Is the Yaesu FTX1 a True Game Changer? Plus Dayton Hamvention 2025

Is the Yaesu FTX-1F a True Game Changer? Plus Dayton Hamvention 2025

Yaesu has shaken the amateur radio world with the release of their new FTX-1F series, particularly the Optima model with its revolutionary modular design. We explore the groundbreaking features that have hams reaching for their wallets—from the detachable QRP head unit that can operate standalone, to the 100-watt amplifier attachment that makes this one of the most versatile radios ever produced. 

Rory takes us through his Michigan QSO Party adventure in Oscoda County, where he activated a rare county from a cozy Airbnb near Luzerne. Despite challenging band conditions, he managed to work over 40 Michigan counties and came away with a respectable score. His experiences highlight the perfect use case for Yaesu's new offering—a radio that can transition seamlessly from powerful base station to lightweight field unit. 

With Hamvention rapidly approaching, we share our strategies for making the most of ham radio's biggest event. From forum recommendations (don't miss the POTA sessions!) to flea market tactics and practical advice about staying comfortable in the heat, we offer insights that will help first-timers and veterans alike. We'll be camping at Caesar Creek in the D-E loops and would love to meet listeners who are attending. 

The FTX-1F Optima's impressive feature set includes dual antenna ports, built-in antenna tuner with memory, and modern USB-C connectivity for both data and power delivery. While not perfect—no true dual receive for satellite operations and no separation cable option for mobile installation—the radio represents a significant leap forward in transceiver design that may influence the direction of amateur radio equipment for years to come. 

Grab your comfortable shoes, sunscreen, and shopping list—we're heading to Hamvention! We'll be recording short segments throughout the event to capture the excitement and innovation that makes this gathering the highlight of the ham radio calendar. Whether you're chasing the latest gear or hunting vintage treasures in the flea market, we hope to see you there.

Short show intro audio clip

Short outro audio clip

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

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

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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, welcome everyone to episode five of the
Everyday Ham podcast.
I'm James K-A-J-K-U, Don't knowwhy that was hard today.
I'm joined here by Jim Davis,N-A-J-R-D, and Rory Locke,
W-8-K-N-X.
So May is going to be a busymonth for us.
We got a lot of good stuff totalk about today.
But first off, Rory, what hasbeen going on in your ham radio

(00:24):
world lately?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, it was a very busy month and one of my
favorite ham radio events of theyear For me anyway.
In the last five years or so Istarted probably since just
before COVID, I started gettinginto the state CUSO parties and
I tend to chase those around abit.
So a couple weeks ago we hadthe Michigan Michigan QSO party,
which is, of course, our homestate.

(00:45):
So I took the trip north,decided to run away for a long
weekend and went up to OscodaCounty and activated Oscoda
County.
So one of the things I like todo is I prefer to go do the QSO
party in a county that's nothistorically activated or hasn't
been activated in the yearprior, and all that data is

(01:06):
available on the QSO Partywebsite.
So I went through and made alist of counties and decided to
go up to Luzerne, found a neatlittle Airbnb and spent the
weekend up there.
So you can go to our YouTubechannel and I think there might
be a link that pops up somewhereon here if you're watching this
on YouTube and you can take alook at the short video that we

(01:29):
posted of my experience outsideof Luzerne, michigan, doing the
Michigan QSO party.
I did okay.
I could have done better.
20 meters was poor during theday which eliminated a lot of
the out-of-state contacts, sothat killed a lot of my
multipliers that way.
But I did get 41 of the 82Michigan counties on 20 meters

(01:51):
and no 40 meters and 80 meters.
So that was oh no, there's 83Michigan counties.
I think Now I'm second guessingmyself.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
I got roughly I'm not going to be able to verify it,
so Someone will.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Nobody's calling you a liar, because nobody knows
except you approximately halfwill call it and uh, and I was
happy I was happy with that.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Um band conditions have been.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's pretty good actually yeah, and and I was I
was glad to get what I could getand I think a lot of people got
tired.
80 meters at night was not asbusy as historically.
I remembered it being One ofour friends.
Marty KBAJIU got chased off thefrequency he was calling CQ on
and someone started screamingAlaska, cuso party, alaska, cuso

(02:36):
party.
To get him off of their beloved3810 that they were on.
So that's okay.
He flipped the switch and wentto bed.
He said he was about done, butright around 10,000 points, I
think 150 CUSOs.
I'm content with my MichiganCUSO party experience.
So take a look at that videothat's been posted and take a

(02:58):
look at the Airbnb outside ofLuzerne and it was a good
weekend.
I'd like to go back up thereand spend some time.
It had a nice fire pit, nicelittle outside area.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
It looked like a beautiful spit.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, it was cool.
It's not too far from MaudeEater's.
If anyone's familiar withLuzerne, you could probably
stumble there and back if youneeded to.
And, of course, the good oldLuzerne Express convenience
store, which was where I spentmost of my money that weekend on
food and beverages.
So very good.
What else is going on?
I think we had our local clubmeeting this past Sunday and, as

(03:36):
any of our longtime listenersknow, we're all part of the same
amateur radio club here inSouth Lyon, michigan, and we had
a new member, a new potentialmember, I suppose.
Pop by this time, chris KT8CAT.
There we go.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
And officially a new member.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Oh, did he join already.
He is legit.
Yep oh yeah.
Little flub on the call signthere, but KT8CAT Chris joined
up and he's been in touch withus on Discord and glad to be
aboard.
So we appreciate Chrislistening to the podcast and
appreciate him stopping by theclub meeting this past Sunday.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
I think there was a gentleman or maybe lady I'm not
sure it's hard to tell onYouTube comments that was also
chasing you from Houghton.
Was he able to get with you onyour QSO party?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
So that was Tim W3TLP who was hunting me from
Houghton County and I did nothear him and he did not hear me.
I had a good exchange with himin the comments and he also said
band conditions were not greatfor the little bit of time he
had to play.
So it actually brings me tokind of a bummer and I would

(04:45):
have liked to have worked himbecause I did not hear Houghton
County on the air this year andthat's kind of a bummer.
Wa1uju Glenn, who had been along-time holdout for Houghton
County on the Michigan CUSOparty, both on phone and CW,
became a silent key last year.
So Houghton County was notrepresented last year.
So, um, houghton County was notrepresented, keweenaw County

(05:07):
was.
However, the people from the uh, calumet, um, what is that
thing called Keweenaw RepeaterAssociation, the W8FWG group.
They ran special event stationwhiskey, eight kilo.
When they were on the air.
I heard them but they did nothear me.
So I had no QSOOs with withHoughton or Keweenaw County, but
uh.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I did have a few other UP counties so that was
good and you usually go to theupper peninsula for Michigan,
cuso, don't you.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
There's a lot of rare counties up there.
So I have, I have in the paston Keweenaw County and, um, uh,
schoolcraft Actually it's funnybecause we joke about that I've
done that county once briefly,so just very quickly.
Those both of those years Ihappened to be up there and it

(05:55):
was Michigan CUSO party and Ihad radio with me so I was able
to play.
But this year was much moreintentional with getting the
cabin up there and spending thewhole the whole weekend up there
getting the antennas situated.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
And it was.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
it was a good time, like I, said it was just a
well-needed weekend break and II felt much better when I got
back.
People at work said I lookedwell, well rested, which means
that I was good to hear.
I was probably brutal, brutaland unpleasant leading up to
that weekend, so I was actuallyconcerned three, three separate
people in three, three instancestold me that I that I seemed
much more relaxed.
I'm like I guess I was worsethan I thought.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Well, you were looking.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Go ahead, james, I was going to say you got a nice
break right before Dayton here.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
I was going to say it's getting busy here.
You were also looking at goingup north this year, but the
weather was looking a little bitprohibitive even that late in
the season.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, it just didn't work out.
I was considering going all theway up and trying to do
something in Keweenaw County.
The time was there, I couldhave snuck another day away from
work if I wanted to, but itjust didn't work out.
The planning for it I didn'tquite have it together and, like
you mentioned, we had justgotten done with the ice storms
and then they were still gettinganother few inches a storm of

