Johnny Five Needs Juice: Ham Radio's Battery Revolution

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Batteries help Johnny Five stay alive and it's what

(00:03):
we ham radio operators use tostay on the air.
That's what's next on Live Freein Ham.
Hello and welcome to the LiveFree in Ham podcast.
This is our weekly show wherewe discuss ham radio topics in
New Hampshire, new England andbeyond.
We're thrilled to have you here, as always, and so, whether
you're a regular listener ormaybe you're tuning in for the
first time, we appreciate youand thanks again for joining us

(00:24):
in this episode tonight.
So before we always get intothe show, let me introduce
myself.
I'm your host, eric callsignN1JUR, and I'm with my wonderful
co-hosts.
It's Paul.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
N1OJ.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
And Todd W1STJ.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Sweet Alright, guys.
Well, as always, we like to getinto our usual semantics here
before we start into the topic,because you know everyone likes
it up to that certain pointbefore we finish up with our
something extra and then theratings fall off pretty quickly.
So we're going to get throughthat really quick so we can get
to the star of the show.
So, as always, you know ourstorefront is always up on
livefreeandhamcom forward slashshop where you can always pick

(01:04):
up some really fricking coolmerch, like I'm wearing my
favorite.
Send me some QSL t-shirts, man.
You know that's all I'm asking.
No, no, no nudes, I want QSL.
So send me some QSLs.
You can go pick that up in ourstorefront, as well as our
beanie hats and and all of oursticker packs and everything
else like that.
So head on over there, supportthe show, show some love and

(01:25):
pick up some really cool swagand we'll be totally blessed by
it.
And we thank you again forbeing part of the Live Free in
Ham community and supporting theshow.
So, as always, we have beenrunning low, but we're still
available.
You can now pick up our custometched rams.
You can head over.
You can't even see mine in thevideo if you're watching here.

(01:46):
But, uh, and paul's got hisimaginary one, um, you can.
And todd's got his.
So, uh, and paul's intransition.
You have to get me stillbilling out the command center
there.
So, uh, you know, it's all.
Uh, you know, stacked in andput away, it's nice and safe.
So, uh, you know, you canalways head out and pick up, uh,
one of our livery and ham,custom etched dram, whiskey

(02:08):
drams, um, and as we always say,once they're sold out, they're
sold out.
So if you want to get on andbecome one of those cool kids
and have a really coolcollector's item from the show,
uh, because once they're allsold out, you know we won't have
anymore.
So we, you know you can come becool.
And last time I checked we alsohave a bunch in supply now, in

(02:31):
big supply, our Hamlets.
And if you don't know what theHamlets are by now, you can
always go over, head over togethammedcom and check out our
little grassroots project there.
We're just trying to spreadsome love in the ham radio
community by recognizing youguys when you're out there,
setting up all those hugeantenna farms on the top of your

(02:52):
roofs and setting up those biggiant HF antennas when we go to
the ham fest.
Well, now you can.
Actually, if you see someonereally cool and you have a
little hamlet, there's a littledisc at the bottom you can put
your call sign in there andplace that on the guy or gal's
vehicle and show them.
Hey, dude, I recognize yourcool antennas and I just want to
say, hey, I think they'repretty cool and you know, it's

(03:14):
sort of like how the ducks andthe jeepers all work together.
You know, we're just going todo it for the ham community and
so that's one easy way to showsupport to.
You know other hams out thereand so you know you can always
head over and learn more.
And again, thank to everybodywho's been sending awesome
photos of all of their hammiesout there in the wild.
So keep them coming for sure,all right.

(03:35):
Well, we always love feedbackand we've been getting a lot
more guys.
I'm pretty impressed.
I don't know about you.
So people are responding,they're saying hello, they're
letting us know what's going onand, as always, we got three
simple ways you can reach out tous.
You can always use our SMS linkin the bottom of all of our
show descriptions and notes,both on our website and our
podcast and YouTube channels.
Just click that link and sendus a text message.

(03:57):
Make sure you leave your callsign or your name after, so we
know exactly who to give creditto.
Otherwise, you're just going tobe a four-digit number, so you
might as well just be like yoursocial security number and
whatever else you want to putout there.
And, as always, you can alwaysleave us a voicemail.
And for those that might notknow, the voicemail number Todd,
what's that number?

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Why do you always ask me 978-233-1142.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Because I'm just trying to add some humor and
excitement to this and to giveit the number, because it is a
real number.
Folks.
We've been asked is that a realnumber?
Yes, it is a real number.
Folks, you can call that number.
Leave us a voicemail and wewill share it on any one of our
shows going forward.
Feel free to tell us what yourfavorite color is.

(04:43):
If you're an Icon lover, a Yaesulover or the heck that we need
to replace.
You know, renew our HFwarranties for all of our HF
gear.
So don't wait any longer.
You know, we have volunteersstanding by in theory, in love,
standing by to take your message.
So, and as always, for thosefolks that you know still
operate this way and you and noslam, this is a circle of trust

(05:05):
here you can send us an email.
You can send us a non-emergencycommunication by using our
livefreeandham at gmailcomaddress and we'll make sure we
get it in our email.
And for a few I don't know why,somewhere in the process have
been using our comment form onour website, for whatever reason
.
That works too.
You know, feel free.

(05:25):
You know I'm going to say don'tuse it and I guarantee more
people will use it.
So, for all that, intensivepurposes, go ahead, flood our
comment form.
That's what I'm saying.
All right, so last two things wealways have our Patreon and so
we love our Patreon members.
They help support, uh, thisshow and they do some awesome

(05:46):
stuff, um, and so, with that,you know you can come and join
in on our Patreon and the coolthing is is that if you're part
of our Patreon member, you getaccess to all of our shows
before the general releases, uh,in a couple of weeks.
Before you get to hear all ofthe side banter and background
stuff and the uncut raw, uh, youknow, um streams of all of our

(06:08):
recordings, so you get to hearall of the stuff and all the
stuff we talk about and todd's,uh, you know retirement woes and
and, uh, you know all the thestruggles that you know all of
us deal with and you know it'salways a great fun.
And, plus, you know you canalways pick up some really cool
discounts.
We just always offer discountsfor shirts and t-shirts and new
releases and all that otherstuff.
So head on over there and, likeour last, you know, podcast

(06:32):
mentioned, bob said hey, youknow, for less, for as little as
$3 a month, which I feel likewhere's the ESPCA song we need
to play in the background here?
But you know you can comesupport the show and we would
appreciate it for sure.
And, as always, every month wehave a live stream.
We don't know when we record it, it's always a surprise to us.
So you need to obviously headover to our YouTube channel,

(06:53):
click that subscribe button,make sure you ring that bell and
then you'll be notified when wego live.
And we always have a blast,guys.
You know I love hanging outwith you guys on a live show.
We always, you know I think webring some really cool people on
the show, especially with thePoda Power ladies, that we Poda
Power well, the Poda Power crewand you know the women in, you

(07:14):
know the Poda Party.
As I'm tromping over my wordsagain today I told you man, this
can't remember shit, stuff'sreally affecting my brain that
you know all come on live show.
So you know we thank you guysthat all support us during the
live show and you know you cancome be part of the fun.
So with that, let's kick intoour first episode, first segment

(07:36):
here, not episode, becausewe're still in the freaking
episode.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your
attention.
I've just been handed an urgentand horrifying news story.
Hello everybody, we got somenews.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Slow down, boog, let me handle this.
We've got some news, I've gotbad news and bad news.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I have reviewed ship's personnel.
All right Congratulations.
You got mail.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
All right.
So we did get some news.
We got a call sign AC4SH Ray orClaude.
Is it Claude Ray or Ray ClaudeClaude Ray?
All right, ac4sh.
He reached out to us and hesays we have a Georgia State

(08:25):
Parks on the Air event coming upon April 5th and 6th.
That is what he would like toshare with our show.
So it's going to be a GeorgiaState Parks on the Air event
coming up on April 5th and 6ththat he wants to share, and we
have a great website calledgaparksorg and a Facebook group.

(08:47):
So if you guys are down inGeorgia you're going to be in
Georgia on April 5th or 6th Gocheck it out and it looks like
they're going to have a Parks onthe Air event.
So it sounds fun, sweet.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
I always love to see those things.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Too bad I don't have any kids to see in Georgia,
because I would have booked itfor that week.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
That's actually good If we've got any Arkansas, or
what's the other state you go to?
Is it Arkansas?

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Florida, mississippi.
I'm picking the kid up fromArkansas, march 4th.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
You've heard it here first, todd announces a pretty
good amount of time before hegoes in most cases.
Maybe you guys want to reachout and do an impromptu POTA you
know activation with them.
You know, send us an email,we'll try to coordinate that.
So, yeah, if that's somethingthat interests you and you're in
and around those areas and youlive in those states, you know,
maybe you guys can, you know,hang out with the Free and Ham

(09:39):
folks here.
We'll come, folks here wouldcome do an impromptu poda
activation with you.
So Todd would love it, I'd loveto see it.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
And then March March 20th through the 24th this guy
will be in Huntington Beach,California, for a long weekend.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
And I plan on activating.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Huntington Beach so sweet California time.
Hopefully I'll have my, my I'llget a battery before then,
because this isn't going to makeit through PSA anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
That battery looks like a bomb.
It works well, it just thewhole casing is just falling
apart.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
So if I don't, if they don't have the battery, if
it doesn't come in in time, Imight have to borrow one of
yours.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
No problem, sir, be happy to oblige.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
I'll give you my 100 amp hour.
No, I just want small A couplehours.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Roger roger, actually , what is it I read?
I watched a video fromTraveling Ham and he took his
891 and a four amp hour batteryand proved that he could run
about two and a half hours on itOn a four amp 50 watts 50 watts
.
50 watts, which you know, 50watts isn't too shabby, it's not
QRP.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Look, I'm pretty excited for this one because I'm
going out there.
It's my brother's 50th and sohe's going to have a party on
Saturday.
But as soon as I get there, I'msetting up the radio.
I'm getting my parks of Hawaiiand Alaska.
You.
As soon as I get there, I'msetting up the radio, I'm
getting my parks of Hawaii and.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Alaska.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
You hope, I hope so, if you're listening and you're
in Hawaii or Alaska that weekend, just go activate parks and I
will try to find you Please.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Please, the last two states, send an email to wnstjnh
at gmailcom to coordinate.
To coordinate skeds.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, so, but yeah, it'll be fun.
It's a beautiful.
I mean, he only lives like Ican bike to um, to the beach,
from his house.
So he lives like in aneighborhood that connects to a
bike trail and you just hit thebike trail right to the beach,
so it won't be hard at all.
Sweet, Very cool.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, that right to the beach, so it won't be hard
at all.
Sweet, very cool.
Yeah, that sounds awesome, allright, well, hey again, thank
you, claude Ray, for, uh, yourfeedback there.
We always appreciate it and youknow, like we say to guys, keep
it coming, we love it, we lovethis feedback.
Uh, you know, we'll make surewe read it on the next show.

(12:03):
So, all right with that, let'sroll into our next segment here
doing good, good doing good youdo, that's good, do good do good
, you're doing good, absolutelyI do good.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Good, I do it, good, bob do it.
And right now my only outlet ismy ham radio.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
All right.
Well, as we always do in thisDoing Good segment, we all
aspire to do good in ham radio.
So, whether it's assisting in adisaster, providing
communications for a local roadrace or hosting our favorite and
beloved POTA meetups, we alllove to participate in ham radio
activities.
But you know, know, however, wesometimes always allow those
stupid negative voices toovershadow all that enjoyment.

(12:48):
So, you know, I'm gonna say,I'm gonna raise my fist and say
bring on those good deeds.
Yes, bring them.
And where can you do that?
You can do that here.
So we want to share.
Or we want you to share a storywith us.
So whether you've done yourfirst ham radio experience with
a total stranger while youactivate a park, maybe teaching
a student or family member ormaybe a neighbor about the joys

(13:08):
of ham radio, or you got todemonstrate a new technician the
thrills of HF or clubs fieldday, or you and a bunch of other
people just got together,formed a club and started doing
poda, you know we want to hearabout it.
And that actually leads me intoa submitted story we just got
from Sean Greathead call signAlpha, alpha for Alpha Tango.

(13:31):
And he writes I'm not sure ifthis qualifies for your segment,
but about five of us haveformed our own club this year.
Way to go, guys, nice job.
We focus on having fun,learning and promoting the hobby
Checkmark.
We do a lot of group activationat parks and we also are going
to set up tables at things likehomesteading markets and 4th of
July celebrations, not topromote the club but to promote

(13:53):
the hobby.
We plan on having and we planon having radio going.
Oh, there's a little bit of arun-on sentence here, but I'm
sure it was just one long trainof thought, but that's all good,
sean.
So we were planning on having aradio hunting poda.
Oh, oh see, ah, okay, sorry,now I understand how he wrote it

(14:16):
.
It says like homesteadingmarkets, 4th of July
celebrations, not to promote theclub but to promote the hobby.
We plan on having a radio uhdoing, uh, listening to uh
stations as we're hunting forphotos so people can hear.
You know, we're gonna hand outflyers, he says, and let them
know about ham studyorg and haveinfo on other clubs and areas

(14:36):
that do testing and the coolpart, which is really fricking
awesome.
Well, we lost Paul there.
We'll keep it plugging awayuntil he pops back in.
We gave that club a fun name,and so I've got a photo and
we'll post this in our discordand you can check it out.
They call themselves thehillbilly ham amateur radio club

(14:57):
and he threw a photo, endorsedhere and I'm if you're on the
live stream, you'll see thephoto, uh, or in the the video
here you'll see it on the photo.
And he says my wife and I huntand activate a lot together and
we've got eric and paul a fewtimes, but not todd.
Come on, todd, really, there'syour goal.
This is your 2025 goal is tohunt todd um.

