September 8, 2025 • 29 mins
We want to share a segment where each of the three hosts picks their favorite episode from our back catalog. We'll be taking some time off for Labor Day, the 24-hour POTA weekend, and the second weekend in September. During this break, we will re-air episodes that all three of us enjoyed recording. We’ll be back soon with more exciting content!
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YouTube Channel:
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Eric (N1JUR) - @N1JUR
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, I'm Eric and one J you are, and
welcome to another live, freeand ham podcast.
This week is the day after the24 hour poda camp out.
I'm sure it was a epic thing toremember.
I got a lot of stuff that we'regoing to have to go over and do
a recap on, but for the nexttwo episodes, the guys and I
(00:26):
decided that as we're gettingolder, we need a little bit more
time to recap, so we are goingto give you guys two more of
what we're calling Please Copy.
These are our favorite episodesthat are in our back catalog.
So if you've never gone andlistened to any of our older
stuff, these are some of ourfavorites and episodes that are
(00:49):
near and dear to our heart.
This week we are going to bediving into Todd's choice, and
his pick is our very, very, veryfirst episode.
This is episode one.
It's 20 words per minute with ahacksaw blade and a nail.
For those that may not know andhaven't been with us since day
one, that episode does not havevideo.
(01:12):
We didn't start doing videountil a lot later in the show
cycles, so my apologies to allof our YouTube watchers there,
but hopefully you enjoy this one.
This one is our firstintroduction to all of us and
includes Ryan.
For those that may not know,ryan is our Silent Friend and
(01:34):
host of live free and ham.
He's always in the backgroundhelping out and doing stuff and
so he comes on from time to time.
But yeah, he started us withthe very beginning of Live Free
and Ham itself.
So hopefully you guys enjoythat.
And with that, I just want tosay thank you from the bottom of
my heart to all of ourcommunity out there that came
(01:57):
and helped and supported andstayed with us through the live
stream and donated.
Like I said, we will go overall the recap and share um all
the money that was raised uhwith, um with and for uh ti.
So, uh, hopefully, uh, you guysuh enjoyed it as much as we did
, and so with that, let's getinto this episode.
(02:17):
And thanks again for uh beingpart of the community and poda
on today on live free and hampodcast.
It's time to take the trainingwheels off and get down to
recording.
We're going to take a deeperdive into how we all connected
as hams.
Uh, let me welcome you to livefree or ham podcast for your
(02:41):
bi-weekly podcast covering allthings ham radio in new
hampshire, new england andbeyond.
I'm Eric N1JUR and if this isthe first time you're listening
to our show, welcome and thanksfor joining us.
If you've listened to uspreviously, please consider
providing a review on iTunes foryour favorite podcast player.
Every review helps our show and, additionally, we'd like to
(03:03):
welcome you to come visit ourwebsite at livefreeandhamcom,
where there's a wide range ofinformation and merchandise
available.
Before we dive into our topic,let's introduce our two other
hosts.
Again, my name's Eric, callsign N1JUR.
Man tripping over myself todayand over to Ryan.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes, my name is Ryan, call sign is W1SNH and I'm
excited to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
And I'm Todd W1STJ and I'm also excited to be here
and ready to get this going.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
All right, cool.
Well, you know, this is ourfirst kickoff guys, so you know
we're just kind of feeling itall out.
But you know, how are you guysdoing?
Evening wise, I, I know myself,uh, I've been a little insane
and drinking from the fire hose,with work and a whole bunch of
other stuff, but uh, haven't hadmuch.
Uh, ham radio time this week.
Um, how are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I'm doing great.
It's uh always nice to have auh either a project or the radio
or just a handheld, or evenjust in the car driving around
mobile.
Just have something there inbetween, filling in in between
the busy schedule, to play hamradio.
So it's a good time yeah, rogerthat.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
How about you todd you where you've been doing
today any ham stuff related atall, or just uh been swamped
with life?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
yeah, I've been swamped with life a little
coaching baseball, a lot of workbut I've been getting on the
repeater, driving around talkingto many of the club members and
a few others.
So that's all I've been reallydoing this week.
But I'm looking to get out andget the code activation probably
in the next couple of days,very cool.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I hear the weather is supposed to be a heck of a lot
better and it's only going toget better.
So I uh, I haven't uh plannedanything.
Usually, uh, when I try to dothat, my schedule uh dictates
something different.
But, uh, you have the gearwaiting in the wings there and
I'll definitely jump on board ifthose could be a good day,
hopefully.
But, uh, yeah.
So, uh, you know, uh, you guysmentioned obviously just uh, you
(04:59):
know, hanging out on therepeater.
I have to say that's one of myfavorite things just recently,
since I haven't done a whole lotof ham-related stuff.
There's a couple of guys on ourrepeater that are always
available on a guaranteed callout.
Hey, if you are a ham andyou're wondering why repeaters
(05:20):
are so dead these days, don't beafraid.
Just put your call sign outthere and you know someone will
be willing to come back and, youknow, have a discussion with
them.
You know that's the best thing.
You know that's why we do hamradio.
But so today, or too hard forthis podcast, you know this is
our first one here, so we'regoing to probably stumble a
little bit here and there, butyou know, please bear with us,
(05:41):
but definitely trying to get theformat down.
Um, but we're going to talkabout a little bit of our
history and, uh, you know how weall became hams and you know
how we, you know, in essence,ran into each other and and, uh,
you know, uh, you know the.
The rest is history, as theysay.
So, um, you know it's all kindof led up to this moment.
Uh, you know, in in doing apodcast together we had a lot of
(06:01):
great, you know, conversationsand you know good, you know,
meetups and doing ham radiorelated activities and you know,
just kind of from that it camethe natural progression to.
You know, just want to get infront of a microphone and talk
about it all week.
So it's all good for all of ushere.
So, you know, so let's kind ofdive into the.
(06:22):
You know the nuts and bolts ofthis.
So you know how did you guysget started in ham radio?
Maybe you want to talk about alittle bit of that.
And in the terms of the granderscheme of things, you know what
, what is ham radio to you likein New England and in New
Hampshire specifically?
You know, as you got yourlicense and your ticket and you
know, as you started to getinvolved in the hobby a little
(06:43):
bit, anybody kind of want totake the reins and run with that
first and yeah, thank you, eric.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So my history with ham radio began with my dad.
He grew up as a teenager umprimarily operating cw, and he
would always be bragging.
I remember over the yearsgrowing up where he'd routinely
do 20 words a minute with ahacksaw blade and a nail.
He'd just be tapping it outjust straight key and he had a
(07:13):
lot of fun with it.