(07:04):
snow up there.
Um, our friend mike w8 msc, whoI was able to work on on uh 40
meters.
He was up in barraga county athis his property outside of
lance and uh he said he was finegetting in and out, but I was
okay with not having to trudgethrough the snow and be going up
and down the highways and in inan early spring snowstorm well,

(07:29):
awesome, it sounds like it wasa successful cuso party in the
middle of michigan and abeautiful uh beautiful little
airbnb.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
If you haven't checked out the video, like rory
said, definitely go check itout.
That's the mic check series ofvideos that we're trying as a
sort of interspersed video inbetween our podcasts, because we
know they only come once amonth, so maybe we're going to
come up with a little bit ofextra there.
So check out those Mic Checkvideos.
I think James has one out andnow Rory has one out, so I guess
I got to do something.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
We know who's next, because I'm being lazy.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
N-A-J-R-D.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I think you'll have some opportunities coming up
here soon.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Absolutely, James.
Anything going on with youBrand new.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
No, not too much radio related.
My wife went out of town for along weekend with her friends,
so not much radio activityrecently.
Maybe the best time when thebands again are not really the
best here.
It has been tough Just tryingto save my pennies and get the
car ready for Dayton coming up.
So I'm sure we'll talk aboutthat here in a little bit as
well.
But Jim, what about you?

(08:25):
What have you been up to?

Speaker 3 (08:27):
All right, a couple quick ones here before we jump
into it, because I haveexcitement and I'm sure
everybody's thinking the samething here.
We did right after the lastepisode go pick up a camper.
So we're taking that down toDayton, which is exciting.
We will be at Caesar Creek andif you are at Caesar Creek and
you're listening, come on by.
We're going to be in the D Eloops of Caesar Creek, down

(08:47):
there in the hundred seriescampground.
So if you see a guy like myselfor a guy like James or a guy
like Rory, wave to us to sayhello.
We'd certainly love to see andmeet you and know that you're
listening.
But yeah, we're going to.
We're going to bring our camperdown.
It'll be the first time takingit out for any long trip, so
that should be exciting, that'sfun, that's big time you will
see me at the campgroundoccasionally I am, otherwise

(09:10):
We'll be at the Holiday Inn,yeah, Rory's the invited guest.
That's right, rory.
Well, it depends on how Fridayevening goes, but you always
have a pull-out sofa in the newcamper, so that's uh, that's
good, but uh, we do have, uh, wedo have the campers looking
forward to taking that downthere.
It'll be shakedown trip for usand I'm sure we're gonna forget
something or otherwise somethingwon't work quite how we planned

(09:30):
it, but it'll be fun to go downthere.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
The weather knock on and whatever's wood around you,
gentlemen, don't do it, don't doit, it's looking okay, it's
looking okay it's looking warm,it's, it's.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
I'm actually a little concerned about the
temperatures being warm.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
That's exactly right.
That's what I was going to say.
If it's up over 80, any threeof those days, it's going to be
very warm in those big barns,but I am still looking forward
to it, so it should be fun.
We are, of course, if you're notfollowing along and tracking
here, dayton will be there, andso, yeah, very good, looking
forward to that and we had alittle excitement.
Looking forward to that and wehad a little excitement.
I will just mention this.

(10:04):
You probably see the dogsrunning around in the background
.
One of them had surgery a weekago, so it bit into my date and
fun, but it's okay.
We're happy to have the dog.
He is healthy and rested nowand he'll be down with me, so
it's a nice little bonus therethat he's all good with a little
scare that we had just a weekago.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
That is good, we were worried.
We were worried.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
I messaged both of these guys and they were very
genuinely concerned.
But Cash, my black poodle, he'sonly three years old, he's
going to make it.
He had a little thing that hehad to get taken care of, but
glad to do that and it's OK.
But the other big news,gentlemen and I'm sure it's just
about on everybody's tip of thetongue if you're listening is
of course the new Yaesu releaseand we finally have some

(10:47):
confirmation about what thisFTX1 means to us in radio and I
think that yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
So who all has their order in for it already?
Let me ask that question.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Two of the three.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Two of the three.
I wonder which two those are.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Can't tell.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well, we both had reservations, so it should be a
pretty easy mapping if you'vebeen listening since the
beginning.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
James and I were both reserved.
We were on the fence on thosereservations, though.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
That's true, and when we were talking about it, I
think that the initialexcitement, of course, was that
yeah, this is a really neatradio, something to compete with
the IC705 that we've talkedabout before.
But James and I, both being moresideband-oriented than CW or
otherwise, were concerned alittle bit that QRP might not
get through the pileups, mightnot do what we need to do for

(11:35):
POTA, even though it would havebeen cool no matter what.
So the big excitement is thatYaesu is telling us there's a
100-watt attachment for the FTX1.
Is that Yesu is telling usthere's a 100-watt attachment
for the FTX1, and it changedeverybody's mind, I think, and
mostly here in the club.
We have almost eight folks thathave ordered an FTX1 Optima
Series 100-watt radio.

(11:56):
So it's a huge, huge drop fromYesu.
I love that they played thecards close to the chest right
up until before Hamvention,because they definitely knew
that this was going to drum upsome serious attention.
They have what three boothspaces in the barn that they are
calling the Yesu Experience.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Which they always have a great show in, and the
free hats and the free hats.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
But it sounds to me like the plan is to have all of
these radios at the show, soyou're going to actually be able
to put some fingers on the FTXone see how it operates actually
under.
you know, pull the glass off thetop of it, poke the buttons,
touch the screen, see how itworks.
And also it sounds to me likethey're bringing all of the
other radios sitting beside it,so you can kind of compare and
contrast those features anddecide what's right for you.

(12:41):
Because let's also acknowledgethe sort of elephant in the room
it's not an inexpensive radio,right?
It wasn't an inexpensive radiowhen it started, and now, with
all of the climate changes inpricing, we're looking at $1,400
for the head, which is just thefield model, the FTX1 field
model.
Which is the 10 watts that'sright, the 10 watts, and then

(13:02):
the FTX1 Optima with the100-watt attachment is close to
$1,900, $1,899, I believe and soit's not an inexpensive radio.
And let's be the first toacknowledge that I doubt it's a
starter radio for Benny.
When we're talking about closeto $2,000, it actually becomes a
sort of barrier to entry, Ithink.
But it is a very exciting radioand I like what Yaesu's doing

(13:25):
here in its sort of modulardesign.
So what do you guys think?
What's your thought?

Speaker 1 (13:29):
We talked about that modular design or we speculated
on it, we knew there would beattachments.
We definitely saw from theTokyo show that there was the
rails and the points on the backfor it to connect, and I'm very
excited that we now have a truemodular radio.
And the part that is great alsois you're talking about the
price point.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, it's expensive.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
It's not an entry-level radio.
It offers a lot of versatility,but the nice part I could see
in the future is it can growwith you, though it's buy once.
What is it?

