Booth Babes and Radio Waves: Our NEARFest Adventure

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, it's time to get your trunks, your one
pieces, your rash guards, yourboardies out, as it's ham fest
season.
Well, ok, maybe swimsuit season, I don't know Whatever.
Well, next on the free ham.
All right, hello and welcome tothe free ham podcast.
This is our weekly show wherewe discuss ham radio topics in
New Hampshire, new England andbeyond.
I'm more thrilled to have youhere, whether you're a regular

(00:21):
listener or tuning in for thefirst time, and we always enjoy
you guys joining us for thisepisode.
So let's get into the show.
I'm your host, eric call signN1JUR, and I'm with one of my
co-hosts and a special guesttonight.
But we'll pass it over to ourco-host first.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm Todd W1STJ and we've got Good evening this is
Mike N3MFL Twitterter silverman.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
There we go.
Nice, he is stepping in sograciously for paul who's uh
feverishly prepping for his uhjourney across the united states
.
I would say, if you arelistening to this podcast about
a week later, you know, look himup on aprs.
We're going to be tracking himon Discord and on the website
and stuff like that via him.
He said he's going to have APRSon so we'll be able to see
Paul's little car move acrossthe United States.
You know, hopefully he'll havea little trailer icon, otherwise

(01:11):
Tim Casey1QDK will be a littleannoyed that he won't see the
correct icon resembling what heshould be while traveling.
But with that, yeah, we wishhim well and safe journey man.
And With that, yeah, we wishhim well and safe journey man.
And, hey, he's going to behanging out with Mike on Monday.
So I'm looking forward toseeing that and, you know,
hopefully making contact withthose guys, because I struggle

(01:33):
to hit Mike from New York.
I don't know what it is, it'sjust not.
The skip does not work in myfavor every time he's activating
.
So either way, ok, well, likewe always do, we get into our
topic.
We've got a few things to catchyou guys up on, as always, head
over to our storefront at livefree and hamcom forward slash
shop, check out all the merch,maybe pick up a bacon pack of

(01:54):
our hammies, cause I gave out abunch of those at near fest last
week, and so you know, a fewpeople, you know definitely love
to see those things.
And you know, hey, if you wantto connect with our community,
you know you can do it a numberof different ways.
You can always hit us up on ourSMS link in our description.
You can send us an email or, ifyou're so inclined, you can use
our voicemail number, which is978-233-1142.

(02:20):
And I won't put Todd over thebarrel with this one, because I
am not on the ball with thescrolling at the bottom of the
screen here, don't worry aboutit.
So, all right, well, um, withthat, we also have a live stream
.
So if you missed our livestream at near fest, which was,
uh, technically for, uh, theApril time frame, we'll be
having one in May.
So, uh, keep your eyes out, andthe easiest way to do that is

(02:41):
make sure you're subscribed tolive free and ham.
As I know, we got a couple ofnew subscribers that just joined
, uh, over the past couple ofdays.
So make sure you ring that bellso you get notified.
All right, and, as always, ifyou'd like to support the show,
we always in.
Uh, appreciate everybody whodoes.
Uh, you can become a patreonmember and you get a ton of free
stuff.
If you're a patreon member, youcan head over to patreoncom

(03:03):
live free and ham.
Uh, and some of those patreonmembers get early access to show
releases uncut, unedited,unfettered conversation, like we
just are doing tonight.
Um, and you know, as bob koffalways says and I am not on the
ball, what the heck here?
Um, bob koss always says that Ican't find it.
Where the hell is it?

(03:23):
I'm so off, all right, well,anyway, just for three dollars a
month you could join for livefree and ham.
I'm sorry, bob yeah exactly allright.
Well, with that, we have nothingin the mailbag and we
definitely don't have paul heretonight with win link, so we are
gonna just uh blow by those anddoing good.
We haven't seen anything comeby.

(03:44):
So you know, make sure you sendus something.
If you've got a do good story,we want to hear about it, and so
with that we're gonna diveright into.
And now a little somethingextra with todd w1stj still a

(04:06):
general.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
A little something extra with Todd W1STJ.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Still a general, like that little blurb there I did.
I have got a lot more of those,you suck.
I have gone back in thearchives there and pulled out
the little segments when Toddjust puts a little dig out there
says I'm a general, poor me.
So, uh, yeah, we, here we go.
Well, I am uh the ve tonight.

(04:30):
So I am going to forgo theformalities of uh getting us
into a little something extra,because you know, if you've been
on the show for a little while,you know what we do here.
We test todd on, uh, the extraclass question pool.
Uh, hopefully you guys got achance to catch the video that
we did at Nearfest, testingpeople on the street.
That was a blast and veryinteresting to see.

(04:51):
We are definitely going to haveto ramp that up next time in
the fall and, you know, reallyturn up the heat on that one and
see what we can do.
So, yes, good stuff going onthere.
So, without further ado, I'mgoing to kick this off.
So are you ready?
I've got my button on thetension.
You know 30 second tension songthere.
So if you are ready, I willhappily read the question to you

(05:12):
.
W1 to CJ.
Are you ready?
I am ready.
Okay, all right, we are dippinginto the random pool questions
here.
So this question is is what isthe far field of an antenna?
Is it a the region where theshape of the radiation pattern
no longer varies with distance?
B the region where radiatedpower dissipates over a

(05:33):
specified time period.
C the region where radiatedfield strengths are constant.
Or.
D the region of the ionospherewhere radiative power is not?

Speaker 2 (05:46):
refracted.
Are you sure this is an extraquestion?
It is.
I don't think I've ever seenthis one.
It hasn't been any on any ofthe exams that I've done, but
let me see.
All right, that I've done, butlet me see.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
All right, the top of my window says Amateur Extra.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, all right, let's see.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Feel free to jump in there, Mike.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Oh, I already know the answer.
All right, the region where Ineed a second.
You have plenty of time, myfriend, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I can run the music again.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
No, come on.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
I'm going to say B, b , all right, mike what's your
answer?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
I'm going to say B, b .
All right, mike, what's youranswer?
I'm going to say it's either Bor A.
It's definitely not B.
Yeah, that's the other one.
You're going to go with B?

Speaker 1 (06:54):
You can only pick one , Mike.
We're going B.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
All right, yeah, we'll go B.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
All right and you are both wrong.
It is.
The correct answer is A.
The region where the shape ofthe radiation pattern no longer
varies with distance, and solet's go back and read the
question here, or the answer tothe question, or description I
don't even know what they callthis.
Paul does this so much betterthan I do?
All right, as the RF energyleaves the antenna, it's

(07:22):
generally expands into the fullbeam.
However, this expansion onlycontinues for a specific
distance.
At a certain distance from theantenna, the beam pattern no
longer changes, but remainsrelatively constant, and this
distance is referred to as thefar field distance.
The far field radiation patternis typically what we are most
concerned with in radiocommunication, as practically

(07:42):
every receiving antenna is goingto be in the far field under
real conditions.
All right, and they give you ahint in the antenna pattern
usually have a proverbial shapeonly, answer with shape, and
then the silly hint is FFS meansfar field shape.
All right, well, we got 0 for 3today, so let's go to the next
one 0 for 1.

(08:07):
Well, we have three totalquestions, friends.
All right, so fine, if you'reover one, we're only doing one
at a time here, all right.
So question number two what isthe approximate bandwidth of a
13 words per minuteinternational international
morse code transmission?
Is it a 52 hertz, b 26 hertz, c13 hertz or d 104 hertz?

(08:30):
I don't need to know mor code.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
I think it's A.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
And Mike.
Your final answer, b, all right, okay.
So, todd, you say A and you arecorrect, all right, okay.
So the answer to this one is CW, words per minute is WPMCW
equals 13.
What's the necessary bandwidthfor this transmission?
For a CW transmission, remember, bandwidth equals 4 hertz.

