Club Memberships and ARRL in the Ham World - is it worth the $$ - Live Free and Ham Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Eric (N1JUR) (00:03):
If you remember the good old days where we used
to jump on when Columbia Houseoffered 10 CDs for a penny.
Well, but if you're a ham today, then you may have a few of
your own.
Yep, yep, we're going to talkabout subscriptions and
memberships and what we think ofthem.
Next, on Live Free and Ham.
Hello and welcome to Live Freeand Ham podcast.
It's your weekly show where wediscuss ham radio topics in New

(00:25):
Hampshire, new England andbeyond, and we're thrilled to
have you here, whether you're aregular listener or tuning in
for the first time.
And we know we've had a bunchof new people jump in, so we're
glad to have you here and thanksfor joining us for tonight's
episode.
All right, so let's get intoour show.
I'm your host, call sign N11jur.
First names eric, as always,and I'm with my great co-hosts

(00:46):
it's paul n1og and todd w1stjwonderful guys.
Well, good welcome to see youguys again, and we took a little
bit of a hiatus here duringchristmas and whatnot, so we're
kind of getting back in thesaddle here.
So you're bound to uh to hearsome of our screw-ups and
mess-ups as we try to relearnall this all over again.
But with that, as we alwayslike to do in every episode, we

(01:11):
like to update you guys andcatch you up on a few things.
So, as always, our storefrontup at livefreeandhamcom forward
slash shop is where you can headover and check out all of our
new merch.
We've got some awesome newitems in there for our cold
winter weather friends.
Paul is sporting the new livefree and hat beanie.
Uh, we've got our classic livefree and hat beanie, which is

(01:31):
only just our state logo there,with the live free and ham uh
antenna in it.
Um, we're going to probably putin some hoodies out there, uh,
with, uh, some of our favoritesayings on shirts and stuff like
that.
There, there we go.
There's our live free and hamclassic one that Paul just put
out there.
There are plenty of great coolwinter stuff you can pick up
there to keep yourself warmwhile you're sitting here
listening to live free and ham.

(01:52):
So with that, we also have stillleft in the coffers there.
We have a few left.
We've got our favorite livefree and ham etched um, classic
whiskey, bourbon glass and, uh,you know, they are all of it
still available.
There's a few left.
So, you know, if you haven'tpicked one up now, you know I
can't tell you.
You know, you just need to getthe ball rolling there and head

(02:13):
over to the store and pickyourself up one.
Um, there are a lot of happyfolks that have already grabbed
theirs and they've sent uspictures and shared the love of
live free and ham, uh, through,uh, you know, their favorite
spirit, and so, as I said, ourstorefronts got them.
Once they're gone, they aregone, my friend, and you know
you could be a sad ham, which wedon't want you to be.
So you need to live free andham glass, simple as that, all

(02:35):
right.
So with that, I'm going to onlytouch this on a little bit.
We've got our pigs, as always,you can head over to get hamcom
and grab one of our littleoinkers there, um, and spread
the love.
Show folks, uh, you know, andthose guys that are sporting
some great antennas on theircars, that you recognize them.
You see how cool their, theirham setups are.

(02:56):
You can now drop a small littlepig with your call sign on it
and point them at get hammed onuh, the little tokens affixed to
that pig's body there and it'sawesome little way to say, hey,
I recognize you, I'm a ham, Ilove what you got set up there
and it's a cool thing, um, thatyou know we're we're trying to
just start as grassroots.
So you know, hey, go pick up afew.

(03:16):
We've got a couple of smallstarter packages up on.
Uh, get hamcom, um, and getyour pig set up.
But if you want to do this inyour own club or you want to do
this in your own little world,you know, reach out to me.
I'm always happy to share, youknow, kind of my secret sauce
and where you can pick the stuffup and you can start to kind of
spread the love there yourselfand enjoy having some fun doing

(03:36):
some really cool stuff in thecommunity.
So, all right, well, with thatwe've got a couple more things.
You know we've got a couplemore things.
We always love feedback and weare starting to see the feedback
rolling in.
So we are appreciative of youguys.
Thank you, guys for reachingout and sharing your thoughts.
We've got some really good stufftoday we want to share with you

(03:57):
from a few listeners.
But the way to do that is youcan reach out to us in three
simple, easy ways.
You can send us via an SMS text.
That link is in all of our shownotes and description below.
Just click that link, send us aquick message and we'll get the
fan mail from you.
You can now leave us avoicemail, and we've got a
voicemail that we want to sharewith you tonight, and you know
our lines are open and thatnumber is 978-233-1142.

(04:21):
All you have to do is just dialthat number, leave us a
voicemail and we will share iton our next episode and we'll,
you know, tear it apart and talkabout it.
You know that's what we'rehoping, so, um, and then you
know, if you're the typical uh,you know type that just likes to
send an email, you know you canalways send us an email, live
free, and him at gmailcom.
How boring, but you know we'llstill it on our next episode.

(04:42):
Whether you send us a review oryou got a question, you know
we're here to help you out andwe want to share, you know,
whatever you got, and so send itour way.
And, as always, we've got twogreat things.
As we always keep sharing isthat we always do a live stream,
and in this month, in February,we are going to be having a
live stream soon.
So the way you get in on thethe the no, and know when we

(05:04):
actually go live is to head overto our YouTube channel, click
the subscribe button If you'renot already a subscriber, and
make sure you hit thatnotification bell.
That way, you get notifiedanytime we go live and you can
join in on all the action.
And I don't know how about you,but you know, if you remember,
two months back, we ended uphaving, um, our shack roast, and
that went awesome.
I had a blast, we all had ablast.
I think we all had a lot ofdrinking going on.

(05:26):
But, uh, you know, we had somereally great, uh, really great
roasts there and, uh, we, we allfeel at this point that, uh,
it's a great way, uh, and we'regoing to do this every year.
So if you didn't get in on theaction this year, then, uh, you
know, there's definitely apossibility that the opening
will come again next year.
So we'll love to have new folksthere and new shacks to roast.

(05:48):
And if you are always like usand you like to be in on the
know and you want to be the coolkid, you can always head over
to our Patreon channel, ourPatreon front.
I don't know Patreon membership, what are those things?
You know.
You know what I'm talking about.
I don't know why I'm rambling,but you can head over to our
Patreon page and become asubscriber and you will get free

(06:08):
access.
I didn't say free access.
You will get access tomembership to our um back uh,
rock hut, uh, you know audiostreams of all of our recorded
episodes.
So if you want to hear all ofthe back channels and all the
fun stuff that we talk aboutbefore we start the show and and
all the stuff in between, youknow, feel free to.
You know, come be a membershipand you get a lot of great other

(06:29):
cool rewards that we give toour membership base um that you
don't normally get.
It's just a regular subscriber.
So go over and check that outand become a Patreon member.
It's really easy and we'd loveto have you help support the
show, right?
So with that we are going todive into our first segment, and
I am slow on the draw here.

(06:50):
Uh, what's the button?
Do I hit again my friend?
uh, yeah, here we go ladies andgentlemen, can I please have
your?
I've just been handed an urgentand horrifying news story.
Everybody.
We got some news.
Slow down, Boog, Let me handlethis.
We've got some news.

(07:11):
I've got bad news and bad news.

Paul (N1OG) (07:14):
I have reviewed ship's personnel Captain.
Congratulations, You've gotmail.

Eric (N1JUR) (07:18):
All right, well, with that, todd, what do we have
for the email in the emailinbox?
Do we have anything at all thatwe can share?

Todd (W1STJ) (07:25):
Yes, we do.
The problem is I don't know whoit was from.
It was from someone who listensto this podcast from O'Fallon,
missouri.
And he or she would like to sayokay, guys, you guilted me into
sending you this text.
As I'm watching your latestpodcast, I can't help but wonder

(07:47):
what the heck is that behindEric?
Is that a TV or an aquarium, orwhat?
So, eric, let's find out whatexactly is behind you when you
don't have your screen covered.
Because, sometimes you don'tcover your screen and you have
some kind of funky electronicthing back there.

Eric (N1JUR) (08:09):
I am a modest person sometimes, but when I
don't have my screen, you knowgreen screen up, you get to see
all of my.
You know former glory, as theysay, and what you're referring
to.
In the background there is mygeochron in a frame ground.
There is, uh, my um geocron ina frame.
Uh, it probably didn't come invery well, but it was, uh, a

(08:29):
video I did on my channel and soif you're interested in what
that looks like, I'll throw thema link in the show notes.
Uh, so you can check that out.
But uh, of course it will doself-promotion.
That's the way it goes, myfriend.
Do it all for you too as well.
Um, so you know you canovercheck that out.
But that was my geocron.
Uh, that was my only one, andonly attempt to create some fine

(08:50):
artwork.
Um, and I have to say so myself, it turned out pretty good.
So you know I love my geocron,but now that my wife can
actually walk by it and thinkit's a regular frame, then I've
scored, you know, bonus pointsfor a long time.
So it's all good.

Todd (W1STJ) (09:05):
So, being so being behind you.
So every time you want to lookat you can actually turn around.
You can't look at it.

Eric (N1JUR) (09:12):
Yeah, true, but you know, here's my thought is
like I used to have it on a 50inch monitor above my head and I
found myself not looking at itanyway.
So, and that was in front of me, so why not put it behind me?
And then now it's just a nicepretty piece of artwork Now you
can just put a mirror up infront of the shack and just look
up at the mirror.

Todd (W1STJ) (09:30):
It would just be reversed.

Eric (N1JUR) (09:32):
I'll put a camera.
I'll put a camera facing thatso I can bring in a video feed
of that over on the wall behindme.
There we go.
That's just overkill.

Todd (W1STJ) (09:49):
So yeah, uh, so yeah, that's my geocron.
All right, well, thanks for theuh, thanks for the email.
Uh, next time, uh just let usknow who you are, call sign name
something.
But uh, we do appreciate it anduh, it was.
It was quite the uh surprisewhen it came up and uh, I saw it
, so I was very happy to see it.
But then when I read it I waslike wait, a who's it from?

Eric (N1JUR) (10:04):
It just tells us the last four digits of your
phone number which we've put on,uh, you know, uh, several uh
social media sites and a fewothers that you wouldn't tell us
who your call sign was.
All right, cool.
Well, with that, we also have acool little voicemail.
So let's kick that one off.
This one, I think, is what oursecond voicemail.

(10:31):
So let's kick that one off, thisone, I think is what our second
voicemail that we've had so faras uh you know uh having a
voicemail uh box there, so let'splay the quick voicemail here.
Good afternoon, uh, first timelistener.
Just uh heard your checking offepisode and uh a request to uh
send comments like this uh viavoicemail or text message.
Just wanted to say great show.
I'm going to keep giving it atry and if you are ever looking
for some new content ideas,there's a technician-friendly

(10:59):
activity that runs the entiremonth of January called Winter
Heat, from hamactivecomH-A-M-A-C-T-I-V-Ecom
H-A-M-A-C-T-I-V-Ecom.
It starts 0000 UTC January 1,which would be New Year's Eve
around 6 pm Central, and I knowyou guys are on the East Coast,
so obviously adjust accordingly.
Check it out.

(11:19):
I'm not affiliated, I'm just aparticipant who really enjoys it
and my call sign is Kilo 9,delta Golf.
Yankee.
Name is Chris from HighlandIllinois.
Thanks for the show, merryChristmas.

Paul (N1OG) (11:33):
Happy New Year.
If only he had sent that backin November.

Eric (N1JUR) (11:38):
I know right, exactly, we'd all be able to
participate.

Todd (W1STJ) (11:42):
So how do we get that out there earlier?

Eric (N1JUR) (11:45):
Well, funny thing, I don't know if you guys ever
participated in Winter Heat oryou know of it.

Paul (N1OG) (11:52):
I know of it, my first year that I was licensed,
there was a combined conjunctionthing with Last man Standing
Because Last.
Man Standing was running downthe their last season, um, and
so they were one of the winterheat uh stations, oh and so yeah

(12:14):
.
So it was really cool.
I tried, I tried like heck uh,as as a technician to to get
through, and you know I wasstill dealing with mike fright
issues at that point.

Eric (N1JUR) (12:27):
Can we FTA please?
I need FTA.
Yeah, I, I similar.
Uh, I had learned about them Ican't remember whether it was on
Facebook or some you know thesocial media sites and and they
were trying to very heavilypromote it and at that point I
think it was like they wererunning it for like two, three
months, it just because it waslike a winter thing, um, and it

(12:48):
was all about a points structureand they kind of revamped it.
I was over on their website acouple of weeks ago cause I saw
another post from them and everyonce in a while, see, on
Facebook somebody will post aheat map.
When you know the, the the G3storm you know happens.
They'll.
They post the G3 storm happens.
They post a ton of that stuffbecause they know VHF and UHF is
going to be a blast.
And it's always hilariousbecause I look at the heat maps

(13:11):
and where they do it from theirpoint of origin.
The farthest tip of it is justbarely crossing over into New
Hampshire.
So I'm just like there's no wayin the world they're going to
be able to reach all the way toOhio.
So I could only dream if I had ayou know a butt ton of power
and, uh, you know a bunch ofYagi's pointing at them that I'd
be able to make contacts.
But yeah, you know, it's goodto know.
I mean, some of the heat mapsthat they posted are like go all

(13:33):
the way down to like Georgiaand Missouri and stuff like that
and I was like wow, that's huge, that's like a huge swath.
It sounds like the fun event.
We should definitely have thoseguys on and chit chat with them
to kind of promote that alittle bit, because it sounds
like a real cool way to kind of,you know, do some VHF, uhf work
when you normally don't do it.

Paul (N1OG) (13:52):
Yeah, we'll just have to remember to reach out to
them, like November yeah.

Eric (N1JUR) (13:57):
Or August.
We'll shoot in August andhopefully get November.
Well cool, all right.
Well, well cool, all right.
Well with that.
Uh, do we have anything more inthe bucket there, todd?

Todd (W1STJ) (14:10):
uh nothing else.
Uh, that I see.
Did you uh get anything?

Eric (N1JUR) (14:14):
I didn't no, I think you got it all covered and
I could play the othervoicemail message, but that was
just for some uh pujat asking meto call her back because, uh,
you know, she's got some ArabianPrince who owes me some money.
So I opted not to play that onebecause, you know, I I don't
want to.
You know, if it is true, thenyou know, we'll be buying some

(14:35):
flexes later, but I only doubtit.
All right, well, okay, withthat, then I guess we're going
to roll into and you know, asalways with any of our uh, if
you want to leave us a review oryou want to, you know, say
hello and you want to leave us avoicemail?
Uh, you can always reach us at 9, 7, 8, 2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 4, 2, or

(14:56):
you can send us a voicemail.
Uh, you can send us an SMS textthrough our link in our show
notes, um, and we'll be alwayshappy to read it on our next
episode or when we receive it.
So you know, like I said, ifyou can get it earlier in, then
we'll be able to read it earlierIf you get it in later, it's
just the way it goes.
But we appreciate you, chris,for, you know, leaving us a
voicemail and we encourageeverybody else to you know.

(15:18):
So you know, definitely do it.
All right With that, we'll rollinto.

Paul (N1OG) (15:23):
Doing good Good Doing good you do, that's good.

Eric (N1JUR) (15:26):
Do good, do good, you're doing good, good, good,
good, absolutely I do.

Todd (W1STJ) (15:32):
Good, good Doing good, bob Doing real good.

