PLEASE COPY - Overcoming Mic Fright - Live Free and Ham Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
hey y'all, I'm eric call sign n1jur and I just
wanted to jump in here realquick to say that the next two
weekends we are going to besuper busy and up to our elbows
in preparing for the 24-hourcamp out poda live stream and so

(00:24):
, if you haven't heard that'scoming up next week, and so, in
preparation for both the holiday, labor Day weekend and the
weekend after, we are going todo what we're calling please
copy five, nine episodes.
And so Paul and Todd both wentback into our archive and pulled

(00:48):
out one of their favorites, ofthe best episodes that they
think should deserve a copy 5-9there.
So this first one is from Paul,so hope you enjoy it.
This is the episode titled umovercoming mike fright, and so

(01:09):
hopefully you'll enjoy.
Thanks again for, as always,being uh loyal live free and ham
followers, and don't forget,head on over to our website at
livefreeandhamcom or our youtubechannel and make make sure you
click and subscribe and hit thenotify bell to be notified on

(01:30):
our Friday live stream, whichwill be next Friday, the 5th.
That will be our whiskey andsteak night, so we'd love to
have you on there.
We'll be giving a few thingsaway that evening, but the bulk
of the 24-hour PODA live streamwill be on Saturday, starting at
1.
Pm Eastern standard to Heim,going through uh till 1.

(01:50):
Pm A Sunday.
Uh, so those for UCC, I thinkit's 1700.
Uh, so hopefully see on thelive stream again.
This is a huge giveaway, a bighangout, and we are also doing a
big fundraiser for uh teachersinstitute, uh and steve good
game.
So please uh head over to ourwebsite, check that out um,

(02:11):
donate if you can't be there,because we want to continue to
help further the education uh ofham radio in schools.
And so, as always, thanks again.
Seven, three pota on guys.
I can't do this.
I've got Mike Wright.
Please go on without me oh.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Todd, I guess we're going to be talking about my
friend without Eric.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
I guess, so All right .

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, hello and welcome to Live Free in Ham
podcast.
You know it looks likemiraculously I've been healed.
You know we're up to 31episodes.
Hopefully I have a good controlof the mic.
This is our bi-weekly show,during which we discuss ham
radio topics in New Hampshire,new England and beyond.
So whether you're a regularlistener or first time guest,
we're excited to have you hereand we appreciate your support

(03:03):
and thanks for tuning in today'sepisode.
So let's get into the show.
I'm your host.
Name's Eric Call.
Sign's N1JUR.
I'm with my co-host.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Paul N1JUR.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Let's try that again, guys.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Go ahead, Paul.
We're no longer alphabetical.
No, that's true.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, we want to try that again.
Everybody should know us bythis point, but anyway, all
right.
Well, before we get into ourtopic, we've got a few things
we'd like to catch up on.
First one is our storefront isup at livefreeandhamcom.
We are all wearing our officialemployee, you know, issued

(03:48):
clothing and, as we see, paulhas been modeling our hand radio
makes me feel dumb, and that'sokay shirt.
Todd is wearing our officialIzzo, that guy, those guys up
north in New Hampshire shirt.
They are all over there on ourshop and waiting for you to go
over there and grab and be partof the live free and ham family.
As you know.

(04:09):
All we'd like to thank a fewfolks that have actually
purchased Frank S, who is ourlatest one.
He grabbed our live free andham classic tea.
Thanks again for sporting us,frank and all the rest of those
that have bought other stuff.
And as I continued on, we are inApril.
We're going to have some greatguests lined up our April stream
.
If you're a big Alaska fan, uh,we're going to have Jeremy KL,

(04:32):
seven EC, on to talk POTA and uhham radio in Alaska.
So stay tuned for that.
Make sure you head over to ouruh, live free and ham YouTube
channel and click the like andsubscribe button if you haven't
already, and that way you'll benotified when we go live.
And we are working on a segmentsoon for all of those folks

(04:53):
that have been posting reviewsover on iTunes.
We appreciate those, so we'regoing to start to integrate
those in soon, and so keep aneye out for that.
And so keep an eye out for that.
But, as always, let's head overto our regular segment here
called.

(05:14):
And now for something a littleextra with Todd W1STJ.
All right, well, this is.
You've heard it.
This is where we help Toddstudy for his extra class

(05:36):
license.
In each episode, we pick threequestions from the extra class
pool to test his knowledge andhoping he gets his upgrade.
If you'd like to follow along,you can always head over to
hamstudyorg, which is a greatresource to help you prepare for
your test and is recommended bythree out of four volunteer
examiners, because the ADA wasunavailable for comment at the

(05:56):
time of survey.
So, without any further delay,I'll hand it over to our VE
Quizmaster and I will be hisVanna this evening.
Go ahead, paul.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
All right, todd.
Well, since I'm remote, Iappreciate, eric, setting it up.
Your first question what is theeffect of aliasing on a digital
oscilloscope caused by settingthe time base too slow?
Is it A?
Too slow, is it?

Speaker 1 (06:30):
A.
All signals will have a DCoffset.
Where'd the question go?
Technical difficulties, folksAll right.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Is it B?
A false, jittery, low frequencyversion of the signal is
displayed.
C excessive blanking occurs,which prevents display of the
signal.
Or is it D?
Collaboration of the verticalscale is no longer valid or

(07:01):
calibration, because the printis so small I can't even read it
.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
I'm going to say B, all right.
If I go to my page here and Iget it right, we're going to go
to B and the answer is correct.
Great job, nice job, all right.
So one for three, all right.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Next question All right.
Which S parameter is equivalentto forward gain?
Is it A S21?
, B, S11?
, C, S22?
Or is it D S12?

(07:40):
Ooh, confusion.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
I'm going to go with A Paul, my final answer.
What was your answer?
Again, sorry, a confusion.
I'm going to go with A Paul, myfinal answer.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
What was your answer again, sorry, a A, all right, it
is correct.
Yeah, all right, we are on aroll tonight, fellas.
Last question for the evening.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
All right For the final question.
Which of the followingparameters does a spectrum
analyzer display on the verticaland horizontal axes?
Is it A RF amplitude and time,b SWR and frequency, c SWR and

(08:22):
time, or D RF amplitude andfrequency?

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Ooh, they threw a curve in there.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Let's see so a spectrum analyzer.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, I know I'm going to say I'm going to say D,
and you are correct.
Yeah, two for three, nice job,all right, all right, excellent,

(08:57):
cool, all right, we are in arow.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
You can't get better than 100%.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
No, that's two in a row for the record.
Yes, and you know it's allgoing to get better than 100%.
No, that's two in a row for therecord.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yes, and it's only better from here.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
It's zero, right?
Did I get zero once?
Zero out of three.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, that was a tough show.
All right, well, as always.
So if you're in your journey tostudying for your technician
general or extra cost license,in that case handstudyorg is
always an excellent resource forgetting your ticket, and if
you've recently received yourlicense or you got upgraded, let
us know.
We'd like to recognize you onthe next episode for your hard

(09:34):
work and effort, and you canalways email us with that
information at livefreeandham atgmailcom, and we'll surely
mention you on the next show.
All right, so, as our usualsegment here, we're going to
talk about our ham radio week,and so we'll just kick things
off here.
And, paul, you seem to be onein a great place there.
We'll pass it over to you.

(09:54):
So how's your ham radio weekbeen?

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, so while I may not have done a lot of ham radio
you know transmissions orreceiving this week so far this
week I spent planning andpreparing for being where I am,
which is not in my shack.
I'm currently at an undisclosedlocation in Pittsburgh, new

(10:18):
Hampshire, and I've got abeautiful view of the total
solar eclipse, where we will bein totality tomorrow.
So I will be set up outsidewith the 8981 and the Reliance
and Fed Halfwave to do the solareclipse QSTO party and I'll be

(10:39):
running Whisper for a little bitas well.
I'll be running whisper for alittle bit as well.
I'll be running whisper from myhouse as well.
So that way I can I can sendalong the data from both the
partial eclipse and the totality.
But yeah, I'm really lookingforward to doing a whole lot of
radio tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, and you know that's awesome, we're up to date
.
But you've just totally glazedover the most important thing
that if any of our listenersobviously are watching this
YouTube one, you'd notice thathe has officially received a
certain yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
So my gift to myself for getting my extra class
license was that I wanted a 1x2call sign, and so my plan was to
be an extra by the end ofJanuary, and I passed my exam on
New Year's Eve, so I was amonth early and I started
looking at what extra 1x2s wereavailable, and N1OG became
available on March 8th.