He ended up fading away fromthe hobby for a while and then
when the pandemic came along, Ihad a lot of free time and
figured.
Well, when I looked into it Irealized I didn't need to learn
the Morse code and I could justtest into the technician level
and take it from there.
So right at the beginning ofthe pandemic, a local club had a
(07:38):
training session that Iattended, went through the class
, tested, passed the technicianand then, probably about six
months later, I went through thesame training course and did
the general, then the extra andit's been a great introduction
to getting into this hobby andthe more I learn and participate
(08:00):
, it's just there's endlessamounts of things to do with it
and to learn and to discover andenjoyment all around.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So it's been a wonderful hobby and, uh, that
was my initial beginnings circleback around how I met you guys,
but okay, we'll put a pin inthat one for a second, but I
just got a couple questions, so20 words a minute with a nail
and a, you know, a saw blade.
You gotta elaborate a littlebit on that.
One, you know, is it?
Was he an old school cw guy orwhat was the deal with that?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
this was when he was a teenager, so you know he just
had some old you know this wasin the uh, would have been early
60s, so he had whatever verybasic you know tube.
I don't even know what type ofradio he had at the time, you
know, Heath or something.
But uh, yeah, he just had ahacksaw blade, a nail making the
connection and tap it out.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So the the true ham genuity, uh, as we, uh, we all
experienced at some level oranother, which is pretty cool,
so did he?
Um, now he said is he still anactive ham now or no, is he just
?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
kind of no, he doesn't have any equipment or
radios.
Okay, he's retired down inKentucky.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And really retired on the porch with the dog type
thing Retired.
Yep, yeah, so, wow.
So you definitely had a ham inyour family pretty much growing
up.
Did you do any of the Morsecode or any CW with him at all,
or just not interested as a kid?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Really not.
I guess either not interestedor never really was exposed to
it.
He faded from the hobby when Iwas young so I never really saw
him operating or anything.
We never had a radio at homebut I'd always heard him
bragging about the hacksaw bladeand the nail, so I was always
(09:48):
in the back of my mind Very cool, that sounds like a good.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
T-shirt.
So yeah, so you mentioned youwere talking about your general
and extra and, you know, goingfrom technician to general, did
you do that like all in like aspan of like six months, or was
that like over a year or likewhat that kind of looked like
for you?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
no-transcript.
I remember, I specificallyremember making the comment to
myself all right, so I'm atechnician, all I need is this
ham, this HT, and I may upgradethe little whip and ten on it.
But that's all I need, I'll befine.
And they're just shaking theirheads and yep, yep, give it time
.
And then all of a sudden it'slike oh, I want HF network.
(10:35):
You know, I have theopportunity to get on HF radio,
but I wasn't able to talk on anyof the bands because I wasn't
licensed.
So that was another catalyst ofgetting the general ticket so
that I could get on the HF bands.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And so in that you had how many like did you have?
You have, just, you know,you've only changed your call
sign like once total right,correct, yes, okay, all right.
So you didn't go through likeiterations, so interesting.
Um.
And then, uh, you know,obviously the pandemic hit and
you had your small little ht anda little whip antenna.
You know when, when was thebreaking point for you to, you
know, decide that.
You know, hey, this is notgoing to hack it any longer.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
When you met us, or before that, it was before is an
evolution of um, uh, physicallimitations on where I had my
wire antenna and getting it upon the side of the house and
getting it down and makingadjustments and other house
projects I wanted to do.
The location where I had thewire antenna wasn't a good
(11:36):
permanent long-term location, sothat then led me down.
You know we've talked aboutthis in the future here, but you
know planning out a tower andget that installed, so it was a
multifaceted crossroads ofdecision-making that kind of led
to that conclusion.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So your first world problem was you were tired of
adjusting your wire antenna,that you felt the 65 foot tower
was a better approach and a beamand rotor Okay, see where
you're going, todd, it's anatural progression to go that
route, very cool.
So yeah, before we dive intolike how we got together, but
what's your journey?
To kind of look like Todd,because I know you had an
(12:14):
interesting one that you knowkind of crosses both ryan and
i's path a little bit yeah, I um.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Well, I started when I was a kid listening on a
scanner to uh people talking ona on a frequency.
I had no idea what they were,who they were, but they just
talked a lot.
So I was probably listening torepeaters and, uh, that was
about it.
Figured out they were ha.
Didn't know how to be a ham,didn't know anything about it no
one in my family did it and Istarted.
I got into it by accident.
(12:42):
Really.
I fly model aircraft and there'sa thing called first-person
viewer FPV, and to do thatlegally you have to have a
technician's license.
Now, no one in the flying modelfield I know has a technician's
license.
Covid came around.
There was an opportunity to getyour technician's license.
I said, yeah, why not?
So I did that and I did whatyou did, ryan.
I bought an ht and I said, oh,I'm gonna be all set with this.
(13:03):
I can talk to people.
Uh, couldn't get on our localrepeater on my ht, had to buy a
little mag mount antenna that Istuck on my metal roof, was
finally able to make therepeater and I thought I was all
done.
And then I met Eric and Erictold me I had to get my general
(13:23):
and he basically harassed me.
And then he says we're going toa what was it?
A ham fest?
It was some kind of thing inMarlboro, I think and he goes
this is the day you're takingyour general.
So I studied and crammed andtook those tests over and over
again and went with a bunch ofthe guys and they went off to go
search for stuff.
And I went and took the test, Icame out with my ticket and
(13:47):
that was what September 11th2021, I think I know it was that
long ago, right.
And then, uh, then, right afterthat, we went to get lunch and
uh, eric and I on our way back,he goes hey, you want to
activate a park, and that's howI got in the poda.
So, uh, I I do want to.
(14:07):
I I never thought I'd get mygeneral and now I'm thinking
about getting my extra.
I just have to uh kind of crackdown and pick a date and start
studying.
So that's basically my story.
Glad I got into it.
I'm like you, ryan, you know II didn't think he was gonna.
I thought I'd get an hf radioand a wired antenna and I'd be
done, and then I met you throughtwo and now I'm all into it so.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I got the the real dark, the deep question there.
You know and I didn't know thisabout you, but you tracked all
of the nets you you participatedin when you were running your
HD.
That that you know alone islike phenomenal in my mind,
because in you know where I kindof sit, I'm just like, yeah, I
wouldn't have time or thetolerance to do that.
I mean, so you have someastronomical number, right?
You still have that in yourhead.
(14:47):
You know what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah, I do have, um, I do have the.
I'm up to like 1,000, 1,300,maybe 1,400 nets I've been on.
So, yeah, I just log them.
