Exploring the Cold: Ham Radio Challenges and Solutions

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, baby, it's cold outside, it's winter and
it's damn cold and my batteriesare dead.
Well, next on Live Free in Ham.
Hello and welcome to Live Freein Ham podcast.
This is our weekly show wherewe discuss ham radio topics in
New 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 weappreciate your thanks and for

(00:22):
joining this episode.
So let's get into the show.
I'm your host, eric call signN1JUR, and I'm with my co-hosts
of the night.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Paul N1OG.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
And Todd W1STJ, all right cool.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, hey, as usual, we're going to get into our
usual updates here before we getinto the show material here.
So, as always, you can alwayshead over to our storefront at
livefreeandhamcom forward slashshop Check out all of our new
merch.
We've got our LFH sticker packmy friend man I'm a little
punchy today Available in thestore, and so if you haven't

(01:00):
headed over there, you can pickup a set.
It's got mine, todd's, paul'sand obviously the Live Free and
Hem stickers that everyonecovets.
But from what I hear, he's alsoupdated his Grouch sticker, so
he's got some new ones that areavailable.
But that means some of theoriginal OGs are still out there

(01:21):
and ready to be able to get inyour laptop or bag or wherever
you decide to stick the crap outof stuff, and so those are
available.
So make sure you head over andpick one up.
But I think obviously you know,once those run out we'll be
able to restock those with hisnew ones and if you say please,
we might throw in one of his newones too.
You never know, we'll see howit goes.
All right, you never know,we'll see how it goes, all right

(01:44):
, well, so, as always, we lovefeedback and with that we've got
a couple of ways you can reachout to us.
As always, our favorite methodis via SMS.
This is Todd's one link to theworld.
He wants to hear from you andthat is the best way.
You can always just head overinto our show notes, if you're a
podcast listener, or even onour YouTube channel, and click
the link that allows you to senda quick text message to us to

(02:07):
say hello, and we'll happilyshare it in our next episode.
You can always leave us avoicemail, and those lines are
open 24-7.
And that number can be reachedany time of the day, year-round
365, at 978-233-1142.
And, as our slogan always says,call us for a good time.

(02:28):
It's just simple.
It's a good time.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
And N1JR.
You answer the phone live,right, yeah, 24 hours 3 in the
morning.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, that's me, you'll get Eric live, I answer
it and then I forward it to Paul, then Paul forwards it to you
and then you forward it back tothe voicemail, so it just kind
of does the full circle there.
So we're a follow the sun helpdesk, whatever that means.
Alright, well, you know.
Hey, you can always reach outto us again by 978-233-1142.

(02:59):
Tell us, you know, shareanything with us.
We'd love to hear from you.
You can always tell us how badwe are and you know, share
anything with us, we'd love tohear from you.
You can always, you know, tellus how bad we are and you know
you can just leave a typical,you know, voicemail.
You know, whatever, you knowyour choice, you know I'll leave
it up to you and, as always, wehave the last method you can
send us an email atlivefreeandham at gmailcom, and

(03:21):
we'll be glad to read it on thenext show.
So, as always, we are in themonth of February now, and every
month we always have, inaddition to our regular episodes
, a live stream.
You know, we never know whenwe're going to have it because,
in essence, you know we don't.
We have to just wait till thelast minute.
We figure out what we have andwe just kind of go with it.
So you know, the best way toknow and be in the know is to

(03:51):
head over to our YouTube channel, click the subscribe and ring
that bell notification bell.
That way you get notifiedanytime we go live and you can
come be part of the fun and hangout with us, and we'd love to
have you there we go.
I feel like I'm on a game show,and it's also a short month.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
We only have a.
Oh yeah, dude, what 20somethingdays?
Yeah, what was it?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
3,526 days of January .
Is that what I counted?
Yeah, I think it was close tothat.
It felt like that, and alwaysour favorite method is that, if
you love to be in the know andyou want to be part of the cool
club, our little secret is thathead over to our Patreon page
and you can uh become asubscriber and at that point you

(04:28):
can hear all of the, the banterbehind us in the, in the
background.
We record all of our shows liveuh, all of our shows and we
post them uh in our Patreon forfolks in the raw version.
So you get to hear everythingthat we talk about even before
we start up the show and youknow, among a bunch of other
great things that we also do,and you can pick up all of that

(04:51):
by becoming a Patreon member.
So with that we have our usualsegment, and that is, if I can
key up the queue.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your
attention?
I've just been handed an urgentand horrifying news story.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Hello everybody, we got some news.
Slow down, boog, let me handlethis.
We've got some news.
I've got bad news and bad news.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
I have reviewed ship's personnel Captain.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Congratulations.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
You've got mail.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Well, I hope so, because I think we've reached
deep down.
In the mail bag there scrapedthe bottom.
Did we come up with anythingthis week, mr Todd?

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yes, we've got a call sign KB1GIY, sean, and he says
hey, discovered the YouTube show.
Nice job getting going livefree.
Nice job getting it going livefree.
Nice job getting it going Live.
On the North Shore in Mass it'sgood to have a local show Tried
to hit the 146.685 Bedfordrepeater.

(05:56):
That's the N1QC repeater, ourclub repeater.
From the home QTH, just out ofreach, I can hear it scratchy.
Keep it going, sean.
So thanks, sean, appreciate thelittle note and sorry you can't
hit our repeater.
We're working on that though.
At least Eric and I and I thinkPaul's on board too, and some

(06:18):
of us we want to get a biggerfootprint for our repeater and
he's on it sometimes, not thatoften.
Eric and I want it on.
We need a bigger footprint.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
So we're working on it.
So maybe we'll we'll have itsomeday, but we'll be sure to
let you guys know, Totally.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yep.
And then again, thank you, sean, for sending us an email from
our website and, as always, youknow you can send us an SMS
notification.
You can use our 24 by 7voicemail phone number there to
leave us a voicemail or you can,like Sean did, send us using a
contact form on our website atlivefreeandhamcom.

(06:58):
Forward slash contact and wewill gladly read it on our next
episode.
So again, thanks Sean, for youknow sending us some feedback.
We appreciate you and uh thanksfor again for uh being a
listener and a subscriber Allright, can you go out?

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Can you play the voicemail we got?

Speaker 1 (07:15):
I am not queued up for the voicemail.
However, the town of Hamiltonwants to us to do it on my phone
.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Hold on a second.
We us to hold on a second.
We'll see if this works you gotto hear this.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
I think these guys are listening to us, the town of
hamilton.
Due to the forecasted snowevent, there will be a winter
parking ban in effect tonight,sunday, january 19th, at 7 pm,
until further notice.
During this time, no on streetparking is allowed.
Thank you from the town ofHamilton, dpw.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, we thank you in the town of Hamilton.
Look at that.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
The DPW is listening to Lifree and Hammond letting us
know don't be parking on theirstreets.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
So thank you for that .
There you go, my friends.
Better than all the spam calls,we get everything on the voice
mail.
Great, you know what you have.
You inspired our listeners toactually want to actually come
up with creative ways to leaveus messages about their Viagra.
You know prescriptions beingnot filled and, uh, you know
more than Mary.
That'd be awesome.
You heard it Todd's.

(08:16):
Todd laid down the gauntletthere.
Bring it on, my friends, bringit on All right, cool.
Well, uh, everybody who hassubmitted us, you know some
feedback.
We always love it and we alwayslove to hear from you guys.
So, like Todd said, just bringit on, my friends, bring it on,
bring it on, you know alwaysexcited, so cool, All right.
Well, with that, let's kick itoff to the next step here.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Doing good Good Doing good you do, that's good.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Good, do it good you do, that's good.
Do good, do good, you're doinggood.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Good, good, good Good .

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Absolutely, I do.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Good, good.
I'm doing good, bob, doing realgood, and right now my only
outlet is my ham radio All right.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Well, we all aspire to do good in ham radio.
So whether you might beassisting in a disaster,
providing communications for alocal road race or hosting a
POTA meetup, you know we alllove to participate in those ham
radio activities.
So you know we always want tohear those types of activities

(09:18):
when you're doing good, um, andyou know we don't want to
provide a platform wherenegative voices can overshadow
all that enjoyment, you know.
So I'm going to raise my fistand say bring on the good deeds.
You can share your story withus, and that story can be
anything from sharing your firstham radio experience with a
total stranger, maybe while youwere activating a park, teaching
a student, a family member or aneighbor about the joys of ham

(09:40):
radio, or maybe you got todemonstrate to a new technician
the thrills of hf at field day.
Then we want to hear about it.
So we are blessed tonight tosay that we got another do good
from our best bud, carlos k9,kn9, ol.
Uh, he sent another one to us,um, and this one kind of goes um

(10:02):
.
This is another local club, hesays, from the Hoosier lakes
radio club.
They've started a class for theboy scouts in the area to get
their amateur radio merit badge,which is pretty cool.
Um, I am an Eagle scout myself,so I remember getting my radio
merit badge.
It was never called amateurradio.
It was even cooler.
That's actually amateur radio.
Um, and they actually amateurradio and they hold a class on

(10:23):
Saturday morning and follow itup by setting up their club
station hunting POTA for thescouts that receive their badge.
I swear there should be a POTAmerit badge.
That would be freaking hard.
They should work their kilo,they should have to get a
thousand contacts to be able toget the POTA merit badge.
And you know, as he says, sincethey don't have a call, the
club president and vicepresident set up a station and
act as control station operatorswhile coaching these kids and

(10:43):
making a live contact.
So we say, carlos, good job.
That is awesome to hear thatthere are clubs out there that
are doing awesome things likethis.
And we say, keep it going, guys.
This is what we want to do topromote the hobby and just
really see some cool stuffhappening, both with the you
know, boy scouts and youth ingeneral, because, like we, we
all know, I mean they are ourfuture.