(11:53):
I had my heart and soul set onbeing number one, oscar the
Grouch, and so I applied at 6 amon March 8th, and on the 26th I
was granted my call sign.
I will forever now be known asN1OG.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Incredible Well congratulations.
When I first saw it I was likehe's the original gangster.
Look at that, a ham radio.
I guess that comes from my work.
That's what I deal with all dayat work, so that just came to
mind all right west side let me,let me go get my red shirt.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Bandana, yeah, yeah, we should all be wearing red
bandanas so, yeah, congrats onthe call, man, that is totally
awesome.
Glad you got the one by two.
Those are very tough to come bythese days, especially the
short supply on them, and youknow I uh it's inspired me to
think about upgrading my call,but I'm, you know, uh, we'll,
we'll table that one for latereveryone knows you're like super

(12:59):
famous now eric.
Everyone I knows you can'tchange yeah, that, that's
exactly what I'm running intotoo much of a change, cool, all
right.
Well, uh, with that, uh, let'suh transition over to you, todd.
Uh, how's your ham radio weekbeen?

Speaker 3 (13:15):
oh, ham radio week.
Well, nothing good happened.
Uh, we had.
For those of you in new englandyou know we had a bunch of
crazy weather monday wasbaseball practice, thursday and
wednesday wednesday, thursday,was snowstorm, high winds, ice
rain, and my antenna did comedown um the long end.
So, uh, wasn't too bad.

(13:36):
I was going to try to put itback up.
Didn't work, and, uh, I losteric's weight to the gun that he
the antenna cannon that he gaveme.
So I know exactly where well, Iknow the area it is, I just
don't know exactly where it isin that area.
So I bought a slingshot andtomorrow morning, before we do,

(13:58):
eric and I are going to go outand do activation.
During the eclipse.
I am going to try to launch afishing weight with fishing line
, with a newly purchased wristrocket that I will be launching
into my tree to get my antennaback up so I can start using my

(14:20):
uh flex in the shack again.
So that's what's been going on.
Haven't didn't do an, haven'tdone an activation in a while.
So I am really looking forwardto tomorrow.
It's going to be like 65degrees, which is going to be
sweet.
Took the day off and yeah.
So today I got everything ready, or last night and this morning
I got everything ready and I amall packed, charged and ready

(14:44):
to go.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Sweet.
Uh, we, I won't have to visityou and do a poda from a uh you
know, er or anything, so youdon't kill yourself with that
slingshot and, uh, everythinggoes well, fingers crossed.
Um, yeah, one thing I wasthinking of, uh, what you know,
since we've been talking aboutthe lost uh, you know, weight,
shot weight I was like there'sgonna be some technology we can

(15:06):
put in here.
I'm thinking, you know, maybe Ican load them with air tags or
you know some rfid tag orsomething like that, so you can
easily track all these thingsthat we lose.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
It might I have an extra air tag.
If we could fit it in there,that'd be kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
I used to try that although charging them might be
a challenge, you have to chargethem.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
They last for long-term batteries.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Oh, dude, well, true, we could do RFID tags too.
They only wake up when you scanthem.
But, yeah, that might be prettycool.
We'll market them on Etsy.
All right, well cool, see, allright, well cool.
So with that, uh, like todd said, uh, we will be, uh, you know,
getting out like paul, uh outinto, uh the eclipse.
So by the time this show airs,uh, it'll be way past that, but,

(15:53):
uh, we'll definitely, I'm sure,be reporting on, uh, our
progress.
Uh, I'm not gonna be doing anyofficial whisper tests or
anything like that with todd.
I think we're just gonna getout and see what the bands can
do, um, and we will be livestreaming.
So, hopefully you get a chanceto tune into that and uh be a
part of the fun that that uhwill definitely ensue.
I think we're going to berunning a couple antennas and
and uh, hopefully, knock on wood, uh cell service does uh stay

(16:16):
up and we can, uh, you know,record it and get it out to the
stream.
And you know, if not, hey,whatever, we'll, just, you know,
we'll have fun with it eitherway.
So I'm looking forward to that.
Um, I guess, for me, my hamradio, I haven't, like everybody
else, done a whole lot.
I've been, uh, you know, kindof just trying to get some stuff
ready for the channel as I'mgetting close to a thousand subs
.
So, you know, hopefully youguys can come join and hang out

(16:38):
with me.
I'm going to be doing a livestream when we hit a thousand
bunch of giveaways, so lookingto have a just little mini party
there and hang out and have funand, you know, roll into a
thousand subs and, you know, gofrom there.
So I'm enjoying the wild ride,I think for everybody, you know,
especially you guys, hangingout and being part of, obviously
, the free and ham, but at thesame time, you know, supporting
me over and you know, and whenJOR has been a black, this Todd

(17:01):
says I'm infamous or famous or Idon't know whatever you know
you're famous when you're justtrying to activate a park and it
gets interrupted by someone.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Oh, eric, I love your videos.
I'm like, oh, I'm with acelebrity now.
The paparazzi's around thecorner back off.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
We're just activating a park as we all know, ain't
nobody got time for that?
I definitely don't have time.
So, alright, park, as we allknow, ain't nobody got time for
that.
So, all right, cool.
Well, we're gonna dive into ourtopic this evening.
Uh, you know, as we alluded tothe very beginning with our
small little skit, and you knowwe're not all professional, uh,
thespians, so excuse the uh, youknow poor dialogue there.

(17:41):
Uh, you know we're gonna talk alittle bit about Mike Freight.
I think, um, we've all kind ofhad it in some form or fashion
and I was, um, having a coupleof conversations with a few new
hams and and folks that, uh, youknow we're thinking about doing
poda, and in thoseconversations it kind of came up
of like oh yeah, the Mike stuff.
You know I'm not quite readyfor that.

(18:05):
You know I don't know what todo and and so you know, as I try
to do a lot, and I'm sure youguys as well, is that we try to
provide some encouragement andyou know a little bit of uh, you
know, help to uh, uh, you know,kind of move them towards.
You know trying it out, and youknow, and I know all of us all
offer the opportunity to say,hey, come do a podo with us,
because you know, heck, why not?
Why wouldn't I have an excuseto go do another poda.
And you know, let somebody elsetry.
Uh, you know, uh, their hand at, uh, you know offering the mic.

(18:28):
But you know, let's, let's kindof break this out a little bit.
As we know, you know Mike frightis a serious thing and you know
if it's not treated it can leadto some serious issues later.
Um, so, you know, if you can,as early as you can to, you know
, basically thwart that.
But all kidding aside, you knowwe all know like we've always

(18:48):
struggled with it.
So let's kind of like shapethat a little bit Talk, if you
guys, I've got a couple ofstories on my own that I recall
back of how and what I did whenI did have Mike Fright.
You guys had kind of gonethrough that yourselves.
You guys got any little.
You know you recall any of yourmemories the first time you
maybe hopped on hf or, you know,fired up your ht once you got
your ticket, or anything likethat well, if you don't get over

(19:11):
your mic, fright, you end up aserial digital operator, and
nobody likes a serial digitaloperator.
We don't want all our friends tobe that way very true, very
true so yeah, anybody got any.
Any of you guys go through anyof the mic fight at all a little
bit, or just kind of a littlebump over that and you just kind

(19:32):
of get over it pretty quickyeah, I think.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
uh, when I first got my technician license and I got
my radio all set up and wantedto make my first contact, I was
like just staring at the radiolike all right now, what like do
I do it?
Do I do what they call me?
You know, and wanted to make myfirst contact, I was like just
staring at the radio like allright now, what Like do I do it?
Do I do it?
What happens if they call me,you know?
So you just got to push thebutton and go for it and then
you realize it's not so bad.

(19:55):
It's like it's not very bad.
But I think my more fear was HF, you know, talking on the
repeaters.
Know, it was pretty easy oh,I'm new.
Everyone's like, oh they talkabout your new stuff.
Then I was like, well, now thatI'm, you know what would happen
if I'm not new, what am I goingto talk about?
But it comes right, um, but hf,yeah, I was super nervous.

(20:17):
Uh, the first field day Ivisited I didn't participate in
well I guess I kind ofparticipated in, but I was just
a technician and Eric was astation captain and he made me
operate like really, like you'redoing this, like sit down, take
the mic, go for it, and I Ididn't know what to say, it
wasn't in my head.

(20:37):
I just I didn't like once theyasked me a question but he was
right there and you know I mademy contact to uh, it was
pennsylvania and I was allexcited because I thought that
was super far.
But now, yeah, well, I don'tget too excited about
pennsylvania anymore from newhampshire, but you know I'll
take the contact.
So that was like my firstreally, I was still nervous,

(21:00):
right.
And then I got my general andthen we went and activated our
first park that day on the wayhome and I totally screwed it up
.
It was terrible.
I was mumbling, I had to addthings to my call sign, I was
saying the wrong.
I was like this is so farbetween yeah, it was.
So I said I got to go, I got togo home and just listen.