(09:07):
Blah, blah, blah.
So in this case, bwcw equals 4hertz times 13 words per minute
BWCW.
My gosh, is anybody going toremember this test tip To remind
yourself that you must multiplyby 4 to calculate bandwidth in
hertz from words per minute ofCW.
Just think four-letter wordhurts.
It also may help to rememberthat in a deck of cards there
are 13 cards in each suit andfour suits for a total of 52

(09:29):
cards.
Really, you got that one, pauland Todd.
Keep doing that man.
Sorry, you got it right, I don'tthink it was because of the
hint.
Yet another way to remember isthe Morse code is just two
symbols, a dot and a dash, and agood rule of thumb from the
general exam is to stay at leastan extra bandwidth away from
the edge of the band.
Two doubled is four.
All right, here we go.

(09:51):
We are one for one.
Last question here.
All right, here we go.
How can an unwanted ringing andaudio instability be prevented
in an op amp audio filter?
Is it a?
Restrict gain but increase Q?
Is it B?
Increase both gain and Q?

(10:11):
Is it C restrict both gain andQ?
Or D, restrict Q and increasegain?

Speaker 2 (10:23):
I'm going to go with C.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Your answer?
Mike A, okay, all right.
Todd says C, mike says A andTodd is correct.
Woohoo the mic is still.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
What are you?

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Are you a general class or are you an extra, mike?

Speaker 3 (10:39):
I'm a general, but I have a.
Okay, you have a.
What Roll, oh, general, radiooperator's license.
Radio's license Yep, yeah, allright, general but I have a roll
.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
So you have a.
What roll?
Oh, general radio operatorslicense.
Yeah, all right.
To prevent unwanted ringing andaudio instability in a
multi-section op amp rc audiofilter circuit, restrict both
gain and q.
In order to keep an op amp fromgoing into oscillation, both
the gain and the q arerestricted and set by the
feedback circuit.
So here's the hint to preventyou, you restrict and the jingle

(11:07):
is to keep audio true.
Restrict gain and the cue Idon't.
That doesn't quite work for meand eric said at the live stream
.
He doesn't sing but we know hedoes.
I was just gonna say that isthe only time you're gonna hear
me me sing Mike.
No no, all right.
Well.
So, todd, you know what thatbrings.

(11:27):
I know, and I actually have thebutton for that, of course.
Yes, it is All right.
Well, we are going to shut thissystem down.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
I have to get all three right.
Cause, if I get two out ofthree, then I don't feel like
such a loser.
If I get one out of three or noout of three, I feel like a
loser.
So it's like I get that song nomatter what.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
No, well, I get that song on purpose, just because
I'm always the extra, justbecause, whether you get none
right or all of them right, Ijust do it on purpose.
I right, I just do it onpurpose.
I love it.
Bring on the meatloaf, allright, cool.
Well, there we go with a littlesomething extra, all right, so
we always roll into this.
Next step is this section here.
So, in our usual format, let'suh, throw it over to mike first.

(12:17):
So you know, we usually askeverybody hey, how's your ham
radio week?
You know whether it's ham radio, jason, no ham radio, or ham
radio all the above.
How was your hammer your week,man?

Speaker 3 (12:27):
long and eventful should I pull up a blanket, yeah
exactly, and a beer and a drink, and I already got that this
weekend.
Uh, well, the last three weeksjust been prepping for Neerfest
and work, obviously Hung outwith Todd and Eric and Paul and

(12:52):
what was the other gentleman'sname I can't remember Matt.
Yes, I owe him a sticker, bythe way.
I've got to get his information.
Yeah, it was good.
The Hamfest was good.
We had a blast.
Uh, friday night, um, and well,you know, did really good
selling, did really good buyingfirst time for the for the new

(13:16):
to me camper setting up.
It was, it was fun, you know.
Um, it was a good, it was agood weekend, good week.
And now it's back to the grindtomorrow morning.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, thanks for reminding us.
Yeah, question with that.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
So like, how many years have you been going to
near fest?
I've been going to near festsince we moved up to
Massachusetts, so what?
That's's Deerfield at leastthree years, and that's been
both times per year.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Okay.
So you're pretty familiar withthe Nearpest format and how the
control chaos is with it.
It's kind of you know if you'revery unaccustomed to it.
You kind of look around and golike how do they keep everything
in order?

Speaker 3 (14:04):
It's herding cats.
But I miss Deerfield.
I will say that Really.
Yes, I everybody's like.
Oh, I don't mean I.
I missed Deerfield becausethere was room to move around,
you weren't on top of everybodyand you could get out and walk
and see everything.
You know, not everybody'swasn't just crammed and on top

(14:26):
of each other.
I don't like New Austin, Ireally don't.
I like Deerfield, I like to bedown in the field and then we
have people set up all aroundthe big field, down there at the
base, down by the main gate.
I was always set up by the maingate, nice, because everybody

(14:46):
had to walk past me to get upthe hill to go see everybody
else.
So you know, it's just, it's uh.
The bathrooms were right there.
I didn't have to walk 15 milesto go find a bathroom.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
You know they had porta potties, the trash, the
one thing I hated aboutdeerfield the most was every
time you went there you had towalk the hill, like that was a
guarantee like you always had towalk the hill.
You know, and the this formatfor me is like I like every
seller being in that generalarea, because at least it feels
like it's busy, like where yougo to deerfield, that you go to

(15:21):
near fest at deerfield, like youcould walk between sellers and
they could be like 20 to 30yards apart from each other and
like hidden off in a corner andit's like like, oh, I missed out
on an opportunity for a radiothat was over there that I could
have just walked by with.
You know what you had, likewhere we have it in in in new
Boston now.
So I don't I like the closercomfort.

(15:49):
I really wish we had a lot more.
You know, we'll say a space forBarnes and you know commercial
vendors to show up.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
But I don't think that's kind of what near fest
has ever been since I was a kid,when I was doing it in high
school so, and there was more.
There was more commercialdealers at Deerfield too,
because we had obviously themore buildings.
But you know, it's thecommercial guys.
Like Matt commercial guy I mean, he had a beautiful setup, nice
tables, he was right by thedoor.
Yes, it makes perusing easieras you walk around.

(16:15):
But you know, because I do thepower walk, I just sit there and
I literally walk down and lookand I'm scanning both rows as I
walk.
Oh, that looks interesting Headover there.
I do like that aspect of it,but I just don't like everybody
being on top of each other andit was mad chaos trying to get

(16:35):
people parked in a spot.
I had to, I almost had to move.
So you know it's just like eh,what do you want?

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, they could definitely do a lot better in
terms of organization, but we'll.
We'll get into that a littlebit later, cause I I'm curious
to see your view on it, causeI've got a different take on it.
But I've been on both sides ofthe deer field and then, before
they were, they weren't a deerfield, they were up in off of 89
.
Where the heck was that?
I can't remember that location.
That was a long time ago, butanyway, we'll talk more about
that.
So, uh, over to you, todd, howwas your hammer week bud?

Speaker 2 (17:06):
well, I did, uh, eventually get to near fest.
Uh, it was there friday, but Ihad to work, had a busy week
last week, uh, with work so, uh,I got there around four o'clock
and, um, to my surprise, therewas no, no, uh no gate personnel
.
I stopped, I looked around, youknow, I did waited, figured
someone might come out of thewoods or something.

(17:28):
No one came.
So I'd been there last year.
So I just went in the park and,uh, I walked around real quick
looking for, uh, eric and paulcouldn't find him.
So I, uh I gave eric a call andhe was in the barn.
So I went over over there andgot the keys because I had some
cold.
I needed to put some stuff inPaul's fridge, so I went up to

(17:48):
his camper up on top of the hilland I walked down and everyone
was packing up when I got thereand more people were even gone
when I put the stuff in thefridge and Eric and I were like,
well, let's go make some dinner.
So we went up and startedcooking and next thing, you know
, we were in a live stream anduh, I was having a blast and uh

(18:09):
started pouring and thunder.
It was sunny when we went inthere and we come out, it's like
frigging storm going on.
So, uh, yeah, so it was, it wasfun though.
I'm glad it was.
You know we had a.
I had a good time, I thought itwas great, but I couldn't come
back Saturday.
I had a I kid at baseball andum, so I just wasn't going to be

(18:31):
back there.
So I was glad I was able to getthere for the live stream and
and everyone, and you know, meetyou, mike, in person, and it
was fun.
So and I didn't buy anything.
Like I said, everyone waspacking up.
I did see.
The one thing I wanted to buywas this guy had this like what
do you call that?

