From Global Contacts to Local Nets: A Ham Journey

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Live Free in Ham Nightly Net.
I'm your net control operator,m1jur, and we're going to be
talking with a bunch of netcontrol guys tonight and
hopefully you'll stick aroundand stay tuned.
Well, hello and welcome to theFree in 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, as always, and,whether you're a regular

(00:22):
listener or tuning in for thefirst time, we thank you for
joining us and hopefully youenjoyed tonight's episode.
So, before we get into the show, I'm your host, as always, eric
call sign N1JUR, and I'mflanked with my co-hosts.
Hey, it's Paul N1OG.

(00:44):
I'm Todd W1STJ and we have twoguests tonight.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
We have go ahead and introduce yourself tim uh tim,
kc1 qdk.
And uh mike kc1 urg all right,cool, okay.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, with that, um, let's continue on here, and uh.
So, just as we always do, inour usual fashion, before we get
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(01:21):
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(01:44):
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(02:31):
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So, all right, well, with that,we have two overused segments,
so we're going to kind of speedthrough a little bit, because we
got nothing in the the inboxthere, uh, so we are going to
just basically uh quickly gothrough and say you know, uh,
with our uh, mailbag, um, that's.

(04:18):
You know, nothing was in themailbag this week, so sorry to
hear about it, but hopefully,you know, next week we'll get
more coming in.
Um, and we like to say, asalways, you know, you just need
to use those three methods SMS,email and send us a voicemail
Simple as that.
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You know we want to share, uh,those messages, so, you know,
keep them coming.
And, as always, we got a dogood episode, but this week we

(04:42):
don't have one in either as well.
So we figured what we're doingtonight when we're talking about
net control operators.
There's a lot of do-goodalready going on here, so we're
going to share some of that indepth later in the episode.
But again, you can always submityour do-good episode through
SMS, through using our voicemailphone number, or send us an
email.
Or, again, if you are one ofthose type A people, send us a

(05:06):
wing link message.
You know we've had a few in thepast.
And if we receive it and wewant to make sure you send it to
N1OG, because mine does notwork you can send it to N1OG and
we will make sure we read it onthe next episode and we will
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So one way if you want to getin to hang out with the crew
here on live uh, live streamshows, then that's one way to

(05:29):
get uh in on the the actionthere, and so with that, we do
have, however, one of ourfavorite segments.
We love to do and and is verymuch a uh, a local staple here.
Hopefully it's going to startto die down eventually, but you
know, for right now it seems tobe taking a front row center
here.
And now for something a littleextra with Todd W1STJ.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Picture.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
All right picture.
All right, well, you heard ithere.
I just got up yesterday.
My gosh, wow, just like.
I'm sitting around waiting fortodd to show and dump pictures
of my mom so I can update it.
Took me three weeks to get itto me.
All right, well, you've heardit here.
We'll be updating our you knowlittle something extra intro in
the future episodes.

(06:31):
But this is where we helped Toddstudy for his extra class
license.
In each episode we pick threequestions from the extra class
question pool to test hisknowledge, hoping he gets his
upgrade, and we are very muchhoping and praying and lighting
candles and doing everythingpossible in this world.
So he continues and he's beendoing an awesome job, I have to
say.
You know, because he washitting the home, runs out of
the park, three for threes forthe past couple of uh, three or

(06:51):
four episodes.
So keep up the great job there.
So if you'd like to followalong, you can always head over
to hamstudyorg, which is a greatresource to help prepare for
your test and is recommended bythree out of four ve volunteer
examiners.
Because the ARL never wants torespond to our comments.
All right, so, without anyfurther delay, take it.
Ve Quizmaster Paul.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
All right, todd.
So sticking with sub-elementnumber five, your first question
is what is susceptance?
Is it, a the imaginary part ofadmittance, b the ratio of
magnetic field to electric field, c the magnetic impedance of a

(07:36):
circuit, or?

Speaker 1 (07:40):
is it D a measure of the efficiency of a transformer?
Oh, I should pay attention tothis.
All right.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh, there's no music.
You can't think.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
I know I'm waiting.
Yeah, I know I'm this.
All right, there's no music.
You can't think.
I know I'm waiting.
Yeah, I know I'm kicking it offnow.
Sorry, my finger is just alittle slow on the button, not
like we haven't done 15.
I'm going to go with A Come onEric.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
I'm going to go D Tim .
You know you've been studying.
I'm going to go with D.
You know you've been studying.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
I'm going to go with D.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
How about you, Mike?

Speaker 5 (08:12):
I'm going to go with B.
I'm going to shoot from the hiphere.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
All right.
Todd said A All right.
Bang A is correct and all therest of you are wrong.
Great job.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Emotional damage.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
So for those that don't remember, this is a
definition, so you just have toremember it Admittance equals
conductance plus J-substance.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
All right.
Next question.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
All right.
Question number two what is aneffect of increasing Q in a
series resonant circuit?
Is it A?
Internal voltages increase Bfewer components are needed for
the same performance.
C phase shift can becomeuncontrolled.

(09:13):
Or is it D?
Parasitic effects are minimized.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
I'm going to go with A Turn of voltages Increase.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'm with A.
I know this and I can tell youwhy I know this.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Alright, tim, mike, do you agree?
Well, if you guys are saying A,I'm going to go with A, okay,
everybody's saying are saying A,I'm going to go with A.
Okay, everybody's saying A andA is correct.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Woo-hoo All right, I need to confess, because I was
listening to HRCC podcast todayand Leah was testing her extra
questions and this one came upand I don't know why I remember
it, but I remember the increaseis the increase and they were
like that's a really dumb answer, like to remember it, but hey,
why not?

Speaker 2 (10:09):
so it's stuck increases the increase.
All right, todd.
So so far you're two for two.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Here's the third I have to hear the song.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
And final question what is the relationship between
the AC current through acapacitor and the voltage across
the capacitor?
Is it A?
Voltage and current are inphase?
B voltage leads the current by90 degrees.

(10:45):
C voltage and current are 90degrees.
C.
Voltage and current are 180degrees out of phase.
Or is it D?
Current leads the voltage by 90degrees.
You should know this.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah, I know, let me test on this one.
Alright, I know, can we test onthis one?
All right, it's either B or D.
I'm going to go with B.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Okay, Todd says B All right, eric, I'm going to go
with B.
I have the gut.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
I'm almost positive it's B.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Tim.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Go with D.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
I'm going to go with D, just to be different.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
What do you say there , Mike?

Speaker 5 (11:35):
Yeah, I was going to go with D, because it wasn't
voltage push amps or something Iforget now.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
D for different.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
It's going to be technical, my friend yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:47):
My prior background.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
I almost said C because it's longer.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Todd, you said B right, oh no, the correct answer
is I knew it was one of the two.
Current current leads thevoltage by 90 degrees that's
awesome.

Speaker 5 (12:16):
I finally got one of these questions right yes now
you're an extra.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
So if you remember Eli the Iceman, we've gone over
this before but there's youranswer.
Here's your hint.
Current leads bolted.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Just like Mike said.
Good job, mike.
I'm still an extra, I'm still ageneral.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yes, it is still a general all right, well.
So if you're on the journey tostudying for your technician
general or extra class, liketodd, uh, in that case, ham
studyorg is an awesome resourcefor getting your ticket.
And, just as a bonus, we'regoing to remind you again we got
, uh, those guys coming on fromham studyorg, so we're looking
forward to having again.
We got those guys coming onfrom hamstudyorg, so we're
looking forward to having thatin future episodes.
So make sure, if you haven'talready subscribed to our
podcast, there's a good reasonfor it.
All right, well.
So again, and if you alsoreceived your upgrade, or maybe

(13:17):
you're a brand new technician,we want to make sure we
recognize you, so send us anemail, send us an SMSs text or
feel free to use, uh, our uhphone, uh, voicemail and leave
us a message and we'll be happyto share it.
Uh, and we'll celebrate for allthe hard work and effort you
put to getting your upgrade, ormaybe your technician first time

(13:37):
out yeah, and, and mr, mr trentsmith, he better send us an
email when he gets histechnician.
Yeah, he was on.
We should phrase that.
He was on Paul's livestream2000 giveaway and he's got a
great radio coming his way andhe's working on a general.
So yeah, he's working on ageneral right.

(13:59):
Yeah, I think he said he was.
Oh, technician, that's right.
Okay, he was going to take itso awesome.
Yeah, we're definitely going tohave to make sure we get him on
, all right, okay.
So with that we've kind ofwrapped up our usual stuff, so
let's get into our usual.
We're going to talk about ourham radio week.
So, paul, if you want to goahead and start us off, how was

(14:19):
your ham radio week, bud?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Well, I did a bunch of hunting, some parks on the
air, and I've got an amplifierproject that is going to be
coming up this week, and so I'vebeen planning and preparing for
that.
This Alpha 374 is a fantasticold amplifier.

(14:40):
The one downside is theamplifier output is an RCA
connector, and so I'm going tobe removing the RCA connector
and making the hole a little bitbigger so that I can put a
SO239 in there.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Oh, nice, cool.
Well, make sure you unplug itfrom 230 there before you decide
to make any modifications, justso you know.
I won't ask me how I know, butall good there and very cool on
the hunting and photo there.
So, todd, how was your hamradio week sir?

Speaker 3 (15:15):
I had a good dream the other night about making
crazy contacts to space, but noham radio, just that's a first.
Well, still haven't gotten outto my park.
Uh, work's been crazy, but I amtalking on the net.
I did get to talk to caseycasey won, nid this morning.
Hadn't talked to him in a while, so we had a little chat on the

(15:36):
way into work.
It's quite cold this morning.
I don't know if any of you guyswere up bright and early, but
it was 14 degrees, I think, cold.
So yeah, so that's about it fornow, um, but I'll have a huge
story once I get out there anddo my next poda, because it'll
be like brand new for me, yeah,yeah like you did your first

(15:58):
photoall over again I'll be so
enthusiastic about it.
What about you?