I have a spreadsheet and I makeone for every year and just go
(15:11):
through and log it in, put downwho the net control is and any
other crazy notes.
My farthest net, though, wasfrom my HT on five watts on a
mag mount on my metal roof of myold house, and I hit new
Brunswick, about 850 miles away.
And, yeah and that was thefirst time I was like I was like
Whoa, and I thought I hitBoston.
I didn't think I hit Brunswickand I didn't.
(15:31):
I thought the guys were messingwith me, to be honest with you.
And then, a couple of weekslater, I got a QSL card and they
said next time we DX, you know,please hit us up again.
So that was the start ofstarting to start thinking, wow,
maybe a general and get my getdown to HF might be kind of cool
.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So that was the start .
It sounds like the naturalprogression and you know, with
all the other youtubers that wehear out there, the, the ht is
the, the gateway drug to gettingus all in there, and then, you
know, kind of spirals from there.
My story is a little similar,you know, although it's a little
bit longer and in duration.
Um, you know, I go back to likemy high school years when I was
(16:14):
in boy scouts and to you know,not drag it on too much.
You know, I go back to like myhigh school years when I was at
Boy Scouts and to you know, notdrag it on too much.
You know, that was like back in92, 93.
And that was like the no codetechnician.
That's when the first ARLreleased.
You know, hey, you don'tactually have to.
You know, study Morse code ortake the Morse code test to be
able to pass your license.
You can get a no codetechnician and we'll give you a
little bit of the portion of theband which you know.
(16:36):
My mind, you know, was maybe 16or 17.
I was like, oh, this is so cooland I had a really good club
that, you know, was always had areally good field day presence.
So I always got my you knowfield day HF fix and you know
doing all the setup and thatwhole entire weekend and whatnot
.
So I I spent a lot of timeplaying ham radio.
I was kind of the kid in schoolthat stuck out in the AV closet
(16:58):
and was one of three other guys, including my brother, to form
the first high school amateurradio club in our school,
thinking that was the coolestthing.
Look back at it now maybe notso cool, but it was still a
blast to be able to cut class togo play HF with the club radio
that the local club had donatedsomething.
(17:20):
But the one kind of highlightfor my life, especially as a
no-code technician, was I got to.
There was a big hullabaloo inthe amateur community at the
time where they were trying tomake contact with the space
shuttle Atlantis as it wouldpass over from time to time.
So sort of like how we work FMsatellites and birds and that
you know today.
You know it's the same with theAtlantis.
(17:41):
So they would make their passesand the window was so small.
You know we had a small littlevertical antenna off the top of
the school roof, a small, youknow camera.
What radio was.
But either way, it was justlike a kind of a perfect storm
where I just, you know, like yousaid, you know, said Todd,
where you had the contact of youknow, 850 miles, you know,
(18:05):
within a minute to two minutes.
You know, making a clear shotat the Atlantis, goes over with
one of the uh, you know, spaceshuttle, uh, astronauts they're
trying to, you know, basicallythrow out a CQ and made a
contact with them and you know,made all the papers and thought
I was like, you know, number oneand you know, it was just, it
was all a great experience andyou know, from that kind of just
, you know, continue to build ontop of that.
You know, for ham radio, butnever really got a chance to get
my ticket because we were stilldoing Morse code, and you know,
(18:28):
fast forward to, you know,basically, pre pandemic stuff,
my pandemic stuff, um, mybrother, you know, text me one
day, hey, you know, digging outmy hf gear again, my hts and all
the other radios out of the.
You know, the barn do you stillhave yours?
And you know, family got in theway and life got in the way and
so I sold a lot of stuff andyou know.
So I had nothing to start fromsquare one and, uh, from that, I
(18:49):
basically just, you know, said,hey, I'm gonna get dive back
into it.
And then, you know, just likeyou guys had mentioned, the
hobby was just an explosive.
You know, there's no more Morsecode needed for, you know,
testing requirements.
There's, you know, all thesedigital modes, there's all these
great you know.
You know HF propagationopportunities and on and on and
on, and, and so I kind of just,you know, fell into this perfect
(19:10):
you know place where you know Icould get my general and then
shortly after, like Ryan said,you know, go to get my you know
extra like a month or two afterthat, you know, got that off the
plate and you know I've beenstarting playing around with, uh
, you know, um, you know, the HFbands and the benefit you know
that I kind of seen from it isthat you know my daughter's got
her ticket now and my dad's work, you know him in and on and not
(19:34):
doing anything, you know, andmy brother's got his license and
other family members arestarting to see the benefit, and
so it's kind of, you know thesmall little Hamillies you know
being formed and, you know,really fun to see it.
Uh, you know all spread now Idon't think they'll all pick up
the ticket and have theexcitement that I have in the
hobby A little Hamlet.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yes exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Well, we'll be doing act one and act two, hopefully.
Um, so you know, with that, mydad's, you know, been it's been
a fun experience because now wehave something more in common to
connect with and you know, thethe hobby is ryan mentioned and
todd you touched on, is that youknow there's always something
to do, there's always somethingnew, and you know you always end
up down that rabbit hole ofsomething of, uh, you know, hey,
(20:16):
I need to get the next gadgetto be able to do A, b or C, so
you know, or if we get bored orsomething, we're on to something
new.
So so it kind of dovetails from.
You know, that's the backstorythere.
So you know, todd and I kind ofhave our side of the story
about how we met.
You, ryan, you know, and youand I kind of uh, I'll touch
upon just our connection andthen how Todd kind of, you know,
(20:36):
came in a chapter later or not,but I think you and I met
initially on the repeater and wekind of just chit, chat right.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Correct.
Yeah, I had, uh, I'd say, forabout six or eight months I was
trying, I was experimenting with, uh you know, the HT in the car
and so I started, you know,commuting back and forth to work
, I just keep the HT in the carand I just call out CQ, just
driving down the road, and itwould not work very well.
So then I was like, all right,what's the next step?
(21:05):
All right, I need to get anantenna on the car.
So I started looking around andmag mounts and everything, and
driving older car, I said, well,screw it, I'm just going to
drill a hole in the roof.
Nice ground plane, got an NMOmount and wired it up.
And that was a huge improvement, you know, half wave on two
meter and five eights on 70.
And it was great.
(21:26):
So, but I still had thehandheld Five watts.
And then, so you know, shoppingaround, it was right around that
time I discovered a lot of theYouTube, uh, the guys on online.
You know, like Josh out inCalifornia, he had just done a,
a Yesu review on the 300.
So I'm like, perfect, 50 Watts,they'll get me out there,
(21:47):
they'll get me into the digitaland uh, so I'd put that in the
car got it programmed and I waslike well, what do I program?