(18:52):
It was a 3D printed kind ofwheel, but it was for the thin
coax that I use for POTA and itwas, you know, like the I used
for poda and it was, you know,like the wheels that you would
like run up like if it was alarger size wire yeah, like, or
you would do like a wheel forlike your um long extension
cords or something.
But it was mini size and it fit.
He wanted like 35 bucks and Ididn't need the coax, I just

(19:13):
needed.
I said, hey, do you just sellthe plastic things?
Because they were selling themlike.
The other plastic things werelike five bucks or ten bucks.
And he goes, no, I might bringthem next time.
They might be on etsy.
So I was like, oh, that's toobad.
Like I, the guy should havejust taken the coax off and sold
me the one that was there for10 bucks and I would have boxed
if I'm done.
Yeah, but so I gotta go findout.
Uh, either.

(19:34):
He said like, next week you'llhave it on etsy because I want
to use it for my photo bag,because it just fits flat and it
just saves some space and it'llprobably keep the wire in
better shape.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
If you can't find one and you're going to have to
force yourself to buy it at $35,just go to Messi and Pelloni.
They sell a whole bag and thereel together.
Oh yeah, but you're going topay for their name and the
shipping over from Italy.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
I'm going to I'm going to look on and I'm going
to get Ryan a 3d print, me one.
I just got to find the.
I'm sure I can find it on Etsyor something or something
similar, but yeah, so that wasthe only thing I was going to
buy that I liked.
You know, it's the same stuff.
I mean, in that barn it's likethe same vendors pretty much

(20:21):
every year.
So that was it.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
So it was good, awesome, well, yeah, so we won't
rag you tonight, todd.
Yeah, my, my week was, I wasgetting ragged a lot.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
I was, I was, I was taking a beating in the live
stream, but you know, it comesaround, goes around.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Well, you know now that Mike's an official near,
near guy here with us.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
You know it comes around, goes around.
Well, you know now that Mike'san official near guy here with
us.
You know it's just going to getworse If I don't get this, if
Kim beats me on this extra manoh dude please, I'm never going
to hear the end of it.
And you know she studies allthe time and she's like oh, I
studied for four hours today andthen I got the pressure.
I gotta.
What do I have to get my extraBefore Paul licenses or whatever
, before I get my?

Speaker 1 (21:05):
VE.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
That's easy.
You just gotta fill out theform.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
I haven't even taken the test.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
It's an open book test.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
I know, but dude, what's the excuse with the extra
?
You've been studying for a year?
It's 500 questions and I keepgetting.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
I know I took it, no, but, dude, that's like okay,
what's the excuse with the extra?
You've been studying for a year?
It's 500 questions and I keepgetting.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
I know I took it.
It's only a 50 question test,though.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Have you taken the test?
No, it sucks.
There's a lot of.
They take like one or two from,it's just, and it's always.
What gets me is like I'm likelike today, right, I'm in the
right ballpark and it's likenormally.
It's one word and I'm like, oh,was it reactance or or
resistance?
It's the same sentence.

(21:47):
This is where I'm like I can'tremember and I'm like I studied
that like three months ago, butI remembered it and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
As Todd says, I think you should give it to me.
Yeah, that's literally it.
Let's give it to him.
That's all he wants.
Just give him his extra.
He's done, yeah.
So, like you guys, I mean I wasat near fest.
So, uh, yeah, it was a blast.
I, I, I literally stupidly wokeup earlier than I should have.
Um, I don't know why, but I uhgot to our early breakfast club
breakfast.
It was supposed to be at 6 30.
I showed up at 6 for shouldhave.
Um, I don't know why, but I gotto our early breakfast club
breakfast.
It was supposed to be at 6 30.

(22:20):
I showed up at 6 for somereason.
So I had like a half an hour tokill and I was just like what
the kick is wrong with me.
So, like I was on four cups ofcoffee by the time I got to near
fest, which is way over myusual limit.
And then you know I was, youknow I had a couple other, you
know sodas and stuff like that.
So by the time, like we got to,you know, hanging out with the
guys during our live stream, Iwas just like buzzing totally

(22:42):
hard on sugar everywhere.
I was like holy crap.
Yeah, it does?
I'm sure it does, you know.
And then you you fuel that witha little bit of alcohol and a,
you know, smart ass mouth, andyou know, you know, you never
know where that's gonna go, um,but uh, yeah.
So, all in all, I was sort oflike you guys, I was didn't not
disappointed, but maybeunderwhelmed by like all of the

(23:04):
crap that was out there.
Like there wasn't like a wholelot of great stuff and I and
paul walked the whole entirething and literally like 20
minutes and it wasn't like youknow, we were like, oh, wow,
here's a stop, let's take a look.
It was like, oh, here's a bunchof, like you know, overpriced.
You know, like I saw your eight.
Now you, uh, it wasn't.
No, there was a 817 set up withthe atas and all that.

(23:25):
I saw all that.
I'm just like, uh, yeah, no,that's way outrageous.
I mean, come on, you know,nobody's gonna pay that much,
and you know, lo and behold, youproved that.
So you know, outside of that,you know, there's some things.
I didn't see a lot of thetypical people from our club
that we're usually there,although they did show up a lot
later.
So those are the guys that,like you know they love to

(23:45):
collect radios or the tube guys.
You know all of the old, youknow boat anchors and that type
of stuff.
So you know it's kind of alltheir thing.
But that's just not my flavorman.
I'm not like.
I just don't want to have theold equipments, you know sitting
in my house or in my shack, youknow sitting in the corner.
I just don't have thatconnection to it.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
See, eric and I are just waiting for like another
decade, and then we're going tobe one of those guys selling all
our shit that we have now andbe like, yeah, take this stuff
off my hands.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Actually, I'm doing that way beforehand, man, I am
doing a Marie Kwan, I'm goingthrough my boxes and if, like, I
can't use it and I haven't usedit in a year, I'm finding
another ham.
Yeah, or you can buy it, orwhatever.
Like in essence, you know, Iwas even thinking like when I
was driving on the way home, uhfrom, uh, after our live stream
from year fest, I'm like I got adx10 sitting in a box.
When am I gonna?

(24:31):
When's the next time I'm gonnause that?
Because everybody else in ourclub has a dx10 and you know
it's just sitting there.
So I'm like, yeah, yeah, maybe Ishould, just you know, sell it,
and then I saw it was for 800,but then I was like, yeah, I
should get it for at least agrand was that one of the first
guys in the club to get the dx10?
Yeah, I think I was, yep yeah,yeah, you bought one, and then I

(24:52):
was like I gotta have one.
And then you bought a flex yeah, you played with it.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
you came over right and you're, and you were like,
oh, I got to get one of these,yep.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
I thought was it last year?
I bought an FTDX 3000?
Oh nice, and I did not like it.
I really didn't like it.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
No, it has some interesting filtering add-ons
that you have to get to make itworth as well.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah, I was like okay , it's a big chonking radio, you
know, it's just like the 756 Ihave sitting here, but I just I
didn't like it, you know, and Iturned around to the next.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
TAMFest and off.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Saw that off.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yep, I was hoping that there was going to be that
couple there that does the hatsand stuff, because I wanted to
get this hat.
And when they were in Marlboro,I brought this hat and I said,
hey, can you put?
Oh no, we're not doing personalthis this year?
I'm like, seriously, I'm likewhy I just want my collars on
the back and they're like, nope,nope, we're not doing anything

(25:53):
personal, it's like we're justdoing our stuff.
And I was like I'll pay for it.
Yeah, no, I'm not asking forfree I think I'm just gonna have
to go down to the mall.
At what?
Is it lids or something wherethey can.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
I think they'll do it that's what I did with uh, I I
ended up, uh, I couldn't get ahat that I wanted, so I got my
call sign and I got ham harderand, uh, you know, uh, a hashtag
on the back of the hat.
So I actually actually I gottafigure out where I put that hat,
but anyway, yeah, so outside ofthat, I really enjoyed hanging
out in mass booths.
I mean, I know he teased us andragged us about being booth

(26:27):
babes and employees, which, hey,dude, I was perfectly fine with
it, it was fun.
You know, matt and I in betweenwere hanging out and having
conversations and just talkingshop and you know all the other
stuff.
And and then it was kind ofironic because, literally, when,
I think, uh, mike n2makrealized that, uh, we were doing
our live stream at like 6 30,he texts me in a fever.
He's like, dude, can I release avideo before they do?

