The Art of Repeater Debate and Community Connection

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
In the basement of dreams.
We gather round the mic Talkingham and freedom.
It's all we really like.
Transmission waves and laughterin the air tonight.
Tune in live free and ham.
It's going to be a sight.
We got stories, we got guests,we got truth to tell, breaking

(00:33):
all the rules yeah, we'reringing.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sing with me Repeaters.
What are they good for?
Some say absolutely nothing Isnext on Live Free and Ham.
Anyway, hello and welcome toLive Free and Ham podcast.
This is your weekly show wherewe discuss ham radio topics in
New Hampshire, New England andbeyond, and we're thrilled to
have you here and, whetheryou're a regular listener or
tuning in for the first time, wethank you for joining this

(00:56):
episode and hanging out with us.
So let's get into the show.
I'm your host, Eric call signN1JUR, and I'm with my wonderful
co-hosts.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Hey, it's Paul.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
N1OJ and Todd W1STJ.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
All right.
Well, as we always do everyepisode, we'd like to get it.
Before we get into our topic, Ishould say we always like to
catch up on a few things, so ourstorefront is always up at
livefreeandhamcom forward slashshop and you can head over and
check out all our merch We'vegot a couple of.
Actually, one thing that I justrecently saw that came across
our storefront as an order DaveCarson.

(01:34):
He picked up a sweet pair ofour limited custom etched Live
Free and Ham glasses.
So good for you, Dave, to jumpon that.
And Paul is showcasing that forthose podcast listeners who are
not watching us live on video.
They are available in our storeand there's only a few left.
So don't be like you knowanybody else and just sit around
and wait.

(01:54):
You know, and and you know Ihave to say, maybe if you're, as
a bonus offer, if you're aPatreon member, there was a 30%
coupon.
You know that kind of went offthere.
So if you want to save somemoney, that's a nice way to pick
up a few glasses.
That's all I'm saying.
Hey, just it's there and it'savailable.
But again, thank you everybodywho have purchased on our
storefront and we appreciate youall and thanks for help

(02:17):
supporting the show.
So, as always, like I mentioned, we still have a limited supply
of the custom etched live-freeand ham drams.
So if you haven't gotten one,or trying to figure out when you
want to get one, like I said,we've given you a couple
examples what more do we have todo to physically drive down to
your doorstep and hand you onein a hand and take your cash and

(02:38):
walk home with it?
I don't know what more we cando, but either way, like I said,
you can come pick one of thoseup, because once they're gone,
they're gone and I guaranteeyou're going to be pretty sorry
if you don't have one in yourown arsenal there.
I know I enjoy mine all thetime and it's always, you know,
great to have as a great tokento support Live Free and Ham.
So, as always, we've got theHamlets in big supply.

(03:02):
I just restocked all of those.
So feel free to head over toGet Hammed.
If you don't know what that is,you get a little story and an
understanding of what it's allabout.
But you can pick up there andpick up your own Get Hammed.
I've been keeping an eye outmyself and handing those out on
a few cars and vehicles.
As I go out on the weekendserrands with the wife, she's

(03:22):
beginning to pick up on mylittle antenna radar that I do
every time I pull into a parkinglot and she'll just roll her
eyes at me and just tell me godo something different.
And so I've been handing a fewout.
It's been fun.
So that's one way we cancontinue to support and have
some fun in the community.
And so, with that, let's getinto the usual stuff.
We love our feedback, and so wegot a couple of ways you can
always reach out the community,and so, with that, let's get

(03:43):
into the usual stuff.
We love our feedback, and so wegot a couple of ways you can
always reach out to us, and weactually have listeners who've
been doing that.
So we thank you guys.
You've been hearing our cries,but, as always, you can reach
out to us via SMS.
There's a link in all of ourshow note descriptions and
that's a quick, easy way toshare that latest comment or
feedback from any of ourepisodes.

(04:05):
We'd love to hear from you guysand we want to continue to
build the community and conversewith you guys.
You can always leave us avoicemail, and we have our
tried-and-true Live Free in Hamvoicemail and you can now send
your deepest thoughts, expressyour devoted love to us or even
remind us how you know we haveto renew our HF warranties on

(04:27):
our radios.
You know we're all here tolisten and we want to share your
message.
And that number to call is nine, seven, eight, two, three,
three, one, one, four, two, yes,one one, four, two.
Oh my gosh, my brain, my, my 50year old brain, is slowing down
.
Folks, you can watch it happenin real time, alright, so don't
wait any longer.
We have volunteers standing byto take your message.

(04:48):
And if you're like one of theold timers who prefer a good,
old-fashioned email, you cansend it to us to livefreeandham
at gmailcom and we'll respondthere.
And, as always, we have ourmonthly live stream.
So, in addition to all of ourregular weekly episodes, you can
now come be a part of monthlylive stream.
So, in addition to all of ourregular weekly episodes, you can
now come be a part of the livestream.
And we, as we always say, withall of our live streams, we

(05:12):
never know where we're going tohave it.
So, in essence, you know, thebest way that we recommend is
make sure you're subscribing toour live stream, make sure you
ring that notification bell soyou get notified when we go live
and you can come be part of thecraziness and madness that we
call our live stream on LiveFree in Ham.
So you know we love to have youthere, come hang out and be
part of, you know, a greatcommunity there.

(05:33):
So, and lastly, as we alwaystalk about our little secret,
you know if you want to be oneof the cool kids, head over to
our Patreon page and you know,as a subscriber, you're going to
get immediate access to all ourshows before they're released
to the public.
So you get that bonus, you getsneak peeks, you get to listen
to the uncut, unfettered,realistic babble and countdown

(05:54):
to Todd's retirement, allwrapped up to a nice pretty bow.
And you get access to otherthings like early discounts and
early orders on merchandise anda whole slew of more stuff.
So you know you can always headover there and become a Patreon
member and help support theshow, because we appreciate it
and it helps us continue to dowhat we love to do.
So we thank you guys for thosethat have hopped over there and

(06:18):
I don't know if Todd is rolling.
Sorry, paul is rolling.
Yep, there he is.
He's already on the ball.
Man, I should have just waitedand slowed my roll there, but
he's rolling all of our Patreonmembers down in the scrolling
thing thingamabob, whatever theycall that thing at the bottom.
Man.
See, I'm telling you, man, theticker, the ticker.

(06:40):
This is what happens, todd,when you hit 50.
It just slowly starts to like acrash.
That happens in real time.
You're just kind of watchingslow motion.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
Oh yeah, the memory goes, your body goes.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Awesome, Excellent.
So this is going to be the80-meter net soon enough.
So all right.
Well, with that, the 80-meterpodcast.
I'm surprised that hasn'talready happened yet.
So with that let's kick off toour first one ladies and
gentlemen, can I?

Speaker 4 (07:10):
please have your attention.
I've just been handed an urgentand horrifying news story.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Everybody, we got some news.
Slow down, boog, let me handlethis.
We've got some news.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
I've got bad news and bad news.
I have reviewed ship'spersonnel captain,
congratulations.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
You've got some news.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
I've got bad news and bad news.
I have reviewed ship'spersonnel Captain.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Congratulations, You've got mail.
Yes, we do so, Todd.
We got anything new in thevoicemail box or anything?

Speaker 4 (07:33):
We didn't get any emails.
We didn't get any other contact, except we got a voicemail and
I thought this was a goodvoicemail because they're asking
about Ryan.
I thought this was a goodvoicemail because they're asking
about Ryan.
When I heard this, I calledRyan and told him that someone
was looking for him or wonderingwho the hell he was.

(07:53):
He was flying somewhere and hewas actually at a bar because he
ordered a Dozecki's.
I think I'm like well, enjoythose beers.
He goes how do you know I'mdrinking beer?
I'm like I enjoy those beers.
He goes how do you know I'mdrinking beer?
I'm like I can hear youordering them.
But he thought it was prettyfunny.
So, yeah, so let's play thatvoicemail and we can find out

(08:17):
who, where in the world, is Ryan, I know he's home now.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
Hey guys, this is Bob Copp.
I'm watching your February showon YouTube and I just joined
your Patreon at the $5 level,and I see that you have 406
subscribers to your YouTubechannel and I'd like to
encourage as many of those aspossible to join your Patreon.

(08:44):
You can join for as little as$3 a month.
It's not a big expense.
Hey, I got another question foryou, though.
On your YouTube channel it saysthe hosts and who you all are,
but it says Ryan.
Who is Ryan?
I haven't seen him yet.
Talk to you all later.
I look forward to your nextshow next month, thanks, oh, hey

(09:08):
, I really enjoy Paul'squestionnaires about questions
about the extra license test.
That's one of my favorite partsof the show.
Thanks Bye.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
All right, two things on that.
Number one go watch the firstpodcast and you will see.
Ryan, actually no, you'll, youhave to listen to ryan because
that was.
That is that on youtube thefirst one, uh, nope, uh no first
five or six episodes were noton.
You have to listen to ryan um,yeah, so, and like I was telling

(09:43):
the boys here here that thebest part of the show and the
only part of the show thatpeople listen to is the testing
of myself with Paul and Ericgetting them wrong, even though
he's an extra, and they didn'tbelieve me.
So you just clarified it.
So I appreciate that I lovebeing right, excellent.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
When it only happens to few, and far between when it
only happens to few and farbetween Bob.
Well, we thank you, bob.
I think that was an awesomevoicemail.
It all made us laugh when weheard it because we were like my
gosh, I keep forgetting that.
We have new subscribers come onall the time and they've never
known because Ryan hasn't beenon in a while.
He's been flying halfway aroundthe globe.

(10:21):
We were talking about maybehaving a little segment where we
call like you know where,instead of like where in Carmen,
san Diego, where is Ryan W1SNHnow?
And you know, pull up a worldmap and see if we can, you know,
pinpoint him, or something likethat.
But you know, we'll, we'll,we'll put that in the works.
But I think, since everyonestill loves something extra with

(10:47):
Todd, which I never thought, wewould have to continue this
legacy forever, even after hisextra happens.
We hear you, Bob.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
Loud and clear After I get my extra, we're going to
go back and we'll test me on thetechnician.
We'll keep doing it.
Rotating.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
You heard it here, folks, with that one unique
episode.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
No, we'll get someone else, that's for sure.
But you know it was.
You know, bob, it was reallyfunny because I was driving back
from baseball, my son was atbaseball at the Dome.
I had to go drop something offat the car dealership and I was
driving back to the Dome and Icalled him and it was a pretty
funny conversation because I'mlike, well, I must say, on the

(11:29):
YouTube page, you know you'reone of the hosts, which you are,
but you haven't been on in awhile, so he was looking for you
.
So he got a good laugh out ofit.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, I think the last time he was on was I'm
going back here and we had alive stream right with him.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
I think was the last time he was yeah I'm going back
it's been a it's been a goodlong while, because I always, uh
, I always throw him up there heis yep there he is.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Hey, there's bob, if you watch, that's ryan there's
ryan, he's with us yeah, itwasn't a live stream.
I'm actually going back throughthe videos.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
I know you know I've talked to him about he's got a
friend that helped him with histower and I said that I wanted
to do maybe have him go to hishis friends he lives in what is
the town.
Where's that that?
That?

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Maple Street, where Ryan lives.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
No, Ryan lives in Milford, but where is the the
maple?

Speaker 3 (12:30):
barn.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
Yeah, where is that?
What town is that in?

Speaker 3 (12:33):
That's Brookline, brookline.

Speaker 4 (12:35):
Oh, it is in Brookline.
What's past Brookline?
There's another town out there,I think is where he lives.
But anyway, he helped him withhis tower and the guy's got like
he's a contester.
The guy's got like he's acontester and he's got like a
huge shack and all Ryan wastelling me about it.
And this was like when we firststarted I said we got to get
that guy on the podcast, likemaybe you can kind of do it from
his shack and we can be here orwhatever, or I'll just all go

(12:58):
down there just to see histowers and stuff.
So I'll have to get on Ryan andsee if he can get on that and
uh, get that one, maybe in thein the spring.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Well, the guy's a big contester, it's K.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah.
Are, you, are you do you knowParker's Mabel Barn is uh one,
uh 1349 Brookline Road, mason.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Mason, that's where the guy lives.
That's it, mason Yep.
Okay, All right so um, so thatwas good.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah, I can't find the episode, man, it's good,
it's pretty far back, but anyway, yeah, so, oh well, well, yeah,
we miss Ryan.
You know, every time we do theepisode it's always fun to have
his commentary and and, uh,we'll definitely have to have
him back on when he's, uh, notbusy flying.
Um, you know, maybe remoteWe'll see.

(13:46):
Yeah, very cool.
Well, bob, we thank you againfor leaving us a voicemail and,
like we say to everybody, youknow our voicemail line is open
24-7.
So if the moment strikes you at2 in the morning, feel free to
call the number.
It won't wake us up.
Leave a message and we'll begladly to share it on our
episode next episode, like Bobdid.
And you know, bob, we thanksfor the shameless plug there

(14:09):
because you know, without you,you know we can't continue to
keep this going here.
So you know, he is definitely aPatreon member there and we
appreciate him helping us outand being part of the community
and so, like he said, just for$3 a month.
I feel like it's an ESPCAcommercial, like with the arms
of the stranger.
Where's that song in thebackground?

