Band Pass Filters and Bureaucracy: Field Day's Identity Crisis

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right If POTO is field day.
If POTA is man, I can read myown writing today why not?
It's just, you know.
Add, you know, more fuel on thefire here.
So you know, if we treat POTAevery day as field day, then
does that just make field dayirrelevant, you know, we'll
figure that out next on LiveFree in Ham.
So hello and welcome to LiveFree in Ham podcast.

(00:23):
This is our weekly show wherewe discuss ham radio topics in
New Hampshire, new England andbeyond.
We're thrilled to have you hereand whether you've been a
regular listener or you'retuning in for the first time,
again, thank you guys forenjoying joining, joining this
damn episode, because, hey, Ican't talk tonight.
So with that, you know, wethank all the folks that are in
the chat there.
Appreciate all you guys.

(00:43):
So let that you know.
We thank all the folks that arein the chat there.
Appreciate all you guys.
So let's get into the show.
I'm your host, eric call signN1JUR and I'm with my co-hosts.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Paul, n1og the grouch and Todd kind of somewhat in
there.
W1stj still the general.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Still the general.
There we go.
We got that right, all right.
Well, as Todd is currentlyhaving some technical
difficulties, we will hopefullyhave at least a couple of
minutes of him saying somethingwhen he finally gets around to
it.
But it's like we say before wealways get into our topic.
We got a few things you want tocatch up on.
So you can always head over toour storefront at

(01:25):
livefreeandhamcom forward slashshop Check out all our merch.
You can always pick up one ofour latest t-shirts I'm not
wearing one today, this is notit, but you know we've got RF
around and find out.
That's one of my favorite onesso far.
And your ham radio is showing aswell.

(01:47):
Your ham radio is showing aswell as many others, as you know
.
We know, within the threeamigos, would there be a
plethora?
And I'd say, yes, yes, therewould be a plethora.
So with that, you know, headover there, maybe, pick up a
couple of our bacon hammies.
We're always, you know, lookingto hear more stories about
folks handing those out and youcan always go over to
gethammedcom and to check thatout more.
And, as we said, there's alwaysstuff that we're adding to the

(02:09):
store.
So, you know, definitely takethe time check that stuff out.
So, all right, sorry about that.
So if you want to connect to ourcommunity, you can always do
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(02:35):
fricking off the rails today.
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(02:58):
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But as a Patreon member you getsome of this great stuff.
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You get to be part of that aswell.

(03:19):
As you know, get all of ourrecordings before they are
released, the week after and, asBob always says, there you can
join for as little as threehours a month.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's not a big expense.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
No, no, it is not.
We thank Bob for that littleyou know.
Soundbite there as well,because Bob is not wrong, Bob is
dead on.
He is a great supporter of theshow, as many others Mike, who's
also in there in the chat, andum, and we appreciate all you
guys, uh, supporting the show,because without you guys, you
know, we'd just be sitting theretalking to ourselves and
watching Todd constantly reboot.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
And yes, Todd, we can , we can see you and we can hear
you.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Can you welcome back?

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Cause I've on for the last since you started that
that's the way we like to keepyou on your toes.
My friend, just learn signlanguage, you know?
Yeah, I'll give you the signlanguage that idea was coming.
So with that, uh, we're gonnaskip over because we have
nothing in our special segments.
Uh, this week, uh, so no, uh,no.
Uh, you know, reviews, noemails, no, nothing, um, so no,
do good, yeah, no, do good, sademojis.
So with that, we're just goingto have to roll right into one
of our favorite episodes here.
And where am I off here?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Okay, it's everyone's favorite segment.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
And now a little something extra with Todd.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
W1STJ Still a general .

Speaker 1 (04:54):
All right, Well, so this is, as always, our favorite
segment here and the I saycenter pillar support of the
entire, you know, live free andham organization.
I guess you know I don't knowhow you want to word it
otherwise, but you know, you'veheard it here this is where we
help Todd study for his extraclass license.
Each episode we always pickthree questions from that extra

(05:15):
class question pool to test hisknowledge and hope he gets
subgrade.
So you want to follow along,head on over to ham studyorg,
and with that I'm going to justpass this over to the VE quest
master, because I'm justtripping over my dick, as they
say.
So with that, you and what OG?

Speaker 2 (05:33):
All right, well, just to let you know, right.
So this is the big black mastin the center of our tent,
erecting that big, hard, stiffblack mast.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Uh, I mean erecting that big, hard, stiff black mast
.
Oh, that'll forever beingrained in my mind.
So with that, I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I couldn't resist the opportunity to throw that in
there.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Please do All right Before we start, I will let you
control all the buttons.
So don't you know, expect me tohit anything.
I'll just add ad libs here,Perfect.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
OK, I got it All right, todd.
We are doing question numberone from sub-element number nine
, and the question is what dothe arcs on a Smith chart
represent?
Is it A SWR, b frequency, cpoints with constant resistance

(06:33):
or D points with constantreactants?

Speaker 1 (06:48):
I don't know, I think it's D and I would say you'd be
100% right, my friend, becauseI know that for a fact yes,
because they are reactants arcsgreat job.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Reactants arcs Got it .
Great job.
I hate Smith charts we all do.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, it's just one of those things you have to
suffer through to get your extraAlright.
Question number two what mustthe VE team do if an examinee
scores a passing grade on allexamination elements needed for

(07:36):
an upgrade or a new license?
Is it A?
All of these choices arecorrect.
All of these choices youhaven't heard yet, I know right.
Is it B?
Photocopy all examinationdocuments and forward them to
the FCC for processing.
Is it C?

(08:12):
Three VEs must certify theexaminee is qualified for the
license grant.
So again, it's the VE team.
If the examinee scores apassing grade on all examination
elements needed for an upgradeor a license, what is the VE
team doing?

Speaker 3 (08:37):
So what must the VE team do if they score a passing
grade, I would say B.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
You are correct, my friend, that is definitely B.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Are you sure about that?

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, because I don't think you have to be qualified.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
It says yeah, because it says if an exam scores a
passing grade on all examinationelements needed for an upgrade
or a new license.
So yeah, you get a photocopyand send this shit up.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
No, what?
No, you do not.
No, you do not.
No, you do not.
Three VEs must certify that theexaminee is qualified for the
license grant and that they havecomplied with the administering
VE requirements.
That is why you need three VEs.
I get that.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
For examinees.
Wait a minute, that's a fucking.
That is confusing.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
I'm going to fight this one.
That's bullshit and this is whythe VE and whoever does this, a
bunch of fucking idiots.
It says I already passed thething, so you don't need to sort
of, I'm already certified.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well, I agree with.
I don't go.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
The VEs have to listen.
Listen, the VEs have to signyour 605 and your certificate of
successful completion.
Okay, there needs to be threeVEs that sign those forms.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Okay, you need three.
And then what do you do?

Speaker 2 (10:18):
And then the head VE of that team then emails or
uploads a PDF snail mail.
No, no, no, yes.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
No, it's all electronic.
Now, my friend Listen.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Then here's my counteroffer.
Listen, that question isdebatable.
You can't, you have to send itup there, whether you photocopy
it or not.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
So back the train up there that you have to photocopy
before.
All that stuff has to be donebefore you take the test.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
And they have to send it up to the FCC.
Do you not do that?

Speaker 2 (10:56):
He does.
No, I don't send anything tothe FCC.
No, it's all.
I send it to the VEC.
Which is I send it to the VECwhich is the?
I am the yes, or Glarg, or W5YIor whoever the VEC is.
Once again, the communicationprocess is broken down as the VE

(11:27):
liaison.
I know the answer to thisquestion.
You can't argue it.
All right, it's okay, todd,you're one for two?
Two, yep, okay.
The third and final question.
You ready?

(11:47):
We know where this is going.
What is the primary advantageof using a toroidal core instead
of a solenoidal core in aninductor?
Is it A?
Is it A?
Toroidal cores exhibit greaterhysteresis.

(12:10):
B Toroidal cores make it easierto couple the magnetic energy
into other components.
C Toroidal cores confine mostof the magnetic field within the
core material.
Or is it D?
Toroidal cores have lower Qcharacteristics.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Ouch.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
And if I had to say toroidal another time.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
I came up with that fucking name.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
All right, I'm going to say C.
Yeah, I would agree with thatone.
Only because Google says so.
Did you Google it, Dude?
I'm not taking the test here,I'm just.
That's why I'm not guessing.
You fucking cheat Still have myextra.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
So yes, you are correct, thank you.
Toroidal cores confine most ofthe magnetic field within the
core material.
Yep.
So because of the circulargeometry of the toroidal core,
it contains most of the magneticfield inside of it.

(13:29):
This makes toroids well suitedfor use on circuit boards where
magnetic field interference withother components is undesirable
.
So, hint, all answers startwith toroidal cores.
But what is important is thatthe correct answer's third word
comes first alphabetically amongthe answers.
This is the stupidest hint ever.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Oh yeah, and that comes from UVEs.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
No, that comes from whoever Tyson is.
I'm going to save that.
Edit it later.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Tyson with a C-E-N yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Well, that's his username, whatever that might be
.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well, todd, congratulations, you get two out
of three.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
I love that song.
All right, so let's get back ontrack here.
So, if you're studying, or onthat journey to studying, for
your technician general or extraclass license, then hamstudyorg
is always an awesome resourcefor getting your ticket.
And, as we like to say all thetime, if you recently received
your license or you upgraded,you know, we want to know, you
know right, we want to recognizeyou on the next episode.
So send us an email atlivefreeandham.
I love Mike's comment.

(14:56):
Mike, yeah, you make my day somuch better sometimes.
You can always email us atlivefreeandham, at gmailcom, and
we 'll make sure to mention youon the next show.
Oh, mike, yeah, so, uh, thatcomment we'll, we'll read here
for our podcast listeners, sincethey aren't watching the live.
Uh, the, the recorded youtubeshow.

(15:17):
Uh, mike says here's a betterhint tour raids are keep that
shit in a circle.
Keep that shit in a circle.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Keep that shit in a circle.
There you go.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
So always love your humor, mike, appreciate it.
All right.
So with that, so far, knock onwood.
Todd has been doing good, so wewill dive into our usual
section here and start with Todd, since we never know whether
his connection is going to fail.
How was your hammering week, myfriend?

Speaker 3 (15:46):
It's uneventful.
I did try to get Alaska.
A fucking gen popping up on hamalerts and 20 meters wasn't
happening to get Alaska lastnight Were you talking about
KL7EC Alaska or just in generalyeah.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
He was definitely on a lot.
He was on 15 meters over theweekend.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, I couldn't get him, Couldn't hear him.
I've been trying to get my car,my new Jeep, back getting a
radio in it, but not happening,because every time I try to do
it I've got the honey-do list todo, or I got my kid up my ass
to go fishing or so I'm workingon it.