(11:05):
So if we're not helping themout, we're not encouraging them
and we're not planting seeds,then we're doing a disservice to
keeping the hobby alive andwell for the future.
All right, so with that, youknow, you can always, when it
comes to this stuff, do good.
You can share it with threeways.
You can leave us a voicemail,as always as Paul is scrolling

(11:26):
across the bottom of our screenhere, if you're watching the
live stream, or live stream ifyou're watching our YouTube
channel, my gosh, you can alwaysleave us a voicemail at
978-233-1442.
My gosh, I'm really punchytonight.
Or you can head over tolivefreeandhamcom.
Forward slash, do good, all oneword, use that form, fill it out

(11:46):
and we will read it on our nextepisode.
And with that, you know, ifyou're also one of those
dedicated type A people you knowand you think you can do this,
you can send Paul N1OG a Winlinkemail and if he reads it and it
has to be we want it.
You know, we don't mind if it'stelnet, but in essence we want

(12:09):
it RF to RF.
Come on, you know you show yourHF prowess.
You know, show your, you knowyour ham radio skills.
Send it RF to RF and we willmake sure that we invite you on
one of our next live streams, umand uh, you know, we'll share
your experience, um, on our nextshow as well as, and we'll
reach out to you then.
So you know, there's thechallenge, there's the options.

(12:31):
Please come, you know, bring iton.
That's what we want to see.
All right, man, I feel rustytoday.
I don.
I'm super punchy and way offcourse and just falling apart my
friends, someone take the micaway from me, all right, well,
the next one.
We are going to go to ourfavorite little segment.
That is always a blast to dohere.

(12:52):
And now, a little somethingextra with Todd W1STJ.
All right, well, as always, youheard it here.

(13:15):
This is where we help ToddW1STJ study for his extra class
license.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yes, we shouldn't have taken a break.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Oh good, then I don't feel so bad that we're all, uh,
you know, in the same boat here.
So if this is your first timewatching us, you know, uh, or
listening to us, in each episodewe always pick three questions
from the extra class questionpool to test his knowledge,
hoping, hoping he gets hisupgrade, you know, and if you'd
like to follow along, you canalways head over to hamstudyorg.
It's a great resource to helpprepare.
This is like the best part ofthe show.

(13:47):
This is why people watch theshow.
Oh really, so this is it, soeverything else is downhill.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, Without this, no one is even tuning in Well
you've heard it here, folks.
Apparently, it's in your bestinterest to have me not get my
extra and keep studying.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
You heard it here folks Sabotage Todd and that's
all.
The plan is Send them wrongquestions pool.
You know you figure out how todo it.
So if always, you can followalong and head over to
hamstudyorg.
It's a great resource to helpyou prepare for tests.
It's recommended by three outof four volunteer examiners
Because, again, we all know theARL is just not responding.

(14:23):
So you know that's just the wayit goes, man.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Listen, I just want to let you guys know.
So one of the guys in my flyingclub wants to do legit and
wants to get his technicianlicense, because you need to
have a technician license to dothe FPV stuff which I've talked
about in the past.
So he asked me he goes well,how do I get that?
Like what can I study?
And do I get that?
Like what can I study?
And I gave him the ham study.
I said you got to go to hamstudy and get this.
I go, I don't know how much itcosts some money, I think, but

(14:48):
just pay it and do it.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
That's how you get it .
It's all free, my friend.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
What about on the app ?
I think the app does.
Yeah, the app.
The app on the phone?
Yeah, that's what?
And study it.
So I saw him today and I said,did you, have you been studying?
And he was like no, no, I gotthe app, though.
Good.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
I said, all right, well, let's get studying there.
Big guy, just don't do theN1JUR attitude of forcing you,
you know being a pest everysingle day of your entire life.
You know, be a little bit moregentler.
I'm just going to start razzinghim saying you still haven't

(15:29):
gotten that test.
That's the entry level there.
Yeah, his name is jazz.
Like, come on, loser, get onthis jazz.
You've heard it here, my friend.
So all right, without further,any day, let's put todd's toes
to the fire and hand it.
Hand it over to our ve quizmaster.
Take it away.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
N1 og all right, todd .
So I I almost just went withwith like the whole pool and
give me anything random, but Iknow you haven't gotten to eight
, nine and ten yet, so we'llstick with seven, okay.
So question number one for theevening what is microphonic?

(16:01):
Is it a excess loading of themicrophone by an oscillator?
See, eric, I'm doing it too.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
It's contagious.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Is it?
B an IC used for amplifyingmicrophone signals.
C distortion caused by RFpickup on the microphone cable
or.
D changes in an oscillatorfrequency caused by mechanical
vibration stereophonic.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm gonna go with.
I need my music your music isking cued, what a crutch.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
We all know Todd can't think without the music.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
Where is?

Speaker 1 (16:55):
it.
It's there.
You don't hear it, I don't hearit.
No, do you hear it?
Bloody hell, why is it notplaying?

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Why not?
All right, just answer thequestion I'm going to go.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
I think it's B ICUs for amplifying microphone
signals, All right, Eric, do youconcur?

Speaker 1 (17:19):
I'm going to go with C.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
All right.
So B is definitely incorrectand I knew that C is also
incorrect.
Is it A?
Nope, it's D.
Changes in oscillator frequencycaused by mechanical vibration.
So microphonics or microphonydescribes the phenomenon wherein

(17:46):
certain components inelectronic devices transform
mechanical vibrations into anundesired electrical signal, aka
noise.
The term comes from an analogywith a microphone, which is
intentionally designed toconvert vibrations into
electrical signals.
In the case of oscillatorfrequency, this mechanical

(18:12):
vibration can sometimes causeinterference.
Roger Roger.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
What's a test tip?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
There you go.
All right, what's the test tip?
I couldn't read that.
Oh, test tip is the only answerwithout microphone in it.
That's a good one, wow alright.
Question number two how does aswitch mode voltage regulator

(18:41):
work?
Is it A by alternating theoutput between positive and
negative voltages.
B by varying the duty cycle ofpulses input to a filter.
C by switching between twoZener diode reference voltages.

(19:02):
Or D by varying theconductivity Of a pass element?

Speaker 3 (19:12):
I'm going to go with A.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, mic switch mode Voltage.
I'm going to go with B.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Alright, mike, switch mode voltage.
I'm going to go B All right, soTodd said A correct.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yes, he did, I think.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Todd.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Okay, you're wrong, you're wrong.
Eric said B, I'm right, wow,and B is correct.
Varying the duty cycle ofpulses input to a filter.
So the explanation A switchmode voltage regulator switches
the source voltage on and off invarying amounts of time.

(19:56):
The amount of time it is onversus off is known as the duty
cycle.
You are then left with apulsating voltage, so a filter
is used to smooth it out.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Very good, Eric.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Alright, so you're 0 for 2, both of you.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
No, he got it right, I got it.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Great job.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Good job, Eric.
Is the audio going through now?
Todd is 0 to it.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
All right.
The third and final question ofthe evening which of the
following is most frequentlyused as a bandpass or notch
filter in VHF and UHFtransceivers?
Is it A a helical filter?

Speaker 3 (20:50):
B a swinging choke.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
A what the swinging choke.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
What the hell is a swinging choke, oh.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's what you do to uh bart when he's not listening
uh, sorry, anyway, all rightback on track uh, okay, a, uh a.
Helical filter b a finiteimpulse response filter, c a
saline key filter.
D a swinging choke filter, myfavorite.

(21:27):
Here's the music, yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
I figured it out now.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
Damn body, open All right, I'm going to go with B.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
I'm just going to go with a swinging choke.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
It's just cool to say .

Speaker 2 (21:43):
All right.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Oh is it D.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
It should be, oh, it would be, oh.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
It is not it's a helical filter.
That would make sense, thatwould totally make sense.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
So the most common, frequently used filter as a
bandpass or notch filter in VHFand UHF transceivers is a
helical filter.
Helical filters are commonlyused in radio frequency
applications for their abilityto pass a range of frequencies
while rejecting frequenciesoutside of the desired band.

(22:20):
They are particularly useful inVHF and UHF transceivers which
operate at high frequencies.
So for your hint, vhf, uhf, theHF is helical filter.
And so there you go.
Sure, there you go.
I've got to start studyingagain.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
I've never even saw that Suck S saw that Suck, suck,
suck.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
So what?
Eric got one right and you gotnone.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
So you can't play the song.
So it's a win, win for me.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
But I'll give you the loser noise oh well, that is
what it is, but you know, Istill like my uh, you know,
swinging, swinging filterswinging joke oh man.
So if you're on the journey tostudy for your technician,
general or extra class lesson,with a swinging joke, uh, in

(23:24):
that case hamstudyorg is anexcellent resource for getting
your ticket.
And so if you've also recentlyreceived your license, or maybe
an upgrade, you know, we want toknow.
So we'd like to recognize youon the next episode for all your
hard work and effort.
So email us at livefreeandhamat gmailcom, post it on our
Discord, send us an email, sendus a voicemail.

(23:46):
Heck, why not do that?
That'd be awesome.
We'll share it on our nextepisode and we'll make sure we
mention you, as always, becausewe want to, you know, make sure
that all your hard work andeffort pays off and it
definitely will in spades,because we want to recognize you
and, you know, make you welcometo the part of the hobby.
It's really cool.
So, alright, we you, and makeyour welcome to the part of the
hobby.

(24:06):
It's really cool.
All right, wow, we've made itthrough this far.
Guys, as Todd says, it's alldownhill here.
For now, we're done.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
This is where everyone just signs off.
They wait for the.
I looked at the stats.
That's what it says.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Todd's been studying the stats.
We just drop off now and forgetabout this.
So everybody else just you knowyou can sign off.
Don't bother listening to therest of the podcast.
At this point You're not goingto learn anything more.
So all right.
Well, in our usual formats thatwe always do that nobody
listens to what's been good onyour hammered week, paul um well

(24:40):
, so I, actually I I haven'tplayed a lot of ham radio this
week.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
However, that doesn't mean that um my radio was not
ham radio related or my week wasnot ham radio related yeah yeah
, I'm doing radio is not hamradio related, okay, there um,
so I actually I I was uh onreddit today and great place to

(25:05):
be yeah, I, I, I feel like, uh,that that should have been like
a letter, kenny, intro yep, Iwas on reddit today, um, but so
I was on the amateur radioreddit and this, uh, this person
had said, hey, listen, um, I'm,I'm, I'm interested in ham

(25:25):
radio, but I really just I don'tunderstand the exam process.
I don't understand.
You know well why.
Why am I seeing so many peopleare saying, well, you should do
tech in general at the same time?
And you know, he's like I.
Just I just really don'tunderstand.
And you know he's like I, justI just really don't understand.
And so I had thrown a commenton and I said, hey, I said you

(25:47):
know, the thing is is it's alicense to learn, it's a license
to learn, it's a license topractice, it's a license to
experiment.
Uh, as a ham radio operator,one of the things that covers us
under our license is theability to build our own and
modify our own gear, right, andso there needs to be a certain

(26:08):
level of foundational knowledgethat comes with that.
And so I think that's kind ofyou know.
Where the exams come in isthey're making sure that, at the
very minimum, you have a littlebit of an understanding of how
things work and how it'ssupposed to work, so that when
things aren't working right, youhave an idea.