(15:18):
And so hopefully he says uh,he's studying for his extra and
if he's not, he's slacking.
Love the show and all that youdo.
Thanks again, sean AA4AT.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Well, sean, I'll be out there March 20th through the
24th out in California, so lookfor me then Hit him up.
It's going to be warm this weekupper 40s so I might have to
try to it's.
It's going to be warm this week, well upper 40s, so I might
have to get a.
I might have to get anactivation in.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
You know what this photo really looks like.
You ever see that movie?
Um, what's the one about, uh,uh, not, that was sort of like
that one, but I'm not thinkingbanjos.
What's the one about the kidwho does football and becomes a
pro football star, Michael OrrWaterboy?

Speaker 2 (16:10):
No, no, Waterboy.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Everyone knows what I'm talking about.
They're probably yellingthrough their radios at the
moment.
So there's the movie out.
That was a really big hit.
Michael Orr, the footballplayer, told his kind of
personal story Blindside.
Yes, well, that was sort oflike blindside.
It's like did you happen toknow your Christmas cards got a
black kid in it Kind of like youhave to go on you know our

(16:33):
discord to check this out, butit was really cool.
You'll get a laugh out of itand I'm going to leave the
comment in the honor discord.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
So is that?
That's the whole club right now.
That's their whole club rightnow.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
That's their whole club right now.
I wonder if they're taking newmembers.
They could be If shirts areoptional in the club I'm joining
.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Well, but so all right if they're taking new
members.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
I want a pair of overalls that comes with my
membership, yeah, or my callsign on the front minimum.
I want it embroidered, yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
I mean I'll gladly pay, you know, 60, 75 bucks for
for the overalls.
You know custom with the?

Speaker 1 (17:15):
uh, you know the club on them.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, that's awesome though.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
I want to see their logo.
I think that logo is going tobe cool.
That's a loan.
Is it worth to be on a t-shirt?
Give us a holler, Sean.
If you haven't developed a logo, we'll help you put something
together.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Where are these guys out of?

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Sean is.
He didn't say exactly NorthCarolina, Okay.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
That's where I'm retiring boys.
I'll be joining if I'm aroundyou.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
And now you've got a club to go join.
Yeah, according to his QR, it'sMurphy, north Carolina, nice.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
All right.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Well, Sean, we appreciate that I'll be down
there.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
He laughed Very cool.
No, dude, I believe you.
I believe you, I'll miss you,but I believe you, you don't
even know I'm gone, we still dothe show yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
Oh, whatever, please yeah I can actually talk to you
on.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
HF.
I know exactly that would be adeal.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
I'd have to get the HF in my vehicle to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
All right, we would have to sked our time and then
we'd have to yell at all thepoda parks activating.
Hey, you're on our frequency.
We're trying to have aconversation here, Right?

Speaker 3 (18:24):
This is our frequency , poda guys.
We're trying to have aconversation here, right?
This is our frequency, exactly,hey, poda guys.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
We were once like you , we had better manners, all
right.
Well, as always, you know youcan share your story, just like
Sean did, and the three easyways is obviously, leave us a
voicemail at 978-233-1142.
You can head over tolivefreeandhamcom, forward slash
do good and fill in the formthere and submit your do good

(18:50):
show or story.
I should say and you can always, if you want to those type A
folks you can be so gracious.
You can send Paul N1OG aWinlink mail and if he receives
it via RF, we're going to holdit to you.
We're going to make it a littletougher.
Anybody can send it via Intelnet.
But if you can send it via RFto him, then you know we'll make

(19:14):
sure we we put you in the listand when we do our gathering for
all those folks that have donethe past, we'll make sure we
invite you on that big shindigand have a big blast.
All those folks that have donethe past, we'll make sure we
invite you on that big shindigand have a big blast.
So you know, if you're soinclined you want to try that.
Please send it Paul's way andwe will be glad to read it on
the show and give you the credittoo as well.
All right, so, without furtherado, the highlight of our show

(19:47):
and you know the superstar starand now for something a little
extra with Todd W1STJ.
All right, catch me.
I had Montezuma's Revenge overthe weekend, meaning the

(20:09):
neurovirus, and the only onesong that kept running through
my head over and over in betweenthe times I was getting up to
run to the bathroom was our LiveFree and Ham song.
Every time and I was like bythe time I woke up the 25 hours
later I was like I can't standthat song because my head just
keeps playing it over and overagain because it's so catchy,
because I said to myself that'sa catchy song.
The Live Free in Anaheim podcast, exactly, no stop, this is

(20:33):
going to do it again.
My head's just going to happenin the background, all right?
Well, you know, you've heard ithere.
This is where we help our Toddstudy for his extra class
license.
Each episode we pick threequestions from the extra class
question pool to test hisknowledge, hoping he gets his
upgrade.
And if, once he gets hisupgrade, I don't know what we're
going to do at this point, butwe'll decide that later, or

(20:53):
maybe we'll leave it to ourlisteners to decide.
If you'd like to follow along,you can always head over to
hamstudyorg, which is a greatresource to help and prepare for
your test, and it's recommendedby three out of four volunteer
examiners because it's alwaysthe ARL just never responds to
our comment at the time of anytime of the survey.
So, without further delay, wehand it over to the guy who
orchestrates all of the VEquestions, apparently in Todd's

(21:15):
mind.
Go ahead, take it away, paul.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
All right, we'll get the proper layout here.
So, uh, question number one forthis evening.
Uh, we're sticking with subelement number eight.
By the way, yeah, I'm stillstudying that one, all right so
question number one how can datarate be increased without

(21:42):
increasing bandwidth?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Oh, oh, oh, I know this one.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Is it A using a more efficient digital code.
B increasing analog to digitalconversion resolution.
C it is impossible.
Or D using forward errorcorrection.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Cue the music.
Come on.
Button.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
No music, there we go .

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Finally, there we go.
Apparently fell asleep.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
So I'm going to go with A, using a more efficient
digital code, because nothing isimpossible.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Inconceivable.
Yeah, man, yeah, I'm going togo with efficient code.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
You are correct, man, great job.
So your explanation.
The best answer here, given therestrictions being symbol rate
must be increased, not bit rateand bandwidth must not be
increased is using a moreefficient digital code.

(23:01):
A more efficient digital codewould typically make the symbols
shorter in time so that morecan be sent in a given period of
time without increasing thebandwidth.
It is impossible, may becometrue at some point for bitrate.
Since the since Shannoninformation theory, limits for

(23:21):
power and bandwidth have beenexceeded.
Generally speaking, it is notjust impossible to increase the
symbol rate, especially when thesymbols are inefficient.
So using forward errorcorrection is a particular bad
answer, since this one justintroduces additional overhead,
so no necessary effect on thesymbol rate, and it only lowers

(23:44):
the net bit rate due to thetransmission of redundant
information.
If you just remember, symbolrate is about efficiency.
It'll help you remember that.
There we go.
Very cool.
Question number two whichdigital code allows only one bit

(24:06):
to change between sequentialcode values?
Is it A binary-coded decimalcode, b extended binary code,
decimal interchange code, c graycode or Extended ASCII Ski?

Speaker 3 (24:33):
I'm going to go with C Gray Code.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
That's a quick response there, todd, I don't
know, I think it's that one.
It's binary coded decimal code,I think.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Or it's extended binary.
So are you saying A or B?

Speaker 1 (24:48):
I'm going to go with A.
I'll go with A, all right.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Todd said C and C is wrong.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Bam Gray code.
I've never heard of gray code.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
I got to get the third one right, I got to hear
the song.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
I got to get the third one right, I got to hear
the song For the values 0, 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7,.
Normal binary encoding lookslike this 0, 0, 1.
I'm sorry, 0, 0, 0.
0, 0, 1.
0, 1, 0.
0, 1, 1.
1, 0, 0.

(25:24):
1, 0, 1.
1, 1, 0.
1, 1, 1.
010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111.
In some cases, all three valueschange between adjacent values,
for example, from three to foursequence the I'm sorry, from
three to four.
The sequence goes from 011 to100.
So an example, gray code getready for this 000, 001, 011,

(25:56):
010, 110, 111, 101, 100.
In this case there is still aunique encoding for each
possible value, but You're goingthe wrong way.
There is still a unique encodingfor each possible value, but
only one bit changes between theadjacent values.

(26:18):
Gray codes are usefulcomponents for implementing
hardware and error correctingcodes.
Some technologies, likemagnetic disks, can't reliably
detect more than one changeevery so many bits.
That was a very thoroughexplanation, very appreciated.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
They need to take that question out, because
nobody's using magnetic disksany longer.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, Paul, get rid of that question out because
nobody's using magnetic discsany longer.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, get rid of that question I don't know what to
tell you.
No, I'm gonna make a.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
I think you guys cd back I think you should do.
You should be able to do theextra test in sections like
section one pass it, check itoff.
Go to section two pass it,check it off.
That's the way I think itshould be done Okay At $15 per
exam session.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
I'd pay it I would pay it Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
So it'd be $150 total for all 10 sub-elements, but I
would pass.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
I'd come every week.
Get your money's worth.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Alright Todd.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
You ready for the third and final question?
Sure, Okay.
Which of the following is ameasure of the quality of an
analog to digital converter?
Is it A reciprocal mixing, Bpower factor, C total harmonic

(27:46):
distortion, or D peak envelopepower?

Speaker 3 (28:01):
I'm going to go with C?
C.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Is your quality.
I'm going to go with C Measurequality.
So A to D to D converter A.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
And Todd nailed it, dude, great job.
The correct answer is C, totalharmonic distortion.
So in an analog to digitalconverter, the goal is to find
the most accurate binary numberrepresentation of the input
signal.
The most accurate output will,by definition, be the one with

(28:43):
the least distortion.
So some word association,digital distortion.
They start with D, so it'ssomething to remember, and you
can think about harmony betweenanalog and digital.
Okay, so there you go, nice.
What do you think?

(29:03):
I could use a good ass kick,and I'll be very honest with you
.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yep, good, so I couldn't do that in the live
stream right.
I can only do it on therecorded ones.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Then they go over three at the live stream Live
stream Yep.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, I think it went over three.
And in the recording before thelive stream you went perfect 3
for 3.
And in this recording after thelive stream you're also perfect
3 for 3.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
However, Eric.
Basically that means we can'trecord your live stream.
Yeah, well, I'm still afreaking extra, so I can.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Hey, you only got one right.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, so why?

Speaker 1 (29:44):
not, you're a huge embarrassing failure.
Yes, I am All right, so allright.
So, if you're on your journeyto studying your technician
general extra class license, inthat case hempstudyorg is a
wonderful resource for gettingyour ticket, as we use it on the

(30:07):
show.
And so, as we always like tosay, if you've recently got your
license, or maybe you justupgraded, you know, and we want
you to be recognized, so we wantyou to send us an email, or you
can hit us up on the Discord or, you know, send us a text
message, whatever.
So we can you, we can share inyour glory and honor you in our

(30:27):
next episode for all that hardwork and effort you put in, and
we'll make sure we always dothat every show.
So if you haven't done it,please send it our way.
We want to share with everybodyall your great success and
celebrate another one to theranks in the ham radio community
.
So very cool, all right.
Well, in our usual way, wealways ask the rounds how is

(30:49):
your ham radio week going?
And we'll start off with you,paul how's the ham radio week
going for you?

Speaker 2 (30:55):
well, uh, I would say it's, it's been, it's been
pretty good.
Uh, well, I I haven't actuallygotten to play any ham radio yet
.
Here I am in the mobile grouchcommand center and we have a
fully functional studio.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Also known as MGC.
People forever call it MGC.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
The mobile grouch command, yes, mgc.
So the next thing to go on thedesk is going to be the radio.
I'm still working out somecomplications with that, because
I'm trying not to punch a holein the RV to run coax and other
things outside, and so there isa factory pre-wired cable

(31:44):
television television 75-ohmjack on the outside and there
are two drops on the inside.
Of course they're on the otherside of the trailer, but that's
all right.
That's all right because whatI'm going to do is I'm going to
go from here to the next closestdrop with 75-ohm, so it'll be
75-ohm from the radio to thedrop and 75 ohm to the outside,

(32:08):
and then I have to do somecalculations on what the
remaining length of 75 ohm coaxthat I need in order to get the
resonance where I want it.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
So you're building a half of a dipole, then basically
yeah, kind of Give.
Or then basically yeah kind of.
Give or take.
Yeah, okay, nice Dude.
I'm looking forward to see howit comes out.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
It's always something new to learn.
Who would have thought that youcould use cable coax as your
coax for your radio?
But it can be done.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Now, what are you planning on tying on the like?
Is there an antenna attachedthere now, or is it just a
receptacle, like the littlethread end on the outside?

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, it's just like your home.
You know, coax the oldconnection.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Can't you just switch the take that coax out and
replace it?