Eric (N1JUR) (15:40):
And right now my only outlet is my ham radio.
All right, Well, as always, weall aspire to do good in ham
radio.
So whether you're assisting ina disaster, you're providing
communications for a road race,or maybe you're hosting the
coolest potent meetup thatyou've done for your club, we
all love to participate in thoseactivities.
So we want to showcase, becausewe're tired of folks allowing
the negative voices toovershadow all of our cool ham

(16:01):
radio enjoyment.
So I'm going to raise my fistand say bring on the good deeds,
my friend, we'll share yourstory with us.
And so, whether you've you know, like I said, had your first
ham radio experience, um, withthe total stranger when you were
activating a park, or you'reteaching a student, a family
member, you know the neighborsof the joys of ham radio.
Or you know, hey, you got achance to demonstrate, uh, you

(16:30):
know, to a new technician thethrills of hf at some field day
in the future.
Well then, we want to hearabout it.
So, with this week, we are havebeen graced by one of our great
uh, youtube, uh, friends, uh,and part of the hamily there,
carlos k9.
Um, wow, help me out there.
Oh well, thank you, my gosh.
Sorry, I totally botched that.

(16:50):
And you know, as the CRS I amturning, you know I've already
turned 50 at this point, so I'mway over the hill, Um and uh,
you know, really in in someserious trouble.
So, um, I'm going to have to gotake my CRS pill and hopefully I
can recover.
So, um, he sends us a nice, uh,quick uh email here saying hey,
we should take a look at.
There is a group um in um, thepulling it up here, uh, in one

(17:14):
of his local clubs where they'redoing a build an Elmer um, for
people that might need help.
And I think there's a reallycool idea because, in essence,
you know how many times you runinto some new technicians, um,
and they have no idea what to do.
They, you know they're, youknow they're at a loss to figure
out where they go next afterthey got the technician license.
So, why not have a program likethis?
And this is a perfect idea.

(17:34):
And so what they try to do is,um, they uh are looking to, you
know, connect, perspective, newhams, and they're looking to
contact them via email andthey're just going to reach out
to them and they're going to sayhey, you know, how can we guide
you, how can we help you, howcan we, you know, provide you
some, you know, mentoring orjust even some general

(17:54):
assistance or an ear to be ableto, you know, ask a ton of
questions and be able to get theanswers you need, without
getting the snarky comments orto say, well, go read a manual.
I read my ARL antenna book for15 years before I started
talking about antennas, butsorry, I did that in my wrong
voice, anyway.

(18:14):
So they are offering thingslike general questions, safety
questions, the typical technicalquestions, or maybe you want to
dive a little deeper, talkabout Morse code, digital modes,
maybe you want to get intoantennas and station planning,
you know.
Or you're one of the guys thathave deep pockets and you want
to build a tower.
You know these, uh, thesethings are definitely questions
you need to get answers to.

(18:35):
Um, so you know these guys areavailable and they're willing
and waiting, uh, to help youguys out and get you plugged
into the hobby.
So if you're interested, wewill leave the link down in the
show notes and you can alwayscheck that out.
And or maybe you want to be inmentor and you want to help on
that program.
Maybe they are willing to andthey are out seeking for mentors

(18:55):
.
So you can reach out to themand offer your services and you
know, maybe you can start to,you know, spread some, some
positivity in the hobby and getmore folks into.
You know aspects of you know thehobby that they may not be you
know that, you know sure theywant to dip a toe into you can
help them lead in the way.
And you know, you know we,we're all you know, pretty much

(19:16):
perfect examples of one anotherbeing mentors to each other.
I mean, I, you know, I I kickedPaul's Todd's butt in getting
his general and then what did wedo?
We went out and did a poda.
You know we had just met Paulinitially and we were hanging
out and we invited him a podaand God, you know, he can't stop
podoing.
So you know, it's like it's,it's, it's, it's an infectious

(19:36):
thing.
It's really cool.
It's awesome to have a bunch ofother people do things like
this in the hobby with with.
So you know, you know, if youaren't a mentor already, you
know, start doing it, but moreso, hey, here's an outlet to be
able to start doing it in.
So thank you, carlos, forsending this to us.
We will make sure we spread theword and get this stuff out to
folks so we can get more peoplein the hobby and excited about
it and doing some really coolstuff in the future, because God

(19:59):
knows, you know, that's theonly way this hobby will stay
moving forward.
So cool, all right, well, withthat, as always, we say with
this, you can always sharecontent with us If you've got a
great story you know and youwant to share us.
There's three easy ways.
You can send us a voicemail andI'm going to drill this home
every time 978-233-1142.

(20:20):
And eventually we're going tohave to write an AI jingle on
this.
Get on that one, great Paul Um.
You can head over to ourwebsite at live free, hamcom,
forward slash do good, all oneword.
Fill out the form there andleave a, you know, a comment or
two and we'll be glad to shareit on our next good section, um,
and if you are one of thosetype A's and we've had a few um,

(20:43):
you can always send Paul andone OG a win link email over HF.
No, none of this.
Tell Nick, crap, I don't wantto see a tell that email, I want
to see a true HF.
You know, rf to RF, you knowkind of scenario send him a win
link email.
You know, with your do good init and we will be glad to have
you on the next live stream.
We'll coordinate that.

(21:05):
So if you want to, you know,get your five seconds or 55
seconds or five hours orwhatever YouTube live stream.
You're on with us.
You know a fame.
You know we'll glad to have youon there and hang out with us,
because you know we want tosupport our community and that's
one way we can, you know, reachout to you guys and have you be
part of that.
So yeah, all right, well withhave you be part of that.

(21:30):
So, yeah, all right, well withthat.
I still have laxed and droppedthe ball.
But, and now for something alittle extra, with Todd W1STJ.

Todd (W1STJ) (21:50):
I'm not doing it.
It's the same picture.
I'm not doing it.

Eric (N1JUR) (21:53):
The marketing department failed.
They're on vacation still.

Todd (W1STJ) (21:58):
I sent it to you like in November.

Eric (N1JUR) (22:00):
Yeah, you did.
No, you didn't.
You sent it to me like in earlyDecember.

Todd (W1STJ) (22:03):
But anyway, time does not matter, here I am going
to harass you on every way Ican communicate with you about
changing that picture bring iton bring it on when an 11 year
old looks at it and was likethat's a bad picture well with

(22:26):
that.

Eric (N1JUR) (22:27):
You know, you've heard it here.
This is where we help toddstudy for his extra class
license and hopefully, when hedoes, we'll improve the picture.
Um, you know, in each episodewe pick three questions from the
extra class question pool.
The test is knowledge hopinggets his upgrade.
If you'd like to follow along,you can always head over to ham
studyorg.
It's an awesome resource tohelp you prepare for your test
and is recommended by three outof four volunteer examiners.

(22:49):
Because the ARL is never aroundto comment.
But no big deal, all right.
So without further delay, Ihand it over to our VE
Quizmaster, paul.
Take it away, sir.

Paul (N1OG) (23:02):
All right, todd, so we're on sub element number
seven which I haven't gone allthe way through, but okay but
you're doing great, so we'regonna stick with it.
Yes, we are all right.
So question number one what isthe function of tasks in a

(23:22):
digital signal processing filter?
Is it, a to reduce excesssignal pressure levels.
B select the point at whichbaseband signals are generated.
C provide access for debuggingsoftware or D provide

(23:45):
incremental signal delays orfilter algorithms?

Todd (W1STJ) (23:50):
Oh my God, all right, I haven't seen this one
yet in my study, so I will.
I'm going to say B.

Eric (N1JUR) (24:12):
I always thought Taps was something that they
play at the very end of everyday in the military.
But I'm going to go with B,because it's a testing of the
point.
Bass band Well, we both failed.

Todd (W1STJ) (24:29):
My other one was D .
Second was D.
God damn it.
That was my first choice and Ichanged it.
Oh boy.

Paul (N1OG) (24:36):
Oh boy, oh boy.
I should really just go withthe first one, by incremental
signal delays or filteralgorithm, say that six times
fast.
So your hint is only one answerhas the word delay in it.
Okay, long story short, thetapped delay line has become a

(24:59):
general scheme of making high-Qfilters in many different ways.
So more taps increase thesteepness of the filter roll-off
, while increasing thecalculation time delay and, for
high order filters, limiting thebandwidth.
There you go.

Todd (W1STJ) (25:19):
We'd have more luck playing pick-up sticks with
our butt cheeks.

Eric (N1JUR) (25:23):
Yep, that's the way I look at it.

Paul (N1OG) (25:27):
All right, todd Question number two.
Which of the following types oflinear voltage regulator
operates by loading theunregulated voltage source?
Is it A a constant currentsource, b a series regulator, c

(25:50):
a shunt current source or D ashunt regulator?

Eric (N1JUR) (25:59):
Ooh.
You know, how they double thosethings up.
I know, you know they doublethose things up.
Um well, they use voltagesource.
So I'm going C okay.

Paul (N1OG) (26:15):
Todd said A and A is incorrect.
Eric said C and C is alsoincorrect.
Correct answer is D a shuntsaid C and C is also incorrect.
The correct answer is D A shuntregulator.
So an example of a shuntregulator is using a Zener diode

(26:38):
in series with a resistorbetween supply and ground.
The Zener diode establishes aconstant voltage, supply and
ground, the Zener diodeestablishes a constant voltage
drop and the resistor sets aconstant current.
Note that you can immediatelydismiss two of the possible
answers because regulatorappears in both the question and

(26:59):
the answer.
Yeah.
You on drugs okay, all right soyou're definitely not gonna hear
the song tonight I haven'tlisten, I haven't seen any of

(27:19):
these questions.

Todd (W1STJ) (27:20):
I must not be very far into seven all right.

Paul (N1OG) (27:24):
Hey, you know, there's a first time for
everything.

Eric (N1JUR) (27:26):
This is actually what the first time that we're
ahead of Todd in his studyinglike in terms of chapter or
sections yes, ever so slightly.
Hurry up, let's go faster, sowe get way ahead.

Paul (N1OG) (27:39):
All right.
So for the third and finalquestion of the evening, which
of the following measures afilter's ability to reject
signals in adjacent channels?
Is it A noise factor?
B pass band ripple?

(28:01):
It's not band pass, it's passband ripple.
C phase response or d shape?

Eric (N1JUR) (28:15):
factor.
Oh man, why does that sound sofamiliar and I can't put my
finger on it?
I'm thinking after todd answers.

Todd (W1STJ) (28:31):
Yeah.

Eric (N1JUR) (28:37):
Oh, c, I'm going to go with B.

Paul (N1OG) (28:41):
Oh, all right.
Todd said C and C is incorrect.

Todd (W1STJ) (28:48):
Eric said A, I'm sorry.
B B is also incorrect.

Paul (N1OG) (28:51):
Wow, the correct answer is D shape backer.

Todd (W1STJ) (28:56):
You know what?
At least the extra got threewrong as well.
I don't feel so stupid.

Eric (N1JUR) (29:02):
I'm batting nothing.
Send me back to the bench,Captain.

Paul (N1OG) (29:07):
So your explanation is courtesy of Wikipedia.
The shape factor, I believeeverything in Wikipedia.
You know what?
In this case it has been vettedand it should be 100% accurate,
so we're going to go with it.
The shape factor is the ratioof bandwidth measured using two

(29:32):
different attenuation values todetermine the cutoff frequency.
For example, a shape factor of2 to 1 at 30 to 3 dB means the
bandwidth measured between thefrequencies at 30 dB attenuation
is twice that measured betweenthe frequencies at 3 dB
attenuation.

(29:53):
This tells you how sharply andcompletely a filter attenuates
signals outside of its passband.
The other answers don't relateto comparing signals inside and
outside the passband.
So hint, reject all TV channelsto get into shape.

Eric (N1JUR) (30:13):
You're a huge embarrassing failure.
I don't know where to begin orwhere to start or where to end,
but yeah, I'd have to say,although, to talk about the
Wikipedia thing, didn't, uhRichard say that they're
creating like a website calledhandbook or something like that?

(30:34):
I can't remember.
It was sort of going to be likemore of the official official
guide to this, like backstory oflike explaining the, the text,
but it's in one of our, it's inthat episode, I think the link
is there for that, so check itout there.
But, um, it's supposed to be areally good, uh, free resource
to.
That's hopefully going toreplace, uh, you know, some of
that stuff.
Not that that's a bad resourcethere, but it'll go into more

(30:56):
depth.

Todd (W1STJ) (30:58):
Yeah, yep.
So so what I've been doing is,you know, I I've been taking his
advice and I've been adding.
You know, my old way was I'd goto like six and just study six
and then do all of them.
Now I'm just adding them up, soit'll throw in the other ones
to keep me kind of current,which I kind of like.

(31:19):
But again, it's taken me alonger time to get through the
99 questions in this section.
99?
Really, paul, you had to have99 in one section, like come on.

Paul (N1OG) (31:32):
Listen, it's a 650-question question pool.

Todd (W1STJ) (31:34):
Yeah, I know that's a lot of questions to
learn.

Eric (N1JUR) (31:38):
Well, you won't see all of them, that's for sure
, yeah.

Paul (N1OG) (31:40):
I'll see 50.
It's not hard for no reason.

Todd (W1STJ) (31:51):
I'm going to do a whole podcast on myself on how
stupid I think the test is soyou could do a live video on
that one.

Paul (N1OG) (31:57):
Go ahead absolutely you can do that now I do have
to say, while todd is still ageneral, we do have a couple uh
license and license upgrades toannounce.
Yep, we do.
So congratulations to Kimberly,kate's kilo Charlie one, victor
Yankee, mike, brand newtechnician, and so yeah, so

(32:21):
congratulations her good job andalso congratulations to kilo
Foxtrot five echo alpha November, who just upgraded from
technician to general.
Nice Great job to both of them.

Eric (N1JUR) (32:35):
Welcome to the club.
Yep, not that you weren'talready in a technician, but A
cool club.
Oh no, it's like so okay, ifwe're going to start turning
around Paul and I will have ourextra hats here.
What about you, generals?
You learn nothing at all.

Todd (W1STJ) (32:52):
We're the people, you're the elite.
You guys come up with thesestupid questions.

Eric (N1JUR) (32:59):
I was one to you.
That's all I have to say.
We do truth over facts.
Yes, we do, sure.

Todd (W1STJ) (33:09):
I'm going to start punching dicks, I'll be honest.
So this study go around.
I'm actually learning a lotmore than I did on the
technician in general, Like Ilearned stuff, but I feel like I
understand it a lot more better.

Eric (N1JUR) (33:26):
Well and here's the funny thing, my experience
is like after I learned it alland I was like, oh well, I think
I have it all.
Once I the hey, you've passed,I was like gone.
It was like, okay, I'm right onthe extra, let's go, you know,
play in the band spaces Ihaven't been in before.
That's really all I wanted.

Todd (W1STJ) (33:43):
So, uh, with that, you know the uh, fort mountain
repeater does a trivia net ortrivia night net, and they were
asking general questions and Iwas able to answer them.
I'm like, oh, I know thatanswer.

Eric (N1JUR) (33:57):
Oh, I hope so.

Todd (W1STJ) (33:58):
You are in general , you would think I'd forget
that stuff too.
You know there's stuff in therethat I don't remember.
I was like, oh, I know thatanswer.

Eric (N1JUR) (34:06):
Well, you'll be like that with Extra one day.
I promise You'll be like Iremember that question.
It caused so much angst in mylife.
All right, well, let's wrapthis one up here, you know, with
that.
We always say you know.
So if you're on the journey ofstudying for your technician,
general or extra class license,then you want to head over to

(34:28):
hamstud studyorg because it's anawesome resource, just as Todd
has said several times over andover again, and both Paul and
myself have used it.
Um, and we appreciate thoseguys.
Uh, richard and um, well, man,I just Ben, thank you.
Uh, that was a close one, uh,for you know, coming on a
previous episode, so if youhaven't actually caught that
episode, you should go over andlisten to that.

(34:49):
It was an awesome episode, um,and that's in our back catalog
there.
But they are doing an awesome.
You know they're doing.
What they say is the Lord'swork there, for you know,
awesome hams everywhere, um, soyou know they are a great
resource to getting your'vegotten your upgrade or you just
recently got licensed.