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Buy once, cry once.
Yeah, there you go, thank you.
Buy once, cry once.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
You know, because maybe in the future, you know,
there's a change to theamplifier.
So you want to maybe swap it out, or maybe you do want to try
QRP and you want to get thetuner module or a bigger battery
or some other accessories.
Absolutely, you know it canreally kind of grow with you in
the hobby and we know ham radiois a hobby, where it's a hobby
within a hobby which we talkedabout before, and maybe right

(14:26):
now SSB is your thing, but maybeyou want to get into more
digital, maybe you want to tryQRP.
This really does open thosedoorways and I'm really excited
that Yezu has gone thisdirection.
I mean, we posted a video.
Is Yezu changing the game?
I think they did, I think theydid and I think they hit the
mark.
And I think they and the onething I was really impressed

(14:47):
with you saw John the sales repdoing the live demonstration.
He's been on the forums.
He's been posting the comments.
That's right.
And the part I really amimpressed by, you can see that
they're listening to thefeedback from hams.
They acknowledge it's expensivebut they're literally saying,
if this is what you wanted, well, here it is.
You wanted this.
Now you got it.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
And.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
I'm excited to see that level of engagement from a
major manufacturer as well.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
They're very interested in the user's
opinions.
As we found, they've beenprowling through social media
like crazy and putting commentson all sorts of channels, not
even the big channels.
We even got a comment on ourchannel from them in response to
something and I think that'sexcellent the YouTube live that
they did, detailing everythingand talking over some of the

(15:30):
decisions they had to make andgoing through and confirming or
denying people's comments on allsorts of social media.
I think that's tremendous tosee Yezu doing that outreach.
And I did not, as I kind ofalluded to moments ago, I did
not put my reservation in.
I had.
No, I wouldn't be purchasing aQRP rig.

(15:53):
It's not something that wouldever be in my collection, so it
wasn't on my mind.
Of course I wanted to see it.
If someone got it, I would playwith it and look at it and turn
the knobs and see how far Icould get on 10 watts.
But I would not with it andlook at it and turn the knobs
and see how far I could get on10 watts.
But I would not own one.
But with the Optima option aspart of the package, it is on my

(16:14):
list to purchase.
I don't know that I'll bepurchasing one at Dayton.
I haven't decided if I want todrop the change yet and I have
to make some other sales ofequipment that I have.
Get it off the desk Beforetrading.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
I know how that goes.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, it has to be done.
But I will own one and it'slooking like it's going to be my
base rig.
To be quite honest, and that'sthe cool thing about this is
that it has all the things.
It's all band, all mode, whichI enjoy having, and it would
replace an older rig here on thedesk.
What is this thing?

(16:48):
A 7100, IC7100, ICOM rig whichI always wanted one.
I finally got one, but I playedwith it and I want something
new instead.
So that's what's happening here.
I feel the price is appropriate.
I mean it is not an entry-levelradio.
Price is appropriate.
I mean it is not an entry-levelradio.

(17:08):
But, Jim, you can kind of talkto the, compare the receiver and
some of the technology to theDX10, which is a tremendous rig,
and I think you're gettingexactly what you're paying for
on this one.
And I don't think it's.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
I think it's priced correctly, to be quite honest,
Jim, do you know when you talk,are you going to go through the
price of what the amplifiermodule is alone, the 100 watt.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yep, I think we can just acknowledge that right now,
which is to say if you're goingto buy the kit together, which
all of the folks in the SouthLion Club who have pre-ordered
the actual Optima are ordering,that package, which is the FTX1
Optima package, and thatincludes the SPA1 amplifier and
it includes the FTX1 field head.

(17:49):
Now it's also important tomention, I think, that the FTX1
field head includes the battery,so you can still take the head
off of your Optima unit, slidethe battery on.
That's in the box with yourOptima package and you can go
QRP, take it out into the fieldand go play with 10 watts, right
.
Maybe it's a fine afternoon andyou want to slide out onto the

(18:11):
back porch with the nicemargarita and try to get a
little, you know, do a little CWon the back porch, right?
It gives you that flexibilityand that's what I really think
they nailed with that Optimapackage is they're not leaving
the battery out of the packageand making you get that
separately.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
You're getting the whole kit and caboodle when you
order Optima it's a great dealGo ahead.
I almost wonder what is goingto be their.
They'll never publish thesenumbers, but the ratio of sales
for the Optima package versusthe Field package Right, and
everything I've seen in my smalllittle sample size of ham radio
enthusiasts is showing that theOptima package by far and away
is the most popular package.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I enthusiast is showing that the Optima package
by far and away is the mostpopular package.
I don't know anyone that's putan order in for the field.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
No, me neither, and it's almost like the Jeeps.
There's a four-door version,which now is, I think, 80% of
all sales, and then you have theremaining two doors that are
still lingering around.
I just think the Optima packageis just going to be.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Having been a previous Jeep owner, we could
probably do a whole conversationon the two-door versus
four-door Jeep thing and we'dhave to bring in Jason K and 4AL
for his.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
I'll sit back on that one.
I don't think we're ready forthis level of discussion.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
I no longer have that , but I can only imagine.
But anyway, sorry, I digressthere terribly.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
No, it's a good question, and I think what
you're driving at, james, is sayI don't buy the Optima package
right out of the gate.
Could I piecemeal it together,and is it affordable to do that?
The answer really is probablynot right.
If I want to get the most bangfor my buck and we know that we
always joke on this podcast,hams are cheap, us included, me
included specifically right, I'mgoing to pay the $1899 out of

(19:39):
the gate instead of the $1499out of the gate and I'm just
going to get the 100-watt amp.
And the reason being is we knownow that the SPA-1 is available
, the MSRP list was $800 for theSPA-1, which is the 100-watt
amplifier add-on for this radio,but it looks like at retail
it's going to be about $649 plustax and shipping, whatever that

(19:59):
ends up being so a decent deal.
It's not a bad deal, but I thinkyou're saving yourself $250,
$300 by not buying just the head.
So you really have to look athow you want to operate, and I
do think there are going to besome soda operators, some poda
operators and some real hardcoreCWers that are going to be like
never cared about 100 watts.
I only wanted it for the QRP andthat's awesome and I love that

(20:24):
they're giving us that option.
It was a huge mind changer forme when they dropped the Optima
package.
I had speculated about two daysbefore, when we heard that
there was going to be a 100-wattamp option, that I hoped that
there was going to be a bundlepackage right off the hop and
Yaesu was 100% ahead of me onthat one.
They had that bundle packageready and I agree with James.

(20:44):
I would bet it representsbetter than 80% of their sales.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, it has to, and also put in the comments.
So if you're listening to theaudio podcast or the YouTube
version, put in the comments ifyou're buying one or if you're
not buying one, and why or whichpackage are you buying?
Because I'd really be curiousto see what is the ratio of
Optima package versus Fieldpackage.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
I got one more thing to layer on that.
If you're in the comments andyou're thinking, boy, the FTX
Optima is $1,900.
Yesu has a lot of great radiosthat are cheaper than that.
I'm going to buy this insteadand I would love to hear what
you're buying instead of the FTXOptima now that you know how
expensive it is.
Right, and the reason I say thatout loud is I owned a 710, an

(21:23):
FT710, the field model, and Iowned the FT-DX10.
Both of them I took out andpoda'd at 100 watt width.
The DX10 is a heavy radio to gopodaing with, so I'm a guy that
sits at a picnic table with a20 amp hour battery.
Right, I know I'm not hikinginto the deep back country to do
poda, but I poda'd with both ofradios and there are a lot of