(14:29):
We should program or plug thatin.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, I don't have that one, but I do have this
Live free and have you know youcan Join the fun, be the biggest
fan.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Call that number and lend an ear.
With free and half, it'scrystal blue from Morning Blue.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
I totally forgot about that dude.
Yes, we were working on thatjingle and we finally got it.
It's not as good as his N1QCjingle which is, I think,
trending now on most of the top20, and you know.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
I think the Winter Field Day one is awesome.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Dude, that is a.
That was a good one.
Audio gold Audio gold You'regoing to, you know, to go to
that next level when you dosummer.
You know you might have to do alittle tweaks, but people are
still going to be hearing theWinter Field Day, part of it
somewhere in the lyrics.
Yeah right, it worked out good.
So, yeah, if you don'tunderstand what we're talking
about, you can head over toPaul's page, go over to the

(15:31):
Grouch of New Hampshire and he'sgot a link.
We'll throw the link in thedescription.
But he posted his officialtrack to our N1QC Winter Field
Day.
We'll call it Rock Anthembecause it was totally awesome.
Everyone we posted call rockanthem because it was totally
awesome.
You know, everyone you know weposted the club and everywhere
outside of it has been like dude, that's the best song in the
world.
So kudos, hats off.

(15:53):
Very cool, all right.
Well, with that, I think youknow we all know.
You know where you can leaveyour messages and we'd love to
hear from everybody.
But let's kick into our next DoGood.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Good, do it good you do, that's good.
Do good, do good, you're doinggood, good, good, good, good,
good, absolutely I do Good, good, I'm doing good, bob Doing real
good, and right now.
All right.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, we all aspire to do good in ham radio.
So, whether you might beassisting during a disaster,
providing communications for alocal road race or hosting that
awesome POTA meetup, we all loveto participate in ham radio
activities.
But, however, sometimes weallow those negative voices to
overshadow our enjoyment, andwe're going to get into a little
bit of that a little later.
So I raise my fist and saybring on that good deeds, my

(16:46):
friend, and you can share yourstory with us.
We'd love to hear it.
So maybe you have an experiencethat you can share your first
ham radio experience with atotal stranger while you were
activating a park or teaching astudent, a family member or
neighbor about the joys of hamradio.
Or maybe you got to demonstratea new tech shit Fre or neighbor
about the joys of ham radio.
Or maybe you got to demonstratea new tech shit Neck hitting
the ball, frickin' A man, fireme now.

(17:09):
Or got to demonstrate a newtechnician that thrills up HF at
the club's field day.
My gosh man, I'm just workingmyself on a job today and we all
want to hear about it.
So you know, this week we don'tactually have.
I didn't see anything in theinboxes.
Any of you guys see anythingcome across the Discord or
anything like that.
All right, well, so that's okay.

(17:30):
We totally understand.
It's been a very kind of youknow, at least up here in the
Northeast a locked in winter Alot of us have been.
You know, got about a foot anda half, two feet of snow in our
you know back backyards there.
Not a lot of us have been dyingto get out to do podos and
stuff like that.
Playing a lot of the radio hasmostly been in our shack.
I can understand not having anexperience like that, but hey,

(17:54):
if you do have one, you canalways share it with us in three
easy ways.
You can leave us a voicemail at978-233-1142 or you can always
head over to our web form atlivefreeandhamcom forward slash,
do good, and you can use thatform and leave your story there
and we'd love to hear it andshare it with everybody, because

(18:15):
we're all about sharing thelove at Ham Radio and sharing
all the cool stuff that's goingon and I know there's stuff
going on every day.
I talk to a bunch of people onthe repeaters.
There's stuff going on everyday.
I talk to a bunch of people onthe repeaters.
There's always some cool stuffhappening.
So you know, we'll probablyhave a couple coming in the
future, because I know we'redoing some really cool stuff in
our club that I definitely wantto inspire others to go do in
their clubs.
So, you know, hopefully we can,you know, spread the love there

(18:37):
.
But outside of that, you know,if you are one of those
adventurous types which we havea few in our midst, you know we
have the option where you cansend us a win link to N1OG, and
only N1OG, because Todd and Iare too lazy to set up our own
win link accounts, but I'm goingto remedy that soon.
I am, I swear.
This is my 2025 resolution.

(18:58):
It's my bucket list item.
Get on win link is to send anemail to N1OG and share your
story that way.
And because you were so amazingat doing that, mr Type A, that
you know we're going to inviteyou on to maybe a future live
stream or we're kind of planning.
Maybe we invite a couple peopleon that.
You know have all done a DoGood episode.

(19:19):
We'll call it the Do Goodepisode of you know or the Do
Good Mega episode or somethinglike that, I don't know and we
can all share some cool stuff onthere.
So we're we're working that outa little bit as we're, you know
, kind of spitballing here, but,um, you know, we all want to
share our experiences and we allwant to hear all the cool
things that are going on hamradio, and what better place to
do it All right, without furtherado, apparently the best

(19:40):
segment out of this whole entirepodcast, and nothing else
really matters.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Content, otherwise Aren't you going to ask us what
we're going to do, what we'vedone this week at Ham Radio?

Speaker 2 (19:50):
No, we do that.
Wow, man, you're suffering fromCRS.
That's after I do your deal ofsomething extra.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
Oh it is.
Yeah, we've always done asegment.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
And then we do the hey, how was your week.
And then we do the hey, how wasyour week.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
And then we do the show, and then we'll go put you
to bed and tuck you in my bad,my bad too.
My friend, I get it.
This is the circle of trust wehave here tonight.
No harm, all right, withoutfurther ado.
And now a little somethingextra with todd w1stj.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
all right, before we start this, I'm not happy with
what's going on with my brain,because I'm getting worse and
I'm studying, so my aptitude hasdropped down.
I did the test and it was theworst one I ever did.
I don't know what the hell isgoing on.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Well, we'll try to take it easy on you tonight.
I just don't know.
You struggled.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
I can't understand.
I'm like how can I?
Just don't know you struggled.
I can't understand.
I'm like how can I?

Speaker 2 (21:07):
I don't know.
Either way, We'll have fun withit.
So anyway, let's frame thisthing out like we usually do.
So yeah, you've heard it here.
This is where we help Toddstudy for his extra class
license.
Each episode we pick threequestions from that extra class
pool.
That's so struggles and rackshis brain to test his knowledge
and hoping he gets his upgrade.
So if you'd like to followalong, you can head over to

(21:28):
hamstudyorg, which is a greatresource to help you prepare for
your test.
It is recommended by three outof four volunteer examiners
because, as always, the ARLdoesn't want to respond to our
comments.
So with that, without furtherdelay, my wonderful VE
Quizmaster, take it away, Paul,All right.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Paul.
All right, Todd.
Well, we are not advancing tosub-element number eight.
We're going to stick withsub-element number seven.
Okay, but I'm very much lookingforward to maybe a month from
now we can do all the questions.
Maybe We'll see, I'm hoping Allright.

(22:08):
Well, question number one forthis evening what is the
function of taps in a digitalsignal processing filter?
Is it A to reduce excess signalpressure levels, B select the
point at which baseband signalsare generated.

(22:29):
C provide access for debuggingsoftware?
Or is it D provide incrementalsignal delays or filter
algorithms?

Speaker 4 (22:50):
I'm going to go with D.
Provide incremental signaldelays or filter algorithms.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
I'm going to go with B because I think we did this
question we have done thisquestion and we thought it ugh
this question.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
So for context, since some people may not remember
the hint, the only one answerhas the word the only correct
answer has the word delay in it.
So there you go, the surface ofthe quartz crystal.
The tap delay line has becomethe general scheme making IQ
filters in many different ways.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Nice job, todd, nice job.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
All right.
Question number two which ofthe following types of linear
voltage regulator operates byloading the unregulated voltage
source?
Is it A a series regulator, b ashunt regulator, c a shunt

(24:02):
current source or D a constantcurrent source?

Speaker 4 (24:15):
I'm going to go with B a shunt regulator.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, I think I'm with you on that one too.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Oh, we've definitely had this one before as well.
You have a good memory, sir.
You got it right.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Great job.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
So, for those that may be hearing this question for
the first time, an example of ashunt regulator is using a
Zener diode in series with aresistor between supply and
ground.
The Zener diode establishes aconstant voltage drop and the
resistor sets a constant current.
You can immediately dismiss twoof the possible answers,

(24:59):
because regulator appears inboth the question and the answer
.
Sweet, all right, todd, greatjob so far.
You're two for two.
Don't fuck this one up.
I know this one All right.
The third and final question ofthe evening what logical

(25:23):
operation is performed by atwo-input exclusive NOR gate?
Is it A it produces a 1 at itsoutput if 1 and only 1 input is
1.
B it produces a 0 at its outputif 1 and only 1 of the inputs

(25:46):
is 1.
C it produces a 0 at its outputonly if all inputs are 0.
Or D it produces a 1 at itsoutput only if all inputs are 1.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
I'm going to go with B.
It produces a 0 at its input.
If 1, and only 1 of its inputsis 1.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
You would be right, sir.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
What you would be right 3 out of 3.
Better than last show when Iwas 0 for 3.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
I love it when a plan comes together great job nice,
all right.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
So maybe maybe I just had a couple bad uh days, maybe
hey, either way, it's all goodman, all good nice, or you just
got lucky this time and thethree random questions have to
be questions that you'd alreadyhad before

Speaker 2 (26:48):
true that?
What will he do?

Speaker 4 (26:50):
next hey, but that.
But that's how you got to learn, right.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yep, hey, and what better to do it on this show?
All right, well, wrapping thisup, so if you're on the journey
of studying your technician,your general or your extra class
license, then hamstudyorg is anawesome resource for getting
your ticket.
And, as we always like to sayand we haven't had a few in a
while correct Paul is if you'vereceived maybe your license or

(27:18):
maybe you got an upgrade, let usknow.
We want to make sure werecognize you on the next
episode for your hard work andeffort.
You can always email us atlivefreeandham, at gmailcom, or
use any of our other methods toreach out to us and let us know,
because we want to celebratewith you.
Cool.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, who was it that just got their extra?
Oh, it was Jeff, it was a K3JRZ.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Oh, okay, I didn't know he did.
Yeah, yeah, awesome, he got hisextra Yep.
Well, there you go, jeff.
Hey, we got you a littleshameless plug there, jeff.
We got you a little shamelessplug there, jeff.
Cool, if you haven't been overto his channel, I think it's
K3JRZ Amateur Radio, right, orHam Radio.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
So we'll put his link in the show notes to his
YouTube page.
Great, you know, poda guy.
You probably worked him ifyou're an avid poda hunter or
maybe an activator, and you knowwe love hanging out with Jeff
because he's also part of theTuesday night playlists and
Thursday night playlists andevery five days of the week
playlist, eventually.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Because I don't think we have Monday or Friday coming
A3,.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
ARZ on the air.
There you go.
Cool, we'll make sure that's inthe show notes below and, as
always, we appreciate all youguys sticking around to this
point in the podcast, stickingaround to this point in the

(28:41):
podcast.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
You know, I don't know if you tail off, fall
asleep or whatever but, uh, youknow, this is the part where we
get into and we talk about, uh,you know, our ham radio week.
So, in our usual format, uh,you know, paul, how has your ham
radio week been?
I've done a lot of 2-meter,70-centimeter stuff, you know,
both in the truck and from thenew mobile grouch command center
.
I'm in the process of buildingthe mobile command center ham

(29:05):
shack.
So, for those that don't know, Igot a 30-foot RV and it's a
bunkhouse limited edition, whichthe first day I brought it home
I removed the bunks becausethat's not what I needed.
But so in place of the bunks Iput a very nice desk.

(29:27):
I reused a lot of the materialso it matches everything in the
interior and I'm looking forwardto getting that going.
One of the interesting thingsis I learned all these new

(29:52):
things about 75-ohm coax,because we've got this.
Well, 50 ohms is what you needfor ham radio, right?
Well, the rv has uh cable tvjacks built in on the inside and
it's got a cable tv jack on theoutside, so if I don't have to
punch a hole through the thewall and I can just use the 75
ohm that's already built in Isweet.
So I've been doing a lot oflearning in that regard, and how

(30:15):
using 75 ohm coax will play ina factor on SWR and how
everything is.
It looks like all I got to dois just find the right length to
bring my resonant frequenciesinto the bands.
Uh, and it should be, should begood.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
So, wow, I'm really excited about that a lot of good
learning this week, yeah, andyou know I'm sure you're gonna
be doing a crap ton more aboutbatteries and everything else
like that too, on top of that oh, of course.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
Yeah, yeah, uh.
I I'll be doing a quick littlevideo on the all-powers solar
generators.
I picked those up to power thecomputer and the ham radio
station so that way, even whenI'm completely off-grid, I'll
still have full power and beable to put solar panels out on

(31:09):
the roof and rocking and rolling.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Awesome, Very cool.
Looking forward to seeing moreof those.
And definitely, if you haven'tand actually it's just a little
short, shameless plug for all ofus is, we kind of took a little
bit of a different approach, Ithink, to our usual channels in
terms of posting content andstuff, but we're kind of just
doing these ham diary things onour site and on our YouTube

(31:32):
channel and we're curious to seewhat people think of it, you
know.
So, hey, use this as a way totell us, you know, whether you
know you like the content we'reproducing out there.
It seems to be welcomed.
I I'm pretty impressed.
There've been a lot of commentsand feedback to Todd's, Paul's
plugs for repeaters and clubsand all the other stuff in

(31:52):
between, and my stuff of fixingfreaking antennas and all the
like.
So, yeah, I'm enjoying it, I'mhaving fun.
This is short little clips thatwe're putting out there amongst
our regular content that we dofor Liffrey and him in general,
and so let us know.
We're curious.
Is there something you want tohear?
Let's talk about it.
Let us know and we'll see if wecan put something together.

(32:15):
Alright, Well, cool, Awesomewith the trailer stuff.
Looking forward to that.
And so over to you, Todd.
How is your ham radio week sir?