Speaker 1 (16:04):
all right, well, I'll get on that one and I, I, we'll
, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'lldivert to our two guests here,
because I should have startedwith those folks first, because
my rude manners, I I just kindof went into the regular flow
because you know I'm aknucklehead, but anyway.
So over to you tim.
So how is your ham radio weekbeen?

Speaker 4 (16:21):
uh, so far I've been having a pretty interesting week
.
I've been planning a campingtrip and, like Todd says, it's
pretty cold and I'm going to bedoing a 160-meter poda
activation and it's going to beat the base of Mount Mananoc and

(16:45):
I've been getting all my geartogether and got my antenna all
set up and I get all my geartogether and Kim and I have been
running around getting ourstuff ready, filling the propane
tanks.
We got our tent all ready to goand we actually went out to
mount monadnock yesterday and,uh, I set up a qrp rig at the uh

(17:09):
at the campsite and, uh, we'regonna be all have a nice fire
there and, uh, it's like we gotplenty of uh room to put up that
hundred uh yard antenna.
It's about the size of afootball field, so it's gonna be
pretty exciting.
Looking forward to doing thatthis weekend.
So that's what I've been up to.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Very cool.
Well, they say this 160 is abig man's game, and no doubt
with the antenna for sure.
Awesome.
Well, nice.
On the recon, I am impressedthat you spent some time going
ahead to figure that one out andgot some of that stuff done.
I know that same weekend we'regoing to probably be doing a

(17:49):
little Pac-Man ad knock, sowe're doing the mini mountain,
not the big guy.
So you're way leaps and boundsahead of us there.
But all good and definitely funto hopefully.
Well, it's going to be CW, so Imight have to bring out a
decoder or something to see if Ican make contact with you I
have one.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
I have one, so come and visit okay definitely try.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
So awesome on that.
Well, cool, all right.
Well with that.
Hey mike, how is uh your hamready week, sir, what's been out
, what you've been up to?

Speaker 5 (18:17):
uh, not a whole heck of a lot.
I uh was able to get a um, amast for uh, from um a1tx, uh,
so I was able to put a mast fromAA1TX, so I was able to put up
my antenna a little higher.
I'd like to go up another 5, 10feet.
So we'll see what happens inthe next few weeks.

(18:38):
And yeah, the other thing, I'vebeen messing around with the
fusion on the FTM500 here and Ipreviously got some good
contacts in the UK, ireland andjust last night, before the net,
the really large net we hadlast night, I talked to a couple

(18:58):
guys in California.
But yeah, pretty cool,definitely fun.
A lot to learn with it.
Still Good stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
That's awesome.
So you dabble in Fusion, whichyou said.
You talked to a few guys onFusion.
Are you going through?
Like both then, or like acouple other nodes.
Yeah, yes, I see I was alwayscurious how is your experience
with that fusion world digital,like you just kind of slide

(19:26):
right into it and just you knowit was kind of comfortable to
you versus the analog world, ordid you have to adjust to it?
Or you know what's yourexperience with it?

Speaker 5 (19:33):
uh, I've been through the short time I've messed
around with it.
Um, I got the radio back inaugust and I've only recently
last month, um started playingaround with it.
But I like it, I think it's, um, it's, it's just the fact that
you can, when you think about itbeing able to, um, hit a
repeater over here on themountain and be able to talk

(19:55):
globally like that.
Um, it's just, uh, prettyamazing.
So I, I'm, I'm all about it.
I like it, um, but I knowthere's a lot of old school
people out there like the analogbetter.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Hey, you know I like both.
Fusion definitely has steppedin, and even the digital side of
the repeaters has helped ingiving me that little extra mile
that I might need in whereanalog just kind of falls out.
So, yeah, I support you, man,it doesn't really matter as long
as you're playing radio and yougot you know some form of it,
whether it's application,software-based or you're on an

(20:32):
HT, you know talking halfwayaround the world.
Yeah, you got you know aces inmy.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
So, mike, you do know that on your radio you can
actually change the room you'rein on the Gostown repeater you
can actually change the roomyou're in on the goss town
repeater.
So if you want to go toamerica's net, you can change it
and then, after you're donetransmitting, after a certain
amount of time it it defaultsback to the wolf pack or the
wolf den, whatever they call itright, yeah, I did notice that.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
So, yes, so, going back, eric, yes, uh, some
contacts were made through theWolf Den, which I think was last
night, to California, but theother ones were in Scotland and
Ireland or whatever it was.
I forget which one it was on,but it was in a different room I
think it was based out of.

(21:17):
Maybe it was California orMissouri, something like that.
I don't remember now, it was awhile ago.
But I like it too, because Idon't need right now to buy an
HF rig to be able to.
No, I understand, it's atotally different animal

(21:37):
altogether.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Oh no, you're in the circle of trust here, my friend.
There's no need to worry aboutexplaining whether you like the
HF through.
You know talking halfway aroundthe world, while on a VHF, uhf
connection or HF, they're allthe same man, we're all talking
radio.
So the fact that you're outthere busting and making
contacts, then you know you got.
You know, like I said, thumbsup for me.

(22:00):
There's just no doubt in mymind.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
And anybody who has that's just no doubt in my mind,
and anybody has gives you crap.
You send them over toilliterate ham.
We'll take care of it.
We'll just, you know, we'll fixhis wagon.
Yeah, I mean I've got, I've gotdv scotland on my ham shack
hotline and I listen to dvscotland all the time.
Fantastic peter.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
so mike, uh, real quick.
I don't know if you've everheard.
You know carlos, he does uh,terminal velocity, he skydives
and does ham radio out of theplane.
So before I actually knew him,I knew of him through his
YouTube channel and I wasdriving home from work and I was
on the Golfstown repeater andit was set up to America's Net

(22:39):
and he was on it.
So him and I talked and it wasthe first time I was actually on
America's net and it wasactually the first time he was.
And then when we years laterwe're doing the ham radio, the,
the, the podcast and stuff, he'slike oh I remember that he goes
yeah, that was you I wastalking to.
that was my first time on, soit's kind of funny.
But yeah, you, yeah it's alwaysmemorable and it is cool we had

(23:02):
one time.
I don't do you go on that net,mike um the wolfpack net at all,
it's on friday nights so yeahit was getting pretty big and
one time, uh, guys from yesujumped on onto the net from
japan.
So that was kind of a I was onthat net and it was pretty cool
that they had checked.
One of the guys from yesuchecked in from japan and joined

(23:25):
the net because I guess it wasgetting a lot of traction and
was getting pretty popular.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
So it's pretty, that's pretty cool, yeah, yeah
very cool, nice, all right.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Well, we, we've got, uh, you know last minute uh
entry here and it seems likehe's been juggling both another
net while he's still on thispodcast as well.
So I gotta toss it over to toralph there and hopefully he
hears uh, us in the background.
And you know, I'm asking youknow everybody here how their
hammering week is.
You know, go ahead and chime in, we'll unmute you there well,

(23:55):
uh, how we doing there.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
Guys, I got you here on the uh on the cell phone.
Is this working okay?
Nice, we got you loud and five,nines wow, I tell you, cell
phone technology huh, uh, so uh,what's going on, guys?
I mean, I didn't hear thequestion, I just finally, uh,
connected about two minutes ago.
What's going on?

Speaker 1 (24:13):
well, we were asking everybody how their ham radio
week is.
So if you want to, just youknow.
Let us know what's been goingon in past week, 24 hours, the
past 15 minutes, because we sawyou on your ht a couple minutes
ago, so anything's possible yeah, very cool.

Speaker 6 (24:26):
Well, I mean, uh, let's see, uh, I took the?
Uh the 710 out of the?
Uh the office up on the secondfloor, uh, because I'm far too
cheap to heat that room duringthe winter and I brought it
downstairs.
So the?
Uh the 710 is uh down in theliving room next to the wood
stove.
I'll probably be hanging outwith that for the winter months.
But I know, for the past weekI've had the little Zygoo G90

(24:50):
down here on the dining roomtable and I've been doing
nothing but 5 watts and having alot of fun playing QRP.
You know, 10 meters has beenhot as a pistol.
So, you know, even with 5 watts, europe and the middle east has
been, uh no problemo at all, uh, mid morning every day very
cool.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Well, that that is.
That is just testament to, uh,you know, the great solar cycle
we're in and all of the coolstuff that you could literally
just you know set up a full 100watt wig barefoot or run five
watts and still make some damngood contact.

Speaker 6 (25:23):
So yes, I mean I got you the other thing I did today
uh, the, uh, the 710 uh.
During the summer months I runthat on a, uh, an nfed half wave
, and what I did today is Ihooked it to the 10 meter double
bazooka uh, which of courseworks very well on 10 meters.
But I get a little MFJ manualtuner with the knobs in the

(25:47):
front and that'll tune up the 10meter double bazooka all the
way down to 40 meters.
So I think I'll just stick withthat for the winter not a bad
idea, alright.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Well, good on that.
And so, yeah, that soundsawesome ham radio week for sure.
I wish I played a little bitmore HF.
But wow, none of my hosts.
What it sounds awesome Hamradio week, for sure.
I wish I played a little bitmore.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
HF, but, um, wow, none of my hosts.
What, what, oh, how was yourday, eric, or your ham?