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Oh, what a nightmare that would be.
He'd have to rip into walls.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
He just bought the trailer, my gosh, you already
want to turn it into Swisscheese.
Oh, it's inside the walls.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Oh, yes, it's in the walls, it's in the ceiling, yeah
, yeah, but I thought it wasjust that's where there's,
there's a jack on the outside,and so I did.
I did buy adapters, just to,you know, make things a little
bit easier so that I could gofrom, you know, 75 to 50 with a,
with a quick little adapter.
Um, but yeah, it's, it's justgonna, it's gonna be some

(33:38):
experimentation, uh, a whole lotof uh.
Use my AA-55 zoom antennaanalyzer and I might even get to
play with my tiny SA.
Who knows?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
Oh nice, taking all the tools out.
The other thing I saw is Ican't remember where I saw it
online somewhere Somebody haddone like where you have that
bunkhouse configuration, you'vegot two windows in the back that
are up above and below eachother.
Somebody cut out, popped outone of those side glasses and
put a plexiglass in there withbulkhead SO239 so he could slide

(34:12):
the window back and forth buthe was able to kind of turn it
into like a panel without, likedamaging the other glass.
I don't know if yours has thatcapability His is a little older
trailer but I don't know ifthey allow you to replace those
panes of glass at all.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Well, I was thinking of making a panel, at least for
the summertime.
So then I could open the windowand I could insert the panel,
and the panel would just havebulkhead connectors and then it
would be nice and easy.
I could do UHF, vhf or HF and Icould run it all through that,

(34:49):
through that panel.
I can.
I can have a whole bunch ofradios back here.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Right, yeah, it might get to that point when you're
like, oh, I've got to change theantenna again.
First world problems, my friend, we'll see when those roll in.
Yeah, first world problems, myfriend, we'll see when those
roll in.
Cool, all right.
Well, it sounds like thecommand center is coming into
the shape there.
I mean, you've got a bunch ofmore stuff to haul over.

(35:14):
Are you bringing the?

Speaker 2 (35:14):
seat warmer with you eventually, or is that staying
home?
No, I don't.
Uh, I don't have the ability topower that out here.
So you know, the?
Uh the shack heater will stayat home for now here.
So you know the?

Speaker 1 (35:23):
uh, the shack heater will stay at home for now.
Cool, sweet.
Well, and you know, if you areinterested in seeing what Paul
is doing, you can always headover to our discord.
He's just posting photos thereand, uh, you know, showing us
the progress, and he is alsopromised us that there'll be
more videos coming.
So I know he's recording thatstuff.
So looking forward to all thatstuff on your channel soon.

(35:44):
Um and uh, you know we can't.
You know we got to bring it upagain, I know.
You know if you missed our livestream, you know N1OG over here
hit his 3000 mark ofsubscribers.
So, um, you know, I'm justslowly on his curtails here and
I should be hitting 3000.
So what's that mean to you?
Well, you know, us knuckleheadsare going to get together and
join forces and we're going todo a uh, a co 3000 subs.

(36:07):
You know, subscriber giveawayshow.
So keep an eye on both of ourchannels If you want to come and
be part of that.
And Todd can come hang out and,you know, cheer us on or make
fun of us, whatever, all goodand uh.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
I'm going to.
I'll put my first video out.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
All of a sudden I got 5,000 subscribers.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
We won Todd.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, well, you know, hey, your antenna condom video
is starting to get some biglikes on it.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
That was pretty funny .
Huh, the thing works great.
It makes my life so much easier.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Patent pending right it's coming soon.
Manufacturing's working out thedetails.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Well, my other.
You know, I got the sameantenna but I had an older
version.
It didn't bend Like it, didn'thave that and this it's awesome.
So I just didn't want toscratch the window and whatever
else and it just fits, foldsover, slide it on, done.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Very cool, I washed the.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
Jeep many times, with it still hanging out.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
So well.
Watched the Jeep many timeswith it Still hanging out.
No tools necessary.
Nice tie in here, todd.
How was your ham radio week man?

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Let's see.
Well, my ham radio week hasbasically been mesh-tastic,
trying to learn it.
So I got one that was alreadypre-built and I had the first
one I got, which is the one Paultold me to get, with the GPS.
I didn't have a case for it.
I ordered the case.
It just takes a while to getcome from England.
I got the case and then thebattery that I had, the 3,000

(37:33):
milliamp, didn't fit and I triedto get it to fit it, just it
was not happening.
So I ordered some next daydelivery from Amazon.
I got a 2001.
It fits good and I put ittogether.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Wow yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
I can see the screen.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Oh, there you go.
Oh yeah, background's taking itout.
Yeah, anyway, so.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
I put this one on, and the reason I got two is
because I don't have any no onethere's no nodes here, or I
can't reach anyone here.
So I wanted to see if it worked, and it does, and I'm going to
put this one because it has aGPS.
I'm going to put this one in myJeep and this will be my mobile
one and my other one I'll justleave in my pocket and just

(38:16):
bring it around wherever I go.
But yeah, so it's been cool.
Got them to work, flashed them,and but uh, yeah, so it's been
cool.
Got him to work, flashed himand uh, still trying to figure
out what the hell I'd use thisfor.
I did come up with an idea,like if I was hunting and I was
in a no zone and I was huntingwith someone else and I didn't
want to use a radio, I guess Icould text them.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, there's definitely that uh component.
There's a bunch of other coolerthings in there, but uh, you
know.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
Yeah, well, I'm going to keep.
I'm going to keep watching andI'm looking forward to the uh,
our tech night with it to seewhat people bring and do and uh,
you know.
And then, oh, and Bill bought a.
Bill was at the barn, which iswe meet a couple, some of the
club members meet at the barn,uh, on Saturdays and so he
brought.
I was telling him about my Mish, this Mish-tastic, and how it

(39:03):
was working and he's like, oh,he goes, let me go get mine in
the car.
And he had this like gooseneckantenna.
I'm like, where'd you get thatthing?
He goes oh, I, you know, I, oh,I bought it.
I don't know where I got it.
So went on the website and it'slike 35 bucks.
I was like, what is it Not TeamU?

(39:25):
What's the other one?
Aliexpress, AliExpress.
So I go to AliExpress and Ifind the exact same one and
they're offering it to me for$2.99, free shipping.
So I jumped all over it.
So I'm going to be getting thisgooseneck one that I'll put on

(39:45):
this bad boy and stick it in myjeep.
So I said for 2.99, you can'tgo wrong.
So I totally, but uh, but yeah,so it's been.
That's basically all I've beendoing.
I've been, uh, my shack's amess.
Still.
I keep trying, I'm reallytrying to plan on what I'm gonna
, how I'm gonna clean, simplifyit, make it more clean.
It really comes down to, Ithink, a monitor and a new shelf

(40:07):
to put the monitor on and howthat's all going to look.
Besides that, just sitting on arepeater, did the net again
tonight, which was all good.
That was about it.
With that said, eric, how wasyour week?

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Pretty good man, like I mentioned or alluded to
before.
My weekend was tied up, youknow, basically expelling all my
guts for 24 hours straight.
So I didn't really get a chanceto play much radio this weekend
, but I've been dabbling kind ofmore in the background on
trying to organize what Todd hadmentioned earlier Our club in

(40:42):
March.
If you're in and around thearea, you know we're doing our
first tech night and so we'repretty psyched about it.
It should be fun and we'refocusing on mesh task.
It's funny, it's like it was thebig thing at our winter field
day and everyone was like allover it and there was, you know,
pretty much a buzz and it'sjust like, well, dude, we should

(41:07):
just do a big MISTastic thing.
So I'm working with a bunch ofguys who are big MISTastic folks
and they're thinking aboutbuilding external nodes and
bringing those for demos.
But the whole goal I think forthat night is going to be pretty
fun.
We're going to basically justbring your MISTastic gear.
We're all going to program inthe same way.
We're going to make it work sowhen everybody leaves there we
can all talk to each other whenwe're in the area and not be
like Todd it's like, hey, mydevice talks to my device, but

(41:29):
what do I really do with thiskind of thing?
We're exploring options andbuilding that work here in the
Northeast.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Yeah, I know that Nashua has a bunch, and so does
Manchester, because when I go toManchester it blows up.
I'm going to just send out anall call, like send it to
everyone, see if someoneresponds to me, because no one's
responded to me except Bill andhe's sitting right next to me
as a test.
I know right, so I'm going toplay around with that, see if I
can have some fun.
But you know, anyway, I'm kindof looking forward to it.

(41:58):
It is kind of cool.
I'm pretty impressed that I wasable to I'm not very tech, you
know, building stuff that I wasable to shove that little board
and get it to all work and plugin the antenna, but I did find
there is.
it does come with an antennalike this and I didn't know what
it was and I sent pictures toEric and Paul and I asked Bill

(42:21):
and he didn't know what it was.
But I did find out what thatlittle flexi antenna is.
That is an antenna if you weregoing to have an internal
antenna inside the case.
So you would kind of wrap itaround the, you know, maybe
along the outside of the caseand then it would work.
So it doesn't have as much gainas the little nubby ones or the

(42:44):
other ones.
I'm going to try, so Nice.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Now, eric, you've you've also been working on a uh
, what, uh, the build it on yourworkbench.
What, what are you calling it?

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Oh yeah, so our uh, our um, what's on your workbench
for our club stuff?
There's a kit.
You're talking about that kit,the SMD kit that we're building.
That's been a pain in the buttto get.
We started that process withour club and so one of the
things we do with our club thatwe love to do is in our winter
times we're all in our shack.
So why not better than do whatwe call what's on your workbench

(43:16):
?
It started out as everyone justkind of sharing, but then it
turned into like, well, whydon't we do a soldering project?
So it's been pretty popularevery year and so we pick like
one or two kits in thewintertime, and this one we
picked a 10 watt uh, qrp, nofour, was it four?
Oh man, I forgot the name ofthe company.
Is it a four winds or fourmountains QRP club?

(43:39):
I think it is.
Um, it is.
It's a 10 watt watt um qrpattenuator, correct, it's four
state qrp is where we got thekit from and it's 10 watt um,
not attenuator.
I think it's a uh load, a dummyload, yeah, smd based dummy
load with the leds and stufflike that.
I figured we'd step it up thisyear and go away from through

(44:02):
hole, since everything's going alittle bit smaller and give our
hand at SMD soldering pads andstuff, and so, yeah, looking
forward to that one, we finallygot to get that.
You know, together we have acouple of few stragglers that
are still waiting for their kits, but once they get them we'll
be doing that too.
So, yeah, I think we share thisin a way that like, hey, if
you've got a club, all you haveto do is just come up with the

(44:23):
idea, and I guarantee you have abunch of people that want to
try it and just go do it.
You don't have to wait aroundfor approval a lot of times,
especially if you know you'retaking like a kit and everyone
just buys their own kit.
You just have to find the timeand a good way to you know a
good place to do it in and dofor our club, because you know
it's not like it's a formalorganized thing, it's just like

(44:44):
go try it and have fun, and youknow we do pretty good with that
.
So I'm pretty excited to seethat going along.
So, all right.
Well, that is always good tohear, but you know this is the
part of the show where we allknow, our listeners just, you
know, kind of tune out a littlebit, fall asleep in their chairs
.
Carlos, if you're sleeping,wake up.

(45:05):
This is the good part.
You want to listen to this onehere because you know we
obviously inspire you.
So we want to make sure youknow we help you connect your
wires and solder joints as bestwe can.
So with that, you know, we'regoing to talk a little about, as
we alluded at the beginning ofthe show, uh, batteries.
You know I've been on a batterybuild kick.
Um, as I mentioned a couple ofshows ago, uh, I was in the

(45:28):
process of building a batterybox and I know paul's been in
the thick of it, thinking forthe uh, the mobile command
center there and and how he'sgoing to fit that out.
Um, and todd's been obviouslytrying to nurse batteries back
together and he's going to betripping soon, so so he's going
to want to change that around.
So I figured, you know wementioned, I think, when we did
the POTA episode about gear andstuff like that, we were going

(45:48):
to talk more about batteries.
But we must have fallen off theradar or something like that,
because we could have devoted awhole show.
So we figured heck.
We're going to talk aboutbatteries tonight, so if that's
not your thing, totally fine.
But we're going to geek out alittle bit and share some of our
stuff and you know kind of whatwe're working on and and what
we're looking to build, becauseyou know part of that, in
battery builds there's like,obviously, the off the shelf

(46:09):
stuff which we all have for ourgear and and activations.
But then you know we, we allhave the desires to want to
build those you know those geekbattery boxes that you see on
other YouTubers channels and and, uh, you know other YouTubers'
channels and build systems thathelp us be more self-reliant.
And so let's talk a little bitabout that guy.
So who wants to kind of take itfirst?
Where do we want to go withthis first?

(46:30):
Because we're going to kind ofjust be a little loose tonight
on the format and show.
So who wants to start somewhere?

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Well, alright, first off, I think we need to break it
down a little bit, becausealright, so for me, I'm looking
at batteries for multipledifferent things.
So RVs come with the lead-aciddeep-cycle marine batteries
which, as we all know, really,really just don't perform well,

(47:03):
at least in comparison tolithium-ion phosphate batteries.
And so currently in the RV I'vegot one 12-volt deep-cycle
marine battery up the front topower all of the 12-volt,
including the fridge andeverything.
The plan is to get rid of thatbattery.