So I did a couple of localrepeaters and I remember one day
I had our local club's repeatertuned up.
I was driving throughManchester and I heard you
talking and so I threw my callsign out there and we started
(22:10):
chatting and you had told meabout the Discord app, but then
I'd misplaced it, or, however,I'd recorded that note, I'd lost
it.
A couple of weeks goes by.
It must've been that weekend,todd, you had tested and you
guys were at Silver Lake doing apoda.
I'm driving down the road and Isay I see two guys in the
(22:33):
little lawn chairs talking on aradio.
I'm like I know exactly whatthat is.
I made a quick U-turn, pulledin.
I was like I think the firstthing I said to you guys was CQ,
cq.
You're like, yes, cq, cq.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
You're like yes, otherwise it would have been
like weirdo, weirdo.
Yeah, that was pretty cool.
I mean, what was your take onthat, todd, you know?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Well, yeah, I mean that was our second part, cause
we we did the rail trailsNashville rail trail first and
then we had some time where wewere like, hey, let's go over,
heading home, like let's go overand see, uh, see how uh silver
Lake works out.
So we just did it right in theparking lot, set it up, and uh,
and then you pulled up and I waslike, wow, look at this, guys
are just showing up, you know,set up an antenna and they come
out of the woodwork.
So that was, that was prettycool.
(23:20):
And then I would have neverknown it would turn into this.
And uh, you know thefriendships that we made and and
uh, just the connections thatwe've made and all the ham radio
stuff, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, I think my experience kind of with the
whole process, especially whenwe were first like when I first
got back into the, you know,after finally getting a real
good radio in my rig uh, in mycar at the time I um the one I
had bought off like off eBay itwas constantly overheating.
I would talk for five secondsand then the thing would
overheat and then I'd lose myconnection to whatever repeater
(23:53):
and I was using some repeatersthat I used to talk on a long,
long time ago.
And so I was like, all right, Igotta get a new rig and then,
like everybody else did,programmed it for the repeater
and and so I I've said to myselfat the very beginning I'm gonna
be to be, you know, veryaggressive and I'm probably
known this way, but I was likeevery five minutes, every 20
minutes, calling out you knowsoon who would talk to me, no
(24:14):
matter what.
I'm sure there's.
You know, the guys that we haveon our machines probably got
tired of hearing my call signall the time, and I still, to
this day, think that sometimeswhen I put my call sign out
there, they just hear it andthey ignore it because they're
just like, yeah, it's Eric.
I don't really have a time tohave a full conversation, but
you know that's neither here northere.
So then you know, when westarted having conversations the
(24:34):
funny thing is I couldn'tremember your call sign for a
long time.
When you pulled up like youwould rattle off your call sign
to me no-transcript, right.
(25:17):
And so, yeah, when you pulledup I was like, oh, dude, that's
awesome.
And you know, I think Todd andI were like to him.
You know I don't want to badgerhim and think you know we're
like lonely people and you knowwe just need somebody to come
join us.
But that was just that naturalprogression of like, hey, cool,
(25:37):
yeah, come join.
What we're doing.
And you know that's the awesomepart of this hobby is that it's
totally different than like allbeing in your shack hunkered
down all alone.
Different than like all beingin your shack hunkered down all
alone, like that's the farthestthing you know from what really
truly ham radio at least for me,has been in this kind of uh,
you know day and age, you knowbeing able to be portable and
being able to just be outdoorsand you know be able to do just
(25:58):
stuff with other people.
That's the big thing for me.
I mean, I the conversation, andyou know, communication and
making contacts, or, you know,just the icing on the cake.
But, um, you know, having theserelationships with you guys and
and, uh, watching that kind ofgrow and you know, live in each
other's kind of dreams, it's,it's been fun.
I know, um, we'll talk about abunch of other stories down the
road.
Um, you know of Ryan's towerexperiences and and Todd's, uh,
(26:21):
you know, uh, credit card beinguh over maxed out with this uh,
second, uh 2.0 version in hisshack.
Um, and uh, you know some of myhoa woes but, um, yeah, it's
all going to be some.
You know great, uh, great rideand we're definitely glad you
guys are, you know we're anaudience, are here to share that
with us and you know we'll,we'll see where we go from here.
But, uh, you know, overall, uh,you know any kind of last uh
(26:45):
things you guys want to add ortouch upon or um, just uh, stay
tuned because, uh, we have a lotof things uh planned.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
It's going to be a great uh series of shows coming
up and uh hope you, uh hope theaudience sticks around.
Yeah, definitely, todd.
How about you?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, I echo that.
Uh, I think, uh, I'm the newbiehere.
When I started ham radio I knewgreen was ground and that was
about it.
So I never.
Yeah, well, I know, but I knowa little bit more now, but but
that's where I started and I,you know, I didn't think I'd
even pass the technician, letalone move up, and I've actually
(27:21):
been learning a lot and I enjoythe hobby quite a bit and I
think it's a lot because of thepeople that are in our club and
you guys that have kind of, youknow, taught me some things.
And then I think I fell in lovewith the mobile activation and
doing POTA.
I mean, I get addicted to thatPOTA and once I get going I
don't want to stop and we'lltalk more about that in a future
(27:42):
episode because I do POTAeverywhere I can.
My goal is to work and get paidto do quota.
You heard it in first and I'malready getting it done.
I'll tell you my little secrets, but no, it's been great and,
like I said, we have a greatclub.
I didn't know what to expectFirst time I went to our club
meeting, didn't know anyone,kind of didn't know half the
(28:06):
things that people were talkingabout, and very welcoming club,
and you know everyone's beengreat.
Like I said, we're glad we'redoing this podcast.
This is the first experiencefor me with podcasting.
I know, eric, you've you haveanother podcast that you've done
, so I wouldn't have been ableto do this without you and I'm
glad you offered to let me joinin, but looking forward'm
(28:26):
looking forward to it.
It's going to be good yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, you guys make it easy.
For sure, you know, this is ajourney I think we all share and
, you know, definitely the hobbyalone is a great hobby in and
of its own self.
But, you know, when you startdoing it with guys who do, you
know, enjoy it as much as you do, it just makes the ride that
much better, for sure, Cool, Allright.
Well, I think, uh, you know,that sounds like a good wrap up.
If you, uh, you know, liked ourshow, uh, you have to come
visit us on uh,livefreeandhamcom.
(28:51):
Or you could check out, uh, ouruh posts on Instagram.
Uh at live for your handpodcast.
And again, if you want to reachout to any of our hosts
directly, you can find me.