(21:45):
radio for the money, especiallywhen you talk about the FT710
field.
I think again, we talked aboutYesu competing with themselves.
In many ways, ft710 is stillgoing to be taking a lot of the
bread.
That's an excellent radio andif you're thinking the Optimus
too much, I highly recommendthat FT710 field as an excellent
option.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
You made me think about something when you were
talking about hauling aroundheavy radios and that, and we'll
bring the UP up as a pointagain.
There's a handful of points inthe UP that I've visited over
the years that are not all POTAparks, but they're all places
that I've wanted to operateradio from, and some of them
require anywhere between a mileand a two, three, four mile hike

(22:23):
which for me is healthy,healthy hike.
Good good hike.
So I'm looking at this and itspurs a.
You know it talks to me becausemaybe this is something I'll do
.
Ftx one field comes in just byitself.
2.75 pounds, throw that into abackpack, that's.
That's very light.
Of course, you'll have someother things that you'll need to

(22:43):
take along, and I don't thinkthat includes any battery weight
.
Ftx1 Optimize 8.6 pounds.
So both radios are not heavy.
The versatility to be able topack one of these up and carry
it anywhere is going to go along way and I look forward to
that.
So, even though I said minewill be a home shack queen and
sit on my desk, it's notsomething that I'm going to be

(23:08):
opposed to packing up when Ineed to.
My 891 will still be my POTAradio, but I think I will be
more apt to take this out when Iwant to have a little bit extra
in the field.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Now the only thing I think I was a little bit
disappointed in and again we'llgo through the very impressive
specs here.
I think in a minute, jim, youprobably have some stuff queued
up.
Knowing you, I do.
I was really optimistic orhopeful, maybe is a better word
that it could be a mobilereplacement for my 891 in the
vehicle.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
I was as well.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
And we found out through some comments, I believe
by John, that there is noseparation cables for the head.
So that's not really going tobe an ideal setup for a mobile.
So that's not really going tobe an ideal setup for a mobile.
I'm sure some people will finda great way to make it work, but
that's the one, I think,disappointment I have in the
radio no-transcript about thefuture, we sure do hams do

(24:38):
nothing but speculate.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
You ever listen to a repeater during drive time?
I mean, we're speculating oneverything.
Um, I and I've been kind ofdiscussing with jim and others
along the way.
I I wonder what else yezu hasup their sleeve.
Does this mean there's a newfamily of of radios that they're
going to continue to produce?
Is there a mobile?
Is there an actual mobilethat's going to come out of this

(24:59):
?
Because I did wonder, uh,initially, was I going to look
at my my mobile install and dosomething completely different
with this rig if that was anoption?
But at this point it's not.
But I do wonder if they'regoing to come out with something
.
The 891 at some point will begetting a little long in the
tooth and I wonder if there willbe something with the fancy
colorized screen and everyoneneeds a scope.

(25:21):
So you know everyone's got tohave these radios with scopes.
I don't use the scope because Idon't have a radio with one.
So you know it's no big deal tome, but not yet.
Uh-huh, yeah, I yeah that's,that's what everyone says, but
I'm looking forward to pickingone up.
Like I said, it's not probablynot going to be next week, but
uh, it'll be very soon.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
And did we also.
It does not have the true dualreceive correct for satellite
operation also.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Yeah it definitely.
I think that was one of thethings that everybody was hoping
that it was going to be a supercompetitor as a satellite rig,
right, and there are a slimmergroup of folks that are
operating true satellite whereyou need VU in a true full
duplex situation and,unfortunately, while it will
receive V and U or U and U and Vand V, it is not a true full

(26:15):
duplex receiver.
And what they did admit to wasthat with the real estate in the
head itself which, when youthink about it, recall we are
talking about a rig that isfairly compact, right Size-wise
If you have an FTM 500 near youit's only a couple inches longer
and about a half inch taller,so it's a pretty small rig.
And, rory, by the way, the 2.2pounds, I think that is with the

(26:38):
battery attached.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Oh, really, see, I'm surprised.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
So if you can believe that, that'll give you six
watts in your backpack, with thebattery attached for two pounds
, which give you a lot offlexibility that is pretty cool
that is true.
No, no, full duplex, and I thinkthat was.
Uh, there was a small subset offolks that were really
disappointed to hear that.
Um, I, I would have loved tosee them check that box, uh,
mostly, but it wouldn't havebeen something I would have
heavily leveraged, especially atqrp levels.

(27:02):
And I know that satellite opsdon't need 100 watts, they need
10, right, because you've gotline of sight, line of sight to
the sky yeah, I don't think itswings by.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yep, yeah, so the the the field, so the control had
8.4 inches by 3.5 inches by 2.2inches.
That's uh, that's nice compactsize?
Yeah, it's a good size I ameven on the desk, like I said,
to have it at home here to.
I don't have a very large shack, so you know real estate on my
desk is at a premium, so that'sthat's a big plus there too.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
I have a couple of interesting things and I'll tell
you guys.
Today, right before the podcast, we found out that the actual
instruction manual dropped, sothere's some hot off the presses
info that I don't think we knewyet.
And we've been working overtimefor you guys that are listening
to understand by combingthrough the comments not only on
Yesu America's announce video,but also looking at how they're

(27:53):
replying to us and others to tryto understand this whole thing
so that you guys know what'scoming, mostly because I'm
interested, because I can't waitfor it to get delivered.
I hope it shows up before theend of May, because I already
sold a radio that I was using inplace of it.
I hope it shows up before theend of.
May, because I already sold aradio that I was using in place
of it.
But I have a couple of thingsand I'm going to show them to
you guys.
If you're watching on YouTube,you'll see my screen, but if
you're not watching, that's okay, we'll describe it to you just
as well.

(28:14):
So let's get over there andtake a look.
And the first thing that I wantto mention to you guys is we
saw a lot of pictures of thehead of the unit, right, and
we've seen the front and theback of the head.
We saw it even as early as theTokyo Ham Show.
But we didn't understand whatthe Optima meant to this
particular package until lastweek, which was first, it adds
100 watts and we were like, okay, awesome, right, but we knew

(28:35):
there was no tuner in the headand we were curious does getting
Optima mean I get a tuner?
Does getting Optima add anyother features?
And the answer is, thankfully,yes.
So the back panel of the Optima, finally revealed by the new
instruction manual launch, whichis available today.
So if you go over to Yesucomyou can find it.
We now know that on the back ofthe Optima there are actually

(28:58):
two HF antenna ports, not justone.
Yeah, that's so nice, huge dealfor me.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
So nice, huge deal for me.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
I think that Yesu abandoned this somewhere around
the FT3000 series where at thisprice point they were offering
dual antenna on their HF rigsand then, when the DX10 dropped,
we went back to a singleantenna out the back.
And I'll tell you, when I gotthe 101MP around Thanksgiving of
last year, having the threeantenna ports on the back makes

(29:27):
a huge difference because thesoftware controls every one of
those things.
You can swap between yourreceiving antenna or hey, I'm
going to use my vertical becauseI know it's getting out well on
20.
And then I'll switch over to myNFED, which is able to get down
to 80 meter, right.
So it gives you thatflexibility, especially when you
think about how the Optima isintended to be used in the shack
, to switch between a couple ofdifferent antennas, and if you

(29:48):
don't have two antennas rightout of the gate, that's okay.
It gives you flexibility toexpand down the line.
So I was excited to see thembringing that back.
That's an artifact of previousmodels of Yaesu that, at this
price point, I think it deservedand I am extremely happy to see
it mean that's only better andbetter for being a desk.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
What'd you call it desk, queen rory?