(16:31):
Hopefully I'll have the antennain and um, and I do have the
radio program.
So that's good, dude, that's uh, you're halfway there, right,
yeah, and I just gotta.
But there is a cool thingthough I gotta find out on my
jeep.
So there's, I have built-inauxiliary buttons and I need to
figure out like the little dashswitches.
Yeah, like, yeah, because myold jeep it, it was just like a

(16:51):
shelf, like a little indent.
This one has like fourauxiliary buttons, and the
auxiliary buttons are for, like,if you had like a, like a
floodlight or something youwanted to cook.
So there's got to be a way Ican connect the radio to one of
those switches.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, you can you just have to figure out where
they wire back to.
But shouldn't be that hard yeahI know a bunch of you know
jeepers out there that have donethat before yes, I gotta look,
I gotta read up on that.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
So hopefully tomorrow at least get the uh the antenna
wired and connected up andpushed into uh, you, you know,
into the uh, you know, wired inand ready to get plugged in, and
then I'll work on the radio.
Next week I'm off.
Next week I'm off, well, I'moff Monday tomorrow and then, uh
, I'm off Thursday, friday,monday again.

(17:38):
So hopefully by a week fromMonday I'll be all set.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, I, I've got some time, definitely later in
the week, If you want to.
You know, put that together.
Sure, buddy, come on over, getsomething wired up there and
probably get you back on the air.
It's lonely, the repeater'sfricking quiet every morning.
Really no one's on.
No, I don't.
I don't usually talk during sixto eight hour timeframe, but uh

(18:02):
, yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
I normally talk to.
I normally talk to Bill on thatmorning and sometimes Ralph,
yeah.
But yeah, christian must thinkI'm dead.
I haven't talked to him in likemonths.
He's probably like where'd thatguy go?

Speaker 1 (18:17):
What did I say wrong?
Why is he ignoring me?
I know that that's a sad partof uh radio.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Like on the epson repeater anthony's gonna go
ballistic.
Where have you been.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I know I can only imagine dude I I've.
I've got to reprogram that onmy radio because I took the
memory spot for ryan's repeater.
But I haven't been on ryan'srepeater in a while because I
know he's been trying to work ongetting that new antenna
upgrade in place.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
So we'll see.
Yeah, I got there was.
I got some kind of alert sayingthat he took something.
Uh was off or offline.
Does he have like what?
Did I get his all-star?

Speaker 1 (18:52):
node, all-star node, yeah, oh, how'd you get that
alert?

Speaker 3 (18:57):
it just popped up on my phone.
Random yeah, on my phone allthe time yeah, hey, that's all
right, man.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, hey, you know.
So your your trip to, uh, youknow what florida was?
A bust, right?
You shared that on last episode.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
So you think any?
more future plans with that well, if I go down again, I'll try
it again.
I'd like to work.
That park looks like a prettycool one, but uh, yeah, I don't
know if I'm going to be goingdown.
I have no idea.
The state's out of money.
From what I was told by one ofmy friends who's a judge, who
saw at Moulton's, which is alittle morning place downtown, I

(19:34):
was getting a breakfast burritoand he was sitting in there and
he told me that they had alittle pep talk with the
administration, talk with the.
Uh, with the administration.
They said they've been out ofmoney for like the last three
months.
Like we have zero money.
We've been borrowing money fromother agencies, so I guess we
have to pay them back.
I have no idea.
I'm like, well, that's causeyou know.
So I don't know.

(19:55):
Yeah, if I do get up, but I do,my bag's all ready to go, so I
leave it in the in the Jeep.
So hopefully, uh, this week'sprobably going to be hard
because I'm only in for two days, but next week or the week
after I'll have some time.
I think Work on the rail trail,try to catch up to Eric, but
Paul.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
I know you haven't been doing much skydiving.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Have you been doing any ham radio crap?
Wow, I'm impressed, dude.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
I'm impressed, nice job.
Well, usually you pass it offto me as last one, but I know we
started with you.
But, dude, go with it.
I'm I'm happy, Nice.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
How was your?

Speaker 1 (20:31):
well, I haven't talked yet, so I'm not kind of
the last guy, but you know.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Well, to be honest, okay, I did do skydiving this
week and I'm not the Google guy,but so, yes, I did do skydiving
this week.
But ham radio-wise I did a lotof learning Because so I've got

(21:02):
the ham clock set up in in thegrouch command here, um, but
what I wanted to do was I wantedto have the ham clock kind of
running in the background andthen have the ham dashboard up,
and then I wanted to change someof the cells out so that, like

(21:23):
when I'm, when I'm here, right,right, I could, I could have
different dashboards for likedifferent locations around the
country.
So when I'm here, um, you know,I want, I want the bz, um wind
information, and I want, youknow, the, the solar conditions
and the weather and all of thosethings, and, um, I'm struggling

(21:45):
to get manifest to show in oneof the boxes.
But so Carlos and I wereworking together this morning,
because today was just stormy,stormy, stormy weather, and so
he was kind of interested inwhat it was that I was looking
to do.

(22:05):
And I don't know Linux at all,I don't understand Raspberry Pis
, other than I could follow thedirections to set it up.
So it was cool.
Him and I, we spent a couplehours.
He was showing me differentthings and um, you know, trying
to trying to kind of configureit.

(22:26):
Um, and it was.
It was actually.
It was really cool he.
He managed to create a secondlike ham clock instance so that
I can have the primary ham clock.
If I wanted to just have it bea full screen ham clock, yeah,
but then there's a, there's aweb only version.
And so he created the secondinstance to be the web only

(22:49):
version, where then you can'tsee it because it's just it's
just running in the background.
But when you open well, no, yes, you can, but when you open the
ham dashboard, you point thatpain to the IP address of the
ham clock's live feed and itpulls the ham clock's live feed

(23:12):
right into the ham dashboard.
And so I was like dude, this isawesome.
I mean, obviously it's reallysmall so you don't get to see
all the detail of the ham clock,but it's there, um and uh, yeah
, and I did get the um, the CSCweather, to show.

(23:32):
Um, like I said, I'm stillstruggling with manifest.
Um, for whatever reason, the um, the manifest, keeps giving me
an error, four or four.
Um, sounds like it's notloading content.
But but, um, yeah, and then Irealized that, uh, the the pie
that I was using was, um, it's aa, three B, and so, like trying

(23:55):
to run the ham dashboard on,that was God awful, it kept
freezing and it was just so slow.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Um, so I had yeah, wow, so I had yeah wow, I would
have thought that would havebeen enough horsepower to run
that stuff you would think.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
I don't know.
So there's a couple otheroptions that I'm working out.
But I did have.
I also had a 4.
The 4 has a duplex hat on it,so I gotta figure out how I can
get the duplex hat to to haveWPSD running at the same time as

(24:31):
the ham dashboard.
And even cooler if I could put,like, the WPSD window in the
ham dashboard.
Oh yeah, that would be prettysweet.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah Well, you know.
The other thing too is, likeyou know, having that web
instance.
You could always pull that upanytime you're on your desktop,
you know, and you want to build,like not have to peer around at
the ham clock, you could usethat as a, you know, quick, easy
reference from your browser.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
So that's pretty cool to.
It was really funny.
So, like I was, I was showingCarlos all about the ham clock
and you know how, how I set itup and how I figured it.
And he's like, dude, you shouldmake a video.
And I was like, well, I wouldaccept.
Smart Jason already did it.
Like I, I literally used hisvideos and then, like his videos

(25:22):
are a little outdated now, sothere was a lot of stuff that I
had to figure out on my own.
Like you still should do avideo.
So, yeah, maybe, like once Iget all the kinks ironed out
right, I'll do a video onsetting up the ham clock to run
as a web-only instance, and thenyou know setting up the ham

(25:44):
clock to run as a web onlyinstance, and then you know
setting up the ham dashboard forall of the information that I
want.
Cool, nice, but that's hamradio related.
So it was, it was ham radioit's totally fine.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
So, uh, you spent all weekend with carlos.
Did you actually play any hamradio at all, or are you just
outside of the ham dashboardstuff?

Speaker 2 (26:04):
No, no, um.
So Thursday Thursday, theweather was absolutely beautiful
.
Um, I, I was skydiving, uh,carlos did eight tandems Um
Friday, I, I, I, I slept in justa little bit, like by literally
like a half an hour and then,and then I made a pot of coffee,

(26:28):
I was shooting shit with Carlos, um, cause I, I've got AC, so
he, he's, he crashed in the, inthe RV with me, um, and uh, yeah
, the next thing, you know, it'seight o'clock and so, like he
was supposed to be at at a, at awork meeting in in the hangar

(26:50):
at 807, he missed his meetingand so, like, we both kind of
rushed over to the hangar andI'm like I need to get a rental
because that there's so manypeople here this weekend.
Like I, I need to get a rentalfirst thing so that I have a
parachute for the weekend or forthe day.
And, yeah, the one that I hadfor Thursday was already rented

(27:13):
and all of the other ones that Icould have rented were already
rented, and so I didn't get arental for Friday.
So what I did was I was alreadyum gonna assist with a demo.
Um, there was, uh, there wasthree skydivers.

(27:33):
They were gonna skydive into,um, into a big soccer field
where there was, um, a bunch ofpeople before a firework show.
Um, you know, really cool, likewith the, the giant American
flag, you know, and everything,um, I saw the photos on Patreon,
pretty cool.
Yeah, on the way my, uh, myalternator died in the truck and

(27:55):
so I didn't, I didn't make itto the demo, Um, but uh, hey it,
but uh, hey, I still get to seethem jump.
You know from from where I was,you know, on the side of the
gas station parking lot there.
Oh boy, triple eight, tripleeight got me back, um, I got me

(28:16):
back in time for, uh, for thefirework show here at the drop
zone and everything, and um, itwas actually, it was kind of
cool.
Like I haven't been able towatch fireworks, um, in years
and years and years.
Like you were saying that lastepisode, yeah, yeah, it just
causes a lot of issues for me,um, but, uh, being so close,

(28:38):
like you, I could literally seeall the mortar tubes lined up,
um, you know, and like I can seethem going off and I can see
them doing everything, and so itwas actually, um, it was really
cool, like it was nice to justkind of be able to enjoy
fireworks for a change.
Um, but, um, yeah, so that wasthat was.

(29:00):
Uh, that was Friday.
Um Saturday, the um, the weatherwas was a little too windy for
me.
Um, there was still people thatwere were jumping, but, um, the
the uppers, the uppers werelike you know, uh, 25 to 28
knots, um 3000, and below wasstill like 24, 25 knots.

(29:27):
Um, it's just that's.
That's higher winds than thanwhat I'm comfortable with at at
my skill level.
So I just hung out.
Um, I had a good time.
Um, you know, got got wet doinga slide and they had this big
inflatable slide, like they hadhad a.

(29:49):
They had a hose feeding the topand there was a pool at the
bottom.
So you climb up the the thingand you're like, you're like I
don't know, 25 feet up or so andyou and you slide down at the
pool.
It was, it was fun, um, butyeah, and then, and then we had,
uh, we had an awesome party andstuff, but yeah, anyways,
that's not ham radio related,eric.

(30:12):
How was your ham radio week?

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Totally fine, if you want to hear all the antics,
especially go back at the verybeginning of this.
If you're not a Patreon member,then this is where you're
missing out on the really coolshit we talked about prior to
this while waiting for Toddgetting in there.
But yeah, so, man, now that youkind of give me a blow by blow
of your four days, I can'treally remember my four days.