(47:26):
I'll throw it in my boat orsomething.
I'll keep it.
I want to put two at least 100amp hour lithium iron phosphate
batteries in the front to powerall of the 12 volt throughout
the trailer, because especiallyuh you know, wanting to do

(47:47):
off-grid stuff like I, I plan,uh, I want to know that even
when the temperature is cold,I'm still gonna put 13 volts to
all of my devices, right, andit's not going to be where you
know, the battery is like 50percent and now it's only giving
me 10 volts like you know likea deep cycle right uh, which,

(48:11):
because it it tends to causeproblems, especially like with
the, you know, the compressorsin the refrigerator, um, where
if you're not, if you're notputting good voltage to it,
you'll wear it out and it'llvery shorten the lifespan.
So there's that aspect of things.
And then there's building thebattery boxes and things like

(48:36):
that.
And then there's the batteriesthat we just buy when we take
out with us for POTUS.
We just buy when we take outthis for potas, uh, and then
then hold on you've got, you'vegot things like like this
backbreaking.
So this is.
This is the smaller of the two,but this is the all like, yeah,

(49:01):
so this is the the thousandwatt and you know, you can, you
can charge it with solar and allthat.
It's super awesome.
But so I just I just wanted tosay that I think we need to
break it up into segments,little bits and pieces, right?

Speaker 1 (49:18):
so we'll say large scale, medium scale, small scale
, there we go, kind of goodcategories, cool.
So since you're the only oneright now with the challenges of
, so we'll say large scale,medium scale, small scale, there
we go, kind of good categories,okay, all right, cool.
So since you're the only oneright now with the challenges of
large scale, we'll circle backon that one, because there's
some good stuff that I want totalk about, that that you can
maybe share, and maybe shareyour future plans too, about
what you're looking to kind ofscale, future-wise with that.

(49:39):
And it'll kind of hopefullyinspire me, because I'm looking
to get into trailers down theroad not, you know, anytime soon
, right now, but uh, definitelywant to start thinking that and
uh, getting into uh, more of RVlife, since, uh, apparently my
um, you know, yearly goal planswith the wife is to road trip to
the grand Canyon, which I takethat as road podo trip to Grand

(50:02):
Canyon.
So it'll be pulling an RV.
I'm not staying at hotels allthe way up and down that strip,
no, no way, sir.
Anyway, and then we'll we'lltalk like mid-scale, so like
what you do for your shack, kindof setups for emergency backup,
and then, you know small scale,what's your podo rigs or you
know, in that mid scale you canalso talk battery boxes.

(50:24):
So if you've got some batterybox ideas that you're thinking
of and that includes some ofyour, like your complete go kit
to Paul Todd that you'rehopefully building soon, when
that one gets built, we'll getinto that a little bit, alright.
So let's start podas.
Let's just start miniature here.
So poda, we've touched a baseon a lot of different setup

(50:45):
styles.
What's your kind of go-to formost?
Of what do you usually carry inyour arsenal when we're doing a
lot of portable stuff?
Like, do you have, what's yourminimum number of batteries you
use?
Why do you use that number ofbatteries?
And dive into thatconfiguration a little bit.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Well, want me to go first?
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, you got it.
So my, uh, my POTA battery is.
I use for every POTA event.
It's a bio-no power, uh, 12volt, 15 amp hour, 180 watt hour
lithium iron phosphate battery.
Now the thing has been great.
It's never failed on me.

(51:24):
I always charge it before I goGot a little charger for it.
I do have to say that, livingup here in the northeast, if it
gets cold and sometimes it'scold the casing starts to crack.
And this battery starts to looklike a bomb, right, and I don't

(51:46):
think that TSA, because look atthis, even you can see the
batteries.
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
They will not let you take that.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
I don't think TSA is going to make it one more trip,
so I'm looking to shrink, wrapthis one and use this one for
you know, when I'm around hereand you know there's nothing
wrong with the battery.
It still works.
I just don't think the TSAwould be thrilled and I'm afraid
if I shrink wrap it it's not inthe quote-unquote original

(52:16):
packaging they might think Imessed with it or something.
So I'm looking to get a Dakotalithium battery but they're out
of stock and uh, they have alittle 10 amp one and uh, so, uh
, I figured that would get melike to do a, a mobile pod.

(52:38):
Uh, you know, a few hours, youknow a hundred Watts, you know,
get enough to get an activationand I'm hoping it's a little bit
smaller.
I think I got to look at it, Imeasured it, it's it's, I think
it's a little bit smaller andthat, uh, it's all like solid
plastic container so it's notgoing to peel or whatever.
So it might be better.
And uh, you know, marvin told meabout it and he is one of his

(53:01):
sponsors on his podcast and Isaw one at Winter Field Day that
he had and I checked it out andlooked at it and he had a
bigger one.
But I asked him, I said, well,the smaller one you think worked
for 893 and 100 watts If I wasusing 100 watts and he's like
yeah, because you're nottransmitting constantly, because
you probably get four or fivehours at it and I'm never

(53:23):
activating more than four andfive hours when I'm flying
around, uh, doing work.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
So I figured that and if you, you know you you bring
the power down a little bit 50watts, you've got a decent, you
know antenna anyway.
So you know you get a littlelonger longevity out of the
battery if you're running atlower power anyway yeah, you
know, and and so anyway's the uh, that's the plan right now.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
is uh to do that and uh now, if I don't.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
How many batteries do you currently have in your farm
stable that are radio specific?

Speaker 3 (53:55):
All right.
Well, um, I've got the bio.
I know I'm looking to get thatlittle 10 amp one, and then, um,
I have a big one.
Bioeno, I'm looking to get thatlittle 10 amp one, and then, um
, I have a big one.
Uh, it's a wise.
Uh, lithium iron phosphate,it's a 12.8 volt 100 amp hour
battery that's the one you usedfor field day, right?
yeah, and that thing lastsforever, like it worked all

(54:18):
field day and I didn't evencharge it or have solar panels.
So that's the one I have solarpanels that I use to set up.
But I was wondering, and maybePaul you could answer this, and
I'm sure I'm more like.
I know LiPo batteries and Iknow that lithium, iron,
phosphate are similar.
If you don't use them all thetime, on LiPos you're supposed

(54:40):
to discharge them down to like50%.
What about these?
Do they have to be dischargeddown to 50% or can you just keep
them charged?

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Well, so my understanding is it depends on
the length of time that you'regoing to have them in storage.
For the most part, the lithium,iron phosphate batteries tend
to retain a lot better um, andso they'll.
They'll hold their charge for amuch longer shelf life than

(55:13):
than you know like a lipo right?

Speaker 3 (55:16):
well, this battery has a whole bunch of it says.
It just says blah, blah, blah.
And as the technology getssmarter and smarter they have a
lot built into the batterymaintenance system.

(55:36):
Yeah Well, I know that the LiPo, so this one real quick.
It says store at greater than50% capacity and then recharge
every three months.
So I have a.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Let me read you my quick card from I can't see it
here Redodo and their storage.
Long term storage says if thebattery is recommended to be
stored between 10 degreesCelsius and 35 degrees Celsius
or 1595 at 50% charge level andrecharge, and you should
recharge the battery every threemonths to keep it in long-term
storage.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
That's usually their tip how do you?

Speaker 1 (56:10):
discharge it?
No, you don't, you just keep ittopped off.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Oh, you keep it topped off.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
At least 50%.
Yeah, set it at a 50% chargelevel and recharge every three
months, so you basically chargeit up to 50%.
Let it sit for three months andthen charge it up again if
you're going to do it long-term.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
So yeah, so I know, on my LiPo batteries, like on my
LiPo battery chargers, I can, Ican set it to storage so it'll
actually discharge them.
But I don't have that for the.
I mean I actually dischargethem, but I don't have that for
the.
I mean, I guess I do, but Idon't think it's Not on that
battery.
My 100 amp hour doesn't havethem.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Nope.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
So it's when I put it .
When I just tested it a coupleof days ago, I'm building a
battery box, the, the batterylevel was at about 12.5.
Five, so it dropped a bit.
I don't know how many amp hoursare left in it until I fully
top it off, because you justwon't know.
So until I get to that point Iwon't actually be able to take a
good long measurement of whereit sits in its usual dormant

(57:14):
state versus its active state.
You said you had like threebatteries, right.
You said overall.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
No, just those two, okay.
And then the other batteriesare just like my HT batteries.
Oh and I do have a Jackerywhich is kind of like what Paul
has.
It's just a miniature one.
I call it the lunchbox becauseit looks like a little lunchbox

(57:42):
and it's a 300 million 300 or3,000?

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Oh, it's a 300 million 300 or 3,000?
Oh, it's really small then.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
Yeah, but I bought it , so it does a couple things.
I got it for charging my RCplane batteries without using my
battery in the car, because Iwatched someone's blow up and
his car caught on fire.
So I was like you know what?
I'm not doing the battery thinganymore Because everyone you go
to the field, everyone's gottheir hoods up.
So I bought this and the thingworked awesome because I just

(58:13):
plug in the charger to it andvoila it, just it charged the
battery.
It's basically taking juice outof one battery and shoving it
into another, right, it'sbasically all it's doing.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Did the question ever come up?
Did you warn him first whilehis car was on fire, or did you
just watch the battery chargewhile the car was on fire?
No, we watched.
We warned him.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
We're like dude, your car's smoking, so um, so anyway
.
So I have that.
But that actually is a prettycool thing, because I have sleep
apnea and if I want to use asleep apnea machine you need to
power it right.
So I bought a DC cord becauseit'll last longer and I used it.

(58:49):
I did a camping thing one nightand it worked through the whole
night and lasted the wholenight.
And then I've got someattachments so like I can use it
for ham radio too, like I canplug it, I can have the DC plug
in and then put the power poleson the outside.
And you know, you could usethat too if you for an emergency
or whatever.
But it's got like USB ports andstuff.

(59:10):
I mean it's a little older thanthan newer ones that have come
out, and I've actually seen, Ithink, one of the Jackery's I'm
not sure which one has powerpoles built into it.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Okay, cool.
How about you, Paul?
What have you got?

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Well, so my go-to for doing parks on the air is a 12
amp hour.
It's fairly inexpensive, it'sfairly small, it's not heavy.
So that's my primary parks inthe air battery.

(59:48):
I'll keep that in my bag andthen I'll keep the 20 amp hour
in the truck.
That way, if I need it, I haveit.
It also is, you know.
I mean, it's about the samesize, maybe a little bit smaller
than, like, an ATV battery or agarden tractor battery.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
It also looked a little lighter the way you're
wielding it versus the other one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
But yeah, it weighs hardly anything.
So those would be my two that Iwould always take out to a park
, but then I've also got a 100amp hour that I'll take out for
field days and stuff.
The old cycling bat mini.

(01:00:35):
I freaking love this battery.
I got it on a Black Friday sale, got a really really good deal
on it.
I wish I had gotten morebecause it's such a good battery
it really is and not superheavy either for what it is.

(01:00:56):
I've seen some of the Redodiosor whatever, that for a 100 amp
hour battery they weigh easily apound heavier they do.
Those are my three primary forparks.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Okay, now with and actually sidebar I saw on Amazon
I should have sent you the linkRedodo is doing their 100 amp
hour battery that I've got, andthen we were talking about their
40 amp charger.
They're combining it togetherfor 214.
Which is like the charger aloneis like 190 something and

(01:01:37):
they're throwing the battery inwith it, which puts the battery
somewhere mid split.
So it's like, hmm, another 100amp power battery and the
charger at the same time.
Yeah, I, I maybe could do that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
So who's doing that?