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Well, speaking of the ham diaries, I want to give a
shout out to Ryan.
He lent me a snowboard and Igot to tell you this story.
I wanted to.
I need to tell this story causeit was quite amazing, but it
was also very painful.
Yeah Well, I'm going to have avideo of me actually doing it.

(32:42):
So I went snowboarding and Iwas going to use my 1992 ASIM
air.
Um, good thing I didn't,because when I picked it up, the
binding broke.
The plastic just broke up,cause it's 33 years old.
And and Ryan at W1SNH is likedude, you can't use that, you
don't want to use that, he goes,just use mine.

(33:02):
So he's got a brand new uhBurton stiff board for carving,
which is what I like to do,cause when I was younger I used
to do the jumps and that.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
But I'm 53 years old not doing the jumps plan, can't
afford it yeah, it's just nothappening.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
So he has the same size foot as me.
Boots worked, board worked.
Get up there.
I get buckled in and I'm likewhat the hell am I doing?
It felt like total, likeforeign, like I'd never been on
one before now.
I taught snowboarding when I wasin high school.
I was like when snowboardingbecame a thing, when I was a ski

(33:38):
instructor, they used to pay ussims burton and k2 were the
three snowboard makers and theywould pay us back in the 80s,
late 80s um ten dollars an hourto go up on the mountain and try
to snowboard.
And that's how I learned.
I went up the freaking lift,strapped in and just figured it

(34:00):
out, took me three runs and itall came to me right.
So this time again, luckynumber three, I get up there.
I go up in the bunny hill withmy son and I'm on this like
little conveyor belt and I'mbarely like staying on.
I'm like, oh shit, you know,get up to the little bunny hill.
I strap in and couldn't get myass up, could not get up on the
fucking board.
I forgot totally how to do it.

(34:22):
I'm like what the fuck?
Could not get up.
So finally got up and I startgoing and it's pretty flat and
if you've snowboarded before youknow the steeper it is, the
easier it is.
So I just go down, make someturns and I'm like, all right,
I'm all done.
Unbuckle.
Zach says let's go up again.
So go up again.

(34:42):
Same thing, get up there.
Can't get freaking up off myass, so buckle it in 10 minutes
later zach's's like you want totake a break, dad?
You want to take a break?
I haven't even done the secondbunny hill run.
I'm like no, I'm fine, I'm fine, get up, do the second one.
I'm like dude, we're going tothe chairlift.

(35:03):
He goes.
Do you know he goes, do youknow how to get on the chairlift
?
So we get on the chairlift andI finally get a break.
Right now I'm sitting down andI'm like, and then I'm like, oh
shit, I got to get off thischairlift Right Like.
So I'm asking him I've neverbeen.
I'm like how steep's the thismountain?
And he's like it's not thatsteep, but he goes, okay.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
so now I'm thinking I'm going to be one of those
guys that like stops the liftbecause I'm going to take a
dinger right off but fortunatelyI didn't and take a gondola
down.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
Yeah, so I get up there I get buckled in again,
having trouble getting buckledin, and then I go down on my
third run and it was a littlesteeper and all of a sudden it
came, and all of a sudden itjust snapped and I was like, oh
yeah, I remember how to do this.
And it was like, all of asudden it just snapped and I was
like, oh yeah, I remember howto do this.
And it was like like I'd beendoing it for 33 years.
And I went down and, uh, blewby Zach and he was like you're

(36:04):
really good he goes you'rereally you're.
You're better than me.
So, uh, so I was.
I was happy, I was like cooland and let me tell you, I got
to thank Ryan because thatsnowboard was the best snowboard
I've ever ridden.
It just carved and turned soeasily.
So then I came home and Ilooked up all the technology and
I understand why.

(36:24):
A lot different than my boardand a lot lighter.
So, zach and I, yours washewned out of one tree.
His is probably a couple ofboards together so Zach and I
snowboarded from about 10am toabout 4 4.15 and we took about,
he took, he skied or hesnowboarded till 9.

(36:46):
I stopped at 4.
My lift ticket ran out at 4.
I could have paid 20 bucks morebut I couldn't move.
My legs were so hurting, mycalves were like like getting
Charlie horses in my thighs andhe had a lesson.
And his friend came up and theguy that I coached baseball with
, he, he came up skiing, so himand I, I said, hey, can we go up
and do like a real run?
Cause like these little sidetrails I need something steeper.

(37:09):
So we went on a diamond and itwas like so awesome Cause I was
able to carve down and get somespeed and cause Zach's just
learning.
So you know you gotta go alittle slower.
So we did a couple of runs.
Try to go back.
They have this like thing whereyou pass a card, which last time
I was skiing you had a littlepaper ticket.
I put you have a card like a,like a, uh, like a hotel card.

(37:31):
I put it inside the pocket ofmy glove.
I thought it was for handwarmers, but I guess it's for
these cards.
So you walk up to the gate orright up to the thing, and right
before you're about to get inline, you put your hand up there
and it opens these two littlegates like that.
Well, it says time ran out, nomore time.
I'm like what you are done?

(37:55):
Yeah, yeah.
So luckily the dude was prettycool.
He's like yeah, I'm a chaperone, I'm supposed to be on here
until like nine o'clock.
He goes.
Oh, you probably got the daypass.
Just go talk to them and hegoes, I'll let you up.
So I did one more run.
We went down that thing, so westopped and then andy and I the
guy was skiing with we went upand got a, got some drinks and
got some chicken wings, and thenthe kids came in after the
thing and fed Zach and hisfriend and then they went off to

(38:18):
go skiing and then Andy wentwith them and I was like all
right, I'll meet you guys in thelodge.
So I brought the snowboard back.
And talk about losing memory.
I forgot where I put frickin'the snowboard Because we were
always using the first one.
And I'm looking and everyone Iguess there's been like six sets
of skis and snowboards stolenfrom pat's peak so I didn't take
my eye off this thing.

(38:39):
So I'm looking at looking andthen I go down and I'm like
where the frick is and Icouldn't find it.
Well, because we went down thethe diamond trail.
We put it on a different thing.
So I called andy.
I go, dude, I can't find thesnowboard.
He goes yeah, I'll be down in aminute.
The diamond trail we put it ona different thing.
So I called Andy.
I go, dude, I can't find thesnowboard.
He goes yeah, I'll be down in aminute.
He goes, it's right here.
I'm standing next to him Likewhere are you?

(39:00):
He was like at three things.
I'm like it's been one of thosedays, so highest temperature was
18 degrees at the top and I wasjust wearing a windbreaker and
a sweatshirt and I wascompletely comfortable.
It was awesome.
I didn't even need goggles, Ijust wore my sunglasses and

(39:22):
helmet.
I can't believe I'm still alivebecause I never did a helmet
when I was a kid.
And if I didn't have a helmet Iwouldn't be here right now
because I freaking wiped outwhile I was trying to unbuckle
because I didn't want to sit myass down, the board slipped out
from under me right on my assand my head went back into ice
so hard.
And if I didn't have thathelmet I would have been like

(39:44):
unconscious.
I know I would have.
And I'm like how the hell did Igo through my whole life?
Because I used to like jump offhuge jumps and and, uh, quarter
pipes and all that kind of crapand I'm like I mean I used to
jump off cliffs and shit and I'mlike I cannot believe I never
wore a helmet.
So helmet awesome, kept my earsroaring, there's so much.

(40:06):
I was even like sweating in it.
I mean it was like it was likewow, this thing is like fricking
great.
So that was my snowboarding.
So, to make to make this storyfinished, um, I go and sit down,
I put the boards back, I go tosit down by the fire and it's
like eight, 45, nine o'clock,it's now like four degrees
outside and Andy's texting me.

(40:26):
It's so effing cold.
I'm coming in, but he nevercame in.
It's so cold, these kids won'tstop.
So Zack comes up behind me,goes come on, dad, let's go.
It's time to go and I couldn'tget out of the seat.
I seriously could not get out ofthe frequency I was sitting in.
It was like this low kind ofchairs right by the fire.

(40:48):
I'm like, oh, this is great.
I literally was like a90-year-old man trying to get up
Once I started.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Emotional damage.

Speaker 4 (40:59):
So once I get done with that, I end up going
walking to the car and gettingZach to return his stuff because
he rents his stuff.
And I get to the car and then Ihave to get into the Jeep and I
literally had to lift my legwith my hand to get into the
Jeep.
It hurt so bad, I'm not joking.
Four days of recovery, mythighs for the first two days

(41:21):
and then my calves for the lasttwo days.
Wow, and I'm like and Zach'slike you want to do that again,
dad?
I'm like hell.
Yeah, I said we're getting newboards and we're getting a
season pass next year.
It was so much fun so I will besnowboarding next season with
lots of that.
But I will post a little videoup there.

(41:42):
Now back to ham radio.
What I did for ham radio.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Ain't nobody got time for that.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
I am joining the bandwagon and I got a little
meshtastic and I hooked it allup.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Got two of them, it'll work.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
I got to ask a question, though, because it
says on the thing like are youlicensed?
If you do it, it only makessure you got to make your call
sign, which I already made mycall sign anyway.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
No, no, no.
Here's the deal right.
So if you put your call sign,you cannot use encryption,
because ham radio cannot beencrypted.
If you use it as a civilian, asa Joe, you can do the
encryption.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
So if I labeled it W1STJ and W1stj2, then I'm but I
didn't.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Don't put your call sign in the call sign field.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
You can name it whatever you want to name it
okay, yeah, because if when youhit, when you hit on the app and
you say are you licensed?
And then it changes from nameto like call sign, so if you
don't put that on, then youdon't have to worry about it,
correct?

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Correct, because then you can do the encryption.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
It also doesn't the license flip to the band space
that we have as a option interms of the ham radio side to
work in in terms of frequency,or does it still stay in the
same ISM space?
I think?

Speaker 3 (43:10):
the frequency range stays the same, okay, but you
get more power though.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
That gives you the more power.
The encryption and more powerwas the other option.
If it has the option to do it.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
So that was Ham Radio , and again we're talking about
repeaters today.
So I've been on the repeater alot, been talking to people.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
I've been talking to.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
I had a good conversation with Bob W1 RRI.
Had a good two conversationsthis last week and I didn't
realize that he used to be apilot, so it was pretty cool,
didn't know that.
Had a good conversation withhim all the way to a school that
I was at and then I had to goto work Not much HF stuff.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
It's just been too cold, and that's about it.
Hey, walt, you want to see myham radio?

Speaker 2 (44:05):
where do you find these?
Things oh, all across theinternet, my friend, all across
the.
Yes.
Across the internet, my friend,all across the internet.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
Yes, you know what you would be good at, paul?
My brother did a.
You know, my brother did a.
He was a Manomano.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Manomano, manomano.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
You would be a good radio talk show producer,
Because my brother did that andhe had to throw all that crap in
there like on the spot.
Anyway, let's go, Eric.
How was your ham radio week?
Well, thanks for asking Todd, Iknow one thing you're still
trying to catch up to me.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Oh my gosh.
Literally the gap is like eightcontacts.
I could literally do that withone hand tied behind my back and
an antenna that was running offa dummy load, yeah, yeah.
So I'm working on a little bitof a ham diary post that
hopefully I'll have out tomorrowfor a little, we'll say spur of
the moment activation over atour rail trail place and it's

(45:13):
kind of funny, cause, like longstory short, and I threw this in
the video a little bit.
I used to be a little like whenI used to go out and not be, as,
as Todd says, famous andeverybody pick up on you.
Um, I got to be there, you know, on the reciprocating side of
that, with like a few otherYouTubers that are, you know,
activating, and I guess KB9VBRwas on frequency and he was

(45:34):
coming in like gangbusters andof course he had a huge, you
know pileup going on and I'mlike I'm fighting it back and
forth, fighting it back andforth, thinking that I'm just
like the hunter at the park I'mat and I had this like senior
moment, like all of a sudden I'mlistening, like trying to get
my call sign, throwing mobileout there, trying to do
everything to kind of like getthem to pick me up.
And I just realized I'm, likeI'm an idiot, park to park.

(46:03):
And I just like literally satthere like all I have to do is
say park to park.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
And you know what?

Speaker 2 (46:09):
I do, I yell park to park.
And he's like park to park, goahead.
I was like, okay, all right,that was just such a classic
screw up there.
So, yeah, I had a little bit ofactivation there and I didn't
pay attention to where I was interms of numbers.
And for those that might notknow, Todd and I have kind of
been neck and neck for a littlewhile working the National Rail

(46:30):
Trail with the attention thatwe'll both get to a certain
point where we're going to do alive stream.
You know of us activating thepark as a dual kilo and so
that's coming up.
So keep your eye, you know, onthat park for us, when we, when
we do stuff, because we might,we'll definitely give stuff away
.
I think it would be cool to dosomething like that.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
We should do it like a live stream too.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Oh, yeah, we will.
Yeah, it'd be total live stream.
So, yeah, we, you know I did alittle bit of that and so that
kind of checks the box for hamradio.
But I've been in the backgroundand, as Paul has been privy to
this, trying to finish off mywhat I'll call my ultimate
battery build.
I spent a good six months kindof collecting parts and putting

(47:13):
things together and buying allthe right batteries and watching
other YouTubers, you know,build their battery boxes, and
so I'm building what I'm kind ofwork you know, created as a
working title called the megabox.
I don't know why I want to callit that, but I'm going to stick
with that and see whether itkind of sticks.
But yeah, that'd be on mychannel soon because that's
actually been fun.
I forgot how much it, you know.