(30:35):
They kind of all blend.
It's kind of like did I do justa blur?
Yeah, I well, I know we were upin Maine most of the day
Thursday for fourth and doingfireworks and all that stuff and
I brought my radios, but wedidn't do much in that area.
Can I do anything Friday?
No, I mean to be truth, behonest.
I think the only thing I reallywas is uh, geared up for is I?

(30:59):
I did, we'll say, my second livestream, I think, yeah, on my
channel.
That's going to be moreconsistent.
So I'm doing a little thing, uh, on my channel called uh brew
and activates Sunday mornings wejust talk, pota, everything,
anything, and you know,hopefully it'll be a cool.
You know way to spend yourSunday morning.
So you know that'll be going onprobably for the next I don't

(31:22):
know for how long?
Until, you know, I run out oftopics, but POTA is pretty far
and wide, so I don't think I'llbe running out of topics anytime
soon.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Um, yeah, I would have, I would have been on that,
but uh, I was.
No, I was in the.
I was in the freaking woodsgetting eaten alive by bugs.
But hey, I did.
I forgot to tell you guys.
I did kind of so when I tookthe boys to.
Uh, I took zach and his frienddown to the beach and we went to
rye what is that?

(31:49):
Rye harbor state park.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
It was the one that we um, yeah, the one field that
we did, the rovon, yeah yeah, so, um.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
So I get there and there's a guy setting up a poda
station so I go up to introducemyself.
Told him about the podcast Iforget what his call sign was,
but uh, if he's on this and helistens, here's a shout out, but
uh, I went out to the unknownham.
Yeah, no, he's from mass andhe's why he goes.
I gotta go.
My wife only gives me two hours.
I was gonna go and tell herlike hey, that's not very nice,

(32:20):
you should give him at leastfour, but it takes, at least he
said he was on I guess he was onvacation or whatever.
But uh, yeah, he had this kindof cool long whip kind of
antenna with two raised radialsgoing out.
Um some, I don't know, itwasn't.
I think it's something heeither made or someone else had
made and he duplicated it, saidit worked really well.

(32:42):
And uh, as I was getting thefishing stuff out of the car,
you know, I could hear him likegetting people so, and then he
was gone by the time we got back.
So he must have activatedpretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Well, he only had two hours Tending contacts is it,
man yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
He should have just handed all the rod and the
tackle to the kid and been likeall right, I'll catch up with
you and be like, hey, can I jumpin on your activation.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, yeah, pass the mic.
Come on, you know the gameactivation.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, yeah, pass the mic, come on.
You know the game well, youknow I.
Because I was thinking I waslike you know, if I don't really
want to go fishing, I might aswell I could just activate.
And I was going to do it.
But then he was there and I waslike I'm not gonna rain on his
parade you're not planningproperly.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
You should be like let's go fishing down at the
rail trail, let him fish there,and then, yeah, he wanted to go
he wanted to go freaking, thinkshe's gonna catch like some
striper off the rye beach andlike dude.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
So I spent 14 in clams, which was nice because
they weren't frozen, becausewhen you go down to the cape
they're always freaking rockhard.
These things weren't frozen,but they're frozen now because I
stuck them in the.
I stuck them in the freeze inthe garage.
They really use like a likethree clams like they're like
this sucks.
Can we go so?

Speaker 1 (33:57):
yeah, I do have to say, though, like my wife
encouraged me most of theweekend to do a poda, but I was
just like, uh, I mean, I'm gonnafind out what that guy's name
is, because I could probablylook it up on the poda map
probably.
I mean if he posted it to thelog on a consistent basis.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
He was, though, hand scribing his log.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Oh well, maybe not then.
I know it takes Tim a littlewhile to get his up to parks on
the air or get it into a log sohe can upload it.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
But he did write down my call sign.
He did write down live forin-hamp.
So hopefully he's listening,which would be kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, I would be glad to have him on as another
subscriber.
It would be really cool.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
So you were given permission to go POTA and you
didn't.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
I just did, where we were located in just the general
areas and the stuff she wantedto do.
It was like Silver Lake, youknow, like.
So where we were located, likein just the general areas and
the stuff she wanted to do, itwas like silver lake or like all
the parks.
I kind of already done that.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
I knew like silver lake on fourth of july.
That's where I want to be well,that's part of the reason.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
There I was like, I was like nah, and then I was
gonna go to russell abbott wellyeah, but that would have bored
my wife to no end because that'slike in the middle of nowhere
and you know I wouldn't be here.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
But we won't talk about what she could have put
her toes in the water, read abook and enjoyed the sun.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
But so we went up to Maine and I had an option to go
to Mount Aggie to go do that andI turned that one down.
So, like I'm not broken, I justdidn't want to play.
I don't know, like I justdidn't feel like playing radio
because I not not in a bad way.
I was just like, hey, I want tolike relax.
You know, sometimes you just,you know you're kind of like
whatever, but you know, I'llleave it at that.
I, you know, I, I can't faultmyself for, like you know,

(35:43):
missing out an opportunitybecause it was granted to me.
But like I just was like, okay,whatever, you know, uh, I'll.
I.
I think probably the reason whyand I'll confess is I've got a
buttload of antenna reviews todo over the next four days.
So like I'm not thinking like,hey, I'm just gonna go have fun
doing a poda, uh, activation.
I'm thinking like, okay, Igotta review this antenna.

(36:04):
I gotta, you know, do this,this and this and, uh, you know,
so you, when you get intocontent creation, you know it's
a full-time job, man, you don'tdo activations, you're not like,
well, maybe Paul, you do, Idon't know, you haven't gotten
to that place where it's like Igotta do this review right,
otherwise I'm gonna get slammedby like everybody going why
didn't you talk about this partof the antenna?
And you know how come?
You know you didn't review thisand it's like, yeah, I should

(36:26):
have done that, but anyway allright, I got his name.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
It's w1jks john samalik.
Okay, so it looks like he.
Uh, he got 18, nice, so.
And then he went on to uh, rise, a good spot, order odior,
already on the park.
Oh yeah, he got 27.
He did that on the fifth, so hedid that on the 5th, so he did
that on the 3rd, and then hedidn't do anything on the 4th,

(36:53):
and then he went on the 5th Nice, yeah.
So yeah, he did it.
He must have done it prettyquick, because we weren't out
there that long.
I mean, we were probably outthere less than two hours.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
So, yeah, I'm going to put this little bug in your
ear.
Paul, go back down south toflorida for the winter.
We got to do that rope.
So you know somewhere in yourmix you know, before you leave,
let me know when you're dead,drop dead.
I gotta go to florida kind ofdate is and and then we'll work
backwards from that and scheduleeverybody who wants to do that
rope.
Because I was talking totortoise overland and it was

(37:23):
like dude.
I heard you guys mentionedabout a rove like, and I'm like,
oh, and so we started into thatwhole bucket and he's like,
dude, I want in.
I'm like, oh, and so we startedinto that whole bucket and he's
like, dude, I want in.
And we all know he's juststarting to get into podo, so
he's got the bug already andanything podo, he's all ready to
jump on board.
Yeah, it'll be fun.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, I think September time frame early
October it'll be great.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
September's going to be busy by the way, and we need
your boat.
Does that thing still work?
Your boat, it should.
Can, eric and I borrow itBecause there's a White Island
state historic site that's beenactivated?
But yeah, we can go out and getit, it's in the middle of the
ocean.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I know.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Do either one of you have your boating license?
That's the problem.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
I got a boating license.
I got a driver's license.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
No, you need a boating license.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
We might have to charter Paul, but anyway.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Why do you need a boating?
What do you need for a boating?
You got to take the course.
Yeah, yes, yep, all right, I'lltake.
How hard could it be?

Speaker 1 (38:28):
just another billion other things you're going to do.
Add that to your list.
All this free time just gettingsick only two people activated
it yeah, but the guy whoactivated it did a CW and he's
like got so many freakingcontracts 1699.
K1rx.
I wonder how much like he likewhether he had really good luck

(38:49):
or, like you know, there's alittle fudge factor in there and
nobody will know, becausenobody's going to be able to
challenge him on it.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
He did it three times $16.99.
Come on.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
That's, yeah, that's good.
600 contacts every like.
I mean he must've been outthere the whole entire day,
because you'd probably want tobe out there a whole entire day,
not for like a couple hours.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
And then the other guy, n1 srd.
He did it twice, 193.
I I find that 1699 a little forthree times.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Come on, uh, you could do it.
Man dude, he's literally righton the ocean.
That's salt water.
I mean, you've seen how manycontacts waltz gets and he runs
five watts.
Yeah, it's probably verypossible.
I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
I wouldn't know a lot of contacts it is, but you
figure what that's like 800contacts roughly give or take,
you know and if he's a, if he'sa 66 contacts each activation
yeah, but if he's a fast cw guyand he's there for the full day,
like yeah, that'd be easydoable yeah, yeah, where's my

(39:55):
band takes a little longer forevery contact.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
Well it is.
It's one of my bucket listitems.
Definitely want to get thatactivated, I have a kayak uh
dude I got a kayak on that.
No way, we're taking pa's boat.
That's the only way we're going.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
I can kayak out there .
I'll put all my gear in a drybag here we go.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
You kayak, paul, and I will take the boat.
We'll see who gets there fasterand dryer.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
I'll have the marine radio ready to call the Coast
Guard for you.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
I just don't think he's coming back to be honest
with you, he will.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
He will I coming back , to be honest with you, he will
I have to come back.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
He's got to come back for at least the 24-hour period
After Huntsville.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
No, you said Florida.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
I'm going to Florida for the winter.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Oh, you're going to come back and then go to Florida
.
Yes, I thought you were justgoing to go from Huntsville to
Florida and say, like screw it.
See you guys in the springnever go north, and then it'd be
like oh, it's springtime.
I'm going back to Indiana,illinois, illinois.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
We'll start with an I so I mean, I will say I talked
to the owner of the drop zonehere Eric, your videos fucked up
, Um and I'm, I'm, I am welcometo come back and, uh, work at
the drop zone next year.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Oh, nice video Fuck.
So we're working now you'reback.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Okay, yeah, you were like split.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
Oh, I gotta fix that hey can uh at the drop zone.
Can uh any plane land there, orjust their?

Speaker 2 (41:39):
plane.
It's a municipal runway.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Yeah, oh, it is yeah, it's not like peperal, where
it's like their own littlerunway no, no, it no, no.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
It's the town of Rochelle's Municipal Airport.
I'll call.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Ryan, and maybe I'll do my flying lesson next year
and we'll fly out there and Ican do my solo there,
cross-country solo Halfway.
Yeah, you're laughing.
I'm not laughing, I just seeyour list keep going.
It's my retirement gig.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Okay, got it.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
I'm going to become a student or what do you call it?
A teacher.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
As Uncle Bob has said , when you finally win the
lottery, let him know, becausethat's a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
If you can fly a Cessna, you could work the drop
zone flying skydivers.
I can fly.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
I've flown a Cessna before.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
You know Amherst Dispatch.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
I did see the chief today.
I saw the chief at the fort.
He's really getting pissed.
He says it's getting close.
I got to send him my resume andadd my ham radio experience on
there.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
There we go.
I'm sure that'll win you over.
He wants me to do it.
He goes.
You're the perfect guy to do it.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
He goes.
All my dispatchers live like 45minutes to an hour away and
when someone doesn't come upthere's no one to call and I
literally could like walk to thepolice station.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
So I was doesn't come up, there's no one to call, and
I literally could like walk tothe police station.
So I was like well, you knowwhere I live.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Let's go, let's get it done.
So we'll have to do the life ofthe dispatch.
I'll be like.
I'll be like w1stj.
Uh, we got a dv at three mainstreet.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Joe's at it again we got a perp down here in the
corner.
He's molesting a tree.
He seems to be having sex withit and we're not quite sure why.
But can you get an officer downhere as soon as possible?