(26:29):
Um, but he, actually, he, he,uh, he requested to send me a
private message and he said hey,um, you know, I, I apologize,
you know, but like, if it's okay, I'd really, I'd like, if we
could talk about, you know, acouple questions that I have,
and I spent probably about anhour and a half today just going

(26:53):
back and forth with this youngperson and saying you know, hey,
listen, you know this is mytake on things.
And he was very, veryapprehensive just about the exam
process in itself and I saidlook, you know the, the tech in
general.
It's, it's really, it'sfoundational knowledge.

(27:13):
I can, I can 100 understand, ifyou don't want to go for your
extra, because that is a wholeseparate can of worms.
But I said you, dude, I've beenin test sessions where, you
know, an eight-year-old haspassed their tech in general.
I was in a test session where a12-year-old did all three in

(27:34):
one go and I mean that'sphenomenal, right.
But the point that I was tryingto make with this young person
that was asking me questions isyou don't have to understand all
of the information.
Right, it, it's, it's an examand and the exam will give you

(27:54):
the basics and once you pass,then you get to put your hands
on and you get to actually dothe learning.
You know.
I said so.
I said listen, if, if, if kidscan do it, you can do it.
Don't stress about it.
Just, you know, learn theanswers to the questions and and

(28:15):
the terminology will start tobecome familiar to you.
The things that you know are alittle bit harder to understand,
like figuring out, um, you know, dipole lengths.
Well, yeah, right, write downthose frequency, uh formulas you
know.
Write down what the, uh, the qcodes are.
Write down you know what an rstis, uh, you know that way, when

(28:39):
you write things down like that,that you're having a hard time
with it.
Actually, it stores thatinformation in a different part
of your brain, which makes it alittle bit easier on the recall,
right, um, but so, yeah, so,for for anybody out there that
is, you know, ham, curious, um,you know, but maybe you know a
little bit put off by the examprocess and the, the license

(29:01):
fees and whatever, don't letthat be a deterrent, because it
truly is a license to learn andexperiment and and play around
in this hobby, and it is a hobbyof a million hobbies, so there
is something for everybody toexplore, um, but so you know
anyways, uh, long story short,my, my ham radio week was mostly

(29:24):
just the kind of offeringadvice and guidance to uh the
people looking to get into thehobby, and so that was it, that
you know that scores aces in mybook, as they say, and you know
I'm totally psyched to hear that.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
You know you had that conversation and you didn't put
on your grouch hat and scarehim away.
Yeah, not that Paul is agrouchy guy.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
He is, but he's not grouchy to other people that
want to get him.
We don't want you.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
You'll never hear that from Paul.
When it comes to someonelearning to get their hair and
beard licensed or have a desire,kudos, man, that warms my
heart's good stuff, so awesome.
I don't care if you made youknow 50 other dx contacts beyond
that, just the the one contactwith that person.
Hopefully, get they get theirlicense.
You know, keep us updatedbecause I'd love to hear, uh you
know, whether or not heactually uh or she gets uh

(30:18):
further.
All right, well, with next one.
How is your ham radio week, mrTodd?
Not too exciting.
How are your frozen fingers?

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Well, I, um, I'm, I'm recruiting on both ends, um.
So, while I'm at the frozenfingers, which is our frozen
annual event, today was frickingcold.
It was negative nine thismorning when I left and when I
got there to unpack the car itwas one degree.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Oh, thank God it wasn't windy, oh yeah, toasty
warm.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
Uh, it was truly frozen, um, but yeah, it was
good event.
But while I'm there I talk alot about, I'll talk to the guys
a lot about ham radio.
And then on the net today I runit on Sundays right before we
do this recording and I had toldthem, like, what did you do for
today?
And I said I froze my ass offat the frozen fingers as Paul
laughed the day before he was,you're really going to be frozen

(31:19):
.
And I didn't even realize itwas going to be that cold.
I thought it was warming up.
I was like, what's he talkingabout, anyway?
Um, but yeah, a couple of guysfrom our club on our net, um, uh
, steve, who lives down the roadfrom me, he actually flies but
he's not part of a club, so heflies over on Joppa Hill, which
is a big uh sporting field, uhin Bedford, and um, I was like

(31:44):
really.
And then another guy flew somestuff when he was a kid and uh,
I think it was Mike.
Uh, you, is it your G Casey,when you are G Mike, is that his
call sign?
And he said he, he's flying, hewanted to get into it.
So, trying to recruit the hamradio guys already got Russell
in there.
He uh, he's a member of ourflying club, so my goal is to
get as many people flying RCplanes and doing ham radio at

(32:05):
the same time.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
You got to do the reverse now.
So for everyone you get intothe, the RC hobby, you got to
actually have one come back.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
That's what I'm trying.
Well, I told you Yaz is taking.
Yaz is taking the the extra, uh, or the the extra, the um,
technician, it's a techniciantest.
So, yeah, the extra, thetechnician test.
Or he's studying, or he'ssupposed to be studying for it,
yeah, cool.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Now.
The big downside to your planes, though, todd, is you can't
jump out of them.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
No, you can try.
I don't know if it'll work well.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Listen, I could probably get someone who has a
big enough one that couldprobably fly you up in the air
and dump you out of it, If youreally want it.
I'll be happy to push you out.
Oh, I don't know.
All we do, all I know, is likewe talk about Paul jumping out
of airplanes and it's every timewe talk about it my, my social
media just fills out with withpeople jumping out of airplanes.

(32:57):
What's your man?
I'm with you, I'm telling youit's crazy.
And then I saw this AI thingand I didn't at first.
I was like it was like an Armyvideo and all these dogs are
jumping out like getting pushedoff this airplane and
parachuting like by themselvesand I just thought of Watson.
I'm like there goes Watson.
You know ball and Watson.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Come on, boy.
Oh man, that's video gold rightthere, yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
But right there, yeah , but uh, you know.
But yeah, I haven't done muchhf.
Uh, you know, I did on fieldday and I had a great field day
and I enjoyed.
Uh, watson was off his uh, hewas off duty on the second day
so he got to jump up on me andgive me a hug and hang out with
me.
So he's a good boy, um, butyeah, so that was basically it.
I've been on the repeater goingto and from work talking to
different people, which isalways good, and Tim KC1QDK,

(33:47):
he's been doing some cross-bandrepeat, yep.
So I got him the other morningwhen he was at work.
Yeah, and he left his.
Did you get him too?
I did, yeah, I was surprisedand he had that.
Yeah, he had the radio on inhis car and he cross-band
repeated it and he was sittingat his desk, which he can
normally get, and we were ableto talk to him.
So that was kind of cool.
And then today on the way backhome, he was ice fishing with

(34:14):
his buddy in Hudson and I don'tknow if his buddy's a ham or not
, but somehow he crossed.
So he did it to his car againyeah, he did.
The cross-band repeat.
So I was talking to him and hewas on the ice and he caught a
nice pickerel, sent me a pictureof it, so he goes, I'll send
you a picture.
If the flag goes down, I'llsend you a picture.
And then, right before the net,he sent me this picture of this
beautiful fish.

(34:35):
I was like, damn, buddy, that'sa nice one.
So he was on the net tonightand he was all excited that, uh,
normally, kim, his wife, uh,she's also a ham uh catches
always the bigger fish than him.
So he says this is my day today.
So he was psyched that he got a.
He got the bigger fish.
So so, uh, eric, what'd you do?

(34:56):
Hold on, I know you want to sayHold on.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
I know you want a second one?
Hold on, because Todd, youmissed something very important.
How many videos did you put outthis week?
I know it's a record.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Oh yeah, that's Ham Radio 2.
All right, two.
I did two videos, two diaryvideos.
I had a third one, but Irecorded it and it was connected
to my car and for some reasonthe audio doesn't work.
I can't hear anything.
I have to unplug it.
So I learned right.

(35:29):
So I did another one and I didthat one.
But I have a third one fromtoday, the frozen fingers and I
was able to.
It's a little bit longer, it'sabout 15 minutes, but it's
editing a little bit about.
Before, when I got there Once,I was there pictures, videos of
helicopters and people flyingand then kind of driving back,
kind of down.
So I'm going to touch it upjust a little bit.

(35:51):
But I did some editing on thevery basic iMovie on my phone
while Zach was doing his battingpractice.
So once I get my MacBook it'sbeen a long time coming, but
we're glad Once I get my MacBookI'm going to be and I learned
how to edit videos.

(36:12):
I like doing it actually.
So I even found out.
I went on iMovie and I was likeholy, where are all these?
Like I forgot.
I did these videos like from along time ago, nothing to do
with ham radio.
So it was pretty cool.
Yeah, dude, they were greatvideos.
Yeah, there'll be.
There'll be more coming.
Yep, um, I think I'm going tojust do, uh, do, the driving
thing as much, as much as I can,because that's really the only

(36:34):
time I can talk and not bebothered.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
I got to truly ask, though, like, how did it feel to
actually have comments?
Because I texted you?
I said, dude, you got a coupleof comments on the Liffrey and
Hammond You're like, oh, and heresponded.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, I did?