(47:36):
It's funny when you buildsomething that you never you
haven't built before and thenyou get your hands in on it and
you're like, oh, this is reallynot as technically complex as I
made it out in my head.
And so when you start likematching positive to positive,
negative, negative, and they'relike, oh yeah, the circuit just
has to complete, it's likestupid things like that that you
don't apply when you'rebuilding the box out.
So you know, I'm having fun.

(47:56):
It's got a solar generator init and a lot of power poles and
PD charging and a distributionblock and running off at 100 amp
hour, which I'm still.
If you're still interested inbuying that, paul, we can talk
some numbers, um and uh, youknow, because I think I still
might want to upgrade and buythe uh, either the bluetooth

(48:17):
version of the uh rododo or theone that's got the heater option
.
Um, but we'll, we'll kind ofplay around with it first to see
whether or not it generatesenough heat, because if it
generates enough heat then Idon't have to worry about, you
know, it freezing in the winter,which it's never going to
really be in a place that it'sgoing to be dead cold.
So all uh, all, all said anddone, that'll be built and then,
um, I finally got the last ofmy video out for the hf build,

(48:42):
uh on uh, all of the enhancedfeatures.
So, like all of my chairadd-ons, my poda, you know,
saddle pack, all the antennas,that stuff out there.
So that's over on my patreonand will probably be released
soon.
So if you've been waiting forthat, you know, saddle pack all
the antennas, that stuff outthere.
So that's over my patreon andprobably be released soon.
So if you've been waiting forthat, you know it's coming, uh
was that?

Speaker 3 (48:57):
was that the video that dropped today?
Yeah, yeah, so that went uptoday and I caught that.
That was great yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
So that went out to my members and, uh, patreon, so
the regular uh folks will pickit up, uh, soon enough.
But if you want to, you know,become a member.
You, you know, head over to thechannel and become one and, you
know, check out those videos.
And the other thing too, whichI found was pretty cool If you
remember, I did that video onthe Bluetooth adapter for the
891.
Yeah, I, I had one of our clubmembers, bill K1G, decide to

(49:27):
tear into it, but what I wasdoing was during him was a
camcation, I guess.
Uh, ve2 dx, I think he's a bigum reseller.
He's been building a lot ofstuff.
He was there at hamcation and alot of the youtubers uh
featured him.
He had a box that he wasbuilding that was supposed to be

(49:48):
like a bluetooth adapter for,like the 891 series and stuff
like that, or at least he listedit like he could do cat control
and serial control.
And I'm like, oh, wow, someonefinally came around to it.
So I emailed them saying youknow, your website lists
something like this on it.
What's the deal with it?
Why don't you do the 891?
Or, you know, why don't youhave?
You know the capabilities forthe cat control.
And he like, oh, the chipsetdoesn't work.

(50:10):
And I'm like, have you lookedat this?
And I sent him my video and heliterally turned around and
called me and was like um, wheredid you get that device?
I need to pick one up myselfbecause that's exactly what I'm
looking for and if it doesexactly what you said, I can
will it to make it.
Do you know it?
On all you know platforms?

(50:30):
You know, but I need to get myhands one, so send me the link
to buy one.
And so him and I have beenbouncing emails back and forth
after talking and he's beentelling me that once he finally
gets the prototype together,he'll be sending it our way to
kind of test it.
So I've told him he's got atleast three guys here that would
happily test the crap out of itand make sure it all works and

(50:52):
send you feedback on it, and weall love to feature it on our
channels as kind of reviews.
So he's got that stuff going on.
So he's interested inpartnering with some of us at
Live Free and Ham and he's gotsome really cool products.
So if you don't know who I'mtalking about, you head over to
VE2DX and check out all thestuff he's got, that he's been
building real cool stuff relatedto a lot of portable and you

(51:16):
know SO2R type stuff, and youknow he wanted me to throw out
real quick that I should alludeto as I'm spreading rumors,
because he wanted me to spreadrumors which is the weirdest
thing that I should refer to acode project called Project
Mounted Police.
No idea what that means.

(51:38):
All I have to say is make itall up once we find out more
about it, but spread the rumorsabout Project Mounted Police and
pay attention to his website sowe'll see where he's going with
that and what that all means.
But it sounds like he's gotsome good stuff and I'm looking
forward to the Bluetooth projectwith the 891.

(51:59):
So pay attention to all thatand listen here first, because
we'll be the ones to release it.
So, all good, I'm excited aboutthat.
Yeah, I would love, I would solove to have Bluetooth control
on that 891.
That would make things so slick.
Yep, yep, all right.

(52:22):
Well, after all of that and youknow good stories, good stuff
around let's get into our topic.
So you know, we kind of alludedat the very beginning.
You know the repeaters and weall know it's an interesting
topic and kind of one that'skind of fueled me a little bit
and why we kind of dove intothis.
So I was talking to the guysoffline a little bit, as I was
watching through my YouTubevideos, the nice, lovely, pretty
YouTube algorithm threwsomething at me from another

(52:44):
YouTuber.
The title kind of felt a littlelike we'll say clickbaity a
little bit, and it kind of mademe thought like I'll look at it
later and so, long story short,it was about repeaters and it
was always about the death ofthe repeater kind of thing and I
always kind of just brushthrough that stuff because I
live in new England and, yes, wehave repeaters that can be, you

(53:06):
know, for a certain audienceand not for the masses or the
vice versa, where they're justnot being used or the other
decisions that we've had.
Very active repeaters and peopleall from all walks of life and
all areas, call, come together,share information, talk about
literally anything under the sun, and you know it's a very
lively, very active you know umarea and that doesn't matter

(53:29):
whether it's dmr or digital oryou analog, it's all kind of
good stuff here in New England.
So maybe you know we get thebenefits of you know, from the
good stuff, but so, anyway, so Iwatched the video.
I said to the guys I said, here, watch this video and let's
talk a little bit about it.
But it kind of got me thinking.

(53:49):
I'm like, alright, guys, we'veall heard the bad stuff.
And two videos, or one videothat I recommend that you may
have seen, is over on HRCC'schannel.
Josh had George KJ6VU on to talkabout repeaters in the after
show and it was a really goodconversation.
I thought George shared some ofhis thoughts and Josh talked a

(54:11):
little bit about his feelings onsome of the repeaters.
Um, and I kind of walked awayfrom that going, yeah, okay, I
kind of buy into some of thestuff that they said.
And you know, and I know youknow some of the examples they
cited with, you know, hotspotsand all of the other things that
might be causing thedeterioration of, you know,
active repeaters.
But it kind of got me goingthat once I dove into watching

(54:32):
this video, I just got more andmore angry and then by the time
I got to the end of it I waslike, all right, guys, we need
to talk about this, but we needto talk about it in a way that
you know that we can, you know,one carry this conversation on
in our discord with our audience, because New England's pretty
big and you know there's a lotof repeaters out there and
there's a lot of great networksthat are being built, both
digital and analog, that youknow we all get to benefit from

(54:55):
in one way or another.
So let's kind of dive in.
So I guess, from a standpoint,let's first share your
experiences.
I want to share, you know, allthree of us what's your rough
experience with repeaters andwhen you first became a ham and
up to today, and if you can kindof boil that down into
something really quick.
Is it good, bad?

Speaker 4 (55:16):
indifferent, you know , and what have you felt
experience-wise?
And Todd, you kick it off.
Yeah, I mean I like therepeater.
I mean we have excuse me wehave our club repeater and then
we have a lot of strongrepeaters with a lot of activity
around here.
Fort Mountain repeater hasgotten very popular over the
last year.
Um, people are on it all daylong.

(55:36):
Uh, the interstate repeaterbatter.
Uh, interstate, what is it?
The interstate repeater society?
Uh, out in dairy, that'sanother strong one.
A lot, a lot of, uh, a lot ofdaytime activity.
Um, I love them.
Um, I talk to people on my wayto work, on the way back to work
, when I get in the car.
I talk to Eric a lot.
Sometimes I get Paul on there,get other guys in our club and

(55:59):
then sometimes I get just randompeople who are just doing radio
checks or whatever.
So I think they're, I don'tthink they're dying or anything.
I think for people who havehams and once you get a mobile
rig in your car it opens up theworld, because I used to just do
an HT and then I had an HT witha mag mount.

(56:20):
It still didn't work that well,but then once I got the mobile
rig in there and I got somepower.
It was a world of difference.
I think I disagreed with thatwhole video that they're dying.
I mean I don't know what therest of the country is like, but
they're sure as hell not dyingaround here.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Yeah, okay what you say, paul.
Where's your kind of stancewith the repeaters and HF or not
HF repeaters in general, withthe radio?

Speaker 3 (56:47):
All right.
Well, this is where I'm goingto be the traditional freaking
grouch here.
So, no, I've seen, uh, hrcc.
I've seen josh's original video, uh, we've had george on our
show, um, so, like, I mean, I'mfamiliar with, with this concept

(57:07):
, right of.
Well, you know, digital modesare killing ham radio and, and
you know repeaters are dying andnobody wants to use repeaters
anymore because everybody's justcurmudgeony and old bogeys.
You know you can't talk how youwant to talk.
That is the biggest crock ofshit I have ever heard in my
life.

(57:27):
Because now, okay, all right,you take the n1 IMO repeater
system.
Okay, now, that is a a seriesof network repeaters in our area
.
Uh, and the owners of thatrepeater system, they, they have
strict rules, right.
And so if you're a person thatwants to run a five o'clock

(57:48):
drive home net on that repeatersystem, well, you're going to
make some people mad and they'renot going to like it and it's
their repeater.
So you know what?
It's theirs, I what, what?
We can't complain about it,it's theirs and they control it,
they pay for it.
You know, it's just it's.
You've got to play by theirrules.

(58:09):
And so there are other optionsand if there, if the other
options don't work for you.
Well, guess what?
You can set up your own goddamnrepeater, right, fund it
yourself, install a tower andput your own goddamn repeater up
and then you could talk aboutwhatever you want to talk about.

(58:33):
You control who can say what onit, who can be on it, who
cannot be on it because it'syours right.
But repeaters are not dead.
Repeaters are not dying likejust because you can't be edgy
on a repeater.
Isn't something about repeaters?
That is radio etiquette.

(58:54):
Okay, it's no different than ifyou're listening to an am radio
station.
There are certain things thatthey're just not going to say.
There are certain things,certain words, certain phrases,
certain you know politicalthings.
They're just not going to getinto it because it's going to
alienate the the bulk of thecrowd.

(59:14):
Right, most of the time, ifyou're talking on radio, you you
are, you are literally talkingon an open airway, so anybody
that's on that frequency canhear what you're saying and you
may offend some people and youmay get some people that come
back to you and say, hey, listen, I disagree.
Okay, fine, let's have aconversation about it, you know,

(59:37):
but I think being edgy for thesake of being edgy and, you know
wanting to.
You know swear and talk aboutreligion and politics and the
things that piss people off andyou want to get upset because
some repeater owner says hey,listen, like I want to keep this
repeater, uh in, in a goodstanding for the bulk majority

(01:00:02):
of the people who use it.
I don't want to alienate peoplebecause you're the one jackass
that wants to be a rebel on thefreaking repeater.
No, and so honestly, this videoroyally pissed me off because
the the kid was doing nothingbut trolling yeah all right now

(01:00:23):
he's got 1300 subscribers andand he's he's taking a clip now.
it's just a clip of Josh's video, so let me put a pin in that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
for a second We'll go back to diving into that a
little bit, but I wanted to kindof talk a little bit around
some of the unbeknownst to hisvideo.
It kind of triggered some ofthe ideas around me like okay,
so we, we hear, like you'vementioned, paul, like the
repeaters are dying.
No one's talking on repeatersor you know, there's too much
control by the owners and soforth and so on.

(01:00:55):
So I think you know, in termsof like those areas, I want to
break them down a little bitbecause in essence, I mean you,
you kind of hit it on the headand I subscribe to this as well
as like it's a pay to play kindof approach.
When you come approach, when youcome to dealing with the
repeaters, the people are thosethat build those systems offer
it as a free service in mostcases, because it's not really

(01:01:18):
locked down.
They can't.
I mean they can sort of hidesome of that stuff if they try.
But for the majority of the useof repeaters out there in
general they're pretty wide openand most of those and I kind of
wanted to because there was wasone point that he talked about
that I want to touch on thedigital side a little bit, but I
felt that in the conversationand we'll all refer back to kind

(01:01:40):
of josh and and and josh's livestream with george is that
there has been a shift.
I mean, I've been a ham for 30plus years and you guys have
been somewhere in between thatUm, and so your experience and
my experience are going to bevery different.
When I grew up as a ham, all Ihad was analog.