(21:24):
It was bad.
So I said I got to go home andjust listen.
So I'd find someone likeactivate in a park and I just
like leave it on there andlisten and try to get a hang.
And what I found was reallyhelpful was hunting the parks,
because you know, I was onlydoing the easy part, right, but
I got used to making the calland then as I started activating
parks and I realized like hey,I'm in control of this, I can do

(21:45):
it any way I want.
I just would get into thisgroove.
And I think that the first timeI really was like I'm all done
with the Mike Fright was when Iactivated that Silver Lake.
It was a night.
I did a day shift or an eveningshift before day and then I
went to the night shift and Iwas like my first real pile up

(22:05):
and I was like in the zone for agood.
I think it was like two hours Iwas doing it and all I know is
when I started it was light outand I was so into logging and
making the next contact that Ilooked up it was like 10 o'clock
and it was pitch black and likeall I had was my phone for
flash because I didn't think Iwas going to be there that long.
I think I got like 150 contactsand Eric's texted me job, like

(22:29):
everyone in the club's, likeyou're doing great, keep going,
keep going, my phone's blowingup and and that was it.
After I did that, I was like noproblem with the mic stuff.
So I uh, I got prettycomfortable with it and I think
the more you do it, the more youuh, the more you are you, you
know, the more you'recomfortable doing it, the easier
it gets.
And then you don't really thinkabout it, just becomes like you

(22:50):
know riding a bike, you justget on and do it.
But I did tell you when we didI think we did a live, I don't
know you did one of your, yourwebsites that I was on, I don't
know, maybe it was our Rover orsomething, and my mother watched
it and she goes how did youlearn how to talk in that code?
I'm like code, like what areyou talking about?

(23:10):
Oh, the seven, threes, and thenthe qrz.
I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'mlike it's just I go, it just
becomes she goes.
You sound like a professional.
I'm like I'm far from that, mom, but thank you thanks mom.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, how about you, paul?

Speaker 2 (23:27):
you got any interesting uh stories or
anecdotes about your, your mikefreight, or did you have mike
freight at all, or well, yeah,so I mean I, I 100 can make fun
of serial digital operators,because that's what I was, um,
so, recovering addict.
I got my tech in February of 21.

(23:48):
I got my general in March andthen all I did, probably for the
first year, was digital.
I did FT8, winlink, vera, Imean any digital mode that I
could do.
That's what I was into becauseI didn't want to get behind the
mic.
And then I started after mysecond field day.

(24:14):
Right, it was the first fieldday.
Like Todd, I didn't want toreally take part.
I wanted to kind of take it in,observe things and figure it
out.
So second field day, I gotbehind the mic and and that is
what gave me that drive to getover the fear and and it, it.
It's one of those things whereyou know, like anything, I

(24:36):
always tell my son, right, he's13.
Nothing is easy at first, right, and anything that's worth
doing is going to be a littlebit of a challenge.
So ham radio is a bitchallenging and it's because
it's worth doing.
And so once you start gettingthrough that mic fright and you
start getting a little bit ofpractice under your belt, you're

(24:58):
listening to what other peopleare saying and how they're
rolling through their contactsin.
You develop your own style andso like, especially now, I love
doing parks on the air and, liketodd said, it's great because
you're in control, becauseyou're the one calling cq.
I'll sometimes I'll take, youknow, two, three, four minutes

(25:21):
and I'll, uh, I'll, have alittle bit of a conversation
with somebody, depending onwhere they're at, you know, like
if they're in northern scotland, uh, I've been learning gallic
for over a year and so you know,I'll ask them a valgallic.
I could you know, do you havegallic?
Um, most of the time they don't, you know, but they, they
appreciate the sentiment of measking you know, and then, and

(25:43):
then it spurs a little bit of aconversation and it's funny
because I'm not a very sociableperson.
I don't tend to agree or getalong with people very easily.
I'm somewhat difficult withpeople socially.
I know, todd, believe it or not, If they find you.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, hear me out, it's okay.
Look at how much time I spendwith a local club.
Okay, I don't go to thebreakfast, I don't go to the bar
, I don't go to club meetings, Idon't want to be around the
people.
But you put me behind a radioand it's a completely different
story.
I'm very comfortable now nowbeing behind a radio and having

(26:34):
a conversation with multiplepeople, and so for someone like
myself who doesn't want to bephysically in a social group
where you get anxiety in thataspect, getting over that mic
fright is key to finding alittle bit of happiness in
communicating with others.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, good points.
Yeah, we're going to dive in alittle bit of kind of talking
about maybe giving you some tipsor tricks that you might be
able to use to be able to getover that kind of first hump,
and we can kind of break thoseout a little bit, I think, into
the realm of repeaters and localcommunications, and then we'll
talk HF, because HF, as we allknow, is in my mind a little

(27:17):
easier animal sometimes becauseit can be such a short exchange
where the repeater lingo couldbe, like Todd said earlier,
after you tell everybody who youare and you're 4 one one, you
have to now come up with a topicthat you're going to figure out
how you keep this conversationgoing, type thing.
Um, or you know, you fake thehey, I got a phone call, type
thing, or whatever.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
We'll go over some of those tips and tricks when you
don't want to talk to me.
I got a phone call.
I got a client to see.
I see how it is.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Exactly.
So yeah, we will cover those ina second.
So I guess my little um, I gottwo things.
When I got my ticket very earlyon in 91, I was still in high
school Um, I was very much thatcomputer nerd and I, you know, I
, I, I, my one sport I playedwas baseball.
So I was spent most of my timein the computer lab, electronics
, you know, uh, roman, whatnot.
So when ham radio kind of camearound and, uh, I got my ticket,

(28:10):
um, I really could only talk onthe repeaters, and so I very, I
would say, when I first got myfirst ht, I, you know, the first
thing I did was fire it up andthe repeater and then I prayed
after I could chunk the repeaterthat nobody would come back.
And of course, you know, therepeater in town was a very

(28:31):
active repeater.
Everyone was always, you know,using it for commuting.
So I should have just reallyrealized that somebody would be
like who's chunking the repeater?
And back in those days when youchunk the repeaters they got
annoyed by it, especially if youdidn't ID.
And so I kind of I remembervery, very IDing with my call
sign and I must've tripped overmy words and they're like what
did?
They made me repeat my callthree or four times because I
just couldn't get it across.

(28:51):
And they're like use phonetics.
I'm like, oh my gosh, phoneticsNovember one, just use your
radio, I think would be a goodone, you know.
So, you know, kind of playingthose games.
Uh, I, I, I finally just forcedmyself to just be like you know
what I'm going to be me on theradio and you know there, that's

(29:12):
just kind of how it is.
And if they, you know, theyknow me personally, then
there'll be okay with having aconversation with those that
just think I'm weird.
Well, yeah, I'm in the hobby,it's radio, so you're going to
be weird anyway.
Um, and so that's kind of how Iforced myself to have those
conversations and and where Ilearned that later on in life,
when you know I, now I, I feelbad because I, I hop on our

(29:32):
repeater locally all the time,at least three or four times a
day, you know, constantly justput my call center out there
hoping, you know, somebody willrespond.
And and I, I can almost tellwhen I get those ones or onesie,
twosies of people, you know,and they put out their call and
they kind of do it a little bit,knowing that they don't want
really that to happen.
I'm going to be the guy jumpingon there but I'm like I'll
happily guide the conversationbecause I know they're just like

(29:53):
trying to like think of thenext thing to say, or the you
know the right thing to say, orhas it gone to 10 minutes yet?
Should I ID?
You know that kind of ordeal.
So you know that we'll diveinto some of those tips that I
got out of that and how to tomove.
Uh, you know that needle ahead,the HF one.
I, I, I almost didn't getinvolved with HF and now I know
you guys are looking at me likewhat the heck is wrong with you.