Speaker 2 (30:09):
yeah, I did, I did, yeah, I mean it's an excellent
feature again.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
I mean, it really makes the radio more versatile
and it shows that they'relistening again well, at the
same time as a as a deployablerig.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
I, if anyone goes back and watches my my mic check
of of the michigan cuso partyvideo um, I did have two
antennas up there.
It would have been very nice tobe able to switch between the
two because at the beginning ofthe day, when 20 meters was bad,
I had both antennas set, tunedto 20 meters so that I could
switch between the two, tryingto see was it my station or or

(30:42):
was it the bands.
It turns out it was the bands,but it would have been nice to
just have that instead of havingto, in my case, change out the
coaxial screw and put the newone in there, because, of course
, I didn't bring a switch withme.
Who thought I would need that?
But in this case it would haveall been there.
That is excellent.
That made me happy to see thatas a native part of this package

(31:03):
.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Let me tell you another thing here, and I know
you guys are screaming at yourmonitor, jim, a cheap two-way
antenna switch is $35 on Amazon.
It can be delivered to meovernight.
I don't care if it has twoports.
Let me tell you why it reallymatters, though.
The built-in antenna tunerwhich is built into the Optima
Plus One is able to keep a mapof the SWR readings across both

(31:26):
of those antennas, right?
So when I switch back and forthbetween antenna one and antenna
two, if I've tuned that antennaup, the memories and there are
many banks of memories when wetune below two, we'll go back to
that set of relays and I don'thave to push that tune button
again, and I'll tell you.

(31:46):
It takes me to my next point onthis one, which is that this
does have the tuner built in,but it's buried in the menus,
guys.
So there is no dedicated tunebutton that we can tell on the
FTX1, right?
So to get to it, hold thefunction button down, then the
display, which is a four and ahalf inch touchscreen.
Now I have fairly sveltefingers, but I always call them
meat mitts.
I have to poke the antenna tunebutton and then, from the
antenna, tune subsequent thingsthat I need to do to get a tune

(32:12):
on my antenna.
So when I talk about two antennaoutputs, when I tune that thing
up, it's awesome that itremembers I'm on antenna one and
the tune for this particularantenna was here.
So I love that they added thatsecond antenna port.
I know it doesn't soundsignificant, but when you talk
about how ATU works, I believeit adds a serious level of
versatility to this thing onyour desk being able to work an

(32:34):
NFED, which is generally apretty awesome antenna but
probably has some compromises atthe edges of the bands.
And then something else whetheryou have a beam up there for 10
meter because you're swingingit around to do super DX, or
you're using, like me, a DXCommander in the backyard, which
is another multi-band antennabut just gives you a different
polarization.
It gives you so muchflexibility.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
So those are two things that I got super excited
about.
It didn't have any programmablememory buttons, did it Anywhere
.
I don't remember seeing that.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
No, as far as I can tell, and I have only had a
little less than 120 minuteswith this manual before we got
on the air here tonight.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (33:11):
with your time.
I was looking to see On many ofthe AC radios there are hot
keys or programmable buttonsthat can be mapped to a user
function.
Right, if we can map the ATU toa user function button, I'm
going to be in love, let me tellyou.
Because if we have directaccess, like, let me let me give
you my perfect example.
And if, if he is watching this,which I hope they are the SDX

(33:33):
key on the top of this unit,right, if I can long press the
SDX key to activate the tuner asa user selectable hotkey boy,
do I like that as a tunershortcut?
The SDX key is something thatis a short press on or off, and
I think you can reuse thatbutton as a hotkey for tuner
without any trouble at all.
So I would love to see that.
And that's just mebrainstorming as I'm thinking

(33:56):
about how this thing works,because you either have SDX on
or off.
It is what they have.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
They've softly called a preamp, but more or less, it
just increases the receiversensitivity, one of the
advantages of an SDR radio.
That's right Software defined,I mean you can push updates.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
I'm hoping for a firmware update in the future
that does give us mappablebutton for that ATU.
So I have a couple other thingsthat I'm thinking about here
and if you watched John'spresentation you might have been
wondering if you have an ATOSon your car already and you were
thinking I want to go mobilewith this thing and I want it to
move my ATOS around.
You heard John say that itwasn't going to be able to drive

(34:31):
the ATOS right and we didn'tunderstand what he meant
necessarily, and I think that heclarified later on in that
presentation.
So we were a little confused.
But on page 78, we have a finalword on this which is really,
really interesting If you havean ATOS antenna and you can
connect it to the back of theFTX1 field there right, because

(34:52):
the ATOS will tune up into thetwo meter band right, rory.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Yep, so you can duplex into your ATOS, right.
So one antenna, both ports,right.
And if you're feeding it mobilepower, so 13.8 volts or above,
right Standard DC out of yourvehicle while you're powering it
.
Or maybe you have your uh, yourlithium polymer battery that
you're working POTA, right, itwill drive the worm drive for
the ATOS and it will move theantenna up and down.

(35:18):
Now the big standout here is ifyou're running on battery power
right, the battery nominalvoltage is 10.8 volts, right, so
it's a little below what Ithink the ATOS wants for power,
and so they are not allowing itto drive the ATOS.
When you're running batterypower, you need to be hooked up
to that DC input, and it lookslike you need at least five amps
.
So I was happy to see that noadditional tuner hardware is

(35:39):
required, but you do just needsome power and that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
And, to be fair to you, one thing I think I was
confused on was there's twotuners, there's the.
If you look at the kit, there'sobviously the one in the Optima
, in the amplifier.
Then there's a long wire tuneras well, and I think they were
speaking about the long wiretuner.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
Obviously it's not designed to run an ATOS, but
yeah yeah, the long wire tuneralso doesn't clip onto the back
of this.
It's actually a universal tunerfor many of the Yaesu products
and if you're using the longwire tuner and you love it, I
would love to hear that down ineither the comments or if you
let us know what you think ofthat, because it's been on my
radar but I never understoodwhat exactly, whether or not it

(36:21):
was a good piece of product.
Anyway, I thought that wasreally interesting.
I got one last thing for youguys, and it is possibly Yesu
finally embracing what I believeis a modern standard.
You ready for it?
It is USB-C, guys.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
We have USB-C across the rig.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
We have USB-C inputs across this rig, thank God, even
on the ICOM 705, by the way,you did not get USB-C out of the
box.
So there are some boards youcan retrofit the ICOM 705 with
to make it USB-C compatible.
But I am so glad to see thatYaesu is embracing USB-C here.
There are no excuses If youwant to connect your computer to

(37:01):
this particular rig for FT8purposes, for PSK RIDI, whatever
you're doing, you're going touse your standard A to C cable.
In the case of a laptop, maybeyou have C ports on your Mac and
you're hooking it up right.
In the case of a laptop, maybeyou have C ports on your Mac and
you're hooking it up right.
You've got that option.
I loved finding out that it isUSB-C compatible and supports
what 60 watts of power deliveryas well, so you could charge the

(37:22):
battery with your MacBookadapter, for example, a nice,
powerful.
I have a GaN, a gallium nitrideadapter on my desk here.
This is a 60 watt adapterthat's smaller than the palm of
my hand.
That would charge this thingand it's far more portable than
most of the things that arepacked in to charge these
batteries.
So I love seeing that we havepower delivery.
That is high power and it'sgoing to be able to charge this

(37:44):
thing and do data cat and all ofthe audio inputs and outputs on
this thing.
So, I'll stop sharing.
I'm excited, I'm thrilled aboutthis thing.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Beck.
What do you guys think?
No, I was going to say thatwould be great too for the soda
users that use their cell phoneswith the USB-C for FT8 or
digital modes as well.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
So that would be a really nice addition, one of my
questions early on was did weknow what the input outputs were
for this?
And of course we didn't.
Yet that was one of thequestions I I posed to the one
of the group chats and we didnot.
So for this to come out was wasvery exciting.
The usbc on the control head isis very, very exciting.