Speaker 1 (26:14):
radio week.
Well guys, thanks for asking.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
I appreciate it.
I was waiting for Todd to do it.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
I know right, well, it's his job, His only job.
Anyway, no, just kidding.
So, yeah, no, I think.
San Bernardino.
I have to say like just todaythe net, most of the repeaters
were quite active today.
I was very surprised, a few ofthem you know obviously, being
the Ford repeater and whatnot.
There was a lot of conversationgoing on.
I know a few guys, like JohnKB1ICL was trying to do a couple

(26:48):
of 10 meter activations up inthe you know seacoast area and
he was pretty successful on 10meters, from what I can gather,
and but uh, I couldn't reach himfrom the parking lot being
mobile, so I was kind of bummedby that.
But you know, uh, not a bad youknow day otherwise, and so uh
didn't play a whole lot of radio, but just mostly.
Like todd said in the past, youknow I got my vhf, uhf fixed,
um, and you know, with that uh,you know everything's all still
good.
So you know, outside of uh thatI think, uh, you know it sounds

(27:11):
like uh, we all, we all didsomething uh worthwhile for.
Say that that checks the hamradio category column there, so
that that'll be a couple offirsts for our show for a while.
I mean a lot of times todd waslike I what's ham radio?

Speaker 3 (27:22):
I, I can't even spell .
I almost got kicked off thepodcast because I wasn't doing
enough ham radio.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
You were really stressing the adjacent part of
the podcast.
We've got a good tree here.
This is something we've triedto organize for a little while.
We've been working to get thecoordination together.
I'm super glad to have Tim hereand Ralph and Mike all
representative of our podcast.

(27:49):
We're going to be talking aboutnet control and nets tonight.
We've got some really good guyshere who run our club net for
quite a while, I'd say Probablya lot longer than I think most
other nets kind of run.
In general for what theintended purpose was.
But we really kind of wanted totalk more about the NCO

(28:11):
experience.
So maybe if you're a newtechnician and you've kind of
been like I don't know where toplug in, I don't know what to
join, I can't become net controlbecause I've got Mike Freight
or whatever.
We're hoping that when theseguys come on they can share some
of their stories and theirexperiences and hopefully maybe
encourage you to maybe start anet in your local area on a

(28:31):
repeater or, if there's onethere, kind of join in and be
part of that process.
So let's kind of startsomewhere.
So, todd, maybe you can kind ofgive a little bit of a level
set.
What was this whole processno-transcript.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
And if Todd can, do it, anybody can do it.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
All right Well so our , our net uh, the Granite State
Amateur Radio Associationnightly net.
Uh was started by uh AC1J andum K1XF.
There are two members of ourclub, john and Tom, and
basically it was started rightafter COVID started in March of

(29:14):
2020.
And they figured it was a goodway to keep people connected.
If anyone needed help, they doa nightly net check-in and just
see how things were going.
So it started and it was goingevery night, seven days a week,
and John K1XF was net controland he did it probably for what?
Four years, three and a halfyears straight, every day, one

(29:37):
net control.
And then I think it was me whoasked him if he would let me do
one and I picked up one netcontrol and then he wanted to
give me more and more and thenpeople started joining in and
now we've got like Ralph hasdone it, tim does it regularly,
mike does it regularly and it'sjust been going on.

(30:01):
It's been going on since Marchof 2020.
So as of March it'll be fiveyears and this net runs every
evening, except the first Mondayof the month where we do the
repeater is used for an Ariesnet and um and when we have our
club meetings and that's onethat's the second Friday of
every month that we don't do thenet, but every other day,

(30:22):
including holidays, christmas,thanksgiving, new year's, new
Year's Eve the net's going.
We've had a lot of people checkin and I think last night was
probably, as far as I canremember, there was only four of
us, including myself, as netcontrol and I think by the end
it was just me and Mike, becauseeveryone was one and done.
So.
It was a pretty short net.

(30:42):
We tried to drag it on as longas we could, but it's been going
on and it's pretty amazing thatwe've had this net and it's
very simple we just say how wasyour day and a conversation will
start going and we typically gotwo rounds and it's been good.
And I started listening to itbefore I was even a ham, even
before I was licensed, I had a,a scanner, and that's how I

(31:03):
found this club and I met allthese guys.
I was listening to the net andthen when I, when I got my
technician, I tried to get onthe net and it wasn't too
successful, but I finallyfigured it out after Tom I mean
John yelled at me.
You guys probably heard thatstory in an earlier net earlier
podcast, but it was all good andit's been going strong ever

(31:24):
since, and today we've invitedsome of the net control
operators on to kind of talkabout our experiences and how we
run the net and what it's like.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
So, just out of curiosity, todd, right now that
you know COVID has kind of wounddown and there's not so much of
a need for you know kind ofchecking in on people, how is
the?
How has that evolved the net atall, or or has it?

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Well, I think the net kind of took off at life of its
own.
It's more of like people justchecking in to say hi and seeing
what you're doing.
Uh, sometimes we get questionsasked like hey, is it the 10
meter net tonight, or is themeeting this Friday or next
Friday?
We get questions asked like hey, is it the 10-meter net tonight
, or is the meeting this Fridayor next Friday?
Sometimes Bill, our pastpresident, w1wra, would give

(32:15):
announcements of what was goingon.
And now we've got Ralph, who'sour new president, kc1tly, who's
here.
You know it's just a way tocommunicate.
You know it's just a way tocommunicate.
And then a lot of times afterthe net, if people want to have
a conversation or chat, they'lljust say hey, if you're going to
be around, wait until the netends and we can catch up then,
and then, like for an example,I'll close the net and then

(32:35):
someone will just say, hey, youknow, kc1toi, n1jur, are you
there?
And then him and Eric wouldthen start our conversation.
So it's just a way to stayconnected and it's just been
kind of good for our net and Ithink we've gotten it's we we
always, and we think there'smore people listening than
actually signing into it, rightCause we've heard some stories.

(32:56):
So I always say hey, if you'relistening, you know, come on,
check it, it's fun.
You know more the merrier.
Um, but we all do it different.
It's.
It's pretty informal.
I mean, everyone does it alittle differently and it just
works.
And you know, like I do sundaysand I always do it backwards,
so I always start from thebottom of the list.
I leave the guys inalphabetical water and the guys

(33:16):
at the bottom never get to gofirst.
So on sundays I just reverse itand just something that's kind
of ticked on.
Even when tim covers for me, hedoes it in reverse.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
So it's all it's it's all good so cool so.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
So let's kind of bring these other guys in,
because they, you know, they'reobviously part of the whole
process and they've been justprobably.
Well, I'd say you're theveterans kind of of the the net
in general.
And so, tim, we'll kind ofstart with you first and and the
format, like, just give us alittle brief like background.
You know a very short story oflike your ham radio kind of
background there, and then, like, how did you get into the net

(33:52):
control side of stuff?
And like, because you also havea lot of other cooler things
that you've been tracking interms of the net numbers and
stuff like that.
But at the same time you'realso branching out from there.

Speaker 4 (34:07):
So start with the ham radio stuff, and then we'll
kind of go from there a littlebit, oh gosh.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Okay, all right, you're a timer.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Don't go Voted question there Tim.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
Okay, all right, I'll start.
I'll tell you guys about thenet and how that started with me
.
About the net and how thatstarted with me I studied on and
off for my license very looselyand I finally did get my
license in 2021.
And I found the Granite StateAmateur Radio Association and I

(34:40):
started listening to the net onEcho Link.
I started listening to the neton echo link and I was very
happy that there was actuallypeople out there on the ham
radio and they lived close by.
So and the first time I joinedthe net I joined through echo
link on my cell phone and thatwas quite an experience.

(35:05):
And then I get a bow fang and aMagnum out in a pan and it was
really bad.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
I got in Can you yell that too, or is that just?

Speaker 4 (35:18):
me?
No, but I felt the angst youknowst about my signal and all
that and I felt the need toupgrade and I met Casey and
Casey gave me a little Frenchradio and the thing worked
pretty good and then it died onme and I upgraded and I started

(35:44):
keeping track of the net and Iwrote down who checked in and
what John was doing and I got tostarted meeting people in the
club and then I asked I met Toddand Todd had just volunteered
for Sunday and John just seemedto hand it over.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
He didn't, he didn't want it he was like you want
more days.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
I think, he was ready to give me the whole week if I
asked for it.
And I, you know, I thought, well, you know, this is, this is a
really nice thing, you know.
And I thought, you know, nobodyreally wants to hear what you
did today.
Really, you know, nobody reallywants to hear what you did
today.
Really, you know, no one cares.
But these guys, we all gettogether and talk about what we

(36:30):
did for the day, you know, andthat's really nice and you know,
it's like we're a family andit's a little time during the
day when we can, all you know,share something that happened
together.
And I really liked that and Ifelt like, you know, it was kind

(36:50):
of a privilege to get to do thenet.
And I asked John, I said, well,you know, if you want, I'll do
one night, maybe a Friday night.
And he said, sure, you can doit.
And I was a technician and Inever did a net and I didn't
have any training or anything,so but I had a list that I made

(37:15):
of everybody who checked in andit wasn't alphabetical or
anything and came to be my turnto do it.
I did it and it just it seemedto go okay and nobody said
anything.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
So I thought I'd go off.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yeah, I read off the list and and then the next time
I saw John, john said, hey, tim,you know.
He said you know I have a listof who checks it.
I said, well, you couldprobably share that with me,
buddy, you know.
And he printed it out for meand and then I was like a little

(37:57):
more prepared for the next one,and you know.
So it started from there.
And then every Friday, exceptthe night we had the meeting, I
was doing the net and I reallyenjoyed that time and I enjoyed
joining the net and I continuedto keep track of how many people

(38:18):
checked in and uh, and then,and then 10 meter net, let's
talk about one.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Let's put a pin in that one for a second, all right
all right, I'll put a pin inthat and uh we'll come, we'll
come back around to that.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
But, uh, technician, technician, two meter net.
If, if you get a chance andyou're a technician, and, uh,
you get a chance to do a net,especially if you're in the
granite state club, you know,come and see me, because I have
a night when you can do a net.
And you know, come see me.