(30:15):
But when I first startedgetting into HF it was when
field day.
Uh, uh, you know, when I was alot younger and I had a lot of
people in the club who arecontesters and so they were the
very like hardcore guys and soyou had to follow format and
none of them like really gave mea structure to work in, like
hey, say this and then try that,then say this and try that, and

(30:35):
oh, they responded this way,you know, kind of helping you
through the two way conversationthey just kind of said well,
here's the sheet, follow it to aT and you know, make sure
you're hitting all.
You know getting your contactsquick, because once you start,
you know, putting your CQ outthere, people are going to start
responding and I, I remember,you know, my first HF contact.
I stumbled over every you know,and the problem was the club
call sign was like WB one, g O,f, and so that's a tough one to

(30:58):
remember while you're trying tosay everything else.
Um, and I thank God you know,our club call sign today for our
local club is N1QC, which isreally easy Queen, charlie,
queen, charlie, over and overagain, um, so you know, having
that experience kind of almostshied me away from doing it and
become you know.
And then that, and in thosedays it was PSK 31 and you had
to have, like you know, half amillion dollars to be able to

(31:20):
put the hardware in to be ableto do digital modes.
Um, so you, you, you're verymuch lucky, paul, that you were
able to start that, otherwise itwould be CW for me and I was
struggling with that from theday one.
So, yeah, so HF only got betterfor me once I finally got you
know 10 years later into thehobby and got my general and I
remember doing my very first HFalone and, like Todd expressed,

(31:43):
it was like I'm going to just dothis and I think I screwed up
five times.
I probably didn't log everycontact that I had.
I probably said the order wrong.
Like you know, when you say QRZ, qrz is supposed to end, you
know the transmission and Ican't tell you how many times it
, you know, irks my, gets mygoat, as they say.
When people go QRZ, n1jur andit's like, um, no, it's your

(32:04):
call sign, then QRZ, you'rebasically telling people now
they can respond to it andyou're saying it after the fact.
Anyway, long story short, allthat you know.
I do remember I stumbled overit but I, like Todd, said you
just, you get that passion andPaul, you expressed that earlier
it was like we're just like yougot to keep doing yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
So it sounds like.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Oh, yeah, Sadly.
Yes, In a good way, Of course,Very much so.
So you know, when you started,so let's kind of break this down
, so let's talk a little bitabout the you know the more
localized communications with,you know dealing with repeaters,
or you know, VHF, UHFcommunications, Now anything

(32:47):
that you guys, when you firststarted to do that, did you find
that you were really like moreconcerned with like making sure
you got all of the right thingsin place, meeting your call sign
every 10 minutes, making sure,say, seven three instead of
seven threes.
You know, or I'm going QRT orI'm going clear, like all of
those little nomenclatures thatwe kind of use in the hobby.

(33:08):
Did you find that you just, youknow, adapted to that well and
were able to kind of integratethat into the conversations you
had with folks, or would youjust you just kind of, you know,
really went at it at adifferent?

Speaker 3 (33:20):
Well, thanks to the technician test when it says
when you want to call someone,just call CQ.
So I was that rookie onrepeaters like loser, just so
dumb but right, I know.
But you know what?
I didn't know, you guys then.
So I was like all right, butfortunately I have to say that
99 of all the hams out there arereally good people and are not

(33:43):
going to.
They're going to tell you youdon't have to say that on the
repeater, you say that on hf orwhatever.
You don't have to say that onthe repeater, you say that on HF
or whatever.
You don't have to say it on therepeater, just throw your call
sign out there.
Someone will get back to you ifthey're listening and they want
to talk.
But you know, there is alwaysthe one guy that would, you know
, could be a jerk about it.
But I had a positive experienceand I just laughed at it and I

(34:08):
said, oh, that stupid test.
You know, listen to that.
But that's I mean, that was oneof the things that I did.
And then they're like, hey, youdon't have to do that.
So I learned by trial and error.
I use, you know, I use ourrepeater probably the most and I
just call my call, sign outwhen I get in the car and I go
to work or coming home from workor if I'm just driving around
and you know some of you guysI've talked to all you guys

(34:28):
numerous times.
And there's other guys in theclubs and I've I've actually
been talking to a new guy in umTownsend.
Uh, he's a technician, I thinkhe's working on his general, but
uh, he has.
Uh, I talked to his 11 year oldson.
Uh, he was with him when I wasdriving to work doing the night
shift and uh, he was all excitedabout talking.
They were waiting for the.

(34:48):
I think they were waiting forthe, uh their programming in
their radio, the internationalspace station.
So he was all excited, thinkinghe's going to hear the
astronauts or whatever.
So I thought that was kind ofcool.
So I talked to him for a littlebit and, uh, I don't know, I
call in, he keeps reaching itback out to me.
So he's a uh, but he's uh, wekind of have something common.
He was in the air.

(35:09):
Uh, no, the post guard.
He did, uh, something like uh,what do you call it?
Like correction kind of stuff,like police work, and you know,
I kind of do that with juvenileprobation, so we kind of had to
talk about that.
Now, paul, I told him about uh,about watson.
He, uh, he trains dogs, but ashe says he trains people to

(35:30):
handle dogs, which I thought waspretty funny, so, uh, well,
yeah, so, uh, yeah.
So he's been like I haven't methim or anything, but we talk on
the radio a lot and so it'skind of cool because we have a
lot to talk about, because wedon't really know each other
that much.
But I think getting onrepeaters is, you know, just
just throw your call sign outthere.
Someone's always willing totalk to you.

(35:51):
Sometimes they want to talkabout the weather, sometimes
they want to talk about whatyou're doing today, sometimes
they just want to say they gotit and then, as a newbie, as
someone who's brand new, justcall out RadioCheck, yeah that's
a good one.
If no one was answering me,1stjradio check.
Everyone's gonna answer you forthat.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
And then just stop talking to them but uh, and you
know with the radio check a lotof times though it's just going
to be like that the ham whodoesn't normally talk long or
it's not long-winded, it's gonnabe like okay, seven, three, and
say see you later, and thenyou're off the hook, right yeah,
yeah and and you know I I'vedone radio checks when I put in
like new, like new antennas ornew radios, or when I put my

(36:32):
thing in the you know makingsure it works and stuff.
So you mean use it when you'resupposed to yeah, I've also.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
Well, if you're new and no one's answering you, I I
do find that some repeaters havehave regulars, right, so it's
like their crew, their, theirgroup that uses it.
So they don't want to reallytalk to new people, but if
you're persistent enough they'llget on there.
So, like the guys in the in theinterstate, uh, repeater
society, radio and dairy right,I've talked to all those guys

(37:00):
and I don't think I've met anyof them in person.
But, uh, you know, I put mycall sign out there and those
guys know me hey, todd, how's itgoing?
But, um, but you just got mycall sign out there and those
guys know me.
Hey, todd, how's it going?
But um, but you just got to putyourself out there and it's.
You know, the repeaters can befun, especially when you're
driving.
You got nothing to do, you know, you're just looking for
something, makes my commute goquick, uh, whoever I'm talking
to.
And then there's a.

(37:20):
I found, uh, one of the guysfound a new repeater in epsom
which is um, it got hugecoverage.
Like I've gotten it all the wayup in Rumney and it's out in
Epsom, new Hampshire, and I'vegotten as far out as Windsor and
Hillsborough and uh, down inmass.
So uh, there's a newer ham downthere, anthony, and he, uh, I

(37:41):
do, I do tests with him, so he'salways on it.
He's, he must monitor it like 24, 24, 7, but I always tell him
where I'm at and how I'msounding and you know where it's
at.
And he's, uh, we found thatthat repeater is got a huge area
and it works really well, so,uh, so sometimes I'll do that.

(38:01):
So I mean, like I said, I Ijust play around with it and
sometimes I just listen.
Sometimes I don't want to talkto anyone, I just want to hear
like someone's talking about atopic or something sounds
interesting.
I'll just listen.
So how about you?

Speaker 2 (38:12):
paul.
So when it comes to uh, vhf,uhf, um, I would say for me,
like when I first started uh, Idid a lot of listening and
listening.
Listening is good, but there'snot always a lot of listening
and listening.
Listening is good, but there'snot always a lot of activity.
And so what I would do is Iwould program the repeaters in

(38:35):
to the Baofeng right via chirpand just hit scan and then,
whenever it would find somethingyou know that was something, I
would listen something, you knowthat was something I would
listen.
Um, once, once I got my licenseand I started like, well, all
right, I'll, I'll throw my callsign out there, and you throw
your call sign out and you know,maybe somebody comes back and

(38:57):
maybe somebody doesn't.
But, um, I, I have no issueswhatsoever with somebody who
actually wants to make a call,with somebody calling CQ on a
repeater, like that is, that ishow we let people know hey, this
is me and I'm calling who wantsto talk to me, right?

(39:18):
So shame on anybody that saysdon't call CQ on a repeater,
because if you are calling andyou want somebody to talk to
call CQ on a repeater, becauseif you are calling and you want
somebody to talk, to call CQ.
I don't care, it doesn't matterwhat, what, what mode, it is,
um.
But I think for me the biggestchallenge with um, with local

(39:42):
repeaters, was when I was on.
Not everybody would be on, andso, you know, a lot of times,
like I'd, I'd, I'd throw my callout there and, like you, I'm
kind of hoping that nobody comesback.
But on the other hand, you're,you're also kind of excited.
Well, maybe somebody is goingto come back and you know, you

(40:02):
know what are we going to talkabout.
But it doesn't matter what youtalk about, it really doesn't.
You know, like you're in thesame area, you're in the same
vicinity, so you both know whatthe weather is.
So the weather is a non-issue,right.
But, like you know, ifsomething's going on in your
household or something's goingon in your neighborhood,
whatever, like I mean, talkabout whatever's on your mind,

(40:23):
you know, you know, um, justyeah, don't, don't, uh, don't,
let fear hold you back, becausewe all started with zero
experience, right, and anybodythat forgets that, shame on them
.
Because you, that's, that's thekind of thing that makes new
people not want to stick around,is you know?

