The Good, The Bad, and The Junk – Swap Meet Scores & DXpedition Drama - Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, everyone.
Welcome to Episode 3 of theEveryday Ham Podcast.
I am James Mills, k-a-j-k-u.
I'm joined here with Rory LockeW8KNX and Jim Davis N8JRD.
How's everybody doing.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Can you believe it?
This is our third episodealready.
I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I can't believe we made it this far.
I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I can't believe we made it this far.
We made it this far and we'regoing to keep going.
Our last podcast, where we tooksome time talking about the
strange things going on in theYaesu world which I know Jim has
a little bit of an update onthat for us tonight we're at
3,000 views on our YouTubeupload and 107 subscribers on

(00:44):
YouTube.
So that is impressive for whatwas our second episode and as we
move forward, we hope we keepsome traction going.
We hope you like what you'rehearing as you listen or watch
our podcast.
Make sure you comment, like andsubscribe.
We try to respond to everycomment.
The last podcast episode hadquite a few comments on the

(01:04):
things we're talking about andwe definitely want to keep that
traction going.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
And the good news is I think we still like each other
, so we should have an episodefour, hopefully in the pipeline
here, as well, we have notbroken into an argument
mid-podcast yet.
No, no, but you guys have beencarrying the weight on answering
comments, so thank you also.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
No one's breaking the band up yet.
That's good, yeah.
And one thing I'll note aboutthe comments is I think each of
us have been signing it, so ifyou are looking for a response
from somebody, look for the callsign at the end of those
comments.
That's one of the things thatwe're going to try to do, since
there's three of us here, soyou'll know, kind of, who you're
chatting with on YouTube and ifyou disagree with us, you can
let us know.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah it's fair, everyone's fair.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
So, jim, what came up ?
We finished the podcast lastweek and, like the next day or
maybe the day after, yezu poppedsome new news.
What's the story there?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, it's good that we well, our timing was kind of
interesting there.
We were a little bit ahead ofthe curve on the hamcation down
in Florida there.
But I was happy that we kind ofsparked some thought on where
yesu's direction was with theseradios because, uh, I, I didn't
see it coming.
I didn't see it coming guys, uh, a ftm 510 dropped at the

(02:13):
hamcation down there and I thinkof all the things on my bingo
card that was not one of them.
I said, well, maybe we'll see areplacement for the 300, which
appeared to have disappeared, ormaybe we'll see some other
radio that they bring out.
But but the 500 was not onethat was on my radar at all, and
the reason being the original500 has been out just a little
less than two years.
So it seems pretty unbelievablethat Yaesu has already made a

(02:35):
revision to the top level mobiledevice that they're selling.
But it's there and the FTM 500has effectively been replaced.
So a couple of things on thatand we won't spend too long,
since we spent a lot of timelast time talking about Yaesu.
But I do want to point out a fewthings so that we follow back
around.
The FTM 510 came out and itlooks functionally the same.

(02:55):
If you are just staring at apicture of the head unit or
looking at the microphone oreven the body of it, it looks
exactly the same.
What do you get for the 510?
Well, you get the ASP featureright.
And so we talked about well, ifthe 300 was discontinued, maybe
they're going to bring out the350 that's going to have ASP.
Guess what?
They did that in the 500 first.
Maybe that was the move.
Maybe that was the move.
Maybe folks were clamoring forthat audio enhancement.

(03:19):
But the big killer feature onthe FTM 510 is paying for the
SPU1, the ASP feature.
They added SuperDX, which theother FTM 500 did have a DX
enhanced feature.
But SuperDX appears to besomething a little bit more than
that.
And they claim to have added alittle bit more power output on
VHF.
Now, when we talk 5 watts inrelation to 50 total, I don't

(03:44):
know if I believe that that'sgoing to make much difference as
far as a selling feature.
But I'll pause here.
There's a couple of things thatgot added.
Does anything there?
Fire you guys up?

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean it's still got the big knob, so you know.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
It does still have the big knob.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Sometimes you need that 5 watts to get over the
hill, so I don't know.
That's a good thing, okay.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Okay, okay, okay, did they take?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
anything away from the 500 to the 510.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, see, this is the, this is the.
The real question that nobodyreally asked initially was hey,
well, it must just have a fewextra features.
Right, we get all the thingsthat we got in the ftm 500,
don't we?
And that would have been anatural expectation.
But the answer is no.
Uh, there are a few things thatdid change.
Uh, moving to 510.
Probably the biggest thing thatI was surprised by was them just

(04:28):
killing Bluetooth offcompletely as a built-in feature
out of the box.
Right, you can still go and buythe Bluetooth add-on unit.
But most folks, as far as Yaesuis concerned, believe that the
Bluetooth implementation is justa fair implementation at best.
There's a fair, limited numberof devices that actually
integrate well with the A2'sBluetooth.
So I'm not sure that it's goingto be a big change.

(04:48):
But for me, seeing somethinglike Bluetooth, which was a big
bullet point feature on thefirst one, disappearing in favor
of the ASP, well, that'sinteresting.
But what makes it more curiousfor me, and perhaps a little bit
less exciting for my palate, isthe price increase.
We saw a pretty dramatic priceincrease on the FTM 510.

(05:11):
The MSRP went from $649 to $749.
When they first announced itthere was speculation, it would
be $799, but we're down to $749now and basically what we know
is that the FTM 500 is availablesomewhere around $500 most of
the time, but we saw basically a$100 MSR price increase for
this particular model.

(05:32):
And I'll tell you the lastthing that I think is really
interesting about this no onetalked about this, so if you
haven't heard this yet, I hopethat it's late.
Breaking from the everyday ham,wide receive was nerfed
dramatically in the FTM 510.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Which is interesting in a mobile radio.
Very interesting in a mobileradio.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Did you guys hear this?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
No Do you have offhand what they cut it back to
.
I'm curious.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
I do.
So we used to get frombasically all the way up to 550
megahertz, I'm sorry, all theway up to 1 a thousand megahertz
on the FTM 500.
So you went from, basically,you know, down in the FM
spectrum all the way up to agigahertz, which is a pretty
broad receive.
Of course there's some bandareas that are blocked for
cellular reasons.
No surprises there.

(06:16):
Just like any other radio, theFTM 500 caps out at 550
megahertz.
So you've lost almost half ofyour wide receive if you go buy
an FTM 510 instead of an FTM 500.
And for me that's the mostmind-blowing part of this is how
did we?
We lost such a significantamount of receive on this thing?

(06:36):
It just is really surprising.
And there was no hubbub aboutthis at all.
You had to go to the back ofthe manual and compare the two
if you wanted to find out thatthat had sneakily been removed.
That's interesting.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
It's a very, you know , I would love to have, and I'm
not a technical person at all, Iplay radio and that's what I
enjoy.
I'd love to have someoneexplain.
Is this a cost thing?
Is it a technical thing?
Are other things in the radio?
Did they need space forsomething else?
Is that why the Bluetooth wasdeleted?
Was that why the widebandreceive was deleted, or for what

(07:11):
reasons?
It's interesting because youkind of have the same comments
about your ICOM 9700 beinglimited on receive.
For what is a high-end radio?
The 510 is arguably a high-endradio at this point, at least
based on the price point theyhave priced it that way?
yep, to have those frequenciesremoved.
I wonder which is the reason.
Or is the demand not there sothey can get rid of it?
That's a bummer.