(38:53):
There's a slot there when youcan just come and try it and, uh
, it's, it's a lot of fun and agood experience.
So, um, I'll give it over themicrophone.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
So, and feel free to jump in it sort of kind of
segues, because in essence, mike, you're relatively um, you know
, in terms of your background inham radio and whatnot,
relatively new.
We'll say and but you know howdid you get into?
Or what?
What person encouraged you,we'll say to wanting to, to get

(39:26):
involved in that.
And you know, did you know what?
What was your kind of likefirst experiences with it?

Speaker 5 (39:32):
And share a little bit of that uh, well, quick
backstory um, I, the whole hamradio thing, uh, I believe was
uh february and uh of last year,um going through facebook guys,
so that ham radio prep onlinething come up.
So I, uh, I said the heck with,I'll try it, why not?

(39:53):
It's winter time, I don't doanything, I don't go outside, I
don't even get the mail.
Sometimes if it's too coldoutside, I hate the cold.
So I got that and so that'spretty cool.
So I went through all that andbefore I even took my test, I
went on Amazon.
I bought the Baofeng, you know,the Bao Fang, you know, and

(40:17):
I'll just start with that.
It's kind of funny, everybodyexcept for Ralph.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
But yeah, it's a Kwanjang story.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
But I used to listen to you guys talk and so once I
got my license in April, Ithought I had the radio dialed
in.
Then, when I called, who wantsto check in?
I'm keying the mic and I can'thear the repeater tripping and I
was devastated because the netclosed and I was like what the

(40:46):
hell, man?
I've been waiting for months.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Finally get my shot.

Speaker 5 (40:54):
I messed around with some buttons and and, uh, the
tone was wasn't input correctly,so, uh.
But uh, ac1j actually picked upthe radio, uh, probably about
20 minutes after the net closed,and, uh, we were chit-chatting
for a bit, and so my firstcontact was Tom.
So that was cool.
And so, as, as, as itprogressed, I, I would have to

(41:21):
stand a certain way facing thewindow, a certain way with my
handheld repeater, and as, asthe foliage came in and the, the
, everything changed and I, I, Ihad to where I was standing
before.
I couldn't make it anymore, so Ihad to move actually into the
front door and, for whateverreason, I couldn't open the door

(41:44):
.
If I stood between the door topaint a glass, it would work,
but I couldn't move, and so mywife would get pissed for me.
She goes I can't believe theycan't hear you.
I'm like, well, there's otherradios out there that are going
to help me out a lot.
But anyway, I told her, I saidone of these days I think I'm

(42:05):
going to do that, I'm going totry to do net control.
It sounds like fun, great bunchof guys, very laid back,
everybody's always looking tohelp everybody, which I've got a
lot of help, mentoring and withactual items masks.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
We just helped you further your money along out of
your wallet into HR and online.
Yeah, glad we could help.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
That's it.
I remember the first time I didthe net.
I was so nervous like Iliterally got like an hour
before I don't know if you guysdid the same thing.
I was all prepared, I had myscript out, I had the list.
I was like, all right.
And I'm so nervous and I likeall of a sudden, like seven
o'clock came and I was like like, oh, this is going to suck,
this is going to suck.
And then I did it.

(42:57):
I'm like, oh, that wasn't sobad.
And now it's like I got my kidtelling me hey, dad, aren't you
doing the net tonight?
I'm like, oh shit, yeah, I rundown to turn on the radio and
whip it out.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
So that's actually probably a good segue to our
fearless leader, ralph.
He's pretty much been in thisplace where you know we'll let
him tell a story.
I would do no justice.
So, ralph, you know, go ahead,the show is yours.
So basically, tell us a littlebit about kind of your.

(43:30):
You know short foray into hamradio and then you know some of
your net experience because youkind of took the ball and ran
with it just like Tim and a fewothers have as well.

Speaker 6 (43:37):
Yeah, well, you know, tim actually is the guy that
set me up.
You know he called me one dayor sent me an email and said,
hey, ralph, I can't do the nettonight.
And I said, yeah, yeah, I'llget in there and give it a shot.
So I blame Tim, but no, it'sbeen fun.
Yeah, I've only been licensedabout a year.
Uh, what last, uh, what?
September of, uh, september of2023.

(44:05):
But uh, yeah, I've beendabbling in radio my whole life.
You know I don't have a realgood explanation as to why I
never got into the transmittingside of things, but I've been
dxing medium wave and short wavesince I was a kid and that goes
back about 60 years.
But uh, no, I've had a ball.
Uh, enjoy, uh, enjoy, uh,running the net or being net
control.
Whenever I'm called upon, I'mbasically a pinch hitter.

(44:26):
I'm not on there on a weeklybasis like Mike, uh or Tim, but
uh, you know, if somebody needsa break, uh or has a commitment,
I'm always happy to pitch in.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Now you've got a little back story there because
I know between Tim and Mike theyboth mentioned their Baofeng
kind of users, but you kind ofwent a different road, my friend
.
So elaborate a little bit interms of your expertise in um a
certain uh said uh chinese radio, because I think that would

(44:57):
benefit and hopefully keep morepeople excited to know that
there are others like yourselfuh, you mean cheap, don't?

Speaker 6 (45:06):
you mean there, eric?
No, no, no, cheap that's frugal.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
I look at his frugal just for those of you that
haven't been to new hampshire onany nets, ralph is quite famous
on the repeaters and for hisquote everyone knows Ralph.
They talk about him all thetime, even if he's not on.
And if you haven't like, whenyou started doing POTA, ralph
like you were like everyone wastrying to worry oh, ralph's on
doing POTA, ralph's doing POTA,you got to get on POTA.
I was like, wow, ralph's asuperstar out here on the

(45:32):
repeaters.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
But he also has a very large.

Speaker 6 (45:37):
I've been fortunate.
I should have got into this.
My only regret is I didn't dothis about 50 years ago.
Yeah, my spot in Francistownhas got a little bit of
elevation, I have to show it.
Of course, with the Quan ShangHT I can get about 100 miles out
on five watts with the rubberduck, so that you know that.

(45:59):
Yeah, that exposes me to acouple of repeaters and uh, uh,
I, I just like, I just likebopping around from repeat.
I mean I like hf now.
But when I first got startedout, uh, I was having an
absolute ball, uh, you know,doing simplex and hitting
repeaters down on Cape Cod andstuff.
And it's like, hey, if I reallyenjoy talking to the Cape on 5

(46:22):
watts, I've got to get into HFbecause I'm really going to have
a ball talking to Europe andthe Middle East, and that's what
I've done, of course.
But yeah, I love my Quan Cheng,I get a couple of them.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
I still use them every day.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Do you have a dual-band antenna or are you
just doing all your 2-meterstuff through your HTs?

Speaker 6 (46:47):
What I have up in the cupola, which I don't use
during the winter months forobvious reasons, although I get
electric heat up there I supposeI could I don't use during the
winter months for obviousreasons, although I get electric
heat up there, I suppose Icould.
But yeah, but up on the cupolaI have an N9 TAX ladder line
J-pole.
You know that I just stringfrom the ceiling, it's like the
Ed Flonk thing and you know thatgives me a little extra punch.

(47:08):
But you know, nine times out often I just use the rubber duck.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
That's pretty good, yeah.
So what is your above sea levelelevation from your home?
Just so our listeners know.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
Yeah, it's 1,300 feet Actually 1,292 to be precise
which by New Hampshire standardsis really not that high.
But I think the trick here iswhat do they call it?
A height above average heightabove terrain or height above

(47:44):
height above average terrain,h-a-a-t.
Uh, yeah, I mean, 1300 feet isnot that high by new hampshire
standards.
But uh, to the north and eastand south, I get about a 50 mile
unobstructed view.
So uh know, that gives me alittle bit of punch when I want
to play around with the HD, asI'm sitting here at 277 feet
above sea level.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
So you've got me.
You're pretty far up there yeah.

Speaker 6 (48:07):
You know the downside of that, todd, is I joined this
thing tonight about 45 minuteslate because my DSL is 15
megabits per second.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Doesn't do anything I can't, I can't get, I can't get
broad day up here todd starling.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
But so if those that are a part of our patreon would
realize that if they'relistening to the backstory, we
were almost at the verge ofhaving ralph use the repeater,
our local repeater, and then wewere going to pipe it into this
podcast.
But we were like there's got tobe some FCC rules against this
in some form or fashion.
So that just proves, once againham radio comes to the rescue

(48:43):
because all else fails, yep.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
So Rob Yep.

Speaker 6 (48:48):
I got you guys going on the cell phone.
Right now I'm probably drivingeverybody crazy because I mean I
got tired of holding the phoneup in the air so that you could
see me, so I just I just kind ofparked it here on the table.
So I have no idea how the videois going, but I'd probably
break the camera anyway so nosweat.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
So, ralph, how many?
How many Quan Shang slash BaoFeng Chinese HDs do you
currently own?

Speaker 6 (49:15):
I gotta think the Quan Shang's.
I know for a.
The Quan Shang's.
I know for a fact the QuanShang's are 16.
Yeah, 16.
The Bao Fang's, I don't know,maybe 10.
I got to be up around 30, 35.
I haven't counted.
I got a couple of old Elinkosthrown in there for good measure
too, oh yeah, and a couple oftin radios.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
The real question is has Quan Shang reached out to
you to become a distributor yet?

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I know.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Right.