(40:44):
Oh well, I jumped on a repeaterand some old hat.
You know you got mad at me.
That's stupid.
Like stop it, just just be nicelike it's it's freaking radio
yeah, I'm with you on that, Ithink.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Are they all good points?
Definitely from a standpoint of, uh, you know, doing the radio
check options really good, thatthat's just kind of good segue.
And, like you said, paul, mostpeople aren't going to care
about the weather or what youhad for breakfast.
But in essence, if that's whatyou pops into your head at that
moment, that's totally okay toshare with somebody.
It's not like, uh, you know,there's not this, you know

(41:19):
script you have to follow,except the fact that the only
thing you really have to doaccording to fcc is id every 10
minutes, and even then I know alot of repeaters.
I'm not ideeing every 10minutes, and even then I know a
lot of repeaters.
I'm not IDing every 10 minutesand I'm usually like in a
conversation with somebody andlike 35 minutes in, somebody
else will be like, oh yeah, Iforgot the ID and the ID for me
and I'm like, yeah, fine, I'lljust keep going.
You know whatever, you knowwhoever's listening.
If they want to bust me, fine,but you know the repeaters ID

(41:42):
too.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
So if, if the repeater's ID too, so if the
repeater ID is, then that's areminder.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Oh yeah, I should ID as well.
That's a good point there.
I didn't even think about thatas being a little trigger, even
though I ignore it.
Go ahead, Paul.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
No, I normally if I'm having a conversation with
someone and I can't really keeptrack of time, but I'll just
throw it out there.
When it's my next turn to go inthere.
I, I can't really keep track oftime, but I'll just throw it
out there.
When it's my next turn to go inthere, I'll just throw both our
call signs and say N1JR, w1stjfor ID and then continue on.
I don't think it's that youknow it's that important.
I mean, it's not like this isyou, this is me, right, and

(42:23):
they're not sitting on therepeater like, all right, you're
busted.
You know you're getting a fine,we're coming after you, you're
getting sanctioned and they'renot going to be hunting you down
for that, trust me.
No, I don't think I think theygot more important things to be
uh worried about.
But I mean, people try and thenyou know you do it and then you
know it's it's fine.
But I I think too, uh,listening, you know, finding
nets.
There's a couple different netsthat are around here.

(42:44):
I used to get on more nets,especially when I just a
technician.
I think I had one or two everynight.
But time is valuable and Idon't have that much time
anymore to sit around for halfan hour hour net.
So I try to get on our net andI have a couple other ones and
if I'm around the radio or ifI'm in the car I'll definitely
jump on them.
But if you're afraid to get onthe net, listen, go through a, a

(43:05):
couple weeks of listening tothe nets, see how they go, and
then just throw it out there andyou just tell me brand new is
my first net and you know thenet control will what will guide
you through it and um, and thenwhat I ended up doing is I got
on the nets and then I reallyliked the nets and then I ended
up asked someone asked me one ofthe net control said hey, would
you be willing to do netcontrol.

(43:27):
I said sure, so I tried that andI just thought, hey, it's my
first time and oh, you did great.
You did great because I figured, like they're all saying that,
because you know, it's like youknow, oh, we want you to be
president of the club, butbecause no one else wants to do
it, but I, I like doing it, sothat's why I do it on sundays.
It kind of interferes with us,so probably we should probably
just move our recording time tolike eight, because it used to

(43:50):
be like five people, now it'slike 15 and everyone has
something to say.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Yeah, you know, with that move to eight, now that
everybody listens to our podcast, it'd be like oh well, we got
plenty of time, todd doesn'thave to be on.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
It's been good.
And the first time, I mean anhour before, I'm like okay, I
got everything spread out linedup.
I got my own little spreadsheetthat I keep track of.
I got my script and I was sonervous and then I did it and
now it's like you know my11-year-old will be like God,
dad, aren't you running the nettonight?

(44:22):
It's like 5 or 7.
Oh yeah, run in turn on on theradio and go.
You know you, it goes withcomfort.
You know some people like totalk to us, some people just
like to listen.
But I think that part of radiois in ham radio is communication
.
So that's what we're here forright, like whether we do it
online, cw, but we're supposedto be communicated.

(44:44):
And I find that what's reallyenjoyable for me is when you get
to the hf stuff and you'retalking to people around the
world and you learn things abouttheir culture, their countries,
what they're doing and um.
And it's kind of cool becauseon hf you're always logging and
a lot of guys will have theirlog up and when they type in

(45:05):
your call sign like oh, weworked each other two years ago,
you know.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Hold on that one, put a pin in that for a second.
There's one thing I want totalk about the VHF, uhf, because
I think the HF, that piece is areally good part.
So we've obviously touched onlike the one-on-one in terms of
like communication and, you know, not worrying about, like you
know Paul said, fearing you know, not worrying about, like Paul
said, fearing you know what yousay.
Next, just kind of let the, the, the Elmer, or the guy who's
pretty, or gal who's prettyseasoned, to just kind of lead

(45:33):
the conversation a little bit.
But, um, what is the one piecethat we may not touched on and
maybe you've run into if you've?
Uh, you know you're relativelynew ham is like, um, dealing
with, you know, conversationswhere you have three or four
people in, you know, on therepeater, you know we all trip
over it, we all screw it up whensomeone you know enters the
round.
We all know what that feelslike.
But you know we shoulddefinitely touch upon a little

(45:53):
bit of that.
So you know, this is thescenario where you're might be
in a conversation one-on-onewith somebody and all of a
sudden two other, three otherpeople want to join in.
They throw their calls in, youknow, and then this is where the
chaos ensues, because it's likewho deals with what?
Who goes next?
And you know it takes a littlewhile to figure that out, and I
think from that experience we'veall had our own, you know,

(46:14):
flavor of like.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
If you're N1J, you are.
You just forget that W1STJ isactually in the group and just
bypass them.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
You know I am, I'm nearing 50.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
so give me a slack here, my friend yeah, the other
guy's like hey is, uh is.
Is todd w1stj still in there?
Oh yeah, I'm still here, justhanging out yeah, we've all that
.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
So so your experience with the we'll call the round
or the the group conversation,um any tips or tricks you kind
of you know, either you havehandled someone will, someone
with experience will take overand just go.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
This is the way we're going sometimes like it's like
if there's four of us in thereand I'm, you have to wait to go
around.
I kind of don't like that.
But I know that's like theprotocol, the rule.
But like if I'm answering, iferic goes and asks me a question
and I'm three down, like Ithink I should be able to answer
that question and then go tothat.

(47:10):
But it depends on how it'sgoing, it doesn't really matter.
Sometimes you get by the timeit's your turn.
You got like four questions toanswer, so sometimes I always
forget one.
I have to get on the next round, but there's no.
There's no like real rule.
It's not like you, you dosomething.
If you, if you skip someone oryou go in the wrong order, you
just figure it out.
And sometimes we just laughabout it and say, oh uh, we

(47:32):
don't even know like what orderare we going in?
And then someone will be likeall right, this is the order.
I mean, it's, it is what it isYep.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
How about you, Paul?
Any feelings on that?

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Well, yeah, because I mean I think typically there's
there's usually somebody withsome experience that will kind
of take charge of you know.
All right, well, these, theseare the call signs that we've
got Right, and so this is kindof the general order, you know.
But to Tom's point, where youknow, say you know he's third in

(48:04):
line and and you're're first inline and you you've got a
question directly for him.
Uh, I've been in plenty ofthose little round Robins where
it's like, oh, because yourquestion is specific, you know
it'll just jump right to the endand then come back to you and
then, and then you know who isafter you, because you know it

(48:34):
took a couple of turns to figureout, like, all right, after me
is so-and-so, but then you knowit just comes back to you and
you turn it on to the nextperson and that's it.
Like I mean, I don't, I don't,I mean there's nothing to be
afraid of.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
I guess you know like , well, yes, it can be a little
bit chaotic, um, just roll withit you know, and sometimes like
if I'm in between, so like ifyou, paul, asked eric a question
but I was next, I just skip.
Yeah, go ahead, eric, take ityou know, I'll get on the next
round, because it's not like Ihave to say it and then

(49:00):
sometimes I don't have anythingto say.
It's like all right, uh, I'mlistening next.
Yeah, that's actually a goodpoint, god.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
I think that it's okay for any of the new guys
that have gotten brain fog oryou just shut off.
You can't put anymore.
It's okay to bow out.
You don't have to, like youknow, continue to leave this.
You know it's not a love affair.
You don't have to keep it going.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Yeah, and you know you can say I appreciate the
conversation sitting here on theside.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Good point, cool, all right.
Well, let's get into the bigone here.
Let's talk HF here, cause youknow, we, obviously this is a
whole new animal, because Ithink it's it's not low, it can
be localized a little bit.
But more so if we all know andwe all do POTA that they, you
know, whenever we get a chanceto get out to do it, you become
kind of and we all alluded to ita little bit is that you're