(07:32):
I listen all over thefrequencies.
I like to scan.
I've always been a person tocheck out all the frequencies
from as low as I can go to ashigh as I can go To lose that
upper part.
If you really think about it,there's probably not much analog
there, so you're probably notlosing much.
A lot of the stuff once you getnorth of 500 and 600 megahertz

(07:52):
is P25 or other digital modes,so you're probably not losing
anything, but there could stillbe some analog stuff up there.
That's interesting.
I know they updated thefirmware for the 500 recently,
as I did mine last night and Iactually have it here on the
bench.
The 500 usually lives in thecar but I had to bring it in the

(08:14):
house so I could figure out howto actually use it.
So it's sitting here on thebench next to me, actually
turned on, and it sure is anice-looking radio now that I'm
actually staring at it and notdriving trying to use it.
So offhand, do you know whatdid the new firmware for the 500
?

Speaker 3 (08:31):
give us.
Yeah, so one of the big thingsright that I have positives,
some things that I thought werenegative and I have some
matched-up things that happenedbetween the 500 and the 510.
And actually that's the lastbig comment that I want to make
on this 510 release was theywent back to the drawing board
on PMG, right.
The primary memory group therewhere you're able to monitor a

(08:53):
number of channels kind ofsimultaneously and it's supposed
to be a smarter way to listento many repeaters or other
signals that you might want tohear and be able to respond to
them effectively, right, orother signals that you might
want to hear and be able torespond to them effectively,
right.
They changed how that behavedin the 510.

(09:17):
And thankfully that was asoftware-specific update that
even us lowly FTM 500 buyerswere granted from Yaesu.
So I was happy to see that oneof the killer features that
they're saying, hey, this iswhat the 510 does, that's new
and awesome came back and gotpopulated onto our FTM 500.
So we did get the PMG updateand that's a pretty nice feature
.
I need to play more with thatbefore I make any commentary on
whether or not I think it'sawesome, but it's nice to see

(09:39):
that they didn't leave us behind, those folks that just me, six
months ago just bought the FDM500, being a top tier mobile
unit, Nice that they're stillgetting those updates.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
You wouldn't expect the flagship to be revisioned
this quickly.
No, no.
Are there a lot of good dealsright now on the 500?
Maybe if you're interested inthe more wide channels?

Speaker 3 (09:58):
have you seen?

Speaker 1 (09:59):
pricing being favorable.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
That's an interesting thing, and as with all, I think
, as with all things, ham right.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Never goes on sale.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
It never goes on sale .
But what happens is we have allthe hams that are clamoring for
the newest right, and so what Idid see right around the FTM
510 drop was a number of 500s goup on the normal classifieds,
facebook, qrz, craigslist.
I actually found one onCraigslist, if you can believe
that, and yes, there were peoplethat were selling their 500s

(10:30):
off.
I wonder if that was forreplacement purposes or if that
was just coincidental in itstiming, but there was a fairly
decent amount of them thatbecame available very soon after
that 510 dropped and the pricesfor used ones especially were
down in the mid 400s low 400swhich for me and the prices for
used ones especially were downin the mid-400s low-400s, which
for me.
It's a killer radio for thatprice.
If you can find a FTM 500 usedfor $400 in good shape, it gets

(10:52):
my steal, the N8JRD seal ofapproval.
It's an excellent radio.
It will be a good radio for youfor many years, in my opinion.
So I think that that's whereit's at.
What I did do was, before we goton here, I did go check and see
is the FTM 500, the OG version,still in stock at any of these
places?
It is becoming sold out.
The FTM 500 is sold out at DXEngineering as of this afternoon

(11:18):
.
It's available only in a coupleof HRO stores and it appears to
be sold out on some of theother sites.
And this goes back to the FTM300 discussion that we had and
we won't spend much longer onthis.
But, simply said, it seemsstrange that Yaesu would compete
with themselves on this 510,right.
So I suspect when the 500supply dries up from our general
retail we're going to be 510only, and that does come with

(11:38):
that hefty price tag increase.
So I think once the dustsettles you'll be paying about
$100 more for a radio that maybedoesn't bring $100 more
functionally to the table.
But what I do see and I'llreiterate this from last time is
that Yaesu seems to be drivingtheir base price point up to
make themselves a more premiumbrand and I think that they're

(12:01):
bringing themselves up to ICOMpricing for some of the
flagships or Kenwood Pricing,right.
Yaesu has traditionally been,of the big three makers, one of
the more affordable options andI think they're trying to bring
those prices more in line withsome of these other Japanese
builders of radio.
So that's the FTM 500.
That's the Yaesu update for youguys.
It's pretty mind-blowing to me.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
I did not expect to see one so soon, but I'm still
happy with my two ftm 500s, somaybe, uh, speaking of looking
for deals here in michigan,we're hitting swap season.
Uh, so we three were at thelavonia amateur radio club swap
and shop, which was a greatevent.
Um, and rory, I know you, youlove a good swap meet.
So what's your plans thisseason?

Speaker 2 (12:45):
So way back, way back it's only been, you know, 20
years, but way back.
When I got licensed, the firstswap that I went to was the
Livonia Amateur Radio Club swapand that would have probably
been 2002, maybe 2003, not sure.
And that was when they held itat the Kostik Center in
Farmington Hills, a pretty largecommunity center there,

(13:06):
somewhere around 11 mile andmiddle belt I think, and it was
an excellent size swap and itwas large enough at that time.
They had a couple rooms of thefacility.
They had a couple vendors.
I bought my first mobileantenna there.
It was a good time.
I remember it.
I don't have that antennaanymore.
I broke it and things wentsideways with that antenna.
But that's what happens whenyou're whatever, 16, 17 years

(13:30):
old and you're trying to get onrepeaters.
But over time the Livonia Swapchanged locations and moved from
one place to another.
They've been at the LivoniaSenior Center, they've been at
the I think it's an AmericanLegion or VFW in Livonia and all
those spaces it seems like youknow were fine.

(13:50):
They were good Ample parking,ample room.
But something's happened in thelast year or so to where the
interest in this swap hasincreased again.
So last year when they were atthe hall in Livonia.
It was tremendously difficult toeven get around in Livonia.
It was tremendously difficultto even get around.
There was a point where I waswandering around with my friend,
bob KWX, who we werechit-chatting and talking to

(14:14):
some folks and I'm like I've gotto go outside.
I said it's too hot, it's toomany people, it's too many, you
know.
I said I've got to go cool downfor a minute and I did.
I went out and went back in andthe Livonia Club big shout out
to them for putting this eventon and seeing that there was
such a demand for their swap,they looked for a new facility

(14:37):
and they went with a largechurch facility here in the
Metro Detroit area called WardChurch, which is in Northville
Township, and it was anexcellent venue for the swap.
I felt it was pretty good.
The parking was plentiful, thearea inside.