(35:10):
We want to hear about it.
So send us an email atlivefreeandham at gmailcom and
we will be shouting your call,sign your name from the hills
and celebrating with you,because it is an awesome,
awesome honor to be part ofsomething so cool as a ham radio
.
Uh, you know hobby and uh, youknow we want to welcome you in
and encourage you to continue tofurther your understanding

(35:30):
about rf and the hobby as awhole.
So with that we are going toget into our usual format.
What's been going on yourhammering week, paul?

Paul (N1OG) (35:40):
oh boy, uh, well, let's see.
So, uh, I've, I've hunted, uh,some, some ham tubers uh, I
believe that's the term thatwe're using these days While
they were out at parks.
Just today I got Rob N1, nug,and I also got Tim NW9F.

(36:04):
They were both at parks almostback-to-back with each other, so
it was nice.
I got Rob in Connecticut on 40meters fantastic and then I got
Tim on 20 meters also greatsignal.
I've been trying to situatesome things with the desk and

(36:29):
you know I got projects on theworkbench behind me that you
can't see, um, but uh, I'mslowly chipping away at things
and so, overall, I would say itwas a.
It was a really good ham radioweek.
Um, I, um, I'm, I'm back todoing, uh, you know daily nets,
um, so that's that's a goodthing, and otherwise, uh, yeah,

(36:51):
just, you know daily nets, sothat's that's a good thing, and
otherwise, yeah, just, you knowvideos and you know, feel free
to check out my channel.
I'm going to have some livebrand ham stuff.

Eric (N1JUR) (37:00):
You're not going to give him crap for this.
He just put himself promotingright now, come on.
This isn't the feel free toprop my promote my private
podcast it will be once youfinally get off your ass and
start recording a video, myfriend, promote my new podcast
well, without, without, livefree and ham is not us, or

(37:22):
whatever how that phrase goes.
But yeah, without us there is nolive free and ham, thank you.
Thank you.
See someone's on the right page.
Get with the program, all right, cool.
So hunting, all right, yeah, I.
Yeah, I saw Rob pop up a coupleof times.
I didn't get a chance to workon my, just was too lazy from
the couch, um, sadly.

(37:44):
But uh, I did.
Uh, I did have a few folks thatI hunted, but I'll talk about
that in a bit.
So Todd over to you, man.
How has your Hammer Day weekbeen?

Todd (W1STJ) (37:53):
It's been.
I've been like Paul.
I've been kind of dreamingabout fixing up my shack and
make it more user-friendly,clean it up a little bit,
looking to get a curve monitorand take some of these two
monitors.
I need more monitors or I needa bigger space, cause I don't
know More monitors.

(38:13):
Yeah, um yeah, and I've been, uh, you know just, I've been doing
some hunting and just gettingon, I've been making contacts,
just right, I hear someonecalling CQ.
I've been calling them out andradio is working great.
The uh radio is working great.

(38:33):
The uh the flex is is justphenomenal.
I mean, it's just been reallygood getting a lot of able to
pull out some weaker signals andadjust.
And, uh, I did find out Ididn't even know this, but I can
, um, add antenna gain on theflex.
Um, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Ididn't even know you could do
that and it it actually actuallymade a difference, at least on
the receive.

Eric (N1JUR) (38:54):
You know what that is.
That's just AF gain.
That's all that is Right, likethe AF gain on your radio.
Paul's like how do?
you do that Like, I want thatwizardry stuff.

Paul (N1OG) (39:02):
I would love to get antenna gain out of my radio
and I was like, oh, I wonderwhat this does.

Todd (W1STJ) (39:07):
And I was listening to like a weaker
signal and I hit and pressed itand it got a little bit clearer
and louder and I hit it again.
I'm like, wow, this thing isgreat.

Eric (N1JUR) (39:16):
Flex has the magical wizardry wand.

Todd (W1STJ) (39:18):
I look outside, my antenna is like glowing, like
bright red Trees are catchingfire Just send a lot of heat up
that way and eventually your RFwill get out.
But you know, but it's been, um,it's been fun.
I've been uh, I've beendebating whether or not to
switch over to mac.
Um, I am uh done with my pc.
I I literally want to freakingthrow it in the dumpster.

(39:40):
I can't stand pcs.
My pc at work sucks and thisone really sucks because I'm
trying to download a driver forZach for his quadcopter, and
I've watched YouTube videos.
I've done it step by step andthe freaking thing won't log.
And it's not just me havingthis problem, it's a whole bunch

(40:00):
of people, because Windows 11sucks.
So, whoever's running Microsoft, get off your ass and just make
things work like Apple does,and, of course, my buddy's, like
Todd.

Paul (N1OG) (40:09):
Just get a PC, pc, just get a mac and it'll just
work so well, when you're readyto throw your pc in the dumpster
, uh, I've got a.
I've got a trash can right infront of my house.
Just let me know that it'sthere.
And yeah, paul has an officialrecycling company.

Eric (N1JUR) (40:26):
He's more than willing to come over and dispose
of your equipment in the properway and the problem is like mac
is so expensive.

Todd (W1STJ) (40:33):
But then I found out that you know mac computers
work like your phones do or yourwatches or your ipads.
Like you trade them in, theyare supposed to last for about
five years, like a phone issupposed to last two to three
years, and then you trade it inand you get what do you mean?
No, you do.
I asked he's just like shrugginghis head because he discussed,

(40:55):
so you buy the initialinvestment right and then you
trade it in and you know you'llprobably be cheaper than buying
a whole bunch of pcs over fiveyears.
Now this pc I, you know, ericbuilt for me and it runs great.
But I keep hitting it causeit's underneath my desk and it
doesn't need to be in this hugebig case because it's only got

(41:17):
two things in it and it's allempty inside.
Um, but yeah, but I can't dothe podcast with the max unless
I spend like 10 grand, so whichI don't understand why I talked
to ryan.

Eric (N1JUR) (41:32):
He's got a macbook pro and he says he has no
problem with stream yard oranything not that he has a
problem with stream yard, but,like, when you get into some of
the heavier obs type stuff, youhave to have a like.
So here's the deal.
So, windows when you buy a, buya, build a PC yourself, you can
add memory, you can add disc,you can add CPU changes to it,

(41:55):
because you have the capability.
When you buy a Mac, if you buyit at a certain level, it's
going to give you that certainamount of power.
After that you can't throw morepower at it.
The only thing you do is tradeit in and get a faster computer
because you need that littleextra horsepower.
So it's sort of like going outand releasing a BMW, realizing
that the M-Series you bought isnot fast enough to beat your

(42:17):
neighbor.
So you're going to be like okay, I'm going to go out and trade
my M-Series back in and get awhatever.

Todd (W1STJ) (42:24):
So what do I need If I switch to Mac?
What am I going to need?
Because all the OBS does is Ihit the.
I hit this for me, I hit thevirtual camera, that's it.

Eric (N1JUR) (42:36):
Yeah Well, you said you've always wanted to do
a little bit more.
I mean, right now that's whatwe have you doing, because we
know we can get reliability outof you every week.
So that's why, that's whyyou're set up that way.
But you know, put it this way,mac will make it a little easier
and make it a little differentin terms of getting to making it
easier, but the you know, the,the software and the

(42:56):
functionality is the still thesame.
The difference is how theyhandle.
What are you doing?
I have no idea what Paul'sputting on the screen.
No, you could do that on the Mac, that that's not a problem.
But, like with the, with theOBS stuff, like you're going to
have to understand how the audiosystem works in a Mac.

(43:19):
It is very different than PC.
It's more abstracted than it isin a PC world, not to say that
windows doesn't have itsbullshit crap that you know we
all deal with.
In fighting trying to crap,that you know we all deal with
and fighting trying to, you know, make things work, uh, you know
, with all the crazy technicalstuff that we do, uh, in the
background to, uh, you know, putthese live streams on and you
know, make it entertaining forfolks, um, but yeah, we could go

(43:41):
in for hours and we couldprobably turn into a, you know,
our own pc show.

Todd (W1STJ) (43:46):
I'm getting the macbook air because it's right
and I need it for the flyingstuff.

Eric (N1JUR) (43:52):
Yeah, I'm going to use it for editing.
You can do that.

Todd (W1STJ) (43:54):
Yeah, and I'm going to use it for editing
because I do need to have.
I mean, it's hard to messaround on the iPad.
That's different, it's a littledifferent and I'll be able to
bring it to work.
And while I'm sitting there incourt for hours waiting for my

(44:19):
case to get called in, rightediting, and then you know I I
would like to switch the hamradio, like the flex and
everything the stuff I do on hamradio, to the to like a macbook
.
What do you call it?
Mini?
I've talked to bill and then Ilooked on like like k murder, he
does mac.
A lot of people do mac on hamradio, but then you know it's
got the podcast stuff.
If I wanted to get what I havein this computer I'd have to
spend like $10,000, and it's nothappening.

(44:40):
So you may not be getting it, Imight not be throwing this
computer out that soon.

Eric (N1JUR) (44:44):
We don't think you will, but anyway, Sure, you can
go with Android if you likeunintuitive frustrating,
illogical user interfaces.

Todd (W1STJ) (44:53):
It's fine but it has been fun and I've also been
looking at like I put in a lightover my monitor Desk and it's a
clamp-on.
But I also have this like Vwith the two monitors on it and
now I can't move one of thethings because the light's in
the way.
So I got to look at likedifferent ideas.

(45:13):
And then I start looking at youknow, eventually I've always
wanted to get the curve monitor,just have one, and clean it up.
And then I'm like, all right,if I put one on one side of it
and one on the other side, Icould do two on top, you know,
maybe one vertical one.
So you know, but I startedgetting ideas from the shack, uh
roaster shack thing and I saweveryone's uh shack.
So it kind of got me thinkinglike, hmm, that would be a good

(45:36):
idea.
So that's what I've been doingham radio wise.

Eric (N1JUR) (45:41):
We've been effective.
That's what Todd's motto isgoing to be for this 2025 season
, at least quarter one, as he ashe revamps the shack.
But yeah, I agree, I think theshack roast was is definitely
fun to do.
That was a lot.
I felt like that was telethonalmost level, you know, in terms
of you know, when was Jimmygoing to start coming out and
doing the dance with the girls?

(46:02):
You know.
So I think at this point, we'lldefinitely have to do that
again next year, and next yearwe're going to have to.
You know we have to boil that,you know, cause I'm sure
everyone's going to come hardand we're gonna have to boil the
, the grouping down a little bitto the top 10.
So we can at least get a showin, because you know we're we're
not raising money for, like youknow the teacher's Institute.

Todd (W1STJ) (46:25):
Holy crap, Was it over three hours?

Eric (N1JUR) (46:28):
Three hours.
That was one of our longestlive stream.
Yep, we were getting into HRCCpodcast territory or ham radio
workbench.
It was kind of crazy.

Paul (N1OG) (46:39):
Cool.
Hey Eric, what'd you do in yourham radio week?

Eric (N1JUR) (46:43):
Thank you for asking, paul.
I appreciate it.
My ham radio week, like you hadmentioned earlier, hunting was
definitely on the docket.
I uh, I worked.
Uh, I didn't get a chance towork.
Uh, I've worked rob in the fast, but I did see him pop up and
hammer a couple times.
I have been struggling to workmike and to mak.
He always constantly on 20meters.

(47:05):
I can't get him for the life ofme, no matter what, because
he's just either got a rate youknow it's a signal skips over me
, or whatever.
But I can hear him all the lifeof me, no matter what, because
he's just either got a rate youknow it's a signal skips over me
, or whatever, but I can hearhim all the time.
And gray man POTA has alwaysbeen a thorn in my side to try
to get him as well, like I don'tknow why I can't hear him.
And I just happened to you know,get the luck of the draw for
both of them in the same.
I think it was in the same day,like within an hour spread of

(47:28):
each other, that I was like, oh,mike popped on.
I'm never going to hear him.
And I heard him loud as day andI'm just like I'm going to, you
know, I'm going to call him,and I think he was on 40 meters.
So he responded back and I wasjust like, wow, man, it's
finally good to get you in thelog.
And then, you know, and I think, and actually he was on 10
meters when I, when I worked him, so I think that's, you know,

(47:56):
to my benefit, that probablyworked better than you know when
he's usually on 20 or 40, butyeah, so I did a little of that.
I just finally wrapped up somevideos that have been working on
and looking forward to, youknow, some future stuff.
I mean, there's a lot going on,a lot of different things, but,
uh, you know, enjoying, uh, youknow, playing ham radio when I
can, and, uh, you know, I'mhoping to, uh, you know, see if

(48:19):
I can reach some of my bucketitems.
I think, uh, I mentioned inprevious episodes, uh, and
whatnot, that my bucket list iswe start to get more into the
spring season.
I think we're going to have tostart, you know, getting the
legs stretched out there andstart doing a little hiking and,
you know, maybe getting into myfirst 4,000 footer and and
start playing in that space.
So, yeah, looking forward tothat.

Todd (W1STJ) (48:40):
So, so a quick question when you start doing
these 4,000 footers, are yougoing to get a satellite?
No, I'm serious Likecommunicators you'm serious?

Eric (N1JUR) (48:50):
No, no, no.

Todd (W1STJ) (48:50):
Satellite, like communicators.
You know there's, you can getthese, you know, a couple
hundred bucks.
You can have a tracker that youcan.
You can track your positioningand you can.

Eric (N1JUR) (49:01):
You know it'll.
I'm going to rely on APRS, likeMike does May not work.

Todd (W1STJ) (49:07):
No one's using APRS.

Eric (N1JUR) (49:08):
Oh, you are, I am.

Todd (W1STJ) (49:11):
You guys should be may not work.
No one's using APRS.
You are, I am.
You need me to be able to trackyou.
I'll just let you know when.

Eric (N1JUR) (49:15):
I'm going.
Eric didn't return.
I'm not solely doing these bymyself.
I'll probably be doing themwith Paul.
In essence, he can beacon andI'll beacon to him.
We'll be able to save eachother's ass.
That's on one.

Todd (W1STJ) (49:28):
I'll be like welcome to live free and ham uh
the other.
So now you've got me and Idon't know how to do any of this
technical crap exactly.
Guess what?
I'm changing the picture.
You don't know how.

Eric (N1JUR) (49:53):
He might have to listen to his son, who's also
editing videos for him too.
Can you get that on your plate?
Oh man, All right.
Well, with that we're going todive into our topic tonight.
So we alluded at the verybeginning.
You know, maybe you, you camefrom the Gen X generation and
you know you were very privbeginning.
You know, maybe you, uh, you,you came from the Gen X
generation, uh, and you know youwere very privy to, uh, you

(50:14):
know, a Columbia house and thegood old CDs for 10 CDs, for a
penny type deal.
Uh, you know about all thosestupid ridiculous memberships
that you'd sign yourself up for.
Uh, I God knows how many timesI ended up getting sent to
collections as a you know 20,something, something, because I
tried to get so many cds.
Never worked out, end up.
You know, max out my credit,you get the cassettes bmg and

(50:40):
columbia house yep, those twoguys, you.

Paul (N1OG) (50:44):
I don't understand.
You guys are older than me, butwhen the first you know 10 for
a penny order that I did wascassettes oh no, dude, we were
at that point when I was doingthat that was cds, because I had
already done mixtapes.

Eric (N1JUR) (50:57):
Like my mixtapes were.
Like I had to freaking, sit onthe radio and wait for them to
play the one song that I wantedto record the tape because I
didn't want to buy the tape.
You know, at, you know samgoodies, or you know, uh, rocket
record, target tower records orwhatever it was.
And, uh, you know, sam goodies,or you know a rocket record,
target tower records or whereverit was.
And, uh, you know that alwayspissed me off.
Like they would always launchlike uh, uh, you know an album
and the one song you wanted onit was never on it, it was on a

(51:19):
separate single and the singledidn't come out until, like you
know, four or five months later,after the full album went on.