(49:51):
open to a larger audience.
So there is a lot of strength,I think, when you're doing HF,
because you own them, you runthe show is basically the way I
look at it.
And so if we let's kind of dothis in the frame of, say, field
day, um, you know, becausefield day is a big event both
winter and summer and you knowusually where we invite a lot of

(50:12):
people to come in to kind of,you know, experience it in a,
you know, in a space that's safe, we'll say, um, at least in our
club, I know we're really goodabout, you know, helping, guide
people along the way and and getthem excited to.
You know, just keep coming backfor more.
Um, you know, from a thatperspective when you're
encouraging or trying to pullsomebody in and they are dealing
with Mike fright, you know, Imean obviously I, I, I, I abused

(50:35):
you, todd, and I have toapologize again.
You know publicly, um, you know, for just pulling you in and
saying, here, go to it.
But, um, you know any tips ortricks that you know you've kind
of, or experiences that you'vehad with people.
I know, paul, you've had agreat experience in Winterfield
Day, if you want to touch onthat one, but you know that you
guys want to touch on whentrying to get someone in to try

(50:57):
a contact on field day.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
The big thing for me right putting somebody brand new
behind a radio is one bepatient with yourself.
Okay, we're all our own worstcritic and I guarantee all of
the horrible things that you'rethinking about yourself is not
what the person on the other endof the radio is thinking.

(51:20):
They can hear your inexperiencecoming through the radio and
any ham worth his salt is goingto understand that there's
inexperience there and they'regoing to be patient with you.
So you just have a little bitof patience with yourself.
Don't be so hard on yourself.

(51:42):
It will all come in time, youknow.
Just don't let fear hold youback, because I guarantee you
the person on the other end ofthe radio is not anywhere near
as critical of you and whatyou're saying and how you're
saying it as you're doing toyourself.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Yeah, how about you Zod?
No, I second that.
That I mean, like I said, 99 ofthe people out there are
willing to help and you knowI've I've done poda activations
with pileups and I I've had anew guy get on there and he was
all screwed.
I need some poly.
I said, listen, I go, I gottime, let's talk.
You know you're doing great,this is what we're doing and and

(52:21):
I think it's like you'repassing on, because I was there
at one point and I know what itwas like and I think that will
make that ham so much betterbecause he's going to then feel
more comfortable about going on.
Now, the one thing I wouldn't doif you were brand new and you
have mike freight and you get onhf, don't go on a contest.
Those guys are like I still getnervous, like they go so fast

(52:44):
and if you screw up or you ask aquestion, it throws off their
rhythm and they get all.
You can tell that they're likewhy is this guy?
But if you are going to do acontest, listen for a long time,
figure out what you're supposedto say, figure out what they're
looking for and and then do it.
I'm not discouraging you fromdoing it.
But I said, when I was a brandnew general and I got on and I

(53:09):
started doing some trying towork, some contests and stuff, I
find myself really pissingpeople off just because I didn't
understand what was going on.
But you know what?
It's a learning, you know.
But I think the guys in POTAare really, are really guys that
do POTA and activating parks,are really, um, the guys that
will help you and get through it.

(53:30):
Because there's, like you andme and everyone else, we're not
professional At least I'm not aprofessional, uh, broadcaster,
but when I'm activating a parkand I got to pile up, I sure as
hell feel like one.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
That is true, that is true, yeah, so, oh, sorry, uh
to to to your your thing about,um, oh shit.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Helping people.
Stop in the stop in the takingthe time to walk.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
Yes, yes, no, contest , contest, contest, contest,
yeah, uh.
So, listen, don't be afraid tojump into a contest either,
because I do it.
Uh, I'll jump in.
I'll say, hey, listen, I don'tknow what the exchange is, um,
but I hear all of you guys.
So if you help me out what'sthe exchange, I'll give you the
proper exchange and then I'llmove on.
Most people will be nice enoughto explain it to you.

(54:26):
So, yeah, don't even be afraidto jump into the podcast, just
ask politely.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Yeah, my point is to do it.
Yeah, don't make it your.
I mean I don't know.
I mean I had an experience witha guy from Brazil like pushing
2000 watts and he was super fast.
Yeah, don't make it your.
I mean I don't know.
I mean I had an experience witha guy from Brazil like pushing
2,000 watts and he was superfast and I screwed it all up and
I could tell he was pissedbecause I threw him off his like
he was probably working likethe championship or something,
and but I mean, like I said,there's also.

(54:58):
I mean I've talked to guys onHF that are doing live.
Like I mean I've talked to guyson HF that are doing live.
Like I talked to this guy Ithink he was in Italy.
He does a live YouTube streamof him activated.
It's awesome because you workthem and you can go back on
YouTube and just scroll back andyou can hear yourself on how he
hears you.
So I found that pretty cool todo, um, and if you're trying to
work them, you could tell themthat you're trying to work them.

(55:18):
You can send them in the chatand he'll try to hear you, and
then it's kind of like cheating,but you know if you're looking
to hear what your signal sign.
What was cool about that is?
I did that when I first got myFlex and someone had told me
that the headphones that I wasusing it was terrible.
So I went out and bought thisnew headset for my iPad to work

(55:39):
by Flex remote and I worked thisguy and I said how do I sound?
He goes, oh, you sound great,he goes.
And I explained the situationand then I was able to go back
and hear and I was like, okay, Igot my settings all set.
It sounds really good.
So there, like I said, that'sthe type of guy that's out there
.
He's.
He's trying to make as manycontacts as he wants.
He's trying to help people,giving people the opportunity to
hear what you sound likecalling across the pond or

(56:02):
wherever you're at.
Because he was working, hetypically had his beam pointed
to North America, so he waspointing to North America and we
were just trying to get him.
So it was just kind of cool andI've talked to people all over
the world and it's just beenreally cool to talk to all these
different people.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
After doing it I said you know, if everyone in the
world was a ham radio operator,there'd be no wars.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
We're all we're all cool, everyone gets along.
You'd hope, you'd hope hamradio could lead that one way.
Yeah, I don't know, I I justhaven't met anyone that on the
radio that that's been reallybad, or I mean they've all been
like really generous.
And then they, they're curious,sometimes they want to have, uh
, you know, a qso and talk about, you know, they've never been
to new england, new hampshire,the united states, and you know,
and I'm like, yeah, I've neverbeen to serbia, right?

Speaker 1 (56:53):
yeah.
So funny things with hf, as weprobably all maybe touched upon
a little lately, is that whetheryou're in field day or you're
in, you know doing a podactivation and and if you're, if
you're brand new, one thingthat I think we kind of alluded
to and I just kind of want todrive home a little bit is that
you'll feel more successful ifyou have, or you surround

(57:13):
yourself with people that lovethe hobby and love playing radio
, because they're going to be,like Paul said, very patient
with you and they're going togive you the words or feed you a
lot of spoon, feed you a lot ofthe words a couple of times.
And we had a example we boughta share in a couple episodes
prior where we had winter fieldday and we had a brand new
family just got their ticketsand they brought their kids

(57:35):
along to come to winter fieldday.
And I remember just sittingnext to Todd sorry, not Todd,
sit next to Paul.
And you know they Todd sorry,not Todd sit next to Paul.
And, uh, you know they were on10 meters and she was just
following the script and Paulwas just giving her, you know,
little things here and there tokind of tweak it or prove or
just make sure, as he heard it,you know she could relay the
right information.
Um, there was one instance, Ithink you know, in in uh Paul

(57:57):
was saying earlier, where it'slike the other operator on the
other knew that the kid, theirdaughter, was on listening and
actually making a contact, thathe took the time to, you know,
congratulate her, encourage her,do the whole entire thing.
And that's, I think, what we'realluding to, is that it might be
scary from a Mike Fryperspective, but know that you
know people are going to knowthat you're just going to be

(58:18):
going through those phases andit's okay to you know, not say
one thing.
Or you know miss, you knowsaying seven, three, or say you
know some 77s or 88s orsomething really crazy that made
no sense.
Or you know, you know whenyou're supposed to say QR set at
the very end you say QRT.
You know those kinds of littletrip ops.
Know that.
You know those codes and all ofthe nomenclature will come in

(58:44):
time.
Uh, you don't have to stressover knowing you know what you
need to say before you say it.
Sometimes you just try it andif it sticks it's going to.
You know, jog your memory andyou're going to keep redoing it
over, repetitive, you know, overand over again.
So I think all of us, you know,know that very well and and do
it very much often when we doPOTa and you know, uh, field
days as a you know, a bigexample of that.
So I'm totally with you on that.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
And Eric, you did um.
You know the cheat sheets forum, for field day, uh, laminated
, kind of what to say?
What you're looking for, whatyou're giving out, who we are,
what our numbers are.
You know all that kind of stuff.
You know, don't be afraid to,if you're going to do it, have a

(59:27):
cheat sheet in front of you.
You know if you're you're usingq.
You know the code.
Q code, you know, have some ofthe ones that you use more
frequently and just so you canreference it in case you forget.
Um, like I said, for me I'm I'ma learner by doing, not by
learning.
Like you could give me all theq codes and say, memorize them,
and I'm still not going to getthem unless I start using them.
It's just the way I learned, Iguess.
So I have cheat sheetseverywhere.
I still do.