Speaker 2 (43:40):
well, so here's the thing is.
As somebody who used to work indispatch the, the police
station has their own call signand so every hour on the hour
you have to do a check.
I worked for Bedford Police,fire and 911 there for a little

(44:06):
while.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
You got to check, make sure where they're at.
They're still alive.
Alive, not in danger, not muchgoes on it.
I could just see like I'll getlike third shift, like what the
fuck goes on in the air, or somethird shift I'll be like
waiting.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
The thing is, you know I mean they need, they need
a lot of.
They need people that work 3 to11, 11 to 7, you know, like the
evening and overnight.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Yep, that's a song by Kenny Chesney called shift work
.
You just quoted.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
There we go, all right.
Well, let's steer the ship backonto our topic tonight, so we
can get.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
Are we talking about something?

Speaker 1 (44:49):
We talk about something we you know amazing
Like we can get this going.
Are we talking about something?
We talk about something amazingevery once in a while.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
What are we talking about today?

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yeah, so this has kind of been on the Reddits,
it's been on Facebooks andYouTubes and stuff like that.
We've got this kind of topic.
That kind of came, I think,from.
Obviously, field Day has comeand gone.
If you had a great Field Day,that's awesome.
I know us three, three, wedidn't participate at all.
Todd, he couldn't even rememberit was on um and that was

(45:16):
totally fine.
So you know.
So we have no experience priorto this, but not to say that we
aren't field day virgins we, wewere very, you know, we're I'd
say we're veterans.
Yeah, we've got three or fourwe're seasoned, yeah, season as
well.
Well put, definitely both, uh,both seasons.
We are winter field daywarriors too as well and we'll
get out there and play.
But you know, I kept seeing thesame theme over and over again.

(45:39):
Everyone's like, oh, field daykind of sucks, it's, you know,
field days not this.
And and a lot of people wereconstantly always referring
field day it's like field day isnot poda and like, oh, I do
this at poda all the time.
Like why, why are we sayingthis is an emergency, you know,
preparation kind of event?
Um, and like I kept reading allthis and I'm like, guys, you

(46:01):
know, like it's not really.
I mean, so it kind of might getme thinking with you guys, and
I was like you know, so I threwit out to you guys early in the
week and I said, you know, isfield day still freaking
relevant?
Like do we still need to do thisonce a year gathering where we
empty our shacks and drop it alloff in some remote place to go
play ham radio and then tag itas emergency kind of

(46:25):
preparedness, when you know agood percentage of us I mean at
least us and many of oursubscribers are all POTA people
that you know we do that everyday, like I.
I can tell you that I think I'mmore prepared with my POTA bag,
like if there was an emergency,I just grab it and go and I
know exactly what I've got andI'm ready to rock and roll.

(46:46):
But God, if I prepared, like Iprepared for field day, fuck no,
I know that'd be like, okay,where I'm gonna stick my uh dx10
?
Oh, where's my battery?
Uh, you know what antenna am Ithink I'm gonna put up, like you
know.
So it's not like I don't thinkarl should be framing this as an
emergency exercise anymore.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
I guess we'll start there, so, but anyway, I don't
know right, so so I I will letthese guys you know letters.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
Listen.
I I think that ham radio,people that regularly get on the
radio, use the radio, speak onthe radio, do POTA hunt POTA, do
a contest and whatever likethey're on the radio they're not
just, they're actuallyparticipating, speaking CW, fta,

(47:35):
whatever.
But people that use the radioon a regular basis are way more
prepared than the people that goout and do field day once a
year.
Okay, kind of like our Ariesnet right.
First time the Aries net cameto Bedford it was a complete
joke, it was a disaster, and itwas I mean, if they say any

(47:59):
other way, they're full of itCause it was terrible.
I was like what the hell arethese guys doing?
Agreed, fine, but the guy beatthat horse?

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Yeah, but what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 (48:08):
is the guys, the guys that do the net and do it on a
regular basis, and I or someonethat's actively comfortable on
the radio multiple times, youknow, a week, and that's what

(48:37):
field day was that time to geteveryone out there and and being
prepared.
But any poda activator does afield day every time they go out
.
Oh yeah, every, every time.
So when you know all these guyshave to do all this preparing,
I mean shit.
You could say I could have beenlike, oh shit, it's field day
today.
I could have grabbed my bag andjust gone somewhere and set up

(49:01):
in five minutes, 10 minutes, andstart doing field day.
I didn't, I wouldn't need youknow all the preparation stuff.
I think field day is more of asocial gathering with your clubs
, maybe education, getting hamradio out there, introducing ham
radio to new people, more of apublic facing kind of adventure.

(49:26):
Yeah, I mean, I think so.
I mean it's that's what I wouldlike.
I think that's what they shouldmore it should be about.
It should be like a hey,everyone's going out on field
day.
We're all going to make the.
Everyone's going to be out,there's going to be make tons of
contacts and we're going tohave the opportunity to
introduce people to ham radio.
And you know, we sometimes dothat on POTA, but sometimes you

(49:48):
know you're by by yourself andthere's no one there.
Other times people come up anddo it.
But field day you could make ita big.
You could make it a big, youknow it could be the big event
and really focus on gettingpeople there.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Who's that I I I got Mike's images here.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I'm going to post them here.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Oh, you already posted them, I was just gonna
well, no, I was.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I was hoping that it would show, and you can't.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
You can't actually read what it says yeah, let me,
uh, let me grab this one here.
I got both of them here.
Uh, yeah so, paul.
So what's your take on?
I mean, obviously you kind ofshare the same sentiment.
You know what you think fieldday is.
So passe at this point, or isit irrelevant any longer?

Speaker 2 (50:30):
okay, so, my thoughts on on field day is that before,
before poda got popular, fieldday was a a very needed thing
where people could biannually ifyou do winter field day go out

(50:55):
and practice setting up astation in adverse conditions.
And for somebody new field dayis a wonderful first experience,
right, because you've gotmentorship that can help you get
on the air and walk you throughworking pileups and how to deal

(51:20):
with you know people who areright on top of one another and
how to notch out the stationsthat are around you and how to
deal with interference fromother stations that are near you
, and so, in those ways, I thinkfield day is still a very

(51:43):
needed thing.
I think, rather than field daybeing a practice in emergency
communications or emergencypreparations, field day is a
public outreach and that's whatit should be getting texts on HF

(52:09):
, getting new people you knowinto where they can, they can
meet an Elmer, they can, youknow, connect with someone who
would then like be like allright, like now, I've got your
number, you've got my numberwhen field day is done, if
you've got questions, like,you've got somebody that can

(52:31):
help you right and and I thinkthat that is still very, very
important in in bringing newpeople in through the hobby yeah
, that was that.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
That's a good point, because then you know if you did
meet someone and you you knowyou spent some time with them,
you could always follow up withthem and kind of push them along
, cause when I was new to hamradio, before I knew you guys
and I, I don't even think I hadbeen to the barn or even a club
meeting, but I joined the club Ididn't really know anyone and I

(53:04):
was just looking for someone tokind of give me, you know, open
my the doors a little bit forme, cause I didn't know
basically anything except thetechnician test and the and the
and the net you know.
So, um, but yeah, that I thinkthat would.
That's good.
I think our club we try to dothat, I think when I mean I
think we've we had, we've had alot of people come in like you

(53:25):
know Paul, like was it lastfield day or was it the winter
one with the kid one?
No, the one with the kid, yeah,it was christina, yeah yeah,
that was winter yeah, winter,yeah, so that you know that's.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
You know, that's kind of like what I think, and that
was actually that was twowinters ago, because this last
winter, um, yeah, and and therewas the, the other little boy, I
don't remember his name, but Idid get him on the air and you
used his voice for pre-recordingtoo.

(53:59):
I sure the fuck did read thisscript and let me record it
exactly so let's pause here.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Real quick.
I got Mike's video, so thosethat want to see what we're
talking about here, let me zoomthis up a little bit.
This one is called Mike.
Just posted these in the chat.
It says field day is just podoLARPing, go ahead and change my
mind, which I think is hilarious.
And then the other one I find alittle bit better here.

(54:30):
Let me grab that one real quick.
Stop there, we go, add andwindow this one.
These are perfect for Facebookbecause, you know, facebook is a
dumpster fire, so this is rightup their alley.
So this one is two old guys ontheir scooters saying with a

(54:51):
banner in the back says fieldday, says happy band pass,
filter, appreciation weekend,which is freaking.
So true.
Oh my gosh, that like that islike.
So I agree 100.
Where you guys are saying withyou know the the fact that I
think arl, if they are going tocontinue to run this as an
organization, that they reallyneed to just get away from

(55:16):
making this anything whatsoeverof a contest, like the fact that
they post the results year overyear.
Stop a camera that long, don'tbe so French, I know, right,
exactly German, so I'm out tostrangle myself, but anyway we
won't go there.
Um, all that being said, isthat I think arl needs to just

(55:38):
dump the whole idea with havingposted results and bonus points
and all of that stuff that theytried to I think help, but it
hindered.
It kind of ended up being acrutch because what it did was
it attracts people to thinkcontest wise, and we know
several clubs in the area whostill play by the hey, how can

(56:00):
we be great at making the mostpoints and establishing
ourselves as the dominant?
You know, contesting power, andfor me, that like is exactly
the opposite of what I think.
You know you guys already stated.
It's like it's an educationmoment.
It's like, uh, get your handson the radio.
It's a let's talk about hamradio, because you what?
You've never heard about it.

(56:21):
Well, dude, you're hang out andstuff.
But clubs aren't doing thatlike.
Most of them are just like likethey're all in their corners,
they're doing contesting andthey're busting their butts to
make the most points and that'swhere they're focused.

(56:42):
And you know, I think that'sit's sadly we're.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
We're a different breed of ham radio operators,
right, like we like to get outand socialize and hang.
I mean, our whole club, a lotof members in our club like to
do that.
You know there are some clubs,well, they don't like to operate
I wouldn't say a lot of thembut they like to get together
the social aspect.
But I think you know, I think,what makes poda so, what people

(57:08):
like about poda.
They, they take the best thingsabout field day, which is
getting outside, operating inoutside your shack, right,
enjoying the weather, enjoyingthe outdoors, seeing new places.
Um, but the the awards are notthe awards.
But do they call them awardsthe things?
No, there's no awards.