Speaker 6 (49:45):
You know that's pretty funny because I don't
know who it is, but somebody atQuan Shang by the name of Lily
L-I-L-Y Lily sends me emails ona fairly regular basis.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Asking for reviews.

Speaker 6 (50:02):
They don't want to listen to me because I said you
know, forget the radios, guys,we need a Quan Shang hat.
But they just don't want to doa hat for me.
You're probably keeping thecompany alive.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
I mean, if there's anyone out there that has more
kwan shang, bao fang hds thanralph, uh, please let us know,
because, uh, right now I thinkhe's the king well, I'll tell
you what todd I mean.

Speaker 6 (50:23):
I don't know if you're going to the christmas
party there in a couple of weeks, uh, but in the past, uh the
past week I've had nine kwanshangs not for me, but nine kwan
shangs delivered here for guysin the club, and I suspect those
are probably going to be in theYankees.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
So, whether you want one or not, you're probably
getting one Because I currentlydon't have a Baofeng or a.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Quan Chang radio I do have.
Eric did give my son what FRSradio bow fangs, but I don't
have one and I have a feeling Imight be coming home with one
next Friday.
There's that many out there.

Speaker 5 (51:04):
I might just get stuck with it.

Speaker 6 (51:08):
Yeah, well, you know, todd, I'll give you a small
hint.
When you walk up to the Yankeeswapkee swap table, you want to
listen closely because I'll betalking to you from inside the
box.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
That's awesome we usually give a lot of crap to
the bao fang and kuan chengfolks, but I have to say ralph
has done an amazing job withjust like not pushing it upon
people but showing them adifferent option, and the price
point for a lot of folks hasalways been a struggle, at least

(51:38):
in our club.
And now there's such aninsurgence of Quan Chengs Like
Mike was just saying in theprivate chat in the background
he's been absorbed into the QuanCheng world too.
He's got two of them.
It's a good thing because inessence it gets radios in
people's hands and it's great,and they've cleaned up their act
a little bit.
You know there are still a fewout there that fall in the
spirits and emissions kind ofcategory, but it's it's a good

(52:01):
thing.
That's the way I kind of lookat it.

Speaker 6 (52:03):
Well, you know, you know, Eric, I mean, this started
out.
You know, this really startedout as a big joke.
More than anything else, Iwanted to build a go box and I
quickly learned that onAliExpress I bought a couple of
Quan Changs.
Then it's like you know, I'mgoing to get a couple of Spear
batteries and it's like wait asecond, the radios are cheaper

(52:23):
than the batteries.
Why don't I?

Speaker 3 (52:24):
just buy the radios.

Speaker 6 (52:29):
So I kept buying the radios instead of the Spear
batteries.
But you know, this started outas a big joke and there's
probably a lot of guys in theclub that still think it's a big
joke.
I've had some fun with it.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
With that many conch eggs you could just leave one in
every room.
You could just you know one inthe bathroom, the kitchen, the
bedroom.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
In an emergency, there's a conch egg, yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
I don't want to be answering.

Speaker 6 (52:51):
Ralph when he's in the bathroom with his conch egg.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Sorry, that's just not happening.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
You hear the toilet flush in the background.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
That's my only fear, All right well, let's steer the
ship back here, because I don'tthink this is the Quan Cheng
show, but we could definitely doan episode solely on it.
So you know, it's kind of funny.
It's like obviously wheneverybody does the net they have
different feelings.
And we sort of touched upon ita little bit and we'll start
with Ralph first.
When you started to kind ofdive in the net, were there like
, did you feel like you had todo any preparation when they

(53:22):
said, hey, ralph, would you doit?
Or were you just kind of likewe'll just, we'll wing it?
You know kind of what you'refeeling on you know to
communicate to somebody new, onyou know in the club or you know
wanted to join a net.
What was your experience, firsttime experience with you know
doing that?

Speaker 6 (53:39):
well, I mean, uh, you know, the first couple times I
did it, I, uh, I did a script.
Uh, you know, I wrote it out.
I don't use it any longer.
Uh, but probably the mostimportant thing, uh, you know,
and I still think this isimportant, uh, I, you know, I
recorded hold on, I may have ithere.
No, I don't.
I've got these little cards.
Uh, they're business cards.
I, you know, I recorded hold on, I may have it here.
No, I don't, I've got theselittle cards.
They're business cards that youknow, for every repeater that I

(54:01):
get on, I record the call signand the first name of the people
that are on that repeater.
I, you know, I just think it'simportant that when somebody you
know calls out their call sign,that you can greet them by
their first name.
I know it always makes me feelgood.
So, yeah, I mean, you know whatI did when I first started the
net is aside from the writtenscript I made sure that I had a

(54:24):
list of all of the frequentcheck-ins and their first name
so that you know when theychecked in I could say you know,
hey, how you doing Eric, howyou doing Tim, and you know, I
still think that's important.
I actually have like a dozencards, one card for each
repeater that I'm on, andwhenever I get on that repeater
I put the little card in frontof me so that when somebody

(54:45):
calls out their call sign, I can, you know, I can greet them
with their first name.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
You know I've been since I started running or since
I started doing that.
I've kept a log, so I made aspreadsheet and I've been doing
it since 2020.
So four years now and I'm up to1,383 nets that I've either run

(55:12):
or been on and I put down thename of the net, the frequency
and who was net control, andthen if there's any other kind
of crazy thing that happened,I'd put a little note into it.
But, like you said, I have anet control sheet that I keep

(55:32):
track of.
It has everyone's names on itand I adjust it as like, if
people don't come on, I'lldelete them, but it has like
their call sign and their name,and then I just check the boxes
and then I have a little notesection that if they say in and
out and that's how I stayorganized, but I agree with you
Normally I call out the callsign and then I I say hey, you
know like hey.

(55:53):
If I say a Casey, you know likehey.
If I say KC1URG and Mike comesand goes KC1URG, I'm like hey,
mike, thanks for checking in,I'll get to you in a minute or
something like that.
It just kind of makes it alittle bit more personal and I
think with our net it's so laidback and there's not like you
could do it any way you want.
Some nets are very structured.
Where ours is, we all kind ofdo it the same way.
But you can do it any way youwant and we normally just go

(56:15):
through our list and then ask ifthere's anyone else that wants
to check in.
So it's been a kind of good.
But I agree with you, I thinkgetting especially if you're a
regular and getting the namesand you know, I ended up knowing
people's names and call signsbefore the faces and then I meet
them in like a club meeting orat the barn or or press like oh

(56:36):
you're so-and-so Right.
You don't know, but you've beentalking to him for probably
weeks or months.
It's all good.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Mike, was this your first foray into doing nets, at
least with the G-SERA crew?
Or were you doing other netsbefore this, or just only
participant in it?
No, this is the.
This is first, everything forme.
So, yeah, okay, how, whatyou're kind of feeling on it,
you know, were you able to justkind of just jump in with both

(57:05):
feet, or would you just kind oflike, well, what do I need to do
?

Speaker 5 (57:07):
yeah, well, it's kind of funny because, uh, um, I
believe it was tim, we were, wewere chatting, uh, because, uh,
was it?
John wanted nothing to do withit anymore, he wanted to hang it
up because he was just tired ofit and um, so that was my end.
I'm like, oh.
So I told my wife like I thinkI'm gonna do it, you know, and I
got the radio now, so, um,actually get out there and and,

(57:30):
uh, not to worry about standingin one spot, um, so, uh, I was
supposed to do it on mondays andthen so I had, I paced myself,
I had all weekend to get ready.
You know, tim sent me over somethe um, the general um script,
and uh, and the, the typicalcall which I already had my own,
because, uh, when I waslistening, before I could even

(57:53):
talk on on the radio, I waswriting down everybody's name,
everybody's call sign, and uh,so that was keeping my own, my
own sheet together.
It's kind of funny, um, and Iwasn't even, I wasn't even able
to transmit yet.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
So, um, but uh, who's got a fire going on?

Speaker 4 (58:11):
Um yeah, oh, that's, that's.
That's the alarm for my house.
They're letting the so, uh.

Speaker 5 (58:22):
so the I was getting ready for monday and then
something happened I think itwas saturday or sunday night um,
somebody, either tom or or utah.
I couldn't do it, so I filledin and that was my first rodeo.
So yeah, I was nervous, youknow, but I kept thinking it's

(58:45):
not a big deal.
You know, my biggest problem iswhen I'm doing it.
I try to write legibly the callsigns, especially, you know,
the new ones that come in after,and I find myself spending too
much time making a number onelook like a number one as

(59:06):
opposed to an I, and by the timeI'm done doing that, I've
already forgot the last part oftheir call line.
I didn't get that you have to.
Can you retransmit?

Speaker 4 (59:18):
that.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Cool, okay, so it sounds like you had, you know, a
welcoming experience.
But enough that you know thatyou knew that it was.
We'll say grace to you, know.
Fumble along and kind of getyour feet under the end and
figure out you know how to doyour style of net control.

Speaker 5 (59:38):
Yeah, it wasn't as big of a deal as I made it out
to be.
It ends up being fun.
I still stumble over my wordssometimes when I'm talking, but
I don't need the net to do that.
I do that on a regular basisanyway.
Well.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
Mike, I hear you when you run the net.
I mean I'll be honest with you.
I mean it sounds like you'vebeen doing it for 20 years Very
professional, very clear, verywell run, like honestly.
Like when I first heard you doit I'm like who's this guy doing
the net?
Like he seems like he came fromanother club and did nets for
20 years.
So good for you, you sound goodon it and you run a good net.