And when J you are at uh atW1STJcom Sound, right, Todd,
Nope, that's it.
W1stjcom Cool, All right.
Well, with that, thank youagain, guys, for listening.
(29:15):
Stay tuned.
Hey everybody, I'm Eric and one J you are, and
welcome to another live, freeand ham podcast.
This week is the day after the24 hour poda camp out.
I'm sure it was a epic thing toremember.
I got a lot of stuff that we'regoing to have to go over and do
a recap on, but for the nexttwo episodes, the guys and I
(00:26):
decided that as we're gettingolder, we need a little bit more
time to recap, so we are goingto give you guys two more of
what we're calling Please Copy.
These are our favorite episodesthat are in our back catalog.
So if you've never gone andlistened to any of our older
stuff, these are some of ourfavorites and episodes that are
(00:49):
near and dear to our heart.
This week we are going to bediving into Todd's choice, and
his pick is our very, very, veryfirst episode.
This is episode one.
It's 20 words per minute with ahacksaw blade and a nail.
For those that may not know andhaven't been with us since day
one, that episode does not havevideo.
(01:12):
We didn't start doing videountil a lot later in the show
cycles, so my apologies to allof our YouTube watchers there,
but hopefully you enjoy this one.
This one is our firstintroduction to all of us and
includes Ryan.
For those that may not know,ryan is our Silent Friend and
(01:34):
host of live free and ham.
He's always in the backgroundhelping out and doing stuff and
so he comes on from time to time.
But yeah, he started us withthe very beginning of Live Free
and Ham itself.
So hopefully you guys enjoythat.
And with that, I just want tosay thank you from the bottom of
my heart to all of ourcommunity out there that came
(01:57):
and helped and supported andstayed with us through the live
stream and donated.
Like I said, we will go overall the recap and share um all
the money that was raised uhwith, um with and for uh ti.
So, uh, hopefully, uh, you guysuh enjoyed it as much as we did
, and so with that, let's getinto this episode.
(02:17):
And thanks again for uh beingpart of the community and poda
on today on live free and hampodcast.
It's time to take the trainingwheels off and get down to
recording.
We're going to take a deeperdive into how we all connected
as hams.
Uh, let me welcome you to livefree or ham podcast for your
(02:41):
bi-weekly podcast covering allthings ham radio in new
hampshire, new england andbeyond.
I'm Eric N1JUR and if this isthe first time you're listening
to our show, welcome and thanksfor joining us.
If you've listened to uspreviously, please consider
providing a review on iTunes foryour favorite podcast player.
Every review helps our show and, additionally, we'd like to
(03:03):
welcome you to come visit ourwebsite at livefreeandhamcom,
where there's a wide range ofinformation and merchandise
available.
Before we dive into our topic,let's introduce our two other
hosts.
Again, my name's Eric, callsign N1JUR.
Man tripping over myself todayand over to Ryan.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes, my name is Ryan, call sign is W1SNH and I'm
excited to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
And I'm Todd W1STJ and I'm also excited to be here
and ready to get this going.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
All right, cool.
Well, you know, this is ourfirst kickoff guys, so you know
we're just kind of feeling itall out.
But you know, how are you guysdoing?
Evening wise, I, I know myself,uh, I've been a little insane
and drinking from the fire hose,with work and a whole bunch of
other stuff, but uh, haven't hadmuch.
Uh, ham radio time this week.
Um, how are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I'm doing great.
It's uh always nice to have auh either a project or the radio
or just a handheld, or evenjust in the car driving around
mobile.
Just have something there inbetween, filling in in between
the busy schedule, to play hamradio.
So it's a good time yeah, rogerthat.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
How about you todd you where you've been doing
today any ham stuff related atall, or just uh been swamped
with life?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
yeah, I've been swamped with life a little
coaching baseball, a lot of workbut I've been getting on the
repeater, driving around talkingto many of the club members and
a few others.
So that's all I've been reallydoing this week.
But I'm looking to get out andget the code activation probably
in the next couple of days,very cool.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I hear the weather is supposed to be a heck of a lot
better and it's only going toget better.
So I uh, I haven't uh plannedanything.
Usually, uh, when I try to dothat, my schedule uh dictates
something different.
But, uh, you have the gearwaiting in the wings there and
I'll definitely jump on board ifthose could be a good day,
hopefully.
But, uh, yeah.
So, uh, you know, uh, you guysmentioned obviously just uh, you
(04:59):
know, hanging out on therepeater.
I have to say that's one of myfavorite things just recently,
since I haven't done a whole lotof ham-related stuff.
There's a couple of guys on ourrepeater that are always
available on a guaranteed callout.
Hey, if you are a ham andyou're wondering why repeaters
(05:20):
are so dead these days, don't beafraid.
Just put your call sign outthere and you know someone will
be willing to come back and, youknow, have a discussion with
them.
You know that's the best thing.
You know that's why we do hamradio.
But so today, or too hard forthis podcast, you know this is
our first one here, so we'regoing to probably stumble a
little bit here and there, butyou know, please bear with us,
(05:41):
but definitely trying to get theformat down.
Um, but we're going to talkabout a little bit of our
history and, uh, you know how weall became hams and you know
how we, you know, in essence,ran into each other and and, uh,
you know, uh, you know the.
The rest is history, as theysay.
So, um, you know it's all kindof led up to this moment.
Uh, you know, in in doing apodcast together we had a lot of
(06:01):
great, you know, conversationsand you know good, you know,
meetups and doing ham radiorelated activities and you know,
just kind of from that it camethe natural progression to.
You know, just want to get infront of a microphone and talk
about it all week.
So it's all good for all of ushere.
So, you know, so let's kind ofdive into the.
(06:22):
You know the nuts and bolts ofthis.
So you know how did you guysget started in ham radio?
Maybe you want to talk about alittle bit of that.
And in the terms of the granderscheme of things, you know what
, what is ham radio to you likein New England and in New
Hampshire specifically?
You know, as you got yourlicense and your ticket and you
know, as you started to getinvolved in the hobby a little
(06:43):
bit, anybody kind of want totake the reins and run with that
first and yeah, thank you, eric.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So my history with ham radio began with my dad.
He grew up as a teenager umprimarily operating cw, and he
would always be bragging.
I remember over the yearsgrowing up where he'd routinely
do 20 words a minute with ahacksaw blade and a nail.
He'd just be tapping it outjust straight key and he had a
(07:13):
lot of fun with it.
He ended up fading away fromthe hobby for a while and then
when the pandemic came along, Ihad a lot of free time and
figured.
Well, when I looked into it Irealized I didn't need to learn
the Morse code and I could justtest into the technician level
and take it from there.