(01:02:02):
That was all it was what wasavailable.
So it was sort of like beforecable came on the scene, you had
your antenna ears on the TV andyou got what you got and that
was what it was.
That is how ham radio was for agood 20 plus years for me, like
I just had analog repeaters andthat's what you use because
that's what was available andyou were lucky if you were, you
know, a high school kid who hadbarely a you know, a paper route

(01:02:25):
to afford to buy an HT to beable to talk on said repeaters,
unless you were given donatedequipment or something.
So I feel like for the 20 yearsor so before digital kind of
and the internet kind of becamethe thing, that was all that's
what it was.
And so those people thatcreated those networks did some
amazing cool electronic stuff tobe able to bridge those

(01:02:47):
together, to make those happen,both using RF and electronics
kind of wizardry in thebackgrounds to make those happen
, both using RF and, you know,electronics kind of wizardry in
the backgrounds to build thosenetworks to be able to get us
connected and talking beyond oursmall little local communities.
But for the most part repeaters, before cell phones came on the
scene, were always the place togo hang out and talk to people

(01:03:09):
on the way home from yourcommutes, on the way into your
commutes, you know, when you goout, to get, you know, pizza for
the family or something likethat.
You know that was just kind ofthose modes of communication.
It wasn't more from than just aconversation party, you know,
per se for folks.
So I think, you know, now thatwe get in the dawn of the you
know 21st century and you know,in 2020 and beyond that digital

(01:03:34):
has been pretty popular.
So digital has kind of replacedthat.
But digital increased thisreach.
You know we went from our localcommunities being tied like by
you know, general geographicareas to now I can go fricking
anywhere in the world.
Now I can talk to whoever Iwant in Japan or China and
whatever.
So it opened the door for a lotof people that might've, you

(01:03:55):
know, always just beentechnicians.
So I don't think analog is, youknow, a bad thing, and I don't
think digital is a bad thing.
I do kind of agree thatrepeaters there was, in its
heyday, a lot of them out thereand so, like Iowa could be a
part of one and then there'd befive others in the same
neighborhood and you know,depending on you know whether

(01:04:16):
you liked George's repeater oryou like Paul's repeater you'd
go hang out with them or andtalk in that sense.
So that is kind of gotten less.
And so you guys, I mean, do youfind yourself hanging on one or
two repeaters in general, doyou have like have a set list
that you always defer to andtalk on or listen to?

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
I have.
Like I said, I always have ourclub repeater on, because that's
where most of us at least tryfirst.
And I have been listeningbecause a lot of our club
members now are using the FortMountain one too and it has such
a big range.
So you always got someone goingon there and I've gotten to
know some guys that use that.
I've talked to them before.
So it's cool when you havepeople that you're familiar with

(01:05:03):
or that you've hadconversations before you can
continue on a conversation.
But I have a lot of thestronger repeaters, the active
repeaters, programmed in myradio and you know, Eric, you
and I have done this beforewhere we've started getting a
bad signal or whatever and we'vegone to the Westford repeater.
You know, or we've gone to FortMountain or we've just switched

(01:05:25):
to a better repeater.
What I don't understand isthere's some really awesome
repeaters, like the ones up inMount Vernon, and they're super
strong.
Mount Vernon is a town that'sup on a hill, like up, you know
it's, it's got some elevationwherever that repeaters, but no
one ever uses it ever.
So like I use it, like if youwant to have a private
conversation well, not private,but like you don't want to take

(01:05:47):
up the repeater because you knowa net might be coming on or
whatever I just go to thosebecause they're.
They're way stronger than thanour local one, our club one.
So there are a lot of repeatersout there.
Some of them just don't haveactivity, but the ones that do,
you know they got tons ofactivity and when they, when
they get a following, they get agroup going on it.
They're on it all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
So they're on it all the time.
Okay, so the dying part of hamradio is not really dying, it's
just.
It's more of an it's a peopleproblem more than it's a
technical problem per se.
With this, I mean, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
I think it's like.
It's kind of like you knowgetting viewers on YouTube, you
know you got to promote it.
I mean honestly.
I mean Anthony this kid in Idon't know where he's from, he's
near the Fort Mountain repeatergot on that thing and he just
all of a sudden, it's like thething got like super popular.
I didn't even know the thingexisted.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
I swear we have more N1QC club members that use that
repeater than our own repeater,because the coverage is just so
great.
Yeah right.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
So it is, you know it is, and we've gotten because
we've had our club members onthat repeater.
We've gotten club members fromfarther away that want to join
our club because we promote ourclub, talk about what we're
doing and stuff, and so it'sbeen good all around.
So I think it's not dying.
I think it's like if you throwup a repeater, you got to get on

(01:07:22):
there, you got to get peopletalking on it and you got to
kind of spread the word andthat's basically you know.
That's how I learned about it,because the Fort Mountain
repeater I didn't know anythingabout it and then Ralph told me
about it and then I programmedit in and boom, you know it
worked everywhere and I actuallyI like to go when I travel
throughout the state.
I've gone up to, like Lincoln,new Hampshire, and it works.

(01:07:45):
Warren, new Hampshire, which isfar.
I've heard people on MountWashington reaching it.
I've heard I was out inHillsboro, peterborough, you
know all these places that I wasin Portland, maine.
I mean that's a huge area.
If you're not from New England,that's a big footprint and that

(01:08:06):
thing kicks in.
So it's pretty awesome and itgot popular just because people
that were on a popular repeaterstarted talking about it and it
just happened.
But there's tons of repeaters.
If you go in the repeater book,if you go on the digital one
and you just like repeaters nearme, you'll see tons of them,

(01:08:26):
but they're not all.
I've listened to them.
They're not active.
I don't even think anyone usesthem.
But the ones that are popular,people do use and they use them
quite often.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
So in the dying part of that, paul, like you feel
like the same kind of approachlike just dying is equating,
like a lot of the youngergeneration equates it to like
activity.
Or you know, like the one thingI was kind of thinking was like
when people say repeaters aredying, I'm thinking like usually
it's a younger crowd and theyounger crowd is more accustomed
to say something like discord,where it's like immediate, like

(01:08:59):
I ping you direct message or Ipost something on there and
someone responds back quickly.
Repeaters aren't sort of likethat.
I mean, I don't know about you,but like I'll throw my call out
five or six times and I maymiss somebody.
Like because here's an exampleI know some hams they fricking
put all of their memories in andthen they press scan and you

(01:09:20):
scan through all of the channelsover and over again and every
once in a while if I happen toyell out N1JUR, listening, you
could have missed me in yourscan and so you'll never like
there's no way to identify me.
You know in your you knowsearching to try to find people,
which I find almost kind offunny because it's like you find
nobody really in those massivescans unless you just want to

(01:09:42):
create background music.
But like what did you findyourself, paul?
Like that statement's justdebunked and stupid, or you know
what's your take on it?
I mean, obviously All right.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
So 100% that the the statement that repeaters are
dead is a fallacy.
And and if you, if you actuallypay attention unlike the spark
control if you actually payattention to what the quote
unquote mainstream ham tubersare saying about repeater
activity, the issue isn't thatthe repeaters are dead.

(01:10:17):
The issue is that everybody'sjust listening, yeah, and every
now and again you know peoplewill kerchunk it and go, oh,
yeah, okay, I can hit it and I'mgetting the tone back, so I
know I'm making it, but thenthey're not throwing their call
sign out.
You have to throw your callsign out in order for somebody

(01:10:39):
to freaking respond to you.
If you're just going to sitthere and you're going to bitch
and you're going to go, well,nobody's there.
Well, did you say anything?
Because if you didn't sayanything, then you're part of
the problem.
Let me tell you all right.
So I in my, in my, in my hts,in, in, in my uh mobile rig, the

(01:11:00):
, the vhf, uhf, I have, uh,almost all of the active
repeaters in new england and,and some of them might not even
be active, but I, just I wentinto repeater book and I said
what are the repeaters around methat that I can hit?
And I programmed all thoserepeaters and so I've got, I've

(01:11:20):
also got Aries channels, I'vegot, you know, dpw channels and
you know the the highwaydepartment.
Because I will, I will do that,I will, I will call out a
couple of times and I'll say,hey, n1og mobile, n1og mobile.
You know, if I don't get ananswer back in like five minutes
or so, well then I'll tryanother repeater.

(01:11:42):
You know I'll go, I'll go fromthe Bedford repeater to, you
know, the Epson repeater andI'll, I'll do the same thing.
I'll call out again a coupletimes If I don't get an answer.
All right, well then I'm justgoing to hit scan and I'm going
to listen for where the activityis while I'm driving and 99% of
the time, one of thoserepeaters it'll stop and it'll

(01:12:04):
go all right now and thesepeople are talking, and so I'll
stop scanning and I'll listenand I'll go oh, all right, yeah,
I know what these guys aretalking about, it's something
that's interesting or whatever,and I'll, I'll throw my call
sign out.
They'll be like oh yeah, allright, and what og?
Come on in and what's up?
Man and and and that's it.
And so, in no way, shape orform, are fucking repeaters dead

(01:12:26):
.
Yep, just do like Jason 2.0said Call out on the repeater at
least once a day.
Pick any repeater and if you'renot getting anything on that
repeater, try another one andcall out, call out, call out,
call out.
Because if you're not callingout, then how the hell is

(01:12:46):
anybody supposed to know you'rethere?
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
Right, and how is anybody supposed to know that?
You know, there's actually likeencouraging themselves to do
the same thing, like I've talkedto hams before who have like,
oh, I've been mic shy orwhatever, but I heard you call
out so I figured, oh, I havesomebody I can talk to and so
they'll call back.
And you know a lot of hams andI find this with the I don't

(01:13:09):
know whether it's a generationalthing or whatever, but like a
lot of hams, like you said,they'll be like uh, n1jur mobile
, uh radio check and dead.
Nobody, like nobody, respondsto the radio check.
And that's like the universal,like, hey, I'm looking for a
conversation.
It's not that they're lookingfor a radio check because they
know their radio works.
They didn't build it by hand,they didn't assemble the parts
and didn't solder somethingincorrectly.

(01:13:31):
Nine times out of ten.
They bought it at the store,plugged it in and it works out
of the box.
But they're testing it becausethey want to have a conversation
to see if it actually plays out.
So use those things like aninvite to have a conversation
with somebody.
And if they decide to get shyor whatever and they cut 7-3 and
go quick, okay, fine, don'ttake it as an insult and move on

(01:13:55):
.
You're dead right.
The activity is both on you asthe.
It's kind of funny because whenrepeaters started to come out
they were great, likeeverybody's, like oh, I gotta
jump on them.
It's so real cool andeverything's awesome and it was
just like really super.
You know active.
Now it's not the repeater'sowner repeater owner's job to

(01:14:18):
like get out there and advertise.
They just don't, they aren'tgoing to, they just putting a
service out there.
It's your job as a ham to useyour capabilities that you've
been granted by the FCC fromyour license to go talk.
You know, do what you'resupposed to do with the.
You know the hobby.
That's why you got it.
Maybe that's why you got intoit, I don't know.
That's why I did.
I mean I wanted to talk on amicrophone, I mean think of this

(01:14:41):
too.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
I mean, there's a lot of nets around here.
I mean I have a list of them inmy phone and some of them are
daily, some of them are weekly,but there's a lot of nets and
when you get on these nets youhave, you know, you get to know
people, people get to know you.

(01:15:02):
You get to check in, you'reworking the radio and then um,
and then that that can move oninto non-nets.
But getting on the repeater,that maybe the net was on um,
you know, when I first became aham, um, I was just, you know,
like everyone else, I was just atechnician, so I was just doing
everything on vhf and I I wentthrough and listened to like

(01:15:25):
every repeater from here tothere, as far as I could write
them down, and if I heardsomething I'd make a note and
just try to figure out whichones were more popular than the
others.
But I found a net called thePhantom Net.
It's out of North, I think it'sout of Andover, massachusetts,
and they've got another one upin Pembroke and then I'm not a.
They've got another one up inPembroke and then I'm not sure

(01:15:47):
they used to have one maybe inPepperell.
I'm not sure if they still do,but anyway, that was a cool
repeater because for me, because, um, I could reach it.
I couldn't reach it on my HT,but I could reach it for my
shack and I was able to, um,listen to these guys.
And every every day there was aguy who was on a pilot.
And then there's a bunch ofguys that talk RC planes.

(01:16:08):
So I was like, wow, this isawesome, this is like all day
long, this is what these guystalk about.
And I started joining in on theconversation and they knew some
of the guys I knew and you knowI had gone down to their club
and we were going to try to makean official thing where we'd
have their guys come up and ourguys go down for a day and fly.
But it was just cool because Inever met them, but I got to

(01:16:33):
know them and the RC stuff so wecould talk about another hobby
that I had that I liked to talkabout.
It wasn't just ham radio and Ithought that was kind of cool
that I found the Phantom.
Now, one of the things I heardwhat the owner of the Fort

(01:16:55):
Mountain repeater W1ASS.
What he wants to do is addanother repeater up north,
because north if you go into thedips and do's of the mountains
you kind of lose the repeaterhere and there.
So he wants to put one up there, but he wants to make it the
same frequency in the same tone.
So basically his idea is to getthe whole state under one
umbrella and just have onefrequency and you would just

(01:17:15):
connect to whatever repeateryou're closest to.

Speaker 2 (01:17:19):
So question with the.
You had mentioned some of yourflying stuff when you like.
One of the things that kind ofirked me the most with listening
to that video was the fact thathe was constantly complaining
about the topics and thediscussion Like you mentioned.
Obviously you talked in thisthe Phantom repeater and they
talk about RCs.
Do you ever, at any one giventime, have anybody get on the?
You know the repeater owner geton and go.

(01:17:41):
You can't talk about RC stuffor anybody complain about the
topic of discussion.
Or have you, either both of you, ever been on a repeater where
someone's tried to chase you off?

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
No, I mean I, I've never, I've never heard anyone.
I mean no, I mean I've, I'vehad, I've been chased off more
HF frequencies than I haverepeaters.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
I keep telling you to stay off of 14, 300.
How?

Speaker 4 (01:18:08):
many times do we?

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
I've been chased off more HF frequencies than I have
repeaters.