(26:48):
And I'm like, yeah, what Idon't care when you do.
It's like it's not gonna stopme from like you know, I'm not
gonna yell at you for youdeciding to put a premiere
before it.
And so he sent me the copy ofthe premiere and it was, you
know, his 56 to 1.
You know, uh, antenna, pseudoantenna test that he was doing
in his backyard and I was likenow I know why he wanted to
release it because we're hangingout with matt, and so he wanted

(27:11):
to give him kudos for it sowe're always promoting those
antenna, those reliance antennasare the.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
I mean, they're the mom yeah, you can't, you can't
buy a better poda antenna?
I mean seriously portableantennas.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
That's where you got to go so here's the thing like
what else is on the market today, that's like in that same genre
you've got, you know, the, thepack tana, which most of the
time is unobtaining unlessyou're on a list, and that's
anywhere double or evensometimes a little bit higher
than the price.
Actually, it's a lot morehigher than the price than what
Matt sells, even like his endfed at the 40 through 10 or his

(27:45):
80 through 10.
And I'm like I could buy two ofMatt's for one pack Tena.
And I was like not to sayGeorge's antenna is a bad
antenna, it's a great antenna,but if he can get it like, then
for me it's just no antennabecause you're not able to use
an antenna.
So matt's always been, you know, one of those guys that's like,
hey, I'll make any antenna foryou, but at the same time, like
I always have stock, which is,like you know, everybody's

(28:06):
always surprised.
So that's definitely, you know,one of his good things and he's
everywhere.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Now yeah, I bought the base camp um the nfed
halfway base camp and and he satthere.
No lie, as as we're talkinghe's sitting there assembling.
I said I want that wire withthat spool and he's do, do, do,
do, do.
I said I don't want the Chinesewire, I want the good wire.
And he just literally he had ittogether in like 30 seconds and

(28:35):
I was like, let's see, now thisis quality.
The guy who owns the companywill sit here and build you your
antenna and all you have to dois walk out the door, plug it in
and go you know he's the othertype of guy.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
It's like you go over to his like little, like parts
the espiner boxes and say I'vegot like 10 of these, here's 20.
No, no, no, dude, here's,here's five, I want five dollars
for them.
I'm like dude, how are yousupposed to make money?
I know you bought these arelike mass quantity.
You know paul did it, I did it.
I was like I don't need theseextra beaners but I still want
them.
So you know, here's 20 bucksand you know.
So he's like okay, fine.
So you know I had to, like youknow, force him to take money a

(29:11):
lot of times, but you know thatthat's his product, it's just
good period he, and he's also agood person too.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yeah, and funny as hell given Ribbon Todd.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, nevertheless, I went back and listened to the
live stream and I missed thepart where Paul was like where
he had the Lip Free and Hamwhiskey glass and Paul's like oh
, it's empty.
And he's like, yeah, I knowWatson was drinking out of it
and and like I totally missedthat altogether.
He's like why are you drinkingwhiskey?
He's like well, dad, I don'thave to drive, so why not?
Just like I totally blew overthat part.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
I felt better.
He was sleeping in his car forlike the two days.
I said, dude, I lived like 20minutes from here.
You want to come over to myhouse and crash.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, like in an RV or something.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
No, and I told him.
I said, dude, come to my house.
I got an extra bed and room hedidn't even have to he could
Paul.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Paul was like you know, dude, why aren't you
sleeping in my camper?
I mean, you obviously have tosleep next to Watson, but you
know plenty of space.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
I would have known I had.
I had access to a cot, I couldhave just thrown it out and he
could have snoozed his.
You know, man, if I would haveknown that, I would have dragged
him by his ears a Friday nightand say come on now, you know,
next year he's in trouble.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Well, actually in the fall he's in the trouble, but
yeah, I'm sure he'll be back upagain too as well.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
So how come, how come Chris didn't come by.
I thought he was coming by hehad.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Uh, chris is a funny guy because like he, when he
goes to near fest all the time,I find that he catches back up
with a lot of his contestingbuddies that are there and they
go like, oh, let's go out todinner or let's do this and
whatever, and so like he justkind of gets looped back into
that and I'm just like, yeah,dude, I get it.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
You know you're a contesting guy, I can't take
contesting I'm just, I'm justglad I got to talk to I.
I mean, I I talked to I, he wastalking to some guy and I
totally like said hi to him andthen interrupted.
I apologize, I'm like beingsorry to take over your
conversation, but I'm on themove and and that's when he told
me about his, uh, his new toyoh yeah, oh, you're talking

(31:11):
about his radio, the motorolawell, that, and also the new van
that he yeah, yeah, that one.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
He's still working on it.
He's calling the twins.
We'll see how that goes.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
I said dude, I go.
You know, you should, reallyshould leave one of those in New
Hampshire.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
He will just wait.
Soon enough, man, soon enough,it'll become our club.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
I think that's what near fest, like.
One of the things I like aboutit is that you know that you get
to see like I agree, like lastyear, or was it the fall, was it
the last one?
We were at the fall one.
Yeah, that was, you know, likeall the guys from the club were
there so we were running in andout of into people and stuff and
it's just good to you know, themore you go, you just meet more
people and you get to see themagain and shoot the shit and

(31:59):
talk about what's going on.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
So it's all good, yeah you find like you spent
more between both of you, sincewe're kind of getting into it.
So like we're going to justkind of cover a little bit of
what we thought of near fest andwe've already been tabling in a
little bit here and there andin this conversation but I kind
of want to dive a little bitmore and then kind of expand
that a little bit more becauseyou know we we've got hammocks
and a bunch of other like usual.
You know this is the season forham fest and you know a lot of

(32:24):
us tend to do a lot of travelingto and from those, at least in
the new England area, and so youknow anything with near fest
that you guys really love, thatyou know whether you know
outside of the location thatwe're at, that you that keeps
always drawing you back BecauseNearfest is always the same.
They don't change their MO, isalways the same.
They have the structure Of allof the sellers and then they

(32:47):
have the typical raffles.
They do everything.
A typical Hamfest is.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
It's a glorified flea market.
It's a ham radio flea market.
It's what it is.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Well, mike, you're moaning.
What's going on?

Speaker 3 (33:00):
You know because, like with most ham fest, you
know you have things going onother than just the people
selling the bone yards, etc.
Etc.
The, the commercial vendors.
But a lot of ham fests haveother things, like multi um ve
testing, um what else uh,program things, yeah well,

(33:24):
programs um learn this, oh likeall the forums, yeah, yeah, all
the forums and stuff have youbeen?

Speaker 1 (33:30):
to any of those forums speaking of that.
They had near fest does havethem right.
I remember they did they did alot.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
they did when they were in um deer field, but they
this year, this past fall andthis spring, not really I didn't
see anything that was at leastremotely interesting.
You know, I like the M17 guys.
They always have stuff and thisyear they weren't here.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yeah, it's a bummer and they're local.
I mean, it's not like they haveto travel.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Yeah, exactly, they're local.
So you know it is what it is.
It's pretty.
It's pretty much what Todd saidit is a Boneyard flea market,
you know, with a little bit ofinteresting things going on
behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, Did you guys get a chance to head over the go
box challenge or the go box?
uh, judging, I didn't no, Ididn't either I, I saw it and I
was like huh, that should beinteresting.
And then I that's the one thingI think this ham fest needs to
improve on and, if they'relistening, get better ways to
announce, like you know, whenthings are going on, because I

(34:40):
would love, like I hear the, themuffled go.
That's like all I hear and I'mlike what was that?
Ah, whatever, I'm just gonna goback to what I was doing.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Why don't?
Why didn't they?
I mean, I don't, yeah, I, Ididn't.
They had a.
So I went online to see whatthe deal was, you know the day
of, to see, okay, what's goingon.
What am I missing?
I was listening to the Epsonrepeater all the way up in
Campton because I had to go upnorth, so I could hear Ralph and
all the guys talking andupdating about what's going on.