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Redotto or rodeo or re re reodeo, however you want
to say it.
Re cheerio is full, I care, butgood batteries though I'll make
fun of them.
Yeah, they've got.
They've got a battery that Imay want to upgrade to if I uh,
once I get this box built uh tokeep in the car, because it's
got a heating option in it tokeep the, the cells, you know

(01:02:15):
constant temperature fromfreezing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
And I was like, yeah, the built-in heaters gotta do.
That's kind of nice.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Yeah, it was kind of at the time when they were
selling that one.
It was was like almost $80 or$90 more and I was like, eh,
I'll just skip on that one.
And now I'm kicking myself forit because you know it probably
could have been well worth theinvestment.
But hey, you're living for it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
I mean, they do make battery blankets, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
They do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
So I mean you can run it with 12-volt.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Right, exactly, you're using your battery to
keep the battery.
It's a vicious cycle.
It's probably not efficienteither.
All right, cool.
So you basically got a coupleof good batteries there that are
very portable in the nature.
So my setup I've got fourbatteries, five.
Now I've got a six-amp hourDenco that we did as a uh work,

(01:03:05):
work, work bench build on ourclubhouse on our clubhouse in
our club last year, which was areally good, uh cool battery
project to do.
Um, and if you want to find outmore of that, just go up to
Dencocom.
He does battery kits and youcan build your own for pretty
good, uh, cheap, you know money,and it's it's, it's a, you know
, really good, well quality, uh,you know battery.
I've got, uh, the small littleI think it's four and a half amp

(01:03:30):
hour or five amp hour um brickfor my forex fx4cr that I use.
That uh I keep forgetting totake out of the bag because it
stays with that radio, so Igotta remember to charge that
before.
And I've got all my batteriesnow laid out in my you know
corral and I'm sure that one'snot in there.
So I gotta remember to movethat um, and then I gotta step

(01:03:50):
up to that which I have, the,the 12, the 9 amp hour, um, and
then I've got.
Sadly, someone went with me tohro one day and I was like, oh,
they do bio anos.
And I went, I, I went, I wantthat battery, I want that
battery.
So I have all these extrabatteries that I thought I was
going to use.
Maybe I will use, but, like youknow, the old adage is two is

(01:04:10):
one and one is none is theattitude.
So that's kind of how I treatedthe batteries.
My problem is I don't haveenough chargers to keep all of
them charged efficiently at thesame time, so I have to just
remember to rotate through.
Then I've got a 12, a 20 and a15 amp hour.
So you know I've got decentbatteries.
But the funny part is I alwayskeep grabbing the 20 amp hour

(01:04:32):
Any activation I go on.
That's always the one that'sjust like go to.
It's getting beat up like Todd.
So I had to re-shrink, wrap thatone and that wasn't terribly
too bad.
The hardest part was just topeel off the label without
ripping it, um, because theplastic is just so unforgiving.
But I've got that and um, Ijust, like I said, mentioned, as
I'm doing, a battery box bill,but we'll get into in the mid

(01:04:56):
tier of our bill process here.
Um, you know the battery boxand building and I bought a
Redondo a hundred amp hour on ablack Friday sale.
I got for a really good deal,so I jumped on that and and
slowly building that boxtogether and learning you know
wiring and distribution and andcurrent flow and you know

(01:05:16):
appropriate, you know resistorand that resistor um, uh, bus
bar, uh, fuses and all the otherstuff kind of goes with it.
We'll dive into that a bit.
But yeah, I, I I try to keep mybatteries conveniently sized to
a certain length because ofwhere they have to go into and
my, my bags that I carry.

(01:05:36):
So, um, you know whether I'mcarrying a small my camera bag
with my poda gear in it or I'mcarrying a small little beach
bag.
You know it's scaled to thatsize and I don't kind of veer
off.
But my go-to has always beenBioano and I should try other
batteries out there.
I mean, obviously Rodoto is oneof them, but not on a smaller
scale.
I got to take a look at another.

(01:05:58):
You know, although there's, I'mtrying to think there's no,
actually Redona, um, dakotalithium was the only one that
kind of came to mind that I youknow it was recommended by,
obviously, marvin and a fewothers.
So I may have to scoop it up orI'll just live, you know, and
see how you do and and maybe buyone later down the road.
So, okay, well, that that'ssimple enough.
We all, we all have our usualgo-tos there.

(01:06:25):
So let's kind of step it up anotch from that middle kind of
medium tier.
What do you guys got in yourarsenals?
Do you have any like batterybox builds?
You've done anything custom?
Um, that you know is kind ofwe'll say, above 50 amp hour,
you know, but not like uh, intothe 24 volt kind of setups or
400 amp hours.
You where you think alarge-scale RV, are you guys?

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
doing any or have any battery boxes that you've built
yet or are planning on buildingfor your go boxes?
Well, for my 100-amp hour Ifound a case on Amazon I think
it was on like Black Friday.
I think it got like it's amarine battery box and comes
with a strap.
So you strap, like the topcomes on it and it straps in.
So I just leave it in there andI am.
I've got a bunch of uh differentparts for I was going to use

(01:07:14):
for my go box, but I don't needthem.
But they're like you know, the,the connectors to put the uh,
the, the connectors in theamperage, all that kind of stuff
that I'm not going to use on mything.
So I still have them.
So I think what I'm going to dois play around with that cheap
box and build a first batterybox as an experiment and see how
it works and then, if I like it, get some ideas and then I'll

(01:07:37):
build a bigger one.
But I do keep it in this marinebox, which is nice because it
just with the strap, you cangrab the strap and carry it
around and then, when you openit up, you can just it's like
that little black housing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Yeah, it's like that black plastic.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
It's nothing fancy, but it was awesome because it
literally fits perfectly inthere.
I think they must know thedimensions, and this is probably
something they might use for aboat or something.
So, yeah, so that's all I gotright now.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
Okay, cool, and so that's all, either wired up for
power poles or, you know,optional alligator clips or
something.

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
Yeah, I got like you know, I've got like USB things
set in.
You know that I can put on itand yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
How about you, paul, what you got mid tier Well, so,
um, I'm, I'm, I'm definitelyplanning on building a battery
box.
Um, I've got, uh, I think I'vegot two spare uh Apache cases,
um, and so I'm going to, I'mgoing to turn at least one of
those into a battery box.
But one of the things that I'mI'm actually really proud of is
I took, uh, I took four um carbatteries that uh, I I got from

(01:08:50):
uh casey casey, one nid uh,which was really nice of him to
uh to to give me those.
But what I did was I I wiredthem together so that I had the
combined power of the fourbatteries and I keep it on a
trickle charger.
And then I've got a 3,000-wattinverter and I keep the whole

(01:09:11):
setup in the boiler room of thehouse.
That way, if the power goes out, all I've got to do is turn the
inverter on, unplug the waterheater and unplug the heater and
plug them into the inverter,and then we've got heat and hot
water, at least while thepower's out.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Those are the AGM ones he was throwing around with
field death.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Yeah, the BMW batteries.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
There's a good tip, guys If you've got a friend
automotive mechanic in yourmidst in your clubs, I guarantee
he's got a bunch of batteriesthey just try to get rid of and
they can't.
I guarantee there'll probablybe decent batteries.

Speaker 3 (01:09:50):
So they don't have to pay the recycling fee, exactly
right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
And so, for a ham radio operator dude, they still
got some life in them.
I know they lasted our fieldday all weekend when he dropped
them off for us to use them, andyou're still using them long
and strong.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
so yeah, find an automotive mechanic who wants to
get rid of his batteries andyou'll be in heaven, you know,
coming up with some good, uh,good size batteries that'll last
you a little while yeah and forfor that purpose, like if
you're gonna, if you're justgonna have a battery bank, that
you're, you're not going to bemoving around at all, it's
absolutely perfect, and I meanit didn't cost me anything other

(01:10:24):
than the wires to connect itand the inverter, so you know,
did you run 8 gauge, 2 gauge or0?
I want to say I think it's 2, 2gauge pretty thick.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
Yeah, I bought my recent purchase that I've fallen
in love with.
It was a hydraulic uh crimper,the copper ring crimper for
battery cables.
I love that thing.
It makes such a frickingphenomenal clip and all of the
all of the crimping tool diesare like pristine and I can go

(01:11:00):
up to zero ought in in gaugesize.
And I was like, oh man, I wantto find a bigger cable just to
like crimp a good end on it.
And I was like this is amazing.
So if you guys need a batterycrimper, let me know, because
literally it's like it made.
It took away the all of all theold guys in the club when I was
like, hey, I need a batterycrimper to do battery cables,
they're like, oh, just put in avice and hammer the shit out of

(01:11:21):
it.
I'm like, dude, oh, that thatdestroys the cable in the, you
know.
And so when you hit this thingit's like butter, a couple of
presses and boom, that thing islike, oh, professional.
So, yeah, good stuff.
Okay, so you are maybe thinkingbattery box future kind of for

(01:11:42):
yourself.
Or you know, obviously you'rein the command center and that's
probably in your vocabulary nowbecause you're thinking you
know obviously a lot moreportable stuff.
You've got any ideas on whatyou want to go with or where
you're going with it?

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
Well, so, so I've actually I've got a list.
Obviously, I want, I want aminimum of 200 amp hour
batteries that are going topower the RV.
Then, like I said, I've gotthat Apache case.
It's 2,800.
The 100 amp hour, the CycloneBat should fit perfectly in that

(01:12:20):
case.
And then of course, it's buyingthe drogue freaking maintainer
or a meter and the shunt and allof the odds and ends to build
it out.
I want to do that because it'snice sometimes to be able to

(01:12:42):
have something that you couldliterally just grab the handle
and it.
It doesn't matter, you maythrow it in the river and and it
doesn't it doesn't matter,right.
Like it's watertight and it'sgood and so, yeah, so I want to.
I want to build, like the, themost indestructible watertight
fricking that there is, um andand it'll.

(01:13:05):
It'll be a fun, you know,learning experience doing that
uh, very cool.
Well, and then, and then also,uh, I also got to figure out
I've got a, uh, I've got a 3000watt inverter that I bought for
in here.
So because, like I said, twobatteries is the minimum that I
want to start with right at somepoint, I think I'm gonna, I

(01:13:28):
think I'm gonna try and go tofour batteries, at a minimum of
100 amp hour apiece, wire themtogether and have them connected
to the inverter so that way,even when I'm, you know,
completely boondocked, you know,in the middle of of nowhere in
the White Mountains, and I'mcamping up there to do the

(01:13:49):
48,000-footers, you know I'llstill be able to plug in the
coffee maker and power that offthe 12-volt, and I'll still be
able to… and a microwave maybe.
At the same time yeah, so the inthe rv the only things that run
off of 110 is is the outletsthemselves, the microwave and

(01:14:11):
the air conditioner.
And so, yeah, I mean, if I havea way to be able to run that
stuff and still have thatconvenience aspect without
worrying about running down thebatteries.
And and then I've got uh, I'vegot a renergy uh 100 watt solar
panel setup and I've got the, uh, the nice solar 100 watt

(01:14:35):
foldable panels.
Um, you know, so that way, Imean, at least while I'm out
hiking I can be recharging thebatteries.
Sure, you know, but the bigthing is being able to be
off-grid and still have all ofthis functional.

Speaker 1 (01:14:57):
Right, right, yeah, all your comforts, creature
comforts, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
Yeah Well, and I mean that comes at a power cost, and
so you know it's, it's figuringout exactly how many batteries
that I need to be able to run.
You know the computer and thestreaming stuff and you know the
coffee pot and everything elsefor at least a couple days, and
then you know I can go somewhereand I can plug in and I can

(01:15:23):
charge everything.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
But uh, yeah, it, just you know it adds, adds a
another little level ofcomplication to things and
forward planning and automationas to like how much you want to
have to make that a manualprocess versus just it
automatically flips over for youkind of thing, and yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
You know I.

Speaker 3 (01:15:44):
I always wanted to.
Um, I'm going to at some pointput a battery like a hundred amp
and run a solar panel just forthat battery and run my whole
shack Just just with the well,weren't you planning that
originally?

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
I thought you were going to do that as battery
backup.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
Well, I have a battery backup right Like a
computer battery, yeah.
Oh yeah, but I have it like formy, you know so, like for my
flex, my computer, the wifi,everything is.
You know if it to like the sideof the house and just let that
thing keep charging every timeit's sun and just see if it

(01:16:28):
would work.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
Yeah, I mean you could do that, or you could just
charge it off a house powerwhen you're not and not have to
worry about a solar panel, butyeah, yeah, but I want to take,
I want to get off the cause.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
if I can do it for free, I don't have to charge, I
don't have to use my electricity.
Well, so that's my start oflike doing.
That's where I would say youknow, look at something like the
all powers, right, and there'smany different options.
There's a huge Jackery, there'sBlue Eddie, there's all powers.

(01:17:01):
There's a whole bunch ofcompanies that make these
devices, but so this All Powersone in specific, it's the 2,500
watt.
It'll do a peak of 4,000.
So if you've got some highintensity, like your air
conditioner or the coffee pot orwhatever, that's going to draw

(01:17:21):
a lot it'll take it or thecoffee pot or whatever right.
That's going to draw a lot,it'll take it, but one of the
added benefits of it is I canhave it connected to shore power
while I'm connected to shorepower and then connect my
computer and whatever I want tothe all powers and it acts as a
UPS, and so it'll maintain thattrickle charge while it's

(01:17:46):
connected to power, but as soonas the power goes out, oh so it
goes in a bypass, oh nice.
And there's no drop in power, itmaintains.
So you never see that loss.
And actually, prep Ham Paul Iwas talking with him about it
he's got the exact same one andthat's what he does.

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
It kind of works like an all-house generator, right.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
When the power goes out.

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
You don't even know.
Yeah, it won't do your wholehouse, but I mean no but I'm
just saying it works the sameway Like if you have a whole
house generator.
I mean those whole housegenerators like once a week will
turn on Cycle, turn off yourregular electricity, run off the
generator, then go back and youdon't even know it's happening.
You know, so are you saying itwould if the power went out?

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
All your shack stuff that's plugged into it would
stay running until the batterydied.

Speaker 1 (01:18:52):
Right, yeah, well, you have a UPS anyway for the
rack and all the stuff in therack, so that would run out.
Well, actually that wouldprobably never run out because
it'd be just pulling the batteryjuice from the.
The all works until the poweryou know it's depleted.
So you could probably getruntime, you know four or five
hours.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
What's the difference between, like the Jackery, the
Blue Yeti, like I'm looking, allpowers?
Like what?
What are they just differentcompanies that do the same thing
?
Is it like Yesu and your brandthere, paul?

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
The other radio company.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
There's a lot of similarities between the brands.
The thing that you've got tolook at is will it take higher
peak voltage?
Um you know how, how long willit last?
Will it, will it, you know, actas, as a UPS, where it'll give
you that uninterrupted powersupply, right, I believe that's

(01:19:55):
what UPS stands for Um, you know, and, and then you know what is
the total capacity.
So you know how how much canyou run off of it until it dies?

