable price
point for us to buy in a cheaperradio, a smaller radio.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
It's like race cars right, drive on Sunday, or what
is it?
Race on Sunday, drive on Monday.
Eventually, the technologytrickles down a little bit, and
who doesn't like to look at nicethings?
We're at a show.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
That's right.
I know we were trying to keepthis one quick, because this is
a sort of recap of our wholehamvention experience.
We got about five more minutes.
What do you guys have to say?
Speaker 2 (41:23):
I have one more vendor I'd like to touch on.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Let's do it Shoot Lightning round.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
That is BuddyPool.
So people talk about a productthat's also I don't want to say
controversial, but it's aproduct that not everyone likes.
But I have been a BuddySickuser for four or five years now
and I did pick up the BuddyPoolDeluxe Package new from the
(41:48):
BuddyPool table.
Jim on the other handuxepackage, new from the buddy pole
table.
Jim, on the other hand, pickedup one from the flea market
table, um, classic which somehowfeels so fitting for the two of
you right how those paths went,but yeah so I, I had been, I
had been.
This is a purchase I'd beenlooking at for for a couple
years and this year it was timeto bite, and definitely you know
(42:09):
.
Another shout out to Chris W6HFP, the owner of Buddy Bowl, I
certainly.
I went to the table and Iwasn't really asking any
questions, but he startedchatting me up on how do I use
it and what do you know, whatare, what are my objectives with
the antenna?
And I told him that I've hadthe Buddy Stick and been
(42:30):
successful with that and lookingforward to just improving on
that.
And I told him I said you know,I am the person that talks
positively about your product.
I have people tell me, oh, it's,it doesn't work for me or oh,
it's too difficult to tune.
And and my my answer to that isthe person probably two things
they didn't try and they didn'thave an antenna analyzer.
Because with the, with the, anyof the buddy pole products, you
(42:54):
pretty much need an antennaanalyzer and you have to be
willing to learn the antenna andlearn the various uh
configurations to put it in forit to do what you want it to do.
Um, I don't remember the exactname.
Last year at hamvention Ipicked up buddy pole in the
field.
It's just a small small bookand that opened my eyes to
(43:15):
different ways to set up theantenna and one of the reasons I
did make the purchase this year.
So looking forward to gettingout maybe next weekend over the
Memorial Day long weekend andplaying with the antenna.
So that was my last shout outfor sure for a vendor on
Hamvention.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Yeah plus Go ahead, James I was going to say, if
you've never been to Hamventionand you're curious, it's a very
friendly environment to come andask questions and learn about
things from the vendorsthemselves directly.
I think that's one takeaway youcan have from this podcast, and
it's also BuddyPoll in theField by Scott Anderson and
NE1RD, so it's available on theBuddy Pull website if you're
(43:55):
interested.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yep, and it's a pocket-sized book.
It's something you can take anddeploy with you.
I wish it was on the desk for along time, but I think it's
actually in the living room whenI was looking at it.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
I just looked it up because I was also curious.
I did buy the buddy pole.
I uh will tell you that rory isa a peddler of buddy pole and I
sold my chelagance uh thismorning, a jpc which is the
imported version.
I essentially a copy of it.
I sold all of my gear and Ihave switched over to buddy pole
completely.
So I am excited, I, in feelingthe gear pulling it out.
(44:29):
Uh, it all feels quality, right.
Yeah, it's solid.
I had a really positiveinteraction.
Even though I went and boughtsome of my gear from the ham
swap out in the field, I broughtit back into the Buddy Paul
booth and I said, hey, I boughtthe triple ratio ballon, can you
tell me how I might deploy thatwith my antenna?
And I had it sitting there andhe's like, yeah, no problem man.
He's like, even if you didn'tbuy it from us, we'd love to
(44:54):
chat with you about it.
So it was really cool, uh, forthem to be willing to have a
little conversation.
Uh, and I plan on ordering somemore parts.
I'm pretty much, uh, thissummer is going to be the the
buddy pull summer for me here.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Uh, I'm gonna be running that with you now, huh,
no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I'm not a wire antenna guy, so it'll be buddy
dipole most of the summer for meon tripod, and it'll be with
the FTX.
So it'll be really interestingto see how POTA does on that
combo.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Hot Girl Summer was last year, and now we're on to
Buddy Pole Summer.
Got it, Buddy Pole Summer baby.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
That's a change.
The one thing you will miss,Jim, from the off-brand or
whatever you want to call itShelligans or whatever you want
to call it Chelegans.
Those coils have the slidingthing to choose the level of
coil you wanted to select.
The buddy pole does not, and ithas the screw-in taps that you
(45:41):
have to move somewhat manually.
That will be a change for you,but I'll tell you this.
I have, I believe, three orfour of those semi-permanently
placed on my coil now for mybuddy stick and I don't move
them.