(14:57):
For those people who got therebefore they opened the doors,
well, you could wait in thehallways of the church.
You didn't have to standoutside in the cold.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
And for Michigan that's a big deal, especially in
February, march timeframe.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
And I think one of the organizers there said they
increased the amount of tablesthis year by 20%, if I remember
correctly, and still sold outthe tables and we still had
plenty of room to walk aroundand we had room to stop and talk
to all of our friends andpeople that we ran into.
I saw several people I've notseen, in some cases in five or

(15:31):
more years.
It was good to see people.
It was good to point out somefolks to Jim as we wandered
around that I know Jim has heardon the air put a face to name
in a few cases because Jim'sjust getting more involved with
the area ham stuff, and I knowJames ran into some POTA folks
that he knows and it was atremendous, tremendous showing

(15:54):
from our local club that we'reall part of here in the South
Lyon area and it was just a goodtime.
So I was pleased and this iskind of the discussion I wanted
to lead into and I don't know,jim or james, how many, how many
swaps you've been to, um, let'ssay, between the covid restart

(16:14):
and now and then maybe just acouple years before covid let's
use that as a time frame a lotof the swaps seem to be.
You know, uh, you'd maybe havean hour rush of folks in there
at the beginning and you knowthey'd look for the deals and
they'd be gone.
This particular one, they, they, it was a good salad, I would
say.
Were we there three hoursbefore?

(16:35):
We we finally?
went across the street for lunchmaybe, maybe longer maybe
closer to four, you know, andand we kept finding more and
more stuff as we made the rounds.
So I'm hoping to see that thisis a resurgence in the local
swap culture, because some ofthem in the metro area and a lot
of the clubs work hard on them,and I'm trying.

(16:56):
I don't want to say anythingbad about the clubs that are
working hard on their swaps, butsome of them in the metro
Detroit area have gotten hadbecome extremely stale and not a
big demand.
So what do you guys think,compared to swaps you've been to
in the past in this area andother areas?

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, so, being a post-COVID ham myself, so
obviously swaps.
When I got licensed initiallyone there weren't swaps really
around yet again.
And then about a couple ofyears, a year into my license,
you started to see swaps popback up and they were kind of
empty.
Yeah, a lot of people justbeing curmudgeoning, kind of

(17:37):
complaining that there weren'tgood deals, there wasn't a lot
of socializing, and this lastswap.
So you're starting there andyou're building your way back up
.
I mean it was great.
I mean we spent more timesocializing and going around
talking to people and looking attables than probably we ever
have before.
So it was good to see.
And my first point of advice foranyone that's maybe new to

(18:00):
amateur radio or new ham is youknow, go to swaps, meet people,
talk to people.
You know, walk around and justget a feel for what's happening,
because that's really how youstart to kind of explore new
avenues of the hobby.
I learned a lot actually fromtalking to some people that I've
never met before.
I learned about where they goto POTA and the spots they're
meeting up with people.

(18:21):
So just little things like thatmake a big difference in your
enjoyment of the hobby and itwas cool to see.
Yeah, I mean, the room wasalive and I think, zach, to your
point, even said one of theorganizers that they sold out of
their tables and they couldhave added more.
There was an appetite there toeven have more tables.
So if you have that manyvendors interested in coming,
then you know the people willcome as well, which is great to

(18:42):
see.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, the nice thing, and I think you guys both
mentioned it and it was notsomething that I ever expected.
Right, when I think of a swap, Ithink of a flea market or a
garage sale.
Right know, until I attended acouple, I've been to three total
Three, one, two, three, three,so yeah, it's no four.

(19:14):
Four was Livonia.
Okay, so what I liked aboutthat and Rory mentioned it was I
put a bunch of faces to namesof folks that I had talked to
around the Metro Detroit area atthe swap.
Right, because it was awell-attended swap.
I was like, oh hey, that's Jay.
Jay pops in on my Thursdaynight roundtable on the repeater
every once in a while.
So I shook his hand.
I said Jay, it's Jim.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
He's like, oh, you're not who I expected and you put
a face to a name and you bothare like well, you're not who I
expected you to be.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
But it's super fun to do that.
And then I met another guy whowas selling a couple of his
wares that owns the Spirit of 76repeater up here, and the
Spirit of 76 in Detroit is a bigdigital mode repeater.
A lot of folks love thatrepeater.
It's been online for a longtime.
Rory could give you more historythan I could, but it was
awesome to meet this gentlemanwho had a wealth of knowledge

(20:02):
around that repeater thing.
So it was just cool to be ableto say, oh yeah, there's K8JKU
there repeater thing.
So it was just cool to be ableto say, oh yeah, there's a,
there's K8JKU, there's W8KNX,there's N8LEK, there's N8AR.
Right, Like all of those folksthat you run into on the radio,
you're putting faces to namestoo, and for me that was
probably one of the moreexciting things, and I will tell
you.

(20:22):
When Rory asked me if I wantedto go to the swap and we went
together, Rory and I shared aride over to the swap not too
far away.
He said I'm not planning onbuying much, I'm just going over
there to have a social hour.
So Rory went, fully expectingthis and I was the one with a
couple of bucks in my pocket,thinking I was going to get a
good deal.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, you held out on buying a handheld, which is
shocking too.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I had a few dollars in my pocket and I spent all
five of them to get into thething and that's another plus
I'll comment on that the LivoniaClub keeping it at $5.
Most a lot of swaps have goneto the $10 or $20 ticket fee.
So big shout out to them fornot being crazy on their ticket
price and that you know in theham community we have people

(21:00):
from all walks of life.
That is actually anaccessibility thing.
There is one gentleman therewho I know quite well, who that
is actually a difference ofwhether he would be able to go
or not.
He doesn't have a whole lot ofmeans but it's good for him to
get out and walk around and doit.
The one other thing, and youmentioned running into Wallace

(21:22):
KE8HR from the Spirit of 76machine.
There were a couple other peoplewandering around from our local
repeater group, the WRADAR.
They're the WR8 DAR repeatersthat cover a lot of Metro
Detroit and that's a group ofguys who pooled resources to put

(21:43):
repeaters on the air in theMetro Detroit area over the last
probably 35 years.
But their thing now is theywere busy talking to some other
folks who are trying toestablish repeaters and give
them tips and tricks and helpthem find equipment for low and
reduced prices.
Some of them happen to havesome Motorola equipment banging

(22:03):
around in their garage that theymagically found fell off a
truck somewhere.
So they're helping other peopleout.
So there's a lot of helpinghands that go on.
It's not just the idea oftaking your stuff and buying
stuff, it's the socializing,it's the networking, it's the
helping each other out.
You know, you go up and downthe aisles and you might have a
conversation with a fellow aboutan antenna or maybe something

(22:24):
that's homebrew on the table,and you learn something by
talking to them about what it isand how it was built.
That's such an important partof the hobby as well.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
And you can find some .
They're not just ham products,right.
They're computer electronicsrecords, all sorts of.
Someone was selling tents andcamping gear.
There's a lot of miscellaneousthings that are out there, but
you get talking to people abouttheir stories and everyone wants
to talk about what they broughtand what they're selling.
You're right, though.
It's very interesting and whatyou can learn very quickly from

(22:53):
each other.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
What I thought was interesting too was that some of
these tables were notnecessarily there with a whole
bunch of wares.
They were bought because theywanted to establish a club
presence or a network presencefor a specific repeater network,
or it was a gentleman that justdidn't have the legs to walk
around the thing, so instead hegot himself a table.

(23:15):
He brought a few little thingswith him, but he was just there
to have other folks come by andsay hello, and I appreciated
that the Livonia swap was thatkind of accessible.
It wasn't all about everybodyhas to have a pile and pile and
pile of stuff that they bring.
It was a real mixed bag ofdifferent folks that were there
for different reasons, and Ijust really enjoyed it.

(23:36):
Now I'll ask everybody'sopinion.
When you go to these things,you usually are guessing how
much junk is going to be thereon a zero to 100% scale.
How much junk did you feel likewas at the swap?
This?