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
Right, well, like, like this one, there's one here,
it's a, it's a all powers S2000,.
2000 watt.
Peak 4,000 watt.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Yep, that's the one I have.
It's got a 30 amp plug.
It's got uh four 20 amp plugs,uh plus usb and other other
incidentals.

Speaker 3 (01:20:28):
Yeah now, what now?
Is that the one you just heldup?

Speaker 1 (01:20:33):
no, no no he sorted it.
He was struggling yeah, no, hedid in the beginning.
He held one up.
Yeah, no, yeah, we were talkinglarge stuff, but yeah you, you
sort of muscled that man thathandled that one.
Here's the big guy.

Speaker 3 (01:20:48):
Yep, yeah, yeah, that's it Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
Hey, Todd, are you saying?

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
Shut up and take my money.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
Well, and I'll tell you, temporary offline, uh, he's
got, he's got two channels.
He's got a ham channel and he'salso got, uh, living for a
living, uh, which is his rvchannel.
Uh, and that was where I hadseen these all powers, um, and

(01:21:22):
he did, he did a very, verythorough testing of you know,
the capacity and charging anddischarging and and what he
could do with it.
Um, very, very, very good video.
Um, I'll find the link to that.
I'm just thinking.

Speaker 3 (01:21:38):
I'm just thinking like, let's say you were going
to build a shed and that wasgoing to be your shack right.
So you were going to say I'mgoing to go the backyard, going
to build a shed and that's goingto be my shack right.
Some people do that, but itmight be easier or cheaper to

(01:21:58):
buy one of those battery thingto run the electricity in your
quote on shack your backyardshed without running electricity
to it.
Yeah, I mean, if you threw ifyou threw a couple of solar
panels I mean solar panels arepretty cheap these days on the
roof to charge that thing andjust let it sit Every time the
sun would come out, it would becharging it and you'd be using

(01:22:21):
it and you'd probably never haveto do anything to it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
Yeah, for I would say if you had no way, no cheap,
easy, feasible way to getelectricity to the shed, yeah,
that would be an awesome fit andsomething like that is probably
pretty RF quiet anyway for likefield day.
So you could run everything,your entire you know station off
of that.
One thing, Right, becauseyou're only your radio is
running at a hundred amp hour,that's 4,000 watts, so I'm sure

(01:22:49):
you're getting two of thosehundred amp hours you know in
terms of longevity and havingenough wattage for everything.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
I mean this these are considered like what would you
call them?
These would be considered like,like RV portable.
Yeah, but they're more like.
They're more like.
I mean, we call them batterypacks, but they're more like
generators really.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
That much wattage Solar generator.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
Yeah, I hate that term, so dumb.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
Yeah, solar, solar right.

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
Like, oh yeah, it does solar and it generates
electricity, but why can't wejust call it a portable battery,
right?
So, yeah, I think in that state, yeah, you, probably, I would
think you would have a reallygood luck with it as a you and
something that you use for fielddays or whatever when you want

(01:23:48):
to, right?

Speaker 3 (01:23:54):
I think if you're RVing across the country, you're
living in your camper, you'rewhat are they?

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
you know you're going off grid kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:24:12):
Yep, I think it's a must have Really.

Speaker 1 (01:24:16):
Dude the convenience factor alone.
Like, think how easy that is.
Like, hey, you want to bringbattery power out to, like you
know, say, you're sitting out infront of the camper and it's
like, yeah, you don't have, likeyou know, an extension cord or
something like that.
You just plug into that andyou've got, you know, light
access, radio, everything youcan think of, and you know, uh,
plenty of time to to, you know,basically, charge up any devices

(01:24:36):
you want.
And it's pretty convenient forme, like I would be all over it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:41):
I mean, I have a, I have a like a little.
You know, I have a biggergenerator that we use for the
house when we lose power.
And then I got a little gas onethat I can carry around.
I think it's heavy as shit whenit's got gas in it, but I use
that to run the pitching machine.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
Now you can buy one of these and you can charge your
phone while you're running thepitching machine.

Speaker 3 (01:25:05):
I mean it makes noise and stuff, but that's not bad,
but you've got to keep puttinggas in it.
I like the idea of having thepower and then just getting
renewable energy, like if youknow, if you were out camping
for a week in the Grand Canyonand there's no electricity and
you had a solar panel, you couldhave power for a week without
having you know.
If you had a gas generator,you'd have to go out and get gas

(01:25:27):
.

Speaker 1 (01:25:27):
So Well, like have to go out and get gas, so well,
like 4 000 watts you couldeasily run like a bed, air pump,
a whole bunch of fans, like allthat stuff at a campsite, with
no problem, I mean that thingwould take.

Speaker 3 (01:25:38):
How are you, how are you charging all this stuff like
now that you're in this camper.

Speaker 2 (01:25:43):
so right now I have shore power, I've got I've got a
30 amp pedestal next to the RVand so I'm connected to the
30-amp pedestal so I have 30amps coming in.
But so, yeah, so I'm using itas a UPS for the computer and
the studio.
Okay, you can also.

(01:26:06):
It comes with this cable.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
Oh right, I remember you telling me that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
You can connect them together Parallel or series.
I believe series right.
So it doesn't increase thevoltage, it increases the
capacity.

Speaker 1 (01:26:21):
No, that's parallel.
Parallel amps go up.
Series capacity volts go up.

Speaker 2 (01:26:29):
I get it confused all the time.
I know same here.

Speaker 1 (01:26:33):
I just looked it up.
That's why.

Speaker 2 (01:26:36):
So it maintains the 13.8 volts.
It just increases your capacity.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
So if you put two of them on, instead of having 2,000
, you'd have 4,000.
Yeah, yep Nice they do thatwith generators.

Speaker 1 (01:26:50):
Yeah, yep, nice more power.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
Captain, they do that , you know.
They do that with generatorstoo.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
You can link the generators together with the gas
generators, so it's kind oflike the same idea, yep and, for
the record, all of the brandsmentioned are only our
recommendations based on ourusage, and not because they're
sponsoring this in any way.

Speaker 1 (01:27:12):
Yeah, no sponsorships here, my friend, not yet yeah.
But if you guys want to sponsorus please, Please send us a
reviews to livefreeandham atgmailcom and we'll gladly review
them for you.
Long-term and short-termreviews are all welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Oh, I will gladly beat the crap out of any battery
.
Anybody wants me to beat thecrap out of any battery?
Anybody wants me to beat thecrap out of?

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Paul does not take kindly to his equipment.
He makes sure that it gets inline.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
You know how everybody hypes on military
grade, right?
Well, military grade generallyis not high quality.
It could just take a shit tonof abuse.
That's pretty much it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
It is not high quality, it can just take a ton
of abuse.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
What you think an M1 Abrams tank is a lap of luxury
and you're driving the damnthing.
No, it can take a mortar toshell to it, no problem, it can
keep going.
God forbid you come out ofthere with back pain and a
couple of broken limbs, but cool, all right.
So sounds like a good battery.
You know, a start of a goodbattery, ultimate battery box

(01:28:23):
build.
Looking forward to kind ofseeing your ideas, I'm sure.
But when I start talking aboutmy build I'm not going to dive
into too much because I don'twant to give away my, my uh
hopefully video release on thechannel soon.
But, um, I uh finally dippedinto the foray of thinking about
building a battery box and toddand I talked about a while back
and I did it primarily notbecause I wanted it for like a

(01:28:45):
specific function, although nowthat I've got my hf build done
for the truck, I'm like like,well, dude, in warmer weather
this is just going to stay inthe backseat of the truck and I
just had to power pole the damnthing to it and we're off and I
can run off that a hundred amphour, no problem, but you know
where it's cold, you know I'mgoing to have to lug it around.
But I wanted something that was,like Paul said, watertight.

(01:29:06):
Abuse, you know, can dole outand deal with.
Abuse is not going to crack orfade, you know, based off the
plastics and stuff like that inthe case it's in.
So I took a tough build casefrom lowes and they are a little
pretty pricey but the the oneI've got is a small little um,
tough built, uh say here a.

(01:29:29):
Of course I'm going to wrongview here, but whatever those,
in the show won't be able to see.
You'll see my background.
Let me actually change thatover so it makes it a little
easier for folks to see.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
Now the ultimate test for your box.
Eric is going to be bangingaround the bed of your truck on
a 30 degree day Because let metell you.
I pulled a tote out of my truckthe other day and because the
tote was so cold, it literallyjust shattered into a billion

(01:30:03):
pieces.

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
This thing I don't think will shatter because it's
got metal plates on the sidethat they developed for other
hooking.
So I have you know Eric.

Speaker 3 (01:30:14):
Eric told me about this company and I bought a
large toolbox for the base thatI have in my Jeep.
And then I have a crate andthey just snap on and I've had
it in my truck all I mean in myJeep all winter long and these
things are awesome.
They're the best stackablecontainers you have and there's

(01:30:38):
so many options.
They even make a cooler likeyou can have a cooler.
It can snap on to to it.
If you want.
You can mix and match and dowhatever you want.
So I basically have the toolboxwhich is just like a big crate
with a lid on it, and then Ihave an open crate like a milk
crate on top, but it snaps on.
I throw all my baseball gear inthat and then if I need to get

(01:30:58):
my tools, I just click the thing.
It pops off and then it's rightthere.
But they're heavy duty.
Like you can literally likethrow that thing out your truck
and it'd probably still be fine.

Speaker 1 (01:31:09):
Oh yeah, yeah, it definitely is a pretty, it's
pretty strong.

Speaker 3 (01:31:13):
It's the most heavy duty one I've seen Like.
I've seen like the, you knowthe, you know what a craftsman
makes them, and then you have,like the Walt makes them and all
those companies Milwaukee.
Milwaukee.
They all, this one by far ofall the ones I looked at.
This thing is they're the andthat's, that's the half one, so
like you can put.

Speaker 1 (01:31:32):
This is like a mini fridge kind of style and so.

Speaker 2 (01:31:35):
So there's your drogue power meter.

Speaker 1 (01:31:38):
So the drogue's in the front and it's upside down,
sorry, so no big deal.
But the one thing I love aboutthis it's IP 65 rated.
So this thing's got toobviously have no problem being
in a lake and still stay dry,although I have to seal the
drogue to make that 100.
But I was like, all right,we're going to spare no expense.
And when I wanted a cutoffswitch, so I put in a 40 amp, 50

(01:31:59):
amp cutoff switch so I don'thave to worry about draining the
battery with all the sundry youknow parts solar.
And then I've got four usb allon their own fused.
And then this is a current USBwhich is going to be changed out
to PD power.
I haven't figured out what Iwant to put here yet, if I'm

(01:32:19):
going to put anything here atall, but I have the capacity to
be able to add or expand.

Speaker 3 (01:32:23):
Why don't you just leave that there, because that's
USB, right?

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
Yeah, so I was going to get a USB C and a PD so I
could do both and just replacethis out.
So yeah, it's pretty stout andyou know it was a really hard
box to kind of drill out becauseit's such thick plastic.
But if I go into the inside ofit here a little bit real quick,
you know I've got a couple ofthings controllers, wiring, the

(01:32:51):
sh shunt, all the battery fuses,but everything.
Like I'm anal when it comes tomaking sure things are well
tucked in and organized and, youknow, well arranged.

Speaker 3 (01:33:00):
So I'll go over that in my video.
How much are you into that?

Speaker 1 (01:33:05):
uh box included or battery included in the box.
Uh, just shy of about 650.

Speaker 3 (01:33:19):
Battery included in the box.
Uh, just shy of about 650,right, so not to burst your
bubble, yeah, but I'm lookingjust right now at a blue yeti
with 1152 watts for 699, with a34% coupon.

Speaker 1 (01:33:31):
Okay, how many PowerPool ports does it have on
it?
True, how many USB chargingports does it have on it?
What does it have for meterratings?
Like I can tweet that DROK hasactually got a really nice setup
.

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
No, I'm just saying that I think this is what the
challenge is is how do you make?
I mean you can customize it forlike ham radio, but how?
What happens if like, like, if,if Blue Yeti or Jackery or
anyone made a battery box kindof thing the way they sell it

(01:34:06):
for ham radio that had powerpoles on it?

Speaker 1 (01:34:09):
Well, there are a few out there that do.
I've seen a few manufacturersthat come out.

Speaker 3 (01:34:13):
who had it?

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
Yeah, I think Jackery does have one, which is not a
bad concept.
But a lot like the problem isthe markets they're targeting
aren't for per se ham radiooperators directly, so they're
not going to put a power pole onthere because most people are
going to be like what the heckis that connector?
I'll never use that, andthey'll be like I just want a
USB port or I want to be able toplug a wall outlet in.