Paul (N1OG) (51:34):
The album was great , it's like it was garbage right
.
But you would tape eight hoursof of live radio just to find
that one song.
Yep, oh yeah, and you'd havethe two, the two tapes, and so
you play it on a and record iton b.

Todd (W1STJ) (51:42):
Yep, yeah, I would always hate when the dj like
the song would start and thenthey talk over a comment.

Eric (N1JUR) (51:49):
I'm like dumbass you're like, you're a bastard.

Todd (W1STJ) (51:54):
I mean I used to do the, the two tapes like play
the, like the my buddy wouldhave like the album.
I'd put the his in and thenrecord on the second one.

Eric (N1JUR) (52:04):
Yeah, oh yeah we, we've tapes were, you know,
abusive him.
You know, my vehicles anytime,like the girls would have their
stupid, like teeny bopper tapes.
It would be always you cut thelike the ribbon on the inside
and then you wind it around onewheel so they can't, you know,
ever play it again.
Well, that's if you want torewind it by hand.
But I'm talking about, like,actually cutting the, you know,
the actual tape ribbon there, um, or you're burning the bottom

(52:26):
of the CD so they can never, uh,you know, read the bottom of
the disc.
But oh, all the good old daysyou don't get that.
We're streaming these days.
But uh, sorry to segue there myfriends, but uh, hopefully you
didn't mind that little.
Uh, you know, journey, journeyin the past, um, but we're going
to talk about membershipstonight, you know, and we all

(52:46):
kind of have our um take on themand our view on them.
You know, I I wanted to kind ofshare and talk a little bit
about them primarily, and I'mtalking about, like you know,
all of our ham, like typememberships that we have.
You know, whether you're amember of the ARL and you're,
you know, just a general member,or maybe you're a diamond
member, you know and I'm curiousto see why you'd want to be a

(53:07):
diamond member and you know, ormaybe you're part of a, you know
CW ops or uh, any of the thebig um CW um clubs, and I can't
remember the other one.
That's a big one and I'm surepeople are yelling at me Long
Island yeah.
That's the other one I wasthinking of.
You know, or you know you're amember of your own club and so
you know I wanted to talk.
You know what?

(53:28):
What do you guys have forsubscriptions in that sense?
You know, do you like them,like, do you, do you buy into
them?
I mean, obviously some of themare a must, you know, are they
valuable to you, like in thisday and age?
Like, do you feel like you'regetting stuff out of it?
And so I just kind of wanted toopen that up and see what your
thoughts are on a little bitlight shed on it, but more so,

(53:51):
the stuff I've heard has beenlike oh, this is just
information.
I want to get into the nittygritty.
Do you have an ARL membership?
Do you hate being an ARL member?
Let's get into the brass taxes.
Who wants to pick it up firstand talk?
What do you guys have formemberships?

Paul (N1OG) (54:06):
first and foremost, Memberships that I have.
Uh, I am a bronze legacy lifemember of the vfw.
Okay, um, I, I I've been doingthree years at a time with the,
a double rl.
I've been doing three years ata time with the local club.

(54:29):
Let me see what othermemberships.
Oh, I'm a life member of theBASS, the Bass Anglers Sportsman
Society.
Notice a trend there with thelife membership.
Yeah, I agree.
How?

Todd (W1STJ) (54:45):
come you don't have a life membership with the
ARL, we'll get into that one.
We'll get into that.
We'll get into that.

Paul (N1OG) (54:53):
But so I used to have a lot of memberships.
I used to be a member of theNashua Area Radio Society and
the K1 IRS.
Out of Derry Repeater system,yeah yeah.
Out of dairy repeater system,yeah, yeah, and, and and there

(55:13):
was a.
Then there was another hamradio club that that I I had a
membership for, you know, a fewyears, but after a while it just
got to the point where it waslike I'm I'm not benefiting at
all from these memberships, andso I got rid of them.
And so the memberships that Imaintain are memberships that I
hold value in, that I personallyhold value in, and that, I

(55:34):
think, is the key, because amembership is only as good as
you hold value in it.
And so I'll, uh, I'll, I'll lettodd list his memberships
before I go on a tirade aboutmemberships that I don't like.

Eric (N1JUR) (55:52):
Go ahead, Todd.
So what do you have forsubscriptions?

Todd (W1STJ) (55:55):
Well, obviously I just looked and my ARL
membership expired.
Oh, I think it was March.
I wonder how much.

Paul (N1OG) (56:09):
it was March of last year.

Eric (N1JUR) (56:10):
Yeah, yeah, okay.

Todd (W1STJ) (56:12):
So I have that on my.
It's funny we're doing thispodcast because I had put on
last week.
I said I have to do.
I got to go through mymemberships and see which ones
are doing, because they're alldoing.
It would be so much easier if Icould just do it at the same
time.
But so I have been a member andI've just, you know, I probably

(56:32):
my wife probably threw out thereminder in the mail and I get
3000 emails a day and I probablyjust missed it.
So whatever, but uh, I'll bejoining them again and the
reason I joined them is becauseit's part of ham radio and
they're, they're the backboneand the people that are fighting
for, you know, with the withthe law, the government,
government backbone.
And the people that arefighting for, you know, with the
with the law, what do you callit?
The government.
So, um, you know, I I do getfrustrated with, with

(56:56):
memberships when it gets morepolitical.
But you know, there I do thinkthat you know, having a
membership that supports yourhobby is important and that's
why I support them.
So I'm like, if they don't doanything for me, I mean, but
membership's nice, I don't useit to its full ability, but I
look at it as a donation tosupport my hobby.

Eric (N1JUR) (57:18):
Okay, so you got a membership to ARRL.
What other memberships do youhave that aren't like that large
organization stuff?

Todd (W1STJ) (57:26):
Well, so I have memberships to my clubs, so I
got you know, obviously our cluband I have one to the Southern
New Hampshire Flying Eagles andI do that every year.
And again, that's just becauseI I do the.

Eric (N1JUR) (57:39):
You use them yeah.

Todd (W1STJ) (57:40):
I use them.
I go to the clubs.
It's like you know your duesand you know you should pay, so
you know that.
And then the flying stuff hasthe AMA, the Academy of Model
Aeronautics, and that's kind oflike the ARL of model airplanes.
So I joined them and I thoughtI owed them money because it's
like at the beginning of theyear and I all of a sudden I was

(58:02):
about to pay him and go onlineand I got in the mail my
membership is good through 2025.
So I probably paid for multipleyears and just didn't look at
it.
But again, it's a membershipthat I look at, as I don't
really use it.
I mean, it's not like I'm onthere every day looking up stuff
and reading stuff, but I do.
When there are laws that arecoming out, they do fight pretty

(58:24):
well and they keep things going.

Eric (N1JUR) (58:27):
So they're a larger body for your interest in
diving yeah and they keepthings going.
So they're a larger body foryour interested hobby.

Todd (W1STJ) (58:30):
Yeah, it's kind of like yeah, they're just,
they're the.
You know, our club is an AMAcertified club so we have
insurance.
They provide insurance for us,they provide insurance for me.
So being a member like if Icrash into someone and hurt
someone, they cover if there'sany luck, lawsuit or anything.
But you know it's a good uhmembership.

(58:52):
And then um other membershipsthat I have which I have way too
many of them is like this.
I mean they're more likesubscriptions to all the tv and
internet crap yeah, you know butthose are like the two ones
that I use and and again.
if I find something that I woulduse or I'm a strong believer in

(59:14):
, then, yeah, I look at it aslike I don't mind doing it.
I was.
When I first became a ham.
I joined like every ham radioclub I could possibly find.
Some of them were just free hey, join us for free.
But our club, the GSARA, wasthe only one that I actually
connected with.
I was part of the Nashua Ithink it's the Radio Society.

(59:37):
Nars, what NARS, nars.
And I mean they weren't as like.
They seemed more like an ARRL.
Their website is phenomenal,has tons of resources and as a
technician I was like, wow, thisis great.
But I just kind of felt like Iwas just a number and, you know,
I just didn't feel like I couldget connected with them.

(59:58):
Uh, you know.
So I mean it was that.
But then I joined, like I usedto do the uh, the interstate
repeater society.
I was on that repeater all thetime.
So I felt like, well, I'm usinga repeater, I should support
the repeater.
Um, so I joined that for acouple of years and I don't
really use that repeater thatoften.
Um, now I'm really on ours andI'm on the Fort mountain

(01:00:20):
repeater, but I don't thinkthere's like a club for them, I
think it's just a repeater.
But if there was one, you know,I would join that cause.
I I use, you know, their stuff.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:00:29):
So uh, it sounds like a lot of the descriptions
for at least you you're like Ikind of pay to play subscription
, so like if you're playing intheir sandbox, you feel like you
need to obviously contribute totheir system.
But if you're, you know you,you, you fall away or you go
into different route.
You, you're, you're pretty muchlike well, I'll just let it
lapse and move on to somethingdifferent.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:00:49):
Well, for example, if I don't pay for the club, I
can't fly at the field right andif I don't have.
Ama.
I can't fly at the field so Ihave to have those to
participate.
But the AMA it provides me withinsurance.
The club is the money helps andwe improve things and and you

(01:01:11):
know it's more of a, you knowit's it's a lot more money than
we pay for our club.
You know, to fly, to be in thething, but it's for me it's like
this is what you do and thishelps make things better.
So when I do go down to thefield and I see the guys, it's a
better place.
It's not just a a field with,you know, cut grass, it's got,
we've got shelters, we gotstorage, we got lawnmowers.

(01:01:33):
I mean there's a lot to it andum.
So you know I don't mind payingfor it and joining it and keeps
me going.
But besides that, I mean I wasa I'm not a union guy, so I hope
I don't offend anyone but theunion that the state has in New
Hampshire sucks ass, and if anyof you are members of the union,
you come debate me on it.

(01:01:54):
I'll tell you why you suck ass.
But, I was a union member for along time and they did nothing
that affected me in a positiveway.
If not, they did things thathurt me.
So I there was a law that waspassed I think it was called the
right to work and they said, oh, you don't have to be a union

(01:02:18):
member anymore.
I'm like sweet.
So I signed off on it and I'mnot doing it.
And they literally harassed me.
They were coming up to me atwork.
The guy was at the dump wastrying to convince me.
They were coming up to me atwork.
They were.
The guy was at the dump wastrying to convince me.
They were calling me, textingme, emailing me.
I mean it was harassment and tothis day I won't do it.

(01:02:39):
And they said, oh, but wenegotiate for your benefits.
I said you negotiate shittycontracts.
There hasn't been one I votedfor because it sucks.
And I said so he goes, but youdon't get to vote.
I said I don't care, you passthem anyway, I go.
It's a big scam.
So I got out of it and to thisday they come and try to drag me

(01:03:00):
in and I just tell them so whatpositive thing did you do for
us this year and it's not.
I mean we would get 1%.
They would praise on a 1% payincrease 1%.
The cost of living was 3%.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:03:17):
Let's kick Todd off his soapbox right now.
I'm sorry.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:03:20):
I got rid of that membership because it didn't
help me.
That was a membership.
I won't go back, I'm done.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:03:29):
It sounds like the common theme, you know the the.
The common theme, at leastbetween you guys, is that you
know you're, the value of whatyou get out of, uh, the club or
the group that you're a part ofmay or may not, you know uh,
dictate whether you're going tobe back next year based off of,
like, what value?
You know it does the valueequate to what you get?

(01:03:50):
You know as what you put intoit, meaning your fees.
So I guess for me, reallyquickly, before we kind of dive
into a few things, cause I got alot of questions um is I kind
of if I keep it just general,like you know, club memberships
and ham radio stuff, I for awhile used to be a lot like you
guys where I would like if I wasusing the pay to play model.

(01:04:12):
So if I was using a repeater Iwas using, I would be a club
member.
I for me that kind of worereally fast because I felt I was
just I understand that I wasgiving to maybe an organization
to build help, you know, insupport of their repeaters,
their systems, their club, blah,blah, blah, what organizations
as a whole.
But like, at the same time Iwas never really using anything

(01:04:34):
except their repeater.
Now I took the attitude of likeso if you look at a club that
has a repeater only and againthis is my opinion, so it
doesn't apply to anybody elseexcept myself is that if I'm
using a club repeater whetherI'm using like weekly, or I'm
using it for a period of time,or I check in every once in a
while, I check in a net for meit's like the repeater was there

(01:04:55):
.
The frequencies that wereassigned to those repeaters were
never theirs anyway, so it wasjust part of the original you
know kind of allotment to themthat was given to them free
because they never paid for it.
Yes, they have equipment,resources and costs and stuff
like that with all of thatprocess.
But if there was club was onlyfocused and, from my opinion,
focused on just a repeatersolely, I feel like it's not
enough for me to be able to sayI need to give them money, like

(01:05:18):
because it's sort of like if Iwas like a ham radio, like being
a ham radio operator, I'm likea POTA guy and every contact
that I make with somebody like Iwould charge them a fee because
they want to talk to me.
Like that's like that's kind ofhow I look at it.
I'm just like that doesn't workfor me because in essence, you
know, airways are free.
So that's kind of my change inthought around that.

(01:05:39):
So I don't, I don't give mymoney to a lot of clubs unless
I'm involved in them in someform or fashion, and that's more
.
For like a lot like I think wetouched upon is the connection
with people, and so if I'mconnecting with them and it's
reciprocated and buildingrelationships, then I don't care
whether the club fees are $100or $15 every year.

(01:05:59):
It's the value that I put intoit because it secures my spot in
that whole environment.
So that kind of gets reallydifficult to deal with, at least
for me.
When you look at the largeorganizations like ARL or Long
Island CW club or any of likethose kinds of avenues where
people like throw money at thatbecause they feel like they're

(01:06:21):
giving something to help andthey are, I mean those, those
resources and those places andthose groups you know do a lot
for the hobby, um, but like whenI look at ARL, like I, it's a
toss up for me a lot and so,yeah, I pay my ARL dues because
I want to just kind of have myear to the rail to hear what the
hell's going on, and maybe theymight be doing something for me
, maybe they might not, I don'tknow, you know, but then money

(01:06:44):
is not hurting my wallet rightnow to the point that I can say,
yeah, I can't.
You know, giving them the $49or whatever it is forever.
How many years I pay in advance, you know is.
But like, at the same time, I'malso not like the life members
either, like I don't understandhow someone can lay down a
thousand dollars plus to ARL andsay to them I want to be a

(01:07:05):
diamond member but all I get isa little plaque on my, you know
the wall that says I'm forever.
You know, ingrained in that.
You know, and it's just kind oflike, just, it's just my old
school, you know, mentality ofthinking like you know, screw
damn the man, save the empire,kind of thing.
Um and so, yeah, subscriptionsfor me and I I think it's the
same thought that you guys haveis that you know, if there's

(01:07:28):
value in it and you're gettingvalue back out of it, then you
know you're going to put, youknow, your money, you know, on
the table and you know, help,support them, because that in
essence helps just further alongthe process, and so don't you
need an arrow membership to bein logbook of the world?
No, it's free.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:07:46):
Oh, it's free, Yep .

Eric (N1JUR) (01:07:49):
Yeah.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:07:49):
So, like I do, like I'm a member of, I'm a paid
member of QRZ, sure, onlybecause I like QRZ and I send
everything to QRZ.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:08:01):
But you can be a free member of QRZ and still
send your stuff to QRZ.
You just can't use any of theiradvanced features to work with
your logging and that type ofstuff, right?