(38:25):
It's like jim mentioned there.
It's one less thing you gottapack.
You can multi-purpose if you'repacking for a trip and you
gotta pack light.
Uh, that's one less thing youcan have to take and you have
your charging cable.
When you asked me about theantenna earlier, I was
distracted.
I was busy reading the manual,trying to come up to see if
there was an answer forprogramming a soft key or
something, because for my 891,when I run the external tuner on

(38:48):
it, I do have one of the softkeys programmed to engage my
tuner, so I don't have to gointo the menu.
So I was hoping I would findsomething in the manual while I
was sitting here and then youwere asking me about the ATOS
and it looked like I wasn'tpaying attention.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
So that's great, but uh no, I researching on the fly
here.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Again, I am excited about this.
One is also in there too, right?

Speaker 2 (39:08):
It is.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
It lives it, I, we, we did joke right.
Is C4FM dead?
And this was in our Is YesuChanging the Game podcast.
Guys, we were speculating alittle bit.
We are pushing a little bit ofthe most extreme end of a
spectrum when we talk about someof these things to get you guys
excited about, to get youthinking about what if that

(39:30):
happened.
Right, but the answer was, andI think that we all knew in the
back of our head Yaesu stillsells a ton of DR2X repeaters.
There is a lot of C4FM that ison the air, especially in the
metro Detroit area, and is veryactive.
So I am happy to see that thisis a rig that does C4FM.
I didn't expect.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
C4FM to go away.
Yaesu invested too much moneyin getting the repeater program
started and more or less givingthem away, and in a lot of cases
very, very inexpensive.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
High value yeah, yeah .

Speaker 2 (39:59):
And I really didn't expect C4FM to go away.
I'm looking forward Actually,that's on my dating list to
purchase.
I need a Fusion handheld.
I don't have one, so that willbe the FT5D.
Is that right, jim?
I lose track of all thesenumbers.
Yep, that will be the FT5D.
Is that right, jim?
I lose track of all thesenumbers.
Yep, that will be one of myfirst purchases down there.
I'm going to get that and getthat on the air as soon as I get

(40:21):
down there.
Might head over to my friendsat DX Engineering right when I
get there.
That might be my first stop.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Maybe they'll recognize you from the everyday
ham Roy.
I'm kidding.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
I don't expect that.
I don't expect that I don'texpect that.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
I I want to segue with with your thing, which is
first, I want to ask you uh,what is one of the reasons that
you want to get that a?
Uh, that handheld right out ofthe gate at the?
Uh, at the?

Speaker 2 (40:43):
show because I want to be able to ping aprs from my
backpack as I'm wandering aroundlike a complete nerd all right,
and that brings me to my finalcomment on the ftx1.
This baby does APRS Nice key upthere, but does it, do it
natively Jim, or did you need toadd something?

Speaker 3 (41:02):
Yeah, I'm going to acknowledge here that it's a bit
of a compromise on this and wegot so much built into this
thing.
I guess I'm not complaining toomuch right now.
And let me tell you what with myOptima order, I have the BU6 on
order, which is the Bluetoothunit.
I'll probably never useBluetooth, but it's okay, I have
it.
I have the GPS, the FGPS5 onorder and I have the cage on

(41:23):
order.
So I have three of theaccessories on order.
So I've got the full Montycoming.
So look for a mic check videowhen it comes, because we are
going to unbox that thingtogether, guys, and we are going
to put it all together andwe're going to poke the buttons.
But anyway, it has APRS, guys.
I'm very excited about the APRSpart of it.
It does require that the FGPS 5is built into the side of the

(41:43):
unit, or plugged into the sideof the unit, rather, and it is a
little ungainly.
It's a small unit but it has tobe plugged in with a little
jack.
So it sort of harkens back tothe old VX8D era where you had
to put that big thing on the topof the handheld to make it do
GPS.
But I'm happy that it's thereand, honestly, we got so much in
this thing.

(42:04):
It's okay that there's a littlecompromise.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
I suppose real estate is a premium in this package,
so it's not going to besomething that they're going to
add in there if they didn't needto.
So I guess I can get over thatit was an add-on.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
So I'll take this as a little segue and you guys can
tell me if there's any lastthoughts FTX1-related that you
missed.
Do you have any thoughts oneway or the other?

Speaker 1 (42:29):
I'm excited.
I want to get my hands on it.
Let's go Absolutely, me too, Iam extremely stoked.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Come on, ham Radio Milwaukee.
I'm Ham Radio Outlet Camp overhere.
I've been ordering from HamRadio Outlet for ages, looking
forward to it.
So that brings us to theelephant.
The second elephant in the room, which is Dayton, is coming.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Dayton, hamvention, here we go.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
It is only five days until I launch from the QTH here
to Dayton, and it is just under.
Well, it's just a little over aweek until we're at the show
rubbing elbows, poking all thenewest things, buying all the
things we don't need, or maybewe do need and we just don't
know it yet.
What are your guys' plans?
Tell me about your strategiesfor Dayton and we've talked

(43:11):
Dayton before, so give mesomething fresh.
What are you thinking when youget down there?
It's going to be 2025.
Looks like it's going to be anawesome year.
There's some really cool stuffcoming.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Yeah, something new for me actually this year is I'm
going to try to go to the QRP,the Four Days in May event, so I
have wanted to check that out.
That's completely fresh.
I've have heard really goodthings about it, so I'm excited
to see that.
And honestly, I'm excited tosee what ICOM and Kenwood do to
try to compete with Yaesu.
Yaesu has stole the show andthey're a week away from

(43:45):
Hamvention.
So I think these organizationsthey knew the FTX1F was coming
out for a while.
I know these companies don'texactly push products super fast
, but I'd be curious to see howthey're going to try to market
what they have or what's comingup on the horizon for them.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
I know you have something on your mind there.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Well, I have a lot of things on my mind.
I'm going to go to the QRP.
What is it, James?
It's the vendor show.
What is it actually called?

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, I think it's a vendor show, the Thursday night
event Four Days in May, right,isn't it called Four Days in May
?

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah, sounds right, but I intend to go there on
Thursday night.
It looks like just from somethings I saw online last year,
that looked like it was a wellworthwhile event.
So I'll pop through thereThursday night.
Of course I'll be ready to goFriday morning in line with
every other bozo trying to getinto the uh, the green county

(44:35):
fairgrounds.
There I will say, um, oh, I'msure most of you guys will be
trying to park on site andthere's nothing wrong with that.
I don't park on site, I park atthe xenia high school and take
the shuttle bus over.
Um, I found that to be my wayto do it.
Uh, my, my friend seank-8-S-A-W brought that to my
attention and well, probably acouple years back the first time

(45:00):
I went to it at its currentlocation.
For anybody who's listeningthat would rather not walk
through a grass parking lot orthat's difficult for you.
The parking off at the schoolis very easy.
The buses pick you up more orless right at your car and it
drops you off more or less rightat the gate.