(57:29):
No, what are they called thecertificates?
Or something like the thingsyou try to work for, like, oh,
the bonus points, no, no, I'mtalking about in poda oh yeah,
like like activate all states.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Yeah, you know there's, there's awards with
poda yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
So what I'm saying is is like, maybe that would be
something cool that you know youcould do as a club, is like,
okay, these are all the awardsthat you could, your club could
earn for field day and see howmany you could get, which would
be like, you know, work, everystate, you know, and then you
get the all states award.
You know what I, you know whatI'm saying?
Like I think that because a lotof people, I think in poda,

(58:08):
look at those awards and say,hey, I'm, and that's what they
make their decisions, like hey,I need to, you know, I'm gonna
hunt or I'm gonna activate everystate, like that's on my, I
want to do that.
So what they do, they startworking and saying they, okay,
I'm gonna think, oh honey, let'stake a trip to arkansas.
Like why the hell we want to goto arkansas?
Well, we could go down toflorida and just veer off to

(58:30):
arkansas so I can activate thepark, right.
But like that's something Iwould do, like take a detour to
go, uh, to get a state that Ididn't do, just because it's
kind of like a goal, right, andnot something you could do.
And maybe they do, because Ithink that's what a lot of
people in podo like to do.
Like they say oh, I need to getvermont, I need to get vermont.
Like if you go and activate invermont like you're like you're

(58:53):
gonna get a pile up becausepeople don't get vermont for
some reason.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
So if I cross, no people in in vermont don't like
to confirm their fuckingcontacts that's another story,
same with south dakota.
For whatever fucking reason,the hams just don't like to
confirm their contacts.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
That's all it requires.
My friend Trust me, and I knowa few guys in the Vermont side
that'll be happily able toconfirm your contact for a small
nominal fee.
So okay, here's my little thing.
I don't know if you watch anyof the YouTube field day kind of
videos, so KMurder did onewhere he visited the south lions
, his old stomping grounds.
I don't know if you caught thatone in michigan, in michigan,

(59:35):
yeah.
So he went back to michigan forthis year's field day.
Funny thing was I didn't knowthe guys that we had on everyday
ham same club.
They, they know mike.
Oh no shit yeah, well, yeah,they're in michigan yeah, which
would make sense, but michigan'sa big state so I figured I
didn't know what part ofmichigan they were in no, it's a
hand oh right, sorry, right.

(59:58):
So all that being said, likethey, the way they were talking
was like they set up in themiddle of the woods at like kind
of a campground area.
I don't like the way theytalked, that the people that
came by and visited weredefinitely kind of people that
were already hams, that knewabout it.
So like this whole educationpiece that we were mentioning,

(01:00:18):
like you know, getting newpeople you know are usually
public people that normallywould never venture into those
places.
So like I feel like it's loston a lot of those.
You know clubs that decide togo do a camp out and it's in an
excluded area, I should saythey're not letting the public
always come in, they're notgetting the public Next year's

(01:00:41):
field day.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Walmart parking lot.
Who did that?
You can camp there, you can putyour trailers there, you can do
anything you want there.
So you want to get public.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Yeah, and you're going to deal with a shit ton of
RFI.
No, hear me out.
Okay, what is missing in thattype of scenario is the
publication, the publicity of it.
So you pick ideally you wouldpick a state park that is not so

(01:01:16):
far removed, but removed enough, and you would publicize the
shit out of it.
And this is where, like, theclubs need to do the fucking
business.
This is where I'm telling youright, we beat the shit to death
.
But the business meetings areimportant because clubs need to

(01:01:40):
conduct business and part ofthat business is publicity.
And so you need to put outpress releases to your local
paper and your local news andand all of the places so that
people see and they go.
Hey, are you interested inradio?

(01:02:01):
Have you ever thought aboutmaking a contact, you know, with
a radio and a battery in the,you know, in the middle of the
woods?
All right, come find out whatwe're doing.
Sure, come find out how youknow you could be prepared in
case of an emergency.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
So I agree with the publicity side of things.
My frustration is so say likewe like, as an example, the
parks around in the New Englandarea.
They're tough, like if you goto places like most parks, you
have to pay to get in.
Now, the big challenge withthat is, like, if you want the
public aspect to come to thatlike and you're in a park that
requires people to pay to get in, you're only going to get the

(01:02:43):
attraction of the folks that arethere at the park already,
which is fine and that's not abad thing.
But I think, if you know, youmake arls field day a big
education aspect.
Damn you, camera, camera, letme do this Tap to lock it.
There we go.
The thing you lose out is thefact that you can't really get
the people off what I call offthe street.

(01:03:04):
The benefit that we had beingat Mike's is that all we had to
do was freaking advertise in andaround the area and people
would come off of the majorhighways because they see this
sign about like what the hell'sthis radio thing?
Let's go check it out, and youknow they just come um, or you
know they, you know maybe sawour dude, people were coming
from the highway to go togosstown they parsed it actually

(01:03:25):
not entirely true.
Two years ago we actually had acouple that randomly saw our
sign and followed all the signsto our site and we're like what
is this field day?
Like what's this ham radiostuff?

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
so there are people all the way from like what?

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
114 yeah, I mean that's not like halfway around
the world, but like that's inthe localized area.
So the main traffic atthoroughfares in and around area
.
I wasn't saying like, yeah,they're coming from far and wide
, uh, this is not, this is notfield of dreams, but, um, you
know, all that being said, Ithink, like that aspect is super
important because, like you andI've been witness to it I mean

(01:03:59):
we had two brand new hams,literally got a chance to get on
three brand new hams and winterfield day, if we include that,
that have just gotten on the air, and you know we planted that
seed.
I'm hoping we'll see them inthe future.
Um, but, like, we've had likecouples that come to us like
that, like two years ago theyhad, hey, our church wants to do
, you know, get more into radio.
You know where, who do we talkto about that kind of stuff

(01:04:20):
because we want to do somethingfor emergency preparedness.
Well, yeah, we've got plenty ofpeople in aries that can talk
to you about that stuff, and soyou know, we we've had those
conversations.
So I think, come meet yourelmer.
Yeah, wait, what's an elmer?

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
you want elmer who, but anyway, yeah.
Yeah, I still don't have one,but that's all right, oh,
whatever, we're all elmers toeach other.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
I mean, heck, some days I feel like you're elmering
me.
So how's that for it?
Um, so I don't know, like I, I,um, I, I want to touch a little
bit because I know you guysdon't have the backstory like
when I was a ham in 1991, wayback when, like, field day was
the day because that was theonly thing you could.

(01:05:06):
You know that you couldactually get and play radio and
get people involved and youbring your friends and they
could come, and I used to drag alot of my high school friends
to, you know, field day andthey'd be like, oh, this is kind
of cool, but you know theywould never get their ticket or
anything like that.
But like, I don't feel likethat's, you know that's relevant
any longer because, like Idon't know about you, I'm not

(01:05:28):
always inviting.
You know my non-ham friends youknow those that know ham radio
that I've known for 30 yearsmake fun of me, but that's a
different story, you know, andso they're never going to come.
But you know, in essencethey're, they're going to, you
know they, they probably wouldbe a good fit to hanging out in
those circles and talking withthose people.
So you know, I I see from wherefield they used to be.

(01:05:49):
Yeah, it was super relevant.
It was important that we allget together and hang out
because it was all that food,fellowship and fun stuff.
But I think it's a lot less nowbecause poda's just made radio,
so much more you know,accessible to everybody, like
would you agree?

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
well, so all right, I would.
I would take it one stepfurther and say that field day
is still important for thereasons that I said.
Okay, um, but in addition tofield day, because field day is
centered around clubs, right?

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
In addition, not anymore they're home stations
now because, remember, they allhave the D stations.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Yeah, but I mean the majority is club calls.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Okay.
Maybe At least I mean, that'smy, my take on it right, I could
count five people that I knowwent off on their own three and
did their own thing on somebodyelse's call.
But okay, I agree with it, gowith that all right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Well, follow, follow my train of thought here okay,
take the bus, but go on, okay.
So I think that it's it's it'smore important to do the, the
community outreach as a club,right, doing things like when I
was, when I was super active inthe vfw and I would pull the

(01:07:08):
club to vfw things where we were, you know, setting up, setting
up in in the, you know, for thepublic as an information.
And okay, look here's, here's astation.
It's a portable station and,granted, I mean it was my POTA
station, right, but we weredemonstrating live to the public

(01:07:29):
, making contacts around theworld and getting people
genuinely interested in thehobby.
Yeah, I agree, and I think Ithink that's where the field day
focus should be on, on pullingin the public, being all about
education and hanging out,having a good time, meeting

(01:07:51):
people face to face, havingthose face to face CSOs where
you say, hey, you know what Ilike this guy or this girl and
they're really smart and theyknow shit and I want to learn
from them.
And so let's swap numbers,let's exchange contact info and
I'm going to.
I'm going to go to that personfrom now on until I get my

(01:08:16):
general and I've got a littlebit of knowledge where I can
start maybe sharing what I'velearned.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Okay, so let me kind of do a little summary.
So we think contesting shouldgo away.
Yeah, I like the idea of it,todd, you agree?

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
For field day.
Yeah, I mean I I never tookfield day I could.
I mean I never cared about whatwe were doing in the field, I
just wanted to make contacts, solike I wasn't paying attention
to you know what we needed toget or not.
I mean I know like there werethings that people were just
like trying to get, I I justwent in there just to make the

(01:08:56):
contact.

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
So but you were interested in making.
The farthest contact you couldpossibly make is that kind of
like what you were trying toshoot for to see what
propagation would give you.
But yeah, I wanted to get tothat, that's why I was trying to
get there.
Okay, we're going to talk to,you know, mike's point in a
second um, because I think thethe winter field day guys have a
better idea, or at least havetheir heads on their shoulders
the right way, um, and areadapting to the times to, you

(01:09:20):
know, be more relevant.
But so contest needs to go away.
There needs to be more of aneducational like primary, like.
That should be number one focusfor all clubs and the purposes
of furthering field day, becausethat will stop the bullshit of
oh, the hobby's dying, we don'thave new hams coming in.
You know that would all go awaybecause in essence, those

(01:09:41):
elmers would have two options todo they could share their
information with the public andnew people and young kids,
because old people love youngkids, um, you know they're more
than apt to like tell themstories and stuff like that.
So you, you know there therewill be that community kind of
building aspect.
But there's gotta be, you knowthe field day component in

(01:10:02):
setting up.
I think the one thing thatpisses me off the most is that
field day has so many rules tolike.
You have to be this station andyou have to be this power and
you have to be in this area.
And if you're only with twopeople, you can to be this power
and you have to be in this area.
And if you're only with twopeople, you can't be this with
three people and you can't bethis call, you know, delineation
, or this section number, youknow, and it really just like

(01:10:22):
for a new person, it makes somuch confusion and could be more
simplified with how I meanwinterfield days uses some of
the same nomenclature.
But to go to mike's point,because that's what I'm trying
to get to, is that mike made acomment and he said you know, I
think winterfield day is got theright track where they're
they're doing objectives andthey're they're trying to make

(01:10:44):
better ways and more inroads todoing like other things in the
hobby.
So like you get bonus points fordoing satellites or you get,
you know you get more than that.
You know where you get, youknow you get more than that.
You know where you're, you'retaking on, you know, um an
activation of a park.
You know, because theyobviously want to make sure that
they, you know, they bring inthe podo people.
You know, at the same time,because they're the ones going
out and doing the park and atthe same time they have to not

(01:11:07):
like the year before they werelike they couldn't participate
in.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
It's like, so they made the rule change and they
made it, you know, so they coulddo that or they could rove and
so yeah.
But you've also got like um,you know h, hf and vhf, uhf,
winlink and vera.
You know like there are so manyother modes that you can use
where you know it's keyboard tokeyboard but it's rf yeah yep,
yeah, I think you know, andthey're going to probably expand
it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
I would love to see how they could do things more.
And you know, dealing with aprsand and all of those like
forgotten modes that just aren'talways widely publicized and
used, um to get more hamsinvolved, like I.
I know there's obviously peopletrying to push that.
You know, further withapplications, because I just saw
HRCC's you know latest post on.
Or you know JSA call updates,so like it's those things that

(01:12:04):
you know I want to see more ofin the hobby, because you know
how many times you ever hear anold old ham go, oh, I remember
the PSA, psk days and you knowdealing with, you know the old
Ritty and all that other stuff.
And or you know our favorite,you know K1G in our club.
He's like, yeah, it's JSA callweekend every time when we talk
about contesting.