Speaker 5 (01:00:19):
Thanks, son.
Is that $40 an hour?
Yeah, I'll send you a coinchain.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Probably be cheaper.
Actually it's $15 a pop, it'slike maybe $2 or $3, but yeah,
so yeah, we're going to continueto measure everything here in
Quan Chang's or Mayo Bank.
So, tim, obviously you've been,you know, we've had you on
before and so, as we all cancontest you, we've always
treated you as like thesuperstar, rock star of

(01:00:50):
technician world, doingeverything and anything under
the sun, and the net's not anyexception to that world, doing
everything and anything underthe sun, and the net's not any
exception to that.
You kind of just jumped in andand took the bull by the horns
and and was just doing somereally cool stuff.
But, like, what was your likefirst experience?
I mean, it's been a while, I'msure, but you know, if you can
dig back a little bit and youknow, remember what that was,

(01:01:10):
you know how did you feel, likewhat was it?
Uh, you know in general and youknow anything that you wish you
could kind of you know, or youdid adjust to going forward.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
Oh, with the two-meter net.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
Oh, I was terrified the first time I did the
two-meter net.
But you know, I kept tellingmyself before I did it.
You know, I said I kept sayingto myself you know, these guys,
these guys are my friends, youknow, and we're all ham radio

(01:01:48):
operators, they've all been newbefore and we're we've all been
new and we've all been the newguy.
And you know we're all friends.
And I say this with almosteverything I do.
You know, I say and I say thisto the, to anybody who's new

(01:02:09):
doing the net I'll say, listen,if you make a mistake, it
doesn't matter, because you knowthe people that you're around
are your friends and if you makea mistake around your friends,
they might tease you a littlebit or whatever, but we're just
going to laugh it off and keepgoing.
And I said, don't be toonervous.

(01:02:30):
I said to myself, I said tomyself, but I still sat there,
you know, 10 minutes before thenet, and I was looking at my
unalphabetized list and I didn'treally have anything prepared,
you know, in writing, and I wasjust, you know, doing some deep

(01:02:55):
breathing and Yoga.
Yeah, I was just like.
And then you know I did the oldyou know me, me, me, me, me.
you know I'm like, ok, well, youknow, john does this every
night.
So, and you know he set areally good example, really good

(01:03:18):
example for me as a technician,because he always came in and
was just straightforward, did itand set his call sign when he
was supposed to and readeverybody's name and brought us
through through it.
And you know, I figured, youknow I would, I would talk a
little bit about you know, um,what it was a little more maybe,

(01:03:40):
like do an introduction and uh,then just call everybody off.
And that's the only thing Ireally changed.
I just said, uh, you know, thisis the granite state amateur
radio association nightly net.
And I introduced myself and Isaid I'm the host, uh, tonight,
and, uh, your, your net control.
I didn't want to sound like Iwas the, the bossy pants of the

(01:04:04):
net or whatever.
I was, just I'm your, I'm yourfriend and I'm your host and I'm
just here to help you, uh, joinin and and share what you did
today and uh, and, and I justwanted it to be like that.
I just wanted it to be like allof us friends getting together
at the end of the day andtalking about what we did and

(01:04:24):
maybe sharing some ham radiobusiness or maybe something
exciting that's going to happendown the road or something that
happened, like.
I've learned a lot of stuff onthe net and you know I come from
a big family.
You know I have six sisters andthree brothers and you know we

(01:04:47):
used to have dinner togetherwhen we were growing up and this
and that, and you know it'snice to hear what everybody did
all day and I feel like you knowthe net's kind of like that,
because I get to hear whateverybody did, like you know,
otherwise we wouldn't know, Iwouldn't know what you know Mike
did all day.
You know, I don't know.

(01:05:07):
It's kind of interestingbecause it's not what I did.
I know what I did all day, butI don't know what Ralph did.
Well, I kind of have an ideawhat Ralph did, you know, with
his Quan Ching?
It's not like I hear about it,you know I like that.
It's a privilege to be on thenet and to have a net and be a

(01:05:31):
net controller and it's nice tohave friends to share all this
stuff with and I consider usjust very lucky to have that
time together and I think itmakes us all closer.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
So I got a question for the four of you.
Now that you're past your newnervousness, have you expanded
at all and like kind ofexperimented with you know, like
just making it a little bitmore fun?
You know, like good eveningthis is the nightly net.

Speaker 4 (01:06:12):
Oh my God, what's?

Speaker 6 (01:06:13):
wrong with you?
What's wrong with you?
What's wrong with you?

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
That's a good idea, we should probably mix it up a
little bit Great.
Now you're going to SundaySunday Actually it's Friday.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
I'm going to be covering for Tim on Friday, so
you can have a little fun withthat Hello everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Welcome to the GSARA.
I'm Nat Lynette here with W1SDJ.
Everybody Welcome to the GSAR.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Nat Lynette here with W1SDJ.
What's Les Nesman in WKRP?
What's his name?
The DJ.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
Well, you saw the six-meter nets that we did and
those were different.
Then Tom and Bill on Saturdaynight.
You know those were different,and but and then Tom and Bill on
Saturday night they'll, they'lldo a question or they'll talk
about you know tales from thedump, which is really fun.

Speaker 5 (01:07:09):
Well, I will say yeah , well, the ones from the dump
are pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:07:14):
Tom will say he'll be like what was that?
80s Tales from the Crypt.
Yeah, he'll get up there andhe'll say tonight is Tales from
the Dump, Dump.
Then everybody will talk aboutsomething that happened at the
dump.
Those of us who live in thecity, like I do, we, you know we

(01:07:40):
don't experience it we'll talkabout.
You know, we'll talk aboutsomething that happened on the
garbage removal day.
You know, like there's thechinese guy who drives around
the block and he collects cansand he has, like he carries more

(01:08:00):
cans on his bicycle, like hemust be building a house of cans
because he has, like, so manycans on his bicycle.
I don't think I could ride mybike if there were that many
cans.
You know, or whatever it is,during the political season,

(01:08:21):
they're at the dump and they'recampaigning at the dump and
Tom's trying to get to the dumpto get rid of the whatever it is
.
Yeah, and he's driving aroundall the people with the.
You know they're picketing atthe dump.
Things happen at the dump andthey find things and there's a
lot of exciting stuff going onat the dump.

(01:08:43):
So you'd be surprised whatwe've learned about the dump
from.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
Well, when?
The ARL approaches you to do abook well, when the arl
approaches your team to do abook, arl contracts you out to
do a book on tales of the dump.
You know you'll have all yourstories lined up.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
You'll be good or the manchester dump truck with the
old stuffed animal that someonethrew away stuck on the front
it's strapped to the front andthey got the 80s boom box there
and they're blaring whatever DefLeppard and waking everybody up
.
You know Slamming stuff around,yelling at each other.

(01:09:24):
You know, if you leave anythingbig out there, you just leave a
little money or some beer andthey take it.
You know it's just a recycleprogram, it.
You know it's a recycle program, you know a couple of questions
here.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
So I'm just always curious because I like I've done
some neck controls in the pastthat are a little bit more
structured and and whatnot, soI've got my own little
experience there.
But, um, like, what would youguys offer for advice?
So say like we got a newtechnician and he's kind of
listening to the show now, youknow what.
Would you give him or her anadvice, you know to say in terms
of, like they're sitting on theedge of the fence there and and

(01:10:01):
then maybe they struggle withMike shyness and whatnot.
What would you give them as abit of advice to kind of get
over, you know that, to be ableto participate, maybe running a
net or even participate in a net?

Speaker 5 (01:10:14):
Those to me.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Anyone.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
Anyway, go ahead, mike, so floor's open.

Speaker 5 (01:10:21):
I know you're all you , man, I don't want to speak out
of turn.
I would probably just reiteratethat what Tim had said.
It's nerve-wracking, especiallythe first couple times a little
bit, but um, that being said,you know, we, we are kind of our

(01:10:44):
own family and, um, if anything, everybody out there is looking
to help, not not poke fun, oryou, you know, and it's, it's,
it's, it's just pretty much whatit is, it's.
You don't have to be nervousabout anything and just just do
it.
It'll flow, and especially, itflows better If you start

(01:11:06):
writing everybody's names downand call signs before you even
have your license.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
I had, I had a whole, I had a whole sheet going.

Speaker 5 (01:11:16):
You couldn't see the lines on the paper anymore and I
would highlight and I'd say,okay, so Tim, that's Tim KC with
QDK, and then somebody elsewith W1XC Frank.
I think I got him down.
I remember writing somethingdown like does something with a

(01:11:39):
spaceship, the satellite.
Yeah, I tried to put all thislittle on everybody, but it was
fun.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
When I do the net I always leave my phone.
I leave QRZ open.
That way, if someone new comesin and I don't know who they are
they brand new than that I canquickly look them up and and get
them on there yeah yeah, bothof those are good tips.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Like I didn't even think about doing that mike.
Like I'm so enthralled andgetting like, but I was doing
them, I gotta get a, b and cdone and get them all done.
And like I'm not even thinkingabout the personalization which
is, I think, a key to our net.
That's done really good and andit's kept longevity around,
because you guys take the timeto like learn something about
somebody and then use it as away to be able to get them out

(01:12:24):
of their shell to talk a littlebit.
I think that's that's prettycritical.
I mean, all you guys are atestament of that um, and you
know I'm happy to to see that.
You know you guys take thattime and invest back in others,
because that just makes the netthat much better.

Speaker 3 (01:12:37):
It also really helps you remember people's call signs
.
I was always terrible with thatright you do the net enough,
you'll know everyone's call signjust by….