Speaker 2 (23:49):
time.
So this is funny.
You ask this because when I wasasking you if you were going, I
came up with the junk scale inmy head and I actually thought
about the swaps I've been to inthe past, which I've been to
numerous around Michigan, acouple in the Chic, the Chicago
land area, probably one up inNorthern Michigan and I thought

(24:10):
of in my head there's alwayseach swap has a different,
different flavor to it, adifferent, you know, but it also
has a certain percentage ofjunk.
And I put this one going intoit at and I told Jim I said,
come along, 75% junk.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
It'll be.
It'll be a good time.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Um, that was, that was my junk.
That was my pre-swap junk scale.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yes, yeah, so.
So I'm a little spoiled in thefact that I grew up going to a
lot of flea markets with my mom,um, so her, her motto was
everyone's treasures are alwaysa little bit different, so it's
hard to put that scale on it.
I would say I'm going to be alittle bit more generous.
I'm going to, you know, 60 to65%, but again, I'm not here to

(24:55):
judge anyone's you know,perceived notion of what is a
treasure to them.
Now, the one thing I did learnthat is the most important, and
this is also maybe the secret Ishouldn't share is always look
down and under the table to seewhat they're selling.
I was so mad every time, Jim,you snagged that one antenna the
mobile antenna that was on theground at a killer deal $10, I
think you paid for a greatmobile antenna $10 for a brand

(25:16):
new antenna, yeah, brand new.
And then someone else wascarrying another antenna and
someone else had this otherradio and I was looking for, and
every time I asked them like oh, where'd you find that they're?
Oh, it was, you know, underunder the table sitting under
the table.
Yeah, so now you know I'm nowI'm gonna permanently miss out
forever that we shared these uhhot swap tips, but it was uh.
It's something to look at I waswalking down the.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
I was walking down the one aisle and it made me
laugh because you know we kindof all that was a fun thing, the
way we all went.
We kind of went around, lookedat our things, met up with each
other once in a while.
We weren't all trying to getthrough this as a group because
that's impossible.
So I ran across one of ourother friends, eric KDRS, and
he's hands and knees on thefloor going through a box.

(25:58):
I'm like what's going on downthere?
He said, oh, you've got to lookunder the table.
So he was already on that pathand I think he found some
rotator cable that he waslooking for and a bunch of other
stuff.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, he did, he dug out his treasure.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
But that's what.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
I'm saying so.
My 65 is not meant to be mean,but there's still value to be
found and you enjoy it, and Jimdid you say what?
Your percentage ended up being.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
So I went in assuming that Rory had the best
perspective on this, because hehas been to this swap a number
of times and kind of knows who'sgoing to be there.
So I was figuring Rory'sestimate was going to be pretty
close and I don't think I wasdisappointed with his estimate.
I think it was right on par.
A couple of things I'll sayhere.
Right, when we say junk, Ithink we're saying it in the
lovingness sense right the fleamarket is intended to bring you

(26:46):
things that are not?

Speaker 1 (26:47):
maybe necessarily whole.
It's candy land.
If you're nerdy enough, you'llfind it.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
I want to pick through it, find something
that's broken but has a coupleof good parts that I can take
out of it and just get a killerdeal on it.
Or you buy something that hasbeen discontinued for 20 years
and I'm like, oh man, I alwayswanted one of these.
It's nothing that important tome.
I love the thrill of the hunt.
Nothing that important to me.
I just I love the thrill of thehunt.
So I'm a guy that goes to theSalvation Army.
I go to the you know all thecheap stores around here.
I do the same thing if I'm notat a ham swap.
But I will say 70% seems aboutright on.
The one thing I will also sayout loud is I was shocked by the

(27:19):
number of non-functional radiosbeing sold for pretty good
money.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, premium pricing.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Finals are blown still worth tons of money.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
That was interesting.
I've seen a good amount of someof those what I would describe
as vintage VHF UHF transceiversthat were being sold.
I've seen a lot of those atswaps and I've probably bought a
used radio like one of those ata swap.
But I don't think I've quiteseen this many that have a sign
on it that flat out says doesn'twork, still want.
I don't think I've quite seenthis many that have a sign on it

(27:49):
that flat out says doesn't work, still want $65 for it.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
At least they're honest.
Yeah, I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
At least you're being honest about it, yep, yeah and
I think some people want aproject so they'll buy it to try
and fix it.
But interesting sales techniquefor sure.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
So what's next on the swap calendar?
So obviously we're thirsty formore here.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
What do we got coming up?
We have the W8KNX junk scalerating 65% Toledo swap coming up
Sunday, the 16th of March, downat Owens Community College down
in Toledo.
It's a nice, easy drive fromthe Detroit area.
It's a solid hour and drivefrom the Detroit area.
It's a solid hour and 15 frommy driveway here and it is a

(28:33):
good swap.
It's held in the large I thinkit's in the gymnasium of the
community college there and it'sspread out.
They use their space wisely.
When I was there last time,which was two years ago last
year, I did not go because I hadmanaged to throw my back out
and I wasn't doing any sort ofwalking or sitting in a car or

(28:54):
any combination of that.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
That'd be pretty miserable.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
It wasn't good but anyway.
So I didn't go, which was abummer.
But the way they have theirsset up is they have the
consolidated aisles of stufflike you normally would, but
they also have an area off tothe side for people who might
have larger things.
I remember seeing a couplepeople that were that were
selling off uh tower sections,um that kind of thing, to where

(29:19):
they were able to kind of spreadout and uh, someone with a
bunch of vintage stuff was overthere to kind of spread out so
you could look at it.
So it's kind of a nice layout.
As far as comparing it for youguys, have either of you been to
the Toledo swap?

Speaker 3 (29:34):
I have not.
I haven't been to the Toledoone.
I've done Findlay and Monroe,so do they compare.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
I've never been to Monroe Findlay, I've been to a
lot.
Still I would say size-wise andtable-wise it would be on par
with what we saw at Livonia, butit spread out a bit more in the
variety.
Like I said, the junk scale isa little better and the variety
I found to be a little bettertoo, and I have to be careful

(30:00):
because that sounds bad when I'mrating these things on the junk
scale.
But swaps are fun.
Swaps are always an excellentgood time.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
So I am looking forward.
We're to yep, go ahead no, I'msorry we're gonna cut you off
one thing we forgot to mentionthat I want your opinion on,
which is worth jumping in onwhat is the coffee service
rating scale for the swap?
So that's important to us.
Yeah, that's important to usdayton.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
We'll talk about dayton here in a second.
And maybe I did something wrongat Dayton last year.
I don't know, but we'll getthere.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
No, no.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
So let's back up to Livonia.
That was another thing.
Zach and the guys of Livoniadid an excellent job.
They brought in Big B Coffeefor sale at the swap.
There was plenty of it.
They brought in Looney BakerDonuts, which is a local bakery

(30:52):
over there in Livonia.
That's a nice touch which wasreadily available at the swap
and that was excellent.
The Toledo swap upcoming here,if I remember correctly, since
it's in the community college,is a small coffee vending
station that's open during theswap outside.
That's how I'm remembering it.
I I'm I'm foggy on it for sure,but I feel like there was a