(01:12:24):
So it's like you know, kind ofthose things Like I get it
because they don't want that,that mode to die and so it's
it's important to, I think, tomake those things you know more
prevalent and, and you know,more active.
Sorry, I'll, I'll stop.
I, you know I.
I left my white collar, youknow, on the desk over there so

(01:12:46):
I didn't want to reach over toyou.
But, yeah, glad to help outthere, mike, yeah, amen, yeah,
so I don't know.
It's definitely got to changelike and this is the problem, we
all know that we all can'tstand ARRL they are going to
hold on to this you know thisthing for a long time and let it

(01:13:07):
and milk it to death until theyrealize, oh, they just don't
have the interest any longersadly, the ARRL has become the
Ham Radio NRA.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
Yeah, true, good analogy.
It just is what it is.
Unfortunately, it's too big,it's too inflated and they've
lost sight of what their actualmission should be.
Um, but it's.
I think it's up to us to to kindof pick that up and be like you

(01:13:46):
know what we, we know what,what actually resonates with
other people and what is goingto help and what's going to mean
something to somebody else.
And so, like, fuck what the bigorganization wants to do.
Let's just focus on puttingsomebody new in front of a radio

(01:14:08):
, giving them a script, helpingthem out, teaching them, walking
them through it, and then, whenthey do get a pile up, being
like, okay, now, yes, it was alot coming at you right there,
but what did you hear?
Did you hear a prefix that youcould, you could, pull out?
Did you hear a suffix that youcould pull out?

(01:14:30):
Like, okay, now, key on thatand then focus on it.
Or you know, okay, so you know.
Side band aside, you know, let'slook at what can we do to relay
pertinent information aboutwhere we are and what's going on
in our location to other people.

(01:14:57):
To other people, because that'sthe kind of stuff where in a in
like a natural disaster typesituation, like you look at, you
know, uh, helene, right, andall that shit that happened to,
to tennessee and north carolinalike had there been hams that
were a little bit betterprepared, they wouldn't have
been so focused on repeaters andthey would have been a little
bit better prepared, theywouldn't have been so focused on
repeaters and they would havebeen a little bit more focused

(01:15:18):
on making sure that whatevermode they were using to relay
information was getting theright information to the right
people, and that's using thingslike WinLink and JS8Call and
Vera and all of those othermodes that are in our toolbox,
you know, and so, yes, field dayis great and it's and it's good

(01:15:41):
to get out with the people andand interact with the club and
hang out, socialize, but I thinkI think the focus going forward
needs to be on mentorship andand teaching all the modes, all
the ways, because that's how youget people interested in

(01:16:02):
actually practicing emergencycommunications on a regular
basis outside of field day sohere's a thought for you and
maybe you know, do you think insay five years?

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
because here's an example like we currently do,
twice a year, podo beat ups withour club and it's not, it's
geared around, we'll say, youknow, sports parks weekend for
just the purposes of like peopleexperiencing the field day,
because we all know like heckthere's going to be billions of
people on, they're going to makea contact.
It's going to be like shootingfish in a barrel.

(01:16:33):
So that's why we do it.
Do you ever think that you know, say in five years, like along
your ideas, trying to stayrelevant, trying to do that same
thing?
Because I feel like we do thatvery well in the POTA community
already.
Like there's never, like I'venever bumped into a ham that
been go away.
I'm busy here making contacts.
It's like, hey, what are youdoing?

(01:16:55):
Oh, let me show you.
Let's have that conversation.
You're always willing to stopthe process for the purposes of
maybe educating somebody on itor doing something you know
around it.
Do we think in five years, likeyou know, will all of a sudden
poda say, support your parksweekend become the new field day
?
Not not calling it field day,but calling it, you know, podo,
with all of those same elementsthat you were talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:17:19):
yeah, and I think, um , any, any club that is smart is
going to key up on that, andthey're going to take advantage
of that, especially five yearsfrom now, because five years
from now, bank conditions aregoing to be shit.
Yeah, yep, right, and so that'swhen it's going to be even more
important to know how toutilize all the tools in your

(01:17:42):
toolbox, right?
Well, I can't make a sidebandcontact to California right now,
but I need to relay a messagefrom a family member to a family
member in California, and howcan I do that in the most
effective way, even with shitband conditions, right?
And so I think that's.

(01:18:04):
I think that's the future andthat's where it needs to be
focused.
What are you going to say, todd?

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
No, I mean I think one of the other things that
makes poda poda is just fun andsometimes there's so much work
in field day, you know, settingit up, running it like it, it
takes away the the fun part ofit, like it's it's so much work
to do 24 hour.
I mean I don't like we're gonnado the 24 hour park right,

(01:18:36):
it'll be a lot of work, but yeahyeah, but it's not gonna be a
lot.
A lot of work like a field daywork, like it's gonna be like
we're gonna set up a station, wegot a campsite, we're gonna
drink some beers and we're gonnaplay radio right, we still have
to live stream and figure outhow that equipment's gonna work
and stay up and running allduring that time.
So, yeah, there's a lot ofmoving parts, but yeah, I get

(01:18:57):
where you're coming from but Imean like, even like when we go
out and say, hey, you want to go, like all right, for an example
, when we went to do the rove,right, we, I said, hey, it's
going to be 80 degrees, I'mtaking off work and you're like,
I'm good, let's go.
And then we just went and didit and it was fun.
It wasn't a lot of planning, itwas like let's just bring our
stuff and we'll figure out onthe way, and we just did it and

(01:19:18):
it was fun.
I, I think with field day, withall the rules and and you know
someone's like this, this manypeople, this many, I mean it
just gets to the point whereit's like, what are we doing
here?
Where it almost makes me wantto be like I just want to go out
by myself and set up my POTA.
That's where a lot of people goand set up my one station and

(01:19:41):
just work the bands right.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean in five years, 10 yearsfrom now, I think POTA is what's
going to save and is saving hamradio, because you're getting a
lot more younger people who aregetting into POTA, who are, are
getting out there and are, andthen you know, and then you've

(01:20:02):
got like the internet andYouTube and people are are doing
you know, like we're doing andand other YouTubers and podcasts
, but people are actually outthere doing it Like there's
always people hunting you.
When you go out on pod LikeI've never gone out and been
like this is cute parks on theair and nothing, you know

(01:20:24):
there's always.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
The, the bank conditions.
The past couple of weeks havebeen just that.
So, but that's, you know thebank, even when I was in
California and I could barelyget the fricking 10, right, even
when I was in California and Icould barely get the fricking 10
, right there's still people outthere trying to find me or hear
me.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
I could hear him, you know, faintly in the, in the,
in the noise, but I think thatthat's what makes POTA is like
is basically it's getting peopleto use ham radio more and more.
I think more people areprobably using doing ham radio
on a regular basis than theyprobably ever did before.
You know, not saying the ragchewers that get on like on HF

(01:21:03):
and are just shooting the shitwith their buddy, but like
actually going out unlessthere's a contest.
I mean right where they'retrying to make contacts and
going through the motions.
But POTA it's like you can doit whenever you want and the
whole world is doing it,basically, and it's people are.
People are enjoying it and Ithink it's what's going to save

(01:21:25):
him radio, because I think if hedidn't have something like that
and you only had it one day ayear or now two days a year, you
know, with with Winterfield day, I think it's, I think it's a
day a year or now two days ayear, you know, with with winter
field day, um, I think it's.
I think it's a, it's a hobbythat will probably would have
probably died out.
But now that you can go out andthere's things for you to work

(01:21:45):
for if you, if you're into that,like working for a work, all
States are hunted, all States.
And even if you can't do, let'ssay you're, you're older and
you're, and you're not as mobileand you can't go out and do
parks you can always be a hunter, right, and it allows you to do
that and search and try tostation without having to have a

(01:22:06):
quote-unquote contest to bedoing.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
But so, all right, let me ask you, though, todd
right, because one of the thingsyou said is that you would be
just happy and fine just goingout on your own.
Now, at this stage in the game,at this stage in the game, I
would rather do it with you guysand my friends and hanging out,
okay, but.

(01:22:31):
but so hear me out.
But at this stage in the game,right, you're an experienced
operator, okay.
And so think back to like thatfirst time that you and I met
Eric at the rail trail.
Okay, we didn't have a fuckingclue, but all we knew was from
meeting Eric at field day and,like, having that interaction,

(01:22:55):
we liked him, we got along, likeokay.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Yeah, I was like sweet.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Now, let's, let's continue to learn and let's take
this portable stuff to anotherlevel, right, but for us, like I
mean, it started at field day,yeah, and so that's where I
think, I, I, I think field dayis still important.
Oh, I'm not listening.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
I I'm not saying it's not important.
I don't think we should everget rid of it.
I think it's a great thing todo?

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
You just need to evolve, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Yeah, to evolve.
Yeah, yeah, I think it's.
I think less of.
I agree with what you're saying.
It needs to be more educational, more open, get the public
involved and then have fun.
It should be a time for clubsto get together and hang out for
24 hours or 12 hours orwhatever they're going to do.
I mean, those are all reallyfun things about field day, you

(01:23:53):
know, but I like I said to me,like all the rules and all the
things and and what you can,it's just I don't want to deal
with it like I.

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
You funny, you say that because, like here's a
little sidebar I I'm not evenrunning field day this year.
I can't tell you how many timesI had four people come up to me
and go we can't start it at 10o'clock.
The go to station can't startat 10 o'clock because the rules
say that if we set up on thistime on Friday and we cannot
turn the radios on until two,I'm like guys, it's a separate

(01:24:26):
call sign.
I don't care, we're going tomake 22 contacts with that,
probably on the max.

Speaker 3 (01:24:31):
Let them go, let the max, let them go, let them do it
, it doesn't matter.
Stop being so and that's the,that's the stupid stuff.
Like, oh, like, like, why can'tyou set up on friday, a day
before, and get everything, sothen, when, when noon comes, or
whenever it starts, you, justyou can get there at 11, shoot
the shit and then start well, Iunderstand why.

Speaker 1 (01:24:49):
Because it was for folks like n1fd, who were like I
want to take advantage of thisand make it.
You know, use it as a way toget a leg up.
So that's why that rule iscreated, those extra contest
points, even though it's not acontest exactly right and that's
the problem is, like you know,if you eliminate that, I think,
that contest portion and make itmore educational, like all you
guys have said, it'll change howpeople behave and how it

(01:25:12):
becomes less we'll sayaggressive and more inviting.