Todd (W1STJ) (01:08:10):
Well, that's what I do.
I use cures that a lot.
You know like I.
You know like, like, like ham,ham, study right, like I use
them.
And you know I paid for the app, you know whenever I bought it
or whatever, but that was like amonthly subscription and I was
studying for my time.
I would pay for that becauseit's something I use.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:08:29):
But that's not an organization though, so software
for me is just software.
I'll pay stuff for software,right?

Todd (W1STJ) (01:08:36):
Like for ham study , is QRZ an organization.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:08:40):
No, it's a website and a service.
That's all it is.
It's like L-O-T-W.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:08:47):
You're a member of QRZ.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:08:49):
You're an online member, like I don't think I get
any more value when I'm loggedinto qrz, especially with the
dumpster fire of their you knowmessage boards.
But we won't go into that.
Um, you know, I I don't thinkqrz provides me any more than my
regular logbook, except for thefact that it allows me to
connect my logbook to them, tobe able to synchronize contacts

(01:09:10):
and confer, you know, furtheralong, further along my awards,
you know kind of journey.
But I don't, I don't considermyself a QRZ, like I don't wear
the badge proudly on any of mywebsites whatsoever that says
I'm a QRZ member.
I don't know about you, but no,I don't have any badges.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:09:27):
Yeah, and so like I don't look at it as a as a
club, so yeah, I mean like, likethings, like I've you know our
club, like if there was a.
You know this club has meant alot to me.
Um, you know, I met you guysand and you know, basically
everything I know in ham radiois because of the club.
Like if there was a thing andsaid, hey, uh, you know we're
short money, we're offeringlifetime memberships.

(01:09:49):
Whether or not I'm going to behere or not, I would probably
buy a lifetime membership to ourclub only because I'm
passionate about it and I thinkthe club offers a lot and I've
had a lot of great experiencesand met some great people and
made a lot of good friends.
So to me that's something thatI wouldn't even hesitate to do.
Same thing with the Flying Club.
Those guys have been my friendsfor I don't even hesitate to do

(01:10:10):
it, you know.
Same thing with the flying club.
You know those guys have been,you know, my friends for I mean,
I don't even know how, I'mprobably pushing 15 years now,
but you know that was anotherone.
Like if they said, hey, we'reshort money and we need to put
money down.
We need lifetime membersbecause we have to raise this
money, I wouldn't even hesitate.
I'd be like all right, I'll bea lifetime member.

(01:10:30):
And we've got guys in that clubthat moved away and they still
pay their membership and theydon't even come anymore.
They live out, you know otherparts of the country.
So I think it's like if you're,if you're really passionate
about a club and a club has donesome good stuff for you or
membership, you know, stayingwith them, I mean I'm going to
be a, I am going to be a ummembership to my flying club and

(01:10:53):
our ham radio club for my life,like if I move away, I'm still
buying a membership just tosupport them because of what
they offered me.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:11:02):
So what say you, Paul?

Paul (N1OG) (01:11:05):
Well.
So that's where, um, the havinglife memberships, I think is
one of those things where it'slike it's finding that balance
between the money that you'reputting up and what you're
getting back.
So like, for example, right,I'm a member of the BASS, I'm an

(01:11:30):
avid angler, I love bassfishing, I love getting their
magazines every month.
It was like, well, I could payX amount per year or I could pay
one lump sum.
It was a relatively reasonablerate.
I don't ever have to worryabout it again, and so, for that

(01:11:54):
, I love the magazine, I lovenot having to worry about
renewing my membership.
Lifetime membership just madesense For the VFW.
When I first got active in theVFW, I was a yearly member.
Then I upgraded to life.
Um, there's additional addedbenefits to the higher legacy

(01:12:17):
life levels.
Um, I stopped at bronze.
It's four hundred dollars peradditional level.
There's three more, so it'sanother twelve hundred dollars
on top of the life membershipfee.
So it's a lot of money.
And, and while I absolutelylove the VFW as an organization,
um, there's there's just a lotof bad actors doing bad things

(01:12:42):
and ruining the organization,and so I've, I've, I've since
stepped away, and and and I, Istill don't, I don't regret, uh,
becoming a life member, becauseI know that you know, when it
comes to legislation and thingslike that, they're, they're in
DC and they're advocating on onmy behalf as a vet.

(01:13:03):
Um, so for that I appreciate it.
Um, now you move over to theARRL and, and let me just tell
you, I I am, I'm so unbelievablyfrustrated at the cost of the
annual memberships of the, adouble rl, versus what you get
from it, and 100.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:13:25):
I elaborated a little bit on that.
So like what, what's thecurrent state?

Paul (N1OG) (01:13:28):
so just folks know that may or may not be an arl
member so, uh, in in years goneby, uh, if you were an arl
member, uh, you would get eitherthe qst or the qrp or whatever.
There's three differentmagazines you could choose from
and you get those magazinesevery month delivered to your

(01:13:48):
mailbox and it's fantastic andthey, um, you know they, they
advocate, uh, on our behalf tothe fcc, for you know the, the
band allocations and things likethat.
Um, just recently, last fall,we had an issue where, uh, what
was it?
Uh next sat, uh, wanted the 900megahertz.

(01:14:10):
Right, they wanted to take the900 megahertz band and they
wanted to, you know, do thingswith it, and the things that
they wanted to do are great.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:14:19):
However, it takes that away from us or like even
the gigahertz bands like the.
I I don't play in the fivegigahertz space and there's a
very small audience that do that, but they advocate for that 100
, yeah, and, and so those things, I I appreciate and I can, I
can say, yes, okay, it isjustified.

Paul (N1OG) (01:14:38):
However, when, when they went and they said, yeah,
guess what?
Uh, now, if you want themagazine, you got to pay extra.
Well, you gotta pay, like, 84bucks for it, yeah no, okay,
like, if I'm paying for mymembership, that magazine is
included in my membership.
And send me the goddamnmagazine because I fucking paid

(01:14:59):
for it.
Don't tell me that it's oh,it's digital, and well, you know
digital is just as good.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:15:06):
I know, I get.
I get the comfort level thatyou like to receive in your
little hot hand every month,Like you know, the nice little
magazine and the smell, thedisgusting paper print that they
printed on and open it up.
But like, like.
So let me ask, in terms of thatvalue, when you get that
magazine in your hand, what like?
How long do you hold onto it,and then where does it go after

(01:15:27):
you're done?

Paul (N1OG) (01:15:29):
so I'll be honest, I'm one of those people that I
will save good magazine articles.
I may not save the wholemagazine, but I'll take so you
tear it out the articles and andand I have.
I have a manila envelope that'sgot all the great freaking
articles in it that I I've foundin my magazines um, good

(01:15:52):
magazines like where the wholemagazine cover to cover is
fantastic, and I want to keepthe whole magazine.
I will keep the whole magazine.
I will keep the whole magazinefor 10 plus years.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:16:02):
So okay, so let me ask this question.
So in the digital age, likeyou've got the online version,
that you can pull the app downand I do this myself because I
was sort of like, how you like,I like, when I got back into the
hobby, I got my aerialmembership and I was like, ooh,
I get to be as a kid again andremember the QST.
But once I started getting them, I had a pile over in the
corner that was just gettingbigger and bigger and I felt

(01:16:25):
like I'm never like if I go with, like so, with me and you guys
can maybe different, but likeeven if it's a great article, if
I go and I'm like, hey, I wantto remember where that I saw
that antenna build, I'm notgoing back to that magazine or
book, I'm going to go to theinternet and I'm going to surf
the internet to find the latestarticle.
Because we know that you knowantenna designs change, you know

(01:16:49):
people come up with new updatesand so I'm always going to want
to get the latest stuff or godown a rabbit hole trying to
find the latest stuff.
So I just basically was like,okay, I don't get the QST
anymore, I didn't want the paperversion and I know people like
that, the idea and I just kindof said you know what?
I don't read it enough.
My wife looks at it and goeswhy love the online app version?

(01:17:17):
Because one it's got awesomesearch capability so I can find
anything across any one of themagazines that's available.
I can also I get February'smagazine.
Have you gotten February'smagazine yet?

Paul (N1OG) (01:17:29):
Couldn't tell you, cause you know what.
It didn't show up in my mailbox.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:17:39):
Okay.
So I already got February'smagazine, so I've already read
the articles that have Mike'sN2MAK's article in there.
He was featured in there by afew Jeremy KL67EC.
He's got a little write-up inthere too.
So I got to read all that.
Yeah, kl7.
Sorry, yeah.
And so I got to read all thosecool write-ups and you know,
share them on social and stufflike that, and it was really
cool.
But at the same time, like Ididn't like worry about like

(01:18:01):
because, okay, I go to bed and Iread my ARL magazine.
I can't turn on a light and youknow, annoy my wife to read a
physical paper form.
But I have it on the phone, Ican read it on my tablet.
I, you know it makes it wickedeasy because it's already on my
phone anyway.
So you know that that's my, Iguess, challenge to you.
So you know you might want tolook into it.
It might, you know, sufficesome of your problems.

(01:18:25):
But I know you, you like the,you know the tangibleness of
holding the paper and sniffingyou know the glue that they
assembled the binder with.

Paul (N1OG) (01:18:37):
And well, let me, let me put it to you like this
okay, we, we as a society, wespend countless hours staring at
screens.
Sure, right?
So if I'm gonna, if I'm gonnaread a magazine article and I'm
gonna enjoy it, I don't want tostare at a freaking screen I
want to I want to look at paper.
It's no different than, like, Ihave books.
I have real books and and andthe books that I've read and I

(01:19:01):
don't need to go back on them.
I donate them because somebodyelse could read that book.
But there is, there issomething to be said for reading
off of physical paper and theway the way that your eyes are
the way, the way that your brainreceives the information.

(01:19:21):
It's different and and so Idon't know.
I I like having somethingphysical in my hands.
It's like, hey, for your money,this is what you get.
Okay, you get our, you get ouradvocating on your behalf and
you get this little magazine inyour hands every month all right

(01:19:42):
.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:19:42):
So question, todd how are you on that feeling?
Other magazines, the physicalpaper, you like it or no, care
well, I've got a whole bunch ofthem, are they?
Propping up a door.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:19:57):
They're basically like taking up space.
You know I liked reading themwhen I got them because I could,
you know, throw them down.
If I'm having a cup of coffee,read it.
I don't have to be on my phoneor whatever, okay.
But when they changed, I justget the digital and, um, you
know, I would look at it.
But you know it's funny becauseI used to get like a, I used to

(01:20:19):
get like an email that Ihaven't had it since March and I
got to get back into it Cause Ihonestly still thought I was a
member Um.
But I did look at the digitalcopies and, like I said, it's,
it's, I would rather.
I mean the AMA has the samething.
They went through um, they havea magazine and it went digital
and you know I don't mindreading stuff on my iPad or

(01:20:39):
whatever Um, but yeah, it clears, it brings less mail.
I get so much junk mail and somuch crap.
You know it just fills up andif I don't go through it, you
know I'll look like I like I'llget'll get like um, like even
the ham radio outlet.
I love getting them because Ican go through and look at them
and then I like put themsomewhere I go into my drawer

(01:20:59):
I'm like this is like threeyears old, like what the hell is
on the back of the toilet and Ijust sit there right.
So I mean, but you know, and I,I, like I said I, I, I, I do
think I mean they.
They had that big priceincrease and I don't think they
did it the right way and I don'tthink it went over too well.
I think a lot of it had to dowith piss, poor management of

(01:21:23):
the organization and you know.
But for what you get for it andwhat I use it for, it's like.
Again, I look at them as likethey're.
They fight for the bands.
You know they fight for us tocontinue to do this hobby.
I think if you don't have anorganization like them, you know
people are just going to takeit from us.
So I'm more of a.

(01:21:44):
I look at it more as like, notso much as my membership to them
, but more of my yearly donationto have them be able to survive
, my yearly donation to havethem be able to survive.
But I don't like whenorganizations waste money on
stupid things that they shouldbe putting their money in no
better use.
But look, as a member, I guessI get a vote if they vote for
them, because they did havesurveys out about raising the

(01:22:05):
prices and stuff and I told themwhat I thought and I'm not
stingy and you know I stilldon't think I mean, I think $60
is, you know, for the year.
Is not that out of control?
But reading the stuff that wasgoing on at the time, I mean
you'd think like they're tryingto take your house away from you
.
I was like holy crap, it's just$60.
Like I mean it's not that much.

(01:22:27):
I mean it's a.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:22:30):
I mean you could do a lot, you know well, not so
much in this day and age, butlike $60,.
You could do some stuff.
You could go to press threetimes, that's it.
Yeah, exactly Right.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:22:41):
Exactly.
You go to press a couple times.

Paul (N1OG) (01:22:44):
I could buy half the stuff in my Amazon cart with
$60.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:22:48):
True, I could go to TeamU and buy all of TeamU
with $60.
What are you talking about?
I could go to Team U and buyall of Team U at $60.
What are?

Todd (W1STJ) (01:22:53):
you talking about?
Yeah, I mean, I just think thatwhen you have an organization
like ARRL and then things don'tgo right, especially with QRZ,
like when they kept crashing Wasit them crashing or ARRL?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:23:07):
No, no, arrl was down for months.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:23:11):
Yeah, right, and to me that's unacceptable and
really it's kind of like.
You know, I don't think youshould be.
I think you know, if they weredown that long and what they
should have done is they shouldhave gone to the members and
said listen, we apologize, wehad problems, we're extending
your, you know, because youdidn't have access to what we

(01:23:32):
were offering for, the, say,three months.
We're extending your membershipfor three months.
Yeah, they didn't Exactly, butthat would have been a good
offering which would have mademe say, okay, well, now I feel
comfortable signing up again,you know, and renewing, but they
just don't.
So they basically stole moneyfrom all its members because the

(01:23:54):
members didn't have access towhat they paid for.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:23:56):
I agree.
I agree that's legit.
Yeah, I agree with that.

Paul (N1OG) (01:24:00):
I will not be renewing this year.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:24:04):
I, I still, and so here's kind of my take on this.
And so, have either of you guysmade the the Mecca journey yet
to HQ?
No, okay.
Have either of you guys madethe Mecca journey yet to HQ?
No, okay, so you haven't beento HQ yet.
Now I was in similar, same boatbecause, again, it's that value
proposition of what the hell amI getting out of my $50, $60 a
year.
And so I did.

(01:24:26):
You know, and I'm sorry, todd,I'm going to promote I did a
video on going to the ARRL and Ithought it was fun.
It was fun because, like Marvin,I went with Marvin W zero MIT
when he was working for thelearning center and he gave me
like the, the full walk through.
Now, mind you, when I got tocertain parts of the building
and they had a lap, like theyhad what they called the um

(01:24:47):
employees HF lounge, and it waslike cutting edge everything.
They had flexes in there, theyhad, you know, uh, all of the,
the tools and gadgets andamplifiers and towers, all in
that room.
Like, when I got to the room,the first feeling I had was like
anger because I'm like mymoney's being used so they can
have a lounge to do HF and Ican't use this.