(45:22):
There's no rain in the forecastat this point but my last two
times down there there was rain,so to be able to park off at
the school was just much moreconvenient.
I'll put that plug out there,but I will be at the.
I'll be in line, ready to go.
Now let me tell you a story.
Last year I don't rememberclearly whether it was going or
coming or going, but I clippedthe side of the asphalt, the

(45:46):
path going in, and tumbled rightto the ground, and that it must
have been going in, because Iwas all discombobulated trying
to walk around.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
I was not hurt you were only half a coffee in at
that point.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Probably no coffee in , but that's a separate story
for Hamvention.
But yeah, so we're going to trynot to fall down trying to get
into Hamvention.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Good, positive step, no pun intended.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
I'm hoping for a good , positive step, absolutely
Anyway, pun intended.
And if the weather holds outlike I said, I'm going to go
make the one purchase at DXpretty quickly there, but I'll
probably be headed right outtowards the flea market on
Friday.
Get a good look at all that thestuff in the buildings, the

(46:33):
vendor stuff, that'll all bethere.
There's nothing there that'sgoing to disappear, unless you
know of someone that's sellingsomething.
One of the vendors might havesomething that's in short supply
, but in general, everythingthat they have they're going to
have all weekend or they canship to you later.
So my plan Friday is to get outto the fleet market.
Also, keeping an eye on theforum schedule.

(46:56):
I took a look through that.
I haven't quite decided whichones interest me, but I've made
this comment to a couple otherpeople.
It is going to be warmer.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
One of the pluses about the forums is they are in
an air-conditioned building, sowhen you've been wandering,
around in the heat all day andyou can go take an hour, hour
and a half, sometimes two hourbreak in the building with the
forums, get out of the heat.
It's a good opportunity to letyour body relax and cool down a
little bit.
We're proud to say some of ourclub members will also be

(47:28):
presenting so Jason Kane 4ALwill be presenting in one.
Mike W8MSAL will be presentingin one, mike W8MSC will be
presenting in one.
It's great to see that POTA isgetting its sort of dues.
I guess you'd say Seems likesome really good presentations.
So I think the first one isfrom some board representatives,
so hopefully they'll talk aboutwhat they see the future of

(47:49):
POTA is some of the thingsthey're working on, at least
that's what I'm hopeful for,some of the things they're
working on, at least that's whatI'm hopeful for.
Uh, and then the second forumtalks to some really active poda
, poda activators and and whatthey do, and then a discussion
around it.
So I think that is going to bea pretty cool, pretty cool
discussions right in the middleof the day.
Get in there, get cool.

(48:10):
I think it's in the main forumbuilding.
So you know, of course I'mgoing to plug my friends, but it
friends, but it should be apacked house.
Pota draws a crowd, for sure.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Yeah, and I actually I'm glad you brought it up,
because one of the things that'son my radar and I'm only what
eight months or nine months onfrom doing HFOP in any
meaningful way.
And really, if we look at whenI got started with POTA, it's
only been six months and thelast month or so I slowed down
significantly.
There's a couple of reasons, ofcourse, but once the new radio

(48:39):
comes, I'll be back on the airand I'm looking forward to
closing out that kilo over atBrighton State.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
Once Yezu's taking your money and you can run with
it.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
I just have to spend money to make you know.
Yeah of believe it's on May16th at 1130 to 1230.
So it's right, in kind of themiddle of the morning there, and
Mike Case and Mark Torrigan areputting it on should be
expecting from Parks on the Airright, Parks on the Air has been

(49:18):
so traditionally well-organized.
It has been such an excellentkind of promoter of the radio
sport that we do every day.
It's had such a hugetransformative effect on this
hobby.
I can't wait to see whatthey're planning on talking
about in that particularconversation.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
And see here, Jim, I thought you were going to this
APRS State of the Union on.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
Friday, I might be there too.
Is it at the same time?

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Don't tell me it is no no, it's room three at 310 on
Friday.
Well.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
I hope I run into all the folks that hate APRS there.
Rory is back with us.
Rory had a brief internet delay.
Welcome back, rory.
It's okay, that's excellent.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
I'm so glad my internet connection is of high
quality at the north end ofSouth Lyon.
Where did you guys lose me?
It looks like you guys arestill talking forums.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
Yep, we just transitioned right into what
forums we were looking forwardto.
I mentioned that I'm looking atthe Parks on the Air, the Road
Ahead Forum, which is on Fridayafternoon.
I'm really excited to see whatthat means.
James was actually sharing that.
On Saturday, a couple of thefolks from the club that are big
activators folks that are outthere doing roves on the regular
are going to be doing apresentation as well.
I think we missed exactly whatforum you were interested in, so

(50:35):
why don't you go ahead?

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Definitely the POTO ones.
I'm interested.
You joke about the APRS one.
It's titled APRS State of theUnion.
I am curious, you know, whatare they going to talk about?
Is there going to be a you know, any sort of change of APRS
coming up?
Or, you know, I doubt it's evergoing to sunset.
It's used for too manydifferent things.
But just, uh, I'm curious ifthere's anything new there.

(50:57):
I may or may not get into thatone.
Uh, there's also at thatsimilar time.
Uh, there's one called foxhunting and transmitter hunting,
which I don't know if either ofyou have been involved in a fox
hunt.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
No, that's something I've talked about for the club.
That I would love to do is anorganized fox hunting event.
I thought it'd be awesome.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
I think it's something we should do.
I never the Milford AmateurRadio Club, which is just to the
north of us here.
I used to participate with themwith those years ago.
I still have my PlymouthSundance so that was car number
one.
So it's been a number of yearssince I've done that.
But it was car number one.
So it's been a number of years,nice, since I've done that.
But it was, it was a good time.

(51:37):
So that's that's the forumthere, for sure.
And and the Friday session,saturday, it, it.
There's a few different things.
There's, of course, a systemfusion session there you can go
see is that, is that stickingaround or not, which we know now
.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
It's got the blessing .

Speaker 1 (51:55):
We know, now it is, it's got the blessing.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Contesting forum as I'm getting more involved with
that over time.
I would be curious about that.
Some of them are open-ended and, like I don't know where, I
fell off the Internet worldearlier I was discussing.
The forums are a good way toget out of the heat if you're
starting to get warm.
So in a way I don't necessarilyplan.

(52:19):
I take a look at which onesmight interest me and kind of
have a absolutely want to go toand kind of want to go to.
So if I'm wandering around andthe back's starting to hurt and
I'm getting too hot, I might goto one that I kind of want to go
to.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
So that's kind of how I approach the forums.
Yeah, if you're a new ham,don't sleep on the forums.
They're a great time to go to.
You actually learn a lot and ifit's a topic you're interested
in, you network a little bitbecause a lot of the presenters
and speakers are accessibleafterwards and you can walk up
and ask them questions and it'sa great experience to learn.

(52:52):
A lot of people have the samequestions.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of peoplehave the same questions you have
.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
So it's, it's.
You know, if you go, someoneelse is probably going to have a
similar same question that youmight have.
And, uh, it's, it's.
It's just a good way to to hearand be around other people that
are, that are like-minded andthe facets that interest you
yeah, a couple of things herethat I was also thinking about.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Right, and I'm looking forward to the full
experience.
We've said before, this will bemy first one.
These guys have been therebefore Only my second, it's only
James' second.
But if we do see you guys thereand if you hear us chattering
amongst ourselves and that'susually how folks have picked up
on us as a group is they'relike that voice sounds familiar,

(53:37):
you sound like the ornery folkson the Everyday Ham podcast and
we're like that's us.
We would love to see you, don'tfeel Brad, coming up and saying
hello.
We would love to meet you andknow what you think of it so far
and know what you think wecould do better as we move
forward.
So I want to say that out loud.
And two, don't forget yoursunscreen.
If it's as sunny as it's goingto be, don't get that sunburn,

(53:58):
cause, man, it'll be brutal thenext day.
I am you can obviously tell onthis video a very sunburn prone
kind of gentleman.
So I will be, I will bespraying myself down before I
get out there.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
There's no shame in the sun.
Good shoes are imperative aswell.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
If the forecast does change and it looks like it's
going to be wet, definitely takeshoes that you can be
comfortable walking around inpuddles and mud, because the
flea market will get muddy.
The grass areas will get muddyIf you've parked in the parking
lot.
And if you've elected to notuse the shuttle bus and park in
the parking lot, that will bemuddy.
So definitely have footwearyou're comfortable with in all

(54:40):
day, for sure.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
So what do you guys think is going to be the hot
ticket item of purchases atHamvention?
So last year it was the littlething, the Signal Stuff, Signal
Stick.
Those were selling like crazy.
Everyone was buying every colorand every variety under the sun
.
Any inkling of what you thinkwill be this year?