(31:12):
spot outside of the mainentrance to the swap where you
could purchase coffee.
So coffee was there and, uh,that's always good.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
We can we can go into date.
If you're listening to thisafter after the toledo swap and
rory is wrong, make sure youleave a comment below telling
him that his coffee rating waspoor.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
And Hamvention.
If you're listening, pleasetake notes.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
So let's talk about Hamvention, which we are 10
weeks and a day from Hamventionat this point.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Got my ticket in the mail today.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
So we got our discounted early bird tickets.
So we got our discounted earlybird tickets.
My friend, Sean Cade SAW,brought that to my attention the
other day and I promptly sharedit with everyone in the South
Lion Club.
I'm like save a few bucks, getyour ticket, order it now, and
that early bird is over with.
And now the Dayton Hamventiontickets are their full price of

(32:06):
$30.
But still, I recommend, ifyou're going to Dayton, go ahead
and order them online.
They get the tickets to you inless than a week.
I think ours all came in threeor four days.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
It seemed exceptionally quick.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Mine was here two days, yeah, so just a tremendous
job on them getting the mailout.
But it saves you the trouble ofhaving to go to the ticket
window at Hamvention when youget there.
It's just one less thing toworry about when you arrive.
So I highly recommend becausethey do have such a good
turnaround on their mail goahead and get your order in, but
yeah, dayton's right around thecorner.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
The little nuggets that you're listening for.
Right here is strategy for Rory.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Well, the line does get long the one hamvention I've
been to and it was raining andit was a very long line that you
were waiting in to get a ticket.
So if you have your ticket inadvance, rory's right Highly
recommend it.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, but the coffee scale of Dayton, the coffee
meter, the coffee rating?
I only saw one small food trucktrailer selling coffee.
Did I do something wrong?
Is that all that?

Speaker 1 (33:10):
I no.
No, we talked about this inepisode one, so you know we're
clearly very bitter about this.
One coffee cart for all ofHamvention.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
So no, you have some ridiculous amount of
coffee-drinking, ham radiooperators and one coffee cart.
I mean, I stood in the line andthen they ran out.
They ran out of regular blackcoffee.
What are all these guys, allthese fellows that we all know
well, that are ham operators.
I'll say it, the old guys.

(33:41):
What are they going to do?
They just want a black coffee.
They don't want an Americano,they don't want anything like
that that's going to come out ofa machine that's making a lot
of noise.
They just want a coffee out ofthe thing.
I like it.
They were still able to providean Americano, which I was okay
with, but just have enoughcoffee for everyone.
I think that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
I was prepared when I picked Rory up.
By the way, I made us both acup of coffee.
Oh, you're a good friend, andRory came out to the car as
we're getting together, and hehad his cup of coffee and I was
like, well dang, I thought youwere going to be under the
weather here.
Here's a cup.
It's all right, though I thinkwe split the second.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
The coffee you made got used later in the day, I
believe.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
That is 100% true.
We had quite a bit of fun afterthe ham swap.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
We had a good time.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
We after the ham swap .
We had a good time.
We had eight or nine peoplethat came from the South Line
Area.
Amateur.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Club that we went to.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
And after we all got together and bought a few things
and socialized some folksdidn't buy anything, they were
just there for the experience wedid head over afterwards and
have a lunch together, which wasawesome.
We got to talk more radio, wegot to share ourselves a beer, I
had a little lunch and it wasjust a really, really good
social event as a follow-up togoing to the ham swap.
So I had a lot of fun there.

(34:57):
I have one more strategy that Iwant to share with you guys,
and see what your thought is onswaps before we change gears
here.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
So I will say that one thing that I like to do at
these things and Rory jokedright off the gate that you go
with somebody, but you don'talways stick with them table to
table, because everybody hastheir own move when they get
there right, looking for thebest thing, well, you're also
competing with each other forthat deal.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
That's true.
That's true.
What if James would have gotthat $10 antenna?

Speaker 1 (35:19):
I would have loved to .
No, I would have loved it, I'mjust kidding.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
So my strategy here and I'm funny is I'll run
through all of the tables but Iwon't buy anything.
I'm generally like a kind offirst pass guy Eyeball all the
things that I think.
I might be interested in andthen see how quickly they sell,
because I'm waiting until theend to make my buys right and
that's when I start to make myoffers at the end.
So you know the things that aresitting around.
A lot of folks don't want todrag them back to their vans or

(35:45):
their houses or their wivesdon't want to see them come back
in the garage.
So I did manage to score myselfa nice power supply at the end
of the swap for $50 off, which Ithought was all right.
If you're looking for a bigpower supply or any other heavy
gear and it's still sittingthere at the end of the swap,
you can probably make an offerand come to a good price on it
with whomever is selling it, andso that's your N8JRD swap tip

(36:08):
of the the day.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
the end of a swap is a hot tip for any flea market
really, or any any kind of swapor anything like that.
I see my problem is I also lookat the lines.
So if the table's not busy andI know there's a component I
need, like wire minute umhamvention, I'll swing right in
and just grab what I need umjust because I if I go back next
time they're probably gonna bepacked and it's kind of nice, so

(36:30):
also seize the opportunity whenit's there.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
That's true.
That's true, I think it doesdepend right, Like on your
prepackaged stuff.
Like Wireman is probablyselling you brand new gear,
right?

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, oh yeah, the prices are probably not as
flexible, right?
Nope, they're fixed.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Yeah, if you're out in the field where folks are
selling off the back of theirpickup truck.
You might be able to work alittle more magic on the deal
there.
See what folks are feeling.
And, by the way, I do want tosay, before we get too far
outside the ham swap topic hereI did walk away with an HT.
It is a Linko you did.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
A digital HT which I have over here on my desk.
Are we sharing this already?
Oh, that one.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
That's my MD5.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, that one, the, yeah, that one the.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
MD5.
You couldn't resist.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
I couldn't resist.
It was priced $80.
I got it for $60.
So you guys tell me down in thecomments is the Elinko MD5
worth $60?
It's a pretty neat little radio.
Though.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
We can have a little segue with that.
How are you feeling about DMR?
That's the first DMR rig you'veactually used, I think.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
It is true, it is my first DMR rig.
It's very much.
For me DMR feels a lot morelike using a modern cellular
radio type device.
Right, because what it does isit continuously seems to
handshake with whatever toweryou're getting into the DMR
network with and you get a sortof like five bars of signal
strength on your radio right.

(37:48):
And so if you have good signalstrength and you key up right,
it'll start that digitalconversation, and I was really
impressed.
I thought DMR sounded prettygood to the ear compared to some
of the other digital modes.
I've used D-Star and SystemFusion, of course, so I was
pretty happy with it.
It's a neat radio.
What I will say is out herewhere I'm at, I'm not sure how
many DMR-specific towers I canhit, but I'll have to play a

(38:10):
little bit more with it.
It's far too early and I willgive W8Connect's Rory here a
little bit of credit because Idon't know what I'm doing when
it comes to DMR code plugs.
But Rory said what radio didyou get?
Give me a few minutes?
And he sent me over a code plugthat I just dropped on my radio
with my DMR ID number and I wasable to key it up and get on
the Michigan wide.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Well, I'll be honest with you.
I was afraid if you didn't getit programmed, you would have
sold it before you had a chanceto try it.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
You know me too well.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
So I wanted to at least get you something
functional and that particularnetwork is pretty easy to set up
in a code plug.
So that took me all of 15minutes when I should have been
doing other things at work.
It was appreciated, thank you.
That is the first Alinko radioI've played with the programming
software actually, and on thatnote, compared to the only DMR

(39:00):
radio I own, which is a TYTMD380, that Alinko programming
software was pretty good for DMRprogramming.
It was for me to have been ableto figure it out in the time
that I did, without the radioeven in front of me, to write
you a note.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, he didn't have the radio, it was at my house.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
It was pretty easy and pretty cool, so very good.
While we're on that topic, whatelse?
We kind of glossed oversomething that we've kind of
been doing and what's going onin our shacks.
We got right into thatexcitement of the Yeezy radio at
the beginning and we were goingto talk about what's going on

(39:39):
in our ham worlds right now,james, anything new going on.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
No, it's not super ham related.
I've been trying to play withMesh Task again because they
updated the t-deck firmware, the, the 2.6, the ui I should say
not firmware, um, but you know,just playing with my uh lilly go
t-decks, which are, which arenice and the new ui is is very
uh user-friendly, more resemblesa, let's say, modern cell phone

(40:07):
type interface, uh, all-in-one.
I still have not found apractical purpose for Meshtastic
.
However, I enjoy flashing thefirmware to the devices and just
talking to myself back andforth on two devices.
So it's something.
But what about you guys?