(01:25:09):
And then I was like, so I waslike grilling them and all the
questions, because I'm like thisis our new state of the art.
You know, we built this and webrought a vendor into.
You know, bring in thishardware and flex donated and
Icom donated.
And I'm like, yeah, you'repissy, exactly Right.
And so so I literally, you know, for those that are on the
podcast, paul's making a handgesture that we won't, uh, you

(01:25:29):
know, elaborate on, but you canwatch the video to get more
definition um, in eight and fourK Um.
But you know, as I continued onthe tour, um, we finally got to
the Percy Maxim museum and I waslike blown away because it's it
, they explained it and the guywho walked me through the whole
process and again you can goover my channel check out the
video, Um, but he allowed likeyou can go there and you can

(01:25:54):
operate all of their towers andtheir, their setups and their
stations are like they're nottop of the notch hardware but
like their yezu um ft 101, youknow d's running 200.
You know running a kilowatt.
You know, with a bunch of beamsat different you know
elevations, elevations, um, andit was a great experience.
So at least I got a chance tooperate as W1AW, even though I

(01:26:17):
didn't make a whole lot ofcontacts that day because the
bands were shit.
Um, but I, you know that thatkind of you know we'll say, move
me from the negative side ofthe.
You know, I'm ready to burn thebuilding down to okay.
Well, you know, maybe there area little bit better because I
have this, I have this resourcethat was never communicated to
any like to anybody that I wasaware of, that you could go down
and do this, and so when I went, you know, through that, I was

(01:26:40):
like, oh well, this is somethingsomebody should, you know, be
aware of, that that has you know, especially if you live in the
new England area, frick, youknow, if you haven't gone down
there, you should go down thereand just it out.
It's an interesting kind ofsetup and I get what they do and
why they do the testing, and sothey do a lot of interesting
things that we don't ever hearabout or talk about.
So one of the things that Ilearned when I was down there

(01:27:03):
was that they do RF testing.
So a lot of those radios,antennas, all of the
manufacturers that we see outthere.
They have full labs that theyhave set up.
That does the RF testing, doessuperior submission testing does
all of the manufacturers thatwe see out there?
They have full labs that theyhave set up.
That does the RF testing doessuperior submission testing does
all of those things, and they.
So they take, you know, anytimethey do a review in the
magazine.
They've already gone throughtheir whole entire lab structure

(01:27:25):
and tore that radio from, youknow, beginning to end, through
its paces, made sure it was, youknow, you know, under the type
acceptance and, you know, saidwhat it was supposed to have,
you know, and so they'restarting to do more of those
like Chinese radios and get inmore of the garbage that you
know has been seeping throughfor a while.
Um, that's gotten better, forsure, but I'm sure it's has been

(01:27:45):
.
At the same time, you know theythey've done some really good
things, but, you know, does thatoutweigh what I'm paying, as
well as what they?
What I really think they shoulddo?
I you know, probably not.
You know.
I mean, in essence, I thinkthey're very fat as an
organization.
I think they need to be a lotmore leaner and I think they
need to be in a place that theycan offer really good benefits

(01:28:10):
for the hobby as a whole,because they're a larger
organization that already plugsinto government entities and
should be our voice and also aneducation machine.
But the one thing that pisses meoff the most about them is why?
Why do they hold so tight toall of their properties when it
comes to books and printing?

(01:28:30):
That just drives me bonkers.
Because, like ARL, they put outtheir whole antenna book great
resource but, fricking, put iton like, put it in a digital
version, because the books Idon't need a shelf on the wall
that could hold 300 pounds worthof antenna books, you know that
are going to sit there.
That I maybe reference a coupleof times, you know, and it's

(01:28:52):
like they, they, just they, they.
They aren't open enough.
I don't think in that sense.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:28:56):
Well, you know, it's like they raised the price,
like this year.
I think you get like a mug ifyou're a new member.
Right Like a mug, likeseriously, you got yours Right,
right, like okay, thanks.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:29:10):
With this original cartoon from one of the authors
I looked at, I'm like I lookedat it.
I'm like I looked at the print.
I don't think you can see thison the video.
It looks so crappy.
But then I like what.
Like Bill W1WR told me about it, it was like an original
cartoonist.
You know an ARLs that had.
You know it was a silent key,but I'm looking at it, going
like this is a stupid cartoon.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:29:36):
Like they sent me a dumb cup.
This is just garbage.
What am I getting out of it?
Nothing.
What would be beneficial is ifthey gave out a book, like you
said the antenna book or atleast gave it to you in digital
format.
That would be something likeokay, I'm going to pay my $60
and they're going to send me adigital copy of an antenna book,
and then the next year they'regoing to send you a digital copy
of an antenna book and then thenext year they're going to send

(01:29:57):
you a digital copy of Operator.
Good point.
You know how many coffee mugs Ihave.
Give me a break, dude.
Don't waste your money on thepostage.

Paul (N1OG) (01:30:08):
Didn't you operate W1AW from home like I did?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:30:14):
Well, I operated the call from home, not the
actual station.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:30:19):
Why did you do it from home?
Are you allowed to do it fromhome?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:30:23):
When W1AW did that whole area call volunteers on
the air.
See, this is not a livery andham glass.
That's a well-crafted dram.
Paul can put up our li free andham glass.
That's a well-crafted you knowdram.
Like you know paul can put upthe our lip free and ham glass.
And you know, I guarantee likeI would buy 25 of those before
I'd buy one of these cups fromariel I mean right, it looks

(01:30:43):
like you got it at the dollarstore.
Yeah, exactly.
And they're printed on it fromlike exactly yep, yeah, good
quality.
Exactly.
Yep, yeah, good qualityproducts.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:30:53):
So I mean, I've bought stuff.
You know that I've needed likefrom from you know ARRL.
I bought like winter or fieldday stuff and you know the
stuff's not cheap and I and Iget it.
I look at it as okay, we'resupporting the thing.
But then I also think you knowI haven't been down there but
you're telling me that they'vegot state-of-the-art flexes and

(01:31:14):
stuff in a room only for theemployees.
That's fucking bullshit.
I'm sorry If I go down thereI'm walking in that room and
saying dude, I'm a member and Ipaid for this.
I'm using that flex, I'm notusing this old freaking beat-up
radio that you've had out herefor 30 years.
Why would they do that?
Why would they make thatavailable to all members?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:31:36):
Well, now the Percy Maxim Museum has three
stations that they all set up.
All of them have differentradios in them.
So what I was operating was a101D, but I think they had a
Flex and another one of thethree stations.
So there was the availabilityfor many radios, but most of it
was ICOM or Yezu, because theywant to keep their name in
lights.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:31:56):
And I'm not saying I wouldn't want that, but I
don't think they should betaking the members' money and
putting it in for quote unquotethe employee.
I agree, because I work forsomeplace and I don't get
special benefits and better.
I don't know they're not givingme a new flex radio to shove in
my desk so I can play on mybreaks the thing.

Paul (N1OG) (01:32:18):
The thing with these organizations right is is
we have to understand that theywant us to contribute to the
organization, but we have no sayin the operation of that
organization.
Sure, and that's where groupslike look at Wounded Warrior
Project.
Now we're going back a fewyears, but they were in serious

(01:32:42):
hot water because they weretaking in all this money that
was supposed to go to vets andinstead all of their admin had
six-figure salaries andeverybody was getting rich, but
the veterans themselves werestill suffering.
And so here we are we're givingto this organization that's

(01:33:04):
supposed to be fighting on ourbehalf and they've got a station
in Connecticut filled with flexradios and fucking towers and
antennas and all this crazyexpensive shit.
For what fucking purpose?
Like what is my money going to?
That is really giving a benefitto me does the ARL?

Todd (W1STJ) (01:33:28):
do they do things to help clubs?
Do they have like?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:33:31):
yeah, they have small like nothing directly,
they, they.
So again, this is one of thethings that I don't have a full
understanding of the breadth anddepth of what they do offer,
because I only hear a little bithere and there, and so that I
think this is one of our.
All our arguments is like whatdoes the arrow bring to the
table?
We need to get the arrowpresident dude, we can barely

(01:33:52):
get them to them to give us acomment on our.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:33:55):
VE exam.
I'll be hate myself, but I wantto ask them because I'm like,
if I'm passionate aboutsomething, I will ask the
questions everyone's afraid toask.
I'll ask them straight up, likehow much did you spend on your
employer lounge?
How come that wasn't in thefront page of your magazine?
I want to know that.
How come that wasn't in thefront page of your magazine,
like I want to know that?
And how come you don't spendmoney to help clubs improve

(01:34:18):
their clubs that can promote hamradio and get more members in
there, like the AMA, which Iknow I go back because it's my
only other hobby that I have butthey actually every year you
apply and you can do things toimprove your field, apply and
you can do things to improveyour field.
And you put in a request andyou tell them what you're going
to do and you show them a budgetand you do all that stuff.

(01:34:38):
And I've never, our club hasnever been denied.
So yes, there.
So in the case of that sense,but they, like, we put in our
runway and they said this iswhat we want to do, this is how
much we're going to get, we'regoing to get paid, and you have
to buy it all first.
And then they it was almostlike a grant.
And then he said, here, here'sa check, good job.

(01:34:59):
And then they put it in theirmagazine and say, oh, the
Southern New Hampshire FlyingEagles put in a runway, blah,
blah, blah.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:35:14):
So, yes, there is a, a, we'll say an arm for the
grant side of things.
So like, yeah, as a club thereis some stipulations and I don't
know whether it's clear or not.
Like, do you have to be a fiveoh one, or five oh three, five
oh one, three C?
You know organization thattakes, yeah, two, yeah, exactly,
um, to take, you know,donations in to be able to apply
for those.
But they do have grants thatthey've been able to give 50,
100, 000 is actually a club inbarnstable mass.

(01:35:35):
That, um, my dad's a part of thebarnstable bark club and they
got a grant from arl, which alsowas in conjunction with the
ardc, to outfit one of the scoutcamp buildings with the full hf
station tower.
You, you know power, backup,battery power, with the idea

(01:35:57):
that the scouts could use itduring summertime and scout camp
activities, but they as a clubcould use it as their main
location and you know kind ofclub radio facilities.
So there is stuff out therelike that, you know, and ARL
does offer that and you can putin for those requests.
I mean, I know as a club wekind of have that on our item
list to talk about and maybelook into because you know, I

(01:36:18):
know, todd, you've had a dreamto have a, uh, an RF or HF kind
of you know club trailer.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:36:25):
So you know, I want a trailer and a clubhouse.
Yeah.
I want to have a clubhouse on abig mountain somewhere that's
close by that I can.
I'm sure you laugh, butwouldn't it be a cool place just
to go?
I mean our club has.
I mean we hang out at Mike'sBarn.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:36:45):
Well, we have Ralph's house.
He's on 1300 ASL, so we can allhave the club of Ralph's house.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:36:50):
Yeah, but wouldn't it be awesome if Ralph was like
wow, you know what, I got allthis land up here.
Let's build a GSARA clubhousewith a shack in it and a place
to hang out.

Paul (N1OG) (01:37:06):
Stick a firing range in behind it.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:37:09):
We'll hang out with Ralph for the rest of it
Ralph, can you section off your8 acres or 18 acres, but you
know I mean it is to me it's.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:37:18):
And again, I'm not that involved with the ARRL.
I looked at it.
I never really thought too muchabout it.
But when you get those bigorganizations, they do, I think
they do, they do get I don'tknow if the word is greedy, but
they do get loose with the moneybecause it's not their money,
it's our money.
And I think it's like thegovernment, you know, like you
give the government next thing.

(01:37:42):
You know they're dishing outbillions of dollars for this and
it has nothing to do that Iwouldn't pay a dime for, but we
end up paying for it.
I think these organizations andyou're not going to agree with
everything they do, but notgoing to agree with everything
they do, but I also think thatthey should be more upfront and
honest and I mean, I don't know,is the arrow have a board of
directors yeah, we all hate them, but yeah, they are, but are

(01:38:02):
they, are they like?
are they a club of board ofdirectors that protect
themselves and keep them in theboard of directors thing like
other term?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:38:10):
limits no, not that.
Well, again, this is right fromwhat I hear and understand, no,
if you want to have a goodorganization.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:38:19):
They should put every club member in a hat and
freaking, pull out the name andsay this is the board of
directors for the next year.
Oh, let's get Fred on here Wellseriously, I mean I'm serious,
because again it comes down it'sall politics, right, it's all
politics.
Seriously, I mean I'm serious,because again it comes down it's
all politics, right, it's allpolitics yes.
Right and politics is the rootof all evil.

(01:38:41):
So if you're going to have agood club, like the Arrow, even
the AMA I would take everymember, put them in a hat and
pull up freaking one from eachsection and say you're on the
board period, that's it.
You're the board member for theyear.
You can decline it, We'll picksomeone else out.
But if you want to volunteeryour time and do it, but you get
one person, you get a wholegroup of people.

(01:39:01):
I know how it works.
They all protect each other.
Oh, we're going to do this andwe'll force this and we have the
power to do that.
And then only way the membersstop is if they stop joining.
And I was watching that wholewhen they're going to raise the
prices about they were they were.
What really made me is like theywere OK with losing members,
Like as a, as a person who wouldwant to never lose a member,

(01:39:26):
like I don't want to lose amember of our club because I
think the members are beneficialto the club, and it's like, and
I want them to stay becausewe're we've got a good club they
were okay with losing a certainpercentage of members because
they raised the dues so much andI was frustrated with that
because it tells me that it'snot so much about the members,

(01:39:47):
it's more about their pocketbookand what they can do with that
money, and that, to me, is isjust wrong and that that really
it put me in a bad taste in mymouth because again they had the
speaker.
You know, they had the newsthings, they had the articles,
but they were okay with losingmembers and that's not what a an

(01:40:07):
organization should be tryingto do, especially when you have
thousands and thousands ofmembers who are contributing,
you know, to the cause.
You sounded like dirty Harryjust then.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:40:20):
Don't get me going .

Todd (W1STJ) (01:40:22):
I can't stand the politics of it because it's
corrupt and everything politicsgets.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:40:27):
So let's try to kind of put some, you know, as
I'm waving my hand and mycamera's freaking out, let's
kind of put some closure to thisa little bit, because I think
we could have a whole entireepisode of how we want to pitch
forks and torches, arl.
So I guess the bottom line isso in all of your memberships
and we obviously kind ofoutlined a little bit and

(01:40:49):
touched upon the fact that youknow the benefit and the value
proposition of every one of yourmemberships has a, you know, an
expiration in some sense.
So you know whether it'slifetime or it's a, you know one
of those things that you knowit's a period of time.
You definitely have, you know,some measuring stick in place
for how and whether you keepthings around.
So, from a standpoint of ARLand we'll just talk about ARL,

(01:41:10):
like in Paul.
From a standpoint of ARL, andwe'll just talk about ARL like
in Paul, you already said thatyou weren't renewing this year.
You know, do you find thatthere is going to?
I don't know, is there valueper se in ever wanting to go

(01:41:31):
back and renewing with them atall?
Like, so, not today, but likein the future, like if there was
, like everything was turned onits ear or things like.
Would there be a turning pointfor you to say, hey, I'm ready
to put back money into theorganization to help support
whatever it was doing?

Paul (N1OG) (01:41:43):
I think if they were a little bit more
transparent about what everyindividual member is getting as
a benefit of their membership,they might be able to convince
me to to to come back and be amember.
Um, I think, I think that whatthey need to do is they need to
scale back, they need to balancetheir budget better and they

(01:42:06):
need to handle their moneybetter so that they can have
lower dues, because they have.
They have the freaking pool ofpeople to pick from as members
people that want to be membersand so if you've got a large

(01:42:27):
group of people, you can chargeless money and still balance
your budget out the same lessmoney and still balance your
budget out the same.
And and and.
Then I feel like, if that wasto happen, more people would
join because they would see abenefit of their membership.
You know, you take, for example, uh, you mentioned the long

(01:42:47):
Island CW club, right, and sowhen I first got licensed, uh, I
paid the yearly membership feefor the Long Island CW club the
first two years, and then I waslike you know what?
I just don't have the time andthe resources in me.
You know, I'm also learningScottish Gaelic.
You know, one one extralanguage was was.

(01:43:09):
That was all I could take atthe time was was.
That was all I could take atthe time.
Now I'm getting back into cw andI've been away from from the
long island cw club for wellover a year.
But as soon as I was gone for ayear, they sent me an email and
they said hey look, weunderstand that like these
things happen and you're gonna,you're gonna go away.