Speaker 5 (01:12:51):
Well, what's funny is my wife'll hear that.
My wife will hear the um, thenet going in the background.
Um and uh, she'll be like isthat tim, or he has been on a
couple days, or is that?
Is that so?
And so everybody's voices nowand and their call signs.
It's pretty funny that's good.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
You know we were talking earlier about, like you
know, helping each other out.
I remember and tim, maybe youcan remember who it was but
remember there was a net and Iwasn't running it and then
something happened.
They lost signal, ran out ofbattery or something, and
remember I picked it up and I'mlike I'll finish it, I'll get it
going and I just grabbed my go,give me a second.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
Let me pull up my list and then it yeah, you were
ready to go, got it, going itgoing.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
So there's always someone that helps.
And when someone does it forthe first time, you know who
wants to try it.
I always tell them I say,listen, I'll be there and I'll
text you or if you're startingto mess up or whatever, I'll get
you in there and help you outand get you through it.
But they don't ever need anyhelp.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
I mean, once you get doing it, it just becomes fun
and it's a good way toparticipate in a club.
You know it's and I I remember,you know, I remember when we
first installed the, the hamshack hotline, and uh, and there
was one time the the net didn'tstart right at seven o'clock
and uh, you know I, I forgot whoit was, but I think it was you,
because everyone was callingyou on Hamshack hotline on your
cell phone everywhere and we'relike where's Tim?

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
That's what's the start he's always on time.

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
Yeah, the Hamshack hotline rang.
You know, I'm like wow, this iswhy we got this thing, you know
.
And John came a little late andhe said oh, I'm sorry I was
late, I was in the backyard.

(01:14:45):
There was rabbits back there.
I was watching the bunnies.

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
John used to be like you'd sit there and you'd watch
your phone and it would turnlike 659, 7.
And as soon as it hit 7, he'dbe boom.
I was like, yeah, that's not me.
I'm like, oh okay, oh shit, 701, I'm ready to get on here.

Speaker 4 (01:15:06):
But john was like he was always like the minute it
would click boom yeah, that'sthe way I do it too, because
john got me uh doing it likethat.
I, I watched the clock go toseven and then, right at seven,
I just start it right there atseven, and uh, you know, if it

(01:15:28):
doesn't start at seven, I startto think, oh, maybe, uh, it's
not going to happen, or you know, it's just uh, well, I saw that
and then, when John was doingthat, I started using the clock
on my radio, and that's not.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
And I started using the clock on my radio and that's
not.
That's just what I put the timeand it's not accurate to like
the real watch time.
So I'm waiting and waiting.
I'm looking, I'm like oh, it'sa minute off, oops well, did
todd forget doing that?

Speaker 4 (01:15:57):
tonight yeah yeah, he gets a text.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
You know, like I said , if you're, new to ham radio
and you want to try to do a net.
Um, you know, definitely getinto it.
I mean, get on the net, join itand then ask if there's someone
to cover.
You know, if I didn't have timwe would have missed some nets,
because tim has covered for me Idon't know 20 times, probably a
lot.
Sundays I'm off doing like atournament or I'm not around and
Tim's my go-to, but I get topay him back on Friday.

(01:16:25):
I get to cover for him, so yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
I'm pretty psyched about that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
I was going to do it Wednesday, but I have a
homeowners association meeting,our yearly meeting, so I'm not
unable to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:38):
Yeah, I'll find someone for Wednesday.
I uh, I asked Bill.
Bill hasn't asked me, hasn'tgot back.
I was going to ask Ralph, butI'm trying to drag Ralph to.

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
Aerie.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Hey, you already got a thumbs up for Ralph, no
problem there.
So, Ralph, do you have anythingyou want to kind of throw in
the mix there, Because obviouslyyou've stepped in for net
control from time to time andyou're not one of per se the
regulars, but, as you said, thepinch hitter there.
Anything you would want to givesome advice to for folks that

(01:17:15):
are looking to get into it.

Speaker 6 (01:17:17):
I mean, I think everybody pretty much covered it
.
I mean, I know, the firstcouple of times I did it, I had
a sheet of paper in front of me,you know, with call signs and
names.
And interestingly, you know, Idid the same thing when I first
joined the club.
Next to everybody's call signand next to everybody's name,
you know, I put a littledescription that would help me

(01:17:38):
remember things.
Like, you know, like Frankworks for NASA, you know, tim
was a former chef, mike commutesdown to Massachusetts every day
.
I mean, just something thatwould help me break the ice with
everybody and help me rememberthem.
But yeah, I put everything downon paper the first couple times
I did it and, as everybodychecks in with a pencil, you

(01:17:59):
just simply check them off.
It's not rocket science.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
We're going to ask that question, todd.
Okay, so we now have thequestion thrown out there on the
table sold, just simply checkthem off.
Uh, it's not rocket science andI think we're gonna ask.
We're gonna ask that question,todd.
Okay, so we now have thequestion thrown out there on the
table.
What did you put for todd andpaul and myself?

Speaker 6 (01:18:10):
I'm curious like what description mr president yeah,
you know, paul, I had you downas a big pota guy, I that.
And I went to your QRZ page andyou know and saw pictures of
your shack.
I had that down next to yourname, todd.
I knew who you worked for.

(01:18:31):
I know you.
I'm not sure if you coached ornot, but I knew you liked to go
fishing with your son.
You know, followed his sports alot.
Tim, I knew, was a former chef.
Eric Eric, eric Eric.
Eric, I basically had you downas the membership guy.

Speaker 4 (01:18:52):
I had notes to everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
I'm the guy that's a membership guy Eric was the
bossy pants.

Speaker 4 (01:19:00):
I'm the bossy pants for three months out of the year
when it comes to membership.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
He was so bossy, I just paid as many years as I
could on front, so he'd leave mealone and it happened.
So I just want to touch on theunderbelly of Nets and stuff
like that, because we never,ever talk about it.
Especially we've been in theNets for a while.
How do you guys deal withburnout, because you're doing it
night in, night out.
You know, how do you guys?
What's your secret that wecould pass on to somebody else,

(01:19:29):
let's say, is maybe strugglingto do their own nets on their
repeaters and they've got abunch of people but it's a small
like it's starting to dwindle.
How do you guys deal with thatburnout like?

Speaker 6 (01:19:38):
you guys have anything oh, when you say
burnout eric, I mean like, uh,like doing it too often.
I mean obviously I want the guyto ask for that.
What do you mean by?

Speaker 1 (01:19:48):
burnout, just exactly that.
So like you've been doing itnight in, night out, like john
john was a perfect example of it.
He was doing for so long thatyou know obviously a few others
obviously recognized it andstepped in.
But so how are you personallydealing with it and are you
passing kind of like?
Are you supporting each otheras kind of a net control group?

Speaker 4 (01:20:06):
oh, yeah, yeah, um, I don't, uh, I don't really feel
like I get burned out because,uh, it's not every night.
And you know, like I said, youknow I I feel like it's a
privilege to do the net, youknow Right, and it's something I

(01:20:28):
really enjoy.
And even if there's only oneother person who wants to do the
net, I'll still do it and I'llfeel happy that.
You know, hey, there was oneother guy there to tell me what
he did and you know, maybe weget to share that one thing
together and that was it, andthat's all.
That was all good.
And you know, I was there forthem and they were there for me

(01:20:51):
and we, we did our net and andthat was it for the night.
But it was still there.
And even if I just get on thereand said this is the Granite
State Amateur Radio AssociationNightly Net, anybody here to
check in?
And it was quiet and like I'vethought about that before, Would

(01:21:11):
you still tell everybody who'snot there about your day.
I'd be like.
Well, I got on the net andnobody was there.
And I'll return the repeaterback to regular amateur use, and
I'll just be a sad ham for therest of the night.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
A real sad ham, not like the sad hams I could put in
.

Speaker 4 (01:21:38):
And I'll just think you know well, you know I tried
and at least there was anopportunity there that if
anybody wanted to get on andshare, you know nobody might
nobody got on the share orwhatever, but at least there was
an opportunity there and if itwasn't, that night there there
will be people down the line.

(01:22:00):
And there are people who arestudying for their test and
becoming hams, who who arelooking forward to joining the
net, I'm sure, who listen andand don't join in, and there's
people like um, who werelistening before they got their
license, like mike and todd andand ralph, you know, and yeah

(01:22:22):
and uh, paul, you, you know whowas listening before.
I was listening, you know Iwent to the meetings before I
got my license and they want tojoin in.
So once they get their license.
If we give up, then the netwon't be there for them to join
in when they get their license,and I think it's.

Speaker 3 (01:22:43):
I think it's good for ham radio.
I think it's also good for clubs.
I think if you're a club andyou don't have a net but you
have a repeater or you haveaccess to a repeater and you
talk to the repeater owner andsay, hey, we'd like to do a net,
I think it's good for everyone,it's good for getting on the
air.
But I also think if you'regoing to do it, it can take a
lot of time.
And if you want to do it likeus, we do it every day or if

(01:23:13):
you're going to do it every week, once a week, you might want to
get a bunch of guys that youcan rely on, that you can switch
on and off.
You know, one of the longestnets going I think it's been
going since the 50s on HF is theNew England Weather Net and
it's on like God, I want to say.
It starts at like four in themorning, goes to like four to
six I think, and it's been goingon for like seriously like
since the 1950s, and they've gotdifferent net controls that

(01:23:36):
pick.
You know they do one day amonth or one day, yeah,
something like that, and theyall do it, and then they and
basically what?
All they all do it, and thenthey and basically what all they
, those guys, do is they havethis is the weather net.
And then people call in andreport the weather and they,
they log it and um, andsometimes like if you're
listening to it, like no one'scalling in, and then the guy

(01:23:56):
would just be like, oh, this isnew england weather.
If we have any check-ins, uh,please call now, and then he'll
wait and he may not hearanything and like three minutes
later he'll do it again orsomeone might call in and it's.
It's kind of a cool thing.
Our net is kind of like everyonejust waits to go.
It's like just meeting andchecking in seeing what we're
doing.
If you don't make it no bigdeal.
But if you don't hear, I'venoticed, like if we haven't

(01:24:16):
heard someone for a long time,like hey, you know, like where'd
paul go?
We haven't heard from Paul.
Has anyone heard from Paul?
Like if you dropped dead atyour house busy playing softball
, if you drop dead you knowthere's a good chance that
someone on the net might bestopping by If you haven't been
on in a week and you're aregular.
but you know I think it's goodfor for all and like I like for

(01:24:38):
me.
You know, I've been doing itfor so long, like if there was
someone that was a new ham andsaid hey, I'd like to try that
they can always come and take mydad, I don't mind having given
it up or letting people use it,or or filling in.
I mean it's.