(35:10):
So I was getting a flair for it.
But they had on the website youwon a prize and there was a
time limit to claim it.
Did you guys know about that?
No, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It had like one guy's name andhe had like 14 minutes to claim
it, and then another guy yourtime is out, like it was like
you didn't get your prize.

(35:30):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
That was for the door prize stuff.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
yes, yeah, so it was like you had the claim and it
was on the website, but I'm likewho's checking web.
Exactly, they didn't tell youthat.
Who's checking websites?
I mean, I don't know, maybethat's a good point.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
I mean like there's not a lot of coordination, but
again it's a ham fest.
So we're communicators, butwe're More communicators
everywhere.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Maybe, I mean, they were using that repeater, right,
the whatever the repeater thatthey're using for the
communications.
Like, why wasn't there justsomeone like running a ham fest
net and kind of talking throughit and say, oh, and this is
W1STJ net control and we've gotour first door prize winner.

(36:16):
You know, please go to blah,blah, blah and uh, is there any
more check-ins or anyone want tocheck in?
And you know, like, just keepit going.
And that would be somethingthat would be five or something.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
You can put on one 46 , five, five.
I know they were using theradio to the speakers.
Set up that they always do andyou you can never hear it
because literally it's like youknow, exactly, and I heard ernie
and uh was casey one b o o.
He's down from my area, really,uh, really good dude, contracts

(36:50):
with the air force, but he's aham radio operator.
I heard his call sign barelyand I'm like, dude, they just
called your call sign.
You might want to go check that.
I know you might have won aradio.
Yeah, you might have gottensomething, but put it out on
five, five.
Everybody was testing andchecking on five, two, but say,

(37:11):
hey, look for the door prizeswhen they're called.
We're gonna put it out five orgive us the stupid frequency
though, so we can listen to thethe wireless system.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Not just you know, or and and like.
If you're already posting it onyour website, why don't you
create a small little mobileapplet Like that?
You tell everybody when theycome in to put that on their
phone, and then it just, youknow, they push out automatic.
You know, no, like I mean, itwouldn't make a big deal.
Everyone's carrying theirfricking cell phone around and I
know like 12 people all werelike, oh, I'm going to pay, you

(37:44):
know, when they had, you know,debit or ATM or credit card
payments, and so it was likeit's already there, so get them
to add their cell phone numberand then you just text them when
shit comes in and they'llprobably be way better.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
I think, if we're going to do Neerfest again, I
think we should get down wherethe tables are, get in the
middle of it and set up, get abanner, live free and ham and
just run it live the whole time,just be like we're live.
Here we are, you want to get onand just give away shit.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Trust me, dude.
That was the first thing Pauland I said yesterday.
I was like dude when you left.
We were just chit chat a littlebit.
I was like dude next year yougot to drop the camper down in
the pit and we're just going tostay for it down there.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
He thought he was going to get.
He's like they're like you haveto park up there and he's like
look at all the people that areparked down there.
You know there, you know right.
I mean I set up, yeah, it islike rv parking.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
I'm like I was waiting for them to hit me with
the rv because I have a tent ina trailer, right, yeah, dude,
there were full-size rvs up andaround, right by the fire trucks
and and chris's van, so like todraw, like so that you're todd,
you're speaking the same thingthat paul I just discussed.
It's like dude, we're going tojust drop his camper there.
We're going to do a 9 to 10stream, we'll do a 12 to 1

(39:04):
stream, live stream and thenwe'll do a later night stream
and we'll just invite people tocome by.
We'll do men on the street,like you know, extra questions
even after you're an extra.
Hopefully hopefully, by the timenext spring rolls around or
even fall, you're still notstudying for your extra dude.
Come on, I hope so, because yougot all summer of 2026.

(39:26):
So you know, yeah, we want tostart doing more like.
You know being like, because itwould be awesome just to have
like a booth of just thegiveaway stuff and, you know,
being able to just kind of likedo fun, some fun stuff.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
Uh, you know, both youtube related- plus, it would
be good marketing too, becausethe people that don't know about
us would get to know about usbecause they'd say, the podcast,
the northeast ham radio podcast, you know you might get more
subscribers.
Um, you know we can do a thinglike subscribe now and have the
you know, have one of thosecodes that you can scan with

(40:01):
your phone and then it goes andthen just pop it up.
I mean, so yeah, there's.
I just think that would be fun.
I mean, we tried to do that atmarlboro the first year,
remember we had the little boothand it was like a challenge
that that was our first foray,you know, into the whole live
streaming stuff.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
And then nevertheless , marlboro had like the worst
internet.
It was like dial up, and tryingto like do a live stream on
dial up is like just suicidemission, but you know it's not
gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
The other thing you know you could do too is you
could like be sitting there andthen, like someone walks up,
like either someone we know or alistener, and then they could
just join in.
You know, hey, have a seat.
You know, let's talk, get themic set up and then do it.
Uh, do it legit, and you knowyou might get a crowd who knows.
I mean it could be fun and itmight bring a little bit of uh,
more attention to uh, make yourso here's a perfect example.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
It's not even a ham fest, like how many of you guys
watch josh's uh camp out stream?
The hrcc one where they did theHRC camp out.
He literally he said like Iwatched it I didn't watch it
live, but I watched the replayand he literally had like four
cameras set up and he was givingaway prizes from a icon and
everything else in terms ofradios and give away, yeah, a

(41:13):
lot of stuff.
And nevertheless, if you wentto that like Chuck K six, and
nevertheless, if you went tothat like chuck k6, uh, k6, uh,
uh usy is that his call signchuck from uh coffee and ham
radios.
Yeah, yeah, he, he showed up forthe weekend and he gave away to
poseidon and uh the ribokovantenna.
So you know, you know, it's allof those kind of things and I

(41:34):
know, like you had talked, youwere you were thinking about
giving away radios and I don'tthink we had enough time to to
do that after we got rained out,so we'll have to circle back
around and do that again.
But yeah, dude, it's.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
I gave a uh uh before I left I had five radios down
in the truck and I completelyforgot about them too.
And I'm like, uh, there was twogirls and their dad walking by.
I said are you guys, do hams?
And the littlest one said Ijust passed my test yesterday.
I said there you go, nice, herdual band radio.

(42:06):
And the sister was like well, Ijust I, recently, I don't
remember exactly he go oh, hair,dad, have one too, you know.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Nice.
Remember that kid in the fall.
He was like this 12-year-oldkid and he's like, yeah, I'm an
extra and his dad got him in thehand radio and he passed his
dad.
He goes, he's got moreprivileges than me.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
They can talk to the old people at the bottom of the
band.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Yeah, how fun is that ?
Yeah, right, yeah, dude.
You know it's kind of funnybecause like I look at ham fasts
and I look at like like we havethat big one.
Have you been to hammocks atall, mike?

Speaker 3 (42:48):
No, hammocks, it's now called hammocks.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
They've changed their name so they're hammocks
abbreviated, because everyone isrunning around last year going
hammocks, hammocks and likeChicago hammocks.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
So anyway, yeah, that's another Another sore
subject, but okay.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Not that I'm Probably with you, because I feel like
the Place that they're in suckslike it should Be, like they
should be.
They Should be more like.
Near fest is in the sense oflike trying to, you know, foster
like, hang out and camping andall of that kind of atmosphere,
instead of being in a hotel,like the hotel just totally like
, takes any great coolness outof the whole aspect of it.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
But I mean but you know, in that hotel, though,
again, if we want to do livelike we did the last time, if
there's a way we could get realinternet, we could do it in that
court, that in that lobby,right, oh, we could do.
We could do a lot of stuff,right, that would be cool too.
But that's, who knows, whendoes that one come up?
Is that in the fall?