Speaker 2 (40:22):
So real quick on that on the 18th of March our
friends in Ann Arbor at theArrow Club are having a session
on Meshtastic and Jim and I areplanning to take a little road
trip from Southland to Ann Arborto go listen to their talk on
that.
If you find yourself on thisside of town, james, you can tag
along.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
That's my opportunity not to talk to myself through
my Meshtastic devices.
Back and forth is what you'retelling me.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
I've known several people that have played with the
the stuff and they pretty muchsay the same thing you're saying
there.
They've talked to themselveswith it, so I'm I'm happy to
learn about it.
I'm curious I it sounds likethey probably cool stuff.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
It is.
It's really cool technology andyou know it works.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
It works really well, yeah, so I think uh, ke8sq down
at the Aero Club is putting onthe presentation.
So we'll meet Blake and seewhat he has to say about
Meshtastic.
But it's cool that Jamesbrought that up, because it's on
my radar as well.
I have not bought a device yet.
I'm generally the guy that buysit before I go and see what
it's all about.

(41:26):
But I think I am going to holdout this time.
I'm going to go down and watchthe presentation.
I'm going to hold out this time.
I'm going to go down and watchthe presentation.
But, james I asked.
I was like you know, last yearat Dayton there were so many
Meshtastic devices thatMeshtastic's network suffered a
sort of overload right.
And it looks like they've madesome adjustments to how they
handle the handoffs of that databetween nodes.
So I'm curious this year andthat's why I want to have a

(41:47):
device there with my ID plugged.
I don't know anything about it,I'm talking generally.
It has my ID plugged in becauseI want to see that firsthand.
I think if you're going to takeone of these kind of niche
devices down to a thing, I thinkthat's going to be awesome to
see all the folks that are onMeshtastic down, it was fun.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
I mean it was fun, and the one time maybe it was
kind of practical, even though Ihad a handheld radio right next
to me, was at the campground atHamVenture.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
A lot of.
It wasn't crashing my deviceand it was just detecting so
many nodes and so much trafficthat it just didn't want to go
any further.
But at the campground, yeah, itwas actually pretty cool.
We had some good conversations,quick chats, met some people as
I was walking around and metsome hams.
But yeah, it's cool technology.
Again, I'm still just searchingfor a purpose, which is maybe
the money investment part isquestioning that part on why.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
The Metro Detroit network is not well established
If you look at the mesh map,which is kind of the idea of
where things are online.
There's a few down byUniversity of Michigan, which I
think college towns are a realprime place for this type of
thing to spring up and actuallyget use.
There's a few up in TraverseCity, which is kind of a resort
town if you're not familiar withMichigan, up in the tip of the
here, and then there's a fewthat are sprinkled around the

(43:05):
downtown Detroit area.
But realistically I think thatin a metro area like Michigan's
Detroit area there's a lot ofspace between people.
Where the Meshtastic stuffreally shines, it seems like the
more I read about it is inplaces like Chicago and New York
or even San Francisco, wherethere's a high population
density of folks that haveinterest in these sort of niche

(43:27):
and emerging technologyexperiments, if you will.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Which makes sense.
Rory, what have?

Speaker 2 (43:33):
you been working on.
So the only thing going on inthe shack here is a little bit
of contesting.
Over the weekend I participatedin the what was it called the
International Sideband Contest.
A little bit of fun there.
I never considered myself acontester until maybe the last
year or two, and I'm not a goodcontester.

(43:55):
I have a very mediocre stationhere at home.
It works, but it's not great.
But I still have fun gettingout there and being in the chase
of a contest and I was able topick up, I think, 17 more DX
countries through the contest.
Again, not great numberscompared to what some people
have, but it was a good time.

(44:16):
10 meters this year, as you guysare all aware, 10 meters has
been very good in the daytimehours over to Europe.
I was even able to work intoRussia with no problem.
A lot of countries I didn'thave Bosnia, a few of those over
there.
I still struggle to get to thesouth.
I'll never understand why mystation doesn't get to South
America, but it just doesn't.

(44:38):
I'm sure there's reasons, butit just doesn't.
But I crossed the pond and hadno problem working.
A lot of Italian stations wereon.
A lot of French stations wereon were on.
A lot of French stations wereon.
Was able to get Wales, scotland, both, which I never had those
entities in my log so I'm hopingto get confirmations on all of

(44:59):
these.
I might have to actually do QSLcards for a few of them to get
them confirmed, but that wasactually a good time for me over
the weekend.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
I turned on my radio and the scope was just packed
which was awesome.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
It's awesome to see, and 10 meters was just alive.
It was humming.
I think the contests are a greatway for folks that are getting
into HF and are still trying tofill their CUSO map, so to speak
, especially in sideband, to getthose distance stations right.
You can go on FT8 and you canget around the world pretty
easily, but really thesecontests are good opportunities
to have folks with high qualityantennas and a lot of power

(45:41):
pointed in your direction andlistening, even for your 100
watt station with a minimalantenna setup.
So it really does give us anopportunity I say us because
we're all in kind of the sameboat as far as antennas, to some
extent an opportunity to usesideband to really work more
distant stations than we wouldbe able to on like a regular day
.
It's not to say that youcouldn't, it's just to say that

(46:01):
you have folks that are lookingfor you at that point.
So you have a betteropportunity, a higher hit rate
on that type of thing.
So I think that's what that'swhere these contests and, uh,
further emphasize your point aswell.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
There's a very.
If you listen a little bit,you'll usually pick up on the
exchange very quickly and it's a.
It's a good formal exchangeit's.
It's generally quick and easy.
So if you're again a new ham, agood opportunity to either look
on the website and you can justget in, get over that mic
fright a little bit and startmaking contacts.