So right at the beginning ofthe pandemic, a local club had a
(07:38):
training session that Iattended, went through the class
, tested, passed the technicianand then, probably about six
months later, I went through thesame training course and did
the general, then the extra andit's been a great introduction
to getting into this hobby andthe more I learn and participate
(08:00):
, it's just there's endlessamounts of things to do with it
and to learn and to discover andenjoyment all around.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So it's been a wonderful hobby and, uh, that
was my initial beginnings circleback around how I met you guys,
but okay, we'll put a pin inthat one for a second, but I
just got a couple questions, so20 words a minute with a nail
and a, you know, a saw blade.
You gotta elaborate a littlebit on that.
One, you know, is it?
Was he an old school cw guy orwhat was the deal with that?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
this was when he was a teenager, so you know he just
had some old you know this wasin the uh, would have been early
60s, so he had whatever verybasic you know tube.
I don't even know what type ofradio he had at the time, you
know, Heath or something.
But uh, yeah, he just had ahacksaw blade, a nail making the
connection and tap it out.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So the the true ham genuity, uh, as we, uh, we all
experienced at some level oranother, which is pretty cool,
so did he?
Um, now he said is he still anactive ham now or no, is he just
?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
kind of no, he doesn't have any equipment or
radios.
Okay, he's retired down inKentucky.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And really retired on the porch with the dog type
thing Retired.
Yep, yeah, so, wow.
So you definitely had a ham inyour family pretty much growing
up.
Did you do any of the Morsecode or any CW with him at all,
or just not interested as a kid?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Really not.
I guess either not interestedor never really was exposed to
it.
He faded from the hobby when Iwas young so I never really saw
him operating or anything.
We never had a radio at homebut I'd always heard him
bragging about the hacksaw bladeand the nail, so I was always
(09:48):
in the back of my mind Very cool, that sounds like a good.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
T-shirt.
So yeah, so you mentioned youwere talking about your general
and extra and, you know, goingfrom technician to general, did
you do that like all in like aspan of like six months, or was
that like over a year or likewhat that kind of looked like
for you?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
no-transcript.
I remember, I specificallyremember making the comment to
myself all right, so I'm atechnician, all I need is this
ham, this HT, and I may upgradethe little whip and ten on it.
But that's all I need, I'll befine.
And they're just shaking theirheads and yep, yep, give it time
.
And then all of a sudden it'slike oh, I want HF network.
(10:35):
You know, I have theopportunity to get on HF radio,
but I wasn't able to talk on anyof the bands because I wasn't
licensed.
So that was another catalyst ofgetting the general ticket so
that I could get on the HF bands.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And so in that you had how many like did you have?
You have, just, you know,you've only changed your call
sign like once total right,correct, yes, okay, all right.
So you didn't go through likeiterations, so interesting.
Um.
And then, uh, you know,obviously the pandemic hit and
you had your small little ht anda little whip antenna.
You know when, when was thebreaking point for you to, you
know, decide that.
You know, hey, this is notgoing to hack it any longer.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
When you met us, or before that, it was before is an
evolution of um, uh, physicallimitations on where I had my
wire antenna and getting it upon the side of the house and
getting it down and makingadjustments and other house
projects I wanted to do.
The location where I had thewire antenna wasn't a good
(11:36):
permanent long-term location, sothat then led me down.
You know we've talked aboutthis in the future here, but you
know planning out a tower andget that installed, so it was a
multifaceted crossroads ofdecision-making that kind of led
to that conclusion.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So your first world problem was you were tired of
adjusting your wire antenna,that you felt the 65 foot tower
was a better approach and a beamand rotor Okay, see where
you're going, todd, it's anatural progression to go that
route, very cool.
So yeah, before we dive intolike how we got together, but
what's your journey?
To kind of look like Todd,because I know you had an
(12:14):
interesting one that you knowkind of crosses both ryan and
i's path a little bit yeah, I um.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Well, I started when I was a kid listening on a
scanner to uh people talking ona on a frequency.
I had no idea what they were,who they were, but they just
talked a lot.
So I was probably listening torepeaters and, uh, that was
about it.
Figured out they were ha.
Didn't know how to be a ham,didn't know anything about it no
one in my family did it and Istarted.
I got into it by accident.
(12:42):
Really.
I fly model aircraft and there'sa thing called first-person
viewer FPV, and to do thatlegally you have to have a
technician's license.
Now, no one in the flying modelfield I know has a technician's
license.
Covid came around.
There was an opportunity to getyour technician's license.
I said, yeah, why not?
So I did that and I did whatyou did, ryan.
I bought an ht and I said, oh,I'm gonna be all set with this.
(13:03):
I can talk to people.
Uh, couldn't get on our localrepeater on my ht, had to buy a
little mag mount antenna that Istuck on my metal roof, was
finally able to make therepeater and I thought I was all
done.
And then I met Eric and Erictold me I had to get my general
(13:23):
and he basically harassed me.
And then he says we're going toa what was it?
A ham fest?
It was some kind of thing inMarlboro, I think and he goes
this is the day you're takingyour general.
So I studied and crammed andtook those tests over and over
again and went with a bunch ofthe guys and they went off to go
search for stuff.
And I went and took the test, Icame out with my ticket and
(13:47):
that was what September 11th2021, I think I know it was that
long ago, right.
And then, uh, then, right afterthat, we went to get lunch and
uh, eric and I on our way back,he goes hey, you want to
activate a park, and that's howI got in the poda.
So, uh, I I do want to.
(14:07):
I I never thought I'd get mygeneral and now I'm thinking
about getting my extra.
I just have to uh kind of crackdown and pick a date and start
studying.
So that's basically my story.
Glad I got into it.
I'm like you, ryan, you know II didn't think he was gonna.
I thought I'd get an hf radioand a wired antenna and I'd be
done, and then I met you throughtwo and now I'm all into it so.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
So I got the the real dark, the deep question there.
You know and I didn't know thisabout you, but you tracked all
of the nets you you participatedin when you were running your
HD.
That that you know alone islike phenomenal in my mind,
because in you know where I kindof sit, I'm just like, yeah, I
wouldn't have time or thetolerance to do that.
I mean, so you have someastronomical number, right?
You still have that in yourhead.
(14:47):
You know what that looks like.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah, I do have, um, I do have the.
I'm up to like 1,000, 1,300,maybe 1,400 nets I've been on.
So, yeah, I just log them.
I have a spreadsheet and I makeone for every year and just go
(15:11):
through and log it in, put downwho the net control is and any
other crazy notes.