Speaker 3 (43:47):
august, august, august or september, that's
right, it's august.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
and the reason why it's in august is they refuse to
move it because it sits righton top of the same week that uh,
the japanese uh ham conventionis and one other big event.
And they keep saying, oh, we'renever going to change it,
because you know, if we changeit we're just going to bump up
against something else and it'slike, dude, have it in the fall.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Stop having it in the middle of August.
That's when I got my general,so maybe I'll have to get my
extra there.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Well, dude, come on, get your extra before that Dude
come on, get your extra beforethat.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
The two or three times I've been to Marlboro
Literally completely washed out.
On Saturday With the giantthunderstorms that came through,
I felt sorry for some of thesmall vendors.
Their stuff was gone.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Dude, you know the building as you come into that
parking lot, that conventioncenter building that remains
vacant.
It pisses me off.
I drove by it when I was therelast year and I drove in and
looked in.
It's empty.
It's a big, giant warehousefrom front to back, literally
you can move the whole entireevent in that building and, you
know, basically put in portapotties because it probably

(44:53):
doesn't have any.
You know plumbing or whateverit.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
Maybe it does, I don't know but whatever be the
case, arl convention too.
Why wouldn't they put that inthere?
Oh no, it is, I think it is sowhy don't they move it in there?

Speaker 1 (45:06):
because the club that has been supporting this has
been doing it this way, for andit's that old adage of like, oh,
we've done it this way, sowe're not changing.
You know, I I participated alittle bit, helping out, and I
felt like there's a lot ofpushback Sometimes with, you
know, coming up with new orcreative ideas.
But that's just my own Opinion.
But, yeah, we'll leave it atthat.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
I mean it's you know, we, I would, I, I want to go to
like Huntsville or what is theOther one, dayton, like I want
to see a real Like where all thevendors are there, all the New
shits there.
Like that's, that's what I wantto see, a real like where all
the vendors are there, all thenew shits there.
Like that's, that's what I wantto see.
Like I want to go to like thebig one because, like, even if
you're not interested inhammering, like, to me that

(45:47):
would be like I've gone to, youknow, down at the seaport what
do they call that?
down in Boston, and I went to aboat show down there and I was
like I'm afraid to buy a boatjust because it was so awesome
they had all the coolest shitthere, right, and you know I
don't even have a boatinglicense, yeah, but but you know
what I mean.
Like that's what I really wantto see, because those are the

(46:09):
ones that I think and it's toobad we can't get something like
that in this part of the country.
You know there's a lot of a lotof people do ham radio in the
Northeast and it would be niceto have like a big where you got
all the vendors come in the yes, use that.
You know all their new stuff,like, have it be one of the big
ones, cause for us, I mean, it'san airplane ride or a long ass

(46:29):
drive to get to one of those.
You know it's not like you cando it in a weekend.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Right, but like, like , how many of the like just in
our youtube community?
Like how many of the youtuberscome up this way?
None of them have it on theirradar, none of them like.
Any of them are like, oh, we'reonly going to come up here and
do a poda, and I get it like, inessence, like, why would you
come to ham x?
It's a small like venue, eventhough it's an arl section event
.
It's nothing in comparison toeven huntville, which, I mean,
is things.
It's.
It's an actual ham fest and aseparate park.

(46:59):
You know where they're campingout and everything.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
You know, and I, I went last year.
I went Marlboro, I did, um, Idid some of the classes or the
speaking forums, yeah.
So I was like all right, I wantto see it.
So I did the POTA one and I waslike shit, I could have done
this.
I like shit, I could have donethis.
I probably could have done itbetter.
I got more experience than thisguy.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
I was very disappointed with the Polito.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah, I thought it was going to be like I don't
know what I was thinking, but Imean, I mean, if someone was
brand new it probably would havebeen good to go to and stuff,
but I don't know, I think thatpeople around here would be more
.
It'd be better if you had likea place where you could buy new
and new stuff.
You know, have have like youknow just demos and you know

(47:45):
like almost like I always thinklike how come none of these
places ever have like radio setup for use like to go work, dx
or something Like I would thinklike a booth like that, like
that one like oh, they do likewhere near fest doesn't, but
like Ham x has a get on the airstation.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Where did they have it last year?
You know where it was.
It was tucked in a.
It was tucked in a conferenceroom off the beaten path, so you
wouldn't be able to find outwhere it was yeah, like why
didn't they have it in that mainroom?

Speaker 2 (48:13):
I mean, yeah, there was.
What was that?
Got that company there that youcan rent?
You can rent um airtime theyhad they were there.
It's like you can rent like, uh, per minute you can go and do
use their radios that are allaround the country, like yeah,
that was uh, that was right nextto halbert's booth.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Um, yeah, yeah, um.
But the guy who owns uh all ofthe flex radios does uh.
And two, he puts up all theantenna towers.
What's the big uh remote radio,uh program I can't remember but
that's but that was pretty cool, like you know.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
You could, you know you could demo that and say, oh,
you want to like log on to youknow what's called remote ham
radio?

Speaker 1 (48:53):
yeah, you'll figure, you do it anyway, all right.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Yep, gentlemen, I've got a scoot.
I've got to go over to anotherlive stream.
Believe it or not, I wasinvited.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
You were Mr Popularity today I haven't
figured it out yet.
Thanks for coming on.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
It was great hanging out with you.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
This weekend.
I had to finally meet you inperson.
I hope you come back on againsoon.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Definitely, as long as Eric lets me in.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Dude, open invitation all the time.
Just hit me up on discordanytime, I'll let you know.
We're doing it later, buddy.
Good luck, yeah yeah, bye andthen there were two, two I know
this is, this is your prophecy.
All of a sudden, if I hop offnow it's just gonna be.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
You left, I don't know what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
The end of the show.
Yeah, so yeah, I mean Hamfestman, have a tough.
It's a tough sell, because I'msure they don't want to change
anything to make things newer ormore inviting, because that's
just the way they do it.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
So hear me out on this.
So like Ham Radio is.
Like ham radio is, you know,it's yeah Group of people that
too many people do it.
And then you got like theoverland guys, right, like I
think that stuff's cool but it'snot really big here, like it's
big out west in the desert andall that kind of stuff.
But like I'm telling you, ifyou had a combination of ham
Radio, overland and a big thingat a Dude, Mike's an overlander.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
He loves overland.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
I know, but I'm just saying, like he's like the one,
like that, there's not a couple,yeah, but it's not like it is
at west.
But wouldn't it be cool to getthe vendors From ham radio and
overland and like Take over, youknow, the Boston Sign to have a
huge Thing?

Speaker 1 (50:36):
well, what you got to do is Exactly what, like the
folks like Digital Rancher andHR 20 and all those guys that go
to more expo.
They literally go there andthey've got now they've worked
with the program coordinator formore expo, which is all a big
overlanding thing, and they havea little uh, what they call the
ham radio uh pavilion and solike they just do ham radio

(50:58):
specific and people come up tothem.
So they're starting to do moreof that.
I do.
Do we even know, like, ifthere's like anything like more
expo up here and then I mean,then there's gotta be, I'm sure?

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Well, where are we going to go?
What was that thing that wewere going to go to?
It was like that electric,electronic.
It was like last year we weregoing to, we were going to rent
the space or we were asked to doa space, and then I forget what
it was.
It was like last year or theyear before it was out in like
Western Mass, oh, it was a bigthing, and that the club was

(51:29):
going to go and we got like afree booth.
What the heck was that Icouldn't go.
I think I had baseball orsomething.
But you go, no, I didn't,probably wouldn't ring a bell.
There was something it was likeit was a big, like every year
is a big electronics kind ofthing, and they asked us to come
and they gave us a table or abooth but we had the, we had to

(51:52):
man it 24, seven or something.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Oh, yeah, are you talking about the?

Speaker 2 (52:00):
And we decided not to do it because it was like we
couldn't get enough people toman the why am I thinking of it?