(46:31):
But maybe go on, rory.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I mean, if nothing else, it will get you over the
mic fright real quick becausethe contests are moving quick
and the exchanges are goingquick.
But it's nothing if you'venever done it before, don't let
that scare you, because the guyon the other end of the radio
path will slow down.
He might grumble, you mightbreak his flow a little bit.
He might not be happy with youslowing down what he's doing,

(46:58):
but he'll be happy to help youout.
If you don't know the exchange,he'll tell you what it is.
If you've not done contestsbefore the WA7 BNM contest
calendar, just go on Google andsearch contest calendar.
That is an excellent contestcalendar.
It lists out pretty much forthe whole calendar year, all the
contests every day and it alsolets you know what the exchange

(47:19):
is and where to go to find theactual rules for the contest.
So if you want to make sure youknow the exchange before you get
involved and what the rules arein this case you were not
allowed in this contest over theweekend.
You were not allowed to contactother American stations for
credit.
They would get very mad if youtried to contact them because
they weren't interested intalking to you, because that's a

(47:40):
no-point situation.
It was strictly DX entities, socertainly I highly recommend it
.
The contesting thing hopefullysomeday I have a better antenna
up and can do it a little moreseriously, but in the meantime
it's still fun.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
I'll give a little bit of credit to also one of our
club members.
I like to pass this aroundbecause I'll also encourage you,
if you're listening and haven'tinvolved yourself in a club yet
, to think about some of thereasons why it's worth doing.
We have a club member, his nameis Frank NFADM, and Frank is a

(48:18):
big contester.
He always mentions each weeklynet what contests are coming up.
He tries to remind us whenthere's a contest that seems
like it might be approachablefor us newer hams.
So there are those types ofpeople out there that will keep
you a little bit more in tune,even if you're not a heavy-duty
contester.
And I really appreciate and Ialways tell Frank whenever I
hear him mention a new contest.
Hey, thanks for saying that outloud.
Right, I don't check the WA7BNM calendar every week, but I

(48:39):
appreciate that you call thesethings out for us.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Go ahead, james.
No, I was going to say speakingof, let's say, contesting and
exchanges.
There's another topic we weretalking about, which is the POTA
exchange.
So, rory, maybe you fill us ina little bit on what the
discussion point was.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
So this got me fired up a little bit.
Now, anyone who knows mepersonally or who has activated
POTA sitting next to me I am notsomeone to pass along a bunch
of flowers in my POTA exchange,it is a 5-9 Mike, india, 5-9,
us-3315, and I'm on to the nextperson.
There's a lot of discussion onwhether that's right and wrong,

(49:22):
but what it comes down to isit's your poda activation.
You do it how you want to do it, and if you're calling into
someone else's poda activation,you get to conform to the way
they're running their activation.
And I am all for that.
And a lot of people think it'sfunny because I'm just a very
impatient person.

(49:42):
But something that popped up onthe POTA Facebook page probably
two weekends ago now I thinksome folks were doing a
de-expedition over down in CostaRica.
Ti7 RRC was activating CostaRica and they were doing four of
the special events, so to speak.
They were doing Islands on theAir, parks on the Air, worldwide

(50:05):
Flora and Fauna that's a hardone to say WWFF and Amateur
Radio, lighthouse Society.
They were working all four ofthose and attempting to give
people credit for contacting astation at one of these entities
.
That's all they were wanting todo is give people an
opportunity to talk to a park ora lighthouse or an island or
whichever one you're playing inCosta Rica, but they were doing

(50:30):
it in true de-expedition form.
They were wanting to get asmany contests as quickly as they
can, so they were not giving along exchange.
One of the people that wasrunning it R1BIG I think her
name is Raina.
She, of course, was in fullcontest mode and wanting to get

(50:51):
the contacts done as quickly asshe could.
The bands were good right then.
It was good to get a lot ofpeople through.
So someone posted, trying to behelpful, on the POTA Facebook
page saying these guys are there, they're glad to make a contact
with you, but they're notlooking to exchange park numbers
.
But they're not looking toexchange park numbers and, as
most of us know, and some peoplewho may not, with POTA you do

(51:15):
not need to formally exchangeyour number.
You don't need to say it aloudwhen you talk to another station
, as long as you log it, and ifthey're at a park, they log it.
The system does all the workfor you.
You could sit there and letthem know what color the moon is
.
You can let them know, whateveryou want, you can give the park
number.
You don't have to give the parknumber.
So I, you know, I was a bit abit bothered by, by some of

(51:38):
these comments that were on onthis post, and you know it's
like we're we're supposed to behaving fun with this Absolutely
One person while I don't reallycare, turning down a
park-to-park while using thePOTA platform is a bit lame.
You're not turning down apark-to-park, you're going to
log it.
They're going to log it.
The system will figure out yourpark-to-park.
What are we doing?

(51:59):
Let's see what else.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
I'll also say real quick here, rory, there was a
huge line of folks that wantedto talk to these people, to get
their credit for calling downthere, so I also think it's fair
to consider, right, it's notonly you that wants to talk to
them.
There are a whole bunch of hamsbehind you that want the same
opportunity.
So it's almost a little bit ofrespect both ways to say let me
get in and get out and notextend this too long, right,

(52:26):
because I know there's a wholebunch of other people that would
love to talk to a Costa Rica DXstation that isn't normally on
the air Go ahead, rory, I meanso they technically ran two
stations TI6 RRC Portable andTI6 RRC.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
So between the two, 12,000 QSOs are noted on their
QRZ page.
That's a lot of people thatwere very glad to make that.
But you know, I don't know.
I just got really agitatedreading these very, very
negative posts on the Poet ofFacebook page People very

(53:01):
concerned that you know.
Well, I want to stop and have aconversation with these people.
No, no, you don't Give yournumber.
Get on with it, get on yourrepeater and have a conversation
with Bob down the street.
Then I mean, it's just I don'tunderstand and just the
negativity against these folksthat took time out of their life
.
It was people from all over thecountry.

(53:22):
Let's see four, eight, nineoperators went all over the
world.
I should say Nine operatorswent down there to activate this
so they could do 24-hourcoverage during their
de-expedition.
And you know they were.
They were looking to have agood time and they were looking
to provide as many contacts fromCosta Rica and one of the Costa
Rican islands as well.

(53:42):
So I don't know, it struck anerve yeah, well, I think so.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
I saw the same park and they were the same post,
which is actually why we startedtalking about a little bit and
I think some.
So I saw the same park or thesame post, which is actually why
we started talking about it alittle bit, and I think some of
the other feedback was.
Well, on their poster websitethey use the POTA logo and
they've used the islands on theair logo and therefore they
should be giving the formalparks on the air exchange and I
think you already said it, rorybut you can POTA how you want to

(54:10):
POTA and again, they are ade-expedition.
And I think one of the greatestthings about POTA is, if you're
an experienced operator, you'renew to the sport, whatever you
are, or however you want to do,your activations, your
activation.
If you don't want to exchangepark numbers, you don't have to.
If you want to sit and have achat or share some information
about yourself, you can, and Ithink that's one thing we need

(54:31):
to remember that makes thisprogram so special.
As all three of us are prettybig POTA operators, at least we
enjoy that part of the hobby.
You know it's okay.
And again, remember theirde-expectation.
They're there to get as manyQSOs as possible, as quickly as
possible, so they can share thatwith everyone.
And you know again, as Rorysaid, so they can share that
with everyone.
And you know again, as Rorysaid, you're going to get your

(54:52):
park-to-park credit and I knowthe other complaint there too,
not to also rant is well, I'msomeone at three parks, so I
have three park numbers to sharewith that individual and I want
the three park-to-park credits.
Well, you have to understandagain, that's not their priority
and they're still in a park,they're still giving you poda
credit and let let them, letthem poda, let them poda how
they want to poda.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
And I think that's the biggest lesson the
de-expedition right is aself-funded trip right so these
folks are paying their own moneyto go run it their way I think
and I.
I also like to keep that in inthe back of my head, right?
This is not something that Ipersonally have in my financial
means right now.
I hope maybe in the future thatI would be able to go on one,
it'd be fun.
It would.
It would be super cool, but forme, this is exactly what Rory

(55:34):
said.
Rory runs his POTA activationone way.
It's to the point.
It's a 5.9.
I'm in Mike, india, let's moveon.
If you get me on the air, n8jrd.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
Oh, you'll run your battery out.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
I might, I might, I'll have a little activation
with you and sometimes, if yousay the right thing, we might
stop and have a two or threeback and forth cue.
So I'm okay with that andthat's what I appreciate a lot
about the POTA community is, ifyou don't want to stick around,
keep the dial spinning right,keep moving down the band, come
on back later on and I mightstill be there, right?