Speaker 4 (01:24:50):
It's really more, it's a club net and we should
let as many people as we can bein control yeah and uh, that's
the, that's the wednesday netand uh, we have a program too
for first guest net controller,you know, for people who want to

(01:25:14):
try it.
So if you go to the, thewebsite, the club website,
gsaraorg, and you want to be a acontroller, you just sign up
there and you know, even if youdon't want to make a commitment
to do it all the time, you justfill out the form and and you

(01:25:35):
can, you can try it out.
You know, and why not just tryit?
Even if, see, if you like beinga net controller?
You know, and if and if you do,you know you could pick up a
regular day to do it.
And you know, there's thatWednesday slot and originally,
when John said, you know, hedidn't want to do the net

(01:25:59):
anymore and Bob and I took thosetwo days net anymore, and uh,
bob and I took those two days,uh, the idea behind that
wednesday was to have one dayopen where people could come and
try it if they wanted to.
That's awesome and um, and sofar, you know, we've had a few
people come in and try it, youknow, and uh had a few special

(01:26:20):
guests, uh, net controllers andum, ral Ralph was actually the
first special guest neckcontroller that came in he was
Look at him now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
Now he's the president, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:26:33):
See what happens.

Speaker 3 (01:26:35):
Come and be a guest neck controller.

Speaker 4 (01:26:40):
You never know what could happen.
It could be fun.

Speaker 1 (01:26:46):
Anybody else want to add anything at all?
Okay, no problem, there Can wepipe in.

Speaker 5 (01:26:55):
I was just going to say I don't feel it's as far as
being burnt out on it.
In most cases it's one night aweek and it's fun.
It's supposed to be fun, itshouldn't.
You know, I don't look at it asa job, I look at it as a.
You know, it's literally a halfhour, maybe 45 minutes, to just

(01:27:21):
say hi to everybody and see howeverybody was doing, and that's
it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
Very cool.

Speaker 6 (01:27:28):
Yeah, eric.
I mean I don't have any commentbecause I get on there maybe
once or twice a month.
So how am I going to burn?

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
out.
No, true, right, you're ourpresident now, so we'll do it
that other side.
Okay, just kidding, cool, allright.
Well, so with that, like youknow, I've got a couple other
really good questions, but Ithink just to kind of keep to
your guys' time and I appreciateyou guys all coming on and
coordinating with us becausethis is a really fun experience
to share with, obviously, ourpeople in the New England area,

(01:27:56):
because we all know that forsome areas that you can hit
repeaters that the repeaters arekind of dead, areas that you
can hit repeaters that therepeaters are kind of dead,
we've actually kind of got thebenefit as a club to have a very
active repeater with aconsistent nightly net.
It's a way that we as clubmembers and people in the area
can invite people in to say, hey, come be part of this and just

(01:28:16):
be part of sharing what your daywas like.
It's as simple as that.
A lot of times we kind ofextend that and Tim alluded to
it to a little bit where we weretalking about the six meter
nets, that we kind of expandedthat upon and and we've done
other things like our 10 meternet, which is a once a month
thing.

Speaker 4 (01:28:45):
But, all of those you know are just again extensions
of all the stuff that you guysdo.
And I know, tim, you've gotsome.
We could go on for hours and Ican tell you back.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
I could tell you some , uh, I could tell you stories
about 10 meters and six meters,oh yeah, but we we've done a lot
of great stuff and we've gotsome videos to prove tim and I
doing six meter nets and stufflike that.
So you can always check out mychannel on seeing tim and I in
action, um, but you know it's atestament to our club.
I think that says, you know,we've got a great group of guys
and girls that all like love thehobby and just love to be, you
know, participants in this andso you know from from us here at

(01:29:11):
live for him.
We thank you guys for doing thejob you guys do and having an
awesome passion to, to just do.
You know that stuff week in itin a way that you love doing it.
We thank you guys for doingthat.
Eddie, you guys got anythingyou want to add.

Speaker 3 (01:29:30):
Go ahead, mike, go, go, go, go.

Speaker 2 (01:29:37):
I'll just say if you guys ever need somebody to fill
in, give me a shout and I'llbring some character to the net.
If you guys ever need somebodyto fill in, give me a shout and
I'll bring some character to thenet.

Speaker 1 (01:29:49):
He only does field days.
Really.
He's like one of those gueststars, celebrity net control
people.

Speaker 6 (01:29:58):
He only does field days.
See, Paul, you've got thepersonality for that.
I just go in there and playtraffic cop.
But yeah, you've got thepersonality to actually make it
entertaining.
So, there and play traffic cop,but yeah, you've got the
personality to actually make itentertaining.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
Paul.
So Paul, do it Wednesday andI'll do it Friday.
I'm going to do something funFriday.
I'm going to take you up on itand they're probably going to
ban me and say you're neverdoing that control again, but it
could be fun.

Speaker 1 (01:30:19):
Well, there you go, there's content.

Speaker 4 (01:30:25):
Todd Fire up the webcam and just record the damn
thing.
Paul Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
Cool, thanks for coming on the podcast tonight.
It's been fun.
We've been wanting to do thisfor a while.
The Net's a big part of ourclub.
This podcast was really startedto kind of promote ham radio
and I think our club does a goodjob promoting ham radio by
doing the net.
And you know I've talked to allof you guys on the repeater

(01:30:55):
outside the net.
Our repeater's pretty activeand it's not the strongest
repeater around but I think itgets a lot of activity and I
think it comes to us doing netcontrol and the club as a whole
keeping the repeater up and justusing it and getting the word
out there.
And we've gotten a lot ofmembers just from, I think, our

(01:31:15):
net alone.
I think we've gotten a lot ofthem.
You got me because I wouldn'thave known anything about the
club unless I found you on myscanner.
So if you didn't have me youprobably wouldn't have this
podcast now, would you?

Speaker 6 (01:31:33):
Just joking.
You know one thing, todd Ithink I brought this up before,
but you know a testament to ourclub.
Obviously our club gets a lotof talk on our own repeater.
But if you check out some ofthe area repeaters in southern
New Hampshire and even north ofBoston, it's amazing how much

(01:31:55):
GSARA gets talked about onrepeaters outside of our own
repeaters.

Speaker 4 (01:31:59):
I've heard Someone contacted me today and said that
they heard I was doing a 160 CWcampout and I had never met
them before, and so I thinkthey're going to come and meet
me at Mount Monadnock Ralph, Ithink that's also a credit to

(01:32:22):
you and you being able to reachso many repeaters and people and
talking about the stuff thatwe're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:32:31):
I know that there's a lot of guys from the Epson
repeater that when you guys weredoing the six-meter net, I was
listening to that repeater allday and that's all they talked
about and I was like holy crap,there's going to be a lot of
people on this six-meter netBecause the whole Epson repeater
is talking about it andplanning on being there.
So it was pretty cool that theword gets around and people of

(01:32:52):
and you know that's how we metKeith.
You know you brought Keith in,didn't you Right?
Ralph Yep.

Speaker 6 (01:33:01):
Well, I mean, you're talking about.
Ac1rh.
Yeah, the big pony guy.
Yeah, I think I first met himon the.
Epson repeater, but I've evenheard our club talked about
pretty often down on the BillRicker repeater.
You know, even the Bostonrepeater I mean a GSA RA gets
around, it really does.

Speaker 1 (01:33:18):
You're doing some good stuff, then.
Testament to you guys yeah forsure, all right.
Well.
Testament to you guys yeah forsure, all right.
Well, let's kind of wrap thisup a little bow here again.
Uh, we appreciate mike and uhtim and ralph for all coming on
tonight hanging out with us andtodd bummed that.
Uh, tom and todd, but todd'swith us.
I mean, he's pretty much youknow there.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
But uh, in your comment, todd, about this
podcast never starting, oh, I'mgoing to have to go ahead and
sort of disagree with you there.

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
Exactly so.
That's how I feel about thatwhole ordeal.
So with that you know, asalways, thanks again for joining
Live Free and Ham.
We appreciate everybody who'sbeen part of our community.
And again, if you just startedto listen to us, thanks again
for getting us in your podcastfeeds and in your YouTube view,
and we can't thank you enough.
And so if you want to connectwith us, you can always head

(01:34:11):
over to our Discord serverbecause, again, we always want
to continue this conversationover there.
So make sure you subscribe toour Discord server by heading
over to Live.
Greenham Link is down in ourfootnotes there and you can grab
that there and come enjoy itand be part of the fun.
We got some awesome stuff goingon there and we always invite
and encourage everybody to comehang out with us.

(01:34:31):
And, as always, you cansubscribe to our YouTube channel
, catch all the awesome contentthere and leave us review with
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fine, if you can send them toPaul, he'll gladly accept them.
I mean, he's got chickens andgoats and everything else like

(01:34:52):
that.
So with all that, you canalways support our show.
So if you want to get on theinside stuff and you want to see
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(01:35:14):
our show, pick up some swag andcheck out all of our hosts'
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As always.
Thanks again for listening fromall of us and our guests here
at Live Free and Ham 7-3.
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