Speaker 1 (36:48):
I responded to him and.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
I'm going to respond to him.
You know it was cool, so Ithink you guys will like the.
I think you'll like the flyingone, cause it's got this, this
guy I don't even know who he washe helicopter and he you know,
some of these guys fly thesehelicopters and they're out of
control and they're upside downor they're crazy and they just
look like this guy flew a lot ofaerobatics but very smooth, and

(37:13):
he, he was foreign, I don'tknow where he was from, but he
did it sitting in a chair.
He's got like one of thoselittle beach chairs and he's
just sitting there and he it wasa gasser, and he actually I.
It's on the video.
He pulls it with a, he has alike a, like a lawnmower, and
the thing starts and he, uh, hegoes back, he sits in his chair,
he just flies it around.
It's awesome so that's coming.

(37:34):
Yeah, so that'll be coming thisweek.
I uh, I just want to finish upa little bit more editing.
Since it's the first one I'mediting, I figured I'd play
around with it a little bit.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
So, eric, now that we've talked about my videos, I
know you've had a few videos inthere too, but how's your ham
radio week?
So just to kind of segue forthose that don't know what we're
talking about, over here at theLive Free and Ham channel we
all decided that this year weare going to kind of put more,
we'll say, personalized kind ofcontent it could be ham or ham
adjacent or not ham at all, youknow.

(38:03):
And the idea is, you know, hey,we want you guys to know more
about our lives and you know, wewant to share our lives with
you and all the stuff that we doand we enjoy doing.
I mean, I posted a couple ofvideos that Todd, you know uh,
is alluding to that, uh, you.
Finally, after four years, Igot off my butt and I bought a
signal stick and the attachments, so I'm now part of the family,

(38:25):
and B and C, mind you, so weall can interchange our contents
until the cows come home.
So all good there.
And I did a couple of videos Ijust released.
My wife and I and the dog wentto Maine just after we just got
hit with snow here in NewEngland.
So of course my wife's like.
I gotta go to the beach, so youknow we went to the beach, so

(38:47):
you know we're sitting on thebeach.
We're the only two idiots thatput beach chairs out on the
beach, walked the dog for, likeyou know, 500 yards and then
came back and sat on the beach.
So you know you can check thatvideo.
How cold was it.
Oh, freaking cold.
It's utterly like yeah, I sitthere and I'm like, yeah, my
wife was like, oh, we're goingto spend two hours here.

(39:08):
And I said in the back of myhead, we're going to spend 20
minutes here because you are notdressed for two hours worth of
cold.
And so, yeah, see, the dog satthere.
The dog was so damn cold heended up actually having to be
wrapped in the blanket that Ihad brought for me.
So that's how freaking cold itwas.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
We know the hierarchy in that family.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Exactly, man, I'm the last one, maybe the second last
one.
So, yeah, we've been puttingout videos.
So if you haven't checked thoseout, we'd love to have you be
part of that.
Come check us out.
We're putting them out kind ofon a random basis.
So Paul and I and to that, comecheck us out.
We're putting them out, youknow, kind of on a random uh
basis.
So, um, paul and I and and uh,todd are all, just, you know,
showing, sharing our lives withyou guys.
So hopefully you guys areenjoying it and I know we're

(39:49):
having fun doing it, um, outsideof all the other stuff we do
for liver and ham.
So all good stuff.
So, to get back to the waittill I start coaching oh, boy,
that one, that one I am going torecord the, I'm going to be the
spectator version and we'rejust going to merge it in.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Well, listen, I guess I did a good—.
So in the fall was like thefirst time I was in charge, I
coached the team, right.
Well, I think I did a decentjob because I've got all these
people signing up.
So far we have 17 people andhalf of them have requested me
personally to be on their team.
I'm like I can't have every kidthat I coached, like there's

(40:31):
another team, so it's kind of agood feeling.
But it's still good that thesekids are coming back and they
had fun in the fall, because youknow the rest of the season
summer and spring we didn't havethat much fun.
So they ended up strong andwe're going to have fun this
year.
And lookit, I watched some ofit.
I got a couple of young kids,this kid, wyatt, who he's a.

(40:54):
Last time I coached him he was8.
I think he's 10 now this kid is.
I watched him today at theclinic and they were doing
pitching.
He's going to be on my team.
His dad requests he goes.
You have to have Wyatt on yourteam.
I said, oh yeah, I want Wyatt.
And this kid man, he wasthrowing heat.
I'm like, damn Wyatt.
I'm like I don't think you'regoing to be able to pitch in the

(41:15):
majors.
And he looked at me and he goesWyatt.
I'm like, eh, you weren't.
The kid was throwing as hard asZach.
He's two years younger than him.
I'm pretty excited to see whatWyatt can do.
He looked a lot better than hedid two years ago.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Hasn't grown much, but he's definitely better.
If there are any scoutslistening, wyatt, we'll give you
his shirt number and the teamhe's on.
In the summertime you can goscout him out.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
I'm telling you this kid, aiden, that I've coached,
he's now in middle school.
He's the kid.
I'm telling you, this kid'sgoing somewhere in baseball.
I really think he is.
I mean, he's just that.
He's good at every position 1%,and he's just 1% in New England
.
And he's such it's.
His whole life is baseball.
He just lives and dies,practices, watches videos and

(42:05):
he's good and he's not even abig kid.
I can't even have a catch withhim anymore.
It hurts, throws too hard andwhen he wants to do a long toss.
I can't reach him anymore, I go.
I taught you how to throw.
God damn it.
Now I can't even throw to you.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah, so it's all good, cool, so that's yeah, ham
radio for me.
Um, I, I don't know.
We had a couple of days ago ahigh wind storm and I haven't
gone out check out my antenna.
But I went to go do fta likeyesterday and my swr is like 2.3
to 1 and my antenna keepsreporting.
My reflected power is 120 watts, which my radio only does 100,

(42:48):
so there's something wrong withthe antenna.
I just have to go out andfigure it out.
So that wind gave you some some, it must it must have done
something, man I don't know I'mafraid to go out there and take
a look, but I'll talk tomorrow.
Um, but no that wind man.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
I don't know if you guys were outside, but that was
Mike.
That was Tuesday, right?
Is that the day you're talkingabout?
So I had.
I was at court three quartersof the day or all day, basically
815 to 345.
I had a little break.
I went to quickly to see aparent at their home for like 10
minutes and I went to get gas.
When I got to the gas station Itried to open up my Jeep door

(43:27):
and I couldn't open it.
I'm like I unlocked it.
I'm like it's unlocked and thewind was blowing so hard that it
was like I had to use all mystrength just to get the door
open.
And as soon as I got out, assoon as I let go of, the thing
slammed shut in the trees.
I thought they were going tocrack.
I was like, holy shit.
I mean, this is that windiestI've ever seen it.
I was like am I in a microburstor something it was.

(43:50):
It was definitely windy thatday, yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
So crazy.
I haven't checked my antenna.
We'll figure it out, you know.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
I'll do that tomorrow .
My antenna was down after I gotthe gas.
I was like, oh shit, myantennas probably land across
the drive but it survived.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
Hey good, yeah, you were better with the fact that
we launched that damn thing sofar up the tree.
You know the tree's going tohave to come down before the
antenna does.
Uh, yeah, so outside of that,you know, yeah, I was going just
trying to get a few otherthings situated.
I got a bunch of videos thatI've been trying to put out.
If you haven't paid attention,I finally got some of my other

(44:29):
videos released on my HF install.
So the grounding, bonding stuff, the HF radio install, all
those are kind of coming out.
So I'm trying to get those outthe door.
And on top of it I'm also youcan't see it behind me because
my green screen, but in essenceI'm working on my ultimate
battery box, you know.
So that one should be prettycool.
I'm looking forward to puttingthat together.

(44:50):
So a lot of good stuff.
But uh, you know, work is alsogetting in the way, damn work.
You know, that's all I want todo is have radio.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Come on, I can only make it a full-time job.
Oh, if we get more Patreonmembers, maybe we want to work.
You heard it here, Come onlet's go.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Come on, We've got two big funding opportunities.
Oh, and, actually we forgot tobring that to the attention and
that is my fault.
Dude, if you want to help Paul,you know, get to his skydiving
class A.
In our show notes there'll behis link for being able to
donate to his.
Uh, go, fund me, go over thereand help him out, because we're

(45:25):
hoping, you know, in May was itMay timeframe, May or June?
When you go in June, Okay, soin June, June, we are going to
be there, uh, bated breath,watching him go through all of
those, you know jumps.
He needs to be able to get hisclass a license.
So, uh, you know, we'll, we'll.
We'll hopefully even have acamera.
You know, I don't know.
Whatever, I'm just going tolike.
If Todd shows up a little late,we might have to record it

(45:45):
anyway.
So you know, all good, yeah, 25jumps.
Wow, That'll go fast, though.
I did show up, though.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
You did.
Yeah, I do, I left as soon asyou.
I was on the thing.
I mean, you was like, oh, he'sjust doing the briefing.
I was like, oh, I got plenty oftime, that's what we all
thought Bumping his ass on theground.
I'm like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yep, he was totally fast though Cool, all right.
Well, let's kind of kick thisin here.
We've been going a little longtonight, but that's totally fine
.
It's always been fun and we'vebeen going count.
So you know we're kind of goingto talk about some of the
winter.
You know pitfalls and ham radio.
You know for those that live inan actual state that sees snow

(46:30):
and cold and we're not fingerpointing to anybody specific,
you know.
So if you're a listener inthose states we won't say who it
is, but you know their 30degree weather is that they
complain about.
Please come on.
You know it's nothing here,it's the old here.
Hold my beer.
You know routine, but you knowwe all run into the pitfalls.

(46:50):
I mean, if you just kind of cameout of Winterfield Day a couple
of weeks now into it, you'vekind of been rethinking about
you know all the great thingsthat happened, all the bad
things you know you need to workon and improve on.
But you know we all, you know,have to deal with this weather.
We have to deal with the cold,we have to deal with, you know,
the, the, the chillytemperatures.
You know, and it affects a lotof our antennas, our radios, our

(47:15):
, you know, equipment, all ofthat type of stuff.
I mean Paul and I were talkingoffline here, even like if you
got a chance to check outKevin's video, kl7ec's Winter
Field Day video.
The freaking snow toppled hishex beam, his buddy pole hex
beam Bent the damn thing in half.
I mean I went back and watchedthat and cried the whole mast.
Cried.