Speaker 4 (01:18:10):
I keep telling you stay off of 14300.
How many times do we have totell you?
But no, I mean I don't know.
I mean I know that people Iknow like, if you talk politics
or you talk religion, you knowit's kind of like I don't have a
problem if people want to dothat.
I don't particularly want to dothat, I like to.
Just, I mean I just like totalk about either ham radio or
stuff going on, or you know like, like for one, here's an

(01:18:31):
example I was talking to Ralph,we were going, I was driving
into work and he was on and wewere talking about fishing.
And he says, you know, he goes,a lot of club members like to go
fishing.
I said, yeah, and I said itagain, I did it when I was a kid
, but my kids getting into it.
So, yeah, you know, I did a lotof fishing this summer.
He's like, well, I was thinkinghe goes, maybe we should get

(01:18:51):
all these guys together, maybejust go, uh, pick a weekend and
do, or a day and go deep seafishing, like rent a boat, you
know, charter a boat and go out,right, and I'm like, oh, I'm in
.
I'm like, no, no doubt in mymind I'm in zach will come.
But we didn't talk about hamradio, we were talking about
fishing.
You know the whole community andso I don't think you, I don't

(01:19:14):
think there's a rule that saysyou have to talk ham radio.
I think you can talk aboutwhatever you want, but I think
if you start getting into topicsthat might, you know, can get
people mad.
Like politics is like the rootof all evil, or religion.
If you're not religious, ifyou're an atheist or you're the
wrong religion, you know it canget.
People can get offended orwhatever.
I mean I personally don't, Icould care less what you talk

(01:19:34):
about, and if you don't likewhat people are talking about on
the repeater, you can turn thething off, go to another
frequency.
You don't have to listen to.
It's like watching tv.
Oh, this show sucks, I'm notwatching this.
You switch to the next channel.
There's more than one repeaterout there, so go to the other
one.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
How about you, paul?

Speaker 3 (01:19:52):
oh, so I gotta say I've I've never been told that I
shouldn't talk about somethingon a repeater, and there have
been more than enough timeswhere I'll be in a I'll be in a
fricking mood, right, something.
Something's going ongeopolitically and it's got me
fired up and I happen to getsomebody on the repeater that

(01:20:15):
you know we're having aconversation and yeah, I'll,
I'll.
I'll talk about Trump, I'lltalk about the administration,
I'll talk about Biden, I'll talkabout his administration.
It doesn't matter to me, likethe, these are things that
affect our daily lives and so ifyou're going to get offended by
it, uh, you can have adiffering opinion and we can

(01:20:38):
have a conversation.
But if you're, if you'relooking to just be edgy, uh, you
know, you, you.
But if you're looking to justbe edgy, you know you, just you
want to be able to swear orwhatever, like it's not that you
can't right?
I don't think there's a hardfast rule anywhere in the FCC
that says, well, you can't saythese seven words on the radio.

(01:20:59):
It's, you know, george Carlin,god bless him.
It's, you know, george Carlin,god bless him, you know.
But the thing is there isinevitably going to be topics
that are going to make somepeople uncomfortable, and you,
as the person on the radio, haveto understand that not
everybody's going to think thesame way you do.

(01:21:20):
Not everybody's going to agreewith what you're saying, but if
you're at least open to hearingsomebody else's point of view,
then you're not going to get anold, curmudgeon-y person that's
going to be like get off myrepeater.
You know they're going to belike well, all right, I don't
agree with you, and here's why.
And you can actually have anintelligent conversation, and I,

(01:21:44):
and I think, and you canactually have an intelligent
conversation, and I think, in somany ways, society is to blame
for that particular fault,because it has gotten to the
point where nobody wants to hearanybody's differing opinion.
Everybody wants to be in alittle echo chamber where
everybody is like-minded and notin any disagreement in any way,

(01:22:10):
shape or form.
But that's fucking boring.
You know, I want to have anintelligent conversation with
somebody and in order to do that, I have to be open-minded
enough to hear their point ofview and to and to consider it.
And so there, there are morethan enough times where I've

(01:22:34):
been on a repeater and becauseof the way that I speak,
naturally, um, you know I'm, I'ma little bit crass and I, I
talk like a sailor, and you knowI'm, I'm brutally honest and I
just I don't, I don't sugarcoatthings.
I don't do any of the nicetiesLike it, just is what it is.
This is how I feel, blah blah,blah, but only silence.
I'm going to yes, I will startkicking balls, but so no, I

(01:22:58):
don't.
I don't think that the issue isthat you know repeater owners
are.
Are you know gatekeeping, as,as this person, you know, this
brick and troll uh said so manytimes that, oh, these repeater
owners are gatekeeping.
No, they're not gatekeeping,it's just you have to have an
open mind to hearing otherpeople's opinions.

(01:23:20):
If you're going to be edgy,right, and that's that's my take
on it and that's actuallyreally good.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Like that is, I think , a good, mature stance.
In terms of being a ham radiooperator, I think I've always
taken the stance of like there'salways going to be five
different people that have fivedifferent stances on.
We'll talk about capacitortypes.
I mean, I could sit in a roomwith a bunch of people and they
all argue over which capacitortype is better for this type of

(01:23:49):
scenario, this circuit, and I'mlike I don't care, but in
essence I know you're passionateabout it.
So it's the same goes for, likewhen you have conversations on
the repeater.
Like I'm sure, like I talkabout Yaesu all the time and I
give you crap about Team IOM allthe time, but like dude, I
don't hate you for being a teamICOM and you don't hate me for
being Yezu.
It's like we both do HF, weboth play in ham radio and you

(01:24:10):
know that's that can be the same.
You know whether church orpolitics or religion kind of
play in the game.
It's just that when and I thinkwe all kind of agree that you
know if, if you come into anenvironment or you come into a
repeater owner's place that setthis up, created this
environment for you.
There has to be a level ofrespect for that owner and what

(01:24:31):
he's given to the ham radiocommunity as a resource to use.
So don't treat it like you knowit's your own little kick.
You know, kick the can orwhatever you want in your own
home.
That how you treat somethingthat's your own personal stuff.
Treat it with respect.
Treat it with the idea that hey.
An example that I cite is I'veseen a few people they get

(01:24:56):
excited and they want to attachother devices to these repeaters
and they don't realize that hey, there's somebody that you're
connecting to theirinfrastructure and their place,
you know, from your remote site,and you could be a problem for
them if you end up, you know,not monitoring your connection
and you don't have arelationship with them.
Those things you know.

(01:25:16):
Obviously you have to ask forpermission.
You have to be able to like say, hey, I'm interested in doing
it.
A lot of repeater owners, ifyou give them or you treat them
with the respect that you know,hey, I'd be interested in doing
X, y, z, we, you know.
Do you have this capability?
And if not, that's the benefitof repeaters and why we have so
many fucking repeaters out thereis because someone decided to
hey, I want to do digitaleffusion modes and I want to be

(01:25:39):
able to have a backbone to thefusion.
You know room, you know networkand and all that stuff.
And so they went off and didthat.
So go play in that space ifthat's where you want to go.
Don't try to always force thepeople that set up that repeater
.
Our club's a perfect example ofthat.
I remember coming in and Iremember sharing and having a
conversation of like why aren'twe using Fusion?
Why aren't we tying to the backend of the room?

(01:26:00):
We're just using digital.
Oh, we don't like digital, sowe're just using digital.
Oh, we don't like digital, sowe don't.
You know, digital is like itjust sounds so crappy and yeah,
whatever.
That's just ear preference inmy mind.
But at the same time there wereso many people that were so
adamant about like you can't dothis over that and it's like
okay, well then I just had tolook up that.
You know, down the streetthere's a freaking machine down

(01:26:23):
there and I can go play on MountUconunic and connect to a
fusion room and get whatever Iwant out of it.
Now that's changed againbecause people have abused that.
But that's a repeater's owner'sjob to be able to manage that
and keep that up and running.
So I think that respect, likePaul was saying and, todd, I
think you definitely said thattoo is just be kind, realize

(01:26:49):
that it takes time to get thisstuff working and reliably all
the time.

Speaker 3 (01:26:51):
It's just not like I'll throw up a repeater and it
just works when thousands uponthousands of dollars, in
addition to all of the manpowerit takes to put up these towers
and put up the infrastructureand everything else like space,
if somebody is very, veryinvested in that and and for you
to think that that's your ownpersonal thing and you, you know

(01:27:11):
you can treat it as your ownpersonal thing, you're wrong,
like you're, you're, you're just, you're just being an arrogant
ass at that point, sure.

Speaker 2 (01:27:21):
Yeah, no-transcript.

(01:27:48):
We're not here to offend folks.
This is kind of like Paul saidthis is my normal speech and
this is how I talk and it'stotally fine.
It's not like it's a 20 yearsago, 30 years ago maybe it was
very straight-laced and if youdidn't say please and thank you,
and you know yes sir and no sir, and all that stuff, then yeah,
it would be a different story.
But today's day and age is amore casual conversation and so

(01:28:11):
that might be tougher forsomeone who's a lot older, who's
been a repeater owner, to dealwith.
But you know, be cognizant ofthat and be okay with the fact
that.
You know, okay, don't bedropping F-bombs every five
seconds because there might bekids listening or there might be
like.
You know, that's the fear islike my kids were younger.
I wouldn't want them hearingthat on the radio.
You know, in just generalconversation of that, you know

(01:28:33):
fuck this.
And blah, blah, blah.
And you know, oh, I just, youknow, whatever, and you know you
fill in the blanks.
It's like I don't really care,it's like it doesn't affect me,
and so my daughter's the sameway.
So you know, it doesn't.
It's almost comical because Iremember when my daughter showed
up at one of our field days,one of the older guys dropped an
F-bomb by accident and my gosh,you think he was literally like

(01:28:56):
saying penitence to a priestbecause she was to Emma who was
there.
She's like I don't care, Ididn't even phase me.
They were like I'm so sorry forswearing in front of you.
She's like, what are youtalking about?
So yeah, I get the wholegenerational difference, but,
dude, just, you know, feel itout before you just storm the
castle and decide to.

(01:29:16):
You know, fuck everything upfor everybody because you just
want to talk one way Becognizant and open to trying
something new.

Speaker 4 (01:29:25):
Get on the repeater and talk, and if you don't like
the conversation, leave Comeback.
I mean seriously.
No, it's true.
I mean, when I watched thatvideo I was like and I know that
there can be clicks onrepeaters, I've listened to
repeaters where it's a group ofpeople and if you're the new guy
coming in, it's like you kindof have you know a group of
people and you know if you'rethe new guy coming in, it's like

(01:29:45):
you kind of have you know they,kind of you know, like, for an
example, you hear a conversationgoing on and one of the guys is
like all right, I got to go.
And then you call your call signand you know the guy's right
there and he doesn't want totalk to you you know, and then
the other guy calls back and hegoes back in like the other guy

(01:30:06):
calls back and he goes back inlike they want to just talk to
them.
So it was just for me, it'sfine.
I, I, I think that it's uh,it's useful.
I mean, repeaters are alsoawesome for, like traffic
reports.
I mean seriously, becauseyou're stuck in weather.

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
That's what they were very heavily used for when I
was growing up in ham radio.
It was like, oh, what's theweather look like?
And you know how bad is thetraffic and where can.

Speaker 1 (01:30:24):
I avoid.
Because we didn't have.

Speaker 2 (01:30:25):
GPS.

Speaker 3 (01:30:27):
Yeah, like perfect, perfect example Sorry to cut you
off, todd, but perfect examplewas, uh, last night I had to run
back to the RV park, uh, and itwas just before this this
snowstorm came in, right.
And so I'm on the, I'm on theback roads going, you know,

(01:30:47):
through hollis and brookline,and uh, ralph was on the
repeater and he was like, hey,listen, you know, I'm in
francistown and yep, the snow'scoming down hard and it's coming
your way, it's coming.
Like don't, don't delay, likeget ready, because it's coming
and it's coming hard.
And so I knew, knew, and so,like I mean, dude, I got, I got,
I got to the trailer, I got mystuff and I stopped the gas

(01:31:10):
station, I filled up and, sureenough, the skies just opened up
and it was snowing like fat outof hell.
And I was like, man, I I'm gladthat I knew.
You know, now I got to, I gotto hustle ass back home, you
know.
So, yeah, 100%, it's great forthat.

Speaker 4 (01:31:25):
Go ahead, todd, sorry no, I mean, you know if you're
you're driving home, like theother day I was driving home and
route three was backed up atxfi more than normal and then I
put my call sign out there anderic called.
He came back and I said, oh, ifyou're, because normally he's
like down in mass.
I said just a heads up, routethree is like backed up up like
a parking lot and he wasn'tthere, he was north, but it's

(01:31:47):
just good to do that.
And then if there's an accidentor you're like stopped, you
start putting on the repeater.
You can see if anyone else isout there.
The other thing AA1W.
He's like the main guy on theinterstate repeater but his job
is he like delivers shiteverywhere, so he's all over the
place, he's in mass.

(01:32:08):
So on snowstorms or any kind ofbad weather, this guy's giving
a report like every time he getsin that truck and it's awesome
because you know exactly what'sgood, what the traffic is like,
you know.
So it's funny.
But you know when he is offthat repeater, like he goes I'm
going on vacation for a weekit's like fricking dead, like

(01:32:30):
seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:32:31):
No, but that's exactly it, yeah, right.

Speaker 4 (01:32:33):
It's like AA1W.
It's like everyone wants totalk to him.
He's not there.
It's like there's no one on therepeater.
I'm like, I'm like, I'm likewhere'd he go?
Oh, he're on vacation.