Speaker 1 (52:08):
It's the stupid fair that occurs all the time.
Yeah, fair in Mass, the Big E.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
The Big E right.
We never did that right Becausewe didn't have enough people to
.
They wanted us to be like man.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
It like 24, 7 for like four days or something and
actually, from what I understand, the the club that was doing it
basically is backed out justbecause they couldn't get enough
people and arl didn't reallyhelp continue to support it
going on.
So I'm sure it's probably superexpensive to you know, get in
that event, because it's like 19buildings and 100 acres.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
It's crazy, yeah so I , I think you know, I think
that's how you, I think if youteam up with something that is
uses ham radio, like theoverland stuff that could use
ham radio, that ham radios mightham radio operators might be
interested in that, like that'skind of you know, people
building mobile, mobile shacksand that kind of stuff in the

(53:05):
overlay, the whole nine yards, Imean, the biggest thing I got
out of, the best thing, I think,besides, you know, doing the
thing is I saw that guy's jeepthat I parked next to with those
uh molly things on the windowswith the antenna on it.
I'm like dude, that's awesome,I took pictures of it.
I'm like I'm getting myself oneof those I was.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Uh, I was watching some YouTube videos on
overlanding and stuff andlooking for Molly panels for the
back of the bed of the truckand yeah, yeah, that's exactly
how it starts.
You look at like small littlethings and you're like, oh, I
got to get ball mounts for mydash, for cameras, and yeah, the
list goes on and on and on.
So, yeah, it's only a matter oftime my friend will be
overlanding on top of that.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Yeah, but you know, it's a.
You know it's.
You know I, I I'm not a like Iput it this way for near fast,
like if I missed near fast, likeI wouldn't be like, oh, I
missed near fast.
Like it's like a bummer.
But you know, if we, I think ifwe do it like in the fall or

(54:03):
next spring and we get downthere and the main thing and we
get a table and the camper andwe just stay there and have
people coming in, you know, allday long, all weekend long, I
think it could be fun, as longas we keep the live stream going
.
You know, maybe do like, likeyou said, an hour or two and
take a break and another hour ortwo and just kind of get people
on and get people on the on theair and see what it's like.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
And like you could drag, like we could basically
work towards like getting someof the vendors like to come do
interviews and then like say,hey, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll,
we'll, we'll put somebody atyour booth to man it in terms of
, you know, keeping the salesgoing, but at the same time, you
know you can come promote or orwhatever, and like cause, like
I would have loved to, you know,give Matt.
I didn't think about recordingMatt's uh, you know updates, but

(54:47):
you know not that he reallyneeds a lot of the updates.
He does an awesome job and weall use his antennas and you
know, profess him often.
So it's not like you know.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
I wonder, can you do?
Could you do live stream whereyou went, like I could be, say
like a man on the street, yeah,and like I'd be on one screen,
like at the table or wherever atour area, and then you go and
go into the barn, say maybe aninterview uh technical
challenges I'm sure.
But yeah, we could probablyfigure it out.
But if that's something likethat would be cool, because then

(55:16):
we could be doing it live, wecould get a big, you know, we
could actually get like a screen, a computer screen or something
, and have the youtube channelgoing like on ipads or whatever,
so people can see.
You know, I think it would justbe kind of yeah, I think I
think it would be cool, I thinkpeople would enjoy it, I think
we'd get a crowd of people atleast watching it it's inspired

(55:37):
me to want to, like you know,see how we can turn up the gas
on the 24-hour poda, like Ireally want to aim for, like the
fall, to do that.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Like I know our bigger picture is to like, maybe
do it at arcadia, like doingarcadia things separate but I
think we need to do that 24-hourpoda on the like sometime in
the fall and work towards, likeyou know, getting that locked in
and getting people to go do acamp out.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Yeah, we're gonna.
We're gonna need people to signup for that Cause 24 hours is a
long.
It's a long time to beactivating the same park.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
And I'm thinking, you know, at the same time, if we
play our cards right, we couldprobably get a lot of vendors to
like do giveaways along that.
You know that 24 hour period.
So we'd be like hey, we'regonna be live streaming for 24
hours.
Do you want to like give awaysome stuff of your products?
And, you know, maybe icon willdo a goodie bag.
You know, you never know.
I mean, we're not a hugechannel, but we could always say
, hey, you're gonna see us for24 hours.

(56:30):
You, we're gonna get our worth,yeah, but yeah, we gotta work
on that.
So those are some of the things.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
And yeah, just don't a freaking time I know, maybe
you know I'll find out when theuh, the float fly is and maybe I
could talk to the guy and seeif we could do it the week after
that, because they're gonna,because they take over the, the
thing, the float fly, but thenext week, like I think the park
is, I think it's pretty muchclosed.

(56:59):
I, I would assume it's closedfor the float fly but they open
it back up because people liketo camp and watch the planes fly
off the water and stuff.
So I'm thinking maybe the weekafter they extend it one more
time, yeah, like, yeah, and Idon't think, I don't know, I
don't think they'd like theywould let us camp there.
I don't think it'd be open forlike all kind of campers because
they're kind of winding down.
But if we had the same spot,you know you'd be in that

(57:22):
parking lot.
We can put a.
When's the flow fly?
It's like september.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Yeah, it's like the week after one or two weeks
after labor day, okay so well,we definitely could do it like
labor day, but we could probablydo it like the weekend after.
If they do like two weeks after, we could probably do the week
before flow fly, but we shouldso here's.
Here's our invite to our, youknow, membership and listener
base.
You know, would you guys wantto come do a weekend and be part

(57:51):
of hanging out for, you know,friday, saturday or saturday,
sunday, depending on what itworks out for 24 hours?
We set up at greenfield statepark.
We do a live stream 24 hours.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
We'll set up one Greenfield state park.
We do a live stream 24 hours.
We'll set up one station.
With you we could use your uh,whatever, the hex beam and one
station, one tent, whatever setup for the radio and just run it
24 seven.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yep, we would need the people.
We'll, you know we'd have food.
You know, we, we, we, we couldcoordinate getting people there.
So if you wanted to be anexclusive, and you know, drop
your camper there for theweekend to hang out, you know we
can make it a special event,sort of like how HRCC does their
weekend camping.
We'll do a 24-hour poda, youknow, camping event for the free
ham.
So if you're interested insomething like that, we'll post

(58:35):
up on Discord.
You know, give us a listen,give us an update.
If you'd be interested, let usknow and we'll keep a, you know,
a tag on that.
Tally on that and we'll see.
You know we can get this goingwho knows, it could become a.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
It could become a yearly event, oh boy let's get
it off the ground first 24-hourpark new hampshire.
We'd have to rotate parks, yeahI know year.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
It's year five now and we've been doing 24 hour
Potas for five years straight.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
In the next 50 years We'll be going for We'll do a
different state each year.
I'll be 103.
I gotta stay alive for the lastpota.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
I don't know.
Paul Is trying to get all ofhis you know bucket listed
Before that.
So I don't know.
It just might be you and I,anyway, at the 103.
I don't know, it just might beyou and I, anyway, at the
hundred and three.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
I don't know, I won't be there around that long, but
but yeah, that would be, thatwould be kind of cool and it
would support the hobby and itwould be kind of fun and who
knows, I mean, we probably havea lot of cool contacts and
especially if we were announcingit on the radio and telling
people, hey, spread the word,we're doing a 24 hour poda, uh
park, I think it'd be awesome.

(59:45):
How does that work?
How does it work?
If so, if I was, if I'm doing a, let's say we had our live free
and ham call and that's what wewere using for our 24 hour poda
, but I was.
Can you do?

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
you do.
Can you as your personal poetastuff?
Can you log those as as likewmcj?
But the contacts you make youwould put your call sign in the
operator field.
So when we're logging it youwould anytime we have a new
operator set and they would justchange the operator call
operator field to their callsign and then they would get
credit for all of those contactsthat they made.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
But what about them?
But does it doesn't count as atwofer right?
Well, it doesn't count as twooperators.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
No, because you're operating as an activator under
the club call.
Okay, so the club calls theprimary, but you get all of the
contact points for the contactsmade under your call Right Under
W1LFfh, or, yeah, when we getit, actually whenever you get
fun.
But no, we are actually funnystories.
I'm just waiting for the fcc.

(01:00:49):
Apparently there's a, a timer,an 18-day timer, that I have to
sit and wait for, so we'reliterally six more days left
before I finally get it, so wewill have an official
announcement.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Yeah, why are they?

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
what is wrong?
I don't.
It's the fcc, in essence,because I think, and so here's
the catch if you go look up onqrz, if you look at w1 lfh,
you'll see that my name and livefree and ham is under that, but
it shows is terminated and itshows is terminated back in in
october.
So I still own the call, butit's terminated.