I just select the one I wantfor whichever band I'm doing.
So you'll just pre-tune it andyou'll be used to it pretty
quickly.
(46:01):
That'll be a change, for surefor you right away.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
The funny thing with the sliders was once I had
established them in theirposition especially because I
run mostly 20 meter, of course,in the park and run it in the
dipole configuration they alwayswere clicked into the same spot
.
I had marked it with a littlepermanent marker on the coil so
they never moved.
My suspect is the first coupleof times it gets set up I'll
(46:31):
probably be fine tuning bymoving that up or down that coil
.
Just a hair and it wasoperative.
You do benefit with having agood antenna analyzer for a
buddy pole setup because it's soflexible that it affords you
the ability to set it up alittle bit incorrectly.
You could do it without, butlet me tell you it makes it way
better and you can get in somesuper excellent SWR readings
where you're putting out betterpower.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Oh, you can get it perfect.
If you have the patience withit, you can get it perfect.
I leave one of the coil tapsset for 40, one set for 20, and
then a third that I movedepending whether I want to do
10 or 15.
That's how I do mine.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
I had a lot of fun at Hamvention guys.
It was a great first year yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
I loved it and thanks , Jim, also for hosting the
barbecue again at your camperthere.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Thanks to you and Becca for having us crash your
pad Certainly hosting thebarbecue again at your camper
there.
Thanks to you and Becca forhaving us crash your pad,
certainly a shout out to the twoof you for having 30 of your
best friends over several nightsin a row, and then one note
before we do the where to findus and socials.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
So we have the Michigan POTA meetup coming up
here June 7th at Fort CusterState Recreation Area near
Augusta, michigan, from 11 to 3pm.
So if you're in the area, youwant to drive up whatever makes
you happy.
It's going to be a pretty coolmeetup.
Mike Case did mention that weare going to have some POTA
tumblers to give away.
He got some freebies from thePOTA booth at Hamvention just
for this occasion.
So if a tumblr will get youthere for the raffle, then by
(47:52):
all means.
Now is your time.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
My first attendance was last year at Sleepy Hollow
and it was the first time I metboth.
Well, first time I met JamesRory didn't make it to that one,
but it was awesome to seeeverybody, so I'm going to be
there, James is going to bethere.
James is going to be there, andRory, I believe, and we're
going to drag him out there forat least one of the evenings.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
And we may record the June episode there.
We haven't quite decided yetwhat our schedules allow, so
it'll either be on the sameThursday of that first week of
Wednesday, as we normallyrelease, or be patient with us.
There may be a slight delay, aswe were, you know, post a
couple of days after normally do, since we may be together there
.
So we'll let you know.
(48:32):
Otherwise, thanks everyone forattending.
If no one has any last beforewe do that, any last comments
from either of you before we gointo closing?
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Just a reminder.
We added Discord to our cadreof things that you can connect
with us on.
We've had a few join.
We did just get started, sofeel free to join, jump in the
conversation.
It's a friendly place.
Don't feel like.
If it's a little bit quiet therefor the first couple of weeks,
it's a big deal.
We just want you guys to jumpin there because I imagine at
some point you'll see somethingthat you have a good opinion on
(49:02):
and we would love to hear it.
There is an opportunity thereas well, under the pod chat, to
talk about these episodes, whatyou liked, what you didn't like,
give us feedback so that we cankeep building it in.
And I just wanted to plug thatDiscord, because that is brand
new this month to the EverydayHam.
I also wanted to say we'rereally close to 200 subs on
YouTube and that's awesome.
It's been a nice slow littleroll up to it.
(49:23):
We knew that with six episodesin, we would have a few of you
listening and hearing thefeedback already.
We're excited to see that.
So if you like what you'rehearing, please click the
subscribe button here on theYouTube.
If you haven't checked us outon YouTube and you're listening
to us on the pods that you'redownloading on Apple or Spotify
or otherwise awesome, do whatyou like to do.
(49:43):
We don't want you to forceanything, but we just appreciate
the community support.
It's what lets us keep doingthis thing and we're looking
forward to doing the next one.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Exactly.
So you can find us for all ofthat, the Discord link and where
to find the podcast stream anda link to our YouTube,
everydayhamcom.
Our Instagram iseverydayhampodcast, our YouTube
is at everydayham.
And again, the Discord link isthere on all the sites.
We put them in the comments anddescriptions now.
(50:13):
So wherever you go, go find it.
But we've gotten a lot of goodcomments.
We try to respond to all thecomments we can as well.
So again, please comment.
We love it.
We love seeing them.
I get excited every time I seean email that you got a new
comment.
So, thank you, like andsubscribe as well.
And with that, thank youeveryone and we'll see you in
June 73, guys 73.
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