(01:43:30):
You're gonna go away a littlewhile, but we want you to
eventually come back.
If you'll pay I think it was$60 at the time, I think it's
$90 currently it will make you alife member.
Then, when you're ready to comeback, we're here and we're
ready for you.
I think that that was fantastic.

(01:43:52):
I had no problem two years agopaying the life membership fee
and forgetting about it.
And now this year, I said well,cw is one of the things that I
want to learn, and so I'mgetting back into it and I'm
going to utilize their servicesbecause I've paid for it.
I'm a life member and, and youknow, I have that ability.

(01:44:14):
It's it's all about being goodto the people that support your
organization, because if you'regood to the people that are
supporting you, then they'regoing to continue to support you
, and so, while I might not haveto ever pay them again, I'm
more than happy now to donatebecause I'm getting a benefit

(01:44:38):
from it.
Does that make sense?

Todd (W1STJ) (01:44:42):
I mean going back, not that I'm going to go off on
the union again, but it's thesame thing.
When that law passed, they werefreaking out because so many
people were so unhappy with themthat they didn't want to be in
the union.
So there was a lot of us thatjust were like you had to wait
till your year, the month thatyou started into.

(01:45:02):
You had 30 days to write aletter and get out of it.
And I had told one of the repguys I said you know, if you
were such a great organization,you know, if you were such a
great organization, this lawwouldn't matter, because all of
us would want to stay herebecause you provide such a good

(01:45:22):
thing for us and you provide a.
You provide nothing.
In my opinion, that helps me andyou think you do, but I'm
telling you things that youdon't do and it's kind of like
that's what really bugged mewith the when the arrow and
discussing and showing thenumbers like this is how many
people we can afford to lose.
Like.
To me that was.
That was the thing that gave methat, because it's like I don't

(01:45:42):
.
You shouldn't want to lose anyof your members.
You should be working and doingthings to keep your members
happy, so that they want to be apart of it, that they become
passionate about it and theywant to support you.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:45:58):
So here's the thing, thinking about this,
because I was thinking like okay, what other organizations
across the world that are likeARL because ARL is US-based,
specific?
And so the one thing that cameto my mind was RSGB.
You know how much their annualmembership fee is?
Yeah, 94 bucks, so like.
So I know we've been talkingmoney and we've been talking

(01:46:19):
about the value to you know costproposition.
But like $94 in European moneyis crazy to think that, like
they do the same similar stuffthat ARL is doing for us on our
behalf, or whatever that mightlook like, they may be doing
less but they're paying way more.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:46:40):
Alright, but think of it this way what were the
dues before they raised them?
$30 or something.

Paul (N1OG) (01:46:48):
Yeah it was like $30.
$30, $35.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:46:51):
$30 and you got a magazine.
So if they really wanted toDouble the dues, pretty much is
what they did.

Paul (N1OG) (01:47:00):
They could have at least kept the magazine Exactly.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:47:03):
Like they took everything away and doubled so
you don't get anything more andyou doubled it.
And I think like if you wantedTo raise the dues, you could
have done it over a period oftime, meaning, okay, you want to
buy at $30, you can buy fiveyears right now, but we're going
to raise the dues.
This year it's going to be $35,next year it's going to be $40,

(01:47:26):
$45, you know, or you can justget five years 30.
And now you keep it everyonehappy.
They know it's going to begoing up because of expenses.
You're going to still get yourmagazine, whatever, whatever
people wanted.
And then you probably givepeople the options of either
saying I'll just pay the 30 orthe 45 bucks and take the rate
each year, or I'll, for the nextfive years, I'll pay at 30

(01:47:50):
again.
Just an idea that maybe wouldn'tpiss so many people off,
because there's a lot of peoplepissed off about it and I was
like kind of like you know, likeyou said, it's like 60 bucks,
it's like all right, it's, it iswhat it is, but it's not like a
deal breaker to me.
But there are people out there,especially a lot of hams,
retired on a fixed income.
Inflation's gone, gone throughthe roof, paul.

(01:48:17):
On a fixed income, it makes adifference If I'm retired and I
have a set income and inflationshoots through the roof like it
did last year now you're likeyou don't have $60 maybe to pay?
I'm not trying to be devil'sadvocate here.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:48:31):
I get where you're going.
Let me throw some numbers here.
This is looking at ARL'swebsite.
Rsgb, which is the equivalentto ARL over in Europe, is $94.
I don't know what they can lookup what they offer for their
benefits, but if we look at thedues rates as of January 1st
2024, so they haven't changedand they probably won't for ARL
right now, one year standardmemberships, 59 bucks still $40.

(01:48:53):
Less than a little bit $30 lessthan give or take for what RSGB
is offering.
Yeah.

Paul (N1OG) (01:48:59):
You're not getting the magazine.
It's more like 30, right,because the 90 something is
probably more around 80 US.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:49:06):
Oh, no, no, that's conversion.
So it's 76 euros.
Conversion to US it's 94.
Okay, so there we go.
That's why I was like yeah, sothat one's.
That's calculated right.
You know, based off of what Ijust did two seconds ago.
Now, if you add even the 25additional for your qst, so
you're now at uh 784.

(01:49:29):
You're still cheaper than whatrsgb is paying, and they may or
may not get a magazine.
So is that, is it like I get?

Paul (N1OG) (01:49:38):
it.
We're better than the brits.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:49:39):
We're better than the brits, and so you know what,
like we just you know, paul'sreflection is nothing on the
free and ham as a whole but Imean again, what would you think
would happen if we went from?

Todd (W1STJ) (01:49:58):
we went from our $15 and we said, oh, by the way,
it's our club dues.
Our club is now going up to $40.
How?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:50:07):
many members.
We would have the same.
We would have the same riotthat we would with the current,
Exactly.
Exactly we would with thecurrent Exactly.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:50:14):
So my thing was my thing was is you give people
you don't like double the duesin a year?
You just don't do that.
You, you, you give people timeto adjust and figure out how
they're going to do it.
You give them options.
I don't know why they needed todouble the dues again, 30 bucks,
60 bucks.
I mean, it is what it is.

(01:50:36):
I'm working, I can afford tothrow 60 bucks on that, but
there are people ham radiooperators that can't, and I
don't think they were thinkingof that, and the part that just
again I'm going to reiterate itwas like they were okay with
losing members.
And if I was in charge of aclub like theRO, or an
organization or the AMA oranything, if I was like the

(01:50:57):
president or whatever, I wouldsay that is a number one deal
breaker.
We need to figure out how to dothis where we lose as little
members, if any.
I don't want any to go.
I want to increase membership,but I don't want to lose them.
And that was never even a topicand they were willing to figure
out how many people they couldlose.
And that was never even a topicand they were willing to figure
out how many people they couldlose.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:51:17):
Well, so here's the other thing too is like so I
get the strategy behind that,but like, from my thought
process, with that I would belike, well, okay, Like you'd
have to, and I don't know whatit would even look like numbers
wise, Like if they were to say,lose a third of their overall
you know membership base, what Idon't.
We'll say round numbers.
There are a hundred thousanddollars, a hundred thousand

(01:51:37):
members, and so if they left athird of that, that's what?
10 grand, or 10, 10,000 members, or something like that.
If I do the math right I don'tknow, I don't do math 30,000.
Okay, so yeah.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:51:57):
So 30,000, see that, like I don't know how,
radio operators that now are nolonger part of the organization
that kind of oversees andprotects the ham radio club.
That to me is what they.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:52:02):
So here's the other.
It's like a similar year justexample there, todd, where
you're saying that you didn'tpay in your union, but you were
still getting the benefits forwhatever they decided.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:52:11):
I don't get any benefits.
Their decision-making processbasically just I would make if I
, if the union didn't exist, I'dmake more money now than I
would being in.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:52:20):
Okay so, but ARL.
So even being like Paul, notbeing an ARL member, he still
gets the benefits of whateverthe paying members are in that
get to make the decision.
So if ARL is protecting, youknow, our gigahertz frequencies,
paul gets the residual benefitof that by, you know, indirectly
, not being a member.
So, like you know, like it's,it's kind of like one of those

(01:52:44):
things I look at is like okay,well, if Paul goes away, it's
sad that Paul goes away, but youknow.
I definitely agree with you,todd, though, that they should
spend more time trying to figureout how they can get that
person back, you know, by doingthe things that they might have.
But they don't.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:52:57):
It was more of the mentality and that it wasn't
even discussed, Like therewasn't a discuss on how are we
going to keep members.
It was like how many memberscan we afford to lose?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:53:05):
Well, I don't.
I think they did.
They definitely did a lot ofsurveys because I got like three
or four of them, you know,asking what my take was on it.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:53:13):
Well, yeah, and so did I.
But I watched a lot of peopleinterviewing people and talking
about it and it was like theywere basically, and the stuff
that they sent out.
It's like they were like, well,if we lose this many members,
we'll be better off than if wedidn't.
And to me, the club isn't aboutmaking the ARL is not about
making money.
It's about ham radio and themembers are the gold.

(01:53:34):
Right is not about making money.
It's about ham radio.
The members is the gold.
You don't want to lose gold.
You don't want to lose yourbase because that's what you got
.
I don't know how many peopleactually didn't re-sign up, but
I'm sure there were a bunch.
If they didn't sign up, arethey going to get back?

(01:53:56):
How are they going to reach out?
Especially ham radio guys olderset in their ways.
You piss them off.
You're never going to get themback.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:54:04):
You know what an interesting stat is with our
club here.
I'll give you a little tidbit.
I was looking at the numbersjust recently.
You know what our split is interms of ARL members versus
non-ARL members in our club.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:54:13):
Yeah, how many 50-50.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:54:17):
Literally we have 160 members.
You do the math 80 of them areARL members.
Give or take.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:54:24):
the other 80 are so just looking at, let's just
say, hypothetically, I'm thepresident of ARL and I get that
stat and I decide to come downand have a meeting with all the
members, right?
That stat and I decided to comedown and have a meeting with
all the members Right, and Isaid, okay, 50% of you are
members and figure out whyaren't you members and what can
we do better to get you tobecome members.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:54:45):
One of the members just walked away.
He's left the room already.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:54:49):
But what are you doing that makes you not want to
be a member?
Is it financial?
Because maybe if it's financial, then you know, if you can
prove that you're on set incomeor if you're on food stamps or
you don't have, literally you'reliving paycheck to paycheck and
like you can't afford it.
You know, maybe you have likesome kind of a, like a

(01:55:11):
scholarship or something, Idon't know, but why is that?
Why I mean, I'd love to knowthat answer of why people are
and why people are.
Maybe they don't think they getanything out of it, like you
know.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:55:23):
I would say there's definitely something we
should dive deeper on that.
One thing I do see, at least in, and the membership benefits,
at least on the website, don'tdo anything of justice, because
I've heard things like likeright now currently listed on
the website you get as a memberbenefit the magazine.
You get access to the learningcenter, you get access to ARL

(01:55:44):
period articles you know intheir archive.
You get their e-newsletters andthen you get a couple other
services, like their technicalinformation service, so you can
call them anytime to getinformation.
Couple other services liketheir technical information
service, so you can call themanytime to get information.
You've got their QSL Bureau.
You've got their emailforwarding service, which nobody
uses any like.
I hate the ARL email forwardingservice.
They should just shut the damnthing off.

(01:56:04):
It's so stupid.
But nobody needs an ARL emailaccount.
I'm like I don't.
It annoys me to death.
We have sorry, I'm going to goon a rant here we have four
members in our club that haveARL email addresses and I send
to them every time and theyalways come back to me I didn't
get it.
Well, then use a differentemail address because your

(01:56:26):
forwarding setup is not working,so you know.
And then they do a bunch ofother activities, leadership
stuff.
But I would be curious becauseI hear from members like Bill
and a few others that, like hey,they offer cheaper insurance
for radio protection.
They offer like other thingsthat I just not aware of and
it's not listed on their websitebut it's obviously talked about
.
It'd be curious to see whatthat would be benefit.
Wise to answer your question.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:56:46):
The website could could use definitely an upgrade
to make it more.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:56:50):
It has already gone through an upgrade, but,
yeah, it definitely needs moreupgrades.

Paul (N1OG) (01:56:53):
It's like it's still circa 1995.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:56:57):
Yeah, it's better.
At least it formats to devices.
Before it didn't, you'd have todo a lot of this, a lot of this
, a lot of this to get towhatever you were looking for.
Um, I, I like my biggest thingwith ARL.
If they like sunk a shit ton ofmoney into LOTW, I don't care.
Like that platform should beburned, it's garbage, it's a hot

(01:57:19):
dumpster fire it.
I don't get the benefit LikeI'm in it.
There are way simpler ways andmore tighter, secure ways that I
deal with companies andbusinesses that make billions of
dollars every day to securetheir borders and their
information and we're justmaking context, we're just
validating context.
We're not doing like moves ofmountains and their system is

(01:57:41):
way harder to be able to set up,to get going and to tweak and
they treat it like you know.
We're moving gold from you knowFort Knox to wherever, but I
tried to.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:57:51):
I go directly to cure Zed and then I think
somehow QRZ might send it.
I forget how I send it?

Eric (N1JUR) (01:57:57):
No, it does QRZ only downloads, doesn't it?
No, you can go both ways.
Oh, you can.

Paul (N1OG) (01:58:02):
Okay.

Todd (W1STJ) (01:58:03):
You gotta pay for it.

Paul (N1OG) (01:58:06):
Well, so, but here again, right, this is where,
like QRZ does it right.
Okay so the QRZ life membership.
I want to say I think it's like900 bucks, but if, if you start
paying on it, right.
So, like I, I put 250 down andso I'm good.

(01:58:27):
Now, I think for the next likefive years I don't have to make
another payment if I don't wantto.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:58:33):
It's like five bucks short of a thousand for
their life.
Yep, yeah, there you go.
Oh, you don't have to makeanother payment if I don't want
to.
It's like five bucks short of athousand for their life.
Yep, yeah, there you go.

Paul (N1OG) (01:58:37):
Oh, you don't have to pay it all at once.

Eric (N1JUR) (01:58:40):
No, no, you can schedule it.

Paul (N1OG) (01:58:43):
Yeah, but you can schedule it on your terms, like
I said.
I mean, I want to say I think Ipaid $250 up front and I'm good
for several years and I couldjust make little payments and
and it's not a big deal, okay.
So, yes, I live on a fixedincome.

(01:59:04):
I have $4,000 a month and thatis all I get, and that's it.
And and I have to make surethat my mortgage is paid and and
everything else.
And you know my wife has enoughmoney, wife has enough money to
pay all the bills and so, whenit comes down to it, at the end
I don't have a lot of extrafunds to throw at my hobbies and

(01:59:27):
the things that I enjoy.
And so there's groups out therethat they will be at least a
little bit understanding topeople in my situation and
they'll say, hey, you know weget it.
You know inflation's throughthe roof and you know times are
tough and money's tight.

(01:59:48):
So you know we're going tocover your membership for the
year.
I had a group this year and lastyear.
They covered my membership forboth years and it was fantastic.
I'm not super active in thegroup, but I'm active enough.
And you know it was another $60a year and I was like well fuck

(02:00:11):
, I mean I just don't have the$120 to throw at them.
Like well fuck, I mean I justdon't have the 120 to throw at
them.
So I greatly appreciated thefact that they were willing to
cover my membership for the twoyears.
But I'm willing to give mymoney to organizations that show
me why they are deserving of mymoney, because I mean we're not

(02:00:39):
all independently wealthy, youknow, and not for nothing.
But I got other hobbies I'mtrying to fund like $4,000 for a
fucking skydiving license.
Go to our Patreon page to helpsupport Paul, because we all
want to see him do moreskydiving.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:00:55):
So help in that way.
Or, you know, donate.
You know you can always go toour Patreon page to help support
Paul, because we all want tosee him do more skydiving.
So help, help in that way, or,or you know donate.