My farthest net, though, wasfrom my HT on five watts on a
mag mount on my metal roof of myold house, and I hit new
Brunswick, about 850 miles away.
And, yeah and that was thefirst time I was like I was like
Whoa, and I thought I hitBoston.
I didn't think I hit Brunswickand I didn't.
(15:31):
I thought the guys were messingwith me, to be honest with you.
And then, a couple of weekslater, I got a QSL card and they
said next time we DX, you know,please hit us up again.
So that was the start ofstarting to start thinking, wow,
maybe a general and get my getdown to HF might be kind of cool
.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So that was the start .
It sounds like the naturalprogression and you know, with
all the other youtubers that wehear out there, the, the ht is
the, the gateway drug to gettingus all in there, and then, you
know, kind of spirals from there.
My story is a little similar,you know, although it's a little
bit longer and in duration.
Um, you know, I go back to likemy high school years when I was
(16:14):
in boy scouts and to you know,not drag it on too much.
You know, I go back to like myhigh school years when I was at
Boy Scouts and to you know, notdrag it on too much.
You know, that was like back in92, 93.
And that was like the no codetechnician.
That's when the first ARLreleased.
You know, hey, you don'tactually have to.
You know, study Morse code ortake the Morse code test to be
able to pass your license.
You can get a no codetechnician and we'll give you a
little bit of the portion of theband which you know.
(16:36):
My mind, you know, was maybe 16or 17.
I was like, oh, this is so cooland I had a really good club
that, you know, was always had areally good field day presence.
So I always got my you knowfield day HF fix and you know
doing all the setup and thatwhole entire weekend and whatnot
.
So I I spent a lot of timeplaying ham radio.
I was kind of the kid in schoolthat stuck out in the AV closet
(16:58):
and was one of three other guys, including my brother, to form
the first high school amateurradio club in our school,
thinking that was the coolestthing.
Look back at it now maybe notso cool, but it was still a
blast to be able to cut class togo play HF with the club radio
that the local club had donatedsomething.
(17:20):
But the one kind of highlightfor my life, especially as a
no-code technician, was I got to.
There was a big hullabaloo inthe amateur community at the
time where they were trying tomake contact with the space
shuttle Atlantis as it wouldpass over from time to time.
So sort of like how we work FMsatellites and birds and that
you know today.
You know it's the same with theAtlantis.
(17:41):
So they would make their passesand the window was so small.
You know we had a small littlevertical antenna off the top of
the school roof, a small, youknow camera.
What radio was.
But either way, it was justlike a kind of a perfect storm
where I just, you know, like yousaid, you know, said Todd,
where you had the contact of youknow, 850 miles, you know,
(18:05):
within a minute to two minutes.
You know, making a clear shotat the Atlantis, goes over with
one of the uh, you know, spaceshuttle, uh, astronauts they're
trying to, you know, basicallythrow out a CQ and made a
contact with them and you know,made all the papers and thought
I was like, you know, number oneand you know, it was just, it
was all a great experience andyou know, from that kind of just
, you know, continue to build ontop of that.
You know, for ham radio, butnever really got a chance to get
my ticket because we were stilldoing Morse code, and you know,
(18:28):
fast forward to, you know,basically, pre pandemic stuff,
my pandemic stuff, um, mybrother, you know, text me one
day, hey, you know, digging outmy hf gear again, my hts and all
the other radios out of the.
You know, the barn do you stillhave yours?
And you know, family got in theway and life got in the way and
so I sold a lot of stuff andyou know.
So I had nothing to start fromsquare one and, uh, from that, I
(18:49):
basically just, you know, said,hey, I'm gonna get dive back
into it.
And then, you know, just likeyou guys had mentioned, the
hobby was just an explosive.
You know, there's no more Morsecode needed for, you know,
testing requirements.
There's, you know, all thesedigital modes, there's all these
great you know.
You know HF propagationopportunities and on and on and
on, and, and so I kind of just,you know, fell into this perfect
(19:10):
you know place where you know Icould get my general and then
shortly after, like Ryan said,you know, go to get my you know
extra like a month or two afterthat, you know, got that off the
plate and you know I've beenstarting playing around with, uh
, you know, um, you know, the HFbands and the benefit you know
that I kind of seen from it isthat you know my daughter's got
her ticket now and my dad's work, you know him in and on and not
(19:34):
doing anything, you know, andmy brother's got his license and
other family members arestarting to see the benefit, and
so it's kind of, you know thesmall little Hamillies you know
being formed and, you know,really fun to see it.
Uh, you know all spread now Idon't think they'll all pick up
the ticket and have theexcitement that I have in the
hobby A little Hamlet.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yes exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Well, we'll be doing act one and act two, hopefully.
Um, so you know, with that, mydad's, you know, been it's been
a fun experience because now wehave something more in common to
connect with and you know, thethe hobby is ryan mentioned and
todd you touched on, is that youknow there's always something
to do, there's always somethingnew, and you know you always end
up down that rabbit hole ofsomething of, uh, you know, hey,
(20:16):
I need to get the next gadgetto be able to do A, b or C, so
you know, or if we get bored orsomething, we're on to something
new.
So so it kind of dovetails from.
You know, that's the backstorythere.
So you know, todd and I kind ofhave our side of the story
about how we met.
You, ryan, you know, and youand I kind of uh, I'll touch
upon just our connection andthen how Todd kind of, you know,
(20:36):
came in a chapter later or not,but I think you and I met
initially on the repeater and wekind of just chit, chat right.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Correct.
Yeah, I had, uh, I'd say, forabout six or eight months I was
trying, I was experimenting with, uh you know, the HT in the car
and so I started, you know,commuting back and forth to work
, I just keep the HT in the carand I just call out CQ, just
driving down the road, and itwould not work very well.
So then I was like, all right,what's the next step?
(21:05):
All right, I need to get anantenna on the car.
So I started looking around andmag mounts and everything, and
driving older car, I said, well,screw it, I'm just going to
drill a hole in the roof.
Nice ground plane, got an NMOmount and wired it up.
And that was a huge improvement, you know, half wave on two
meter and five eights on 70.
And it was great.
(21:26):
So, but I still had thehandheld Five watts.
And then, so you know, shoppingaround, it was right around that
time I discovered a lot of theYouTube, uh, the guys on online.
You know, like Josh out inCalifornia, he had just done a,
a Yesu review on the 300.
So I'm like, perfect, 50 Watts,they'll get me out there,
(21:47):
they'll get me into the digitaland uh, so I'd put that in the
car got it programmed and I waslike well, what do I program?
So I did a couple of localrepeaters and I remember one day
I had our local club's repeatertuned up.