(47:36):
I mean that was painful Fromthe snow.
Yep yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Was it sticking?

Speaker 2 (47:42):
to it.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
The whole mast, the antenna had no problems.
It was the middle of the massthat broke, like they couldn't
figure out why, like it was guy,it broke in between the two guy
wires.
Oh yeah, it was like very odd,but they got like 24 inches of
snow.
I mean, yeah, there was snow onthe antenna but like the mass
is not like it and snapped inhalf.
And so, you know, aftershedding a few tears, it kind of

(48:05):
got me thinking.
I'm like I'm not putting myX-beam out in the middle of
winter ever.
But you know, like I said, wekind of talked a little bit left
and right about the idea oflike hey, what have we been
struggling with?
I know Paul's obviously he's gota new camper in his life and so
he's thinking batteries and allthat other stuff, and and Paul
and I, uh, and Todd and I havebeen just kind of, like you know

(48:26):
, doing a little bit activationshere and there and and we, like
I said, just came off a winterfield day, and so we all know,
and it's fresh in our minds, youknow, what those things can do,
that weather that can affectall of our equipment.
So we want to kind of sharesome of the stuff that we deal
with and we combat and come upwith, maybe some solutions that
help you guys.
Where do we want to start guys?

(48:47):
This is one of those thingsthat we could start from the top
down, maybe work from antennasdown to the radios, or is there
an area that we want to focus onfirst that just really pisses
you off the most, that you'vemaybe solved or still need to
solve?

Speaker 3 (49:03):
I'd say batteries Got to keep those batteries warm.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
I would say we should finish with batteries, because
batteries is going to be likethe bulk, I think yeah, but like
all right.
So I'll give you a perfectexample Winter field day.
Right when I left my house tohead to the Winterfield Day
location, I think it was, Ithink it was nine degrees or or
or around there, and then andthen, as I'm driving, you know,

(49:33):
I, I, I I'm filming myself andit's like all right, well, we
warmed up as 12 degrees now,degrees now, but like, so I keep
the this side of the radio 7300, in an Apache case, and when I
took it out of the Apache casein the tent it was covered in

(49:56):
ice.
What?
Wow?
Like the radio was so cold thatthe screen literally had ice
crystals on it and like the topof the radio had ice crystals on
it.
So obviously, my first concernwas moisture.
Yeah, right, because the youknow, I mean I had the buddy
heater going in the tent and so,you know, I'm like wow, this is

(50:17):
not going to be good becausethis moisture from the ice is
going to melt and go down in theradio.
But I keep microfiber cloths inmy like camping gear.
So I gave it a good wipe downwith microfiber cloths.
And you know, once I powered itup, things warmed up.
The radio performed fine, butyou know, it's just.

(50:40):
It's one of those things thatwe have to constantly be
hypervigilant in these coldtemperatures about how you know
the ice is going to affect ourradios, our you know microphones
, our you know a tuner.
If you're using a tuner, like Imean, everything becomes so

(51:03):
much harder in these coldtemperatures.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
Propane.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Yeah, well, and even that.
So the one downside with thebuddy heaters is because you're
burning propane in technicallyan enclosed environment.
It releases condensation, itputs moisture in the air, and so
then that moisture builds up onwhatever you're inside and it

(51:30):
freezes, and then you've got icecrystals that you know will
flake off if you rub the wallstoo hard.
Then you've got ice crystalsall over all of your equipment,
your laptop and everything else.
So, yeah, I mean you reallyreally have to be hyper vigilant
in these cold temperaturesabout making sure that your gear
stays dry so what you're sayingis grandma should knit you a

(51:55):
nice warm, you know?
sweater for your radio yes, yes,a crocheted sweater would be
great.
Uh, preferably with aaustralian route on it.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
That would be wonderful so I noticed, I think
you know when I did, when I wasin your, in your hut there it
was hot, it was cold, coldoutside, but it was hot.
I had to take my jacket off andhat and gloves.
Yeah, it was hot.
But I noticed if you opened upyour little vents and you got a

(52:28):
little bit of that cold air inthere, it took some of that
humidity out.
Right, and it still kept you hoteven though you're losing heat.
But it at least dried.
It didn't feel as moisture-y,like humidity yeah, not humid,
it took the humidity out.
So I think that's a good way todo it too.
It's kind of like, you know,driving in a car.
You know, sometimes you drivein a car and it, you know, just

(52:52):
the condensation comes up in thecold and then, or if you got
the AC on in the summertime andit gets too hot outside, and
it's kind of like the same way,if you open up the windows to
neutralize it a little bit,it'll work.
So that seemed to work becauseI was getting hot.
But I started seeing like Icould tell like it was getting a
little on the computer.
It was getting a little moistright, so I opened up that

(53:12):
little there's a little liketriangle window and I opened it
up just to get some cool air inand it dried it right up.
And I opened it up just to getsome cool air in and it dried it
right up.
So cause that's all dry aircoming in here, so it offsets it
.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
So there's nothing, no moisture in that air
whatsoever, at that level.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
But I'll tell you, dude, I you know people complain
and say Winterfield day, oh,it's so cold.
Well, the way Paul had it setup, man, I could have been out
there in a t-shirt, it was thatwarm in there t-shirt.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
It was that warm in there, it was awesome.
We, we, we've been very uhlucky and very blessed and very
like uh spoiled.
So if uh paul ever decides topack up ship and go home, we're
all screwed.
I'd have to say, in terms of,like winterfield days of the uh
you know, uh, it'll be the uhthe ice ages.
If, uh, you know, we go back tothe old world well, well, tim
was in a.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
You know he was in a regular tent, but like just a
tent yeah, but he's.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
But what I mean?
Yeah, but did you have you beenin it, like when you do?
Were you in his tent throughmost of the day?

Speaker 2 (54:10):
okay, it was pretty warm, I mean, it was it was all
that, he was escaping like paul.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
Yeah, it wasn't as warm.
Yep, yeah, it wasn't, it wasstill.
You need to wear your jacket itmakes a difference having an
insulated, but it's huge.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
It's like buying a house with single pane glass and
a house with, you know, triplepane.
It's like you just blow it allthe heat right on the side of
the tent.
So you know to totallyunderstand.
I mean, tim, had you know, hispropane tanks were literally
like the ones you see that likeare like full, like you know
fuel stations that arethree-quarter tall, like I mean,
it was insane how much propanehe had in his tent.

(54:49):
It was more than and his, hisbuddy heater is double the size
I know right, he was putting outa lot of btus that I would not
want to be sitting there.
Yeah, so, yeah, I mean soradios.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
I gave him my carbon monoxide detector for the night,
which?

Speaker 1 (55:04):
mind you does not detect carbon monoxide.
It picks up RF only.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
Dude, I sent them an email and they never got back to
me.
I might just return the thingExplain the situation.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
We're sitting around the fire.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Yeah.
So I got this little portablecarbon monoxide.
It got good reviews, you know.
I figured, okay, I'm going tobe in these tents with these
propane heaters.
And when I went to look at oneof the propane heaters I'm like
I can't believe these things arelike safe indoors.
It's just crazy like you'realways told don't use propane
heaters indoor or whatever.
So I looked in the box and thevery fine print it says safe for

(55:40):
indoors, except California andMassachusetts.
So cause there's an exceptionthere, and even though those two
States a little out there, I'mlike, all right, I better get
one of these things.
So I had it and it didn't gooff.
But it did go off when Itransmitted.
Put it right next to his radioand it went off.
Yeah, like radio.
And it went off, yeah, likeliterally, and it started

(56:01):
beeping and it's and you'd watchit Like you transmit on my HT,
and all of a sudden it'd be likelike red, but all next thing
you know it's beeping.
So I was like the hell.
My radio is giving off carbondioxide when you transmit.
So I went over to Tim's uh.
The next day I went over to timand I watched him do uh cw and

(56:21):
he had it like sitting there onthe table and he starts doing
the cw and it thing starts goingoff again.
So I don't know what thatsensor does, but it sure as hell
isn't doing carbon monoxide,it's doing like rf or something
only maybe they set the wrongone, so anyway.
But uh, yeah, I got to test it,I got to go.

(56:42):
Uh, I think I'm going to go outand do my uh next time.
I use my grill and stick itlike near the grill, Cause that
thing gives off a lot of.
If it doesn't do anything, I'llbe like things junk.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
So all right.
So we got a obviouslycondensation with the radios and
so from your standpoint, paul,how bad like did it finally thaw
out and you have any electricalissues with it, or just kind of
just all good no, it's all good.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Yeah, um, I I think had I not taken the microfiber
and and wiped all the icecrystals off, then I could have
potentially had issues, um, youknow.
But uh, and it's one of thosethings like did you have it in
you?

Speaker 3 (57:24):
did you have it in your truck overnight?

Speaker 2 (57:26):
oh yeah, radio yeah I , yeah, I packed up the night
before, um now, mind you though,okay.
So that particular radio lives,in the apache case, typically
out in my shed.
As cold as it gets, it getscold.
We've had numerous nights whereit's been down in single digits

(57:50):
.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
I'm surprised they got moisture in there, because
those things are pretty wellsealed, aren't they?
The Apache cases?