Speaker 3 (55:01):
So I think that we already and Yesu, kind of upset
the apple cart here by doingthis a week early.
I think they were looking tospend your money a week before.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Hamvention, so you went broke so.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
I think that a lot of folks that were waiting
probably spent a big old chunkand I know that I moved a couple
of radios to make the FTX1 apossibility for me.
It's not just magic that itshows up here so excited about
that.
But I am curious to see whatelse is there.
I think Signal Stick willprobably do excellent business
again and I will tell you Greatproduct.
Yeah, I have their dual band.

(55:35):
I have two of them, but I'mlooking forward to buying an
orange, and you'll know I loveorange.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
There it is.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
One and a quarter meter signal stick for my rig,
so I'm looking forward to buyingone.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
This is a 220 here.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Yep, and I might buy one of the signal strands as
well.
I know you could make one athome, but I just love the idea
that they're offering it as asort of like buy it and have it
all fit right in the package,and it doesn't seem like it's
too much money, it's like acouple bucks extra, so I'll
probably add one in there, justas a sort of you know, shtf shit
hits the fan type add-on forthe kit, and if you've been

(56:08):
after Pac-10, I heard the rumoris they'll have limited
inventory there as well.
That might be a reason to showup in the vendor booths before
you go to the flea market.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
I'm going to look at that one more closely and decide
if that's something I wanted topick up.
That was something on my listto research.
I know you guys have talkedabout it and it might be
something I want to add to mykit of stuff for sure.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Yeah, super portable, great build quality, very
versatile.
I have the 20-meter dipolePac-10A.
I got the NFED Halfwave Pac-10A.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Two.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Two NFED Halfwave Pac-10As I'm lucky enough that I
was able to snag them when theywent on sale twice.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
James is sponsored by Pac-10A apparently.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I wish I'm kidding, we can all dream here.
But no, they're a solid mobileantenna for POTA and other
activities, so definitelysomething to.
If you've been chasing one,maybe now's the time to go get
one.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
It might be the opportunity, because every time
I go to look, they are sold outon the website, so they seem to
be an excellent product and onethat folks definitely desire.
I wanted to say something outloud, and it's not in the vein
of acquiring anything knowledgeor otherwise, so much as to say

(57:22):
if you're a ham headed down toDayton and you are planning on
testing at Dayton.
Good luck to you, my friend.
You know what I suspect thatyou've been preparing for a week
or more and you're a little bitnerves in throat, ready to go
down there and test at Dayton.
I really look up to the folksthat can go do that at such a
big event and be successful.
So good luck to you if you'regoing to go do that testing,
especially if you're going afterthe general or the extra the

(57:44):
extra test being a little bitlonger test, a couple more
questions, focus you'll do welland good luck to you.
And if you're a brand new techand you've been even studying
for a week and you feel like youjust want to go do it and get
involved, I hope you do well aswell.
And you feel like you just wantto go do it and get involved, I
hope you do well as well.
So I just want to say that outloud.
It's not a place that I couldtest well in.
So for those folks that canmake it work, good for you and I

(58:05):
hope you are successful in yourendeavors Yep, you got this.
And shout it from the rafters.
If you get it, let your clubknow, join a club.
Let the folks know It'll beexciting and this is the perfect
place to be excited about RadioNerd stuff.
So everybody will be verycongratulatory if you make that
ascension.
Yep.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
So they do a decent job to separate the testing area
from Hamvention.
So it's actually located at achurch across the street from
the fairgrounds.
So it is walkable or you cantake a shuttle bus from the main
entrance.
They provide that all day longbetween the main entrance and
the testing at the church acrossthe street.
So they do take intoconsideration that it is a

(58:47):
severe environment to be testingin.
And I did toy with the idea ofmaybe getting life in order to
do it here, but I'm not thatsmart yet, so I won't be doing
it.
I won't be making the jump toextra.
yet It'll happen.
When it happens.
It buys me a little bit morefrequency and a little bit of
whatever, but maybe the chanceat a 1x2 call sign someday.

(59:08):
That's about it, but I'll do it.
I'll do it someday for sure, aswe near the end of this thing.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
I think that we want to say out loud too this near
the end of this thing.
I think that we want to say outloud too this is an interesting
month for Everyday Ham.
I do think we are going torecord a few shorts on site, so
look forward to a couple of funlittle get togethers from the
crew here W8 Connects, roryK8JKU, james and myself, jim
NHJRD.
We're going to be on site andwe're going to try to do a
couple of recordings.
We won't be pushing our way tothe front of the line as a ham

(59:38):
tube standard.
We're going to wait our turnand hopefully we get an
opportunity to meet some of you,talk to some folks that have
cool equipment at the show andwe want to bring you a couple of
neat little features.
So keep your eye on the channelif you're on YouTube and
listening, and we will try tomake those things available on
the audio podcast where it makesthe most sense, we might do a
short recording.

(59:58):
I just wanted to say that outloud.
Know that there is some funDayton-related content coming
and I understand that a monthbetween content is a long time
to wait, so hopefully we canmake you guys happy.
I look forward to seeing youall down there.
James back over.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Nope, I was going to say the same thing.
I'm sure we'll probably do anaudio podcast recording of a
summary following up toHamvention as well, just to
capture our thoughts and whatwe're looking forward to next
year even, but I guess I want tothank everyone for joining us
today.
Rory, before we go into formalclosings, though, do you have
anything you'd like to add?
Any last comments?

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
I don't, I don't.
I'm confused that it's endingbecause, since I lost my
connection, the timer tells mewe're at 11 minutes, so I
thought I had another, you knowlittle while Definitely
definitely hamventioncom, ifyou've not been there before,
take a look, make a plan.
Looking forward to meeting anyand all of you that make it out
there for sure, and we're hopingthese two didn't jinx the

(01:00:52):
weather.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
We'll just leave it at that, but as always, please
like subscribe follow it at that, but, as always, please like,
subscribe, follow and commentour videos please.
So we have audio podcasts thatwe post in all major platforms,
including Apple Podcasts,spotify and etc.
And then we also post thesevideo versions on YouTube.
Jim mentioned already that wedo have some mic check shorts

(01:01:15):
that we're going to startreleasing, including the more
recent one of Rory for theMichigan Cuso party, so be sure
to check those out as well.
We are on Instagram at EverydayHam Podcast, or Everyday Ham.
What is it, jim?
You'd think I would know thisby now.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
You know what You're going to make me look bad.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
I don't know, you just search Everyday Ham Podcast
and you will find it.
Or visit EverydayHamcom, andall the links are posted there.
We'll get better at this, Ipromise, uh, but with that,
thanks everyone for joining usfor episode five.
We look forward to somehamvention coverage coming up
here shortly.
So thanks everyone.
Have a great day 73s.

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
We'll catch you on the next one.