(01:34:34):
That was the only thing that Ididn't know if I wanted to do.
I was almost to the point ofmaybe putting in like an
extension cord power.
But the one feature I reallywant to work on, like Paul was
saying, where he has thatconnector that allows him to
join all powers together, I,where he has that connector that
allows him to join all powerstogether I wanted to buy another
one of these boxes, put another100 amp hour, another 200 amp

(01:34:57):
hour in there or probablyanother 100 amp hour, because I
want to match them.
And then I wanted to buy thelarger style power poles you
know the ones that look likealmost Amphenol connectors, like
the big gray ones that you putpower, and I want to put one
female, one end on one plastic.
So where these things clicktogether, I can stack another
battery on top of that andthey'll fuse the battery from

(01:35:19):
the bottom, so they'll basicallyjust snap in.
So now I've got 200, you knowamp hours uh plugged in and if I
don't want to use I just takeit off and set it off aside.
So kind of thinking like that.
But you know I got to get thisup and running first and you
know, hopefully that'll be on mychannel soon.
So, uh, you know you'll get allthe juicy details on that, it's
going to definitely be prettycool.

Speaker 3 (01:35:39):
And I like, I like the idea of these battery boxes,
like the builds, because youbuild them to what your needs
are, you know.
So everyone I've seen andpeople I mean you go to, like
you know, when we go to um, whatdo you call it?
Near Fest, and there's always acompany there that's always
selling them.
They, they also do like um,they also have like little you

(01:36:00):
know, portable 30 watt radioswith batteries in it, and you
know.
But I think it's cool becauseyou can add in and customize it
however you want to like yourneeds, add and customize it
however you want to like yourneeds.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
which is which is different than like you know,
like what you're saying, likethat blue yeti, one which is
just like for the general use,um, so I think that's kind of
cool yeah, and the the benefitto building the battery box
yourself, like if your batterydies you can just put a new
battery in and you're good to go, whether you get like one of
those jackeries or whatever youreally like are going to have to
void the warranty to crack openthe case to pull out whatever

(01:36:35):
they put in there, and it's surenot a complete battery, I'm
sure it's probably a bunch ofcells all taped together.
So you end up, you know, kindof really just it becomes like
almost like a rc battery, likeafter a while you just recycle
them to get rid of them kind ofthing, more than make them
useful.

Speaker 2 (01:36:51):
The funny thing is.
I was just looking at thesmaller all-powers and it's got
two USB-A, two USB-C and thenthe DC cigarette lighter kind of
power port which nobody everuses.
But yeah, that's DC though I wasjust looking at it and I was

(01:37:12):
like, well, I mean, it almostlooks like I could open the face
of it and I could access the,the guts there.
I might, I might, I might voidthe warranty, uh, and, and take
it apart and see if I can't swapthat out for power poles
because we probably easily couldreplace that whole entire

(01:37:32):
receptacle with a 3d printedpower pole port.

Speaker 1 (01:37:35):
Yeah, good, that's what I'm thinking.
So I'm sure there's a thingyverse somewhere out there just
to do that to that specific unitand you just need to find the
print file and send it to ryancan't you, um, can't you do?

Speaker 3 (01:37:47):
couldn't you, um, can't you do?
Couldn't you plug in thecigarette lighter thing to a and
have one in the cigarettelighter, the other in the power
pole and then plug whatever youneed into the power pole?
What do you mean?
So, like I have a cable that'sa cigarette lighter, you know

(01:38:10):
the DC plug, sure One is that,and the other end is you know
the DC plug, sure One is that,and the other end is a power
pole connector, yep.
So why couldn't he just plug in, make that wire and plug?

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
whatever he needed in , like his radio or whatever he
could.
It just wouldn't look as clean.
Like I don't think it wouldlook like you'd have wires
sticking out the front of it.
He was thinking of kind of makeit more like modular, like you
know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:38:39):
So you would just plug into that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:41):
Yeah.
So instead of like having thatcigarette lighter port, you'd
have something like this.
So like this 3d printed youknow, power pole port Right and
uh, you port and you justreplace that and then you can
put two power poles on the endof that and daisy chain them.
So something like that, paul.

Speaker 2 (01:38:58):
Yeah, exactly, just swap the outlet out completely.
I do have.
I tried to find it, but I dohave what Todd's talking about,
where, like the cigarettelighter plug in the power supply
for the Toughbook.
It came with a cigarettelighter thing.

(01:39:20):
I cut the cigarette lighterplug off and I power pulled it.
So now I've got the cigarettelighter plug and I could just
power pull the end of that right.
So for an example.

Speaker 3 (01:39:31):
I can use.
I could just power pull the endof that Right, but definitely
not as nice as so.
For an example, I can use theJackery, right, and I can plug
in that cord or that DC thingwith the power pull and then
plug in my 891 into that.

Speaker 1 (01:39:49):
Yeah, you should be able to, depending on how many
watts you had.

Speaker 3 (01:39:51):
but it's 300 watts.

Speaker 1 (01:39:55):
Should be enough for at least a couple hours.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean youcould literally just make
yourself a cable and, you know,put ring terminals or whatever
else you on the other end andyou're good to go.
Then hook it up to that jackeryand you're off.

Speaker 2 (01:40:08):
Yeah, yeah, I mean literally this little bio anode
that I'm using Is what?

Speaker 3 (01:40:12):
a hundred?
How many hours?
It's 180 watt hours.
So what does that mean?
So my Jackery is 300, so it'salmost double this.

Speaker 1 (01:40:24):
Yep, so you're putting out A max 180 watts
Every hour, roughly Every hourcontinuous.
That it will support Doesn'tmean that it's peak, but in
essence, depending on how muchyour amp draw is on your radio
or other attachments is going todominate.

Speaker 3 (01:40:40):
I'm going to play.
I'm going to play, I'm going to.
Next time I do a port, I'mgoing to try it on the Jackery.
Yeah, just watch it.

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
Well you'll be able to find out pretty quickly.
Just look at the rate the theidle power draw on the 91 off
the website and then what it'sfull dry is at a hundred Watts,
and you can then calculate offthe Jackery.

Speaker 3 (01:40:58):
I just watched that thing.
It has a little thing with likethe percentage or just be like
so sometimes space balls.

Speaker 2 (01:41:05):
Yeah, so the eight 91 off the top of my head.
Uh, it's a two-amp receive drawand a max of 20-amp transmit
draw.
Okay, that's what you'reworking with with the 891.
Actually, I think the 7300 isabout the same.

(01:41:26):
I think the last time I checkedthat it was about the same 2
amps on receive and about 20amps on transmit.

Speaker 1 (01:41:37):
Interesting.
All right, so it sounds like wegot some future battery box
builds to share once Toddobviously gets his go box
together for his DX10 and thelike.
Uh, dx 10 and and the like, andand Paul's building his dream
one, and energy, oh yes, ah yeah, that's all right.

(01:41:58):
So we'll hold off that onebecause I want to talk
accessories and maintenance at asecond that you know we have
tips and tricks there, because Iknow we all have a different
little setup going Um, but youdo you want to take a little
time and talk a little bit aboutyour kind of plans, your
12-volt setup there for the RV,life and trailer and what that
kind of looks like a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:42:17):
Yeah, well, I mean, I've already kind of touched on
it with adding lithium-ionphosphate batteries to the front
and that's going to.
You know, I'll have to do acustom box for that, and you
know, of course I want custombox for that, and you know, of
course I want to.
I want to be able to add solarto the mix.
Uh, while the rv is it, it'sbuilt with a solar jack outside

(01:42:41):
they call it a solar jack.
Um, really, all it is is, uh,it's, it's an sae plug, uh.
So you got to be careful,because sometimes the positive
isn't the positive that youthink it is.
You know those SAE plugs.
I absolutely hate them.
But it is what it is.
It's already there, it's builtinto the trailer.

(01:43:03):
So I think at some point, whatI'll end up doing is just
redoing it.
What I'll end up doing is, uh isjust redoing it, um, and and
and putting you know some typeof a waterproof power pole cover
or power pole uh plug there, um, but yeah, it's just, you know,
having enough, having enoughbattery power to ensure that

(01:43:28):
whatever I'm using that it'sgoing to draw the highest amount
of current, is going to nottotally wipe out the whole
system, right?
So like the computer has a 750watt power supply which that's a
lot, you know so just for thecomputer alone has a has a big
current draw.
And then you add the fridge,the air conditioner, the

(01:43:51):
microwave.
That's where I've got to sitdown.
I've got to do the math andI've got to say what is the
maximum amount of power that Iwould ever be pulling all at
once and how many batteries, andwhat do I need to fulfill that
need so that I can go off-grid,still live in comfort?

Speaker 1 (01:44:18):
You've got to calculate how long you want to
go off-grid too, and that'sgoing to dictate as to how you
build your solar farm andeverything else on top of that.

Speaker 2 (01:44:26):
Yeah, exactly, and if you look at, the things that I
want to do, aren't verydifferent from the things that a
lot of other you know peopleare doing.
Um, you know, go, go set up ina in a national wildlife refuge,
right up to 14 days for free,before you have to move, and so,

(01:44:51):
all right.
Well, water's easy, because Imean, I've got a 40-gallon
freshwater tank, I've got a54-gallon gray tank and a
54-gallon waste tank, so, youknow, water should be no problem
.
If you're, you know, beingconservative, you're not.
You know, taking long showersevery day?

(01:45:12):
Sure, right, but you know, butthe battery power requires
some're not?
You know taking long showersevery day, but you know, but the
battery power requires somemath, you know, um, and so, yeah
, it's, it's going to be, it'sgoing to be a little bit of of
figuring out, uh, exactly howmany batteries and which
batteries that I I need to buyto be able to power everything
for a week, say, right cool.

Speaker 1 (01:45:32):
Well, we'll look forward to, you know, your
research and input and sharingthat whole process for sure,
because I think I look forwardto it, because I it always.
Now that I'm building batteryboxes it's like a little bit
more familiar now and all of myelectronics kind of like
nervousness of like oh, did Ihook this wire up wrong and why

(01:45:54):
can't I this follow, and howdoes electricity follow the path
to ground, kind of deal allcame back to me once I started
building the box.
I'm like dude, why was I soworried about like wiring wires
wrong?
It's simple, you know.
So, um, you know.
All that being said is you knowit's interesting to see kind of
how you come up with your,because I know a lot.
You watch all the other like RVoverlanding shows and they're

(01:46:14):
like, oh, we do an ornology setup and it's like $5,000 worth of
maintenance equipment and I waslike dude, you haven't even
bought the batteries yet.
Where the heck are you going to?
You know I don't even have thattype of budget to think about
building.
You know that much of a intensesetup.
But yeah, I get it.
People go overboard a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:46:32):
Yeah, well, you know I'm, I do everything on a budget
.
So, uh, yeah, it'll, it'lldefinitely be.

Speaker 1 (01:46:45):
Uh, I will share the knowledge that I gained to
hopefully help other people alsoon a budget.
Very cool.
Well, I appreciate it.
So, all right, we got a coupleof small categories that we kind
of touched, of touched.
We want to touch into that.
I that kind of popped up in ourconversations here.
So let's um briefly touch onbecause I think we kind of
touched on it already.
But you know, from yourcharging perspective, what do
you guys do in each of thosecategories for your maintaining

(01:47:07):
your batteries, keeping themtopped off?
Do you guys have one setup?
You have a couple of differentsetups.
Are you just using off theshelf stuff?
Anything creative?

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
Um, so for the BioNno , I just have a charger that
came with the battery that Iyeah, that I plug in and leave
it in my poda bag, that way Ican charge it.
If I, you know, if I'm, if I'mdoing a two day trip and and I'm
gonna go out two days, I canjust plug it in and charge it.
And then, for the 100 amp, Ihave a battery tender that will

(01:47:41):
do life lifey batteries and justput it on there and it charges
it up I mean it takes time.
But I mean that big batteryisn't like something I have to
charge fast because you knowyou're not gonna use it every
day right, right, I mean, it'slike, I mean it's it lasts
forever anyway.
So you know, if I know I'mgonna use it, but you know I'm

(01:48:02):
gonna play around with it thissummer and I'm gonna, I'm gonna
hook it up to the generator andsee how that works and how it
keeps it going, and you know, Iknow I'll run stuff off it.

Speaker 1 (01:48:14):
What'd you get there?
Grouch the yellow bag.
The yellow bag has come out.

Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
The yellow bag is no-co, and so this is my
charging bag.
And so in here we've got theGenius, the genius g750, that
four amp hour, um, it is 75 amp,750 milliamp, okay, um, but

(01:48:43):
just have an amp an hour.
Yeah, it's.
You know it's not a super fastcharger, uh for sure, but it's,
uh, it's it, but it's the genius.
So it doesn't matter what kindof battery that, I have it.

Speaker 1 (01:48:57):
Auto-figures it out.
Smart detection yeah, okay,yeah, it's a good purchase there
, my friend.
We all know we could screw up aLiPo and cause a fire very
quickly if you don't have theright battery charger, if you
don't have the right batterycharger, I can tell you guys,
the batteries for the LiPos withthe RC stuff they've got a

(01:49:20):
Horizon has.

Speaker 3 (01:49:20):
They put microchips in them and they have a third
little plug and basically youcan program them to discharge
when you want them to dischargeand they'll self-discharge.
They're pretty awesome and itthrows um, connects with the
telemetry and stuff too.
So you know once, I think asyears go on, you're going to
start seeing like batteries thatyou're going to be able to have

(01:49:42):
an app for you know and just beable to look at it and know
exactly what it's doing.