(56:05):
And I think that that's thesame way you have to look at it
when you're doing POTa is thesefolks are going to do it their
way, poda, your way.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Rory, you got something up on the screen here
yeah, I do so for the, for thefolks who said they had poda
splattered all over their theirqrz page here, here's the little
icon right here.
Okay, I don't think that'ssplattered all over, I think
that's them.
These, these fellows here,let's see these, these eight
folks who we need to be, who Ifeel we should be grateful and
thankful for taking the time toput on this de-expedition.

(56:33):
It's these eight guys andladies saying here we're going
to support these four things,we're going to help you get a
contact at another one of theseentities.
So it was a whole thingno-transcript.

(57:03):
So these folks also did thelocals a favor by and don't
quote me on that, I might havesomething askew that was just
something I read in passing inanother article.
But you know they're trying todo a good thing, they're trying
to do the right thing and I justwas kind of disappointed by the
POTA community from having tobe so vulgar in some cases on

(57:23):
those posts just because theywouldn't be able to slow down
and have a five-minute QSO withsome folks in Costa Rica, able
to slow down and have afive-minute.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
QSO with some folks in Costa Rica.
Well and this brings up myother maybe this is a different
topic for a moment.
But, listen, I'm still a youngham in the hobby, so when I say
this and you're learning,facebook is maybe not always the
most friendly or best place tolearn some things, that is true.
So we talked about the swap.
Right, I have had moreenjoyment going to a swap and

(57:58):
just talking to random peopleabout what's on their table and
meeting people.
I've heard on the air with POTAand all those things than I've
ever had on Facebook.
So all hams realize Facebook isFacebook.
It's a platform.
It's fine, whatever yourinvestment in it is, but it's
not always the greatest learningtool and it's not the only
learning tool.
So just everyone be cool, justpoda how you want to poda.

(58:19):
I'll say it again.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
I appreciate that in the climate that we're in right
now, it's better to take a stepback sometimes and just put it
in context and maybe when yousee something that you don't
like on those Facebook pages,give it a read, consider it.
But not every reply needs to besaid aloud on there.
Maybe come back and bounce itoff your buddies right Like.
JKU and W8KNX on a podcast thatyou have between the three of

(58:43):
you, but these are the types ofthings that I think are it's
good to hear a little bit ofconversation on this and just
think a little bit morecritically about the things that
are happening in the hamcommunity, because as a whole,
it's an extremely friendlycommunity, it's an extremely
helpful community and there'sfolks that are out there doing
things that I think benefit you,even if you're sitting at home.
And that, for me, is kind of.

(59:03):
The takeaway here is I'm happythat there was an opportunity
for me to reach out to CostaRica.
I wasn't able to get it, buthey, rory did.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
I did.
I got 40 meter sideband and FT8.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Thanks to Rory for telling me how to get an.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
FT8.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Yep, I got them on FT8 and one on phone as well, so
that was good.
I didn't realize you got them.
That's cool.
Here's just because I'm going,and this is a good one.
I understand that it is anexpedition and, as such, what is
sought is the greater number ofcontacts in the registry, but I
question then why the parknumber, including the POTO

(59:41):
program, is used in order tosearch for more hunters if they
are not going to be kind enoughto note down the park-to-park.
The system does thepark-to-park for you.
I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
The fine folks at the Parks on the Air program have
built one of the best hamwebsites that have ever existed.
And I'm not, you know.
Yes, we know some of thedevelopers and some of the
people that help manage it, butthey really have built a great
website and it will do that foryou.
So again, if you, it'scustomary, I even exchange parks
when I do my activation, butyou know you don't have to and I

(01:00:15):
think that's you know I and Ido.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
I give my, I give my park number when I'm the
activator.
If I'm a hunter at a park, Idon't.
I, I give the five, nine, mike,india and I let the system do
the work and my and I've beencriticized for that.
But my thought behind that is Iget my contact.
It allows them to move on tosomeone else.
It's one less thing I need tobe back and forth with.
Oh, did they hear my numbercorrectly?

(01:00:37):
It doesn't matter, the softwareis going to do it, the website
is going to do it for them.
So that's just my thought.
I know I'm an outlier on a lotof things and that's probably
one of them, but yeah, second,and I certainly 100% shout out
to the POTA folks for theirwebsite being 100%
volunteer-driven, with a verysmall budget, their online

(01:01:02):
system is phenomenal andexceptional customer service.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
Every time I've had to deal with it, for very minor
issues, they are alwaysextremely quick and extremely
helpful in resolving my issues.
So, yeah, shout out to thoseguys for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
All right, we're getting close to the end.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
here, guys, a little bit of fire maybe get you
thinking.
We'd love to hear your thoughtson expeditions or Hoda in
general, and we'd also take acouple of ideas as we continue
on, although we do have DaytonHam Venture coming up and we're
going to do one of these on siteor at least part of it on site.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
We're going to try.
Maybe let's not overcommit here, but we're going to try.
We're going to definitely do it.
Part of it will be on site.
We're going to get something.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
Yeah, but as we wrap it up here, go ahead.
James, I think you were headedthat direction.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
No, I, I guess.
Another thank you from my sideas we close this episode.
As a reminder, this is amonthly podcast.
We do post to YouTube underEveryday Ham and you can search
for us in any major podcastplatform as Everyday Ham Podcast
.
So go out there, like,subscribe, comment, get involved
and, as Jim already mentioned,please send us your ideas.

(01:02:08):
We'd love to talk about stuffthat's relevant for you.
We have a wide range ofexperience and skills, so we'd
love to be able to try to helpyou out a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Yep, and it's fair to say too, I think, that we do
want to eventually speak to somefolks outside of this group
here and bring in some outsideperspectives.
So if you are interested inthat, you can actually visit our
website as well everydayhamcomand on there you can actually
visit our website as well,everydayhamcom and on there
you'll find some contactinformation.
We'd certainly love to hearfrom folks who maybe have some

(01:02:38):
thoughts that we might be ableto bring in as a guest speaker
too.
So the future is bright, Ithink, for Everyday Ham, and
appreciate to everyone that hastaken a listen to us and has
subscribed or given a like oreven made a comment those things
mean a lot to us and hassubscribed or given a like or
even made a comment.
Those things mean a lot to usas a small little group here,
but always a pleasure gettingtogether with you guys tonight.
James Rory.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Definitely look forward to seeing some friends.
Look for some folks at theToledo swap.
Look in a couple weeks.
By the time we record again,we'll have done that.
So if you see us down there,feel free to say hello.
So with that.
I will say 73 from WAKNX.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Yeah, 73.
Everyone have a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
Yep 73, guys Bye-bye.

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The Good, The Bad, and The Junk – Swap Meet Scores & DXpedition Drama

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Good, The Bad, and The Junk – Swap Meet Scores & DXpedition Drama