Speaker 1 (57:57):
They are I've had like most well.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
I've had sometimes like I gotta like it pops open,
like it's, it's like almost likea suction seal.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Sure, but, like you would figure, electronics in
general metal and LCD screens,all of those components do not
adjust well to like fluctuate,like drastic fluctuating
temperatures and they're goingto definitely create some
condensation or some level ofyou know water and you know
whatever it might be.
But yeah, I mean I see it a lotlike in server rooms where, like

(58:25):
you know the the, someonescrews around with the AC unit
and the AC units like puttingout like negative, you know way
below, like 32, almost at thefreezing level, and you know
servers are like what the hell'sgoing on because they're also
running water through you knowtheir, their complex uh systems
and yeah, it can get uh veryhairy fast when, when stuff like

(58:46):
that doesn't have like simpleglycol in it to keep the water
from freezing and and whatever.
So yeah, uh, not surprising,but good that uh, you know you
were able to fight a way on that, so like, so, I guess, from a
standpoint of like any of yourother electronics I mean, you
said you mentioned your laptoptoo, right, that's had the same,
similar issue.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Yeah, well, so the, the laptop, was just picking up
the moisture from the air and,um, you know, and then it was,
it was forming crystals on onthe screen.
Um, you know, of course, likeno, we we had the.
We had the window open nextnext to the, the, the computer

(59:29):
and the radio.
Uh, so we had the cold aircoming in.
But, um, yeah, it's just one ofthose things Like, I mean, just
a microfiber cloth is whatsaved the day.
Just throw a microfiber clothin your gear, Like you know.
Yeah, be proactive about it.
That's my point.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Yeah, and get them at they're dirt cheap at Harbor
Freight.
I got tons of them all over theplace.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Well, and the other thing too is like acclimation is
a big thing with a lot ofelectronics in general.
So like when you you know ifyou're going from one extreme to
another extreme, it's alwaysbest to like, slowly introduce,
like that stuff.
And it's always tough,especially when you're doing ham
radio, because you want to geton the fricking air as fast as
you possibly can, so you knowyou're never going to be like,
okay, I've got 45 minutes to letthis case warm up to the room

(01:00:11):
your current, you know tenttemperature.
And then the quick, easy fixJust make sure you have a
microfiber and wipe the damnthing down before you even power
it on so you don't cause anyissues for yourself.
Which is always people a lot offorget.
It's like oh, I got a microtire, I'll wipe it down while
it's powering up.
It'll heat up and it'll meltthe water away.

(01:00:31):
I'm like electronics willbehave fine in water, but
they're not great for water alot of times.
So think about that, especiallyradios.
Okay, well, so condensation's abig thing, and so your tent?
I mean just from an outsidestandpoint.
You were operating what aroundlike 70, 75 usually.

(01:00:52):
Did you think around give ortake?

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Yes, the temperature inside the tent fluctuated
between so all right at at thegear height right so at the at
the top of the table, um between68 and 75 um.
You know, obviously the theroof area was considerably

(01:01:18):
warmer and then under the tablewas a little bit cooler.
But I keep an inside-outsidethermometer anytime that we do
any winter field days or any ofthose things, and so it's just a
cheapie and I keep this next tothe radio so that way I know

(01:01:40):
all right what's my indoortemperature, what's my humidity,
and then what's the outsidetemperature.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Yeah, good tips there .
So, yeah, keep your gear dry,keep your laptops, your pens,
paper, desk surfaces, all thatkind of stuff, as best as you
can, and acclimating it beforeyou actually start using it's
always a big pro.
Uh, the other side to that coinis, if you're not in a hot tent,
or you're not in a tent that'sgot a lot of heat, don't just

(01:02:08):
immediately, you know kind ofexpect your gear to just start
up because it's already in acold kind of state.
You know you're, you know it'll, it'll maintain the same
temperature that it is outsideambient wise.
But in terms of getting yourequipment up, you know still
spend a little bit of timemaking sure you know you put the
efforts forth to, you knowletting it's, you know, warm up

(01:02:30):
to its environment that,whatever it is, even if it's
cold, you know you get betterlife out of the device because
capacitors and all that stuffhave a, you know, a comfortable
operating temp.
But at the same time, you knowextremes on either side will
basically shorten the life ofthat stuff and you know we'll
touch base of batteries in asecond on all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
But, um, yeah, and those lcd screens in the cold,
like they really, really don'tlike to work in the cold they
will not because, uh, they havenot lcds.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
If you understand the technology behind them, the
panels and the, the touch layersand everything, all of that has
to heat up and you know you'regonna like it takes anywhere
between 15 to 20 minutes forthat layer to actually be enough
to be able to detect theelectricity in your fingers.
You know, and and create that,uh, you know the gap.
So you know, don't, don't,expect.
I wonder, do, uh, you know thegap, so you know, don't, don't

(01:03:20):
expect.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
Do you?
Do you have the 400,?
Uh, yes, you 400 in your car.
Paul Yep, does that affect it?
When your car is cold, thetouchscreen on it?

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
Um, I, actually I don't use the touchscreen hardly
at all at all.
Um, so, I've, I've.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
I've never noticed it because I, uh, I do everything
from the buttons on themicrophone yeah, I mean I do too
, but I mean I know, like mytouch screen on the jeep on the
radio, yeah, I've never seen,noticed a problem.
Even when it's like I leave thejeep outside and it's like
freezing, you know, it stillworks well, a lot of those like
smaller displays.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
They don't.
It's a surface area so thelarger screens take a little
longer for it to get warmer, andyou know all of those
components.
So, yeah, the smaller screens,my 300, you know I never it's
not a touch screen, so itwouldn't make any big difference
.
But response time tends to bepretty good when you know it
gets power.
But yeah, cold, cold can screwa lot of those screens.

(01:04:19):
And so you know, be carefulbecause in essence you know, oh,
the lcd screen to get replacedain't cheap.
So you know you do not want tobe losing your.
You know your radio there,especially if you got a, like us
.
You know a good hf radio thathas a lot of touchscreen
functionality.
You don't want to be screwed.
Uh, you know, in the long runwhen you bring it back home.
And and actually that's a goodpoint is that when you bring

(01:04:40):
your gear home, let it sit outin the house for a like couple
of days just to like, get usedto the temperature before you
even start touching it, becausea lot of times you can add, you
know, problems and issues to thethat equipment because you know
it hasn't adjusted to the airhasn't dried out, you out all of
that kind of stuff.
The other thing we didn'tmention that I was thinking of

(01:05:02):
and we all have it is theDesk-It.
Anybody get any of the littleDesk-It packets.
I usually throw one or two ofthose in my go boxes and just
let them stay in there.
A lot of times people throwthem away because they're like,
oh, you forgot to take this outand chuck it.
But in essence those are reallygood for being able to, like

(01:05:22):
you know, clear up a lot of thatmoisture stuff and, and you
know, stop, uh, you know any ofthat from forming from the
beginning.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
So you know, if you got those, definitely keep those
in your, your kit, as paul wasuh alluding to with the, the
microfiber towels well, that's,that's a great idea, because so,
uh, for those of you that arelike me, that have hearing aids
provided by the VA, you get freedesiccant packs for your

(01:05:49):
hearing aids.
Cool, and so, yeah, justrequest an extra set and then
throw the desiccant packs andall your stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Stick them in your underwear.
They're really comfortable too.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
They paid for everything else, might as well
pay for those You're going tobuy the box at the VA.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
I'm sure they'll be happy to give all that stuff
away.
Nobody wants them.
Cool, all right.
Well, so radio is obviously abig thing.
So if we kind of step up thechain there a little bit, you
know, let's kind of talk.
You know feed lines, antennas,that type of stuff, because we
all know coax can get frickingstiff in the wintertime.
Any uh tips or tricks aroundyou know that to get your your

(01:06:31):
coax back in in line what worksfor you guys guys.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Let it, let it warm up in the, in the, in the.
If you've got a heater right,you've got a heated area.
Let it warm up, let it, youknow, stretch it out in the
heated area and then take it outand drag it through the snow
right.
Um, I I haven't noticed any anyissues with like.
Um, like when we did pac-manadnock, I had I had a ton of
snow in the bnc connector andlike I blew it out, but I mean

(01:07:05):
there was still a ton ofmoisture in there when I
connected it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Um worked all right, yeah we didn't have any problems
with it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Yeah, you know, uh, winter, winter field day, I mean
I, I ran, I ran the coax fromthe inside out, and so I
literally pushed the PL239 rightthrough the snow and I packed
all the snow into it.
It seemed fine when I connectedit up to the antenna, so I

(01:07:33):
would more aptly say that that'sless of a concern.
Obviously, let your antennawire warm up up, let your coax
warm up, uh, but as far as likemoisture in your connections, I
wouldn't sweat.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
I wouldn't sweat.
It it's not so much themoisture in the actual physical
external connection, it's themoisture in the inside of the
jacket that you know, kind ofcorrodes all of the, the jack,
inner jacket and that type ofstuff that's.
That's where you start to like,really start to worry, like,
okay, at this point I cut theend off and put a new one on.
But yeah, you're right, I mean,the most of that stuff's pretty
well, that's where the vaselinecomes in handy, really.

(01:08:09):
In that point, okay, I'll takeyour word for it vaseline so,
hey, any tips there, todd, foryou, you're pretty much on the
same page.
Yeah, I'm on the same page, allright.
Well, now now our antennas.
I mean, obviously we didn'thave the problems with our
winter field day or just ingeneral.
I mean, I I don't usually goout and activate if there's a

(01:08:31):
impending snowstorm coming, um,but uh, we we've, uh, you know,
alluded to jeremy kl7EC's WinterField Day video that he ended
up setting up a very expensiveantenna out there and it toppled
.
So, paul, we mostly ran wireson Winter Field Day, in general,

(01:08:51):
or when you're outdoors,correct?

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
Actually, I think we all had wires.
I was running the Reliance bugout mini, um, I believe Mark was
running the reliance bug outfull size, um, and then whatever
uh antenna, that uh that Timhad was some kind of wire that
like went up a tree and over toanother tree and over to another

(01:09:18):
tree and uh, yes, that's it.
Yeah, yeah, another tree andover to another tree.
Yes, that's it.
Yeah, the MCOM Yep, that's whathe was using.

Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
Cool, so yes, we were all using wires.
Yeah, ultimately we probablydon't have too much.
The only thing I would say withwires is that cold weather and
stretch with that type of wire,especially if you're running
something as like 16 or 18 gauge, it won't.
It won't easily stretch back alot of times.
So just keep that in mind.
Don't pull all very hard on anyof those wires because you

(01:09:45):
might snap or you know a wiremore easily than you would say
in something warmer where itmight be a little bit of a give
there.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
So always good there and yeah, and a a big word of
advice is um say, you've gotyour antenna up and in the time
that you have been thereoperating however long that is
your antenna builds up any typeof ice on it.
And you go.
You go to stow your antenna andwrap it around your winder and

(01:10:13):
it's all covered in ice.
Okay, do yourself a favor andand don't wrap it around the
winder, just ball it up andthrow it on the floor of your
truck and let it sit there underthe heat.
Good point.
Once it's warm and all the iceis melted off it, then take it

(01:10:33):
out and wrap it around yourwinder.
Yeah, good idea, becauseotherwise you're just going to
ruin the freaking wire.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
Yeah, you'll stretch it all out and it'll lose its
elasticity, especially with alot of silicone wires and stuff.
So all right, well, so yeah, ifyou run a verticals like I mean
, if you were unfortunate likekevin did uh, sorry, what jeremy
did with his uh you know hex,where it snapped it um, it also
destroyed, I guess, a couple ofhis elements, so that you know

(01:10:59):
that kind of stinks in terms ofplastic.
But plastic antennas in general, no matter what type of plastic
you're running, it gets brittleafter a while, and so you got
to pay attention to kind of thatstuff.
Um, don't always overextendyour masks as a big thing, like
I.
I I'm a big offender of that.
Like when I have a, you know my10 meter mast and I'm like

(01:11:19):
using it outdoors If theweather's pretty cold, I'm not
throwing it up, you know, atfull strength and full extension
, because you know the coldweather is just going to
eventually just make thatplastic or the, the material
brittle enough that, uh, onegood, uh, you know smack on the
ground, or know smack on theground, or you know a topple

(01:11:41):
accidentally or whatever, justbasically snap the thing in half
and you'll break a section ofit or whatever.
So you know, always, uh alwaystreat uh some of that stuff uh
in very cold temperatures.
That uh you know uh verydelicately for sure.
So uh, have you had any?

Speaker 3 (01:11:53):
uh, I think god no I mean up here, at least in New
Hampshire, I mean in New England, I think.
In general we have such a fluxin temperatures Like you know,
you can.
You know I wake up this morningit's negative nine and like
tomorrow it'll probably be 40,.
You know, and that's a hugething, especially if you're
doing a field day and you've gotyou know if you start off real

(01:12:18):
cold and it might get real warm,et cetera.
You know it can.
Things can change rapidlyaround here.
So I think you just got to bejust be wary of the weather.
And I like your idea, paul, ofhaving the indoor outdoor
temperature and the humiditythat way.
You know.
You know, if you've been inthere a long time, you may not
realize how humid it's gettingin there, especially if you've
been in there for a while longtime.

(01:12:39):
You may not realize how humidit's getting in there,
especially if you've been inthere for a while.
So having that, having thatthere would would actually give
you a little heads up, like hey,it's getting a little too humid
in here and open up those uhwindows or even the door to get
some cool air in, and it's notlike it doesn't take long to
heat that place up either.
I mean you crank that heat up.
It heats up pretty quicklyquickly.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Yeah, I mean, I think I put it on high for maybe 20
or 30 minutes when I was doingmy live stream Saturday night,
but I mean, by that point it was, you know, like 11, 12 degrees
outside the wind was whipping.

(01:13:19):
You know, like 11, 12 degreesoutside, the wind was whipping,
you know.
So, like, like I, I've gotvents in the top of the ice
house and and you could,literally you could feel the
wind blow up, blasting throughthose vents.
Um, but uh, I think I think thebig thing with antennas anyways
is making sure that you're notstowing them, You're not putting

(01:13:43):
them away cold, Right, Becausethat wire, it does not like to
be cold.
And you know, like Jeremy theKL7EC, right, when his antenna
broke, what was it that savedhis skin?
Oh, it was that old redundancyfactor.

(01:14:06):
Oh, yeah, Because two is oneand one is none.
So you always have at least oneback of antenna, if not a
couple.
And yeah, that's how I am.
You know, anybody that goes outwith me knows like, yeah, I'm
gonna have my go-to antenna, butI'm also gonna have my antenna

(01:14:26):
bag.
My antenna bag is gonna have myfull wolfer recoil.
It's gonna have the full mpass2.0.
It's got numerous differentoptions for configurations and
whatnot, Because, yeah, younever know what happens if your
antenna fails and you only needone time in your life to realize

(01:14:47):
that the one antenna you bringit fails, then you get no play
radio.

Speaker 1 (01:14:51):
It's simple as that.
So you learn very quickly fromthat lesson, which I find a lot
of people all share.
It's kind of like a you knowearning your stripes but yeah,
so we've got.
I mean, obviously we cover someof that stuff.
I mean, uh, when it comes toyou know, the typical, I mean I
don't think we really need tomention in terms of, like your,
your cold weather gear and Iknow a lot of the folks in texas

(01:15:14):
don't have anything except asweater um, but, uh, you know we
, uh, you, you got to learn tolayer and just like you know you
layer your radio gear, youlayer all your backups to your
backups.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
Same thing goes for, you know, you being comfortable
because I can tell you right nowI had I got some battery
powered hand warmers.
Yeah, they suck, they don'twork, Not in nine-degree weather
, they don't work.
I was like, are these thingseven on?

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
I will tell you I will forever highly recommend
the Zippo ones.
Oh really, yeah, definitely.
I have two of them and when Igo out on single-digit kind of
days ice fish or whatever I'llfill them and you light it, you

(01:16:10):
let it burn out and it's alittle tiny piece of char cloth
on the top that continues toburn and produce heat and it'll
go for like eight hours.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
You put it in your pocket.
You don't have to worry aboutcatching on fire, it just keeps
burning.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
Paul's still here, so it must work let me grab one.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
So, um, so, these things, they're not very
expensive, they're made by zippo, um, but it it's, it's a little
metal case and you, you takethe top off the case, and so
this is, this is your, your,your char flint whatever, yeah,
and, and so you take it off andyou fill it with fluid.

(01:16:52):
Yeah, and now I mean, obviouslyyou don't want to overfill it,
because if you overfill it it'sjust going to be a giant flame
on you.
You just, you just want thecenter part to burn.
And once it's burning, hey, youput the top on and you put it
in a little bag and you stick itin your pocket and and you're

(01:17:13):
good, for eight hours It'll.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
It'll stay hot for eight hours, like the good old
bedpans of the 1820s.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
So you put it in the bag, yep, put it in the bag Yep.
They're on Amazon, they're 20bucks.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
How can you spend your money?

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Well worth the money.
The ones that I have.
Like I said, I have two of them.
I've had them for well over 10years.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
Here is a check with my name on it.
Write down any number on thispiece of paper and I will pay it
.

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
There we go.
Do you have to replace thatflint stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
No, there's no flint.
No, you just fill it with fluidand you light it with a lighter
.

Speaker 3 (01:17:57):
Oh, there's no wick or anything, it's just pulling
from the fluid and you light itwith a lighter.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
Oh, there's no wick or anything, it's just pulling
from the fluid.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
Yeah well, I mean it's essentially all wick, but
yeah, so the the base you fillup with fluid and I don't know
if you can see, but it's gotcotton in it yeah, you have to
replace that, or no?
nope.
And then you can see the littlecarbon on the inside and see
that that is what burns and itand it never like fully burns,

(01:18:28):
it just it'll.
It'll have red embers on it,right, and that's what.
That's what produces your heat.
It'll slowly wick the fluid upand it'll continuously burn for,
you know, about eight hours wow, that's awesome when they last
forever, like I said.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
I mean, I've had mine for over 10 years and it's been
going since he first started ityeah, well, the battery ones I
don't recommend because I mean Imean I think they'll be all
right, like if it was like 30degrees out and you want a
little warm, but I couldn't feelthe freaking things I put.
I had them in my pockets onhigh and I put my hands in the
pockets.
I'm like, oh shit, did theyturn off?

(01:19:06):
And I looked at them nope,they're on high well, that's a
good segue.

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
Batteries suck cold weather.

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
How do batteries work when they get cold?
They don't.
How is that, Todd?

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
They don't.
I crashed my favorite planetoday because of freaking
batteries.
It was so cold.
I kept the batteries warm.
I thought I did.
I kept them in the car.
They're older batteries so Ishould have known.
But I was like, ah, they stilllook good.
I tested them.
Everything looked good on them.
I put it on the plane fullthrottled up, had power I take

(01:19:46):
off.
I got no power.
I mean the thing is literallylike barely getting off the
ground and I got it above thetrees, barely turned around and
um and I, uh, I landed and Isaid, all right, I'll get
another battery.
I got another battery which wasnewer, and I thought better and
it was actually worse and Itook off and I, as soon as I

(01:20:08):
took off, I said, oh, this isfucked up.
So I tried to land and my skigot stuck in a rut and the snow
was like ice because it's sofreaking cold and it ripped the
whole landing gear right off thebalsa.
The whole thing just rippedright off.
I was like you've got to beshitting me.
So it cut my day short.
But yeah, those are LiPobatteries, but I mean Life-E's

(01:20:39):
LiPo batteries, but I meanLifeEase LiPo batteries.
If they get cold, they justdon't like the cold, especially
when it gets like zero, 10degrees, even like 20 degrees.
You got to keep them warm towork and they do lose their
capacity, because in the warmweather I'll fly a plane, say,
eight minutes, and in the coldweather they'll last four.
Yeah, yeah, like almost 50%difference, even though they're
fully charged.
So, and they also don't likeheat, so you can't get them too

(01:21:02):
hot, you can't let them bake inthe sun.
They don't work either, sothey're very sensitive, these
batteries.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
Well, we'll worry about that in July.

Speaker 3 (01:21:10):
We'll revisit that topic again In summer field day.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
Although I don't ever recall any of us ever
complaining in summertime aboutour battery issues.
It's always the conditions ofthe bands, it's never the
batteries.