(59:48):
I got, I got the bandfrequencies.
I've got, you know, thephonetic stuff.
I mean it's, I mean I.
The more you do it, the more youget it and it just becomes like
muscle memory.
You know, it's like you juststart doing it.
You're not thinking about itanymore in the beginning.
You're always thinking about it.
It's like when I was learninghow to fly my model airplanes.
I was thinking, okay, up,elevator, right, aileron.

(01:00:09):
Okay, up up, elevator down.
You know I'm not thinking allthis stuff and I'm like how do
these guys do all this stuff?
And like like one day, like theguy I see he goes, he goes todd
, because I'm mumbling this tomyself he goes just fly, just
fly the airplane.
And it was I kind of stuck tome Like I'm like, oh, all right,
and then I just started flying.
I don't think about it anymore.
And it's like as an instructor,you know, I got to put the

(01:00:30):
plane in like weird things thatkids are crashing into people,
like doing nose buys in thetrees, and I gotta, if you, I
had to think of what I was doing, I'd never get anything done.
So it's like now I just fly theplane.
So it's like just do ham radio,just get on there and do it.
And if you screw it up, youscrew it up.
But if you need some somethings to help you out, have it.
There's no wrong or right wayto do ham radio.

(01:00:53):
There's rules.
They're very basic and even ifyou screw them up, it's not like
you did it intentionally, youknow.
It's not like you're just outthere talking on the radio and
you don't have a call sign.
You know you'll get people likethat and you know, eric, you and
I've had some of them.
I think we didn't, uh, I thinkwe've done some in poda.
Then there was someone on therepeater and we just tell them
say, hey, you have to be alicensed amateur and this is

(01:01:14):
where you go and you can't be onthe radio.
Oh, I'm sorry, but for thepeople watching this and the
people who are licensed or brandnew, this is, you know, don't
be afraid, just have fun with itand then talk to your.
If you have a question or youthink you're doing something
wrong, talk to your people inyour club, because I've learned
so much just from my clubmembers, more than I ever

(01:01:34):
learned on any test or any bookI read, because if you have a
question they can answer it.
And you know, eric introducedme to POTA and I've learned
everything about POTA from Eric.
And I remember Paul.
I remember that first day wewent to Silver Lake, you and I
were there first.
We're like well, what do we do?
And he's like I don't know.
I'm like I'm just waiting forEric to show up.
He goes do you have anything?
I'm like, nope, all thepressures, but that was that was

(01:01:58):
like one of the first reallyexperiences.
Like you know, we had, you know, both of us there.
I think you and I were likekind of like brand new, like
well, I don't even know where tostart, right.
And now it's like you know, I'mI want to take people out.
People call me up, say, hey,can I ask you a question about
POTA?
Or I'm like, yeah, let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
So all right.
So we, we kind of touched Mikefright from a perspective and to
kind of just put a little bowon this a little bit, um is what
do we do?
I think there's a piece herethat we we didn't really focus
on but I think is a good thingto talk about.
It's like so okay, so we gotsome seasoned people here.
What, what, what can we offerfolks who are seasoned to help
uh, them, you know, provideencouragement or direction, or,

(01:02:42):
you know, helping these peoplethat you know are trying to get
over the mic?
Fright, you know what would youdo or what you know, if there's
a couple of things that you canbe as a mentor, to mentor
others, to be mentors, is thatkind of makes sense.
You know, anything you pass onin that sense to those folks
that might be listening that,hey, you know I've been doing it
for a while.
The mic's talking is no bigdeal, but you know how are they
going to help, uh, you know, orseek out those folks, maybe.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
It's very simple.
So an experienced ear will knowinexperience as soon as you
hear it, right, because we all,we all know, right it's, it's
obvious, when somebody isinexperienced getting on the
radio, it comes through and youcan hear it.
So for those that areexperienced and you hear it, for

(01:03:31):
, be patient, like, stop being adick, like just be patient.
Remember you were once there aswell.

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
Yeah, yeah, I'm.
You know, I in my line of work.
I mean, I work with troubledkids so I'm always trying to
help them.
So for me it's pretty naturalto want to help people.
So, like on field day, when Ihave my little station going and
people come into my tent andI'm working at it, you know I
say, hey, you want to do this,you want to listen, sit down

(01:04:06):
next to me here.
And I even start, like,especially with the younger kids
, you know, giving them the micand saying, okay, press this.
You know, press this and I'lltalk.
You know, let them feel the.
And then they want to go alittle bit more and more and
more.
And and you just, like you said, be patient, but just offer it
to them.
And if they don't want to do it, I wouldn't force them to do it
, don't pressure them to do ittoo much, but like, give them
the opportunity to say, hey, youwant to try this?
This is fun, you can do this.
You want to talk to someone andthey, they might do it.

(01:04:27):
And then people who arehesitant, you know, you start
telling them stories.
You talk about we talk aboutpodo a lot and they want to,
they want to start coming outand people start saying, oh, can
I come out with you?
Well, you take someone out.
Next thing, you know they'relike buying poda gear because
they're like, oh, this wasreally fun, you know, this was
awesome.
And that's how you get the.
That's how you get it going.
I mean, look at, we've got guysin the club in our club, we're

(01:04:49):
very fortunate that doeverything, like there's guys
that just do cw, that reallyfocus on that.
They got guys that, um, like tobuild and and redo radios.
We've got other guys, guys thatlike to do HF contesting.
We have other guys that justlike to do poetry.
I mean, everyone does somethingand there's so much to do in
this hobby that you should beable to find someone who will

(01:05:12):
support you and help you.
And you know, I know that thereused to be like Elmers, but
like I think my whole club hasbeen my Elmer because everyone's
kind of taught me a little bitof everything.
And that's why I think and youknow we had a previous episode
where we talked about theimportance of clubs you got to
find the right club.
You got to find a club that'swelcoming and wants to be able
to help, and our club has beenawesome with that.

(01:05:34):
They have been totally make youfeel welcomed and totally
understand the level you're at,encourage you and ask questions
and offer to help and it's justbeen a really good experience
for me and I think I got luckybecause I found the right club.
I joined in the beginning awhole bunch of clubs and the
Bedford Club N1QC is the clubthat really fit for me and

(01:05:56):
that's where we all ended up andlooking now now I'm doing
podcasts.
If you said, oh, when you gotyour ham radio, you up and
looking now now we're, now I'mdoing podcasts.
If you said, oh, when you gotyour ham radio, as you think
you'd be doing podcasts whatlike?

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
no, I don't even think I'll be talking on the
radio.
A mic to talk on that?
What do you think I'll be amicrophone for?

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
I thought this was going to be a very inexpensive,
simple hobby, you know, in ht,and that was it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
And then eric laughed at me goes yeah, we'll see
about that yeah, but so toddright, imagine, imagine if there
wasn't an eric to force you toget behind a radio.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
I know I know, well, it wasn't just eric, you know,
uh, you know, when we hadthere's other guys, that
introduced me oh, they just say,oh, why don't you just come
along, you know.
So I'm like okay, and then Istart, see a guy whip out.
This guy, john, whips out a, awire, plugs it into this like
little radio, this big, andthrows it up on a on a fence

(01:06:49):
post.
Next thing you know he'stalking to italy.
I'm like, is that really italy,like that quick?
You know he's got a littlebattery goes.
Yeah, he goes.
You've never done this before,like nope, so that was.
And sometimes for me it's justexposure, like just show me
something cool and I might jumpin on it.
But uh, but I'm glad I got inand I'm glad I got over the fear
of talking on the mic and Ifind it very.