(01:01:22):
I have to let the paperwork gothrough and they have to wait.
Like it's an 18 day period, awindow, so like if anybody else
decides to come back to claimthe call again or whatever.
Like, instead of them lookingat it and going, oh hey, the
person who's requesting it isalso the person who owns the
call, I should just give it tothem and you know.
So I have to wait the 18 days.
So that's what we're waitingfor.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
All right, we'll get it though, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
We own it.
So it's like, until theyrealize they, you know, made
their errors, all right, well,that'll be cool, yeah.
So I guess, outside of this, Imean, I, you know, for ham fest
near fest is a good, you know,overall, you know, fast, to get
together and meet people that wehaven't seen in a while.
I wish it would, you know,improve and grow, like we've

(01:02:08):
talked about a little bit, but I, you know, it's new England,
we're, we're, we're stubborn, wedon't do anything fast.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Well, it's kind of like our.
It's kind of like our club too.
You know we have to.
You know there's things that wecould like.
I really want to get, I reallywant to buy a trailer for the
club and build and build aportable station.
At least use it for field dayand then maybe use it for the
poda activation or whatever thesupport your parks or when the
club goes out and does the podathing.
I mean, and it would be fun tobuild it and the guys that don't

(01:02:38):
know, like I don't know how tobuild a shack from a mobile, but
there's guys in our club thatdo and it would just be fun to
to build it and have your inputand then just have a club
trailer.
You could bring it to near fest.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
So yeah, that is a that was on my bucket list to
make sure we get done for 2025or at least get to that that
part rolling forward.
And we've got some other stuffwe're working on, but yeah, I
would love to see that happen,for sure it would be fun.
But yeah, I mean in terms ofHamFest, because we don't want

(01:03:10):
to get our hands involved therebut Live Free in Ham.
I think we're going to have tomove forward on some of the
stuff we talked about justgetting actual sight there and
making more of ourself presentand, you know, getting more
involved in the you know, thegeneral public down at the
ground level.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
So I think we'll probably try to see if we can
target that for the fall.
I'm not.
I'm done coaching after thisyear.
So baseball will just be goingto my kids' games and it won't.
And even if I had to miss agame to do like it wouldn't be a
big deal.
You know, I plays so muchbaseball.
It's like like if we were goingto do yeah.

(01:03:46):
I mean, if we were going to dolike near fest, from whatever
Friday when it opens tillSaturday when it ends, you know
I could be there and I think itwould be, I think it would be a
good, but we'd have to prepareand we'd have to figure out,
make sure everything workedright and have a schedule.
This is what we're planning ondoing.

(01:04:08):
I mean, obviously things willchange.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
We're going to have to do a bunch of giveaways too.
We just can't sit there and notgive anything out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Yeah, and here's a hammy.
Oh, here's a sticker pad.
It's funny, I'll go away.
I'll sticker pad.
It's funny, so I'll go away.
I'll start going away andbuying crap.
At near today, we're givingaway uh lead weight.
We don't know if it works.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
But here's a first gen ipad.
It's a relic.
Funny, funny story with thelittle pigs.
I left one on uh reliance's uhbooth out in the open, like by
the rest of his antennas.
I can't tell you how manypeople picked it up and looked
at it kind of puzzled and thenput it back down.
I'm like, dude, flip the damnthing over and read the bottom,

(01:04:50):
it's all you have to do.
But you know well, we'll haveto spread more of that love a
little bit.
I know Paul did a couple of youknow handouts.
I did a few here and therescattered about.
So hopefully people will catchon and and go visit the website
and, you know, want to be likehey, this is a cool idea.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
We'll say I think, I think it would.
It would take on a lot betterif it was trackable.
Yeah, Well, that's going to getexpensive, but yeah but like
you know how, like, like thegeocaches do it like with their
little things.
I mean I think people would becool with it would be more how
far will a hammy go?

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
yeah, cool, all right .
Well, let's put a bow on thisone because I you know, I'm sure
you're pretty much all spentfrom the weekend and you know,
dreading getting into Mondays.
But we definitely thank Mikefor hopping on.
He had to jump off becauseapparently he's on Jason's
channel talking about overlandand so, you know, obviously,
once this airs well, actuallyyou know, either way you have to

(01:05:46):
go back to the replay and checkhim out on that.
But he's being a man of thetown and hanging out with a
couple of different YouTubers,so good for him.
And you know Paul, who is nothere present with us, he's uh
currently packing.
I just saw a quick uh post fromMike on discord uh, giving them
the parks and stuff like thatthat they'll be activating.

(01:06:07):
So if you're a patron memberyou might get lucky.
Uh, this might be your uhfuture Intel.
Uh, he'll be activating Mondaywhen he's in New York with Mike.
So if you want to, a couple ofcontacts with him and Mike, uh,
they'll be over at.
Uh, what is it?
Park us five, three, a five,two, five, three.

(01:06:31):
That's Pittstown state forest.
So, uh, they're going to be uhactivating together plenty of
trees.
So, uh, paul can throw up hisreliance and uh antenna and Mike
can maybe activate his uh, youknow, 56 to one uh reliance
reliance antenna there and theycan, you know, hold hands and
and skip off into the distance.
You know, singing reliance istheir favorite song.
So, either way, we'lldefinitely keep an eye out for

(01:06:52):
them to hopefully make contactsand get the them in the log
there for me.
And, yeah, he'll.
If you want to track Paul, he'son APRS.
I didn't actually, actually Iwas going to look up real quick,
uh, if aprsfi, and see what hiscall number is.
Uh, n1 og star.
Let's see what he is.
He is running.

(01:07:15):
Uh, what number are you, paul?
Uh, looks like a dash nine.
If you do n1og star, you couldprobably find him a couple
different ones, but it lookslike he's on 146.52, uh n1og-9.
So if you want to follow himalong, we'll be doing a little
bit of that on our own websiteand discord, uh.
So, uh, looking forward to histravels, how far would the radio

(01:07:37):
?
pick him up for well, it dependson whether there's a digipeter
around in the area that can hearhim.
Yeah, that's the biggest thing.
I mean I'm sure I have noproblem going through, like most
of massachusetts and uh, youknow, in and through the the
main corridors, but once hestarts getting up to vermont,
you know it's it's going to betough to pick up.
I know I was hard to pick up inthose areas when I was up in

(01:07:59):
you.
You know, kind of Troy in thatarea.
Yeah, but we'll see.
Either way, we're lookingforward to seeing his progress.
You can always check him out onhis channel because, again,
this is his month he's awayskydiving, getting his class a
license.
So we're looking forward togetting some updates from him on
that.
And so pay attention to hischannel, pay attention to live

(01:08:26):
free and ham for all of thosegreat things.
And so, to wrap things up,again, you know, thanks, mike,
for hanging out with us tonighton such short notice there and,
as always, you know, thanksagain for joining live free and
ham.
We truly appreciate hanging outwith all you guys and for all
the folks that we saw at nearfest and recognized us, and we
say thank you and appreciate, uh, everybody who's part of our

(01:08:47):
community.
We can't thank you guys enough,and so you can always head over
to our discord server if youwant to connect with us.
Uh, join in the conversation.
Um, this uh show will be postedsoon.
Uh, you can also subscribe toour youtube channel to make sure
you catch up on all of theexcellent content over there.
And, as always, you can leaveus a comment using our SMS link.

(01:09:08):
Those are located in our shownotes as well as our email
address.
Or, if you prefer, you canleave us a quick voicemail at
978-233-1142.
And, like we always say, if youwant to help support the show,
you can always buy us a beerlink, and we thank Shannon and
the Hillbilly Ham Radio Club forthrowing us a few.
Buy us a beers from the livestream.

(01:09:29):
Those are much appreciated.
Thanks again for those.
But you can always join ourPatreon, and our Patreon members
get a boatload of stuff,including access to all of our
uncut shows, including this oneand many other links to all of
our merch and other cool meetupsthat are coming up soon.
So, outside of that, you canalways head over to live free

(01:09:50):
and hamcom, learn about our show, check out our swag and find
out all of everything you wantto learn about live free and ham
.
And with that, thanks again forlistening and from all of us at
live free and ham Seven, three,four.

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