Speaker 2 (01:32:43):
Well, that's funny because it's like there are, we
all have somebody or someonethat we know, someone who is
what we call the fixture of therepeater.
So like.
Anthony's, the Ford MountainDale NA1T is Mr 5'2".
Everybody knows when you putsomething on 5'2", dale will
come back every time, no matterwhere you freaking are in the
East Coast, your contact interms of the Interstate Repeater

(01:33:06):
Society.
There's always somebody outthere that just they never give
up.
They're always the voice forthe machine and that's awesome,
but it doesn't preclude you fromnot participating either.
That's, I think, the thing thatwe all need to take away as
hams, that we have back to thatwhole frequency fight that the

(01:33:26):
arl does for us.
If we're not using the damnfrequencies when they do their
scans and they do their checksto see what the activity is in a
band space, and we're not usingit because we're not just
throwing our calls out there andcausing noise on the airwaves,
then you're doing an injusticefor us in the future.
People down the road that wantto, you know, know, maybe get
into ham radio because, um, youknow it's just you're not

(01:33:48):
causing enough of a.
You know, uh, you know a noiseout there and we all know that.
You know, sadly, radio is notlike the internet where you can
see the message come across toyou really quickly and then
respond.
Nine times out of 10, I'llthrow my call out.
Like I mentioned before,nobody's going to hear me and I
like, if I wait two and a halfminutes more again and do it, I
feel embarrassed after a whileand I've gotten over that hill
because it's like I know peoplejust oh, they forgot to hear me

(01:34:11):
and I've done it.
It's kind of funny.
So I'll throw my call and it'llbe in the middle of the day and
then, like you know, rightaround 12 o'clock, like there's
always somebody listening, youjust have to be the noise to be
able to get the interest youknow, to have people come back
to you and they will.

Speaker 4 (01:34:29):
And if you really I mean when I was new I used to no
one would talk and I couldn'tget anyone.
I didn't even know what I wasdoing I just go for a radio
check.
They'll always come back to youfor a radio check, Then
conversation.
But, um, but you know, like forme, like when you're making
your calls out, I might've justgotten in my car and turned on
the radio and heard you.
You know like that's happenedwith time, like you've been

(01:34:51):
driving and called and maybe nottalking to anyone.
Um, you know, that happens allthe time too.
Like you just got to keepputting your call sign out there
.
And you know, sometimes I hear,I might hear you or someone on
the repeater, but I'm on thephone or you know I'm, I'm
talking to someone else and thenI'll get down, I'll put the
call out again and then it'slike either you're there or
you're not.

(01:35:11):
But you know, I'll try to callit, call back if it's going to
be a couple of minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
You, you.
If you ever want to see howannoying the uh can I get a
radio check?
Is, fire up your, your thereand log on the East Coast
Reflector and everybody who doesthat it gets, so like you,
literally in a guaranteed12-hour period you'll have
almost 200,.
Can I get a radio check?
This is, bob, at KB4 ABC inDelaware, nevada, or something

(01:35:38):
like that.
And after a while you get theadmins going on there going yeah
, we can see you checking intothe node there.
It's like just use the parrotmode so you can hear yourself,
come back, kind of thing,because they want people to have
activity.
And that's actually aninteresting segue, because
although on the analog side weall complain that the repeaters

(01:36:01):
are quiet, but digital modesaren't much different.
I can scan half of my nodes onfusion or all star, and some of
them, uh, more, most of them,unless I run across a net.
Uh, most of them are just likepeople, like they, and this.
This pisses me off.
And ham radio operators stopdoing this.
Hey Bob, uh, you know this is aCharlie from you know, uh, uh,

(01:36:24):
you know Colorado here and uh,you here and the weather.
Or I'm running on this radio orthis is my antenna, and then
they converse a little bit andthey share each other's
equipment and then it's like,yeah, we got to get off this, we
got to clear the frequency here.
We leave it open and available.
I'm like what the fuck?
Use the frequency, dude.
Have a conversation, get otherpeople to maybe jump in because

(01:36:45):
you might be talking aboutsomething they have an interest
to like.
Don't end the conversation like, come up with other things to
talk about to keep theconversation going, and then
I'll make repeaters.
You know both active and thedigital world active.

Speaker 4 (01:36:59):
You know, I think if I you know, how California you
can go from, like San Diego, allthe way up to the it's all
connected.
There's one thing, and thewhole thing is connected and
they were talking about like Ithink all the towers made it, or
most of them made it, throughthe fires and stuff.
Like I know they were worriedabout that, but I think that's
just cool that you can drive,you can connect to anyone in the

(01:37:22):
whole state, basically thewhole West Coast, most of the
West coast, it's called.

Speaker 2 (01:37:26):
CalNet.

Speaker 4 (01:37:28):
Yeah, and it's.
It's a repeater system, right.

Speaker 2 (01:37:30):
Yeah, it goes literally.

Speaker 4 (01:37:31):
I wish New England had one like a like we had a
bunch of so many.
We have so many repeaters Likethere's.
I wish there was a way we couldlink a bunch of them and and
make a a new England you knowrepeater.
You know that you can talk toanyone in New England because
you've got repeaters everywherethat are all connected and we
have some that do that.

(01:37:51):
You know that give you morerange and stuff.
But it would be cool if therewas just like like a New England
connected repeater system allthe way from, like, connecticut
through Maine and Vermont.

Speaker 2 (01:38:05):
Well, it depends on what, or even there is on the
digital side.
There's a whole east coastreflector which literally does
the whole span of repeaters andnodes, and it's actually so much
more than just the east coast.

Speaker 3 (01:38:22):
Yeah, oh, is it?
You know?
Like, oh yeah, the whole reasonwhy I found the East Coast
reflector system is I was downin Florida on vacation and the
repeater that was close to thehotel just happened to be
LinkedIn, and so I threw my callout and I said can anybody hear
me?
Just making sure Can anybodyhear me, eric, like just making

(01:38:44):
sure Can anybody hear me.

Speaker 4 (01:38:46):
And somebody came back to me.

Speaker 3 (01:38:47):
Eric responds to you in New Hampshire Like holy shit,
no, no, no, even better.
Somebody came back to me fromNew Mexico and I was like New
Mexico, I'm like I'm in Florida,Like how the hell is this
happening?
And they were like like oh well, welcome to the east coast

(01:39:09):
reflector system and in likesomehow like an admin from the
east coast reflector systemmonitors and anybody that's new,
like they take your call signand they send you an email
welcoming you to the east theyare phenomenal and everything
dude.

Speaker 4 (01:39:17):
It's great yeah well, how do you, how do you, how do
you get on that if, if you likea new ham and you have a, you
know you get your first mobileradio in your car?

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
well, first, it's just always repeater you want.
It's just a matter of hitting arepeater that's connected to
the system so what repeateraround here is connected to it?
Uh, you gotta make me look thisup, eas coast it's ecrnet or
something like that, but I meanit's just such a huge, huge

(01:39:50):
network.

Speaker 4 (01:39:50):
Is it analog or?

Speaker 2 (01:39:52):
is it?
It's everything?

Speaker 3 (01:39:54):
Yeah, it's digital analog All-star, dmr I mean,
it's all sorts of things Is that.
Fusion too, yep, you can useyour Hamshack hotline to get in
the East Coast reflector system.

Speaker 2 (01:40:05):
Let me share this window here real quick.
I'll show you what it is.
So this is the giant networkthat they have.
So if we just drill in, that'sthe East Coast.

Speaker 4 (01:40:14):
That looks more like the.

Speaker 2 (01:40:15):
Well, yeah, it's a lot more than just the East
Coast, I told you, yeah, it'sway more.
You can tell They've got nodeseverywhere except Wyoming.
So if you want to talk tosomebody in Wyoming, probably
not In terms of answering yourquestion, todd, about there's
nothing in New Hampshire.
There's nothing in NewHampshire, but the closest one
is Vermont and this is an actualrepeater in Vermont.

(01:40:36):
Not to say that you can't takeyour digital node and connect it
to the East Coast Reflector,like I have an All-Star node.
I can connect to an All-Starconnection for the East Coast
Reflector and be able to getconnected to the East Coast
reflector, like I have anall-star node.
I can connect to an all-starconnection for the East Coast
reflector and be able to getconnected to the large network.

Speaker 4 (01:40:50):
So that's something.
That's what you have, that inyour car and or or at home.
Yeah, or at home.
But how do you, how do you getthe radio to connect to that?

Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
Through a hotspot, basically.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
So you're going through the internet.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
So remember our little, like we're going to
build on a live stream, Todd'sgoing to build his all-star.
That's basically how you'dconnect.

Speaker 4 (01:41:10):
Yeah, all right.
So it's kind of like yeah, soyou're connecting, but you need
the internet to be able to dothat, or a hotspot.

Speaker 2 (01:41:16):
From your home.
Yeah, if you have a localrepeater, then you have
connected to the internet whichdoes it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:22):
So it wouldn't work if all shit broke and hit the
fan.

Speaker 2 (01:41:28):
Todd, if all the East Coast Reflector falls over,
fucking.
I'm not doing ham radio onrepeaters, I'm doing simplex and
I'm calling out help becauseI'm sure the shit's going to hit
the fan fast, or you're goingto text on your little oh yeah,
my mesh task Right exactly Findspace before bomb drop or

(01:41:50):
whatever.
All right, so let's, let's kindof put some positive spin on it,
because I know we can beat thetar out of this.
Uh, you know, post and andwe'll, I don't know, we'll
decide at the very end whetheror not we will put this, uh, you
know the, the uh Schmo's uhlink in the description below.
You probably Google it if youwant to.
You know, for whatever reason,but I think some of the cool

(01:42:11):
stuff and we alluded to it alittle bit of it.
It's like okay, how can wecause some noise?
How can we get repeaters backto being active?
And I think we all touched onsome of that.
Obviously, you freaking pick upyour mic.
First and foremost, put yourcall out there three, four, five
times a day, as much as you'rein your car or your HT, if you
can get to a local node.
And the other part is what,basically, if someone puts

(01:42:35):
something out there, call back,talk to the person, introduce
yourself, share your favoritehobby, have a conversation, but
keep the conversation going withthe purpose that it might
encourage others to join in andjump in, and, and and.
Here's the one thing that Ithink a lot of us ham struggle
with and I do this myself, um isleave some space in between

(01:42:56):
your conversations for letsomebody jump in, because we're
not duplex so we can't just, youknow, jump in and it sounds
garbly on analog a lot of times,digital not so much.

Speaker 4 (01:43:06):
Yeah, Paul's good at doing that.
He's really good at doing that.
He does it all the time he cancreate the space.
I know it's almost scary, Ifeel like.

Speaker 2 (01:43:12):
Did I lose him?
No, he's not in space, no, sopractice space but at the same
time, encourage to invite.
And I do this sometimes likehey, if there's anybody else
that wants to jump in, feel free, and you know, then continue
your conversation on there.
So invite in, don't, you know,don't exclude, I think is a good
, you know way to keep activitygoing on.

Speaker 3 (01:43:33):
Repeaters, and you know, yeah, and it doesn't have
to be a long space, like I mean,you know, at the at the end of
the transmission before, beforeyou start talking, give it a 10
second, count right, just go one, 10 seconds.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
That's forever, paul, I can't do that.

Speaker 3 (01:43:48):
That's forever, all right, yeah, it's too long, you
know, dude, 10 seconds is that'squick, you know.
Just give it a little littlepause, that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:57):
It is totally so okay , so any other kind of tips in
general, like both on the analogside, and then we can talk a
little bit about digital stuff,because digital is a little
harder not to crack.
But you know anything we mightwant to add to?
You know, say you've got arepeater in your area that you
don't usually frequent a lot.

(01:44:17):
You know any suggestions on howwe can get more people
chit-chatting on that?

Speaker 3 (01:44:23):
Well, so, honestly, here's's the thing right is is
try different repeaters, okay,because you never know.
Um, a perfect example was umlast august I was on vacation,
uh, was up the lake house in thelakes region.
Uh, obviously it's a, it's atotally different region than
than where I live, even thoughit's only an hour away.

(01:44:45):
But the N1LT repeater had justbeen redone that day and I was
like, well, you know, I'm goingto see from my HT and all the
repeaters that I have programmedin, right, well, what can I,
kerr chunk?
Okay.
And so I Kerr chunk, okay, okay, I can hit it all.

(01:45:08):
Right, n1og monitoring isanybody there?
And they came back and theywere like, hey, yeah, uh, so we
actually just got this repeaterup and running again.
We, you know, just replaced allthe guts and everything and put
a new antenna up, and you're thefirst person that's called out
on it, and it's like cool rightbut so now, like that, that

(01:45:31):
repeater is one that I willfrequently check because I know
it's a good repeater system,because I tried all of the local
repeaters and I'll call my callsign.
I won't just kerchunk like,yeah sure, kerchunk it, make
sure you can get through.
But then, throw your frickingcall sign out there, so that

(01:45:53):
somebody knows that, yeah,you're actually there, right,
right.

Speaker 2 (01:45:59):
Well, that's actually a good point.
It was like how many timespeople kerchunk and like I've
done it myself.
It's like I'll listen on ourlocal repeater and I'll hear a
ker-chunk and I know someone'sker-chunked it it's not the
repeater IDing and I'll be likeimpatiently waiting bated breath
Like who's it going to be, andnothing happens.
And then I'm like all right,fine, I got to put my call out
there to be the first to kind ofstart listener, throw your

(01:46:22):
fricking call, sign out.
Yep, how about you Todd?

Speaker 4 (01:46:27):
No, I agree, I mean you throw.
You just throw it out there.
And if someone and look, I knowa lot of people listen to you,
know our net and don't join in,um, which is fine, um, I think
you know you were talking about,how do you get people on there?
Well, if you can get a netgoing, if you have a couple guys

(01:46:48):
that can reach and say, hey,let's get on this repeater, you
talk to their repeater owner andsay, hey, we'd like to do a net
here.
Or if you're the owner of therepeater, you might start
getting a following, because ifpeople are starting to hear it
and there's a net and you canuse net logger, that would
notify people and then someonemight be looking at NetLogger
and say, oh, look at that, it'sa repeater.