Speaker 2 (01:49:49):
Well, there's, there's, there's the uh the
benefit of the droke, uh powermeter there.
But um, the all powers also hasuh an app.
So you can, you can monitoreverything that way um, but on
my list is that 40 amp hourcharger.
Um, just because not not thatthis takes forever, because it

(01:50:13):
doesn't.
I mean it'll top off the 100amp hour after a long weekend in
an overnight charge session,but sometimes you know like you
need it to be a little bitfaster, and so that's where
you're, like a 40 amp hourcharger.

Speaker 1 (01:50:33):
Dude, even a 20 amp will put you, you know, halfway,
faster than the you know fouror eight amp hour chargers I do
today.
That's kind of my thought and Iwas like it's a little easier
to swallow price-wise,especially when you're looking
for, you know, something that'snot going to break the bank or
cost about half of the battery.
Yeah, okay.
So you've got some chargingscenarios, and mostly it's just

(01:50:55):
all portable stuff.
Do you have either?
You guys have a, like we'll say, your battery station?
Because I know we had a talk along time ago about maybe
setting up a master stationwhere you plop, drop and plug in
kind of configuration.
You guys have built anythinglike that yet.

Speaker 3 (01:51:13):
I'm going to be working.
That's one of the things in myshack that I'm working towards.
Yeah, because I want to be ableto put I want to have it so I
can just plug in anything andeverything from phone, laptop,
battery, whatever I need tocharge.
I just go to one place and it'sjust right there, ready to go.

Speaker 2 (01:51:31):
Yep, how about you, paul, at the Home Shack, my
workbench is a toolbox.
It's a big, giant toolbox, buton the top of the toolbox I keep
a surge strip with all of thedifferent uh, you know charging

(01:51:53):
blocks with, uh, usbc and microusb, and I think I've even got
one for for mini usb, which isreally old.
Yeah, well, and then, and thenI've got, you know, two
different, you different powerpole chargers.
So, yeah, I set it all up.
Oh, even AA's and AAA's.

(01:52:14):
That's something we didn't talkabout.
Yeah, because the antennaanalyzer takes AA's and I hate
buying batteries.
So I buy rechargeable batteriesand then I keep, uh, you know,
a spare set with me.
But then if you got to swapthem out while you go home and

(01:52:37):
you pull those batteries, youthrow everything right there on
the toolbox in the chargers forwhatever they are, and that goes
through HTS, everything likewhat are you using for
rechargeables?
Um, so I'm, I'm using the.
What are you using forrechargeables?
I'm using the Amazon brand.

(01:52:58):
Initially, I bought a wholebunch of Tenogy rechargeable
batteries, aa's and AAA's.
For whatever reason, if youdon't use those batteries, they
go down below saving voltage andthen they won't take a charge.
And so it's just a waste.

(01:53:20):
So I've definitely found thatwhen it comes to rechargeable
AA's and AAA's or what are thevape batteries there?

Speaker 1 (01:53:30):
The 1665 or whatever the 18650s.
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:39):
So I've got one of those chargers in my charging
setup as well for thosebatteries.
If you buy the cheap, cheap,cheap ones, you're going to
regret it.
Yeah, you get cheap to cheap,and that's one of those things.
I learned it the hard way, uh.
So take, take it from me.
Don't buy the cheapest ones.
Uh, you know, even if, even ifit's going to take you a little

(01:54:02):
bit like, just save up so thatyou can buy it in bulk, because
it's always cheaper to buy thosebatteries in bulk.
But yeah, get the, get thebetter quality ones, for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:54:13):
Yeah, I got um for me .
Mostly my charging stations arethe all typical ones that come
with the bio and O, you know,wall wart kind of chargers,
although now that these guyshave been getting me going I'm
thinking, you know I need a 20amp hour.
Uh, redondo, you know chargerCause I got to charge my 100 amp
hour now.
So I'll add that to the arsenal.

(01:54:33):
But I built in my storage kindof ham storage area a whole
shelving system for the incomingto outgoing kind of staging.
So all my camera batteries formy YouTube channel, all of my
radio batteries, all of thelaptops and stuff like that all

(01:54:53):
have a section on the shelf.
So all the cables for thosetype of devices, so like my iPad
chargers, are already thereready for accepting, you know,
charging power, the power forthe Bluetooth keyboard kind of
stuff I can just tether andcharge and disconnect and throw
it in the bag, kind of thing.

(01:55:13):
And so I've gotten to my placewhere it's like when I come home
from a polo or whatever, I'lldrop the bag there, take all the
stuff out of it, throw it onthe shelf to get it all charged,
put the bag on the shelf andthen so the reverse order is
like okay, all this stuff goesin the bag, goes out the door
with me and I'm all good.
The only problem I haven'tworked out yet is how I grab my
antenna bag with me.
But I've solved that by puttingmore antennas in my truck.

(01:55:35):
So I have options.
So maybe that's how I fixed it.
But yeah, I bought um, all ofthe uh.
I bought a two uh batterytending kind of USB-C, usb-a,
block charging.
I think it's like a 4,000 wattor whatever the highest wattage
you could get to be able to doUSB-C, pd and USB-3.

(01:55:56):
And so I have all of the shortcables.
So all the devices that sit onthe shelf all have just a short
cable that never leave thatdevice because they're all glued
to it.
So they all just plug in viaUSB-C or USBba um and charge
from there.
So that that's been a lifesaverbecause all my batteries now
stay topped off and everythingelse like that.
So as long as I keep followingthat suit, I'm good there.

(01:56:19):
Um, I think the battery issmaller, something like that,
like that uh, actually a littlebit bigger than that.
It actually has eight ports onit, so a total of four usb c and
four usb uh a, 30 ports and pdports all in a brick and it's
got a little.
It's a chinese braid.
I can't find it on amazonbecause I can't remember my

(01:56:41):
stupid amazon password, um, butI'll post that in the show notes
of what it is.
You said 4 000 watts.

Speaker 2 (01:56:46):
So I mean that's, that's a considerable amount of
power.
This little guy is only 65.

Speaker 1 (01:56:52):
65, yeah, it's got a lot of wattage because it was
able to support a whole USB-CUSB 3.0 charging.
This is actually.
This is my soldering kit.
Oh yes, is that the Pen Seal?

Speaker 2 (01:57:09):
I went with Kyowitz but yeah, okay, similar kind of
the same.

Speaker 1 (01:57:11):
Seal.
I went with Kai Weitz, but yeah, okay, similar account, same
thing.
It looks like this.
Let me just screen share realquick.
So on Amazon, it looks likethis so the block, not the
pencil.
Why are you showing me?

Speaker 3 (01:57:28):
that.

Speaker 1 (01:57:28):
Oh, look at that.
No, that's the old light pen.
That's not what I'm looking for.
It is oh, I know why becauseI'm sharing in the streamer tab,
damn it, that's why anyway.
But yeah, I'll post it in theshow notes for folks if they're
interested in what a chargingstation I'm using for that.
But it's like kind of a usbmulti-port block that does up to
400 or 500 watts, I think it is.

(01:57:49):
That's awesome.
So that's enough juice.
Yeah, it's really good, I gotit.
It's kind of a USB multi-portblock that does up to 400 or 500
watts, I think it is.
That's awesome.
So that's enough juice.
Yeah, it's really good, I gotit.
It's a cheap Chinese knockoffbut it was highly recommended
and you know I got it for like agood Black Friday deal.
So that solved the problemthere.

(01:58:12):
So, all right, let's kind ofwe've been humming along here
and we definitely got a wholelot more we could dive in here.
Like most topics, we could justkeep going Exactly, and we know
we already lost half ouraudience already for the first
hour.
So all good there.
All tongue in cheek aside there, all right.
Well, so how can we wrap thisup?
I mean any, you know.
Last bit of advice.
You want to throw at somebodythat you know, so maybe they're
diving into 4A batteries and youknow, hopefully some of our

(01:58:33):
examples we've, you know, shownyou kind of give you different
options at different levels, butanything we want to throw in
there that you might want tothrow as a heat of caution to
someone who's in the market tobuy portable batteries.

Speaker 2 (01:58:47):
All right, I was waiting for Todd to jump in
there, but all right so I wouldsay it's past about time.
The biggest bit of advice that Ican give is know what your
worst case usage is and thenplan for that.
And when you're shopping forbatteries, yes, consider the

(01:59:25):
price, but be extra, extravigilant of checking the reviews
and making sure that you knowit doesn't have an artificial
review rating right when youknow these companies.
A lot of times they willsolicit people to give five-star
reviews just to bolster theirreview status.
So make sure that you're goingthrough and you're really
analyzing the reviews for good,honest, actual users and not
promo reviews, because, yeah,you don't want to do your

(01:59:50):
research.
Watch your YouTube channels,watch more than one guy.

Speaker 3 (02:00:01):
I mean, my thing is, when you do your research and
you're looking for what you want.
There's so much out there onYouTube.
And I think you know if you, ifyou watch enough of them on
whatever object you know,whatever battery you're looking
for, you'll probably get an ideaof which one is right for you.
And like Ryan always says, buyonce, cry once, so don't always

(02:00:23):
go with the cheapest one.
I mean I guess you get what youpay for, because I mean for you
, paul you're looking at, thisis going to be powering a lot of
your important stuff that youdon't want it to just die out
after three months of using it.
You want to have decentbatteries in it and you know I

(02:00:44):
don't have a lot of experiencewith batteries, except when I'm
flying the model airplanes andI'll tell you they're, yeah, for
eight minutes at a time, and itdepends If it's cold it's like
half that, but anyway there'sdifference with the quality.
So you'll see a deal and yousee some of it is, or some of it

(02:01:10):
is like brand name and stuffbut I found
good batteries by trial anderror that are fairly like for
the planes, that are fairlycheap, that work better than the
brand name ones.
But again, that was me and thatwas a lot of trial and error and
buying a shitload of batteries,probably probably more than I
needed to.

(02:01:30):
But now I know which batteriesI like and I think, with YouTube
and stuff and the differentoptions you have, just don't go
on Amazon and pull the Amazon'schoice and be like, oh, this is
the one I'm going to get becauseAmazon says it's the right one,
and talk to people that havethem.
Reach out to Paul.

(02:01:51):
You got his email, he'll tellyou what he's found and he can
send you links and and that kindof stuff.
And I think that's the way wewe get around it and, like I
said, I think battery technologyand solar technology is just
getting better and better,exactly Right, and I just think

(02:02:19):
it's going to be.
You know, in the future, Ithink we're going to be seeing a
lot of these batteries runninga lot of things and helping us
get off the grid, yeah, and sure?

Speaker 1 (02:02:32):
yeah, that's for sure , and I, honestly, I would
appreciate somebody asking meabout something other than ai
music, like even though he is onhis top 20 lists, somewhere on
the top 40, all All right.
Yeah, I would say from mystandpoint, you guys all hit the

(02:02:54):
nail on the head, research andthat type of stuff.
But I think my best experiencefor me was when I was we'll use
Podium as an example, becausethat's kind of where I started
getting into the battery marketwas.
I looked around, I, you know, Iwent to watch other people you
know at HamFest and talk aboutother batteries and and ask
people their preferences and whythey went with one versus the

(02:03:14):
other.
And and then you know, youtubewas always a big kind of either
reinforcement one direction oranother.
But yeah, you know that yourfirst battery you're going to
buy is not always going to bethe last battery you buy.
And if you have that senseabout it, then when you start to
get to a certain place, you'llfind that you're going to be
buying exactly like I do.
You buy a certain battery for acertain style or certain

(02:03:37):
operating experience, and thenall those bets are off.
Once you start getting into thebigger stuff, like when you
start dealing with 100 amp hour,it's a whole new ballgame, it's
a whole new way of thinking.
So at that point you have tokind of relearn your strategy
over again.
So just know that.
You know you go into it knowingnothing and you're going to

(02:03:59):
come out of it knowing a lotmore and continue to learn a lot
more about something as simpleas positive and negative.
You never thought of how easyit could be.
So cool, all right.
Well, hey, that was a good.
You know battery discussion.
So hopefully you enjoyed it andif you did, you know you can
always head over to our Discordbecause we'll start the

(02:04:20):
conversation back up there, aswe always do in our show channel
there.
So you know, let us know whatbatteries do you use?
Is there anything we missed wedidn't talk about?
About?
I know we didn't touch on solar, but we've talked about solar
and other episodes.
Um, so, you know, share yoursetups, share what you got.
You know, help others in thecommunity that might be maybe
looking for their battery setupsfor an rv or, you know, for
their poda setup, or you know,maybe they're they're planning

(02:04:43):
on becoming a station captainfor field day this year and
they're looking to do, you know,uh, all battery.
Uh, you know, kind setup.
So you know, show love.
Let people know what you do,and and, and you know you can do
that over on our discord, asalways.
Um, and so, if you want to helpsupport the show, you know you
can always connect with us byheading, uh, to subscribe to our
YouTube channel and you cancatch all of our awesome content

(02:05:05):
over here, all of our shows andlive streams, and you know ham
diary content, you, our showsand live streams, and you know
ham diary content.
You know we're alwaysconstantly pouring into that
stuff.
So, you know, let us knowwhether you like it, you hate it
.
Either way, you know we're kindof experimenting and trying
stuff on the channel, um, and weare nearing, obviously, 500
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So, you know, if you haven'tsubscribed, come on, subscribe,
support the show, because by thetime we hit 500, we want to do

(02:05:27):
at least our first 500, uh, youknow, uh, uh, subscriber
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(02:05:48):
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(02:06:10):
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