Paul (N1OG) (02:01:00):
You know you can always go to our website and
donate, yeah, but so you know, Iguess.
I guess at the end of the day,like that's, my biggest bitch is
, is I need to see value for themoney that I'm paying out, and
if I'm not seeing the value,then I'm not going to renew my
membership, Sure, so yeah itkind of works on the it kind of

(02:01:20):
works.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:01:21):
You know what you're saying is and it's what
kind of like the Patreon membersare, like they value our
podcast or any podcast.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:01:28):
They can take it away just as fast.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:01:30):
Right, they can take it away.
So if we suck and they don'twant to, like these guys are, I
don't believe anything they sayand they want to get, they can
take it away.
But they people support youknow, through Patreon, because
they support what you were doingand I think it's like, I don't

(02:01:51):
think it should be just a.
I think you have to earn themembers dues, right.
If you're the organization, youneed to earn the members dues.
Our club has a ridiculously lowmembership fee.
I think we figured it outWhenever it was set at $15, in
today's money it was like $88.
So I'm like we spend more onWednesday's breakfast at pressed

(02:02:18):
than you as a group.
Yep, no, I'm just saying likeas an individual, if you go and
get like a, a burrito and a anda coffee.
You know you're getting close to15 bucks, right, if you're
lucky, yep.
So we could do a lot more withour club and for our members to
make it better.
If we got like, say, 20, 25bucks a person, you know not

(02:02:42):
that much more, but you could itwould help with a lot.
We could do more things with itbecause we'd have more money
coming in and we could, you know, buy equipment for field day,
week, you know whatever Um.

Paul (N1OG) (02:02:55):
Or offer a life member installment plan.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:02:58):
Right, right, there's ways to do it, like I
would do a life memberinstallment.
I didn't even know you could dothat.
That's why, like I never dothese life memberships, I'm like
shit.
I don't have like 1600 bucks todrop out.
You know, just give you 1600bucks Like I could be dead
tomorrow.
But if it was like a paymentplan, like I could be dead
tomorrow.
But if it was like a paymentplan, like I could give them a
couple hundred bucks a year,okay, great, you know.
And then you get the.

(02:03:18):
What do you get when you pay itoff?
You're, you get a, you get acertificate, nice little plaque,
life member.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:03:23):
That's the one thing with qr's that drives me
bonkers is like to pay that 995like they still charge you to
send.
Like god, it is 2025 now,anytime I get a certificate
award, send me a digitalcertificate.
Stop telling me you're gonnacharge me 20 to print a piece of
paper and send it in a frame tome like I.
Like.
I want the digital version,like if I get the certificate

(02:03:45):
myself.
Exactly right like.
They give me a small little likelogo on my website but you
can't zoom that logo to print it, to put on, like you know, an
e-frame or something like that.
You have to purchase theircertificates.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:03:57):
Stop wasting paper .

Eric (N1JUR) (02:03:58):
Yeah, paper, you can just download them and then
print them out, if you want.

Paul (N1OG) (02:04:04):
If you're a paid member of QRZ, you get X number
of certificates free.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:04:10):
One?
I'm at the $79 level and I'mlooking at it.
I get one.
I have more than onecertificate, Paul.
Which one do?
I'm at the $79 level and I'mlooking at it.
I get one.
I have more than onecertificate, paul?

Todd (W1STJ) (02:04:22):
Which one do I pick?
Come on, you tell me yeah, whata year.
How much does QRZ cost a year?

Eric (N1JUR) (02:04:25):
I don't even remember.
It starts at 35, goes up to thelifetime, which Paul's at at
$9.95.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:04:35):
So I'm at the $79 level.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:04:36):
So what do you get for $79?
A lot of extra stuff that Idon't care about.
So, like my biggest core stuffI could probably get at their
premium level is their premiumlevel.
We'll start there.
That's 45 bucks, $46 a year.
You get the log book.
You get prior to customersupport, which I'll never call
oh, that's true, because when Icalled, when I emailed them,
they responded, in fact, the XMLcall book service, which

(02:04:59):
basically allows you tosynchronize with your loggers
and that stuff.
You get the third party logbookintegration, which is the API
key.
You get the swap meet forms,which are big dumpster fires and
they should just tear all thatshit down.
Like that's just like garbage,like I can't tell you.
You know I won't get into it.
There's just been a lot of crap.
Ad blocking I don't care, butlike you're the one putting ads
on your website, I get it.
You're getting paid for it, buttake them down anyway.

Paul (N1OG) (02:05:22):
The XML lookup, though, like, all right, think,
think about this.
Yeah, you're, you're, you'rerunning polo and and you're out
at a park.
Exactly, you got cell serviceright.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:05:35):
You run 100 contacts.

Paul (N1OG) (02:05:37):
You're doing 100 QRZ lookups.
For every single contact youput in your log, that's another
lookup.
There's a benefit to that.
That alone is huge.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:05:51):
How many do you get if you're not a member?

Eric (N1JUR) (02:05:54):
You're limited to.
You're limited per hour.
You're limited to per hour.
You're rate limited.
Basically, you can only do 40or 50 lookups.
After that you have to wait anhour or let the timer stop.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:06:06):
I've got to look to see what membership I have,
because I've never had a problemwith it.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:06:10):
But those first four or five benefits are all
value to me.
That 100% helps me do it.
But when it calls the call signcertificate, wall certificate,
never going to use it, I don'tput anything on my walls.
Qrz award certificates.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:06:22):
You're not going to do well on the shack roast.
You're going to lose points forthat.
Uh, I already lost.
I already lost what?
500 points, so I'm way negativealready Shit, so I'm way
negative already.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:06:32):
You better get some shit on those walls, All
right, and so you know theirpage design service.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:06:38):
Next year I'm having all my photo walls.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:06:41):
I'm just going to your wallpaper, your walls with.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:06:43):
QR results.
I'm going to take a picture ofmy shack and then I'm going to
have the back screen.
It's just going to be photo.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:06:48):
Why don't you just knit a blanket together?
You know, be more creative.
Their page design service.
Now I know Paul used it.
I, you know, I don't care, likeit wasn't a big thing, I like
go.
I go to my own website becauseI have, like, more control with
that.
But you know, in essence I justhave two images on my website,
on my QRZ page, which says go tomy website or go to live free
in Ham.
So I don't want people to spendtime at QRZ, you know, I want

(02:07:11):
them to go somewhere else.
But in the case of Paul, it'sbeen the shining moment because,
shit, anytime someone does aQRZ lookup in Polo, they see
your dog and they're like, oh, Igot to go to his page, so he's
drawn traffic that way.
So, yeah, it works for him andhis benefit.
They've got a membership honorroll, a wall certificate for

(02:07:31):
lifetime membership and alifetime subscription for spouse
.
Like my wife wants a QRZsubscription.
So you see your Paul, your wifehas already given granted a QRZ
subscription.
Will she use it?
I don't know.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:07:43):
Now do you get that as a lifetime member before
?

Eric (N1JUR) (02:07:48):
you paid it off, or do you have to pay it off?
I guess.
So yeah, cause Paul said he'son a payment plan with that.

Paul (N1OG) (02:07:53):
So well, so I, I, I guess.
So yeah, because Paul said he'son a payment plan with that.
Well, so I paid separate forthe web design and I want to say
I think it was $70.
But, to be honest, I love myQRZ page and so I paid the $70.
I had the guy design it.

(02:08:13):
He took all of my feedback.
I told him I said, look, thisis what I want, and he did it,
and now I mean that was 21, sonow we're in 25.
The only thing I've ever done isis updated and I add new
pictures and I add new thingsand and you know, I change some

(02:08:36):
wording.
But, like I love that anybodycan go to my cure's end page
right and and my.
There's a link to my youtubechannel.
There's a link to all of theclubs that I'm a member of, um.
There's pictures of of me in myvfw uniform.
There's pictures of me and mywife.
There's pictures of me and mydog.
There's pictures of me in myVFW uniform.

(02:08:57):
There's pictures of me and mywife.
There's pictures of me and mydog.
There's pictures of meskydiving.
There's a link.
There's a link that goes directto my skydiving video.
No, there's no pictures of myfriends because I don't have any
friends wow, there we go

Todd (W1STJ) (02:09:15):
you should at least put that picture of the
three of us doing our first podaactivation together.
That's a good picture thatshould be on your QRZ page.

Paul (N1OG) (02:09:24):
Yeah, and that was going to happen with that memory
.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:09:27):
The dog will take precedence.
Besides, it's more of a talkingpoint than it is seeing us
three sitting there taking apicture of each other.
But yeah, all good, all right.
So we've been going a littlelong on this one, but it's been
an awesome conversation.
So I'm curious, we always gotthis discussion going on over in

(02:09:47):
our Discord there what's yourtake on memberships?
We'll open up the conversationthere and see, uh you know, see
what uh folks opinions are.
I'm sure we're going to have ashit ton of them, so you know
we'll be ready for them.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:10:01):
Let's do it.
I got a question Can we put aum?
Can we put like on our website.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:10:09):
Can we put?

Todd (W1STJ) (02:10:10):
a discord poll of.
Maybe we should do that of.
Are you an error?
Member?

Eric (N1JUR) (02:10:18):
How do you want to word that one?
Do you know?
Do you want to have a commentsection after that Comment?

Todd (W1STJ) (02:10:25):
I don't know why you're not or why you are
because I'd like this.
I need to see what other people, what other people think about
it.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:10:32):
Let's do like you.
Ever see those like memes wherethey has a guy on the pit.
You know people think about it.
Let's do like you.
Ever see those like memes wherethey have the guy on the picnic
bench that says ARL member.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:10:38):
Prove me wrong, yeah See what the people come
back with At my work, myadministration.
They're the most hated people Imean.
There's not one person I knowthat has any respect for the and
I've asked them.
I said you know, maybe youshould send out one of those
monkey surveys about what wethink of you, anonymous and

(02:10:59):
you'll see how bad you're doingand they're just like, oh,
that's a great idea, Todd.
And then it's been like fiveyears later and I still haven't
seen the survey.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:11:08):
Still a good idea, Todd.
We're just not going to do itBecause they don't want to hear
it.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:11:12):
It would be kind of it would be it may be, hey,
if we get some good data, wecould send it to the ARL and be
like listen, I'm going to throwthis last one thing out, Do you
still like?

Eric (N1JUR) (02:11:24):
so we all have a disdain for the ARL board.
So when you were getting yourQST Paul or Todd, mostly Paul
when you read the articles, didyou ever read the editorial?
When what's his name, the CEOwrites his little editorial, Do
you read that?
But before you read that, doyou just have this disdain in

(02:11:44):
your?

Paul (N1OG) (02:11:45):
inner core that you're so fired up about before
you start reading the article?
Because I do.
No, to be honest, every timethat I got it, I used to get the
magazine in the mail everyevery month and I would.
I would read it cover to coverand I I always enjoyed the
editorial because there wasalways some, there was always

(02:12:07):
some tidbit of information thereand it was like behind the
scenes and it was.
It was good, it was, it wascaptivating.
But yeah, no, I'm not gonnastare at my fucking phone and
read a goddamn magazine.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:12:21):
I'm not gonna do it we know what to torture paul
with now just lock him in a roomwith his phone and make him
read arl magazines until he'sblind just a tablet with arl
magazine, nothing else.

Paul (N1OG) (02:12:34):
I I'm going to ask the ARL.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:12:38):
I want the ARL to send out a tablet of just
magazines for Paul.
Merry Christmas buddy.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:12:45):
Happy New Year happy birthday.

Todd (W1STJ) (02:12:46):
Oh, you made your 4,000th jump.
Here's an ARL tablet.
Nothing but magazines.
It'll be updated monthly.

Eric (N1JUR) (02:12:55):
Well, you heard it here, guys, we could go for
hours on this and we're going topick this back up in the
Discord.
So if you want to come be partof that, we'd love to hear your
thoughts on it.
We'll definitely put that polltogether.
We're curious to see what youguys think.
So we'll leave that to ourChief Summarizer and Chief Paul
to put that out there.
So keep an eye out for that.

(02:13:15):
But yeah, let's continue theconversation.
What do you think aboutmemberships?
Are they valuable for you?
Do you have a bunch of them?
Or are you the type of personthat you have a tight fist of
your money and it only goes tothe individuals that earn their
right to have your dollars?
We want to hear about it.
So, with that, we are going tosay that, uh, you know, if you

(02:13:40):
want to reach out to us or youwant to be part of a live free
and ham, there are a ton of waysto join us and hang out with us
.
Obviously, the discord is agreat way for you to do that and
, uh, we will make sure thatthis is uh posted in that chat
and, you know, let us know, tellus what's going on.
You know, share some stuff.
You know you can hang out inour in our shack section always

(02:14:02):
a great little place.
That's been a, you know, alively conversation for a while
now.
We can definitely see folksgetting you know improvements in
2.0 setups being deployed thereand we thank you for those
updates.
But you, uh, you know you canalways uh, you know as a man I'm
falling apart here.
Why can't I find the end of my?
There we go.
You can always subscribe to ourYouTube channel.
You can always catch all theawesome content over there, um,

(02:14:25):
and you know we're we're pumpingout shorts left and right, so
so we have some good liquid goldthere from some of our episodes
.
So keep, uh, you know, likingthose and commenting and and and
being part of the communitythere, um, and you can always,
like I said, leave us a review.
We love to hear from you.
If you've got a question, youwant to share something with us.
You know you got to do good.
You know we want to hear aboutit.
You can text us via SMS.

(02:14:46):
You can send us, uh, you know,a voicemail via our uh voicemail
number number, or you couldsend us a quick email or, like
we said, you know you're alwayswelcome to come on the show.
If you send us a nice littlewind link message and let us
know we'll be make sure we getyou on our next episode.

(02:15:07):
And as always, like we said, wealways like to do the show.
And but you know, with everytime we do the show there's
costs and expenses.
And obviously now that we'vegot Paul thinking about
skydiving we've got Paulthinking about skydiving we've
got to start thinking aboutbuilding those funds back up.
So, uh, you know that the, the,that contents you know needed
and you know very much wanted.
So you know you can help us outalways by buying this merch uh
off our storefront.
You can always pick up our livefree and ham drams, because we

(02:15:29):
only have a few of those uh leftin stock and know you
definitely you want one if youare one of those spirits and
liquor lovers.
Uh, if there's such a thingsounds really weird to say um,
but whatever, uh, and you knowyou can always head over to our
patreon and become a memberthere and get access to all of

(02:15:50):
our back you know catalog, allof our uh episodes, unc.
Uh, all of our banter, back andforth, um, and you know you also
get a whole ton of value andbenefits there discounts, you
know, early releases to t-shirtsand shirts and swag, um, and uh
, anytime that we are startingto do we'll be planning meetups,
hopefully in 2025, maybe, andyou know, when we do that, we'll

(02:16:12):
be scheduling through ourPatreon there first to, to, you
know, give them exclusive access, um, so, you know, don't miss a
beat and head over there andyou can use our uh, buy us a
beer links too, if you want togive us a one-time donation,
help support the show.
And you always head over tolivefreeandhamcom, because we
got a crap ton of stuff overthere.
We're always keeping that siteupdated, um, and you can find
everything you need to knowabout us, uh, our hosts, the

(02:16:34):
website, uh, the show andanything in between, and we have
all of our affiliate links overthere.
So definitely go over there andsupport them too as well,
because they helped, in turn,support our show, um, and, as
always, thanks again forlistening and from all of us at
live free and ham.
Seven, three, seven, three,seven.

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Club Memberships and ARRL in the Ham World - is it worth the $$

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Club Memberships and ARRL in the Ham World - is it worth the $$