(01:47:09):
I didn't know about that.
So there's a lot of ways to doit.
But, like I said, I mean I'm abig fan of repeaters that work
really well but have no use onthem, because if I want to have
an in-depth conversation and Iwant to have a good signal, um,
you know, those Mount Vernonrepeaters are great.
No one uses them.

(01:47:30):
I think I'm the only one thatused them, because I've
monitored them forever and I'venever I've called out and I've
never I've only had it with like, let's go to this repeater, and
then you know, it's just, it'slike your private repeater, I
guess you know, it's just, it'slike your private repeater I
guess.
But I mean it would be a great.
I mean it gets huge cover.
I mean I've called in and I'vereached it, like pretty far away

(01:47:52):
, it's got a good coverage andI'm like that would be a good
repeater for people to use inthis area, you know, for our
club area, because it's gotgreat coverage but no, so good
points.

Speaker 2 (01:48:04):
I definitely think the repeater you know it's got
great coverage but no one usesit.
So good points.
I definitely think the repeater.
You know the conversation.
Making your own net is reallygood If you've got a desire to
want to try one.
But the key is, todd said,don't just start one randomly.
Go consult the repeater owner,go talk to him or her, because I
guarantee any repeater ownerworth their grain of salt would

(01:48:25):
kill to find somebody who had aninterest to want to start a
repeater, you know a net, forwhatever reason, because they
know that their repeaters get anexercise.
They know that you're doingsomething and whether or not
you're like the only one thatruns a net for a couple of weeks
, don't give up.
Start spreading it around alittle bit, you know.
Go on to other repeaters andsay, hey, I've got a net going
on at five o'clock or five 30.

(01:48:46):
And like we do it a lot withour repeater, I mean I think
that's kind of how I we got somuch of an interest is because
people would just be like, hey,you know, I know you're not
normal If you're new to thisrepeater, we have a seven 30 net

(01:49:06):
or a seven o'clock net at this.
People in because a lot I thinklong gone are the days of you
know, especially if you'retalking to new ham radio
operators, of telling them to gofricking, consult the manual or
go look up a webpage.
If you know a fricking, youknow repeater nets at seven
o'clock every night on thisrepeater, share that information
with them, let them know, letthem make the decision to jump
on.
But give them the informationand guess what you might
actually get them to participate.
They'd be like oh, I didn'tknow.
I mean, that's how I foundGSAR's net.

(01:49:26):
I randomly had talked tosomebody on another appeal.
They said oh, there's anotherhealth and well-being net on
this net During COVID, youshould go over that one.
I'm like, okay.
So I was able to, like Paulsaid, chunk it, and I throw my
call out there and talk tosomebody and, lo and behold,
guess what.
Somebody was like oh, we have a7 o'clock net, we meet on there
, you should try checking in.
And in fact actually that's infive minutes.

(01:49:47):
So you know, kind of thing, andso you know they were welcoming
in that sense.
So I think that's a good thing.
One of the things I think wedidn't like I just learned about
recently was there are a coupleother YouTubers, specifically
HR2O.
That's kind of doing a repeaterchallenge and I think it's kind
of a cool thing and we shouldtalk offline a little bit how we

(01:50:10):
can kind of help participate inthat and maybe generate some
interest to kind of further thison a little bit to get
repeaters more active, we'll sayin the United States in general
.
But he's doing what he's calledhis 2.0 repeater challenge and
with that he's asking people tokeep logs and all you have to do
is basically every day in yourcar on the HT whatever, key up
the repeater several times,throw out you know M1JUR

(01:50:36):
listening, and if someone comesback, you know, jot it down in a
log and he's, you know, askingpeople to kind of collect that
information.
So if you maybe talk to likefive people throughout the day
on one day, log all that stuff,just do a general log.
Hams are awesome at logs.
They all like to make suretheir logs are together and up
to date.
So build a log and I guaranteeyou might actually benefit from
it, because I think he'sthrowing a lot of good prizes
out there.
So head over to his channel andfind out more on that one.

(01:50:57):
But we'll talk a little bitmore amongst ourselves and see
how we can kind of, you know,build that a little bit here,
just to kind of move that needleforward, because I think you
know, if we can help out and wecan get people active, and you
know, maybe we'll have a segmenton it, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:51:13):
I mean, dude, I would gladly donate one of our live
free and ham Ham radio makes mefeel dumb every day.
Sure you know to get peopleinterested in getting on
repeaters, throw in your callsign out, Don't just kerchunk,
Throw your call sign out.
Because if you throw your callsign out, people know you're

(01:51:36):
there and they know who you are.

Speaker 1 (01:51:39):
And they can answer you.

Speaker 2 (01:51:43):
Say hello, et's your friend.
I can't remember what thatphrase is, but anyway, all right
.
Well, so let's kind of wrapthis up, because I know I've,
you know we all kind of want toget in, because I know paul got
really fueled up about thiswhole guy and you know let's
take this to the discord, so I'mgonna I gotta throw it out this
way.
So we're gonna pick thisconversation up, drop it over in

(01:52:03):
the discord, in the showsection, and so when this
episode episode releases, uh,you know, let us know.
I mean, have you checked?
Well, the video will be there.
Let us know what your thoughtsare.
You know, let us know whatyou're doing.
You know, maybe share somestuff, experiences, in that
sense.
But let's kind of keep theconversation going, cause I
think, you know, I want to learnmore from you guys, because you
know that's the only way I'mgoing to get better as a ham,

(01:52:25):
but more so, you know, theremight be some interesting
stories that we can all shareand learn from.
So, you know, let, let let'sall communicate and talk on the
discord there, and if youhaven't, you know, been on our
discord, then you know what theheck are you doing.
Come on, you know, head over toour show notes.
It's the links got it.
There should be no problem.
We have a bunch of people thatjump in there all the time.
We'll keep this going there andhave that conversation.

(01:52:47):
I guess any final thoughts thatwe want to throw in the hat so
we can put a bow on this andwrap it up.

Speaker 4 (01:52:55):
I would say just get on the repeaters and have fun.
They're alive and well andthere's people out there
listening.
Get on them and make it happen.
When people say they're a dying, well, and there's people out
there listening.
So get on them and make ithappen and don't believe when
people say they're a dying breed, don't believe it.
Just go on the, just go on theapp, that repeater book thing,
and you'll see tons of them,just wherever you go.

(01:53:16):
I mean I travel, I go down andI just hit that and say, oh,
what repeaters around here.
And there's tons of them.
So it's.
You know, they wouldn't belisted there if they weren't
working.

Speaker 2 (01:53:27):
So get out there, whether they're working or not,
hit them up, kerchunk them,throw your call out like Paul.
Don't just kerchunk them, throwyour call out, right, okay, how
about you, paul?

Speaker 3 (01:53:36):
Anything Just you know, listen, stop, stop
trolling Like these, thesefricking people.
Just stop being a troll.
Free speech is is alive andwell.
Have an open mind, be willingto have a conversation.
If you want to be edgy, bewilling to have an open mind and
have that conversation, becauseyou're the one that is being

(01:53:59):
edgy.
And and yeah, and, just use thedamn repeaters.
And if there's, if there's arepeater that you're calling out
on, you know, say that you'recalling every hour, all day for
a week.
This is, you know, obviouslythe extreme, uh, and you're not
getting any responses.
Well, guess what?

Speaker 2 (01:54:18):
try another freaking repeater yeah, check your radio
first, but yeah, it's.
Yeah, it's not.
It's not like you're limited toone repeater.

Speaker 3 (01:54:23):
It's not like you're limited to one repeater.
It's not like you're limited inwhat you can do and how you can
do it.
You know, just have fun.
But be out there and you know,call out, have an open mind and
have whatever fuckingconversation you want to have.
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:54:43):
Cool.
Well, I would just second thatas well.
But I would say, you know, hey,if you're on a repeater and
it's new to you and nobody'sresponding back, find a buddy
that is in the same general areaand go over that repeater and
just have conversations, becauseno one's going to really bother
you for a long time and maybeyou might inspire others to jump
in and have a conversation.
So you know, and be polite,especially if there are people

(01:55:05):
that have been on that machinefor whatever reason and you know
we've all been on 5.2 in localareas a lot of times and you get
chased off by sometimes saying,oh, it's 5.2, it's an emergency
channel.
Yeah, it is Just be polite.
If you're going to carry aconversation, move up two
kilohertz or something like thatto continue on the conversation
and leave that clear for theinevitable, the inevitable end
of the world emergency thatmight happen for this person

(01:55:26):
that's been waiting forever tofinally say I finally had an
emergency.
I could respond, you knowbecause funny stories I came
from a club that had signs onthe side of the highway that had
, if an emergency dial one foryou know, call up one, 4652.
And they had a HT or not.
They had actual mobile basedradio in the police dispatch

(01:55:48):
unit that they were trained onhow to use to be able to talk to
other ham radios reporting in.
So I understand why people arelike well, just use it for
emergencies, because that's kindof how it was toted when that's
all we had.
Now it's not so much of anemergency.
People call from their cellphones 90% of the time and then
the other piece.
And then the other piece isjust be a voice.
Just be a voice in your ownneighborhoods in terms of
repeaters and stuff like that.

(01:56:09):
Get people interested, haveconversations, ask questions of
folks to get more you know, moreof the conversation going.
Because the more you ask, youknow and do what every ham does
when we're on HF hey, what areyou running for an antenna?
Hey, what do you run for amobile rig Start?
Hey, what are you running foran antenna?
Hey, what do you run for amobile rig?
Start there.
And those are the easiestanswers for people a lot of
times to be able to say.
And then maybe you can listenand they may say hey, when I was

(01:56:31):
blah, blah, blah and you canask a little bit more of that
and just have a conversation and, you know, go from there.
But don't be afraid.
Help, practice, you know, micfright, mike Fright, by getting
over that stuff.
But at the same time, if you'renot Mike shy, then what are you
waiting for, dude?
Get on the freaking repeaterand just have conversations,
have fun with it, make itwhatever you want it to make it

(01:56:52):
and go from there.
Good stuff, all right.
Well, like we said, you canalways head over to our Discord.
We're going to pick thatconversation up and I'm sure the
Grouch is going to be in hisrare form again, sharing.
The grouch is going to be inhis rare form again, you know,
sharing all the awesome stuffthat we kind of left off, which
you know I we could have got it,we would have been in four
hours, you know timeframe, if wekept going, because I I've got

(01:57:13):
notes of all the points that Iwant to talk about.
But you know, with that, youknow we always appreciate
everybody and thank you againfor joining Live Free and Ham in
our podcast community.
We truly appreciate everybodyhere and everyone who else
supports us.
We all can't thank you enoughbecause every time we get
feedback from you folks, everytime we bump into new people.

(01:57:35):
They always say they love theshow and we appreciate because
we put a lot of time and energyand effort in this and we love
doing it.
We're going to continue to do itas long as you guys are here
listening, even after Todd getshis extra.
If we have to replace that withanother segment, I don't know.
We'll figure that out later.
We'll maybe do a poll.
So if you want to connect withus, you can always head over to

(01:57:55):
our Discord server.
That link is in our descriptionand you can join in on the
conversation.
Again, this is going to beposted there, so we'd love to
hear your thoughts.
You can always subscribe to ourYouTube channel.
You can always catch all of ourexcellent content over there
and plus we're doing all the HamDiaries stuff, so you'll never
know what will come out of ourmouths and what we want to talk
about.
It's always going to be somefun stuff.

(01:58:15):
We're just going to dooff-the-cuff.
It's not going to bewell-developed content, it's
Just our thoughts, randomthoughts, whatever.
All good stuff.
And you can always leave us areview with our SMS link, with
our phone number, and all ofthose are located in our show
notes.

Speaker 4 (01:58:37):
And again, if they want to reach out to us, Todd,
what's the number?

Speaker 2 (01:58:39):
978-233-1142.

Speaker 4 (01:58:44):
There we go, nice.
Save there, mr N1OG.
Why do you ask me?

Speaker 2 (01:58:46):
I don't know what the number is, I know you were not
paying attention.
I gotcha, and you can alwayssupport our show by being a
patron number.
I'm getting text messages frommy family.
That's why I said what's ourshow number?
You can always join us by beinga patron member or, if you want
to go one time, join us bybeing a Patreon member.
Or, if you want to go one time,you can buy us a beer, and you
can always head over to LiveFree in Ham to check out

(01:59:08):
everything about the show.
All of our show information,notes, swag and all of our host
contact information is there,including Ryan.
So if you want to learn aboutRyan, you can always reach out
to him and we'll definitely makesure we have him back on.
I'm really liking the ideaabout where in the world is Ryan
, kind of episode, so we'll haveto figure that one out.
And so, as always, thanks againfor listening from all of us at

(01:59:31):
Live Free and Ham 7-3.

Speaker 1 (01:59:40):
7-3.
Cheers on this wild ride withthe Live Free and Ham by your
side.
Through the static and thenoise, we cut right through,
bringing stories and the truthfresh and new.
Buckle up and join us on thiscrazy trip.

(02:00:01):
Live Free and Ham.
Now you're catching the dripLive Free and Ham.
You're catching the drip LiveFree and Ham.
We're rocking the land With asignal so strong you want to
understand Freedom and vibestraight from the band.
It's the Live Free and HamPodcast man.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

(02:00:34):
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
live free and ham.
understand Freedom and vibestraight from the band.

(02:00:54):
It's the Live Free and HamPodcast man.
Live free and ham.
understand Freedom and vibestraight from the van.
It's the live free and hampodcast man.

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