Speaker 3 (01:25:17):
Yeah, I mean, you know I was thinking, you know
you talk about, like, how do youget people involved in ham
radio?
Right?
Well, I had a walk in the 4thof July parade with the baseball
team.
How cool would it be If you hada flatbed.
No, no and you you set up your.
You know, we set up my antenna,since it's, you know, the Buddy

(01:25:41):
Pole Pro, because it can be ona thing and we just have a huge
speaker connected to it.
Yeah, good luck with your wire,huge speaker.

Speaker 2 (01:25:51):
You know what those things can do.
Suck the paint off your houseand give your family a permanent
orange afro.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
But right, how cool would that be if you're doing it
and you're just working theradio.
You know CQ 4th of July parade.
We're in the parade, you know,trying to make a contact.
Even not even in the parade,like just like I'm sure you
probably have a whole bunch ofbooths you could set up and let
people come by, right, but butthose are the kinds of things
and like the 4-H stuff and getinvolved with the schools,

(01:26:19):
because everyone, everyone willmake fun of you doing ham radio
until they actually see it.
And then when you start makingcontacts around the world,
they're like Whoa, that's prettycool, can you do that again?

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
Or show me how you did that.
It's like the face paintingorganizations at all of these
places.
Eventually, like everyonelooked at it like why would I
want to put paint on my face?
And now it's like the mostpopular thing with kids.
So it's like ham radio shouldbe the same way, like you know.
Eventually, like make itpopular again and you know like
people start making contacts Allright.

Speaker 3 (01:26:53):
Next 4th of July, let green, so he can look like the
grouch.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I'm just saying, I mean,I'm just saying that that would
be, you know, I think it wouldbe cool to have like a ham radio
station going out the 4th ofJuly and it would get people to
uh, you know, to at least beaware of it or see it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
Dude, what Like?
4th of July starts the whole 13colonies thing, or it's like
the day after right.

Speaker 2 (01:27:19):
Why can't they just like say let's start on the 4th
of July and say no, 13 coloniesstarted last week.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
Is it last week?
Okay, so it's before the 4th ofJuly?

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
Yeah, because when I did the photo with Chris in
Wisconsin, the 13 colonies, Ithink, started that day Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
So they should do something like a special event
and get clubs to be able to getout and do like get out in the
community.
I think we all agree that a lotof clubs don't do enough
published appearances, engagingthe public, getting into STEM in
schools and all that stuff.
And it's a slog because theproblem is not to din the old

(01:27:55):
machine but the.
The old regime is very muchlike.
Oh, we always expected peopleto come to us because it was the
only mode of communication thatpeople knew and it was the
thing.
It's not the thing anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:28:07):
And so now everybody's glued to these
fucking things, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
Right Grouch donkey booth.
Yes, I think that that wouldwork too well.
Every contact they make on a goto station, let's go, dude.
Yeah, I think that's a you know.
I'll dye my beard green andI'll paint my face green well,
let's get the first 24 hour podagoing, and then there'll be

(01:28:32):
like a 300 contact thing,drowning Next thing.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
you know we'll be like a 300 contact thing, Paul
just be up and down Drowning.

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
The dunk tank will have to look like a garbage can.
Yeah, it will.
It will be authentic, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:28:46):
Dude, we can even tie it to our super chats.
You know, as people aredonating, the more super chats
people hit the button.
The dunk tank, so there we go.
We got something going here.
All right, the dunk take, sothere we go.
We got something going here allright.
Well, it's funny because, likewe could, you actually brought
up a point that I think, marvin,if marvin, you listen to this
podcast, if not, I'll have tohit you up on the discord.
I think you mentioned somethingon mcom, where, you know,

(01:29:09):
capturing the message, I thinkit'd be really freaking cool to
do something like a hot potatothing, like so, one, one club or
well, yeah, exactly right, andeverybody has to get the message
right and it has to hit so manyplaces to get out the farthest
it possibly can, whether it'sacross the country and the last
club to get it on the end of the.
You know the 24 hour activity,you know 24 hour.

(01:29:30):
You know Winter winterfield day, you know, is the one that gets
the message and you knoweverybody gets points along the
way to see how far it goes andaccurately, which would be
totally freaking, phenomenal.
See how that would end up onthe other end of that.
But yeah, marvin, if you'relistening, let's, let's have a
little conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:29:45):
I think that'd be kind of cool to play yeah,
message relays I, I like, like Isaid I, I think the way
winterfield day works is is waybetter than summer field day or
whatever.
The the main field day, winterfield day was.
It's fun, it's simplified, it'syou know, and it's more

(01:30:08):
challenging because you are outin the snow, I mean, except you
know the grouch had it like Ihad to take my take my freaking.
I was in the t-shirt.
I'm like, holy crap, it's hotin here, it's like 10 degrees
outside, and I'm out there likepaul's in shorts and a t-shirt
heck, heck.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
Watson didn't even have to sit on the snow, he was
on a mat.

Speaker 3 (01:30:28):
That's how, like you know, driven that place is but I
mean, but that, I mean, butthat I mean that's.
I mean it's cool, you set upand you do it, but it was just
simplified and it just it wasn'tso monotonous on all the stupid
rules.
And they need to simplify itbecause I mean I could give two
shits, like if I did field dayand I said, all right, well, I

(01:30:50):
can't do it in the morningbecause I got a baseball game.
I'm setting up friday.
Like I could give two shitsabout that, like it's a stupid
rule because it's a contest, andit would be a lot easier even
for clubs to be able to set up,get their tents, get their
antennas set up, to do to, to dothe car, you know, I don't know
.

Speaker 2 (01:31:10):
I take.
I take a lot of pride in thefact that, no matter what time
of year it is, no matter whatthe band conditions are, no
matter what the weather is, Ican take the things that I have
acquired and I can go and I canset up anywhere and I can put a
station on the air and I canmake contact and like granted.

(01:31:35):
I mean, it's taken me years toget to this point- I wouldn't
say years.
It took me a couple.

Speaker 3 (01:31:44):
It took me a couple.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Let me ask you this I jump feet first into everything
.

Speaker 1 (01:31:49):
Head first, I think with this one.

Speaker 3 (01:31:52):
Winterfield Day.
Are you going in your igloo orare you going in your igloo or
are you going in the trailer?

Speaker 1 (01:31:59):
I don't know.
Uh, so, thinking that far ahead, I'm just asking winter, winter
field day is gonna be inflorida.

Speaker 2 (01:32:05):
Yeah, he's gonna be in, I'm gonna be in ac, it's you
and I, and then we're gonnahave to figure that one out.

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
Oh my god, can you leave your igloo tents then?
Yeah, just leave them in theboat and we'll uh, yeah, take
the boat.
Yeah, bring the boat towinterfield day, sitting in on
it in the trailer see, here's aninteresting thing.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
I've seen listening to you guys talk about poda.
Like I like I look at poda likeas a I don't know, like a
widget, because literally youcan do poda on top of anything.
That's.
The nice part about poda isthat it's not so fricking rigid
that you can only do it at a onetime of the year or you have
only do it this period of time.
You can do poda anytime.
But it's even more so versatilethat like, even if you're not

(01:32:48):
doing poda, you know you canliterally still set up all your
gear that you use for poda to dolike just general cq calls in
someone's church parking lot toshow a bunch of youth you know
how to do ham radio and not likeworry that you're using the
wrong type of stuff or whatever.
I mean that like to me it'slike so freaking awesome that
like I've got a bag that I cando many things with and which

(01:33:08):
totally excites me because it'snot like I have one bag for this
and one bag for this and thenanother bag for whatever you
know.
Although that's fun to have,you know, and I have many of
them, I still know that I canjust grab that one bag and you
know we're off playing hf andyou know everything's all good,
it's kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
yeah, you can set up anywhere in any condition and
you can have a successfulstation where you're able to to
send and receive informationTotally.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
Totally and have fun doing it and not care like how
long it takes, which is thetotal icing on the cake for me,
all right.

Speaker 2 (01:33:47):
All right.
So my last point here is Ithink what needs to happen is, I
think field day needs to shiftto incorporate a lot more of
like what army Mars and airforce Mars is doing.
And what's that?
Right, where it's um, it's it'spertinent information and

(01:34:09):
message relaying.
Right, so it's um like allright.
So there was an exercise, uh,back in February, where's um
like all right.
So there was an exercise, uh,back in February, where you, uh
you had to report, uh yourclosest gas station and how many
, how many pumps there were,whether it was regular gas,
whether it was diesel.

(01:34:29):
Uh your closest hospital andthe location and the size of the
hospital.
And, um, you know, and and relay, like road closures,
information, like things of thatnature, like pertinent, like
real world scenario.
Like a hurricane just hit SouthCarolina, right, I mean, who

(01:34:55):
knows how much damage it's goingto cause.
But if we're not practicing ona regular basis on how to relay
that information to get thosepeople the help they need, then
we're not going to be preparedwhen those situations arise.
Yep, one time a year is notgoing to solve that.
Yep, one time a year is notgoing to solve that.

(01:35:15):
Yep, one time a year is notgoing to solve it, but one time
a year, meeting people andgetting together and
understanding hey, listen, I'mreally good with these things,
this guy's really good withthese things, this guy's really
good with these things.
And if you want to be friendswith all of us and you know like
we'll all kind of help eachother out and we'll all learn
and grow together, ultimately,that is what's going to build

(01:35:40):
this hobby and that's what'sgoing to keep people like oh my
God, yes, there is an actual usefor this.
It's not.
Well, I could just use this andI could send a message yeah, no
, In an emergency, the phonesaren't going to work because the
cell phone network is going tobe either overloaded or it's not

(01:36:04):
.
It's going to be damaged andnot working or the other coin.

Speaker 1 (01:36:08):
Like you know, cb and gmrs, like those, are good
boats, but I can tell you that Iwill rely more on ham radio,
knowing that if I pick up my youknow mic and ptt it that
there's going to be another hamradio operator on the other end
who has an idea at least what todo with, you know, the
information I might be relayingto him or her to be able to get
it to the next person.
So, yeah, it's very differentin that sense not to, you know,

(01:36:31):
dismiss any of those.
But in essence that's alwaysbeen a struggle with people that
are just only in those modes,because most people are gonna be
like I'm gonna huddle around myown house and do my own thing
and keep it to my own family.
They're not gonna be like hamradio operators.
We reach far and wide, which is, you know, pretty amazing for a
very big, diverse group ofpeople.
Um, and more so like, I think,the what I'll call the POTA army

(01:36:54):
Sorry to dive back in, you know, maybe you know a fight club
scenario there.
Or put our, one of the armymovies I'm trying to think of,
that you know was a third,whatever bad reference, I'm
going to skip right over it andcontinue on, you know, with the
idea that you know we reach farand wide and we have a slew of

(01:37:15):
uh, people and resources, andyou know resources in many
different areas, not just likewe're all hf and cw guys.
So, yeah, okay, so it soundslike I mean todd, you want to
throw anything more into that?