I was driving throughManchester and I heard you
talking and so I threw my callsign out there and we started
(22:10):
chatting and you had told meabout the Discord app, but then
I'd misplaced it, or, however,I'd recorded that note, I'd lost
it.
A couple of weeks goes by.
It must've been that weekend,todd, you had tested and you
guys were at Silver Lake doing apoda.
I'm driving down the road and Isay I see two guys in the
(22:33):
little lawn chairs talking on aradio.
I'm like I know exactly whatthat is.
I made a quick U-turn, pulledin.
I was like I think the firstthing I said to you guys was CQ,
cq.
You're like, yes, cq, cq.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
You're like yes, otherwise it would have been
like weirdo, weirdo.
Yeah, that was pretty cool.
I mean, what was your take onthat, todd, you know?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Well, yeah, I mean that was our second part, cause
we we did the rail trailsNashville rail trail first and
then we had some time where wewere like, hey, let's go over,
heading home, like let's go overand see, uh, see how uh silver
Lake works out.
So we just did it right in theparking lot, set it up, and uh,
and then you pulled up and I waslike, wow, look at this, guys
are just showing up, you know,set up an antenna and they come
out of the woodwork.
So that was, that was prettycool.
(23:20):
And then I would have neverknown it would turn into this.
And uh, you know thefriendships that we made and and
uh, just the connections thatwe've made and all the ham radio
stuff, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, I think my experience kind of with the
whole process, especially whenwe were first like when I first
got back into the, you know,after finally getting a real
good radio in my rig uh, in mycar at the time I um the one I
had bought off like off eBay itwas constantly overheating.
I would talk for five secondsand then the thing would
overheat and then I'd lose myconnection to whatever repeater
(23:53):
and I was using some repeatersthat I used to talk on a long,
long time ago.
And so I was like, all right, Igotta get a new rig and then,
like everybody else did,programmed it for the repeater
and and so I I've said to myselfat the very beginning I'm gonna
be to be, you know, veryaggressive and I'm probably
known this way, but I was likeevery five minutes, every 20
minutes, calling out you knowsoon who would talk to me, no
(24:14):
matter what.
I'm sure there's.
You know, the guys that we haveon our machines probably got
tired of hearing my call signall the time, and I still, to
this day, think that sometimeswhen I put my call sign out
there, they just hear it andthey ignore it because they're
just like, yeah, it's Eric.
I don't really have a time tohave a full conversation, but
you know that's neither here northere.
So then you know, when westarted having conversations the
(24:34):
funny thing is I couldn'tremember your call sign for a
long time.
When you pulled up like youwould rattle off your call sign
to me no-transcript, right.
(25:17):
And so, yeah, when you pulledup I was like, oh, dude, that's
awesome.
And you know, I think Todd andI were like to him.
You know I don't want to badgerhim and think you know we're
like lonely people and you knowwe just need somebody to come
join us.
But that was just that naturalprogression of like, hey, cool,
(25:37):
yeah, come join.
What we're doing.
And you know that's the awesomepart of this hobby is that it's
totally different than like allbeing in your shack hunkered
down all alone.
Different than like all beingin your shack hunkered down all
alone, like that's the farthestthing you know from what really
truly ham radio at least for me,has been in this kind of uh,
you know day and age, you knowbeing able to be portable and
being able to just be outdoorsand you know be able to do just
(25:58):
stuff with other people.
That's the big thing for me.
I mean, I the conversation, andyou know, communication and
making contacts, or, you know,just the icing on the cake.
But, um, you know, having theserelationships with you guys and
and, uh, watching that kind ofgrow and you know, live in each
other's kind of dreams, it's,it's been fun.
I know, um, we'll talk about abunch of other stories down the
road.
Um, you know of Ryan's towerexperiences and and Todd's, uh,
(26:21):
you know, uh, credit card beinguh over maxed out with this uh,
second, uh 2.0 version in hisshack.
Um, and uh, you know some of myhoa woes but, um, yeah, it's
all going to be some.
You know great, uh, great rideand we're definitely glad you
guys are, you know we're anaudience, are here to share that
with us and you know we'll,we'll see where we go from here.
But, uh, you know, overall, uh,you know any kind of last uh
(26:45):
things you guys want to add ortouch upon or um, just uh, stay
tuned because, uh, we have a lotof things uh planned.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
It's going to be a great uh series of shows coming
up and uh hope you, uh hope theaudience sticks around.
Yeah, definitely, todd.
How about you?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, I echo that.
Uh, I think, uh, I'm the newbiehere.
When I started ham radio I knewgreen was ground and that was
about it.
So I never.
Yeah, well, I know, but I knowa little bit more now, but but
that's where I started and I,you know, I didn't think I'd
even pass the technician, letalone move up, and I've actually
(27:21):
been learning a lot and I enjoythe hobby quite a bit and I
think it's a lot because of thepeople that are in our club and
you guys that have kind of, youknow, taught me some things.
And then I think I fell in lovewith the mobile activation and
doing POTA.
I mean, I get addicted to thatPOTA and once I get going I
don't want to stop and we'lltalk more about that in a future
(27:42):
episode because I do POTAeverywhere I can.
My goal is to work and get paidto do quota.
You heard it in first and I'malready getting it done.
I'll tell you my little secrets, but no, it's been great and,
like I said, we have a greatclub.
I didn't know what to expectFirst time I went to our club
meeting, didn't know anyone,kind of didn't know half the
(28:06):
things that people were talkingabout, and very welcoming club,
and you know everyone's beengreat.
Like I said, we're glad we'redoing this podcast.
This is the first experiencefor me with podcasting.
I know, eric, you've you haveanother podcast that you've done
, so I wouldn't have been ableto do this without you and I'm
glad you offered to let me joinin, but looking forward'm
(28:26):
looking forward to it.
It's going to be good yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, you guys make it easy.
For sure, you know, this is ajourney I think we all share and
, you know, definitely the hobbyalone is a great hobby in and
of its own self.
But, you know, when you startdoing it with guys who do, you
know, enjoy it as much as you do, it just makes the ride that
much better, for sure, Cool, Allright.
Well, I think, uh, you know,that sounds like a good wrap up.
If you, uh, you know, liked ourshow, uh, you have to come
visit us on uh,livefreeandhamcom.
(28:51):
Or you could check out, uh, ouruh posts on Instagram.
Uh at live for your handpodcast.
And again, if you want to reachout to any of our hosts
directly, you can find me.
And when J you are at uh atW1STJcom Sound, right, Todd,
Nope, that's it.
W1stjcom Cool, All right.
Well, with that, thank youagain, guys, for listening.
(29:15):
Stay tuned.
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