(01:07:11):
I don't.
I don't get nervous doing thenets anymore.
Like I said, I used to bereally nervous and I'd have
everything planned out.
Now it's like I just like, ohshit, it's five, seven o'clock,
five of.
I gotta get over there, right.
Well, I mean it's like I justlike, oh shit, it's five, seven
o'clock, five of.
I got to get over there.
Well, I mean, it's really whatit is.
It's like, oops, but it's justbecause I've done so many of
them.
You just become natural, andit's kind of like when we get on
the air if you do it enough,you just become comfortable with

(01:07:34):
it.
So just go at your own rate andhave fun with it, and if you
don't want to talk, listen andthen every once in a while throw
it out there.
You know, try to make thecontact and see what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Yep, yeah, I'd say I'd agree with that all a
hundred percent.
You know, coming from myvantage point, patience is
number one on the list.
I know a lot of Elmers.
When I was growing up it wasvery much that one-on-one
relationship because therewasn't much of the internet and
all of the extra advice that wasout there and and you dealt
with just the one.
You know one or two clubmembers that might've latched
onto you, but you know, I think,from a standpoint of you know,

(01:08:08):
as you guys touched upon, youknow every one of us at some
level or another, you know itcan be that Elmer and it doesn't
have to be that big.
You know glorious title that'sout there.
Want to talk?
You know?
Do you want to play digital?
You know what, what interestsyou and let's, you know, let's
go explore that together andthat that's you know, coupled
with a.
You know, like we all touchedupon a great club that has

(01:08:29):
diversity and we're good.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
I mean.
I mean, think about it, Ifyou've got an older ham, it's
been around for 50 years, but aham for 50 years and he's never
done poda or anything.
I could technically be an elmerto an extra who's never done
poda on working, taking them outand activating a park, right,
that that is like.
So there's.
It's not like a hierarchy, like, oh, I've been a ham for a

(01:08:54):
hundred years and you know, I amthe king of ham, you are only a
general, so you can't go anyfurther.
Right, I'm still a general.
I might always be a general,who knows?
But anyway, we're looking at,but you look at like, if that's
what you focus on, you do it alot, you might have more
experience and it's all good.
I think about ham radio iseveryone is.

(01:09:17):
It's all about learning, it'sall about communicating, it's
all about having fun.
Learning it's all aboutcommunicating, it's all about
having fun.
And one of the things to havefun, at least for me, is if
you're going to get on sidebandor you're going to get your
ticket and you're going to geton repeater.
You got to talk, right.
So the nice thing is is youdon't have to be seen, so you
sit behind the radio and no oneknows what you look like or what
you're doing or what you'rewearing or whatever like you

(01:09:39):
could be doing.
And I find like when I talk topeople, then, I meet them right
for the first time, like that'snot how I pictured you, but but
you know it's like I said, it'sall good and and you know I've
made a lot of great friends likepeople I hang out with more

(01:10:00):
than I do other friends now.
And my biggest thing with hamradio is like when you tell
people you're a ham radio, a lotof them who aren't in ham radio
kind of laugh right, like whatdo you do that for?
But then I I like to talk toabout it and I tell them and
then I show them and they'rejust like, oh, like you just
made a contact to australia.
I'm like, yeah, did you hearthat?

(01:10:21):
I'm like that's Right, he goes.
And what kind of intent.
I'm like just the wire, he goes, a wire.
I'm like, yeah, a wire strungup in the tree.
And he's like really, I'm like,yeah, like let's see where he
is.
And I, oh, he was 10,000 milesaway.
They're like what?
And they start, they startgetting more and more interested
in it and that's why I thinksome people, I think we could

(01:10:44):
get more people involved if, ifthere was more people doing it
and introducing people like Eric, you and I have been out a ton
of parks.
When people come up, oh, whatare you doing?
Oh, I was a ham and I, I got myticket.
I haven't done in 20 years.
And then they see the equipmentwe're using.
They're like that's the antenna, that's the size of your radio,

(01:11:06):
like just with that, like what,like they're used to, like
using like huge things that theycouldn't really be mobile.
And here we are, yeah, exactlysize of cars.
So I mean it's, I think, justgetting people out there.
But get on the radio.
I mean that's what it's allabout and have fun with it.
And if and if you don't want to, if you're afraid to get on and

(01:11:27):
you have that mic, frightlisten, because the more you
listen you're going to get theedge to say something.
Someone's going to bring up atopic that you're just going to
be itching to speak up on.
I just click the damn buttonand you'll be good to go.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
I just click the damn button and you'll be good to go
.
Roger that Well, I think that'sa good ending here in terms of
you know, this Mike Frank topic.
We touched upon some reallyawesome stuff here, guys and
hopefully, you know you havelearned a little bit more.
That's going to maybe get you,or put you over the edge a
little bit, to want to keepdoing that.

(01:12:01):
And you know, don't be afraidto.
You know, set some goals.
I bumped into a ham on ourrepeater that he, you know he
said for 2024, I'm setting mygoal to get on the repeater more
and just put myself out thereand start talking.
And you know working towardsthat.
And you know he did that withme and we had a good almost 45
minute conversation before hehad to break to go back to work
and I was, you know, off doingwhatever on while I was on the
road.
But uh, you know it was good tohear that I was encouraging him

(01:12:24):
and I'm like, dude, you justgot to come out and do potas
with us.
You got to come out and playradio, just, you know, leaving
open end of an invitations andeventually one of those will
stick someday and you know it'llbe just one of those know so
forth and so on.
So it's, you know, it's a kindof a trickle effect which you
know we all like to see happen,because it just makes the hobby

(01:12:46):
that much better.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
And those of you that are watching that are seasoned
hams.
You know it's like pay itforward.
You know we were all.
We were all rookies, we wereall brand new, we were all in
the same situation.
Pay it, pay it forward.
If you notice that someone isstruggling or new or not sure of
themselves, you know, encouragethem, support them and uh, all
it does is is it benefits, itbenefits our hobby, it benefits

(01:13:09):
the new ham and it benefits you,for for, you know, helping
someone, you know get off theirfeet and get going, because
that's what's really importantis keeping the hobby alive,
keeping people on the air and um, and you know, you know, and
having fun with it.
You know I hate to have a hamradio.
It says I hate ham radiobecause everyone, no one, helps
me and I don't know what I'mdoing.

(01:13:30):
You know that would be to me aterrible thing.
So if you're been around andyou get someone or you're on the
radio, just think of that thenext time you find someone that
might be struggling.
Uh, take the time for whateveryou're doing and uh, and help
them through it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
And I encourage them to keep going.
Yeah, and it's like paul shirtsays ham radio makes me feel
dumb.
So if it makes you feel dumb,then you're okay, you're amongst
everybody else.
We're a whole bunch of turkeyswe all know had very little what
we're doing and we're allhaving fun with it if I can do
ham radio, anyone can.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
Because, like, because, like I said, when I
started this, I knew green wasground.
That's it.
I knew nothing.
The technician test was thehardest test for me to study for
and take, because I knew it waslike learning another language.
But once I got into doing thetechnician stuff, the general
was a little bit easier, and nowthe extra.
Well, that's a little hard, butyou can do it, and it's not

(01:14:23):
like it's attainable.
I have no engineering degree.
I've got no computer skills.
As eric will tell you, I knowhow to turn it on and click to
the website.
That's about it.
Um, I'm clearly not anelectrician, um, and the only
thing I knew about radio waslistening to it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
So I never talked on it.
So I mean my highest level ofeducation is high school, right,
and look at you and he's anextra.

Speaker 3 (01:14:53):
Got the hardest test out there, right.
So what does that say about?
Our education system.
It's just a waste.
Right now Negative, you canbleep that out.
But no, what I'm saying is ifyou're not, if you're not, if
you're not an engineer or you'renot, and you're just like, wow,
this would be really cool, justgo for it.
I mean I did and, like I said II got into this totally by

(01:15:14):
accident and I'm just glad itfound me.
Ham radio found me really is iswhat happened, and now I'm like
totally hooked on it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
So we're coming up with awesome shirt designs here.
Man, ham radio found me.
I love that one.
Awesome.
All right, guys.
Well, let's wrap this up here.
So, uh, as always, thank you forjoining live free and ham.
Uh, we love you guys being partof the community and, you know,
hope, uh, that you know the.
The words that we have tonightwere some encouragement to get

(01:15:41):
you in on, you know, doing moreham radio and just enjoying the
hobby and connecting with peoplethat are like minded, like
yourself.
And so, as we always say, youknow, if you haven't already
subscribed, head over tolivefreeandhamcom, subscribe to
the podcast, leave us a review,if you can.
Or if you're a YouTube watcher,definitely, you know, make sure
, make sure you like andsubscribe this channel as well.

(01:16:03):
And, as I say, you can alwaysconnect with the show in a
couple of different ways.
Uh, first and foremost, likewe've alluded to, you can always
head over to our shop atlivefreeandhamcom, forward slash
shop, pick up all of our merch.
Uh, we're always adding newthings to the store.
Uh, as we, uh, you know,continue on in this journey.
Um, and, if you're like anApple podcast listener, like

(01:16:23):
myself, please head over thereand leave us a review.
It helps us get out into otherpeople's ears that might be ham
curious and you can alwayssupport our show through Patreon
and buy us beer links.
Those are in our show notes andon our website and, as always,
if you want to reach any of ourhosts for anything you know, you

(01:16:44):
can head over tolivefreeandhamcom and all of our
contact info is over there.
And, as always, thank you guysfor listening, and from all of
us from Live Free and Ham 7-3.
7-3.

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PLEASE COPY - Overcoming Mic Fright

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}PLEASE COPY - Overcoming Mic Fright