Speaker 3 (01:37:31):
no, I I think I think I'm all for field day.
I don't want to get rid of it,I think it's important.
I just think change it.
I mean it's got to change withanything to survive needs to
adapt with the changes andthings in time.
And things are changing and youknow, even clubs, like we've
talked about, clubs if you don'tadapt to the changes, you can't

(01:37:54):
have it the same way because 20years from now club's going to
be different.
You know, it's just a matter ofthat's the way it is.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
Five years from now, things are going to be totally
different.

Speaker 3 (01:38:04):
Right.
And I think that, and I think Iwould hope that the ARL will
look at maybe the success ofWinterfield Day, the success
that POTA has been, which isreally just kind of taking a
life of its own.
I mean, you've got the few guysthat are trying to, you know
are running it or making it work, you know overseeing it, I

(01:38:27):
guess you could say, but it'sreally just taking a life of its
own and it's not a hugeorganization.
It's just that we're POTA, thePOTa activators and hunters.
We are the the thing and Ithink field day needs to be.
The hams should be in chart.
You know the ham radiooperators should be putting in

(01:38:47):
input to to what field theyshould be and they should take
it seriously and then make thechanges.
And if some people don't like it, fine.
But you know you're going tolose more people if you don't,
if you have so many rules ormake it so difficult to make it
and you don't focus in ongetting the education.
I mean, I think, the education.
I agree with you.
I've always said with any kindof club it's important to get

(01:39:11):
younger people involved becausethey're the future of the hobby.

Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
Well, and the education side of it, dude,
guess what?
When we take our test, we'renot getting educated on any of
that, right?
Yeah, we're just testing forthe purposes, to be able to get
an actual education once we getinto the hobby.

Speaker 3 (01:39:25):
So yeah, I mean everyone just everyone sits
there and memorizes thequestions and tries to learn.
I mean, I didn't know shitafter I got my general, but I've
learned so much from actuallydoing the hobby versus what I
was doing before.
So the test, the testing, islike to me it's like all right,
I get it, I'm glad that there'stests.
But you're not going to learnfrom the test.

(01:39:47):
You're going to learn from theactual working and playing radio
and and, and you're alwaysgoing to learn.
You're never going to stoplearning.
It's not like one day you'relike oh, I'm the almighty ham,
I've got everything I know.
All that is to, because it'sjust an ongoing thing.
But what most people like to dois they like to get out on the

(01:40:09):
air and operate, and you can'tmake it too difficult and you
can't make field day too,because I bet you there's clubs
out there, smaller clubs, notlike big clubs, like maybe 10
people or whatever that are likethis is just you know they get
the booklet and they're likewhat the hell?
Like I'm not doing this, likewe'll just sit at home and make
contacts, and it shouldn't bethat way.

Speaker 1 (01:40:32):
Yeah, I think Mike said it best and we'll end on
this one, because I think it'sreally good he.
He posts here in the commentsuh, who won field day?
Really?
The club that got 23 stationsrunning at the same time.
God forbid 23 station, uh.
Or the club that got 23non-hams on the go-to station.
There you go that says it allthat speech volume, my friend.
If your club's not doing that,then you know who cares how many

(01:40:54):
freaking points you put up onthe board there.
You know, guess what?
Next year we're around andthere'll be someone else to take
your place.
So you know, do we more?

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
hams.
I mean what do we even?
Do we even care what we get?
I mean it's kind of like ohyeah, we made this many contacts
but it's not like.
I mean maybe there are clubsthat want to do that and they
like the competition of it whichI'm looking at.
I, I think contesting can becool.
I mean I wish you know I, Imean I could see myself at one

(01:41:21):
point, you know, being a contest, or if I, if I really wanted to
focus on that.

Speaker 1 (01:41:26):
But it's to me.
Here's my caveat to this, andI'm only going to say this is
that there's so much contestingalready going around.
Stop it, you stupid camera thatyou know.
Bottom line is is why do wehave to let field day be the
same thing?
Like get contesting out offield day, like let that one
weekend be non-contesting andlet contesting do everything
else the other 363 days of theyear, or what?

(01:41:49):
No, because there's two days offield day 24 hours.
It's like basically Friday,saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:41:57):
So two day 24, I was like basically friday, saturday
and sunday, so two days, yeah,anyway.
No, I agree with you.
I yeah it should be more aboutgoda and getting um and then
just going out there and havingfun, hanging out, making
contacts, communicate, you know,talking with people.
I mean the best part of fieldday for me is without.
You know, besides hanging outwith all you guys is talking to
other people who are like, heyman, good luck to you, you know.
Know, we're a, you know we'retwo, two station club or

(01:42:19):
whatever.
I mean it's just you know youdo have a little chit chat with
them and everyone's kind ofgetting on the air talking.
It's one day that you canactually get on the air.
Well before POTA, you know itwas.
You know that was the one daythat you knew there were going
to be people out there andyou're going to be able to work
people and there's a good chanceyou could get a pile up.
But again, you've got potentnow.

(01:42:39):
So there's like every day couldbe that day where I think it
used to be just like on a fieldday, minus the contesting.
So, like I said, I think I lovefield day.
I haven't really done it thelast two years just because I
was on vacation and baseball.
But baseball is done and nextyear I'm hoping to be a station

(01:43:00):
captain or whatever you call it,and I'm going to plan to be
there all day, all night andjust have some fun.

Speaker 1 (01:43:08):
Sounds good to me, man, all right.
Well, yeah, no, mike, I wasn'tknocking the 23 station or the
23 alpha, but god, that is alogistics nightmare in and of
its own I would have the 23stations.
Uh, somebody ours, no, no, no,uh, let me see that there have
been.

Speaker 2 (01:43:28):
There have been field days where I've made contacts
with stations that were like 98alphas nah what, they can only
max a 24.
So the station that, yeah, thestation that was 23 alpha there
was a Texas club a couple yearsago that had almost a hundred

(01:43:48):
fucking stations that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:43:50):
That must have been before the rule, because I know
ARLs had the rule for the pasttwo years.

Speaker 3 (01:43:54):
They can't be max of 24 stations, so okay every
member of their club had theirown station pretty much well, it
also would be a combined thingtoo with the covid stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:44:04):
But so yeah, matt sent me a picture of them.
It was the club in conheovalley amateur radio club, alpha
, alpha six, charlie, victor,they were 23, a insane, insane
like I.
I don't want to pull the photosdown but like they were.
They were literally in a like abarren, like dusty field by the

(01:44:29):
photos and like it's antennafarms everywhere.
And then they were in this likebig you know half uh, you know,
looks like an airport hangarthat they're kind of sitting in.
Uh, yeah, it's, it's prettyintense.
I'll also post it on thediscord there for folks to take
a look at.
But uh, yeah, it is yeah toomuch man, that that's like for
me as a coordinator that like Iwant to put a bullet in my head

(01:44:49):
after I've done 23a forget it.

Speaker 2 (01:44:52):
oh, band pass filters aren't even helping you at that
point, at that point, yeah, no,forget it.
Oh, dan pass filters Aren'teven helping you at that point.

Speaker 1 (01:44:55):
At that point, yeah, no, forget it, you're on single,
individual bands per stationand per mode.
It's like oh, this one, this isall the CW block, this is all
the sideband block.
Oh, man, so yeah, no, but I, Ithink you're right, mike, that's
the whole thing that getting 23non hams on go to is way more,

(01:45:16):
way more long, long-termpowerful, both for the club and
for the hobby as a whole, thanit will ever be.
You know, whether or not you're, you know the 23 a and scoring,
you know 10,000 points for youknow field day of whatever year.
Well, cool, all right, I gotthat off my chest, we can move
on now.
No more field day, you know,and onto some other better stuff

(01:45:36):
.
And yeah, hex, we might fallinto the same hole again and,
just, you know, decide to say,heck, let's just let the tape
roll and see what we go withnext week.
You'll never know what you'regetting with.
You know Liffrey and ham guyshere, but I there, you know, if
you haven't, you know, heardabout our 24-hour poda.
This is kind of like the lastthing we'll mention of it for a
little while.

(01:45:57):
Um, we're getting all thenumbers together this week, so
if you want to head over there.
You can click the link downbelow uh to head over to our
website at livefreeandhamcom.
Forward slash uh 24h dash poda.
Fill in the form.
Let us know you want to come.
We got a lot of people coming.
I'm super excited.
That list is going to be prettyhuge.
It's going to be a fun event,um, and it's going to just you

(01:46:18):
know it's going to go down inthe history books.
I guarantee you and mike willbe there.
So we're all looking forward tohaving mike there.
So you know that'll be a blastif I, they make, uh, you know,
face-to-face cues, eyeball cues,though, so good to hear that
one, and so maybe we'll get iso.
You know, iso, if you'relistening, come on iso start
start planning, start planningtake a day off, plant the seed,
get sick that weekend, you knowall you have to do is, you know,

(01:46:38):
get sick on a friday and asaturday and you're fine.
You know you can go back towork on sunday.
So you know, all right, let'suh, let's put a bow on this one.
So again, thank you guys forall uh joining in and being part
of the live, free and hampodcast community.
Dude, we truly appreciate everyone of you guys, everyone's
part of our podcast podcastlistening audience, our YouTube
audience.

(01:46:58):
You know our Patreons andeverything in between.
You know you guys definitelykeep us going and keep us
motivated to continue to do theshow, because we just love doing
it and you guys love hearingabout us.
So all all, all good and keepit coming.
We want to hear from you guys.
So you know, if you want tohelp be part of that community,
you can always connect with usby, obviously, heading over to

(01:47:18):
our Discord server.
Join in that conversation.
We always try to, you know,keep the conversation flowing
and you know we'd love to haveyou part of our community and
engage in that.
You can always head over to ourYouTube channel.
If you're not already part ofthat and a subscriber, make sure
you become a subscriber.
A subscriber, make sure youbecome a subscriber, um, and you
can check all of the awesomecontent over there.
We'll, we'll promise we'regoing to start to get back into
some of that and do some of ourham diary stuff.

(01:47:39):
We've all been lax on that alittle bit because we're all
been going crazy, but I thinkyou know kind of as as um you
know, we get into the fallmonths, things will uh calm down
a little bit and maybe we'll uhthrow some more content out
there.
But you know, hopefully you'vebeen enjoying what we got.
Now, um, you can always againleave us a review using our SMS
link, um, and that's all in ourshow notes, um, and now you can

(01:48:00):
leave us a voicemail, like we'vealways said, and you can call
us at 978-233-1142.
We'd love to hear you, uh, fromyou, I should say.
And so, uh, with that, uh, ifyou aren't a Patreon member and
you want to come see all of theinside baseball stuff that goes
along, uh with us every week andbe part of our live stream, uh,
private chat here, um, you know, mike is in there and we've had

(01:48:21):
others like bob, um, andactually, uh, renee six was in
there too earlier.
So, uh, it was good to see her,um, and so, yeah, you can be a
part of that in our in ourpatreon group and there's a
great stuff there and check allthat out over at our website at
livefreeandhamcom, and all ofour links and show notes and
everything else there is postedup there.

(01:48:42):
So if you need to reach out toany of us, you can find all of
our contact post info and withthat, thanks again for listening
and from all of us here at LiveFree and Ham 7-3.

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