Speaker 3 (01:21:23):
Well, you know, something I was thinking about
is like you know, if you had a,if you wrapped your like you put
your bat in like a felt bag ora towel or something and you
threw some of those instant heatthings, you know, the hand
warmers.
If it was that cold out and youkept the thing wrapped and you

(01:21:44):
had that heat going in, it mightkeep it warmer.
But like your situation I meanyou had the batteries and
everything in your tent, youdidn't need to worry about that.
But like if you were likeoutside trying to do ham radio
and it's 10 degrees for somereason you didn't have, like
you're in a lean tomb orsomething and you didn't have.
You know you're getting a coldair and you didn't have a lot of
heat I think those batteriesare seriously going to die on

(01:22:06):
you if you keep them cold, evenlike an HT.
I bet you, if you leave an htout in the cold, it's going to
start draining battery quickerthan uh than you're using it.
So yeah, I agree.
Well, I'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (01:22:18):
So, uh, a little bit of experience.
Uh, at at fort drum in january,uh, now I was, I was doing
military training at the time,but it was, uh, it was negative
55 with the windchill, and sowell.
So, but here's, here's thesolution.
Right now, we, we layer very,very well, right, you get a good

(01:22:41):
base layer then, and then youknow several other layers and
then you've got your, you knowyour bear suit on the outside.
Uh, you take your batteries andyou put your batteries in under
your armpits or your stomach tokeep your batteries warm,
because if your batteries are intight to your body, you'll keep
your batteries warm and they'renot going to deplete your core

(01:23:03):
temperature enough to make adifference.
But then, when you need themfor like your night vision or
whatever it is that you're using, you're taking it out.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
that you're using, you know you're, you're taking
it out and you're putting it ina cold device, but at least the
battery has some warmth to it,so it'll last a little bit
longer yeah yeah yeah, the funnything with lipos, lifeys, all
of those things, is that as I'mas I'm doing a battery box build
, the one thing that's sittingin the back of my head is I got
a hundred amp hour, that Ibought uh Redodo and got a

(01:23:32):
freaking sweet deal on it, butof course, the just as I bought
the battery, the next one cameout with another offer which had
the heating element in it.
I was like, oh man, do I wantthe heating element?
And so kind of got me down theresearch yes, I you do the long
run.
Yes, I do you do.
But so it got me thinking,because there's actually some
components out there that I caninclude in my design for my

(01:23:57):
battery box that allows me tomanipulate the actual
temperature inside the batterybox, because the battery
canister that I have is not thinplastic, it's actually got
pretty thick, you know, walledplastic.
So in essence there's a littlebit of an insulating barrier in
there, but it's not like super.
You know it's not going tomaintain or keep the maintain.
Well, although you should haveinsulated the inside before you

(01:24:19):
started building yeah, well, theproblem with that is I lose a
lot of, you know, actual spaceto.
You know put components in.
But you know so.
There are actually like thinblankets that you can get that
will allow you to mount to yourbatteries that'll maintain at
least the battery temperatureabove freezing.
That's really what it is.
The batteries themselves.
If they go below 32, then theystart to lose any of their

(01:24:42):
voltage, like you already foundout, todd half of the voltage
automatically.
It's always harder to chargethose batteries back up to get
them up to the full voltageagain in the same temperature.
So having that little batteryblanket, or whatever they call
it you know, is something I'mthinking about as an option to
add.
But uh, yeah, I really thinkyou know battery circuitry is

(01:25:05):
going to start to see more andmore of the you know the inside
heating components built in youknow, as a, as a need,
especially up in this you know,kind of neck of the woods if
there's a way to insulate thebattery, because the batteries
produce heat, like likesometimes if I'm flying hard
with the lipos, those thingscome out.

Speaker 3 (01:25:21):
They sometimes I mean , they're warm, they're like
hand warmers, yeah and but theydon't get like that in the
winter, only in the summer.
But if you crank them outthey'll be warm.
So if there's a way to keepthat heat insulated, you could
put it in something just to keepthe heat, like in a bag or
something.

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
But so you got me.
You got me thinking a littlebit eric, right.
So I know, with, uh, with thepanasonic tough book, at least
the the model that I have, thecf31.
Um, it actually has a harddrive warmer where there's a bit
of copper that wraps around thehard drive enclosure and when

(01:25:58):
the computer powers on it heatsthrough that copper film.
So that would be an interestingthing to come up with inside of
a battery box.
Is the ability to have, like abattery heater right that you
could turn on or turn off?

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
yeah, the um the ones I've been seeing are like
battery blankets, literally.
They're small, like it almostlooks like an asbestos style
smile blanket that you justaffixed the bag yeah, wool or
whatever it's got copper,basically a stitch.
It's almost like kind oflooking at the same stuff that
we've seen, that we create themagic carpet for when we're
looking for, uh, you know, the,not what am I thinking of?
the stuff yeah, it's kind of thesame thing, but the copper

(01:26:40):
elements are a little thicker inthem, um, but you know it's
kind of that.
You know that premise and thatmodel.
But yeah, I, I prefer to haveit inside the battery now more
than having it on.
You know one more thing onthing on the outside, because
you know, when we get to summerit's like now I have to take it
out of that because I don't wantto generate more fricking heat
in the thing.
You know not that it would kickin, but you know it's just one
more thing now that I have tocreate a circuit for.

(01:27:02):
So, uh, yeah, it's you know,whatever you you you build in, a
nice part about the way I builtit is that I can pull that
battery out, sell it off andthen go buy the one I want and
put it back in there, and all Ihave to do is hook up two wires
and I'm off to the races.
So you know, I think I probablywill be doing that after I
field test it next winter fieldday, whenever that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
All right.
Well, now I have to ask Allright, what's the battery that
you've got in there that youmight be looking to get rid of?
Uh, rodoto, 100 amp hour done,okay, all right, easy, that's.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
That's the that's the , that's the new battery for the
trailer that I've been lookingfor.
There you go.
It's old, there we go, done,okay, solved.
So yeah, we'll, uh, we'll talk.
Um.
So yeah, I mean, batteries suck, I mean, especially in our
conditions that we have.
I mean, we, we don't have thebenefits of the luxuries, the
folks that have temperaturesthat stay between 30 and and 55,
which is is comfortable, but,um, you know, when you get up

(01:28:03):
this way, it's always achallenge for sure to be able to
deal with it and and hopefully,I think you know, as we uh get
better with both its batterytechnology and that you know we,
we get better in terms of howwe build our stuff, that'll
become less and less of aproblem, right?
Anything else we kind of missed?

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
Just sucking up with you with the cold just deal with
the cold double.
Always double check your gear.
Always make sure that you'vegot good layers, because it's
easier to take layers off thanit is to be cold and not have
layers to put on.

Speaker 1 (01:28:44):
True, right through that.
That's a boy scout thing for me, for sure, be prepared.
Uh, yeah, many, many years onthe klondike derby when I was a
kid and going, I, that's a BoyScout thing for me, sure, be
prepared.
Many, many years on theKlondike Derby when I was a kid
and going, I didn't bring enoughfucking layers Freezing my ass
off.
I always hated cold weather andit took me a long time to get
around to liking.

(01:29:05):
Field day, winter field dayagain.
So, all good, cool, change yoursocks.
Pretty much.
Yeah, now, that's all I ever do, all right, well, sounds like.
Uh, you know, there aredefinitely some good stuff.
I'm sure everybody who's livedin new England has faced this at
some form or fashion.
So you know, we'll throw it outto you.
We'll post this up on thediscord, you know.

(01:29:26):
Check out our Joe's channel.
We want to hear from you guys.
What things did we miss?
What things can we improve upon?
What have you learned out there?
While you're operating out inthe field, whether it's
Winterfield Day or just you'redoing a podo or you're doing an
activation?
You could always post it on theDiscord, but, as Paul's
flashing down at the bottom ofour screen there, please send us

(01:29:47):
an SMS text, send us avoicemail.
We'll share it on the nextepisode.
We'll do a little follow upthere, as we can all learn from
this, especially if you live upin the mighty New England area.
We're all battling thesetemperatures and we're all
dealing with the coldness, solet's all have continue to have
some great fun in ham radio.

(01:30:09):
But do it dry, do it warm, doit warm, you know, do it, you
know safely.
And uh, you know all the above.
So, uh, anything you guys wantto throw in the last, uh, you
know that I might have missed,or uh, we can wrap things up
tonight no, I think we're good.

Speaker 3 (01:30:27):
it's definitely, uh, definitely a good topic for this
time of year, totally.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
Yeah, I mean we'll see yeah and it's not exclusive
to New England, right?
I mean, look at Minnesota, ohGod, yeah, you know the Dakotas,
right, like Montana, wyoming, Imean, there's a lot of states
that experience a lot of really,really cold temperatures.

(01:30:53):
Take care of your gear, takecare of yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:30:57):
Words to live by my friend, words to live by Awesome
.
All right.
Well, as always, guys, it wasgreat.
And so we want to, guys, thankyou again for joining and
hanging out with the Lift Freeand Ham community.
We all appreciate it and trulythank everyone who supports the
show and who's involved, as wecan't thank you, guys, enough.

(01:31:18):
And so, as always, we alwayslike to say if you want to
connect with us, you can alwayshead over to our Discord server,
join in the conversation.
Our link is in the show notes,it's in the bottom of our
website, and if you email us andcan't find it, we'll our
website and you know, email usand can't find it, we'll happily
send it to you as well.
And you can always subscribe toour YouTube channel and I

(01:31:40):
guarantee you can subscribe andyou'll be able to catch all the
awesome excitement that's goingon, content that's over there.
As, again, we are a weekly shownow, so there's always
something fun and interestinggoing on.
You can always leave us areview using our SMS link
located in the show notesinteresting going on.
You can always leave us areview using our SMS link
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And finally, you can alwayssupport the show by joining our
Patreon.

(01:32:00):
We have a bunch of our Patreonmembers I don't know, do we have
a little footer there to rollthe latest Patreons there?
There we go, cool, you canalways check out our Patreon
links and we will make sure thatwe continue, as new people get
added to our patreon on a weeklybasis.
So we all appreciate you guyssupporting the show, as it
definitely helps us continue todo this, because we're having

(01:32:20):
fun and we hope you are as well.
And finally, you can alwayshead over to livefreeandamcom
learn about the show, check outour awesome swag, don't forget.
We've got our latest stickersout there and you can find all
the host contact informationthere.
And again, thanks for listening.
We'll learn about the show.
Check out our awesome swag,don't forget.
We've got our latest stickersout there and you can find all
the host contact informationthere.
And again, thanks for listeningand from all of us at Live Free

(01:32:41):
in Ham, 7-3.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
7-3.
7-3.

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